What I got from Amazon Black Friday sales

About one month ago I checked out (from Carnegie Library) Vincent DeVita Jr.’s The Death of Cancer that rekindled my interest in the history of medicine, in this case the history of cancer, and that led me to Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.  I am currently on the waiting list of this book on the OverDrive—Carnegie Library or libraries across the country ebook borrowing.

I apparently couldn’t wait and bought these two books, taking advantage of Amazon’s Black Friday’s book sale. The books arrived today.  I almost finished reading The Death of Cancer.  Many of the books I bought were the ones I checked out from libraries.  This is the reason why I do not always read the books I bought.  But this is the book I need to own.

Many years ago Janice first introduced Atul Gawande to me, it was his Better, and I have since read his Complications, The Checklist Manifesto, Being Mortal. Now I am introducing Siddhartha Mukherjee to Janice; it will be well worth her while.

I recently discovered another immigrant-author in medical field (both Gawande and Mukherjee are from India; Gawande is the child of an immigrant urologist). Mukherjee is Stanford U., Oxford U. and Harvard Medical School/MGH trained immunologist-oncologist.  He worked in Paul Berg’s Lab while an undergraduate at Stanford.

I am currently going through the archives of articles in Scientific American in the field of the advance of cancer treatments.  I came across this article of “Leukemia”, written by Dr. Emil Frei and Dr. Emil Freireich (about whom I am writing a post) on the issue of May 1, 1964. Who would have more knowledge and insight to leukemia than these two pioneer oncologists in 1960s?  They shared the 1972 Lasker Awards (the American Nobel) in 1972.

Dr. Emil Frei was the uncle of one of our good friends, through whose kind arrangement, Janice, during her freshman year, was fortunate to be invited to a party hosted by Dr. (and Mrs.) Emil Frei, who was then physician-in-chief at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

In addition to these two books, what I got from Amazon Black Friday “Fire Sale” was Kindle Fire HD 8; the third Kindle I have; two are still on active duty, not mentioning iPad, mini iPad and iPhone.  With more than half of my readings are on various devices nowadays, I still cannot part with the joy of buying print books, not that I will read all of them.

Why I no longer sketch or doodle?

You may or may not know that, growing up (during my middle and high school days), I used to draw or sketch often.  I never learnt oil painting or water coloring; the only tool I had was a pencil or pen.  I recall drawing many movie stars, the likes of Montgomery Clift, James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor.  I even drew comic strip, the one telling a story.

The only drawing I made (in Chicago) after coming to the States in 1971 was the vivacious Vivien Leigh that I used a pen.  The drawing surfaced 15-20 years ago, it was then partially faded, then it disappeared again, so did my skill—whatever little I had.

Seeing Katy has some gift of painting, our daughters often asked me why I haven’t picked up the pencil or pen to draw or doodle again.  You’ll see the answer in this Pickels comic strip: I am afraid Ben or Gabby will like it (they may be keen to spot a talent), telling me it is cute, wanting to put it on the fridge.

Tragic school bus accident at Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Battle of Chattanooga

There was a terrible school bus accident at Chattanooga, Tennessee two days ago; my heart go out to the victims, and my mind go back to today (November 23) in 1863 when the last battle began in Chattanooga, Tennessee (two battles took place here previously).  Many Union generals participated here, the likes of Grant, Thomas and Sherman.  About 100,000 soldiers involved.

Falling sick after returning from Gettysburg, Lincoln, lay in bed, received the victory telegraph.  The Union Army victory set the stage for the Atlanta Campaign (one should at least know the “Atlanta burning” scene in the move Gone with the Wind, and the Gate Way to the Deep South opened up) and Sherman’s March to the Sea.

General Thomas is also from Virginia, unlike Robert Lee, he decided to stay and fight for the Union.  There is a Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.  I always thought about him wherever I drove through this circle.

Lincoln asked Francis Blair Sr. to talk to Lee, asking him to take the command of the army; Lee declined. Lee wrote to General Scott, “Save in the defense of my native States I never again desire to draw my sword. . . . If Virginia stands by the old Union, so will I. But if she secedes (though I do not believe in secession as a constitutional right, nor that there is sufficient cause for revolution) then I will still follow my native State with my sword, and, if need be, with my life.” Lee basically said, “Regardless, if Virginia goes, I go!”

