Thoughts

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Legalize Prostitution


Now here is a story that is sure to ruffle a few feathers!  I am not worried.  It needs to be said.  I know this is not going to be a popular position to take but I must.    First you must ask yourself why prostitution is illegal in the first place.  To be clear, up until the Volstead Act whore houses were legal establishments.  In the movie “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” Paul Newman, playing Bean, states that the Volstead Act made illegal everything that came natural to a man, drinking, whoring, and gambling.  The only reason this law was passed was because a bunch of moralists held enough sway over Congress to get it passed.  The drinking portion of it was struck down 14 years later, the gambling portion 20 years later, and now we are left with just the prostitution portion, and to be certain, one county in Nevada has made it legal.

I am not all in favor of having houses of ill repute be allowed to be opened so that I may attend.  I have no interest.  I am too old for such stuff.  No, I want it legalized for a lot of other reasons.  Chief among them being the ability to a city to control its crime rate.  There is a lot of violent crime that happens around prostitution.  People get seriously injured, they bring in bad drugs, they get diseases, and so forth.  I simple change to the law and suddenly you lower your city’s crime rate, you are able to tax their income, you can control communicable diseases related to the industry, and you can get the girls off the streets.  You will put all those pimps out of business.  They will be mad, but who cares.

Prostitution is not going away any time soon, so why not regulate it and have it contributing to society rather than it taking from society?

People make it a morals issue.  That helps no one!  That is like looking at someone who has chicken pox and you just keep telling them they have chicken pox and they need to stay away from you.  A lot of talk cures nothing.

Here is how it works.  You set off a city block for such houses.  They houses must be licensed, inspected, and bonded.  Women workers must be medically checked once a week.  There is a strict prohibition on drugs in such establishments.

At this point you have pared off the drug trade from them.  That has to be a plus!  You require each establishment hire an off duty police officer to keep the peace at each establishment.  Now you have eliminated the never far away violence the industry has now.

You can say it is morally reprehensible that people do this.  But those words haven’t even slowed down the industry.  To the contrary, it is picking up speed but since it is unregulated, a lot of bad things can happen.  Look at an escort service on the interest and you will find women selling their bodies.  But there is no guarantee for either party that they will not encouter violence and or disease because it is unregulated.

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Problems With Living in Paradise


I am certain some of you are saying, “how can living in paradise be a problem?”  That is a most reasonable question, however it depends upon your definition of paradise.  Milton spoke of “Paradise Lost” but his was of a religious philosophical gist.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel was “This Side of Paradise” but his paradise was a Fitzgerald commentary on wealth and society in the early 1920s.  Most people think of paradise as being a tropical resort where it is sunny and 80 all day.

One such “paradise” is, of course, Hawaii.  I lived in Hawaii from 1978 – 1979.  The day I arrived in Hawaii I remember the scent of gardenia’s filling the air.  I had had no previous experience which said to me I was in a tropical paradise to be sure.  I was there to join the 25th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, my last stop in my army career.  I was definitely not there for a vacation but I was there for an extended period which allowed me to gain a good feel for living there.

If there was something to be seen on Oahu, I saw it.  I went everywhere.  I also enjoyed days on end at Waikiki, sunning myself to a darkness I have had neither both nor since.  I have always loved the beach and took full advantage of the beaches during my time there.  There are a lot more beaches in Hawaii than Waikiki and I went to many of them.  I did have one mishap however.  I went to the beach at Makaha one day and there was a particularly severe undertow that day.  The beach did not, and still does not, have a life guard or anyone who monitor’s the conditions there.  You find out what is going on by going into the water.  I went into the water and was only a few feet out before I found just how bad the undertow was.  I could not have been more than 15 feet from shore but it took all my strength to return to shore.

I also had the good fortune to visit the “Big Island” of Hawaii while I was there.  This island surprises the uninformed.  It literally has three different climates on this one island.  The volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea each rise close to 14,000 feet above sea level.  If you leave Kona and head up the mountains you go from the tropics to the temperate climate to a cold climate en route.  If you visit the mountains during the winter season you will actually find them snow-covered.  Mona Loa has a ski tow to its peak.  And of course being there you get to see one of the world’s most active volcanos, Kilauea.

