Senior Summer Cold

Is it just me, or have those of you who read my blog that are of an advanced age, not to specify any particular age, noticed that recovery from colds appears to take much longer than in our past younger days?  Additionally, when one is not feeling well, untoward events are more likely to occur.

After a wonderful vacation on the Olympic Isle in Washington State, I came down with a cold along with an unceasing cough and concomitant fatigue. I neither had a fever nor a sore throat, but both the coughing and feeling of exhaustion refused to go away.  Thinking I had caught a strain of Covid, I tested negative.  After the cough and exhaustion persisted for over 10 days, I did a telephone consult with a doctor who suggested I go to Urgent Care.  Not particularly wanting to go, I decided to take the doctor’s advice.  When I got to Urgent Care, I took a test for Covid and was relieved when it once more was negative.  Upon going, I was able to see a doctor who ordered an antibiotic and had me take a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia.

Subsequently, I purchased the medicine with a credit card.  I recalled having difficulty making the payment as the message on the screen indicated to insert again.  When the credit card payment was finally accepted, I left the with the small bag containing the pills.  The pharmacy and diagnostic imaging were conveniently in the same area.   Because the majority of people waiting were unmasked, I changed seats a few times before the technician called my name to take the X-ray.  During the waiting period, I was trying to find my reading glasses to do the Wednesday NY Times crossword puzzle.  In addition, I was looking at my iPhone at the Red Sox game against the Texas Rangers. 

In less than thirty minutes, I heard my name summoning me to the X-ray room.   Because it was my chest, the technician told me not to take off my clothes but I did remove a few items, such as pens and iPhone, from my pocket.  Within a few minutes, the X-ray was completed and, as I walked out of the room, things got hairy.  Something felt wrong. Upon putting my hands in my pocket, I could not feel my wallet:  It was gone.  Trying to remain as calm as I could, I retraced my steps.  I knew I had my wallet when I paid the pharmacy with my credit card so I immediately returned there to see if my wallet had been turned in.  When I asked if a black wallet had been found, one of the workers checked in the back and reported that there was nothing.  She told me to go to the reception desk, adjacent to the pharmacy, and inquire there.

No luck there!  Though I was quite sure I had not lost my wallet in a restroom, the receptionist had security check all the bathrooms in the Urgent Care area.  No trace of a wallet.  I then looked at the seats by diagnostic Imaging hoping perhaps, unknowingly, my wallet had fallen out of a pocket while I was trying to find my reading glasses.  Once more my searches throughout the waiting area were futile.  One last follow-up at the reception desk bore similar results.  To add insult to injury, I noticed on my iPhone the Red Sox had blown a 3-run lead in the ninth inning and ultimately lost the game in the 10th.  It was one of those days that your glad ends so you can start afresh the next day.

Although I left my name and phone number with security informing them of the loss, I was pretty certain someone had picked it up and had decided to keep it (losers’ weepers finders’ keepers).  Unfortunately, I was right because my daily check with security proved fruitless. How I lost it will remain a mystery.   What caused the loss perhaps can be explained by my watching a baseball game online while at the same time working on a crossword puzzle. Because I could not locate my reading glasses in my pocket, I was having difficulty reading the clues.  But more importantly, I was not in the best of all spirits so these factors may have distracted me enough to not notice, until about half hour later, my missing wallet.

Of course, upon arriving at my car, I discovered my reading glasses tucked nicely into my front pocket.  Upon returning home, I immediately had all the credit card companies put a lock on the cards in my wallet.  I then went to bed that evening with a splitting headache along with a cough, though less persistent than it had been.

When I woke up, I felt well enough to do my rotation on the Senior Police Patrol, a voluntary community service that I am involved in.  An officer told me I could replace my driver’s license online without having to go to the DMV. That was good news. Furthermore, my ability to sit and write this blog is a clear indicator that my health has improved as I had zilch energy previously.  I have tested negatively every day for Covid.  

