Mar 15, 2001
From: Hope Forrest
To: Kathryn Jennings-Hancock
Re: The Trouble With Knowing For Sure
I second Fran's Alt's motion (below) for a sequel . . . PLEASE?!?!
Hope Forrest
Mar 14, 2001
To: The Editor
From: Stephen Birkett
Re: Forum, Argument, Debate, Pianos
Bill,
Many thanks for the summary your sent. I like the idea of the forum that
you have established with the inditer site. This is an excellent example
of the power of webpublishing. Congratulations on the library citation (National Library of Canada) - I realize just how significant that honour is.
I'm truly sorry to hear about your medical misfortunes. It is shocking
that no one in Hepatitus scandal has received any compensation yet. These
are facts which are not reported in the media. (ed note: some, but few have been paid - seems almost it depends where you live and who your mp is. Little matter, Hospice now takes good care of me.)
Hope that my fire in the Jeffrey Dane discussion is not too hot. I don't
want to cause trouble, just correct the facts.
See also Stephen Birkett's latest response to Donald Grant DeMan
Stephen Birkett
Mar 12, 2001
To:Kathryn Jennings-Hancock
From: Fran Alt
Re: The Trouble Knowing for Sure
'The Trouble with Knowing for Sure', By Kathryn Jennings-Hancock,
belongs in the print media! It's one of the best pieces I've read in a
long time. I'd call it recommended reading, but it is so well written that
it leaves the reader in the same boat as the main character - not knowing
for sure. I demand a SEQUEL! I have got to know!! NOW!
Fran Alt
Mar 12, 2001
To Ann Pottle Dolin,
No beach to walk on, but Merlot I've got. Touché.
Dick Koss
Mar 12, 2001
To: Fran Alt
From: Sam Person
Re: Encounter with A Police Vehicle
Fran Alt:
Thanks for the kind words.
Your story that appeared a day or so before mine did indeed get me to reflecting back on the episode with my son.
Of particular interest in your well-written piece was the fact that the cops in your case covered up the bad guy. Too bad. The Road Home
As I said, there are good cops, and bad cops.
When my son's episode occurred people were surprised that Internal Affairs responded so positively. But, they did, and I suspect that there are many good cops out there who must take the abuse left in the wake of the bad ones.
By the way, are you still wearing that Brooklyn Dodger shirt (jersey?).
Sam Person
Mar 11, 2001
To: Sam Person
From: Fran Alt
Re: Encounter with a Police Vehicle
I read and thoroughly enjoyed Sam Person's impromptu piece on his son's
misadventure with Long Island police.
I marvel at Sam's ability to spontaneously tell a story and do it so well.
My own work took twenty-five years and even after I sent it, I found
mistakes! Smile.
Sam's tale left me wanting to discuss things of this nature. It seems
problems like this occur much too often in this Country and usually the
ordinary person has no control over the situation. Sam's quick reaction adds
to my admiration. Well done Sam! - both for your marvelous writing and for
your quick response to your son's problem.
Fran Alt
Mar 11, 2001
To: Jeffrey Dane
From: Rod Timanus
Re:The Piano Debate
Regarding the recent flurry of exchanges between the Music Historian and the
piano-maker, I must pass along a hearty "Bravo" to Mr. Dane.
For Mr. Birkett a Chinese proverb, "Better to remain silent and be thought a
fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
Rod Timanus
Mar 11, 2001
To: Sam Person
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Encounter with a Police Vehicle
A fine and chillingly familiar tale of police gone amuck. The fear that is encountered is of course de facto abuse, and should be addressed accordingly. Though police departments give lip services to psychiatric evaluation of their personnel and recruits to weed out the macho breed, this obviously is not so at all. One can see the strain in the eyes of some officers as they go about their duties, that deadly look like they'd love the opportunity to beat some poor soul absolutely senseless, or railroad them on sparse evidence.
The problem here is summed up nicely by Samuel Person: It's generally the weak who need help that get the brunt of this type of treatment - drunks, junkies, elderly vagrants and yes indeed persons of a color or race not understood by the officer.
For my part I generally went in the opposite direction: addressing the poverty stricken as "Mister" or "Missus" while being more curt with those of rank in order to avoid the upper caste "grooming the cops" consistent with a criminal of this stature.
The most demoralizing issue facing young policemen is watching while they are passed over for some ignorant bully boy who is cozy with the brass. As long as promotion comes from the top down, the rookie is between that rock and a hard place indeed. I spent nearly a year there and I know the fear of being absolutely powerless. I was - happily for me - en route to a teaching career at the time, but the fears come back as nightmares from time to time.
