It was a dark and stormy night

October 31, 1994, was a miserable, wet, and windy day. Later that day, it turned into that famous “it was a dark and stormy night”.

I had been at my new job at CIGNA Insurance for roughly two weeks. After returning from a very soggy business lunch, I was drying my socks in the microwave (seriously) when the phone call came from Minnesota.

My mom had called to let me know that my dad had had a heart attack while eating his grilled cheese sandwich at lunch. Although their kitchen was quickly filled by an entire team of paramedics, they couldn’t bring him back, and a few days later, we made the trip to Minnesota to attend his funeral.  THIS is one of the songs that was played at his funeral:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ygJD8dxi3o

I didn’t present dad’s eulogy (although I DID give “the final speech” for both my mother and my father-in-law when it came time for their final goodbyes). I have no idea what the priest said during my dad’s eulogy, but I’ll always remember a comment that my cousin Jean Bobzien said during the funeral lunch:

“You know, he was a really good guy.”

Dad never made a pile of money, and nobody is ever going to erect a building in his honor. Unlike John McCain, he did not have two former presidents give eulogies at his funeral, but he DID have the same song played at his funeral.  In today’s world, though, we’d all be better off if there were more people, like him, whose highest accolade was that they were a “really good guy”.

Dad was a lifelong Democrat, but he didn't consider the Republicans to be bad people. As a result, he would have LOVED the eulogy that Barack Obama gave at McCain's funeral:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GfjgRhPmaM



Later on in the evening of October 31, the Bears played the Packers at Soldier Field, in some of the worst playing conditions imaginable. Ultimately, the Packers prevailed 33-6.

http://archive.jsonline.com/sports/packers/229783091.html/

Here’s where the story gets a little weird:

George Halas, founder of the Chicago Bears, ALSO died on Halloween, 11 years before my dad passed. For that reason, Halloween 1994 will always remain as one of the most memorable Halloweens that I have ever experienced.

When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie …

That’s amore.

Dean Martin recorded “That’s Amore” way back in 1953. You’ve likely heard the song a million times, but in case you have forgotten some of the words, here’s the lyrics:

(In Napoli where love is king
When boy meets girl here's what they say)

When a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore

When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore

Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That's amore

When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet
You're in love
When you walk in a dream but you know you're not dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli
That's amore

(When a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore

When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore

Bells will…

Dean Martin wasn’t the first, or the last, singer to associate the moon with romance, but the Chinese are about to embark on a project that takes things in an entirely different direction.

The Chinese city of Chengdu, in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing "illumination satellites" which will shine in tandem with the real moon but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/china-launch-artificial-moon-illuminate-city-streets-181019071407280.html

The first man-made moon will launch from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, with three more to follow in 2022 if the first test goes well, said Wu Chunfeng, head of Tian Fu New Area Science Society, the organization responsible for the project.

By reflecting light from the sun, the satellites could replace streetlamps in urban areas, saving an estimated 1.2bn yuan ($170m) a year in electricity costs for Chengdu, if the man-made moons illuminate an area of 50 square kilometers.

The Chinese are also planning to launch a lunar probe names Chang’e – 4 (named after the Chinese moon goddess) to explore the dark side of the moon, which Pink Floyd would probably appreciate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLOth-BuCNY

Romantic couples everywhere are still going to look lovingly at the moon, but the Chinese have managed to take a little of the romance out of the experience.

在那不勒斯，爱情是王道

当男孩遇到女孩时，他们说的是什么）

当月亮像一个大披萨馅饼一样击中你的眼睛

那太好了

当世界似乎闪耀着你已经喝了太多酒

那太好了

钟声响起了铃声，铃声咆哮着

你会唱“Vita bella”

Hearts会玩ti ti-tippy-tay，tippy-tippy-tay

像同性恋塔拉特拉

当星星让你流口水就像意大利面食一样

那太好了

当你在街上跳舞，脚下有一片云

你恋爱

当你走进一个梦想，但你知道你不是在做梦

Scuzza me，但你看，回到老那不勒斯

那太好了

（当月亮像一个大披萨馅饼一样击中你的眼睛

那太好了

当世界似乎闪耀着你已经喝了太多酒

那太好了

钟声会......

The most trusted man in America, part 3

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll.

 He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War, the Dawson's Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon.

He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase, "And that's the way it is," followed by the date of the broadcast.

The journalism program at Arizona State University was named in honor of former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in 1984.The relationship started when Tom Chauncey, the longtime owner of the CBS affiliate in Phoenix and a leading supporter of journalism education at ASU, contacted his old friend in an effort to help the program. An endowment on behalf of the program was soon established in Cronkite’s name, and the school was named in honor of the former CBS anchor.

