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Saturday, December 19, 2009
Ralph Wright Obituary
We attended the vigil for this dear friend last evening -- a sad but uplifting ceremony of his life with talks by children, a grandchild and friends.
clipped from obits.oregonlive.comRalph Henry Wright Jr
Ralph Henry Wright, Jr. 85
03/12/1924 12/15/2009
Ralph Henry Wright Jr., longtime Oregon resident and former executive vice president of Salem Hospital, died Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, at home after a brief illness.
Born in Elyria, Ohio, to Ralph and Lauretta Wright, Ralph served in the U.S. Army in World War II.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, magna cum laude, in 1949 with a degree in journalism, he later received a master's degree in English from DePaul University.
Ralph embarked on a 20-year career in advertising. Afterwards, he joined Willamette University as director of university relations and worked for the university for 12 years.
His final career was in hospital administration with Salem Hospital when he retired in 1990, and he and Millie settled in Portland. At that point, he was able to pursue his dream of writing a novel.
An avid reader and writer, Ralph penned a column for the Statesman-Journal newspaper called the "The Wright Stuff" and taught creative writing at Chemeketa Community College. He was also a dedicated volunteer for the Multnomah County Library.
Ralph is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Millie; their children, Dan, Martha, David, Chris, Mary, John, Laurie Stewart and Amy Henry; and grandchildren, Megan, Victor, Kelsey, Nate, Azul, Emily, Benjamin and Dominic.
Ralph was an extraordinary man. We will deeply miss his unconditional love, support and sense of humor, often depicted with droll and succinct words. His open, gentle and charismatic manner earned him devoted and lifelong friends.
A vigil will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009, in Zeller Chapel of the Roses. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009, in St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 424 S.W. Mill St., Portland, OR 97201.
The family suggests remembrances in Ralph's name to St. Michael the Archangel parish, Providence Hospice or a charity of your choice.
03/12/1924 12/15/2009
Ralph Henry Wright Jr., longtime Oregon resident and former executive vice president of Salem Hospital, died Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, at home after a brief illness.
Born in Elyria, Ohio, to Ralph and Lauretta Wright, Ralph served in the U.S. Army in World War II.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, magna cum laude, in 1949 with a degree in journalism, he later received a master's degree in English from DePaul University.
Ralph embarked on a 20-year career in advertising. Afterwards, he joined Willamette University as director of university relations and worked for the university for 12 years.
His final career was in hospital administration with Salem Hospital when he retired in 1990, and he and Millie settled in Portland. At that point, he was able to pursue his dream of writing a novel.
An avid reader and writer, Ralph penned a column for the Statesman-Journal newspaper called the "The Wright Stuff" and taught creative writing at Chemeketa Community College. He was also a dedicated volunteer for the Multnomah County Library.
Ralph is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Millie; their children, Dan, Martha, David, Chris, Mary, John, Laurie Stewart and Amy Henry; and grandchildren, Megan, Victor, Kelsey, Nate, Azul, Emily, Benjamin and Dominic.
Ralph was an extraordinary man. We will deeply miss his unconditional love, support and sense of humor, often depicted with droll and succinct words. His open, gentle and charismatic manner earned him devoted and lifelong friends.
A vigil will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009, in Zeller Chapel of the Roses. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009, in St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 424 S.W. Mill St., Portland, OR 97201.
The family suggests remembrances in Ralph's name to St. Michael the Archangel parish, Providence Hospice or a charity of your choice.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The power of Facebook
clipped from blogs.pcmag.comIf you don't know, as of today, Facebook will automatically start plunging the Earth into the Sun. To change this option, go to Settings --> Planetary Settings --> Trajectory then UN-CLICK the box that says 'Apocalypse.' Facebook kept this one quiet. Copy and paste onto your status for all to see. We must all work together to save the world.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
High school friend makes it in the movies
A good high school friend of mine, his wife, dog, children and others star in this movie.
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Neither rain nor hail . . .
clipped from www.atrium-media.comThat Post Office Motto
The Times-Picayune (great name for a newspaper), opens a column by a young student with that oft-heard quote from the U.S. Postal Service:
"Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow nor heat of day nor dark of night shall keep this carrier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds."
As might be suspected, the attribution is "Herodotus, 500 B.C." Now I'm probably not the only non-American who grew up thinking this to be the motto of my own (in my case, Canadian) postal service, but I have long wondered about the attribution of this to Herodotus. Godley's translation (of 8.98) at Perseus has it thus:
It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey. These are stopped neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.