Donald Grant DeMan
March 11, 2001
To: Caroline Zarlengo Sposto
From: Jeffrey Dane
Re:How To Win an Argument
I enjoyed Caroline Sposto's piece, "How to Win Arguments." Certainly she
offers a viable alternate. Most people do things their own way. She does
things the right way. I sometimes wish I could write with that kind of
humorous aplomb and smile-producing wording. - But then, I guess I'm not
Sposto.
My having finished this piece will now allow me to investigate, as you
suggested, more of Caroline Sposto's work in The Inditer. I've been to
Kutztown, PA only twice (about a thousand years ago) to shop at the
Renninger's antiques complex there, in the days when I was still actively
collecting inkwells.
Jeffrey Dane
Mar 11, 2001
From: Donald Grant DeMan
To: Cailean Darkwater -
Jeffrey Dane -
Rosemary Bowery -
Fran Alt
Re: Love Is The Key - - Points to Ponder II - - My Magic Rock - - The Road Home
I try and try and try, and here Frances Fasano Alt (The Road Home) comes up with the finest piece of police-civvy tension I have read in memory!
Piled high with emotion it make me sweat bullets. What a writer! What a suspense-spinner! What an author!
Boy oh boy. Our hero makes the transformation from one pissed off person to an accepting reasonable understanding ex. Once more Cailean Darkwater (Love is the Key)stretches the limits of the form with engaging prose.
Need I say I shed a tear upon traveling around the world on a creek rock
with Rosemary Bowery (My Magic Rock) and her sister, Rhu?
Loss, alas is part of life. Memories remain the fruits that ultimately fill
that emptiness.
How articulately Jeffrey Dane (Points to Ponder II) explores the ins and out of his mind and relationships. Such absolutely frank and revealing emotions are there for the reader to share. Methinks it takes a good deal of courage on Jeff's part to allow us those intriguing interactions.
I have yet to write my annual summation of life: Coming Alive at Sixty-Five. However, I don't believe I shall be so brave as to share it with anyone human. Smiles.
Thanks so very much once more, Jeff.
Donald Grant DeMan
Mar 08, 2001
To: Jennings-Hancock - John D. Collins
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: The Bears Claws - The Trouble with Knowing - Suffering at Santanna
What a joy it is to see Kathryn Jennings-Hancock at the top of the Inditer once more. My oh
my this little story "The Trouble With Knowing For Sure" draws the reader right into the complexities of family relations. While it seems like an eccentric and strange relationship, the
dynamics between Ginger, Artie and ....the mystery man, rings with tension and intrigue.
Kathryn Jennings is once more at the top of her form. Most enjoyable reading. A real trip!
and -
John Davis Collins in the "The Bears Claws" has yet given us another one of his "tsk tsk" stories containing all the wit charm and suspense of which he is famous - a wryness that grates with tension, an urgency that calls out for balance and justification. The sinister Texas Judge, the Ivy league incompetent prosecution, the underling accused - all revolving around a most reluctant witness, and a defense wise with stoicism. One can see the steam rising from this story of bias and traditional danger of miscarriage of justice. Loud and clear, Collins has brought us to the brink of facing our own personal bigotry.
and -
Just a note to let you know I shed a tear along with Ann Pottle Dolin, and
would like to thank you for publishing this poem of pathos, "Suffering at Santanna", most obviously a reaction to a most horrible tragedy in Ann Pottle Dolin's community.
The poet has a marvelous way of letting us glimpse at her emotional world,
and I, for one, am most touched by sharing the experience.
Thanks,
Donald Grant DeMan
Mar 08, 2001
From: Frances Fasano Alt
To: Donald Grant DeMan and Doug Tanoury
Re: DeMan's North Ward Donnybrook and Tanoury's Produce Poems
I really can't get over Donald Grant DeMan's mental acuity when it comes to his past. We all have childhood memories but how many of us can pick out a day for every occasion and tell a high-minded story? The adventures of DeMan's life, read as though the moments are pictures passing before the reader's eyes and always the DeMan's comments leave room for inner reflection.
The North Ward St. Patrick's Day Donnybrook by D. Grant DeMan is an enjoyable reflection of life in the forties when something as distant as a World War was the scariest a thing a North American school-kid had to think about.
Nice read.
On the Produce Poems of Doug Tanoury, I cherish the Potatoes. Thanx Doug - I loved my dad that much too.
