August 2020
Books read:
- The Federalist Papers by Publius (aka Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay)
- Personal History by Katharine Graham
Trails walked:
- Veit Spring and Alta Fia Spring near Flagstaff (August 5th)
- Piedra River Trail near Pagosa Springs, CO (August 9th)
- Indian Creek Trail near Castle Rock, CO (August 15th)
Song(s) of the month: All by Tom Waits
- Hold On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW9nSXPSd-A
- Come on
up to the House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Jq_GAgrEo
- Downtown
Train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtZKkCIVmI
- Georgia
Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLLsuoNPkl4
- Heart of
Saturday Night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UHd7NVegE
- Step
Right Up
- Hoist that Rag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOCQALomWng
Scientist spotlight: Marie Curie
We have very good friends who’ve
had some tough years. After those tough
years they sit outside in their yard and burn that year’s calendar. There will be lots of backyard fires burning
2020 calendars I imagine (but please put out those fires when you’re done). When will this year end?! Remember when it started with the fires in
Australia and that seemed horrible? It
was, but it would barely make the news today.
Pandemic. Economic woes. More police shootings. Race riots. Political upheaval. Double hurricanes. The western US on fire. Families (and teachers) wondering what to do about school starting.
Heat domes. Not to mention the ever-growing problem of
climate change which is directly and indirectly responsible for many of these other
problems.
How do we maintain our sanity and
our hopefulness?
Well, for us it was another trip
to Denver to visit our grandson! Not to flippantly
cast aside all these problems, but in reality, one way to cope with all of this
is to plan something to help maintain your sanity and positive outlook. Another great solution is to help pull someone you
know out of their funk and loneliness. Reach out to them and tell them to Hold On or
Come on up to the House. That’s why I’ve
decided to write about Tom Waits’ songs this month. He’s a master of describing the lonely and
downtrodden and marginalized and of giving them hope, even for the small things
in life.
I've decided to add a new feature this month; Scientist Spotlight. In my strange mind of ideas I've always thought that if baseball cards were so popular (were, being the key word), then why not have science or history cards, each one with "stats" on a particular scientist or historical figure. We worship sports and celebrity culture in this country, but can we change that? Nah. But I thought that I would do my part by adding a paragraph or two each month on a known or unknown scientist and their accomplishments.
This month I was limited to two reads, mainly due to their length; one about defending the newly written constitution and one about a woman who pioneered the 20th century business world. My hikes were somewhat limited due to babysitting duties, but I managed a nice historical walk near Flagstaff and two nice walks in the Colorado mountains.
This month I was limited to two reads, mainly due to their length; one about defending the newly written constitution and one about a woman who pioneered the 20th century business world. My hikes were somewhat limited due to babysitting duties, but I managed a nice historical walk near Flagstaff and two nice walks in the Colorado mountains.
Song(s)
of the month – I’ve yet to spotlight a Tom Waits song on my blog,
probably because I found it impossible to represent him with only one
song. I’ve listed seven here and they
still don’t capture everything that he is.
My wife and I saw him in concert in Phoenix at the Orpheum Theater in
2008. I was lucky enough to snag front
row center tickets and it’s one of the top 5 concerts I’ve ever seen (see the
Hoist that Rag video above for a sample of what his live shows are/were like).
Music critic Daniel Durchholz best described Waits’ voice as
sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the
smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” That’s about right, and it’s incredible. He’s sort of a hate him or love him kind of
artist, but if the haters ever took time to listen to the lyrics, their hate
would turn to “hate with respect” for sure (or they could listen to this album
of Waits songs covered by women artists: https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2019/11/various-artists-come-on-up-to-the-house-women-sing-waits/).
Ilana Kalish from Atwood Magazine had this to say: “Listening
to a Tom Waits song/album feels like being snuggled up close to your (unshaven)
best friend on a hard day. While you
feel their love and support, you know they’re about to help you pull yourself
up by your own bootstraps. The confidence that this friend has in you, mixed
with their unwillingness to hold a pity party is what cures you of today’s woe.
It’s that brand of real understanding and respect that Waits offers his
listeners.”
Waits writes a lot about marginalized people that are hidden
in the shadows; people that are wounded and lost, but still hopeful. I thought this theme was appropriate for a
lot of the marginalized people making the news this month and for the painful
fact that the pandemic is likely creating more of them and making life harder
for those that already are having troubles.
