THE TRUE MEANING OF HANUKKAH

Volume 35, December 2012
WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
NEWS „ EDITORIALS „ SPORTS „ MOVIES „ RESTAURANTS „ CARTOONS
“QUIET NUMBSKULLS, I’M BROADCASTING”
THE TRUE MEANING OF HANUKKAH
By Hilary Leila Krieger-New York Times-December 8, 2012
WHEN my brother was in kindergarten, where he was the only Jewish student, a parent organizing
enrichment activities asked my mother to tell the class the story of Hanukkah. My mother obligingly brought
in a picture book and began to read about foreign conquerors who were not letting Jews in ancient Israel
worship freely, even defiling their temple, until a scrappy group led by the Maccabee family overthrew one
of the most powerful armies in the world and won their liberty.
The woman was horrified.
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The Hanukkah story, she interrupted, was not about war. It was about the miracle of an oil lamp that burned
for eight days without replenishing. She urged my mother to close the book. My mother refused.
The woman wasn‘t alone. Many Americans, Jews as well as Christians, think that the legend of the longlasting oil is the root of Hanukkah‘s commemoration. And perhaps that mistake is no surprise, given that for
many the holiday has morphed into ―Christmas for Jews,‖ echoing the message of peace on earth
accompanied by gift giving. In doing so, the holiday‘s own message of Jewish survival and faith has been
diluted.
Hanukkah is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays in America. But unlike Rosh Hashana, Yom
Kippur and Passover (or even the lesser-known Sukkot and Shavuot), all of which are explicitly mentioned
in the Torah, Hanukkah gets only a brief, sketchy reference in the Talmud, the voluminous collection of
Jewish oral law and tradition written down hundreds of years after the Maccabees‘ revolt.
There for the first time the miracle of the oil is recorded: the ancient temple in Jerusalem held an eternal
flame, but after the desecration by the foreign invaders — including the sacrificing of pigs, a non-kosher
animal, on the altar — only one day‘s worth of purified oil remained. Yet the faithful went ahead and lighted
it.
The oil burned in the rededicated temple for eight days, long enough for a new supply to arrive. Hence the
practice of lighting candles for eight nights to observe Hanukkah, which means dedication in Hebrew.
(Perhaps just as significantly, the reference to oil also gave rise to a holiday tradition of eating foods like
potato pancakes and doughnuts that had been cooked in it.)
Though Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday, 19th-century activists in America promoted it to encourage
their coreligionists to take pride in their heritage. During the 20th century it was embraced more broadly by
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Jews who wanted to fit in with other Americans celebrating the holiday season — and to make their kids
feel better about not getting anything from Santa.
It helped, of course, that Hanukkah falls near Christmas on the calendar and traditionally involved candles
and small monetary gifts. Over time, children began receiving grander presents, and Hanukkah-themed
season‘s greeting cards proliferated. Some families even started to purchase ―Hanukkah bushes,‖ small
trees often decked out with Stars of David and miniature Maccabees.
By the 1980s, when I was a child, menorahs had been placed next to mangers in the public square and
Hanukkah songs had been incorporated into winter holiday concerts. Despite this recognition, I still felt
excluded enough to brag to classmates that my holiday was better than Christmas, since it had eight days
of gift giving, instead of one.
While elevating Hanukkah does a lot of good for children‘s morale, ignoring or sanitizing its historical basis
does a great disservice to the Jewish past
and present.
The original miracle of Hanukkah was that a
committed band of people led a successful
uprising against a much larger force, paving
the way for Jewish independence and
perhaps keeping Judaism itself from
disappearing. It‘s an amazing story,
resonant with America‘s own founding, that
offers powerful lessons about standing up
for one‘s convictions and challenging those
in power.
Many believe the rabbis in the Talmud
recounted the miracle of the light alongside
the military victory because they did not
want to glorify war. That in itself is an
important teaching, as are the holiday‘s
related messages of renewal, hope and
turning away from darkness.
But it‘s a story with dark chapters as well, including the Maccabean leaders‘ religious zealotry, forced
conversions and deadly attacks on their neighbors. These transgressions need to be grappled with. And
that is precisely what the most important Jewish holidays do: Jews on Passover spill out wine from their
glasses to acknowledge Egyptian suffering caused by the 10 plagues, and congregations at Rosh Hashana
read and struggle with God‘s order to Abraham to bind his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
If we‘re going to magnify Hanukkah, we should do so because it offers the deeper meaning and opportunity
for introspection that the major Jewish holidays provide.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
The True Meaning of Hanukkah…………………………pages 1-3
Animal Conservation……………………………………….pages 5-27
Science………………………………………………………page 28
The Arts……………………………………………………..pages 29-38
Museums……………………………………………………pages 39-40
The Holocaust………………………………………………pages 41-43
Entertainment……………………………………………….pages 44-49
Health………………………………………………………..pages 50-51
Obituaries……………………………………………………pages 52-53
Humor………………………………………………………..pages 54-57
Editorials……………………………………………………..pages 58-61
WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
Staff:
Gary C. Fink, King & Editor in Chief (It‘s good to be King)
Scott Paulson, Co-Editor, dissenting opinion Scandinavian Correspondent
J Cheever Loophole, Counsel & Witness Protection Program Coordinator
Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, Environment Editor
JoAnn Fink, Censor & Queen in Waiting, Severest Critic
Otis B. Driftwood, Overseas Correspondent
Randy Evert, Occasional Minor Contributor
S. Quentin Quale, Consulting Ornithologist
Robin ‗Bob‘ Matell, Major Contributor of Minor Articles!
Contact:
Would I Lie to You?
608 Second Ave S, #181
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612/337-1041
612/339-7687 fax
scott@gcfworld.com
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TIRED OF LISTENING TO THESE BOZOS?
YEAR END ANIMAL CONSERVATION ISSUE
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ELEPHANTS DYING IN EPIC FRENZY AS IVORY FUELS WARS AND PROFITS
By Jeffrey Gettleman-New York Times-September 3, 2012
GARAMBA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo — In 30 years of fighting poachers, Paul
Onyango had never seen anything like this. Twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young
ones, clumped together on the open savanna, many killed by a single bullet to the top of the head.
There were no tracks leading away, no sign that the poachers had stalked their prey from the ground. The
tusks had been hacked away, but none of the meat — and subsistence poachers almost always carve
themselves a little meat for the long walk home.
Several days later, in early April, the Garamba National Park guards spotted a Ugandan military helicopter
flying very low over the park, on an unauthorized flight, but they said it abruptly turned around after being
detected. Park officials, scientists and the Congolese authorities now believe that the Ugandan military —
one of the Pentagon‘s closest partners in Africa — killed the 22 elephants from a helicopter and spirited
away more than a million dollars‘ worth of ivory.
―They were good shots, very good shots,‖ said Mr. Onyango, Garamba‘s chief ranger. ―They even shot the
babies. Why? It was like they came here to destroy everything.‖
Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter. Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens
of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the underground
ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized.
Like blood diamonds from Sierra Leone or plundered minerals from Congo, ivory, it seems, is the latest
conflict resource in Africa, dragged out of remote battle zones, easily converted into cash and now fueling
conflicts across the continent.
Some of Africa‘s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord‘s Resistance Army, the Shabab and
Darfur‘s janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons and sustain their
mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world,
exploiting turbulent states, porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law
enforcement officials say.
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But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the American government
trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and
newly independent South Sudan‘s military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in
ivory.
Congolese soldiers are often arrested for it. South Sudanese
forces frequently battle wildlife rangers. Interpol, the international
police network, is now helping to investigate the mass elephant
killings in the Garamba park, trying to match DNA samples from
the animals‘ skulls to a large shipment of tusks, marked
―household goods,‖ recently seized at a Ugandan airport.
The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent — is flowing to China, and
though the Chinese have coveted ivory for centuries, never before have so many of them been able to
afford it. China‘s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory to a
stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing.
High-ranking officers in the People‘s Liberation Army have a fondness for ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese
online forums offer a thriving, and essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings,
cups and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory in tinfoil, says one Web
site, to throw off X-ray machines).
Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from Kenya to Nigeria, for
smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where
Chinese construction workers are building roads.
―China is the epicenter of demand,‖ said Robert Hormats, a senior State Department official. ―Without the
demand from China, this would all but dry up.‖
He said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who condemned conflict minerals from Congo a
few years ago, was pushing the ivory issue with the Chinese ―at the highest levels‖ and that she was ―going
to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to address this, in a very bold way.‖
Foreigners have been decimating African elephants for generations. ―White gold‖ was one of the primary
reasons King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into his own personal fief in the late 19th century, leading
to the brutal excesses of the upriver ivory stations thinly fictionalized in Joseph Conrad‘s novel ―Heart of
Darkness‖ and planting the seeds for Congo‘s free fall today.
Ivory Coast got its name from the teeming elephant herds that used to frolic in its forests. Today, after
decades of carnage, there is almost no ivory left.
The demand for ivory has surged to the point that the tusks of a single adult elephant can be worth more
than 10 times the average annual income in many African countries. In Tanzania, impoverished villagers
are poisoning pumpkins and rolling them into the road for elephants to eat. In Gabon, subsistence hunters
deep in the rain forest are being enlisted to kill elephants and hand over the tusks, sometimes for as little as
a sack of salt.
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Last year, poaching levels in Africa were at their highest since international monitors began keeping
detailed records in 2002. And 2011 broke the record for the amount of illegal ivory seized worldwide, at
38.8 tons (equaling the tusks from more than 4,000 dead elephants). Law enforcement officials say the
sharp increase in large seizures is a clear sign that organized crime has slipped into the ivory underworld,
because only a well-oiled criminal machine — with the help of corrupt officials — could move hundreds of
pounds of tusks thousands of miles across the globe, often using specially made shipping containers with
secret compartments.
The smugglers are ―Africa-based,
Asian-run crime syndicates,‖ said Tom
Milliken, director of the Elephant Trade
Information System, an international
ivory monitoring project, and ―highly
adaptive to law enforcement
interventions, constantly changing
trade routes and modus operandi.‖
Conservationists say the mass kill-offs
taking place across Africa may be as
bad as, or worse than, those in the
1980s, when poachers killed more than
half of Africa‘s elephants before an
international ban on the commercial ivory trade was put in place.
―We‘re experiencing what is likely to be the greatest percentage loss of elephants in history,‖ said Richard
G. Ruggiero, an official with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Some experts say the survival of the species is at stake, especially when many members of the African
security services entrusted with protecting the animals are currently killing them.
―The huge populations in West Africa have disappeared, and those in the center and east are going
rapidly,‖ said Andrew Dobson, an ecologist at Princeton. ―The question is: Do you want your children to
grow up in a world without elephants?‖
‘We Shoot First’
Garamba National Park is a big, beautiful sheet of green, 1,900 square miles, tucked in the northeastern
corner of Congo. Picture a sea of chest-high elephant grass, swirling brown rivers, ribbons of papyrus and
the occasional black-and-white secretary bird swooping elegantly through rose-colored skies. Founded in
1938, Garamba is widely considered one of Africa‘s most stunning parks, a naturalist‘s dream.
