GREAT BEGINNINGS, 1695
“Because I could not stop for death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.”
(the beginning of the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886)
REMEMBER WHEN…
The following DHS seniors were voted as having the Best Groomed Hair:
1973: Ralf Swenson/Lorna Schumacher
1974: Dale Pederson/Susie Weinlaeder
1975: Lee Jorde/Noel Lizakowski
1976: Loren Rohweder/Tami Anderson
1977: Kim Cochran/Tammy Bill
TRUMPUBLIC
On October 18 David Harsanyi, a senior editor at The Federalist, called out NBA player LeBron James and NBA coach Steve Kerr for their stands against the Hong Kong dissidents.
Since the retirement of Michael Jordan, James has become the face of the NBA and also somewhat of the voice, speaking in support of Colin Kaepernick and his campaign of kneeling as the National Anthem played at NFL games and against President Trump and his policies. In doing so he exercised a freedom the Hong Kong dissidents do not have. When Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted an image of the slogan “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” James went apoplectic, condemning Morey as being “misinformed” and “uneducated” about the situation in Hong Kong. Morey deleted his tweet, in deference to the mighty King James. However, James was “hoist on his own petard” when a tweet of his own from last year about Kaepernick surfaced: “I stand with anyone who believes in change.” I guess in James’s world that only applies in the United States. The Hong Kong dissidents want change, too, from a repressive totalitarian regime to a more democratically based freedom.
Kerr of the Golden State Warriors has been outspoken on social media about a variety of political and economic issues, but he turned shy when asked to comment on the nature of totalitarianism in China: he said he’d have to consult his brother-in-law, a professor, before he could answer. Then when he was asked about human rights abuses in China, he deflected the question by saying there were plenty of human rights abuses in the United States.
The NBA is big on public pronouncements about equality and fairness (e.g., transgender public bathrooms in North Carolina), but when the bottom line is the loss of billions of dollars of Association income from China, the dollar sign silences the social justice warriors who love the freedoms inherent in America, but will not defend them in Communist China.
NATIONAL DEBT
As of October 20 the national debt was $22,844,427,927,005 (over 22 trillion dollars). This was a new all-time high for the national debt for the sixth week in a row. On October 13 it was $22,825,442,122,687, so there was an increase of 18 billion 985 million dollars. Each American owes $69,247, up $47 from the $69,200 of October 13.
The increase in the national debt since our members of Congress were first in office:
Former Senator Kent Conrad: 1987-2013: over 14 trillion 91 billion dollars.
Former Representative Rick Berg: Jan. 2011-Jan. 2, 2013: over two trillion 443 billion dollars.
Former Senator Heidi Heitkamp: Jan. 3, 2013-Jan. 2, 2019: over five trillion 470 billion dollars.
Senator John Hoeven: Jan.
2011: $13,997,932,781,828.89; today:
$22,844,427,927,005, an increase of eight trillion 947 billion dollars.
Senator/Representative Kevin Cramer: Jan. 3, 2013: $16,437,549,999,170.77; today: $22,844,427,927,005, an increase of six trillion 507 billion dollars.
Representative Kelly Armstrong:
Jan. 3, 2019: $21,911,469,998,824; today: $22,844,427,927,005, an increase of 932 billion 958 million dollars.
MR. MOTO IN THE MOVIES, 50
Mr. Moto was a fictional creation of author John P. Marquand (1893-1960).
In the film “Thank You, Mr. Moto” after Ivan (John Bleifer) knocks Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) out at the Tchernov house and kidnaps Eleanor Joyce (Jayne Regan), Eric Koerger (Sidney Blackmer) and his henchman Schneider (William Von Brinken) ransack the Chung home in search of the priceless scroll. They are unsuccessful, but Koerger will not give up, reminding Schneider that since Moto called Prince Chung to warn him of the attempted theft, the scroll must still be in the house. Schneider says it couldn’t have been Moto on the telephone because he had killed Moto and took the scroll he possessed. Unpersuaded, Koerger recalls that Schneider also thought he had killed Moto in the antique shop. Moto is not a man to be underestimated. Koerger’s lover, Madame Tchernov (Nedda Harrigan, 1899-1989, had 15 screen credits from 1929 to 1953. She played Anita Barelli in Charlie Chan at the Opera, 1936; Madame Lucien in Devil’s Island, 1939; and Joan Trask in On Trial, 1939) says a clever man like Moto may not have been fooled by Koerger’s imitation of the Prince’s voice and may have called the police.
