Kilter

My Sister's Fiance

2011-02-25T14:44:00.003-05:00

Here is my sister's fiance. His name is Dave, though he goes by the nickname 'Gunner.'

He was a high school teacher and recently retired. I guess he's about sixty. He stays in shape by referring basketball games.

He's a good guy. We can talk about music, movies, sports, and counterculture.

He's a bit of a party animal. But aren't we all?

I welcome him into the family. I'm glad someone out there loves my sister.

I wouldn't be surprised if I marry them, though it'll be sometime after my sister's daughter gets married on October 29.

59 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do

2011-02-09T14:13:00.003-05:00

This is a condensed version of an article by Bruce Buschel I've had laying around for a few years, wanting to find a reason to use it.

It originally was "100 Things." But after reading it over twenty times or more, and since I'm a former food server and know a thing or two, I've cut down the reasons by 41. Some were redundant. But overall it was a very informative article.

I'm passing it on 1) Because it's interesting; and 2) To clear it off my computer.

1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.

2. Do not make a single diner feel bad. Do not say, “Are you waiting for someone?”

3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived.

4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink or other freebee.

5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated.

6. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.

7. Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition.

8. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials.

9. Handle glasses by their stems and silverware by the handles.

10. When you ask, “How’s everything?” or “How was the meal?” listen to the answer and fix whatever is not right.

11. Never say “I don’t know” to any question without following with, “I’ll find out.”

12. If someone requests more sauce or gravy or cheese, bring a side dish of same. No pouring. Let them help themselves.

13. Do not take an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course. Wait, wait, wait.

14. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, “Who’s having the shrimp?”
15. Never serve anything that looks creepy or runny or wrong.

16. If someone is unsure about a wine choice, help him. That might mean sending someone else to the table or offering a taste or two.

17. Never use the same glass for a second drink.

18. Make sure the glasses are clean. Inspect them before placing them on the table.

19. Never remove a plate full of food without asking what went wrong. Obviously, something went wrong.

20. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.

21. Do not bang into chairs or tables when passing by.

22. Do not have a personal conversation with another server within earshot of customers.
23. Do not eat or drink in plain view of guests.

24. Never reek from perfume or cigarettes. People want to smell the food and beverage.

25. Do not drink alcohol on the job, even if invited by the guests. “Not when I’m on duty” will suffice.

26. Do not compliment a guest’s attire or hairdo or makeup.

27. Do not discuss your own eating habits, be you vegan or lactose intolerant or diabetic.

28. Do not curse, no matter how young or hip the guests.

29. Never acknowledge any one guest over and above any other. All guests are equal.
30. Never mention the tip, unless asked.

31. Do not turn on the charm when it’s tip time. Be consistent throughout.

32. If there is a service charge, alert your guests when you present the bill. It’s not a secret or a trick.

33. Know your menu inside and out. If you serve Balsam Farm candy-striped beets, know something about Balsam Farm and candy-striped beets.

34. If there is a prix fixe, let guests know about it. Do not force anyone to ask for the “special” menu.

35. Bring the pepper mill with the appetizer. Do not make people wait or beg for a condiment.

36. Do not bring judgment with the ketchup. Or mustard. Or hot sauce. Or whatever condiment is requested.

37. Do not leave place settings that are not being used.

38. Bring all the appetizers at the same time, or do not bring the appetizers. Same with entrees and desserts.

39. Do not stand behind someone who is ordering. Make eye contact. Thank him or her.

40. Do not fill the water glass every two minutes, or after each sip. You’ll make people nervous.

41. Do not let a glass sit empty for too long.

42. Never blame the chef or the busboy or the hostess or the weather for anything that goes wrong. Just make it right.

43. Specials, spoken and printed, should always have prices.

44. Do not return to the guest anything that falls on the floor — be it napkin, spoon, menu or soy sauce.

45. Do not reach across one guest to serve another.

46. If a guest is having trouble making a decision, help out. If someone wants to know your life story, keep it short. If someone wants to meet the chef, make an effort.

47. Never deliver a hot plate without warning the guest. And never ask a guest to pass along that hot plate.

48. Do not run around the dining room, even if you are super busy.

48. Do not serve salad on a freezing cold plate; it usually advertises the fact that it has not been freshly prepared.

50. Do not bring soup without a spoon. Few things are more frustrating than a bowl of hot soup with no spoon.

51. Let the guests know the restaurant is out of something before the guests read the menu and order the missing dish.

52. Do not ask if a guest is finished the very second the guest is finished. Let guests digest, savor, reflect.

53. Do not disappear.

54. Do not ask, “Are you still working on that?” Dining is not work — until questions like this are asked.

55. Do not let an empty coffee cup sit too long before asking if a refill is desired.

56. Never bring a check until someone asks for it. Then give it to the person who asked for it.

57. Never patronize a guest who has a complaint or suggestion; listen, take it seriously, address it.

58. Never hover long enough to make people feel they are being watched or hurried, especially when they are figuring out the tip or signing for the check.

59. Do not show frustration. Your only mission is to serve. Be patient. It is not an easy job.

Kilter's Early Bob Dylan Memorabilia

2011-01-05T13:51:00.004-05:00

When the poster says, "First New York Concert," it really means, "First New York concert at a renowned venue." As the New York Times review by Robert Shelton below shows, Dylan was active in the local folkscene all throughout 1961.

His first actual performance was April 11, 1961, at Folk City. On September 26, he appeared in the same place as a supporting act to John Lee Hooker. That's the show which prompted the review.

The article played a key part in boosting 20-year old Dylan's career.

by ROBERT SHELTON

A bright new face in folk music is appearing at Gerde's Folk City. Although only 20 years old, Bob Dylan is one of the most distinctive stylists to play a Manhattan cabaret in months.

Resembling a cross between a choir boy and a beatnik, Mr. Dylan has a cherubic look and a mop of tousled hair he partly covers with a black Huck Finn corduroy cap. His clothes may need a bit of tailoring, but when he works his guitar, harmonica or piano and composes new songs faster than he can remember them, there is no doubt that he is bursting at the seams with talent.

Mr. Dylan's voice is anything but pretty. He is consciously trying to recapture the rude beauty of a Southern field hand musing in melody on his porch. All the "husk and bark" are left on his notes and a searing intensity pervades his songs.

Mr. Dylan is both comedian and tragedian. Like a vaudeville actor on the rural circuit, he offers a variety of droll musical monologues: "Talking Bear Mountain" lampoons the over-crowding of an excursion boat, "Talking New York" satirizes his troubles in gaining recognition, and "Talking Havah Nagilah" burlesques the folk-music craze and the singer himself.

In his serious vein, Mr. Dylan seems to be performing in a slow-motion film. Elasticized phrases are drawn out until you think they may snap. He rocks his head and body, closes his eyes in reverie and seems to be groping for a word or a mood, then resolves the tension benevolently by finding each.

He may mumble the text of "House of the Rising Sun" in a scarcely understandable growl, or clearly enunciate the poetic poignancy of a Blind Lemon Jefferson blues: "One kind favor I ask of you--See that my grave is kept clean."

Mr. Dylan's highly personalized approach toward the folk song is still evolving. He has been sopping up influences like a sponge. At times, the drama he aims for is off-target melodrama and his stylization threatens to topple over as a mannered excess.

Even if not for every taste, his music-making has the mark of originality and inspiration, all the more noteworthy for his youth. Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going. That would seem to be straight up.

Kilter Looks at Man Boobs

2011-01-04T11:40:00.006-05:00

A point of contention with me has always been MY man boobs.

Ugly things! What is so beautiful and artistic on a woman is fiendishly laughable and detestable for a man.

That's me! Man Boob Kilter.

I'm embarrassed to post a photo of them here. (You don't want to see 'em, believe me).

Men with man boobs ARE boobs.

You can't casually go around without a shirt. You always have to make sure clothes are amply big in the chest and shoulders. You always have to think twice when taking a "quick dip" in a pool. "Is the exposure worth it?"

Men with boobs ARE doofuses because if we really had the impetus to act, we would get rid of those two ugly blobs of fat as health guides and doctors suggest.

But we don't. Instead we tend to keep gaining weight, slowly, which increases the problem.

The mess is all a product of our own doing. Men with boobs (like me) are pathetic lazy slobs.

When I was a child (about age 10), I started to blow out, first in the belly and then in upper chest. That stretched out my skin cells.

The culprit is obvious -- too much bread, chocolate, cheese, chips, ice cream, danishes, alcohol, sauces, gravy. etc. All the good stuff.

I eventually lost the gut, but the man boobs remained. Now they are a part of me, even though I'm only about 10 pounds overweight for my age and height.

There they remain, forever to haunt me and taunt me.

I was quite surprised when MAD magazine (above) published "A Look at Man Boobs" in 2010, because my "type" WAS NOT on there.

Ah, but a few months later MAD published a volume 2 because they knew they didn't capture everything the first time around (see below).

There they are, second row on the left: MUD FLAPS.

That's what I have, mud flaps.

Pretty, huh?

I ask for your love despite this malformity.

Paul McCartney's Guy Bump

2010-12-07T21:53:00.005-05:00

I met Paul McCartney today.

I not only spied him from afar on the streets of New York, I met the actual living James Paul McCartney from Liverpool, England, born June 18, 1942, in the canyons of Manhattan.

Contact made!

He was as warm and welcoming as his reputation. It was a day to tuck into my back pocket as a mental keepsake.

Below is the short version. (After that, for those who are interested, comes the long version.)

Here is the short version:

“Hi Paul, how’re you doing?”

“Good. How’s it going?”

“I’m good, thanks. Hey Paul, good job, man.”

“Thanks.”

“See you.”

Need more? Here’s the long version:

I walked past Paul’s midtown townhouse at 41 W. 54 Street on my lunchhour, if nothing more than to "see what I could see." I’ve done this many times, too many times actually. I’m not a stalker, only an unintroduced friend waiting almost fifty years to meet a Beatle.

It's 20 blocks from where I work -- good exercise, always, even if today the temperature was in the mid-30’s.

Why today? I knew that Paul is the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” this week, which requires rehearsals. Also, he's in concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Sunday. I figured there was a good chance he was in the city.

Sure enough, more lights were on in his five-story townhouse than usual. (He has a music publishing business that operates on the lower level, MPL Productions).

The tipoff was a tall, non-smiling guy in sunglasses standing outside the front door. He looked like the driver of a black SUV with New York plates and dark tinted windows -- Paul's fun vehicle for Fun City. He looked very alert as if Paul was about to come out.

I waited for about ten minutes on the sidewalk three doors down, giving the driver plenty of space who was looking all around, perhaps guarding. It seemed as if "something was eminent."

Suddenly two guys walked out of the lower level entranceway, congregating in front of the townhouse. Then a woman. “Is that Nancy Schvell?” I wondered. It was, Paul’s American (New Jersey born) girlfriend.

Then I spotted Paul in the middle of the group. "There he is," I smiled and said out loud.

As I walked up, Nancy Schvell stood in my way, almost as a screener -- tall and narrow face, thin as a string bean, wearing large round sunglasses. I smiled at her and walked right up to Paul. He was in a winter coat, unshaven with little white stubbles on his strong, handsome face, clear eyes, and exactly as tall as me.

"Hi Paul," I said from a foot away. "How you doing?"

He gestured to me FIRST by smiling and pressing his forearm against my body. He gave me a guy-bump.

"Good," he said. "How's it going?" He gave complete eye contact and complete trust.

I gestured back to him, using the exact same buddy-buddy movement -- pressing my forearm into his body. "I'm good, thanks . . . Hey Paul, good job."

"Thanks."

“See you.”

I continued on my way, trying not to act star struck. Paul and party got into the SUV, maybe going out to lunch. I stood on the sidewalk, now from the opposite side of 54th Street. As the car passed by with its dark tinted windows, heading toward Fifth Avenue, I pumped my fist toward him and smiled.

I’d been wanting to meet a Beatle for years. Now, without trying, I met both Paul and Ringo within four months.

October Korean Food of the Month: Singo-bae

2010-11-22T14:44:00.003-05:00

Singo-bae is the phonetic name for the giant Korean pear.

Mid-October is the season when the crop comes in and the pears need to be picked off the vine.

Korean pears make a great snack or dessert because they are so thirst-quenching. Biting into one of these large, heavy fruits is like drinking a glass of wine.

The pear is round and crisp like an apple, but the flesh is denser, juicier, and sweeter. The coat is anywhere from beige-yellow to golden brown.

The best Singo-baes are extra large, often weighing over a pound. You can eat one as a meal and come away with a full stomach. They are sold separately in delis for about $2.50 each. The best way is to buy a case, which usually run about $22 for twelve.

The trees that they grow on are super hardy. They withstand the winter well in the northern U.S.

In fact, my Korean wife and I have two trees in our backyard in Pennsylvania, and they bore fruit on the first year. That was cool -- something exotic within reach of my own patio.

My wife laughs/scorns that the pears are also called 'Asian pears' and 'Japanese pears,' though they definitely are indigenous to Korea.

The juice of the pears has the ability to make your meat dish more tender. Many times we'll eat sliced beef with slivers of Korean pears mixed in, which makes the meal zestier. The pear cubes or slices are also excellent in salads and with any type of cheese.

One tip -- slice the skin off if you can. Though digestible, the skin is somewhat thicker than an American pear or apple, and takes patience to chew and isn't much fun to deal with.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Are You a Workaholic?

2010-11-10T08:47:00.004-05:00

Here's one more from Together health newspaper,

"Are You a Workaholic?"

Here is the list of questions:

1. Do you get more excited about work than about family or anything else?

2. Do you take work to bed with you? On weekends? On vacations?

3. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about the most?

4. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?

5. Do you turn your hobbies into moneymaking ventures?

6. Have your family and friends given up expecting you on time?

7. Do you take on extra work because you believe that otherwise it won't get done?

8. Do you believe it's okay to work long hours as long as you love what you're doing?

9. Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you'll lose your job or be a failure?

10. Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work and to do something else?

11. Do you work during meals?

12. Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

Here's the kicker. According to the article, THREE positive answers are considered an indicator there may be a problem with workaholism. "Awareness of your problem opens the door to possible solutions," it says.

This is one area I don't have to worry about. I have never taken my job to bed with me once in 25 years.

That's why I stopped badmouthing it years ago. I realized that it wasn't making unreasonable demands on my time.

It was steady and reliable. I made sure I was steady and reliable toward my job.

Work is only a vehicle for me to conduct my "real" life. It pays the bills, gives me a desk to sit at, a phone to use, and provides medical and other health benefits. One of the best things it has paid my tuition bills over the years.

So I don't discard work. It just doesn't identify who I am.

Great Alcoholics in History -- Josef Stalin

2010-11-08T12:21:00.004-05:00

Below is from a community health newspaper I picked up at the Port Authority called Together.

I learned all about one of the greatest alcolholics in history -- Russian dictator Josep Stalin (1879-1953).

The description would be funny if it weren't so starkly evil and bluntly true:

1. Notorious for cruel practical jokes at parties. Able to drink the entire Politburo under the table.

2. Abandoned several wives and children. Drove them to despair and suicide.

3. Bullied entire Soviet Union into one big alcoholic family. Slaughtered anywhere from twenty to fifty million members.

4. Obsessively mistrustful. Accused innocent people of conspiring again him. Executed or imprisoned the most able Communist party leaders and half his officer corps.

5. Filled with denial, ignored dozens of warnings that Hitler was a bout to attack in 1941. Went on a bender for a week when Hitler did attack -- aides afraid to disturb him.

6. Blamed repatriated Russian prisoners for all his problems and sent them to prison camps after the war. Murdered party leaders of Leningrad in 1949 just in case they got any funny ideas about freedom from their short taste of Stalin-free life under the siege of Nazis.

7. Died by stroke or poison in the midst of grandiose planning for yet another round of purges and four new prison camps.

8. Still Capitalisms's best argument against Communism.

September's Korean Food of the Month: Han-Gwa

2010-10-20T09:47:00.004-04:00

No doubt you've heard a variation of the expression, "If you live in Iowa, you'd better like to eat corn, because in Iowa there's nothing but corn."

The same goes for Korea, but only with rice. Koreans seem to make everything with rice.

That goes for Korean candy (above). Or, to put it into proper vernacular context, we should say traditional rice cakes and cookies.

"Rice cake" means all kinds of foods, which are made of kneading grain powders with water and then steaming the dough. This produces such goodies pictured above, which include white rice cake (hintteok), steamed rice cake (sirutteok), bean powder cookies (injeolmi), pine needle cookies (songpyeon), pan-fried rice cake (juak), and bean paste dumplings (gyeongdan).

The term "han-gwa" literally means cake or cookie. They are basically cooked with oil and honey and then coated with things like sesame seeds or coconut flakes or thick grains of sugar.

Some are sweeter than others. Some melt in your mouth and others are quite chewy.

A benefit of this type of cooking is that it can be stored for longer periods without chemicals or a preserving agent.

Han-Gwa is considered a pure, natural and healthy snack. Some would even say that it can be used as medicine.

My opinion? The morsels are okay as special treats, but I can't take a steady diet of them. They're not something my appetite normally gravitates to.

But to top off a special Korean meal, say, on a Korean holiday, they're great.

Movie Review: Wall Street -- Money Never Sleeps

2010-10-05T10:34:00.003-04:00

It's well known that movie sequels usually don't fare as well as their predecesors, either in the scope of their vision or in the collective output of their final version.

A movie that comes admirably close, though, is director Oliver Stone's Wall Street -- Money Never Sleeps.

It aims high in moral breadth, artistic achievement, and simply as blockbuster entertainment. It's a drama that turns into a thriller.

Stone manages to turn Wall Street into a show.

While its impact falls short of the original Wall Street (1988), there is enough thought-provoking material in the current release to keep one's vitals (i.e. mind) stirring for days afterward. It is one of the year's best releases.

Back for another dip as the crafty, notorious scoundrel Gordon Gekko is Michael Douglas (above left).

Gekko is the shrewd, unscrupulous, cut-throat businessman who made the expression "greed is good" a household phrase. Michael Douglas won an Oscar as Best Actor for that effort and is just as game now to rattle a few cages.

It's great to see Douglas reprising the role, especially noting his real-life struggle with throat cancer.

After serving time for securities fraud, Gordon Gekko -- the former King of Wall Street -- is now a humbled man who has two chances to redeem himself.

One plot branch involves Gekko helping an idealistic young trader named Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf, above right) invest in a promising new green energy source.

The other involves mending his broken relationship with his liberal daughter (Carey Mulligan), who just so happens to be dating Moore.

On the surface, Gekko indeed appears to be a changed man. But is he?

When he callously steals a $10 million endowment that was supposed to go to his daughter, the lines of tension are set.

The first Wall Street worked well as a stand-alone film. But after the economic meltdown of 2008 started the worst recession in modern history, the time was right for director Oliver Stone to once again unleash Gordon Gekko to the world.

Money Never Sleeps is one of Stone's more straightforward and commercially appealing films. It's fascinating to follow the screenplay - written by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff - which traces the events that led to the implosion of the investment banks.

Gekko's philosophy is still the same: "Greed is good, greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."

However, since then times have changed. Now Gekko says, "The most important commodity in life is time."

Gekko also says, "Money is a game and it never sleeps; it will always sleep next to you and when you least expect it, it will be gone."

Also: "The mother of all evil is speculation."

It's nice to see Charlie Sheen written into a small role for the current film. His character, Bud Fox, was the hapless victim of Gekko's ruthlessness in the original.

He's now doing quite well, he tells Gekko at a charity fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has sold his business for millions, retired comfortably, and has two women on his arm.

Josh Brolin is also good as the young broker Bretton James, who seems to embody the cruelty of Gekko at his worst.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps displays a grandiose ambition appropriate to its subject. We learn a lot about finance and the flow and ebb of money, even if I couldn't follow the details precisely.

Though the climax -- Gekko's attempted reconciliation with his estranged daughter -- feels too small and convenient for the grandiose vision that Stone likes to paint in his movies, nevertheless it seems needed.

Aging, reflective, wiser Gordon Gekko needs a grandson in order to float down to earth for good.

A New Terror Boss

2010-09-29T14:41:00.010-04:00

Here is the latest terrorist sombitch we in America have to be on the lookout for.

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35 (left, as a young man; and computer-enhanced on the right as he might appear today), according to the FBI, is an al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. He reportedly has become chief of the terror network's global operations.

The difference with this guy is not only his relative youth. It's the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

He spent part of his childhood in Brooklyn and went to college in Florida.

A writer for the AP, Curt Anderson, reported in August that Shukrijumah has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003.

That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden.

Shukrijumah (SHOOK'-ree joohm-HAH') and two other leaders were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits. But his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed - his former boss, Anderson wrote.

"He's making operational decisions is the best way to put it," said Brian LeBlanc, the FBI's lead Shukrijumah investigator. "He's looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss."

The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.

Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a federal indictment asa conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York's subway system in 2009. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness.

Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plotting of potential al-Qaida bomb attacks in Norway and a never-executed attack on subways in the United Kingdom. Travel records and other evidence also indicate Shukrijumah did research and surveillance in spring 2001 for a never-attempted plot to disrupt commerce in the Panama Canal by sinking a freighter there, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah, who trained at al-Qaida's Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a "clear and present danger" to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He's believed to be hiding in Suriname.

It's natural he would focus on attacking on the U.S, LeBlanc said.

"He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver's license. He knows how to get a passport," LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah's mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed (left), has said from her small home in suburban Miramar, Fla., that her son frequently talked about what he considered the excesses of American society -- such as alcohol and drug abuse and women wearing skimpy clothes -- but that he did not condone violence.

She said she has not had contact with her son for several years.

"This boy would never do evil stuff. He is not an evil person," the mother said. "He loved this country. He never had a problem with the United States."

Bethel Woods / Woodstock Nostolgia

2010-09-07T11:30:00.008-04:00

It was a beautiful Labor Day -- otherwise known as MY DAY OFF. My wife and I took advantage of the cool, blue-sky weather and drove 100 miles north for a daytrip to the Bethel Woods Art & Cultural Center.

That is the place in White Lake Township, Sullivan County, New York, the site of the original Woodstock Music Festival in 1969.

You'd barely know that if you happened to be driving by and didn't know its history. Bethel Woods is a sprawling, huge complex, easily several hundred acres.

It opened in 2008. The former farm of Max Yasgar is now dotted with tastefully-build banquet pavilions, a museum, a new concert arena, parking lots, and yes -- the grassy field where 400,000 souls gathered in August, 1969, for a three-day festival whose legacy this complex celebrates.

The organizers left the field alone, to their credit. In fact, I'd say that's a key to the overall attractiveness of the place. You can feel where all those people partied and where the bands were located and see the swimming hole that turned into an impromptu bathing area and naturist grounds.

Obviously, this is millions of dollars later than that.

I never went to Woodstock, by the way. I was fifteen years old back then and just a little too young to hitchhike up there from central New Jersey. That's how I would have gone, by thumb, considering I hitchhiked cross-country two years later at age 17.

I'm one of those unfortunates who thought (duh) that the Woodstock concert was held in the village of Woodstock, New York. Um . . . not so.

The town council refused to hold it there. That forced the organizers to come up with this latter site in Bethel, 60 miles to the west.

I first visited in 1983, when there were still local disputes over how best to commemorate the festival. Back then, only a small concrete monument was planted in the ground, barely visible to passersby.

That's still there, part of the "experience" that you pay $13 for. You'll see why I put that in quotation marks in a moment.

The museum was the main attraction for me. It celebrates "the cultural history of the 1960's and the memory of Woodstock." It was crowded on Labor Day, mostly with older hippie types like myself.

But the further I got into the museum, I began to realize, "I know all this stuff." The museum doesn 't teach people my age anything.

It's because we lived through President Kennedy's assassination, the Vietnam War, the black power revolt, the arrival of the Beatles on American soil, the emergence of groovy times in 1967. We don't need it interpreted for us (though the slant of the museum's commentary was accurate).

It felt weird seeing recaps of iconoclastic events that, in my mind, should have gone mainstream in American society.

Instead of living those ideals now -- instead of utilizing what that era taught us -- we see those precious landmark events wrapped up into digestible soundbites and photos, viewed in a safe, sanitized setting.

Still, for what it represents, it was good. The site hasn't been bastardized like it could have been.

The most interesting part of the museum was milling inside and out of a classic 1950's converted schoolbus, with its psychedelic paint job, burlap bag interior, and red beads strung over the windows. That's exactly how they used to be dressed up (photo below).

(The bus is surprisingly close to what I write about in my novel We Picked Up, days 33 & 34, in which my characters get picked up in a vehicle like that for an impromptu overnighter at the Grand Canyon. See that chapter here or the complete novel here.

But back to reality, Kilter.

I knew it was time to go when -- while browsing in the bookstore -- I saw a copy of Woodstock Festival Remembered by Michael Lang and Jean Young, the best book about the festival. I bought this soft-covered book about 20 years ago for $14.95.

It's price in the bookstore: $49.95.

Time for me to fly.

No Wristwatch, No Bankbook

2010-08-27T09:54:00.006-04:00

My life has fundamentally changed in two ways over the past few months.

I have shed my wristwatch and my bankbook.

Why deal with either? These two things are hindrances for the way people live their lives these days.

