There can be a lot of wisdom in stories created for children and in the form of fables passed from one generation to another. Here are just a few examples I believe represent learning experiences for us all
The Velveteen Rabbit is a children's book written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. It chronicles the story of a stuffed rabbit's desire to become real through the love of his owner. It was originally published in 1922. This selection from the book is a discussion about what makes a genuine human being. One that's "real." What our world needs right now is a government of leaders who are honest, truthful and genuine. There is a lot of wise advice in this short passage applicable to us all.
"What is real?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" “Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'
'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.
'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'
'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. Once you are real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
In 1885 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson published a book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland commonly abbreviated to “Alice in Wonderland. He published it under a pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It is a tale about a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole in a fantasy world populated by peculiar characters. There are many selections of the book of relevant subjects that remain current today. Here are some examples:
Advice about telling a story "Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
If you don't have an objective you will never accomplish anything
“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”
Fear is better than love Niccolo Machiavelli in his classic book The Prince wrote: "It is much safer to be feared than loved because love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” Lewis Carroll shortens this to: The Red Queen: "You're right, Stayn. It is far better to be feared than loved."
Communication is what the other person hears, not what you say:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
Aesops Fables or the Aesopica, is a collection of stories credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BC. The fables were repeated by oral tradition until some three centuries after his death when they were put in writing. This is his story about the man, the boy and their donkey, with a good lesson for us about trying to please other people.
The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey
A man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.
That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them: “Please all and you will none."
Humorist Garrison Keillor says on his popular radio show, Prairie Home Companion, “Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” Well, this is the report from Gig Harbor, with extracts from some books I read that have no particular purpose then they caught my interest.
The U.S. Constitution: And Fascinating Facts About It by Terry L. Jordan
A huge man for his day, Washington stood 6'3'," tall with enormous hands. Washington had pockmarked skin as a result of a teenage case of smallpox, and a shy disposition that was the result of a domineering mother. Twice he proposed to women, and twice he was rejected. He finally married Martha Curtis, the richest widow in Virginia. He had lost almost all his teeth by the time he was president, leaving him with badly sunken cheeks that were stuffed with cotton for portraits. Contrary to popular belief, George Washington never had wooden teeth! His teeth were made mostly of lead fitted with human, cattle, and hippopotamus teeth. Some were carved from elephant and walrus tusks.
Madison was a soft-spoken and tiny man-about 5'4" and less than 100 pounds. Even his nickname was diminutive: "Jemmy." He was too small to serve in the Revolutionary War, and turned to politics instead. Madison, "the Father of the Constitution"-the most important legal document in modern history-never received a law degree. Even in his forties, Madison was a lonely and single man. That changed when Aaron Burr introduced him to Dolley Todd. The couple married when Madison was 43, and never had children. Dolley Madison earned a place in history when she stole away from the White House with crucial government documents and a portrait of George Washington as the British stormed the capital during the War of 1812. Madison outlived all of the other Founding Fathers. He died at the age of eighty-five in June 1836.
Jefferson was renowned for being a terrible public speaker due to a speech impediment, although he is certainly regarded as one of the most gifted writers ever to hold the office of the presidency. He alone wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell
John Peers observed, “You can’t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” Self-conscious people are rarely good leaders. They focus on themselves, worrying how they look, what others think, whether they are liked. They can’t give power to others because they feel that they have no power themselves. And you can’t give what you don’t have
When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery by Frank Vertosick Jr.
Hippocrates once said that the chief function of medicine is to entertain patients until they heal
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
A famous English surgeon once remarked that a surgeon has to have nerves of steel, the heart of a lion and the hands of a woman
You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters by Deepak Chopra
There are four fundamental forces in nature, consisting of gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces,
Creation is very big. The universe appears potentially to extend 46 billion light-years as far as the eye, or the telescope, can see. This is how far light has traveled since the big bang.
Most of it, 96 percent or so, is “dark” and therefore unseen and unknown. But at least we have a credible inventory of the cosmos, as produced by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Probe (WMAP): 4.6 percent regular matter, 24 percent dark matter, and 71.4 percent dark energy. Most of the universe is at the very least quite exotic. Quite a black box indeed.
