Ramblin' with Roger

U is for United Nations

Recently, I was searching for the Harris poll for some reason, and the first hit I got was http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/. Looks like the home page, right? Nope. It was the results of a Harris poll reported December 17, 2008 about the United Nations: Majorities of Adults in Five Largest European Countries and the U.S. Believe United Nations Does More Good Than Harm. “Three–quarters of French adults (75%), two-thirds of Italians (69%), Germans (67%) and Britons (65%) and at least three in five Spaniards (63%) and Americans (60%) all say the UN does more good than harm.”

Frankly, as an American, this surprised me. I hear a lot from the naysayers, not just in the media but even in my personal life, about what the survey calls “some of the harsher rhetoric towards the United Nations sometimes heard in the United States”.

Interestingly, the only real diffence between the Europeans and the American POV is that most Europeans believe the UN headquarters should move out of the United States, while most Americans believe believe it should stay. again. Again, this is milldly surprising, because many Americans who complain the most about the UN kvetch about world leaders, such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to “our” country with their anti-American rhetoric. Of course, UN territory is NOT US territory, though one has to fly into US territory to get there.

One certainly argue the efficacy of armed troops in the conflicts the world has had over the past 60 years or so. There’s little doubt, however , as to the importance of programs such as fighting hunger and disease. Here are 60 ways the UN believes it makes a difference. 9 December has been designated as International Anti-Corruption Day to raise awareness of the issue. And, of course, there’s a meeting going on in Copenhagen dealing with climate change.

As a librarian, I’m also interested in those less glamourous issues. The United Nations is cited as a great source for international data.

Also, WIPO Expands Searchable Patent Application Database
The United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva recently announced an expansion of its online free searchable patent application database. In addition to containing an existing 1.65 million international patents filed for protection under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) from 30 countries, the database now includes digital information for 1.49 million additional records from the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Vietnam, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), and Cuba.

I always wondered how the world would have turned out of the League of Nations, which US President Woodrow Wilsonb supported but which ythe United States failed to join, had been more successful, for instance, in treating the Weimer Republic more equitably. Could World War II been averted? Possibly not.

But I’m of tyhe opinion that nations need to keep talking, if only to try to stem the possibility of World War III.

*United Nations Suez Meeting (n.d., presumably 1956). Photographer: Carl Mydans
*Irish UN troops in the Katanga Province, former Belgian Congo, Africa. Date taken: 1961
*UN guard guarding the United Nations Building. Location: New York, NY, US. Date taken: July 1958. Photographer: Ralph Morse
*United Nations (translators?) Date taken: October 10, 1949. Photographer: Thomas Mcavoy
Pictures, again, from LIFE.com
ROG

Lennon

Sometimes I think about acknowledging the day John Lennon died, but something always draws me in.

This year, it’s the fact that he is on the top 10 list of dead celebrities. According to Forbes:

No. 7: John Lennon
$15 million

Musician
Died: Dec. 8, 1980
Age: 40
Cause: Murder

It was a big year for the Beatles, especially for the songwriter behind many of the band’s most famous songs. In September, Electronic Arts and MTV Games released The Beatles: Rock Band, allowing fans to jam along with a virtual version of the band and download additional albums for $17. As well, the Fab Four’s music was repackaged and remastered in a 16-disc box set that went on sale in September. LOVE, the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show featuring the group’s music, still reels fans into The Mirage

Add to that John’s widow Yoko Ono licensing his song “Real Love” to be used by JC Penney in television ads, and her giving Ben & Jerry’s ice cream permission to release a Lennon-inspired flavor called “Imagine Whirled Peace.”

Oh, since I know you need to know, the top-earning dead celebrity is French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who “earned $350 million in the past year. Much of his estate was auctioned off at Christie’s in February. Laurent died of brain cancer in June 2008.” So his #1 status probably won’t be maintained.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein rank second with combined earnings of $235 million. Why are they considered as one unit, I don’t know. Both of them composed with others. Anyway, I imagine the revival of South Pacific did not hurt.

Michael Jackson is third with $90 million; I have to assume it’s a reflection of moneys in, since, before his death in June, there were numerous reports about his mounting debt.

Elvis Presley, the perennial leader in this category, is fourth with $55 million, though he made more than in previous years. He’s followed by J.R.R. Tolkien ($50 million), Charles Schulz ($35 million), John Lennon ($15 million), Theodor Geisel -Dr. Seuss ($15 million), Albert Einstein ($10 million) and Michael Crichton ($9 million).

