Is There a Lifetime Movie in This?

From last Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes a story of a multifaceted legal conflict, which has all the makings of a soap-opera-ish TV movie of the sort one can see on cable's Lifetime network. (One of the disputants even has the name "Battle." How Dickensian!)

The article begins with a dispute between the publishers of Pittsburgh's rival newspapers:

Attorneys for Tribune-Review publisher Richard M. Scaife have filed court papers demanding the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette return documents related to the divorce of Mr. Scaife and his wife, Margaret Ritchie Battle Scaife.

In response, the Post-Gazette, arguing that no court has the right to force a newspaper to surrender documents lawfully in its possession, has posted those documents on its Web site, with some personal, financial and third-party information removed.

"Mr. Scaife has asked the court to do something unprecedented: stop a newspaper from writing about documents that were publicly available and highly newsworthy," said David M. Shribman, executive editor of the Post-Gazette.

"That effort is newsworthy in and of itself. As we will advise the court, such a prior restraint would be a clear violation of the First Amendment and of press prerogatives and freedoms that all newspapers cherish. In the meantime, we have posted the most significant of those documents on our Web site and will continue to evaluate whether additional postings should be made."

The juicy details are left until later in the article and exhibit the sizzling passions one expects from television melodrama:

Mr. Scaife's attorneys say the Post-Gazette article describes "at length various highly confidential and personal matters contained in the record, none of which have any news value nor are legitimate subjects of public scrutiny."

But the Post-Gazette countered that the story is newsworthy, given the Scaifes' high profile in the community and the large amounts of money involved, particularly the enormous monthly support payments. The newspaper argues that Mr. and Mrs. Scaife have already put their divorce in the public domain with arrests for trespassing and assault, accusations of dognapping, and derogatory yard signs.

Dognapping? Derogatory yard signs? Those alone might raise eyebrows, but check out the dispute about assets and alimony:

Mrs. Scaife, 60, contends that the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one of a half-dozen local Tribune-Review Publishing newspapers owned by Mr. Scaife, 75, should be considered a hobby or personal cause rather than a business investment because the paper has lost $20 million to $30 million annually since it began publishing in 1992.

The IRS defines a hobby or not-for-profit activity as an activity not pursued for profit. "An activity is usually considered a business if it makes a profit during at least three of the last five tax years, including the current year," according to the IRS.

Mr. Scaife's lawyers say those losses should be counted against Mr. Scaife's aggregate monthly income in determining support payments. That would put his 2005 yearly income at $17 million.

Mrs. Scaife's attorneys say that, discounting the Pittsburgh paper's losses, his real income in 2005 was $45 million.

If he treated the Tribune-Review like his other investments, "the Tribune-Review would have been gone long ago," Mrs. Scaife's lawyers stated in the documents.

"In fact, if his real investments performed like the Tribune-Review, [Mr. Scaife] would be penniless instead of a billionaire, and attempting to collect support from his wife," her attorneys said.

The divorce documents show that Mr. Scaife has subsidized the Pittsburgh paper -- one of the few Tribune-Review Publishing properties not showing a profit -- for more than $140 million. Attorneys for Mrs. Scaife say the figure is actually $244 million.

A court hearing officer has ordered Mr. Scaife to pay his estranged wife $725,000 per month in preliminary temporary support and Mr. Scaife's lawyers have sought to have the payments reduced.

Taxpayers, take note: If you lose money on your business, it becomes a hobby. Think about it -- publishing as philately, real estate as recreation, capitalism as camping.

No Gays in Iran, Prez Sez

Here, courtesy of the Arizona Daily Star, are some excerpts from the remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University today, when asked about gays and women.

MR. COATSWORTH: Let me just -- let me pursue this a bit further. It is difficult to have a scientific discussion if there isn't at least some basis -- some empirical basis, some agreement about what the facts are. So, calling for research into the facts when the facts are so well-established represents for many a challenging of the facts themselves and a denial that something terrible occurred in Europe in those years.

(Applause.)

Let me move on to -- (pause).

Mr. President, another student asks, Iranian women are now denied basic human rights, and your government has imposed draconian punishments, including execution on Iranian citizens who are homosexuals. Why are you doing those things?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Those in Iran are genuine true freedoms. The Iranian people are free. Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedoms. We have two deputy vice -- well, two vice presidents that are female at the highest levels of speciality; specialized (roles ?) in our parliament and our government and our universities, they are present in our biotechnological fields and our technological fields. There are hundreds of women scientists that are active in the political realm as well.

It's not -- it's wrong for some governments, when they disagree with another government, to sort of -- try to spread lies that distort the full truth. Our nation is free. It has the highest level of participation in elections. In Iran, 80 percent -- 90 percent of the people turn out for votes during the elections, half of which -- over half of which are women, so how can we say that women are not free? Is that the entire truth?

But as for the executions, I'd like to raise two questions. If someone comes and establishes a network for illicit drug trafficking that affects the (use ?) in Iran, Turkey, Europe, the United States by introducing these illicit drugs and destroys them, would you ever reward them? People who lead the lives -- cause the deterioration of the lives of hundreds of millions of youth around the world, including in Iran, can we have any sympathy to them? Don't you have capital punishment in the United States? You do, too. (Applause.)

In Iran, too, there's capital punishment for illicit drug traffickers, for people who violate the rights of people.

If somebody takes up a gun, goes into a house, kills a group of people there, and then tries to take ransom, how would you confront them in Iran with -- in the United States? Would you reward them? Can a physician allow microbes, symbolically speaking, to spread across a nation? We have laws. People who violate the public rights of the people by using guns, killing people, creating insecurity, sell drugs, distribute drugs at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran, and some of these punishments -- very few are carried in the public eye, before the public eye. It's a law based on democratic principles. You use injections and microbes to kill these people, and they are executed or they're hung, but the end result is killing.

MR. COATSWORTH: (Off mike) -- and drug smugglers. The question was about sexual preference and women. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. (Laughter.) We don't have that in our country. (Booing.) In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it. (Laughter.)

But as for women, maybe you think that being a woman is a crime. It's not a crime to be a woman. Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran. In Iran, every family who's given a girl is given -- in every Iranian family who has a girl, they're 10 times happier than having a son. Women are respected more than men are. They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect culturally given to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, a respect for women, and we are proud of this culture.

