2009-08-29 1015: I happened across an interesting Time magazine article by Amy Sullivan (August 28, 2009), Ted Kennedy's quiet Catholic faith. She reports:
Kennedy only fully embraced Catholicism later in life, particularly after marrying his second wife. Vicki Kennedy was one of a handful of prominent Catholic Democrats who strongly urged John Kerry to defend questions about his faith during the 2004 presidential campaign, and she served as a surrogate for the Obama campaign in 2008 in heavily Catholic areas. The now retired Monsignor Thomas Duffy remembers the Senator and his wife becoming regular fixtures at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington's Chevy Chase neighborhood. "He and Vicki used to come to Mass rather regularly when they were in town," says Duffy, noting that her children also went to confession and attended religion classes. "We sometimes didn't agree on certain issues, but we would always chat."
Kennedy also relied on his faith as he watched his two eldest children struggle with cancer. While his daughter Kara was undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital in the Mission Hill section of Boston, Kennedy used to stop for prayer at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, the church where his funeral will take place on Saturday, Aug. 29. The amount of time her youngest child spent in churches would have surprised and gratified Rose Kennedy. In 1995, Teddy spoke of her legacy, "She sustained us in the saddest times by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us."
As his faith became a bigger part of his life, Kennedy became more sensitive to accusations that Democrats were godless and hostile to religion. One week after the 2004 election, he placed a call to the left-leaning Evangelical leader Jim Wallis. "They're saying we're not religious," Kennedy told Wallis. "But we know that's not true." Wallis spent an evening at the Kennedy home, talking with the Senator and Vicki, and left surprised by what he heard. "I'd never heard Ted Kennedy speak publicly about his faith the way some other politicians do," Wallis recalls now. "But the conversation was very personal and very theological—we talked about Scripture and Catholic social teaching and moral issues, including abortion." Kennedy, he says, "was deeply conflicted on abortion, feeling kind of trapped by the liberal side, frankly."
2009-08-24 2230: I've advanced three years in my history reading; I'm now finishing a book on the Cuban Missile Crisis, One Minute To Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War, by Michael Dobb. This is a detailed account of the "most dangerous moment in human history" (Arthur Schlesinger), when the Soviets placed nuclear weapons in Cuba. One interesting detail: prior to the crisis, Kennedy read the then-new Barbara Tuchman bestseller, The Guns of August, an account of the beginning of the First World War. (None of the European powers intended to initiate hostilities in that terrible war, but were pulled into the war by the chain of diplomatic and military events of that month.) Kennedy was deeply impressed by that book, and asked his aides and the military leadership to read it as well.
2009-08-24 2215: I noticed, on Daily Kos, mention of an Associated Press article that appeared in the Kansas City Star, Missouri Bans Wrong Plastic from Rivers. Instead of banning use of polystyrene by boaters and other people on rivers, they banned polypropyline—and thereby made it a crime to use Tupperware or similar plastic containers, and not Styrofoam cups or coolers as was intended.
2009-08-24 2200: Saturday, I managed to stub my little toe pretty bad, on a chair leg. It's still tender and bruised, but fortunately, the x-rays I had this morning showed no breaks. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to run the 8 mile race in Lanesville, Saturday the 12th of September, but it looks like I'll be all right by then. I noticed that today's NY Times crossword puzzle had the clue for 5D, "struck accidently, as the toe," which naturally turned out to be STUBBED.
2009-08-19 2045: The New York Times has an interesting article on the Tara Parker-Pope blog "Well" about research showing that vigorous exercise substantially reduces the risk of gastrointestinal and lung cancers.
2009-08-19 2030: John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, has angered progressives by giving (in the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal of August 11) his conservative Republican beliefs on health care reform. (He does not believe health care is a "right," and he believes less regulation is what is needed.) So some progressives are trying to organize a boycott of Whole Foods, reasoning that since much of the customer base of Whole Foods consists of people on the left, this might force Mackey to change his position on this issue. Now Whole Foods is publicly held, so I'm hesitant to join such a boycott even though I strongly disagree with Mr. Mackey's views. But what if to counteract a boycott from the left, conservatives decided to support Whole Foods by shopping there? How would conservatives be affected by finding themselves in a store that offerred sustainable fisheries fish, or certified humane meats, and a tempting array of vegan processed foods? Would such a turn of events play a role in awakening conservatives to profound ecological and health issues regarding agriculture and food production? Stranger things have happened (as witness the NY Times article today about the conservative constitutional lawyer Ted Olson's efforts on behalf of legalization of same-sex marriage).