Jefferson David, returning to Richmond, proclaiming his faith in Bragg and his army, “Bragg is to bag Grant at Chattannooga as Grant had bagged Pemberton at Vicksburg.”

Carl Sandburg wrote, “Ten thousand animals in a few weeks had perished hauling rations overland to Chattanooga before a river route was opened”

We tend to forget the animals are as much the victims of the war as humans are.

A tale of two busts: Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr.

Charles sent me an email about Nigel Farage (the leader of BKip or Independent Party) suggested President-elect Donald Trump to take Churchill Bust back to the White House and Trump thought that was a good idea.

We have read so much news about the coming and going of Churchill Bust over the years and it is getting difficult to tell the truth from the fake news.  I’ll try to tell the story as I think it right.

The Bust of interest is the one that came to White House Oval Office in 2001 when George W. Bush took office; it was supposed to be a loan from Tony Blair’s government during Bush’s presidency, which lasted for 8 years.  If it were true, then no one can blame Obama to return it to the owner.

Obama went to Britain to urge British not to leave E.U. saying it would be a mistake; this irked many Brexit promotors, especially Boris Johnson (then London Mayor, now Foreign Minister, and almost Prime Minster) who said the reason why the Bust was removed from the Oval Office is because it is “a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire—of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”

During a news conference Obama said there is a Churchill bust in the door entering his upstairs private office, called Treaty Room, and he sees it every day.  He also said his predecessor had a Churchill bust on the desk in the Oval Office.  He exchanged it to a Martin Luther King Jr. bust, without whom, Obama said, he wouldn’t have the privilege to hold the office.  Obama said it would clutter with so many busts on desk; he didn’t say whether the bust was a loan or a gift.

The Churchill bust upstairs Obama referred to was obviously given to White House in 1965.  We read a diary entry of Lady Bird on Oct. 6, 1965,

“Upstairs was quite a different party—one I had looked forward to for oddly sentimental reasons.  It was the acceptance of the Jacob Epstein bust of Winston Churchill being presented to the White House by his war time friends.”

It happens that both busts are the work of Sir Jacob Epstein.

Being an anglophile and a Churchill admirer, I like to see Churchill bust in the Oval Office, not just in the White House.  One may say that America rescued U.K. from ruin under the Nazi’s yoke.  But if Britain didn’t stand alone and went under, one cannot imagine how much more American blood had to be shed and how many millions American youths had to be sacrificed if America were to survive or beat Nazi alone, one may even see the blitz in New York city or Boston.

Besides Churchill is truly an American, not that his mother was an American, but he, like Lafayette, is the honored American citizen; he has every right to sit on the desk in the Oval Office.  If the bust was indeed loaned to Bush, then let’s move the bust from upstairs private office to the Oval Office.

Now let’s hope Trump will not remove the Martin Luther King Jr. bust from the Oval Office.  He deserves to be there, too.

Trifecta in the comic strip and in the market

Yesterday I read “the trifecta of dog shame” in the Mother Goose & Grimm comic strip and today I read from a Wall Street Journal email,

“The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite climbed to a trifecta of records Monday as stocks extended their postelection rally”

“Trifecta” is a relatively new vocabulary, used in the horse race, a “variation of the perfecta in which a bettor must select the 3 finishers of a race in the correct order of finish in order to win.” Triple Crown, so to speak.

Trifecta nowadays is used synonymous to triple, triplet or triad.

My thought about a few economists

Rarely did I talk about economists in this blog for obvious reason as I am ignorant when it comes to intellectual economic readings; this is not to say I do not read stories about economists.

Alexander Hamilton

With current controversy about a cast (in Hamilton Broadway show) giving Vice President-elect Pence a “lecture” (I know some didn’t share this view) the other day.  It is the best time to talk about economist, since Alexander Hamilton was our first Secretary of Treasury.

How Hamilton died (killed by Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson’s vice president) in a duel by his political rival.  Illegal though the duel might be then, Burr was nevertheless never tried.  No need to fret about how acrimonious our political campaign is; we actually have come a long way; it used to be king/queen or death.

