Excess Within Control

The year, 1969, now fifty years ago, was quite an interesting time. I guess every year has its share of significant events, but 1969 is particularly memorable for me.  Of course it was the year that man first walked on the moon, Neil Armstrong declaring,  "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (I think he was supposed to say "...for A man..".) Richard Nixon became President in 1969, and the Manson "Family" cult murdered five people. While the "New Hollywood" revolution began in 1967, several notable films of that movement were released in 1969 including  Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy , The Wild Bunch , and  Medium Cool . Four hundred thousand people attended the famous music festival, Woodstock, on a farm in New York. The Beatles gave their last live performance on a  rooftop  of the Apple building in London. Other major music events were the Isle of Wight Festival and the Altamont Speedway Festival, which was ...

I've been a "Sherlockian" since my 20s, a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, movies, plays and TV adaptations. I was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, although I'm not active now. Plays that I've seen include The Crucifer of Blood with Paxton Whitehead and Glenn Close, Sherlock Holmes with Leonard Nimoy and Alan Sues, and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke. Occupationally, I was a certified instructor for the management training course, Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making .  Rather than sticking strictly to the course outline, I used quotes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories to illustrate important points. So, when my employer decided to put on a play for employees, at a motivational event, I suggested a mystery theme, and wormed my way into the role of a Sherlock Holmes type character. The play was rather amateur, but it did have a clever twist ending.

OK, maybe "murder" is too strong a word, but I WAS wounded. In 2009, Lilian and I went on a two week vacation to London, Amsterdam and and a day trip to Paris. We took the Eurostar train from London, through the Chunnel,  to Paris, about a two hour trip. It was a very pleasant ride, up until "the incident." Lilian's iPod had accidentally slipped through the seat back, unto the floor underneath. Gallantly, I got down on my hands and knees to search for it. When I put my head under the seat, it struck something sharp, and I emerged with my head bleeding. The porter, a Frenchman, brought me a large bandage, but explained, "Pardon. Nous n'avons que ce bandage bleu." He seemed quite amused by it all. Otherwise, our visit was very enjoyable.

My paternal grandparents spent a great deal of their time and money tracing their family trees. They travelled all over the country visiting public records offices, cemeteries, and libraries, in search of family members and connections. They each wrote a book about their findings. My grandmother presented me with a mammoth typewritten volume with all of her research notes, and a ten generation chart of my tree, with the majority of the branches filled with names. At the time I was thankful but not really interested in trying to fill in the blanks. Several years ago, however, I got the genealogy bug, largely due to the availability of online research tools, and particularly Ancestry.com. The site contains family trees of thousands of members and, obviously, many of these trees have connections with others. I was able to add hundreds of names to the work undertaken by my grandparents, all in the comfort of my home. And I added many new branches based on my extended families of...

There have been many movies over the years that emerged in public controversy. Probably one of the earliest was The Birth of a Nation (1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light. The Outlaw (1943) was banned in many areas and, in New York, the ban wasn't lifted until 1947. The Moon is Blue (1953) broke the moral code of the Hays Office through its use of words like "virgin" and "seduction." Last Tango in Paris (1972) was the subject of protests and bomb threats. And Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) was removed from  release in Great Britain due to the fear of copycat violence. In 1969, a Swedish movie, I Am Curious, Yellow , was the talk of the country and was banned in Boston for its sexual content. I was living in Minneapolis then, and on Aug. 23, 1969, this ad was seen in the Minneapolis Star Tribune . Well, it seemed to be clearly hinting that the infamous film had made its way to Minnesota. So, that night,...

My grade school years are more than 60 years in the past, but I still have pretty vivid memories of some of those experiences: I must have misbehaved pretty badly, because a teacher once ordered me to go outside and bring back a stick for a spanking. The only thing I could find was a piece of tree branch about two inches thick, a literal club. When she saw it she laughed so hard she forgot about my punishment. That experience is true, but it reminds me of a joke with the same set-up, but the little boy comes back and says, "I couldn't find a stick, but here's a rock you can throw at me." -------- I was drawing some kind of outdoor scene, and my teacher asked me what those things in the sky were. I said "those are birds." She told me "those don't look like birds. Birds have feathers and eyes and feet...." Yeah, like you can see those details 50 yards  away. -------- I think it was the same teacher who challenged my  use...

There's a 1980 movie, a big favorite of mine, Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. Plummer plays William Fawcett Robinson, the manager of a famous early 1900s stage actress, Elise McKenna. His advice to her before a performance is "Remember, stay ahead of them. Always keep the mystery. Excess within control!" I have to credit Richard Matheson for the phrase -  he wrote the novel and screenplay. My life has certainly had its excesses, but I think I keep them pretty much under control. In this blog, I'll be discussing some of those excesses, and sharing random memories and thoughts, profound and otherwise.