Now that I have regained my health, my wife Lisa tested positive for Covid but, thank goodness, is not feverish.  We will have to isolate from one another as was typical when Covid became an epidemic.  The nuisance of having to cancel and obtain new credit cards and replace my driver’s license, in the scheme of things, is small. The week after I had lost my wallet, my brother-in-law, Bill, discovered that he had left his wallet at Costco after he returned home.  His luck was better than mine inasmuch as it was turned in at lost and found.  So, despite my bad luck, there are still some good Samaritans out there.  The lesson I learned is not to multitask–that may lead to less focus and attention–when one is not feeling well.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Since I wrote my last blog on the possible reasons why President Biden appeared to resist his own party’s desire for him to not represent the Democratic party in the upcoming presidential election, he has withdrawn from the race.  Biden fought the idea that he was not capable of governing the country another year, but finally gave in to political pressure, a decision most commentators believe was a wise one.  Given his strong desire to stay in the game, and serve the country another four years, I am quite sure President Biden agonized over his decision to abandon his candidacy.  But to his credit he withdrew and, his departure from the presidential race provided many of us, especially those that are Democrats, with a breath of fresh air.

The bravery displayed by Cory Comperature, when he shielded both his wife and daughter from the gunshots fired at a Trump rally, deserves an even greater breath of fresh air.  Sadly, this courageous act by Mr. Comperature resulted in his death.   Comperature had been a former fire chief and was described by those who knew him as a local leader and a veteran.  Cory’s wife told Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, to publicly share that her husband “died a hero” in protecting her and his daughter from very possibly being the victims of shots that were fired at Trump.

Mr. Comperature’s death need remind us that there is no place for hatred that leads to causeless deaths of good people.  Let both the Democratic and Republican parties sheathe their hate and, at least, accept those of us who are not in agreement about which presidential candidate they support.  In contrast, in the past Mr. Trump has acted as a catalyst in supporting what became an uprising on January 6th, 2024.   Trump’s reaction to Biden stepping down from his presidential bid did not serve him nor the American people well when he said: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President and is certainly not fit to serve—and never was.”  Trump continued by going on a typical rant by declaring that Biden had only attained the position of President by lies and Fake News.

Those who knew Cory Comperature described him as a caring man who very much loved his family.  Let us keep that in mind with people we either know or don’t know that think differently than we do.  We need not condemn them for their political positions but, at least, listen to what they have to offer.  This kind of temperament would allow for opinions opposite of ours and reduce the likelihood of extremism fostered by hate, the real weapon that murdered Cory Comperature.

The First Presidential Debate of 2024

A while back I wrote a blog titled:  The Muhammad Ali Syndrome.  In that essay, I pointed out that Muhammad Ali made the mistake, like many athletes and other professionals, of not knowing when was the best time for him to exit his boxing career.  Many commentators thought it was best for him to quit boxing after his upset win in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) over George Foreman in the 8th round.  But he persisted to fight way beyond what his body could endure resulting in permanent debilitating brain damage.

Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote an article in the New York Times called:  The Reason It’s So Hard for Powerful People to Walk Away.  Grant maintains that rather than walk away from a losing proposition people often double down on their decisions because it feels better to be a fighter than a quitter.  He has labeled this phenomenon “escalation of commitment to a losing course of action.”  Subsequent to President Biden’s poor performance in his debate with Donald Trump last week, Biden has appeared to fall into this very same trap insofar as he has refused to throw in the towel by terminating his presidential campaign for the Democratic party.  His perseverance has held steady despite several of his past supporters stating that they would like him to withdraw his candidacy from the coming election in November.

Currently, no one knows exactly what President Biden will decide to do in the future.  But as Adam Grant mentioned, if Biden listens to the people closest to him such as family and top aides, he is receiving advice that is hardly objective but rather tinted with those susceptible to confirmation bias.  Regardless, I would recommend that whoever debates Mr. Trump in the future, be it Mr. Biden or another candidate, that that person focuses on Trump’s pattern of lying.  In the debate for presidency between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter on October 28th, 1980, in responding to Carter’s attack on Reagan vis-à-vis his position on Medicare, the latter said: There you go again.”  That comment received much laughter from the audience then allowing Reagan to explain where Carter was misconstruing what, in fact, he really believed about Medicare.  So then, why not have whoever does debate Trump, assuming there will be a debate, focus on Trump’s lies by mentioning something like the following: “Mr. Trump every time you make a false statement, I’m going to respond to it by using that famous line of the great communicator, Ronald Reagan, and say:  There you go again.”  This may appeal to the Americans who remember and loved Reagan, many of whom, of course were Republicans.  The motive here for Biden, of course, would be for him to expand his base with the potential pool of voters that are undecided as to how they will vote.