Frances Fasano Alt
Mar 06, 2001
To: Donald Grant DeMan
From: The Dean
Re: The Worlds Dumbest Cop
Fairmont Caper is a brilliant piece,,, the mystery of writing lets the
reader explore a new diminsion in the ordinary. To this end,
a writer takes the humdrum and launches it into a new universe. Even though
I argue against spectacular police chase scenes and shoot-outs I admit we
much enrich one vignette with parts of others to make dramatic impact.
By these criterion Fairmont deserves 5 stars.
The language was fantastic. There is a distinct Canadian style in each
speaker even though Donald Grant DeMan didn't use much local police slang
The allusion to Mortimer Snerd "the wooden dummy" is risky. There has come
a generation which knows neither Mortimer snerd nor Knucklehead Smith, or
even my generation's version "Jerry Mahoney" and his companion who may also
have been Knucklehead. But I believe Mortimer Snerd is sufficiently
onomonopeac (sense from sound) that makes the risk worth taking. Those who
understand the allusion will chuckle doubly, those who do not will still
grab the sense of it.
The original Honeymooners by the bye were chuck full of allusions to plays by
a Sidney Austin (I think that's the name) who was well known in the 20s but
who did not stand the test of time, but you did not need to know that
playwright to understand any scene.
I give this one * * * * * (5 stars)
Email John F. Clennan
Mar 06, 2001
From: Donald Grant DeMan
To: Editor, Dane, Birkett, et al
Re: Piano Debate - Chronology here
This feud is reminiscent of the Newspaper and Journal battles between
intellectuals during 16th - 19th Century England which contains some of the
very best literature in our language.
Those were the days when the "letters to the editor" material far surpassed
daily accounts as drawing cards for readers who naturally would then bone
up on the work of the combatants for fear of missing something monumental.
Today we have literary publications which take their place to some degree.
Donald Grant DeMan continues:
Dear Bill and Jeff, and Mr. Whazizname?
Love the "debate" though Jeff Dane obviously comes through as a shining knight in this matter, having actually spent his life in work and research as well as talented performances in a worldly range of disciplines. Perhaps it was unwise to pick a fight with Mr. Dane so near the anniversary of the Alamo affair. I could almost see the spirit of Davy and Sam and Dan and all those heroic ghosts come out fighting from between the lines.
Bill Loeppky our esteemed editor and friend can be congratulated for his freepress Renaissance, a revival of great intellectual debates as of yesteryear such as we studied in English Literature so long ago.
So there you have it: the Piano, particularly those of Beethoven. Now as to the Sweet Potato? I wonder about the great masters of that particular instrument often played with great gusto to banjo and mandolin accompaniment in Deman's Victoria Store and Emporium during the forties.
Smiles.
Donald Grant DeMan
Mar 06, 2001
From: The Editor
To: All concerned & readers
Re: Piano Debate
My heartfelt thanks to all of those who participated in the debate started from an essay punblished by this on-line journal. It has been one of the highlights of our existence. As Donald Grant DeMan mentions above, it was just such things that sparked the start of some great literature of the English Language.
Not since the National Library of Canada selected Inditer.com for archiving at it's site has such an exciting and important event taken place. This debate may or may not be over. If more comes in, it will be posted. If nothing more comes in, what we have will be chronicled in a slightly different manner and kept for the life of Inditer.com.
Once again. Thank you all for your participation.
Bill, The Editor
Mar 04, 2001
To: Glenne Brucker
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Cartoon Comic Strip
Dear Bill and Glenne,
Glenn has come up with a fresh and creatively delightful cast of characters
here, brilliantly portrayed and beautifully crafted. While slightly
reminiscent of Pogo and the Swamp Critters - which we all loved - these
lizards are of this millennium in their appeal and wit. Certainly equal to,
and perhaps surpassing, Walt Kelly's cast of actors.
There can be no doubt that we shall long remember the rise and fame of Glenn
Brucker, who with sweat and determination brought us humor and deep thought.
My hat is off Bill.
The Inditer has one more star in it's crown. My heart warms with joy.
Donald Grant DeMan
Mar 03, 2001
To: Hope Forrest
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re:Words
Had a couple of minutes between chores, so I read this delightfully humorous
piece by Hope Forrest. It's not so much that women use more words, than guys
don't use the words the lady is just dying to hear.
I say, "You have no idea how hard it was to get that broken light bulb out
of the back of the oven, the new one in, and the cover back on."
She wants to hear, "Baby, you look so lovely in that new night gown. For a
moment I thought I was living with a movie star. Love is like that, isn't
it? I made chicken wings and punch. Let's snuggle up for the whole day."