Out of the 118 elements found, only 6 make up 97 percent of the human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.
In medicine, this is known as the WICOS problem: Who Is the Captain Of the Ship?
Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address by Stephen Birmingham
Noise of hammering and electric saws might be disturbing the elderly Browning, so Segal rang the Brownings’ bell, and when Miss Adele answered it Segal offered a lengthy apology for the noise. When he had finished, Miss Adele cupped her hand to her ear and said, “What?”
Lee Marvin: Point Blank by Dwayne Epstein
Once, when Heckeroth wanted Lee to help him measure the depth of a well, Lee told him not to bother with the old knotted string and weight device. Lee boasted he would merely drop a pebble and could tell by its acceleration the exact depth of the well. Heckeroth was astonished when Lee’s measurement proved to be exactly what Heckeroth’s string registered. He never knew Lee had measured the depth the night before.
But Enough About Me: A Memoir by Burt Reynolds, Jon Winoku
Donald (Trump) was born on third and thought he hit a triple
The Global Code: How a New Culture of Universal Values is Reshaping Business and Marketing by Clotaire Rapaille
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had the right idea when he said that “there’s no place for the state in the bedroom.
We know that the reptilian always wins, that the emotional level is always full of tensions and contradictions, but the cortex
Millennials: Don’t Speak, Please, Texting Only! The code for communication is text. Millennials have a clear preference for how they want to use their technology. First, they want to text. It is simple and efficient; they can see when people receive their texts and how long it takes for them to answer. They also can correct and change their texts before they send them, not for spelling and grammar.
From Gig Harbor, that's my book report.
That's the title of a book written by my father Paul Luvera Sr and edited by my sister Phyllis Luvera Ennes. It has just been privately printed for our large family and it is an interesting story of an immigrant family's success in America. I just published in this blog, on the anniversary of dad's death, November 4th, a short outline of his life. It's the story of a young boy who traveled with his mother and sister from Italy to Canada to be with my grandfather and dad's brother who had come there first. It was after they had been able to earn the money to send for the rest of the family they were able to come to Canada. Grandfather had been working with other immigrants installing tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railroad when they moved onto Coleman Alberta to work the coal mines. From there they moved to Anacortes Washington where they found work in the sawmills. Eventually, by saving money, dad and his father opened a small family grocery store in Anacortes. His life was one of community service while working with my mother and the children in the family grocery store. In his retirement he began to carve totem poles. For a more complete history of dad's life see this post: http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2013/11/dad-1.html
In his retirement he had surgery which make it difficult for him to sit. When he decided to write his memoirs he had to do so standing up, using a two finger system to type it out on an old portable typewriter standing up. It was a slow methodical process and before the day of computer spellcheck and writing aids. He relied upon my sister Phyllis to edit his typed work saying things like "Clean this up,, Phyllis, but don't do too much. I want it to sound like me."She spent many hours editing his work and in the creation of the book.
As to the background, he says in the preface: "For many years I have thought about writing my autobiography. There is nothing exciting about my youth or my life as a grown man. It was no different than many millions of other immigrants." But, dad was wrong. His life was a fascinating story about a man who did live the American dream. He was proud to have become a naturalized citizen and became a community leader and a state senator. This is how he summarizes his life in the preface to his autobiography:
"So let us get started. My name is Paulo Nichola Luvera. I was born in Reggio di Calabia, way down in the extreme south of Italy by the Straits of Messina, March 25, 1898. During the writing of this story, I am 85 years old. My wife, Mary, was born in Anacortes. I came here 65 years ago. My formal education stopped at the seventh grade. All of our three children were born here and graduated from our high school. My father Nichola and my mother Filippa are resting in our cemetery. With this background, we can get started with my story as I remember it. The first big occurrence that I remember as a five-year-old was my father leaving to come to America back in 1902. But first I will tell you about my family. I hope the recounting will not be boring."