Attaching the name of the nation’s most prominent and respected journalist to ASU’s program gave the school an immediate boost and national recognition, but that was just the beginning. Cronkite became intimately involved with ASU, advising the journalism school’s leadership, meeting with students and faculty, and traveling to Arizona each year to personally give the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to a media leader.

Since Cronkite's death on July 17, 2009, the school has renewed its commitment to carrying on his ideals and values.

“The values that Mr. Cronkite embodies – excellence, integrity, accuracy, fairness, objectivity – we try to instill in our students each and every day,” said Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan. “There is no better role model for our faculty or our students. There’s no doubt that our close affiliation with Walter Cronkite has helped the school become a national journalism powerhouse over the past 20 years, and will continue to help us as we grow into the best professional journalism program in the nation.”

This year’s winner of the Cronkite award, Anderson Cooper of CNN, was announced at a luncheon at the Sheraton in Phoenix yesterday, October 17. During his remarks to the audience, Cooper told the audience that the best way to handle attacks against the media is “more reporting”.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2018/10/17/cnn-anderson-cooper-walter-cronkite-arizona-state-university-award/1676350002/

The world that we live in today is far different from the one that we lived in when Walter Cronkite was on the air. If you go to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, you can see a sign hanging there that tells you what to look for if you’re worried that your country may be slipping into fascism. You can read their twelve early warning signs of fascism at the link below.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/

If shouldn’t take you long to figure out that the Trump administration is guilty of EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. 

 Trump’s favorite news channel, FOX “news” is nothing more than a propaganda channel for the Republican Party, which would qualify it as “controlled mass media”. Donald Trump talks with Sean Hannity on a regular basis, since he seems to think that he is a credible source. At the same time, he criticizes LEGITIMATE news sources, like CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington Post as “fake news”. Unless you’ve consumed the Republican “Kool aid”, you’ll realize that they ARE highly reliable sources of information. The New York Times has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes since the inception of the award in 1918. Prior to this year, the Washington Post had won 63. In April, the Washington Post was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes, capturing journalism’s most prestigious honor for its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and for its coverage of the 2017 Senate race in Alabama, in which The Post broke the story of sexual misconduct allegations against the Republican candidate, Roy Moore.

The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards honoring excellence in broadcast journalism were established in 1942 by Jessie Ball duPont in memory of her husband, Alfred I. duPont. The duPont Awards, administered since 1968 by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, are considered to be the most prestigious broadcast journalism awards and the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes, which are also administered at the Journalism School.

In 2017, public broadcasting was the cream of the crop. PBS had 23 awards, WBGH in Boston had 21 (many shared with PBS), National Public Radio had earned 17. CBS and ABC each had 13, NBC 7, and CNN 6. MSNBC and Court TV had two, and National Geographic, CNBC and Current TV all have one. Fox News Channel?

Zero.

In February of this year, the Trump administration announced plans to cut 97% of the funding for public broadcasting in the 2019 budget.

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/02/14/trump-budget-lacerate-arts-media/https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/02/14/trump-budget-lacerate-arts-media/

The odd thing about society today is that in 2011, Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show, broadcast “fake news” every day, yet he was the most trusted man in America

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2011/10/most-trusted-man-in-america.htmlhttp://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2011/10/most-trusted-man-in-america.html

 How can you tell if a politician is lying?

If his lips are moving.

Since the Washington Post has documented that Donald Trump has uttered more than 5000 lies since his inauguration, he has definitely put “the ring of truth” to the above statement. As of today, more than 1 million copies of "Fear," Bob Woodward's new book about Donald Trump, have been released into the world. In the index, under "Trump, Donald," is this entry: "as liar."

https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/09/18/are-we-still-pretending-donald-trump-isnt-lyinghttps://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/09/18/are-we-still-pretending-donald-trump-isnt-lying

In spite of the tendency for politicians to stretch the truth a bit, it definitely should surprise you to learn that the “most trusted man in America” 5 years ago was a politician:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/03/

In my opinion, Bill’s wife Hillary is one of the most qualified people to ever run for the office of president, but she is also the most demonized:

Since Anderson Cooper was just given the Walter Cronkite award, most people would (or should) consider him to be the most trusted man in America, but his allusion to the attacks on news sources reminds us of the fact that journalism can sometimes be a dangerous profession.

In June of 1976, Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, was killed by a car bomb because of his coverage of the Mafia. In November of 2016, the Republic also received death threats because they endorsed Hillary Clinton for president instead of the tweeter-in-chief.