But today, it is a battlefield, with an arms race playing out across the savanna. Every morning, platoons of
Garamba‘s 140 wildlife rangers suit up with assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Luis Arranz, the park manager, wants to get surveillance drones, and the nonprofit organization that runs
the park is considering buying night-vision goggles, flak jackets and pickup trucks with mounted machine
guns.
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―We don‘t negotiate, we don‘t give any warning, we shoot first,‖ said Mr. Onyango, the chief ranger, who
worked as a game warden in Kenya for more than 20 years. He rose to a high rank but lost his job after a
poaching suspect died in his custody after being whipped.
―Out here, it‘s not michezo,‖ Mr. Onyango said, using the Swahili word for games.
In June, he heard a burst of gunfire. His rangers did a ―leopard crawl‖ on their bellies for hours through the
scratchy elephant grass until they spied poachers hacking several elephants. The instant his squad shot at
the poachers, the whole bush came alive with crackling gunfire.
―They opened up on us with PKMs, AKs,
G-3s, and FNs,‖ he said. ―Most poachers
are conservative with their ammo, but
these guys were shooting like they were
in Iraq. All of a sudden, we were
outgunned and outnumbered.‖
Both of the rangers‘ old belt-fed machine
guns jammed that day, and they narrowly
escaped (11 have been killed since 2008
and some of the rangers‘ children have
even been kidnapped). Later investigation
showed that the poachers were members
of the Lord‘s Resistance Army, a brutal
rebel outfit that circulates in central Africa, killing villagers and enslaving children. American Special
Operations troops are helping several African armies hunt down the group‘s phantom of a leader, Joseph
Kony, who is believed to be hiding in a remote corner of the Central African Republic.
Ivory may be Mr. Kony‘s new lifeline. Several recent escapees from the L.R.A. said that Mr. Kony had
ordered his fighters to kill as many elephants as possible and send him the tusks.
―Kony wants ivory,‖ said a young woman who was kidnapped earlier this year near Garamba and did not
want to be identified because she was still terrified. ―I heard the other rebels say it many times: ‗We need to
get ivory and send it to Kony.‘ ‖
She said that in her four months in captivity, before she ran away one night when the rebels got drunk, she
saw them kill 10 elephants, wrap the tusks in cloth sacks and send them to Mr. Kony at his hiding place.
Other recent escapees said that the group had killed at least 29 elephants since May, buying guns,
ammunition and radios with the proceeds. Mr. Kony may be working with Sudanese ivory traders. One ivory
retailer in Omdurman, Sudan, who openly sells ivory bracelets, prayer beads and carved tusks, said the
Lord‘s Resistance Army was one source of the ivory he saw.
―The L.R.A. works in this, too; that‘s how they buy their weapons,‖ the shopkeeper said matter-of-factly.
That made sense, American officials said, given Mr. Kony‘s few sources of income.
Several Sudanese ivory traders said the ivory from Congo and the Central African Republic moved
overland across Sudan‘s vast western desert region of Darfur and then up to Omdurman, all with the help
of corrupt Sudanese officials. There is a well-worn practice in Sudan called ―buying time,‖ in which
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smugglers pay police officers and border guards for a specified amount of time to let a convoy of illegal
goods slip through checkpoints.
But there are many routes. On Africa‘s east coast, Kenya‘s port city of Mombasa is a major transshipment
center. A relatively small percentage of containers in Mombasa is inspected, and ivory has been concealed
in shipments of everything from avocados to anchovies. Sometimes it is wrapped in chili peppers, to throw
off the sniffer dogs.
On the west coast, in the Gulf of Guinea, ―there is a relatively recent phenomenon of well-armed,
sophisticated poachers who load their ivory onto Chinese fishing ships,‖ one senior American official said.
Chinese officials declined to discuss any aspect of the ivory trade, with one representative of the Forestry
Ministry, which handles ivory issues, saying, ―This is a very sensitive topic right now.‖
Several Sudanese ivory traders and Western officials said that the infamous janjaweed militias of Darfur
were also major poachers. Large groups of janjaweed — the word means horseback raider — were blamed
for killing thousands of civilians in the early 2000s, when Darfur erupted in ethnic conflict. International law
enforcement officials say that horseback raiders from Darfur wiped out thousands of elephants in central
Africa in the 1980s. Now they suspect that hundreds of janjaweed militiamen rode more than 600 miles
from Sudan and were the ones who slaughtered at least 300 elephants in Bouba Ndjida National Park in
Cameroon this past January, one of the worst episodes of elephant slaughter recently discovered.
In 2010, Ugandan soldiers, searching for Mr. Kony in the forests of the Central African Republic, ran into a
janjaweed ivory caravan. ―These guys had 400 men, pack mules, a major camp, lots of weapons,‖ a
Western official said. A battle erupted and more than 10 Ugandans were killed.
―It just shows you the power of poaching, how much money you can make stacking up the game,‖ the
official said.
Businessmen are clearly bankrolling these enormous ivory expeditions, both feeding off and fueling conflict,
Western officials and researchers say.
―This is not just freelance stuff,‖ said Mr. Hormats, the State Department official. ―This is organized crime.‖
Paul Elkan, a director at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that the janjaweed sweeping across central
Africa on ambitious elephant hunts ―goes much deeper than a bunch of guys coming in on horses. It has to
do with insecurity and lawlessness.‖
Perhaps no country in Africa is as lawless as Somalia, which has languished for more than 20 years
without a functioning central government, spawning Islamist militants, gunrunners, human traffickers and
modern-day pirates. Ivory has entered this illicit mix.
Several Somali elders said that the Shabab, the militant Islamist group that has pledged allegiance to Al
Qaeda, recently began training fighters to infiltrate neighboring Kenya and kill elephants for ivory to raise
money.
One former Shabab associate said that the Shabab were promising to ―facilitate the marketing‖ of ivory and
have encouraged villagers along the Kenya-Somalia border to bring them tusks, which are then shipped out
through the port of Kismayo, a notorious smuggling hub and the last major town the Shabab still control.
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―The business is a risk,‖ said Hassan Majengo, a Kismayo resident with knowledge of the ivory trade, ―but it
has an exceptional profit.‖
‘Easy Money’
That profit is not lost on government soldiers in central Africa, who often get paid as little as $100 a month,
if they get paid at all.
In Garamba, the park rangers have arrested many Congolese government soldiers, including some caught
with tusks, slabs of elephant meat and the red berets often worn by the elite presidential guard.
―An element of our army is involved,‖ acknowledged Maj. Jean-Pierrot Mulaku, a Congolese military
prosecutor. ―It‘s easy money.‖
Congolese soldiers have a long history
of raping and killing civilians and
pilfering resources. According to a
report written in 2010 by John Hart, an
American scientist and one of the top
elephant researchers in Congo, the
―Congolese military are implicated in
almost all elephant poaching,‖ making
the military ―the main perpetrator of
illegal elephant killing in D.R.C.‖
The Garamba rangers and a
Congolese government intelligence
officer said that they also routinely battled soldiers from the Sudan People‘s Liberation Army, the military of
South Sudan. A South Sudanese military spokesman denied that, saying that the soldiers ―didn‘t have time‖
for poaching.
The American government has provided $250 million in nonlethal military assistance to South Sudan during
the past several years. In May, the Garamba rangers said they had opened fire on four South Sudanese
soldiers who had poached six elephant tusks. The rangers said they killed one soldier, though they did not
seem to think too much about it.
―I‘ve killed too many people to count,‖ said Alexi Tamoasi, a veteran ranger. But the suspected helicopter
poaching is something new.
Mr. Onyango said the strange way the elephant carcasses were found, clumped in circles, with the calves
in the middle for protection, was yet another sign that a helicopter had corralled them together because
elephants usually scatter at the first shot.
African Parks, the South Africa-based conservation organization that manages Garamba, has photographs
of an Mi-17 military transport helicopter flying low over the park in April and said it had traced the chopper‘s
registration number to the Ugandan military.
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Col. Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the Ugandan military, acknowledged that the helicopter was one of
its aircraft. But he said that the poaching allegation was a ―baseless rumor‖ and that he knew ―for sure‖ that
Lord‘s Resistance Army members were ―well known‖ poachers in that area.
John Sidle, an American from Nebraska who works as a pilot at Garamba, said, ―What bothers me is that
it‘s probably American taxpayer money paying for the jet fuel for the helicopter.‖
The United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in recent years for fuel and transport services for the
Ugandan Army to hunt down Mr. Kony in central Africa, while training Congolese and South Sudanese to
help. But the State Department said it had no evidence that the Ugandan military was responsible for the
Garamba killings, nor knowledge that any of the African soldiers involved in the Kony hunt had engaged in
poaching. It did not address the broader history of poaching by American-supported militaries.
In June, 36 tusks were seized at the Entebbe airport in Uganda. Eighteen of the 22 elephants killed in
Garamba in March were adults that had their ivory hacked out, which would usually mean 36 tusks. The
little stubs of ivory on the dead calves had
been left untouched.
In 1989, the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species passed a
moratorium on the international commercial
trade of African elephant ivory, except under
a few rare circumstances. No one knows how
many elephants are being poached each
year, but many leading conservationists
agree that ―tens of thousands‖ is a safe
number and that 2012 is likely to be worse
than 2011.
The total elephant population in Africa is a bit of a mystery, too. The International Union for Conservation of
Nature, a global conservation network, estimates from 472,269 to 689,671. But that is based on information
from 2006. Poaching has dramatically increased since then, all across the continent.
Some of the recently poached elephants had been sexually mutilated, with their genitals or nipples cut off,
possibly for sale — something researchers said they had not encountered before.
―It‘s very disturbing,‖ said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save the Elephants, who recently testified
at a Senate hearing on ivory and insecurity.
‘Like the Drug War’
Mr. Arranz, Garamba‘s director, has an exhausted look in his eyes. History is against him. Garamba was
founded more than 70 years ago, in part to protect the rare northern white rhinoceros, which used to
number more than 1,000 here. But many people in Asia believe that ground rhino horn is a cure for cancer
and other ills, and it fetches nearly $30,000 a pound, more than gold. In the past few decades, as Congo
has descended into chaos, rhino poachers have moved into Garamba. The park‘s northern white rhinos
were among the last ones in the wild anywhere, but rangers have not seen any for the past five years.
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Garamba faces a seemingly endless number of challenges, many connected to the utter state failure of
Congo itself. Some of the rangers are poachers themselves, killing the animals they are entrusted to
protect, saying their salaries are too low to live on.
―I was hungry,‖ explained Anabuda Bakuli, a ranger jailed for killing a waterbuck.
It does not help that many Garamba rangers are, by their own admission, alcoholics and run up debts at
the bar not far from park headquarters. Mr. Onyango, the chief, is known to drink several liters of beer in a
single sitting. He talks about ―the stress.‖
Poaching rates are now the highest here in central Africa, a belt of some of the most troubled countries in
the world. In Chad, heavily armed horsemen, who many conservationists say were janjaweed, recently
killed 3,000 elephants in
just a few years.