Those are many, but not all, of Hawaii’s wonderful parts.  But I am from a place that is over 5000 miles removed from Hawaii and has lots of cold weather and only about 2 months of hot weather.  Two years in Hawaii and I was ready to get back to the “mainland.”  I had, what is euphemistically called over there, “rock fever.”  The island of Oahu, like any island is limited in how far you can go north to south and east to west.  Oahu is 44 miles long and 30 miles wide at its extremes.  LA County is 4083 square miles and Oahu is 1320 square miles, or about 1/3 the size of LA County.  For those of us who are used to being able to go more than 40 miles in any one direction, Hawaii leaves us a bit wanting.

Honolulu is a wonderful city.  There is much to do there, of course.  But Honolulu is a city of 905,000 inhabitants.  Boston, where I am from, has over 2.5 million in its metro area.  But even more, it offers more educational institutions, more libraries, more museums, among many other things.

What I am getting at is, Boston is my paradise.  I was born here, grew up here, as did my parents and many generations of my family before.  This is home and I love it, even if I do want to trade in some of its winter weather for some of Hawaii’s winter weather.  I think for most of us, paradise is what we call home, where we have our loved ones, where we are most comfortable.  Paradise is truly a state of mind and not a place.  I enjoy paradise whenever I see my daughters, or enjoy a day out with my grandson, or hold my granddaughter.  Paradise is the company of my friends.  Paradise is being able to put a smile on someone’s face.

Let me assure you, Hawaii is a paradise in its own rite.  It is a paradise you can visit but not live in for most of us.  But even being in Hawaii and calling it paradise is just a momentary reflection on what is going on around us and how we feel.  Trust me, I have had many a good meal with good friends or family, and thought I was in paradise.

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Never Be an American Tourist


I have been to about 20 foreign countries over the years.  When I first started visiting those countries I was actually living in Italy at the time.  I made a decision to abandon my U.S. dollars for Italian Lira.  Yes, this was well before the Euro.  My first stop was Greece.  I had a hotel room in Athens and set out to see the sights.  The people of Athens were horrible.  They reminded me of those arrogant entitled Americans!  They had no time for anyone, and were only too willing to ignore me.  I rented a car and headed out for Thessalonica in the north.  I was not very far outside Athens when I picked up a couple of hitchhikers who just happened to be Americans.  It was getting close to lunchtime so we stopped at a very small roadside cafe we came to.

We had an immediate problem.  Americans expect everyone who serves them should naturally speak English and have real problems when that is not the case.  I was fortunate enough to have lived in Italy for some time at that point, had learned Italian, and knew that these small, out of the way places were not where English was spoken.  The cafe was just an extension of a typical European farmhouse.  A man and a woman ran the place and of course spoke only Greek.  We three Americans accepted that and quickly set about breeching the language gap.  We had acquired some ears of corn along the way and we wanted to have it cooked for us.  At the time, most Europeans did not eat corn on the cob, and many considered it to be only good as cattle food.  Through hand gestures, and other means, we were able to convey our desire to have the corn boiled.  Our hosts were aghast but were more than willing to comply.  I do not remember what else we had with the corn, but I can assure you it was really good.

As we sat in the cafe, we being the only ones there, we were able to have a conversation, of sorts, with our hosts.  They conveyed to us how things were for them during World War 2 and why they truly loved Americans.  These people were extremely nice.  It was at that point I discovered that speaking a common language was totally unnecessary to gain an understanding of the people you find yourself with.  This set the tone for the rest of my trip.  Even though my feelings for Athens remain unchanged, my feeling for the Greek people in general is extremely positive.  I truly saw these people as just like me in many ways and that was comforting.

At another point on this trip I found myself in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.  I exchanged some of my Italian lira for Lebanese pounds, found a cab and headed for my hotel, the Alcazar.  The man at the reception desk spoke perfect English and was extremely helpful.  I later asked him about his knowledge of foreign languages.  He told me that to be employed in a hotel in Lebanon you were required to know at least four languages, Arabic, French, German, and English, so you could deal with the greatest number of the guests.  He knew several more languages on top of these.  It was really impressive.

