Comments for Good Stories

Comment on Erno and the Sinking of the City of Benares by Bryan Burdett

Bryan Burdett — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:28:23 +0000

Janet Menzies was a young concert pianist in her early twenties also emigrating to Canada. She was a carer for the children on the City of Benares and took charge of the eight or so on lifeboat 12 which was overlooked and the survivors not rescued for a further week. But for her care during the awful storm some of these would not have survived.

She was subsequently decorated by the Queen and wrote the little book referred above. At present I cannot find my copy of the book but I seem to recall mention of ‘Erno’ in it.

Bryan Burdett 19 August 2009

Comment on Fun with UC Regents – or – Goddamned Chimpanzees by Don Merwin

Don Merwin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:50:18 +0000

When Bob Johnson was my boss at the National Center for Health Education, every so often he would poke his head into my office door and say, “Don, let whatever you are working on wait a while. The Regents are meeting in San Francisco today (at the U.C. Extension building). Let’s go.” And off we would toddle to what was often a fascinating session, filled with conflict and appearances by super star faculty members.

On at least on occasion, Governor Jerry Brown made an appearance. I do not remember what issue he was there to address, but his disdain for the University was evident.

What I do remember was that, at the end of the meeting, he paused in the corridor a few steps outside the meeting room’s exit and held an impromptu news conference almost completely blocking egress for the rest of the attendees. We had to squeeze by, one by one, paying the price for the Governor’s unwillingness to move a few steps further to a more appropriate setting for his activity.

I have met him, usually under more congenial circumstances, on many subsequent occasions. I have not noticed any improvement in his congeniality.

A note from the author: The Bob Johnson Don refers to was Robert L. Johnson who was Vice President for Adminsitration during my time at U Hall. That must have been a big mob with Jerry Brown at the UC Extension – as I remember the place the doorway was a “double-wide”.

Comment on How they electrocuted my father by Roger Kovack

Roger Kovack — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:51:50 +0000

Great story! The scene you paint is hilarious and much more alive than that electric chair ever could be.

My dad brought home some miniature of that idea when he was working at Hughes Aircraft and we lived in La Crescenta near L.A. That would have been about 1950 around the time when transistors first emerged as commercially viable devices.

This shocker was built inside a plastic cheese container which was a round plastic cylinder about an inch thick and maybe six inches in diameter. They had wired a hearing aid battery which was zinc-carbon 22 volt back then to a vibrating contact and a miniature speaker output transformer that was used in the new transistor radios. The high impedance winding of the transformer was connected to tin foil that was wrapped in two pieces around the outside of the plastic container so there was no way of avoiding getting your hand on both electrodes when it was picked up. The design really did work and it was too intriguing to not handle.

Looking back, this was very close to the same design as a vibrator power supply commonly used in car radios in that era. Do you remember the car radios all had a buzz?

In fact, the buzzing is a current subject for me. The weekly dose of rock ‘n’ roll I wrote about happens in a really old bar with a really old neon sign and really old wiring. As a result, the entire stage sound system has an intractable buzz caused by that neon sign.

I found out about this by cautiously asking the band why they sing off key at times. They say they can’t hear themselves in the monitors and the buzz is a big part of it so I designed an RFI/EMI power line filter that they plug all their on-stage equipment into and the buzz is gone.

Spanning the time from you biting a leg to save your father to me helping the old hippies get the sound right, we’ve got a good story.

Roger

Comment on Table of Contents by rkovach

rkovach — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:01:48 +0000

Thanks, Roger. It’s good to hear from you. I keep track of you by way of John O’Conner who I now call “cuz” (because we are now related by marriage since he’s my cousin’s wife’s uncle) so I know you are both prospering. While you are having writer’s euphoria I am having something of a writer’s block. I have at least half a dozen projects started and languishing.

Comment on Table of Contents by Roger Kovack

Roger Kovack — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:18:59 +0000

Hi Roger-

We both seem to be doing blogs these days. You have so many details about your life in your stories and so much rich experience to share. It fills me in on who you are.

I’ve just started writing very short stories about my daily life and the writing is getting close to addictive already. I have to force myself to go to work, not write another story.

Of course the amusing thing about us is that just a simple one key typo and cousins are transposed.

Best,

Roger

Comment on Mama Savarese takes on the Church by Dave Duffin

Dave Duffin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:32:52 +0000

I attended 8 years of “grade school” at St. Martin of Tours parish in Philadelphia. I might have been a VIP in some realms since my Dad built the church and convent (he was a member of the Irish contractors’ clan which included names like John McShane who rebuilt rebuilt US capitol and John B. Kelly the father of Grace Kelly). But at our school I was just one of the Irish, Italian, Polish or

In the 1st grade there were 91 kids in our class. In the 8th grade we were whittled down (like our Ticonderoga pencils) to 65. There were also 4 classes of each grade level. There were no teacher’s assistants, fine arts, or sports. There was no discipline problem. All these obstacles were covered by “The Nuns”. They worked for no pay, lived in the convent, rarely got out except for some time on the Jersey “shore” for a few weeks.

I gag when I hear modern teachers complain about retirement, hours, class size, teachers preparation days,
need for aides, etc.

At the local town school in Bolinas/Stinson there are 100 kids and a staff of 40. The teachers “stole the cookies from the cookie jar”.

Comment on Table of Contents by rkovach

rkovach — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:03:29 +0000

Thank you Mark. It is always a pleasure to win approval from one’s own family.

Comment on Table of Contents by Mark Willson

Mark Willson — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:47:48 +0000

Dear Uncle Roger,
It is Sunday morning and I am sitting in bed reading your stories out loud to Susan.
Thank you for sharing these great tales.
I can not get through one without laughing out loud or having my eyes tear up a little. Lots of love from Sonoma!

Love Mark and Susan

Comment on Mama Savarese takes on the Church by jiri ron

jiri ron — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:35:36 +0000

…similar expirience: as I got merried here in Italy We moved on friends of family estate into small house in country side, shortly after arrival priest came and knocked on my soul, I told Him similar think that I’m not a believer and it rised problem for that poor guy because of my wife family connection with high catholic hierachy…

Comment on Studs: Move on up a little higher by Roger Kovach

Roger Kovach — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:19:51 +0000

I never saw Sonny Terry (although there is a dim memory of a figure sitting in a chair …) and was more familiar with his accompanying Lead Belly on a few of his standards. There was a group that orbited around Seeger and his group in the early 40s that included Guthrie and Sonny Terry and, less fequently, McGhee.