Garamba once had more
than 20,000 elephants.
Last year, there were
around 2,800. This year,
maybe 2,400.
Every morning, if the
skies are clear, Mr.
Arranz flies above
Garamba in a small twoseat plane, the equivalent
of a Mazda Miata with
wings. The emerald
green savanna stretches
out below him, a
breathtaking sight at
dawn.
But the other day, he saw something that furrowed his brow: vultures.
The next day, after a hike through the tall grass, the stench grew unbearable and the air reverberated with
the sizzle of thousands of flies. ―Poached,‖ Mr. Arranz said, as he discovered a dead elephant, its face cut
off.
Nearby were the ashes of a small campfire. ―These guys were out here for a while,‖ he said. ―If they were
willing to do this for one elephant. ...‖ His voice trailed off.
―It‘s like the drug war,‖ he said later. ―If people keep buying and paying for ivory, it‘s impossible to stop it.‖
Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Omdurman, Sudan; Mia Li from Beijing; and a Somali journalist
from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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WILDCAT SANCTUARY
We didn‘t forget that you helped make dreams come true for Baby Jenga earlier this summer. His new
habitat is finally complete!
We‘re so excited that the time‘s finally here for Baby Jenga to move into his new area that you made
possible! Hopefully, we‘ll be able to move him this coming week. We‘d love to invite you to watch his
release into his new home but there‘s an issue we wanted to let you know about. You see, as social as
Baby is, you‘d think that getting him into a crate would be easy. Well, nothing could be farther from the
truth! He may be little, compared to the bigger cats, but he is very strong willed.
Despite lots of efforts at crate training him, moving is still a very traumatic thing for him. We have to do it in
the least stressful way we can for him which means Baby will decide when the time is right. As with all our
cats, their needs come first. The only problem is, that makes it very difficult to set a day and time for you to
come watch him moved and released into his habitat.
Perhaps, instead, we could set a day and time next month that you could come out to watch us release our
jaguar, Diablo Guapo, into his new habitat? Unlike Baby, Guapo is very easy to crate and move and we
know that won‘t be an issue. We could give you a week‘s notice and you could come up and see Baby in
his new habitat and Guapo released into his – sort of a two for one!
If seeing a release isn‘t something that‘s important to you, of course you‘re invited to come up anytime to
see Baby enjoying his new habitat after he‘s been moved. We can set that appointment up, instead.
Again, I can‘t thank you enough for giving Baby such a wonderful gift! You‘ve truly helped make a dream
come true for him!!
Tammy Thies
Director
The Wildcat Sanctuary
WildcatSanctuary.org
PO Box 314
Sandstone, MN 55072
320-245-6871
They will never know freedom.
Can they at least know compassion?
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Winkie Celebrates 12 Years in Sanctuary
The Sanctuary wishes to send a heartfelt "Thank You" to everyone involved
who loves and worked to bring Winkie to
Tennessee back in September of 2000.
The following is an excerpt from a “love
letter” of sorts, written by Lisa Kane –
Winkie’s friend and fierce advocate,
without whom Winkie might never have
found Sanctuary.
A six-month-old infant Asian elephant
arrived at Henry Vilas Zoo in 1965. She
was so small that two men were able to
lift her onto a table, allowing the zoo vet
to get a closer look. The zoo named the
infant Winkie. She lived in Madison for
thirty-five years—through blizzards, ice
storms, and sweltering summer heat. In
1982 she was joined by an African
elephant calf named Penny. They were
chained in place for 16 hours out of
every day. Winkie was not happy… Over
the years, she attacked her keepers.
After much wrangling, Winkie's big day
came in September 2000 when she
stepped into the Sanctuary's trailer and
headed south. She arrived with a hard
shell and a small heart. Over these five
years in the lush hills of Tennessee she
Happy Anniversary, Winkie!
has found the courage to shed her
carapace and allow her heart to grow. She loves her human caregivers and has found a true and
tender friend in Sissy.
So, Happy Valentine's Day, Winkie, from one who loves every bit of you--the frightened warrior
who battled every way she knew to escape Madison, the shy creature who reached out to a
stranger like me, the stubborn orphan who insisted on keeping her hope alive.
Love from Lisa Kane,
February 2006
27
SCIENCE
MEET THE ‘DRACULA OF THE DINOSAURS
by John Noble Wilford-New York Times-October 3, 2012
Not every dinosaur grew up to be a mighty predator like
Tyrannosaurus rex or a hulking vegan like Apatosaurus. A few
stayed small, and some of the smallest dinosaurs that ever lived -tiny enough to nip at your heels -- were among the first to spread
across the planet more than 200 million years ago.
Fossils of these miniature, fanged plant-eaters known as
heterodontosaurs, or "different toothed reptiles," have turned up as
far apart as England and China. Now, in a discovery that has been
at least 50 years in the making, a new and especially bizarre
species of these dwarf herbivores has been identified in a slab of
red rock that was collected in the early 1960s by scientists working
in South Africa. In a report published Wednesday in the online journal ZooKeys, Paul C. Sereno, a paleontologist at
the University of Chicago and a dinosaur specialist, described the strange anatomy of the newfound member of the
heterodontosaur family and gave the new species the name Pegomastax africanus, or "thick jaw from Africa."
He also apologized for not getting around sooner to this piece of research. When he first viewed the specimen at a
Harvard laboratory, Sereno said, "My eyes popped, as it was clear this was a distinct species." Embedded in the rock
were remains of a creature with a short parrotlike beak, 1-inch jaws, sharp teeth and a skull no less than 3 inches
long. It was two-legged, had grasping hands "and was mostly tail and neck," Sereno said. The entire body was less
than 2 feet in length and probably weighed a bit more than a typical house cat.
"I'm embarrassed to say how many years ago that was -- 1983," he said. "But I was an enterprising graduate student
then at the American Museum of Natural History. All the while since then, I wondered if anyone else might spot the
creature hiding among the lab drawers." The fossils were eventually returned to the South African Museum in Cape
Town, the true nature of the one slab still undiscovered, Sereno said. The main researcher responsible for collecting
the fossils was Alfred Crompton, a Harvard professor now retired. Part of Sereno's research was supported by the
National Geographic Society, where he also is an explorer-in-residence.
Sereno's examination showed that behind the parrot-shaped beak were a pair of stabbing canines up front and a set
of tall teeth tucked behind for slicing plants. "It would have looked like Dracula," he told LiveScience. These teeth in
upper and lower jaws operated like self-sharpening scissors, Sereno said, with shearing wear facets that slid past
one another when the jaws closed. The parrotlike skull, he noted, may have been adapted to plucking fruit.
He said it was "very rare that a plant-eater like Pegomastax would sport sharp-edged enlarged canines." Some
scientists suggested that the creature may have consumed some meat, or at least insects. But Sereno concluded
that the creature's fangs were probably "for nipping and defending themselves, not for eating meat."
He said, and "their anatomy is key to understanding the early evolution of this great group of plant-eaters."
Another possible characteristic of the new species, Sereno said, is that its body might have been covered in quills,
something like that of a porcupine. If so, he pictured that in life Pegomastax would have scampered around in search
of suitable plants, looking something like a "nimble two-legged porcupine."
28
The arts
BRAVURA BRUSH
By Dylan Thomas-Southwest Journal-September 17-30, 2012
WINDOM — We meet Nicolai Fechin in a
self-portrait painted around 1948, during
the last decade of his life, showing the
Russian-American artist dressed for work:
a blue-gray smock over a crisp white
shirt, his ready brush held horizontal in
one hand.
Fechin, in his 60s at the time of the
painting, bears a look of taut
concentration — eyes slightly narrowed,
brow creased and mouth drawn straight
across — as if he‘s preparing to strike at
the canvas with one of his spontaneousseeming but deadly precise strokes. The
brick wall behind him is sketched in with
wide, broken brushstrokes, and above his
head the bricks dissolve into ragged
streaks of color: red, yellow, green and
purple.
The self-portrait appears near the
entrance to The Museum of Russian Arts‘
Fechin exhibition, the fourth in its Discovering 20th
Century Russian Masters series, and it‘s representative of the artist‘s approach to portrait making: loose,
improvisational painting anchored by his exquisite understanding of anatomy and the human form.
Nicolai Fechin, self portrait
The selection here is mainly portraits, and they show Fechin lavishing attention on his subject‘s faces; often
they are the only fully rendered portion of the canvas, surrounded by Fechin‘s tempestuous and
impressionistic marks. It‘s bold painting that can at times seem just a bit superficial, too wrapped up in its
own virtuosity.
The son of a woodcarver, Fechin was born in 1881 in Kazan, a provincial capital located on the Volga River
several hundred miles east of Moscow. His precocious talents earned him a place in state art schools in
Kazan and, later, St. Petersburg, where he studied under Ilya Repin, whose painting would greatly
influence the Russian Realists of the 20th century.
Fechin lived the last third of his life in the U.S., moving to New York in 1923 with his wife, Alexandra, and
young daughter, Eya, to escape the turmoil that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution. Within a few years,
Fechin relocated his family to Taos, N.M., where he hoped the high plains air would alleviate the symptoms
29
of tuberculosis. The city was already home to a small artists colony centered around the home of Mabel
Dodge Luhan, a wealthy heiress from back East.
In 1928, Fechin completed ―Albidia,‖ a portrait of Taos Pueblo woman who was Luhan‘s housekeeper. It‘s a
half-indoor, half-outdoor scene, with Albidia perched on a small ledge near a garden. Fechin slows down
his brush to delineate her small, rounded chin and raised eyebrows and captures the far-off look in her
eyes, but then explodes on the sunlit garden behind her, leaving the canvas thick with impasto and vibrant
color.
Fechin could rein in those impulses, and often would for commissions. A society portrait painted in the
1950s, near the end of his life, seems drained of Fechin‘s usual vigor in its depiction of a stiff, matronly
woman in a gold-trimmed black velvet blouse.
Younger women seemed to inspire Fechin‘s best work, and his stunning 1927 portrait of the ballerina Vera
Fokina is no exception. The painting is a bit more restrained than usual for Fechin, and emphasizes
dancer‘s lithe physique. Her lean but muscular arms rest on a massive black tutu covered in silver
appliqués, and the dramatic costume gives Fechin another opportunity to show off his flamboyant
brushwork: He scratches and smears the paint, but the tutu remains as weightless as a puff of smoke.
30
10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT INVESTING IN ART
By: Bradley Lincoln-ChicagoBusiness.com-September 19, 2012
The organizers of this week's inaugural Expo Chicago (September 19–23) art fair are hoping to re-create
the excitement and magic that made Chicago the center of the art universe during the original Navy Pier art
expos of the 1980s. White-hot star-chitect Jeanne Gang was brought in to prime the canvas for the
exhibiting galleries, challenging conventional convention tactics in the process; restaurateur Michael
Kornick was enlisted to prep an impressive roster of Chicago top chefs for the fair's food offerings, and a
panel of A-list art experts was assembled to vet the dealers and organize talks and ancillary exhibitions.