Across from my hotel there was a sign about a casino to the north of the city.  I asked the man at the desk about it and he told me to rent a cab and go because it would be a wonderful experience.  I had met up with a couple of Canadian women in Beirut and they agreed that it would be a really nice way to spend the evening.  I noted that the cab fare to this place was only about ten American dollars.  We rented the cab and went to the casino.  Upon arriving I tried to pay the cabbie but he said no, that I could pay him after we got back to the hotel.  I was really surprised by this statement and said we would be inside for hours and the cabbie assured me that he expected that.  Then I asked him how long it would take him to get there when we came out.  He assured me he would be one minute away.  It was unbelievable, to the American mind, but we decided to accept what he said.

When we finally decided to return to our hotels the cabbie was there just as he said he would be.  When we arrived back at out hotel he said the fare was 30 Lebanese pounds, ten American dollars.  We were shocked, to say the least.  We decided between us to give him 60 pounds feeling it was more than worth it.  The cabbie had been everything he offered and more.  He was polite, friendly, and offered us some useful tips.  He suggested we go on a tour to Damascus, that we would really enjoy ourselves.

Well, the next day the three of us boarded a tour bus going to Damascus.  The trip to Damascus was uneventful although upon arrival at the border we were held for over an hour while our passports were inspected.  Upon our arrival in Damascus we were asked to change buses for our tour.  We did not think much of that at the time and went on our tour of the city.  I loved Damascus.  When our tour bus returned us to the bus that had brought us to Damascus we were quick to find skeins of fabric pushed underneath all of the seats.  We had become a part of a smuggling scheme from Syria to Lebanon.  I joking said to my companion that maybe we should say something about this at the border.  She assured me she would kill me if I even breathed wrong.

Shortly after our return to Beirut we were walking through the city bazaar when I spotted a heroin deal going down right out in the open.  Not 20 feet away was a policeman who could not have missed such a transaction.  I noted what was going on to one of my friends and we agreed that had any of us been involved, the policeman would have been quick to notice.

My entire stay in Lebanon showed me one very important thing.  The Arabic people, the common man, were extremely friendly and took me as I was.  I have nothing but good things to say about these people and take offense at anyone who says anything to the contrary.

The thing is, when I am in these foreign countries I never present myself as an American, as if that is supposed to count for something.  I am always aware that I am a guest in the country and that good manners is what I need to display.  By acting this way, I cannot tell you how many times the people of these countries have been surprised upon discovering I am an American.  I was fortunately aware of the concept of the “Ugly American” and it was the last thing I wanted to be.  I cannot say I have always been treated really well but in general, I have been treated really well.  Because of that I have enjoyed my travels abroad immensely.

Americans, when you travel abroad, leave at home your American ideas of the way things should be, of how people should treat you, and especially, leave at home all feelings of entitlement because you are an American.  The phrase “I am an American” abroad means something between nothing and utter contempt to anyone you would say this to.

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Visiting Northern California


When people hear about California I think their mind tends to go to the Los Angeles area and all its glitz and glamour.  I have visited there a number of times and frankly, I am not all that impressed.  Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to see, really good things, but it all still leaves me a little wanting.

Northern California is like a totally different state.  It in no way resembles the south.  Where Southern California is hundreds of square miles of urban sprawl, Northern California, even with its cities, allows you to quickly escape to the countryside.  My observations come more from all the time I spent out there on business than vacation time.  There was a stretch of four months were I stayed in Sacramento for the majority of the days during any given month.  That gave me a lot of time to explore and visit.

San Francisco is the gem of the west.  As different as it is from my home town city of Boston, it also has much of Boston’s quaintness and charm.  You will find lots of great restaurants, historic places of interest, and activities to keep you entertained for at least a week.  Just to the north of San Francisco is the city of Sausalito.  This is an artist community situated just across the Gold State Bridge.  From there you need drive only a short distance to John Muir Woods where you will find a wonderful redwood forest.