To keep perpetuating either activity is an acknowledgement of slowing down. And I'm not ready to slow down.

Both items are encumbrances to pushing forward.

The reason why I don't wear a wristwatch is because it's been replaced by wearing my cell phone. It took me awhile to see the upgrade value in this.

The cell phone always has the time, right . . . ? So . . . ?

The thought occurred to me while driving down the road with my twenty year-old daughter who keeps her cell phone in her hands almost 24 hours a day, either texting, chatting, or emailing.

"Young people don't even need to wear a watch, isn't that right?" I said.

"It's become an ornamental thing," she said. "I think watches will always be around, but for decoration and style purposes only."

Following that statement, I knew I had to lose my watch forever. Decoration and style ain't me.

As far as the bankbook, specifically balancing one's checkbook, that activity became rote once I started paying bills online.

The computer keeps a much more accurate and complete description of my account transactions. So why bother writing down every withdrawal or payment and then computing the current balance by hand?

I told myself to get with it. I got rid of my watch and took myself off the habit of balancing my checkbook. I've survived just fine since.

Lemme see, what else can I leave behind to simplify my existence?

Re: Incest -- Explained

2010-08-26T14:37:00.006-04:00

Maybe this should be filed under "Random Subjects That Catch Kilter's Attention," or sub-titled, "The Best, Most Simpliest Explanation for the Dangers of Incest That I've Ever Read."

It's from the latest National Geographic magazine, September 2010, the one with King Tut on the cover.

The article purports to reveal the king's "secrets" by using DNA evidence for the first time. One of the secrets is that King Tut was the son of siblings.

This, the article says, probably explains the pharaoh Tutankhamun's tiny stature, his partially cleft palate, and congenitally deformed foot.

But the meat of the subject, written by David Dobbs, is an insert article titled, "The Risks and Rewards of Royal Incest."

It leads to one summary sentence: "Overlapping genes can backfire."

These four words point to the most plausible explanation for the nearly universal taboo against incest, the author writes. "Matings between close relatives can raise the danger that harmful recessive genes, especially if combined repeatedly through generations, will match up in the offspring, leading to elevated chances of health or developmental problems."

"While virtually every culture in recorded history has held sibling or parent-child coupling taboo, royalty have been exempted in a number of societies."

Among those listed are ancient Egypt, Inca Peru, and, at times, Central Africa, Mexico, and Thailand." While royal families in Europe avoided sibling incest, Dobbs writes, many, including the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the Bourbons of France, and the British royal family, often married cousins.

So did the Spanish Habsburgs. So did Hawaii's King Kamehameha III prior to Hawaii becoming a U.S. territory. The Hawaiian king slept with his sister, Princess Nahi'ena'ena, says historian Joanna Carando, "because they loved each other."

Carando says, "Royal incest was not only accepted but even encouraged" as part of an exclusive royal heritage.

Why? To show that royalty had no peers except the gods. To protect royal assets. To display one's power. Marrying inside your family keeps the power among the kin.

But the physical problems are many, which DNA science is finally pinpointing. Prior to DNA, incest was more of a social taboo. Now science has backed up the concerns.

While some healthy births occur among incestuous couples, the article says, it's wise to place your bet elsewhere.

Siblings share half their genomes on average, Dobbs writes, as do parents and offspring. First cousins' genomes overlap 12.5 percent.

Kilter Salutes the Happy Couple

2010-08-19T10:42:00.005-04:00

My pretty niece, Maggie, 24 (right), and her tall, handsome boyfriend, Matt, 25, got engaged over the summer. They will be getting married in the fall of 2011.

Congrats to them both.

They seem like a good couple. Both have the same type of sunny smile, as you can see. Same sized teeth, too.

He's a high school history teacher. She's a fund raiser for the college that she graduated from in '08.

I believe they are already living together, but I could be wrong. I'm sure they know what each other looks like without clothes, regardless.

They bounce around between Carlisle, Harrisburg, and Shippensburg, PA. Also Lewisburg, PA, which is Maggie's hometown, and Norristown, which is Matt's family's home.

It's central-Pennsylvania love.

I'd glady conduct their wedding, but surprise! Matt's brother is a minister in the Presbyterian church.

So let him do it. I'd just rather sit back at the church and enjoy.

If there's any worries, it's only that this is Maggie's first serious boyfriend. I believe Matt has been around, somewhat at least.

Hopefully the "I Am 17 Going On 18" mentality will kick in -- meaning that Matt will take care of Maggie, and Maggie will supply all of Matt's needs, and that everything will last.

What a nice photo, don't you think? I didn't take it, but don't know who to credit.

July Korean Food for the month -- Samgye-tang

2010-07-26T14:55:00.004-04:00

Until this month I have been featuring Korean foods that I have found delicious and fascinating to eat.

This month, we have one of the few I don't prefer so much. I'll list it only because it's part of my 2010 H-Mart Korean Foods Calendar, and I'm working my way down the list.

The dish is called samgye-tang. In English, that's ginseng chicken soup.

My problem is with the fixins' but with the chicken itself. All the Koreans do with the bird is boil it plain.

That in itself makes the meal unusual because the Koreans love to spice up their dishes with anything and everything. They are masters at throwing things together, seemingly at random, and coming up with delicious concoctions in endless variations.

If a dish doesn't have 245 different ingredients in it, something seems wrong. Then I came across samgye-tang.

When I went to Korea in 2008, my friends raved in front of my wife and me, "Oh, tonight is special, because we are eating one of Korea's best meals!" I was psychced as we made our way to a country restaurant and took our seats on the floor.

Then the owners brought out this chicken dish, plain as can be. It not only looked plain, but tasted like soggy cardboard.

I quietly ate as much as I could stomach, and left quite a bit of the carcass behind. But my friends loved it! They clomped away happily and slurped down the accompanying broth (known as 'mul').

The dish has been around for 1,000 years, so apparently someone likes it.

Use a heavy pot that will securely hold the chicken (or cornish hens). Throw in some rice, 3-4 ginseing roots, shreds of peeled ginger, and chestnuts.

Pour in 9 cups of water, until the bird is covered. Cook for 30 minutes over a medium flam with a lid on. Skim off the fat and cook for another 30 minutes. Serve with salt and pepper.

A Win for Spain. But for Catalonia?

2010-07-22T11:46:00.006-04:00

It must have been a mixed sensation for the people of Barcelona on July 11, which was the day Spain won its first World Cup.

Just the day before, over a million people flooded the downtown streets of that city (above), which is technically in northeast Spain but also the de-facto capital of the Catalonia region which spills into neighboring France.

The people swarming through Barcelona this day weren't there for a pep rally, or to cheer on the Spanish national soccer team. They were protesting a decision issued by Spain's constitutional court that struck down some key provisions of the Catalonia territory's 2006 autonomy rule.

In their ruling, the judges found that, “Our constitution recognizes no nation but Spain.” In effect, it dealt a numbing blow to the six million Catalan nationalists.

People from the United States don't realize that Spain is like a mini-empire, holding people together from several cultural regions that don't necessarily want to be considered Spaniards.

Catalonia is one such region. Its pride runs high. Its struggle to gain independence goes back more than 400 years.

It hasn't gained much notoriety outside Spain, however. This is hindered partly because the other distinct cultural region, Basque, deals with its struggle with terrorism to achieve its goal of independence.

Catalonia is trying to win its independence peacefully.

During the Spanish Civil War and the near four-decade reign of Generalissimo Franco, Barcelona was a progressive stronghold against fascism. Many Catalonians continue to view Madrid as the seat of soft Francoism and traditional Roman Catholicism. Besides having their own language (which is nothing like Spanish), the belief is that Catalonia gives far more to Madrid in taxes than it gets back in benefits.

But the people also love their soccer!

So while the huge gathering on the day before the big game was separatist, on July 11, the day Spain won its first World Cup, the crowd reportedly put politics aside and rooted for the Spaniard team.

Jerrod Sneff from the AP news service reports that on July 11, the day of the World Cup match between Spain and the Netherlands, Barcelona "was a completely different city than the day before. The red and yellow horizontally-striped flags of Catalonia -- ubiquitous on Saturday -- were replaced by Spanish flags."

Demand to see the game was so strong that Barcelona officials installed large outdoor screens to broadcast the match in the city's major squares, which was viewed by thousands.

"When Spain won, it was hard to tell that just hours before, the city was being overrun by protesters literally waving goodbye to Spain," the reporter writes.

Part of the enthusiasm for the Spanish national team may have more to do with the squad’s strong Catalan composition rather than newfound Spanish pride.

Five of the national team’s players were born in Catalonia. Seven of those on the field against Germany in the semi-finals play for Barcelona’s club team.

Indeed, Carles Puyol, the defender who looks more like a 70’s hair rocker and who scored the decisive goal against Germany, was born in the tiny, north Catalan village of La Pobla de Segur.

Yet the crowds in the streets were chanting “Viva Espanya!” all the same.

When Sneff became aghast at the site of so many Spanish flags inside Catalonia, a young fan from Barcelona told him, “This has never happened before in Barcelona.”

The reporter asked, "Are you from Catalonia?"

He replied, “No, I am from Spain.”

Kilter Finally Sees a Beatle -- Ringo Starr

2010-07-13T07:21:00.009-04:00

Ringo Starr celebrated his 70th birthday last Wednesday, July 7. A bash was held for him at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City.

Since I work only five blocks from Times Square, I ventured down in curiousity.

Temperatures were beastly -- over 100 degrees -- but the trip was worth it. I fulfilled a lifelong dream by finally seeing a Beatle in the flesh.

I was about six feet away from Ringo with a partially obstructed view.

Notice I'm not picky. Though the optimum would have to have been FRIENDS with all four Beatles (sigh -- I've dreamt about it plenty), I've got a feeling it's not going to happen. We can start with the fact that John Lennon and George Harrison are currently looking at us from the other side.

Nor had I MET any of them in my wanderings. Nor have I have seen the Beatles perform live, either as a group or individually.

So Kilter's got to take what Kilter's gonna get. Though I'd much prefer to have seen Paul McCartney, I'll settle for Ringo.

For this event I set aside the fact that I really don't like Ringo (sorry). I don't mind him being the least talented of the Fab Four, but Ringo's track record as a human being has not been good.

He's lashed out at his fans and trashed his hometown of Liverpool. He makes uninformed comments when talking about national issues. He posted on his website that he no longer signs autographs, "can't be bothered."

Unlike Paul, who reportedly will chat with anyone anywhere, Ringo seems wrapped up in insulation. Maybe that's why he looks so fit (admitedly) for 70 years old -- thin, no trace of gray hair, with energy galore.

He should be grateful that wife Barbara Bach (who was also there) has stuck by his side during the lowest days of his wine-o detox.

So being only six feet away was still a lot of territory between him and me.

Ringo emerged from the air-conditioned quarters of the Hard Rock Cafe at noon, and walked into the street. The crowd (which was only about 100 people, with other teens and/or lookerson clamoring around saying, "Who's Ringo?" and sang Happy Birthday to him.

He lifted his fingers into the air and said, "Peace and love," and asked the crowd to do the same. Once. Peace and love. Then he disappeared back into the cafe.

This chant sounds empty to me -- like a trite campaign slogan. I don't feel like he's doing anything proactive to bring about peace and love . . . he just likes to ask people to say it with him, once a year, one time.

We were handed peace cookies -- thick and fresh, large and individually wrapped in celephane. Below is me in the sweltering heat holding my cookie, which I prompty ate.

I saw Tom Smothers and the rest of the current All-Starr Band, the only one whom I recognized was Edgar Winter.

The biggest attraction of all is something that news reports hardly mentioned: the Beatles' original Magical Mystery Tour bus was parked outside. It was flown over from Britain by Hard Rock International, probably for a princely sum.

The bus looked great -- colorful, oversized windows -- a lasting timepiece from 1967, still in pristine condition.

I hate to say it, but standing next to the bus and touching the pyschedelic paint job made me feel as close to the Beatles than seeing Ringo Starr.

Every news report said, "Ringo celebrated with a little help from his friends." I'm getting tired of hearing that phrase.

Like him or not, Ringo has done a heckofalot more than just to sing, "A Little Help With My Friends."

"Family of Honor" is Good TV

2010-07-02T08:13:00.008-04:00

The only TV show I've been watching with regularity this summer is on a Korean channel I get with DIRECTV. It's one of the most satisfying TV dramas I've ever seen.

It's called “Family of Honor” or sometimes "Glory of Family" (depends on how the Korean is translated).

It originally showed in 2008, where I caught episodes in dribs and drabs. I make sure to fixate myself in front of the tube every Friday at 10 p.m., or make sure the episode is recorded.

It follows about six relationships simultaneously -- all of them unconventional in the Korean sense. They are played out against a background of a traditional Korean family who is descended from nobility, and their forced association with a ruthless, vulgar family who got wealthy over the years through loan sharking.

The Ha family, the family of honor, tries to hold up its family reputation through the strain of changing times and shifting values.

I don't watch much TV, so for me to become hooked like this is rare.

The main love interest is Dan-ah, about 30 years old. She is dignified and beautiful, but also pitiful. Dan-ah was married ten years earlier, but her husband died in a car accident during their honeymoon. That has stained her outlook about life, and she is unnaturally reserved.

She is pursued by two men, Gang-suk, the handsome son of the ruthless family, and Hyun-Kyu, a college student of Dan-ah's who is similar in appearance to the deceased husband who gave his life up to save Dan-ah.

Through a wandering process, all written and acted realistically, Dan-ah slowly convinces Gang-suk to change his evil ways of being an icy business predator, and in the end they get married to the surprise and initial rejection of both families. (The married part is typical Korean drama TV stuff. That's how nine-tenths of them end, always very happily).

The other guy in the triangle, Hyun-Kyu, plays an important part in Dan-ah's transformation when he consciously lets go of her, and therefore helps her let go of her past. He winds up marrying Gang-suk's younger sister, who has emotional problems from being too honest and direct.

There's 54 hour-long episodes, so there is plenty of room for all the nuances to be played out.

Dan-ah brings Gang-suk into a new world of maturity and sensibility, while Gang-suk shakes Dan-ah awake after years of walking around like an emotionless corpse. Gang-suk turns around from wanting to destroy the Ha family, and eventually the two families are united in purpose and spirit.

Here is the Lee family, the other side, the nemesis of the family of honor:

Characters are not written as stereotypes. Mr. Lee (the guy on the lower right in this pic) is very funny in his depiction of how he rose through the ranks from being a scrap collector to a multi-millionaire.

That's his son next to him, the formidable actor Park Shi-Hoo. Both he and Yoon Junh-Hee (Dan-ah) won "best actor" and "best actress" awards in the most recent Korean drama ceremony, by the way.

His mother is next to him -- an absolute ditz with no education who considers her son "flawless."

All the other, minor relationships taking place are at once funny, heartening, maddening, and realistic. The Korean singer Maya plays a tomboy police officer, Mal-soon, who gets involved with the Ha family's second son, Tae-young, a twin born minutes behind his older brother, but as such doesn't enjoy any of the benefits (or pressures) of being the Korean's proverbial First Son.

As an American, it's interesting to learn just how elaborate traditional Korean rituals can be.

Below is actress Yoon Jung-hee, who plays the main love interest, Dan-ah. She is straight-laced and built like a string bean, but something about her is sensuous and alluring. I like the fact she's not a teeny-bopper like many popular Korean actresses seem to be:

June Korean Food of the Month: Pa-jeon

2010-06-30T14:20:00.004-04:00

Our traditional Korean food spotlight for June is
the tasty pa-jeon (PA'-john) or "green onion
pancake."

The pronunciation is not too bad for us here in the west, though some just call it a "Korean pancake." I follow what my wife calls it in English, "scallion pancake."

She calls the pa-jeon a scallion pancake whether she makes it with scallions or chives, or even red peppers or broccoli. But the result is the same -- delicious!

Nor does she ever just make one. She usually makes six or seven at a time. They cook on the fry pan in about five minutes.

Her hands get all wet and sticky with the moist flour batter, but that's about the only inconvenience (I've never made one myself; she always likes to do it).

I can eat three or four of these pancakes per dinner. They can be about as big as a small pizza.

Sometimes I'll just eat one an appetizer. They can be frozen and reheated, and in fact lots of time they're better on the second go-round, because you can sear both sides, and they get this nice crunchy taste.

To make, combine in a large bowl one cup all-purpose flour, one cup water, and one egg. Use a wooden spoon or a whisk. Add a pinch of salt or sugar to taste.

Then throw in your vegetables -- 1 bunch of cut up scallions, and/or chives, green or red pepper, shrimp, anything you want. We've even used hamburger meat. Mix well.

In a non-stick pan, put 3-4 tbsp. cooking oil and bring it to a sizzle. Then drop in the batter, vegetables included.

You also need to prepare a dipping sauce for this (shown in the middle of the photo above). Use three parts soy sauce, one part RealLemon, one part water, and throw in some chopped sweet onion.

A free-for-all pig fest is guaranteed for all.

Bethlehem, PA's Former American Hotel

2010-06-28T07:37:00.006-04:00

One perk of having an account at TD Bank (the one Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa advertise on TV) is enjoying the bank's historical photographs that line an entire wall in each one of its branch offices.

These photos are blown up to incredible size, then colorized. Each depiction is probably ten feet high and twenty feet long.

It's worth it to stop into any branch office just to view the photos, even if you have to peer over some bank manager's head. The photos usually have some local historical tie-in from 100 years ago or so.

Such is the case with the latest branch that opened near me in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The photo of note is of the former American Hotel, located on the corner of Broad & New Streets downtown (a postcard image is above)

It no longer exists.

Being a little bit of a newbie to Bethlehem, I didn't realize the American's reputation. But after doing a search on Google, I realized its notoriety comes for being more of a seedy dive than a fine hotel.

The hotel was built, according to a website called beyondsteel.com, in the 1850's. It was originally called the American House and was a respected bed & breakfast.

After several change of owners, the building was expanded in size and given a new name, the American Hotel, to reflect its larger capacity. It was also the Greyhound bus depot in Bethlehem.

I found another website called travelintelligence. A writer named Tom Brosnahan called the American "the worst hotel in the world." There's no date from his description, unfortunately, but it seems like it might've been from the 1940's or 50's.

He called the American "a dormitory for single old men who had nowhere else to sleep."

He writes, "The price was exorbitant: $18 a night. I'd stayed in far better places for 50¢. But on this night, a bitterly cold one in January, I had no choice.

"The clerk showed me an awful room. I tried to tell myself I'd seen worse, but I hadn't. Paper was peeling from the walls, there were holes in the ceiling, no tile in the bathroom floor, a toilet with no seat, no running water, and no toilet paper.

"The room's door didn't lock, and the bed was a bare, stained mattress. The temperature outside was well below freezing, and the radiator in the room wasn't even lukewarm. When I asked for blankets, the desk clerk said, 'Most of the guys here bring their own.'

Sounds like this was during the hotel's latter days (hahaha). Of course, TD Bank's photo of the hotel (shown below) seems just a wee bit glamorized.

At first I wondered why the bank's management had chosen this hotel as its subject, but I understand now.

The place was a famous dump!

More Lunchtime Fun in Times Square

2010-06-17T07:06:00.008-04:00

An event which happened back in May, which I spotted on one of
my periodic walks through Times Square at lunchtime -- which
has been in my mental que ever since, waiting to be written about
-- was stumbling upon this model being body painted.

The artist is Andy Golub, 43, a guy from Westchester County, NY, who apparently paints nude women for a living.

But who cares about him, right? The most you can say is "tough job," and "nice work if you can get it." Right?

However, his output has been pretty distinguished. He has good sensibility for how his models should be projected via paint.

He accentuates personalities by color and does it in public. So cool enough -- I give the guy kudos even if I'm a mite jealous.

What caught my eye during this particular session was how incredibly pretty the model was.

It wasn't too hard to find her name on the internet. She's Bec Fordyce, 24, a professional model from Australia.

She's a person who does a little bit of everything -- bridal shoots for print media, corporate videos, TV commercials, clothing label modeling, spokesperson, etc. And on a global scale.

Her beauty propelled this lunchtime event into a whole other realm. She writes on her own blog, which can be found here, that, "I literally stopped Times Square." I agree with her assessment.

The only problem is, being the congenial sort, I was stopped cold, too. I stood there thinking, "What do you say to a person in this situation? "Great body?" "Wonderful colors?" "Are you supposed to be a floating balloon?" "Hi there?" My flapper wouldn't move.

I couldn't think of anything, so I did what any reasonable person would do: I snapped these pics.

I think what REALLY threw me was she looked not only highly intelligent, but also unforgettably kind. Look at her peaceful expression in the photos I included. There isn't a mean bone in her body, and I saw everything.

Again, on her own blogsite, she says, "We attracted fellow artists, the press, tourists, and a fair share of freaks." I wonder what category she put me into?

And will she accept me as a friend on Facebook? :{)

Also, when is Andy Golub going to paint bodies again? I thought maybe this was going to be an ongoing show, but maybe not. He's more fun than David Blaine.

Kilter's Wedding Spiel & Blessing X's Two

2010-06-08T07:50:00.006-04:00

I conducted my third wedding as minister last week, and I've got my fourth one coming up this week. Two in two weeks.

It's a special treat for me as much as it is for the couple.

Included within the brief standard liturgy of Protestant weddings is a short, 5-10 minute mini-sermon. That's the theological substance of the service.

That's where I get my chance to state my case.

Since the time span between the two weddings is so short, and since I didn't know either couple beforehand, I'll probably use nearly identical remarks.

My scripture is only one verse, Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church, for which he gave himself up."

Notice I don't mess around trying to justify Biblically that husband and wife are equal. We already know that.

The thing I emphasize is how -- statistically speaking -- men are most apt to behave irresponsibly rather than women once the marriage begins. Men are the jerks more often than women.

So I cooked up three points for grooms to remember:

1. Make the Relationship Your Top Priority. Not work, not sports, not kids, not hanging out with the guys.

2. Be Daring -- Show Affection. Tell your wife you love her every day (just like Frank Sinatra sings). Hold her hand in public. When in a group, establish inner communication and don't stray too far.

3. Be a Good Listener. You don't have to solve all her problems, just hear her out. Let her know she's got a partner who cares.

Just so the brides don't feel left out, I give them three points as well:

4. Try Some of His Hobbies. He likes skydiving? Learn how to jump. He smokes cigars? Go to the smoke room at the sports bar. He plays on the company softball team? Suit up and play catch.

5. Be the President of His Fan Club. Guys want to be appreciated, they want affection, and they want to be recognized for their achievements. Do your part and play the leading role in his fan club.

6. Make a Peaceful Home. After a tough day at work, neither husband nor wife wants to come home to discord, arguments, tension, and accusations. While at home, be loving as possible. Make your home the most desirable place on earth.

The Frustrating Oil Spill Catastrophy

2010-06-01T07:44:00.004-04:00

(I am an Obama supporter. However, I am starting to question's the government's lackluster response to the Gulf oil spill, which hasn't been capped yet after 40 days. Following is an article by columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times, which explains my frustration exactly. I reprint it here in an effort to shout out my displeasure at behemoths both governmental and corporate.)

"An Unnatural Disaster" by Bob Herbert

“Where I was wrong,” said President Obama at his press conference on Thursday, “was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.”

With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios.

These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by some fanciful honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the environment.

President Obama knows that. He knows — or should know — that the biggest, most powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only envy. BP’s profits are counted in the billions annually. They are like stacks and stacks of gold glittering beneath a brilliant sun. You don’t want to know what people will do for that kind of money.

There is nothing new to us about this. Haven’t we just seen how the giant financial firms almost destroyed the American economy? Wasn’t it just a few weeks before this hideous Deepwater Horizon disaster that a devastating mine explosion in West Virginia — at a mine run by a company with its own hideous safety record — killed 29 coal miners and ripped the heart out of yet another hard-working local community?

The idea of relying on the assurances of these corporate predators that they are looking out for the safety of their workers and the health of surrounding communities and the environment is beyond absurd.

Even after the blowout at the Deepwater Horizon site, BP officials were telling us (as their noses grew longer and longer) that about only 1,000 barrels of oil a day were escaping into the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly a month into the disaster, BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, was publicly offering the comforting assessment that the environmental damage resulting from the spill would likely be “very, very modest.”

They were somewhat wide of the mark (as reputable scientists were telling us day after day after day). We now know, of course, that this is the worst spill in U.S. history, that instead of 1,000 barrels a day, something in the range of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day have likely been spewing into the gulf. And the environmental impact can fairly be described as catastrophic.

The oil companies and other giant corporations have a stranglehold on American policies and behavior, and are choking off the prospects of a viable social and economic future for working people and their families.

President Obama spoke critically a couple of weeks ago about the “cozy relationship” between the oil companies and the federal government. It’s not just a cozy relationship. It’s an unholy alliance.

And that alliance includes not just the oil companies but the entire spectrum of giant corporations that have used vast wealth to turn democratically elected officials into handmaidens, thus undermining not just the day-to-day interests of the people but the very essence of democracy itself.

Forget BP for a moment. When is the United States going to get its act together? Will we learn anything from this disaster or will we simply express our collective dismay, ignore the inevitable commission reports (no one pays attention to study commissions), and bury our heads back in the oily sand?

