Author Archives: gonzo66

Letter to a conservative Republican friend, Nov 13, 2012

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Nov 6 should be a serious wake up call for your Grand Old (soon to be extinct) Party. If you look at the demographics, you see that the Democratic candidate won in the urban areas of the country, and Romney carried most of the rural areas. I think that’s significant. I think most if not all of the rural areas in the country are where you’re more likely to find the radical fringe, especially the Christian Right. But they don’t have the population to win a National election.  The South will always go Republican even if Charley Manson was the candidate because of LBJ’s civil rights laws in 1965, but the South has never been able to carry a big election either. You put it all together and you get Florida, New England and California. If the solid Midwest chimes in, that’s it, and that’s exactly what happened on Nov 6. None of the rest mattered.

Romney was genuinely surprised that he didn’t win by a landslide.  The sanguine predictions of GOP pundits regarding the probable outcome of the 2012 election were not based on anything but their humble personal opinions. They, including Romney, wanted to believe it so strongly they simply talked themselves into it as if it were gospel.  A variation of Hitler’s “Big Lie”. The Nov 6 results also show that whiny, demeaning and mostly untrue attack ads that Romney became famous for in Pennsylvania, sponsored by big money interest groups did exactly the opposite of their intent. They were simply an irritant and were ignored by voters, the ones that weren’t actively turned off by them. So interestingly, big money doesn’t seem to work. Eight billion dollars serving only to make TV stations rich.

The reality is that Florida, New England, the Midwest and California  will never support most or any of the right wing social programs even if they did like the concept of fiscal responsibility.   If the GOP puts the specter of Bush and the continuing joke of Palin together with the last slate of the 2012 GOP candidates up again in 2016,  they will behind the same eight ball, especially if Obama manages to improve the economy significantly in the next four years.

The GOP has some good ideas regarding fiscal responsibility and but their social programs will never fly in the new demographics of voters. Home lovin’, corn fed, pussy chasin’  white boys like you and I are no longer the majority in American society. Hispanics, women, blacks now turn elections. Most if not all of the self acknowledged “only real conservative”, Rick Santorum’s platform would get him shot dead within a month if he were elected. The GOP has to figure out what works now, and what doesn’t work, which means that the likes of Bachmann, Palin and Santorum need to be shown the door. The rest of the 2012 candidates are just plain silly and need to be shunned like the Amish do it.

The GOP needs to be re-thought and re-designed from the ground up. If they’re unwilling to do this, they will become a footnote in history.

Film Review: “Skyfall” (2012)

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50 years of James Bond, a perennial “Man’s Man”. Men want to be him, women want to be with him and adventure follows him.

The 23rd Bond film, “Skyfall” deftly but subtly nods to the past 50 years as it sets the stage for the new millennium Bond. Filmed in magnificent Istanbul, China and Scotland, the cinematography and action scenes are perfection. “Skyfall” produces all the glamor and excitement it’s devotees have come to expect and more.

The film transitions Bond into a new world, and accordingly, many of his previous associates and logistics are in the process of renewal. At 43 years of age with greying whiskers, Daniel Craig is getting a little long in the tooth for the rigors of this kind of physical action. But he does an excellent interpretation of Bond and I think he has a few more episodes in him.

Having seen all 50 years of Bond- the first one as a high school student, allow me to point out some of the accouterments of the past in this excellently conceived and directed film.

In “Dr. No” (1962), Sean Connery flashed a brand new style of wristwatch in one of the action scenes, a black face Rolex Submariner. This was a radical departure for wrist wear and ushered in the era of “sport watches”. I lusted so heavily for one I drooled for years, but they cost US$200.00 in the early 60s, a lot of money from a watch. It was years later when I finally obtained one and I wore it for many years. It is still a superb timepiece, and phenomenally expensive now.

