Orlando Bloom what about Leopold?

Maybe it's androgeny, the roles he has played are more androgenous? In that I mean a Jungian way a balance of anima/animus that Jung once thought might be involved in our psyche. Might explain why a very small correlation with "reinlistment" appears with being born in the Aries sign (none other, putting the "as" back in astrology) according to his research. Maybe people (mostly Americans?) want to his sign? Happy Year of the Rooster...

Tranquillo Giannini, s.a., Sao Paulo, Brazil

Finally after reading neowin.net for many months decided to join and post when someone asked "What guitars do you have?" I posted this: After lurking around, my first post. I have a Giannini acoustic Turuna Model No. 4 9/65 Tranquillo Ginnini, s.a. Sao Paolo, Made in Brazil Founded 1900. I used to work across the street from the "Fat Tuesdays" where Les Paul used to play (He, in his eighties, plays still at the Iridium in NYC every week, I haven't seen him but Steve Tyler has) on Third Ave. near 16th Street. In the window was a hologram of Dizzie Gillespie who would blow his horn, lower it and smile as you went by. Writer O. Henry frequented the place after he got out of the "O H io penitENtiaRY" and Kiehl's Pharmacy (William Syndey Porter was a frontier pharmacist in Texas) there a few blocks away since like 1854, is now owned by A Mr. Heidegger, a friend of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, climbed Mt. Everest without oxygen in the 1980's, (Sherpa: "mother of us all") and half the place was a motorcycle museum. They put the product on the chic in Beverly Hills and NYC. Still my guitar gently weeps... I hope Bill Gates reads it, he loves "neowin.net - Where unprofessional journalism looks better." http://www.neowin.net/ I was browsing online in Austin, Texas which is where the theory about O. Henry comes from. The Ohio Penitentiary was demolished recently and I think a piece of it is there at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas I seem to remember. I liked their biography of him and started reading some again, he wrote a lot of western short stories too, besides the more recognized New York City ones. Author Kinky Friedman reminds me of him, though longer stories. Recently I read his "Blast From the Past" and "Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned" about NYC. I hope he becomes Governor of Texas I read he's running for it!

Maybe they're mad at "Morning Sedition" at AirAmerica Radio?

I signed this petition today and passed it along: "Subject:NPR/PBS In a message dated 12/21/2004 10:45:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, DrewMcVety@aol.com writes: On NPR's Morning Edition, Nina Tottenberg said that if the Supreme Court supports Congress, it is in effect the end of the National Public Radio (NPR), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). PBS, NPR and the arts are facing major cutbacks in funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to reduce spending costs and streamline their services, some government officials believe that the funding currently going to these programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as not worthwhile. This is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure of $1.12/year of their taxes. The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices heard. Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends who believe in what this stands for. This list will be forwarded to the President and the Vice President of the United States. This petition is being passed around the Internet. Please add your name to it so that funding can be maintained for NPR, PBS, & the NEA." One wonderful new experience I had was attending classes at the "Media Center" in Buffalo, NY, that was partially funded through Gerald O'Grady's efforts to obtain Federal funds for the "Media Center" (on Bailey Avenue) in 1973, there next door to Buffalo University. In it, were held community film showings and artists from the area were encouraged to show their work and others. Sometimes pilots for TV were shown too. At the time, around 1974, Kodak, was also promoting the use of Super 8mm (and other film) to be used in youth centers in towns in America, according to their freely available handbook. To help teach story telling skills and encourage self-confidence they printed an "Outline for Teaching a Course in Basic Movie-Making" (Kodak Publication No. AT-106, Rochester, NY). I remember being strangely enthralled by other descriptions of problems, for example, in Kodak "clean room" production about the time of the announcement of "compact disc" technology by Phillips, Inc. Without the "Media Center" funding I think Buffalo, NY might have been a much poorer place, as a large media festival was held with film-makers from as far away as Brazil, coming to town to visit and exhibit. Experiments in 3D projection were very interesting. One was "live" as the audience wore 3D glasses, while a child rode a tricycle in front of a red/green projector, behind a series of rear projection screens (part of a lecture hall at Buffalo College), part of a performance piece "Lost Doll Found" a tribute to American composer Charles Ives, by film-maker/professor, Ken Jacobs. I was in the piece to get credit in classes by Paul Sharits at the Media Center in film analysis and experimental film-making held jointly with the English Department. This was before Watergate and a Polish Pope. Later I recall a film program, the "1/2 hour film lunch" in the main branch of the library downtown there. A short film (or two) was shown during the lunch hour. One, about careers was funny, a gentleman under a wide brim hat in the strong sunlight, referring to a career in archaeology, remarked that, "Archaeologists careers are in ruins". I hope people in the arts, NPR and PBS don't end up literally so.

British Boxing Day

My father, the youngest of eleven (11) was born today on the kitchen table at 660 Water St., in New York City. It's said the doctor who attended was too inebriated from Christmas and forgot to file a birth certificate. My father had a baptismal certificate which he (and others) used instead. His oldest sister, Margaret, survives him, she 101. His father was a real estate reporter who gave tips to the coal companies when building's owners changed hands. His wife my grandmother once worked as a nanny on Bedloe's Island for the caretaker there where the Statue of Liberty is. Funny I was born nine months before his birthday, on March 26, when could it be? Jesus Christ was conceived? Ever notice how Easter moves around? It's lunar.

New York City and the Lion of Panjshir

Interesting info, StumbleUpon, an Internet journey led me to it. The "why" of 9/11/01 if you click on this link. You might see some embedded odd words however such as "eCross Countryhange" for "exchange" oddly. Exploding suicide "journalists"? Propane bombs? (Very horrible if true, suck the very oxygen out of a whole area). Very interesting travel writing on this site, really enjoyed the coastal Georgia travelogue.

Season's Greetings

Hello, a red ink and rewrites addendum, Happy Holidays, even though we've lost more National Guardsmen (isn't that too gender specific? I'm worried about 3 RPG's [rocket propelled grenades] missing from the Bronx) in one year than in the 10 years of Vietnam. I had to go through some extensive searching at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn to dig a few holes there in the Parade Field they call it, across from where Commandant General Robert E. Lee once lived. He was once the Commandant of West Point way back in the 1840's I think. Worked there too, on both sides of the Hudson River. They lost an American Indian "12 Feathers," a cadet for a couple of weeks, he was right under their noses, dead, wish I knew more about it. They play football on "Buffalo Soldiers Field" now (after the black soldiers not the Bob Marley song!) I was at the Point for anthrax! Very paranoid place for awhile. Peace. Best regards, George Myers georgejmyersjr@hotmail.com 2004-12-24

Our Man in Halcyon

Happy Solstice! Halcyon: "A mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves." WordWeb 3.02 I remember reading a NY Times op-ed piece "Our Man in Halcyon" back in 1992 or so in the Hudson House in Cold Spring, NY, (named for the water by former President George Washington) once the site of the West Point Foundry, where I was working on the EPA remediation of the Marathon Battery Site (made batteries for Nike missiles) which included the "Foundry Cove" next to Constitution Island across the Hudson River from the West Point Military Academy. We could see their ski trails lit at night and sometimes an echo from the parade field would drift over. Another time two F-14's from the Navy mock attacked the Point in a snow squall, probably at an Army-Navy game. I wanted to call the FAA! Anyway, the point of the article was that FBI agents on Halcyon, (as was then President George Bush, the previous Bush President, the current, others referred to as "Walker B.") were walking through metal detectors forgetting they were armed, and since the President was also taking it, what about it? The idea, I think, was that we had been convinced by President George Bush that the world had been made safer, then, after "Desert Storm," when actually, it had become a much more dangerous place.