President Obama said on Thursday that his administration was “moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.” Well, he can’t ensure anything of the kind. And, in fact, his corporate-friendly policy of opening up new regions for offshore drilling (that policy is only temporarily halted) will all but guarantee future disastrous spills.

The U.S. will never get its act together until we develop the courage and the will to crack down hard on these giant corporations. They need to be tamed, closely monitored and regulated, and constrained in ways that no longer allow them to trample the best interests of the American people.

Mr. Hayward of BP was on television on Friday referring to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent fouling of the Gulf of Mexico as a “natural disaster.” He was wrong, as usual. Like the unholy alliance of government and big business, this tragedy set in motion by Mr. Hayward’s corporation is a grotesquely harmful and wholly unnatural disaster.

May Korean Food Spotlight: Soju

2010-05-29T08:03:00.005-04:00

Whenever I think of traditional Korean liquors and wines, there is only one beverage that comes to mind: Soju!

Soju (So'-ju) is what most Koreans drink when they want to put extra juice in their veins, which in turn adds punch to their actions.

Soju is so accepted today that famous actresses such as Goo Hye-Sun, Kim Ah-Joong, and Lee Hyo-Ri are pushing it on TV and print ads. It seems like Korea has gone soju crazy.

It's a beverage that is most closely like vodka, except it's made from fermented rice. Its alcohol content is about 25%, which makes it about half as potent as vodka.

The difference is soju is smooth and easy to drink. Therefore more of it is likely to be consumed, say, at a restaurant by a group of people. I've witnessed (and participated) when bottle after bottle has been ordered.

Soju goes back more than a thousand years, and its origin is not known. Various kinds of brewing were in place by the middle of the Goryeo Dynasty, producing Takju (unrefined rice wine), Yakju (clear strained rice wine), and Soju (distilled liquor).

Some of these beverages were used for medicinal purposes, though they were always enjoyed in social situations as being part of the history and culture unique to Korea. There's pride in them thar green bottles. Korean ancestors used to express that they were "eating wines" instead of drinking them, as they perceived wine to be considered a proper food and not merely a drink.

Many people in Korea when they feel uptight or think they need to get honest with themselves or somebody else, turn to the soju. Whereas in America liquor is used for recreational purposes, in Korea the idea is that alcohol will get them to "open up" and state what is on their mind.

If you see a drunken conversation in Korea, it's usually laced with honesty that is not normally expressed when the people are sober.

Kilter Likes Larry King Live

2010-05-24T15:12:00.005-04:00

By the way, I've always been a fan of the Larry King Live show on CNN. Almost every night I check to see who he's got on.

I salute Larry for being on TV for twenty-five years. Of course, I've been aware of him for a lot longer than that.

He used to be on all-night radio, since 1978. That's when I picked up on him.

I like his style of interviewing. He asks questions as a common person would. He holds no preconceived notions about anything and does adequate research beforehand.

And no one is off his radar.

According to his Wikipedia listing, Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (his real name) has interviewed over 40,000 people. That is a hellofalota interviews. Besides interviewing U.S. Presidents, the Shah of Iran, and the Dalai Lama, movie and sports celebrities, he's good at assembling panels who talk about the events of the day -- the Oklahoma City bombing, the Asian tsunami, the Waco tragedy, etc.

Some critics say he throws his subjects softball questions, ala Barbara Walters. But I disagree. I've been a journalist, and the best way to get a person to talk is to get them to feel as if you're on their side.

He's 76 years old -- as old as singer Willie Nelson.

Just a few days ago, he interviewed Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. It was the first time Jagger had ever been a guest on the program.

The occasion was the Stones' re-release of one of their best albums, Exile On Main Street, which I bought when it first came out in 1972. I bought the CD version in 1989, and bought this latest "deluxe" version on the first day of its release on May 18.

I like the way how King got Jagger to open up. The result was a number of memorable quotations, despite Jagger's wordy and sometimes overly extended rambling.

A few examples from the transcript:

KING: Frank Sinatra said to me once, "There's a lot to be said for longevity."

JAGGER: Well, you've got no options really.

KING: Does a lot go into preparing for a concert tour?

JAGGER: Yes, a lot goes into it. And, you know, if you're going to do a tour or something that's a lot of work. You know, you have to be -- you have to pay attention to the big picture, the big picture has to be right. You know, the overall has to be right, and also the details have to be right.

KING: You're feeding a lot of people.

JAGGER: It's a big group of people. They're dependent on this creative engine, and, you know, if it starts to get out of whack, it doesn't work efficiently. You think you're in control of this one enjoyable lifestyle, and there is a certain moment when you are. But then what happens is that the lifestyle starts to choose you. That's the problem.

KING: When drugs were in the group and it was famously reported about Keith Richards and the like, did it ever affect your performance?

JAGGER: Probably. (LAUGHTER)

KING: You don't remember?

JAGGER: No, but -- no, but you don't -- I don't -- personally, you know, like performing while taking drugs. I always think it's better to be not taking drugs or drinking or anything. That's not saying I've never done it because I have. But I sort of learned I think after a while -- it didn't take me that long to realize that it wasn't a good thing. You know, taking drugs on a recreation level is one thing. But taking them while you're working on a stage is, you know, I don't think it was that great.

KING: A control factor?

JAGGER: It's the control factor. And the thing about being on stage, you really want to feel that you're sort of in control a lot, I think, because I don't think you want -- it's not a place where you want to be out of control.

Rainbow Over Pennsylvania

2010-05-20T12:05:00.006-04:00

This beautiful rainbow was right over our cornfield last weekend, just as my friends were saying what a great house environment we have. (and just I was saying, "Put some more marinated chicken on the barbie!")

A few days before there was another rainbow on the other end of the property, even bigger. But I captured this one, so I'm satisfied.

Kilter's (Broad) Definition of God

2010-05-20T08:51:00.008-04:00

(as a theologian, I am always developing my personal definition of God. Here it is now, subject to further revision and contemplation)

God is the complete dimension of reality above us, before us, beside of us, and inside of us. It's the All-That-Was, All-That-Is, and All-That-Will-Ever-Be.

The word God functions like 'x' in algebra. It is the holy, stand-in placename for the sum of everything -- for the sum of all components physical, mental, and spiritual inside and outside of our bodies and minds (including our memory and imagination); for the sum of everything known and unknown, for the sum of everything past, present, and future.

God is not a "thing," but a state of existence. God is an integral and inherent part of us, is within each of us, and contained in all life. God is consciously living and acting in every cell of our physical bodies as well as in our soul or spirit. It extends from our deepest, most remote, innermost thought to the outer limits of the physical universe (and beyond).

I like to say, "We walk inside of a God movie." We can't stand outside of God, because everything we see, think, feel, smell, hear, touch, and know is "God."

God creates, God designs, God sustains, God nourishes, God loves. God is not dependent on anything for its existence so, therefore does not need to repeat patterns in history. God is not predictable.

God is more akin to a master storyteller than to a watchmaker. God knows the destination, but not the route.

God "loves in freedom," meaning God is a risk-taker by giving us Free Will. God's divine loving is seen in grace, holiness, mercy, righteousness, consistency, omnipotence, patience, kindness, eternity, and glory.

God transcends the universe, stands outside of the universe, yet the entire universe lies within God.

Just like we increase any number by adding another '0,' we can never reach the limits of God because there is always an additional '0' to be added.

God thinks as a super-mind. God expresses. God equals infinity. God equals known science & everything yet to be discovered by science.

God equals maximized love. God equals perfect wholeness.

Jesse Miller in Australia

2010-05-18T10:26:00.005-04:00

My nephew, Jesse, has been in Australia all this semester, since February. Man, he has grown up fast.

That's him above, in a photo posted on his Facebook page. Look at his arm, it's huge. His face looks more mature than ever. And of course, he's got a babe on his arm who looks as if he's doing her no harm.

Jesse's the son of my younger sister, so I've known him all his life. He's been a soccer player, a high school thesbian, a cross-country runner, and is currently studying film. He gets good grades but doesn't sequester himself doing all-nighters.

He's got a life. He's a solid, balanced person and only will get better as he inches upward and onward.

This trip Down Under has been tremendous for him. He's stationed in Perth, on the western side. But he's made frequent trips all over the continent. Every other week he's been jaunting off to Sydney, or the Out Back, or going snorkling, or partying all night in clubs.

The blog he created for the trip reads well - the kid can write. He's also a good photographer and has posted some very clever shots.

Maybe I sound like an overly proud uncle, but Jesse is good people. He's polite, he's witty, and he's a good conversationalist.

He and his twin sister, who stayed behind in Pennsylvania, are both turning 21 this July. Can you believe I'm actually looking forward to sitting down with him (them) and tipping a few -- legally?

By the looks of the photo above, he's already in the habit of tipping. But that's his business.

I did a post about his twin sister about a year ago. Now this is Jesse's turn. I salute him and encourage him to keep going for it.

I'm living a little vicariously through you!

Down For the Count With Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye)

2010-05-13T04:37:00.003-04:00

I got up yesterday morning and saw that my left eye was bloodshot. "Oh no," I thought, because I immediately recognized what was happening.

Throughout the night the eye began draining, and getting itchy, and getting sticky. My eye closed shut with gumminess several times. I knew it then for sure.

I had conjunctivitis, otherwise known as Pink Eye.

It's something I get every five years or so. It always seems to be in May, maybe when pollen is in the air.

It's annoying because you think you can avoid getting it, though you never know just what causes it and how. It's also something that needs going to the doctor, and getting a prescription. It's not something you can wait out.

Also, it's highly contagious. Once people see that you have it, they stay far away. I need to keep my hands washed frequently so I don't transfer it to my good eye.

So I called in sick. That was unfortunate, because my supervisor at work at just lectured all the employees about taking frivolous sick time.

Even thought this was legitimate, I hated to be the first employee to disappear.

I went to my local doctor, Dr. Lauren Herchak. She took one glance and said, "Yep, you've got it." She wrote out a prescription for Tobramycin, one drop every four hours four times a day.

Now I need rest. I'm down for the count with conjuctivitis.

April Korean Food of Month -- BiBimBap

2010-05-06T10:45:00.004-04:00

We continue now on our monthly quest to enjoy the best of Korean cuisine, inspired by my wall calendar at home given to me by H-Mart Korean Supermarket.

Our food spotlight this month: BiBimBap (above).

The capital letters are added by me. Because if it's written straight through in English, with all small letters, you might have a tough time with the pronunciation.

Bi-Bim'-Bap (or you can pronounce the last syllable as "bop!")

Bottom line is it's a delicious dish. It's affordable at Korean restaurants, since it's considered like a lunchtime meal, though I'm sure Koreans would eat it for breakfast, dinner, anytime.

You don't eat this one with chopsticks. You use a spoon. And you mix everything up, like a cassaroll.

So in the photo above, this is what BiBimBap looks prior to starting to mess with it. But that's part of the fun. You can play around with a bowl of BiBimBap for an hour, though your Korean waiter may get impatient if you linger too long.

To prepare:

Start with a few scoops of rice in a bowl. Add a handful of bean sprouts, mushrooms, zucchini, sliced Korean radish, pieces of a pre-cooked hamburger or beef, and slices of onion. Then add 4 TS of Korean hot pepper paste. Add a cooked egg on top.

Then mix, then enjoy! Add some soy sauce if it's too dry for your taste.

As with most Korean dishes, you can add or delete vegetables to your liking: spinich, lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, etc.

Also some Koreans like the bowl itself piping hot. They use a thick, oven-safe bowl and let the mixture sit for 15-20 minutes to let the temperature permeate all the ingredients. Or they just cook it right on the stove top.

Kilter Lines Up the Wives of Roger Moore

2010-04-30T10:19:00.010-04:00

Actor Roger Moore recently came out with a decent autobiography, My Word Is My Bond.

Moore played James Bond longer than anyone else (seven films), and had a long-running hit TV series in the 1960's playing "The Saint" (which is when I first took note of him).

While the book is generally informative, well-rounded, and peppered with wicked humor -- which is what Moore is famous for among his sizable Hollywood friends -- one thing he glaringly leaves out is his personal life with his four wives.

Since Moore doesn't want to get in hot water with his current wife, the former Kristina Tholstrup, this omission is understandable. But it does leave the reader wanting.

What I'd like to do, then, is to complete Moore's book by adding in photos and additional information of all four of his wives.

Let's see what we can come up with:

Below is Moore's first wife, Doorn VanSteyn.

VanSteyn was a professional ice skater. She met Moore when they both served in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II.

She was five years older than him -- he was only 19 when they married in 1946. At that time Moore had just broken into acting. In fact, he earned more money as a male model and as a sketch artist.

The marriage lasted seven years. That's when he became involved with singer Dorothy Squires. She became wife #2 (below):

Squires was a vocalist, born in Wales, always more popular in Britian than in America. One of her hits was the standard, "I'm In the Mood for Love."

She was also older than Moore -- by thirteen years. They married in 1953 in New Jersey.

With her star power behind him, however, that's when Moore's acting career really began to take off. They lived in London, New York, and Hollywood.

The marriage fell apart in the early 1960's, though she wouldn't grant Moore a divorce until 1969 -- on the day she was convicted of drunk driving. By then Moore had been living with the woman who would become his third wife, Luisa Mattioli (below), for years, and even had bore him two children.

Mattioli was an Italian actress whom Moore met when she interviewed him for a television program in Italy. They worked together in at least two movies, Romulus, and The Sabines.

Their romance is famous in Hollywood annals, Moore having said, "She didn't speak English and I didn't speak Italian, but we sure knew how to communicate . . . We took many honeymoons both before and after we signed the papers."

After 30 years together, however, Moore again felt the itch to move on. An article about Moore says, "Although known publicly as a gentle, easy-going, peace-loving man, he had an extraordinary capacity for bringing out the virago in his three former wives.

Each wife he left, reportedly, without any advance word of warning or explanation, "a classic bolter."

It happened again when Moore left Mattili in 1994. Two years later took up with the woman who was to become his fourth (and final) wife, Kristina Tholstrup (below).

They dated for seven years before finally tying the knot in 2002. Her nickname is 'Kiki,' and she was a Danish stewardist when they met. Moore calls her "my soulmater, the love of my life."

After four tries at matrimony, let's hope so.

Kilter Spots a Great Sculpture

2010-04-27T07:09:00.005-04:00

The subject today is sculpture.

As some of you know, one of my great pleasures when I work on Saturdays is to take a long walk through the city during my lunch hour and see what I run into.

The sculpture above sits on West 58th Street just off Broadway. It's part of the massive Time-Warner building that engulfs Columbus Circle, just completed a few years ago.

The sculpture is outdoors, at the entrance to the residental part of the building. Only one door away is the main employee entrance to CNN -- the studio where anchor person Anderson Cooper dashes in and out of.

What do you think of this simple yet relfective work, though? I love the way it beckons you to relax and spend some time with it.

It's made by flat pieces of slate -- bluestone -- cut perfectly to construct two figures, one standing and one sitting, with ridges cut into the slate to round out the appearance and to soften up the the slate's intrinsic hardness.

A reviewer, Adrienne Garnett, said about the piece, "Their fontality and direct gaze link them with totems, ancient Egyptian and Pre-Columbia statues. The figures relate to each other and to the earth. They are grounded, serence, present, and eternal."

The sculpture is named "Asaf and Yo'ah." The Biblical references are intentional.

The sculptor's name is Boaz Vaadia, 58. He was born in Israel, has lived in New York since 1975, and currently lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I give credit to the doorman for knowing the sculptor's name and how to spell it. He was glad to accept my salute when I said, "That's the best piece sculpture I've seen in years."

So now to give proper due to Mr. Vaadia, who is "internationally known" in artistic circles, but I'd never heard of him.

Vaadia says that though his figures are generalized in form, there is individuality in each figure. His intention is to represent the essence of a specific person.

"I love people," he says in a published interview. "Each person is unique, asis the work of an artist. It is important that we, as artists, identify our own uniqueness, just as every individual needs to identify his or her own individuality."

"This individuality resides in centeredness, not in superficial attributes. It is that which unites us as human beings."

According to an article by Deborah Gilbert, Vaadia's bluestone slate consists of cast-off materials found in dumpsters and construction sites from downtown Manhattan. "He is drawn to the fact that they came from the earth intrinsically unaltered, and that they came from man's urban habitat as well."

His work is permanently on display in Florida, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut, Nevada, and London, England.

Note to myself: His studio is on Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Wegman's Is a Great Supermarket

2010-04-23T09:51:00.006-04:00

I've slowly come to realize that Wegmans is a fantabulous place to go shopping. It's the best supermarket I've ever come across in my 56 years on the planet.

It's like a small city inside. You could spend all day in there, easy. It seems the place is designed so that you never have to leave. You could live there if you had to.

It's that comfortable, as comfortable as home.

You think you'd be put off by its size, but you're not. Wegmans is huge. They are more accurately Megamarkets.

Most stores run about 100,000 square feet -- about the same size as Home Depot. A store that opened in Virginia in 2009 is 145,000 square feet.

The large space keeps things uncluttered and inviting.

The ceilings are high and the steel beams and pipes are exposed. But they are painted a rustic sepia-toned brown, which gives the store an old-fashioned feel.

It shows the degree of care that has gone into the design of the place.

Nothing about Wegmans is static or boring. On the contrary, the space feels dynamic. Not only in the layout -- which is angular on the grocery side and more winding and spacious on the meat and produce and deli side.

They sell everything a grocery store should sell -- variety. You can gets patio furniture there as well as needle and thread.

In other words, they have all the basic brands, plus high-end stuff, too.

For the latter Wegmans sometimes gets tagged as being "too expensive," but that's just not the case. If you stick with the basics, everything is as cheap as anywhere else. Toilet paper 79 cents. Coke for $1.09. Hamburger meat for $1.99 a pound. Toothpaste for $2.38.

Their brand of potato chips are out of this world delicious, except I don't know why they chose to eliminate their tastiest style of chip, Asian barbecue. But Memphis barbecue isn't too far removed from that.

Sometimes my wife and I just like to walk there (our local Wegmans is about a mile away), get ourselves coffee and Danish, and sit in their cafe. It's like a destination spot.

Wegmans was founded in 1916 in Rochester, NY. The company headquarters are still there.

Incredibly, Wegmans had just one store until 1968. Currently they have 75 supermarkets in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland, with plans to expand into Massachusetts in 2011.

Apparently Wegmans is a good place to work, too. For the past 8 years the company has been listed in Fortune 500's "Top Ten Companies to Work For." The Food Network called it the best grocery store in 2007 and Consumer Reports named it top supermarket overall in 2009.

Those are impressive credentials.

One Great Mind Meets Another

2010-04-22T07:27:00.003-04:00

One great mind met another when singer Bob Dylan greeted President Barack Obama at a concert at the White House in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2010.

The ocassion was to celebrate the Civil Rights Movement as part of Black History Month. It was Dylan's first time performing at the White House, whose Grand Ballroom was transformed into a concert stage.

Others who appeared on the program were Smokey Robinson, John Mellencamp, Clint Eastwood, Jennifer Hudson, Natalie Cole, Seal, Morgan Freeman, Queen Latifah, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

“The civil rights movement was a movement sustained by music,” Obama said in his opening remarks.

He said activists from coast to coast were inspired by spirituals. "Their will was sharpened by protest songs by artists of hope." He said their work paved the way toward a more just America, which allowed him to make history in 2008 with his election as first African-American President.

“It’s hard to sing when times are rough,” Obama said. “The hymns helped. They advanced the cause of the nation.”

The White House called Dylan “an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity” and said Eastwood’s films and performances are “essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American.”

“Obviously, their careers have helped to mark the landscape of American culture for decades,” Obama said.

I Needa Denim Jacket

2010-04-20T11:01:00.006-04:00

Damn! I need a new Levis denim jacket in the worst way. I'm almost desperate.

I've been wearing these jackets since I was 26 years old, and I don't intent to stop now.

The one I had was faded, ripped, and frayed something terrible. I gave that one to the homeless.

I thought I'd pop into the closest store and get a new one, but shouldn't have been so fast about it. That was about three weeks ago.

I still haven't found one.

Most of my lunch hours these days have been devoted to THE SEARCH.

I refuse to go to the Levis Superstore in Times Square and pay $89. I crossed off that option as too expensive.

Other Levis outlets don't seem to carry the dark blue "Trucker's style" that I like. If they have it, they don't have extra large.

The closet I found was $59. But it was size large (only) and looked like a steamroller had tumbled over it. Also the material has gotten so thin and cheap-looking. Doesn't even LEVI-STRAUSS make quality stuff anymore?

I've owned three previous jean jackets: 1980, 1990, and 1999. I remember because I write down the dates in magic marker on the inside of each jacket.

(later) I bought one. It looks great, but it's not Levi-Strauss.

It's a brand called Canyon Walk. I bought it at the Flemington, NJ, Department Store for . . . $19. Some kind of spring clearance.

The jacket is sturdy and suitably dark blue. The fit is good.

The only thing I wonder about is the tag, "Assembled in Pakistan."

I hope I'm supporting fair labor and not Osama bin Laden.

Thank you to Bridgette Supple of Annandale, NJ. She told me in 1980, "Kilter, if you wanna run with the herd, you gotta get yourself a jean jacket." After she saw me in my first one, she said, "It looks like you were born to wear denim, Kilter. Now that you're properly attired, I expect to never see you without one."

What Was Once Private Is Now Public

2010-04-19T08:41:00.008-04:00

I think the biggest change in the world from the twentieth century to the twenty-fist century, so far, is that everything has gone public.

This includes the world of commerce, the world of politics, and the world of culture. But the biggest impact is seen right in our own lives.

Nothing is private anymore. Everything is public.

At first, I tried to resist this penultimate change, which seems to have swept into the depths of every country except maybe China and North Korea. I've always treasured my privacy.

I'd never been particularly outgoing nor extroverted. Being private and guarded, making all my moves in the shadowy crevices of the unknown or little-visited spaces, worked for me just fine.

Then I noticed this change from private to public washing over everything, aided primarily by our ever-advancing technological world. For awhile I kept myself honed in, close to the bone, and secluded myself even more. I stayed as far behind the curve as possible.

But it doesn't work that way in 2010. The tide is too strong. Sequestering ourselves only leads to a dead end. Media is too ubiquitous.

So I gave up on privacy. I let go.

Not that I casually give out my social security number or bank account numbers to just anyone who asks. I'm not that naiive.

It's just that computers in general and public networking sites like Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and FriendConnect (the most obvious . . . but there's tons of others) in particuliar, have forced us to reinvent our self-image.

What was once private is now public. What we do and what is think is available to be known by neighbors, by strangers, by estranged family members, and by anyone around the world.

Better get used to it. I think this is only the start.

I don't think this trend will be reversed. It's a permanent shift. Better use it to our best advantage.

Everyone seems to be camera-ready. We know how to smile on the spot and say cheese. We learn that outrageousness pays (judging how appearing on Realty TV shows is now a career path for some people).

It's second nature to the generation entering adulthood. They expect cameras everywhere.

Whether it's a "live feed," a police camera disguised as a streetlamp, or a cell phone that turned into a videocam with a snap of its flip cover, personality becomes persona. We have to think about how we package ourselves.

How do we self-express? We need to edit ourselves to fit the content.

A writer for Time magazine, James Poniewozik wrote, "If you grew up with the internet, your default setting is publicity, not privacy."

He writes, "What was once obscure now turns into performance. The diary turns into a blog. The home movie collection becomes the YouTube channel. The resume becomes the public search-result page. "

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, testified in court over its company's privacy policy, "Sharing has become the social norm."

But you know what? Now that it's here, I've grown to kind of like it.

Going public has helped me fight through my shyness, to thrust my Self out there, to find my people which before, was always hidden from view.

Today I have no trouble finding my ilk.

It took a while for me to get acclimated to this Brave New World. But I'm in it to stay. In fact, I'm in it to win.

Kilter's Resolutions as a New Minister

2010-04-17T15:44:00.006-04:00

Ever since I became an ordained minister this past January in the Reformed Church in America (ie. an actual representative of Almighty God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit -- daunting even to contemplate), I have been building a list of Do's and Don't's for myself.

I figure that, if followed, I should be able to prevent myself from getting too reckless, too sloppy, too selfish, too uncaring, and too ridiculous. My goal is to avoid people saying to me with suspicion, "Gee, you don't ACT very much like a minister."

Of course we could argue what does that mean, who are you to judge me, and what does that have to do with my faith. But those are issues for another time.

Here is my current top ten list in which I need to apply myself:

1. Stop picking cuticles -- something I've done all my adult life, in various degrees of embarrassment and shame. Most of the time my fingers look pretty good. But if there's something digging on my mind, wow, I start gnawing away, and before you know it, I'm dealing with blood.

2. Cease all swearing -- I'm still prone to saying out loud, "You fucking jerk," to idiots who perform mindless acts of stupidity, either towards me or within eyeshot. Usually these hapless joes can't hear me berating them. Still, I don't to like hearing myself saying the word "fuck." I also love to swear at drivers on the road who do stupid things.

3. Continue skipping lunch on weekdays -- It's good for the body, it's good for the wallet, it's good for self-confidence -- why not just SMELL my lunch, like I do when I fast? I'm 50-50 on this one resolution. Sometimes I have the discipline, sometimes I don't.