And here, courtesy of a blog called "Hot Air," is a photo of two (non-existent?) gay Iranian teenagers moments before they were executed:


Here is another image, taken moments later, found on another website:



Perhaps the Iranian president was mistranslated. Rather than saying "we don't have homosexuals," he actually said, "we are trying to eliminate homosexuals."

That would be so much closer to the truth.

Better Late Than Never

City Councilor Dave Norris has announced his intention to vote against a proposed $300,000 appropriation to install so-called "anti-crime" cameras in downtown Charlottesville.

On his blog, Norris points to a British study highlighted on cvillenews.com that states that these cameras, ubiquitous in London and other UK cities, are virtually useless.

I could have told you that.

In fact, I did -- more than two-and-a-half years ago, in a blogpost entitled, "Ubiquitous TV Cameras Don't Reduce Crime, UK Study Says," and published on February 24, 2005.

That post quoted an AP story that reported:

Video cameras have blossomed in Britain since the 1990s. An estimated 4.2 million cameras now observe the country's 60 million people going about their everyday business, from getting on a bus to lining up at the bank to driving around London. It's widely estimated that the average Briton is scrutinized by 300 cameras a day.

For the Home Office-funded study, academics from the University of Leicester studied 14 closed-circuit TV systems in a variety of settings, including town centers, parking lots, hospitals and residential areas. Only the parking lot scheme was shown to cause a fall in crime.

Previous studies of the effectiveness of closed-circuit TV systems have come to similar conclusions.

Those "similar conclusions" are echoed in the London Evening Standard article found by Waldo Jaquith and linked from cvillenews.com:

London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost £200 million, figures show today.

But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act.

(Politicians and bureaucrats hate it, but we citizens have got to love FOIA.)

Let's hope the other four city councilors follow the lead of Dave Norris and vote against this boondoggle before it's too late.

Now if only we could get rid of that useless transit center on the downtown mall and return the money to the taxpayers ...

Marcia, Marcia , Marcia!

Half a century ago, ad-man Stan Freberg caught heat from the censors for his send-up of radio and TV soap operas, with a novelty record called "John and Marsha." The dialogue in "John and Marsha" consisted of only two words ("John" and "Marsha"). But that genius Freberg directed his actors -- he might have been one of them -- to say those words of dialogue with such torrid inflection that he angered the bluenoses of the 1950s, who actually got the record banned from several radio stations around the country.

That, of course, led to increased sales of the single and subsequent album, but that's a story for another day.

What would Freberg make of this tasty tidbit from ABC News? Would he redo his recording with new actors and new dialogue, calling it "Jan and Marcia"? Read on:

The book publisher for Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia Brady on the 1970s sitcom "The Brady Bunch," is shooting down rumors that she had a lesbian on-set affair with co-star Eve Plumb, who played her younger sister Jan.

The story of the alleged lesbian affair started circulating the Internet Friday, and was picked up by at least one newspaper on Saturday.

The reported source of the story was McCormick herself in her new tell-all book, "Here's the Story," slated to come out next year.

But the book's publisher said, though there are plenty of other revelations in the book, a lesbian affair is not one of them.

Once again, the headline ("Lesbian Bradys? Publisher Denies Report") sets us up for a sensational story about torrid lesbianism in Hollywood, only to be shot down with truthiness.

To much of Middle America, the idea of the Brady sisters coupled in lesbian incest would be akin to finding out that Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren had a Hoover/Tolson-style relationship.

Yet the tabloids press on.

If only Stan Freberg were still as active as he was in the '50s and '60s. I can hear it now:

"Jan!"
"Marcia!"
"Jan…"
"Marcia…"
"Jan?"
"Um… Marcia…"
(-Snif-) "Jan!"
"Marcia?"
"John…."
"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"

So that's the way they all became the ... oh, you know the rest.

The Rest Is Silence?

Marcel Marceau has died at age 84.

I can't help but imagine that his last words must have been these:

" _____________ "

Constitution Day 2007

I was planning on saying something here to commemorate Constitution Day, since September 17 marks the anniversary of the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the beginning of the ratification process that culminated in 1789. (Is it really 220 years? Time flies when you're creating a liberal republic.)

Stumped about what, precisely, to write on this occasion, I found a way to cheat: As I was pondering, a news release from Virginia State Senate candidate Arin Sime arrived in my email box. Since it's not plagiarism if one gives full credit, I decided to republish the Sime campaign's statement here, in full. It reflects much of what I would have said, in any case.

STATE SENATE CANDIDATE ARIN SIME OBSERVES CONSTITUTION DAY

September 17th, 24th District — Arin Sime, Libertarian State Senate candidate for the 24th District, notes that today is Constitution Day. Constitution Day marks the day in 1787 that the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution.

“As a Libertarian, I believe very strongly in taking the Constitution and the Bill of Rights literally, rather than picking and choosing from it,” said Mr. Sime. “Our federal government has vastly exceeded the bounds placed upon it by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, especially the Tenth Amendment*. This affects us not only as individual citizens, but also through its impact upon the operation of the Virginia General Assembly. There are many laws and regulations at the federal level that infringe on the ability of states and localities to govern themselves, including No Child Left Behind, Real ID, and the National Animal Identification System.”

* No Child Left Behind tries to impose national standards on all public schools. Mr. Sime stated that "Education is best left up to parents, not the government; however, where government is involved, the involvement should occur in the most decentralized way possible. No Child Left Behind ties the hands of local governments to run their own schools."

* According to Mr. Sime, "Real ID imposes requirements for biometric identification on state drivers’ licenses that will not do anything realistically to prevent terrorism or illegal immigration. Most importantly, this law poses significant risks to privacy and civil liberties, and is a “back door” national ID card. It is also estimated that it will cost states hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, and Virginia does not have that kind of money to waste."

* The National Animal Identification System was initially proposed as a mandatory program by the federal government, but is now being implemented at the state level as a “voluntary” program. Mr. Sime noted that "NAIS will still impose undue burdens upon small farmers who already face too much regulation from the federal and state government."

“The fact of the matter is that Virginia does not need any more expensive mandates from the federal government. We have enough problems stopping new tax increases and reining in our out of control spending in Virginia without the federal government trying to force us to spend more. On Constitution Day, we should remember that the U.S. Constitution is not a grant of rights to the people by government, but rather a document that defines and strictly limits the power of the federal government. I believe the Virginia General Assembly should take a public stand against these intrusive federal laws, and tell the federal government that it’s time to stop ignoring the 10th Amendment.”

