Category Archives: History

January 5, 2014 · 11:59 pm

ObamaCare & Italy & Everything Else — Blog 2013: The Fourth Year In Review.

For my family and me, 2013 ended on an upbeat note with “Mr. Olsen’s New Year’s Rockin’ Neighborhood” — a raucous, sold-out celebration of comedy and rock & roll at 27 Live in Evanston, Illinois. The weather was bitterly cold but there was a delightful, enveloping warmth in our comic camaraderie with longtime friends, bandmates, fellow Northwestern University alums and members of The Practical Theatre Company.

I even got to sing duets with my college roommate and fellow Practical Theatre founder, Brad Hall (as Simon & Garfunkel, above) — and with my daughter, Eva.

We closed the evening with two spirited sets by Riffmaster & The Rockme Foundation, the band I’ve been playing with since the early 1980’s. There’s no better way to ring in the New Year than by rocking with your best buddies. All in all, it was a wonderful way to say goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014.

I’ll be candid. For some reason, 2013 was not a very prolific year for this blog. I don’t know whether it was the fact that the excitement of the 2012 Presidential election gave way to Congressional constipation courtesy of the recalcitrant, reactionary Tea Party bloc in the House of Reps — or that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act led to the dispiriting madness of the government shutdown. I managed to get off a few broadsides skewering the likes of Senator Ted Cruz (Tea Party, TX) — but the I should have written more in defense of President Obama and progressive politics. (Though my most commented-on post in 2013 was President Obama Goes to War.) Still, I resolve to do a better job of blogging on politics in 2014.

The highlight of 2013 was our family’s two-week trip to Italy and the provinces of Tuscany and Umbria in August. I tried to sum up the experience in an article entitled, Our Italian Adventure. I could easily have written a series of blog posts on each of the beautiful cities and towns we visited, the artwork we saw, the food we ate, and the people we met — but I stuffed the whole, glorious journey into one account. To make amends to my readers I promise that, before too long, I will post a link to the movie we shot on the grounds of Camporsevoli. Stay tuned…

2013 was the fourth year for this blog — and here are the year’s vital signs:

Paul’s Voyage of Discovery & Etc. has attracted 164,472 views since it began four years ago. There were 34,572 visits in 2013. I’ve posted 299 articles since this blog began. This post is #3oo: certainly a notable milestone.

This is not the real subscription sign up box. The real one is further to the right. And up a little…

I am honored that 147 subscribers have now signed on to have my posts automatically delivered to them via e-mail. (And 43 more folks follow this blog on Twitter.) Are you a subscriber? If you’re not — then look to your right at the photo of the saluting Matey and follow the simple instructions to “Hop Aboard!”

The search terms that readers used most to find this blog were “Pearl Harbor”, “Occupy Wall Street”, “trial by jury”, “Bill of Rights” and “Pickett’s Charge”. And these are the posts that readers were most attracted to this year…

What follows is a list of The Top Ten Most Popular Posts of 2013.

Just click on the title of each post to access the original article.

1. Victory at Pearl Harbor

Originally posted in 2010 on the anniversary of the “day that will live in infamy” – this post has become an annual event. A lot of military history fans visit this blog, but I think Pearl Harbor fascinates and resonates with Americans whether they have an interest in military history or not. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks took more American lives – but Pearl Harbor was the shocking opening act in a drama that ultimately made the United States the world’s preeminent superpower.

2. Happy Birthday Bill of Rights!

On December 15, 2010 – the 215th birthday of our Bill of Rights – I wrote this basic primer on the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution and it’s become one of the most-read posts in the history of this blog. I guess that’s because Americans still give a damn about their rights and are keen to understand their Constitutional foundation.

3. A Childhood Memory of Kent State, May 4. 1970

On the May 4, 2012 anniversary of this very dark day in America history, I posted this personal remembrance of a young Ohioan’s earliest memories of that terrible day. Unlike the Pearl Harbor post, I haven’t re-posted this article every year — but readers still find it. “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming.” The shootings at Kent State should never be forgotten.

4. The Top Ten Rock & Roll Singers of All Time

There’s nothing like a Top 10 list to promote discussion on a blog – and this December 5, 2011 post did just that. Check it out – and then weigh in with your own opinion. Just realize that your opinion on rock & roll singing cannot possibly be as informed as my own.

5. The Occupy Wall Street Movement Doesn’t Need Black Bloc Buffoonery

Though we didn’t hear much about it in 2013, the Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired a lot of posts on this blog since 2011. This post, written on November 2, 2011, has proven to be the most popular. Maybe that’s because people agree that we don’t need a bunch of foolish, immature anarchists screwing up a noble movement that ultimately helped to put Barrack Obama back in office. Without Occupy Wall Street, would Romney’s attack on the 47% have evoked such a profound and spirited response? Without Occupy Wall Street, would the concept of the 99% and 1% have ever entered the Zeitgeist?

6. My Book Report: “The Battle of Midway”

What a great book! What an amazing chapter of world history! On January 23, 2012, I wrote this review of a book that captures all the incredible heroism, good luck, and turns of fate that made this epic World War Two naval battle an overwhelming victory that turned the tide of the war against Imperial Japan. In 2013, I write another book report on an excellent World War Two account, The Day of Battle, about the campaign to liberate Italy. A few weeks after I wrote that post, my family visited the American cemetery in Tuscany and paid our respects to the soldiers whose valor, sacrifice and victory are recounted in Rick Atkinson’s fine book.

7. LeBron: The King Moves On

As a Cleveland native, I’ve often been asked my opinion of LeBron James leaving the Cavaliers several years ago — and my friends and co-workers are usually shocked that I’m not upset or indignant or jilted, etc. And while the blogosphere hardly needed one more commentary on LeBron James’ move to the Miami Heat, I wrote this post on July 9, 2010 to explain that LeBron James didn’t owe me anything. He’s a professional basketball player who wants to win and be remembered as the best to play the game. The two NBA championships he’s won in Miami since I wrote this post have given LeBron all the scoreboard he needs.

8. Growing Up in the Space Age

The last American space shuttle launch inspired this July 14, 2011 remembrance of my personal connection to the Space Age. This popular post salutes my fellow Ohioan, John Glenn, who served as both the first man to orbit the Earth and as a Senator from my home state. I wish that my three daughters had grown up experiencing something half as exciting and inspirational as The Race to the Moon.

9. The Wrecking Crew

Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, Carol Kay, Tommy Tedesco, Leon Russell, Earl Palmer: the cream of Los Angeles studio musicians in the late 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s became known as “The Wrecking Crew”. I’m thrilled that my March 21, 2011 blog article celebrating Tommy Tedesco’s son’s marvelous documentary film about these rock & roll legends has proven to be such a popular post. If you haven’t done it already, do a Google search on “The Wrecking Crew”. Until then, your rock & roll education is not complete.

10. The Matey’s Log: Sailing Season Begins

This post recounted a sailboat race held on February 13, 2010. It was a good thing that the race was being run the day before Valentine’s Day. Like golf, sailing is a sport that takes men out of the house for long stretches of time on the weekend. But sailboat racing is worse than golf because it’s never certain when you’ll be done. 18 holes of golf always take about the same amount of time to complete. The duration of a sailboat race depends upon the vagaries of the wind and conditions on the water. I don’t sail as much as I used to to — but I still love it. And I’ll continue to report on my sailing adventures in the new year.

So, that’s the best of 2013. Stay connected. Subscribe. And please keep posting your comments!

Here’s to another fine voyage in 2014!

And here are the All-Time Top 10 Blog Posts from January 2010 up to today:

1. Happy Birthday Bill of Rights!

2. Victory at Pearl Harbor

3. The Occupy Wall Street Movement Doesn’t Need Black Bloc Buffoonery

4. History & Honeymoon: Part Three

This post was the #3 post in 2010. 24 years ago, my wife Victoria and I went to Gettysburg and other Civil War battlefields on our honeymoon! I needed no other assurance that I had married the perfect woman. On our 20th anniversary, we returned to Gettysburg. Now both students of the battle, we walked the battlefield on July 1, 2 and 3, 2010 on the 147th anniversary of that critical conflict. My four-part account of our battlefield tramping became one of the most popular items on the blog. (Originally posted July 20, 2010)

5. A Childhood Memory of Kent State, May 4. 1970

6. Aliens Among Us?

I’ve always wondered where singular, epochal, “out of this world” geniuses like William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci and Bob Dylan came from. So, on January 26, 2011, I wrote this speculation on the possible alien origin of such monumental minds. Evidently, my curiosity (if not my Erich Van Daniken “ancient astronaut” fantasy) is still shared by a lot of people who read my blog in the past year.

7. Growing Up in the Space Age

8. The Top Ten Rock & Roll Singers of All Time

9. Bazooka Joe, Jay Lynch & Me

One of the first posts I wrote for this blog back on January 9, 2010 celebrated my brief but soul-satisfying collaboration with the legendary underground comix artist, Jay Lynch, who gave Vic and I the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write a series of Bazooka Joe comics. It was one of the great chapters in my creative career. The Practical Theatre Company, Saturday Night Live, Behind the Music, The Vic & Paul Show and Bazooka Joe. Classics all. Can I retire now?

10. History & Honeymoon: Part Four

2011 was the 150^th anniversary of the commencement of the American Civil War – and the Civil War Sesquicentennial is likely the reason that two of my “History & Honeymoon” posts are still among the most-read this past year, including this one, first posted on July 26, 2010. This post covers everything from my wife Victoria and I battle tramping Pickett’s Charge on the third day of Gettysburg –to our visit to Philadelphia and the eccentric, visionary artwork of Isaiah Zagar.

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Filed under Adventure, Art, Comedy, History, Politics, Sailing, Sports, Travel

Tagged as aliens, Barrack Obama, Bazooka Joe, Bill of Rights, Brad Hall, Chariots of the Gods. aliens, Civil War, Civil War sesquicentennial, Kent State, Kent State Massacre, Lebron James, Mr. Olsen's Neighborhood, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street Movement, Paul Barrosse, Pearl Harbor, President Obama, Riffmaster & The Rockme Foundation, rock & roll, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, space race, space shuttle, The Practical Theatre, The Practical Theatre Company

December 6, 2013 · 3:15 pm

Remembering Lincoln at Gettysburg

I was honored and delighted when my good friend Darroch Greer invited my wife Victoria and me to take part in another of his wonderful historical events at the Bedford Winery in Los Alamos, California, hosted by the great winemaker, history buff and raconteur Stephan Bedford.

Darroch is the Bedford Winery’s resident historian. (Does any other winery boast a resident historian?)

I’d been to several of Darroch and Stephan’s presentations staged in the courtyard of the Bedford Winery’s tasting room — and I’d always enjoyed the combination of fellowship, fine food and wine, and respect for history.