A little ferreting, however, provides a reasonable answer. In the January 1997 issue of Harvard Magazine, we read that a certain William Kendall -- who was charged with the task in 1876 of finding an appropriate inscription for the frieze of the soon-to-be New York Post Office -- was dissatisfied with the 'official' translations of the passage from Herodotus. He approached some unnamed former professor from Harvard who came close
clipped from harvardmagazine.com'Nor snow, nor rain, day's heat, nor gloom hinders their speedily going on their appointed rounds.'
clipped from www.atrium-media.combut in the end, Kendall came up with his own, which is what we have today.
Jean Wilund and Bob in Wales
clipped from www.facebook.com
Dad and I in Wales visiting the home of our ancestors...and the final resting place on earth of one beloved relative named Ap Vychan.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Philosopher Kings
clipped from www.princeton.edu'Life's wisdom in unlikely places': Documentary features University janitor's efforts to help others
Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.
by Emily Aronson
From 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each weekday, Josue Lajeunesse is one of Princeton University's 220 Building Services janitors. But off campus, Lajeunesse is a taxi driver, a father, a philanthropist, a community organizer and now the subject of a documentary film.
A native of Haiti who has worked at Princeton for 15 years, Lajeunesse is featured in the documentary "The Philosopher Kings," which tells the stories of eight janitors at universities across the country. "In search of wisdom in unlikely places," the film highlights the everyday triumphs and tragedies of staff whose hard work is often done when no one is looking.
Josue Lajeunesse, a janitor in the University's Whitman College, is featured in the documentary "The Philosopher Kings," which tells the stories of eight janitors at universities across the country. In search of wisdom in unlikely places, the film highlights the everyday triumphs and tragedies of staff whose hard work is often done when no one is looking. The cameras follow Lajeunesse as he helps bring clean drinking water to his family's village in Haiti. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)
The cameras follow Lajeunesse's work as a lead janitor in Whitman College and other dormitories, and his travels to Haiti as he helps bring clean drinking water to his family's village.
"Some people close their eyes to what's going on in front of them," Lajeunesse said of the poverty in his homeland. "But if God gave me the knowledge and the view to see these things, then I need to go back and help those people who cannot help themselves."
Watch an excerpt from "The Philosopher Kings."
Lajeunesse was born in Haiti as the youngest of four children. His mother passed away when he was a young boy and he grew up close to his father, a farmer. Lajeunesse served in the military in Haiti and moved to the United States in 1989, ultimately settling in the Princeton area because a friend from Haiti was living here.
Through the documentary, Lajeunesse puts a face to the work ethic, passion and perseverance shared by many of the University's janitorial staff, said Building Services director Jon Baer. Baer noted janitors such as Natasha Bowman, who has worked at the University for 21 years and has been a surrogate parent to some of the students living in the dorms she cleans, or Mohamed Flites, an amateur photographer and historian who immigrated to the United States to escape civil war in Algeria.
"Having managed janitorial and service staff for the past 25 years, I find so many of their life stories compelling. There's a depth to Josue, as there is to so many of our janitors, that transcends what they do as an occupation," Baer said. "Josue is an excellent ambassador for Princeton and for the staff we have here."
"Some people close their eyes to what's going on in front of them," Lajeunesse said of the poverty in his homeland. "But if God gave me the knowledge and the view to see these things, then I need to go back and help those people who cannot help themselves." (Image: Courtesy of Transcendental Media)
Helping his home in Haiti
Passionate yet unassuming, Lajeunesse drives a taxi until the early morning hours after finishing his duties at Princeton to support his five children, who now all live with him in New Jersey, and his extended family in Haiti. Even with his intense schedule, he finds time to help students in the dormitories where he works and has completed two human resources learning and development programs.
"Working at Princeton, you have opportunities to move up to another level and improve yourself economically and socially," he said. "Anyone who comes here to work, they take you in with two hands and arms open."
Through his hard work, Lajeunesse has been able to send money and supplies to bring purified water to his hometown of Lasource, where villagers once traveled to a nearby mountain for clean water.
"When I was a little boy, I asked my dad how can we do better and get clean water for our town," Lajeunesse said. "Since then, this idea has always been in my mind."
