Neil Armstrong and the dream of space

When I was 14 and away at summer camp, I was keenly aware, like most of my male peers, of the ongoing space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. I was always interested in reading stories about the astronauts, who were, after all, national heroes. I followed the story about the fiery deaths of Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee at the Kennedy Space Center a year and a half before. I mourned the loss of our first space-related deaths at the very beginning of the Apollo program. Several years before that I read about the sub-orbital flight of Alan Shepherd in TV Guide and the other Mercury astronauts like John Glenn when their flights were covered in Life and Look Magazines. Throughout my elementary school years and into junior high school, the Gemini program suggested that the U.S. was way behind the Soviet Union. But as the Gemini program advanced, and I grew older, it was apparent that the Soviet Union was losing steam and that the U.S. was pulling ahead in the race toward landing a man on the moon. Although it is often quoted today, I don't remember John Kennedy's famous "man on the moon" speech, but I recall the national pride we had when our astronauts took a "walk" in outer space or read the Bible while passing the surface of the moon. So, on July 20, 1969 in the middle of the morning, I joined with hundreds of campers watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon. "That's one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said. Unfortunately, the communication between the L.E.M (Lunar Excursion Module) and the Houston Space Center dropped the "and" from being heard. Forevermore Armstrong was quoted as "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." It's a minor point, but on such an auspicious event, one should be quoted correctly. So, thirty-nine years later the date passes by and I remember how much in awe I was at seeing men on the moon. It seems odd that we haven't had a similar manned flight since Apollo 17, which left the surface of the moon in December of 1972, shortly after Watergate. Back then I thought we would have had a manned installation on the moon by the beginning of the new millennium, but times dictated differently for the space program. Instead, we concentrated on the Space Shuttle program, two of which (Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003) were lost in very tragic ways. Perhaps the dream of space exploration will become a reality for my son. Sadly, the promise of what could have been has not yet come to fruition.

When Tabu is no longer taboo

One of the famed Holland Shaker Boys with four varieties of Tabu Absinthe

The Tales of the Cocktail has proven to be a major mid-summer festival these last few days, but I must admit that it is not about bringing tourists to New Orleans. It is all about bringing the right kind of people to New Orleans. These are the fellows who can help report about the normalcy of the city and how it has returned to its former glory. These are the people who make New Orleans the treasured place it is in others' minds. It is through their efforts in the media and through international connections that others will heed the call and make the journey to what Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan refer as "The Land of Cocktails." For a city as renowned as it is for fine food and haute cuisine, New Orleans should also be renowned for spirits. The number of cocktails invented here is impressive. Aside from the well known Sazerac and Ramos Gin Fizz, there are hundreds of delightful concoctions like the Vieux Carre Cocktail or Orgeat Punch that got their starts here or were so identified with the city that they became institutions of themselves. It has been fascinating seeing how many in the spirits industry have been taken away with the old grandad himself, absinthe. Absinthe has been manufactured in Europe in recent years after being outlawed since the days of World War I. The U.S. outlawed the liquor partially made from Grand Wormwood in 1912 due to faulty information that it brought on insanity and, in some cases, death. Famous for its licorice or anise flavor, absinthe is now manufactured in Europe and about four or five varieties are available in this country since the ban was lifted about a year ago. Chef Andrea Apuzzo of Andrea's Restaurant now uses Lucid Absinthe to coat the glasses of his Sazerac cocktails instead of Herbsaint, which became the most favored substitute for absinthe following its ban in 1912. They are similar, but not the same. Tabu, a German company, manufactures four varieties of absinthe including a 146 proof variety of dark green shade. Others with various levels of anise and all at 110 proof are made in red, yellow and a slightly paler green than its stronger cousin. They are not yet available in this country, but were available at a tasting in the private suite of the Holland Shaker Boys. This famous group of mixologists from Amsterdam includes the three who made the journey to appear at the Tales of the Cocktail on behalf of Sonnema Vodka, distilled in the Netherlands. Besides being very knowlegable, they were all very entertaining and the drinks made with varying degrees and varieties of absinthe were quite tasty and refreshing.