4. Go to dentist -- It's been over two years, Kilter. Even though my teeth are in good shape and I pride myself on my white teeth, this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing a dentist in my life. It makes me uncomfortable and who knows about my breath?

5. Never use the word 'hate' -- I hate to hear the word 'hate' this days. It's negative, it's ugly, it's forceful, it's wrong. It's persausive in the wrong direction. Find a different a more positive way to express the situation, please.

6. Stop turning my head to look at ass -- This problem stems from the fact that I'm a red-blooded male. If the view is right in front of me, fine, I'm going to enjoy it. But why turn my head and act like I'm a desperate, despicable pig? Ninety percent of the time the reward is not worth the effort anyway. It looks bad when other people see me extending my gaze "down there."

7. Never raise my voice at my wife, even if she burns house down. Don't let out my anger on her. Give the hell to someone else, but not to her. It's not worth it to our relationship, or to my mental or physical well-being. Regardless, she doesn't deserve to be yelled at. She may burn a pot at times, she may be a delightful ditz, but she's also a beautiful woman, and deserves my best.

8. Give up one reality TV show. This cuts into my study time, my contemplation, my heavenly meditation. It's not right to favor Reality TV over writing a sermon, don't you think?Yet I do it. My first choice was to cut was "Celebrity Apprentice." But that's been too good lately. So now I've gotten rid of "American Idol." My stable of shows is currently "Survivor," "The Amazing Race," "Dancing with the Stars", and "Celebrity Apprentice."

9. Mark up my Bible -- Make it look used. Even if I've read it all the way through several times, and continue to read it whenever I've got spare time. Give it some dog ears. Underline important passages. Write notes in the margins. Scuff it up a bit. This practice, however, is almost sac-religious to me. What authority do I have to mark up a Bible? Well, I AM a minister. Maybe that gives me umbrage. But I like to approach God with a clean manuscript.

10. Cut down on alcohol. I stashed my bottle of vodka and whiskey in the basement in a lower cabinet. It wasn't really to hide it from anyone, but to make it harder for me to get to. It doesn't need to be on display, like the beer, the wine, and my beloved spiced rum. So I'll cut down somewhat, but not give it up entirely. A minister needs to keep in touch with SPIRITS, whether they're summoned via the soul or ingested through the mouth.

Kilter Looks at Harvey "Hard Luck" Haddix

2010-04-13T07:09:00.011-04:00

To celebrate the start of the 2010 baseball season, instead of talking about the New York Yankees or some other predictable money machine of the modern era, I'd like go back more than 50 years and recap the life of one of its saddest players, Harvey Haddix.

Haddix was a pitcher for 16 seasons, starting in 1952. He wasn't the best of his era, but he was far from the worst. He posted a career 136-113 record for five teams.

He was known as "Hard Luck Harvey" throughout his career and afterwards. With good reason.

He is the only person in baseball history to take a perfect game beyond the ninth inning and still lose. That was on May 26, 1959.

In fact he pitched 12 perfect innings. That's an extraordinary accomplishment.

There have only been 17 perfect games in over 100 years of major league baseball. It means Haddix didn't allow a runner of any kind to reach base. He faced 36 batters, and retired them all.

Yet he still lost the game in the 13th inning, 1-0.

Through a convergence of extraordinary odd and unique circumstances (including the fact that he lost the game), Haddix is virtually unknown and forgotten today, a footnote in baseball lore.

Even his perfect game designation was taken away from him in 1991, when the rules were clarified to stipulate that a pitcher must win his own perfect game in order to be credited for one.

Early Years

Harvey Haddix was a farm boy from Ohio, who was said by his mother, "He enjoyed picking corn more than anything else." He was almost killed at age 5 in a hunting accident when his father was shooting at a rabbit.

He was considered a top prospect when he got to the big leagues. But he got caught in the knee by a vicious line drive in his third season by Joe Adcock, which made him permanently alter his pitching mechanics.

So despite going 20-9 in his rookie year, he bounced around from St. Louis to Philadelphia to Cincinnati to Pittsburgh to Baltimore. He was with the Pittsburgh Pirates when the game in question came around.

May 26, 1959

Harvey Haddix had a nasty cold when he reluctantly took the mound that soggy night in Milwaukee County Stadium (he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day). The Pirates played the Milwaukee Braves. Lightning was flickering in the sky and the ground was soft. Attendance in the park was only 19,000.

While Haddix mowed down the Braves one by one, the Pirates banged out a dozen hits. Yet neither team could score any runs.

This was despite Pittsburgh not having three of its top players in the lineup: Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat, and Dick Stuart. They hit into three double plays. A ball that looked like a certain home run was blown back by a sudden wind.

As the air grew still again, even the manager of the Pirates, Bill Virdon, was thinking, "Maybe it's not meant for Harvey to win this game."

The pitcher for the Braves, Lew Burndette, also pitched a complete game shutout. This is incredible to think about when pitchers today are often yanked after five or six innings.

After 12 innings, the score was still 0-0.

Finally, in the top of the 13th inning, with Haddix still perfect, Pittsburgh committed an error. There was a bunt, then an intentional walk. Then the same guy who hit Haddix's knee years before, John Adcock, hit a home run.

The final score should have been 3-0. But one of the Milwaukee baserunners passed another unintentionally. So the game went into the books as 1-0.

Still, the bottom line was Haddix delivered one of the finest games ever pitched, and lost.

The Aftermath

Haddix received telegrams from all over, though all weren't positive. One that angered him the most (though later became his favorite), was from a college fraternity: "Dear Harvey -- tough shit."

"That's exactly what it was," he said later.

He got no raise or bonus from the Pirates. He had no endorsement offers from advertisers. He turned down an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, telling his wife, "It was just another game that I lost."

No artifacts from the game currently exist. The game jersey Haddix wore that day has gone missing.

No game film exists of his extraordinary performance, which second baseman Bill Mazeroski said, "Was the easiest game I'd ever played in."

Also the TV broadcast in Pittsburgh had been preempted by a speech by vice-president Richard Nixon. So virtually no one saw the game. No one ever will.

Tough luck Harvey. He remained anonymous wherever he went.

Even most other players called him "Harry." He was often mistaken for another ballplayer, Harry Brecheen. He never bothered to correct anyone, even as he continued his baseball career as a coach -- again being bounced around from the Mets, to the Reds, to the Red Sox, to the Indians, and back to the Pirates.

His widow says, "He never talked about the game unless someone brought it up. The way he saw it was, 'I pitched a pretty good game, but the team lost. So what's the big deal?'"

He died in 1993. The official reason was emphysema. There was probably a lot of broken heart in there as well.

Kilter's Trip to See D.C. Cherry Blossoms

2010-04-08T10:00:00.008-04:00

My wife, who loves flowers, suggested that she and I take a quickie trip to Washington, D.C. to see the cherry blossoms which have been a spring delight to visitors and residents alike there for the past 98 years.

About 5,000 cherry trees were given to the United States from Japan in 1912. It's been an annual rite of spring ever since to enjoy the vivid pink blossoms this time of year, which are only on the trees for about ten days before falling off.

The weather forecast was good. So after a few computer searches and phone calls, it was all arranged. We went on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

"Don't delay until weekend," my wife had warned. "Japanese Yoshino cherry trees are like the Japanese people -- they have a sudden burst of color, then they die out fast. If we wait until weekend, we might miss everything."

Her statement proved prophetic. We got there, saw plenty of cherry trees, but we missed the peak by about two days.

About two-thirds of the trees had already lost their color. Their lovely pink blossoms were already lying in the grass, withered, or dead in the D.C. mud.

The day wasn't a total bust, as you can see from the photo above. We saw some good color. Just not enough of it.

A guy we spoke to on the D.C. metro told us, "Yeah, it's hit or mess. You've got to get lucky. They can't predict when they'll be open until a few days before it happens."

We toured the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, and spent a good deal of time lingering in front of the White House (that's me below -- waiting for Barack Obama to appear).

We went with a friend who had been living in the area for 30 years and never saw the front of the White House in person. It had been about 10 years for me.

We had talked about going to one of the Smithsonian museums, but we got too tired from walking; maybe some other time.

I enjoyed riding the D.C. Metro (subway). It made me feel like an insider. The system was much cleaner than New York's - but of course newer as well. The people seemed civil, educated, and open.

I rate this trip a six out of ten. I've been on much better trips and much worse. Plus this hardly rates as a "vacation."

Seeing our friends was fun. They saved me $140 in motel charges since we slept overnight with them in the suburbs.

March Korean Food of the Month: Tea (Cha)

2010-03-31T08:16:00.012-04:00

This month's Korean food spotlight (inspired by my 2010 Korean calendar from H-Mart) is a beverage rather than a food.

It falls under the general category of 'cha.'

Cha means almost anything to drink that is not carbonated nor with alcohol (those have their own designations). Cha can be served hot or cold.

Believe me (since I live with a Korean wife), what Koreans think of "tea" goes far beyond Lipton or Earl Grey, or even fancy stuff like decaffeinated jasmine. Cha is made from diverse substances including fruits, leaves, roots, and grains.

Some ingredients are also used for traditional Korean medicine.

Records of tea offerings in Korea go back as far as 661 A.D. when the spirits of revered monks were toasted inside Buddhist temples. During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the aristocracy used tea for various rites of passage.

Starting with the late 19th century, commoners joined the trend and started drinking.

Here are some types of Korean tea that I've enjoyed (I recommend adding honey to all as a rule of thumb):

Insam cha, made from ginseng.

Saenggang cha, made from ginger root.

Sujeonggwa cha, made from dried persimmons, ginger, and cinnamon (more like a punch than tea)

Bori cha, made from roasted barley tea

Hyeonmi cha, made from roasted rice tea

Solnip cha, made from pine needles

Gukhwa cha, made from wild chrysanthemum flowers -- Yes! Flowers can be used for tea.

"The romance, elegance, and sincerity of our ancestors knew how to enjoy the natural taste."

The Koreans have been at this for a thousand years longer than us, so we can learn from them.

Kilter's Collected Facts About Water

2010-03-30T10:20:00.002-04:00

Here are some facts about water that I culled from the latest National Geographic magazine.

Some are interesting, but most are just -- scary. It makes you think twice before you let a spigot drip endlessly without fixing it, or taking a twenty-minute shower.

1. Nearly 70% of the world's fresh water is locked in ice.

2. Most of the rest is in aquifers that we're draining much more quickly than the natural recharge rate.

3. Two-thirds of our water is used to grow food.

4. With 83 million more people on earth each year, water demand will keep going up unless we change how we use it. Desalination is still prohibitively expensive.

5. In Florida, 3,000 gallons are used to water the grass for each golf game played.

6. U.S. swimming pools lose 150 billion gallons to evaporation every year.

7. The weight of China's new "Three Gorges" reservoir will tilt the earth's axis by nearly an inch.

8. The longest water tunnel, supplying New York City, is 85 miles long and leaks up to 35 million gallons a day.

9. One out of eight people in the world lack access to clean water.

10. 3.3 million people die from water-related health problems each year.

11. Americans use about 100 gallons of water at home each day.

12. Millions of the world's poorest subsist on few than 5 gallons per day.

13. 46% of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes.

14. Women in developing countires walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.

15. In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity.

Read it and weep. We only have ourselves to blame.

Patti Smith is Bullshit

2010-03-25T08:12:00.009-04:00

It takes a lot for me not to like someone. I'm the type who gives people eighth and ninth chances, reprieve after reprieve, before I finally decide, "I don't like you."

Sometimes it takes me decades to decide, since I want to give that person every possible benefit of the doubt.

I've finally made a determination about singer/poet/writer Patti Smith.

I don't like her.

True, I've never met her. Maybe I'd change my opinion if I did. But until I learn otherwise, I think she operates in a world of bullshit.

It's not because the only decent song she's ever done over 30 years is "Because the Night." (Which wasn't even her own song, by the way. It was written by Bruce Springsteen.)

It's not because her dark, husky voice is described as "primordial" or "a howl," which to me is not singing, it's just sound effects.

It's not because of personal jealousy, that's she's gotten book-length stuff published while I haven't. (Besides, who cares if she had a relationship in the 1970's with Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who is gay, mean and abusive, and who died of AIDS before most of today's hipsters were even born?)

It's because she seems so damn controlling.

I can forgive the other stuff, but I can't stand people -- especially at the so-called mature age of 63 -- who exercise a nasty, stick-up-their-ass, tightly-monitored public image (even when that image is tawdriness, no less).

It's like she's the snobby Tiger Woods version of the avant-garde NY bohemian scene, a perpetual hardened hippie who insists on doing things exactly as she demands.

She needs to be shattered. Or at least poked.

Two recent articles about her tipped me overboard about her. The first was in Time magazine, and the second, the New York Times.

The magazine article, by Richard Lacayo, was titled "Bohemian Rhapsody" and discussed Smith's just-published memoir about her days with Robert Mapplethorpe. She was a "shy Jersey girl," whom "straight off the bus" met Mappletorpe and immediately moved in with him.

A prosaic drifter? Hardly. Years of artistic struggle? Negative.

She casually involves herself into the S&M scene and becomes disillusioned when she discovers he likes men better. Duh. That's how she loses her innocence?

If this drudge wasn't enough, the newspaper article, by Ruth LaFerla, put me over the edge. Titled, "A Rare Spirit, A Rarer Eye," the article was about Patti Smith's unchanging style over the decades, i.e. "her self-effacing mannish jacket, boater's shirt, and beat up jeans."

She takes the same seat in the same Greenwich Village restaurant every day, so people can stare at her from afar, and orders -- get this, hot water with lemon.

How chic. How free.

Words used to describe her are "noncommittal," "testy," "rarefied," and "I don't care what you think." However when it comes to fashion, the author writes, "No seam escapes her scrutiny."

Another so-called friend is quoted, "She (Patti Smith) is very aware of her style and she controls it." The author concurs, "She's the canny custodian of her own image."

What does this add up to? Not much to me. LaFerla summarizes in vague praise, "She's still the gangly diva of downtown punk."

Is that something to be known for?

Patti Smith, get a life, will ya? She's too full of herself.

Yankee Stadium Goes Down

2010-03-24T07:41:00.008-04:00

In quiet and almost secretive fashion, workers have been underway in the Bronx the past several weeks tearing down the original Yankee Stadium.

About 50% of the grandstands is down. The remaining half is expected to be reduced to rubble by the time the Yankees have their season opener on April 13.

The sod from the field has been taken away since last fall, with cranes and heavy lifting equipment churning away in the mud where infielders, pitchers, and catchers used to roam its field of dreams.

I'm ambivalent about whether I wanted to see the structure remain in place as an alternate-use building, or be glad about its demise.

I guess the latter. This despite that I have always been a Yankees fan. The property is expected to be returned to the public as parkland for general recreation.

I think the best way for the original Yankee Stadium to head into antiquity is to remain as a vivid, pleasant memory. There, the stadium can live in our hearts forever. It can be whatever it was to us when it was standing.

Keeping the building around runs into too many political logistics -- starting with the fact that the ballpark is owned by the city of New York, always strapped for cash. Keeping the stadium upright in any fashion was plugged as a major money-drainer.

There was talk about turning the stadium into a museum. But maintenance costs would have been prohibitive, especially since the old place (built 1923) would need a complete overhaul to "restore" it and make it safe for visitors.

There was also talk about leaving it as a baseball stadium for a minor league team or even for youth teams. But no major league team wants the competition from a minor league team, even if it's their own affiliate.

The city made out by selling off all of the stadium seats, facades, grass, banners, displays, bases, pitching rubbers, infield dirt, bullpen telephones -- anything that could possibly have been sold, they sold. Good entrepreneurs, they.

If you really want to see the Yankees, all you have to do is walk across the street to the new Yankee Stadium, now in its second year of operation. The Yankees won the World Series there last year -- what more could you want?

That is, if you can afford tickets. The stadium cost more than a billion dollars to build.

Top prices for seats are $5,000 per game. Even sitting in the so-called peanut section for a middle-of-the-week game, expect your pockets to be reduced by several hundred dollars, say $250 a seat. It ain't cheap.

So let the old stadium live in our minds. I saw my first game there in 1963, my last in 1996 (when I got tired of being stuck in the upper deck in the nosebleed section, since every game was almost sold out).

I saw everybody play there from Mickey Mantle to Ron Guidry to Reggie Jackson to Don Mattingly to Bernie Williams to Derek Jeter. I even saw Joe DiMaggio play in an old-timers game in 1967 (he retired in 1952).

I saw Mickey Mantle help win Mel Stottlemyer's major league debut by hitting a ball over the center field monuments in 1964. I saw Bobby Murcer hit four homeruns in a row in 1972. I saw Rickey Henderson steal home in 1993.

Great memories, indeed.

Kilter Supports Ban on Bullfighting

2010-03-10T08:09:00.018-05:00

Is bullfighting a form of artistic expression or a barbaric, cruel bloodplay whose time has passed?
Should bullfighting be banned forever or be allowed to continue as legitimate sport?

That was the question asked by the "60 Minutes" TV show on Sunday. They did an hour-long special on the issue.

Their focus was on bullfighting's superstar brothers, Francisco and Cayetano Rivera-Ordonez. The program was balanced and informative.

However, the issue was made all the more relevant since the younger brother, Cayetano, 37, was seriously injured in the ring shortly after the interview took place.

He's lucky to be alive. His main aeorta was severed -- the same injury that killed his father in the ring 25 years earlier. Cayetano Rivera-Ordonez will probably never fight again.

Afterward I realized I stand with the folks who think that bullfighting has no place in the world and should pass into antiquity.

One of my favorite books all-time may have been Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway, which is where I learned most of what I know about bullfighting. It's a great book. But he's describing a world from the 1930's.

Looked through the eyes of 2010, bullfighting is grotesque, ugly, and brutal.

It stands below boxing on the scale of acceptable sports. It's lower than dog fighting in my book.

The fact that it's ingrained into the culture is all the more reason to eliminate it now. Let the tourists go see something else.

Interestingly, the main players in the bullfighting debate are not individuals, as American TV would have you think. The real players are two cities, Madrid and Barcelona.

There are politcal implications galore in the details which makes me support banning bullfighting all the more.

Madrid is in Spain, of course. Barcelona is controlled by Spain but is also capital of independence-minded Catalonia., a region in northeast Spain and southeast France. (They are like the Kurdish people of Iraq and Turkey -- a distinct culture without their own country).

According to an article by journalist Damien Corrigan, officials in Madrid have been championing the cause of bullfighting aficionados, claiming it is 'art.' They want to officially protect it as such.

The Catalans in Barcelona, on the other hand, have called bullfighting 'inadmissible torture' and want it to be banned. (It continues to be held in Barcelona on a limited basis). One person who helped sway the Catalan vote stood before the parliment in Barcelona and liked bullfighting to "the primitive and abominable custom of female circumcision."

Maybe that's going too far. But still, I support the Catalan ban whether it's theoretical or for the animals.

The underlying issue is Catalan independence, which has been an ongoing struggle for seven million people for 400 years, to which I support.

Bullfighting seems to be more Spanish than Catalan. So banning bullfighting is really a vote in support of Catalonia's independence.

Does Catalonia love its animals more than Spain? That is doubtful. But it IS another pathway for Catalans to separate themselves from Spain.

Is it acceptable to kill bulls in the name of tradition? I don't think it is. Studies show that more tourists have attended bullfights over the past several decades than native Spaniards.

Proponents of bullfighting point out that the animal is eaten afterwards, so the animal's death is not in vain. But is it worth it saving a few thousand bulls when far more animals die in more brutal ways in substandard slaughterhouses?

They also claim that the animal does not suffer greatly during the event -- that a good bullfighter kills the bull efficiently.

But do they? While the final kill may be quick, the abuse the bull sustains during the fight is prolonged. That was easily seen on the "60 Minutes" special.

The idea that abattoirs kill in the most painless and efficient way does not excuse the cruelty of a bullfight.

People don't need venues in which they pay to see blood. There's enough of that in this world we can see for free.

Kilter's Favorite Basketball Team -- Moravian College Women

2010-03-04T10:52:00.005-05:00

I'm not that much of a basketball fan these days. So it's strange I am rooting SO MUCH for the Moravian College women's basketball team of Bethlehem, PA, to sweep up in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

It all starts Friday, at home, when the team hosts Utica College from New York state.

Moravian's record is 25-2. They'd have to win six playoff games in a row to win the Division III championship. Go Hounds!

The catalyst for my interest is my niece, Jennie. She's the blonde smack in the center of the photo above holding up her lefthand finger with a "1." But then again . . . most of the team is blonde, and most of them are holding up "1's." (They like to party, by the way. They were drinking champagne when this pic was snapped.)

But blonde is not the issue. Nor is partying. This is a group of tough, cohesive players.

They shoot well, play good defensive, and don't foul a heckofalot. They don't play dirty or resort to gimmicks. They have a good sense of teamwork and spirit.

For instance, Jennie, a junior, doesn't play that much. But it seems like she's the heart and soul of the team, even while rooting from the end of the bench. She's always in the thick of things.

It was Jennie who was selected to cut down the basketball net from a ladder after the team's final regular seasons game. She was recently honored as being the "Spotlight Player of the Month."

The team, plus their coach, Mary Beth Spirk, love her. Me, too.

The Greyhounds have a winning tradition, but they've never won a national championship.
Coach Spirk has been coaching for 24 years and won her 400th game this season.

The team posted 19 straight winning seasons from 1980 to 1999 and competed in the conference playoffs 20 times. Moravian made the NCAA Division III Playoffs seven times including 2009. It hosted the 1992 National Championship Final Four, though the team lost the title contest.

That means THIS is Moravian's year! Don't settle for second best. Take the championship, girls!

February's Korean Food of the Month: Bulgogi

2010-03-03T07:25:00.003-05:00

Bulgogi (bul-GO'-gi) has been made by Koreans for hundreds of years, for as long as beef has been available to the masses.

This is the food to introduce to non-Koreans first, much earlier than kimchi, since the base ingredient is meat. You don't need an acquired taste -- just dig in with your chopsticks and enjoy.

Even hardcore McDonald's eaters usually take to bulgogi on the first shot.

It's usually referred to as "grilled marinated beef" in American circles, but as my wife pointed out, the literal translation is much better: "fire-meat." That's since "bul" means fire and "gogi" means meat.

It tastes much better when cooked outside on the grill, but pan-fried will get the job done just fine. Pre-heating the pan is the way to go, to get a good sizzle going.

The key to the whole dish is to get meat that is thinly sliced. If you live near a Korean market, they sell it like that. If not, the best way is to buy a rib-eye steak and partially freeze it, then slice it thinly with a sharp knife. But it needs to cook quickly -- seared almost.

The other key is to marinade the beef for about an hour first. Again, Korean stores will sell this type of "B.B.Q. Sauce" in a 16-oz. plastic container. If not, start with a quantity of wine in a bowl (burgandy or any red) and add to it varying amounts of soy sauce, seseme oil, sugar, pepper, and water.

The pre-cooked meat should have a doughy consistancy from the marinade. But don't overdo it since the meat's juices add nicely to the flavor on its own.

Once the beef is soaked, add to the bowl your preference of sliced mushrooms, onion, thin strips of green pepper (or for the adventurous, jalapenos pepper), sometimes carrots for colorful presentation, and minced garlic. Now you're ready to cook.

Notice I don't include a recipe. That's because Koreans don't normally use one. They just throw all the ingredients together and tweak it to taste over time.

Serve with rice. That's a must. I usually put the rice on the plate first and top it with the bulgogi. Beer or wine is a good accompanying beverage.

If you're a meat eater, this dish is pure heaven. Sometimes we can't wait and eat it right out of the pan or off the grill.

Nashville's Hospitality in Action

2010-03-02T08:41:00.005-05:00

A friend of mine at work got home from a short vacation to Nashville, Tennessee, and had nothing but good things to say about the city.

It wasn't so much the big things she did, like go to the Country Music Hall of Fame, see a women's college basketball game at Vanderbilt, or attend a Billy Joel Tribute show at a club (she knows one of the members).

It was the little things between the big events that charmed her. She was on the recieving end of Nashville's legandary hospitality.

She listed four things. I was so impressed myself, I decided to get them down in writing and share the stories forward:

1. She was at a cafe and wanted tea, and the place only sold coffee. But the waitress ran to get her bag, pulled out one of her own personal tea bags, and gave it to her to drink for free.

2. She wanted to buy a tee-shirt at the Hard Rock Cafe, and they had just closed for the night. The owner unlokced the door for her to run in with cash and get what she wanted.

3. Her friend spilled her coffee on the shuttle bus on the way to the airport. The driver not only cleaned up the mess himself, but made an unscheduled stop at a WaWa for her to run in and get a new one.

4. She had wanted to buy a newspaper but the store she was at was sold old. One of the customers overheard her and handed her the paper from under his arm, saying, "I'm done with mine. Please, take it."

At the risk of sounding like a slogan, ya gotta admit, "Give. Advocate. Volunteer. Live United."

Kilter Salutes Classic Barber Poles

2010-02-28T07:36:00.005-05:00

As you can tell from photos that I post of myself, I don't get my hair cut often. In fact, when I do, most of the time the barber is my wife. She does a very acceptable job.