Indians Discover the Americas

One of my first classes in Mexican archaeology was taught by Phil Weigand, Ph.D., at Stony Brook University. He had spent many years with a Dr. Kelley (?) at the University in Illinois researching aboriginal turquoise mines in the American Southwest. The idea was that this material, traded as far away as the Mayan culture areas (with no known sources there) and appearing in Aztec artifacts in Mexico, was a commodity exchanged across great distances, much like say bitumen in the Middle East (i.e., sealing precious water and other liquid containers, etc.) and were part of larger exchange networks. He and others were collecting samples in these often dangerous mines and a small grant was given by the NSF (National Science Foundation) to try to arrive at a signature of the turquoise from different areas, so that artifactual frauds could also thereby be determined. This is done by exposing samples to "neutron activation" (that other particle with the proton and the negatron or "electron"). At one Southwest American site there is attached on the outside wall of the former abandoned adobe settlement, a small storage building of over 2 million pieces of turquoise in it I was told by a graduate student, and two Meso-American style burials were found under the room, kept out of the public eye by the National Parks Service. Anyway, he related that the problems of archaeology in Mexico are many. One is the facts that descriptions in botanical texts appear in Arabic from perhaps before the time of Christopher Columbus' voyages of discovery (whose mother was Portuguese and some research has shown his father was a "pilot" from Scandinavia. I read he also prior to leaving asked the Bristol, England Masons [they a no-no in the Catholic Church still to this day in Mexico for other reasons, perhaps they and other founders involvement in slavery] about the lands they had encountered fishing to the west of Iceland) and sculptural representations of corn appear in architectural carving in India, a place in trade with Arab merchants on the seas. After all two giraffes were taken by trade to the Kublai Kaan ("Mongolian emperor of China and grandson of Genghis Khan who completed his grandfather's conquest of China; he establish the Yuan dynasty and built a great capital on the site of modern Beijing where he received Marco Polo (1216-1294)" - Word Web 3.02 or was it Ghenghis?) so it is possible that people in other parts of the world were aware of the New World. Recently publicized has been the Chinese expedition to the New World that predated Columbus' voyages by 50 years, perhaps to the West Coast of the United States. I used to work for his wife Celia in the Student Union selling arts and crafts many she made herself, macrame earrings and other products for Mexico and South America, alpaca (or vicuna?) scarves, and things like that. She eventually got her Masters of Arts studying Huichal weaving arts as part of her masters. The more recent odd fact in the archaeology of the nearer past has been the Pilgrims landing on Cape Cod and finding a blonde hair burial on one of their first expeditions. They had been in Leiden, Netherlands for eleven (11) years prior to their sailing and I wonder what decision they made sailing away from Virginia, where they were supposedly going, past New Amsterdam where they might have gone having missed Virginia, and arriving in the Massachusetts Bay. Probably politics and economics. The analyses of the trace elements in the turquoise was analyzed in (around 1980 this was) statistical hyperspace a sort of floating spreadsheet of layers (before spreadsheets) with the grouping of statistical significance arrived throughout the layers of trace elements. It is being used I read by Garmon Harbottle, Emeritus Professor of archaeological chemistry of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (now run by Stony Brook University with a consortium of higher learning, instead of the Federal Dept. of Energy) as it was developed (a mere 50 mgs. or less of material is all that was needed to perform the test though introduces problems of "clinal sampling" across deposits I remember now) to perhaps rejoin pieces that have separate museum locations originally part of the same piece or pieces, thereby putting separated artifacts, back together, though in different parts of the world. Such an inventory is reportedly being made for some stone sculpture. Apparently, according to Weigand, "trading" expeditions (much like a military type) involving peyote and turquoise acquisition and perhaps unknown resources were conducted, he wrote in the "Prehistory of the State of Zacatecas" (Parts 1 and 2) published in Stony Brook University's once published "Anthropology" journal. Interesting, the northernmost range along the East Coast of the Prickly Pear cacti is cited as Long Island, NY where I once saw a tiny one in Mt. Sinai Harbor, NY near Stony Brook, NY where I had attended an archaeological fieldschool on the Pipe Stave Hollow Road, partly in a scallop midden. The scallop is now the "official shell" of New York State after a vote between it oyster and hard shell clam. At the time, hard shell clams were experimentally being grown from tiny seed clams (venus mercenaria, hard shell) in a shed on racks with the seawater pumped through them from the Long Island Sound, to try to "reseed" or renew some of the bays and inlets. Microscopic in size, they had the needed time away from predators to get big enough to survive perhaps large enough to "choke" their predators.

Bunny Yeagar

Bettie Page's photographer apparently. (The Clair Obscur Gallery site may not be safe for work as they say). This is: I'll be yours dot com - Jethro Tull http://www.illbeyours.com The band was the first to wrest away their url from a kid, and in the court of United Nations, so as to properly represent and protect their work. Interesting, the individual, Jethro Tull, is credited with starting the Agricultural Revolution in England way back in the 18th century (1700). [replacing the seed broadcasting in "Easy Rider"] http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/004f.html