Arin Sime resides in Crozet with his wife and two children and is a small business owner. More information about the campaign is available at http://www.ArinSime.com/

* The Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

###

I don't know if any other General Assembly candidates chose to mark Constitution Day with a statement or celebration; I'd be happy to find out if they did and what they said about it.

George ♥ Rudy?

Is the nomination of former federal judge Michael B. Mukasey to be the new U.S. Attorney General an implicit endorsement of the presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani by George Bush?

Much has already been made of the fact that Bush passed over "insiders" who were close to his circle or formerly part of his administration (such as former Solicitor General Ted Olson) in order to choose the largely unknown Mukasey. As the Washington Post reports today:

Mukasey would be the latest in a string of key Bush appointments that come from outside Texas or the president's inner circle and seem less ideological than some of his previous appointments.

Less is made of Mukasey's longstanding ties to Rudolph Giuliani. One has to scroll down far into the AP article on the nomination to find this:

Mukasey, a partner at New York-based law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, is also a close friend to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican. He is stepping down as an adviser to Giuliani's presidential campaign, on which he served as part of an advisory committee on judicial nominations.

Even that revelation is incomplete. Writing in the New York Sun, Joseph Goldstein notes this background:

For decades, Judge Mukasey has been a close friend of Mayor Giuliani. He worked beneath Mr. Giuliani both at Patterson Belknap and at the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. It was Mr. Mukasey who swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998. Along with Mr. Olson, Judge Mukasey currently advises the Giuliani campaign on judicial matters. Judge Mukasey's son, Marc, is a partner in the New York office of Mr. Giuliani's law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.

Given his close ties to Mr. Giuliani, Judge Mukasey has faced teasing from friends who have told him not to get too comfortable back at his firm given the prospect of a Giuliani presidency, a source said.

Given the wide range of qualified, potential Attorney General nominees -- including some lawyers who might be advising John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Ron Paul -- is Bush's choice of Mukasey meant to send a signal to GOP activists about the president's preference for the top of the ticket in 2008?

Dep't of Apologies: Canada Unit

An interesting email apology was sent to its readers last week from Maclean's, Canada's pre-eminent news magazine:

We regret that a quote from our leading newsletter article was placed into the subject line of this week's Storyline. For any readers who were offended, we sincerely apologize.

For what was this September 14 statement so regretful? An earlier email, with links to the magazine's cover story, with this subject line:

'Why don't you go f*@! yourself'

That headline was linked to a story with the subhead, "The best bits of Brian Mulroney's memoirs," which began:

In contrast to the unplugged Brian Mulroney of Peter C. Newman’s Secret Mulroney Tapes, the guy in the former prime minister’s Memoirs 1939-1993 is, well, prime ministerial. Or at least as prime ministerial as he can be. With some not particularly close reading between the lines — or via quotations from others, judiciously strewn about by the author — readers can see what Mulroney really thinks about some of the personalities and events of a tumultuous time in Canadian politics.

On his first run for the PC leadership in 1976: The suggestion that he become a candidate left him “shocked.” But Mulroney quickly warmed to the idea, to the extent that losing to Joe Clark was a nightmare: “I began to drink quite heavily with friends over lunch and dinner, and these sessions frequently degenerated into baleful expressions of recrimination and regret. I profanely attacked some people who had let me down.”

This eventually leads to the money quote:

On cutting loose near the end of the 1984 election campaign: “I slid open one of the windows and motioned to one of the fellows carrying an anti-Mulroney sign. I smiled with a show of molars that would have made Jimmy Carter proud. ‘Why don’t you go fuck yourself,’ I said, and closed the window.”

While one might find the full, cheeky quotation offensive in (or out of?) context, I fail to see why the bowdlerized headline -- with cartoonish punctuation marks replacing the letters in the allegedly offending word -- requires an apology from Maclean's. It's not like Mulroney dropped the f-bomb on the magazine's cover.

Still, it makes me more curious to read the former PM's memoirs.

MUHS 150th Anniversary Mass

While it has been nearly two months since the occasion, I have to say that "better late than never" applies in this case.

On July 21, 2007, Marquette University High School in Milwaukee celebrated its 150th anniversary with a full day of events, including a "Great Homecoming" on the school's campus and a buffet dinner with entertainment (including fireworks!) at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin on Lake Michigan.

The centerpiece of the celebration was a festive Mass at the Al McGuire Center on the campus of Marquette University (which evolved from the same series of educational institutions as MUHS did). Over 50 priests concelebrated, many of them Marquette High alumni and others former and current faculty members. Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was present and Father Warren Sazama, S.J. (known as "Saz" to generations of students), the president of MUHS, was the principal celebrant and homilist. A chalice purported to have belonged to Father Jacques Marquette, who explored the upper Mississippi and was among the first Europeans to set foot on the land that is now the city of Milwaukee, was used during the ceremony.

From my vantage point on the bleachers to the left of the dais that supported the altar, ambo, and clergy, I was able to videotape a good portion of the Mass. After some minor editing, I was able to post the video (in seven segments) to YouTube a few days ago (where it has already had some viewers) and now here today.

In this first segment, a choir composed of current students and alumni rehearses a few songs and checks out the sound system before the start of the Mass. The singers and musicians were directed by Mrs. Susan Sajdak.

In the second segment, the chair of Marquette High's board of directors, Janine Geske, offers some words of welcome. Geske is a former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and now teaches at Marquette University Law School.

The third segment is the procession, with a gathering song by James J. Chepponis, "Go Up to the Altar of God."

The fourth segment consists of the Liturgy of the Word (except for the homily). This includes a reading from Genesis 18, a responsorial psalm by Jeffrey Roscoe ("Thank God for He Is Good") based on Psalm 118, a reading from the first chapter of the letter to the Colossians, the familiar "Celtic Alleluia" by Fintan O'Carroll and Christopher Walker as the gospel acclamation, and a gospel reading from chapter 10 of Luke.

