Category Archives: Unpacking

The Parking Garage Is The Thing

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LONG STORY SHORT: The City of Miami’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board [HEP Board to Miami hep cats] voted 4-1 Tuesday to raze the historic Coconut Grove Playhouse in order to preserve its historic façade.

Confused yet? Not as confused as everyone was when it was revealed — but only near the very end of the meeting — that the HEP Board was merely approving the “concept only” of demolishing the historic theater, and not any of the myriad drawings, plans, and designs that were shown during the evening in order to sell the development project to the taxpayers of Miami. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

LONG STORY LONGER: I’ve seen a lot of Dog & Pony shows at Miami City Hall, but this one takes the cake.

As they always do, this one went on for several hours. First the developers (save one, which we’ll get to in a eventually) got to give several PowerPoint presentations that seemingly went on for 3 days (especially for me because this is the same Road Show that I attended at Ransom Everglades a couple of months back. It seemed to have only gotten longer since then).

One PowerPoint gave the entire history of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, from its inception as a movie theater 90 years ago, through its several renovations in the year since. Due deference was given to original designer Richard Kiehnel, of the famed Kiehnel and Elliott architectural firm, and Alfred Browning Parker, the ’50s “Miami Modernist”, who designed the live theater that was applied over Kiehnel’s Mediterranean-inspired design.

The Bright Plan

QUICK HISTORY LESSON: Before the (older) Coconut Grove was illegally annexed in 1925 by (the upstart) Miami, it ruled its own destiny.

The Movers & Shakers of Coconut Grove had big plans for paradise. To that end they hired Philadelphia architect John Irwin Bright, who came up with The Bright Plan, an ambitious redesign of downtown Coconut Grove. The new city hall (near where CocoWalk ended up) would have faced Biscayne Bay, with a large reflecting pool that ran down what became Macfarlane. This grand plan, which was never realized, was based upon Mediterranean architecture. While it didn’t come to fruition, one building from that plan was actually built. The Coconut Grove Theater opened in January of 1927 and was given a Mediterranean feel to match that of The Bright Plan. The rest is history.

The Dog & Pony Show descends into farce

We were led to believe — by those who were arguing for the theater’s ultimate demolition — that all the additions, subtractions, and renovations to Kiehnel’s original sublime movie house were, at best, architectural abominations and, at worst, an act of barbarism against humanity. [I might be exaggerating. Slightly.]

Next up on the double bill was the PowerPoint showing the current plans for the site’s footprint. We were shown drawings, elevations, blueprints, and artists’ renderings of the finished project in situ. During the presentation we were given enough facts and figures, to confuse anybody trying to pay attention. That PowerPoint lasted for at least a week. [I might be exaggerating. Slightly.]

The parking garage, that gigantic thing in the middle
of the development, dwarfs the rest of the project

However, none of that yakkity yak yak mattered in the final analysis because it was revealed right at the very end of the meeting — after all the PowerPoint presentations, after all the public input, and after all the developers had a chance for rebuttal — that:

  • 1). The drawings and the PowerPoint presentation we were just shown had already been supplanted by another — newer — set of drawings and blueprints that no one had seen yet, including the HEP Board;
  • 2). But, that didn’t even matter because the only thing being asked of the HEP Board that night was to give the developers an Up or Down vote to the “concept” of demolishing the historic Coconut Grove Playhouse, as opposed to approving the actual plans of buildings we just spent an eternity viewing. Each building, and every subsequent change, will have to come back before HEP for approval.

WAIT! WHAT?

I actually gasped when I realized the Dog & Pony Show had become a Bait & Switch.

I had driven in from Sunrise, to spend hours in a room colder than a meat locker, in order to listen to a developer’s pitch that I’d already heard before. I was frustrated to learn that the citizens of Miami had been given, in essence, fake news.

There was nothing taxpayers could say about it at that point because PUBLIC COMMENTS were already closed. The only people who could speak to that was the HEB Board members and they seemed disinclined to inquire why everybody’s time was wasted. I quickly texted one of my super duper, secret, anonymous sources, who seemed pretty gleeful at this turn of events:

ME: No real fireworks. The plan might not be approved. There’s no motion on the table yet.
SECRET SOURCE: I’m watching this [from home] and this is nuts… they are idiots. Now they [HEP Board] get the reso.

BTW: This startling info only came out after some probing questions posed by Lynn Lewis, the only HEP Board member to eventually vote NO to this plan to raze history in order to preserve history. She was trying to get to the bottom of some questions she had in determining whether she would table a motion to reject the plan.

That’s right, folks. It was only in the minutes just before a motion was put on the table, right near the end of a very long meeting, that the HEP Board realized what was really being voted on. Even I was fooled by what I had witnessed.

Lewis finally crafted a motion that rejected the plan and called for the developers to return with more concrete plans. She didn’t get a second and the motion withered on the dais. A motion to approve the plan “in concept only” was tabled and passed 4-1.

In the end, and is always the case in Miami, the developers got exactly what they wanted and needed.

A drawing of the 5 story, 513 slot, parking garage, which is now out of date. Not Now Silly has been told it’s already been reduced in size. However, I have been unable to get the current height or the amount of parking spaces.