DISH DI ROODE TOE DE KSHINGS FARRY

Montrose "Although small in size, Montrose has played an important role in history. The King's Ferry at Verplanck's Point was the most direct route between New England and the Middle Colonies during the Revolutionary War. King's Ferry Road starts at the traffic light in Montrose on Albany Post Road and continues to Verplanck's Point. At one time, a sign at the Post Road intersection read: "DISH DI ROODE TOE DE KSHINGS FARRY." Troops and military equipment passed over this road en route to the ferry making it of primary importance to the safety of the Hudson Highlands." - p. 64 History of the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, NY 1988. Interestingly, nearby Alexander Hamilton was sick and stayed at the Kennedy House on the Kings Highway, where also a court martial trial was held of General Lee, resulting from actions in a battle in New Jersey. It was postponed, though he was later suspended for a year. Alexander Hamilton recovered after two weeks. The Kennedy House burned in 1979 and is under the expansion of a school athletic field. Nearby 6000 French troops with General Washington and American troops crossed the river for the fateful battle with General Cornwallis in Virginia that resulted in the formation of America. The American (?) troops and General Washington returned to the New Windsor Cantonment, near Newburgh, NY to wait out for six months or more after the treaty to see if it would be honored by England. I once camped out there in January when it was 9 degrees F outside with my Explorer Post 222, its charter cancelled later for "camping too much". Today it is a NY State Historic Site. Interesting, further in the American Civil War, in Montrose, NY: "In the mid-1800's, the original church land on Montrose Point became the home of Frederick W. Seward (1830-1915), son of William Seward (1801-1872), U.S. Secretary of State during the administration of Abraham Lincoln. The elder Seward was the man instrumental in purchasing Alaska from Russia for $7 million, a purchase which was known as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox." Frederick, the son, who was a journalist and diplomat, became politically prominent himself as Assistant Secretary of State under his father. In spring 1865, Frederick assumed the position of acting Secretary of State when his father was seriously injured in a carriage accident. On the evening Lincoln was assassinated, one of the conspirators forced his way into the injured Seward's home in Washington, intent on killing him. Frederick confronted him in the hall and was severely injured trying to prevent the slayer from reaching his father's bedside. The gun, broken on Frederick's skull, was unusable for the assassination, thus saving his father's life. Both Sewards survived the vicious attack, but it is said that Frederick lived out his life with a silver plate in his skull. The handsome Seward Estate covered 30 acres. A stately mansion with a beautiful Victorian garden and various outbuildings, it commanded a magnificent view of the Hudson River. The grounds of the estate were dotted by little ponds that had been made by excavating clay for the brickyards which flourished along the Hudson during that period. Frederick married Anna M. Wharton of Albany on November 9, 1854. He died in Montrose on April 25, 1915, and was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, NY. Sometime after Frederick's death, the house, which was occupied by Mrs. Seward alone, burned. The property is currently owned by the Catholic Kolping Society. The gardeners house and other outbuildings are used to house vacationers seeking a peaceful country setting." pps. 64-66. - by The Town of Cortlandt Bicentennial History Committee for The Town of Cortlandt, 1988. c) 1988 by The Town of Cortlandt, Town of Cortlandt Supervisor, Municipal Building, Van Wyck Street, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 Interesting, they left out April 14, 1865 the assassination plot date. Today April 14 is celebrated as Pan American Day, 'A day celebrating political and economic unity among American countries.' - Word Web 3.02 In another bicentennial publication, this one in Tishomingo, Mississippi, after the 1776-1976 bicentennial, I met an historian (of Shelby County, TN where Memphis is) who was working on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Barge Canal (the project Congress decided was better than an "Energy Island" for NYC. The barge canal connects the Tennessee River with Mobile, Alabama on the Gulf of Mexico today) which we were working on somewhat near Shiloh National Battlefield, one of the bloodiest in the Civil War, he stated that this small publication has published that Aaron Burr had stayed in Tishomingo after the duel with Alexander Hamilton. It was found in letters and or notes read for the bicentennial history of the small town, near once "Indian Medicine" springs and the once stalwart Confederate locality. In nearby Columbus, MS (playwright, author "Tennessee" Williams home town, not far from Tupelo, MS where Elvis Presley was born, an historic site now) it's said the Civil War began its end when the ladies there began putting flowers on Yankee graves. Former Vice-President Aaron Burr (back when both of the highest office holders in the land could come from different parties, changed by amendment, and maybe arguably why there is an Electoral College) was probably on his way to the Natchez Trace or trail, commemorated today by the National Parks Service created highway. Numerous articles of the trade between the North and South are still apparent (ice from Boston used to come to the Waverly Plantation, outside Columbus, MS on the Tombigbee River, for example, furniture in Natchez that had been made in NYC, etc.) Interesting what a few dollars and a reason, i.e., a bicentennial, can do for history, the historian thought.

Voting in the Bronx, NY

Before the last mayoral election, (held after 9/11/2001) a ballot guide was printed and sent around across the City. Candidates' debates were carried by TV, one a major station with some of the major candidates, and the other, on a local cable news station, NY 1, held a debate with most of the candidates shown in the voter's guide. That debate was carried on radio also, which the current billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, declined to attend. The prior election had on the ballot a "medical marijuana" decriminalization candidate included in this election guide also. However, at the last mayoral election, nothing approaching the range of candidates in the voter's guide appeared in the voting booth. The primary was also held just after the events of 9/11/01. In fact, just before it, and 9/11/01, the candidates were rated (a "reality rating" using a check for "possible" or "impossible") on answers to issues recorded as spoken in response to questions from a reporter(s?) from WABC (?) in NYC. One of the questions was what to do with the World Trade Center, that, then (prior to 9/11/01) since it could be put up for sale, what would the candidate do with it or the proceeds from its sale? One sticking point, with one candidate, was that public housing, supposed to be built at the same time in the original agreements, never was "honored". When the election did come, it was as if some unknown "emergency powers" had been invoked in "City Hall". It is in "City Hall Park" where in the summer of 1999 I helped exhume and leave bodies, move water fountain, from the former "First Almshouse" and other burials (a prison next to it "blacker than any "'blackhole of Calcutta'" (NY Times 1903) a British prison, run during the American Revolution by a Major Cunningham, where patriot Ethan Allen was tortured, next to City Hall Park on the "Brooklyn side". It would be near where the automatic pay toilet once stood, near Chambers Street corner) The current "restoration" which includes large remotely operated granite bollards to control vehicular access to the park, found a number of animal and human burial remains, once the edge of the "Commons" or "Green" now part of the African Burial Ground (a block away) and Commons Historic District. In hindsight, certain strange powers seemed to be in force before 9/11/01 too. Long Island Helicopters, which I used to work next to, then for UPS furniture delivery, the helicopters at a former bowling alley in Roosevelt Field, (where Lindbergh left for Paris) out on Long Island, (covered flights for the 1974 Watkins Glen Music Festival), were "waved off" Manhattan, so to speak, by the former mayor it seems. So when I went to vote, the same old machine still wasn't working right, the curtain did not move to signify that my vote had been cast. They used to open and close for each voter. This one, after at least 3 Presidential elections, and in three different places (two Catholic schools, one public) is still "broken". There ought to be a law! All people with broken machines should go to a judge, as permitted by law when they're not sure that their vote was counted (10's of thousands hadn't been, which is another story about the "switches" in the machines) and let's see how backed up a court can be!