Going bananas

Alana Brennan with waiter Billie Hartline demonstrate Bananas Foster (Photo Alan Smason)

Ann and Paul Tuennerman's Tales of the Cocktail, completing its sixth year in New Orleans in promotion of all manner of spirits is winding down, but it has definitely made the French Quarter the place to be for the last several days. With the historic Monteleone Hotel as its headquarters, the city has been the festival's veritable oyster. Thursday night special dinners were held all across town at some of the finest restaurants with special cocktails and after dinner libations offered as part of the festival. This morning a Media Breakfast was held at world famous Brennan's Restaurant in the heart of the French Quarter with public relations hostess Bonnie Warren making everyone feel at home. U'Lavka Vodka provided the Bloody Marys for the pleasure of the diners. The highlight of the morning was a demonstration of how to make Bananas Foster with waiter Billie Hartline doing the honors along with an assist from the lovely Alana Brennan, whose family has run the restaurant for several generations. Media reps from across the country were first treated to baked apples in heavy cream and Eggs Hussard and Eggs Benedict before the dessert was passed out by the excellent wait staff. It was quite an experience to be a tourist in my home town. The meal was incredible, but the ability to connect with others and to relate to this delightful experience made it even more special.

An unequal trade

I am appalled at the recent trade between Hezbellah and the State of Israel in which live prisoners were traded for dead Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. All along Israelis had been led to believe that the captured IDF soldiers were still alive when negotiations were ongoing between the terrorist organization and their government. As short a period as a year ago Israel had been assured that the soldiers captured at the beginning of the war against Lebanon were still very much alive. The fact that negotiations were held in earnest for their release as live participants was verified by the United Nations and others. Yet, when the exchange was made for several incarcerated Lebanese terrorists, there was no mention of the soldiers having been killed until at the last possible moment. To the contrary, Israel was expecting to get back live prisoners of war for the live terrorists and numerous dead held in its jails. What they got were two coffins filled with the remains of the soldiers they had hoped to restore to their families. This was the most unbalanced trade that could ever be expected to be negotiated between Hezbellah and the State of Israel and has left Israelis dismayed. Imagine if these were U.S. Marines. Would Americans stand idly by and swap our honored dead for live prisoners in a similar exchange? I think not. I know how precious Americans regard those killed in the line of duty. Israelis are just as proud and because of the size of the country regard each death with a high degree of poignancy. What is most disturbing is that the ill-conceived 2006 war between Israel and Hezbellah, was set off by Goldwasser and Regev's capture. Following the ceasefire, posters demanding their safe return went up across Israel, the United States and elsewhere around the world. JTA reports that a forensic examination of the bodies suggests Goldwasser and Regev were killed due to injuries sustained at the time of their capure and might well have been dead at the start of the six-week exchange between the Iranian backed terrorist organization and Israel. Yesterday I received an e-mail message from the Israeli representative (Community Shilchah) to New Orleans. She closed it with the words "May G-d avenge their blood." In a war that is waged in the name of the Almighty, both sides can claim divine providence and intervention. I am certain that cries of "Praise Allah!" were uttered when the Lebanese terrorists were restored to their families. It is a shame that men and women must pay the ultimate price and all in the name of religion and politics.