The Parking Garage is the thing

As I mentioned above, one developer didn’t show themselves. That’s not exactly true. What is more accurate to say is that Art Noriega, Miami Parking Authority’s CEO, never gave a presentation. This despite the fact that the massive parking garage is one of the primary drivers of a lot of the decisions that have been made along the way.

However, I saw Noriega several times during the meeting peaking out from behind the dais. At various times he was on either side of the room or the other, lurking behind all the other city swells there to service the meeting (like city lawyers and such, who could answer legal questions if they came up). I’m sure if he had been needed, Noriega might have been called upon to answer any questions that came up. However, the huge, honking, parking garage was less a bone of contention than it deserved to be.

A mere 25 months ago, after I saw the first artistic drawings that a source had leaked me, I published The Coconut Grove Playhouse Trojan Horse (Part I; Part II). These articles suggest that it’s the parking garage driving the theater redevelopment and not the other way around.

Nothing I heard on Tuesday changed my mind. In fact, the project seems to have morphed from a mere 5-story parking garage into a condo and restaurant development with a parking garage and small theater attached.

TO BE FAIR: There’s no denying that parking is sorely needed in that area, something I’ve written about previously after sitting in that parking lot for hours on end counting cars. Furthermore, continued development will make that need more dire. Immediately to the north of the Playhouse footprint is a plan for a 4-story office building fronting on Main Highway, which will probably have restaurants on the ground floor. [See rendering above.] Additionally, Ransom Everglades private school, just south of the Playhouse on the east side of Main Highway, is bursting its parking lots at the seams. Then consider that all those valets in front of the restaurants along Commodore Plaza (working for tips only) are desperate for nearby places to stash cars.

Not Now Silly has published stories about all these parking issues previously.

However, what was once a parking garage development project, with its 300-seat theater afterthought, will now also have residential condos, retail shops, and a restaurant.

Because there’s now a lot of misinformation swirling after the Dog & Pony Show Bait & Switch, I have been trying to get the definitive answers to the following questions:

  1. How many floors tall is the parking garage? [I’ve already been told it’s been downsized from 5, but have been cautioned not to say “4”.]
  2. How many parking spaces will be in the parking garage? [Downsized from 513.]
  3. How many residential condos are in the current development plans? [A crazy number I heard was 30, but that was when the garage was 5 stories.]
  4. How many of those are FOR SALE? [All of them I’ve been told off the record.]
  5. How many residential units are being created for visiting directors and actors at the theater? [This may no longer be part of the plan, or they may be in the front building, the only portion being saved.]
  6. How large is the restaurant? How many seats?
  7. How many retail stores will be in the front of the building? [The only portion being saved.]

There are a lot of unanswered questions and this massive development project never should have been passed without the HEP Board having more answers.

This is the only part of the historic Coconut Grove Playhouse that will be saved. It’s the narrow, sliver of the building on either sides of entrance, that brackets the corner of Charles Avenue and Main Highway. It will have retail spaces.

A 300 seat theater? You’re joking, right?

Miami is supposed to be a World Class City. What’s World Class about a theater that’s smaller than the auditoriums of several of the local schools?

Where’s the room for growth in a 300-seat theater?

GableStage, the company that will take over programming at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, currently operates in a 150-seat theater. It has the potential to double its audience. However, where does it go from there?

A 300-seat theater is not large enough to bring in touring musicians, who might be booked for nights the theater is dark. A 300-seat theater is not large enough to be rented out of community events when the theater is dark. As mentioned, the local school auditoriums are slightly larger.

People who are arguing for this configuration tell me Miami can’t support a bigger theater. That there are already large theaters in Miami that don’t sell out.

Detractors at the meeting kept reminding the citizens that the Playhouse failed as a much larger theater. However, a number of factors could have led to the Playhouse’s demise, from bad publicity, to the wrong kind of shows, to bad scheduling.

I contend that if you put on the right shows — including musical artists on nights when the stage is dark — you’ll draw clientele.

However, if you build a 300 seat theater, you’ll never draw more than that. This is nothing but small time, small town, small thinking.

This plan shows a second theater off the main theater.

TO BE FAIR: There is a plan to build a second theater on the same footprint that has 700 seats, in addition to the 300-seat room already passed “in concept”.

However, the 700-seat theater is unfunded. Getting the $40 million to build it is considered a long shot, at best, and will probably never be built.

It’s been my contention all along that a 300 seat theater is small time, small town, small thinking.

COMING SOON TO NOT NOW SILLY

How Will the Playhouse Redevelopment Hurt West Grove?

Why the Miami Parking Authority is too powerful

New York Slave Revolt ► Throwback Thursday

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We have to go all the way back to 1712, before this country was even a country, for this week’s Throwback Thursday.

At the time New York City was merely a small town, in a province of Britain, on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean. The crown colony known as New York (as opposed to old York, of course) was much larger than the current state. It included “all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania“, as the WikiWackyWoo tells us.

Slavery, on the other hand, had been around forever. According to the Smithsonian Institute:

Life was wretched for the slaves brought to New York. Many of the city’s early landmarks, from City Hall to the eponymous wall of Wall Street were built using slave labor. The city even constructed an official slave market in 1711, Jim O’Grady reported for WNYC News in 2015.