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

NewsScan Daily: December 16, 2004 THAT PESKY TOLKIEN Something didn't sound quite right about "Sir Gawain and the Blue Knight." A google Search for "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" yields 60,300 English pages. A search for "Sir Gawain and the Blue Knight" yields no documents. A search for "Sir Gawain and the Blue" yields one very unfortunate document link which I did not pursue. (Mike Barnes) WHAT COLOR IS YOUR KNIGHT? I am sure someone else has already pointed out the problem here, but I have to be certain: George Myers suggest that if you had included Tolkien's scholarly work in which he translated "Sir Gawain and the Blue Knight" it might have given further insight into his academic and perhaps spiritual side; presumably George means _Sir Gawain and the GREEN Knight_ (my emphasis). I studied this extensively in graduate school, both in the original and in many different translations, of which Tolkien's is certainly my favorite -- but in all of them, Gawain's mysterious opponent is green. (David Sisk, Associate Director, Computing & Information Technology, Macalester College) Wrote to them and received: From NewsScan Thanks, George -- we'll run your note in our next mailbag. Have a great holiday! Best wishes, Suzanne At 02:20 PM 12/16/2004 -0500, you wrote: Oops, J.R.R. Tolkein's "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is correct. I just saw the posts today and wondered where I got the information. Unfortunately I can't find it either after searching all over the internet and in my local ClipCache Plus file where it appears. It is or was damaged in the last system crash (ACPI?). All I have is in my record of as IRC "startrek" chat "Only hobbits can step on flowers sir. J.R.R. Tolkein translated "Sir Gawain and the Blue Knight" written in response to the trivia question: "ST-Trivia Question: TNG: in the episode "justice", wesley was sentenced to death for _____" (stepping on flowers). I usually have the url in ClipCache Plus but from the crash stops at "given further insight into his academic and..."

Question: What's your favourite comment you get in the field?

An interesting archetype of social / business anthropology (the "business anthropology" a degree in the Netherlands I saw in a MRI scan of human copulation) occurred while I worked for an RPA archaeologist Celia Bergoffen in the "Moore-Jackson" cemetery in Queens, NYC ("Woodside's landmarked Moore-Jackson cemetery" - Google). Various headstones are in the ground, now owned by the Queens Historical Society, and as part of a research project the archaeology of the area of the "community garden" where the headstones appear was investigated archaeologically. The relations house, at a crossroads, had been used by the British Army in the first battle of the American Revolution, in the "Battle of Long Island" which General Washington lost, and Donald Trump's father came to regret when he was called "Blitzkrieg Trump" when he developed and then handed out historical report to the new house owners of the battle site, reported in the "Brooklyn Eagle". The crossroads house owners were found "not guilty" of collaboration with the British forces in the early proceedings of the new American republic, which NYC was the first capitol of. Others may have been related to the author of the "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" which, at the time, the NY Times reported might be plagiarized from an Upstate call to tip the newsboy at the Holidays, a verse included in the bill!

Numerous reporters from the papers appeared while we were (a crew of two with the assistance of the Queens Borough Historian somedays) excavating and reported in the press, which I haven't read. However, it was interesting, because the stones had been placed (from 1700's to about 1900) in the ground from somewhere else in the lot, perhaps, by the Works Progress Administration, perhaps, or being next to the circa World War II Japanese-American nursery, recreated as garden, which is tended by a neighbor who has a key to the fenced in lot stretching from street to street. Each of the stones ended quite shallow in the ground and there was no pit outlines.

One of the questions I have, is if one works for the NPS, you are told to speak to the visitors (I worked for the NPS's Denver Service Center [slashed by the Reagan administration] in Allegheny Portage Railroad, Hopewell Village Foundry, both in PA; Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD; The Moore Cabin, Skagway, AK; The William Floyd Manor, Mastic. NY, first NYer and fourth signer of the "Declaration of Independence" all national historic sites, most from former private property) or be considered rude, and encouraged to be friendly to promote the site and archaeology. On other sites I've had people who think they own the Constitution of the US tell people not to say a word. I think policy should be determined beforehand, but within the reasonable bounds we fought to win. Doing otherwise, I feel, leads to sloppy fieldwork, bad relations. On the other hand, its hard to get a retraction from an "archaeologist digs up cemetery" story when there ain't.

If you know anyone who might want to conduct a remote sensing prospection on the property, we thought it would be the next logical step for the Queens Historical Society. - at archaeologyfieldwork.com

Out-of-print science (o.o.p.s)

Back in 1977 I had an archaeology field school in Mt. Sinai Harbor, NY and elsewhere at Stony Brook University with R.M. Gramly, Ph.D., and others one the first and past NYC Landmarks Commission Archaeologist, Sherene Baugher, Ph.D., now current or past President of the Council for Northeastern Historical Archaeology at Cornell U. We had to use an out-of-print archaeology book "The Archaeology of Martha's Vineyard" (out-of-print remarkably, considering the State Archaeologist of New York wrote it William Ritchie, the NY State Archaeologist for many years) where he had done much research. Anyway out of print then, still is I think, it might make a good sale if brought back considering the people who live over there and elsewhere with an interest in the island... (Courtney Love was looking for a house there and the co-founder of the ACLU, whose grand-daughter I worked with in archaeology around Princeton U., Poppy Baldwin, now an archaeologist in Maine, of the New Jersey Baldwins of Montdale is it or Montclair the college where Mick Jagger's ex-wife performed in "Bus Stop" Jeri Hall of Texas, etc., the Luce's of publishing fame, and Claire Booth Luce, descended from the original surveyor of Martha's Vineyard [may have been Martins] who settled at "Luce Landing" on Long Island just north of Riverhead, NY now near "Northville" (once "Negrohead") an oil storage port with pipeline out in the Sound). ...may be interested in its republication, I know I would, those old copies don't last very long. - posted at histarch forum

Kubrick Newsletter no. 10 - November 2004

In 2001, there was just one, very limited, very under-publicized showing in a SONY theater (?) of Bronx native, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" in all of NYC, about which Mr. Ebert said, started his film review career back in college. Tony Curtis, (Bernard Schwartz) who was in one of Kubrick's other famous films, "Spartacus" is also a Bronx native, from the now landmarked "Grand Concourse". Recent newsletter excerpts: "At age thirteen, Stanley Kubrick received his first camera as a gift from his father. He became a member of the photoclub at the William Howard Taft High School. Kubrick made up his own projects with motifs from his Bronx environment and published some of them in the school's student paper. His first hour of success had come when on 12 April 1945 president Roosevelt died: On his way home from school Kubrick saw the headline at a newspaper stand and took a photograph of the sad looking newspaper vendor (Kubrick allegedly induced him to put on that sad face making this famous picture one of his earliest clever stagings). The same day the sixteen year-old sold the image for $25 to Look Magazine. They hired him right after high school making him the youngest staff photographer the magazine ever had. His mother Gertrude started a scrapbook with clippings of his articles in Look. Read more and view the object: http://www.stanleykubrick.de/eng.php?img=img-l-6&kubrick=newsletter10-eng#1" - 1. This month's object the Look scrapbook. "Kubrick's well-to-do-parents always supported their son's talents while he was raised in the Bronx. His father Jaques L. Kubrick, a medical doctor, encouraged Stanley to take up photography and introduced him to literature and chess – remaining important constants in Kubrick's life." - 2. Portrait: Kubrick's family. "The exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (20 January through 11 April 2005) is supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Stanley Kubrick's films will be shown at the 55th International Film Festival Berlin (10 through 20 February 2005), additional shows will take place at the Zeughaus-Kino of the Deutsches Historisches Museum (23 February through 6 March 2005)." - 3. Kubrick exhibition in Berlin: cooperations. Filmography: http://www.stanleykubrick.de/eng.php?img=img-l-3&kubrick=filmografie-eng

John Hurt chuffed like Paul McCartney? Mel Brooks?

