Saying farewell to Arthur Schlesinger in New York City at Cooper Union April 23, 2007..and a wonderful reception at Webster Hall.

With Senator Edward Kennedy at the Webster Hall reception after the program President William Jefferson Clinton was most impressive as he spoke with amazing eloquence

Henry Kissinger and Senator Kennedy speaking at Cooper Union.

It was were Lincoln spoke in 1860. From the very same lectern. However, for this event it was saying good bye to Arthur Schlesinger...Historian, Teacher, Writer, Political adviser, and friend to many. The place was packed with many who knew Schlesinger or did not at all...But were curious. I had hoped to record him. But in my messages sent to him we felt the time was near to do so...and sadly that is when he passed away.

This memorial service was attended by many...The speakers were many.....

Stephen Schlesinger

Theodore Sorensen

Christina Schlesinger

Henry Kissinger

Hugh Thomas

Norman Mailer

Senator Edward Kennedy

Sean Wilentz

Robert Schlesinger

Peter Allen

Lauren Bacall

President William Jefferson Clinton

What an amazing lineup..I was in a bit of historical heaven. There were many wonderful statements made and much eloquence shared. I was most impressed by listening to Sorensen speak..He was very much the voice of JFK. He wrote much of what we associate with Kennedy.

Senator Edward Kennedy was really great and quite funny.

Norman Mailer was witty as well.

Lastly President Bill Clinton was great! That man is incandescent!! He charmed the room with a warm and gentle speech. He said that he first knew Schlesinger as a student.. After it all was over it would be a moment we would all remember. As it was perhaps the last get together of the remaining lions of Camelot.

After the service there was a wonderful reception at Webster Hall. I was able to chat with Ted Kennedy for a moment and get a picture in which I share with you here. It was an event.

Lastly it was all honoring a wonderful life ..That of Arthur Schlesinger.

Time flies so fast ...you often need a seat belt!! Think of some of technology and our lives in the 1960's!!

I was thinking of my childhood days and the way things were in the 1960's....Today we have TV controllers...So we can stay adhered to the chair for the day. We have cable...everything is cable now.
How many of you remember having to struggle and fight with "rabbit ears" Those dastardly things that were on top of your TV....Sometimes I would take aluminum foil and wrap the rabbit ears to get better reception...I often found that I could get the best TV reception by holding the rabbit ears and watching the TV...Once you let go.... Your TV screen would look like a January day in Buffalo, New York....... Nothing but snow!

In the 1960's the mosquito commission trucks would travel around every town and spray a large cloud of DDT..Now no one told us it was bad...So perhaps 60 kids would follow the truck in that cloud of chemicals...GOSH....THAT WAS FUN!!!!

We would exist in the billowing cloud of DDT ....No one said it was bad...The driver of the truck never stopped us....So what did we know??? Most of the kids would follow the truck...(and the glorious fog) on their bikes.. So did I. Damn that was stupid...But we all did it.

Although the microwave oven was invented shortly after world war 2....It was not to become a commercial item for John Q. Public for a while....
In fact it was not till the 1970's that a home microwave unit became available

I remember one of my first full time jobs ...I started in 1978. I was working often at nights. So I brought the following to make dinner.

1. A hotplate
2. a pan
3. a can of macaroni and cheese
4. a can opener
5. a paper plate
6. plastic utensils

Now you bring in a dish and put it in the microwave!

How things have changed!


The word typewriter has fallen from grace....As has that miracle in a bottle "White Out"


What about the Mimeograph? How many of you remember smelling your test before you took it?? I do..
I enjoyed the smell of the mimeographed paper.

Lastly..How many remember at the end of the day...The TV stations went off the air.......The Star Spangled Banner on TV meant that the shows were over and all you were hear was that whining tone with a picture of a test pattern on the screen. Every day everyone heard the National anthem...Today all the stations are on 24/7! We never hear the sounds of a station signing off.

I know we all say we wish for the good old days.......But do we???

I for one am happy living when I am living....I have seen the old and the new....I have gone from hotplates and rabbit ears, to microwaves and High definition TV.


I spend a lot of my life sharing history with a eager public...I lived some of it...I have NO desire to return to it.....Full speed ahead!