“It was a city-run slave market because they wanted to collect tax revenue on every person who was bought and sold there,” historian Chris Cobb told O’Grady. “And the city hired slaves to do work like building roads.”

It is generally agreed that the New York Slave Revolt probably could not have happened elsewhere.

In the bustling town of New York, with its population at about 6,000 people, it’s estimated that about 10-15% were slaves owned by others. These slaves worked and lived in close proximity to one another, unlike the plantations of the south where there might be great distances between small groups of slaves. That immediacy allowed the slaves to talk to each other, to make plans, to foment rebellion.

Further reading at Not Now Silly

Is Toussaint L’Overture Packing Heat? Again?

The Great Slave Auction

Nat Turner Sentenced To Be Hanged

Frederick Douglass Escapes

Official Stamp of Approval

No Skin In The Game
Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Where The Sidewalk Ends, Racism Begins
Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Rebellion or Revolt?

On the night of April 6, 1712, resentment reached a flashpoint. It began in, what was then, the middle of town, on Maiden Lane. There about 23 slaves met and began their rebellion. I’ll let Colonial New York’s Governor Robert Hunter pick up the story:

I must now give your Lordships an account of a bloody conspiracy of some of the slaves of this place, to destroy as many of the inhabitants as they could….when they had resolved to revenge themselves, for some hard usage they apprehended to have received from their masters (for I can find no other cause) they agreed to meet in the orchard of Mr. Crook in the middle of the town, some provided with fire arms, some with swords and others with knives and hatchets. This was the sixth day of April, the time of the meeting was about twelve or one clock in the night, when about three and twenty of them were got together. One…slave to one Vantilburgh set fire to [a shed] of his masters, and then repairing to his place where the rest were, they all sallyed out together with their arms and marched to the fire. By this time, the noise of the fire spreading through the town, the people began to flock to it. Upon the approach of several, the slaves fired and killed them. The noise of the guns gave the alarm, and some escaping, their shot soon published the cause of the fire, which was the reason that nine Christians were killed, and about five or six wounded. Upon the first notice, which was very against them, but the slaves made their retreat into the woods, by the favour of the night. Having ordered the day following, the militia of this town and the country of West Chester to drive [to] the Island, and by this means and strict searches in the town, we found all that put the design in execution, six of these having first laid violent hands upon themselves [committed suicide], the rest were forthwith brought to their tryal before ye Justices of this place….In that court were twenty seven condemned, whereof twenty one were executed, one being a woman with a child, her execution by than means suspended. Some were burnt, others hanged, one broke on the wheel, and one hung alive in chains in the town, so that there has been the most exemplary punishment inflicted that could be possibily [sic] thought of.

Not surprisingly conditions for slaves became worse following the rebellion. Laws were quickly passed that prevented slaves from gathering in groups of 4 or more. They could not carry firearms, nor could they gamble. Punishment for those crimes was a whipping. However, the new laws also demanded the Death Penalty for property crimes, rape, and conspiracy to kill. In addition, owners who wanted to set their slaves free would be required to pay a tax of £200, which was far more than they could get by selling the slave to someone else.

It wasn’t until 1799 that New York outlawed slavery, but “it remained an intrinsic part of city life until after the Civil War, as businessmen continued to profit off of the products of the slave trade like sugar and molasses imported from the Caribbean” not to mention the products from the south.

Slavery is ‘Merka’s original sin. The sin of Racism continues to this very day.

FloriDUH Becomes a TerrUHtory ► Throwback Thursday

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1823 map of Florida Territory

History is complicated. The history of Florida even more so. On this day in 1822, it took the first step to statehood by becoming a territory of the United States.

But the history of Florida’s long march to statehood is one of the bloodiest in this country.

Originally discovered by Spaniard Juan Ponce de León — explorer, conquistador, and former-Governor of Puerto Rico — in 1513, a century before the British established its colonies much farther north. He had been looking for the mythical Fountain of Youth, unless that story is a myth as well.No matter. Ponce de León discovered La Florida, despite its robust native population; claimed it for Spain, despite its robust native population; and then left, leaving it to its robust native population.

He returned to southwest La Florida in 1521 to establish a Spanish colony, but that didn’t go as planned. The native Calusa people fought the Spanish and, in the process, de León was injured. He returned to Cuba to lick his wounds, but eventually died. He was later interred in the Cathedral of San Juan Batista in Puerto Rico.

According to the WikiWackyWoo:

Florida continued to remain a Spanish possession until the end of the Seven Years’ War when Spain ceded it to the Kingdom of Great Britain in exchange for the release of Havana. In 1783, after the American Revolution, Great Britain ceded Florida back to Spain.[2]:xvii

The second term of Spanish rule was influenced by the nearby United States. There were border disputes along the boundary with the state of Georgia and issues of American use of the Mississippi. These disputes were supposedly solved in 1795 by the Treaty of San Lorenzo which, among other things, solidified the boundary of Florida and Georgia along the 31st parallel. However, as Thomas Jefferson had once predicted, the U.S. could not keep its hands off Florida.[2]:xviii–xix

The United States continued to meddle and sent troops into Florida, mostly as an excuse to chase runaway slaves. These so-called Black Seminoles lived alongside the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes, who had earlier fled oppression and genocide in the north and were already adapted to hiding and making a living in the Florida swamps.