However, I want to take a moment and salute old style barber shops -- the kind who still have the revolving red, white, and blue-striped helix out front. That's my kind of shop.

Nothing against hairstylists or salons, but a good old fashioned barber shop is right for people like me who appreciate all things old. I respect barber shop poles because I'm figuring the guys inside should be respected as well for sticking to their craft.

I went strolling in Manhattan on my lunch break today and ran across this shop (above) on Ninth Avenue & 46th Street, called 3-Aces. This led me to check out the history of barber poles.

According to Wikipedia, the origin of the red and white barber pole is associated with bloodletting.

During medieval times, barbers performed surgery on customers as well as tooth extractions. The original pole had a brass basin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin which received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure to encourage blood flow.

The red and white stripes symbolize the bandages used during the procedure: red for the blood-stained and white for the clean bandages.

Originally, these bandages were hung on the pole to dry after washing. As the bandages blew in the wind, they would twist together to form the spiral pattern similar to the stripes in the modern day barber pole.

American barbers found it easy and patriotic to add a blue stripe to their poles.

The sole manufacturer of barber poles in North America is the William Marvy Company. Although they've made over 74,000 poles since 1950, in recent years, the sale of spinning barber poles has dropped considerably, since few new barber shops are opening.

The spinning of barber poles is supposed to be oriented so that the red (blood) will appear as if it is flowing down.

What kind of service does this particular barber shop, 3-Aces give? According to a reviewer, Brad V. of Brooklyn, "The place has a good manly feel to it. The barbers give consistantly great haircuts.

"Whether they always remember to shave that weird patch of hair on the back of your neck, or give your eyebrows a quick trim, they always catch the little things that most guys let slide. On top of that I am always greeted with a handshake and a very sincere "How are you doing? It's great to see you again."

"While I am by no means a male model, I always leave that place looking a little bit better and feeling like a million bucks."

Yu-Na Kim Excites in the Olympics

2010-02-25T11:38:00.006-05:00

Though I wrote my Olympic figure skating preview last week solely about Americans, having a Korean wife gives me FULL license to get behind 19 year-old Yu-Na Kim (above) in her quest for gold.

Kim dazzled the Vancouver crowd on Tuesday in her short program. She won by a large margin, scoring 78.50 points. That was not only her personal best in this category, but also set a record in the new points scoring system (which has been in place for about six years).

Winning the short puts her halfway home in her quest to give South Korea its first medal (of any kind) in figure skating. The ladies' long program -- which is 4.5 minutes long, compared to 2.75 for the short -- is tonight.

Lots of good skaters lose their poise when it comes to showcase events like the Olympics. They stumble their way out of contention.

But to steely-nerved Kim, it almost seemed like just another day at the office. She has embraced being queen of her sport.

She doesn't shy away from cameras or giving interviews. She has reportedly appeared in over 1,000 TV commercials in Korea.

“I couldn't’t stop thinking about the fact that this is the Olympics,” Kim, 19, excitedly told reporters. “I have been waiting for this for a really long time.”

Currently in second place, far back, is Mao Asada of Japan.

Joannie Rochelle finished third. She made a great, heroic effort despite her 55 year-old mother dropping dead of a heart attack two days before the event.

Miki Ando of Japan is in fourth place.

The two Americans, Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, are fifth and sixth, respectively. No one (including me) thought they'd place that high.

But the spotlight definitely is on Yu-Na. She landed her triple-triple combination jumps effortlessly.

One of the sport's legendary skaters, Michelle Kwan, said, "Yu-Na is what the judges are looking for when it comes to jump quality, spin quality, and edges."

Plus you must add her artistry. She moves with seduce grace that left this observer mesmerized and almost out of breath.

"Who is going to challenge her?" commentator and former champion Scott Hamilton asked during the broadcast on NBC. "No one is going to beat her. She is going to have to beat herself."

She skated to a James Bond routine (below). 'Nuff said? Yes!

Kilter Grooves With IPod Touch

2010-02-22T07:47:00.006-05:00

I recently downloaded my 3,000 song on my Apple iPod Touch. So I guess that makes me officially "in the culture."

My 3,000th song was by Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere born 1946 in El Centro, California, a/k/a Cher, "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves." (How does SHE always work her way into the headlines?!)

That's not the direction my musical taste bends, by any stretch of the imagination. I've got Andre Previn & the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Gary Karr's Super Bass album; The Beatles remastered collection; Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First" routine (filed under Spoken Word); Ray Charles; jazz stuff like Larry Carlton and Dave Brubeck; Korean music which I've learned from my wife; gospel; blues, country (anyone like Hank Williams?); and the normal rock stuff like Bob Seger, Led Zeppelin, Kenny Loggins, and Hall & Oates.

I've got stuff from this century, too -- Snoop Dogg, Sophie B. Hawkins, Taylor Swift, and John Mayer.

I have to confess to those of you in KilterWorld, I've had great fun with my iPod so far . . .though I still don't play it that much. I guess I still treat the sleek, lightweight silver case like a precious jewel that I don't want to handle too much too soon.

Most of the time I play it on the commuter bus, usually on the way home in the afternoon, after I've read or snoozed. While the music plays (loud), I look around to see if people can hear what I'm playing. But they can't.

The technology is so good that the only person who can hear the songs is me.

As a BabyBoomer, I am amazed that 32GB of music -- or ANYTHING for that matter -- can fit inside that thin, hand-held rectangular device. How many hours does 3,000 songs translate into? I'm sure it tells you somewhere in "settings."

I'm amazed that you can flip your thumb over the screen and the songs, or artists, or playlists, will scroll down. I'm amazed at the volume level it can achieve.

I'm amazed that you charge the device through your computer, and that it holds its charge for thirty hours.

Etc. etc. I'm amazed at ALL aspects of the iPod Touch, which I bought last September when the latest version first came out for $269.

I like ability to carry my entire record collection wherever I go. Can you forgive me for still calling my music "albums"?

I remember when I had four melon-sized crates that carried 400 albums. That was my peak number of albums in the early 1980's.

Oh, how that was heavy to lug from residence to residence, though I used to be an aficiando of album artwork.

I slowly switched to CD's. My first CD was Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker followed by Graceland by Paul Simon.

My prized album collection shrunk, because the plastic waffles weren't worth anything except for a few selected titles.

My CD collection got up to about 300 before I started downloading.

Now I predict my CD collection will shrink as well. The physical container is just not needed anymore.

Don't ask me how to download a photo onto my iPod Touch. I have no idea how to do that. Neither am I interested in viewing movies, or God forbid -- TV shows on my iPod Touch.

I'm not there -- yet. But I surprised myself by coming this far with the damn thing. So you never know.

Kilter's Walk Through Rural Manhattan

2010-02-16T12:16:00.005-05:00

(drawing by Leila Yassami)

I had a lingering, blissful dream last night. I got deep inside it and didn't want the dream to end. I was disappointed when I woke up to reality -- I wished the dream was my reality.

Here it is:

It was the end of my work day. I decided not to go back home via midtown Manhattan. Instead, I decided to reacquaint myself with southern Manhattan. It had been awhile since I was there, but this was for fun and diversion, something for my Self. It was a sunny, warm day, so I walked.

The longer I walked, the more unfamiliar were my surroundings. I came to a strange neighborhood. I didn't know where I was. I was lost. But instead of panicing I told myself, "This is fascinating and adventurous. I'll gut it out."

The island stretched out the further I walked. It began to get hilly and more rural, almost tropical. (The drawing above, which I shamelessly borrowed at random from Google, approximates what I saw).

I looked toward the west and realized that in order to get closer to the Holland Tunnel, I needed to hike up a tremendous hill.

"No wonder no one tries to do this except me. It's too confusing, not to mention arduous. The mountain nearly separates the island in half," I thought as I nodded to people at random.

Some of the streets I passed looked dangerous and exotic and seedy. Others looked prim and svelte and posh. Some looked genteel and imaginative and rustic. I felt respected by the public, but at the same time, thought, "You're nuts, Kilter -- you're going to be robbed or harrassed."

Was I still in Manhattan? It felt more like Jamaica -- somewhere in the Caribbean, perhaps. I kept walking. Sooner or later I would reach a familiar reference point.

Korean Food Spotlight for January -- Kimchi

2010-02-08T08:27:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Kilter's Korean January Food of the Month -- Kimchi

Kimchi is a fermented vegetable that mixes pickled Asian cabbage or radish with spicy vegetables and various condiments such as red pepper power.

The term 'kimchi' was derived from 'chimchae.' That means to soak vegetables in salty water and store them outside in large underground vats during the winter.

That was ancient Korea's storage system for the colder months, when food was scarce and all vegetables were pickled, but is still widely implemented.

Kimchi's flavor is always unique since it varies according to who is making it. Kimchi from North Korea is traditionally milder and watery (called mul-kimchi), and gets spicier and firmer the further south you go.

The best kimchi I ever ate was Mrs. Soh's from Long Island, NY, the wife of a minister friend of ours, whose cabbage wasn't completely water-drenched.

It makes an excellent side dish for dinner, though Koreas eat it anytime. It is also -- as my wife has shown -- good on its own, say, with rice and a cup of tea.

Kimchi should actually be pronounced with a 'g' -- gimchi -- though due to weak transliteration, the English spelling remains kimchi with a 'k.'

Lactic acid bacteria in kimchi (which my wife calls 'good bacteria') purifies the intestines. It has an antibiotic, anti-virtus, and anti-cancer effect. It also reduces cholesterol in the blood.

Try it!

(thanks to HMart for the informative 2010 calendar)

The Strange Case of the Reverse Mohawk

2010-02-05T08:24:00.010-05:00

I think my intention was to take a new picture of myself for Facebook.

When I saw the result of my effort (above), I laughed and winced at the same time. "This is me to the rest of the world?" I thought.

Surely, the sun caught my hair at just the right (bad) angle. It was perfect and terrible at the same time.

At first, I figured it was not worth showing anyone. I never put it on Facebook. But this blog reaches a more select (smaller) audience.

So what the hell. Here I am -- the "Strange Case of the Reverse Mohawk."

I've been slowly balding since age 27. That was a melodramatic moment indeed, because once you recognize your hair is thinning, there ain't no turning back.

The story of how I reached my reckoning-of-no-return is fairly interesting. Below I'll share:

The year was 1981. I had been at a smoky dance hall called The Rusty Nail in Somerville, New Jersey, trying to pick up women.

I was raging drunk. Usually I held my liquor better than the sloppy and rowdy ass I was that night.

I had stayed until last call. That was also unlike me. Usually I quit a lot earlier.

My buddy gave me a ride back to the restaurant where I worked. He waved goodbye and drove off.

Then I remembered -- my car wasn't in the parking lot. It was in the shop, getting repaired.

Drunk and pissed off, I walked all the way home along Route 22 in the middle of the night -- seven miles.

I was too mad to hitchhike. Plus at 3:30 in the morning, there weren't many cars on the highway to begin with.

I tramped to my apartment and collapsed in bed.

A few hours later I struggled to the bathroom. Nude, foggy-eyed, and groggy, I glanced into the mirror.

I could distinctly tell I had less hair on my head than the last time I looked. Right in the corners of my scalp, you could notice a small but sharp receding.

Now I really wanted to jump back in bed and never get up. Unless I could figure out a way to stop time, I was a goner.

That was it for me, physically. I had reached my peak. Now I was forever on my way down.

It was William Styron who wrote The Long March. I could write a book about my slow hair loss and title it, The Long March -- to Baldness.

I'm not one much for rugs, and this never-ending disappearing act hasn't been fun.

U.S. Olympic Women's Figure Skating Preview

2010-01-29T08:10:00.006-05:00

For my last mini-report on U.S. figure skating, we turn to the glamor category of the sport -- women's singles. This is the venue that notches most of the attention, and it's not hard to understand why.

I've loved my share of skating beauties through the years. I remember being entranced by Peggy Fleming in 1968 as a kid, though my loving in earnest probably started with Debi Thomas in 1988 (the only African-American to win a medal in this category at the Olympics).

It has continued through the years with Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, Tara Lapinksi, Sarah Hughes, and up to the present with Kimmie Meissner and Alissa Czisny.

The problem with this year's field, which consists of Mirai Nagasu (left) and U.S. champion Rachael Flatt, is not lack of beauty, grace, and overall loveliness. Both have that, even though Nagasu is a wincing 16 and Flatt is only 17.

The difficulty, rather, is both women are dwarfed in talent by the more experienced and weathered international team. They are led by Korea's Yu-Na Kim, who is expected to win gold; Asian counterparts Mao Asada and Miki Ando from Japan, and Joannie Rochette from Canada.

Nagasu even conceded before the 2010 U.S. National Championships in Spokane, WA, that, "I am the future of the sport," but then went on to nearly take first place anyway. She finished second to Flatt, 200.11 points to 188.78.

Flatt won the championship after a strong free skate in which she landed seven triple jumps. "I finally competed the way I've been training," Flatt, from Colorado Springs, said. "I'm very excited about how things went."

Flatt could not contain her joy -- nor giggles -- as she soaked in the roar of the crowd once her program was finished. She skated to "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," by Rachmanikov.

The sidestory here is that everyone at the arena anxiously waited for and cheered the comeback of Sasha Cohen (another one I've loved through the years).

Cohen, 25, had been to two Olympics (winning silver in 2006 at Turino), but had always skated in the shadow of perennial U.S. winner Michelle Kwan. After being retired for four years, Cohen returned with relatively little training in an attempt to capture one of the two Olympic spots allotted for the U.S. women.

Had Cohen been successful, she would have given America the star power it sorely lacks this time around. She has stayed visible on the skating scene by headlining the lengthy-touring "Stars on Ice" program in each intervening year.

Alas, she fell short and finished fourth, behind Ashley Wagner.

"Fell" is exactly what happened. In her free skate she went down on her can once and looked wobbly on two other jumps. That has always been the bugaboo over Cohen -- she has never skated a clean long program.

Still, she commanded much of the spotlight. She looked dazzling wearing a black and gray dress with rhinestone-rimmed cutouts along a high neckline. She skated to "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven and moved and stretched with her usual grace.

In the end, however, the two younger skaters sparkled brighter.

Even though the U.S. Figure Skating Committee was not obligated to send Flatt and Nagasu, they apparently felt Cohen showed too little to warrant awarding her a place over the other two.

When the chips were on the table, it was Flatt who delivered.

U.S. Olympic Men's Singles Preview

2010-01-28T09:45:00.006-05:00

(photo from New York Times)

Jeremy Abbott (above) may not have the star power as several of his skating rivals, but he has a good a chance as anyone to bring home America's first gold medal in men's singles figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in more than two decades.

The last American to win Olympic gold was Brian Boitano in 1988.

At the national championships in Spokane last week, Abbott turned in a flawless performance which included landing eight triple jumps and a stunning quad toe loop. "This is probably the best performance I have given in my life, but I know I can give much more," the 24 year-old from Aspen, Colorado, said afterward.

It was Abbott's second straight national title. He handily beat Evan Lysacek (my favorite) by 25 points, whom in turn edged out third place finisher Johnny Weir (not my favorite) by five points.
Finishing fourth was Ryan Bradley. He's going to Vancouver only as an alternate. The U.S. qualified for three slots (which are determined at the previous year's world championships).

Both Lysacek and Weir faltered on their long programs -- Lysacek fell on his quadruple attempt, and Weir popped a triple toe loop and stepped out on another triple. It turned the event in to a rout.

Abbott needs to retain his quadruple jump in his Olympic program, because he knows skaters from other countries, like Evgeni Plushenko, Brian Joubert, and Stephane Lambiel will all attempt one.

"I'm doing it (the quad) because I want to be competitive, but mainly because I can," Abbott said in a teleconference interview. "It's in my arsenal and I don't want to water down my program just to skate cleanly. I really want to put everything I have out there and have no regrets about it."

Having Abbott, Lysecek, and Weir on the Olympic team gives the U.S. its deepest talent pool in years. All three have won the U.S. national title not once, but twice.

Artistry has been Lysacek's strength in recent years -- he's tall and powerful and knows how to interpret music. He skates with a command and confidence that brings his characters to life.

I could do without his oily, slicked-back hair, but I doubt that affects his point tally. :{)

He also "friended" me early on in Facebook.

Weir seemed to be a lock for the Olympic team 18 months ago. But he had to scamper his way back.

He was bronze medallist at the 2008 world championships but found himself on the sidelines after a dismal performance at last year's nationals in Cleveland. He subsequently missed the world championships for the first time since 2003.

Like most figure skating champions, Jeremy Abbott began in the sport almost as soon as he could walk. According to his father, Danny, at four years old, Jeremy attended an ice show in Aspen, Colorado, where he saw 1980 Olympic figure skating champion Robin Cousins.

From that point on, Jeremy knew he wanted to be an Olympian. He's got his chance now.

U.S. Olympics Ice Dancing Preview

2010-01-26T08:07:00.006-05:00

A category the U.S. has a much better chance to gain a medal or two is Ice Dancing.

That's what I'll look at today.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White (left) won the gold at last week's national championships at Spokane, WA, and figure to be in contention for a medal at Vancouver, too.

In fact, last week's victory was their second national title in a row. They won a year ago, too, in Cleveland, signaling a change of the guard for the U.S. team.

They beat out Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, (right) perennial fan favorites, also their friendly rivals and former training partners.

The difference is that last year Belbin and Agosto were sidelined by injuries. Davis and White had never actually beat them -- until now.

With both teams going to the Olympics, along with a third -- the impressive upstars Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates -- gives the U.S. team incredible depth and versalitity. Experts figure that all three have a chance for the top 10.

White, 22, and Davis, 23, both juniors at the University of Michigan, have skated together an incredible 13 years. They always seem to put a magical, lyrical product on ice, with no exception last week.

Their program at the nationals added speed, savvy, and style.

"It's really a testament to our training and everything we've put into skating in our 13 years," said White. "To come out at nationals and beat such an amazing team, with the credentials that they have, is huge. We're going to take that and run with it."

While Belbin and Agosto performed a solemn, soulful rendition of “Ave Maria’’ and “Stabat Mater’’ that earned them solid marks, they were subsequently outshone by Davis and White’s “Phantom of the Opera’’ number that featured intricate steps and spectacular lifts.

The final tally was close: 222.29 points for the winners; 220.13 for Belbin and Agosto (former five-time national champions).

Belbin described it: "Times are definitely changing, and the popularity and success of ice dancing in the U.S. has definitely grown a lot in the last decade. Props to everyone in ice dance. It was an incredible event."

Kilter's U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Preview

2010-01-25T10:40:00.086-05:00

One of the reasons I look forward to the Winter Olympics every four years is because I am a fan of all the ice skating events, and of figure skating in particular (above: Sasha Cohen, 2006 silver medalist).

Some people call these athletes wimpy. True, their movement must be graceful, their costumes can be flamboyant, and (sometimes) the skaters whine over the results. But they are far from being pansies (despite a relatively high number of gay men who compete).

I appreciate the endless hours and demanding athleticism that goes into training for these events. You need distinctive, imaginative artistry to accompany the speed, the twists, the jumps, and the twizzles, especially under high-pressure circumstances where you're out on the ice alone or just with your partner.

It's quite nail-biting and drama-ready (remember Tonya Harding's physical assault against Nancy Kerrigan in 1992?).

So come Vancouver Games 2010 starting February 12

During the off-years I usually root for any good international performance, be it womens or mens singles, pairs, or ice dancing. I like a clean program without many gimmicks, though I appreciate a skater with charisma, like American Kristy Yamaguchi, Canadian Elvis Stoiko, or the Russian dance team Elena Grishina and Ruslan Gonchavov..

But when it comes to Olympic time, I throw all my support behind the red, white, and blue. I back the U.S. and don't see why it will be any different this time around.

So here is my figure skating preview, which now that I've typed all this . . . looks like I'll be stringing out over several entries.

I'll start with the pairs today, since they are the least known to the general public -- though probably have the highest degree of technical difficulty considering the muscle needed for their extended lifts coupled with fast-paced synchronicity.

Pictured above are Caydee Denney (left) and Jeremy Barrett. Though they are considered longshots as medal contenders when you mix in the strong field from China, Russia, and Germany (it would be the first time the United States placed in this category since 1988), the shock with which they won the national title last week in Spokane, Washington, gives them a gloss and makes them a story all their own

Denney & Barrett dominated the pairs competition going away and proved they are a force to be reckoned with.

That's even though they've been paired up for less than two years.

Denney, who is only 16, and Barrett, 25, mesmerized the arena with a seemingly effortless long program, which was skated to "Sheherazade." Indeed, they hardly seemed to break a sweat though the pace was breakneck and action-packed.

Remember how hard I said pairs dancing is? Well, when Denney stepped off the ice afterward, she told her sobbing coach, "That was so easy! It was awesome!"

They scored 190.30 points over all, more than 16 points ahead of the field.

The other team going to the Olympics is Amanda Evora, 25, and Mark Ladwig, 29. They have Olympic experience and have been skating together since 2002.

Ironically, Evora and Ladwig are training partners in Florida with Denney and Barrett, and Evora and Barrett have been dating for five years.

That's the in-house nature of figure skating for you.

Finishing third at the nationals were Rena Inoue and John Baldwin. They indicated they will probably retire (she's 33 and he's 36) which will give them time to get married. They've been engaged for four years.

Keanua McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, a seeming lock for Vancouver after winning the national title in 2008 and 2009, stumbled badly in both their short and long programs and finished fifth.

Kilter Likes Leno Over O'Brien

2010-01-19T13:19:00.059-05:00

I always thought my liking Jay Leno over Conan O'Brien was largely a generational thing.

I figured Leno's brand of comedy must be more appealing to me than O'Brien because Leno is closer to my age (he's 59, I'm almost 56, and Conan is a babyish 46).

Or is there more to it? Could it be that Leno, as venerable Late Night Guru, feels much more comfortable in that seat than the upstart O'Brien?

Apparently NBC executives agree with me -- they want Leno back in his former 11:30 p.m. slot.

A final decision is supposed to be passed down as early as today.

Which way will it go? Will O'Brien bolt NBC? Can he, contractually?

How faithful is Leno to the network? Can he regain the audience at 11:30 that he lost?

Amidst the earthquake disaster relief in Haiti -- which garners most of my TV news attention these days -- this ongoing comedy-drama is a nice little sideshow.

Twist my arm, but I'm rooting for Leno to survive the late-night chaos.

I like his casual everyman, give-me-a-cheeseburger, I'm just a regular guy type of comedy more than O'Brien's sharper, urbane, hip, you-gotta-know-some-background type of comedy.

I'd rather have dinner with Jay Leno than Conan O'Brien.

Sometimes I've watched O'Brien's show all the way through and never laughed once. On the other hand, I feel that Leno's monologue is balanced, perceptive, instructional, and often hits to the heart of the situation.

Leno addressed the issue himself on his show Monday night. He told viewers that he'd been doubtful about launching a prime-time (10 p.m.) show, but was prevented by NBC from going to another TV network.

" 'You're still a valuable asset to this company,' " he said the network told him. His reply: "How valuable can I be? You fired me twice."

He added,"CBS is now developing a new sitcom about the troubles here at NBC. It's called 'Two Men and a Half-Assed Network.' "

He and O'Brien have traded increasingly edgy monologue jokes as NBC tries to extricate itself from its scheduling mess.

A few of O'Brien's recent comments were:

“Hi, I’m Conan O’Brien and I need all of you to write me a letter of recommendation.”

“A lot of papers are reporting that I am now legally prohibited from saying anything negative about NBC. So goodnight ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a great show.”

“NBC has a new slogan and the slogan is ‘More colorful.’ They may be telling the truth because they are about to get rid of the whitest guy on television.”

Neither show has been a ratings winner in its current incarnation.

From the AP:
NBC is ending its prime-time experiment, "The Jay Leno Show," because of low ratings and affiliate station complaints. It continued negotiations Monday on an exit deal with O'Brien that would clear the way for Leno to reclaim the 11:35 p.m. EST slot occupied by "Tonight," which Leno hosted for 17 years before turning it over to O'Brien last spring. According to various reports, the deal with O'Brien could cost the network up to $40 million.

Leno said he agreed to switch to 10 p.m, in part, because it would allow him to keep his staff of about 175 people working. But the network's plan for patience was unraveled by affiliate TV stations, who said his low ratings were sinking their local late newscasts, which the show precedes.

"Tonight" with O'Brien, is drawing about half of the roughly 5 million viewers Leno attracted as its host, although O'Brien has gotten a significant ratings bump since the network flap started.

When NBC suggested a half-hour show, Leno told the network he wasn't crazy about doing it but said yes. He asked if O'Brien would agree to be moved to midnight and was told yes — it was almost guaranteed.

Let The Guy Sell Coats

2010-01-08T11:02:00.033-05:00

I just checked a few minutes ago, and the huge advertisement featuring President Barack Obama (above) is still high above Times Square. It looks great as well as brings a smile to my face.

Since the sign wasn't ordered to be taken down right away (it first appeared on Monday), it looks like it will stay in place for the duration of its run. Good, that's the way it should be.

File this one under the category of "Ya Gotta Love It."

Our serious, intellectual President, in the middle of an agenda-rich second year in office, trying to push through universal health care, tightening up terrorism loopholes, working on the rampant immigration problem, etc. And oh -- now selling garments for the Weatherproof Company.

