1/18/24

Thursday, January 18, 2024

In bed at 10, awake at 3:15 and up at 3:55, unable to sleep thinking of Lilly.  10°, high of 16°, cloudy, wind WNW at 7 mph, 5-15/24, wind chill is -1°, -5 to +6 today.  Sunrise at 7:19, sunset at 4:45, 9+26.  Another 2 to 3 inches of snow is expected tonight and tomorrow morning.

Treadmill; pain.  Considerable discomfort today kept me off the treadmill this morning.   30:12 & 0.70 watching a long interview of Norman Finkelstein by Chrystal Gale re: Israel & Gaza; harsh criticism of Israel's relations with Palestinians.

I'm grateful for the VA's Whole Health Mindfulness Meditation call-in group on Thursday mornings.  The group consists largely of the same individuals each week, with Lou or Mary leading the conversation joined by Bill, a long-time practitioner, Chris, Mike, a couple others, and me.  I think I may be the only participant from the Milwaukee VA Whole Health program; the others are, I think, from the Green Bay program.  The weekly gathering keeps me 'mindful' of mindfulness and is for that reason among others beneficial since I would like to continue working on mindfulness and MBSR.  But I also enjoy simply the fellowship of the small group of old veterans.  It's a get-together, a socializing, an activity I rarely engage in anymore.   

LTMW otoh my neighborhood birds have returned in numbers to our feeders: chickadees, sparrows, finches, cardinals, nuthatches, even on the long niger feeder stuck in snow on the ground since its support wire snapped during an earlier storm.  

Declining bird populations.  The WaPo this morning reports that in Milwaukee the population of cedar waxwings is down 24%, starlings 19%, goldfinches 17%, robins 15%, and mourning doves 12%.  This is distressing news.  OTOH, populations of house wrens, house finches, and downy woodpeckers are up considerably.

My brush with the Milwaukee mafia.  Many years ago, I was kind to a female student of mine (K.B.) who was having some sort of physical or medical problem of some sort during a final exam.  I can't recall now what the problem was or how I accommodated her but it made quite an impression on her because she subsequently propositioned me.  I can't remember clearly the timing and circumstances of the situation except that she invited me to lunch at Snug's Restaurant in the Shorecrest Hotel on Prospect Avenue.  For some reason, which again I cannot recall, I couldn't or didn't simply decline the invitation, but I was uncomfortable about it and her intentions and spoke to Dean Boden about it beforehand, advising him of what I believed her intention to be.  I wish I could remember why I didn't decline, but in any event,, I didn't.  The student was known to the staff at the restaurant.  I think her family were neighbors of the owner, who was Frank Balistrieri, the Mafia boss in Milwaukee with ties to the mob in Chicago and in Las Vegas.  We were seated at what was Balistrieri's table when he was there.  During the lunch, while her intentions were hinted at, I made a point of talking about my wonderful wife and children and making it as clear as I could that I wasn't interested in any liaison and no liaison occurred as I reported back to the dean.  Months later, I received a telephone call from LOA, a classmate from my law school days and a good friend to this day.  He was then an assistant US attorney in Milwaukee and he had some involvement in the prosecution of Frank Balistrieri.  It turned out that Balistrieri's table was bugged by the FBI, my entire lunch conversation with the student had been recorded, and LOA had reviewed it in the course of his involvement with the prosecution.  He laughed about the student's clear if veiled intentions and my clear non-interest.  In yesterday's Journal-Sentinel there was a long story by Mary Spicuzza about the 1977 murder of her cousin, Augie Palmisano, who was murdered by a car bomb in the parking garage of his apartment at the Juneau Village Garden apartments on Van Buren Street.  Frank Balistrieri was widely believed to be the person who ordered the assassination, though he was never charged with it.  The news story described how the FBI had gained access to the Shorecrest Hotel and planted the listening device in the floor under the table where the student and I had lunch.  I wish I could remember today more of the circumstances of his sordid little adventure, and especially why I couldn't simply decline the invitation to lunch, but it all occurred half a century ago,  "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away . . ."

Sweet sour cabbage borscht.  This pot of soup is a real seat-of-the-pants slumgullion.  I threw a can of tomato bisque into it and some ketchup.  A quarter of the broth I cooked last night boiled away because I didn't pay attention to it boiling rather than simmering.  Will it be edible?  any good?  . . . 3 p.m., it's good!😋  An amazingly forgiving soup to concoct.     

Killers of the Flower Moon.  We watched this movie tonight.  Mixed feelings about it.