Paul Samuelson

I recall reading an article in the Wall Street Journal in 2013 (“A close bond and a shared love for dismal science”) talking about the bond between Lawrence Summers and his uncle, Paul Samuelson (MIT professor and Nobel laureate in Economics) based on their letters, which were made available to the public then.

Mr. Samuelson praised Mr. Summers (his nephew) about a job well done as the Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury, saying “So I’ll just say you were only perfect—in there with Hamilton and Gallatin,” a reference to Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin.

Albert Gallatin was the Secretary of Treasury for Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (When we visited Monticello a few years ago, we saw a room called “Madison Room” as when he came for a visit he often would stay a month at a stretch.  These two ex-Presidents got along real well.).

Albert Gallatin

If you live in Western Pennsylvania as we do, you would know “Gallatin” (we used to have a Gallatin Bank in town, which was bought by PNC Bank).  He built a huge mansion in a now very rural area (about half an hour drive from here, we visited once).  It was said that Gallatin expected Route 40 going to be a main highway—the gateway to the West from Washington D.C.  His prediction/expectation was never realized.  Even a first-rate economist cannot be always right in predicting economic future.

As we know Paul Samuelson is the nemesis of the free market economist, Milton Friedman; they never reconciled. When Summers said, in a New York Times column in 2006, Friedman was “the most influential economist on the second half of the 20^th century,” his uncle, Samuelson responded, “For your eyes only [not anymore], I had to grade him low as a macro economist and stubbornly old fashioned.”

Lawrence Summers

Summer’s parents were distinguished academic economists.  He has two uncles of Nobel economic laureates: one form father side (used different last name) and one from mother side.  No wonder Summers was the youngest tenured professor in economics before age of 30.

I bet Trump’s Secretary of Treasury will come from the Wall Street, not from the academics.

Of all the economists the one I admire most is John Maynard Keynes who died in 1946 before the Nobel Prize in Economics was established in 1968.  I read him because he belonged to the Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals about whom I read some years ago.  He was a frequent visitor of Lady Ottoline Morrell’s house, where we came across (a very pleasant surprise) while walking from our hotel to the British Museum two years ago.

We read in a letter Churchill wrote to the President of War Production, “You should summon economists like Keynes to give their views personally.”

John Maynard Keynes

Keynes resigned from his position as the economic counselor while negotiating Versailles Treaty as his vehement opposition of harsh economic punishment against Germany fell to dead ears. France’s Clemenceau and America’s Wilson didn’t understand him.  Britain’s Lloyd George was sympathetic to his view, but ignored it, facing the pressure from re-election as the public wanted the Germans to be punished as much as possible.

We now know that the consequence the harsh economic punishment gave Hitler a chance to become Chancellor in 1932, as predicted in Keynes’s writing of Economic Consequences of the Peace, published in 1919.

An “empty” (blank space) editorial said a lot

I like the Nov. 10 Observer-Reporter’s editorial with a blank space except a print of tiny “We have no words” after the stunning Presidential election outcome.  It generated many responses from the readers, mostly praised the ingenious and eloquent or even bold move, capturing “the mood of the country”.

But not all went along, including Bill and Sally Northrop (members of the Northrop family that had owned the O-R newspaper) who’re “mortified” and felt the readers were “insulted”.  It was nevertheless an equally elegant, powerful and forceful well-written letter.

My one-sentence letter was also published today.  When professional journalists ran out of words, they said a lot, considering words are their business.

Samuel Johnson is Chinese Su Tungpo (蘇東坡)

I am reading Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (蘇東坡); the following is how Lin compared Su Tungpo to Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Lin Yutang

“It is natural, therefore, that the life of this man should be the center of literary gossip and honored with profound reverence, especially after his death.  For Western  analogies, Li Po may be compared to Shelley or Byron, a literary meteor that burned itself out in a short spectacular display. To Fu was like Milton, a devout philosopher and a good old man, writing in a profusion of apt, learned, and archaic metaphors. Su Tungpo (蘇東坡) was forever young,  He was a character more like Victor Hugo, and he had something of the exciting quality of Dr. Johnson.  Somehow Dr. John's gout is exciting to us even today, while Milton's blindness is not.  If Johnson were a Gainsborough at the same time, and also a Pope making criticism of current politics in verse, and if he had suffered like Swift, without the growing acidity of Swift, we would have an English parallel.  The human spirit in Su Tungpo was mellowed, not soured, by his many troubles, and we love him today because he suffered so much.”