Redwood National Park is in the southeastern part of the state and a bit of a drive.  Although you cannot get all the wonderful sights of Redwood National Forest, John Muir Woods still gives you plenty of redwoods to marvel over.  The woods have any number of trails you can stroll along and enjoy the aromatic and scenic delight of the forest.

You might from San Francisco venture northward to the Napa Valley.  The Napa Valley is one of the premier wine growing areas of the United States.  It extends from Napa northward to Calistoga along route 29.  En route you will encounter many wineries most of which are open to tourists and offer you a free taste of some of the wines they make.  One thing, do not swallow the wine!  You will get drunk.  The wines are  really good but these wineries all offer you a place to spit out the wine you have tasted.

From Napa you drive about an hour and a half to the state’s capital, Sacramento.  Sacramento is an absolutely delightful little city to visit.  I highly recommend visiting the “Old Town” district.  This is the old portion of the city as it sat along the banks of the Sacramento River.  It gives you some of that old city flavor but there is also the State Railroad Museum at the site.

From Sacramento take U.S. Route 50 eastward to Lake Tahoe.  It will take several hours but the scenery along the way is really good.  En route, look for the famous Folsom Prison.  And the highway, even though not offering the speeds of an Interstate, still allows you to average over 50 MPH to Tahoe.  Upon reaching the area of Lake Tahoe you will have traveled through 3 very different regions: the coastal mountainous area, the inland plains, and finally the Rocky Mountains.

Lake Tahoe is truly one of the most beautiful regions in the entire state.  The lake is an extremely deep crystal clear lake that is surrounded by chalet style houses.  Lake Tahoe itself is actually intersected by the states of California and Nevada.  Route 50 travels along the southern edge of the lake into Nevada.  If you were a fan of the western t.v. show Bonanza, you can see the actual set on the eastern shore.  There is also a road leaving the western edge of the lake at route 50 and going northward around the lake.  I highly recommend this beautiful route.

I am obviously a fan of Northern California but in this short article I have not even scratched the surface of all the many wonderful sites you can see there.  With just a little planning you can have a vacation like none you have had before.

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Living With A Cat


Notice I entitled this “Living With A Cat” and not “Cats Living With Me.”  The reason is simple, they allow us to be in their lives!  Cats have what I call “cat-atude.”  They have no desire whatsoever to please us.  To the contrary, we find it necessary to please them!

This is what cat-atude looks like.

I have owned a cat for as long as I can remember.  I consider them to be the ideal pet.  They are obsessively clean.  Dog owners have to give their pet a bath lots of times throughout the dog’s life.  Cats, to the contrary, will generally fight you on that point.  The cat will clean herself several times a day.

Cats are extremely independent.  You take the common house cat and a dog and put them both out to fend for themselves, the cat will have no problems.  The dog on the other hand, big problems.  A dog will scavenge but in the wild, they do not do well.  A cat can scavenge but prefers to hunt.  When I was a kid, I remember seeing my cat out in the field behind our house one day.  She came inches from taking down a pheasant.  A pheasant is a big bird and if it were not as quick as it was, it would have been lunch.  Cat owners will tell you of their cat bringing home things like mice, birds, rabbits, and other wildlife it comes across.  Many people do not understand why they do this.  The reason is quite simple, cats are generous.  They share and that is what the are doing when they bring their prey home, they are sharing.  That cat I had when I was a boy brought home many live animals.  Now that takes talent!

This cat decided to have a lizard for lunch.

Cats are environmentalists too!  This cat is about to rid a yard of pesky pigeons.

Cats can tell time.  The cat I have now, Jinxie, knows the times of day we generally feed her.  The only trouble is, she does not differentiate between weekdays, when we feed her at 6AM, and weekends, when we feed her after 8AM.  If I leave the bedroom door open on Saturday or Sunday, she will come in and remind me of my obligation to feed her.  She will meow and pat her paw against my face to get my attention.  And believe me, she is persistent and always gets my attention. Back to when I was a boy, that same cat who caught everything also saw to it I was up in time to get ready to go to school.