1964’s “Goldfinger” introduced the ”Bond Car”, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 replete with numerous gadgets, including a rudimentary GPS screen, passenger ejection seat and revolving license plates. Jerry Lee, Owner of WBEB Radio in Philadelphia, PA originally bought the car from the Aston Martin Company in 1969 for US$12,000.  The DB5 was sold for 2,600,000 British Pounds Sterling in 2010. The silver car in mint condition is still capable of 145mph and most the gadgets still work.

Cutting away to this week’s iteration of the series, Bond progressively moves into the new millennium and as he does so, he gives brief flashes of the past, but you have to look quickly. In the action scene that opens the film, you get a brief glimpse of him checking the time on a newer version of a Rolex Submariner. Then in later scenes, he switches to an Omega chronometer, which has been used in most of the more modern episodes.

The Bond car for “Skyfall” is reminiscent of the “Goldfinger” car, but if you check out the rear right of the car as it goes by, the logo shows it to be a DB6, built between 1965 and 1971. The practical differences between the two cars are negligible. The license plate number of the DB5 in ‘Skyfall’ is BMT 216A, the same as it was in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”.  Unclear why they didn’t find a DB5, possibly so expensive they didn’t want to blow that kind of money on the car and then trash it.

Best parts:  The 15-minute action sequence that trashes half of beautiful Istanbul. British singer Adele singing the title song.

Not so best features:  The actual plot for “Skyfall” is rather thin and a little too prolonged. The magnificent castle in Scotland was fake.

A few minor plot issues, but still an excellent film and highly recommended. Worth a few extra bucks to see it on IMAX. Don’t sit too close to the screen.

I give it four and a half of five shaken, not stirred martinis.

Dr. Crippen gets an EMG (almost)

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EMG Doctor (Thick Eastern European Accent, one eye patched): “Yas…yas….my lovely…..ve vill INTERRIGATE ze nerves and ve vill find ze TRUTH….you and I…… ze truth will try to hide, but we VILL find it……you and me…..together…..(slurp)”

(Cut to routine meeting with maximum administrative leader and pillar of wisdom, Dr. X

Dr. X: “So…..how’s Guillian and Barre. I see you’re walking”

Moi: (Idly) “Yeah, getting better…..scheduled for an EMG at two”

Dr. X: “WHAT!!!! What do you need that for? You said you’re getting better!”

Moi: (suspiciously) “Dunno, Max said I needed it for completeness”

Dr. X: (Sneers)” Yeah? Well, you tell Max you’ll get one right after he gets one, if he can still walk. Do you know those things hurt like a BITCH. It’s medieval. They stick needles in you and then run electricity through them. If it doesn’t seem like it hurts enough they turn the juice up. You can hear the screams all over the 8th floor!”

Moi: (sharply clinical interest developing) “HUH…..I didn’t sign up for that! He didn’t say anything about HURTING!!

Dr. X: (Smirks) “Well unless you want to squeal like a pig in hot oil and be carried out of there covered in cheap Walmart band-aids, you better call Max up and re-negotiate!”

Moi: (Cheerfully) “Hi Max……(imitating Monty Python) “I’m getting better”

Max: (jovially) “No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a minute”.

Moi: (whines hopefully) “Um…(explains situation)……do I really need this EMG if I’m getting better……?

Max (whispers to companion): “Damned doctor patients…biggest pussies in the universe”.

Lessons learned from the election of Nov 6, 2012

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1.  American voters are a lot like court juries. They have an uncanny ability to cut through hype, glitz and spin to get at fundamental issues. Last night the American jury cut through stellar amounts of partisan bullshit to re-affirm that a spectacularly weak candidate cannot be made acceptable by partisan psych-ops media anointing.  In the end, Romney was identified as what he was, a consolation prize that rose from the worst slate of presidential candidates in history.