When I read Lin’s comparing Li Po (李白) to Shelley or Byron and To Fu (or Du Fu 杜甫) to Milton, I knew Su Tungpo got to be Samuel Johnson and more, according to Lin.  Su was also a painter and calligraphist.

If you like Su Tungpo, you should fall in love with Samuel Johnson.  I checked out Johnson’s dictionary (published in 1755) from Carnegie Library many times. Johnson said “to make dictionary is dull work”; but reading his dictionary is never a dull moment.

I never got a chance to see/read Lin Yutang’s Chinese dictionary.

How to bind the wounds of national division

The best way to “bind the wounds of division” is for Trump to appoint Hillary Clinton to a Cabinet position of importance, symbolic or real.  We can always take hints from history.

For about 70 years (1399-1471) the British kings (Henry IV, V and VI) came from the House of Lancaster, descendants of John of Gaunt (first Duke of Lancaster), this is why John of Gaunt is such an important figure. {refer to the vertical elliptical circle in the center of the ‘Kings’ map’ that I made a few years ago}

Edward IV was the first king of Yorkist; he beat Lancastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.  The reign from the House of York ended in 1485 when Richard III (Edward IV’s brother) was killed by Henry VII’s army (from the House of Lancaster) at the battle of Bosworth.  {refer to the horizontal elliptical circle at the bottom of the ‘Kings’ map’}

William Seward

Henry VII [House of Lancaster] married Elizabeth of York [Edward IV’s daughter, House of York] in 1486, unifying both Houses, thus achieving the true and lasting reconciliation.

Seward would have been the President in 1861 had Lincoln not been in the Republican ticket. Obama’s choosing of Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State was his first act of emulating Lincoln. Lincoln and Seward evolved from fierce political rivals to mutually respected and trustful friends in the four years fighting a savage war together.

President-elect Donald Trump used Lincoln’s language

President Donald Trump’s victory speech this morning (around 3 AM) was very conciliatory and said everything a President-elect should say.  He even used Lincoln’s language.  He said,

“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”

Lincoln ended his Second Inaugural Address [March 4, 1865, forty some days before the assassination] with,

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Harry Hopkins’ first visit with Churchill: Stories told by Dr. Moran and Churchill

I am never tired of writing about Harry Hopkins. On the second entry of Lord Moran’s diary, Churchill’s personal physician, he wrote about Harry Hopkins’ first visit with Churchill in the deep of the winter (Jan. 1941).  Dr. Moran’s diary was published in 1966, a year after Churchill’s passing.

Churchill, having a heavy cold, was going to Scapa Flow (the Fleet base) to send off Lord Halifax to take his job as the Ambassador to America.   Churchill’s wife asked Dr. Moran to stop Churchill from going, Churchill responded, “What damned nonsense! Of course I am going.” It ended up Mrs. Churchill and Dr. Moran went with him.

We read the followings on Lord Moran’s diary of January 1941, nearly one year before the Pearl Harbor.  Listening to Hopkins’ quote of Scripture, Churchill was moved to tears.

The purpose of the visit was ostensibly to bid farewell to Lord Halifax who was about to take up his office as Ambassador in Washington,  But I suspect that the Prime Minister’s real purpose was to have a look at the Fleet at Scapa. . . .

On the return journey, Tom Johnston [Secretary of State for Scotland] dined us at the Station Hotel at Glasgow, and I sat next to Harry Hopkins, an unkempt figure. After a time he [Hopkins] got up and, turning to the P.M., said:

Harry Hopkins standing behind Stalin in Tehran 1943

“I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return.  Well, I am going to quote you one verse from the Book of Books in the truth of which Mr. Johnston’s mother and my own Scotish mother were brought up” ‘Whither thou goest, I will go: and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:  thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’  Then he added very quietly” “Even to the end.”

I was surprised to find the P.M. in tears.  He knew what it meant.  Even to us the words seemed like a rope thrown to a drowning man.

It will be worth your while to read Churchill’s narrative of Hopkins’ first visit with him.  Life is so unfair that Hopkins had an untimely death in January 1946, not able to enjoy the fruits of the victory that he helped greatly to make it happen.  He apparently did not look healthy in early 1941; we read how Churchill described him “a frail and failing body”, “crumbling” and “slim, frail and ill”; Dr. Moran even said he was “an unkempt figure”.