While in the military in Haiti, Lajeunesse said he was able to get the government to commit to bring water to his village, but the project never happened because of political unrest in the country. In addition to providing support to his family in Haiti since moving to the United States, Lajeunesse began sending funds to his brother in 2003 so the two could take on the water project themselves.
They have brought a clean water source closer to the village and are now raising money to build cisterns so that each house can have water all the time. The film shows Lajeunesse during a trip to Lasource in summer 2008 breaking down in tears as he speaks of the responsibilities that rest on his shoulders.
"Now where they have water, the town is green -- there is life," he said. "But the job is not finished."
His connection to Haiti is why Shen said he and Bennick selected Lajeunesse for the documentary. The filmmakers contacted the University about researching possible candidates for the film, and Lajeunesse was one of a handful of janitors recommended by Baer.
"In speaking with Josue we instantly knew we had a very compelling individual on our hand. When we went with him to Haiti, we were blown away by the poor living conditions there but also so impressed with his water project," said Shen, adding that the film is now helping raise money for the project through a partnership with the nonprofit organization Generosity Water.
Still striving to do more for his home, Lajeunesse is now seeking help from doctors in Haiti and New Jersey to create a health clinic in the remote area of Lasource. Lajeunesse said he also hopes to raise funds to buy computers for the local school and to build solar panels to power the machines because the village does not have electricity.
Pride in her work
As a janitor in Blair and Buyers halls, Bowman expects the student residents to treat the buildings with as much respect and care as she does.
"If I come in to work and clean the building, when I come back the next day I expect that you have tried to keep it clean. I tell the kids that if they want a maid, they have to pay for a maid," Bowman said with a laugh. "I'm the same way at home with my family."
Natasha Bowman, who has worked at the University for 21 years, expects the student residents to treat the buildings with as much respect and care as she does. A janitor in Blair and Buyers halls, she has been a surrogate parent to some of the students living in the dorms. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)
Bowman grew up in Lawrence Township with her seven sisters and a brother, and she has two daughters, three sons and six grandchildren. Princeton runs in her family, with one sister also working in Building Services and two other sisters working in Dining Services.
"Natasha is someone who tells it to you straight and will speak her mind," Baer said. "She possesses a wisdom about life that I think is needed in this world."
After cleaning academic buildings for a number of years, Bowman said she enjoys the relationships she's developed with students who live in the dorms.
"I have a lot of foreign students in my dorms, and I enjoy seeing the students from different backgrounds and nationalities," she said. "There also have been a few special kids who I've looked after while they were here."
Bowman recalled a particular student from the class of 2008 who she "got a feeling" about when seeing him around the building while she cleaned. The student admitted he was having trouble getting to an early morning class, so Bowman knocked on his door at 7 a.m. twice a week to make sure he woke up.
"I took a liking to him, and I told him 'Your parents sent you here to go to class, so I'm going to make sure you do,'" Bowman said.
She and the student remained friendly, and he included her name in the dedications for his senior thesis, according to Bowman.
As a fellow dormitory janitor, Bowman said she's known Lajeunesse for many years but had no idea about his work in Haiti until "The Philosopher Kings" movie.
"I'm really proud of Josue for what he's doing for his country," Bowman said. "The janitors that work in the dorms all know each other, but we don't sit down often and talk about our personal lives."
Love of learning
Also an immigrant to the United States, Flites shares with Lajeunesse the experience of adjusting to life in a new country on his own. He's worked at the University for about seven years, cleaning academic and administrative buildings from 4 p.m. to midnight.
Mohamed Flites, an amateur photographer and historian who immigrated to the United States to escape civil war in Algeria, has been cleaning academic and administrative buildings for about seven years. "My friends, my family, the people I've met at Princeton, that's the best education for me," he said. "Being a janitor is just a title. It's what I get from my experiences every day that matters." (Photo: Brian Wilson)
"We try to create the best working environment for the people who work and study in the buildings," Flites said. "The way I look at it, we all want Princeton to be the best university. If we as janitors can contribute a little bit, I think that's great."
Flites was pursuing his master's degree in literature in Algeria when civil war jettisoned his studies. After leaving the country in 1996, he worked as a building supervisor and mechanic in Philadelphia and also met his wife, who is a teacher and native of New Jersey.
Whether it's traveling to U.S. Civil War battlefields or listening to books on tape while he cleans, Flites is constantly soaking up knowledge.
"I would consider Mohamed an expert on the Civil War. He is always teaching me new things," Baer said.