2.  Last night also vividly demonstrated that a nonstop blitz of the most conceptually awful, insulting and mostly untrue political attack ads financed by groups no one ever heard of like the “Committee to form silk purses from sow’s ears.com” probably do the opposite of their intent. Everyone I know including myself pushed the “mute” button at first sight of any of them. Billions of dollars from special rich interests bent on psych-op coercion served only to make TV stations rich. Ignored by audiences.   A saga of greed, corruption and failure that makes Nixon look like an amateur and Charlie Manson a punk.

3.  The propensity for sour grapes amongst Republican losers is legendary, and nowhere more visible than the following pathetic wound-lick:

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/07/a-painful-night

Brought to you by none other than far right wing pundit Ben Stein, writer and producer of the impeccably stupid and totally inaccurate film “Expelled: No Intelligence Needed”, a cinematic pile of shit that generated the lowest rating ever from critics, including Roger Ebert who opined: “This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions, segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, etc.”

4.  The endless series of polls through the months meant nothing in the end and are now under suspicion for partisan manipulation. All the highly biased predictions from Republican pundits and soothsayers meant nothing. Krauthammer is hiding out in a New Orleans bar drinking heavily. The ridiculous and contemptible pseudo-film “2012: Obama’s America” that Republicans touted as a chronicle of the end of the world that voters were packing theaters around the country was in reality a millisecond long blip on the screen.

5.  Important:  last night proved that a political agenda cannot fly with American voters if there is a thinly veiled hidden agenda of unacceptability behind it. Romney and Ryan espoused a primary agenda of fiscal responsibility but it was also pointed out that their hidden agenda, especially as it pertains to Ryan, was a Santorum-like social repression that if ever enacted would foment rioting in the streets. If the GOP ever expects to win another Presidential election, it’s time for them to undergo some reality therapy, viz:

a)  The GOP needs to get back to it’s roots of fiscal responsibility without being dragged down by unacceptable social platforms that either no one cares about or will bring out vociferous non-partisan opposition that will drag them down.

b)  They need to evaluate the circumstances that, metaphorically speaking, brought the Star Wars Cantina barflies into a National election as serious candidates. The thought of Michelle Bachmann actually at some point having a Republican wave of support is something that really need to think about.  Newt Gingrich is so aggressively evil that he glows at night.  He played in a league where Romney will never be anything but a bat boy.

c)  They need to consider what the Tea Party has done to disrupt their credibility. That Sarah Palin still gets a spot on Fox News is something they need to think about at great length. She has all the credibility of Tiny Tim leading the Boston Philharmonic. Tabloids should beat her like a red headed step child every time she appears.  The National Enquirer should publish nude pictures of her sans airbrush

d)  They need to think critically about the terrible, frightening specter of Rick Santorum and the far Christian right and what they’re capable of doing to destroy any GOP credibility with moderate voters next time around. Historians will remember him as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the sinking ship.

“Politics is like the stock market: It’s a bad business for people who can’t afford to lose” (Nixon, 1968).

Some will march on a road of bones, others will be nailed up on telephone poles.  That’s the way it works.

Film Review: “Flight” (Denzel Washington)

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“Flight” is a film working 2009’s “Miracle on the Hudson” with some moralistic quirks showcasing Denzel Washington’s dramatic flair. It melds two diverse story lines together, one more interesting than the other.

The first explores the proposition that genius resists impairment.  Pilot Whip Whitaker is so good that even impaired by drugs and alcohol, he can creatively control the most unhinged situations better than the next sober guy. A proposition that has been debunked by meticulous practical performance studies.  Musicians and artists similarly opine that drugs augment their creativity, a notion that many such creative persons paid with their lives to debunk in the 60s and 70s.

The second story line is a simple a morality play about the evils of strong drink and drugs, done better many times in film.  “Days of Wine & Roses (Jack Lemmon, 1962),  “Lost weekend” (Ray Milland, 1945), among many others.