Early in his career Waits’ voice was fairly “normal” and his songs included
beautiful love ballads such as Jersey Girl and I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love
with You. Great songs. His voice became gravellier as his career
progressed and his songs became more and more about people in the shadows. I think he’s brilliant, and he’s a decent
actor too (see his latest performance in the Coen Brothers' Ballad of Buster Scruggs). You can get lost on YouTube watching
all his mesmerizing videos.
Here are my comments on the seven songs I’ve chosen:
- Hold On. Written with his wife Kathleen Brennan it’s a
song about holding on in the face of mounting troubles. Sample lyrics:
She closed her eyes and started swaying/But it's so hard to dance that
way/When it's cold and there's no music
- Come on
up to the House. This song has been interpreted in so many ways, which happens
with great art. I think it’s a song of a
friend holding out a hand to someone in trouble to come on up to the house. Sample lyrics: All your crying don't do no
good/Come on up to the house/Come down off the cross, we can use the wood/You
gotta come on up to the house
- Downtown
train. Rod Stewart covered this, but you
have to hear it from Waits. Sample
lyrics: The downtown trains are full/With
all those Brooklyn girls/They try so hard to break out of their little worlds
- Georgia
Lee. A classic case of Waits singing
about the marginalized. True story of a
12-year-old black girl that was abducted and murdered. Read the tragic story here: https://medium.com/yawp/the-sad-story-of-tom-waits-georgia-lee-fe7b695de6d Sample lyrics: Why wasn't God listening?/Why wasn't God there/For Georgia Lee?
- Heart of
Saturday Night. Someone said this is the
national anthem for those who still dream, even about little things. Sample Lyrics: And you got paid on Friday/And
your pockets are jinglin'/And you see the lights/You get all tinglin' cause
you're cruisin' with a six/And you're looking for the heart of Saturday night
- Step
Right Up. A rapid-fire song about consumerism
and commercialism. Incredible. Sample lyrics: The large print giveth/and the
small print taketh away
- Hoist
that Rag. Kind of loosely based on the
novels Gangs of New York and Paradise Alley and the American Civil War draft
riots of New York City. I love the
energy in this song, and it was the best song at the live concert we attended
in 2008. Sample lyrics: Well, we stick our fingers in the ground/Heave
and turn the world around
Wait….what about Tom
Traubert’s Blues? San Diego Serenade? Ol’ 55?
Jersey Girl? Goin’ Out West? Jockey
Full of Bourbon? Innocent When you
Dream? The Piano has been Drinking? Old Shoes (and Picture Postcards)? I Don't Wanna Grow Up? Long Way Home? I know!!!
When Poland didn't offer her a professorship due to sex discrimination, she moved to Paris where her sister and brother-in-law were living. She met her eventual husband Pierre Curie in Paris and eventually became the first woman professor at the University of Paris. They worked together on many experiments and shared a Nobel Prize. Her husband died in a tragic accident just 11 years after their marriage. He was run over by a horse and carriage which crushed his skull.
As her fame grew, she came to be vilified by the right wing press in Paris as a foreigner and an atheist, and with antisemitism rampant in France at the time, she was caught up in the whole Dreyfus Affair and some claimed she was Jewish (which she was not). She didn't help her own cause by getting caught up in a scandal, having an affair with a married man who was a student of her now dead husband. Even with all the scandal, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded her the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911, her second Nobel Prize. The Curie Institute she created ended up producing four more Nobel Prize winners including her daughter and son-in-law.
She became famous, traveling the world to raise awareness and money for her research and the Curie Institute. Her work is her legacy, but I thought that this paragraph I copied from Wikipedia shows her true colors: "She was known for her honesty and moderate lifestyle. Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep. She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates. In an unusual decision, Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process so that the scientific community could do research unhindered. She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her. Albert Einstein reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame."
We need more Marie Curie's in this world.
Veit
Spring and Alta Fia Spring near Flagstaff:
Temperatures in the hundred and teens forced me to head up to the
high country. So, it’s Snowbowl Road
again near Flagstaff. Luckily there are
plenty of hiking options along this road.