The interesting thing about the Beatles 09/09/09 revival is that it has gotten me newly interested in the Beatles, again. Not that they ever fell very far from my heart. But watching all the specials reinvigorated my ears. Seeing the Paul McCartney ABC special on that aired Thanksgiving night reminded me of Lennon playing the organ with his elbow on I’m Down at Shea Stadium in 1965.

I haven’t actually GOTTEN any new music – the Beatles in Mono box set is on the Christmas list – but just reading about the differences in the recordings, especially the white album has gotten me excited.

Did I ever mention that, years ago, I received a picture of the Imagine square at Strawberry Fields in NYC? It sits over the entryway from the living room to the hallway.

Ah, the picture above is from LIFE again. It’s from 1980, but I didn’t need the caption to know that.

ROG

Strange Questions Meme, Part 2

Back to Sunday Stealing, whose motto is: “Cheers to all us thieves!”

26. What color is your watch?

Seriously, I kill watches. I think it is in my DNA that whatever watch I own dies in four months. I have a brown-strapped watch around somewhere; doesn’t work.

27. What do you think of when you hear “Australia”?

Sydney Opera House. I blame the Wonder Pets.

28. Would you strip for money?

No. You should be pleased.

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?

Generally inside. Something ecologically and aesthetically even worse about the drive through than getting fast food inside.

30. What is your favorite number?

37. It’s my birthday. Once, when I was commissioner of a college election, in order to stop voter fraud, I had a friend mark the 37 on the back of the students’ ID cards. And yes, quite a few people had tried to vote more than once.

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?

Time Warner cable. Wanted to know why it is that when I look at the next six days ahead on the DVR, there is NO information for Monday. Last weekend, there was NO information for Tuesday. Had I not specifically checked this, I would have missed not only those days, but also subsequent days.

32. Any plans today?

Same as it ever was. “Water dissolving… and water removing. There is water… at the bottom of the ocean.”

33. In how many states have you lived?

Two, North Carolina (4 months), and New York (the rest of my life).

34. Biggest annoyance right now?

Might be the New York State legislature for all sorts of reasons, not the least having to do with cuts to education and libraries.

35. Last song listened to?

Oh Bess, Where Is My Bess by Frank Sinatra. This excludes songs at church yesterday.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

Yes, and so can my five-year-old daughter. In fact, she was my motivation.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?

Someone does come by some Saturdays for an hour or two. In fact, when she does not – and this past Saturday was one of those times – I clean obsessively thoroughly. Cleaning the spaces between the radiator folds. I don’t enjoy it, as I take forever, but if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it well.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?

Red Chuck Taylor sneakers. I have a Christmas ornament that someone gave me that looks like red Chucks. Apparently, I was a great disappointment to my fellow JEOPARDY! contestants in 1998 when I DIDN’T wear them on the show after I had been wearing them during the warm up.

39. Are you jealous of anyone?

Anyone who can type.

40. Is anyone jealous of you?

Seriously doubt it. I could be surprised.

41. Do you love anyone?

Quite a few, actually.

42. Do any of your friends have children?

About half of them.

43. What do you usually do during the day?

A working class hero is something to be.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?

This seems to be a very popular question on these things. No, but there are certain people that, if they just all developed laryngitis, or failing that, fell off the face of the earth, I’d be mighty happy.

45. Do you use the word hello daily?

Hello, hello. I don’t why you say goodbye. I say HELLO.

I was once working at the voting polls, which involved being there at 5:30 a.m., so I was walking there at 5:20, and this guy says, “Hello.” I say “hello” back, but I haven’t talked to anyone yet, so the vocal chords weren’t really warmed up. He didn’t hear me, evidently, and he said, “Don’t you say ‘hello’ when someone says ‘hello’?” I said that I DID say hello, that he hadn’t heard me. Yeesh.

A few years ago I made a mixed CD with songs with “hello” in the title: Hello, It’s Me; Hello Hooray; Hello Hello…

46. What color is your car?

Some boring silver gray that is so damn generic that I never recognize it except by the license plate.

47. What size wedding ring do you wear?

No idea at this point. But it hasn’t changed.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?

Yes, whoever asked such a lame question.

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?

Well, yes and no. There is one not that far from me, the Great Escape in Lake George. I was at a conference at the lodge, and walked around the closed amusement park – it WAS November in upstate New York.