Churchill wrote his wife went with him for the trip to Scapa Flow.  Reading Moran’s diary we know why.  Churchill wrote his wife was ‘nimble” hopping from one destroyer to another and “Hopkins nearly fell into the sea”.

Churchill and Hopkins, I believe, Brendan Bracken is in the center

On January 10 [1941] a gentleman arrived to see me at Downing Street with the highest credentials.  Telegrams had been received from Washington stating he was the closest confident and personal agent of the President.  I therefore arranged that he should be met by Mr. Brendan Bracken o his arrival at Poole Airport and that we should lunch together the next day.  Then I met Harry Hopkins, that extraordinary man, who played, and was to play, a sometimes decisive part in the whole movement of the war.  His was a soul that flamed out of a frail and failing body.  He was a crumbling lighthouse from which there shone the beams that led great fleets to harbour.  He had also a gift of sardonic humor.  I always enjoyed his company, especially when things went ill.  He could also be very disagreeable and say very hard and sour things.  My experiences were teaching me to be able to do this too, if need be.

. . .  This was the height of the London bombing, and many local warries imposed themselves upon us. But it was evident to me that here was an envoy from the President of supreme importance to our life.  With gleaming eye and quiet, constrained passion he said: 'The President is determined that we shall win the war together.  Make no mistake about it.' 'He has sent me here to tell you that at all costs and by all means he will carry you through, no matter what happens to him--there is nothing that he will not do so far as he has human power.

Hopkins was of course jealous about his personal influence with his Chief and did not  encourage American competitors.  He therefore  in some ways bore out the poet Gray's line, "A favorite has no friend".  But this was not my affair.  There he sat, slim, frail, ill, but absolutely glowing with refined comprehension of the Cause.  It was to be the defeat, ruin, and slaughter of Hitler, to the exclusion of all other purposes, loyalties, or aims.  In the history of the U.S. few brighter flames have burned.

In order to clothe the arrival of our new Ambassador, Lord Halifax, in the U.S. with every circumstance of importance, I arranged that our newest and strongest battleship, the King George V, with a proper escort of destroyers, should carry him and his wife across the ocean.  I accompanied them North in my train and saw them off from Scapa Flow.  I took advantage of the occasion to visit the Admiralty.  This fitted in with my plans for making much closer acquaintance with Harry Hopkins.  we went together to the Fleet inspecting ships and defences.  My wife came with me, and excelled all others in nimbleness skipping and scrambling from one destroyer to another, Hopkins nearly fell into the sea. . . Hopkins was about ten days with me, and in the time he put me into harmonious mental relations with the newly re-chosen Master of the great Republic.

Churchill’s letter to FDR (1/13/1941)

Hopkins and I spent the week-end together, and he is coming along with me on a short tour of Fleet bases, so we shall have plenty of time to cover all points at leisure.  I am most grateful to you for sending so remarkable an envoy, who enjoys so high a measure of your intimacy and confidence.

Churchill and Macauley on Ireland

I am of the opinion that anyone or any nation that appeased and wouldn’t fight Nazi Hitler failed in their moral obligation.  Ireland maintained neutrality throughout the conflict is an example.

Winston Churchill

In early 1938 Ireland requested and British government agreed to renounce all rights to occupy two Southern Irish ports which were strategically important if war came.  The agreement was signed 4/25/1938, and that was between the “rape of Austria” [Churchill’s phrase] and German invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In his war memoir, Churchill didn’t have kind words on this ignominious episode,

“The reader is now invited to move westward to the Emerald Isle.  ‘It's a long way to Tipperary,’ but a visit there is sometimes irresistible.  In the interval between Hitler's seizure of Austria and his unfolding design upon Czechoslovakia we must turn to a wholly different kind of misfortune which befell us. . . . in 1938 Brtish Government negotiated with Ireland and renounced all rights to occupy two Southern Irish ports which were strategically important if war comes.”