The format of the first debate was such that the commentators that presented each candidate with the questions were not going to fact check each of their statements.  That chore was to be left to the two participants in the debate.  Unfortunately, President Biden failed to call Mr. Trump on many of the falsehoods he made during the debate.  One very blatant lie Trump made was when he asserted that some Democratic states are allowing abortions after the 8th month of a woman’s pregnancy right up to the birth of the child.  When I heard this, I was surprised that Biden did not react to this obvious “Trumped” up statement.  Ironically, one of the few comments Trump made that had a ring of truth to it was when Biden was having difficulty expressing himself, Trump said: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of his sentence and, I don’t think he did either.”  I’m quite sure Trump’s followers appreciated that rejoinder.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Peggy Noonan declared Trump’s behavior as characterological whereas she believed Biden’s evident lack of coherence was neurological.  What a shame that our country is being represented by two leaders, one an individual with sociopathic tendencies, and the other one showing clear signs of aging.  These two are being backed by their parties with the belief that they are the best of all candidates to defeat their rival from the other party.  I hope this political game does not result in deleterious consequences to us, the citizens of America.

The Say Hey Kid Passes On

Among those of us that are baseball fans, sadness filled the air when we heard that Willie Mays had died. Although my allegiance went first to the Red Sox, it was because of Willie Mays that the baseball team I liked second best became the New York Giants. Each year my Aunt Ruth, who lived in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, would invite me to see Willie and the New York Giants play at the Polo Grounds.  Seeing him play baseball for the New York Giants had been one of the greater joys of my childhood.  He made some of the most difficult plays look easy.  To become a major league ball player is no easy task but it is nothing less than extraordinary to exceed in all aspects of the game.  And Mays could do it all from hitting to fielding, along with his speed, always a threat to steal a base.

I can still remember his famous basket catches along with his running the bases and seeing his cap fly off his upon his sliding into second or third base.  The way he relished the game made it that more special when he performed, with such great agility, on the baseball diamond.  And indeed, I had the excitement of seeing Willie make that most famous of all catches in the World Series against the Cleveland Indians (now called the Guardians) in 1954. That was the year that Cleveland had 111 wins losing only 43 games with a winning percentage of .721.  This record, set before the baseball season was lengthened to 162 games, remains the American League’s all-time winning percentage record.  That season the Indians easily had won the American League pennant by eight games.  Going into the World Series, the Indians had been the clear favorites to beat the New York Giants, the opposing team.

To this day, I remember it well as if it had been etched in my mind.  The game took place at the Polo Grounds.  It was the opening game of the Series on the afternoon of September 25th.  With the score tied at 2-2 in the 8th inning, Leo Durocher, then the manager of the Giants, replaced Sal Maglie, with the left-handed pitcher Don Liddle, to face the lefty-batting Vic Wertz.  There were men on first and second base and no out as Liddle got set to deliver the first pitch to the power hitting Wertz.  Wertz drove that first pitch to the right of dead center field.  At the sound of the crack of the baseball, the camera caught Mays dashing back with his back to home plate.  As he ran for the ball, somehow, I was confident that he would make the catch as long as it had not been hit out of the park.  Some 425 to 450 feet from the plate Mays caught the ball over his left shoulder.    

That catch has been said to have been the greatest catch in baseball.  But the heroics did not end there.  After catching the ball, Mays turned and whirled firing to second base keeping the Cleveland runner on first base.  I strongly believe that that one play sealed the fate of the Indians as the Giants went on to win the Series:  4-0.  After all what chance did they have against the Giants when they were playing against a player with superhuman skills.

After the Giants moved to San Francisco from New York, the games were no longer televised on the East Coast so I stopped following the Giants and devoted my baseball enthusiasm to the Red Sox.  But I really miss the artistry of Willie Mays catching a ball, running the bases and hitting a home run.  And what luck it was to actually see on T.V. that most unbelievable catch Mays made against the Indians in the Series of 1954.

Trump Craze

It is hard to understand how a good percentage of Americans continue to retain their belief in Trump as the best candidate for president.  This, despite the fact that he recently was convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York City court of law.  It may be argued that he was convicted in a city that is dominantly democratic but in accordance with the law, the jury is to be selected in the location of the crime, which indeed was in New York.  Furthermore, he was neither convicted by President Biden nor the sitting judge on his case, but rather by twelve independently selected jurors.