In his homily, Father Sazama spoke briefly about the beginnings of Marquette High School but focused more on the school's mission and the successes it has seen in alumni who have served the larger community in various roles. He said, in part:

We’re celebrating 150 years of Jesuit secondary education here in Milwaukee. It’s been a wonderful 150 years! We have so much to be grateful for and to celebrate. With humble beginnings back in 1857 with 2 Jesuits from St. Louis – Fr. Stanislaus Lalumiere, SJ and a Jesuit scholastic (seminarian) Mr. Cornelius O’Brien – starting St. Aloysius Academy on 3rd and Michigan – a rag tag operation in a leaky former rectory with only 50 students, which continued to grow over time to the outstanding Catholic, Jesuit – still urban – college prep school it is today.

I’m proud to say that MUHS has stayed consistently true to its Jesuit, Catholic Mission over these 150 years and is committed to do so for the next 150 years! We can humbly and gratefully say that God has worked through Marquette High to educate people in the service of Christ's Mission here on earth.

What is Marquette High's Mission? Succinctly put, it is to form Christ-like leaders for the world: people of conscience and integrity, people of faith, people passionately in love with Jesus Christ and on fire with the Holy Spirit, people committed to developing their God-given talents to serve others and make the world a better place, people who work for peace and justice in our world and make the world a more humane, Christ-like place where people share the goods of the earth as God’s sons and daughters as God intended, people who are loving, religious, open to growth, seeking excellence for the Greater Honor and Glory of God (AMDG), and committed to justice, in the words of our former Jesuit Superior General, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Christ-like Persons for Others.

After relating the day's celebration to the story of Martha and Mary in the gospel reading, and mentioning a few distinguished alumni, Saz concluded:

We are a much more diverse school now than ever before with our student body including a wide-ranging socio-economic diversity as well as a much richer ethnic and racial mix with 21% of our students being racial minorities. Our retreat programs are stronger now than ever with the introduction of the eye-opening sophomore retreat in the early '70s, the powerful Kairos Retreat in 1989 that over 90% of our seniors elect to take, and the wonderful freshman retreat that the seniors give to the freshman being introduced in 1992. Our service programs have expanded from the Senior Shared Life Project on which our seniors do service work in the community for two weeks in the spring which started in 1973, to our Junior Christian Discipleship classes tutoring at St. Rose Catholic Urban Academy and forming wonderful bonds with the students there, and the overseas service trips such as Somos Amigos trips to the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Mexico, and the new trips to Africa starting soon as well.

So we have an awful lot to celebrate and be grateful for! We have a great history, tradition, and Mission. God is with us, and may God continue to bless us by using us as His instrument here on earth in service of Christ's Mission. May we all – students, alumni, parents, teachers, administrators, support staff – live this Mission to be Christ-like Persons for Others working to make the world a better place for all of God's children. Let us stay faithful to our Mission for the Greater Honor and Glory of God (AMDG)!

The fifth segment is the offertory procession, featuring an arrangement of "For the Beauty of the Earth" sung by the choir. (Note a rather shaky close-up of Father Marquette's chalice.)

Skipping over the Eucharistic Prayer, the sixth segment shows the distribution of communion and features "Envia Tu Espiritu" by Bob Hurd; "O Taste and See," by Marty Haugen; and a post-communion meditation song commissioned especially for the Mass, "Prayer for Generosity," by Gwyneth Walker.

The final segment consists of the recessional and song of sending forth, "Sing, O Sing," by one of the original St. Louis Jesuits (and MUHS alumnus, Class of 1966), Dan Schutte.

Celebrations like this, sadly, take place only once every several decades. Their spirit, however, lives on day by day.

'Forsan et Haec Olim Meminisse Juvabit"

"Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit" -- so began former Virginia First Lady Roxane Gilmore as she reminisced about her old friend, Joe Bishop, at a life celebration in his honor at Jefferson Hall on the grounds of the University of Virginia on September 2. (That's Aeneas consoling his comrades on their journey from Troy, saying "Perhaps it will be a joy later to remember these things.")

That epigram served well as a theme for the memorial service, which was sponsored by local Republican party activists and hosted by the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, two institutions that were integral to Joe Bishop's life.

I captured most of the hour-long ceremony on video, in five segments.

The first segment includes an introduction by Albemarle GOP Chair Keith Drake, an invocation from former Charlottesville City Council member Rob Schilling, remarks by Jefferson Society president Assaf Sternberg, and a tribute by Charlottesville GOP Committee Chair Buddy Weber.

The second segment features separate comments by the former Virginia First Lady and by former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore.

The third segment is divided into two parts (to accommodate length restrictions on YouTube). In it, Susan Bishop offers her own recollections of her brother -- as a boy, a teenager, a college student, and an adult.

In this final segment, three clarinetists from the UVa Pep Band -- Joe played clarinet in the Pep Band during his college years -- lead the assembled friends and colleagues in a rendition of the "Good Ol' Song," and Keith Drake offers some closing remarks. (Believe me, the music sounded much better and less distorted in person than it does on tape.)

As Keith notes in his closing, Joe provided in his will that his large collection of books would be left to the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library to be sold in its major fundraising event, the annual library book sale. No doubt many treasures will be found during next June's sale.

Update: I have belatedly learned that "Haec Olim Meminisse Juvabit" is the motto of the Jefferson Society, hence its particular poignancy at the memorial service for Joe Bishop within the walls of Jefferson Hall. As explained in the Wikipedia entry for the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society:

The Greek letters of the Hall are Φ Π Θ - Phi Pi Theta - which are the initials of the Society's Greek motto: φιλοι, πατρις, θεος (philoi, patris, theos, or "friendship, fatherland, divinity"). After Phi Beta Kappa the Society is the second oldest continually existing Greek-lettered organization in the country. The Hall's Latin motto, taken from Book 1, line 203 of Virgil's Aeneid, is Haec olim meminisse iuvabit, roughly translated "In the future, it will be pleasing to remember these things."

My thanks to a Jefferson Society member and contemporary of Joe from their years together at UVa for pointing this out.

Too Funny to Pass Up

When I was much younger, I used to stay up late at night, bouncing from page to page in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary or a young people's encyclopedia. (There were neither hyperlinks nor remote controls in those days, so I had to hold a book in my hand, sometimes with a flashlight in the other while under the sheets, and turn the pages with my fingers.)

Nowadays, my late-night wandering eye is serviced by YouTube. If I don't pay attention, hours can go by before I realize I have been watching video after video after video, sometimes linked together most tenuously. That's how I found this video from Showtime (below) after looking at a number of bootleg videos of Broadway shows, which -- out of respect for copyright -- I will not post here no matter how good they are. How I got from point A to point L is a mystery.