Actually, even before the present furor over Mackey's remarks, I was in Whole Foods two weeks ago, and was a bit surprised to notice a shopper wearing a black tee-shirt bearing the URL notafan.com. This happens to be a blog site sponsored by a large local evangelical megachurch (the idea being that a true Christian is a dedicated follower of Jesus, not just an admirer of him). So perhaps Whole Foods, or more generally environmentalism, already cuts across traditional political lines. But it's long been reported that many evangelicals are concerned about the environment, in part because they believe God expects us to be good stewards of the Earth.
2009-08-12 0830: The New York Times has an article about research claiming that long-distance running is good for the knees, contrary to the common belief that it causes arthritis in the knees. I'm glad to read this, as I approach my 50th birthday, because I hope to continue to run for a long time.
The New York Times also has an article, with an accompanying Flash slide show, about Tailfins of 1959. Apparently, 1959 was the peak year for tailfins on cars. The article begins: "The 1950s had to end sometime, and in Detroit the soaring tailfins of 1959 models put an exclamation point at the conclusion of an exuberant decade of unchecked optimism."
2009-08-11 2230: I finished the book 1959. It proved to be an interesting and pleasant read. Kaplan covers a variety of familiar topics: the early Space Race, the Gary Powers U2 shoot-down, the coming to power of Fidel Castro, and the advent of the contraceptive Pill. He also details topics or events that I was not familiar with: his treatment of Herman Kahn's lectures on nuclear war includes the interesting detail that Kahn and Stanley Kubrick were friends and that Kubrick's movie character Dr. Strangelove was inspired by Kahn. Some of the most interesting portions of the book deal with popular culture, particularly jazz (the author is a jazz writer for Stereophile). As I mentioned below (2009-07-31), he tells the story about Miles Davis's famous (and all-time-best-selling) jazz album Kind of Blue, and the David Brubeck album Time Out. The latter was inspired by the music in unusual meters that Brubeck and his fellow musicians heard on a goodwill jazz tour in Turkey. (Kaplan describes the jazz goodwill tours as an inspired and highly successful counter to Soviet propaganda that America had no original art.) Kaplan also sketches a biography of Ornette Coleman and the advent of free jazz. Kaplan departs from jazz long enough to tell the story of the birth of Motown music, which he identifies as a key influence on the Beatles (then called the "Silver Beetles"), who later recorded three Motown covers on their first album. Kaplan also describes what was going on in the art world; telling the stories of the Guggenheim Museum, and the stories of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and other artists who tried to break down the boundaries between art and life. One detail that I found personally charming: Kaplan describes the artist Allen Kaprow, who created a new form of performance art involving audience participation, which he called a "Happening." These were familiar events in the 1960s, but the first Happening was held on October 4, 1959—the day I was born.
2009-08-08 2130: The New York Times reports that this is the 40th anniversary of the photography shoot for the cover for the album Abbey Road, showing the Beatles crossing that street.
2009-08-04 2130: We had severe weather today: several strong thunderstorms that produced up to 7 inches (17.5 cm) of rain in less than 2 hours, in downtown Louisville and also downtown New Albany and in other locations. Flash flooding occurred; water reached car windows in some locations. The worst damage may have been to the main branch of the Louisville Public Library: their network servers were destroyed, as were thousands of books and several bookmobiles; one million dollars of damage, I heard. It was not quite as bad at my house. I had 3.3 inches of rain in the morning, and another 1.2 inches in the afternoon, for 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) total. More may be on its way overnight, so we are under a flash flood watch until morning.
Update 2009-08-08 2130: The damage was worse than originally thought. There was five million dollars of damage to the public library, 30 buildings were flooded at the University of Louisville, there was heavy damage to the Kentucky Derby museum at Churchill Downs, and certain hospitals were flooded. This is the third significant natural disaster in Louisville within the space of a year.
2009-08-01 2230: Another fun Sunday crossword puzzle in the NY Times. The theme was fraternities. This was a handicap for me because Reed College didn't have fraternities. I couldn't remember the fraternities in Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds; the only fraternities that came to mind were I Tappa Kegga, I Phelta Thi, or the one I might have pledged at, Droppa Kappa Acid. So I had to use a search engine to finish off the puzzle (but I usually have to for the Sunday puzzles). There were some fun clues. "Native of the Roof of the World" was TIBETAN. (This was the first rebus clue I figured out; I knew it had to be TIBETAN but there were only four squares to accomodate the word.) "Co-organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955" turned out to be RALPHABERNATHY. "1971 album dedicated to Buddy Holly" was AMERICANPIE. And "Product with circular red, white and blue logo" was PEPSI. The sneakiest clue was "Engine attachment." I had already determined that the answer was AI_SE, and I knew a Greek letter was supposed to fit in the missing letter. Even with the Greek alphabet in front of me, I didn't see it. It turned out to be AIRHOSE.