So, on November 16, 2013, Vic and I took part in Lincoln at Gettysburg: The 150th Anniversary of the Dedication of the National Soldiers’ Cemetery and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, Celebrated Through Eyewitness Accounts, Music and Victuals of the Era.

Darroch’s wife Stephanie goes over the script with Victoria before the reading.

The main event was a staged reading of Remembering Lincoln at Gettysburg, written by John Copeland: featuring the words of eyewitnesses to that famous event at Gettysburg, when 15,000 people gathered in the town four months after the great battle to dedicate a final resting place for thousands of fallen Union soldiers.

A rare photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg. November 19, 1863.

Darroch gave me the task of summing up the battle itself before we began the reading.

What follows is my attempt to capture the stakes, the major action, and the drama of those three epic days of combat in ten minutes.

Reflections on The Battle of Gettysburg

Seminary Ridge, Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Ridge, the Peach Orchard, the Wheat Field, Devil’s Den, Little Round Top…

On June 30^th, 1863, these were not yet legendary place names: they were simply topographical features on the landscape surrounding the small crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

In the summer of ‘63, the war to preserve the union was not going well for President Lincoln and loyal Americans who wished to keep the United States intact.

Crushing Confederate victories at Fredericksburg that winter and Chancellorsville that spring left Unionists anxious and dispirited. The Army of the Potomac staggered under the blows delivered by Robert E. Lee’s seemingly invincible Army of Northern Virginia.

After the debacle at Chancellorsville, another in a series of unsuccessful Union commanders had been sacked – as General Joe Hooker was replaced by George Gordon Meade. Meade was a Pennsylvanian. That would prove provident. Just three days after taking command, General Meade would face Lee at Gettysburg.

Yet, as bad as the war was going for the North, the stakes for the Confederacy were existential. Two years of warfare fought almost exclusively on Southern soil took a terrible toll in battle casualties, civilian morale, economic viability and agricultural productivity. Rebel leaders knew they couldn’t win a war of attrition against the superior industrial strength and manpower of the North.

Something had to be done to change what was ultimately a losing equation — and convince the European powers to recognize the Confederacy.

In the west, General Grant’s army was closing in on Vicksburg, the last rebel bastion on the Mississippi. If Vicksburg fell, the Confederacy would be split in two. Meanwhile, the Union naval blockade continued to strangle Southern ports and cripple its economy.

Lee decided to take the war to the North. The goal of his invasion was to relieve pressure on war-torn Virginia. And if Lee could beat the Federals on their home turf — his army could threaten, or even capture, Washington DC and force President Lincoln to seek peace.

As Meade took command of his army, Lee’s 75,000 veterans were already in Pennsylvania. The opposing armies weren’t sure where each other were, but Meade knew Lee was somewhere west of the state capitol at Harrisburg. As Meade groped northward to find his foe, nobody thought the decisive battle of such a critical campaign would be fought at an insignificant dot on the map like Gettysburg.

Yet, when the battle came, both sides well understood what was at stake. Gettysburg lies just 86 miles from Washington DC: two days forced march to the nation’s Capitol. The battle for Gettysburg, therefore, would ultimately decide the outcome of the war.

It was nearing 6:00 PM when General John Buford and his cavalry rode into Gettysburg on June 30^th. Buford watched with concern as a brigade of Confederate infantry came down the Chambersburg Pike. When the rebels saw Buford’s troopers they withdrew — and informed their superiors that Union cavalry barred their way. But the Confederate generals refused to believe there was anything more than green Pennsylvania militia in Gettysburg.

In fact, Buford’s cavalry were the tip of the spear. The Army of the Potomac was on its way. The fighting would wait until morning.

The next day, July 1^st, the Rebs returned down the Chambersburg Pike determined to push Buford’s cavalry off the ridges north of Gettysburg. Fighting dismounted, Buford’s troopers put up a stiff resistance, buying time for reinforcement. In the cupola of the Lutheran Seminary overlooking the fight, Buford watched the progress of the battle raging to his front — and looked anxiously to his rear for the approach of General Reynold’s First Infantry Corps.

I would’ve loved to be there at the moment Reynolds rode up to the seminary and called out, “How goes it, John?” And Buford shouted back — “The devil’s to pay!”

Buford was right. Before the day was done, Reynolds was dead and Union troops were driven off Seminary Ridge, through the town of Gettysburg, and into defensive lines on Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Ridge above the town and fields below. The Union First Corps lost two thirds of its men: dead, wounded, taken prisoner, and missing in action. But their sacrifice had kept the rebels from taking the high ground.

Lee wasn’t pleased that Union forces occupied the heights. But his army had once again driven their enemy from the field.

Day Two at Gettysburg was a violent, chaotic stage on which some of our favorite Civil War characters played their most memorable roles. For most of the day both armies consolidated their positions.

Ironically, Lee’s units arrived on the battlefield from the north and Mead’s army came up from the south.

It wasn’t until 4:00 pm that General Longstreet’s Corps began the Confederate attack on the Union’s left flank along Cemetery Ridge.

But the Rebel advance ran into something unexpected: Union General Dan Sickles’ Corps, posted in a peach orchard – far in front of the main Union line.

Sickles was the only Union corps commander without a West Pointeducation. But while he was not a professional soldier, he was a born leader: a pugnacious New Yorker who never shied away from a fight.

And he was in for an epic one.

There were innumerable peach orchards in America on July 2, 1863. But the stand of trees that Sickles’ troops defended from 4:00 to 6:30 PM that day would be known ever after as The Peach Orchard. It was here that Confederate General William Barksdale’s brigade of Mississippians made their famous charge. It was here that Sickles lost his leg to a cannonball. It was here that, after fierce fighting, Sickles’ men were forced to fall back under heavy fire.

And it was here that New York’s Excelsior Brigade made their heroic stand.

But the bravery of the Excelsior Brigade could not stem the flood of Rebels charging through the peach orchard to exploit the gap in the Union line caused by the collapse of Sickles’ exposed position.

General Winfield Scott Hancock – in command of the Union center – and another Pennsylvanian — knew that, in just a few minutes, the Rebs would plow through that gap and penetrate his defensive line. The day, the battle, and the war, could be lost.

Hancock rode toward the crisis point and rallied Sickles’ retreating troops. But the few shell-shocked soldiers willing to reform their lines would not be enough. Hancock called for reserves, but they’d never arrive in time. He needed something to plug that fatal gap.

That something was the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment.

Hancock asked the unit’s officer, “What regiment is this?” “First Minnesota,” replied 23-year old Colonel William Colvill. With the clock ticking toward disaster second-by-second, Hancock pointed toward the oncoming Rebels and bellowed, “Charge those lines!”

Said a First Minnesota veteran, “Every man realized in an instant what that order meant — death or wounds to us all, the sacrifice of the regiment to gain a few minutes’ time and save the position. And every man saw and accepted the necessity for the sacrifice”.

The 262 men of The First Minnesota advanced on the double quick, shouldering their muskets through a hail of lead, bearing down on the center of the enemy line. On Colvill’s order to charge, they raced forward with leveled bayonets. The lines collided with a shock, muskets blazed, and fighting raged hand-to hand. The First Minnesota’s flag fell five times, but it was taken up again each time.

The Southerners were stunned by the First Minnesota’s fury and tenacity, and for 15 precious minutes, paid for in blood, the Rebel advance was stalled. Of the 262 men who made that charge, only 47 survivors rallied back to General Hancock: an 83% casualty rate that remains the greatest loss by any American military unit in a single battle. But the men of The First Minnesota bought Hancock the time he needed to reinforce the gap in his defensive line.

Longstreet renewed his relentless assault on the Union left in bloody engagements that made The Wheat Field and Devil’s Den synonymous with savagery, gallantry and wholesale sacrifice.

Before the fights in The Peach Orchard and Wheat Field, Union General Gouvernor Warren stood on Little Round Top and saw Longstreet’s battle line forming on the ridges beyond The Wheat Field.

Realizing that Sickles’ advanced position left Little Round Top undefended, Warren sent couriers scrambling for units to help defend the hill. One of his couriers encountered 26-year old Colonel Strong Vincent.

Told that Warren needed troops “to occupy yonder hill,” Vincent declared, “I will do so and take the responsibility.”

Vincent rushed to Little Round Top and placed the four regiments of his brigade in line on the extreme left of the Union army, with the 385 men of Joshua Chamberlain’s 20^th Maine anchoring the end of the line. Soon after that, the Confederate assault began.

Vincent, brandishing his wife’s riding crop, urged his men, “Don’t give an inch!” It wasn’t long before Strong Vincent fell, mortally wounded. Like General Warren, Vincent had done his part to save the Union left flank. Now, it was up to Chamberlain’s 20^th Maine to play their role in the deadly, decisive drama on Little Round Top.

At 6:30 PM, after repulsing yet another rebel attack, Chamberlain’s troops were nearly out of ammunition — and running out of time. Ordered by Vincent to “Hold at all hazards,” Chamberlain knew he couldn’t retreat. He ordered his men to “fix bayonets.”

Said Chamberlain, “I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man, and rose into a shout, with which they sprang forward on the enemy, now not 30 yards away. The effect was surprising; many of the enemy’s first line threw down their arms and surrendered… The enemy’s second line broke and fell back, fighting from tree to tree, many being captured, until we had swept the valley and cleared the front of nearly our entire brigade.”

Longstreet’s Corps had failed to take Little Round Top – and both sides regrouped for the fighting that would climax the next day.

On July 3, 1863 the exhausted armies faced each other across a mile of open farmland — preparing to commence the final violence of their epic battle. Though Lee planned to strike the Union center early in the day, the thunderous cannonade preceding General Longstreet’s assault did not begin until 1:00 in the afternoon.

Actually, the third day of the battle began at dawn as Union guns opened fire in defense of Culp’s Hill on the Federal right flank. By 11:00 am, Billy Yank was once again in possession of the earthworks they’d lost to Johnny Reb the day before. The fight on the Union right was over almost before it began.

The legendary "copse of trees" that marked the Union center on Cemetery Ridge.

Lee’s target: the legendary “copse of trees” that marked the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.

Lee had attacked both Union flanks – and the Federals had paid dearly in their defense. Since General Meade must have had to draw troops from his center to reinforce his embattled flanks, Lee resolved to attack the Union center.

Lee’s “Old War Horse” Longstreet argued that the wiser course was to go around Big Round Top, get behind the Union army’s left flank and threaten the roads to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. – thereby forcing the Union army off the high ground on Cemetery Hill to give battle on ground of the South’s choosing.

The copse of trees (center right) seen from Confederate positions across the farm fields.

But Lee was resolved to strike – and break – the Union center. “The enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.” After all, his army had never failed to break the Union lines in a frontal assault. But Gettysburg was a different: for the first time, Pennsylvanian Generals Meade and Hancock and the Army of the Potomac under their command were defending home turf. There was nowhere to run. As Hancock rode his lines that morning, he no doubt reminded his troops of the need to hold firm and give no ground.