In the 20th century...Who were the great Presidents? Who were the great intellects?

I have come to the conclusion that the greatest minds of the 20th century in the Presidency were 5 men. All very different....All amazingly intelligent. All men who became President so far have basically been men of greater intellect than their common brethren. There have been a few exceptions but that is mainly the case. As for the 20th century there were 5...

Woodrow Wilson
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Richard M. Nixon
William J. Clinton

These were the great intellects of the 20th century.

Rest In Peace

My wishes go to all who tonight are saddened and hurt by the horrors of Virginia Tech..May you find peace in the sorrow of the moment.

The was most probably an award. But to whom, or for what I cannot be sure. One very unique piece of nautical history..Can anyone tell me what this is?

I bought this most unique piece around 1980, in Boonton, New Jersey. It was bought from a person who did estate sales and the like. I took a fancy to it and bought it. It has been with me ever since and I often look at and say.."I wish you could talk"..I bet it would have quite a tale to tell. .......
From what I have understood so far about it. ........It represents victory over the earth. It has the famous statue of Winged Victory standing over the earth. On this globe is little dots marking what I would gather to be trade routes, travels, or passenger routes over the globe. On the base are ships. ..mainly four stacker's...Which tells me it is from around the 1897 to perhaps1914.

But what was it for? An award? Or perhaps was it a small piece that went to all the captains of ships, copying one monster sized piece that looked like this. If that is so, where is the main piece? For that would be quite tremedous!


It is really quite a striking piece, and I enjoy looking at it..But maybe someone of you out there may know what this is.....I have made my guesses.

A closer look at the whole piece and a better shot of the flag on the bottom Blue with a K in its center.

Here you can see the four stacked ship on the base. Also you can see the markings along the globe as to routes taken. This could very well have been German.

I had a funny idea, that The Kaiser of Germany was quite a traveling sailor on his many different ships. I wonder if this could have been an award to members of his ships crew and covering the many trips that they had taken. Hence the K in the center of the flag, and also the somewhat grandiose nature of this piece. It would seem fitting as something the Kaiser would do. But who knows...Perhaps it would not just a K on it if it was for the Kaiser.

So what is it???????

It could have just as well been an award a boat show, or a yacht club...Who knows?? But I for one would like too.

If you have an idea I would love to hear from you. Maybe you have seen something like this before...I for one have not. But I welcome all ideas and thoughts on this whatever it is!

Then I can write a history on it...But for now it is just an odd little piece of nautical history......

Meeting one of the early aviators of World War One.. Ennis Nagle ..1897-1971..He gave me pictures of himself in a Curtis Jenny he flew in late 1917

These photographs were given to me by Mr Nagle in 1970. He was a World War One aviator and was keeping company so to speak with my grandmother at the time.
I asked a number of questions about what it was like to fly a very fragile craft such as this Curtis Jenny, which is what they were called. I had about 500 questions I wanted to ask, and I guess I must have annoyed the hell out of him as he had other plans in mind.
So he gave me the photographs and told me study up on the subject. I went to the library and read all about the Curtis plane.
Mr. Nagle told me he never went overseas but just trained on these planes which incidentally never went overseas either! These photos are of Ennis Nagles plane in 1917. In the first one above he is ready to fly.
In the picture below his plane is at rest

It was interesting to talk to someone who had done such a thing when flying was still such a novel idea and scoffed at by most of the military.
Today as I write there are perhaps less than 10 survivors left of World War One. All of them are well over 100. As I think of it, if Mr. Nagle was alive today he would be 110.

But it was part of a noble beginning the of the Air Force, before it was anything at all. Billy Mitchell was in charge of a lot of this and he always felt that air power was and would be the end all. Today we know that to be true...

In 1917 the powers that be felt it was cute toy..not much else. That would lead to a great showdown between the Army, Navy, and the Air Corps....It would leave many a career in ruins and change the entire worlds concepts. But that is another story when I get around to it.

The return of the victims of the SS. Vestris by RMS Celtic. The Celtic brought back to Europe suvivors of the Vestris and then crashed.