“Personally I remained convinced that the gratuitous surrender of our right to use the Irish ports in war was a major injury to British national safety.  A more feckless [irresponsible, unthinking] act can hardly be imagined at such a time.  It is true in the end we survived without the ports.  It is also true that if we had not been able to do without them we should have retaken them by force rather than perish by famine.  Many a ship and many a life were soon to be lost as the result of this improvident example of appeasement.”

Thomas Macauley

The historian Thomas Macaulay was prescient when he wrote of Ireland in his The History of England almost 100 years before this event,

“. . . how, Ireland, cursed by the domination of race over race, and of religion over religion, remained indeed a member of the empire, but a withered and distorted member, adding no strength to the body politic, and reproachfully pointed at by all who feared or envied the greatness of England.”

Macauley said of Scotland in quite a different tone,

“. . . how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bounds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection. ”

Churchill admired and read Macauley.

War Prayers for Chicago Cubs

The best World Series is the one fight to the very end: Game 7 will be played tomorrow (November 2).

Terry Francona took Boston Red Sox to the World Series champion in 2007; it would be wonderful for him to duplicate the deed, taking Cleveland Indians to the top of the Mountain, the glory of America’s Pastime.  But, my heart is in Chicago, not only is it my first City in America back in 1971, but also our numerous visits to the Windy City during Joy’s school and resident training days.

Joy was at Wiggly Field many times, thanks to the thoughtfulness of one attending orthopedist who happened to be the team physician for the Cubs.

I wrote a “War Prayer” in 2005 when Chicago White Sox went to the World Series.  With minor revision it can be used for Chicago Cubs now.

Chicago is preparing for war; the spirit-lifting emails have reached every single soul (including Joy) in all Chicago Land.  Since this is a curse-lifting event, divine intervention is integral to this process.  Every pastor in the church of every denomination is making fervent sermons invoking the aid of the ever-merciful benignant Father of us all for this Holy War.

I plagiarized and modified from Mark Twain’s War Prayer:

It is a time of great and exalting excitement.  The White Sox Cubs Nation is up in arms, the war is on, in every breast burned the holy fire of loyalism; the drums are beating, the band playing, the bunched firecracker hissing and sputtering, the fire work exploding in the sky above the Navy Pier [where all the firework is done in Chicago], the “Go! Cubs Go!” banners flying along the colorful Magnificent Mile.  The air is crispy, lofty and euphoric.

The players and the fans march the wide Michigan Avenue, gay and fine in their White Sox Cubs uniforms, cheering and choking with happy emotions.

May merciful God watch over our players, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their noble work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril and dispute, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody battle, help them to crush the foe.

The thundering music of The Battle Hymn of the Republic fills the air in all corners of Chicago, coming from the burning breasts of all Cubs fans.

Reading Marlborough, learning good English with simple words

Historian Andrew Roberts said of Churchill, “managed to combine the most magnificent use of English — usually short words, Anglo-Saxon words, Shakespearean.”

Here are examples of two short words in his Marlborough:

“Barcelona was captured.  Whosoever's conception it was, whether it arose from accident, caprice, or profound design, the glory belongs to Peterborough, who lost no time in claiming it.  Forthwith he sent Stanhope to England with dispatches couched in a grandiloquent vein. . . .”

couch [put in words to express]

vein [a special character, disposition; state of mind or mood]

JFK said on April 9, 1963 on the Proclamation Conferring Honorary U.S. Citizenship on Sir Winston Churchill, “In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone — and most men save Englishmen despaired of England's life — he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”

JFK quoted “he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle” without giving the proper credit to the war time broadcast journalist, Edward Murrow.

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough 慧眼識英雄 (a keen eye can tell greatness from mediocrity)

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

Reading Marlborough’s story, one will read that of Queen Anne or Sarah [John Churchill’s wife; Churchill is the first Duke of Marlborough]  What Churchill wrote in the following paragraph clearly said Sarah’s keen eyes and mind can tell greatness from mediocrity 慧眼識英雄.  Sarah’s friendship with Queen Anne didn’t hurt Marlborough’s career.

For those are interested in knowing William Pitt better may read the post of “Pittsburgh has a good fortune to be named after a great English statesman, William Pitt”.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2015/03/pittsburgh-has-good-fortune-to-be-named.html

“Sarah, whose scent for genius had led her in her youth to marry the penniless John Churchill, and was to lead her in old age to bestow ten thousand pounds upon the great Pitt, then equally undistinguished, was evidently conscious of the Peterborough spell." Certainly she sang his [Peterborough's] praises to Marlborough during 1705, and Marlborough bore responsibility both for the appointment and its exceptional conditions.”

