9/21/24

 Saturday, September 21, 2024

1915 Cecil Chubb bought the English prehistoric monument Stonehenge for £6,600

1922 US President Warren G. Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine

1949 Mao Zedong and Chinese Communist leaders proclaimed the People's Republic of China

In bed at 9, up at 4:40.  I let Lilly out at 7:15 with the sun at 89°E and 15°high.  At solar noon today, 12:44 p.m., the sun's altitude will be 47°.  

Prednisone, day 130, 7.5 mg., day 9.  Prednisone at 5:00.  Breakfast around 12:45.  Morning meds at 1:15.

Cold turkey.  Today marks three weeks without watching broadcast TV or cable news, national and local, no MSNBC or CNN, no Lester Holt, no hippy-dippy weatherpeople.

Steve drove up from Chicago on a mission of mercy to help with or do some household tasks that Geri and I can't do anymore, including lugging five 40-pound bags of water softener salt downstairs.  I gave him the Allen Edmonds shoes I was going to give to SVDP in Port Washington to give to a charity he knows in Chicago that helps low-income people prepare for job interviews.  He was here only a couple of hours, then left to visit a friend in Sturgeon Bay whose mother died recently.

MULS Oral History.  The law school's alumni person, Christine Wilzynski-Vogel asked me to participate in an oral history project they are starting next month and I agreed.  I'm not sure why, perhaps because I recognize myself as such a relic these days.  I just remembered that the only 2 Black students in my entering class were Jim Beckett, son of Cal Beckett, Milwaukee's Community Affairs (i.e., Black community) Director, and Ron Warren, a physical therapist at Mount Sinai Hospital up the street from the law school.  Ron and his wife lived in an expensive corner apartment in Juneau Village where we lived in a less expensive one-bedroom apartment in another JV building.  Ron and his wife drove a Corvette and a Thunderbird, her the former and she the latter as I recall.  Ron flunked out of law school after the first year.  Jim Beckett and I were appointed to work with Tom Jacobson who was appointed "Special Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Affairs" or some such title by Bronson LaFollette, Wisconsin's then attorney general.   We had only 5 women students.  Phyllis Eisenberg, George McClusky Felger, Caren Krumbiegel,  Marjorie Templin, and one other whose name I can't recall.   The second semester of that first year of law school saw the beginning of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the beginning of the end of America's effort to control the form of government in that country.  

Sweet Sour Cabbage Borscht.  I've made this soup many times and each time I make some mistake.  I made the beef stock yesterday and refrigerated it and the shank meat overnight.  Today I started Phase 2 and realized I forgot to get a lemon and a can of diced tomatores at Sendik's yesterday.  I put the soup over a low heat and drove up to the store to get what I needed.  I picked up some milk, blueberries, and blackberries also.

Autumn leaves are turning color and falling.

Anniversaries.  Stonehenge - who knew it was privately owned before 1915?  Thank goodness for Cecil Chubb and his gift to the world.  I first became very interested in Stonehenge and its ancient history when I was a law student and read "Stonehenge Decoded" by Gerald Hawkins in Dean Reynolds Seitz's Constitutional Law class, along with "The Double Helix" by James Watson.  My thanks to The Dean Sez gouge.

Balfour - I had not known until today that the United States government took an official position supporting the Balfour declaration supporting the creation of "a Jewish home" in Palestine.  I hope to do some reading on this matter tonight or more likely tomorrow.

Communist China - I was 8 years old, living in a basement apartment on the south side of Chicago when Mao declared the creation of the People's Republic of China, much as David Ben Gurion had declared the creation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.   Little could I or my parents know that the communist victory over the nationalists would shake the world, especially the US government ('Who lost China!?!) and would lead to the American invasion of South Vietnam 16 years later, with me as one of the invaders.  

The falling leaves drift by the window

The autumn leaves of red and gold

I see your lips, the summer kisses

The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long

And soon I'll hear old winter's song

But I miss you most of all my darling

When autumn leaves start to fall