Yearbook, Chapter 1

She wrote the following in my 1963 high school yearbook. "To a smart boy who I wish I had half of his brains.  Be good and don't keep your nose in a book.  It's too cute to be in there.  Lot's of luck at college.  Love, Bubbles"

Immediately after reading it a second time, I chased after her down the high school corridor.  She hadn't gotten far. Perhaps she was holding back to give me time to catch up.

Hey, I said.  "Where're you going?"

"Home.  I'm done for the day.  What about you?"

I noticed her nose as well.  It was definitely pretty cute.  For a second, a cold chill went up my spine.  My ex-girlfriend had broken up with me a couple of weeks ago, but perhaps she still felt I was off limits.  I would hate for Bubbles's nose to be on the receiving end of a punch.

"What a coincidence.  I am, too.  (I cut my last class.)  Let me walk you home."

"Sure!"

We walked out the nearest exit together and headed towards West Second Street.  

"So...what're you doing after graduation?"

"Well...my girlfriends and I are planning on going to the closest bar and drinking beer.  I just turned eighteen."

"Can I join your group?"

"Why not?"

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry."

"Wanna grab something to eat at Whalen's (drug store lunch counter)?"

"Good idea, Bennie!"

Erin Burnett

Erin Burnett of CNN interviewed Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson yesterday (April 24, 2024) on the Columbia University campus in New York City.

She asked him the following question:  How is Free Palestine anti-Semitic?  The tone of her question gave me the distinct impression that she didn't believe it was.

Is she ignorant or biased?

Free Palestine (From the River to the Sea) calls for the elimination of the State of Israel.  Such State of Israel represents the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own, just as other people around the world have theirs.

The Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank have been offered a state of their own multiple time in the last 100 years and each time they rejected it?  Why?  Because they do not accept the existence of a Jewish state or Jewish people in that part of the world where Jews have been for thousands of years.

Now, impressionable young American college students are taking up the cause of a people (Hamas is the government of Gaza) who don't believe in democracy, don't believe in women's rights, don't believe in gay rights, don't believe in freedom of speech and don't believe in the right of protest.    

These young college students don't distinguish between Israelis and American Jews.  They demand freedom of speech and assembly to denounce Israel while at the same time denying basic freedoms for Jewish students through various forms of intimidation.

A Jew doesn't have to live in Israel, but without Israel, Jews in the diaspora would be in a much more precarious position.  Remember the Holocaust.  The Jews in Europe had no where to go to escape.

In 1939, the German liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg with about 900 Jewish refugees.  They were denied entry into Cuba, the United States and Canada.  The ship and its passengers were forced to return to Europe.  Israel would have welcomed them with open arms.  Unfortunately, Israel didn't exist in 1939.  

Brasilia

Brasilia is the federal capital of Brazil. The city is located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region and is not part of any state.

Brasilia was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on the 21st of April, 1960 (64 years ago today), to serve as the new national capital. It is estimated to be Brazil's third-most populous city after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (the former capital).

Brasília was a planned city developed by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim Cardozo in 1956 in a scheme to move the capital to a more central location. The landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx.

The city's design divides it into numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector, and the Embassy Sector. 

Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 due to its modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban planning.

All three branches of Brazil's federal government are located in the city: executive, legislative and judiciary. Brasília also hosts 124 foreign embassies.

The city's international airport connects it to all other major Brazilian cities and some international destinations.  Many years ago, on a trip to the city of Sao Luis in Brazil, my flight from Sao Paulo stopped at the airport in Brasilia.

Laid out in the shape of an airplane, its "fuselage" is the Monumental Axis, a pair of wide avenues flanking a large park. In the "cockpit" is Praça dos Três Poderes, named for the 3 branches of government surrounding it.

It can be stated that Brazil followed the example of the USA in that 170 years before Brasilia was founded, the city of Washington was founded for the same reason: to create a centrally located capital not part of any state.  Washington, in the USA of 1790, was centrally located between New Hampshire to the north and Georgia to the south.