50. How did you get your worst scar?

May have told this story before: When I was 16, I had borrowed someone’s bike. My friend Carol and I were going to ride over from our part of town, Binghamton, NY’s First Ward, to the South Side to a friend’s house. We managed to go the length of Front Street without having to stop or slow down.

However, as we were going across the Riverside Drive bridge, I found myself gaining on Carol. Every bike I had had up until then would brake by essentially peddling backwards, but this was not working; I would later discover that it was one of those new-fangled bikes with hand brakes. Anyway, in order to not run over my friend, who I had known since kindergarten, I put my foot down on the sidewalk to slow me down. The bike somehow flipped over.

After recovering from the fall, we rode the rest of the way without incident. It was only there when Carol and our friends Karen and Lois looked at my arm and saw the gash in my arm, full of blood, dirt and pebbles. They cleaned it out, but the scar lasted. Although with my vitiligo, the scar has virtually disappeared; hey, an upside!

That was the day I first heard the first Led Zeppelin album, incidentally: “Good Times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share.”
***
Record producer Bob Keane died last week.
***
For no particular reason, save for the whimsy that comes with fatigue, above is a picture captioned: “Served at dinner for Captain Richard McCutchen, winner of the $64,000 question, on TV quiz program, a large basket of fruit which was part of the dinner.” (September 1955; photographer: Yale Joel for LIFE).

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: An Education

The wife and I had a babysitter a couple weeks ago, so we looked at the movies playing at our favorite cinema emporium, the Spectrum 8. While there were other movies we hadn’t seen, none had intrigued me as much as An Education, a movie for which Nick Hornsby – who had scripted About A Boy, a movie I liked a lot – had written the screenplay, based on a Lynn Barber memoir. The film had also received big kudos at one of the film festivals. AND my wife is an educator.

Based on a true story, An Education is a tale of a girl named Jenny, 16 going on 17, in 1961 suburban London, England. She’s a very smart secondary school student, probably posed to go to Oxford University. Yet she is also quite bored with her perceived lot in life, secondary school to ensure getting to Oxford University.. During a rainstorm, a man in his 30s offers her cello a lift. This starts a very subtle and slow-moving courtship, not just of romance but also of lifestyle, which involves wooing her parents as much as the girl.

This is a very subtle film, with few BIG MOMENTS. Watching the film, directed by Lone Scherfig, I didn’t have big reactions until near the end. Thinking about it afterward, it all made a great deal of sense.

Even critics not loving the film, and it has a 94% positive rating in Rotten Tomatoes – gave kudos to the lead actress, who is a real find. Played by newcomer Carey Mulligan, she plays the character with that know-it-all teenager without being too grating. She has a certain young Audrey Hepburn-type beauty in this film.

My favorite character in this film is actually Jenny’s father, Jack, played by Alfred Molina, who I probably last saw as Doc Ock in the Spider-Man 2 movie. Jenny thinks of him as a real stick-in-the-mud, and maybe he is, but he shows colors of who he used to be.

Also starring Cara Seymour as Jenny’s mom, Majorie; Peter Sarsgaard as the suitor, David; Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike as David’s friends Danny and Helen; Olivia Williams as Jenny’s teacher, Miss Stubbs; and Emma Thompson as the headmistress. It was actually an Emma Thompson line that I most reacted to until near the end.

My wife liked the picture but didn’t want to because David was not who he said he was. But we see this throughout the film; at some level, Jenny sees this too. I do wish I loved this picture, but it felt somehow at arm’s length. It was a well-crafted film, and I enjoyed it well enough.

ROG

Christmas Shopping QUESTIONS

Are you a Black Friday shopper? Or even a Thanksgiving day shopper? I’m not. I HATE shopping on Black Friday, with something approaching religious fervor. More accurately, the one time I went out there in the big box stores, I felt like an atheist at a tent revival.

Actually, there was a Black Friday a few years ago that wasn’t so bad. We went shopping in a little town called Delhi, NY. It was no more crowded than a normal shopping day. It was relaxed and pleasant.

Are you a Cyber Monday shopper? I have been, and would have been this year, save for the fact that I had a sick child who was not so ill that we couldn’t play the usual coterie of games (Sorry, Uno and Candyland) over and over, plus reading to her.

For years, I used to have a tradition before online shopping got so easy. I’d take off a weekday from work around December 17 and do all my shopping in one day. It was early enough that if it didn’t pan out, I still had the weekend, but close enough to create urgency in me without anxiety.

What kind of Christmas shopper are you?

ROG