This send-up of public access TV programs is so funny that I simply could not pass it up. Having spent my share of hours in public access studios, I have a special appreciation for the technical jokes. But the conversation -- apparently improvised -- is what really makes this clip hilarious.

Please enjoy "Good Morning Agrestic: Too Soon to Be Gay?"

Lower East Side Story

In an article published earlier this week, the Jewish Daily Forward notes the 50th anniversary of the opening of West Side Story on Broadway by pointing out that the four co-creators -- Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim -- all had something special in common. (That's right, they're all Jewish.)

The key paragraph is here:

What might the cultural historian make of the ethnic homogeneity of the creative team behind “West Side Story”? Is its achievement not only central to the evolution of a supremely American genre but also an illuminating artifact of Jewish values? Did Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim and Laurents happen to have in common not only the experience of circumcision but also the sort of attitudes that are a distinctive — or at least authentic — expression of one minority group in particular?

Others of us might approach that question differently -- not by reference to the religious or ethnic backgrounds of the four, but to the fact that all four are (or were) gay.

The Forward article never mentions this salient fact. How can the reporter miss it, when it can be found so readily in the lyrics of "I Feel Pretty"?

Gay-rights pioneer Frank Kameny (whose lifetime of service was recently accorded the rare honor of having some memorabilia, which he created and preserved, put on display in the Smithsonian) comments on the Forward's web site:

While Stephen Whitfield writes at length and cogently about the implications of the fact that Robbins, Laurents, Bernstein, and Sondheim, who created West Side Story, were all Jewish, he ignores the surely equally relevant fact (perhaps more relevant to the opus itself) that all four were gay.

An article exploring and enlarging upon the implications of that, in the cultural milieu of the 1950s, and its impact upon the Story -- or perhaps the interaction of both: that they were Jewish AND gay -- might be well worth reading.

While popular culture might joke about the contributions of gays (and Jews) to the Broadway stage -- think Family Guy or Monty Python's Spamalot -- there are others who would rather have the role played by gay men (in particular, but lesbians have had a large role to play as well) forgotten. A dozen years ago, the literary and film critic Bruce Bawer wrote in The Advocate:

...there's no part of the cultural landscape without a gay element. Even if gays constitute as much as fifteen percent of the population, the gay contribution to Western art, architecture, music, and literature far exceeds what it should be statistically. If you accept the right-wing claim that only one in a hundred people is gay, then the gay contribution is truly extraordinary. Think about it: A group comprising one percent of the population producing Erasmus, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Marlowe, Bacon, Hölderlin, Hans Christian Andersen, Tchaikovsky, Proust ... the list goes on and on to include three of the four major nineteenth-century American novelists, one (perhaps both) of the two great nineteenth-century American poets, and two of the three most noted mid-twentieth-century American dramatists.

In this essay, which was reprinted in the 1996 anthology Beyond Queer, Bawer continues:

The immensity of the debt that Western civilization owes to gay and lesbian genius is pretty ironic, given that homosexuality is often described as a threat to Western civilization by those strangest of allies, the culturally philistine religious right and neo-conservative intellectuals. Especially ironic is the case of Allan Bloom the late author of The Closing of the American Mind. That 1987 best-seller, which defended the traditional literary canon against multiculturalism, became the neocon bible, a key text in the so-called culture wars. As those wars wore on the neocons began to mimic the rhetoric of the religious right, bizarrely linking the decline of American art, culture, and higher education to a deterioration of "family values," which in turn was blamed mostly on increasing acceptance of gays. Gays, then, were Western civilization's worst enemies — and Bloom its most ardent defender.

Yet what few readers knew was the Bloom (who died in 1992) was gay. His allies knew but that didn't keep them from bashing gays in print. Years ago, at a social occasion, a leading neocon was overheard saying to an associate, "Isn't it a shame about Allan Bloom?" He meant, of course, "Isn't it a shame that he's gay?" In fact the real shame was that neocons saw no moral difficulty in celebrating Bloom while vilifying gays generally — and that Bloom, for his part, never publicly confronted them with the fact that Western civilization, far from being threatened by homosexuality, is to a staggeringly disproportionate degree the creation of gay men and women.

"Do you want to protect your children from gay influence?" I imagine him writing. "Very well. Destroy the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, silence Messiah and Swan Lake, and burn Moby Dick and The Portrait of a Lady. Gay culture is all around you — and it belongs to everybody."

The Forward article reminds me of the old joke about how various newspapers would report the impending end of the world: The Washington Post headline reads, "World to End Tomorrow; Minorities, Women Hit Hardest"; the Wall Street Journal says, "World to End Tomorrow; Markets Close Early"; the Weekly World News reports, "World to End Tomorrow; Lizard-like Space Aliens to Blame"; the New York Post says, "World to End; Paris, LiLo React on Page Six"; etc.

That is to say, we all have our parochial way of looking at things, but that doesn't mean we can't acknowledge other facts that have relevance for the bigger picture.

That Robbins, Laurents, Bernstein, and Sondheim are both gay and Jewish has meaning for the creative process, for the history of the Broadway musical, and for American popular culture in general.

Liberty Caged

I came across this item on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin yesterday.

The image is pregnant with unintentional symbolism.




More photos and video from Austin, including a visit to the LBJ Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Texas, will be posted soon (well ... eventually).

Thomas N. Brennan, S.J.

It is with sadness that I pass along the news of the death of one of my favorite teachers.

During the recent Marquette University High School 150th anniversary commemoration in Milwaukee, I searched in vain for Father Thomas N. "T" Brennan, S.J., who had been listed in the program as a concelebrant at the anniversary Mass at the Al McGuire Center. I wanted to speak with him and thank him for being such a terrific teacher. Only now have I learned that he was seriously ill.

Here is the text of a letter that was sent out by the president of MUHS, Father Warren Sazama, S.J., to faculty, students, and alumni:

Let us pray in thanksgiving for our brother, Fr. Thomas N. Brennan, who was called to eternal life this morning, August 28. He was 75 years old.