General Pickett’s division would lead the charge that became known forever after as “Pickett’s Charge.” The three brigades of General Pickett’s division were led by Generals Garnett, Kemper and Armistead. General Lo Armistead was a close friend of General Hancock, who waited for him across the open killing field.

Pickett’s brigade commanders would pay a heavy price: Garnett and Armistead died in the charge. Kemper was severely wounded. The rebels managed to punch a hole in the Union center, led by Armistead, shot down as he placed his hand on a Federal cannon. But the Army of the Potomac sent the rebels in retreat across the farm fields over which they had so gallantly, but futilely, charged.

Of the more than 13,000 Confederates who made the assault, more than 7,000 lay dead or wounded on the field afterward.

On July 4^th, the day after General Meade’s Army won the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg fell to Union troops under General Grant.

At great cost, the soldiers of the Union Army had given their war-weary nation two great birthday gifts. And while it would wear on for two more grinding years, the Civil War was essentially over.

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Filed under History, Truth

Tagged as 20th Maine, Abraham Lincoln, Bedford Winery, Civil War, Colonel Strong Vincent, copse of trees, Dan Sickles, Darroch Greer, Devil's Den, General Hancock, General John Buford, General Longstreet, General Meade, George Gordon Meade, Gettysburg, Gouvernor Warren, John Buford, John Copeland, Joshua Chamberlain, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Lo Armistead, Los Alamos California, Pennsylvanian Generals Meade, Pickett's Charge, President Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Stephan Bedford, Strong Vincent, The Peach Orchard, The Wheat Field, Ulysses S. Grant

November 27, 2013 · 1:28 pm

Our Italian Adventure

For two weeks in Italy this past August, the Barrosse and Rashid families shared one of the most wonderful experiences of our lives.

From Florence to Siena, from Amelia to Assisi, we enjoyed the sights, sounds, fragrances and flavors of Tuscany and Umbria.

We experienced famous cities with churches and monuments created and decorated by history’s most celebrated artists – and acres of gorgeous, bountiful countryside gardened for millennia by humble, unknown Italian farmers.

It’s hard to describe the beauty and history of these regions of Italy in words – which is why we took so many pictures.

Pictures like this…

And this…

Our trip to Italy began in the magnificent city of Florence, where there is so much fine art, grand architecture and fascinating history packed into a few square miles that the effect is dizzying. And while we did not succumb to Stendahl Syndrome, as the great French author did on a visit to Florence in 1817, we were, as Stendahl recorded, “in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty.”

We were dumbstruck by our first breathtaking view of Brunelleschi’s incomparable Doma and the incredible cathedral it crowns.

We spent many hours crossing and re-crossing the magnificent bridges over the Arno River……including the world-famous Ponte Vecchio.

We gorged ourselves on the bountiful artistic buffet served up during our tours of The Accademia and the Uffitzi Gallery.

We enjoyed the lovely, opulent grounds of the Boboli Gardens and the stunning views from Piazzale Michelangelo.

We embraced as much of Florence as we could in the precious time we had to spend amid its grandeur.

The experience was all the more enriching because our families were able to share the treasure of Florence with each other.

Sporting our all-powerful Firenze Cards, we traveled to Florence each morning by bus from our pleasant resort conveniently located in the nearby town of Impruneta. In Florence, exhausted ourselves with art and food and fun, and then returned to Impruneta for some countryside R & R.

Our day trip to Pisa was a revelation.

We had imagined the famous Leaning Tower standing alone, surrounded by thousands of tourists snapping the obligatory photo: a cultural cliché that had to be experienced.

But we were wholly unprepared for the sight of what Michelangelo called “The Field of Miracles” – an architectural wonder of which the Leaning Tower is the best known but by no means the most impressive feature.

After Pisa, we headed north to the seashore at Via Reggio.

Victoria, enthralled by her study of Percy Shelley and the Romantic poets, was eager to see the beach where the drowned Shelley’s body was burned on a pyre by his friends, including Lord Byron, who, overcome with emotion at the loss of his brilliant young friend, swam in the chilly waters as the flames of Shelley’s pyre rose into the evening sky.

Alas, it’s hard to commune with the spirits of Shelley and Byron on the busy commercial beaches of 21^st century Via Reggio. But it was an enjoyable visit nonetheless.

In Tuscany, there was never a moment of disappointment.

Nearly halfway through our grand Italian adventure, we experienced il Palio di Siena – a unique bareback horse race held twice a year in Siena’s main square, on July 2 and August 16, which is the date we attended (survived) the race.

We’d been prepared for the experience by our Italian host and guide, Valentina Grossi – but the Palio was still overwhelming.

It was an impossible task to capture all the people, the emotion, the tradition, the colors, the spectacle, the pageantry, and the race itself in photos. But we tried.

Heeding Valentina’s unerring directions, we arrived in Siena early in the morning through the imposing San Marcos Gate, while the townsfolk were still scrubbing the streets, hanging bunting, dressing up their store windows, and setting out table and chairs in front of the cafes.

It was clear that something akin to a medieval Super Bowl was in the offing. There was a palpable anticipatory excitement in the air, and we could not help but be caught up in the town’s collective vibe.

After lunch in the Piazza del Campo, where the race would be held, we were drawn even deeper into the festival atmosphere when I suggested we visit nearby St. Rocco’s church (the namesake of my boyhood parish in Cleveland). Each neighborhood in Siena sponsors a horse and rider. These groups are known as “contrade”.

As luck would have it, we arrived just as the parish’s rider and its horse were being blessed in the church. We now had a contrade to belong to: Lupa, the she-wolf.

Then it was back to Piazza del Campo, where we camped out as tens of thousands squeezed into the square before the 7:00 start of the race.

The race itself was a blur. Our horse from St. Rocco’s parish led for half the race but faded to third place. But the Palio was an event unlike any other in our lives.

The day after the Palio, we headed south out of Impruneta on the road to Camporsevoli, which would become headquarters for our second week in Italy – a jumping off point to explore Southern Tuscany and Umbria.

On the outskirts of Impruneta, we stopped at the American World War Two Military Cemetery to pay homage to the Americans who came to Italy 70 years ago to free it from Nazi tyranny.

We paused to remember the sacrifice represented by row upon row of white crosses, crescents and Stars of David on the green, sloping lawns leading up to the monuments erected in memory of their lives, their valor and their victory.

After our solemn pilgrimage to the military cemetery, we continued our journey into southern Tuscany.

As wild and joyously harrowing as the Palio was, our weeklong stay in the tiny hilltop hamlet of Camporsevoli was the picture of tranquil beauty, peace, and relaxed, restful recreation.

Camporsevoli is a tiny hamlet built in and around a small fortress that’s been a strategic location for centuries, coveted by the Romans, the Papal State, and the neighboring Tuscan city-states.

Camporsevoli has been in the possession of our host Valentina Grossi’s family since the 1820s, but the site has been inhabited since Etruscan times. In fact, two Etruscan tombs are preserved in village cellars. Listening to Valentina’s father recall family and Italian history was one of the highlights of the vacation for me.

We were delighted to add to the estate’s long and colorful history by writing and performing “La Commedia Di Camporsevoli” — no doubt the first comedy film shot on the property entirely on iPhone.

Not far down the road from Camporsevoli is the town of San Casciano dei Bagni, yet another picturesque settlement of medieval origin crowning a Tuscan hill.

San Casciano die Bagni charmed us with it’s splendid views, narrow streets, delightful shops, and pleasant places to dine and converse.

We returned to San Casciano often during our stay at Camporsevoli to enjoy the tranquil pace of life in a small Italian country village. We learned what Italians have always known: to slow down, feel the pleasant breeze, sip the fine wine, taste the wonderful food, meet the people – and enjoy spending time with the people you love in one of the world’s loveliest places.

We spent their last few days in Italy enjoying the pleasures of Umbria.

Our glorious days trips to Amelia, my emigrant grandparent’s hometown, and Assisi, where excitement over the new Franciscan Pope was palpable, proved to be just the right tonic for our slightly exhausted traveling party. These gorgeous, historic Umbrian cities vibrated at a less frenetic pace than the legendary Tuscan città we’d explored during our first week in Italy.

Going into our Italian adventure, we had a good idea of what to expect in Florence and Siena. We’d made extensive preparations for our assault on Florentine art and history and the Palio in Siena. But we were less certain of what was in store for us during our stay in southern Tuscany and Umbria.

Sallying forth from Camporsevoli, we ventured to the relatively unknown town of Amelia in Umbria.

We might not have put Amelia on our itinerary if it weren’t for the fact that my grandparents, who immigrated to the United States in 1911 and 1913, were born and raised in the farmlands around this scenic hilltop town.

Somehow, my daughters challenged me to drive through the impossibly narrow medieval streets (and tunnels) of Amelia: lanes clearly meant for oxcarts not autos.

After some very narrow escapes, I managed to get our car (and my family) out alive.And, of course, there was the little matter of the manual transmission. I got very handy with the stick shift, emergency brake and clutch.

We arrived in Assisi, the city of St. Francis, on a dazzlingly bright day – and found this historic town to be filled with excitement and activity, jazzed by the fact that a humble Franciscan had just been installed as the new Pope.

High on a mountain above a vast, wide plain, Assisi is as beautiful a city as one could possibly imagine.

No shops in Italy were cuter, no store proprietors were friendlier, and no public vibe was more uplifting.

Something wonderful is going on in Assisi. Our stay there was far too short.

After the Rashids flew home to Chicago, our family lingered in Italy for one more day – and one more day trip — this time to nearby Cetona, just a few kilometers from Camporsevoli, right on the border with Umbria.

By now, we were well practiced in how to unwind, relax, enjoy slow-moving Italian café culture, and luxuriate in the simple pleasures of the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside.

Our final excursion was to Chiusi, where we put our daughter Emilia on a train to Rome.

Our two weeks in Italy were over.

The memories will endure all our lives.

The question is – how soon can we go back?

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Filed under Adventure, Art, Beauty, History, Travel

Tagged as Amelia, Arno River, Assisi, Boboli Gardens, Brunelleschi's Dome, Camporsevoli, Cetona, Chiusi, Doma, Field of Miracles, Florence, Impruneta, Italian history, Italy, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Lord Byron, Michelangelo, Palio, Palio di Siena, Percy Shelley, Piazzale Michelangelo, Pisa, Ponte Vecchio, regions of Italy, San Casciano dei Bagni, Siena, Stendahl, Stendahl Syndrome, Tuscany, Tuscany and Umbria, Uffitzi Gallery, Umbria, Valentina Grossi, Via Reggio, Word War Two Cemetery in Impruneta

October 15, 2013 · 10:49 pm

Joe, George & Ted…

Does the equation above seem too glib?