More Oswego Friends

 I ran into more Oswego friends at the twenty-five year Oswego High School reunion in August of 1988.  Bob Thayer didn't recognize me at first because of my beard, but he told me later that he knew me by my voice.

In 2005, I was in Oswego and looked up Bob.  We had dinner together and later he introduced me to his son.  Subsequently, we lost touch.

Also at the reunion, I spent a lot of time talking to Linda Harper (Kulp).  In the yearbook, she had written, "This may sound a bit dumb - but these last three years have been the best I've known.  Thanks for the inspirations or your inspirations I should say - I must confess when you go away to college I'll probably miss you - as I would miss a best friend."

Linda and I got together again with our sons at a football game at Penn and again with my New York friend (Joe) in Oswego.  However, our friendship disintegrated after she got involved with the right wing Tea Party movement with which I disagreed.

I strongly believe Nancy Kane wanted to be my girlfriend sophomore and junior years of high school.  I was put off by her aggressive behavior, but in retrospect it wouldn't have been such a bad idea.  

I remember Nancy calling me at my home around the time of our high school graduation to mend fences and we had a nice chat.  About 40 years later I called her (now known as Maria).  I asked her a lot of questions about what she had been doing, but she didn't seem very interested in my life.  

Betty Tucker (Sanfelippo) found me on the Internet around the time of our 50th reunion in 2013.  It coincided with my wedding to Cristina, July 13th, so I couldn't attend.

Betty and I met a few years later in South Bend, Indiana.  She was on her way from Oswego to her home in Wisconsin and I was there visiting my son who was there for work.  We met again in New York City some months later.  At least I still have one friend from dear old Oswego High.   

Doctor Zhivago

The Russian author Boris Pasternak's book, Doctor Zhivago, was first published in 1957.  I became aware of this novel when I noticed my mother, an avid reader of books, reading it (translated into English).

In 1965, Doctor Zhivago was made into a movie, directed by David Lean and which starred Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger, Ralph Richardson, Geraldine Chaplin and Tom Cortenay.  

In 1965, I was taking a course in Russian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.  We read such classics as Crime and Punishment, Dead Souls, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Death of Ivan Ilych.

Our professor, a Russian emigre, arranged for the class to see Doctor Zhivago the movie for free at a theater where it was showing in center city Philadelphia.  The only problem was that it would be at 8 AM on a Saturday morning.  I enjoyed the movie very much, especially Lara's theme.

Doctor Zhivago was nominated for ten Oscars, winning five:  Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction - Color, Best Cinematography - Color, Best Costume Design - Color and Best Music Score.

Doctor Zhivago is an epic movie that runs for 193 minutes, more than three hours.  However, the essence of the film is a love story between Yuri (Sharif) and Lara (Christie).

They meet during World War I.  Yuri is a doctor and Lara a nurse taking care of wounded Russian soldiers.  

Yuri and Lara are both married to other people, but not passionately.  As a result of working together at a field hospital, they fall in love, but remain faithful to their spouses.  When the war ends, Yuri and Lara return to their respective homes.  

Yuri, who likes to write poetry, runs into trouble with the new Soviet government which considers his writing to be anti-communist.  To be safe, he arranges a trip from Moscow with his family to their country home in the Ural Mountains.  

One day, Yuri goes to a nearby town and by coincidence meets Lara.  They start having an affair.

At the same time, a civil war breaks out in Russia between the pro-communist Red Army and the anti-communist White Army.  On one occasion, when Yuri is returning from a liaison with Lara to his family's home, he is kidnapped by a group of Red Army soldiers and forced to be their doctor.

After two years, Yuri is finally able to escape.  He returns to discover that his family has left, returning to Moscow and eventually they move to Paris.

Yuri and Lara start living together in his family's country home.  Lara becomes endangered because of her husband's political connections.  A friend offers to help her escape, but without Yuri.  

Years later in Moscow, while on a trolley, Yuri spots Lara walking on the street.  When he is able to get off and tries to follow her, he has a massive heart attack and dies.  Another example of a love story that doesn't end happily.