Kindred Jewish Spirits

I am delighted that the Tales of the Cocktail, a festival comprised of a series of several events throughout the city at various venues and dedicated to celebrating spirits kicks off today. Headed up by the dynamic Ann Tuennerman, the Tales of the Cocktail's first major event launches this afternoon honoring the nation's first official cocktail of any city: the Sazerac. The history of the fabled Sazerac is in a way the history of New Orleans. Tuennerman has often called the Sazerac "history in a glass" and homage is being paid to the distinctive mixture that is made with Peychaud's Bitters (sometimes with Angostura Bitters too), rye whiskey, sugar (or simple syrup) and served in an Herbsaint coated rock glass with a lemon twist. The afternoon seminar on the Sazerac at the Monteleone Hotel will have a few politicians on hand from the Louisiana Legislature. Those stalwart ladies and gentlemen and our peerless governor who didn't sign the legislation but allowed it to become law by not vetoing it, were responsible for the recent bill that recognized the Sazerac as the official cocktail of the city of New Orleans. It went into effect a week ago. There are two rye whiskies bottled under the name Sazerac by the Buffalo Trace Distillery (the former Ancient Age Distillery) and distributed by Republic Distributors. The first is their regular 90 proof Sazerac Rye Whiskey, used by many to make traditional Sazerac cocktails. The second more pricey cousin is their 18-year-old version with an even higher alcohol content. I find that one more in the category of a sipping whiskey rather than one that would be used for a mixed drink. At the price that the 18-year-old commands and because it is exceedingly rare to find it available at a bar or hotel, it makes sense to savor its smooth and subtle flavors on the tongue in the confines of one's home. Among the local media people covering the Tales of the Cocktail festival will be Lorin Gaudin, a food and drink writer, who originally hails from Chicago. Lorin has lived in the Crescent City long enough to be considered a New Orleanian and surprised me when she let me know that she was of Jewish extraction. I suppose she was charmed by yet another suave and sophisticated New Orleanian gentleman. In addition I have become acquainted with another Jewish lady, Elyse Glickman, a writer (and fellow blogger) from Los Angeles who will also be covering many of the Tales of the Cocktail events for several national publications. We will all be looking forward to finding Jewish connections to the festival for each other for the various readership we serve. Republic Distributors and Buffalo Trace Distillery, for example, is owned by a well-known Jewish family from New Orleans. But I believe there's more to this story than that. I'm determined to find out more interesting tidbits and reveal other historical connections to the Sazerac and other famous libations. It doesn't matter how many bottles or glasses I have to empty in search of my story. In this way Lorin, Elyse and I are all kindred Jewish "spirits" on a quest. To which I have one thing to say: "L'Chaim!"

Inertia

If there is one intransmutable law of nature that defines my life, it must be a vindication of Newton's First Law of Motion. The Law of Inertia states that a body in motion will stay in motion and that a body at rest will stay at rest. For me it's all about change. While most people are afraid of change, I love to act as an agent or catalyst of change. It's what makes life so interesting to me, but I must admit it does have its fallout from time to time. One of the reasons I got so involved in Boy Scouting is that it serves to make young boys into responsible young men and I can see these changes in a relatively short order. These days it is a sad fact that many parents are so involved with their work and other social networking that their kids are left to do a lot of growing up on their own. The pecking order of pre-teens and teenagers can be very cruel without several safety nets put into place that allow them to just be themselves. It seems to me that Scouting is one of those activities that keeps boys (and sometimes girls, in the case of Venturing) safely involved and committed to a set or series of goals. It becomes evident that these goals, which are closely allied with achievements of rank like First Class, Star, Life and Eagle become essential formulas for success in later life for many of these Scouts. The other evening at the JCC gym, I was pedaling my stationary bicycle and looked up at the young man doing the same adjacent to me. I recognized him as one of my former Scouts. He is one of my son's classmates, a 22 year-old recent graduate of Harvard University, who is in New Orleans for a short summer before leaving to work as a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs in New York. I remember how he was hounded as a kid, even by some of our Scouts, because he was different. He was always thinking about something, but one could tell there was a lot of cogent thought going on in his head. One night, during one of my Scout meetings when the other Scouts were playing ball, he asked me to "explain" Judaism as a religious concept to him. He was asking from the standpoint of an inquisitive Christian who needed to know in his mind where and how Judaism could exist without accepting Jesus as the Messiah. His school was full of boys and girls and faculty members who were Jewish. Yet, he felt compelled to ask me. I am not sure if my carefully chosen words were as well crafted as those that might be given by a rabbi or other Jewish lay leader, but he seemed satisfied with the answers I gave him. I believe a child should always be answered with truthful answers, but that discretion should temper the truth should it be too painful to hear. Invariably, there are those questions in life which cannot be answered without peril. "Do these pants make me look fat?" is a good example of a question whose best response is a quick dash for the door. In any event, I am so glad to have been a small part of this young man's early, formative years. He might well have become a Harvard graduate without me, his Scoutmaster or the other adult members of his troop. But I would like to think that we all helped to shape him into a responsible, independent member of society and that kind of change, as Martha Stewart would quip, is a good thing. It's part of the small changes that we can all undertake every day to make life memorable and satisfying.