It is written as if dad were sitting talking to you and he is a wonderful story teller. I'm so pleased our family will have this memorial of his life in his own words. My sister Phyllis worked so hard making it all happen that I'm sorry she wasn't alive to see it in print. Her daughters, Dororthy, Mary and Marty assumed the responsibility to publish it and it's a tribute to them all.
Bret Lunsford has written a book Croation Fishing Families of Anacortes which has a chapter about mother's side of the family. The Bababarovich family immigrated from the tiny island of Brac in Croatia to Anacortes where two immigrants met, fell in love and married. I'm pleased we have a written history of both our parents and their remarkable lives as immigrants.
I have just finished reading a lengthy book In the Clutches of the Law edited by Randall Tietjen. I suspect that no court room lawyer has achieved more notoriety then Clarence Darrow (1857 – 1938) his many famous cases included the Scopes trial where he defended a schoolteacher charged with the crime of teaching evolution and the Leopold and Loeb case where he argued against the death penalty for two young men who had brutally murdered a young boy. He also wrote a large volume of letters. This book contains over 500 letters written by Darrow. They cover a number of un-related subjects. Here are a few of these letters.
A news editor wrote to him asking some questions which he answered in a letter dated April of 1937. Number one: Do I wish that I had done differently? I am fairly well satisfied with the way I have lived and acted. Number two: what do I regard as having done the most good? My strong feeling of tolerance towards all things and my constant belief that no one is responsible for his makeup and his acts; this, of course, is hostile to the unscientific belief in free will. Granted that we are burdened with many abnormal and misfit humans, who are the victims of their own conduct, nevertheless they deserve to be treated as patients and institutions instead of imprisoned and punished..... Number five: have I a guide to offer those entering the legal profession? I would like to see a crop of lawyers developed with more genuine, humane ambition to benefit the poor and unfortunate clients, rather than mainly themselves. Number six: regarding my attitude towards religion. I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home, of man, and I'm convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here. Signed: Clarence Darrow.
Those of you familiar with the Scopes trial will recall that Darrow had an opportunity to cross-examine William Jennings Bryan who was prosecuting the case until the judge stopped the cross-examination in order to protect Brian. In 1923 he wrote the editor of the Chicago Tribune after it published a letter from Brian supporting laws prohibiting teaching evolution. Darrow's letter said: "for this reason I think it would be helpful if Mr. Bryan would answer some of the following questions:
Is the account of creation of the earth and all life in Genesis literally true or is it an allegory? Did the sun stand still to give Joshua time to fight a battle? If the sun had stood still, would that have linked in the day? If instead of the sun standing still, the earth had stopped revolving on its axis, what would've happened to the earth and all life thereon? Can one not be a Christian without believing in the literal truth of the narrations of the Bible here mentioned?
Throughout his letters Darrow's pessimistic view of life is apparent. He was a great orator and debater. His skill as a courtroom lawyer is undisputed. Some of his arguments to juries were hours in length and in the LA case where he was the defendant, charged with bribery, his portion of the closing argument had the judge and jurors in tears. The problem with this book, however, is that it lacks the context of reading the letter he is responding to with his letter. Footnotes help, but aren’t enough. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book as thick as it is at over 500 pages.
This is a compelling story by Daniel James Brown not only because of the excellent story telling but because it involves the University of Washington crew that went to Berlin and won the eight oar crew Olympics race of 1936. For me, it also had a personal connection in the stroke on the boat was Don Hume who graduated from my high school in Anacortes. All of the members of this crew were from Washington. Places like Anacortes, Squim, Lynden and other places around the state. The coxwain was Bob Moch who became a well known Seattle lawyer.
The story tells about members of the crew like Joe Rantz from Squim. His extraordinary life involved being abandoned by his father, stepmother and half siblings when he was 15. He was left at the family cabin on a stump ranch to fend for himself alone while they moved on. He survived by courage and struggle. His older brother offered to let him move to his house in Seattle so he could complete his senior year of high school at Roosevelt. He did move and supported himself with odd jobs. He managed to get into the University of Washington and made the crew. His success as a rower and in simply surviving is a story in itself.