Do Senator Joe McCarthy and Governor George Wallace really add up to Senator Ted Cruz? That’s been my knee-jerk reaction. Watching Ted Cruz engage in his demagogic shenanigans over The Affordable Care Act and the Tea Party’s government shutdown, images of McCarthy and Wallace kept coming to mind. Yet, after looking into the history of both men — the infamous ‘50s Red baiter and ‘60s race baiter – I’ve come to the conclusion that my impulsive equation adds up. Unfortunately.

Unfortunately for public discourse, our political process, the American economy and working people.

And ultimately, perhaps most unfortunately for the Republican Party…

Let’s take a look back at Joe and George and see what their political careers tell us about Ted – and the prospects for the future of Senator Cruz and the Grand Old Party he’s driving hard right into the ditch.

Joe McCarthy served as a Republican Senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death from acute hepatitis – aggravated by his alcoholism — in 1957. Like Ted Cruz, McCarthy was a junior Senator who latched onto a hot button issue and quickly rode it to prominence. Less than three years after taking his back bench in the Senate, “Tail Gunner Joe” was the face of his party — and his reckless, bullying, blacklisting anti-Communist crusade gave birth to a noun that still casts a dark shadow over American politics to this day. “McCarthyism”

It’s important to note that Senator Joe McCarthy was, first and foremost, a liar. He lied early and often.

To begin with, McCarthy lied about his war record. Despite the clearly recorded fact that, as a sitting judge at the time of his enlistment, he received an automatic commission as a lieutenant in the intelligence service, McCarthy liked to claim that he enlisted as a buck private.

McCarthy’s twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer earned him his nickname, “Tail-Gunner Joe,” but he later claimed 32 missions in order to qualify for the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he was awarded in 1952. This was also based on a lie. McCarthy claimed his letter of commendation had been signed by his commanding officer and countersigned by Admiral Nimitz. But, alas, McCarthy wrote that letter of commendation himself: a relatively easy subterfuge for an unscrupulous intelligence officer like himself.

McCarthy’s willingness to lie boldly and baldly made him nationally famous in 1950 — when he asserted in a thunderous speech that he had a list of “members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring” who worked in the State Department. He was never able to prove his sensational charge.

Not being in possession of the facts didn’t stop McCarthy from making more incendiary accusations. Not only had Communists infiltrated the State Department, he warned, there were Commies inside the Truman administration, the Voice of America, Hollywood — and even the U.S. Army.

The McCarthy witch-hunts were on. Armed with the kind of faux populist righteousness and fanatical zeal that animates so many Tea Party advocates, McCarthy used the harsh spotlight of his Senate hearings (and behind-the-scenes strong-arming) to hound those he deemed to be Communists, communist sympathizers, disloyal Americans and – gasp! – homosexuals inside and outside of government.

McCarthy’s scorched Earth political tactics made him a fearsome, polarizing household name – but his hubris and recklessness kept him at arm’s length from most of his senior GOP colleagues, especially Truman’s successor, President Eisenhower, who considered Tail Gunner Joe’s demagoguery reprehensible.

However — and today’s Republican leaders should take note vis a vis Ted Cruz – Ike had a chance to torpedo McCarthy’s rising star, but failed to do it. Well aware of McCarthy’s base of support inside the GOP, Eisenhower bowed to the demands of electoral politics during the Presidential election of 1952, and tempered his disdain for the blustering, bullying junior Senator from the dairy state. The peerless soldier who, as the Supreme Allied Commander, conquered North Africa, liberated Sicily, and invaded Fortress Europe to defeat the Nazi horde hedged his bets as a Presidential candidate in ’52 to avoid a political confrontation with a pompous, prevaricating poltroon who hadn’t even served one term in the Senate.

Ike regretted his lack of political courage at that pivotal moment for the rest of his life. Today’s Republican leaders may well look back at this moment in political time with the same stinging regret.

It took another Joe to shoot down Tail Gunner Joe. On June 9, 1954, during the Army–McCarthy hearings, the Army’s lawyer, Joseph Welch, finally fired a shot below McCarthy’s waterline and sent him sinking to the bottom.

Before a nationwide television audience, Welch finally said what today’s GOP leaders should be saying to Ted Cruz: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness… You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

Not long after that principled stand by one honest, courageous man, McCarthy’s support and popularity evaporated — and on December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22: one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He died less than three years later at the age of 48 — a man whose name will live in infamy.

Sadly, I fear there are many Ted Cruz fans in the Tea Party who still look upon Joe McCarthy as an American hero.

And what about the notorious segregationist, George Wallace? How does his tragic political career relate to Ted Cruz?

Can anyone say “Third Party”?

George Wallace became Alabama’s longest-serving Governor, spending 16 years in that office largely because he was an unabashed, belligerent champion of state’s rights, white supremacy and segregation.

Can anyone say “Tea Party”?

Wallace took the oath of office as Alabama’s governor on January 14, 1963, standing on the exact spot where, nearly 102 years before, Jeff Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy. That same year, in an attempt to keep black students Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling at the University of Alabama, George Wallace took his famous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Wallace, of course, lost that fight before the year was out. His was a futile stand against progress, against history, against humanity. It was destined to fail – but it won Wallace a fervent following among Southern racists and those who hated the Federal government. (Wallace would have been a Tea Party god.)

It may seem strange to younger Americans, but George Wallace was a member of the Democratic Party.

Before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, populist economic policy and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation kept much of the South in the Democrat’s corner. (The GOP was considered the party of Big Business.) After signing the Civil Rights Act in ‘64, President Lyndon Johnson – himself a Deep South Democrat — confessed, “We have lost the South for a generation.”

Johnson’s progressive Democratic Party certainly lost George Wallace.

Though, at first Wallace challenged the Democrats from within the party. In the Democratic Presidential primary season of 1964, Wallace campaigned on his opposition on integration and a tough approach to crime and did surprisingly well in Maryland, Indiana and Wisconsin (the home of Joe McCarthy). Johnson ultimately retained the Presidency in a landslide – and Wallace took that as his cue to split from the Democrats and run the next time of a Third Party ticket.

Are you studying your history, GOP?

Wallace ran for President in 1968 as the candidate of The American Independent Party. His platform was a mix of populism and racism. He ran on ending federal efforts at desegregation, yet he also advocated generous increases for beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare. If the Vietnam War wasn’t winnable within 90 days of his taking office, he pledged an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. An isolationist in the Rand Paul mode, Wallace asserted that foreign aid was money “poured down a rat hole”. Wallace’s appeal in the South and to blue-collar workers in the industrial North drew votes from the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey in northern states like Ohio, New Jersey and Michigan.

Wallace received the support of extremist groups like the White Citizens’ Councils. While Wallace didn’t openly seek their support, he didn’t refuse it. (Have either Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin denounced the man who waved the Confederate battle flag in front of the White House?)

Wallace carried five Southern states in ’68 and won almost ten million popular votes — and 46 electoral votes. And while the loss of those votes weren’t the margin of Humphrey’s landslide loss to Richard Nixon, it can be argued that Wallace’s third party run and his split from the Democrats exacerbated the fatal fissure in the party that Johnson has prophesied when he signed the Voting Rights Act four years earlier.

According to Wikipedia: “In Wallace’s 1998 obituary, The Huntsville Times political editor John Anderson summarized the impact from the 1968 campaign: ‘His startling appeal to millions of alienated white voters was not lost on Richard Nixon and other GOP strategists. First Nixon, then Ronald Reagan, and finally George Herbert Walker Bush successfully adopted toned-down versions of Wallace’s anti-busing, anti-federal government platform to pry low and middle-income whites from the Democratic New Deal coalition.’ Dan Carter, a professor of history at Emory University in Atlanta added: ‘George Wallace laid the foundation for the dominance of the Republican Party in American society through the manipulation of racial and social issues in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the master teacher, and Richard Nixon and the Republican leadership that followed were his students.’”

Since the end of World War Two, the Republican Party has pursued (or allowed elements of their party to pursue) the same toxic racist, anti-government base that McCarthy and Wallace courted. The GOP has used hot button social wedge issues like war, abortion, gay marriage and gun control to keep blue-collar working class voters – who would actually be helped by the Democratic Party’s economic policies – in the Republican Party’s big tent.

The problem for the GOP now is that their big tent may not be big enough for Ted Cruz and his Tea Party zealots.

The current self-inflicted government shutdown and debt limit crises are an historic moment of truth for the Republicans. Either Ted will crash and burn like Joe McCarthy, taking the Republican Party’s reputation down with him. Or Ted will, like George Wallace, split the GOP and take his Tea Party acolytes with him. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Time marches on – and so does social progress. There are only so many racist, anti-government, neo-Confederate dead-enders left.

Does John Boehner understand that?

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Filed under History, Politics, Truth

Tagged as Army-McCarthy Hearings, debt limit, George Herbert Walker Bush, George Wallace, GOP, government shutdown, Hubert Humphrey, Joe McCarthy, Joseph Welch, McCarthyism, Republican Party, Senator Cruz, Senator Joe McCarthy, Senator McCarthy, Tail Gunner Joe, Tea Party, Ted Cruz, the Tea Party

October 3, 2013 · 10:32 am

BFD: Bing, Frank & Dean

BING, FRANK & DEAN are a BFD.

Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin dominated the American popular music landscape from the Jazz Age to the Rock & Roll Revolution of the 50’s. Listening to this collection of tunes (see below), it’s abundantly clear that in the mid-1920’s Bing was already plugged into black American jazz and rhythm and blues in the same way that Elvis Presley would later synthesize those same black influences – along with everything he learned from Bing, Frank (and in particular) Dean.

Among 20^th century singers, a case can be made that Bing is King. The development of the microphone made Bing’s vocal style possible. At a time when vaudeville singers like Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor were still belting it out to sing over the band, Bing caressed the microphone and used it to his advantage. Bing put a song across in deep, subtle, and dynamic ways that would not have been possible without electric amplification. Bing’s jazzy, relaxed and sophisticated vocal style influenced every pop, rock and jazz singer that followed – whether they knew it or not.

I thank my friend Dana for hipping me to Frank Sinatra back in our days at Northwestern University. In fact, the only song played on Dana’s Hi-Fi as often Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” was Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me.”

My resistance to Sinatra owed a lot to politics and Sinatra’s uneasy reaction to rock and roll. But I should’ve known better than to reject one of the great vocal stylists in popular music history — and a champion of great songwriters.

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock & Roll, was smarter than that.

Young Elvis was a big Dean Martin fan. Of course, he was. Dean was the epitome of cool – and Dean’s smooth, effortless, yet exciting style – with his signature, sexy dynamics and boozy note bending became part of Elvis’ vocal arsenal as well. I hear a ton of Dean on Elvis cuts like “Love Me Tender” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

All right, let’s get to the songs. Too bad nobody has a Hi-Fi anymore – because that’s how this music should be appreciated — with a mixed drink in hand, sharing it with your favorite girl. And/or your kids. It’s a BFD.