Expect to see blue-chippers Paul Klee, Cy Twombly, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Alice Neel, as well as
lesser-known artists from an international lineup of galleries.
Though there's no guarantee that art appreciates over time, art values have held up well over the past ten
years. ―The art market has certainly performed better than the S&P 500 or the Gold Index,‖ says Claire
Marmion, founder and CEO of Chicago-based Haven Art Group. ―A Monet painting of a grove of poplars
sold at its low estimate of $20 million at Christie's last year, but considering that it was purchased in 2000
for $7 million, I'd say a return of nearly 300 percent in 11 years is pretty good, wouldn't you?‖
Looking to spot the next Monet? Be open to unfamiliar and unknown contemporary art, which is by nature
the most volatile investment and can reap the highest financial rewards. The fair's director, Nicole Berry,
points to Chicago photographer Dawoud Bey's exhibition of up-and-coming local artists. She says the
works are ―in a very comfortable price range.‖
We asked Marmion, who will moderate a panel discussion on art as an investment on Saturday, for ten tips
on buying and investing in art.
1. Be passionate and not passive about collecting art as an investment, and do the legwork. ―Collectors
should take advantage of the transparencies the digital age has created, and research artists' histories and
any secondary-market sales. It's all out there.‖
2. Have a good understanding of how art is valued. ―I learned early on at Sotheby's how a gallery prices a
work of art,‖ says Marmion, who started her career working for the auction house in London. ―It's based on
some very objective factors, such as artist, size, medium, condition and subject (a young female nude is
going to be more desirable than an old lady in a nightcap, for example).‖
3. ―Put the quality of the piece in the context of the artist's oeuvre, and buy the best you can afford.‖ Don't
chase after Art History 101 names if the work isn't up to par and in good shape.
4. Consider how signature colors value. ―Level of inscription is taken seriously in the art world when valuing
a piece. If Utrillo signed and dedicated a print to a friend, it's going to be significantly more valuable than
one that's not.‖
5. Don't be afraid to ask how a seller set the price of a work of art. ―It's always a great idea to speak to them
and find out where that value came from. The art world is one of the last great unregulated industries, and
there is a mystique to it that can be intimidating to people, but I'd want to know why an artist just out of
school—or maybe even still in school—has work priced at $4,000. There certainly may be valid reasons,
but the pricing process shouldn't be taken for granted. If you're buying a house, you wouldn't think twice
about asking for market comparables. Try approaching art purchases with the same mind-set.‖
31
6. Find a gallery that's interested in you and what you're looking to achieve as a collector. ―Dealers want to
build a relationship with clients, and not just go for one quick sale and never hear from them again. It's
critical that you have a liking for and trust in an art advisor or gallery owner. Talk about budget and goals—
it's beneficial to both the buyer and the seller.‖
7. Location, location, location. ―Some collectors like to deal with local galleries, so they can pop in every
week and check things out in person, and have face-time. Others are fine with an advisor on another
continent.‖ Decide what's right for you.
8. Think global. ―Who the clients are drives the price of art, and international wealth patterns greatly affect
this. Ten years ago, 60 percent of the buyers at Sotheby's auctions were unknown to them. It's constantly
changing. Right now, American paintings are valued slightly lower than a few years ago. They're holding
steady, but increasing at a slow pace. The people who are interested in American art are primarily
American. A bronze bucking bronco by Remington doesn't quite resonate with anyone else the same way.‖
Chinese and Russian contemporary art are hot right now, and seemingly a good investment, but Marmion
warns, ―Much like trading stocks and bonds, it can be dangerous to second-guess these markets.‖
9. Who do you think you are? ―Provenance factors into the value of artwork, especially on the secondary
market. If a piece has a history that's traceable and interesting, all the better.‖
10. Rare birds. ―Even without meeting any of the above qualifications that experts use to value a work of
art, rarity can spike the value immensely.‖
32
AT LEAST THEY’LL NEVER BE FLOODED!
Billionaire Brothers Build 450 ft long life-size replica of Noah’s Ark in Hong KongAt least
they'll never be flooded! Billionaire brothers build 450ft long life-size replica of Noah's Ark
in Hong Kong
By Daily Mail Reporter
Having been built, according to the Bible, thousands of years ago, Noah's Ark has only ever existed in
peoples' imaginations.
But now a group of architects who pondered what the Biblical vessel looked like have turned their dreams
into reality by constructing a Noah's Ark replica, complete with animals.
Thomas, Walter and Raymond's land-bound Ark certainly has dimensions on a Biblical scale, measuring a
massive 450ft long and 75ft wide.
The tourists go in two-by-two: The Noah's Ark Theme Park, complete with fibreglass animals, sits in front of
the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong
33
Biblical scale: The Ark in Hong Kong measures 450ft long and 75ft wide
Water sight: The Ark also boasts less authentic Biblical touches such as double-glazed windows and a fine
dining restaurant.
34
The billionaire brothers who built the Ark in Hong Kong claim it is the only full-scale version in the world.
The imaginative trio even attempted to give the giant boat an air of authenticity by placing 67 pairs of
animals at the entrance, just like the pairs of creatures saved from the Great Flood by Noah in the Bible
tale. The creationist-inspired vessel forms part of a theme park near Hong Kong which was inspired by a
young girl's scrawled drawing of the mammoth boat.
Architects appear to have used some artistic licence in parts of the Ark - for instance including doubleglazed windows, a fine dining restaurant and luxurious bedrooms.
Inside, real-life exotic animals can be found - including a nautilus, a toucan and reams of fish.
All lit up: The Ark shines under Hong Kong's lights as a fibreglass giraffe stands guard near the entrance
35
Authentic: Various fibreglass animals stand outside the Ark to mimmick the Bible tale where Noah took
creatures on board the vessel.
The Noah's Ark Theme Park is now run by Christian organisations, who use it to promote peace and
unity.
Matthew Pine, manager of Noah's Ark Theme Park, said:
'They had a vision to do something remarkable, something outstanding.
'They came up with many ideas. Some of them were really outrageous.
'But then they came across this girl's drawing, and knew it would be something do-able that captured
imaginations. 'So they hired architects and engineers to create the replica Noah's Ark.'
36
Food for thought: The Ark also includes a sophisticated-looking restaurant as one of its on-board attractions
Bed for the night: Guests on board Noah's Ark can also stay on the Biblical vessel in one of its luxurious
hotel-style rooms
37
Land-bound: The Hong Kong-based Noah's Ark theme park was built in 2009 and is popular among tourists
Matthew added: 'The reason we chose that moment in the Bible's story is because this is the message
we want to bring to Hong Kong, to China, to the world.
'In our lives we always face floods, we will face trials, we will face difficulties.
'Hopefully Noah's Ark will inspire people to pass through those troubles as Noah did in his day.'
The Ark opened in May 2009, 17 years after plans were first mooted for the enormous structure.
It is just one of a number of real-life Noah's Arks –
Including one built by a Dutchman that contains pairs of living animals.
38
IN BIG NEW MUSEUM, RUSSIA HAS A MESSAGE FOR JEWS: WE LIKE YOU
By Ellen Barry-New York Times- November 8, 2012
MOSCOW — A stream of elegant visitors stopped in their tracks on Thursday as they toured Moscow‘s
new Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, a
sprawling, state-of-the-art complex underwritten by
oligarchs close to President Vladimir V. Putin. They
had never seen a shtetl like this one.
Touch the screen in one exhibit in this vast building
and a visitor can appear in a mirror dressed in the
garb of a 19th-century blacksmith, or a trader or a
―representative of the intelligentsia.‖ Tap a Torah in a
virtual synagogue, and a cantor‘s voice rings in the
air. In a virtual Odessa, one can sit down in an
interactive cafe to chat with long-dead writers.
Mr. Putin has extended his personal support to the lavish project, donating a month‘s salary for its
construction, which cost around $50 million. In part because of its scale — organizers say it is the largest
Jewish history museum in the world — the project is meant to convey a powerful message to Jews whose
ancestors fled or emigrated: Russia wants you back
.
President Shimon Peres of Israel, who attended the opening, said it affected him deeply.
―My mother sang to me in Russian, and at the entrance to this museum, memories of my childhood flooded
through my mind, and my mother‘s voice played in my heart,‖ said Mr. Peres, 89, who was born in what is
now Belarus. ―I came here to say thank you. Thank you for a thousand years of hospitality.‖
There are practical reasons for Mr. Putin to rehabilitate Russia‘s image among diaspora Jews who, as
descendants of refugees or refuseniks, may have been raised on dark stories about Russia. The country‘s
Jews were confined to densely populated settlements, or shtetls, for long stretches under the czars. Then
70 years of Communism all but extinguished Jewish life and religious instruction, leaving in its wake an
ingrained anti-Semitism.
One donor, the billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, said on Thursday that he hoped the museum would convey to
outsiders the good health of Jewish society in Putin-era Russia, and perhaps ease recent tensions between
Moscow and the United States.
―The average American has developed this stereotype. They have a very wary approach to Russia, with the
story of the evil empire and so forth,‖ said Mr. Vekselberg, who is Russia‘s richest man, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index. ―Americans who come here to work or visit, often for business, and come to
this museum will assess what is going on in Russia in a different way.‖ Mr. Vekselberg said the project had
a personal aspect, since his father‘s relatives, who lived in western Ukraine, were all shot in a single day
during World War II. He said it was a ―conscious decision‖ not to focus the museum on the Holocaust, as
many such museums in the West do. The displays here mingle brighter historical material, about thriving
village life and the high status of Jews in the Soviet intellectual firmament, with darker chapters.
39
In the Odessa cafe, for example, the viewer can tap on a table to answer the question, ―If your store were
destroyed by a pogrom, what would you do? A) Give up and emigrate to the West, B) Stay in my hometown
and try to rebuild the store, C) Join a Jewish self-defense league and prepare for the next pogrom or, D) I
am still in shock.‖ The Internet television channel Dozhd described the museum, created by the New Yorkbased designer Ralph Appelbaum, as a ―Jewish
Disneyland.‖
On Thursday, Russia‘s chief rabbi — a close ally of Mr.
Putin‘s — said that Jews ―have never felt as comfortable in
Russia as today,‖ and that 100,000 Jews have returned
from Israel as conditions in Russia have improved. He
gave a guided tour of the museum to Mr. Peres, noting
instances when Moscow acted in Jewish interests.
―This is the story of World War II, and what the Soviet and Red Army did to save the Jewish people,‖ the
rabbi, Berel Lazar, said. He then pointed out a Soviet T-34 tank, saying ―with this tank, which was built by a
Jewish person, Jews were saved from concentration camps.‖
Mr. Putin had been expected to attend the ceremony but canceled several days ago, instead inviting Mr.
Peres to meet him for lunch afterward. Israeli reporters said they had been told Mr. Putin could not attend
because of back problems, a widespread rumor that the Kremlin has denied.