Aragorn Actor Honored by the Queen * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Left this there: "Two other memorable things: "Midnight Express" and "The Osterman Weekend" both really frightening films that he was also in. Another one a charmer had to do with him and tower and a kid with dreams of flying. It was also excellent. I walked out after seeing "Alien" in Alabama (working in Tennessee Williams' nearby Columbus, Mississippi on a multi-state barge canal, Congress wanted instead of an "Energy Island" for NYC) and thought I had seen a new classic in science fiction, which it still is. So are the others, I'd say."

Good news from the NY elected officials

I received these two letters in reply today one from Senator Clinton and the other from Congressman Crowley, in part: I am so pleased that the amendment offered by Senator Barbara Boxer to strip provisions from the Senate Budget Resolution pertaining to drilling in ANWR passed this week by a vote of 52 to 48. I was proud to be a co-sponsor of that amendment, and to cast my vote in favor of the amendment. - Senator Hillary Clinton And: On June 17, 2004, the House of Representatives debated and voted on the Federal spending bill for our nation's environmental protection programs (H.R. 4568). While the overall bill completely abandoned the historic, bipartisan conservation funding agreement that was reached in 2000, an amendment was included to protect the Tongass. I was pleased that the amendment which would prohibit the use of funds to plan, design, study, or construct forest development roads in Tongass National Forest in Alaska for the purposes of harvesting timber by private entities or individuals passed the the full House of Representatives. I supported this amendment. - Congressman Crowley. Now I can go back to work and stop writing letters!

Limericks and an Alligator

http://www.erasing.org/four_post-election_limericks/ The page following these limericks has a link to an exclusive filmic performance by Brad Pitt one of America's most successful actors and to the film "Dog Factory" (1904) made by the Thomas A. Edison film studio in New York City. It shows some of the old style humor that was once shown in NYC's earlier theater district, I think, on the Bowery. Today there, is what is called America's oldest continuing arts organization, over 50 years, the Amato Opera, across the street, the Bouwerie Theatre (in an old German bank), CBGB's, the rock venue (an annex to it), and nearby, the Bowery Ballroom, where Stephen King made his first public appearance after his recovery from a terrible pedestrian / van accident, hit while walking along a Maine road. The driver died later in his sleep. Over on Houston Street just off the Bowery, ("howston" in NYC, a Scottish businessman's name) there was once the Yiddish Theater District, where Walter Mathau started (his real name is as long and as unpronounceable a name can get I thought) until the Chrystie Street subway extension and time tore it up. While doing research there and nearby for archaeological significance, we also determined it to be once the site of a Quaker Cemetery, moved to what became Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (on the Coney Island Road) and some to Old Westbury. The Methodist one, on another lot, was moved to the State legislature size-mandate avoiding Brooklyn/Queens cemetery (straddling two counties), in a late winter in the middle of the 19th century. Just south of there (Houston and Bowery) one map showed a "Negroe Cemetery", today a small parking lot, perhaps never moved (?). Interestingly, the "Anthology Film Archives" on Second St off Second Ave., a major repository and exhibition space supported by many in the visual arts and information businesses, was once a courthouse built on-top of a Methodist cemetery. Later NY State ordered the move when "missed" ones were found in the courthouse construction. A former English professor at Buffalo, NY, artist/filmmaker, Paul Sharits, has a sculpture there and other works with other artists. It is across the street from one of the two remaining cemeteries in the general neighborhood, both marble vaults, one that once contained former President Monroe. That is until, before the American Civil War, the Virginia Legislature voted to remove him to the Hollywood Cemetery in Virginia! The whole city, it's written, stopped to pay its respects as the former resident was paraded to the dockside. John Ericcson, the inventor of the modern ship propeller and designer of the "U.S.S. Monitor" was also later removed, to Sweden. He had lived in the Village, and designed the Union submarine involved in the first battle of the ironclads, with the "C.S.S. Virginia". If you know anyone that has any information about the "U.S.S. Alligator", America's first submarine, which also sank off Cape Hatteras, NC, where the "U.S.S. Monitor" lies in part, some of it now at a new museum in Newport News, VA, please forward the info to the forum "sub-arch" where underwater historical archaeology is discussed. Originally posted Nov. 13, '04 to "histarch" list historical archaeology (but not "sub-arch" underwater archaeology list).

Designated Landmarks

An interesting preservation article appeared in Newsday Dec. 5, 2004 about new penalties for demolition, up to and including the total value, passed on Long Island and proposed for New York City. Previously, people could avoid monetary penalties that haven't been changed in decades and an unscrupulous developer could just pay the fine out of court and move on. An interesting article and problem. Maybe this would be one: Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space Back in the early 1980's a theater named after a famous actress was found to be "architecturally insignificant" though valued by the community leading to protesters in the street and others angry in the community. It was demolished for a larger theater in NYC. (Strange I had to enter this last bit twice, the first somewhat different, a hack? It "published"?)