In 1818 General Andrew Jackson, who would eventually use his wartime experiences to run and win the presidency, invaded Florida for his second time. The Wiki picks up the story:

Because Spanish Florida was a refuge for blacks escaping slavery, who allied with the Seminole Indians, Jackson invaded the territory in 1816 to destroy the Negro Fort. He led a second invasion in 1818, as part of the First Seminole War, resulting in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 and the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States. Jackson briefly served as Florida’s first Territorial Governor in 1821.
[…]
In 1830, Jackson [as president] signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated most members of the Native American tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The relocation process resulted in widespread death and sickness amongst the Indians forced to walk from their ancestral lands to western reservations. The extent to which Jackson can personally be held responsible is debated by historians, but the removal is generally regarded as a violation of human rights. This, along with his relative support for slavery, has significantly damaged Jackson’s reputation.

An understatement, if I ever read one.

The ‘Merkin government continued to remove natives from Florida, leading to the 2nd and 3rd Seminole Wars, as the Wiki informs us:

Taken together, the Seminole Wars were the longest and most expensive (both in human and monetary terms) Indian Wars in United States history.

And, if I may add, a permanent stain on the history of ‘Merka.

Florida officially became a state on March 3, 1845. FloriDUH officially became a laughing stock almost every day since. Just ask Florida Man.

TO BE FAIR: Florida has one of my favourite places. Have a musical montage on me.

Adolf Hitler Becomes Dictator ► Throwback Thursday

You know who else liked dogs?

It was on this day Germany passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which followed the Reichstag fire of a month earlier. This effectively made Adolf Hitler the dictator of Germany.

SPOILER ALERT: Adolph Hitler eventually committed suicide after starting — and losing — World War Two. More than 60 million people died in that war, or about 3% of the world’s population.

Eighty-four years is not that long ago in the scheme of things.

I was born 7 years after the war ended. My eldest sister was born during the war. Maybe as a young boy growing up in a Jewish household I’m more sensitive to Hitlerian references than your average alt-right asshole, but I’ve never heard so many ludicrous references to Nazi Germany as I have in the last 2 years — on both the Left and the Reich Wing. The latest to embarrass himself  is comedian Tim Allen who feels that being a conservative in Hollywood is akin to living among Nazis:

“You know, you get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes,” the comedian joked on  “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Friday. “This is like ’30s Germany.”

Listen, motherfucker, when they start sending Hollywood conservatives to the gas chambers, I’ll be on the front lines fighting on the front lines to oppose that. But, until then, you are merely a rich hypocrite with a much larger FREE SPEECH megaphone to spout nonsense than that of the average alt-right asshole. You owe humanity an apology.

The article continues:

The comedian’s grousing was met with immediate backlash, with the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect demanding an apology from the star of “Last Man Standing.”

“Tim, have you lost your mind?” Steven Goldstein, the executive director of organization, said in a statement. “No one in Hollywood today is subjecting you or anyone else to what the Nazis imposed on Jews.” 

ZAKLY!!!

And yet, every once in a while, a comparison to Nazi Germany rings true and makes the hairs on the back of my neck bristle.

F’rinstance: Ever since Emperor Trump lied his way through the oath of office, there has been barrels of electronic ink spilled warning people that an event similar to the Reichstag fire could be on the horizon.

Meanwhile, as George Santayana famously said:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

People have asked me why I make a jokes about Emperor Trump, as opposed to treating him as an existential threat to all of humanity — something I believe with all my heart. I agree with Mel Brooks, according to an interview he gave 60 Minutes back in 2001:

Some of that pent-up animosity comes from his experience in the Army. “I was in the Army. ‘Jewboy! Out of my way, out of my face, Jewboy,'” he recalls soldiers saying to him. Brooks, who served in World War II de-activating land mines, spent a short time in the stockade for getting even with one heckler. “I took his helmet off. I said, ‘I don’t want to hurt your helmet ’cause it’s G.I. issue.’ And I smashed him in the head with my mess kit,” he says.

One anti-Semite Brooks has been trying to get even with for most of his adult life is Adolf Hitler, whom he lampoons first in his movie and now on the stage. “Hitler was part of this incredible idea that you could put Jews in concentration camps and kill them…How do you get even with the man? How do you get even with him?” he asks Wallace.

“You have to bring him down with ridicule, because if you stand on a soapbox and you match him with rhetoric, you’re just as bad as he is, but if you can make people laugh at him, then you’re one up on him,” he tells Wallace. “It’s been one of my lifelong jobs – to make the world laugh at Adolf Hitler,” says Brooks.

Similarly, I also got Jewboy and Kike growing up in the late ’50s, more than a decade after Brooks. Not always, but it was mostly as I walked past the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic school [now the Michigan Technical Academy Charter School] on Pembroke, catercorner to Bow Elementary School, where I went.

Or, maybe Mel Brooks was just being prescient. Is it Springtime for alt-right assholes? Only time will tell.