RMS Celtic on the rocks at Roche's Point Queenstown, (now Cobh) Ireland...
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My grandfather saved many newspaper clippings in scrap books. They go from the 1920's till the early 1930's.
One of the pages of his scrap book deals with the sinking of the Vestris. So here are some of the original pictures from the sinking that were in the papers in 1928.






The ship was ready to capsize. These remarkable pictures caught the public's imagination. Several survivors of this disaster sailed back to Europe on the RMS. Celtic.

One of the several other shots of the Vestris sinking

Water is coming over the side of the ship in this news photo..

The news clipping showing the Vestris before her sinking

The Celtic's career came to an end like the Vestris in 1928. However rarely does the story go beyond the Vestris. Here is a rare late menu cover from the Celtic in 1928

The food in this dinner was a simple fair...

The SS. Vestris was built in 1912 and had a most successful career. In November 1928 the Vestris was sailing near the Delaware coast in rough weather and her cargo shifted..He balance was compromised, and she started to list strongly. Soon it was evident that she was going to sink. An SOS was sent and many ships came to her rescue. The disaster was one of the first in which photographs were taken. It was in all the papers...It was the stuff of high drama.

Several of the survivors took the White Star Line's RMS Celtic home from New York in December of 1928. This ship was famous for once being the largest ship in the world when she had been built in 1901.

The crossing went well till the ship reached Ireland when she was hit by a violent gust of wind and crashed heavily into the rocks at Roche's Point in what is now Cobh, Ireland....The ship was holed and settled onto the rocks. All the passengers were sent to the boats and the ship was evacuated.

For the survivors of the Vestris, this was just a little too much for them. I wonder how many of them ever sailed again?

Some better pictures of the Vestris disaster November 1928

To the boats listing heavily

The empty decks

Water rushing over the sinking sides of the vessel

The accident to the RMS Olympic on the 20th of September 1911, that doomed the RMS. Titanic.

RMS Olympic 1911-1935

A great shot of the damage to the Olympic from the cruiser HMS Hawk

What was left of the ram bow of the HMS Hawk after she rammed the Olympic.

Close up of one the big holes in the Olympic

The two sisters together Olympic left, Titanic right. The work on the Titanic was suspended while emergency repairs were done to the Olympic. This event changed everything for the Titanic.

The RMS Titanic pulls out at the start of her re-scheduled maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. If the Olympic had not been rammed by the Hawk, the Titanic would have left on her maiden voyage on March 20th!!!!!

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Fate has a way of changing things....Rarely is that more visible than in the case of the RMS Olympic/ HMS Hawk collision, on September 20, 1911. It delayed the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic.

The Titanic was to start her maiden voyage on March 20, 1912.

If that collision had not occurred most probably the Titanic would never had struck an iceberg, and would have lived out her life in basic obscurity....and be known as a sister of the Olympic.

But as fate would have it...There was an accident with the Olympic, it caused the work on the Titanic to be stopped, and the maiden voyage of the Titanic was changed to April 10, 1912...Sealing her doom.

But in a strange way giving her immortality.......

Who knows of the Olympic today? Everyone knows of the Titanic, made famous by a chance of fate, not by her, but by her sister, the now nearly forgotten RMS. Olympic.

The 2008 Political & Presidential Rigoletto Quartet...Act two of the long opera

It looks to me now as I have said for a few months already that the sides are drawn...Hillary (unless something really goes wrong) will be the candidate for the Dems in 2008...I am of the idea as I said before that Obama will get the VP nod...If that happens and I do think it will..It will be a powerful team. If they do join it would be a hard act to beat...But one other thing comes to mind, and it is in the Republican camp.

Now for the Repubs...It is McCain and Giuliani that shine...That would be a killer duo...But could they run together??...There are two monster egos here..But as I see it..If they ran together they would win(unless something really goes wrong here too. And there is MUCH that can go wrong)

For McCain and Giuliani ...They are both rather liberal on social agendas and have a severe right wing religious crowd in the Republican party.
If McCain and Giuliani run I think they would win... I would think that they would get a lot of liberal voters to swing their way. Which would be the head of the ticket is still up for grabs..
As I see it as of this April, McCain is loosing steam and Giuliani seems to be running ahead....He is doing his first solo now. There are some very strong conservative issues and candidates in the Republican party..They make make a run for it as well...But I do not see them as having to great an effect...But who knows what will happen..