However, the combination of these two plots cancel each other out like matter and anti-matter yielding a tale of self-destruction and eventual redemption that descends into preachy melodrama and a thinly veiled promotion for a 12-step-program.  A superman that can come to life from a big league hangover to save the day under incredibly complex conditions but subsequently descends into the rehab resistant dregs of substance abuse? A bit of a stretch.

Serviceably directed by Robert Zemeckis, the action shots of the aircraft maneuvers are well done. Thereafter, Denzel Washington is good, but not that good. I’ve seen him better (Inside Man, 2006).  Don Cheadle applies an understated performance. The love interest angle is implausible and goes nowhere.

Best scenes:  The in-flight disaster avoidance maneuvers. James Badge Dale (The Grey, 2011) cameos as a rambling, out-of-context cancer patient. He steals the show in three minutes.

No so best scene: Gassed to the eyeballs Whip Whitaker countering a hangover with stimulant drugs.

Biggest scene stealer:  John Goodman.

Mediocre film punctuated with some isolated interesting scenes. My recommendation:  Wait till it comes out on Cable.

I give it 3 of 5 upside down passenger jets.

Hombres MC revisits Highway 61

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The original objective of the ride was to explore the “Natchez Trace”, a historical path extending about 400 plus miles from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. Early European and American explorers and traders used it in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition met his death while traveling on the Trace and his gravesite is marked about halfway down.  As it turned out, the Trace was interesting for about an hour, then it turned out to be a long boring road through endless, unchanging forest much more suitable for a Miata Club rally than bikers looking for challenging terrain. It was only after we departed the Trace that things started getting interesting.

Our first diversion was the Vicksburg Civil War battlefield, a fascinating slice of history. The Confederate States outpost at Vicksburg, Mississippi was termed the Gibraltar of the Mississippi river, virtually impenetrable. The Union had tried to take it for months and had been repulsed every time. Union warships ruled the Mississippi above and below but could not penetrate the high ground.  Ultimately, Grant decided to starve the city into submission be blocking both ends of the river beginning on May 25, 1863.

Holding out for more than forty days with no reinforcement and dwindling supplies, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton finally surrendered on July 4, 1863 rather than continue to see his men literally starve to death. This action yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces that would hold it for the rest of the conflict. The coincidental fall of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 in which Lee suffered over 27,000 casualties signaled the end of the South’s potential to win, although the Civil War dragged on for two more years.

The tour of the battlefield was by vehicle along an annotated road, with many stopping points showing what happened at those junctures. It was all otherwise beautiful rolling hills, with sobering statistics of the carnage that happened there. 10,142 Union and 9,091 Confederate boys were killed or mortally wounded. (29,495 surrendered). At one point, a section was pointed out where opponents fought to a draw literally hand to hand for 26 consecutive hours.  At the surrender, Grant, not wanting to feed 30,000 hungry Confederates in Union prison camps, ordered open-ended release all dejected and starving Confederate prisoners, exhorting them to avoid similar circumstances in the future. Some actually returned to the war later.

Moving north up the famous “Route 61” to cotton country, we were reminded of this and other highway legends. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles was immortalized in song and legend (TV series “Route 66” from the early 60’s and “Get your kicks on Route 66” (Chuck Berry, 1961).  Then a legendary route from Atlanta to Macon, Ga. “I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound Bus, rollin’ down highway 41”,  (Allman brothers, 1970)

Ultimately however, “Highway 61 Revisited” by Bob Dylan (1965), immortalized as a top ten album of all time by Rolling Stone, leads the list.  Dylan’s ability to combine driving, complex, blues-based rock with the power of his poetry made “Highway 61 Revisited” one of the most influential albums ever recorded.

Technically, U.S. Route 61 runs 1,400 miles from  Minnesota to New Orleans, generally following the course of the Mississippi River. The highway has been called “The Blues Highway”, because of its course through the Mississippi Delta and the “Chitin Circuit” inhabited by black musicians in a line from Louisiana up to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Most if not all of the “Delta Fathers” blues musicians were born somewhere near this road. The intersection of US 61 and US 49 near Clarksdale, Miss is said to be the “Crossroads” where Delta bluesman Robert Johnson made a deal with the devil to master the Blues at the price of his soul.