The story of Don Hume is also interesting. He had become bedridden before the big race with cold like symptoms that were serious. He lost 14 pounds during the time he was in Berlin and wasn't going to be allowed to row in the big race until the rest of his team implored the coach to allow it. The coxswain, Moch later described how robot like Hume was during the race and when he yelled at Hume to increase the stroke he was not responsive. So Moch yelled to take over as stroke, Hume suddenly was alert and did what Moch wanted. When the race was over Hume collapsed over the oars and had to be lifted from the boat.
The shell they rowed was made on the U of W campus by the famous shell builder George Pocock. The coach was Al Ulbrickson. The shell they rowed was named The Husky Clipper. It's a story about the underfunded and under appreciated crews from California and Washington against the Eastern establishment rowing teams. In fact, when Washington won the right to go to the Olympics, they were told there was no money and they would have to pay for it themselves, but Princeton had the money. They were invited to step aside and let Princeton go instead. But, with the help of the famous Seattle PI sports writer Royal Brougham they raised the money and this was during the depression. They took the ship to Germany for the Olympics.
Hitler had created the Olympic area for a show case. The propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels orchestrated these Olympics to demonstrate Aryan and Nazi supremacy. This is the year Jesse Owens defeated the German in the famous track meet to the anger of Hitler since Jessee was both an American and an African-American.
The Americans won the race by six-tenths of a second ahead of the Italians. It was an exciting race. If you want to watch it see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunZsKugJmY
I have a small and brief connection to U of W rowing that started in the 7th grade. My dad had had build for me a nine foot wooden row boat which I kept tied up at the Anacortes ferry dock where the Guemes ferry dock is now located. I lived about a mile away and in the summer would walk down the wooden steps dad installed from the house to the railroad tracks along the beach. I’d walk the tracks with my dog to where the boat was tied up, carrying the oars with me. We row out into Guemes channel and fish or just explore around the canneries. Most often I’d cross the mile and half channel to Guemes Island and pull the boat up on the beach. We'd explore and play and then row back.
One day, I had felt like rowing, so I started from the ferry dock and rowed to Guemes Island and then turned and rowed back to the dock with a plan of exploring along the beach. When I got back to the ferry dock area a man called out to me and asked me how often I rowed over and back. We talked briefly about rowing and he told me he was the rowing coach at the University. He told me to keep rowing and come to the University to try out for the rowing team. I was very impressed the rowing coach at the University of Washington had talked to me and told my dad. It turned out that the Ulbrickson family had a cabin on Orcas for years and this was probably Al Sr. who frequently made the trip from Anacortes to Orcas. I had just happened to be there when he was waiting to catch the ferry and was standing outside.
I did go to the University of Washington on a football & basketball scholarship in 1953. I was on the freshman basketball team coached by Bill Morris, himself a former All American. 1953, by the way, was the year Bob Houbregs was the All American hook shot genius on the team that went to the Final Four under coach Tippy Dye. I was very proud of a photo taken of Tippy Dye and I who spoke at our high school awards banquet.
One day at the Y I was crossing the quad on campus where two tall poles had been stuck in the ground on each side of the walk with a string tied from one to the other across the walk. There was a sign that said “if you have to duck to go under this string you should sign up for the rowing team.” They wanted people over six feet apparently. I decided to investigate. So, I went to the crew house where the shells were kept to check it out one day after basketball practice was over. Just by coincidence I wondered into an area where shells were located and got talking to a man who gave me an enthusiastic description about the shells and rowing. In fact, he said he was involved in making the shells and his name was George Pocock.
I decided to give rowing a try and signed up. I expected to get into one of those sleek, long shells, but that’s not what you start out with. What I got on with other boys was a sort of barge with a number of seats for rowing. I thought I was in great shape running up and down the basketball floor, but rowing this thing turned out to be the hardest work I’d done since I had worked in the woods as a logger. It was a lot harder than playing basketball. I kept it up for a little more than a week and knew I’d never make it. I dropped out and that was the end of my rowing career at the University of Washington. I came away with the knowledge that rowing was a truly challenging sport and with great admiration for those who rowed for the University. Rowing is not for sissy's.