A cat does not care whether you pat it, play with it, or not.  Dogs have to have such attention but cats, they can turn it down.  Pick one up who does not want to be picked up, they can take a swipe at you with a single small paw, claws extended, and get their point across.  They do that with dogs too.  Have you ever seen a cat lying on a floor and a dog decides it wants to play with the cat but the cat is not interested?  The cat will continue to lie there while the dog runs around and jumps around the cat, barking the whole time.  The cat, looking quite bored, will make one quick swipe at the dog’s nose, make contact, and rid herself of the dog in an instant.  And this happens with the cat never having moved more than that one paw.

Here is a perfect example of a dog not understanding boundaries.  The cat will set him straight.

Cats totally understand doing their business in a litter box.  You cannot get even a small dog to do that!

The link below is the a video named “Simon’s Cat.”  Now even though it is an animated video, if you do a search on “Simon’s Cat” you can find a real life video the creator made of his cat one night in his bed.  The video is time-lapse and really funny.  Regardless, follow the link below and have a laugh.  Cats really do what is portrayed in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

I like dogs, I really do.  Big dogs, dogs you can wrestle with and have the outcome in doubt.  I really dislike those yippy little dogs that are always trying to hump you leg.  A cat would never do that!  I can assure you if a cat is in a room where that sort of dog behavior is going on, the cat will stare at the dog and say, “really?”

There’s another thing.  Which is scarier, a cat’s screech or a dog’s growl?  I am going with the screech.  Dogs growl all the time and many times it does not mean much.  But when a cat screeches it always means the same thing.  The cat is really pissed off and you better get out of its way.

Here is a picture of my cat.  This is where she likes to be when I am on my computer.

This is what she looks like when I “bother” her.  This is her “annoyed” can I help you look.

Well, those are my thoughts on cats, for now anyway.

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Answers to yesterday’s posting…………….


I was hoping to get some response to my post but alas, nothing.  That’s okay.  Well, here is what each item is.

1.  Pong — It looks like a sled, which it is of course, but it was used in the winter to carry milk from farms to dairies.  It had other uses as well, of course.

2.  scythe — This was used by farmers to cut down grass primarily, although wheat farmers also used it to cut their wheat.

3.  milk can — I think it is rather self-explanatory but it is what went on a pong.  there was also something called a “milk box.”  This was an insulated box the milkman put your milk in outside your door.

4.  candle snuffer — This item was quite simply used to put out candles.

5.  surrey — yes, it is a carriage but this was the wealthy person’s pleasure vehicle.

6.  bed warmer — when houses were heated via fireplace, upstairs rooms were unheated and getting into bed on a cold night could be difficult.  This helped with that.

7.  bellows — commonly found next to fireplaces to help starting a fire.  You simply pumped it and it pushed air into your fire.

8.  butter churn — There was a time every town had at least one dairy in it but dairies in those days frequently did not produce butter, or if they did it was too expensive for the common person.  Milk was delivered with a layer of heavy cream floating on top of it.  People skimmed that cream and made their butter in this device.

9.  caisson — This wagon was common in the field artillery of old time armies.  It was used for carrying gun powers and cannon balls.

10.  bustle — This was a later 19th Century device women wore under their dresses to, well, here’s a picture.  You decide what it did.

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Living With Yourself


Back when I was in high school, I really did not think very highly of myself.  My parents, God bless them, were of the pull yourself up by your bootstraps era.  The trouble was, it did not work.  It still doesn’t.   With nowhere to turn on the outside, I turned inward and hid.  My entire time in high school I had one girlfriend, God bless her.  She was wonderful.  She was dealing with a sad morose person who was totally clueless.  She did make me happy and that was a huge blessing.

I had a couple of really nasty things happen to me when I was a kid but when I told an adult, they chose not to believe me.  It never occurred to me, of course, that they were equally as shocked and did not know how to react, so I just got mad.  A lot of good that did me!  Living with a nasty past and being angry on top of it was such a good idea.

I sadly bumped through adulthood about as clueless on what to do with myself as anyone I have ever known.  I was really good at being lonely, depressed, and someone who was pretty much a pain in the ass to be around.