The only thing that might beat them would not be Hillary, but members of their own party. As the Republicans could split over issues such as Abortion, Gay rights, illegal aliens...These are issues that would not affect the Democratic party as much.

If it DOES become an issue in the Republican party, Hillary and Obama win.


However, if the problems continue in the Democratic party over Hillary's "War Hawk" activities and her support for the war when she was a more conservative politician...She may also be beaten by her own party as well. The very liberal in her party have an issue with her and may go elsewhere to vote. There is a great liberal agenda in the Democratic party...There is also a strong conservation element to the party as well...Which could bring Al Gore into the mix...He is one of the Dems "rock stars"right now and may make his move later this year.

Here is Obama's chance... If Hillary is beaten by Obama, you know that her monster ego will not allow her to be VP.

So while Clinton and Obama will try to be more liberal looking, McCain and Giuliani are trying very hard to look more conservative...

For McCain like Clinton it is a hard pill as they have been on every side of every issue....ie. They lack credibility

It is a very interesting dance to watch...... More steps than an old square dance...Historically it will a real winner. I can think of few elections that compare...However 1912 comes to mind.



There does seem to be a chance that the tickets might come this way...But there will also have to be a lot of ego swallowing for Obama and Giuliani..I think that would not be as difficult for Obama as it would be for Giuliani. Obama is just becoming a rising star...If Hillary does not get it now it will be too late.

If Giuliani does not get it now it will be too late....For McCain it is appearing that it IS too late. McCain is in his 70's now...So maybe it will be Giuliani and a strong Conservative to make the religious right happy. Or perhaps McCain as the VP....Could his ego allow it?

The presidential contest does not start really till next year..But oh how fast we are rushing to the finish line..Even before the race has begun!

This will be a most interesting race...It has 4 some what liberal candidates in it...Of the four..Three of them are not always liberal..In fact for two of them we do not know what they are...That is Clinton and McCain...They are on all sides of the issue as I said before..So in reality they are not too different...Giuliani is a mixed bag of goods and Obama is and has always said he was liberal...

But oh how the differences will be played out come next year. As for presidential races..This will prove to be among the most interesting ones. For several reasons...



1. It is the first election since 1928 where there was not an incumbent Pres or Vice Pres running.

2. The first election in which it could lead to having not only the first woman President, but also the first African American as Vice Pres or President....It could also be the first time an Italian American might be Vice President, or even President...

3. It is a media circus and such a good show...It will be fun to watch each of them try to outsing the other in this political Rigoletto Quartet...It makes for good reading, watching, but rarely good listening.


So not since Hoover and Smith battled it out in 1928 over wet and dry (prohibition), religion, and isolationism...Has there been an election like this. We are still battling over some of the same issues.

But the main issues today are...... The war and keeping out of the area or staying, Health Care, gay issues, and to a lesser degree the boarders and Illegal immigration.

So this race will prove to be quite entertaining...and it is only early 2007...We still have to wait a while to even start the process...

Remember the election is in November 2008...21 months away!! But by then we will be so sick of this we will be quite glad it will be over. It isn't over till the fat lady sings......The orchestra is warming up...

It's going to be a very long opera!! Perhaps 20 acts!!!!

The great April Fools Joke of 1878..which caused Thomas Edison to write a very famous letter

Perhaps one of the most important letter's Thomas Edison ever wrote...As it lead to the creation of his image and name

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph everyone thought he could do almost anything. An April 1st headline on the New York Graphic stated he had invented a "Food Machine" This letter was Edison's response to that piece and his comments to the editor of the paper Mr. Croffutt...

The headline was one to get attention all over the USA, causing people to start contacting Edison to order food machines. This was a great moment for Edison as he gave to the editor a phonograph and sent to him this letter with the bit of fun on the back...The phonograph so amazed him Mr. Croffutt called Edison the Wizard of Menlo Park....It was name that stuck....

Basically over a April Fool's joke and the phonograph... It would always be the name Edison would be known as...The Wizard of Menlo Park....Now you know how he got that name..We are still waiting for the food machine though..