I just love Hope's solution to this perennial problem. It's no wonder she's
such a fine mom, and so loved by Sherwood.
So well delivered that it warmed me to the core.
Donald Grant DeMan
Feb 24, 2001
To: Margaret Karmazin
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Stamp of Sale
Dear Bill and Margaret,
Just read Stamp of Sale - the Ballad of Veronica Baird - through for the second time. It remains as clear, brilliant and revealing as before. What a superior author is Margaret, her labyrinth of detail raising the reader up up up and dropping him down down down, with a walloping finale that is soulfully elevating. And special.
Sister Maria of Maria Gracia Eternalé has written me requesting Veronica Baird visit her at Convento de Sanyta Catalina following her present mission in Africa. You may have read they are in possession of their own miracle. She promises no yellow-chinned snakes. Humbly I ask Margaret to pass along this request to Veronica, who may in time....well....as Marg has written, the miraculous does burst forth in glory. The Vatican might well take notice, and can Saint Veronica be far from a future reality?
What a story! Brilliant and engaging in every respect!
Donald Grant DeMan
Feb 23, 2001
To: Donald Grant DeMan
From: John F. Clennan
Re: Geo III - Geo IV
One of the advantages of the old Peconic Literary society was its many perspectives.
And I always appreciate informed contrary challenges. A challenge makes the challenged re-examine fundamental assumptions.
Indeed one can make a remarkably good case for George III as an indulgent constitutional monarch who tried to accomodate American subjects as far as legally possible and turned to hostilities only when no lesser means succeeded. You do see a glimmer of that view in the Arnold story?
But of course even Charles I at his trial claimed to be the protector of the rights of all Englishmen. Left to a legislative (democratic) government (ie without the King), subjects would oppress each other, Charles I argued in his own defense.
George IV, the original Prince Regent, has had a bad press. Certainly austere and upright George III contributed to that by criticizing his son for fooling around. Yet how many times could the great lords drag out George IV and tell him to get ready to be crowned before they drove him as nuts as his father?
From: John F. Clennan
Feb 21, 2001
To: The Dean, The Editor, The Mentor, et al
Dear John and Bill and Other Intellectuals,
So you poked fun at my poo-pooing the idea of the parallel between the
relationships of George III to George IV, and Bush I to Bush II.
That highly imagined relationship only holds true if Junior gives up on
Iraq, as George IV failed to liberate the US.
Anyone out there making book on the outcome of this cliff -hanger?
Donald Grant DeMan
Feb 21, 2001
To: The editor
From: John F. Clennan
Hi Bill:
Thanks for your reply.
Iraq has become the whipping boy of the US. After the US sub bombed a Japanese
fishing vessel armed with little more than nets and tackle, Mr. Bush, to kill off the stench, bombs Iraq
You have no reason to be ashamed. Little (cowboy)boots didn't call on you
for advice beforehand .
John F. Clennan
ed note: John F. Clennan's book, "If All Men Were Angels" is due for print edition publication soon. Please watch for it.
Feb 21, 2001
To: The Dean
From: D Grant DeMan
Re: National morality, morales, morays, Morés
I'm not sure if the conversation is drifting quite the right way here. We
seem to be comparing Canada and the US degeneration of morés to those of
some banana republics. With the exception of Quebec, Canada and the US have
a common ancestry in the British Isles. That said, much of the US
educational system seems to stem from their larger German influx (I'm now
not thinking of Harvard and Yale etc.) thus we see kindergartens, marching
bands and pep rallies, but in all a good respect for higher education.
We may well take that and entwine it with the Encyclopediasts - the ideals
of European democracy and rebellion from oppression there, and the rule of
law already comparatively well-developed in Britain. In my view it has been
this welding of ideas in the beginning along with such largess of weather
and land that has made the US great. Canada on the other hand was a
left-over province that no one quite knew what to do with and subsequently
had independence from Britain nearly forced upon it. It is well recorded
that French Canadians did not trust the new influx of merchants streaming
into Montreal following the conquest of 1758-63, and relied on King George
through his Governors and Council to check democracy. That Quebec refused to
join Ben Franklin and his fellows in the American Revolution speaks volumes
of the habitant attitude toward protestant America.
With the later influx of American Loyalists came a new push in Canada to
throw off the reigns of Family Compacts and Governors of appointment Chateau
Cliques who de facto ruled the two Canadas, and the rest of those colonies.