Click on the links below the song titles to hear the tunes.

1. Some of These Days (Bing)

This record is often cited as a prime example of Bing Crosby’s ability to sing jazz. In 1932, Bing recorded his take on this Shelton Brooks song written in 1910 specifically for Sophie Tucker. Bing is backed on this cut by the Lennie Hayton orchestra, featuring a great solo by Crosby favorite Eddie Lang. Listening to Bing swing in front of a classic jazz band, you can easily imagine this tune coming up with the credits after an episode of “Boardwalk Empire”. Bing was at home in front of bands of all sizes and styles. He cut his teeth with jazz bands in the 20’s before becoming a fixture of swing bands in the 30’s. These bands were all about dance music – and Bing knew his role, always giving the band’s players plenty of space to solo, rock and wail.

In Bing’s early days, dance bands didn’t always employ a vocalist. In fact, when Bing began singing with Paul Whiteman’s band, he was required to sit holding a dummy instrument so as not to look odd to the audience. By the time Frank Sinatra came along, it had recently become the fashion for bands to feature a regular vocalist. And the vocalists, and not the bandleaders, eventually became the stars. As usual, Bing was a trailblazer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey told Sinatra that the one singer he should listen to was Bing Crosby. Duh. As a kid, Frank had a picture of Bing taped above his bed.

“Sure, I’m a Crosby fan. Everybody’s a Crosby fan.” 

Frank Sinatra

2. Stormy Weather (Frank)

“Frank Sinatra is the kind of singer who comes along once in a lifetime.

But why did it have to be my lifetime?” 

Bing Crosby

Frank cut this Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler tune in L.A. in 1947 for a special V-Disc for the occupation troops overseas. Frank made a lot of V-Discs during the war. Ironically, the man with such an ear for melody was kept out of the war by a perforated eardrum, causing him to be classified 4-F (“Registrant not acceptable for military service”) by his draft board in ‘43. An FBI report released in 1998 showed that the doctors had also noted that Frank was a “neurotic” and “not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint.” This was omitted from his record to avoid “undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service.”

3. Memories Are Made Of This (Dean)

BTW — Dean was drafted into the army in 1944 and served a year in Akron, Ohio before being reclassified as 4-F and discharged, possibly because of a double hernia.

Now back to the music. On this recording, it’s easy to hear how Dean’s vocal style had such a profound effect on young Elvis Presley. Dean recorded “Memories Are Made Of This” with Dick Stabile and The Easy Riders. They cut the track on October 28, 1955 and it was released a month later. The record hit #1 on the charts on December 3^rd — just a week after its release and less than two months after it was recorded. Those were the days, huh? Came you imagine a recording going from the studio to #1 in less than two months now? And this was at a time when Elvis was tearing up the charts. I love the stripped down instrumentation: just a guitar and an upright bass. Not even a drum. Totally cool. Totally relaxed. Totally Dean.

4. Shoo Shoo Baby (Bing)

Written by Phil Moore, “Shoo Shoo Baby” was a big hit for The Andrews Sisters. Bing recorded this live version with a big band for an Armed Forces Broadcast during World War Two. By the 1940’s, Bing had already enjoyed more than two decades of success in the music industry. In 1926, fledgling crooner Bing was singing on the vaudeville circuit in L.A. when he came to the attention of one of the greatest bandleaders of the era, Paul Whiteman (a.k.a. The King of Jazz), who hired him to join one of the most popular bands in America. Unlike the typical vaudeville shouters, Bing learned to work the mic (and the crowd), drawing listeners in with his groovy, jazzy, mellow dynamics. But Bing was evidently a bit of a rock star in his early days – and Whiteman had to fire his star vocalist in 1930 due to his repeated youthful peccadilloes. Bada Bing, Bing.

5. Ol’ Man River (Frank)

This Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein tune from the Broadway musical “Show Boat” was recorded by Frank on a CBS Radio Broadcast in Hollywood in April 1945 and included on a V-Disc sent to the troops in the last year of the war. By 1945, Frankmania was raging, with bobbysoxers swooning and throwing their underwear on stage during his gigs. In ‘44, his shows at the Paramount Theater in NYC sold out the 3,600 seats inside and left 30,000 fans outside dying to get in. As with Elvis and the Beatles, riots, hysteria and frenzied fandom drove a wedge between parents and their teenagers. Frank also sang the song in the 1945 film bio of Jerome Kern, “Till the Clouds Roll By”. Capitalizing on Frank’s appeal with teen audiences, the film included two versions of “Ol’ Man River” — the first a straightforward version sung by African-American actor-singer Caleb Peterson and the second a “crooner version” performed by Frank as the film’s grand finale. Trivia note: Bing’s 1928 recording of the song for Paul Whiteman’s band became his first #1 record as a vocalist.

6. You Was (Dean)

I love Dean’s playful duet with Peggy Lee on this song, written by Sonny Burke & Paul Francis Webster, and recorded on December 12, 1948. Who but Dean could deliver a lyric like “my heart is a spherical, lyrical miracle” with such easygoing self-assurance. (Dynamic moments like that – and performances like “Memories Are Made Of This” prove that Dean is the link between Bing and Elvis.) With his swinging playboy image, Dean was a master of the sexy male-female duet. If you dig this, check out Dean’s Christmas album classic, “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.

7. Pistol Packin’ Mama (Bing)

This 1943 recording by Bing and The Andrews Sisters was the first number record on the Juke Box Folk charts — followed onto the charts by the original version (recorded March 18, 1942) performed by Al Dexter, who also wrote the song.

8. Young At Heart (Frank)

Frank recorded this lovely, sentimental but swinging song, written by C. Leigh & J. Richards, for his 1953 album “This Is Sinatra”. Like so many classic Frank hits of the ‘50s, it was arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, who perfected the lush orchestrations that showcased Frank’s voice at the height of its power and subtlety.

9. Ain’t That A Kick In The Head (Dean)

If there’s a quintessential Rat Pack recording – this is it, baby! Composed in 1960 by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?” was recorded by Dean on May 10, 1960 with Nelson Riddle conducting the orchestra. Dean performed the song in the Rat Pack movie “Ocean’s 11”.

10. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (Bing)

Along with “Ol Man River”, this powerful balled carries the sad but true tale of working men – black and white – from the 19^th into the 20th century. Written in 1930 by lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” became one of the most popular American songs of the Great Depression, best known through recordings by Bing and Rudy Vallee. Both versions were released right before Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election to the presidency in 1932 and both records topped the charts. Bing’s recording became the best-selling record of its time: “an anthem of the shattered dreams of the era.”

11. Where Or When (Frank)

This recording captures Frank in concert in 1966 at The Sands in Las Vegas with Count Basie and The Orchestra — arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Is that enough talent in one room? Frank originally recorded the song for his dark 1958 concept album “Only The Lonely”, a collection of songs that convey heartbreak and urban isolation with a moody film noir feel, including “One For My Baby” which closes out this post.

12. Open Up The Doghouse (Dean)

This one’s nothing but sheer, exuberant, naughty fun – if you can get past the utterly non-PC last verse. Dean recorded this song, written by R. Alfred & M. Fisher as a live duet with Nat King Cole, on September 7, 1954 with Billy May and Orchestra, arranged by Nelson Riddle. When I interviewed the great Wrecking Crew guitarist Glen Campbell for “Behind The Music”, he told me that when he played sessions for Dean at Capitol Records, Dean would show up after the band had rehearsed the tracks and knock his performances out quickly in front of a partying crowd of friends and entourage in the studio. Dean loved a live feel and came alive in front of an audience – and he liked to capture that vibe in the studio.

13. After You’ve Gone (Bing)

Bing’s enduring image as a softhearted movie priest and Christmas special crooner has unfortunately overshadowed his trailblazing work as a jazz cat. Bing’s 1946 single “After You’ve Gone” is one of his lesser-known records — but it puts to rest any notion that Bing was a square. The track is drenched in New Orleans/Dixieland jump and jive. The song, written in 1918 by Turner Layton with lyrics by Henry Creamer, had been covered many times before Bing cut this version with Eddie Condon & His Orchestra (with new lyrics by Eddie Condon). It was later included on Bings’s 1951 album, “Bing Crosby & Some Jazz Friends”. Bing’s jazz friends on this track include Eddie Condon (guitar), Bud Freeman (tenor saxophone), Joe Dixon (clarinet), Wild Bill Davison (cornet), Bob Haggart (bass) and George Wettling (drums).

14. Come Fly With Me (Frank)

Here’s the song Dana Olsen introduced me to all those years ago, written by James Van Heusen & Sammy Cahn, arranged and conducted by Billy May for Frank’s 1957 album, “Come Fly With Me”. This is Frank and his groovy, hipster best. Martini anyone?

15. I’d Cry Like A Baby (Dean)

Dean recorded this easygoing yet plaintive S. Gallop & H. Steiner song on August 13, 1953 with Dick Stabile and Orchestra, arranged by Nelson Riddle. Cool, casual, groovy.

16. Now You Has Jazz (Bing)

Cole Porter wrote this song for the 1956 film “High Society” (which co-starred Bing and Frank), where it was introduced by Bing and Louis Armstrong and his band. Name a prominent singer or bandleader — and chances are that Bing worked with them at one time or another during his long career. Bing was the Great Collaborator.

17. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning (Frank)

I just love this song, written by Bob Hilliard & Dave Mann. It’s one of my very favorite Frank tracks, arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle for Frank’s 1955 album of the same name. The albums that Frank made with Nelson Riddle comprise the apex of his recording career: Songs for Young Lovers, Swing Easy, In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers and Only the Lonely. Frank’s interpretations of the songs on these albums are so definitive that anyone who tried to cover these songs after him had to either consciously avoid sounding anything like Frank or give up and call their version a tribute. The singers who came before Frank, including Bing, found their interpretations erased from popular memory. Today’s best crooners, like Michael Bublé and Harry Connick, Jr. still can’t get out from under the weight of Frank’s indelible stylistic stamp.

18. You Belong To Me (Dean)

This is the suave, romantic Dino that every Italian-American woman in St. Rocco’s parish swooned over when his hits were played over the PA system during our annual Labor Day festival. Dean recorded this tune on June 12, 1952 with Dick Stabile and Orchestra, featuring Stabile on alto sax. Released only as a single, Dean’s recording reached #12 on the charts on September 6, 1952 – but it was still a hit at St. Rocco’s in the 60’s when I was a kid growing up. Of course, Dean and Frank were both Italian.

19. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter (Bing)

Written in 1935 by Fred E. Ahlert with lyrics by Joe Young, this is the song from which Sir Paul got the phrase “kisses on the bottom” for the title of his 2012 album. Bing recorded it for “Bing With a Beat” — his 1957 concept album featuring “hot” jazz and Dixieland arrangements by Matty Matlock, played by Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band. Which leads to a second Beatles connection. In a TV interview on the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s passing, John’s friend Elliot Mintz referred to this album while talking about John’s interest in Bing’s music. According to Mintz, “Yoko gave him this old-fashioned jukebox and John stocked it with Bing Crosby records. People kind of expected him to have rock ‘n’ roll records in there, but it was almost totally Crosby stuff. There were three songs which John played over and over. I still remember them. They were Crosby with a jazz quartet from the ’50s, I think. He would banter and talk in the songs and John thought that was just the end. The songs were “Whispering”, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”, and “Dream a Little Dream of Me”. Yeah, those were the songs, I can still see John listening to them.”

(Note: I checked to make sure, and yep – all three of those songs are on “Bing With a Beat”.)

20. I’ve Got The World On A String (Frank)

Written by Harold Arlen & Ted Koeler and recorded on April 30, 1953 for the album “This Is Sinatra”, this song is Frank’s first pairing with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. Riddle kept the band out of Frank’s way and used bass, reeds and horns to underscore and punctuate Frank’s phrasing. Working with Riddle, Frank honed his vocal style, connecting more with the emotional demands of each song and developing a self-assurance that allowed him to play with the melody and even change the songwriter’s words on occasion if it felt right. All of this is evident on “I’ve Got the World on a String.” Riddle opens with a big orchestral splash that quickly fades, leaving Frank to deliver the opening lines with spare accompaniment. Then – bang – the band jumps back in! And Riddle uses the drums in a way that seems to anticipate Rock & Roll’s backbeat. It’s a bold, dramatic start to one of the most successful collaborations in popular music.

21. Just In Time (Dean)

Dean recorded this song, with melody by Jule Styne and lyrics by Comden & Green, on May 17, 1960 for his album “This Time I’m Swingin”. The orchestra conducted by – who else? — Nelson Riddle. Judy Holliday and Dean sang the song in the 1960 film, “Bells Are Ringing”. Honestly, when you hear a song like this – and you imagine seeing and hearing Dino perform it live onstage with a big band – it’s easier to understand why men and women of a certain age in the late 50’s and early 60’s had no need (or ear) for rock and roll. They were swinging, baby. And damn. I miss those fabulous horns. Don’t you?

22. It’s Been A Long, Long Time (Bing)

This 1945 song, composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, became a major hit at the end of World War Two, written from the perspective of someone welcoming home his significant other at the end of the war. A recording by Harry James and his band went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 24, 1945 while another version by Bing — accompanied by The Les Paul Trio — was also working its way up the charts. Bing’s record replaced Harry James’ version at No. 1 on December 8, 1945. By the way, this is the kind of guitar style that my first guitar teacher, no doubt a big Les Paul fan, tried to teach 12-year old me when I only wanted to rock. Like Bing, Les Paul makes all his brilliance, tuneful, tasteful phrasing and dazzling chops sound so effortless.

23. Nice And Easy (Frank)

The song’s title says it all. Frank recorded this tune, written by Lew Spence/Alan Bergman/Larry Keith, for his 1960 album of the same name. Arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. (Have I heard that somewhere before?)

24. You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You (Dean)

Another dreamboat Dino song on the St. Rocco’s Labor Day Festival hit parade. Written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock and James Cavanaugh and published in 1944, the song was first recorded by Morgan himself – but the best known version is by Dean, who recorded it for his 1964 album, “The Door Is Still Open to My Heart”. It reached #24 on the US pop chart, #1 on the easy listening chart — and #1A on the St. Rocco’s PA pop chart – next to “Volare” (1B) and “Everybody Loves Somebody” (1C).

25. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Bing)

Bing recorded this George & Ira Gershwin classic for his 1956 album, “Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings” – a collaboration between Bing and Buddy Bregman. At the time, Bregman was a 26-year old wunderkind arranger, record producer and composer. Bing was 53. (53? Yikes! That’s younger than I am!) The album was a stylistic departure for Bing: the first time he recorded an album with a hard-swinging orchestra like Frank was doing with Nelson Riddle at the same time. The songs on the album were among the rare few that Bing had never recorded before. Besides coming up with the idea of the album, Bregman also did the orchestrations and conducted a handpicked group of Hollywood’s best musicians to back Bing in the studio. The Variety reviewer wrote, “Altogether it is quite a musical package – muscular and tender, driving and romantic, pulsating and lyrical. For Bing Crosby, the artist, it is a somewhat different testament to add to the many already on record and, as you will hear, an ingeniously varied and durable one.” Time Magazine said, “After 22 years of making records for Decca — plus a few before even Decca latched onto him — Bing Crosby steps out with a handful of oldies on a new label, proves himself virtually indestructible.” Nice work if you can get it.

26. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) (Frank)

Frank first recorded this boozy lament, written by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen, for his melancholy masterpiece LP, Only The Lonely” in 1958. Eight years later, he recorded this live version at The Sands in Las Vegas with Count Basie and The Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. I can’t think of a better way to wrap up this post. Set ‘em up, Frank. Let’s hear one more for the road.

4 Comments

Filed under Art, History, Music

Tagged as Bada Bing, Bing, Bing Crosby, blues, Capitol Records, Count Basie, crooners, Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis, Elvis Presley, Frank, Frank Sinatra, Gershwin, jazz, Les Paul, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Nelson Riddle, Paul Whiteman, Peggy Lee, Quincy Jones, recording, songwriting, vocalists, World War Two

October 1, 2013 · 5:13 pm

Poor Sports

I am thrilled that my hometown Major League baseball team, The Cleveland Indians, have staged an impressive and determined late season rally to earn a spot in the Wild Card playoff game – and a shot to advance in their improbable quest for the Tribe’s first World Series crown since 1948.

My Indians will play the Tampa Bay Rays in a single game tomorrow, Wednesday October 2 in Cleveland, to determine which team advances to face the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.

There will be a lot riding on that one game tomorrow: the hopes and dreams of both teams and the millions of fans that follow them in Northern Ohio and the Florida Gulf Coast. For the players and fans, there will be a lot of pride, prestige and money at stake. A great deal will be on the line when the two teams face off between the lines.

When the Wild Card game is over, there will be a winner and a loser. The winning team will advance and the losing team will not.

The team that loses may claim a moral victory. The Indians and their manager, Terry Francona, certainly could console themselves with a moral victory as nobody expected this young team of no-name players to get anywhere near the playoffs this season. But, more likely, they won’t. Instead, like all good and honorable athletes and sportsmen, they will look to the future and rededicate themselves to earning playoff victories next season.

And you won’t hear a lot of gripes from the players on the losing team about the umpires being unfair or how they really won but the media, or the opposing team, or their opponent’s fans are Un-American liars and cheaters. They will behave like professionals. They’ll have measured, respectful, even complimentary words to say about the team that defeated them. They’ll thank their fans and they’ll take their lumps in the press and the court of public opinion depending upon the merits of their performance on the field.

And that’s why I love sports. Because, in the end, if you play the game the right way – sports builds character. In life, you must learn how to win with grace and humility – and how to lose with dignity and an optimistic resolve to improve and persevere.

Which is also why I can’t stand the GOP majority in the House of Representatives and their poor sport tactics that have led to this unfortunate, self-inflicted government shutdown. Driven by the right wing ideological anarchists of their rabidly anti-government Tea Party caucus, the GOP has steered itself – and the nation – into an easily avoidable ditch. And why?

Because the GOP refused to behave like professionals when they lost the big game.

Last year, President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, played a long, marathon playoff series called the Presidential Election of 2012. At stake in that contest was a public referendum on the key legislative accomplishments of Obama’s first term, especially the Affordable Care Act. Romney made it clear that he would abolish “Obamacare” (as though he actually could do such a thing on his own, which he couldn’t) and President Obama defended the new health care law as a fundamental step in restoring out nation’s economic and physical health.

After all the games were played, The Democrats outscored the Republicans to take the championship.

President Obama won the election 51% to 47%. He won by 5 million votes. It wasn’t even close. Democrats also increased their majority in the Senate and won additional seats in the House. In fact, half a million more Americans cast their votes for Democrats in the House than they did for Republicans. So, the GOP could claim no mandate (no moral victory) coming out of the big game.

So what did the poor sport Republicans do?

Did they endure their loss with dignity and look forward with optimism and a resolve to improve and persevere?

No, that’s not the way these sore losers play. Instead, the GOP refused to accept the final score and have tried over and over to re-play the game all by themselves. They voted dozens of times to overturn Obamacare — despite the fact they could not possibly prevail because the President and the Democrats in the Senate had already won that crucial game and had no reason to re-play it. The same was true of the GOP House majority’s constant votes to degrade a woman’s right to choose, weaken voting rights laws, and re-play other critical games they lost in the Presidential Championship Series of 2012.

And now these poor GOP-Tea Party losers have decided that, rather than compete in a new season with new ideas, more popular policy positions and a rededication to making progress through the small-D democratic process – they have forced themselves and the nation into the damaging, self-defeating equivalent of the 1994 Major League Baseball strike.

That baseball strike wiped out the second half of the season, the playoffs and the World Series. It was devastating to the Great American Pastime – and to Cleveland in particular. When the strike began on August 12, 1994, the Indians were just one game back from the division-leading Chicago White Sox and were leading the AL Wildcard Race over the Baltimore Orioles by 2.5 games.

Now, these whining Conservative House Republican losers have shut down the political season because they couldn’t compete on the playing field in last year’s championship playoffs. And their manager, John Boehner, has proved himself a wimp of a leader: a man who knows how the game should be played but is too weak and venal to lead his unruly players in a manner that respects their opponents and the great American game they all play: democracy.

I wish my Cleveland Indians good luck tomorrow and I dearly hope they win.

And I hope John Boehner and his Tea Party-GOP children are watching. It will be good for them to see how adult professional sportsmen compete.

Play ball, GOP.

In the adult world, you can’t just take your ball and go home when you’re on the wrong end of the score.

6 Comments

Filed under History, Politics, Sports, Truth

Tagged as American League Division Series, baseball, Boehner, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland, Cleveland Indians, GOP, government shutdown, Mitt Romney, Obama, Obamacare, playoff, President Obama, Tampa Bay Rays, Tea Party, Terry Francona, Wild Card, World Series

September 4, 2013 · 12:54 pm

President Obama Goes to War…

What should a progressive liberal Democrat think about President Obama’s intention to bomb Syria?

What should progressives think about a Nobel Peace Prize laureate launching a punitive military strike against the Assad regime?

What are the political dangers that President Obama faces as he awaits a Congressional vote to authorize the use of force against the Syrian regime?