I'm reading Bill Bryson's book One Summer in America about events in 1920's. I was reminded of the fact that France had seized Germany's industrial center for failure of the German's to keep up with their reparation payments dictated by the truce that ended World War I. The result was inflation out of control. The German Mark had traded at 4 to the dollar before the war and now shot up to 600,000 to the dollar. Prices began to double daily and then hourly. In a short time it was 630 billion Marks to the dollar. People needed wheelbarrows or baby carriages to carry enough paper money for daily living. A street car ride that cost 1 Mark was now 15 Billion marks.
There are a lot of facts I didn't know about and one of them involves the great boxer Jack Dempsey. After a three year retirement, Dempsey agreed to fight Jack Sharkey who was a 6-5 favorite because Sharkey was twenty five years old and Dempsey was thirty two plus he had not fought in three years. For six rounds Sharkey was ahead on points, but in the seventh he made a fatal mistake. Frustrated by Dempsey's low blows, he turned to the referee to complain. Dempsey took advantage of the situation and knocked him out cold.
The great tennis player Bill Tilden didn't start playing tennis until he was twenty seven years old but became one of the world's best players at that time as well as probably the best who had ever lived. He was number one in the world for seven straight years and never lost a match during that time. In 1925 when he was thirty two years old he won 57 straight games.
Originally early automobiles put the driving wheel on the right side of the car so that the driver could step out on a dry grass area or the wooden sidewalk to avoid the unpaved and muddy road conditions. Ford's Model T was the first car to change the arrangement figuring that women passengers would benefit and to give the driver a better view down the road. By the way Ford's famous assembly lines were not kind to workers. They were not allowed to talk, hum, whistle, sit, lean or otherwise have a break. They got one thirty minute break per shift. In 1914 Ford introduced the 8 hour work day and forty hour week plus doubling salary to $5 per day. It turns out he did so to avoid the enormous employee turn over with workers quitting their job. At it's peak a new car, truck or tractor rolled off a Ford assembly line in a Ford plant every ten seconds. With increasing profits Ford reduced the price of the car from $850 in 1908 to $260 by 1927.
In Babe Ruth's first year in New York, Yankee attendance more than doubled to 1,289,000. Owner Jacob Ruppert began building a new stadium. When finished it cost $2.5 million and was 50% bigger than the previous one. From the day it opened it was known as "the House that Ruth Built." Dozens of people would come to his hotel room (he stayed at better accommodations than the other players) and most of them he didn't know. Once someone counted 250 people who came by to see him in one evening. He loved women and food. Once he was seen downing 18 hot dogs in one sitting. He was an incredible hitter. In 1920 he hit 54 home runs when no other player reached even 20. In 1921 he hit 139 home runs, more than any other player had hit in their entire career.
These are a few of the interesting stories Bryson covers in this excellent book. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I finished a book: Dropped names: Famous men and women as I knew them by the actor Frank Langella. Here are a few excerpts I thought worth repeating.
Bette Davis was asked what it takes to succeed in the acting profession. She always answered "the courage to be hated." I've often said that a lawyer, especially a trial lawyer, is very unlikely to be a great lawyer if they are worried about being liked and put that as a priority. Their role is to represent their clients to the very best of their skill come what may. In an honest and ethical manner, but irrespective of whether they may be disliked or even hated. The clients interests always come first.
Speaking of not being liked, Langella writes that the the actor Rex Harrison was not well liked. A
story is told that on his 70th birthday someone offered to give him a party and invite all of his friends. The man supposedly said:" I'll even hire a telephone booth for the party."
Coral Browne was an actress. Story is that someone once called and asked to speak to her. Her friend who answered the phone supposedly said "I'm so sorry. She can't come to the phone. She's gone to
confession and she will be there very long time."