What a coo.

He's selling garments without compensation; without an elaborate photo shoot; without makeup, lighting or advance preparation, and without the White House's permission.

All these reasons I approve.

It's sneaky and a little devious on the company's part since it's obvious the promotion was unapproved. But gee -- it works well as commercial art; it gains publicity for the Weatherproof Company (who dat? We know now), and it could be argued that it helps to further the President's agenda.

After all, if Obama can command the stage in Times Square, he can be "the guy" anywhere.

The President looks darn good as a model, don't you think? He's pictured alone at the Great Wall of China last November, smiling, handsome, adventurous against a rugged backdrop, looking self-absorbed the way models always do (i.e. eyes away from the camera), and frankly he's got the right tall muscular body for this kind of work.

Weatherproof president Freddie Stollmack says, "I first saw the picture in a newspaper. His coat looked familiar, so I got out a magnifying glass and found our brand's logo."

Weatherproof did not seek permission from the White House, and does not believe it was necessary to do so as the billboard does not claim Obama endorses the product.

The picture was taken by the Associated Press. The clothes company bought the right to use it in an advertisement.

He says, "We did this in good faith. This is an image that we thought would enhance the President of the United States."

It is unclear whether the White House can prevent companies from using the President's image in advertising campaigns.

According to the New York Times, the White House could probably get an injunction against Weatherproof’s use of his image, but the prevailing thinking is sometimes there are fights not worth fighting, For one, if the matter went into litigation, it would give the company (and the ad) even more publicity.

Stollmack said he thinks the White House should congratulate his company for making Mr Obama look so good. He says, "He didn't come to us. It's just a great looking jacket on a great looking president."

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-04T10:45:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone in Kilterland, 2010! (Do we say twenty-ten or two thousand ten?)

My wife and I are starting the new year with my 82 year-old mother still living with us. It's been about two months now.

She's not quite infirm enough to be sent to a nursing home. But she's too much of a burden for my 86-year old father to look after. He was becoming her 24-hour nurse.

So she's with us. Below is an update.

I took the above photo with my cellphone a few days ago. It's almost a caricature of both women. It symbolizes exactly the attitude and perspective of what is going on in our house at the present.

My wife looks great, I think. She's remained cheerful about this ordeal and I salute her for it.

It's been more a case of mental exhaustion than physical endurance for her. My mom's feebleness and lack of initiative can be trying, to say the least.

My mom's not a verbal person. Her interior world is hidden from everyone, and we often don't know from her blank stare if she's content, or worried, or happy, or reflective.

We barely said "Happy New Year, Mom!" because she is utterly unsentimental and doesn't care a flip about watching the ball drop from Times Square at midnight. She seems not to be aware of the passage of time.

But my wife's hanging in. I give her lots of support (and so does the rest of my family) because after all, she's the one who was dumped with the brunt of this task.

My mother, looking peaked with red eyes from her wheelchair in the photo, is not exactly in dire straights. Her organs function fairly well.

But she's seen better days, clearly.

I describe her condition as "so-so." Some days are better than others.

She has bouts of confusion and frustration and depression. If allowed to focus, she can still manage a fluent conversation, especially if the subject is baseball (one of the few subjects that interest her).

But her motor skills are shot. She can barely move, barely feed herself, barely go to the bathroom. Her balance is bad and she's always a risk to fall down.

The biggest change we've done with her since leaving my father's house is 1) to put her in diapers; 2) give her a sleeping pill at night; and 3) take her off a laxative.

We've tried to get her to stop obsessing with going to the bathroom. Most times she doesn't do anything. She'll sit on her commode for twenty minutes and not go.

She thinks there must be something wrong with her. We reply, "Mom, if you haven't eaten or drank anything all afternoon, you wouldn't have to go! Let nature take its course, for Pete's sake."

Sometimes that logic doesn't resonate with her. Sometimes she stares at the feces in her diaper then scoops it up with her fingers and scrapes it along the side of her socks or slippers.

We're trying to get her to challenger herself -- to summon her remaining strenth and fend for herself as much as possible, for dignity's sake if nothing else.

But with only limited results.

She has an appointment with a new doctor tomorrow. We'll see where that gets us.

"Connect the Dots," guys

2009-12-31T13:48:00.005-05:00

Why is it whenever there is a security lapse within the highest levels of government, the excuse always is, "Someone didn't connect the dots?" You know what I'm talking about -- the numbnuts bungling job that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to smuggle a bomb onto a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day.

Isn't to "connect the dots" a children's game that three year-olds can play?

President Obama has ordered a full review in the handling of the alleged bombing attempt. The terrorist flew from Lagos to Amsterdam before changing planes for a U.S.-bound flight with 289 people aboard.

He was tackled by passengers and crew while he tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear using a liquid-filled syringe, shortly before Northwest Airlines Flight 253 landed in Detroit.

He has been charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft and is locked away at a federal prison in Michigan.

The review is expected to say that various agencies failed to share key information. Or in other words, "No one connected the dots."

U.S. Intelligence said they had "vague but available" intelligence in which to connect the dots.

"The right information did not get to the right people -- there's no question about that," a senior intelligence official told BBC News when questioned about the dots.

The Washington Post reports that agencies under scrutiny include the CIA, the National Security Agency, the State Department, and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The latter was established after the September 2001 attacks to collate and connect intelligence sharing efforts.

The President acknowledged that security failures had allowed the 23-year-old to fly to the U.S. despite family members warning officials in November that he had extremist views.

Mr Abdulmutallab's father even visited the American embassy in Nigeria in November to report his son's disapearance personally.

The father's warning was passed on by the US Department of State. But it wasn't enough for Abdulmutallab's existing U.S. tourist visa -- giving him multiple entry rights for two years from June 2008 -- to be revoked.

The suspect paid for his ticket in cash and had no carryon luggage. But again, "no one connected the dots."

Not connecting the dots prevented him from being put on the no-fly list.

Better look at the enclosed drawing really hard, guys. You'd better START connecting the dots or else we're going to wind up in the drink.

Kilter Asks What's the Pleasure in Destruction

2009-12-29T08:23:00.002-05:00

The murder rate in New York City is down again. It dropped to its lowest level since 1962, when records of that nature were first kept.

While homocides are down, something that doesn't seem to EVER change is busting glass at bus shelters. Why is that?

Here is a photo I took while on the way to work this morning. A big chunk of something (never found out what) was thrown against the lower side of the pane and the entire sill shattered into thousands of pieces. The sidewalk was littered with debris.

It gets annoying when you witness pointless destruction time and again. Again I ask: Why?

It doesn't seem to have any benefits. I mean, throw a rock through a store window and there's some merchandise you might be able to steal. Crash a brick through a car window and there might be a goody or two visible to take.

But the glass on a bus shelter? I don't get it.

Even a homocide seems to accomplish more than busting glass. At least with a homocide you've gotten rid of someone you don't like.

But what is the thrill of destroying something new, or something in good condition? It seems to label the criminal with a tag like, "Since my life is so trashy, I'm determined to keep everybody else's life trashy. We're all going to live like trash because I'm too lazy to improve myself or obey the rules of society."

Someone at work said the person could be letting off steam. Another said it might be retaliation against the transit authority for lousy service.

Still doesn't seem to accomplish much.

Could it be the person didn't like what the bus shelter was advertising? It was for a new TV show coming up on the Style channel: "Guiliana and Bill." Maybe that was it. The premise for this show looks extraordinarily silly. The poster at the bus shelter features the two lead characters and a lot of rabbits (yes, rabbits).

I've got to convince myself that was the reason, because it's too depressing to think it was broken for the hell of it.

"It's Complicated" review

2009-12-27T12:26:00.110-05:00

Over the years I have been seeing, and enjoying, more and more romantic comedies. I say that for better or worse since the demographic for this type of flick is women over 40.

My pattern continues, though, with my enjoyment of It's Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. I thought it was a funny, intelligently made flick, easily good enough to pass two hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I saw the movie with my 24 year-old niece who also liked it. I guess when you get the likes of Streep, Baldwin, and Martin together for some clever, tightly-knit ensemble acting, it's tough not to like.

That trio, plus the perky screenwriting of director, Nancy Meyers (who has two similar movies to her credit, What Women Want and Something's Got To Give), the result is a product that -- if not totally fulfulling, then has enough pleasing qualities to recommend.

Jane Adler (Streep) has been divorced for ten years from Jake (Baldwin), though their three grown-up children give them reason to see each other ocassionally. When their youngest son graduates from college, Jane and Jake start up an affair that shows them sneaking around with the energy and multi-layered emotions of 20-somethings, although of course we're talking 60 year olds here.

"I went out of my comfort zone, but I found out that it's not all that comforting," Jane explains to her circle of advice-giving female friends (Mary Kay Place, Rita Wilson, Alexandra Wentworth).

It's nice to see Meryl Streep playing the leading romantic lead -- actually the "babe" role. We haven't seen that since The River Wild in 1994. Yet Streep handles the role magnificently and gives a sexy performance as the uncertain, jaded ex-wife. She's got crinkles in her smile but her huge personality makes her instantly appealing.

Steve Martin plays a nerdy, overly sensitive architect who is building an addition on Streep's beautiful countryside house. The two find themselves drawn toward each other almost against their better interests.

Alec Baldwin is the spice in the middle. As ex-husband Jake, Baldwin is a hoot as a hefty, mostly inconsiderate cad who has remarried a much younger, model-quality woman (Lake Bell) but realizes Jane, his first wife, is much more suitable for him and goes for a renewed and restored relationship.

All the antics play off this simple premise.

So the movie might be called It's Complicated, but it's really a story about trying to undue mistakes from our past and starting over -- albeit thirty years later. Nothing more than that.

But who from my generation can't relate to that? Even if you don't have an ex-spouse like me, we all have ex-significant others who can easily slip into those parts in our minds.

I feel like many things could have gone wrong with a movie like this, but they don't.

The lush settings bothered me. Why do characters in these type of movies always have to have perfect houses, drive the coolest cars, live in idyllic settings, etc? How come there are no people of color in this movie -- anywhere? Why does a certain likable character (John Krasinski, who plays a son in-law) happen to be just in right spot at the right time in order to set the action into its spiraling frenzy?

But hell -- I can suspend reality for the sake of fun (Baldwin says in the movie, "Fun can never be overrated.")

It's Complicated has already been nominated for three Golden Globes (best comedy, best screenplay, best actress [Streep -- who else?]), so maybe I'm onto something with this positive review.

The movie is ALMOST irresistible -- nothing heavy, kind of predictable, but with laughs galore over a subject that many people fret and fuss about.

I give it three stars out of four.

Kilter and the KitchenAid Mixer

2009-12-21T08:30:00.002-05:00

Most years I wind up giving my wife some type of jewelry for Christmas.

This year I lucked out, however. I think I've gotten away with giving her a "practical" gift -- a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer.

Maybe this is a guy thing vs. woman thing rearing its cyclical head, or maybe my wife has come to her senses about our domestic needs and financial challenges on holidays, or maybe a little of both.

All I know is I'm happy to have to found and purchased the type of mixer she had been talking about. When she said, "Oh honey, please consider this my Christmas present," I thought to myself, "Sweet!"

Plus, I think she really meant it. There was nothing to read between the lines to the effect of, "This is what I say, but not what I mean."

No sir, I'm clear and free on this.

Well, the mixer was not free, of course. It was $288 at Kohl's after several discounts. I guess I should consider that not so bad as well, since we both heard our neighbor talking about how, "All decent mixers are at least $400."

I had no idea. $40 okay. But $400?

In past years I have given my wife a Bulova watch, which she promptly dropped in a bathtub of water; brooches and pins, which she only wears once a year if that; a set of bracelets which I've never seen her wear, and various earrings which I don't see much, either.

I've scored only one time with these kind of presents. About five years ago I gave her a pearl necklace, and she wears that quite often.

But that's it. Sometimes I think she just likes to see all this stuff sitting in her jewerly box, untouched and proud, the same way I like to collect old bottles.

I fault myself more for this gift-giving awkwardness than her. I just don't have a feel for jewelry. I've never worn jewelry myself except for an inexpensive Seiko watch, have no idea what the "brands" are, and have no idea about "cuts" or "grades" of jewelry.

That is a good KitchenAid mixer, though. Has ten speeds. A splash guard. A strong handle to lift the bowl. Many attachments. Looks attractive with its black color.

Just what the little lady at home needs.

Eastwood is Kilter's Badass Boy

2009-12-09T09:35:00.016-05:00

I'm so glad Clint Eastwood has been selected as GQ magazine's "Badass of the Year" for 2009.

Not that I care about GQ magazine -- I've never bought an issue and probably won't buy this one, either.

But it's an excellent photo which I think captures Eastwood's rustic charm and no-nonsense outlook on life. It looks prominent on the newstands as I walk past every day.

If anyone is deserving of such an award, it's Eastwood, for maintaining quality work over such a long period of time and coming through it all relatively unscathed. He looks grizzled as a senior citizen, but still standing tall.

His list of memorable movies is staggering. I've seen a lot, but nearly not all. A few of my favorites are Grand Torino, Space Cowboys, In the Line of Fire, The Bridges of Madison County, Unforgiven, Tightrope, and of course, all of his Dirty Harry films.

Most of these pictures he directed. His only Oscar was for directing Unforgiven in 1992 -- long overdue. There is virtually no one respected more in Hollywood today, especially now that his latest film, Invictus, about Nelson Madela and the South Afrcian national soccer team, has gotten good pre-release buzz.

What I'm missing are his early gems: Play Misty For Me, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and A Fistful of Dollars.

But it doesn't matter. Add up all the components of his life (including being mayor of his town, Carmel, California), Clint Eastwood is my badass type of guy.

He was notorious for running around when he was younger, though Tiger Woods' list of low-life dalliances with strippers, go-go girls, and cocktail waitresses make Eastwood look like a choir boy.

He was married for 31 years to Maggie Johnson, which fell apart during his relationship with actress Sandra Locke in the 1970's. They never married. Though he said he "used to find meaning" in pursuing women, when he married Dina Ruiz in 1996, he said, "I never thought I'd find contentment in monogamy. But I got there, and it feels good."

Though it's a May-December marriage (he was born in 1930, she in 1965), it appears to be working.

I also like the fact that Eastwood is an outspoken maverick, providing us with many notable quotations. Who can forget, "Go ahead, make my day."

"You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?"

"I tried being reasonable, it didn't work out."

"If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster."

"They say marriages are made in heaven. But so is thunder and lightning."
"There must be a hundred reasons why I shouldn't blow your head off; right now, I can't think of any."

Kilter Visits Moravian Christmas Putz

2009-12-09T09:03:00.002-05:00

Our friends invited us to see a traditional Christmas Putz last night (shown above) at a church in my current town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvana.

"Putz" is from the German putzen, meaning "to clean," or "to decorate." Thus, a Putz is a decorative, miniature-scale village set up during the holiday season, which tells the story of Jesus' birth. It is narrated either live or by tape (ours was by tape) with appropriate spiritual / choral music playing in the background.

It was only twenty minutes long, but twenty minutes well spent. As the story moves along, different areas of the panorama are highlighted, from the angels hovering in the sky to the shepherds in the fields to the nativity scene to the Three Kings to Herod's Temple to the village of Bethlehem (Israel), all circa first century.

Many of the Putzes that operate each year are built anew from scratch, like this stock photo shows:

I'm not sure if ours was rebuilt this year, though I heard the hostess say, "We traveled to the Poconos over the summer to collect fresh moss in the mountains for the scenery." So maybe it was.

If you live in Bethlehem (PA), "the" denomination is Moravian (the oldest protestant denomination, going back to 1386, well before Martin Luther). The Moravians are the originators of the "Putz" concept -- which is kind of like a massive train set layout, but without the trains.

So with this type of history behind it, it was appropriate to see this performance at a local Moravian church, alongside other friends and some elderly folks from a nearby nursing home whom we helped get into the building via their wheelchairs.

A central feature of the display is the traditional Moravian star, also know as the Star of Bethlehem:

We have one of these stars, a large version, that we hang over our front door every Christmas season.

Our friends, my wife, and I went out for drinks and Buffalo chicken wings afterward which helped seal the evening, making it classified as "very satisfying."

My wife and I like to "do" at least one Christmas activity every holiday season (like singing in a performance of The Messiah, or attending a choral concert of sacred music). I guess the Putz will serve as this year's activity, since we're so busy with my mother now living with us.

Kilter's Religious Denomination Apologizes to Native Americans

2009-12-03T08:32:00.002-05:00

What's a little 400-year rift?

In a story carried last week by both the New York Times and the Daily News, my religious denomination, the Reformed Church in America, has formally apologized and reconciled with Native Americans.

The charge? Massacring and displacing the Indians during the era when white Dutch and British folks began settling America.

In the AP photo above, leader Curtis Zunigha (left) is shown shaking hands with Rev. Charles Morris of the Fort Washington Collegiate Church of Manhattan.

(Fort Washington Collegiate is my former local church. But I don't know Morris -- he was hired in 1995 after I got married and moved to New Jersey.)

This was the first time the RCA has apologized. I hope other denominations follow. I would say the apology is about 399 years overdue.

On a symbolic level, the apology works for me. It's outrageous this tragedy happened at all, but since I wasn't around before 1954, I can only do my part to see that justice is served now.

(the following are partial excerpts from the Times' rendering of the event:)

''We consumed your resources, dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture, along with your dreams, hopes and great love for this land,'' the Rev. Robert Chase (another RCA minister) told descendants from both sides. ''With pain, we remember our part in these events.''

The minister spoke on Native American Heritage Day at a reconciliation ceremony of the Lenape Tribe with the Collegiate Church. The Collegiate Church, started in 1628 in then-New Amsterdam as the Reformed Dutch Church, is the oldest Protestant denomination in America.

The rite was held in front of the Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan, where Dutch colonizers had built their fort near an Indian trail now called Broadway, just steps away from Wall Street.

The Collegiate Church was considered the ''conscience'' of the new colony, whose merchants quickly developed commerce in fur and grains -- till then, the turf of the natives.

Surrounded by Lenape Indians, the Dutch colonists ''were hacking men, women and children to death,'' said Ronald Holloway, the chairman of the Sand Hill band of Lenapes, who lived here before Henry Hudson landed 400 years ago.

The Indians dispersed across the country, eventually ending up on government-formed reservations. On Friday, some came from as far away as Oklahoma.

During the ceremony, Chase embraced Holloway and, as symbolic gestures of healing, the two sides exchanged wampum -- strings of beads used by North American Indians as money or ornament. A boy representing the Lenapes and a girl from the Collegiate Church put necklaces on each other.

While Friday's ceremony exuded warmth and openness, accompanied by an Indian drumming circle and the haunting sound of a wooden flute, the feelings leading up to the reconciliation were mixed.

''After 400 years, when someone says 'I'm sorry,' you say, 'Really?' '' Holloway said before the ritual. ''There was some kind of uneasiness. But then you've got to accept someone's sincere apology; they said, 'We did it.' We ran you off, we killed you.' ''

In New York City, the Collegiate churches are composed of four congregations including the landmark Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue led by the late Rev. Norman Vincent Peale.

The church plans to sponsor educational activities and exhibits to teach children history -- including the Indian reverence for preserving the purity of the land taken over by the Dutch colonists.

Kilter Likes the King Neptune Statue

2009-11-30T10:17:00.005-05:00

I am a fan of public art and in particular, public sculpture.

There's something powerful and pleasing about a large work planned and executed with the intention of being situated in the public domain -- outside and accessible to all.

Such is the case with the King Neptune statue located along the beachfront in Viriginia Beach, Virginia (pictured above).

My wife and I recently stayed in a hotel overlooking this guy. My fascination was keen to check him over and find out as much as I could about the piece and its circumstances.

The statue was dedicated in 2005 and the artist is Paul DiPasquale (amazingly, a local artist). It is 34-feet high and constructed mainly of bronze.

A tourist brochure about Virginia Beach describes the sculpture's aura well: "It stands at the gateway to Neptune Park and the threshold to the sea. Surrounded by the creatures of his realm, mighty trident in hand, Neptune’s heroic visage honors the maritime legacy of Virginia Beach while also standing as a vivid reminder of the community’s duty to respect and protect our natural blessings."

I would add the statue is colossal and a little intimidating to stand under.

But that makes it a grand work of art. Nepune's gaze hovers strong and strident toward the ocean. His attention seems to be on much larger subjects than the groups of admirers who frequently stand around him.

The way his hand clasps that sea tortoise is evidence enough of his strength. I like the way his upper body rips and twists out of the concrete pedestal.

He is quite alive.

It appears King Neptune's creation arose from a festival looking for a centerpiece.

The Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach has been going on for some 36 years every September (a good way to generate revenue beyond Labor Day, no doubt). It features activities like wine tasting, sand sculpting, a parade, arts & crafts show, fireworks, and a daily "beach bash" -- probably meaning a spreeful ploy to get young people to display as much of their buff bodies as they dare.

We were there earlier this month, in November. So craziness was at a lull.

But we may come back next year if we can remember to bring plenty of dollars.

Kilter's Infomercial for Hilton Hotel, Virginia Beach

2009-11-19T14:56:00.003-05:00

The following will probably be seen as an informercial for the Hilton Hotel Oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

But it's not. I'm only trying to tell you I had a great mini-vacation there last week. If you're ever in the area, this hotel is tops.

My wife and I always take off somewhere for a week every year, but this year we missed (too busy). So three days and two nights at the end of the year had to suffice.

This place was so relaxing and enjoyable that we barely felt the need to GO anywhere -- that is, beyond the rooftop hot tub and the restaurant on the first floor. Perhaps if this was "the high season," I would have wanted to venture out more to see the throngs and thongs.

But being November, the crowds were thin. We were there for the comfort of the facility only.

I had never been to a Hilton before. But I can tell you Paris Hilton's family has done an excellent job.

The hotel looks and feels and even smells new (it's probably 15 years old, but the staff keeps it super clean). It has 290 rooms on 20 floors, making it the tallest hotel on Virginia Beach's oceanfront strip.

The lobby is gorgeous with high ceilings and casual seating, with attractive artwork and photographs of local beach scenes. There was piped-in music featuring artists like Andrea Boccelli.

My wife and I requested, and recieved, early arrival. I had booked a "cityview" room for $125. The clerk explained that for $45 more, "I can give you the best room in the hotel." We went for it and weren't disappointed.

The room on the 14th floor was spacious with a king-sized bed, flat-screen TV, large windows, and a big bathroom with an overly large shower (read: good for two people). The motiv was what I might call "stylish rustic," -- lots of wood, lots of curved edges, with no glitz or tackiness.

Being on 31st Street, the Hilton is considered part of the "north beach scene," which is the "new" part of town. All of Virginia Beach seems to be in front of you when you look out the window of the room.

One side faced the ocean, a beautiful view from our walk-out balcony. On the other was the aforementioned view of the town, equally impressive. I'm not one for closing drapes, so we let the sun shine in!

The outdoor hot tub on the rooftop was heated to a nice 104 degrees which neutralized the chilly mid-November air temperature. It had a marvelous view because through its frameless windows was the ocean. Hence, the adjoining pool (which of course WAS too cold at this time of year) is dubbed the infinity pool.

On the ground floor is a seafood restaurant called Catch 31 -- stylish, attractive with outdoor firepits, and great food. I ate a three-course meal paired with its own wine. The service was attentive and every employee seemed to have exiquisit training.

Why go anywhere?
Okay, on the second day we rented bicycles and peddled up and down the shoreline, and we walked in the sand and touched the ocean.

But other than that, we really DIDN'T go anywhere.

When we woke up on Wednesday morning, heavy rains were pelting the windows. It was the remnant of Hurricane Ida.

Virginia Beach got pounded. The waves of the ocean were thrashing and churning. A 40-m.p.h. wind was blowing palm trees sideways.

As we crossed the lengthy Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (17 miles) in almost no visibility, with waves beating along the pilings and windshield wipers going full blast, we laughed about it because it was better than crying.

We joked, "This is just like what God told the phophet Elijah in 1st Kings 19: "Go back the same way you came." There was just one way in; one way out.

Sure enough, blue signs along the highway guided us back home safely, the ones that said, "Authorized Hurricane Evacuation Route."

On the radio came a tribute to the Veterans, because it was Veteran's Day. They played a hymn popular during World War One whose lyrics were:

"Almighty Father, strong to save

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave

Who biddest the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep

O hear us when we cry to Three

For those in peril on the sea."

By the time we got home, there was no more rain at all.

Update on World Trade Center Museum NYC

2009-11-13T10:43:00.001-05:00

(The following is written by Joe Daniels, director of the upcoming World Trade Center Museum in New York City. It was sent to me via email, but too important not to share.)

The spaces of the National September 11 Memorial Museum are taking shape in the form of steel and concrete every day.

The Museum, designed by Davis Brody Bond Aedas, will preserve original World Trade Center historic assets and incorporate them into the architectural design, creating a powerful and contemplative experience. The Museum’s primary exhibition spaces will be located at the base of the site enabling visitors to encounter authentic remnants of the World Trade Center.