On campus, Flites said he usually keeps a small camera in his pocket to document the inspiring architecture and scenery or the interesting people he meets.
Although it was once his dream, Flites said he is no longer interested in finishing his graduate degree.
"My friends, my family, the people I've met at Princeton, that's the best education for me," he said. "Being a janitor is just a title. It's what I get from my experiences every day that matters."
The bright day is done
clipped from www.famousquotes.com
Less Than Words Can Say
clipped from en.wikipedia.orgLess Than Words Can Say
In the summer of 1979, Little, Brown & Company published Richard Mitchell's first book, Less Than Words Can Say. Mitchell had originally submitted the title as The Worm in the Brain but his editors felt it too frightening and grisly. The book is a gloomy contemplation of the new illiteracy, its roots and consequences, and its prosperous practitioners.
Clifton Fadiman called it "the wittiest, the most brilliant and probably the most penetrating discussion now available of our growing American illiteracy." J. Mitchell Morse praised Mitchell for having "the courage to write well -- an even rarer courage now that sloppy thought is equated with democratic virtue. His own prose illustrates the qualities and habits of mind our educationists don't want our children to develop: wit, clarity, precision, mastery of detail, intellectual self-respect, and contempt for charlatans."
What follows is a list of the chapters and pointed quotes from each:
Foreword "Words never fail. We hear them, we read them; they enter into the mind and become part of us for as long as we shall live. Who speaks reason to his fellow men bestows it upon them. Who mouths inanity disorders thought for all who listen. There must be some minimum allowable dose of inanity beyond which the mind cannot remain reasonable. Irrationality, like buried chemical waste, sooner or later must seep into all the tissues of thought."
1. The Worm in the Brain "The next step is not taken until you learn to see a world in which worms are eaten and decisions made and all responsible agency has disappeared. Now you are ready to be an administrator."
2. The Two Tribes "There is a curious thing about the way they use their verbs. They have, of course, both passive and active forms, but they consider it a serious breach of etiquette amounting almost to sacrilege to use the active form when speaking of persons."
3. A Bunch of Marks "An education that does not teach clear, coherent writing cannot provide our world with thoughtful adults; it gives us instead, at the best, clever children of all ages."
4. The Voice of Sisera "Jefferson must have imagined an America in which all citizens would be able, when they felt like it, to address one another as members of the same class. That we cannot do so is a sore impediment to equality, but, of course, a great advantage to those who can use the English of power and wealth."
5. "let's face it Fellows" "The questions are good ones. Who does hire teachers who can't spell? Where do they come from? The questions grow more ominous the more we think about them. Just as we suspect that this teacher's ineptitude in spelling is not limited to those two words, so we must suspect that she has other ineptitudes as well."
6. Trifles "Our educators, panting after professionalism, are little interested in being known for a picayune concern with trifles like spelling and punctuation. They would much rather make the world a better place. They have tried on the gowns of philosophers, psychologists, and priests."
7. The Columbus Gap "American public education is a remarkable enterprise; it succeeds best where it fails. Imagine an industry that consistently fails to do what it sets out to do, a factory where this year's product is invariably sleazier than last year's but, nevertheless, better than next year's."
8. The Pill "Thought control, like birth control, is best undertaken as long as possible before the fact. Many grown-ups will obstinately persist, if only now and then, in composing small strings of sentences in their heads and achieving at least a momentary logic. This probably cannot be prevented, but we have learned how to minimize its consequences by arranging that such grown-ups will be unable to pursue that logic very far."
9. A Handout of Material "The propensity for borrowed jargon is always a mark of limited ability in the technique of discursive thought. It comes from a poor education. A poor education is not simply a matter of thinking that components and elements might just as well be called factors; it is the inability to manipulate that elaborate symbol system that permits us to make fine distinctions among such things."
10. Grant Us, O Lord "One of the most important uses of language in all cultures is the performance of magic. Since language deals easily with invisible worlds, it's natural that it provide whatever access we think we have to the world of the spirits."
11. Spirits from the Vasty Deep "Bad writing is like any other form of crime; most of it is unimaginative and tiresomely predictable. The professor of education seeking a grant and the neighborhood lout looking for a score simply go and do as their predecessors have done. The one litanizes about carefully unspecified developments in philosophy, psychology, and communications theory, and the other sticks up the candy store."