Earlier this month, a Washington Post columnist named Jamal Khasoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The link below goes into more detail about his death, and it also references the significant financial ties that Trump has with Saudi Arabia.

https://www.democratichub.com/posts/15898/jamal-khasoggihttps://www.democratichub.com/posts/15898/jamal-khasoggi

As a result, Trump is doing as much as he can to draw suspicion away from the Saudis:

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, President Trump said he wanted answers in the disappearance and suspected murder of a dissident Saudi journalist but stressed the importance of protecting business and security ties with Saudi Arabia, as Washington tried to navigate a dispute pitting the kingdom against another regional power, Turkey. Since “Davos in the Desert” is being held next  week, it will be VERY INTERESTING to see who shows up – and who doesn’t. On the morning of October 18, Treasury Secretary (after consultation with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), announced that he has decided to withdraw from the conference.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/18/davos-in-the-desert-once-a-sign-of-saudi-arabias-clout-the-spectacle-now-highlights-its-isolation/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ca750be6be3chttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/18/davos-in-the-desert-once-a-sign-of-saudi-arabias-clout-the-spectacle-now-highlights-its-isolation/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ca750be6be3c

Last year, at the inaugural conference (officially the Future Investment Initiative), there were more than 3,800 attendees, Riyadh said. They came from more than 90 countries, representing a vast share of the global economy.

Khasoffi disappeared on October 2, 2018. He is a Saudi Arabian journalist, author, and a former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel. He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi Arabian progressives.

Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi Arabian government had "banned him from Twitter" and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government. Khashoggi had been sharply critical of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, and the country's king, Salman of Saudi Arabia. He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.

While he was in his self=imposed exile, he wrote some columns for the Washington Post. His last column was received by Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor, a day after he disappeared. In the column, he bemoans the fact there is only one country in the Arab world (Tunisia) that truly has a “free press”. Jordan, Morocco, and Kuwait are classified as “partly free”, but the rest of the Arab world is “not free”. (Since Al Jazeera is based in Qatar, that country should also be considered at least “partly free”.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/2018/10/17/adfc8c44-d21d-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html?utm_term=.8e146d3705c0

Under the title of its newspaper, the Washington Post lists the phrase “Democracy Dies in Darkness” – an idea that both Anderson Cooper and Jamal Khasoggi would fully embrace.

The Shephard of the hills

The Shepherd of the Hills is a book written in 1907 by author Harold Bell Wright and illustrated by Frank G. Cootes. It depicts a mostly fictional story of mountain folklore and forgiveness, and has been translated into seven languages since its release. If you read the plot summary at the link below, it almost feels like a modern version of Romeo and Juliet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_the_Hills

The novel has been the basis for four films, the first in 1919, and a television movie. The best-known version is the 1941 film of the same name starring Harry Carey and John Wayne. 

The Shepherd of the Hills was a popular outdoor drama staged from May to October, from 1960 until what was initially announced as its final performance on October 19, 2013, in Branson, Missouri. However, the play was brought back the next year with a reduced performance schedule beginning on May 23, 2014. The outdoor play features more than eighty actors, forty horses, and an actual nightly burning of the cabin.

The link below is the official website of the current operation:

https://theshepherdofthehills.com/

To be accurate, you would have to say that “the shepherd of the hills” has a happy ending, but there is ANOTHER “Shepard of the hills” story that doesn’t.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard

Matthew  Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die in the nearby town of Laramie (elevation 7165) on the night of October 6, 1998. He died on October 12, almost exactly 20 years ago. Perpetrators Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney were arrested shortly after the attack, and charged with first degree murder. Each of them received two consecutive life sentences.

At the time of Matthew Shepard’s death, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation were not prosecutable as hate crimes.

On March 20, 2007, the Matthew Shepard Act (H.R. 1592) was introduced as federal bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers with 171 co-sponsors. Shepard's parents attended the introduction ceremony. The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 3, 2007. Similar legislation passed in the Senate on September 27, 2007 (S. 1105), however then-President George W. Bush indicated he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. The Democratic leadership dropped the amendment in response to opposition from conservative groups and Bush, and because the measure was attached to a defense bill there was a lack of support from antiwar Democrats.