I’ve heard all these questions and more debated over and over on radio and TV in recent weeks by the usual parade of talking heads – folks who’ve been mostly wrong on everything since 9-11 and George Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Generally on channels like FOX, CNN, MSNBC and the network Sunday morning shows the debate about Obama and Syria plays out in the context of a political game in which Obama is either the winner or the loser depending upon the speaker’s own political bias or the pundit’s ability to foresee the future in ways that President Obama evidently cannot.

I’ve listened to all this crosstalk (it can’t be called “debate” or “argument” – which both require that some listening be done) and I think the chattering class and political grandstanders are largely ignoring the central question: the one that I believe is foremost on Obama’s mind.

How should the United States respond to the use of chemical weapons by a dictator against his own people?

Liberals and progressives like me (though not necessarily Democratic politicians) are uncomfortable with the use of force. We don’t like military answers to problems that can be solved diplomatically. Unlike uber-hawks like Senator John McCain, we don’t see the sledgehammer as the only tool in the arsenal of democracy.

We on the left have been gratified by President Obama’s diplomatic outreach to the Muslim world and his reticence to swing our military sledgehammer in the china shop of international relations. Many of the talking heads and politicians clucking today squawked that Obama was too slow to launch a strike against Gaddafi in Libya. I was pleased that, when Obama did move against the Gaddafi regime, he did so in a limited and effective way — just as he did in taking out Osama bin Laden.

So, when this President urges a military response to Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons I am far less cynical than I would be if Bush and Cheney were still in charge. And that’s not a partisan political calculation: it’s a matter of observation and unfortunate experience.

Having wound down two costly and controversial wars of choice that have eroded American prestige abroad and the public’s faith in government at home, President Obama surely hoped that the situation in Syria would not escalate to the point where the U.S. would have to consider launching cruise missiles to hold Bashar Assad accountable to international law and standards of human decency.

The thought of bombing someone in retaliation for committing war crimes is hard for peace-loving people to wrap their heads around.

But what are the options?

Getting the United Nations on board is impossible because Russia and China (who have their own obvious reasons for protecting the prerogatives of dictators) will use their Security Council veto to block any UN move against Assad’s regime. The fractious Europeans and the war-weary Brits will not be any help. And our allies among Syria’s neighbors – Turkey, the Saudis, the smaller oil states and Israel – would like to see Assad spanked hard for his transgressions but they rightly fear the chaos that could follow regime change in Syria. The Syrian refugee problem in Turkey and Jordan is already a crisis after years of brutal civil war — and what’s happened in Libya and Egypt after the ousters of Gaddafi and Mubarak does not augur well for a peaceful post-Assad transition in Syria.

With all these factors in play, President Obama still feels that the United States must take the lead and defend mankind against the use of chemical weapons by a despot. Clearly, in threatening military action against Assad, Obama intends to fire a shot across the bow of the young despot in North Korea and the religious despots in Iran whose pursuit of nuclear weapons pose even greater dangers to humanity.

So, all that said — how should the United States respond to the use of chemical weapons by a dictator against his own people? I’m glad that the U.S. Congress will be debating that question.

Two things bothered me most about Obama’s run-up to military action in Syria. My first concern was that Obama was ready to act before the United Nations inspectors had finished their investigation and reported their findings. That felt too much like Bush chasing the weapons inspectors out of Iraq so he could start his war. My second concern was that Obama was ready to go to war in Syria (because that’s what firing cruise missiles is, let’s face it) without authorization from Congress.

I don’t know whether the vote in Parliament and Prime Minister Cameron’s decision to bow to the will of his legislature was the deciding factor that led Obama to seek a vote in Congress, but I’m glad he’s doing it. It’s essential to our democracy to debate matters of war and peace.

It’s also good to see John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi both supporting President Obama: a rare display of bipartisanship. Of course, such displays of bipartisanship are what led Hillary Clinton and other Democrats to endorse President Bush’s cowboy adventure in Iraq. But it appears that the lessons learned in the Iraq war vote have led lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to craft a resolution that ensures a strike against Syria will be limited, specific and short-term, with no “boots on the ground”. (BTW – Does every pundit have to say “boots on the ground”? Can’t someone please say “ground troops” or “infantry” or “ground forces”?)

I hope Congress focuses their debate on the question of how the United States should respond to the use of chemical weapons by a dictator against his own people. Leave the domestic political games behind. Take a stand based on what’s best for humanity – and with an eye toward the message this vote will send to North Korea and Iran. (Alas, there are bad guys in the world.)

President Obama clearly has little to gain in this whole affair. For himself, that is. But he doesn’t appear to be concerned about his own political fortunes or the mid-term elections or any of the things that the pundits focus on so relentlessly. There have been times in the past 100 years when American strength and resolve stood as a bulwark between oppressed people and the evil forces that threatened them. I believe that’s how President Obama sees this moment in Syria and why he feels The United States must take action to hold Bashar Assad accountable for his criminal use of lethal gas against his own citizens.

And that’s why I stand by President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Kerry — and I urge my representatives to vote in favor of authorizing the use of force against the Assad regime.

Let the debate begin!

9 Comments

Filed under History, Politics, Truth

Tagged as Assad, authorization, Bashar Assad, chemical weapons, Congress, cruise missile, military intervention, Obama, pundits, Syria, use of force

August 5, 2013 · 9:56 am

My Book Report: “The Day of Battle”

Later this week I’ll be traveling with my family to Italy. We’ll stay in Tuscany near Florence for a week and then head southward in Tuscany, close to Umbria and the ancient town of Amelia – the place my grandparents left when they came to America in the early 1910’s.

Amelia grew up around an ancient hill fort known to the Romans and some scholars consider Amelia the oldest town in Umbria. Whether that’s true isn’t certain, but it is clear that over the centuries, Amelia has seen its share of war. Occupied by the Etruscans and then the Romans, the town’s ancient hilltop fortress was a strategic point in the Second Latin War (remember that one?) way, way back in 340-338 BC. In World War Two, Umbria became a battlefield as retreating Nazi troops, hounded by an inexorable American and Allied advance, slowly withdrew from Italy under fire.

Knowing I was going to be exploring Tuscany and Umbria, a good friend gave me The Day of Battle, Rick Atkinson’s excellent history of the Italian Campaign in World War Two. It’s one of the best-written, most thoroughly researched and yet completely readable books on military history that I’ve ever read.

Atkinson knows that all good storytelling is anchored in compelling characters, and he presents a great dramatic cast in The Day of Battle – from icons like Ike and Patton to lesser-known generals like Mark Clark and Lucian Truscott, common soldiers like Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin, and the writers and reporters who followed them into battle, including Ernie Pyle and Eric Sevareid.

Lt. Hanley and Sgt. Saunders. My childhood heroes on “Combat”.

Atkinson recently released The Guns at Last Light: The War in Europe, 1944-1945 — the last volume in his Liberation Trilogy which began with the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. Most guys my age were introduced to the war in Africa by watching The Rat Patrol. And the movie The Longest Day fixed the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944 in our memories and imaginations. Besides, Sergeant Saunders and the rest of his squad on Combat landed on D-Day!

However, how many of us know that the U.S. 5^th Army liberated Rome on June 4, 1944 – just two days before the Allies assaulted the beaches of Normandy on D-Day?

The second volume of Atkinson’s trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, filled in the Italian gap in my World War Two consciousness vividly and profoundly.

Eisenhower and 5th Army Commander, General Mark Clark, study maps of Italy after the conquest of Sicily.

Atkinson deftly portrays the colorful personalities and political pressures behind the decision to undertake the Italian campaign: the machinations of Winston Churchill, the diplomacy and determination of Franklin Roosevelt, and the taxed patience of a chain-smoking General Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander in the Mediterranean during the first stages of the invasion.

Atkinson lays out the three basic reasons that the Allies fought in Italy: to knock fascist Italy out of the war and to engage as many German divisions as possible, thus taking pressure off the Soviets on the Eastern Front and keeping Hitler from reinforcing his Atlantic defenses before the planned invasion of Normandy.

Atkinson points out that military historians have debated whether the Italian campaign was a sideshow and whether or not all the strategic objectives were met – but, as The Day of Battle makes grimly clear, the savagery of the relentless combat for every inch of Italian soil was no sideshow for the cold, wet and dirty soldiers who fought across the beaches, rivers and mountain ridges of Sicily and the Italian peninsula.

As an American with deep Italian roots, I’m almost shamed to admit how little I knew about the Allied invasion of Sicily, the horrors of the Salerno and Anzio landings, and the slugging, slogging war of attrition waged against desperate German defenders dug into heavily fortified mountain strongholds like San Pietro and Monte Cassino.

After the hard-won Allied breakthrough at Monte Cassino, and the link-up with American troops that finally broke out of the misery and butchery of the Anzio beachhead, the road to Rome was open.

After General Mark Clark’s columns rode into Rome along the same route taken by Caesar’s victorious legions, the Germans fought a long delaying action up the Italian boot.

While Umbria and Tuscany were spared the annihilation visited upon southern Italy — from Sicily to Naples to Monte Cassino — there was still a lot of hard fighting in the towns that I’ll be visiting on my family vacation.

The evidence of that hard fighting is marked by the thousands of graves at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial. Most of these soldiers died in the battles and skirmishes that took place in the 11 very long months after the capture of Rome and before the Germans in Italy finally surrendered on May 2, 1945. My family will be sure to visit this honored place to pay our respects to the men who liberated my grandparents’ homeland from Nazi tyranny.

The son of a U.S. Army officer Rick Atkinson grew up on military posts, holds a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Chicago, and has been a reporter, foreign correspondent, and senior editor for 25 years at the Washington Post. All of this has made him a well-rounded and knowledgeable storyteller with a military man’s intimate appreciation of war and soldiering combined with a reporter’s objectivity and a literary flair that makes his work special. Wherever the troops are fighting in The Day Of Battle, Atkinson finds connections to Greek and Roman myth and history that help to make his account transcendent.

The Day Of Battle is historical writing at its very best.

The only drawback is that now I’ve got to read the other two volumes in Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy.

Alas. So many good books, so little time.

Forward, march!

4 Comments

Filed under Adventure, History

Tagged as Amelia Italy, An Army at Dawn, Anzio, Battle of San Pietro, D-Day, Eisenhower, Italian campaign, liberation of Rome, Mark Clark, Monte Cassino, Normandy invasion, Rick Atkinson, Salerno, The Day of Battle, The Guns at Last Light, Tuscany, Umbria, Winston Churchill, World War Two

July 6, 2013 · 9:53 pm

Penny Lane: Then & Now

My daughter Emilia is traveling in Liverpool, the home of John, Paul, George and Ringo: The Beatles.