This day I opted for a couple of short walks due to a knee problem I’ve
been dealing with since the previous week’s long hike on the AZ trail near
here. The 160-acre Lamar Haines Wildlife
Area was settled by German native Ludwig Veit (pronounced Wait) in 1891, under
the Homestead act (there were many German families settled in the Flagstaff
area at this time, presumably because it reminded them of home?). Veit used to deliver spring water to the
growing Flagstaff village below. If a
home had a stick with a white flag posted, it meant they needed a water
delivery. Thirty or so years later the
land was bought by the Jenks Family who then sold it in 1948 to the Arizona Game
& Fish Department as a secure water source for area wildlife. There are no permanent rivers or creeks in
the San Francisco Peaks, which led the first Spanish explorers in the 1500s to
name this area Sierra Sinagua. However,
there are some springs which have been used by indigenous peoples and settlers
for many years.
Lamar Haines
was a Flagstaff conservationist and educator and there is a nice, large
memorial plaque honoring him here. I managed
to turn this 1.8-mile hike into a 3-mile hike by exploring all the nooks and
crannies the area had to offer. I came
across some 1,000-year-old pictographs, some caves, remnants of Veit’s cabin,
and a couple of stone houses that were built to protect the spring water.
I drove further up Snowbowl road and parked at Aspen Corner
in order to walk down to Alta Fia spring (aka Hart Prairie pond). It was a nice easy and short stroll down an
old jeep road with great views of the valley below and the peaks above. There was a mama duck protecting a bunch of
tiny ducklings. They were playing hide
and seek with me among the reeds.
Another beautiful day in the mountains while the valley
roasts.
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| Sign describing the area near the trailhead |
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| Another sign with a treasure map? |
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| Trail art |
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| One of many small caves in the area |
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| Pictograph above the cave |
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| A look inside the spring house built by Veit |
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| Remains of Veit's cabin |
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| Cabin remains. I've seen photos from the 1970s where this cabin was still upright. |
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| Lots of aspens up here |
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| Haines memorial |
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| San Francisco Peaks with a floral foreground |
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| Pond and the peaks |
The
Federalist Papers by Publius: Publius
was the pen name used by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay for
publication of the Federalist Papers. I
recently watched Hamilton, the play by Lin Manuel Miranda. It was streaming on the Disney channel and it
was really entertaining. I’m generally
not a lover of Broadway musicals (unlike most of the population on Earth I did
not enjoy Phantom of the Opera, nor Cats, nor Les Miserables). So, my expectations were low; but to my
surprise the play was really enjoyable and if American History were told like
this in high school, there would be many more historians graduating from
college (which probably means higher unemployment, so nevermind...). Anyway, the Federalist Papers
were mentioned in the play because Alexander Hamilton was the key person
responsible for them. Of the 85 essays
that make up the Federalist Papers, Hamilton wrote or co-wrote 54 of them.
A few years ago, I read The Summer of 1787 by David O.
Stewart. It describes how the US
Constitution was negotiated and written in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall
between May and September of 1787. It’s
a terrific story about how this document came into being during this sweltering
summer. I highly recommend it. As great as the constitution is, it’s filled
with compromises in order to get agreement from all the states (12 of the 13 states
sent representatives to the convention; Rhode Island refused….Geez Rhode
Island, get over yourself). Of course,
getting the constitution written was just half of the battle because it then had
to be ratified by 9 of the 13 states by popular vote (of course in those days “popular”
meant white male landowners only). At the time Virginia, Massachusetts, and New
York were not sure bets to ratify and there was strong anti-federalist
sentiment which feared a powerful national government, so Hamilton, Madison,
and Jay wrote these essays in defense of the new constitution and the new
federal government. The essays were
addressed to the people of the State of New York where they were published in 3
different journals between October of 1787 and August of 1788. Some of the essays got published in other
states, but you can really only say that they influenced the New York vote (the
Internet was a couple hundred years away at this point). It was brilliantly done as they took all the
main points of contention and addressed them based on the experience of other
countries throughout history and based upon their political philosophy. The main areas of contention (and there were
many) were states' sovereignty vs. federal supremacy, representation of small vs
large states, slavery vs freedom, whether or not to include a Bill of Rights, and
individual liberty vs social stability. It’s
still considered today as one of the greatest documents about the philosophy of
politics ever written.
