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Duke Snider

Sometimes I spew forth titles of blog engagement, operating from my gut (things on my mind) so I call topics “by-products of intestinal excavation” and I let streams of consciousness take over. Spring is a few days day away but today, the temperature will get to 75 degrees, officially laying oblique, memory remnants of two blizzards; whilst shoveling, making pronouncements, “Now I know why Jersey folks go to Florida. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Captain Ed Freeman(Medal of Honor) & President Bush

Passages: A high school friend, Sandy, raconteur extraordinaire, always an emissary of life’s humor and worth, passed yesterday morning (too close for comfort). Jane Russell died recently. As I recollect, a picture of  Jane adorned my closet door when I was in high school as did Duke Snider (Brooklyn Dodgers, my only favorite team) who also just passed. What’s happening (the television show)? One more passage to speak about; Captain Ed Freeman, US Air Force died in Idaho in 2008. Medal of Honor Recipient, he flew 14 helicopter missions in a row to rescue 29 wounded Americans from central highlands in Vietnam. Maybe more of us would’ve known about Captain Freeman, if Lindsay, Charlie and Paris didn’t usurp all the coverage.

Back in those days, CBS television had the logo of an eye. Funny thing, it’s the same logo fifty years later. If you study the evolution of business logos, there’s been a march to smoother, rounder logos, going away from ‘harsh’ angles; something to do with ’round’ being more appealing culturally (especially in China and India); a science to company logos. “A good player goes where the puck is. A great player goes where the puck is going to be.” Gretzky said that. I’d like my blogs to be topical, anticipatory, and cutting edge.  Below is a youtube video of scene from ‘Grapes of Wrath.’

Grapes of Wrath (1 minute trailer with Henry Fonda)

Now, why ‘Grapes of Wrath’ a must see movie?  I’ve got a clip from one of the most poignant scenes with Henry Fonda. It’s a minute long. Go ahead, make my day. My head is barely above water, treading, swimming in all the news about Japan. I don’t sleep. My bedroom at 3AM:  CNN channel flashes shadows and images across the back wall; looks like a disco. Verticals are tightly closed. I imagine neighbors from across the street seeing bursts of light flashing at unsightly hours through the gentle transparency of vertical fabric. Wonder what they think is going on? Can I be clinically depressed from the images of the brave, stoic, amazing Japanese people? Up and down the stairs all night long for a few glasses of cardiac nourishing red wine to wash down the melatonin. My head is swimming. I can’t find a place for myself; it’s this nuclear ‘thing’ and the horror of 500,000 homeless people.

And then I think about a theme of my blogs; not being enamored how some companies make a profit. “They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat,” Tom Joad, from ‘Grapes of Wrath’ talking about the banks. By the way, a few blogs ago, I suggested seeing the movie, ‘Inside Job;'(won the Academy Award for Best Documentary) about OUR banks precipitating our recent financial hell. I’m getting to the point. I’m physically distressed from everything; Japan, brave Libyans fighting alone for freedom, my solitude in Gordon Gekko’s greedy world, so close to my front door and photo albums. The other night I looked for help to express myself. Then I remembered ‘Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck, written in 1939, (a marvelous year for movies and books. I wonder why?) The novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of sharecroppers during the Depression, driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship and banks foreclosing (sound familiar?) So here’s how I feel, expressed by Tom Joad. Damn, I really feel this. “Whenever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Whenever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there . . . . I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an.’ I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build-why, I’ll be there,” Tom Joad said in his farewell speech.

The cynicism (last blog topic) in my soul is like an exposed nuclear reactor rod; it keeps getting hotter. GE built the Fukushima reactors so there is responsibility; did they worry about profit not safety planning with every conceivable contingency? I snooped around Google and found that Dale Bridenbaugh(along with two others) quit their jobs at GE to protest the Mark 1 design of the plants, GE was building at Fukushima. Is it another chapter of how corporate greed kills humans? How brave those 3 men and the Japanese workers trying to stave off a meltdown with global implications. I love this (sarcastic); The Indian Point Nuclear Reactor is 38 miles from New York City (35 years old too) and was built on the Ramapo fault line so it’s susceptible to an earthquake. Did I hear a company spokesperson recently say that Indian Point can withstand a 6.0 earthquake, which New York never gets, at least up to now? Why can’t it withstand a 10.0?  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo now wants to shut the Indian Point nuclear power plant, after it emerged, the plant was leaking.  The plant is, according to the U.S. government, the most under threat from an earthquake.