12. Darkling Plain English "The bureaucrats who have produced most of our dismal official English will, at first, be instructed to fix it. They will try, but nihil ex nihilo. That English is the mess it is because they did it in the first place and they'll never be able to fix it."
13. Hydra "At one time I thought that I was the victim of a conspiracy myself. I was certain that the Admissions Office had salted my classes with carefully selected students, students who had no native tongue."
14. The Turkeys that Lay the Golden Eggs "The minimum competence school of education is nothing new. We've had it for many years, but we didn't talk about it until we discovered that we could make a virtue of it."
15. Devices and Desires "If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be."
16. Naming and Telling "Two things, then, are necessary for intelligent discourse: an array of names, and a conventional system for telling. The power of a language is related, therefore, to the size and subtlety of its lexicon, its bank of names, and the flexibility and accuracy of its telling system, its grammar."
17. Sentimental Education "The history of mankind hasn't yet provided any examples of a decrease in stupidity and ignorance and their presumably attendant evils, but we have hope. After all, history hasn't provided anything like us, either, until pretty recently."
Critical Bilbliography "I should say, for those who might think these things unusual, that they aren't and that they weren't difficult to find."
Monday, December 14, 2009
Ft. Eustis
I was stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA from 1962 to 1964. A fellow pediatrician while I was there just returned from revisiting Ft. Eustis. Below are two pictures. The first is the typical Wherry Housing where we lived. The second is McDonald Army Hospital where we admitted patients.
Tear Drop Memorial
clipped from en.wikipedia.orgTo the Struggle Against World Terrorism (also known as the Tear of Grief and the Tear Drop Memorial) is a 10-story-high sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It stands on The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor in New Jersey and was dedicated on September 11, 2006 in a ceremony attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
clipped from en.wikipedia.orgThe sculpture is in the form of a 100-foot (30 m) tower made of steel and coated in bronze, split with a jagged opening through the middle. Inside the opening hangs a large stainless-steel teardrop, 40 feet (12 m) high, in memory of those whose lives were lost during terrorist attacks in the United States. The eleven sides of the monument's base bear granite name plates, on which are etched the names of those that died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Tsereteli has not disclosed the cost of the sculpture except to say that he was paying for labor and materials. A lawyer for the sculptor released the cost of the figure at about $12 million.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Anna Wislocki
Anna Wislocki is the daughter of our good friend and medical school classmate, Louis Wislocki and his wife Joan. Louis practiced internal medicine in Dedham, MA until his death in 2005.
In March 2001 Anna sang the role of Katisha in Eugene Opera's production of "The Mikado." Frances and I drove to Eugene to meet Louis and Joan and hear Anna sing.
We all miss Louis and know that he would be proud of Anna.
In March 2001 Anna sang the role of Katisha in Eugene Opera's production of "The Mikado." Frances and I drove to Eugene to meet Louis and Joan and hear Anna sing.
We all miss Louis and know that he would be proud of Anna.
clipped from www.wislockilaw.comAnna K. Wislocki, Esq.
Providing guidance in today's legal landscape
Settlement-Based Family Law
Professional services include, but are not limited to the following: Divorce and Separation (both traditional and collaborative), Mediation, Planning Considerations for Same-Sex Spouses and Couples, Prenuptial Agreements, Child Custody and Parentage, Child Support and Spousal Support, Cohabitation Agreements, Domestic Violence Issues, Simple Wills, Health Care Proxies, Powers of Attorney, and Advance Directives.At the Law Office of Anna Wislocki, located in historic downtown Dedham, you'll find the intersection between old-time professionalism and modern perspective.
Please feel free to call 781.326.6203 or email anna@wislockilaw.com for an initial consultation. Referrals welcome.
Professional Membership
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Biography
Anna Wislocki was born and raised in Dedham, Massachusetts. She left in 1989 for Ohio where she attended Oberlin College and received a B.A. in English. Venturing further, she went to graduate school at Florida State University School of Music in Tallahassee, receiving a M.M. in Vocal Performance. Finally crossing the entire country, Anna spent eight years as an opera performer on the west coast, living in the San Francisco Bay Area and performing with companies such as Eugene Opera, Sacramento Opera, and Lamplighters Music Theatre among others. She also taught for the world-renowned San Francisco Girls Chorus. Anna retired from performance when the nomadic lifestyle of a singer began to seem less than glamorous and returned to the east coast where she attended Roger Williams School of Law in Rhode Island. Completing the circle, she has returned to her hometown to practice law.
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