BONUS MEL:

One Good Thing About Emperor Trump ► Unpacking the Writer

Unlike most libtards (suddenly the mellifluous term is back in vogue among the Reich Wing), I’m thrilled with the way the Emperor Trump administration is going. Let me explain.

LONG STORY SHORT: Fox has so closely hitched its wagon to the whore it rode in on, that when The Cheetos Jesus finally goes down in flames — and smart people know he will — Fox “News” will be cratering with him.

Let me explain: For the past 8 years I have been writing Fox “News” criticism, first at NewsHounds (under the nom de troll Aunty Em Erican) and later from the Not Now Silly Newsroom and PoliticusUSA. That makes me somewhat of an expert on the propaganda channel.

Here’s what I’ve detected and further predict: The farther Emperor Trump gets from the tree of reality, the more Fox “News” climbs out on the limb with him. Eventually it’s going to going to snap under the sheer tonnage of the FAKE NEWS being disseminated by both. Unless Fox viewers are as stupid as many presume them to be.

We libtards are used to seeing the Reich Wing ECHO CHAMBER freak out over one stupid thing after another. However, Trump & Fox have created an ECHO MACHINE, which is The Fox News Effect on steroids.

Every Fox “News” critic worth their electrons has written about The Fox News Effect, so there’s no need to rehash any of that. However, what makes this different from previous incarnations is that the Oval Office is has been interpolated between Fox and the rest of the media, which now reports on what the Oval Office says, which is often said first on the Fox “News” Channel. It’s the vast circle of life, or FAKE NEWS.

To quote my latest Friday Fox Follies:

You’re be forgiven if this makes you as dizzy as a Tilt-A-Whirl: First Fox “News” spews, then it’s retweeted by the Oval Office, which is reported on by Fox, subsequently cited by Emperor Trump in interviews with Fox, before being debunked by one Foxite, validated by another, ending with the station proffering a brand new conspiracy, leading to red faces, retractions, and apologies all around.

And, what about that brand new conspiracy? It turned out that it came from Russian media before Judge Andrew Napolitano (who I used to make fun of weekly) spewed it. Then Spicey Spicey repeated it before Trump disavowed it, saying it came from Fox, “Go talk to them,” he told the media as German Prime Minister Angela Merkel looked on in horror.

According to my own reporting, the Fox audience has been fragmenting ever since the fans of Bully Boy Bolling attacked the fans of Dana “Butter Won’t Melt In Her Mouth” Perino after the latter truthfully accused the former of being a Trump fan boy — and this was even before Agent Orange threw his toupee in the ring.

Now he’s throwing Fox “News” under the bus.

I’ll be over here popping the popcorn.


Pops at his 90th birthday party

I’ve written about my depression previously, so I won’t belabour the point, other than to point out (and semi-apologize) that my wordage lately has been less than what I would like because of it.

A month ago would have been Pops’ 91st birthday, just 3 months after he died. I’ve found it rougher than I would have ever imagined. We lived together for over 11 years, not to mention the first 18 years of my life. That’s a long time.

That said, I’m aware I’m slacking in this area (and others) and I’m going to start kicking my own ass again.

To that end, I have been setting alarms on my phone to force myself to work on various projects. Lately (behind the scenes) I’ve been kicking at Farce Au Pain, the true story of my 2 childhood friends, as imagined by another. One of these days I may even finish it.

As well, there are several articles now in draft mode. If I ever get motivated to finish them, there’s some interesting stuff coming down the pike, including posts on Coconut Grove, a long-overdue Pastoral Letter I’ve been tinkering with in longhand, and another kick at Tom Falco since I have yet to receive a formal retraction and apology, but have received additional free legal advice.

Speaking of legal issues: This Wednesday I have been summoned to serve on a jury, the first time in my life I’ve ever been so honoured. As a longtime Perry Mason fan, I’m looking forward to the experience.

I honestly don’t know the rules, but I intended to write about the experience.

Lastly, I’m rather pleased with how things look here at the Not Now Silly Newsroom, both for visitors who make it in the front door and how it behaves behind the scene in places none of you can see. We finally got that frustrating date thing fixed. Now the original publishing dates of all previous articles are ‘sticky’ instead of the date it was transferred from the old joint, or edited.

There are still a few things behind the scenes to tinker with, but I’m mostly happy.

See you next time, dear readers!

The Beginning of the End of McCarthyism ► Throwback Thursday

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On this date in 1954 brave journalists at CBS began curing ‘Merka from the cancer of McCarthyism.

Millions of words have been written about McCarthyism and I won’t even begin to sum them up. If you are unfamiliar with these shining beacons of truthful journalism [Hey! Millennials!], I’ve taken the opportunity of  quoting just a few of those words:

Fred Friendly; NYT obit

A big, imposing man who hurled ideas and opinions around like Olympian thunderbolts, Mr. Friendly, as both producer and president of CBS News, stood at the center of some of the most influential and contentious moments in the early history of television journalism. His work included the best-remembered documentary ever produced, Mr. Murrow’s dismantling of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his demagogic anti-Communist campaign inside the United States Government.