Spending 50 minutes with Bernstein’s Pathetique (by Tchaikovsky) will be worth your while

After hearing Benjamin Sander’s Boston Philharmonic play, Janice sent me a youtube of Tchaikovsky’s 6^th symphony (“Pathetique”—whatever it means, passionate or evoke pity, it is not “pathetic”) conducted by Bernstein.  Spending 50 minutes with this video will be well worth your while.  I tried to read Churchill’s Marlborough while listening to it; it was impossible as Bernstein pulling me away from the book.  He conducted with his heart and soul; with all his being.

Janice and conductor Benjamin Zander

The video did “invoke my pity” on the audience in the Boston Symphony Hall who could only see the back of Bernstein.  I am of the opinion that one or two large TV screens should be installed in the symphony hall so that the audience can see the conductor from different views.  I was fortunate enough to see Bernstein in NYC Lincoln Center in 1972.

Tchaikovsky led the first performance of Pathetique in St. Petersburg nine days before his passing at age of 53.  Rumor had it that this performance was his suicide act, instead of dying from cholera.

Bernard Shaw began his career as a music critic.  Writing in 1894, the year after Tchaikovsky’s death, on a London performance of Pathetique, Shaw wrote, Tchaikovsky “had a thoroughly Byronic power of being tragic, momentous, romantic about nothing at all.” To me this is not a complimentary remark.  Shaw was great and good, but a great man cannot be always right.

Great writers often have a nice way to say something even when they didn’t like it.  Mark Twain once said (some said he merely quoted it), “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.”  Twain obviously was not a great fan of Wagner’s, as he also said, “I have seen and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; after two acts I have gone away physically exhausted.”

The following is the link Janice sent to me and her comment.  Janice took us to hear Benjamin Zander at Harvard Sanders Theater several years ago; it was quite a memorable experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lycTAOOm17w

This video has Leonard Bernstein conducting.  Zander said that people kept wanting to applaud at the end of the 3rd movement (36:20 but start listening at 34:00 to get a feel for the buildup to that climax) but he didn't understand why since he thought of it as a march to an execution. (I was with the masses...I wanted to applaud but refrained...it feels very triumphant to me)

The reports of our luffa failure are greatly exaggerated

Luffa is the center piece of our garden; the success of the garden will not be complete unless there is also success of the luffa.

We have a small group of friends, about 5 or 6 couples, mostly seasoned or retired gardeners, were initially attracted to each other because of the shared love of gardening.  When we’re not together, we, as Katy said, we E 來 E 去, talking about everything under the sun, including Chinese and Western literature, history and language; we also ventured into science or medicine.  We tried to find the “truth” and enjoy the “beauty”.  Our friendship grows along the way.  What else can one expect?

Once a year the group would visit our garden, measuring up or grading our garden.  This year the day was August 20, they came and expected to be awed and inspired by the luffa fruits to write poems, like they did last year.  Little did they know it happened to be during the deep of the three-week slump, during which no luffa fruit produced.  All they saw were several withered luffas of hot dog-sized or the female flowers died in infancy.

September 3 was marked as the day of recovery.  That day we first saw six or seven blooming female luffa flowers; we pollinated them with delight and excitement (it was literally “the joy of sex”) before leaving for Michigan; we went to Michigan to see our daughter’s family emptied handed with no luffa.  However, we made two trips to Boston in late September and early October, in a car loaded with our garden produce and of course, luffa galore, more than our two daughters and one niece can handle.  It was quite a sight of 草地人進城.

August was supposed to be the fast growing time for luffa and yet that was the most crucial and precious time we lost.  We’ve made up several theories of why that happened; that would be another post.  We’re disappointed as we’re unable to give luffas to our friends intended, although we did make up to some extent of late.

Thanks to the “Indian summer” we’re enjoying; our luffas continue to produce.  Katy harvested nearly 30 of them today, not all of them are presentable to be gifts.  We’re watching the temperature very closely.  If the temperature will dip into low thirties during the night, we would wrap the luffa to keep warm (see photo above).  The “gift label” says “Grow with love by Katy & Jer-Yuan”; it was not an exaggeration.