Fr. “T” Brennan was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 6, 1932. After graduation from Marquette University High School (MUHS) he entered the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, on August 7, 1950. “T” received an A.B. degree in philosophy from St. Louis University (SLU) in 1956 and then taught Latin, history, and theology at MUHS. In 1961 he received a M.A. degree in history and in 1965 a S.T.B. in theology, both from SLU. After theology studies he taught Latin, history and drama at MUHS for one year, before doing tertianship in Decatur, Illinois, under the direction of Fr. Charles Hunter, S.J. Returning to MUHS, he taught history, drama and theology from 1966 through 1980. During the sabbatical year that followed he did studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago, Illinois, the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, and at the Gild Hall School of Drama in London, England. He took time also for study at the Center for Ignatian Spirituality in Rome. From 1981 to 1988 he was again teaching theology, history and drama at MUHS. In 1988 he was assigned to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where until 1996 he was chaplain to, and taught theology in, the school of Business Administration. After a year of sick leave, he returned to the same ministry until February of 2005, when he moved to St. Camillus due to failing heath.

Visitation will take place starting at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 31 in the first floor chapel of San Camillo (10200 West Blue Mound Road) followed by mass at 7:00 p.m. Burial will be at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 1, at Calvary Cemetery.

T Brennan was one of the most influential teachers I encountered in 18 years of formal education. At Marquette High, he taught me theology and AP European History. In the latter class, he raised the bar for me and my classmates, teaching us not only the subject matter but also how to do historical research effectively and how to present one's findings in a comprehensible and analytical manner.

Moreover, as the director of Senior Follies and the Prep Players, T deepened in me my already burgeoning love for the theatre. His instructions about how best to create a character, how to project vocally and physically across a large auditorium, and how to maintain one's dignity before, during, and after a performance have stayed with me for more than 30 years. Working under him as a member of the Follies writing committee was a whirlwind course in sketch writing, parody, and the structure of musical comedy. His standards (no scatological humor, no drag characters in Follies, no condescension) may seem quaint today but they are nonetheless enduring.

Father Brennan was an excellent academic counselor: He was one of the teachers who wrote letters of recommendation for me to apply to Georgetown University, but beyond that he undergirded my confidence so that I would take the risk of seeking a place at a highly-selective institution rather than play it safe by applying to schools closer to home with lower standards. I took his advice in these matters seriously ("Learn French," he said wryly, upon learning of my plans to study at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service; wry, of course, was his metier) and the lessons he taught served me well in college, graduate school, and beyond.

He was also a spiritual guide. A small group of us students often gathered in his office, overlooking the stage in the MUHS auditorium, for a short Mass during lunch hour. (So short it made Freeze's Breeze, which I later encountered at Georgetown, seem like War and Peace.) These quiet quarter-hours were welcome during the hectic and often anxious months of senior year.

Earlier this year I posted the videos of Guys & Dolls and the Class of 1977's Senior Follies on YouTube and on this blog. In tribute to T Brennan, here again are excerpts from Blazing Seniors. (You'll see him, in his usual seat in the middle of the auditorium, at 00:18 on the first video.)

If the world had more teachers of T Brennan's caliber, it would be such a much better place -- more literate, more erudite, more appreciative of light, beauty, and laughter. He will be missed by the thousands of students who passed through his classroom, and by thousands more who may never have met him but who feel his influence indirectly.

Another Anniversary

August was a big month for weddings in my family.

A few days ago was my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the wedding of my grandparents (my mother's parents), Chester and Josephine Michalak.

Of course, I have photographs. There are benefits to being a pack rat.




Few people are likely to remember, but -- for reasons that are unclear to me -- my parents had to cancel their original honeymoon plans to take a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Instead, they traveled to Northern Wisconsin for a vacation among the myriad lakes. My grandparents had already planned to travel "up north" at the same time, in part to celebrate their own 20th wedding anniversary.

For years afterward, my father was able to joke about being the only man ever accompanied on his honeymoon by his in-laws.

A Special Anniversary

Were they still with us, today would be my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Reproduced below (in two sections, scanned from a tabloid page) is the nicely-detailed wedding announcement that appeared in the Brookfield News (in Brookfield, Wisconsin) on September 12, 1957, just short of three weeks after the ceremony.

Half a century ago, apparently, the bridegroom was an afterthought in a news story about a wedding, relegated to a short sentence at the end and unworthy of inclusion in the accompanying photograph. Things have changed; now Jay Leno regularly puts articles about weddings in his "Headlines" segments on The Tonight Show, and the bit simply wouldn't work if the bridegroom was not featured on an equal basis with the bride.

Click to embiggen, then read down through both JPEGs, returning to the top again for the full story.



A good number of members of the wedding party listed above were able to attend my sister's wedding three years ago in Las Vegas. That was quite a reunion!

Speaking of my sister, she has the official wedding photos from August 24, 1957, in her possession. But I was able to dig up a few snapshots taken by an unknown photographer.

Fortunately, she (I can tell by the handwriting that the Unknown Photog was female) wrote captions on the back of each photograph, which I transcribe below:

"Joanne with Jug Girouard in background, Camille in foreground - Maria way back, Miriam real close, and Theresa to the side"

"Dick & Joanne immediately after ceremony"

"Dick & Joanne
Have you ever seen Richard so happy?"

US Airways Sucks

Perhaps I should be bemused by the smidgen of irony attached to having read, earlier this evening, a Newsweek article about the newfound prosperity of various U.S. airlines -- in spite of increasing late arrivals, lost baggage, and other passenger complaints.

In the article (not easily available on line, it seems), Daniel Gross writes:

For frequent fliers, it is clearly the worst of times. In the first quarter of 2007, only 71.4 percent of flights arrived on time, and 19,260 passengers were involuntarily bumped -- up 13 percent from the year before. In July, 16,988 flights were canceled, up 54 percent from July 2006, according to Flightstats.com.

And yet for airline companies, these are the best of times. The industry was laid low by 9/11 and the 2001 recession, as giants like United, US Airways, and Delta filed for Chapter 11. But the airlines' winter of despair has given way to a spring of hope. In a recent conference call, American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey crowed about "the largest quarterly profit [$317 million] since we launched the turnaround plan more than four years ago." Last week Northwest Airlines, tanned and rested after its sojourn in Club Bankruptcy, reported a healthy pretax quarterly profit of $273 million, despite rising fuel costs. The Amex Airline stock index is up 79 percent since March 2003.