He also produced Mr. Murrow’s other groundbreaking documentaries including ”Harvest of Shame” in 1960, an expose on the hardships of migrant workers.

Later, as president of CBS News from 1964 to 1966, he clashed frequently with the network’s management over his efforts to get more news on the air. His often caustic criticisms of what he maintained was the television networks’ lack of commitment to quality news coverage continued through the years.

Edward R. Murrow; NYT Obit:

The ever-present cigarette (he smoked 60 to 70 a day), the matter-of-fact baritone voice and the high-domed, worried, lopsided face were the trademarks of the radio reporter who became internationally famous during World War II with broadcasts that started, “This. . .is London.”

Later, on television, his series of news documentaries, “See It Now,” on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1951 to 1958, set the standard for all television documentaries on all networks.

President Johnson, on learning of Mr. Murrow’s death, said that all Americans “feel a sense of loss in the death of Edward R. Murrow.”

He was, the President said, a “gallant fighter” who had “dedicated his life as a newsman and as a public official to the unrelenting search for truth.”

How about that?

We’ve gone from a president praising journalism to one who undermines it as fake news when he doesn’t like it.

It wasn’t all that long ago that this reporter was railing against Emperor Trump’s ironic use of the word McCarthyism. We’ve come a long way from the truth-teller journalists of a bygone era. We now have an Oval Office distracting from uncomfortable back-channel contact with the Russians by fake accusations against President Obama.

Let this be a teaching moment.

Let the cowardly GOP see this and realize that they are on the wrong side of history by supporting the Madness of Emperor Trump. Let them also realize they’ll either be hailed as heroes if they stand up to this crazed man, or quislings if they don’t, just like during McCarthyism.

Watch “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy” from See It Now:

Finally, let this be a teaching moment for the mainstream media. We all know that Fox “News” won’t provide the heroic journalism the fact-based community is looking for. Who will? Lately, it’s been The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, which I’ve only begun watching regularly recently. (Prior to this it was hit or miss.) Check out this blockbuster from last night:

The real question is how can the truth penetrate the FAKE NEWS FOG created by Emperor Trump so that the average ‘Merkin [Read: Fox “News” viewer] begins to see him for what he really is? When will the truth cure ‘Merka from this cancer? Just like what Edward R. Morrow did 63 years ago today.

The Great Slave Auction ► Throwback Thursday

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One of the largest slave auctions before the Civil War — alternately called The Great Slave Auction or The Weeping Time — took place 158 years ago today.

Pierce M. Butler inherited the slaves from his grandfather and namesake, Major Pierce Butler. The elder Butler no longer spoke to his son, so he willed his property to his 2 grandsons, one of which was Pierce.

The younger Pierce was a bad businessman and a worse gambler. Eventually creditors forced him to sell off his assets. When the land wasn’t enough to settle his extensive gambling debts, Butler agreed to sell his human chattel.

The sale lasted 2 days because there were 436 men, women, and children to be sold. From Unearthing the Weeping Time: Savannah’s Ten Broeck Race Course and 1859 Slave Sale:

Advertisement for The Great Slave Auction

The “Weeping Time” brought much anguish to the enslaved. Families, who had been together for all of their lives on Butler’s Island or Hampton, were torn apart and dispersed; many of them never saw each other again. The Butler slaves were dispersed all over the southern states. The heavens seemed to weep in empathy as the four dry days during which buyers inspected the enslaved gave way to a brooding storm; it rained “violently,” and the “wind howled” for the two days of sale, letting up only after the last person had been sold.26 Outside the advertisements, the Savannah newspapers offered cursory mention that the sale had taken place as planned. Slavery and slave sales were a way of life and livelihood in Savannah, and much of the US South. After Mortimer Thomson’s Tribune article was published in the North, Savannah Morning News editor, William T. Thompson (1812–1882) castigated Doesticks as a spy, intimating that next time he came South, he would not get away.27

Detailing the callousness and heartlessness of slavery, Doesticks’ published exposé was a political blow to the South, at a time of escalating sectional animosity. Like the arrival of the slave ship Wanderer—which in November 1858 landed the last shipment of African slaves brought to Georgia, on Jekyll Island near Savannah, the Ten Broeck slave sale exacerbated tensions between northern and southern states.28

Who was Doesticks? The WikiWacyWoo answers that question:

Pierce M. Butler (far left) next to his wife Frances

Mortimer Thomson, a popular journalist during the time who wrote under the pseudonym “Q. K. Philander Doesticks” memorialized the event.[3] Initially, Thomson traveled to Savannah infiltrating the buyers by pretending to be interested in purchasing slaves. After the sale, he wrote a long and scathing article describing the auction in the New York Tribune titled, “What Became of the Slaves on a Georgia Plantation.”[4]

Slavery is the country’s original sin.

Slavery is also a permanent stain on the flag of this nation, which will never wash out.

While the Founding Fathers wrote a Bill of Rights and Constitution filled with lofty words, it was an empty promise even before the ink dried. These Founders owned people — bought and sold people — and enshrined in these documents that a Black person was only worth 3/5ths of a White one.