On December 10, 2007, congressional powers attached bipartisan hate crimes legislation to a Department of Defense Authorization bill, although it failed to pass. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said she was "still committed to getting the Matthew Shepard Act passed". Pelosi planned to get the bill passed in early 2008, although she did not succeed. Following his election as President, Barack Obama stated that he was committed to passing the Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives debated expansion of hate crimes legislation on April 29, 2009. During the debate, Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina called the "hate crime" labeling of Shepard's murder a "hoax". Foxx later called her comments "a poor choice of words

The House passed the act, designated H.R. 1913, by a vote of 249 to 175. Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, and a bipartisan coalition introduced the bill in the Senate on April 28,and  it had 43 cosponsors as of June 17, 2009. The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted as an amendment to S.1390 by a vote of 63–28 on July 15, 2009.

On October 22, 2009, the Senate passed the act by a vote of 68–29. President Obama signed the measure into law on October 28, 2009.

Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.  Following her son's murder, Judy Shepard became a prominent LGBT rights activist and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation. 

Shepard's death inspired notable films, novels, plays, songs, and other works.

Matthew Shepard’s story does not have a happy ending, but in a way, it does.

Much as other tragic events (such as the murder of Emmett till in 1955) ultimately resulted in legislation that protected vulnerable victims, his death paved the way for legislation that added further protect to individuals who have a “non- traditional” sexual orientation,

In July,2012, the SF Gay Men’s Choir performed in Laramie, Wyoming to benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and honor the memory of Matthew Shepard, whose tragedy transformed the world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg-vN7cHd38

In August of this year, our country bore witness to John McCain’s passing, and his three funeral ceremonies. The last one was held at the Washington National Cathedral, and two of men that defeated him for office (George W. Bush and Barack Obama) paid tribute to him.

This month, it’s Matthew Shepard’s turn to be honored.

Just a few days ago, it was announced that Matthew Shepard’s ashes ill be interred at the Washington National Cathedral, which will make him one of 300 people (including Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller) who are also interred there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEGCfcVRjLY

Somehow, that just seems like the right thing to do.

A collective gasp went up from the crowd.

Most of us can remember exactly where we were when we heard that JFK was shot, and most of us can remember exactly where we were when we first heard Neil Armstrong’s words on July 20, 1969. Most of us can also remember exactly where we were on October 3, 1994, when the verdict was delivered about the O.J. Simpson trial.

In my case, I was in a room of about 200 insurance people at a meeting at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. Someone had turned on a TV in the room due to the fact that the decision by the jury was expected just before noon. When the news finally spilled forth, virtually everyone in the room expressed shock and dismay, and our belief that a great injustice had occurred was vindicated a little more than 2 years later, when a civil court jury ordered him to pay $25 million in punitive damages to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The week before, the jury had awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman’s family. Since Simpson did not have anywhere near that kind of money, it’s difficult to say how much money the families eventually got.

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/11/us/jury-decides-simpson-must-pay-25-million-in-punitive-award.html

Like many athletes, O.J. had a rough start in life. His father, Jimmy Lee Simpson,  was a well-known drag queen in the San Francisco Bay Area. Later in life, Jimmy Simpson announced that he was gay. He died of AIDS

Simpson grew up in San Francisco and lived with his family in the housing projects of the Potrero Hill neighborhood. In his early teenage years, he joined a street gang called the Persian Warriors and was briefly incarcerated at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. Future wife Marquerite, his childhood sweetheart, described Simpson as "really an awful person then" after his third arrest. A meeting with Willie Mays during which the baseball star encouraged Simpson to avoid trouble helped persuade him to reform. At Galileo High School (currently Galileo Academy of Science and Technology) in San Francisco, Simpson played for the school football team, the Galileo Lions.

Orenthal James Simpson (“juice”) lived a charmed life – at least for a period of time. When he played for USC, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1968, and then went on to play in the NFL for 11 seasons. Most of his time in the NFL was with the Buffalo Bills, but he played his last two years with the San Francisco 49’ers. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He holds the record for the single season yards-per-game average, which stands at 143.1. He is the only player to ever rush for over 2,000 yards in the 14-game regular season NFL format.

Simpson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. After retiring from football, he began new careers in acting and football broadcasting.

When Nicole and O.J. divorced in 1992, his net worth was $10.8 million. Due to his legal expenses, this net worth today has diminished to around $3 million.

In 2007, Simpson ran into legal problems once again when he was arrested for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and taking sports memorabilia, which he claimed had been stolen from him, at gunpoint. On October 3, 2008 (EXACTLY 14 years after his acquittal in the 1994 trial), he was found guilty of 12 charges related to the incident, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and sentenced to 33 years in prison. On July 20, 2017, he was granted parole, and released from prison on October 1, 2017.

O.J. offers a couple of interesting life lessons:

1) Being born into poverty does not mean that you can’t achieve fame and fortune

2) If you achieve fame and fortune, there is no guarantee that it will last