Twin Doozies

Once I worked for a company in the World Trade Center, Ebasco, a Texas based energy company, supplied plans for power plants. It once had a spare "containment vessel" they needed to unload, 10" thick of alloy steel a couple of a hundred feet in diameter it went by barge somewhere. The division, part of five upper floors in one of the World Trade Center towers, Envirosphere, had the contract to do the initial survey and study of the environs of Fort Drum, NY where the US Army's 10th Mountain Division (former Senator Dole's WWII Italy campaign) was to be relocated from Camp Hale, Colorado. The former "Pine Camp" was to go from a temporary use for the National Guard, stationary tank fire exercise area for Fort Knox, Kentucky, A-10 "Warthog" "tank killer" target range for the then Syracuse based wing, EOD (explosive ordnance disposal, began by the British as "UXO") area, and the winter training of Army troops, to then become a permanent facility of 7,000 troops and auxiliary people (families, etc.). Over 110,000 acres of former fields and woods of 10,000 people moved just after WWII from the facility, presented some interesting archaeology problems and questions, once the site of four "bog iron" foundries, a palisaded native village and other sites (prehistoric site on the Black River, once part of the Erie Canal system, cemeteries, cheese factories, barns, house foundations, etc.) all wooden structures demolished back in 1945 or so. We were trying to shovel test 2% of the properties for possible recovery of former sites and potential for additional sites while policy was trying to be decided. It was also said to be the once future domicile of Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Joseph, at "Alpina", near what is today Lake Bonaparte and Carthage, NY. Many French settled and worked in Northern New York State the roadside sign informs me, as does the architecture of many places nearby, i.e., Cape Vincent. Ebasco later moved (to East Orange, NJ) as many did from the WTC. Other projects I have worked on have been indirectly the result of the re-thinking of the WTC. At one time all, for example, Social Security cases (I had a S.S. card replaced there) and other social services were there, centralized. I read that instead of the people coming to a center, it was changed in the 1980's for the services to be where the people are, so, for example, the very large GSA building (Government Services Administration) was another site I worked on with others in archaeology. Built across the street from the old Dutch Reformed Church, (built in the mid-18th century) it would be a new "anchor" to the downtown of Jamaica, Queens with a new subway station, Archer Ave. built. Across the street is now a "Magic Johnson Multiplex" which shows a history short of NYC for $1. Less than a block away from the GSA building, is the Rufus King Manor, historic site, who was the "...last Federalist, signer of the Constitution, our first Ambassador to England, etc.". It was later a residence of a Senator (State ?). I worked on "Rufus King" a number of times, in archaeology, for different people, as the park and grounds were upgraded. Recently a borough Family Court opened across the street from the Manor, there on Montauk Highway. Perhaps all these plans for moving precipitated in singer actor Bernadette Peters (whose debut was on the Bowery, in "Anything Goes" another area I've had to research for archaeology) being hired to invite people to visit the top of World Trade Center in a radio spot. Worked for me. Other times were scarier there, my friend compiling data for the survey of Fort Drum said, everyone was sent home one windy day over concern that the elevator shafts would go out of alignment she said. I never liked it much no lighting in the stairways then, my neighbor where I grew up a building inspector for the State of New York, Mr. Hlinka. His sons went on to teach high school science and work for NASA in Florida. I knew another in CT, who found all the electrical outlets in the Knights of Columbus headquarters replaced with cheaper, non-spec ones, about $100,000 embezzlement. Whatever, I hope they finally follow NYC code there. I was much later, surprised, that is back working at Madison Barracks at Sackett's Harbor, NY near Watertown and Fort Drum, NY, by an "Aer Lingus" 747 jet landing at the Watertown, NY "airport" with prisoners for the new prison at Cape Vincent from NYC. Surprised I say, as I was standing there with Angela Schuster (an editor at "Archaeology" magazine) and her husband, who own a small restored plane they fly in and he had just flown in. We were next to the small hanger and empty "terminal" building (smaller than most high school lobbies I'd imagine) and this massive green and white 747 jet flies in and a Dept. Of Corrections bus with bars drives out to it! I'm not sure about the fire-fighting equipment there it seems there was nothing there in case of an emergency like "Conair" or something. Turns out, it was the first of a number of "contract" flights. Another employee in an engineering company in the World Trade Center, was an engineer grad of Stony Brook U., a Mr. Roe, who once showed me the remains of what was (at the time), called one of the tallest windmills in the US, on the famous architect's place, the Stanford White Estate in Nissequogue, NY (named after the river in Smithtown and near The Museums at Stony Brook) and its bulldozed metal stanchions, once cast in a foundry in Baltimore. Built near the shore, a path along the shore runs there, it's said to have pumped water for I think a reservoir by the "squash court" (?). The tower, once covered in shingles, burned down around 1961. With its large circular fan blade ("Scientific American") it's written it served as a landmark to those who sailed on Long Island Sound between NY and CT. I once met him on the LIRR train going to work when I used to catch the 6:01 AM out of Ronkonkoma to work in NYC archaeology, then in the financial district, off Whitehall St. The former Whitehall Induction Center, (mentioned in "Alice's Restaurant" by native NYC singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie, son of Woodie Guthrie, probably visited by over a million men or more) seemed to still have the hole I think from where it had been bombed twice during the last military draft) building was being stripped of its external features and skinned in a modern steel and glass "skin" ("new brutalism"?) to "fit in" with other buildings it seems, and became one of the new NY Athletic Clubs in the go-go '80's.

Got a well in the house?

At Fort McHenry, (Baltimore, MD) there is a 90 foot deep well, created with "the best available mining techniques" according to the original contract, and had 12 foot cast iron barrel staves, tongue and groove, to keep out the salty bay at about 40 feet. It was built just before the siege of the fort and the burning of the White House (which I have learned was for burning York in or near present Toronto, Canada) as the water there could only last a day at a time and had to be brought in. That feature, as well as part of the well, was excavated in 1978. I went into the well, which was domed at top with two circular openings in the dome for some sort of apparatus to bring the water up from depth at the time it was unearthed, unknown. I've seen hollowed out logs used in shallower wells, there's one in the Tuftonboro, NH History Museum. There was some concern for the stability of its filling, and indeed if it had been filled to the top, it was now about 5 feet lower, allowing one to perhaps assume that no large timbers had been dropped into it and the deposit had collapsed further, purposely filled in but not a "jam". I assume your well is not of the same construction. The experience I have of this is only filmic. The Williamsburg films of the late 1970's was it, actually discussed the benefit of inserting corrugated tubing, like a large drainge pipe in sections connected to facilitate and thereby making safer excavation in the bottom of the well(s) there, at least one of the crew explained to the camera such, an improvement to previous methods or lack of. Another well excavated was full of clean gravel from the nearby Dutchess Quarry to 11' from its top (with a "special" U-Haul doublecross handled post hole digger made from light tubing) and it was finally excavated to the bottom by removing the soils around it, creating a tower if you will of stone on the Hudson River terrace at the former ferry landing to Marlboro, NY in Bowdoin Park, then chosen site of the sewerage treatment plant. That is until it collapsed. After it was cleared away the bottom was found to be clean except for an aluminum pitcher. Better found indoors than outdoors inadvertantly there has been some talk of mandating well recording: Seeking Abandoned Water Wells Near Surface Geophysics - Seeking Abandoned Water Wells One of the northern states in the US has a unique and very aggressive environmental protection program, especially with regard to water well management. Specifically, every property transaction that occurs in the state requires a disclosure of wells on the property. For properties with no well, then that is disclosed. For properties with a well, the well status (in use, not in use, or sealed by a licensed well contractor) and a rough sketch of the well location is required. GEM Advanced Magnetometer and Gradiometer - Quantum E-News, Fall 2004. Maybe someone can make a robotic claw and lift soils off the bottom?