The architectural design of the Museum helps to demonstrate the scale of the buildings, the enormity of the devastation, and the void that was left in the wake of the attacks. Key artifacts -- such as the slurry wall, the column remnants of the Towers, the "Survivors’ Stairs" and the last column to be removed from the World Trade Center site at the end of the recovery efforts -- speak to survival and resilience, reminding us of the human capacity to endure and overcome tragedy.

The Museum will house interpretive exhibitions and public programs that will honor the victims of the September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, terrorist attacks, preserve the history, and provide historical context for 9/11, its aftermath and continuing implications. Our Museum staff is working with designers Thinc LLC and Local Projects on developing compelling exhibitions.

We invite you to learn more about the Museum’s architectural design by visiting our website to view updated renderings and recent construction photos. We also encourage you to find out how you can help contribute to the preservation of 9/11 history through our various programs and initiatives. Family members and friends of victims are encouraged to share mementos, photos and text, and to record remembrances that will help build the Museum’s Memorial Exhibition, honoring the individual lives lost on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. Learn more here.

Everyone has a 9/11 story, please join our efforts by sharing yours. Visit 911history.org to learn more.

Best Wishes,
Joe Daniels
President & CEO

Kilter and Rubbers (Galoshes)

2009-11-03T08:43:00.004-05:00

These days, with the bad weather season upon us, we're seeing more and more of these so-called stylish women's rubber boots around (pictured here).

I can't stand them. Are these clashing contraptions supposed to be a fashion statement?

They are ugly. They are bulky and heavy and conspicuous. They don't warm my heart with a splash of color on a rainy day.

Maybe that shows my age, or my sense of proportion, or my notion that artwork-on-boots doesn't exactly fit the "form follows function" rule. At the risk of offending someone, I think they're hideous.

To me, the person who wears these type of boots is saying, "I'm a gluttonous consumer, and I've got disposable cash on hand. Look at me. Aren't I grand?"

A quick check on prices via the internet show they run about $79 each.

The best thing these type of rubber boots do for me is to bring to mind my own childhood, when I can remember a much more humble type of rubber overshoes:

I still can hear my mother saying, as I was about to step outside into the rain, "Don't forget yer rubbers!"

She swore by them. Everyone in our house had a pair to fit over our shoes.

I couldn't stand them back then, either.

These type of rubbers only came in one color: black. There were three sizes: small, medium, and large.

They were flimsy. They were wobbly and floppy. They weren't easy to put on or get off.

If the style of shoe didn't match the style of rubber, they would be uncomfortable to walk in. They were easy to rip, either by a slit from a sharp object, or by a stone that would poke through a hole.

That would put you back on zero, because your shoes would get soiled anyway.

Or your shoes would get dirty when you were taking off the rubbers, because your hands would be wet and grindy. Or the rubber would cling to the shoes and be tough to take off. They would wind up inside out and then you had to take the effort to pull them outside in.

And who likes the smell of rubber? I don't. Sticking yer nose into these things made my stomach mildly nauseous.

It was just too much mindwork to devote to one's FEET. I'd just as soon (back then, as now) take my chances with my shoes without rubbers. If they get wet, they get wet.

Amazingly, these types of rubbers are still available today, for about $15 each, at places like Walmart.

They are also still being called 'galoshes,' which is another strike against them as far as I'm concerned. I never liked that word. Too mushy sounding. Didn't promote a good image of the product it was labeling.

Its word origin (galosh) goes all the way back to medieval French, 'galoche' meaning 'rain shoe.'

Ivanka Trump Weds Jared Kushner

2009-10-29T07:26:00.005-04:00

(First the news, then my commentary)

Ivanka Trump has wed the son of another major New York area real estate family.

Ivanka, daughter of Donald and Ivana Trump, married Jared Kushner on Sunday, October 25, 2009. The ceremony was held at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ. Performing the rites was Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein.

Trump, 27 (she turns 28 in a few days), is the co-host of the "Celebrity Apprentice" TV show; a vice president at her father's real estate company, and has a jewelry company.

The 28-year-old Kushner is publisher of The New York Observer and an executive at the Kushner Companies, which owns and manages commercial real estate and apartments.

Wedding guests included ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin, and actress Emmy Rossum.

Of all the above news, I have a single major problem / objection / complaint. Can you guess what it is?

Do I feel bad that a famous hot babe -- one of my favorites because she is beautiful, intelligent, non-spoiled, hard working, and sensible -- has been taken off the singles market?

Hardly. I gave up on "celebrity worship" decades ago. Ivanka can do whatever she pleases. I don't stalk. I'm not jealous. I'm married. Jared Kushner seems like a decent, gentle soul. Congratulations to them. They look good together.

Do I find the fact that she got married at a golf club in New Jersey repulsive?

Hell no. That's my home state. I defend New Jersey. It doesn't deserve its negative reputation. Bedminister is only fifteen miles from where I grew up. It's a lovely rural area. The Trump facility there is world class. The Kushners are from Central Jersey as well. Not a problem.

Do I find it distasteful that the groom's father, Charles Kushner, spent time in jail for political campaign and tax law violations?

I still answer no. Perhaps Ivanka should have thought more about this one, since she in effect is marrying "into the family." Maybe the Kushner empire, now with an ugly stain against it, has other shady dealings underneath the surface. In the end, though, I can't object. It's her life. Let her deal with it.

The thing I find repulsive is this . . . In order to marry this guy, Ivanka had to "convert" to Judiasm. The Kushners are Orthodox Jews, so in order to marry son Jared, Ivanka -- who is Catholic -- suddenly needed to turn into a Jew.

This is not an indictment on the couple personally. My rant is more general.

My question is . . . why do non-Jews always have to make the step to convert to Judiasm?

You rarely hear of Jews converting to other faiths. It's always the other way around, the non-Jew must come into the Jewish camp.

When the other faith is Christianity, it seems backwards to me.

Beyond adopting of the rituals involved in Judiasm (no problem with that), the thing that is strange about converting is that one agrees to "give up" Jesus Christ as messiah. You throw your free gift of salvation away.

Even though Christianity is just Judiasm with a face on it, even though Christians grew out of the root of Judiasm, the person who "converts" suddenly disowns all that.

In effect, you reduce your spiritual tools. Converting involves taking a step back, shedding something Jewish (getting rid of Christ), rather than taking a step forward and being inclusive (embracing Christ).

STRANGE!

I understand that, in part, Jews have maintained their heritage through the centuries because rabbis will not perform interfaith marriages. The blood must remain pure. The spouse MUST convert, or forget about getting married.

Perhaps this rule is only among the conservative branches of Judiasm, because according to USA Today 47% of Jewish folk in the United States were involved in interfaith marriages in the last 15 years.

Many people are saying Ivanka's conversion certainly was a fraud, that her "study" period was much less than two years, that she did it for convenience rather than the seriousness of true conversion, and that she already has butted heads with her new mother in law.

That's why I put "convert" in quotation marks. Can one change allegiance to a faith in the way that one can root for a different baseball team?

Once you accept Christ, how in the world can you renounce it?

I hope all the effort Ivanka made toward adopting Judiasm is worth it. I hope Jared Kushner is worth it. Otherwise it should have been the real estate companies that merged, not the human beings.

Film Review: The Molly Maguires (1970)

2009-10-26T08:29:00.003-04:00

When The Molly Maguires was released in 1970, it was a box office dud.

The film, directed by Martin Ritt, barely made back 10% of the $11 million it took to produce. As is often the case with undervalued gems, however, the movie is now considered a classic of American cinema.

My wife and I viewed the DVD over the weekend, and it's been on my mind ever since. It truly was one of the best movies I've ever seen.

The movie takes place in 1876 in the anthricite coal region of Pennsylvania (it was filmed there as well). This is not far from where I live in Bethlehem, and one reason why I considered the flick required viewing for myself.

It's about a secret labor union in the days prior to the labor
union movement. A group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fight for better wages and conditions in the mines, which are horrendous and cruel (all shown in explicit detail).

The way they bring attention to this exploitation is with sabotage and murder -- tactics which these days would be labeled terrorism. But it's not at random -- the Mollys have specific targets and goals in mind.

Sean Connery stars as the leader of the group, John Kehoe.

A Pinkerton detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired by the greedy coal company to infiltrate the group and report on its members. He is played by Richard Harris.

Samantha Eggar is Harris' landlady and eventual girlfriend, whose strong moral and ethical stance helps center the film.

Harris' character successfully intermingles with the group and reluctantly testifies at their murder trials. On which side do his sympathies lie? The more he learns about the plight of the coal workers, the more he appears to give his heart over to them.

The movie ends on a bittersweet note with the hanging of the four main "Mollys," including Sean Connery, in the Carbon County Jail in Jim Thorpe, PA. These scenes were filmed onsite, and that's where I bought the DVD, after touring the jail recently.

The Molly Maguires is simply a film that would never get made today due to its scorn of big business and magnification of social injustice. My wife sighed when it was over and said, "That was a REAL movie."

It has the ring of authenticity and drips with pathos. The fact it's based on a true story grips your attention as well.

Large chunks of the film are played without dialogue – it's 15 minutes before a single word is spoken and 40 minutes before Sean Connery speaks. That is despite his presence dominating the proceedings.

James Wong Howe's scope photography is broad and sweeping, and the film was nominated for an Oscar for set decoration. There's intelligence in every camera angle -- whether turning a door frame into an impromptu confessional booth or, in the haunting final shot, turning a rehearsal for the Molly's executions into another man's silent purgatory.

Henry Mancini's haunting Irish-tinged score is also plus in this 125-minute cinematic bonanza.

Amazing how this was a movie Connery made while he was taking a break from his James Bond roles of You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. Harris was just coming off his acclaimed role as King Arthur in Camelot.

The scenes that both Connery and Harris are in are riveting. If their brogue gets too heavy at times, the DVD includes English subtitles to help smooth the translation.

There is debate today about who "The Mollys" actually were, or if they really exisited. They were a secret cell within the Catholic fraternal society of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Their odd female name derives from an earlier Irish street gang whose cut-throat tactics were disguised by its members dressing up as women.

Back then coal miners had to live in the company town, buy at the company store, and pay for damaged equipment. Health problems and injuries went without compensation.

The trial and execution of the Mollys (many claimed the trial was rigged and the miners were framed) helped bring to light the terrible conditions in the mines.

Many of today's American labor unions trace their formation as a response to the coal companies who pushed their workers to the brink and how groups like the Molly Maguires fought back.

The film is a well-crafted masterpiece. You have to see it.

Kilter's Mom Goes to Nursing Home

2009-10-24T09:07:00.005-04:00

My mother is now in a nursing home, just like that.

Gloria spent three nights in the hospital. Though we questioned her being discharged, the hospital said there was nothing life-threatening about her condition, so released her.

We decided to commit her to a place called Rolling Hills Care Facility -- at least for the time being. One of the reasons was financial: My dad has Blue Cross / Blue Shield "Super Level" coverage, which covers up to 30 days in a nursing home.

This gives mom the chance to get proper treatment, and time for the rest of the family to adjust and to decide what happens after this.

She settled into her new digs in room 9N, remarked, "Getting old is hell," and requested to see the baseball playoff game. She was fairly alert and mostly accepting of the situation.

The above photo of her, taken last Christmas 2008, shows how frail she actually is. Maybe our family didn't see the signs? Maybe we ignored the signals like my father seemed to?

One of her doctors diagnosed her correctly, I believe. It's called Vascular Dementia, a cousin to Altheimer's Disease, and brought about by lack of proper blood flow to the brain. (That's in addition to her fractured rib, symptoms of pneumonia, high blood pressure, and irregular heartbeat.)

But Vascual Dementia explains everything. It's who my mom is, and what she has become.

The disease progresses slowly over time, but then can rapidly develop. It includes problems with thinking, walking, and performing everyday activities. That's my mom to a 'T.'

Lack of memory makes the individual extremely anxious about daily life. The patient repeats questions and information, prepares for appointments well ahead of time, and uses notes and reminders endlessly. Routine tasks become overwhelming.

Other symptoms include (all of which my mom has exhibited):
-- Walking with rapid, shuffling steps
-- Depression
-- Speech difficulties
-- Can't learn new tasks or new hobbies
-- Difficulty following instructions
-- Loss of bladder or bowel control
-- Difficulty solving problems or handling money

Caregivers are asked to repeat things as needed using the same words or message. Reduce extraneous noise and distractions around the patient. Do not use confusing pronouns (he,she,it) but rather names and specific titles.

Many people with vascular dementia remain physically fit and retain their ability to be comfortable and involved in social situations quite late in the disease. But safety is a factor. Often the person becomes so impaired that he/she cannot anticipate or avoid dangerous situations.

I'm writing this as much for my own information as I am for my blogging audience, and thanks for your concerns.

In all reality, I believe Mom has spent her last night in her own household.

Kilter's Heart-in-Coffee to Mom

2009-10-19T13:40:00.002-04:00

My 82 year-old mother entered the hospital yesterday, so this heart-in-coffee is for her.

She has deteriorated dramatically both mentally and physically over the past several months. The rate at which she has gone downhill is alarming.

The doctors say "she is chronic but not acute." That means she's got many long-term afflictions, but nothing life-threatening going on -- for now.

But that only tells part of the story.

Currently she's got high blood pressure (182/120), an irregular heartbeat, and symptoms of pneumonia. My father claims she has been wheezing and coughing up phlegm for the past month.

My father is four years older than my mom. He's in much better shape than my mother, but he's been acting as her fulltime nurse, and that is wearing him down tremendously. My brother and sisters and I are afraid of him succumbing to the "caregiver dying caring for the patient" syndrome.

I knew she had been failing. She has fallen down several times in the past few months and the look of her eyes has grown distant.

Each time she went to the emergency room. She was treated but never admitted to the hospital, partly because her condition wasn't THAT weak, plus my mother is a stubborn old biddy who persists telling doctors and nurses that she's better than she actually is.

My wife and I went to visit her and my dad yesterday at their home, just to check in. But we witnessed some fast-moving events.

My mother was in bed with a home-assistance nurse evaluating her. My sister was rushing over from her house. The phone was ringing off the hook.

My mother looked emaciated and weak, devoid of color. She was crying like a baby, saying, "How could have my life changed so fast?"

With the nurse's recommendation, we summoned a rescue squad and brought her to the hospital -- again. This time, she was finally admitted.

My dad reported my mother has become totally helpless -- can't dress herself, can't go to the bathroom unaided, etc. He further shocked my siblings and I when he confessed that my she hasn't cooked a meal or cleaned the house "in at least ten years."

This was a coverup on my parents' part. I knew that had been the case going back a few years, but not a decade. Nothing my mother ever said or did during that time revealed how much she was being waited on hand and foot, and how little she was doing.

She sleeps sixteen hours a day, and apparently doesn't do much during the hours she's awake except maybe read baseball scores in the paper.

It's our family's opinion that my mother not go back to her own house, even if she's discharged today from the hospital. She's that gone.

If we can't find her the right kind of treatment facility, my wife and I will take her into our home and care for her there. Paramount is to give my father a break from all his backbreaking labor, not to mention putting up with my mother's numerous eccentricities.

I'm currently on standby, awating a further update from my sisters.

Obama's Rookie Year Nobel Prize

2009-10-15T07:43:00.002-04:00

I think I finally figured out why U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last week.

It's not a recognition of his peace-making prowess, per se. It's more a reaction against the hated George Bush / Dick Cheney regime.

It's the only viable explanation I can think of for a President who has not yet completed his rookie year.

After nine months in office, what has Obama done on the world stage? Very little.

Most recently he campaigned to bring the 2016 Summer Olympic games to Chicago (see earlier post) and failed miserably. Unpopular wars are still raging in Iraq and escalating in Afghanistan. Our President has been virtually silent on both.

But the Bush-Cheney axis of the previous eight years was SO insular, SO isolationist, SO self-serving, SO manipulative, and SO wrong-headed that Obama has been given the Nobel Peace Prize simply for unseating that administration and poising America to act decently again.

It shows you how much power U.S. Presidents have. It also shows how much the world couldn't wait for Bush to be sent out to pasture.

Just deliver the right message ("Yes We Can") and the right promise ("We call upon our worldwide partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose"), and you will be recognized in Norway.

Doesn't matter if the proposed national health care plan winds up a bust. Doesn't matter if double digit inflation and a poor economy has caused your honeymoon with your own public to wear off.

The Nobel people in Norway are saying, "This APPEARS to be so much better than GWBush42."

Actually, what the electing committee said in a statement on October 9 was, "Only rarely has a person to the extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomcy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so based on the values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

He is the third sitting U.S. President to be given the Peace Prize. The others were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

To Obama's credit, he has handled the unexpected prize with grace. He said he would accept the prize on behalf of American values and for everyone who strives for dignity and justice. He was visibly humbled and said, "To be honest, I don't deserve to stand with the previous people who have won this award."

I say let him have it. For a change, the world is on our side.

People from other countries are actually rooting for our Obama's success. They are eager to bolster his standing in the world in the hope of furthering his global mission.

He has potential to be authentically great. For the first time since the Bill Clinton era, the American president is popular abroad (wow!). Foreign leaders are eager to be associated with him.

The Nobel people in Oslo are saying, "This APPEARS to be so much better than GWBush42."

Whether you agree that Obama is the embodiment of that hope, or a symbol of a bridge to a better place, one thing is clear:

He's got the prize in his pocket now, given on a promise. He's got to deliver the goods or else suffer all the more if he fails.

I have total faith he can do what he intends.

David Letterman Mess

2009-10-07T08:26:00.004-04:00

Now we know why David Letterman was notoriously quiet about his personal life in the years leading up to his marriage this past March.

He was banging every available woman on his staff.

It seems like our favorite New York talk show host turned his offices at the Ed Sullivan Theater into a veritable love shack. It took an extortion attempt from a spurned third-party boyfriend to bring it to light.

We love a good scandal, don't we?

Last week Letterman revealed to his studio audience, and thus to everyone watching on TV, that he had been made a victim of a blackmailing plot. A man promised to reveal "terrible things" about his sex life unless he paid out $2 million to stay silent.

Letterman told the police and testified in front of a grand jury. His lawyers paid the guy with a phony check, and promptly arrested was Robert Joel Halderman.

It was surprising to learn Halderman was one of the producers of the true-crime news show "48 Hours." I mean, the guy's job is reporting on strange crimes and how they were foiled (His show was even nominated for an Emmy award in 2008). Did he believe he would fare any better than the low-lifes his news show exploits?

Less surprising is to learn that the crux of the drama centers around a woman, Stephanie Birkitt, a long-time "Late Show" staffer who has appeared joking around with Dave numerous times on air in various comedy skits.

Birkitt was supposedly Halderman's girl. Yet she carried on an affair with Letterman on the side, and Halderman didn't like it. So his way to deal with it was to threaten to write a screenplay about Dave's sexcapades and expose Letterman "for the creepy things he does."

Which brings us to the question: How much of a scandal was this, really?

Letterman was forced to admit -- in an extraordinary monologue before millions of viewers who didn't know if he was joking or not -- that he had sexual relationships with female employees. But it was all consentual, and it all happened (allegedly) prior to Letterman's 2009 marriage to Regina Lasko.

A second female employee came forward and stated, "I was madly in love with him (Letterman)." Ms.Birkitt has said nary a negative word about her employeer.

Indeed, from all reports, Dave's House of Love was respectful toward all his employees and that three out of the top five staffers were female.

So what's the beef?

Media analysts tried to paint a pretty unseemly scene -- a wildly successful and powerful public figure, secretly dating young girls who worked for him (while in a committed relationship with his current wife, who bore him a child in 2003), who then goes onstage to flippantly harangue other public figures for doing the very same thing.

It's ironic and hypocritical, sure. Letterman surely would have preferred to keep all these liaisons quiet to which his off-camera persona and private nature attest.

But does this amount to sexual harassment? No. About the only thing we can say is that it's somewhat "creepy," as Letterman put it himself.

It was smart for him to break the news before anyone else. That way he gained an aspect of control over the blackmail plot. It was smart of him to tell authorities right away, and not mess around.

In fact, at this point in the "scandal," no one even seems to want to hear more about Halderman, whose eyebrows point downward and whose bearded face looks diabolical. The question everyone wants to know is, "How many women in his office did Dave penetrate with his wild prong?"

Already, calls for Letterman to be fired have died down. CBS probably won't take disciplinary action against its popular star. In fact, the network is enjoying the biggest ratings of Letterman's career.

Letterman himself turned the circumstance into a series of jokes. "It was cold outside the house over the weekend," he said to his audience on Monday. "It was cold inside the house, too."

He has apologized to his wife publicly, acknowleged his wrongdoings in mishandling his affairs, and came clean with his dirty laundry. Throughout it all, polls have shown that the public's perception of Letterman has remained unchanged.

If anything, this is mostly a case of celebrity worship by the media, and trying to dig up something that doesn't exist.

To me, it's a non-scandal.

Obama's Wild Pitch for Chicago 2016

2009-10-01T12:41:00.003-04:00

I agree with most of what President Obama has done since taking office in January. He's doing a great job.

But I can't say that about his flying to Denmark this week to pitch Chicago as a future Olympic city.

In fact, compared to Obama's other blunders, which have been minor (like stepping into the middle of the Henry Gates college professor / Boston police officer controversy in Boston), this misstep is more blatant and politically risky.

It makes me think twice about how effective our Commander-in-Chief really can be. Obama seems intent on intimidating the International Olympic Committee into awarding the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago.

With the nation's top guy plugging the games, how can the committee decide anything otherwise? It will be stunning if the committee DOESN'T pick Chicago.

Barack Obama the bully? That's the simple explanation.

ABC News, which seems to favor of Obama's action, quotes Mitt Romney (former head of the 2002 games in Salt Lake City) as saying, "A sitting president, making a personal pitch, can make an enormous difference to the 106 members of the International Olympic Committee.

“The people in the I.O.C. want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country,” Romney said. “Does the host country really care? Is this going to be a high priority? Nothing says that like having the presence of the leader of that country and, particularly, the case of Barack Obama.”

It's a strong-armed tactic to me. Not good for our image in the world. Not a savvy nor correct political move on the world stage.

Sure, the President ideally should be spending more time on crises like the war in Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear issue. That's for sure. Denmark's a long way to travel as well.

He also was embarrassed earlier this week when it was reported, "Obama has spent more time talking to David Letterman than with army generals in the middle east."

True, true. That's not what my mind focuses on, however.

To me, the United States doesn't NEED the leader of the free world making this kind of promotional endorsement for the world's wealthiest and most prosperous country.

The U.S. should let other, smaller, nations push for the games. That's the diplomatic thing -- let the little guys make their splash, for their national pride and for their financial gain.

Does America really NEED to host the games to stay afloat economically? To develop national unity among its people? We've hosted enough Olympic games for awhile.

It also looks bad because Obama is endorsing his own home town. It starts to smell like political payback that he might owe to his local peeps for getting him elected.

Give one of the other countries a chance. Give the others a slice of the glory. Let the other guy win once in awhile.

The selection is down to four cities: Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janiero, and Madrid. (Tokyo doesn't need the games, either.)

The voting is Friday. Don't hold your breath.

Kilter Has Moderate Left-of-Center Sympathy for Roman Polanski

2009-09-30T11:40:00.006-04:00

As we speak, film director Roman Polanski sits in a jail cell in Switzerland, awaiting extradiction to California.

He is accused of raping a 13-year old girl in 1977. It's time for him to face the music on this charge, ever since he fled the country just before his sentencing and took safe haven in France.

I think it's right for the authoritites to finally address this matter. He needs to know he's not exempt from the long arm of the law.

At the same time, if Polanski can take a big breath and force himself to stand before a judge, finally, after 32 years, I think he'll be treated with leniency and get a vastly commuted sentence.

It's all a matter of having the guts to face the charges. The director of Rosemary's Baby (now 76 years old) seems more of a coward than a criminal.

Let's fly him to Los Angeles and see what happens. But let's not give him the star treatment . . . let's treat him without the glitter he carries as an Oscar-winning director (he won his second Oscar only three years ago, for the movie The Pianist.)

I favor Polanski serving some kind of punishment, even if it's minimal. He needs to pay for his misdeed, no matter how belated.

It's ludicrus that some think the charge ought to be dismissed simply due to the amount of time that has passed. He raped a 13-year girl when he was 44 years old, and what's more, Polanski has admitted as much. That aspect will never change.

What has changed, though, is that the victim, Samantha Geimer, now 46, has long ago forgiven Polanski for his crime. She says as much on a 2008 documentary by Marina Zenovich, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. She has even circulated a petition to have the charges dropped.

Others have sympathy for Polanski because of the tragic events that shaped his life. He lost his Polish parents during WWII. Then in 1969, his wife Sharon Tate, an actress who was 8 ½ months pregnant, was violently murdered at the hands of the notorious Manson Family.

To me, that is immaterial. But something inside of me says that Polanski has been living inside his own personal hell since his act and needs to move on.

So do we. That is -- after the case has been tried in a U.S. court of law (Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister, says it will be impossible to give him a fair trial).

It was surprising Polanski was arrested at this time. Why now? He owns a house in Switzerland and visited there numerous times since 1977.

For some reason the cops never bothered him before. Yet were waiting for him as he planned to attend a Swiss film festival.

Polanski reputedly originally fled because the celebrity-hungry judge in California, Laurence Rittenband, handled the case in a bizarre way -- at first saying he would be handled lightly, then just before sentencing, said Polanksi "needs to be made an example."