At the moment, I am sitting at gate D11 of Charlotte Douglas International Airport, when I thought I would be home relaxing more than four hours ago. Instead of arriving in Charlottesville at about 5:00 p.m., I am waiting to embark on a flight to Richmond that will -- God willing -- arrive at RIC sometime past 11:15 p.m.

My journey began this morning in New Orleans. I was scheduled to take a flight leaving Louis Armstrong International Airport at 2:20 p.m., but when I arrived at the ticketing desk, I was given the option -- for a $25 fee -- to take an earlier flight that, combined with an earlier connection, would bring me to Charlottesville at 5:05 p.m., instead of my originally-scheduled arrival time of 7:43 p.m.

I gladly accepted the option. This seems to have been the hubris that brought me to my current state.

The earlier flight had a slight delay on the tarmac in New Orleans, so it arrived in Charlotte at 3:45, giving me fewer than 15 minutes to make my connecting flight on another concourse. When I arrived, breathless, the gate had been closed, although I was five minutes earlier than the announced departure time of 4:05 p.m.

When a gate attendant finally arrived back at her post, she explained that the gate is closed 10 minutes prior to departure. If that is the case, I wondered -- that is, if that is the policy -- then why not announce the departure time as 10 minutes earlier? Since passengers would be unable to board later than that time, it is effectively the departure time.

Knowing that my originally scheduled flight to Charlottesville was still in the future, I did not fret. But I thought I might try to obtain a refund of the $25 fee I paid at the New Orleans airport.

No dice. The $25 fee, I was told at the customer service desk, was to pay for the earlier departure. It could only be refunded if the flight it purchased was canceled at the airport of origination. It carried no guarantee of making a connection or arriving early.

This was not explained to me by the computer kiosk on which I had purchased the ticket change. Consequently, I plan to write to US Airways management and explain that, since the restrictions in the implied contract were not indicated at the time of purchase, no implied contract exists other than my understanding that I was purchasing an early arrival as well as an early departure.

Then, it turns out, my 6:43 flight to Charlottesville was delayed until 7:42 for lack of an available crew. Then the crew did not show up at all, leading to the flight's cancellation at about 8:30 p.m.

I was rebooked for a 9:45 flight. At first, I thought, that's not so bad -- I'll only get home about two hours late. Then I read more closely: the ticket was for 9:45 a.m. on August 13, tomorrow. (The US Airways staffer at the gate did not say anything about that, nor did he offer options for hotel accommodations or rebooking to a different airline or airport.)

As soon as I discovered this tiny detail, I headed back to the customer service counter to ask for a hotel voucher. Overhearing another passenger on my CHO flight requesting to be rebooked to Richmond, I asked if that alternative was available to me, as well. It was. So here I am at the passenger waiting area, hoping to arrive home sometime before dawn.

It is with some equanimity that I take to heart one of the points Daniel Gross makes in his Newsweek article:

Customers cut airlines slack in part because they can blame other forces for their misery. The Federal Aviation Administration's creaky, vintage system causes many delays. The Transportation Security Administration oversees the Soviet-like security lines. Weather-related problems can be attributed to a higher power.

The overwhelming majority of Americans lack an efficient alternative to the unfriendly skies. Even if a six-hour flight from New York to Los Angeles turns into an 11-hour Hieronymous Bosch-like ordeal, it's still light-years faster than a cross-country train or car ride.

Keeping that in mind, taking a detour through Richmond seemed the least bad of a list of unsavory alternatives. And American airports are not such bad places as they used to be -- this one, for instance, has free wireless internet access.

So, rather than fuming, I am blogging.

Return to Kwik-E-Mart

After posting a few photographs and comments about my visit to the Kwik-E-Mart in Maryland last month, I was able to talk about it with Coy Barefoot on his WINA-AM radio program.

One of the ideas that emerged from that conversation was what a brilliant marketing concept this was for 7-Eleven. It took what was, in essence, a negative image of itself from The Simpsons TV show and adapted that kritik into a positive, linking 7-Eleven to the opening of a popular animated film and generating loads of free media from the MSM and bloggers alike.

During my recent visit to Southern California (part of a two-week, five-state vacation), I was able to seek out another of the dozen Kwik-E-Marts in North America (one of two in the Los Angeles area). On the day after The Simpsons Movie opened, I trekked to the transfigured 7-Eleven at the corner of Olive and Verdugo in Burbank, California, where a queue of customers had formed. I was able to take some midday video footage -- an improvement over the still photos I took just past midnight in Bladensburg.

Of course, I took a few photographs of Kwik-E-Mart as well. There was no long line of waiting customers in Bladensburg, but there was one in Burbank, along with a security guard controlling the front entrance like a bouncer at Studio 54.









I didn't venture inside the store this time, leaving that to my traveling companion, Richard Morrison, who bought a couple of cloyingly sweet Squishies, a dozen Sprinklicious donuts, and a six-pack of Buzz Cola. (The store had run out of Krusty-O's.)

Watch this blog for more posts about my continent-wide travels between July 18 and August 1. You'll see photos and videos from Milwaukee, Madison, Wausau, and Hurley in Wisconsin; Ironwood and Copper Peak in Michigan; Interstate 35 in Minnesota; the Reagan Library, Hollywood, and Santa Monica in California; and my nephew's first birthday party, with a Cookie Monster theme, in Encino.

For those of you who now, having seen the excitement, wish to visit a Kwik-E-Mart near your homes, I am afraid it's too late. As the trade publication Convenience Store Decisions put it on Tuesday, the curtain has closed on Kwik-E-Mart. I wonder, however, if blogger Doug Mataconis was able to visit more than one with his family?

Preliminary MUHS Reunion Report

There is far too much information to process and far too many photographs to sort through, but I thought I would post a few pictures today -- within 24 hours of the event -- to mark Marquette University High School's 150th anniversary celebration yesterday.

The Ellen Storey Johnston Memorial a.k.a. the Marquette University High School building on Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, which opened in 1925.

In recent years, the main entrance of MUHS has shifted from Wisconsin Avenue to Michigan Street.

Memories: the painted signatures of the Follies '77 writing committee in the passageway below the auditorium stage. (You should be able to make out the names of Pat Sullivan, Dan Koch, John Novotny, Mike Coffey, Rick Sincere, Jim Chudy, Pat Pendergast, and Greg Otterson.)