Enterprise

I see over at Section 31 that a high school and Zum Zum (Bavarian fast food) alumnus Doug Drexler is Senior Illustrator on the "Enterprise" sci-fi show based on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" series, started by NBC and Desilu. There's a museum in Jamestown, NY, on or near Lake Chautauqua, of Lucy and Desi Arnez, where she was from. The star of one of the Star Trek films ("Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989, written and directed by William Shatner who presented Paris Hilton with her cool phrase award for "that's hot" at the MTV awards the other night). "Sybok" searching for "ShaKaRee" played by Laurence Luckenbill, is married to Lucille Ball's daughter. He was in the soaps too I'm told, and my girlfriend met him at a wedding a number of years ago, not his, (or hers) however. It was a sad day going by on the express bus past the Museum of Television and Motion Picture Arts in NYC (another in L.A.) when all nine screens in the window had Lucy Ball's portrait in them one cold winter day. Doug Drexler also did the makeup with a Brooklyn based make-up artist for the film "Dick Tracy" about which they were given an Academy Award for, at least that's how it looked on TV! Warren Beatty, "Dick Tracy" director and star, and other independant films, was just honored along with others including one of my favorites, Sir Elton John, and my mother's favorite, opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. for life-long contributions to the performing arts. I once was a recruitment assistant for a "visual and performing arts" college in Buffalo, NY one summer, and a student there, where once the "Cleveland Quartet" lived in residence. As part of the "residential education" it also had different artists from the greater Buffalo, NY area come into seminars in the dorm to discuss their ideas and careers. One particularly well attended was a historian's research on "Sex and the White House". I'm not sure what happened to the program, part of a larger idea, where people (and students!) with similar interests (history: Vico College, pre-medicine, math, visual and performing arts: College B, women's studies college, radical studies, etc.) were to be in the "colleges" within the University on the new campus then opening in Amherst, NY, said to have been designed for said purposes. Maybe too utopian. The new campus had been built on a marsh and the first New York State Law School (so far the only, one proposed for Stony Brook U. once) opened at the same time in 1974. That famous piano parodist from the Watergate Hotel, PBS mainstay Mark Russell, used to be televised from the then new theater that opened there, ("piano plus politics equals parody" http://www.sptimes.com/2002/12/09/Floridian/Piano_plus_politics_e.shtml). Hope all the kinks worked out, I almost stepped into a five story abyss when an elevator opened with no car, it being above my head. I chased it up to the eighth floor but didn't catch the "hackers" I thought responsible. I say "hackers" because later I was assured that it couldn't possibly have happened (any other way). Strange, these days I remember going to a pet store with Doug Drexler's sister, a twin I think, in the paralegal profession last we talked, and seeing a small white chimpanzee there. That was before "Planet of the Apes" I think. Not completely albino either, maybe an evolving "link"? Or I was set up. Not too long after that Doug and a neighbor Mr. Fredrickson published a "Star Fleet Medical Reference" book, it was pretty good for the time, from Ballantine Books I think. I found it in a flea market in Pennsylvania. It's since disappeared. Live long and prosper!

Don't let the Bush Team Cut College Support for 1 Million+ Students

Dear Friend, Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the right wing majority that controls Congress threatened the college dreams of more than 1 million American students. They authorized cuts to the leading federal college grant program (Pell Grants) that children of working families rely on to afford college. Those cuts will endanger the college education primarily of students whose families earn less than $40,000 a year, and who are already scrimping to put their sons and daughters through school. I just sent a letter to Secretary Nominee Spellings, asking her not to make these cuts. I wanted to encourage you strongly to take a minute and send a letter too. You can do it easily from the link below. http://action.ourfuture.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23233 No American child should be priced out of a college education if they have the grades and desire to pursue one. Secretary Nominee Spellings will have the power to prevent deserving students from being cut off. If you feel so inclined, please write to her now, and ask that she do the right thing. http://action.ourfuture.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23233 I ask, who will run, for example, ARDA? (Advanced Research and Development Activity, an agency of the Intelligence Community that conducts advanced research and development related to information technology) Only those raised in privilege? History has shown that often those innovators of our culture often come from the less advantaged and the poor. American engineer, Nikola Tesla, for example, born in Croatia but of Serbian descent, "father" of alternating current, someday to be honored at the architect Stanford White's designed lab facility in Rocky Point, NY, "Wardenclyffe," is often referred to as a former "ditchdigger". Who are these people in office? Thank you.

Where I used to boldly go...

"The agency's budget for Superfund cleanups has not changed in the last few years. Since 1995, when Congress did not renew a special tax on polluters, the cleanup money has come entirely from taxpayers. " NY Times 12/5/04 Leading up to this "bureau" cratic imbroglio was the threat of a "loophole" somewhere on the scale or order of "blackholes," gopher holes, sinkholes, etc., in the "language" of rumor (the American spelling) whereby "all banks who granted mortgages to polluters will be found also liable and have their monies extracted" for "Superfund" purposes. I wonder if Newt Gingrich invented that one? They are so wonderfully full of psycholinguistics over there on the other side of the aisle.

Tom Brokaw

I think part of the appeal of Mr. Brokaw has been "brand loyalty" perhaps. The "NBC Nightly News" started from New York City partly with George Murray, whose mother Margaret Myers is 101, who was an award winning television producer, producing "NBC Nightly News from New York" for many years in the 1960's often in Houston, TX for NASA's Gemini launches and in then Saigon, South Vietnam). He won an award for a production of "The Vanishing Americans" about the plight of native peoples in America. His last produced coverage that I know of was both the Democratic and Republican Conventions in 1976 for CBS. He died in Mexico City where his wife, an Avon executive, was introducing the Avon line there. He is buried in Pennsylvania. I last saw him at a wedding when the Red Cross was handing out blankets to flood victims in Paterson, NJ. He had been an Army Captain in the Korean Conflict and later worked for the Signal Corps making training films before becoming a film editor at NBC. After they found he could also direct, he directed "Huntley and Brinkley" before becoming a news producer of "NBC Nightly News from New York". At his eulogy in the UN Chapel, I'm told, Edwin Newman, a noted television journalist and writer, read a letter George Murray had to read to his crew in Vietnam, apologizing for the many months of work and risks they had taken, in putting together a report on the "common soldiers' view" of the conflict there. It was canceled by "higher-ups" and my suspicion is, that although there were other productions shown by other networks in a similar theme, it was canceled because General Westmoreland, the "chief of chiefs" so to speak, was suing the NBC network over its news coverage, which suspected that "body counts" were being manipulated by the military. General Westmoreland, with whom I share a birthday (March 26) took personal umbrage over it and sued for millions and millions of dollars. Gee, I thought the military was there to serve, not make us want to kill all the lawyers. So I think it may also include NBC's role in our collective history which also makes us listen to Mr. Brokaw, and maybe even the threat of losing the last of the prairie grasslands he's from contributed to our interest.