I had thought that January 6th, 2017 was Trump’s final call.  With an effort to overthrow constitutional law and to reject the election results determining Biden’s victory, chaos ensued.  Trump may not have told his followers to become violent but his words acted as a catalyst for the uprising on Capitol Hill that day.  Many of his firmest supporters, such as Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell, were taken aback and quite astonished at his actions.  Subsequently, the candidates he backed for congress in the 2022 all lost.   I was saddened by the fact that Nikki Haley, Trump’s recent opponent in the primaries, now is promoting him.   Why would Republicans support a man whose choices had produced nothing but losers?  I for one thought the Republicans would come to their senses and abandon a candidate whose morals were at best questionable, but at worst toxic and dangerous.  How little I knew, along with so many others, that Trump over the course of the next few years would see his candidacy as a contender for the American presidency become resurrected.

Cognitive dissonance is a theory first put forth by Leon Festinger stating that people whose attitudes and beliefs are not congruent with their behavior will feel discomfort.  This discomfort will move these people to realign their behavior with their underlying beliefs. A corollary to dissonance theory is that the greater one’s investment in a company or project the more committed that person will be to the project.  This makes it much harder to give up even if, subsequently, that same project becomes less lucrative over time.  The strong commitment to their political future may make it harder for many Republicans to stand up for their true underlying beliefs.  This commitment may bridge the gap between their beliefs and their behavior in which they voice their support for Mr. Trump.

Furthermore, cognitive dissonance may help to explain why so many people of high moral standards, such as devout Christians, remain tied to Trump.  One would think that their belief systems would contradict their behavior in supporting a man who cheated on his current wife a number of times along with slandering so many of those that get on his wrong side.  But the longer they stick with Mr. Trump their investment in him strengthens making it that much more difficult to change their behavior.  To reduce their underlying dissonance, they may experience about Trump, their belief system shifts toward their behavior allowing them to ignore any of his faults.

Amazingly, after being impeached on two occasions, being convicted on 34 felony counts, and having to face the likelihood of three other prosecutions in the future, Trump’s base remains steadfast.  Furthermore, twenty-four hours after his recent conviction in New York, his supporters raised 53 million dollars for is campaign.  The outcome of this behavior is to increase the commitment of those individuals, whose value system may be in opposition to what Trump personifies.  It is hard for me to surmise what despicable act Trump might perform in the future that would lead to the erosion of his base.  Trump understood this and was prescient in 2016, during his campaign to be reelected, when he said: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

Karl Rove, a staunch Republican, wrote a column, months ago, in the Wall Street Journal where he believed if Trump were convicted of any of the charges filed against him, it would not help his chances to win the presidency.  Rove maintained he would retain his base of supporters, but may in fact lose some voters, who are on the fence vis-à-vis the coming election.  A recent poll conducted by the New York Times did indicate that Trump’s criminal convictions may affect a sliver of voters who are not as invested in him than is his base.  These voters could represent the difference in a tight race possibly providing Biden with an election win.  However, it is far too soon to predict in which direction these voters will go. 

The hope for Democrats is that Biden’s gaffes will not equal those of Trump and, that the latter will hoist himself by his own petard.  This, however, remains unpredictable, a fact that will make this election year one of the most interesting and perhaps most scary we will have experienced in the history of this great country.  Election results determine a definite winner.  More than ever, in part due to the ramification of social media and its algorithms fostering hate, there is a vehement loathing that each party holds toward the other.  Let us hope and pray that that emotion does not get in the way when one party is declared the winner over the other.   

Arthur Miller Writes a Letter

In ancient times, lightyears from where we presently are, people used to write letters, some of a personal nature, others pertaining to business, to express themselves.  This long-gone behavior was abruptly replaced by the internet’s email and rapid-fire texts. Because Mr. Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, had universal appeal, it was read by most of us in high school or in college and/or seen performed on the stage.  After the great success it had on Broadway in 1949, when it opened, he received a letter from a student, Barbara Beattie, studying journalism, asking him how he came to construct the play.  Barbara’s daughter, in helping her 95-year mother relocate, fortuitously found the letter in her mother’s attic, stored in a trunk with some of her other keepsakes.  I consider it a gem inasmuch as it revealed Miller’s approach to theater.  However, as you may guess, there is more to what I read in this review of a letter than at first meets the eye.

In the letter, the playwright pointed out that the genesis of Death of a Salesman came from Elizabethan drama, namely, Shakespeare.  The playwright enumerated on this by saying the heart of Shakespearian tragedy is rooted in the Fall where chaos occurs when social status embodied by royalty is threatened.  Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s most widely read play, is faced with the dilemma of what to do with his uncle, Claudius, upon proving that the latter had murdered his father, the former King of Denmark.  There is a complete upheaval of social status that is sacrosanct in Elizabethan feudalism.  Hamlet has no legal recourse or alternative, but to take matters in his own hands, resulting in the revenge he seeks against King Claudius.  The outcome being the tragic deaths of several of the characters in the play, including Hamlet.