OK, all that being said, reading these papers was extremely painful. The writing was archaic, long winded, and
repetitive. Sentences lasted entire
paragraphs. Then, after a long sentence
about two issues, there would be a sentence referencing the “former” vs
“latter” idea, and so you have to go back to the previous long sentence to find
out which was the former and which was the latter idea. I did not look forward to reading this
document and it was a slog. I wonder
what percentage of the population ever read or understood the ideas presented
at that time. I’m glad that I read them,
and I have sympathy for all those poor college students that have to read them
and write reports on them.
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were true Patriots and wanted to
do all in their power to make sure our new country did not fall apart just 12
years after declaring its independence from Great Britain. Eventually all 13 states ratified the
constitution; Delaware was the first in December of 1787, New Hampshire was the
9th in June of 1788 and the constitution went into effect after this
9th ratification. Rhode
Island was the last state in ratify in May of 1790 (again with its little state
complex). The rest, as they say, is history.
Piedra
River Trail near Pagosa Springs, CO: My wife and I spent
a few days in beautiful Pagosa Springs as we made our way to Denver to hang out
with our grandson. We met our daughter
and her boyfriend there and enjoyed some time in the cool pines. For this hike we drove up the Piedra dirt road
for half an hour and parked at the Piedra River trailhead on this nice Sunday
where we were joined by the boyfriend’s parents who were camping in the area. Piedra stems from the Spanish word for stone,
and in the 40 plus miles of this river there are several remote box canyons
before it finally empties into the San Juan river at Navajo lake near the
border with New Mexico. The section of
the trail we hiked passed through one of these beautiful, but more accessible
box canyons.
There were several cars at
the trailhead, but we didn’t see many people hiking along this beautiful river
trail. We even had a nice secluded spot
on the river where we watched the dogs playing in the water. The day was warm, but the towering cliffs
kept us in the shade the whole time.
It’s a pretty canyon and a nice walk.
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| View from near the trailhead |
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| Piedra river before the box canyon |
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| Our hiking group headed down the trail |
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| Entering the box canyon |
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| Nice and shady |
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| Saw some climbers on this cliff that kept the sun away |
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| Piedra river (lots of stones) |
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| Heading back |
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| Wife and I enjoying the day |
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| Nice photo nearing the trailhead with Pagosa Peak in the background |
Indian
Creek Trail near Castle Rock, CO: My first
official hike with my grandson who just turned 7 months old! And with my son, we made this a 3G hike (three
generations), and OK yes, we also had my daughter’s wonder dog with us. The
hike is in Pike and San Isabel National Forest south of Denver and east of Castle Rock where
the terrain is much like the Flagstaff area in Arizona, nice pine forest, good
uphill parts, nice views, but not much water.
The main draw for this hike is the lack of people which is tough to find
on a weekend near Denver. There were 2
other cars in the trailhead parking lot, and we saw 2 mountain bikers and two
hikers (this is part of a 15-mile loop that would make for a long hike or a fun
mountain bike ride). Although this wasn’t
your typical spectacular Colorado hike, it was made special by the three
generations spending time in the outdoors together. We only hiked about 4 miles of the
trail. Grandson loved the first mile,
slept the 2nd mile, liked the 3rd mile, and by the 4th mile was ready to be out of that baby backpack.
Me, I enjoyed every minute of it.  |
| Son carrying grandson with wonder dog following |
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| Wonder dog |
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| Nice views up top; a bit hazy from all the fires |
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| Son and grandson |
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| Feeding time while wonder dog is on guard |
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| Great views at this lunch spot |
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| Sun getting low |
Personal
History by Katharine Graham: This
book won the Pulitzer in 1998 for biography and understandably so. It’s an epic (600 plus pages) biography which
also tracks the most important events of the 20th century, the people
that formed those events, the social changes that took place, and also what it
took to run a business and a newspaper. Interspersed
in all of this are family relationships, the mental illness and eventual
suicide of Graham’s husband, the difficulties of a woman running a business in
a male dominated world. And add to that,
the sheer number of historical figures Graham personally knew, including presidents,
celebrities, business leaders, and world leaders. On top of all of this you have her personal
details on the events that spawned two great Academy Award nominated films (All
the President’s Men and The Post) which addressed Watergate and the Pentagon Papers.
