A giant has fallen

“He remained optimistic about the ability of government to improve the lot of the less fortunate. ‘Let there be a coalition of the concerned,’ he urged. ‘The affluent would still be affluent, the comfortable still comfortable, but the poor would be part of the political system.’

“John Kenneth Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist, teacher and diplomat and an unapologetically liberal member of the political and academic establishment that he needled in prolific writings for more than half a century, died yesterday at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.”

(Excerpted from an obituary by Holcomb B. Noble and Douglas Martin, The New York Times, April 30, 2006, web edition. Photo from the obit is by Brian Snyder/Reuters.)

Other bloggers at work

I was roaming through some blogs this morning when I came across a recipe that began with "1 head of cauliflower" and I instinctively knew it was not for me; another blogger discussed job turnover and recommended management look at the supervisor of any unit with high employee turnover - he/she may be the problem; and then there is a web site HollaBackNYC where people can report and highlight street harassers. My favorite is the lady who was flashed on the subway and who had the chutzpah to take a video phone picture of the flasher, and later put it on the website. The flasher was eventually caught and he reportedly lamented that being reported to the cops was one thing, but being posted on the Internet was unfair.

Can take a joke

I certainly don’t want to get all the Catholics in the world, or even in Charleston, upset.

However, I saw a painting recently in the Charleston room at the end of the long hallway on the first floor in The Gibbes Art Gallery that has all the potential for an uprising parallel to the tumult in Islam over those cartoons in the Danish newspaper.

At first glance it appears to be a painting of the late Pope John Paul II, whom I had the supreme pleasure of seeing up close three times while he was among us.

At second glance it is a portrait that looks like the Piggly Wiggly pig. I don’t know what this school of painting is called and I failed to note the name of the artist, but she/he ought to be happy I can take a joke, and I believe John Paul would have smiled himself.

Of course he might have given a penance of one Our Father and one Hail Mary.

(Published as a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, Apr.5, 2006)

Full bloom

Our back yard is in full bloom today as temperatures soared to almost 85 degrees at noon in Hanahan, SC. "A beautiful day in the neighborhood," isn't that what Mr. Rogers
usually said? (Thanks to the half-dozen readers who correctly identified the source of the quote. I originally credited Captain Kangaroo.)

Water almost ruins bridge run

A four-foot water main (that’s what they call a big one) broke last night in Hanahan a couple of blocks from our house and for more than a couple of hours some 400,000 people in Charleston and the surrounding area were without water. This threatened to put a real damper on the crowd pouring into Charleston for the First Annual Ravenel Bridge Run this morning but the water people got it fixed in good time and all is well. The same people recommend we boil water at least through Sunday morning to be on the safe side. Personally, I have always found in my travels that a double Scotch is sufficient to ward off any contaminants in the local water.

The bridge run is the 29th running of this 10K spring event and the Ravenel Bridge (opened in July 2005) will be the third bridge featured. About 45,500 runners and walkers are registered, although more than half will likely not show, not run/walk nor finish if they do participate. I was an entrant in 2000 in the walkers division and although I enjoyed the experience I have not returned. There is no benefit in the second kick of a mule.