The Goodbye Girl

Today was a sad day for all of New Orleans, but especially for those in the theatrical and cabaret communities. Today we laid to rest one of our most cherished children, a little girl who grew into a woman with talent brimming from every pore. Today Cynthia Owen was eulogized as a wonderful singer and actress and the outpouring of grief inside Trinity Episcopal Church where hundreds gathered to remember her was palpable. There were moments of levity because wherever Cindy (as oldtimers recalled her original name) went, she brought laughter. There were few dry eyes inside the church as a choir sang a collection of many of the Broadway and cabaret songs she made popular in her powerful, yet brief career. I thought about Cynthia a lot as I comforted her family members, most notably her mother, Lyla Hay Owen, a noted local playwright, director, actress and singer herself and her sister Robin, who also had tread the boards as a child. The Christian rites associated with burial differ from those found within Judaism in several ways. Jews are every bit as much in mourning as their Christian brothers, but the deceased is never put on display for people to see. It is more important to recall the loved ones through the veil of memory rather than to see their remains through the prisms of our eyes. It is felt that this is a respectful gesture of love and a fitting way to ease the transition for friends and family. I wish this were the case for Cynthia because there were video tributes playing on monitors and beautiful posters and pictures on display at the same time as the mourners had to pass in review and witness the now lifeless body confined to its final resting place. How better for me would it been to have had the glowing tributes to my dear friend heard aloud without the image of her corpse burned into my psyche. When I had first heard that Cynthia had died and a memorial service was discussed, I had been told that her body had been cremated by her grief-stricken mother. I bemoaned the fact that I would not have closure; that it were as if a page in a treasured book was removed without my knowing it. But when I found out Thursday night that the memorial service was a funeral service complete with an intact body and a wake, I began to think that my original complaint may have been in error. I wanted to mourn the loss of my friend without having to view her remains. I wanted to remember Sally Bowles, Annie Oakley, Charity Hope Valentine, and the chanteuse who could make you laugh or cry with her amazing singing abilities and stage persona. In Orthodox Judaism there is a tender ritual of burial that many outsiders and less observant Jews find troublesome. Out of reverence for the deceased member, the body is lowered to the ground in a plain coffin without nails. Once deposited into the grave, the casket is covered with dirt until it is no longer seen in any way. Some think this as heartless, but the opposite is the case. It is intended that the deceased be covered by loving family and friends as a child would be clothed by any parent. It is an act of extreme love and it also symbolically separates the period of loss when prayers become a necessary part of paying tribute to the dead. It is then that a special prayer called Kaddish is first uttered and the period of mourning known as sitting shiva begins as family members exit the cemetery. Mirrors in a house of mourning are covered so that we keep our thoughts away from being self-centered and to help us cope with the final separation. Cynthia was a lady of deep faith and a former teacher at Trinity Episcopal. I know that the service prepared for her was in keeping with the dictates of her religious background. I am certain for most it was a deeply moving experience. For me, though, I wished it were more in keeping with my faith and that I would have been able to say goodbye to one of the loves of my life in a less visible manner and keep those memories inviolate in my heart.