Indian Point Nuke Plant

Would a corporate spokesperson ever admit anything? Would cell phone company execs ever say they need to do more research on cell phone usage heating up the area of the brain closest to the ear? Contingencies obviate profits. Imagine (John Lennon) a problem with Indian Point, 38 miles from the greatest city in the world. Did I also hear that new reactor designs are coming in “cheaper” and more cost effective which mean they are less safe?(cheaper, cutting corners) Keeping more company: last weeks blog mentioned cigarettes(smoking) kill 5 million Americans a year. In my recent novel, I illustrated how American companies may’ve been responsible for more deaths than the Germans in WWII(since end of war). And are a lot of nuclear plants going to be celebrating 40th birthdays? A lot of new technology is around. Maybe it’s time to pasteurize them. New Jersey’s got nukes. Alexander Gates, chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-Newark, says tsunamis can form anywhere under the right circumstances, and he worries the East Coast is unprepared for one, the report said. President Obama just announced we’re looking into nuclear reactor safety. Good idea. Maybe also work on saving the lives of 5 million smokers. More Keeping Company; Subway has surpassed McDonalds in world wide number of locations. And Diet Coke passed Pepsi by and is number two behind Coke. I don’t really give, since I stopped drinking all soda 3 years ago. Finally, goods sold through social media may increase six times by 2015, to reach $30 billion and that’s probably mostly Facebook.

My “feeling” like Tom Joad is not limited to nukes, cigarettes, radioactive tainted cucumbers in a Lilly field, but a general malaise brought about by dangling participles, dashed personal expectations and love of country. Like a roller coaster or rolling stone gathering no moss whatsoever, I’m confused, dazed and worry about: cuts in education, scientific research, alternative energy and a billion kids (10 to 19) mostly in the developing world who don’t go to school. The world is running out of water and Blue Fin Tuna. The Eastern cougar came off the endangered species list because they’re now declared extinct by the US government.

Eastern Cougar.(save pix)_None left on Earth

US life expectancy is 27th in world; we’re 11th in spending on research and development and 28th in the world in satisfaction with living standard. I worry, that on a talk show the other morning, a 7 minute segment was devoted to discussing “The Bachelor.” Last week,  3 referees of the Rutgers-St. Johns basketball game were blatant in not making 7 game changing calls which would’ve allowed Rutgers to win. I yelled “fix.” In some mysterious way it was. But two days later, those refs were back to refereeing games and everybody forgets and nobody cares. The NCAA governing body is just like a company.(SEE MARCH 11th BLOG for more on the Rutgers St Johns Game) The world forgets Chernobyl, Darfur, Haiti and the gulf oil spill. “Those that forget the past are condemned to relive it.” George Santayana said that a long time ago. Chernobyl. Fukishima.  I feel like drifting tomorrow under the boardwalk, in solitude and sounds of silence, to wonder, ‘What’s it all about Alfie?”

List Time: Worst Nuclear Accidents. Chernobyl(1986). Tokaimus, Japan(1999). Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania(1979). Golania, Brazil(1987) K19 Soviet Sub(1967) 8 sailors who were exposed to radiation, trying to fix sub reactor, died within weeks.

More. I like this list; it’s like a magic world affairs wand. Just plug in anything and it all seems to come down to oil. Biggest Oil Reserves in World. 15. Brazil. 14. USA. 13. China. 12. Qatar. 11. Kazakhstan. 10. Nigeria (I didn’t realize that) 9.Libya. 8. Russia.7. United Arab Emirates. 6. Venezuela. 5. Kuwait.  4. Iraq.  3.Iran. 2 Canada( I didn’t realize that either) 1. Saudi Arabia (20%)

I’m going to Netflix “Grapes of Wrath.” I need to feel the words of John Steinbeck and see Henry Fonda give them life. Give me liberty, words, ideas, and faith. On March 19th(tomorrow) there’s going to be a Super Moon, meaning the moon will be the closest to us than in the past 18 years. Everything is accelerated; maybe it’s the digital information age. What me worry? Why do I? Then there’s omerta, a code of silence I recently discussed in my March 4th blog. Why do people say stupid things? A former governor said President Obama grew up in Kenya. A WNBA basketball player said God is paying back for Pearl Harbor and a comedian who was the voice of the Aflac duck made a stupid joke about Japan and was fired an hour later. My head is still swimming. A bottle of wine is 1/4 empty. I’m heading up to CNN and news of Japan. Tomorrow is another day. Gosh I feel like Scarlett 0’Hara. American life expectancy is up to 78 years.  One American worker produces as much per capita as six Chinese. I think tomorrow I’ll become an apostle to good stuff and make myself feel better. I’m here; my friend is not. It’ll be seventy-five degrees and I’ll be hopeful with ‘spring’ in my step and in my chest. And I’ll remember the good old days when I was keeping company with my wife not with nuclear reactors.

CONTACT INFO:   Website:  http://vichywater.net

email:  earthood@gmail.com

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

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Book Trailer:  65 seconds:

vichy water Book Trailer 65 seconds

Video of Rutgers vs St Johns (last minute of game):

Rutgers vs St Johns (last minute and 9 seconds of game)

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