I related to Langella's report that some one once said, early in his career, that the director Mike
Nichols was a success. The other person responded: "He's not a success." The first person was surprised and said: "What do you mean? He has had a half dozen Tony's and an Oscar. How can you say he's not a
success?" The answer was "Because he hasn't had a failure yet." There is much wisdom in that answer. In my professional carear I've seen trial lawyers who have had some success in court become increasingly arrogant until they suffer a serious defeat in court. The experience, for most, changes them into human beings who can relate to judges and jurors. Failure is a wonderful, even if painful, learning experience.
When I read Langella's comment about the famous acting coach Stella Adler I completely agreed with it as it relates to jury trials. She said: "You can be as phony as you like in life, but never on the stage." We all are wired to detect insincerity. When you have twelve people in a jury it doesn't take long for them to know when a lawyer being honest and genuine or not. The first rule of winning jury cases is to tell the truth and be your real self.
The author writes about Elizabeth Taylor. He says: "She could be slowed down,thrown off course for a bit, even brought to tears, but she could not be bested in the arena where it really counts – the courage of one's convictions." He writes: "She had an arrogance that would not take no for an answer even if the word were spoken directly into her face. She heard it only as: "Not at the moment."
The book is somewhat frivolous but entertaining.
Another book I just finished was The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. What I found interesting is what he wrote about the start of the civil rights movement in Alabama. He wrote: On Thursday, December 1, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama Rosa Parks had just finished a long day at her job at the department store where she worked as a seamstress. The bus was crowded and by law the first four rows were reserved for white passengers. The area in the back, reserved for blacks, was already full so Rosa set right behind the white section.
As the bus continued on its route more people boarded and soon all the white rows were filled and white passengers were standing holding on. The bus driver, James Blake, shouted at the black passengers to give up their seats for the standing whites, but no one moved. Blake pulled over to a bus stop and walked back to the black section and said: “you’all a better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats." Three black passengers got up and moved to the rear.
Parks stay put. She told the driver she wasn't in the white section and besides there was only one white rider standing. The driver said that" if you don't stand up I'm going to call police and have you arrested" Parks said "You may do that" so the driver left and found to policeman who placed her under arrest.
Over the next year, Montgomery's black population would rise up and financially boycott the city buses and end their strike only when the law was removed from the books. The boycott would cripple the bus line, drew tens of thousands of protesters and introduce a young leader named Martin
Luther King Junior. It sparked a movement that spread and eventually ended up in Congress making Parks a hero and a recipient of the Presidential Medal. She was a shining example of how a single act of defiance can change the world.
Fishing on the salmon purse seine boats was an enormous part of my life experince which benefited me the most. The lessons learned, the relationship to men, most of whom were much older and poor at English and being involved in a clean life on the sea will always be a huge part of who I am. I've written about this more then once. I referred to Brent Lunsford wonderful book about te Croation fishing families, including my own, of Anacortes. http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2011/11/brent-lundsfords-croation-fishing-families-of-anacortes.html I've written about Gig Harbor fishing and my experience on the purse seine vessel Welcome with Captain John Stanich. http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2008/05/purse-seine-fis.html I've also written about my fishing experiences in the 1950's. http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2011/04/purse-seineing-.html
I've had the pleasure of reading my friend and fellow Anacortes High School graduate Gary Keister's new paper back book Along the Corkline. For an excellent, informative and entertaining book I recommend it to you. He discusses going fishing with his grandfather on the seiner Veribus when he was 12 and operating a seine boat as captain when he was only 22 years old. His descriptions of tarring the fishing nets, hanging the gear and Alaska fishing brought back many fond memories of my years of fishing from Alaska to Puget Sound.
The Lunsford book and Gary's book are available at Watermark Book Company 612 Commercial Avenue, Anacortes, WA 98221 (360) 293-4277
I just finished Michael Caine’s latest book The Elephant to Hollywood recently and thought I'd share a couple of passages. The first deals with acting. The advice is directly applicable to trial lawyers like me. Too many lawyers "act like" someone instead of being totally authentic and genuine, but then, so do a lot of other people. Here's what he wrote.