Re: Question for Sam Donaldson of ABC (first entry)

George Murray, whose mother Margaret Myers is 101, was an award winning television producer (he produced "NBC Nightly News from New York" for many years in the 1960's often in Houston, TX for NASA's Gemini launches and in then Saigon, South Vietnam). He won an award for a production of "The Vanishing Americans" about the plight of native peoples in America. His last produced coverage that I know of was both the Democratic and Republican Conventions in 1976 for CBS. He died in Mexico City where his wife, an Avon executive, was introducing the Avon line there. He is buried in Pennsylvania. I last saw him at a wedding when the Red Cross was handing out blankets to flood victims in Paterson, NJ. He had been an Army Captain in the Korean Conflict and later worked for the Signal Corps making training films before becoming a film editor at NBC. After they found he could also direct, he directed "Huntley and Brinkley" before becoming a news producer.

At his eulogy in the UN Chapel, I'm told, Edwin Newman, a noted television journalist and writer, read a letter George Murray had to read to his crew in Vietnam, apologizing for the many months of work and risks they had taken, in putting together a report on the "common soldiers' view" of the conflict there. It was canceled by "higher-ups" and my suspicion is, that although there were other productions shown by other networks in a similar theme, it was canceled because General Westmoreland, the "chief of chiefs" so to speak, was suing the NBC network over its news coverage, which suspected that "body counts" were being manipulated by the military. General Westmoreland, with whom I share a birthday (March 26) took personal umbrage over it and sued for millions and millions of dollars. Gee, I thought the military was there to serve, not make us want to kill all the lawyers.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY - Newsday p. A27  December 2

1804: Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
1823: President Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
1859: Militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry the previous October.
1939: New York's LaGuardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.
1942: A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time, at the University of Chicago.
1970: The Environmental Protection Agency began operating under director William Ruckelshaus.

Calling all cars (with minorities)

Spielberg sighting in Athens! Athens New York! Click on link above to be a movie extra! http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1769&dept_id=74958&newsid=13446223 Actor Nick Nolte's "double" sent me this today. He lives Upstate New York and his family has the summertime music venue, "Romig's Barn" on Grand Manan Island, N.B. The NY Times had also reported that Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise were filming "War of the Worlds" in Bayonne, NJ also. It is good to have him here again. I worked on an archaeology site where he filmed "Batteries Not Included" near Tompkins Square Park. We used to lunch in the "Castillo de Jaguar" just around the corner. Lots of marbles, chamber pots and some "abolitionist" coins circulated to remind people to end slavery in a "drainage feature" next to where he had the "faux" building built. It was supposed to be a housing site and Housing Police Headquarters for all below 42nd Street! Odd, I'm not sure what was built there we had to cross a picket line to work (non-union labor being used on a City funded construction site!) on the archaeology next to the "Latin Kings" gang in the abandoned school (we dug out the "gang toilet" as they were called once, like a large attached outhouse) one a squatters building, and the community gardens Bette Midler helped save by buying them before the City could bulldoze them. Thanks Bette! Congratulations on your parks award on Long Island too! (Heh, I can dream can't I? Give her an elephant for her birthday will ya'?) Turns out it really is Ms. Midler's birthday! Happy Birthday! Original script Mercury Theater War of the Worlds script: (I found this a few weeks ago) http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/script.html Grover's Mills, one of the landing sites, is near to Princeton University and the RCA David Saranoff Research Center (many "wireless" fields in NJ nearby and NY, 6000 acres in Rocky Point, for example, now a State Park given by RCA for $1, were used to bounce signals off the "ionosphere" to Europe. He was a General at the end of WWII). I spent many weeks digging holes in the Princeton Nursery and the RCA property for a proposed interchange on Route 1 that was never built as far as I know, back when space shuttle Challenger crashed. The conical water tower said to have been shot at in the dark, mistaken for a Martian "Crew Excursion Vehicle" was still there when I bought a PCjr internal 300 baud modem made there, when finally, the new bridge was finished. The film with Gene Barry, was a "California" version. His film processing centers were the first I recall in NYC. Interesting, the original book was dedicated to the original Tasmanians who were wiped out by Europeans said H.G. Wells. Athens, NY that must be near West Athens, NY. I went to the "West Athens Hill" site as part of my field school in archaeology (behind the Catskill Animal Hospital) which was going to be a microwave repeater tower until they found the oldest archaeological site in New York State on top of it and new tech decreased the number of towers planned. Still is one of the oldest. Beautiful view of the river plain from up there. The field school professor, R. M. Gramly, Ph.D. worked on it as an RPI student with Dr. Ritchie, the State Archaeologist back in the 60's (he was the State Archaeologist after Arthur C. Parker, whose Seneca name was "Snowsnake" according to the NY State Museum). Ritchie also published the "Archaeology of Martha's Vineyard" (out of print) and the "Archaeology of New York State" starting out near Watertown, NY after WWII I think (maybe he had a war bride). I'm not sure who is State Archaeologist now after Robert Funk's (also State Archaeologist) contributions to "Hudson Valley Prehistory" and research on Fishers Island off the coast of Connecticut, part of New York State. Funny seeing it, "Batteries Not Included" after workings there. Paul Sharits would have liked it, with whom I took some experimental film-making and analysis with, at the Media Center in Buffalo, NY, which was just down Bailey Ave. from the "joint" with Frank Sinatra, Jr., considering that a community movie house opened nearby to show all sorts of films explaining America to recent arrivals. The Media Center was all black inside and showed many locally made films too and was also where Hollis Frampton taught who was working on "Zorn's Lemma", a film journey through a morgue autopsy. Twyla Tharp was in an early film of his (1971?). She choreographed the Billy Joel musical "Movin' Out" on Broadway. The WKBG TV station let me have a shopping bag full of 16mm television commercials to study. Watch out for the two clear frames at the end of the Comet commercial! An archaeologist working in a Bronx park, later employed with the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in Virginia, told me this Spielberg-related story. Mr. Spielberg's mother was once in trouble with the city planning department in the Bronx when the contractor took out some of the trees at his sister's place being built near Riverdale Park. I walked much of the Old Croton Aqueduct on Saturdays as a Bronx Historical Society activity with a City Planner, Nestor Danyluk, who said he had the regrettable job of taking pictures of the stumps. I also recall there was some sort of slush fund going on to "alleviate" some of the "crimes" others had from unauthorized cutting, run by the former City Parks Commissioner (twice he was, I think) Henry J. Stern. Years ago, it was though, and I used to think "Oh no! Steven Spielberg's Mom is going to jail!"