Not to mention the months long violent pressmen
strike Graham dealt with to try to keep the newspaper afloat; this would have
made a great film also.
I loved this book. I’ll
admit that I was a bit turned off when she was complaining about the difficulty
of handling her children and her job at the same time when in actuality, she
had cooks and nannies to help her and she was raised in a very rich and privileged
household. I know several women with jobs
who managed to raise their kids and feed them without the resources she had. And she admits that she had it better than most
due to this privilege. That was the only
issue I had with the book. She did have
her difficulties, such as losing a baby just as her husband was going off to the
army in World War II; dealing with her husband’s illness, infidelity, and
suicide; and her parents weren’t the most kind and loving of caregivers.
There are so many interesting stories in this biography, but
two that stay with me are the story of a relatively unknown at the time Warren
Buffet becoming great friends with her and mentoring her about business (Buffet
said he got his financial start delivering The Post while attending Woodrow Wilson
High School in DC); and the story of Lyndon Johnson yelling at Graham and a
colleague about a Post editorial he didn’t like while he was undressing in his
bedroom and finally realizing it and telling her to turn around while he
finished putting on his pajamas.
Other interesting occurrences in Graham’s life from the book:
She spent New Year’s Eve at Ansel Adams’ photography store
in his guest bedroom in Yosemite.
Graham’s father (Eugene Meyer) was chair of the federal reserve under
Hoover and helped start the World Bank.
He also helped bring European Jews to America to escape Hitler.
She was friends with Jean Monnet who is considered father of
the European Union and helped solidify British, French and US ties during WW2.
Graham’s husband Phil helped modernize supply lines and fuel
delivery towards the end of WW2 and helped establish V-loans for companies in
the US to convert their factories to support the war effort. He ran The Post upon returning from WW2 when
Graham’s father handed him the job at only 30 years old. Phil Graham helped LBJ establish the first
civil rights law in 84 years; this was in 1957 when LBJ was the senate minority leader. Phil Graham also tried to calm both sides in
the Little Rock school desegregation crisis.
Graham’s father gave her husband Phil more stock shares than
Katharine because “No man should be in the position of working for his wife.” ....I thought we all worked for our wives...
During the McCarthy anti-communist period, “Many emotions
flared up in this period of McCarthy’s heyday.
Friends fell out with each other. Rows erupted on every side.” ….Sounds familiar….
Graham’s mother has a galaxy named after her (Agnes E.
Meyer)
This exchange between Phil Graham and JFK in 1959: “Jack, you are very good. You will be president someday. But you are
too young and you shouldn’t run yet.” – to which Kennedy replied, “Well, Phil,
I’m running and this is why. First, I
think I’m as well qualified as anybody who is going to run, except for Lyndon Johnson. Second, if I don’t run, whoever wins will be
there for eight years and will influence who his successor will be. And third, if I don’t run I’ll have to stay
in the Senate at least eight more years.
As a potential candidate in the Senate, I’ll have to vote politically
and I’ll end up as both a mediocre senator and a lousy candidate.” Smart guy….
Phil and Katharine Graham spent many winter vacations at the
Arizona Biltmore.
She was good friends with Truman Capote, and met him at a lunch with
Harper Lee. Capote ended up throwing a
party in her honor in 1966. It was
called the Black and White Ball and was considered the pinnacle of New York’s social
history. Guests included Sinatra, Warhol,
Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Gloria Vanderbilt, Candace Bergen….
Jackie Kennedy wrote Graham an 8-page letter of condolence when
Phil Graham died. Jackie gave birth to
the baby boy who died just a few days after Phil’s funeral.
Eisenhower made a speech in the 1960 Republican convention where
he attacked journalists; convention-goers throughout the entire hall started
booing the press (Graham was in the press box at the time). Not much has really
changed….
When Graham’s son Don decided to enlist for Vietnam instead
of pursuing a graduate degree he said, “The rich are staying in school and the
poor are being drafted. I can’t live
with that.” This goes a long way to explain why he
eventually became head of The Post when Graham retired. Don’s reaction to the military was like his
father’s during WW2 – depressed by the nearly complete lack of logic in army
routine, the mindless brutality he saw everywhere, and the rules designed to
promote fear. He also wrote this while
serving in Vietnam: “Though I cringe at the thought of what infantrymen do to
the people over here…I admire them enormously for sticking it out, for fighting
a war they hate in a country they loathe for a cause they neither care about nor
believe in.”