Getting Free

The monumental Beatles fan I am, the moment I got to Liverpool, England, was the moment I made sure I got myself to all the Beatles’ landmarks: Paul McCartney’s childhood home, John Lennon‘s childhood home, Strawberry Fields, St. Peter’s Church, and, of course, Penny Lane. I, of course, know all the lyrics to Penny Lane (as any halfway-decent Beatles fan should), and all the while I roamed the Lane, the lyrics were bopping through my head. How does the Penny Lane of today hold up to the Penny Lane McCartney immortalized in song? Well, let’s have a look at the lyrics.**

Verse #1:
In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he’s had the pleasure to have known
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello

Now, in my travels on Penny Lane, I found 2 barbershops, neither…

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The Third Day at Gettysburg: 150 Years Ago Today…

The final installment of a series of blog posts on my 2010 visit to the Gettysburg battlefield.“The enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.”

On July 3, 1863 the exhausted armies of the North and South faced each other across a mile of undulating farmland in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — preparing to commence the final violence of their epic battle. Though Confederate General Robert E. Lee planned to strike the Union center early in the day, the thunderous cannonade preceding General Longstreet’s assault did not begin until 1:00 in the afternoon. If Lee had placed my wife, Victoria Zielinski, in command of the attack, things would have gotten started much sooner. Indeed, Victoria and I were up and ready to go by 9:00 AM.

Our third day at Gettysburg would be a brief affair as we were due in Philadelphia later that same day. Victoria had planned a reunion in the City of Brotherly Love with a group of her closest college sisters (Northwestern University alums, of course). Therefore, we’d have to leave the Gettysburg battlefield before the climactic action — legendary “Pickett’s Charge” — began 147 years ago. But we’d still be leaving long after the day’s fighting began.

Few remember that the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg started at dawn as Union guns opened fire in the defense of Culp’s Hill on the Federal right flank. Soon afterward, Union troops drove the Rebels off the hill, and by 11 o’clock, Billy Yank was once again in possession of the earthworks they’d lost to Johnny Reb the day before. The third day’s battle on the Union right was over almost before it began. Undaunted, Lee was determined to attack the Union center.

“Storm Over Gettysburg” by Mort Kuntsler. Lee and Longstreet confer before the third day’s fighting.

Much has been made of the dispute between Lee and his “Old War Horse” General James Longstreet on the third day at Gettysburg. Longstreet argued that the wiser course was to get behind the Union army’s left flank and threaten the roads to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. – thereby forcing the Union army off the high ground on Cemetery Hill to give battle on ground of the South’s choosing.

Lee, however, was determined to strike – and break – the Union center. “The enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.” After all, Lee’s army had never failed to break the Federal lines in an all-out assault. But at Gettysburg, there was a critical difference: for the first time, Pennsylvanian Generals George Meade and Winfield Scott Hancock and the Army of the Potomac under their command were defending home turf. There was nowhere to run. As Hancock rode his lines that morning, he no doubt reminded every subordinate officer of the need to hold firm and give no ground to the enemy.

With the fight on Culp’s Hill essentially over, Lee ordered Longstreet to attack the Union center – to drive toward the infamous “copse of trees” at the heart of the Federal line on Cemetery Hill. Longstreet attacked with three powerful divisions, led by Generals Trimble, Pettigrew, and Pickett. The three brigades of Pickett’s division were led by Generals Garnett, Kemper and Armistead. Armistead was a close friend of General Hancock, who waited for him across the open killing field.

General Pickett

Pickett’s brigade commanders would pay a heavy price that afternoon: Garnett and Armistead died in Pickett’s Charge, and Kemper was severely wounded. Once again, it’s good to be reminded that general officers in those days of close combat led from the front.

As Victoria and I had to leave for Philadelphia before Pickett’s Charge, I refer you to The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara’s 1974 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Lee’s Old War Horse” by Mort Kuntsler. Longstreet and Lee prepare for Pickett’s Charge.

“Hell for Glory” Pickett’s Charge by Keith Rocco

Shaara does a great job of bringing the conflict between Lee and Longstreet to life – and his account of Pickett’s Charge is well worth the read. I won’t give anything away to say that Pickett’s Charge failed and that of the more than 13,000 Confederate soldiers who made the assault, more than 7,000 lay dead or wounded on the field afterward. The Union won the day – and the Battle of Gettysburg.

Presudent Lincoln (center, without his hat) shortly before his Gettysburg Address.

A little more than four months later on Thursday, November 19, 1863, President Lincoln came to the battlefield to dedicate the military cemetery — and the “few appropriate remarks” he uttered that day would cement the worldwide fame of Gettysburg for generations to come.

Secure in the knowledge that the Union would ultimately be saved, we drove east to Philadelphia to meet up with Victoria’s college mates. I left Gettysburg knowing that I would certainly be back again, perhaps in 2013 – the 150^th anniversary of the battle. (Come to think of it, I’d better book our hotel room now.)

It was a glorious, sunny drive through rural Pennsylvania and we arrived in Philly with plenty of daylight left. (General Zielinski drove us hard for good reason.) We rendezvoused with our hosts in South Philly, Mary Bartlett and Roy Backes, and began the second stage of our honeymoon adventure.

Vic’s friend Mary’s husband Roy is the Production Manager of the Walnut Street Theatre – the oldest operating theatre in America. So, while Vic joined Mary, Roy, and her college roommates at the Walnut Street Theatre’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof”, I met up with my own dear NU friend, Jim McCutchen – now one of those damn Philadelphia lawyers you hear so much about. (Actually, Jim clerks for an appellate court judge. His work entails more life and death responsibility than I’d want to deal with.)

Jim McCutchen, Esq. & Me

Jim showed me around the historic heart of the city, especially Independence Square, the site of Independence Hall, on Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets. Every school child should know (though, alas, they probably don’t) that Independence Hall is the place where both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were born. Completed in 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, it became the home of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and the site of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It’s one thing to read about this place – it’s another thing to actually be there. It’s a pilgrimage every American should make.

The Liberty Bell is housed in a groovy new glass and steel building across the street. I don’t care for the setting. Somehow, that proud, historic bit of brass doesn’t fit its modern surroundings. The bell looks out of place, out of time, an anachronism. I’m sure that’s not the message that the Park Service intends. But while the Park Service has housed the Gettysburg Cyclorama in a setting that adds to it’s dignity and power – The Liberty Bell is diminished by the manner in which it’s exhibited. Alas. Where’s Davy Crockett when you need him?

Jim and I hoisted a few cold ones and caught up with each other (after a quarter of a century) before meeting Victoria and her NU pals at the Walnut Street Theater, where Mary’s husband Roy gave us a private backstage tour of his historic domain. The Walnut Street Theater, which has stood at the corner of Ninth and Walnut Streets for two hundred years, bills itself as the nation’s oldest theatre. If so, there must be a lot of eminent theatrical ghosts haunting the place. Roy took us all around the stage and backstage – and into a room filled with fabulous old handbills and theatrical notices.

NU friends and goddesses Bea Rashid, Mary Bartlett, Betsy Dowd, Jean Marie Pla and Vic in front of the Walnut Street Theatre.

The Walnut Street stage has seen the likes of Edwin Booth, Edmund Kean, the Barrymores, George M. Cohan, Will Rogers, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Jack Lemon, William Shatner – and the Practical Theatre’s own Louis DiCrescenzo in a long-running production of “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” There’s even a picture of Louis in the balcony lobby – right up there with all the other theatrical luminaries.

The next day, was July 4^th – and there’s no better place to be on the Fourth than Philly. That’s what made this whole trip so special. Vic and I were at Gettysburg on the exact dates of the battle in 1863, and now, on the Fourth of July, we were headed out to the spot where the newly signed Declaration of Independence was first read aloud to the crowds outside Independence Hall in 1776.

As a group, we walked from Mary and Roy’s townhouse to Independence Square and enjoyed the sights and sounds of a Park Service July 4^th ceremony complete with a male choir, a color guard, and what looked to be several dozen aged Sons and Daughters of the Americas Revolution. (A few looked to be no more than a couple years too young to have served at Lexington and Concord.)

Not far off Independence Square stands a statue called “The Signer”, representing all those brave patriots who chose to hang together rather than hang separately. However, my personal interest in the statue was magnified when I read a plaque that revealed “The Signer” was modeled after signer George Clymer of Pennsylvania. Few but historians remember George Clymer – but if, like me, your mother hails from the tiny coal country borough of Clymer, Pennsylvania – that name is far more significant. I just love connections like that: discoveries that let you know you’re in the right place at the right time.

We headed back toward Mary and Roy’s house by way of South Street. Our hosts were eager for us to see something called Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens – which lay somewhere down South Street. I loved South Street right away. From the moment we started down this funky urban artery, its mix of Starbucks coffee culture, punk ethos, hippy vibes, and Rastafarian island groove captivated me. But wait, said our hosts, the best – and the grooviest – was yet to come.

After we’d walked a few blocks, we began to see what they were talking about — storefronts, buildings and alleyways adorned with glittering mosaic murals: the unique and stunning work of Philadelphia folk artist, Isaiah Zagar. I was immediately reminded of Antoni Gaudí’s work in Barcelona – and Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles. (I am ashamed to say I have yet to visit the Watts Towers. See Sally Nemeth’s blog for her visit to this incredible Los Angeles art treasure.)

The transcendent highlight of our South Street trek was our exploration of Isaiah Zagar’s masterwork, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens – a work of art that must be seen and experienced to be appreciated. We were surrounded by it, engulfed in it, and astounded by it. Like the monuments of Gettysburg, these amazing artworks by Isaiah Zagar are timeless testaments to the better angels of our nature.

Later that night, we took in the July 4th fireworks from Mary and Roy’s townhouse rooftop. But I’ll let the brilliance and color of Zagar’s art stand in for the rocket’s red glare and bombs bursting in air.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this 4-part account of our honeymoon journey through history.(Zagar photos by Steve Rashid. Thanks, Steve!)

Category Archives: History

ObamaCare & Italy & Everything Else — Blog 2013: The Fourth Year In Review.

Remembering Lincoln at Gettysburg

Our Italian Adventure

Joe, George & Ted…

BFD: Bing, Frank & Dean

Poor Sports

President Obama Goes to War…

My Book Report: “The Day of Battle”

Penny Lane: Then & Now

The Third Day at Gettysburg: 150 Years Ago Today…

The final installment of a series of blog posts on my 2010 visit to the Gettysburg battlefield.“The enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.”

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Groove w/Ms. Maura

Eva B. Ross!

“Messy” with Eva B!

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Category Archives: History

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The final installment of a series of blog posts on my 2010 visit to the Gettysburg battlefield.“The enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.”

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Hop Aboard!

Groove w/Ms. Maura

Eva B. Ross!

“Messy” with Eva B!

Scan the Blog!

Landmarks

Blogroll

Stowed in the Hold

Ship’s Logs

The Manifest