Let's just get this over with. Even if Polanksi had been given the maximum sentence, he would have been free in 1986.

The way it is now, Polanski's hell goes on the longer he refuses to face his own judgment.

Kilter Frets Over Borders Books

2009-09-25T09:58:00.003-04:00

It wasn't so long ago that people were fretting over the loss of small, independenly owned bookstores.

Watch out, book lovers. Now it may be that bookstore supergiants like Borders Books are on the brink of folding as well.

An article in Publisher's Weekly recently stated, "Borders Leads Chains Downward." Its revenue fell 17.7% in the second quarter of this year, a rate that is accelerating. Its CEO Ron Marshall was quoted as saying, "We're making a sprint to remake our superstores in time for the holidays."

If you ask me, that is doubletalk for, "We're scared."

I sense that nervousness when I visit Borders in person. They are downsizing inventory and replacing it with fluff.

I got my first whiff that all was not right when I recently went into my local (i.e. work location) Borders Bookstore at Penn Station in Manhattan. The fiction section was closed off, with a "We Apologize For the Inconvenience" sign greeting baffled customers.

When it reopened, the fiction section was moved into about half its former quarters in another part of the store. In its place were stationary and paper items, greeting cards, and colorful notebooks, underneath a sign for a separate business, "Paperchase."

One business inside of another can only mean one thing -- the main business is having trouble paying its rent and needs help from a secondary tenant.

This action is confirmed by the same article, "This (Paperchase) is considered a test at this location only. But if it's successful, we'll roll it out in all our stores."

Further glum news: "We are concentrating on replacing much of our multimedia section, and expanding our children's and teens section with toys and games," Marshall said.

Hey man, that's always positive -- replacing Moby Dick with Chutes and Ladders. Replacing John Updike literature with yo-yo's.

According to a second article in the Huffington Post, "Borders, the nation's second-largest bookseller, said Thursday it may put itself up for sale. It has lined up $42.5 million in financing to help the chain continue operations.

"Shares tumbled more than 29 percent, or $2.07, to $5.03 in volatile trading at midday.

"Borders has lost market share both to online retailers and to discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Its possible sale was given mixed prospects by industry analysts."

This is not encouraging news. We'd better get used to reading our books online if we haven't done so already.

Kilter Congratulates Derek Jeter

2009-09-17T10:13:00.002-04:00

I wanted to put in a word for New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter -- a good word.

Last week Jeter became the all-time base hit leader on the team. He surpassed Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, whose record stood for 70 years.

As of last night's game, Jeter amassed 2,729 career hits. That outdistances Gehrig, who had 2,721 during his stellar career.

Since Jeter is still only 35 and is having one of his strongest seasons in years, we can only expect his record number to keep growing. 3,000 hits is very probable. 4,000 is doable if he stays healthy.

Of course the overall hit leader in all of baseball is Pete Rose, with 4,156. We'll see what happens with that. I wouldn't bet against it.

I've been a Jeter fan since he burst onto the scene at the end of 1995. The Yankees won the World Series during his official rookie year, 1996, as well as three other times between then and 2001.

Jeter has been in the mix throughout. Though he's never won the league M.V.P., he might this year. The Yankees are crushing opponents, Jeter is batting .330, has 17 homeruns, 26 stolen bases, and has sparked the offense from his familiar leadoff position.

His defense has been notable, too. He has only 8 errors in 140 games for a .985 fielding percentage.

To show you the respect he has, when the Yankees obtained superstar Alex Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers five years ago, Rodriguez, who also played shortstop, agreed to move to third base.

Some say base hits means singles, not homeruns. Often, of course, it does.  Jeter will never be known for power numbers like the people who stand around him on this list, like Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle.

Still, Jeter has been the captain of the Yankees for over a decade because he exudes presence and professionanlism. He will probably have his uniform number "2" retired when his playing days are over.

Have you ever seen Jeter argue a call? Have you ever seen him talk trash about another player or about the Yankees? Have you ever seen him get in trouble off the field? Have you ever seen his name associated with steroids? No.

Jeter does not diminish the hit list by not being a power hitter, he enhances it.

If the Yankees win the World Series this year, and they have a good chance, Jeter will be celebrated as the crown jewel of the team. The term "Pride of the Yankees" fits him as well as it did Gehrig. I celebrate his great accomplishment, which shows consistency and determination.

Though Jeter may play down the achivement, I certainly salute him for giving me many hours of baseball pleasure, lived vicariously through him. Thank you, Derek.

Here's the Yankees all-time hit leaders:

1.   Derek Jeter      2,729 (still active)
2.   Lou Gehrig       2, 721
3.   Babe Ruth        2,518
4.   Mickey Mantle 2,415
5.   Bernie Williams 2,336
6.   Joe DiMaggio   2,214
7.   Don Mattingly   2,153
8.   Yogi Berra        2,148
9.   Bill Dickey        1,969
10. Earl Combs      1,866

09-09-09 Beatles Day Throughout Planet Earth

2009-09-09T08:16:00.005-04:00

We made it to September 9, 2009, decisively known as 09-09-09. This is the day the Beatles' remastered catalog, finally, was available for sale.

In a short while I'll be heading to my favorite record store, J&R in Manhattan, and shell out whatever they are asking for the stereo box set. I'm thinking it'll be about $179.

If the music sounds fantastic (and I have no reason to doubt otherwise, judging from the glowing pre-reviews from those who have heard it) here are the engineers we can thank:

(pictured left to right in Abbey Road Studio 2, London: Guy Massey, Simon Gibson, Sean Magee, Sam Okell, Steve Rooke, Paul Hicks and Allan Rouse. (Photo © Richard Skidmore 2009)

The head engineer is Allen Rouse. Rouse joined EMI in 1971, frequently working with Norman (Hurricane) Smith, The Beatles’ first recording engineer. In 1991, he copied all of Beatles' master tapes (mono, stereo, 4-track and 8-track) to digital tape as a safety backup. He spent four years working with Sir George Martin as assistant project coordinator on the TV documentary "The Making of Sgt. Pepper" and the CDs Live at the BBC and The Beatles Anthology.

Rouse, along Guy Massey, produced the 5.1 surround and stereo mixes for the reissue of the Yellow Submarine CD in 1991. He later helped initiate what led to the remixing of several John Lennon albums and the new sound mixes for the film "Gimme Some Truth" and the "Lennon Legend" DVD.

Rouse has worked exclusively on Beatles projects in recent years -- including The First U.S. Visit and "Help" DVDs, and the CD's Let It Be…Naked and Love along with George Harrison’s "The Concert for Bangladesh" DVD and album.

So the credentials ought to be there.

As far as the Beatles' strange kindship to the number nine, here are some references:

John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940. His son, Sean, was also born October 9 (1975). He wrote the song "#9 Dream" (part of Lennon's 9th solo album Walls and Bridges which was released in the ninth month of 1974 and peaked at number 9 in the U.S.).

The Beatles wrote and recorded "One After 909" and "Revolution 9."

Lennon was killed in the evening of December 8, 1980, when it was already early morning of December 9 in his birthplace of Liverpool.

Kilter Adapts to Company Dress Code

2009-09-08T11:33:00.007-04:00

They say clothes makes the person, but can clothes make the company?

My place of business -- a major telecom based in Manhattan -- has recently adopted its first-ever dress code. The company calls it "Business Attire Guidelines."

The language of the memo we got is typical BizSpeak: "The Guidelines are designed to allow employees the opportunity to work in business appropriate, casual attire. That is, dressed professionally and looking relaxed, yet neat and pulled together. The advantage is to provide an atmosphere that encourages creativity and productivity, while boosting the morale of employees."

At first I grunted with the rest of the employees. I bemoaned the fact I couldn't trudge to work in whatever slacker clothes I wanted.

This is the way I'd been doing it for 23 years, and it feels good to throw on anything.

Plus, as a unionized worker, I was thinking,"What does the contract say about this?" (The answer is nothing. The union is apparently fighting the decree, but it's unsure how far they'll get. Maybe they'll decide to save their breath for something more important).

The fact is, the upgrade hasn't been so bad. I can live with it.

That's because it's not really an upgrade. It's kind of a semi-lateral move that goes up one notch, and barely at that.

In other words, you can still come to work dressed a tee-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Right there, you can tell this wasn't a radical change to anyone's shock system. I give the company kudos for that.

What's out is baseball caps, doo-rags, sweatpants, shorts, sports bras, tee-shirts with lettering, athletic uniforms, and flipflops. None of these items are on my "must wear" list.

And if you need to wear a revealing sleeveless see-thru blouse (or something else from the modest 'banned' list) for medical or religious reasons, you can bring in a note from the corresponding authority, and wear it anyway.

I think that's why you don't hear too many people around my building bitching about the change. It means rummaging through your closet at home maybe ten seconds longer than you did before, but that's it.

I can still wear sandals, still wear Levis, still wear a cheap pullover knit shirt that cost $2.99. It's not a budget buster.

It's fun to see how employees have scrambled around to avoid wearing their "Brooklyn Is Da Center of the World" tee-shirts, their ripped cutoffs, and/or their stinky John Deere caps.

But you know what? The dress code has achieved its desired results. The human scenery around here actually looks better than it did before.

I have bigger issues going on in my life to gripe about than this. I think the dress code was needed. It helps keep down the "ratty" factor, for me included.

Kilter Reflects on Ted Kennedy

2009-08-31T13:37:00.011-04:00

The "Lion of the Senate" is now in the ground.

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts died last week of a brain tumor at age 77. He was buried over the weekend at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, which culminated a series of ceremonies that befitted his stature.

Once the news came out, I watched most of the coverage avidly. This is despite not being a Ted Kennedy fan in particular. He was just "all right" in my book, not someone I idolized nor scorned. He was simply a person I never paid much attention to.

But watch I did. Ted Kennedy was such a huge figure in American politics, and from THE royal family of all political families (I'm trying to avoid saying the word Camelot), that it was impossible for me to turn away once channels like CNN got revved up.

So here's what I thought:

The youngest of the Kennedy boys was a forceful, vigorous, liberal guy from a well connected family who used his political clout on numerous occasions to fight for causes I believe in myself.

But he used that same clout too often to bully people, to save his own hide, and/or to cover up questionable actions by his family.

He scored his share of victories on behalf of the public, for which I salute him. But boy did he ever have his shortcomings.

That was the hard part for me to accept.

What I learned following his passing helped to sway me back into his corner, somewhat: His notable work on behalf of civil rights; helping to gain equal rights for women; leading the fight for the 18 year-old vote; pushing through the Americans With Disabilities Act; his tireless devotion to health care reform including the Meals on Wheels program, the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and for the overhaul currently being sought by the Obama administration, for which he didn't live to see the outcome.

In addition, the memorial service at the JFK Library was handled very well. I enjoyed all of the reminisces and anecdotes by heavy hitters like Joe Biden, John McCain, Caroline Kennedy, John Kerry, Orrin Hatch, and the Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick, etc.

I liked the story of how he fell in love with his second wife, Vicky, in 1991 and how she pushed him to become a better person. I liked the videos which showed him sailing in his boat with his family laughing around him.

Good politician that he was, however, there was something about him I could never stomach: The Chappaquiddick Incident in 1969. This includes the killing of Mary Jo Kopechne, how Kennedy covered up his sordid role in the affair, and how he never properly acknowledged his misdeeds for it (i.e. explaining truthfully what happened).

Even though America loves to give people second chances; even though I'm a minister quick to forgive and/or give reprieve, it's been extremely tough for me to wipe away that incident from memory.

Maybe it was because I was at an impressionable age when it happened -- 15. It happened on the same night as the Neil Armstrong moon landing, conveniently buried on page two.

But the more I heard about it, the more Kennedy's recollection sounded fishy. It was a tall tale that bended all the events in a favorable way toward him, and then some. It was too much to believe.

That was the first time it occurred to me that high-level politicians were held to different standards than the rest of us. The fact that Kennedy walked away from that incident with only a slap on the wrist (pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident), was outrageous and immoral.

Suddenly, I didn't feel very sorry for the guy for losing his brothers Jack and Bobby prematurely to assassin's bullets (and in fact losing his oldest brother, Joe, to war in the 1040's). If anything, it helped me recognize that in general, politics equal sleaze.

When he took enormous strides to help his nephew, William Smith, get acquitted from a rape charge in 1990, from that moment forward I generally just thought of Kennedy as "The Drunk."

So this leaves us with a complicated figure who was certainly one of our greatest Senators but also one of our most fallen. When he won his seat in 1962 as a thirty year old, he clearly wasn't qualified for the position (again, THE family got him in), but he arguably grew into it. Friends talk of his wit and boisterous sense of humor, but I just saw a red face of a rich guy with a cocaine spoon in his nose and with too many martinis in his belly.

Perhaps I watched his funeral because this is definitive end of Joseph P. & Rose Kennedy's family. For nostalgia purposes perhaps I'll miss the Jack /Bobby /Ted Triad since they now all belong to the ages.

I respected Edward Kennedy for his service as a Senator. But I'm still unsure how I feel about him as a human being.

Kilter Wants to Meet a Beatle (part 1)

2009-08-28T08:49:00.007-04:00

Since I've never met a Beatle but desperately want that privilege before I die, I'm a sucker for stories that show either Paul or Ringo (but mostly Paul) out in public, hobnobbing in front of everyone, available for interacting. To me, that could mean as little as shaking hands, saying hello, or simply nodding in mutual acknowledgement.

That would be way, way cool.

When a story surfaces that shows Paul in New York City, where I work, it makes me tingle (tinkle?) with excitement, thinking, "He's less than a mile away," or some similar banal realization. Somehow even THAT gives me a charge.

Alas, it's always after the fact (of course), and I just go wanting all the more.

That's what happened this week. The Yankees were playing the Texas Rangers at the new Yankee Stadium. The game was shown on ESPN (I can't get the Yes Network where I live in Pennsylvania). Lo and behold, around the fifth inning, the camera panned down through the crowd, and there was Paul McCartney and his girlfriend Nancy Shevell (who is originally from New Jersey, by the way):

Apparently Paul has become quite a Yankees fan over the years, which is fascinating since he grew up playing soccer and cricket in Liverpool. He attends several games a year.

The camera then showed the entire party (below right to left)-- Shevell, McCartney, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Greene, and actor Jack Nickolson:

Finally, after the Yankees started to wrap things up with a 9-2 victory, we got to see one last image of Paul and Nancy, this time kissing:

Don't joke and say I am jealous of that kiss! I'm not, believe me.

But this DOES qualify as a "great night" for those of us in the world who want to meet a Beatle. I lived vicariously through those TV images.

It doesn't take away my urge to meet him in person, however. I've already lost my chance with John Lennon and George Harrison. The least God can do (you would think) is arrange something with Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr -- in this lifetime preferably.

Knoebel's Amusement Park

2009-08-25T06:41:00.010-04:00

If any of you ever find yourself in central Pennsylvania, a place you have to catch is Knoebel's Amusement Park.

It's a must-see attraction. Though it's off the beaten path, the park is well worth a day of your time, or more.

It's my favorite amusement park hands down. Coming from a person who is not a fan of amusement parks in general, that is saying something.

It's impossible NOT to have a good time there.

The fact that Knoebel's is a little tough to find plays to its advantage. This is an old-fashioned park built deep into a mountain valley. It has a spacious, laid-back feel, with three authentic wooden bridges traversing creeks.

Shade trees are everywhere. So going at the height of the summer is not a problem.

The employees are courteous and helpful. Numerous pavilions are set up, so you can bring in picnic supplies and eat your own food. Even dogs are welcome (how many times do you see that?)

What's more, admission is free and parking is free. As for the rides, you pay as you go. All of them are reasonably priced -- like $1 for the Merry Mixer (a kids' ride), $1.25 for the airborne DownDraft, and $1.75 for a water ride called Skloosh.

Both rollercoasters, the Phoenix and the Twister, are only $2.25.

My wife and I finally made it there last Sunday, seeing how we try to go at least once a summer. We arrived at 3 p.m. and I was thinking, "I'm kind of tired, I think we'll only stay for a while this time."

We ended up not leaving until almost closing (10 p.m.)

Knoebel's always rocks our socks, because it has such variety -- adult rides (like the long, slow Scenic Skyway, which takes you soaring above the park and providing amazing views of the mountains), kiddie rides, a huge swimming pool and various water rides, a theater, free live music, stores and concession stands, and even a mining museum which is fascinating in its own rite.

They've got bumper cars, motor boats, a Tilt-A-Whirl, rides called 'Wipeout' and 'PowerSurge,' and a surprisingly fun small train called the Pioneer Train, whose tracks go deep into the woods.

Park benches are abundant. So even though the property is gigantic, it's easy to sit and take a load off.

The park was probably small when it opened in 1926, on the riverbank site of an old saw mill. It has kept expanding and expanding, but without losing its charm, even though over the decades it has been flooded several times.

It currently has 56 rides, two world-class wooden rollercoasters, a classic carousel built in 1913, and a haunted house ride that has been featured on the Discovery Channel (which scared my wife so much she vows never to ride on it again!)

The park is owned and operated by the Knoebel (kuh-NO-bel) family, who run a lumber store next door. They also own an adjacent campground covering 160 acres and 500 sites. So it's possible to stay several days without a lot of hassle (just make reservations far in advance).

There's even rustic cottages throughout the park, occupied by full-time dwellers, attesting to how this peaceful, wooded valley drew people to it in the early twentieth century and seemed like the perfect spot for a recreational resort.

The ride pictured above is one of my favorites -- The Italian Trapeze, which is fast, colorful, and just thrilling enough for a 55 year-old gent (me).

My wife's favorite is the Antique Cars, small replicas of a 1932 Ford Model-T, gas powered, individually driven, and which meander up and down a course that goes under one of the rollercoasters.

A new bobsled rollercoaster, called "Flying Turns," designed after a similar ride in the 1920's, is scheduled to open (after several construction delays) in 2010. That's enough impetus for me to return to Knoebel's right there.

Knobels Amusement Park is located off PA-487 in Ellysburg, which is about 20 miles south of I-80 exit 232, making it about a third of the way across Pennsylvania if coming from New York City and the east.

If coming from the south, I-78, take PA-61 north and enjoy all the mining towns on your way -- Ashland, Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Pleasant Valley, and Shenandoah.

Kilter Gives Latest Dylan CD Thumbs Up

2009-08-19T10:36:00.014-04:00

I've been meaning to get around to reviewing the latest Bob Dylan CD, Together Through Life.

Since it was released in April and it's now August, most reviews have already been out. But this was always on my "To Do" list, and I feel like I need to weigh in before moving on with my life.

Besides, Dylan music is timeless for the most part. Even if I wanted to re-review 1964's Bringing It All Back Home, for instance, it would be appropriate, because Bob Dylan never goes out of style.

Er, correct that. He HAS endured several creative slumps in his career.

Most recently it was in the late 1980's - early 1990's, though things were shaky for awhile with 1969's awful Self Portrait, which may or may not have been intentional (maybe Bobbie will clarify that one himself in the second installment of his excellent Chronicles book series, the first volume of which came out in 2007).

Dylan's music has been on the upswing again starting with 1997's excellent Time Out of Mind, and then following that with Love and Theft (2001) and Modern Times (2006).

All good in their own rite, and all done in vastly different styles.

This upward trend in quality and diversity continues with Together Through Life. I think it's a wonderful collection of new songs.

It's a record whose wellspring was song #2 on the tracklist, "Life Is Hard." Dylan wrote that with sometime-Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter for My Own Love Song, a forthcoming film by French director Olivier Dahan.

When the writing combination clicked, Dylan and Hunter wrote an entire CD's worth of material, working quickly as per Dylan's habit.

While collaboration is not totally unknown for Dylan (he worked with Jacques Levy for the Hurricane sessions in 1976), it's rare. Whatever his muse, it certainly works here.

Of course over the years I've gotten behind Dylan big-time. I support him like I support The Beatles or The Rolling Stones as the major popular artists of my baby boomer generation.

Beyond that, though, the music is genuinely fascinating. A person could come to this CD for the first time, without knowing anything about Dylan's career, and jump right into its catchy rhythms.

Dylan continues to confound trends or expectation when it comes to style. This time out he's given us some calypso-based, age-appropriate, jazzy/mellow swing music.

Does that make sense? Somehow it all adds up.

Most of the songs on this album feel so relaxed and personal it sounds like the band could be playing live in your living room.

I bought this CD on the day of its release and played nothing else for three weeks. I'm still playing it on in my car. My current favorite is "Jolene," a rollicking, honky-tonk song that straightforwardly praises a woman (also rare for Dylan), and which owes nothing to the other namesake "Jolene" song by Dolly Parton.

That's not to say the subject matter is light. Dylan sings-talks his way through a hardscrabble, shadowy underworld which one reviewer suggests sounds like a lawless border town or a back-room card game. Settings conjured up to me are Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas -- backwater quickstops down the lower middle of the country.

Together Through Life was recorded using Tom Petty's longtime guitarist Mike Campbell and Los Lobos co-founder David Hidalgo -- whose Creole accordion sets the mood on the opening song, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," and then throughout.

As usual, Dylan uses tales of love and sex to get to deeper matters of mortal discontentment and spiritual transcendence. "This Dream Of You" is an exact sample of that.

Dylan said in an interview about this CD, "The music was inspired by mid-20th century Chess and Sun label recordings." Indeed. While the ghosts of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf stomp through most of the tracks, the influences go even deeper.

John Bunyan's 1679 poem, "A Treatise of the Fear of God" is said to be the inspiration for "Forgetful Heart," the most rueful song on this otherwise romping collection.

Dylan historian Sean Wilentz has noted that "the fourth part of the day" that Dylan evokes on "I Feel a Change Comin' On" refers to an Old Testament passage (Nehemiah 9:3) about penitence and paying heaven its due.

Finding allusions has always been half the fun while listening to Dylan's music. On Together Through Life, the other half involves plainer pursuits, like drinking with friends, shaking what you've got, and living for the moment, come what may.

I've come to love Dylan's growl, I really have. It's because it's not forced. The slower-tempo songs on this CD work because you can actually hear Dylan enunciating.

On "My Wife’s Home Town," Dylan "borrows" the melody of Willie Dixon’s "I Just Want to Make Love to You." He turns in a deliciously sly vocal, topped off by a wicked cackle as he contemplates a relationship that has possibly turned murderous.

The final track, "It’s All Good," turns the popular American phrase on its cheek, as Dylan laments a world sinking into triteness. But the song never loses its beat or groove.

Yes, there are plenty of moments here when Dylan simply rocks.

But that's the iconic Dylan for you. He keeps inventing new wrinkles by building upon the past. He scores credits for simply KNOWING all that ancient folk and Renaissance stuff.

But don't let that get in the way of anything. The music is GOOD.

Bob Dylan, our bard from Malibu, our national poet, has delivered again.

Does My Niece Really Read This Blog?

2009-08-14T07:32:00.011-04:00

My 20 year-old niece has told me on numerous occasions, "Uncle Kilter, I really enjoy reading your blog."

I believe her.

However, she has never once discussed anything specific I've scribbled down when we're face to face. Nor has she ever left a written comment on any of my posts.

I'm wondering if I should be suspicious.

So let's put her to the test, shall we? Let's have some fun.

Oh dear niece of mine, do you REALLY read my blog?

Her name is Jennie ( ). Normally I don't reveal last names on this site. But to make this as easy as possible for her to discover she's been "tagged," I'll make an exception today. After all, she might happen to do a search of her own name, or maybe one of her 948 Facebook friends will.

Let's get down some other facts and trivia.

Jennie's from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Currently she's a junior at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

That's where I live now, too. Except we don't see enough of each other since she lives in the dorms and is busy with college life (I understand that, but hey Jennie, I like to go out drinking, too!).

As you can see from her picture above, she's cute. She looks good in a bikini. At times she can be rather silly, which is how you'd want any twenty year-old female to be.

Jennie's also smart, getting straight A's throughout her school career. She wants to be a nurse, which means she's kind hearted and patient and is good with details (unlike Uncle Kilter).

She likes sports. She may even be considered a jock. Her football team is the Pittsburg Steelers (who always seem to plummet my team, the Jets).

She's a great basketball player. She won the M.V.P. award of her conference in her senior year at high school. The Moravaian team is very good, though, going 21-7 last year, and she's a little overmatched at this level. At 5'5", she's considered "small."

But I'd still take her for my personal all-star team. Her attitude about her chances for a lot of playing time this upcoming season remain good. She's a team player and is always cheerful and spirited.

It's been fun to watch her grow up from rambunctious little girl to awkward teenager to lovely young adult.

She's had a number of boyfriends over the years, but is currently single. Better hurry up, guys, it won't be that way forever!

She also deals with me quite well, thank you. That is no small feat. Her twin brother and older sister, both nice people in their own rite, don't know what to make of my energy, my ideas, and my lifestyle. (My mental labyrinth?)

But Jennie likes me. That is why I have no qualms about teasing her like this.

She is the one who plows forward in my direction, asking me questions about myself, seems interested in learning about me, and flatters me with comments like, "Uncle Kilter, I really enjoy reading your blog."

But does she?

Jennie, do you REALLY enjoy reading my blog?