Graham said once, “For me, it was strange, and strained, to
have one son in the war in Vietnam and one at home demonstrating against it.”
She interviewed Tito on his summer vacation island of Brioni
(now Brijuni) in 1967 shortly after Yugoslavia became the first communist country
to open its borders to foreigners.
Graham said, “Women traditionally also have suffered – and many
still do – from an exaggerated desire to please, a syndrome so instilled in
women of my generation that it inhibited my behavior for many years, and in
ways still does.”
About Nixon’s resignation speech: “Along with a few people
in my office, I watched the weird speech Nixon made before leaving the White
House, fairly incoherently talking to his staff in the East Room about his
mother, who seemed to be on his mind a great deal. The unreality of the whole thing hung all
around us. After the long months that
had stretched into years, it was so strange to be watching what none of us had
ever imagined happening. It all seemed
both world-shattering and confusing. A
miracle of sorts had taken place - this country was about to change presidents
in an utterly democratic way, with the processes that had been put into place
two centuries before working in this unprecedented situation.” See previous book review on the Federalist Papers above….
She then writes: It
was over. Nixon was gone, Ford was
president, and, indeed, “our long national nightmare” was over. The relief came from having a nice, open, honest,
and nonthreatening president….We were only saved from extinction by someone mad
enough not only to tape himself but to tape himself talking about how to
conceal it. Well, who could have counted
on that? Not you and not me….It was a
conspiracy not of greed but of arrogance and fear by men who came to equate
their own political well-being with the nation’s very survival and security….To
my mind, the whole thing was a very real perversion of the democratic system -
from firing people who were good Republicans but who might have disagreed with
Nixon in the slightest, to the wiretapping, to the breaking and entering of
Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, to the myriad dirty tricks, to the attempts
to discredit and curb the media.
But on the other hand, she also writes: Much of the world remained
with Nixon and continued to think that the whole affair had been vastly exaggerated. Some of the world still does….many foreigners
failed to grasp the significance of Watergate, particularly in Europe and in
the Arab world, where people viewed the president as a foreign-policy genius,
which in many ways he was.
She said that her husband Phil encouraged her and the
children to be curious about people, not to assume things about them and their motives
without getting to know them. He
emphasized the importance of not believing in stereotypes, not only because
they don’t hold true to form but because you miss so much if you allow them to
dominate your responses. Great advice for all of us in these times.
“People who may disagree on politics must still be able to
communicate, and it’s crucial for all of us in the press to listen to all sides.”
About a dinner she held for the Reagans after he won the
election in 1980: The night the Reagans arrived for the dinner, my two wonderful
longtime maids, Lucy and Dora, were leaning out a second-floor window, watching
the limousine pull up. They saw
President-elect Reagan step out and embrace me, kissing me on both cheeks. Dora, a forceful and funny woman, turned to
Lucy and said, “I hope she enjoyed that because that’s the last time that will
ever happen.” Dora was wise in the ways
of Washington and ordinarily right, but in this instance she was wrong….with
some ups and downs, we managed to remain friends throughout the eight years of
Reagan’s administration.
She told this story as typical of the kind of person Reagan
was: In the hospital after the
assassination attempt the president , who was not supposed to get out of bed,
went to the bathroom and spilled some water on the floor in the process. When attendants came in, he was on his hands
and knees wiping it up. Asked why, he
said he was afraid the nurse would get into trouble.
Warren Buffet speech at Graham’s 70th birthday party:
The average growth for the top six media companies was 1,550 percent since
1964; ours (The Post) – at 3,150 percent - was more than double that. (What Warren didn’t say, of course, was how
much his sage advice had had to do with this record.). Warren also joked to the group that he had
once found a sheet of paper prominently displayed on my desk that said, “Assets
on the left, liabilities on the right.”
Toward the end she says:
Fulfilling work, writing, keeping up with my old friends, adding new
ones -- these are the things I concentrate on now, as well as relating to my children
and their families.
Until next month, happy reading and rambling!