Additionally, the institution of slavery is what allowed the fledgling nation to become so prosperous so quickly. Free labour allowed some families to amass great fortunes, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Just as important is how — after Reconstruction was abandoned — the attitude of White folk towards their Black brothers and sisters barely changed. There would be no #BlackLivesMatter movement today if people were treated equally in the ensuing 15 decades.

The Not Now Silly Newsroom has been featuring
articles about Race Relations since its founding.
More found in the menu at the top of this page.

The Blaine Act ► Throwback Thursday

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The United States is still an experiment in democracy that people are still trying to get right [See: Trump, Donald], and The Blaine Act corrected one of ‘Merka’s greatest mistakes: Prohibition.

The Eighteenth Amendment, aka Prohibition, was in place from 1920 to 1933 and, among its many unintended consequences, included a scofflaw society and the rise of The Mob. The Blaine Act, to repeal the 18th Amendment, was passed by the Senate on this day in 1933.

The resolution was introduced on February 14, 1933 by Sen. John J. Blaine, Republican from Wisconsin. The next day, Sen. Morris Sheppard, Democrat from Texas, began a filibuster to prevent consideration of the bill. No other senator assisted in this vain effort. The following day the Senate passed the Blaine Act by a vote of 69 to 27. That was five votes more than needed to pass.

On February 20, the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 294-126.

The Blaine Act permitted states to form conventions that could ratify the proposed repeal amendment. Ratification by two-thirds of the existing 48 states was required to make that amendment part of the U.S. Constitution.

The Blaine Act was ratified by enough states that it became the 21st Amendment on December 5th of that yea.

And, that’s why they’re called amendments, NRA.

Here’s an unsolicited plug for the Ken Russell PBS documentary “Prohibition.” If you’ve never seen it, you should. Here’s a judicious 26 minute cut from a doc that runs several hours:

Truth, Justice, and the ‘Merkin Spelling ► Unpacking The Writer

A recent meme about Emperor Trump’s payoff pick to head the Department of Education made me literally laugh out loud, or LLOL.

Long time readers know Unpacking the Writer as a semi-regular feature at the Not Now Silly Newsroom. Adressing new readers: It’s never is not about politics. However, this time I’m using politics to reveal the jumping-off point for this Unpacking. *

A meme quickly circled the information superhighway (which is more like a roundabout at times like these) after an internet wag corrected an ass-kissing tweet sent out by Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice to oversee edjumacation for the entire country. There are many reasons why she’s totally unqualified for the job, not the least of which is this:

 

I felt the need to pass it along because it was simply HIGH-LARRY-US!

My quip at the bottom — what I think of as added value when I’m sharing — was based on an earlier meme. On his very first day in office Emperor Trump couldn’t spell “honerd” [sic] in one of his world famous tweets. It was eventually deleted (possibly breaking the Presidential Records Act) and reposted correctly, but only after the Unclothed Emperor was roasted on social media.

TRUMP VOTERS: Canada is that big place above ‘Merka

But, I digress. This isn’t about politics. It’s about being a writer from Canada. [You can read the entire discussion HERE]. Since I like nothing better than quoting myself:

When I first moved to Canada, all my editors would go crazy because I spelled [my words] ‘Merkin. It took a while, but I trained myself to spell properly to teh [sic] point that the Globe and Mail once printed my Letter to the Editor excoriating them for dropping all the “U”s in what they claimed was a way to save ink.

No. Really.

My complaint was that they could define their internal style guide any way they want, what they could not do is rename Harbourfront as Harborfront. [FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked at Harbourfront at the time.]

Anyway…I now type this way without thinking. When I have to type ‘Merkin ’cause I’m quoting one, my fingers stutter over it until I get it. It’s not smooth at all.

Bottom line: I don’t think I can type “humour” without the “U” automatically ever again.

There are other consequences to typing Canadian.

Recently I was wrestling with some simple HTML code and, no matter how many times I tried, I could not get it to format properly. I’d delete the tag, move the tag so it wasn’t nested in a tag, remove the tag from the nested tag, rewrite the tag, and nothing I did worked.

Until I realized I had been spelling it <centre>.

Similar happens when I use Der Googalizer to search for theatres, because that’s how I spell it. At least one no longer needs the exact case and spelling in search engines, the way it was in the olden days when I wrote for We Compute.

Not that it’s Canadian, per se, but I’m not giving up my Oxford comma either.

Look closely. There’s a divot in the shift key.

Tangentially, when I transitioned from typewriter to computer it took me a long time to give up the double space between sentences, as editors required back in the day. Occasionally, when I get into a Zen stream of unconsciousness, I’ll still hit the spacebar twice, but not that often anymore. I’ve also never adapted to how lightly one can hit an electronic keyboard and still form words. I bang the keys so hard that I’ve worn off the letters on every one I’ve ever owned. It’s a good thing I know where it stores the alphabet. Recently my sister needed to use my keyboard and it took her a few minutes to get acclimated.

However, when I went fully online and digital in 1988, far earlier than many, I embraced everything else about being able to make words out of electrons. I embraced CUT & PASTE most of all. To be fair: I always did cut & paste. In my typewriter days I would literally rip and move paragraphs around before typing a new, clean copy.

That was then. This is now. Paragraphs in this have been moved around.