But, as Miller talked about, in viewing contemporary society, namely that of America, the Fall no longer represents that of a socially elevated person exclusively.  Thinking more abstractly, Miller interpreted the Fall in a much broader sense than social status.  Rather, in America, Miller states that his view of the Fall is much deeper insofar as it is rooted in the “destruction of a man’s idea of what he is by forces opposing him.”  Willie Loman, the principal character in Death of a Salesman, suffers from his need to be accepted by what he can accumulate materialistically, but not what he can offer to society. He possesses an illusory state of mind insofar as he tirelessly seeks what he considers to be the American Dream.

The force that moves Willie is his need to succeed by what he views as the standards of others.  He is so wrapped up in his job identity that when he loses his job, he loses his self, causing him to undermine his relationship with his sons and wife.  His son, Biff, wants so badly to be revered by his father but is taken aback when he catches his father with another woman.  The betrayal of love and one’s inner values conflict with this image of father that Biff sees in Willie. The loss of a moral center, where the ideas of a man are trampled by his underlying need for fame and fortune, result in the tragic death of Willie.

Later in life, Mr. Miller took on a much greater task than writing drama, when he lived it in marrying Marilyn Monroe.  Although Monroe was and still is an icon of fame and fortune, there was something in her inner core that left her deeply frustrated and unhappy with her life.  Mr. Miller could not fill the hollowness that she experienced and, the two subsequently divorced.  Mr. Miller, similar to Willie’s family, could not save Marilyn, and two years later, her life came to an abrupt and sad ending.

In his letter, the playwright pointed out that his view of tragedy reverses the idea of contributing to society by believing that accumulating the accoutrements of fame represent the greater good.  Whether we succeed or not at this goal, we are left with a spiritual emptiness, depicted so well in Willie Loman’s plight.  We then experience a brooding inner poverty that can lead to the tragedies so central in Mr. Miller’s most noted plays.  The tragedies that Mr. Miller speaks of are generally based on that of an individual.  But it would be much worse if the conglomeration of individuals that make up America abandon the ideals that made this country so different from others.  Willie Loman and Marily Monroe, one fictitious and one real, represent individual tragedies. America was and is an experiment created by humans with ideas that outlawed social stature, by elevating the rights of the common citizen.  How sad it would be if these same citizens succumb to the lies and untruths that filter down from social media and other false sources.  Individuals that lose their lives prematurely from some ill-fated set of choices or values are indicative of tragedy. But a country that loses sight of its ideals and self-destructs would be a colossal tragedy.

Whereas Arthur Miller wrote about individuals betraying their ideals, perhaps some future playwright will write about how a nation’s people allowed their illusions of grandiosity, contained in their moral bankruptcy, get the better of their natures.  And this play, like The Death of a Salesman, may be taught to high schoolers and college students and shown all over the United States.  It will be regarded so highly that it will become a part of the core curriculum throughout the country and have a great influence on those who read it.  More importantly, it will serve as a beacon to all of us to change the deviant path we find ourselves in the hope of preserving the freedom and liberty so sacred to our country.   

Emotional Insight

A couple of evenings ago my wife, Lisa, and I attended a ceremony to recognize women in Long Beach who have made significant contributions to Jewish Long Beach.  Prior to the event, when appetizers and wine were served, I spoke to Deborah Goldfarb, the acting CEO of the organization.  She has managed to do an excellent job navigating the Jewish community during this most difficult time in both Israeli and Jewish history.  I asked her if she had made any progress with the Long Beach City Council in explaining the issues more clearly than both the news and social media have done.  She replied that they understand our position but do not necessarily accept it.

When she made this distinction, I pointed out that Albert Ellis, a former teacher and mentor of mine in psychology at Rutgers University, had made a similar distinction.  He had learned that clients often have an intellectual understanding of what their problems are but remain still stuck in the quagmire of their distorted thinking.  The point he was making is that even when clients in therapy tell you they understand what you are saying and might even agree with your perception of their problem, they still do not change.  He believed attitudinal and behavioral change come when clients not only understand and define what their problem is, but when they can accept it as a part of their being.  The key word here is what Ms. Goldfarb had referred to as acceptance.  This level of understanding Ellis labeled emotional insight.  To Ellis, emotional insight is that deeper level of understanding that an individual needs to possess as a prerequisite for behavioral change.