Whether Russia has become fully welcoming to Jews is a matter of opinion. The country‘s Jewish
population began to melt away because of emigration after the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than
500,000 citizens identified themselves as Jews in 1989, according to the census; by 2010 the census count
had dropped to 150,000, or 0.11 percent of Russia‘s population, though Jewish organizations say the
actual number is far higher.
After Thursday‘s ceremony, when speakers praised the welcoming atmosphere, some commentators
reacted skeptically. ―It‘s so comfortable that everyone has left,‖ wrote one Facebook user, recalling that last
weekend, a column of Russian ethnic nationalists marched through the center of Moscow.
Others were deeply impressed, though. David Rozenson, whose family left Russia in 1978, said his mother
was astonished when he told her about it.
―She said, ‗That‘s crazy, it can‘t be,‘ ‖ said Mr. Rozenson, the director of the AVI CHAI Foundation, which
underwrites research into Jewish life in Russia. ―For her, it is unthinkable that a museum like this is opening
in Moscow, that Russian politicians would be there, the Israeli president. It‘s very easy to become cynical
and say that this museum is just a political statement, but I think this museum and the interest in it are real.‖
Aleksandr A. Dobrovinsky, a lawyer, said his eyes welled up when he saw the exhibit of Odessa, where he
had visited his grandparents as a child. He gave Mr. Putin, who has been linked to the project for more than
five years, much of the credit.
―What the president has done, I simply tip my hat to him,‖ Mr. Dobrovinsky said. ―They say, though I don‘t
know if it‘s true, that he grew up in a communal apartment in St. Petersburg, and when his parents were
working and had no one to leave him with, they left him with some older people who lived in the apartment,
and they were Jews. That‘s what they say. I don‘t know.‖
40
HOLOCAUST
HOLOCAUST MUSEUMS IN ISRAEL EVOLVE
By Edward Rothstein-New York Times –September 4, 2012
It isn‘t only the history of the Holocaust that you see on display in Israel‘s Holocaust museums. It‘s also the
history of the history of the Holocaust. There is an archaeology of trauma to be found if you look closely,
and in its layers and transmutations you see how a nation has wrestled with the burden of one of history‘s
immense horrors.
Through examining how Israeli museums treat the
Holocaust — including the Ghetto Fighters‘ House
Museum here, in a kibbutz in the far north of the country,
whose founders included survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising — we can see how visions of that past are
changing, sometimes in unsettling ways.
One museum on another, smaller kibbutz, for example,
was described in the newspaper Haaretz as ―WarsawGhetto Disneyland‖ for its new emphasis on sound and
lighting effects, including a simulation of a cattle car
heading to a death camp. The director of the museum at
the Ghetto Fighters‘ House said that it would increasingly
emphasize the broadest lessons of the Holocaust: an
―ethical imperative‖ of ―tolerance‖ that could ―influence Israeli society.‖ And when Yad Vashem in Jerusalem
reworked its main exhibition in 2005 — creating the most powerful exposition of this history I have seen —
it too modified its approach, with a new focus on feelings and individual stories.
These changes have different meanings and effects, and some are familiar from museums devoted to the
subject in other countries. But in Israel this is far from a mere museological matter. The major Holocaust
institutions, for example, are on hilltops offering grand vistas. At the Ghetto Fighters‘ House, which may
have been the first Holocaust museum in the world to open, in 1949, you emerge from its tales of darkness
onto a bright plaza, overlooking an aqueduct, an outdoor amphitheater and the plains stretching toward the
sea.
A companion institution at the kibbutz, Yad LaYeled, may be the world‘s only children‘s museum devoted to
the Holocaust. You descend a ramp into the darkness, as if it were a tear in the texture of ordinary
experience; gradually the walls close in. Sound effects are meant to simulate a child‘s preverbal
experience. Inscribed along the way are brief recollections, almost heartbreaking in their simplicity:
―Everyone will look at my yellow star and they‘ll know: she‘s 6, and she is Jewish.‖ And you emerge from
that journey into illumination: first through a gallery about children who survived, and ultimately into the
Galilean landscape.
And, of course, the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem sits on its own hill, the Mount of
Remembrance. In its latest incarnation, with a new exhibition design by Dorit Harel, and with Moshe Safdie
as architect, the history is recounted along a zigzagging path, leading upward through a cement gash in the
mountain, emerging into daylight, overlooking the Jerusalem hills.
41
Even the poor relation of these at Yad Mordechai, a kibbutz in the south named after the leader of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, creates a similar drama, calling its whole exhibition ―From Holocaust to Revival.‖
You literally walk downward into the historical narrative and gradually work through tales of resistance until
you emerge again into the landscape, in which important battles were fought during Israel‘s War of
Independence.
These museums deliberately treat the landscape as a part of the history; indeed, as a resolution. From the
start, that was one meaning the Holocaust took on: the founding of the State of Israel was seen as an
answer to the Holocaust and a deliverance from it. That is one reason that the annual Holocaust
Remembrance Day here is observed by a moment of nationwide stillness: a siren sounds, commerce halts,
and cars pull over to the side of the highway.
Museums reinforce that connection between the
Holocaust and the state. It has become so strong that it
has even led to a distortion of the history by some who
twist the connection into cause and effect, presuming
that the state was created as a guilty compensation for
the Holocaust rather than as something that emerged
as a result of nearly a century of development.
The association between the Holocaust and the state
initially had a very different significance, highlighted in the themes of the Ghetto Fighters‘ House and Yad
Mordechai. Both were established during the early decades of a nation left with only intermittent episodes
of peace. At the time an element of shame was associated with the seeming passivity of Jews who were
murdered in Europe. So the emphasis of these institutions was at first placed not on survival, but rather on
rebellion.
Exhibitions at the Ghetto Fighters‘ House, for example, focus on Jewish resistance, ranging from an escape
by prisoners from a fortress prison in Kovno (now Kaunas) in Lithuania to the secret recording of history in
various ghettos. A wall at Yad Mordechai is inscribed with the name of every camp and ghetto where
rebellion occurred; the museum‘s displays also make a connection between those battles and the resolute
history of the kibbutz itself, which held off Egyptian forces — after war was declared on the fledgling state in
1948 — just long enough to prevent their march toward Tel Aviv. As recently as June, rockets launched
from Gaza hit the kibbutz.
But because both of these kibbutz institutions also developed out of branches of left-wing Zionism, which
would have been wary of forms of nationalism associated with the Israeli right, a mixture of sentiments has
emerged there in recent decades. These founding lessons can take on different emphases. One recent
tendency is to generalize what was once particular.
So in 1995 the Center for Humanistic Education was established by the Ghetto Fighters‘ House, stressing
what it calls the ―universal lessons‖ of the Holocaust rather than national ones, attacking ―indifference to the
suffering of others.‖ When I recently spoke with Anat Livne, the museum‘s director, she mentioned plans for
programs to encourage ―tolerance‖ between Jews and Arabs.
None of this is evident in the exhibitions right now. But a similar strategy is employed by many American
museums that attempt to draw lessons of tolerance from the Holocaust, most notably the Museum of
42
Tolerance in Los Angeles (which has been involved in a controversial construction of an Israeli version in
Jerusalem).
At Yad Mordechai, whose approach is more dated than the one at the Ghetto Fighters‘ House, attempts to
create relevance have been more a matter of adding new display technology than any rethinking of the
museum‘s mission. But the museum‘s director at the time, Vered Bar Samakh, told Haaretz in 2011 that the
institution should incorporate notions of ―peaceful coexistence‖ and deal with ―racism and xenophobia.‖
―You have to learn a lesson from everything,‖ she said. ―I don‘t want to get into it, but the abuse at the
checkpoints of the Warsaw Ghetto bridge isn‘t far from what‘s happening today at our checkpoints in Judea
and Samaria."
This view, thankfully, is not explicit in the museum. But it
suggests that temptations are strong to replace historical
analysis with sentiment; that is more of a risk for Yad
Mordechai than a Disneyfied approach, which is not
particularly effective and has already been toned down.
The museum now has a new director, Anat Pais, and
plans for an exhibition about Poland between the world
wars. But some pedagogical efforts in both museums
emphasize less the need for resilience in confronting
murderous ambitions than the need for tolerance, broadly
applied.
This concept is familiar from American Holocaust museums, which also search for broad relevance as the
last generation of survivors dies. But it leaves Holocaust museums intellectually orphaned. What ―lessons‖
are we supposed to take away? The impulse has been to generalize, to say that a Holocaust museum can‘t
be ―just‖ about the murder of Jews during World War II.
Why? Is there a problem, say, with an American slavery museum being ―just‖ about American slavery?
Why should Holocaust museums deal with notions of tolerance or racism in general, or even genocide in
general? Why do we think that the proper lesson comes from generalizing rather than comprehending the
particular? The moment we generalize, we strip away details: we lose information and create equivalences
that may be fallacious. In Israel, as the earlier ―lessons‖ of museums are being submerged, there has been
an increased focus on simulating the experience, trying to spur empathy. Feelings are evoked because
nothing else can be assumed. This is to be expected at Yad LaYeled, which is a children‘s museum, but
elsewhere it has serious limitations.
This has even affected Yad Vashem, with its new attention to individual stories. Is this an example of that
museum‘s response to contemporary nonchalance, an attempt to seduce us into shock?
No. Yad Vashem is a stunning counterexample. It may imply a traditional, national lesson in its presence
and placement — it was, after all, founded by a Knesset law in 1953 — but it scrupulously avoids
moralizing or posturing. The museum offers no lessons and promises no relevance.
The stories, facts and analyses accumulate until you begin to comprehend something beyond
comprehension. The museum‘s implied conclusion is sensed rather than taught: after the harrowing history,
you are brought back, finally, to the present, in somber gratitude.
43
Entertainment
Tippi Hedren: Hitchcock's reluctant muse
The actress spurned the great director's advances, says Rosie Millard, and she paid the
price
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, poses with Ronald, one of the hundreds of
trained ravens that were used in the film. Photo: AP Photo
THERE IS QUITE a procedure surrounding meeting
Tippi Hedren at Shambala, her California home, because
it is in a gated community. But not in the conventional
Beverly Hills sense. The "gates" are 15-foot security
fences and the "community" is Hedren's own safari-style
sanctuary, a reserve for more than 50 big cats formerly
used in the entertainment industry. It includes lions, one
of Michael Jackson's tigers, and a couple of leopards.
Hedren has several domestic cats too. These are kept at a
safe distance from their larger cousins, and all appear to
be named after sexy film stars. "Where's Johnny Depp?"
coos Hedren as we arrive, referring to a grey tabby who
whisks past onto the netted roof of the conservatory.
Hedren, tiny, blond, booted in knee-length leather, and, at 82, still beautiful, once had the world
at her feet. She was christened Nathalie: The nickname came from her Swedish father and
derives from tupsa — meaning adorable. Hollywood certainly adored her. Cool and ice-blond,
she stepped into the public domain as if she had always been there: a fully fledged star after just
one film; a working woman — and single mother to boot — whose poise had caused Alfred
Hitchcock to summon her after a single sighting in a television ad for a diet drink.