On entering Clarksdale, Miss, we had previously researched a fascinating place to stay overnight. The “Shack-Up Inn”.  Virtually unchanged from when it was a working plantation post Civil War, we stayed in an authentic sharecropper shack near where the original cotton gin and seed houses were located. We wandered into town and caught some authentic “Juke Joint” music, a lone laptop guitar and blues harp player entertaining a whopping total of eight well-lubricated patrons.  It was absolutely magnificent.

The entire trip covered four states, 1200 miles in four days. We saw and did as much as we had energy for in the time allotted.

See clips I have made into a YouTube movie at:

Remember, you can increase the screen size by clicking the enlargement icon on the bottom of the screen.

Next ride up:

Death Valley, California (Dec 2012)

Film Review: “Argo”

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History as film art. The story line allegedly really happened in 1980.  Immaculately told by multi-talented Ben Affleck who directed and performed in this gem of a film.

A thoroughly hokey, thoroughly American-style plot to rescue six American bureaucrats trapped in the Canadian ambassador’s home, overlooked by the Iranian captors of the rest from the American embassy. The stealthy investigations of the Iranians using legions of children to reconstitute shredded documents are fascinating. I didn’t know it could be done. They simply reconstructed it all and used it to track down the missing embassy personnel, one step behind the rescuers. It was a nail biter followed by an edge-of-seat panic right to the end, very masterfully done.

Affleck used old 35MM film stock, enlarging it to create grain, washed out color and a 70’s feel. Period perfect properties. The characters are interesting and lively. The film is a joy on many levels, including a chilling portrayal of mob mentality and violence, a mob that has the moral authority to do pretty much anything it desires, and then proceeds to do just that in violent detail. Tense, suspenseful, thrilling and darkly comic. Rotten Tomatoes give is a deserved 94%/95% from both critics and audience on the tomato meter, a reliably stellar endorsement.

Best parts: Absolutely Alan Arkin and John Goodman.

Not so best parts:  None

Extra notes:  Watch for an aging Michael Parks (who every motorcyclist knows as “Then Came Bronson”, (1969)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063955/

BTW, the original 2 hour series opener of “Then Came Bronson featured then young actress Bonnie Bedalia in a brief topless scene that was cut for the TV opening. Naturally, I have a copy of the original.

The actor that portrays Jimmy Carter Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan (Pronounced “Jerdan” by old-line Georgians) is Kyle Chandler, a dead ringer for Jordan in 1979.

Near the end, as John Goodman takes a poster down off his wall, a dead ringer for Jack Nicholson walks by the window and asks what happened to the movie. Some say it’s the real Nicholson in an uncredited cameo role, which is quite possible. Others have said it’s the “real” Tony Mendez in a cameo role.

Hint:  Don’t leave before the credits at the end.

I give Argo a whopping 5 of 5 pissed off Iranians on the warpath. See it now, don’t wait for HBO.

Film Review: “The Master”

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“The Master” is actually two films in one. The first theme is a cosmetic examination of a pseudo-religious cult reputed in the media to be Scientology. Actually, “The Master” is much more like “est” from the 70s, a charismatic cult similar to Scientology, headed by the monolithic presence of Werner Erhard.  Rather than living a life enmeshed by their history, “est” trainees were offered escape from the shackles of their past by an endless Socratic method.  This process broke down inhibitions (and common sense) similar to a pastel Marine boot camp, bringing the follower to a state of true belief and one-ness with their ethos.