Speaking of the Newsroom. How do you like the new look?

As long-time readers can attest: Before the New Year, Not Now Silly looked very different. We built a new site from the ground up. While the old site is still THERE, all of that material has been transferred here for your reading pleasure. However, it wasn’t without a few hiccups. One that I am finding frustrating — and the entire IT team is working on it — is that the archival posts were given a new date, the date they were transferred over here.

Another source of frustration is that some of the formatting from the old posts to the new ones are messed up. Worse yet, I recently learned that going back and fixing them — because they offend my OCD — changes the published date to teh day the page is updated. It must be related to the problem above. Until IT can tell me how to make a date stick, I guess I’ll have to live with it these 2 problems. But, they will be solved eventually.

As long time readers also know: I often use UtW to humblebrag about my discerning audience, and today will be no exception.

I am quite pleased with the posts that readers have elevated to the top of TODAY’S TOP TEN and ALL TIME TOP TEN (found in the right column on the front page) since launching the new, improved site.

Judging from the limited analytics we get so far (another thing the IT department is researching) reader faves seem to be the Monday Musical Appreciation, Saturday Morning Cartoons, and my Manifestos. Expect to see more Manifestos because — not only do they seem popular and I always give my readers what they want, unless I don’t want to — but I am getting angrier at Emperor Trump and what’s coming out of the White House, which has never been whiter, if you know what I mean. [Supremacist, if you don’t.]

Something I find very odd. While the ALL TIME list keeps changing, Roy Head has consistently held down the #3 spot, ever since it was posted. I can’t explain that and it feels like a glitch.

Speaking of glitches: Is there a law suit in my future? Seeing Tom Falco Libels Me Again. Then Runs Away as the #4 ALL TIME post gratifies me and reminds me that I need to use one of the 3 phone numbers of lawyers passed along unbidden by 3 separate people who read it. Eenie, meenie, miney, Moe. Was his name Moe?

Tom, if you’re reading this (and word gets back to me that you can quote me verbatim) all you ever needed to do — and still can do, for that matter — is retract your statements that I threatened you and a Miami Herald reporter. Deleting them doesn’t count. You might want to seriously consider that option because contingency lawyers salivate at the words “trust fund baby.” It might also be fun to subpoena the Herald.

Never mind, Tom. Stick to your lack of journalistic principles.

Meanwhile, I’m going to have to cut this short, even tho’ there’s more I wanted to say. I’m prepping for another community meeting on the restoration of the Coconut Grove Playhouse. [Read: The Coconut Grove Playhouse Trojan Horse; Part I, Part II.] I didn’t write about the last meeting because, quite frankly, I was underwhelmed. While I asked a question during the public comment segment, but I didn’t have the information at my fingertips to rebut the answer. That will be part of today’s prep. I want to be ready this time.

And, if I’m not underwhelmed, I may even write about it.

* As sometimes happens, this essay started as a comment elsewhere. This is an expanded version of those original, initial, thoughts.

Wilder Penfield ► Throwback Thursday

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When I first moved to Canada — and later got involved in Canadian show biz —  one of the first people I became aware of was Wilder Penfield, III, who wrote about music and culture for the Toronto Sun.

For quite a while I was totally ignorant of a fact familiar to every schoolchild in the country. Before his death in 1976, Dr. Wilder Penfield, Wilder’s grandfather, was often called “the greatest living Canadian.” The Canadian Library and Archives says this under Famous Canadian Physicians:

Dr. Wilder Penfield was one of Canada’s foremost neurosurgeons. He is best known for the discovery of a surgical treatment for epilepsy, a brain disorder characterized by sudden and recurrent seizures. He was also the founder and first director of the world-famous Montreal Neurological Institute.

These 2 videos tell his story better than any thousands of words I could type:


Dr. Penfield’s life had an entire second act:

One of these grandchildren might be Wilder Penfield, III – 1956

During the last 15 years of his life, Wilder Penfield enjoyed a second career as a writer of historical novels and medical biography. It was his firm belief that “rest, with nothing else, results in rust” and he led by example. He wrote several books, including one that he completed in 1974 when he was 83. It was called The Mystery of the Mind and was an account for laymen of his studies of the brain over almost 40 years.

Dr. Penfield also devoted himself to public service, particularly in support of university education. His close friendship with Governor General George Vanier and his wife resulted in the creation of the Vanier Institute of the Family, which Penfield helped found “to promote and guide education in the home – man’s first classroom.” He also became widely known for promoting early second-language training.

l-r: Penfield, III; Linda Dawe; Roger Delair; Roger Ashby

When I was promoting Island Records in the ’70s, Wilder Penfield, III, was an important person to schmooze. However, since he was a fan of Reggae, it took almost no persuasion at all to get him excited about our latest releases.

Wilder also said something to me once that I still think is the funniest thing anyone has ever said to me, and it’s a line I’ve stolen and still use to this day. I was at some industry function in mid-February (if I remember correctly) and had to wander away for a washroom break. There I encountered Penfield, who thrust out his hand. As we were shaking hands he said to me, “Let me be the last to wish you a Happy New Year!”

Seeing as how it’s already January 26th, let me be the
last to wish all my readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!