When the call came from Hitchcock, her only child, Melanie, was a toddler, and Hedren a
successful model who had spent the 1950s making pots of money under the care of Eileen Ford
at the famous Ford modeling agency in New York. "I had a very successful career going on as a
fashion model," she says. "And of course with the advent of television came the commercials."
These commercials paid well, and it was easy work for Hedren, then married to the
actor/producer Peter Griffith, three years younger than her. The union was short-lived. In 1961,
they divorced, and Hedren decided to head back to the West with Melanie. She was 31 and had
no fears.
"I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York, so I rented a very expensive
home. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'Well, I don't type,
what shall I do?'"
44
Fortunately, TV commercials have a long shelf life, and Hedren was in a particularly good one,
for Sego, a diet drink. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1961, after the ad had been running on TV, the phone
rang. It was a man from Universal Studios. "He said, 'Are you the woman in the Sego advert?
There is a producer here who is interested to meet you.'" Who was the producer? The man would
not say. When she discovered the mystery producer was Hitchcock, she was thrilled, thinking
that perhaps he might want her to work on one of his television projects. Hitchcock honored her
with a personal welcome to Universal. "He opened the door and stood there with his hands over
his belly. We had tea. We talked about everything; food, travel, wine, all sorts of things,
everything other than making a motion picture."
There were screen tests and wardrobe fittings. Finally, four months later, Hedren was invited to
lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal. The venue was
Chasen's, the starriest restaurant in Hollywood. The table was Hitchcock's.
"Hitch placed a beautifully wrapped parcel from this wonderful gift shop, Gump's of San
Francisco, on my plate. I opened it and it was this beautiful gold and seed-pearl pin of three birds
in flight. And he said, 'We want you to play Melanie Daniels in The Birds.' I was so stunned. It
never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great
big tears in my eyes," says Hedren.
"I looked over at Mrs. Hitchcock and she was
tearing up, and even Lew Wasserman was
affected. I looked over at Hitch, and he was sitting
there looking very pleased with himself."
Hedren is wearing the actual pin. One of the
pearls has been lost, but I can understand why she
has not replaced it. One wouldn't want to tamper
with it. It is the symbol both of her springboard to
fame and her eventual prison. From then on, she
was at the mercy of her Svengali.
By the time of The Birds, Hitchcock was lauded and untouchable. Both physically and creatively
the director had become one of Hollywood's colossal personalities. "On set he always held
court," recalls Hedren. "We would hear the announcement 'Alfred Hitchcock has arrived.' He
was always the most important entity. Wherever he went." And what he wanted was what he got.
Always.
It started at the end of The Birds. To depict the notorious final sequence, when Melanie is
attacked by dozens of birds on her own in an upstairs bedroom, Hedren was reassured that
mechanical birds would be used. Yet Hitchcock had always planned otherwise. She arrived on
set to discover cages of live birds were being put in position for the terrifying denouement.
"They put bands around my waist and these bands had elastics pulled in different places through
my dress. And the bird trainers tied the elastics to the feet of the birds, so they were all around
me. One was even tied to my shoulder. At one point, it jumped up and almost clawed my eye."
45
Hedren's torment went on for five days. "At the end, I was so exhausted I just sat in the middle of
the stage, sobbing."
WHEN THE MOVIE was released, Hedren was the toast of the film world. Hitchcock, always
keen to appear in his own fictions, presented himself as the director who had invented her. There
is a photograph of them both standing at the Palais in Cannes, Hitchcock looking like the cat who
got the cream.
A star was indeed born, but Hedren was an experienced woman in her 30s. "I wasn't a little girl,"
she says. So when Hitchcock sought to draw her onto his casting couch, she rejected him. "It was
horrifying. A horrible situation in which to be," she says and shudders. "There were women who
would have gone along with it, but I wasn't one of those."
Having created a star who had the temerity to reject him, Hitchcock made sure she paid for it.
Hedren was informed that she had received a Best Newcomer award, and was invited to accept it
live on The Tonight Show in New York. It would have been a moment of national acclaim for
her. Hitchcock refused to let her leave the L.A. set of Marnie, her next starring role. "That was
when things came to a horrible, horrible fight," says Hedren. "He made these demands on me,
and no way could I acquiesce to them."
After Marnie finished shooting, she'd had enough. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He
said, 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older.' I said,
'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out.' And he said, 'I'll ruin your
career.' I said, 'Do what you have to do,'" says Hedren. "And he did ruin my career. He kept me
under contract, paid me to do nothing for close to two
years."
Directors, including François Truffaut, came knocking.
They were all sent away. Hitchcock informed them that
Hedren, the hottest actress in Hollywood, was "not
available" for work. When she was finally let go by
Hitchcock, she was no longer the woman of the
moment. Her moment had come; she was unable to
exploit it, and it had gone.
"All I wanted to do was to get out of the horrible
situation," she says. "I didn't hear about things like
Truffaut asking for me until years later. Yes, I felt like I
had been cheated. It was like, 'He giveth and he taketh
away.'" She shrugs. Was she ever tempted to relent? "Not for one minute," she says. "I would
have been unable to live with myself."
HE NEVER IMPORTUNED her again, and she never discussed it with anyone. The story only
came out years later, after Hitchcock's biographer Donald Spoto asked her about it. "I saved
myself. I know that," she says. "I feel good about that. I wish I had gone on to do all those other
films. But I couldn't. I replaced the films with other things."
46
She married her agent, Noel Marshall. She made some low-budget movies. She spent 11 years
working on her own personal saga, Roar. Directed by Marshall and starring herself, Marshall,
and Melanie, Roar is the story of a family who live alongside more than 100 leopards, lions, and
tigers. It cost $17 million, made $2 million when it was eventually released, and was once
described as "the most expensive home movie ever made." Afterward, Hedren transformed the
Roar set into Shambala, the sanctuary where she now lives.
Her movie career stalled, she sailed around the South China Sea giving food and clothes to
refugees from Vietnam — the Boat People — and sending them to safe havens. In America, she
taught Vietnamese women how to do manicures, and sent them to beauty school. Last year,
Hedren went to Washington, D.C., to receive a humanitarian award for her efforts. "I'm regarded
as the patron saint of manicurists," she says. "Tee hee hee!"
Yet it is those two films, made more than 50 years ago, that fascinate the public even now.
Recently, a playful poll on Twitter asking, "Who was Hitchcock's greatest leading lady?" came
up with one name above all: Hedren. She knows it and accepts it. Her own house reflects it.
There are pictures from Marnie, stills from The Birds (on wine labels), books about Hitchcock
on the coffee table, and stuffed birds perched in almost every corner.
How does she avoid feeling bitter? Years in therapy? She looks at me as if I am mad. "I don't
have time for counseling!" she says. "I'm very busy. Self-belief? My parents gave it to me. I
know so many people who are eaten up by regret. It manifests itself in so many ways. They
either become mentally a bit off, or they get very fat, or they are just horribly depressed. And
there is also that thing called age. They don't write movies for older people," she says, laughing.
She is the least vain Hollywood personality I have ever met. She's not interested in hiding her
age. Invitations to her 70th and 80th birthday parties (each one thrown by Melanie) are framed
and hung on her living room wall. She refuses to take herself too seriously. "I went through
Passports at L.A. airport the other
day," she says, "and the security lady
said, 'Oh, your name is Tippi Hedren.
Do you know we had the real Tippi
Hedren through here last year.'" She
snorts with laughter. "I like going into
town with no makeup on. And people
say, 'You remind me so much of that
Tippi Hedren!' 'Happens all the time,'
I tell them."
From the Financial Times. ©2012
The Financial Times Limited. All
rights reserved.
47
MOVIE REVIEW
What a Man! What a Suit!
By Manohla Dargis-November 7, 2012-New York Times
When James Bond dashed into Buckingham Palace in July to pick up Queen Elizabeth so they could
parachute into the Olympic opening ceremony, it was tough to picture what he could do for an encore. Zip
line into the next European summit meeting with Angela Merkel tucked under his arm? Wrestle nude on the
frozen banks of the Volga with Vladimir Putin? Turning Britain‘s royal octogenarian into a Bond girl was a
stroke of cross-marketing genius that profited queen and country both, while also encapsulating the appeal
of the 007 brand in the age of aerial drones.
It‘s the human factor, to borrow somewhat perversely a phrase from Graham Greene, who worked for
Britain‘s foreign intelligence agency MI6. In his novel ―The Human Factor,‖ about a double agent, Greene
sought, he said, to portray the British secret service unromantically, with ―men going daily to their office to
earn their pensions.‖ Bond is wearing a silver-gray suit when he powers into ―Skyfall,‖ the latest 007
escapade, but it isn‘t cut for office work. The suit is seductively tight, for starters, and moves like a second
skin when Daniel Craig in his third stint as Bond races through an atavistic opener that — with bullets
buzzing and M (Judi Dench) whispering orders in his ear — puts him back on mortal, yet recognizably
Bondian, ground.
And just in time too, given that he looked as if he were on the Bataan Death March in his last film,
―Quantum of Solace.‖ Directed by a surprisingly well-equipped Sam Mendes, ―Skyfall‖ is, in every way, a
superior follow-up to ―Casino Royale,‖ the 2006 reboot that introduced Mr. Craig as Bond. ―Skyfall‖ even
plays like something of a franchise rethink, partly because it brings in new faces and implies that Bond, like
Jason Bourne, needed to be reborn. The tone is again playful and the stakes feel serious if not punishingly
48
so. This is a Bond who, after vaulting into a moving train car, pauses to adjust a shirt cuff, a gesture that
eases the scene‘s momentum without putting the brakes on it.
That ―Skyfall‖ includes a sequence on a train — a passenger one, no less — suggests that this may be very
much like your granddaddy‘s Bond, even without the bikinied backdrop. From the initial sequence, one of
those characteristic supersize set pieces that precede the opening credits, Mr. Mendes shows that he‘s
having his fun with 007. The opening doesn‘t just take place in Turkey, one of those putatively exotic
locales adorned with woven carpets and dark-complexioned extras, it also includes smoothly
choreographed mayhem in both a crowded bazaar and outdoor market. There, amid these familiar actioncinema signposts, Bond and another agency operative, the suitably named Eve (Naomie Harris), chase
down a baddie as locals and oranges scatter.
Bondologists may linger over that Turkey location. Globe tripping has always been as crucial to the movies
as groovy gadgets: it‘s an elegant way to map the geopolitical coordinates while providing armchair
adventure for the rest of us. Here, though, you have to wonder if Mr. Mendes and the writers Neal Purvis,
Robert Wade and John Logan have folded some 007 arcana into the mix. Turkey plays a major role in the
second, often most critically celebrated Bond film, ―From Russia With Love,‖ which, like this one, includes a
lethal fight on a train, a formidable blond male adversary and an island headquarters. But whether the
filmmakers want to intimate that this is the rightful follow-up to the rebooted Bond is less interesting than
this type of longitudinal thinking the movies inspire.