The second theme chronicles the track from sociopath to cult acolyte, a theme that has been worked heavily in the past, beginning with “The True Believer” (Eric Hoffer, 1951) which brilliantly described the personality type attracted to cults:

“Mass movements glorify the past and devalue the present, appealing to frustrated people who are dissatisfied with their current state, but are capable of a strong belief in the future. As well, mass movements appeal to people who want to escape a flawed self by creating an imaginary self and joining a collective whole. Some categories of people who may be attracted to mass movements include poor people, misfits, former soldiers, and people who feel thwarted in their endeavors”.

This revelation was thereafter followed by the film “Pressure Point” (1962), in which underrated singer/actor Bobby Darin chillingly defined the personality of  “The Master” protagonist Freddie Quest in similar circumstances. The road to satisfaction and self-esteem lies in associating with the kind of power that derives from a charismatic leader.

Despite a potentially interesting exploration, “The Master” is deeply flawed and unsatisfying on almost every level. Its treatment of the sociology of sociopathy is shallow and diluted with free-form contrived drama.  The primary characters emote repetitively and almost experimentally, enhanced by extreme facial close-ups like a two and a half hour method-acting lesson in Lee Strasburg’s studio.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman works hard to carve out the cult’s charismatic maximum leader but in the end only explores the width of the role, not the depth. Joaquin Phoenix gets the overacting award of the year, and on some level I suspect he IS Freddie Quest in real life.  His exploration of the role is doing what comes naturally as he did in the impeccably weird “I’m still here” (2012).

It was a valiant effort but ended up a shell full of tedious melodrama that went nowhere and allowed the characters to progress to the same fate had no one ever observed them.

Best part: Cinematography was excellent.

Least best part: Gratuitous sex scenes that contributed nothing.

Quick aside quip:  The motorcycle run by Freddie in the flats was a 1950 single cylinder Norton 500T, a British bike quite desired by collectors. The Norton motorcycle company (along with Triumph and BSA) folded in the 70s after it was outclassed by cheaper, better-built Japanese bikes of the early 70s.

This is a very mediocre film bordering on tedious.  Not recommended to pay full freight to see it. If you like the actors, wait till it comes out on HBO.

I give it 3 of 5 smirks of “He’s making it up as he goes along”, and that’s a gift to Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Film review: “Looper”

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The theme of going back into time to change the future has been a staple in film and novel. Especially the potential for an individual to suddenly vanish in real time after going back to kill his father. This issue is heavily worked over in “Looper”, a film that is getting a whopping 93% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.

In this futuristic thriller, time travel is possible in the future but is rigorously controlled by powerful factions that send their enemies back 30 years in time to be disposed of by specially designated hit men (Loopers).  Occasionally the future iteration of the Looper gets sent back for disposal, and if that person happens to escape, a multiplicity of complications occur involving generations of players.

The older and younger versions of the same man can exist on the same time plane, but it’s complicated. What one feels, the other feels as well. They can communicate with each other by raising print welts on their respective forearms. The mission of the older version from the future directly affects the life of the younger version and everyone around him. The shock ending is definitely not anticipated. Each tries to negate the influence of the other.

The action is fast, elegant, weird and smart, but in places is difficult to keep who’s doing what and to whom in perspective. This is the third time Bruce Willis’ character time travels and encounters his younger self. The first was “Twelve Monkeys” and the second was “The Kid”. Newcomer Joe Gordon-Levitt (from “50/50” and “The Dark Knight Rises”) does a good job of holding the circles of personality together.

Best part:  The implications of the surprise ending.

Least best part:  Trying to figure out a fast moving convoluted plot on the fly.

Quirky notice:  A futuristic motorcycle (called a “Bike”) crashes and just for a second as the camera surveys the damage, the “bike’s” speedometer is shown. It is a “Smith” brand- standard equipment on most vintage British bikes of the 60s and 70s such as Triumph, BSA and Norton”

I give it four and a half blasts from a Blunderbuss.

 

 

A note about my father’s passing

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A special note about my father who would have been 93 this November:

My father died in December 2008 at age 89.  In the end, he simply wore down as quietly as he had lived. Our family had the good fortune of his dying process occurring in the Hospice he founded in the early 80s. He was cared for by people that had known him and loved him for a generation. Eternal sleep took him surrounded by his family and friends. An appropriate ending to an amazing life. For that I am immeasurably grateful.