As a young actor in rehearsal he was playing the role of a drunk. He says he came "rolling onto the stage and staggered about" when the director held up his hand and demanded "what do you think you are doing?" Caine told him "I’m playing a drunk." The director responded "exactly. You are playing a drunk - I am paying you to be a drunk. A drunk is a man who is trying to act sober. You are a man trying to act drunk. It’s the wrong way around."
On another occasion at rehearsal he was on stage waiting for another actor to finish his lines before he responded with his lines when the same director held up his hand and said again "What do you think you are doing?" Caine said "Nothing" The director said "Exactly. You may not have any lines but you are on stage and you are listening to what is being said...You are as much a part of the action as the people speaking. Half of acting is listening and the other half is reacting to what’s been said."
A third time he had a scene where he had to cry and he thought it was going well when the director once again said "What do you think you are doing?" Caine said "crying." The director said "No you’re not. You are an actor trying to cry. A real man is someone who is desperately trying not to cry."
"Swifty" Lazar was the leading Hollywood agent and his social engagements were command performances. Once he invited Caine to dinner, but Caine told him he already had arrangements to go to dinner with someone Caine named. Lazar looked at Caine with disappointment and said "Michael, he’s not a dinner. He’s a lunch."
I’m reading The Drunkard’s Walk - How Randomness Rules our Livesby Leonard Mlodinow. In one section of the book he talks about a number of successful publications that were first rejected numerous times. One was The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank which sold 30 million copies making it one of the best selling books in history, but only after rejections by numerous publishers. George Orwell got many rejection letters for his famous Animal House because " it is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S." John Grisham, who has written dozens of books, many of which have been into movies, first book A Time to Kill was rejected by twenty six publishers. Dr Seuss’s first book was rejected by twenty seven publishers. John Kennedy Toole gave up after repeated rejections of his novel A confederacy of Dunces and committed suicide. His mother didn’t give up however, and finally got it published. It went on to win the Pulitzer Price for fiction and selling some two million copies. these are great illustrations about not giving up.
He also tells a fascinating story about a man who beat Monte Carlo. Joseph Jagger was an engineer and a mechanic in a cotton factory in Yorkshire in 1873 when he decided the roulette wheels produce random numbers only when in perfect balance. Otherwise particular numbers could be favored. So he decided to collect his savings and he traveled to Monte Carlo where he hired six assistants - one for each of the casino’s six roulette tables. Every day his assistants would write down the numbers that came up during twelve hours of play on each wheel. Every night Jagger analyzed the numbers. He found no consistency in five of the wheels, but with the sixth one the same nine numbers came up a lot more often than the others. He decided to go to casino and and bet on the nine numbers. That night he was ahead $70,000 when the casino closed.
By the fourth day of betting he had accumulated $300,000 in winnings along with a whole lot of attention from other patrons as well as the casino owners. On the fifth day he started to lose. He soon had lost half of his winnings. He couldn't figure it out. Then he noticed that the wheel at the table he had been betting at all along was missing a small scratch which he had seen on the original wheel. He went around the casino examining the other wheels and until he found the one with a scratch at a different table. The casino owners had moved the wheel the night before. As soon as he began betting at the new table he began winning again and after several days had $500,000 in winnings. Then the pattern changed again and he began to lose. It turned out that the casino decided to move the supporting frets of the wheels each night after closing and switch them around. This caused different sequences of numbers to come up then Jagger’s list. Jagger gave up as he knew he had been beaten but when he left he had $325,000 with him which is $5 million in today’s dollars. He quit his job back home and invested in real estate.
Somehow I don't think the Las Vegas casinos have unbalanced wheels, but I enjoyed this story.
We just flew to New Orleans where I gave a talk to the New Orleans trial lawyers. I had enough time
traveling to read a couple of books. One of them was by Marlo Thomas Growing up Laughing which is a delightful book about her father Danny Thomas and others involved in comedy. I realize these are corny jokes, but I laughed at them anyway when I read them in the book