Then one day someone clued me in on how to live with myself.  It started off by him telling me to stop feeling sorry with myself, get off the pity pot, and live!  I have come to find out there is a lot of that going around.  Feeling sorry for yourself that is.  Shortly after that I figured out that the universe was not out to get me, actually it does not know I even exist.  The Red Sox did not lose because of me.  It was not raining to make me feel badly.  Not winning something is not a conspiracy to get me, it is just how things turned out at that moment.

Next thing I tackled was depression.  Why was it happening so much?  Turns out the reason was fairly simple.  It was not anything organic, well, for the most part anyway.  It was mostly a matter of my thought process.  First I stopped believing the universe was out to get me.  Then I figured out that where ever I was that was no fun, that was ugly, that was in any way undesirable, I just needed to tell myself that I was the one who had gotten myself there, and I had to be the one to get myself out of there.  I could get help of course.  But I had to make a determination that I had to do the moving, no one was going to do that for me, nor should I want them to.  That gave me several new directions to go in and almost like magic, life became brighter and more fun.

Then it was time to tackle loneliness.  I could not be alone and not feel lonely.  It was my belief that since we are social being by nature it was a must for us to always be with someone.  That meant being by myself was an unnatural state of being so loneliness was to be expected.  What a bunch of crap!  Also at that time I had this thing about taking Fridays off and heading to the beach.  I have always loved the beach and the warm feeling of the sun and sand.  I knew I would be alone so I decided to read a book while I was there.  That was the first time.  I really enjoyed that first day on the beach, did not feel in the least bit lonely.  I did not recognize that fact immediately but as the summer wore on it became obvious, even to me, that I could entertain myself sufficiently to ward off all feelings of loneliness.  It did not show me how much I really enjoyed reading, which was quite the revelation all by itself, but it did show me that if I used my mind a little bit, I could easily entertain myself during those times I was alone.

The last thing I had to do was dealing with my past.  I had any number of things I had done that were less than honorable, and according to some, down right horrible.  The fix was a multi-step process but actually quite simple.  First I had to admit to myself that what I had done was wrong.  I did that.  Then I had to figure out why I had done any one of those things.  That was a little more difficult but it was suggested to me I use “the seven deadly sins” as the basis for such an examination.  I hated that suggestion because it was based on someone’s religion.  But then it came to me, shortcomings!  What character flaws had aided and abetted me in my mistakes.  That turned out to be pretty easy.  Once identified I had only to figure out how to change myself so they were no longer affecting my actions.  And finally, I had to go back to anyone who my misdeeds had victimized and apologize.  Those things done, the weight that was lifted was incredible.

My life is really good these days.  It is far from perfect but it is so much better than it used to be.  I have some of the most amazing friends anyone could ever want.  I am seldom lonely and usually feel like I have more things to do in my life than I have years left in it.  That is exciting!  I know that every day is going to be a good one.  How?  I woke up, that’s how.  It is that simple.  Consider the alternate and you know waking up is fabulous!

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Can You Identify These Pictures?


I have copied ten pictures.  The challenge is to properly identify them.  The first one, for example, can be called a sled but it was actually known by another name when it was in use.  That is the challenge, its common name at the time of usage.

1.

2

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Okay, there they are.  Ten items all of which were common in the 19th Century.  Post your guesses here.  I will post the actual names of these items later this week plus how everyone did.

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Ten of the 20th Century’s Best Musicians


I am not an expert in music in any sense of the word.  I know what I like and I feel I have a fairly eclectic taste in music.  The following list, in no particular order, is of ten people I consider to be the creative geniuses of the 20th Century.