One of the satisfactions of these screen spectaculars, one that Mr. Mendes nicely capitalizes on, is that
they have made all of us Bondologists. We each have favorite Bonds (Sean Connery for me, followed by
Mr. Craig), our preferred 007 women, outlaws, slick gizmos, sweet rides, command centers and double
entendres. We know what kind of cocktail Bond savors and whom he works for and that he often behaves
more like a killer than a tradecraft wizard. We also know that, like the cowboy‘s six-shooter and horse,
Bond‘s gun and sports car are genre givens, as is a sizable body count. And while, over the years, there
have been cruel, suave and silly Bonds, there is always only one Bond, James Bond. The movies have
schooled us well.
Mr. Mendes, a British film and theater director whose dubious screen achievements include embalming the
American dream in ―Revolutionary Road,‖ gets Bond just right in a story that first turns on a domestic threat
and then on a personal one. Mr. Mendes grasps the spy‘s existential center, as typified by the ritualistic
mano a mano grappling that almost every action movie now deploys to signal that, when push comes to
punch, the hero can still kill with his bare hands. There‘s brutal death here, but there‘s also a pervading
sense of mortality that makes the falling bodies register a little longer than they sometimes do in a Bond
movie. As a director of films like ―American Beauty‖ and ―Away We Go‖ Mr. Mendes has indulged in a
noxious blend of self-seriousness and condescension. There‘s none of that here.
Instead he honors the contract that the Bond series made with its fans long ago and delivers the customary
chases, pretty women and silky villainy along with the little and big bangs. Whether Mr. Mendes is
deploying an explosion or a delectable detail, he retains a crucially human scale and intimacy, largely by
foregrounding the performers. To that end, while ―Skyfall‖ takes off with shock-and-awe blockbuster dazzle,
it‘s opulent rather than outlandish and insistently, progressively low-key, despite an Orientalist fantasy with
dragons and dragon ladies. As Bond sprints from peril to pleasure, Mr. Craig and the other players —
including an exceptional, wittily venal Javier Bardem, a sleek Ralph Fiennes and a likable Ben Whishaw —
turn out to be the most spectacular of Mr. Mendes‘s special effects.
49
Health
There's a jungle living in your belly button
Warren Wolfe-Star Tribune-December 5, 2012
Not to gross you out, but your belly
button is crawling with bacteria -billions of them, in all shapes, sizes
and appetites.
That's a good thing, a group of North
Carolina researchers says after
studying more than 500 belly-button
swabs, some from their own navels.
Most of the tiny critters in that "jungle
of microbial diversity" are harmless,
the researchers say, and lots of them
actually kill off their disease-causing
cousins.
Not just numerous, they also are
diverse: 2,368 different types identified so far, with everybody's belly button carrying a different cast of
characters.
Those are among findings of the Belly Button Biodiversity Project, an effort by researchers at North
Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, both in Raleigh.
Magnified mug shots of the bacteria are posted on the project's website, wildlifeofyourbody.org -- along with
an article detailing the likely critters crawling on pop superstar Lady Gaga.
"Your belly button is a great place to grow up if you're a bacterium," said cardiologist Dr. Tom Kottke at
Regions Hospital in St. Paul. "It's warm, dark and moist -- a perfect home."
A mostly helpful bunch
Too many people think all bacteria are bad, said lead researcher Jiri Hulcr. The Belly Button Project is out
to "educate the public about the role bacteria play in our world. Bacteria are always present on our skin and
in our bodies."
They live in and on every square inch of you, and for the most part it's a win-win relationship -- just you and
100 trillion very close friends, about 10 times the number of cells that make up your body.
The one-celled creatures -- so tiny that you'd have to stack up 25,000 or so to equal an inch -- help out in
many ways. Some help us make use of the nutrients in food and make waste from what's leftover. Some
consume leftover detritus on our skin that otherwise might feed harmful pathogens. Still others are
harnessed by scientists to produce medicines and vaccines.
50
But sometimes they can cause sore throats, ear infections, pneumonia or more deadly diseases such as
cholera and leprosy. They also can cause belly-button infections.
"Infections usually are treated with antibiotics," Kottke said, "but we've gotten more cautious about
prescribing them. Sometimes antibiotics do more harm than good, like when they wipe out all the beneficial
bacteria in your gut and the bad ones take over."
Wash those 'innies'
Gently washing your navel with soap and water regularly will lower the likelihood of bacterial problems, but
you'll still have lots of microbial visitors in there.
About 90 percent of belly buttons are "innies," navel depressions that fold inward, created when the
umbilical cord connecting a mom with a newborn baby is cut after birth and heals. Not surprising, innies
carry more bacteria than protruding outies, Hulcr said.
"Each person's microbial jungle is so rich, colorful and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts
species that no scientist has ever studied," he said. "Your navel may well be one of the last biological
frontiers."
The researchers are still gazing at navels, but they've also cast their eyes on wildlife that flourish on other
body parts.
So stay tuned: The new targets are armpit microbes and forehead mites.
51
Obituaries
Marvin Borman of Minneapolis, a lifelong advocate and believer in community service, died peacefully on
September 15, 2012. His wife of 66 years, Elizabeth (Betty) Borman, was at his side. He was 89 years old.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 14, 1923, Marvin was the son of Sarah and Harry Borman. The family,
including older siblings, Connie and William, who predeceased him. Marvin always beat the odds.
A city boy, he hitched rides with friends to the outskirts of Indianapolis to
take part in Boy Scouts, becoming an Eagle Scout at 13. He graduated from
Shortridge High School at the age of 15, giving the valedictorian speech one
week after the unexpected death of his father. He entered the University of
Michigan as a 5'2" freshman, but that did not deter him from excelling in
debate, becoming the President of his Jewish fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau,
editing the Michigan Daily, or being tapped as a Michigamua, an honor he
shared with other University of Michigan greats like President Gerald Ford
and playwright Arthur Miller.
It was also at Michigan where he met the love of his life, Betty Hendel. He
had grown to 5' 10 by then. Marvin enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately
after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He saw active duty as a
Lieutenant in 1943, later promoted to Captain, and was part of the campaigns in Saipan, Tinian and
Okinawa. Deeply patriotic, Marvin did not like to talk about the war, saying only that it was his duty and
honor to defend his country. Marvin came home from war and was accepted into Harvard Law School
Class of 1949.
After graduation, he and Betty came back to Minneapolis where Marvin found a job working for Samuel
Maslon, another Harvard educated lawyer, who had started work as a sole proprietor. In 1956, the small
practice joined forces with a local litigation firm and created the partnership of Maslon Kaplan Edelman
Joseph & Borman. Eventually the firm became Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, one of the larger law
firms in Minneapolis today.
Embracing his commitment to public service, Marvin was active in numerous organizations, including
service as not only Chairman of the United Way Campaign in his early years, but also later as a Member of
the Board and Executive Committee, President and Chairman of the Board of Mount Sinai Hospital,
President of Temple Israel, Chairman of the Board and Life Trustee of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
President and Chairman of the Board of the University of Minnesota Foundation, and Founder and Trustee
of the Jeremiah Program. Marvin also received many awards for his business and civic contributions.
Scoutmaster of Philanthropy Award, United Way's Distinguished Community Service Award, Minneapolis
Rotary Club's Service Above Self Award, and Temple Israel Distinguished Service Award are just a few.
Marvin's family would like to give special thanks to Becky Fredrick's caring team of nurses made Dad's last
months bearable. And, of course, loving thanks to our dear friends Ed and Kerry LeMieux and Val Golden
who have given tremendous support to Betty throughout this journey. In addition to Betty, Marvin is
survived by his three children, Jani Ross (Terry) of Mill Valley, CA, Thomas Borman of Minneapolis, and
Kimberly Borman (Steve Singer) of Lexington, MA, 5 grandchildren, Dana Rogers (Todd), Daniel Ross
(Elizabeth), Margaret Borman, Nicholas Singer and Matthew Singer and 3 great-grandchildren. The world
has lost a great model of integrity, goodness and hope for a better world through public service.
52
Terril H. Hart M.D.
Hart, Terril H., M.D. Age 73, of Minnetonka, MN passed away on
August 30, 2012. Born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1939, Terril
attended medical school at the University of Kansas and was the
Chief Resident in Pediatrics at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas
City, MO and the Chief of Pediatrics for the United States Navy at the
Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi, TX before moving to Minnesota.
In 1971, he co-founded the Wayzata Children's Clinic and was a
beloved pediatrician for many families for over 20 years. Also a wellrespected manager, Terril was the VP of Medical Affairs and Chief
Medical Officer at Children's Hospitals and Clinics, the CEO of the
Indian Health Board of Minneapolis and served as the Chairman of
the Board of Allina during the early, crucial merger era.
An avid sailor, woodworker and reader, Terril was a man of many interests and talents. He died suddenly
of melanoma, a devoted husband, loving father, and grand- father. He is survived by his wife of 29 years,
Janet Hustad; daughter, Sarah Hart; son, Michael Hart (Angela); grandchildren, Max, Julia, Anne, Olivia
and Victoria; and brother, Michael Craig Hart (Patty).
He was preceded in death by his parents, Ken and Helen Hart. Services are on the 11th of September at
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina at 11 AM. Burial at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. Memorials
are preferred to Melanoma Research at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Larry W. Carrow
Dr. Larry W. Age 77, of Golden Valley, passed away October 26th. Preceded in
death by parents Kay and Dr. Roland Carrow and infant brother Ronald.
Survived by loving wife of 48 years Patricia, daughters Hilary Frye (David),
Jennifer Dolan (Thomas), Leslie Siegwart (Todd), son Christopher, grandchildren
Meghan, Greta, Daniel, Jack and Matthew, and his dog kids Molly and Charlie.
He graduated from the University of Minnesota Dental School in 1959, and then
served as a Captain in the Medical Corps in the US Army, stationed in Germany.
He returned home to practice dentistry in downtown Minneapolis for over 50
years. Memorials are preferred to the Animal Humane Society. Funeral service
10 AM Thursday, with visitation 1/2 hour prior to the service, at Lakewood Chapel, 3600 Hennepin Ave. S.,
Mpls. Private interment Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. www.Washburn-McReavy.com Edina Chapel 952920-3996
53
Humor
“Oh hell, let’s just wing it!”
“Yuk, I think I’m going to be sick”
“Maybe we can reattach it somehow.”
“How many sponges did we start with?”
“The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone?”
“Remember to wash your hands before surgery, even if they’re not dirty.”
“If he can’t afford the surgery, we can just touch-up the X-rays.”
“Remember, the patient who lives on after surgery-is a happier patient.”
Above all-“Don’t get cute!”