In a certain sense, the notion of acceptance can be likened to the work I have done with couples.  Often times each partner within a relationship will come into my office arguing that one of them is right or righter than the other.  Here it is so important to have each listen to the other’s perspective and make an effort to walk in that person’s shoes.  The idea here is to generate a sense of empathy that each feels for the other that will broaden, and frequently strengthen the couple’s bond.  I liken this deeper awareness that each partner has gained as quite similar to what Ellis called emotional insight.

Unfortunately, in our present political climate such sharing, that would facilitate a move toward acceptance by offering a more conciliatory approach, is not evident.  When we once more look at Ms. Goldfarb’s observation about the Long Beach City Council not accepting the message of Jewish Long Beach, I don’t think she was saying they have to fully agree with our side.  But if the Council could accept the complexity and ramifications of what is involved, perhaps its members would be more conducive to a change of attitude and behavior.  Of course, this same acceptance cannot be ignored on the Israeli side either.  In fact, when two warring parties are in the midst of conflict, the status quo cannot be broken until the two begin to see more deeply the plight and hurt that each is doing to themselves and to the other.     

Tim Wakefield

Years ago, I was on a subway in New York City enroute to a Yankee-Red Sox game with my friend Sanford Lewis when I began a conversation with a Yankee fan much younger than myself.  Because of the frequency of players trading teams, I told him it was difficult to keep track of which ones were on what team. I mentioned everyone knew what team the greats from the past played for such as Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.  He agreed with me stating that we no longer root for the players but for a uniform.  What he meant was players no longer had a loyalty to the club they first played for if they could sign a more lucrative monetary contract with another team. 

The late Tim Wakefield, Red Sox hurler, to his credit, honored on opening day at Fenway Park in Boston, did not follow this pattern of switching teams.  Tim did not start his career with the Sox but rather with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In the early ’90s he struggled, but was demoted to the minors, and finally released in 1995.  Subsequently, he signed on with the Red Sox, developed a knuckleball, and soon after, found himself once more in the major league with Boston.  During his time in Boston, he fell in love with the city where he met his wife, Stacy, and with her, had two children, Trevor and Brianna.  He became very much involved in charitable work, helping out the Jimmy Fund, the monies of which went to the pediatric care of cancer patients. 

Regarding Tim’s pitching career with the Red Sox, he played on two World Series winners in his 17 seasons at Boston.  There he resurrected his career in performing quite admirably throwing his choice pitch, the knuckleball.  During the unforgettable playoff series with the Yankees in 2004, when the Red Sox, in a legendary effort, overcame a 3-game deficit, Wakefield showed himself to be the ultimate team player: He sacrificed his turn to start in the 4th game, by telling Terry Francona, Boston manager, to put him in as a reliever in the 3rd game, saving the bullpen.  The game was a Yankee rout, 19-8, of which Wakefield and the rest of the Sox pitching squad got blasted.  However, this move was essential in the Sox conquest of the Yankees insofar as Games 4 and 5 each required extra innings that necessitated prolonged use of the Red Sox bullpen.  The Red Sox triumphed in those games, along with the 6th and 7th games, to make a comeback, considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and win the series from the Yankees 4 to 3. 

After having been pummeled by the Yankee batters in the 3rd game, in the 5th game,Wakefield’s knuckleball totally baffled the Yankee hitters.  As the last Boston reliever in the game, he pitched three scoreless innings, to receive the win after 14 innings, 5 to 4.  The winning run came on a single by David Ortiz after the game had lasted close to 6 hours.  That Wakefield could come back and make such a huge effort in the win showed his grit and determination.

In the following year, Tim was already 38 years old and in the final season of a 13-million-dollar contract he had signed.  Although he did not wish to retire, he did not want to leave Boston, where as earlier mentioned, he was involved with much of the charity work he oversaw.  Because the reserve clause that kept players on the same team had been superseded by player free agency, Wakefield could have left the Red Sox to receive a better offer from another team.  However, because of his love of Boston and the Red Sox organization, he and his agent, Barry Meister, agreed to a one-year guarantee, below his market value, if he were to be picked up by another club.  This contract had the option of renewing each year paying Wakefield the same amount.  Meanwhile, Wakefield’s pitching continued to shine in the subsequent years so it turned out to be a great deal for the Red Sox, who named the agreement a perpetual option.

Tim retired at the ripe “young age” of 45 in 2012.  His loyalty to the Sox, a decision never made by other players, kept him with them, allowing fans to root not only for a “uniform” but also a player they cared about.