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff — (1873 – 1928) Rachmaninoff is considered to be a romantic classicist.  He is best known for his piano concertos, although he certain wrote many other forms of music.  A friend of mine, who was once part of the Cleveland Philharmonic, said Rachmaninoff’s pieces can be extremely difficult to perform not only because of the complexity, but because the pianist involved is required to make reaches designed for Rachmaninoff’s large hands.  If you have not, or do not know, if you have ever heard anything by him, I recommend you find his Piano concerto number 1 or his Piano rhapsody of a theme of Paganini.  His pieces are frequently used in movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5bP1CdfM-8

2.  George Gershwin — (1898 – 1937) George Gershwin, and his brother Ira, are responsible for some of the most appealing early 20th century American music.  Gershwin fancied himself a classical author although his music was much more suited for the Broadway play for which he wrote a number of scores.  In the early 1930s Gershwin fulfilled his lifetime dream of writing an opera when he wrote “Porgy and Bess.”  Rather than write in the classical form like Puccini and Mozart, Gershwin drew from early 20th century folk music of the south.  Porgy and Bess, an American opera to be sure, is filled with a Delta Blues style of music.  He also wrote a piano piece that is exception, A Rhapsody in Blue.  If you listen to either of these piece I believe you will see what I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc

3.  Eric Satie — (1866 – 1925)  Eric Satie is a Frenchman who grew up in Normandy near the French coast.  His music, primarily piano pieces, take on a beautiful haunting quality to them.  His pieces are often used in movies when a pedantic or lonely mood needs to be set.  Two of his most famous pieces are Gymnopedies no. 1 and Gnossienne no. 1.  They are short but enormously beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

4.   Aaron Copeland — (1900 – 1990) Aaron Copeland is known as the dean of American Music.  His music takes on a particularly American quality that has become to define a particular style of American Folk Music.  His piece Appalachian Spring and Fanfare to the Common Man are known around the world, and frequently played at 4th of July celebrations, and other such gatherings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjssV8UuVA&feature=related

5.  John Philip Sousa — (1854 – 1932)  Sousa is known for his patriotic marches.  In the 1880s he lead the Marine Corps Band.  Afterward he found he had an aptitude for composition and set about to write such well-known pieces as The Washington Post March, Stars and Stripes Forever, and other Patriotic pieces.  He also invented an instrument called the Sousaphone, frequently mistaken as a tuba, an entirely different instrument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6R7bCSUhjI

6.  Scott Joplin — (1867 – 1917)  Scott Joplin helped create a new genre of music called “Ragtime.”  The music is a takeoff of southern jazz.  Joplin’s music was hugely popular in the first 20 years of the 20th Century and was the choice of music for the movie “The Sting.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQNo1feJCNg

7.  Jon Lennon — (1940 – 1980) Jon Lennon probably did more for rock and roll than any other single artist of the 20th Century.  While other remarkable artists of the day, Elvis and his contemporaries, drew largely from other composers, Lennon almost exclusively wrote all the music he performed, both for himself and the Beatles.  Lennon created a style and form that musicians have followed ever since.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs

8.  Dave Brubeck (1920 – )  Brubeck is one of the 20th century’s best known jazz composers.  Brubeck’s compositions proved so popular the one piece in particular, Take Five, was a hit on the pop charts.  Brubeck himself was an accomplished pianist which set him apart from other jazz artists who were known from their abilities on the trumpet, drums, and trombone.  One of his best compositions, in my opinion, is Blue Rondo a la Turk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc34Uj8wlmE

9.  Hank Williams — (1923 – 1953) In his short life Hank Williams was known both for his composition and performance of country music.  The Williams’ style has been on of the most often copied over the decades by such greats at Waylon Jennings, Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynette and other country greats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtGM6WBcsX0&feature=related

10.  Robert Johnson — (1911 – 1938)  Robert Johnson could easily be my favorite of all these composers.  Johnson is one of blues music favorite composers, who, if you are not a fan of the blues, you probably never heard of.  Johnson compiled a total of 29 pieces in his short life, but his style is oft copied.  To get a good sampling of Johnson’s music I highly recommend Eric Clapton’s recording, “Me and Mr. Johnson.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82yNxiF-T4A&feature=related

11.  Bob Dylan — (1941 –  )  I know, I said a list of ten but a friend of mine has correctly pointed out that Dylan richly deserves to be in this list and I cannot disagree, so here he is.  Dylan was the iconoclasts of musicians starting in the early 1960s.  He wrote not only for himself but for other artists.  His songs were embraced by a generation of anti-war people which Dylan states were not written as such, at least at first.  His folk songs are ver different from any other written at the time. Songs such as Blowing in the Wind, Times They Are A-Changing, Positively 4th Street, Just Like a Woman, and many many other songs speak to his enormous talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3mAX5xdxo

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Ten Places To Visit You Have Probably Never Considered


These are ten places I have been to that seldom make it to an American tourist’s itinerary.  I have been to all these places and cannot recommend them highly enough.