54
2012 Democratic National Convention Schedule -- Charlotte , N.C.
(N.C. passed an open bar law for Sunday drinking for the convention)
4:00 PM – Opening Flag Burning Ceremony – sponsored by CNN
4:05 PM – Singing of "God Damn America " led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright
4:10 PM – Pledge of Allegiance to Obama
4:15 PM – Ceremonial 'I hate America' led by Michelle Obama
4:30 PM – Tips on “How to keep your man trustworthy & true to you while you travel the
world” – Hillary Clinton
4:45 PM –Al Sharpton / Jesse Jackson seminar “How to have a successful career
without having a job.”
5:00 PM – “Great Vacations I’ve Taken on the Taxpayer’s Dime Travel Log” - Michelle
Obama
5:30 PM – Eliot Spitzer Speaks on "Family Values" via Satellite
5:45 PM – Tribute to All 57 States – Nancy Pelosi
6:00 PM – Sen. Harry Reid - 90-minute speech expressing the Democrat’s appreciation
of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and George Soros for sparing no expense, for all
that they have accomplished to unify the country, improve employment and to boost the
economy.
8:30 PM – Airing of Grievances by the Clintons
9:00 PM – “Bias in Media – How we can make it work for you” Tutorial – sponsored by
CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times
9:15 PM – Tribute Film to Brave Freedom Fighters incarcerated at GITMO – Michael
Moore
9:45 PM – Personal Finance Seminar - Charlie Rangle
10:00 PM – Denunciation of Bitter Gun Owners and Bible readers
,
10:30 PM – Ceremonial Waving of White Flag for IRAQ , & Afghanistan
11:00 PM – Obama Energy Plan Symposium / Tire Gauge Demonstration / You too can
get rich with Green Investment bankruptcies
11:15 PM – Free Gov. Blagovich rally
11:30 PM – Obama Accepts Oscar, Tony and Latin Grammy Awards
11:45 PM – Feeding of the Delegates with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish – Obama Presiding
12:00 AM – Official Nomination of Obama by Bill Maher and Chris “He sends a thrill up
my leg” Matthews
12:01 AM – Obama Accepts Nomination
12:05 AM – Celestial Choirs Sing
3:00 AM – Biden Delivers Acceptance Speech
OMG !!! we've even gotten to Maxine !!
55
MAXINE!
Depressed
Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel ,
"Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead
you to the Promised Land."
Nearly 75 years ago, (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said,
"Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this
is the Promised Land."
Today, Congress has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the
price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land!
I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the
economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement
funds, etc .... I called a Suicide Hotline.
I had to press 1 for English.
I was connected to a call center in Pakistan . I told them I was suicidal.
They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck.
Folks, we're totally screwed.
56
Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion's Sexiest
Man Alive For 2012 [UPDATE]
NOVEMBER 14, 2012 | ISSUE 48•46 | MORE NEWS
The Onion is proud to
announce that North
Korean supreme leader
Kim Jong-un, 29, has
officially been named the
newspaper’s Sexiest Man
Alive for the year 2012.
With his devastatingly
handsome, round face, his
boyish charm, and his
strong, sturdy frame, this
Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that
masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his
impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.
“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same
time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that
makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity
who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”
Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”
With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners,
including:





2011: Bashar al-Assad
2010: Bernie Madoff
2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)
2008: Ted Kaczynski
2007: T. Herman Zweibel
The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere
this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.
UPDATE: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our
friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary
reportage, comrades.
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THE SEASON ON DEBATES
By Gail Collins-New York Times-October 4, 2012
So how are you enjoying Debate Season, people?
As compared to the prior Convention Season. Or that little patch in between that has
now become known as Reducing Expectations Season. And before that, of course,
there was Primary Season, and, before that, the French and Indian War.
On Wednesday night, as the debate era opened, Mitt Romney definitely seemed more
energetic — was there ever before a presidential candidate who could sound that
enthusiastic while vowing to defund Big Bird?
But Romney had that funny look on his face whenever President Obama was talking. Somewhere between
a person who is trying to overlook an unpleasant smell and a guy who is trying to restrain himself from
pointing out that his car is much nicer than your car.
Obama seemed tired or bored, and he fell way behind in the much-anticipated battle of the zingers. The
president thinks these debates are ridiculous, and he may well be right. But, truly, it would have been a
better idea to keep the thought to himself.
On the other hand, he was the only one who wants Donald Trump to pay more taxes.
If you watched the whole thing, you now know that the president has taken to calling his health care reform
law ―Obamacare,‖ which is really a tad strange.
Also that Mitt Romney will not admit that any of his proposals could involve unpleasant details. Taxes will
go down, but not revenues. The health care reform plan will go away, except for all the popular parts, which
will magically remain intact.
―At some point, I think the American people have to ask themselves: Is the reason that Governor Romney
is keeping all these plans-to-replace secret because they‘re too good? Is it because that somehow middleclass families are going to benefit too much from them?‖ Obama retorted. But this was about an hour into
the debate.
Romney, on the other hand, was a veritable zinger arsenal from the get-go. (―Mr. President, you‘re entitled,
as the president, to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts.‖)
And what are we to make of all this? There wasn‘t any car crash, but we have been trained to regard every
twitch, tic and failure to look engaged as a matter of possibly cosmic consequence. The next leader of the
most powerful nation on earth needs to be the person with the best comebacks, but the fewest strange
facial expressions.
It‘s a little like one of those fairy tales where the citizens of the kingdom pick their next king on the basis of
a race to find the feather of the golden swan.
Do debates really matter? The experts say that, barring total disaster, the answer is actually no.
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The committed are already committed. (In some cases, really, really committed. Witness the large
proportion of Ohio Republicans who told a pollster that they thought Mitt Romney was the person most
responsible for killing Osama bin Laden.)
It‘s all about the voters with failure to commit. CNN managed to corral some of them to register their
responses to the debate‘s every jab and parry. I kept peeping at the lines recording their emotions, and I
swear there were long stretches where the Undecideds nodded off.
Still, you don‘t want to mess these things up. No candidate wants to repeat the saga of Rick Lazio, who ran
against Hillary Clinton for the United States Senate in New York in 2000. During a critical debate, Lazio
tried to be clever by walking over and asking Clinton to sign a campaign fund-raising pledge. It made him
look less like a senator than a stalker, and now, a dozen years later, Hillary Clinton is known as one of the
most beloved figures on the planet, while Lazio is known as the guy who once violated Hillary Clinton‘s
space.
All I know is that you deserve a hand, interested citizen. You really have been through a lot. You were there
for the Rick Perry meltdown and the Mitch Daniels blip, and the period when we had to get up to speed on
Newt Gingrich‘s marital history. And now we‘ve still got two more presidential debates plus one vicepresidential debate. Then we will be moving into the final two weeks, sometimes known as the Actually
Having an Election period.
Did you read John Noble Wilford‘s article in The Times about the discovery of the remains of a dinosaur the
size of a house cat? A paleontologist told Wilford that it might have looked like a ―nimble two-legged
porcupine.‖ I am telling you this because the race for the Republican nomination first began at about the
time these creatures became extinct. Michele Bachmann shot the last one when it hopped across her front
yard.
December 8, 2012
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A LOST CIVILIZATION
By Maureen Dowd-New York Times-December 8, 2012
MY college roommates and I used to grocery shop and cook together. The only food we seemed to agree
on was corn, so we ate a lot of corn.
My mom would periodically call to warn me in a dire tone, ―Do you know why the Incas are extinct?‖
Her maize hazing left me with a deeply ingrained fear of being part of a civilization that was obliviously
engaging in behavior that would lead to its extinction.
Too bad the Republican Party didn‘t have my mom to keep it on its toes. Then it might not have gone all
Apocalypto on us — becoming the first civilization in modern history to spiral the way of the Incas, Aztecs
and Mayans.
The Mayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. It was just a
select world: the G.O.P. universe of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys.
Just another vanishing tribe that fought the cultural and demographic tides of history.
Someday, it will be the subject of a National Geographic special, or a Mel Gibson movie, where
archaeologists piece together who the lost tribe was, where it came from, and what happened to it. The
experts will sift through the ruins of the Reagan Presidential Library, Dick Cheney‘s shotgun casings, Orca
poll monitoring hieroglyphics, remnants of triumphal rants by Dick Morris on Fox News, faded photos of
Clint Eastwood and an empty chair, and scraps of ancient tape in which a tall, stiff man, his name long
forgotten, gnashes his teeth about the 47 percent of moochers and the ―gifts‖ they got.
Instead of smallpox, plagues, drought and Conquistadors, the Republican decline will be traced to a
stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people
and female people and gay people count.
As the historian Will Durant observed, ―A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has
destroyed itself from within.‖
President Obama‘s victory margin is expanding, as more votes are counted. He didn‘t just beat Romney;
he‘s still beating him. But another sign of the old guard‘s denial came on Friday, a month after the election,
when the Romney campaign ebulliently announced that it raised $85.9 million in the final weeks of the
campaign, making its fund-raising effort ―the most successful in Republican Party history.‖
Why is the Romney campaign still boasting? You can‘t celebrate at a funeral. Go away and learn how to
crunch data on the Internet.
Outside the Republican walled kingdom of denial and delusion, everyone else could see that the once
clever and ruthless party was behaving in an obtuse and outmoded way that spelled doom.
The G.O.P. put up a candidate that no one liked or understood and ran a campaign that no one liked or
understood — a campaign animated by the idea that indolent, grasping serfs must be kept down, even if it
meant creating barriers to letting them vote.
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Although Stuart Stevens, the Romney strategist, now claims that Mitt ―captured the imagination of millions‖
and ran ―with a natural grace,‖ there was very little chance that the awkward gazillionaire was ever going to
be president. Yet strangely, Republicans are still gobsmacked by their loss, grasping at straws like Sandy
as an excuse.
Some G.O.P. House members continue to try to wrestle the president over the fiscal cliff. Romney wanders
in a daze, his hair not perfectly gelled. And his campaign advisers continue to express astonishment that a
disastrous campaign, convention and candidate, as well as a lack of familiarity with what Stevens
dismissively calls ―whiz-bang turnout technologies,‖ could possibly lead to defeat.
Who would ever have thought blacks would get out and support the first black president? Who would ever
have thought women would shy away from the party of transvaginal probes? Who would ever have thought
gays would work against a party that treated them as immoral and subhuman? Who would have ever
thought young people would desert a party that ignored science and hectored on social issues? Who would
ever have thought Latinos would scorn a party that expected them to finish up their chores and self-deport?
Republicans know they‘re in trouble when W. emerges as the moral voice of the party. The former
president lectured the G.O.P. on Tuesday about being more ―benevolent‖ toward immigrants.
As Eva Longoria supersedes Karl Rove as a power player, Republicans act as shellshocked as the
Southern gentry overrun by Yankee carpetbaggers in ―Gone with the Wind.‖ As the movie eulogized: ―Here
was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in
books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.‖
Gun sales have burgeoned since the president‘s re-election, with Black Friday weapons purchases setting
records as the dead-enders rush to arm themselves.
But history will no doubt record that withering Republicans were finally wiped from the earth in 2016 when
the relentless (and rested) Conquistadora Hillary marched in, General Bill on a horse behind her, and
finished them off.
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