Thus we have the 1837 Papineau - Lower Canada, and W.L. Mackenzie Rouge
Rebellions timed for Victoria's Coronation, I believe. These amounted to
brief skirmishes though some life was lost. It did however bring about Lord
Durham who among other things granted the habitants full language rights and
their Church full rights to tithe. Responsible government was yet to come.
The land was pushed to the Pacific only by the threat of American invasion
following the Civil War - remember the Fenians? - and the Alaska purchase.
Thus Canada slowly progressed into what it now has become without
revolution - a sovereign democratic parliamentary constitutional monarchy
sharing head of state with Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries.
It had never had substantial slavery having no plantations or use for them.
The Governor General and the Lieutenant Governors are appointed to represent
the monarchy in Ottawa and the provinces.
Though similar on the surface, these two countries have great differences in
their approach to government and life.
Republics further south were formed through revolution from pieces of
long-established Spanish and Portuguese colonies under one great hero or
another, continually falling into despair for the most part, and going
through it all again and again. Unlike the revolutionary United States there
existed for them no British Tradition of government and law, nor German
learning, nor French savoir faire. Thus they became fair pickings for
whatever force, ideal or business came down the pike. Most still remain that
way, though some progress is evident.
We see then there can be no real comparison of these nations. America is a
democratic revolutionary aggressive republican state which takes full
advantage of every quarter yielded as per Florida, California, Oregon,
Puerto Rico, Hawaii, New Mexico ad infinitum. Manifest Destiny! A de facto
empire that humbles the former British rule. A culmination of all the
domination knowledge of old and new. Divide and conquer, but do it with
kindness if possible. Folks are now watching us closely.
Canada, on the other hand, has actually refused several states in the
Caribbean and elsewhere who wished to join our union. Newfoundland -
desperate and poverty riddled - joined Canada by only a bare majority having
refused previously, while most Canadians didn't care one way or
another.There was little flag waving about any Canadian expansion in fact.
Each step was hard fought and bought and still mighty controversial in
several areas. Separatist parties abound.
That corruption exists is evident in all areas unconnected to origins, I
feel. Right now our Prime Minister - who fired one deputy who criticized
him, and who has a life or death grip on the job of the main special
prosecutor - is under the gun for several influence peddling and corrupt
practices. BC has lost a whole string of Premiers through one scandal or
another. And we don't even have to discuss the rest.
What it is I do believe is that more people than ever are getting caught up
their armpits in it, because of media surveillance. Every telephone call,
every e-mail and slip of paper, every tape, every entry in an account may
now be traced. This is where it is. Mr. Clinton is a throwback to the
fifties, a sex addict wheeler dealer that no one would have bothered about
during that time. But when he tried the same things in the nineties
.....well.....what do you expect with all those enemies out there?
Chretein is a product of the fifties, but he also hails from a Catholic
background that instinctively tells him when to pull in and when to bully
out. Bad things happen to folks who defy him. The folks of Montreal and
Quebec have always lived in a world of graft, gratuity, bribery and winks
and nods. The main difference between them and US grifters is mainly that
they also have a paternal system that makes government the father of their
being - the Church has been slipping in that role for years. Business to
them is a recent invention and somehow government has to go hand in hand
with it. Money flows always through government influence peddling, making it
rather expensive to run a successful business there.
In conclusion, morés of these different but similar systems have not fallen
at all. Their foibles have merely been revealed to the citizens in a more
direct and impacted manner. The danger now is the probability of unfairly
and unevenly wielded reaction of the self-righteous mob through courts
wishing to set everything immediately right again. Of course there is no
"again" to go back to. Never was.
D Grant DeMan
ed note: As the old, or is it new song goes, "how can you make a comeback when you ain't never been there before?" Actually, that's a new song being sung by the old songsters.....and politicians.
Feb 18, 2001
To: Dee Walmsley
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Critturs
Dear Bill and Dee,
Okay so I'll admit to reading Dee's Walmsley's Mating Ritual piece, even though she
viciously picks on this poor vulnerable artistic underdog. I might like to
be left well alone during this my mating season also, you know!
Yep, me and Dee went to the same school. Do not recall Miss Fountain though.
She didn't mention the year. Perhaps she was the Nina or Pinta of my
story?
One of the next up is all about the fond memories of shooting rats. (Smiles).
And I just know Dee will welcome that one. In the days of yore we didn't
have no respect, but now we have Dee to remind us of nature's treasures.
Of course, if anyone has read my works, I favor micro-organisms over all
living beings. Most of them are so advanced they are not obligated to mate
at all. But do be careful where you wield the iodine nevertheless.
Yours very truly
Donald Grant DeMan