So the luffa season was not an entire failure, let me paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of our luffa failure are greatly exaggerated.

This one is being saved for seeds

The tale of two books: One cannot put down, the other cannot pick up

I checked out two books from Carnegie Library last week.  One is “The death of cancer by Dr. Vincent DeVita; the other “Marlborough: His life and times” by Churchill.  It turned out I cannot put down the first book (too fascinating) and nor can I pick up the second (over 1,000 pages just for Book Two, literally too heavy).

One of my ambitions is to read “almost” everything Churchill wrote, it is time to read “Marlborough” (whose name is John Churchill, Winston’s ancestor). On our last London/Paris trip, Blenheim Palace (commemorating Duke Marlborough’s triumph at the Battle of Blenheim) was on the itinerary until we decided to take a side trip to Paris.  Churchill was actually born in Blenheim Palace, as his American mother was still whirling and dancing in a party there the night when he was born.

As you know Churchill and FDR had more than 1,500 correspondences during the war.  FDR sent the first letter to Churchill on 9/11/1939, it began with

 “My dear Churchill: It is because you and I occupied similar positions in the World War [WWI]  that I want you to know how glad I am that you are back again in the Admiralty.. . .I shall at all times welcome it, if you will keep me in touch personally with anything you want me to know about. . . I am glad you did the Marlboro [Marlborough] volumes before the thing started--and I much enjoyed reading them.” 

FDR even misspelled Marlborough (he either smoked too much or watched too much cigarette ad), and I doubted he actually finished reading the book.

The one I checked out is Book Two, more than 1,000 pages (the library doesn’t have Book One).  They do have a 4-volume set, but they are so “out of shape”.

I will have a lot to say about Vincent DeVita’s “The death of cancer” later.  Dr. DeVita was credited for the development of combination chemotherapy (MOPP, a four-drug regimen) that cured most patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and I believe, anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

As you know the pitcher, Jon Lester, is going to the World Series beginning tomorrow (Oct. 25).  As a rookie pitcher for Boston Red Sox in 2006 he was struck by anaplastic large cell lymphoma and was cured by chemotherapy.  I still recall vividly watching his pitching upon returning to the field; his parents were there too.  He threw a complete game (one hitter, no walk, facing only 28 batters) in 2013 and helped Red Sox to get the World Series champion in 2013.  Lester went to Chicago Cubs ($155 million 6-year contract) in December 2014.  And this is the survivor of lymphoma.

It was hilarious to watch Chicago Cubs to clinch the NL Champion to go to the World Series at Wiggly Field last Friday.  The last time the Cubs was World Series Champion was 1908, more than 100 years ago. Let’s Go, Cubs!

Dr. DeVita is brutally honest, thus making the story of war on cancer fascinating.  He once was the director of National Cancer Institute and the chief-physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  With his illustrious career he has a lot to say and he “tells it like it is”.

The book is written for the general public and it is extremely successful in this aspect, I would give the credit to the co-author, Dr. DeVita’s daughter, Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn, a science writer.

I am more than half way through The Death of Cancer and only 40 pages into Marlborough.  Not that I don’t like writing, but that I like/need reading more.

Luffa vs Taiwanese pumpkins

These photos of the Taiwanese pumpkins and luffas are to be distributed to our good friends.  The garden season is winding down, the luffas are getting ever more rare and precious.

The label for the luffa is “Grown with love by Katy and Jer-Yuan”, which we dare not to use for the Taiwanese pumpkins, lest they would protest, saying it was not true.

We have paid meticulous attention to the luffa, even pamper them, and that may not be to their best interest.  For the Taiwanese pumpkin, we at times 視而不見 (look but not see, turn a blind eye to), or even skipped the watering to them when we’re busy.

However, Taiwanese pumpkins, like many of our Taiwanese friends, they quietly do their job growing and flourishing, they don’t whine or complaint, asking no special favor or attention; they are content and are pleased to have a chance to grow in the Grand Garden.

Thanks to our daughters’ thoughtfulness, they prepare different labels for us; a label of “From the Grand Garden of Katy and Jer-Yuan” will do.