By history, he got into veterinary school at Texas A & M by a series of events that are fascinating and I shall spare you. He didn’t think he could ever make it into medical school so he settled on the next best. This is where he was when he met my mother. He was a guy that never had anything in his early life and ended up scratching for everything he got and got by with dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time. When he met my mother, she had spent two years at Texas Christian University and had dropped out and was a secretary somewhere there. He met her at a dance, which since there wasn’t much else to do and it was a big part of their social lives. He took one look at her first time and thought she was the most beautiful female he ever saw (She was a voluptuous babe at the time- I have the early photos).

He didn’t say why he decided to marry her but I suspect it was because she exuded some element of class he thought would be good for him. Nailing down a beautiful woman is a pretty big ego trip and I think he thought he needed that boost to reinforce his ambitions that he didn’t have much of a chance at. It was a whirlwind romance. But as it happened, he worked hard and managed to dumb luck into some good things for him. He was good in anatomy and shortly after he was married he was offered an assistant professorship at Baylor in the Veterinary School with the promise of a career and tenure. This is apparently the life my mother had anticipated and one of the premises she married him for. When they got married, she perceived their future as it appeared to be. She wanted to be a nice stable professor’s wife in the milieu she knew and understood.

She didn’t perceive the all consuming, steam rolling passion to go to medical school that boiled within him. it never crossed her mind that a graduate of veterinary college with a great career ahead had any other passions. Their whirlwind romance was not long enough or intuitive enough for to understand anything other than what appeared to be. Ultimately, in a feat of dumb luck that is pretty close to the dumb luck episode that got me into medical school, he managed to squeak into the first class at Baylor School of Medicine, 1943, and their lives changed radically.

Suddenly, she was pregnant with me and they were scrounging for every dime. He was working every odd job he could find to pay tuition and expenses, studying all night and she was selling nylon stockings door to door. This wasn’t what she had signed up for  and he strongly implied there were marital problems from then on.

They didn’t have two nickles to rub together from then on. Ultimately they ended up at Cleveland City Hospital (now Metro) for surgical residency. Lived in a sparse “married housing” area and my mother and i ate most meals with him at the hospital cafeteria since it was free. This was 1947 and my mother was pregnant with my sister. One night she had a sudden onset of pelvic pain and shock. He carried her two bocks to the hospital where she went immediately to the operating room for a ruptured uterus, a complication of a previous Cesarian (me). Skirted death of both mother and baby by a millimeter.

Finally lack of money forced the family to take a break after Internship to make some money. Moved to Premont, down in South Texas to be a family practitioner for a while to replete funds and save money for residency in Surgery. It goes on from there.

As a kid in high school, I recall loud arguments emitting from their bedroom. She declared she hated the life and couldn’t do it anymore. He declared medicine was his only life, his only passion, he didn’t know how to do anything else, did not want to do anything else and if she couldn’t be part of it he didn’t know how to make it better for her. He always stayed up late watching TV with me so it was certain she would be asleep when he retired. They divorced in 1970 and neither spoke to either again. My mother died in her sleep at age 93 in Macon Georgia

There’s some kind of lesson there, not sure what it is. I plan to do the same (writing memoirs). My kids have little interest in me if for no other reason because they are so involved in their own lives. I figure when I’m gone they will wonder about me and I think I would like them to know about my life.

It is appointed to all a time for life and a time to die.  Manners of death are merely inevitable transitions of a nature we cannot conceive.  What has meaning is manners of life.  In his 89 years in this world, my father lived a live of meaning to his many patients, friends and loved ones.  Those remaining behind will grieve for our loss.  I rejoice in his life.  There can be no greater monument than for those who grieve to go forth with enriched lives as a result for that memory.