It was fitting that in the Sox home opener, celebrating Tim, the ceremonial pitch before the game started was thrown by Brianna, Tim’s daughter, to the ex-Red Sox catcher, Jason Varitek.  Because Wakefield’s knuckleball could be hard to catch, Doug Mirabelli, who had a special glove, was the regular catcher, during the season, when Tim pitched.  However, in the playoff series against the Yankees in 2004, Terry Francona, then the Boston manager, needed Varitek in the lineup.  He was a much better hitter than Mirabelli and, fortunately for the Sox, was able to catch Wakefield’s unpredictable knuckleball in that 5th game. This allowed the Sox to return to Yankee Stadium and to win the last two games in that amazing series.

Letter to Penn

Dear Ms. Kernan,

I find little joy in writing this letter to you.  I have been donating to the University of Pennsylvania on a regular basis for many years.  I treasured my years as an undergraduate there from 1963 to the year I graduated in 1967.  But of recent years I have questioned the education afforded today’s students as that same education has appeared to stray from the mark of its original model in which academic freedom was its hallmark.  This became evident to many at the congressional hearing last December when Liz Magill, then president of the University of Pennsylvania, along with the presidents of Harvard and MIT, were unable to say whether calls for the genocide of Jews were in violation of their schools’ code of conduct. Public and alumni outrage resulted in her resigning from her position that indeed had been short-lived.

Let me make it clear that I don’t believe Ms. Magill is or was an antisemite. A combination of the policies that preceded her presidency along with the coaching she received from attorneys prior to her testimony, no doubt, influenced her answers.  Much of the problem resides in the differential treatment accorded certain minority groups when it comes to free speech.  Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt wrote about this in their book:  The Coddling of the American Mind.  These authors point how the past eight years have seen the concept of free speech take a reversal when students from various “minorities” have complained to faculty and administrators about triggering remarks made by their peers.  One of the functions of administrative staff is to censure such comments, known as “microaggressions,” to protect these same minorities by creating safe spaces for their exclusive use.  This line of reasoning of course is contrary to what the notion of free speech is all about.  Moreover, as New York Times journalists, Bret Stephens and David French maintain, following this practice creates a double standard on Jewish students.

Although Jews have a longer history of persecution than any other racial or ethnic group that I know, they have enjoyed a sense of freedom and wide acceptance in America never experienced in any other country.  Many have regarded them as white, though to what should be no one’s surprise, I know many Jews that clearly are not white.  Besides, elite universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, apparently do not deem those as white in need of protection from overt hostility.  An example of this occurs when students chant “free Palestine from the river to the sea” that translates to the end of the Jewish state, Israel. This is an example of where free speech targets Jewish students. However, rather than creating safe spaces, I prefer Jonathan Greenblatt’s (the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League—ADL) idea of protest zones or spaces.  This would limit the disruption of classes and disallow students to threaten or harass those who don’t hold their beliefs.  Furthermore, this would give speakers, who may not be popular with the prevailing sentiment of many students, a chance to present their view of what may be considered controversial.

I am in agreement with Bret Stephens when he said universities need to replace ideology with their raison d’etre, pedagogy. As Pamela Paul, another columnist of the New York Times put it, faculties were given an “essential role and stake in both a pluralistic democracy and a capitalistic economy—without being subject to the whims of politics or industry.”  Accordingly, I don’t think donors like myself should tell universities how to educate their students.  But I also don’t think identity politics featuring social justice and other such ideologies, should be the default mode found in much of contemporary academia.  This is not to say that ethnic studies should not be a part of the curricula in academic coursework.  But as Pamela Paul has pointed out since the summer of 2020, a focus on social justice has permeated college reading lists.  My concern here is if this is a focal point, the original intent of a liberal education could be undermined.  The repercussion being the substantial loss in the development and burgeoning of the young minds that attend these institutions. Not to have experienced the likes of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Joyce, Ellison and Faulkner to name a few, would deprive them of studying some of the greatest artists of all time.

Let me conclude by saying I remain optimistic.  I recently heard Julie Platt, a Penn alumna and current trustee at Penn, speak at a Zoom meeting sponsored by a local Jewish group.  She indicated she would be in favor of adding to the curriculum at Penn a course in the history of antisemitism.  I have been told that such a course has not been included in many programs of ethnic studies.  Emily, I would like you or a representative from the University to keep me posted on any new developments occurring at Penn. It is my hope that some positive changes will bring Penn back to its foundation of a liberal education where people can listen, and even learn, what those from a different background and different set of beliefs may have to offer.   