TRIVIA QUIZ TIME, 1122
1. The “deep and dark tarn” closed over the House of __.
(a. Horror; b. Mirth; c. Usher)
2. The Queen of __ kept shouting “off with their heads!”
(a. Diamonds; b. Hearts; c. Spades)
3. __ wrote the lines “I have a little shadow who goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see.”
(a. Lewis Carroll; b. T.S. Eliot; c. Robert Louis Stevenson)
4. In the Big Band Era the song ___ contained the line “The sky is as high as an elephant’s eye.”
(a. Oh, What a Beautiful Morning; b. Oklahoma!; c. Stars Fell on Alabama)
5. The TV show “___” had this theme: “He’s the boss, he’s the V.I.P., he’s the championship, he’s the tip-top [name of show].”
(a. Top Cat; b. Top Dog; c. Underdog)
(answers at the end of the Column)
A MESS OF POTTAGE, 1752
This portion of my column describes the works of Libertarian philosopher and economist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995). In 1995 he published “Economic Thought Before Adam Smith.”
Chapter 17 is entitled “The spread of the Smithian movement.” Rothbard is no fan of Smith’s major work, “The Wealth of Nations,” a book Rothbard says is “…huge, sprawling, inchoate, confused…” or for Smith as an economist. One of the followers of Smith and for a time the sole professor of political economy (economics) in England was Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), best known for his theory of population growth. From the depths of the French Revolution (1789-1799) sprang a radical who influenced Malthus: William Godwin, a voluntary anarcho-communist who believed that in societies with property, population growth would tend to keep the level of subsistence low. However, once property was done away with, a “New Godwinian Man” would emerge to make institutions based on human reason. In such a society, reason would cause the sexual urge to dissipate and advancing science would create humans with such perfect health that they would be virtually immortal.
POETIC FRAGMENTS
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English Pre-Raphaelite poet. Here is a portion of her poem “Up-Hill”:
“Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.”
DHS, 1930, 12
On the afternoon of March 14, a short program was presented in the high school assembly room: The Girls’ Glee Club sang “The Lost Chord”; Roscoe Gutekunst played a trombone solo, “Gaiety Polka”; Jean Ehrky read “The Lie”; and the Glee Club sang “The Cockatoo.”
On March 17 it was determined that two-thirds of the 1st and 2nd graders had completed the requirements for hot cereal breakfasts over the past month, so they were entitled to the picture promised to them by the Cream of Wheat Company.
POPULAR AMERICAN MUSIC, 43
In “Billboard” magazine for May 19, 1956, Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley continued in #1 spot on the Top 100 Chart for the third consecutive week. Hot Diggity by Perry Como was #2 for the fourth straight week. There were no new songs on the Top Ten.
In “Billboard” magazine for May 26, 1956, Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley retained its #1 ranking on the Top 100 Chart for the fourth straight week. Hot Diggity by Perry Como was at #2 for the fifth consecutive week. Two new songs hit the Top Ten: Standing on the Corner by the Four Lads was #9, up from #19 (“Standing on the corner watching all the girls go by, Standing on the corner watching all the girls go by, Brother, you don’t know a nicer occupation, Matter of fact, neither do I, than standing on the corner watching all the girls, watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by”), and Ivory Tower by Gale Storm was at #10, up from #16. Falling from the Top Ten were A Tear Fell by Teresa Brewer and Lisbon Antigua by Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra.
Top Ten songs were by three males, one male group, three females, one mixed vocal group, and four instrumentals.
NOTABLE QUOTES
“Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest.”
(from Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear,” Act I, sc. 2)
Trivia Quiz Answers
(1.c; 2. b; 3. c; 4. a; 5. a)