Here is a somewhat psychedelic rendering of the Follies '77 poster, originally designed by our classmate Dan McQuillen. (The name of the show was "Blazing Seniors?".) The understage area has graffiti dating back to the early 1960s and subsequent generations of students have respected it by not painting over the older names and artwork.

This is the auditorium itself, which is in much the same as it was 30 years ago, except the orchestra seats now have padding. (The original, wooden chairs are still up in the balcony.)

Surplus debate trophies were once stored in the Webster Club room, which no longer exists. (It was expropriated by the Art Department some years ago.) Now they are kept in an English classroom upstairs.

Evidence of the MUHS 150th anniversary is everywhere.

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan (left, at ambo) offers some congratulatory remarks near the close of the 150th anniversary Mass at the Al McGuire Center on the campus of Marquette University.

Members of the MUHS Class of 1977 reunite for a photograph beneath a tent at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin.

There is much more to come. For a real nostalgia trip, check out the videos posted at May 22, 1977.

Also, WTMJ-TV has an interview on its web site with John Cary (Class of 1969) who co-chaired the 150th anniversary celebrations with his wife, Mary. That interview includes some historic photographs of Marquette High through the years.

Front Page News

The celebration by the Marquette University High School community of the institution's 150th anniversary made the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday. Tomorrow is the "great homecoming," followed by a Mass at the Al McGuire Center and a huge party at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin.

In the Journal Sentinel article, correspondent Alan J. Borsuk writes:

Some things do change at Marquette High. But look at all the things that haven't changed over the past 150 years - it's still in the heart of the city, still all-boys, still Jesuit, still producing a generous portion of the political, judicial, corporate and civic leaders of the city.

The school will celebrate its 150th birthday Saturday; its roots go back nearly to the founding of Milwaukee.

Borsuk continues:

Among the things that have changed at Marquette High is the student body. It remains predominantly white, but the diversity has grown to resemble the Milwaukee area as a whole - 21% of the students were minority group members this past year, including 90 Hispanic students and 70 African-Americans. There were 93 students - about 9% of the total - who qualified for free or reduced-price lunch and 25 students who attended using publicly funded vouchers available to low-income families in the city.

Tuition in 2006-'07 was $8,040, and 31% of the students received financial aid, averaging $3,900 per student.

Sazama said 85% of the students were Catholic and 95% Christian.

The academics are ambitious, and only a handful of students do not go to college. And there is an institutional expectation that these students are going to be leaders of the community.

Gurda added that a downside to that is a sense of elitism among students. In his class, he said, some graduated "with a little higher opinion of themselves than might have been warranted."

But, he said, "If you look at the leadership of most Milwaukee institutions, you'll find someone from Marquette High not too far from the center of influence."

One of the leaders of note to emerge from Marquette High is Milwaukee Mayor (and former Congressman) Tom Barrett (Class of 1972). Others mentioned in a sidebar are Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (Class of 1974) and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (Class of 1981).

An article marking the anniversary also appeared earlier this week in OnMilwaukee.com. In it, senior editor Drew Olson writes:

In recent weeks, OnMilwaukee.com asked several Marquette High graduates to list the most memorable moments from their time at the school and to talk about the impact it had on their adult lives. Almost universally, the responses touched upon friendship, the Jesuit education and the public service awareness fostered by the Shared Life program that requires students to volunteer for two weeks at 75 different schools and other agencies.

"Marquette teaches its students to be 'men for others,'" said Dan Smyczek, director of public relations for the Bucks. "When I look back to that instruction, along with the terrific example from my parents, I think it provided a solid foundation."

Jon Greenberg, president of the Admirals hockey team, agreed. "I believe that Marquette really helped me to reinforce the morals and values that my parents tried to teach me growing up," Greenberg said. "Between the Jesuit faculty and the lay teachers, it was very evident that I was learning from people of a high-moral caliber.

"My advisor, Father Don Driscoll, passed away recently and we had a memorial service for him at the high school and the amount of students from many eras of Marquette High that came to pay tribute reconfirmed to me that I learned from a special person in a building full of special people.

"Marquette has long had a history of supporting the Merrill Park neighborhood, as well as the rest of the city. The students get out and make an impact in the city in the Senior Shared Life project. Many of us have gone on to bigger things... The things we all learned at Marquette are things that help us every day in how we think and act."

Barrett called the school "a place that nurtures leadership and service as well."

"The teachers expected a lot from you," Barrett said. "I would say on a personal note, what it did for me is it gave me confidence.

"It was, I think, a really good education that allowed me to do better in college than I did in high school. I think that's an experience for a lot of students there."

Later, Olson lists some notable MUHS alumni:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett; Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke; Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and his predecessor, E. Michael McCann; multiple municipal and circuit court judges; Peter Bonerz, actor and director on "The Bob Newhart Show" and others; Terry Brennan, University of Notre Dame running back and coach; Rick Majerus, head basketball coach at St. Louis University; Spencer Tracy, Oscar winning actor (attended but did not graduate); Harry Quadracci, founder of Quad/Graphics Inc. in Sussex; James T. Barry III, president and chief executive officer of Colliers Barry, Milwaukee; John Cary, executive director of the MACC Fund, Milwaukee; Ward and Lincoln Fowler, founders of Alterra Coffee Roasters; Bill Bertha, president of U.S. Bank's Wisconsin division; John Shiely, president and chief executive officer of Briggs & Stratton Corp.; Michael Dunn, senior vice president and dean of Medical College of Wisconsin; Jon Greenberg, president of the Admirals; Dan Meyer, publisher of Small Business Times; Pat Dunphy, attorney at Cannon & Dunphy S.C.; Dan Smyczek, public relations director for the Bucks. John Stollenwerk, chairman of Allen-Edmonds; Paul Piaskoski, news anchor for the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts for CBS 58; John Horning, executive vice president of Shorewest Realtors.

On Friday evening, I had a chance to reconnect with several old friends from the Class of 1977, who had gathered for an advance opportunity to catch up before the bigger events planned for Saturday. If last night's rush of conversation is any indication, I had better rest my voice for the next 12 hours or so -- it will be needed, and it will be used up by the time the Festa Italiana fireworks punctuate the anniversary celebration.

Update: Somehow I missed this rather interesting article in Friday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the chalice to be used at Saturday's Mass at the Al McGuire Center. The chalice is reputed to have belonged to Father Jacques Marquette, the namesake of MUHS. The provenance of the chalice is in dispute, however. Tom Heinen reports.