Cordially,

Dr. Bernard F. Natelson

College, 1967

    A Rat’s Tale

Several years ago, my wife, Lisa, and I were watching a television show in the late evening when we suddenly heard a pitter-pattering sound coming from somewhere above.  Because our garage is attached to the house, as the noise continued, we realized the light thumping had to be coming from the garage roof.  Not having heard this noise previously, we tried to guess its origin.  Too light to be that of a human and too heavy to be that of a flock of birds, we thought it might be squirrels. We did not pay any further attention to what we heard, but indeed did hope that the noise would disappear, as it finally, did.  Moreover, upon going outside to check the garage, I did not spot any movement or anything unusual.

Out of curiosity, we did a quick google search and discovered that squirrels tend to be solitary and highly territorial.  This fact only heightened our anxiety inasmuch as we never had experienced this noise in the past.  The next evening, I needed to retrieve something from my car and, as I opened the door from the house leading into the unlit garage, two beady eyes, glowing in the dark, came running toward me. After I quickly turned on the garage light, whatever had been coming toward me had disappeared.  Recovering from my momentary fright, I realized that I had seen a rat running on the track of our garage opener.  When I reported to my wife what I had seen, she refused to believe me telling me: “You are seeing things.”  Upon retiring to bed, I felt conflicted insofar as I was quite sure as to what I had seen, but given how rapidly the rat or whatever it was had disappeared, I thought perhaps, in fact, what I had seen was a mere figment of my imagination. 

Often, we, as humans, don’t want to allow negative or painful experiences to enter our consciousness.  The next evening my inner conflict was resolved when, once more, I saw two glaring eyes in the darkness heading toward me.  I knew that what I seen was real and not imagined.  Upon turning the garage light, the rodent had scurried to protection probably in the loft of our garage where it no longer could be seen.  But this time, however, I had concrete proof of what I had seen:   We had recently bought a 10-pound bag of cat food that had been torn opened by either the teeth or paws of a rat.  This rat or rats (I was hoping it was only one) had left a trail of poop by the side of my car.  Unhappily, we recognized that our state of denial had been pierced necessitating the need to act.

A friend of mine that is quite handy noticed that there were some gaps left by the eave of the garage roof.  He volunteered to help me close these open spaces by putting some mesh wire in the interstices. As we could see no other way the rodents were entering, both my wife and I hoped this would solve our problem.  Unfortunately, it did not as we continued to hear the light trampling on our garage roof afterwards.  I had heard that rat poison was a solution to our problem, so the next day I purchased some from Home Depot neatly placing the green pebbles in a container in the loft of our garage.  The next day I climbed the ladder to the loft of our garage and discovered that much of the poison had been devoured, but remnants of the green little stones were scattered outsize the box in which I had placed them.  Not having any idea where these creatures were coming from, my wife and I both decided to call an exterminator.

When the exterminator arrived, I accompanied him to the loft where he saw the scattered rat poison.  He told me that the rats had been fighting over the “treat.”  He indicated rat traps are both safer and more efficient than poison because in the latter case the rodents may die, while stuck in the walls, causing a fetid odor throughout the house.  Although he set four rat traps with melted chocolate as the bait, after looking around for any telltale crevices or openings, he could not reveal to me where the rats were gaining entrance to the garage. 

After disposing of the poison with gloves, with my foot, I gently pushed one of the traps to an area in the loft apart from the other traps.  Suddenly, I heard an explosion as loud as what us kids used to call a “cherry bomb.” (firecracker).  It scared the hell out of me as, accidentally, I must have disengaged the spring of the trap.  For those of you who will ever need to set rat trap, be sure not to stick your hand in it once it’s set.  Guaranteed the loss of a finger or two if you make that mistake.

The next day I walked up the ladder to the loft of our garage wondering what I would find.  Sure enough there was a dead rat in one of the traps.  Rats, dead or alive, are not the most beautiful creatures to behold:  This one, brownish-gray colored with a long tail and a bit of blood on the side of the trap.  After disposing of the rat, I had no idea how many more of those fellows were going to invade our garage.  Well, guess what?  That was the last rat we saw.  We did not change anything following that day so I have no idea what caused their disappearance.  Because rats often hang out together, with a group of rats being called a mischief (I wonder why), perhaps its chums got the message.  It remains a mystery to me.  If any of you readers are experts in animal behavior, send me your take on the blessed ending of Lisa and my rat problems.