1.  Damascus Syria — Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  It is huge in the Moslem world but it also has much Christian history attached to it.  The picture below is of one of the main mosques in the city.  But if you look closely you will see that it resembles a cathedral, which it was.  The cathedral was built by the Crusaders but when the Ottoman Empire moved the Christians out it retained its status as a holy place.

2.  Baalbek Lebanon — Lebanon  was once a destination for French tourists.  Beirut is a beautiful city with very friendly people.  The ancient town of Baalbek sits northwest of Beirut.  The picture below shows the remains of the temple of Baal, the Phoenician sun-god.  The Greeks and Romans also built temples on this site dedicated to their sun-god.

3.  Cyprus — Cyprus is an island at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.  It has endured centuries of fighting between its Greek and Turkish inhabitants.  Still, it is a place of beauty and great historical importance.  Cyprus is the location of Othello’s Castle as told by Shakespeare.  The picture below is of one of the beaches on the north coast of Cyprus.

4.  Warsaw Poland — Warsaw is a city rich in Polish, and European, history.  Its people are very friendly, its food extremely good, and its prices very reasonable.

The picture below is of a street called Nowy Swiat and is typical of many Polish streets.

This is a picture of Market Square in Warsaw.

This last picture is of the Wilanow Palace in Warsaw.

5.  Porto Fino Italy — Most people who visit it visit places like Rome, Venice, Florence, and Naples.  But Italy has hundreds of other cities that are great destinations.  Chief among these is one well-known to Europeans, Porto Fino.  Porto Fino is a small city south of Milan that is a hideaway for European millionaires.  This is a place where seeing the large yachts of the wealthy and the super-wealthy is not at all unusual.  Even so, reasonably priced accommodations are not difficult to find.

6.  Volterra Italy — Volterra is a small  town located in the central Italian mountains.  Its 13th Century center remains virtually unchanged since it was built.  Extremely narrow street defy the use of automobiles in them.  Volterra is also the site of a first century Roman amphitheater.

7.  Kona Hawaii — When visitors to Hawaii decide to go to other Hawaiian Islands they make Maui, Molokai and Kauai their prime destinations. But the largest island of the chain, known as the Big Island of Hawaii, offers everything any of the other islands have and more.  For people visiting the big island Kona is the city where you want to stay.  It is the second largest town, to Hilo, on the island but has a quaintness about it that is extremely attractive.  Not too far from Kona is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

8.  Boothbay Harbor Maine — I have visited most of the seaside cities and towns on the Maine coast and I believe Boothbay Harbor to be far and away the finest of these.  Boothbay is a small town situated in mid-coast Maine.  It is at least half an hour from the nearest interstate.  Boothbay is rich with history surrounding ship building and fishing.  The town has any number of bed and breakfast houses which are virtually the only place you can stay there as there are only a very few motels.

9.  Monaco — When Americans consider what countries to visit in Europe, I doubt Monaco ever comes under consideration.  You cannot fly there, it does not have an airport.  The closest is probably Marseille France.  Monaco is a hidden gem.  It sits between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea.  You arrive there either by car or by train.  The city-state offers beautiful beaches, casinos, and an active castle.

10.  Krakow Poland — Krakow is the most ancient of cities in Poland.  Its history reaches back to the earliest of times in Polish history.  The city was amazingly untouched by World War 2, it was never bombed or even attacked.  It retains all of its old-world quaintness.  Its leisurely way of life is conducive to the most restful of vacations.  It is also home to Jaglonian University which dates back to the 14th Century.