Those violet eyes

Every year on the day before my own birthday I am reminded of another, that of Academy Award winning actress Elizabeth Taylor who was born on February 27, 1932, making her almost exactly one month younger than my mother. Rather than the Liz of today, who is oftentimes confined to a wheelchair, I reminisce about the Liz of yesteryear. Truly, the years have not been very kind to the supremely beautiful lady who first came to America from England as a youngster to film "National Velvet." Yet, when I think about her classic beauty -- her seemingly perfect skin, hair and makeup -- I am drawn to those piercing violet eyes. Yes, they are violet and they are most impressive. Violet eyes are a very rare occurrence in nature, but they do happen occasionally. How appropriate that Liz, by most accounts one of the best actresses in Hollywood during the 50s and 60s, should have a rare set of violet eyes to accentuate her ample talents. In all my life I have only met one person who had violet eyes, and hers were also quite compelling. I also find it interesting that the two biggest sex symbols of their time, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, both converted to Judaism in order to marry. Not that it means anything, but on the day before my birthday, it does give me pause. So, if anyone is seriously thinking about what I want for my birthday tomorrow, I'm thinking it should start with violet eyes, although green eyes might do in a pinch.
William F. Buckley (1925-2008): I was sad to read of the demise of a true political icon, the brilliant William F. Buckley of TV's "Firing Line," who died in Connecticut at age 82. Buckley was acknowledged as a great editor for "The National Review," which he founded in 1955, as well as a formidable debater, a novelist, a trans-oceanic sailor and a harpsochordist among his many talents. He was a true renaissance man and oftentimes the biggest voice for conservatism in this country. I was fortunate to hear Buckley speak once at a journalism seminar in 1981 at the University of Hartford. He was glib and spoke with eloquence. His well-chosen opening lines recalled a supposed meeting in a Louisiana men's room between arch segregationist Judge Leander Perez and eventual three-time Governor Earl Long. "'What do you think we're going to do now that the feds have themselves an a-tomic bomb?"' Buckley said. The crowd responded with peels of laughter. The fact he was using my home state to illustrate his point was not lost on me. Buckley will be missed by all well-read individuals who may have disagreed with his points, but admired the style and felicity of his expression.

Cleveland, the epicenter of the political universe

It seems at first an odd choice that the final debate between the two Democratic candidates battling it out for their party's nomination should be Cleveland, my old stomping grounds. But on closer examination, Cleveland might just be the perfect choice to debate the future course of America from the Democrats' perspective. Cleveland is an old city which has stood the test of time through periods of great economic progress and financial distress. During the height of its attraction to the very upper crust, the so-called "Millionaires' Row" of Euclid Avenue sprang up with magnificent mansions, beautiful grounds and huge house staffs to support them. Fast forward to the 1970s and the dual images of the Cleveland River on fire and a very young Dennis Kucinich announcing that his city was going into default seem to jump out. Yet, in the 1990s a period of rebirth kicked off with several strategic plans taking foothold and the city once again began to show signs of definite progress. Today the Theatre District of Cleveland is second in size only to that of New York's fabled Broadway. The arts scene is also impressive with Severance Hall acknowledged as one of the country's most exciting of classical venues and the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Institute of Music as cultural jewels in the city's crown. The Cleveland Clinic and Univesity Hospital systems provide some of the greatest medical care in the world. The area where the Cleveland River flows downtown now plays hosts to hundreds of birds during spring and summer as they nest near the new NFL Stadium and the eye-catching Rock and Roll Hall of Fame complex. With the blessings of city planners, new developments are being presented to encourage young professionals and others to consider living in the downtown area. The city appears poised to begin to attract many of those young dreamers who previously fled the city in search of better jobs and lifestyles. While Cleveland clearly has its problems still, it has shown considerable progress in reinventing itself from a city whose wealth originally came from steel mills and manufacturing into a much healthier and safer place to raise families. So, Cleveland is the nexus of the political world tonight. NBC's Tim Russert, who is a graduate of John Carroll University (next to where I lived while until last April), will be one of the moderators and will be giving the national debate a little bit of local color, if only for a moment or two. Here's to you, Cleveland. Enjoy your moment in the spotlight and don't let anyone put you down. As I see it, there is no longer a "mistake by the lake."

Of hoaxes, scams and spam (Part 4)

Today's blog will be the last in this series on the evils associated with e-mails, but probably not my last word on it. Seemingly, the most innocuous problem, but one that still needs to be addressed is the e-mail hoax. Hoaxes have become much more prevalent in recent times, but they have existed for decades. A typical hoax arrives in an Inbox from someone you know. That is the main thing that distinguishes it from spam. The e-mail warns of a problem, wants you to forward a petition to stop something from happening or suggests that you will be rewarded financially by forwarding it to as many people in your contact list that you can. Let me state that e-mails are a method and a means to communicate. It is the same concept as sending a conventional letter, only quicker. However, in any case it is a best attempt method. You assume that if you hit the "Send" button, it will reach the desired target. In that way it is similar to a postal box on a street corner. Depositing a letter in the box will more than likely assure the addressee will receive it, but there is no guarantee of that. In the case of a phone call, the message is assured of being received when the person picks up the phone. Under no circumstances will sending or forwarding a single e-mail bring you untold wealth, prevent or enact legislation, get you a guy or gal, or change the world other than to clog mailboxes of your family and friends. Hoaxes have become so prevalent that several sites like Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/ and Hoaxbusters http://www.hoaxbusters.org/ have sprung up to refute hoaxes and to validate the ones that are correct. Suffice it to say, please check out either of these sites before you forward an e-mail. It will prevent the proliferation of the spam, but will also indicate to you if you are the victim of a hoax from a well-meaning friend or family member or not. Sometimes, validated e-mails that contain an element of truth may be used to inspire yet another hoax. Until last week I had never received a legitimate Amber Alert about a missing child. Last week's message was confirmed by Snopes.com, but the missing girl was last seen over two years ago and the person who was suspected of abducting her committed suicide as authorities drew closer. I don't believe any case could have been colder. However, I would warmly welcome receiving that legitimate e-mail a hundred times over were there be any way to cut out the numerous fake "virus alerts" that I have received in the last year alone. Now the hoaxers are getting more devious. They will find a legitimate e-mail alert and use that as a basis for a new hoax. A good example of that is the "You've received an e-mail from a friend, etc." spam. This spyware was going around last year and Snopes.com warned everyone that it was a legitimate threat. So what did the hoaxers do? They simply changed the new e-mails to point to the Snopes.com site with the words "I checked it out on Snopes.com" to reinforce to everyone that the threat was real and off went another volley of hoaxes to family and friends. Be careful to check the threats out and make sure that what Snopes.com or Hoaxbusters.com says is exactly as it appears in your e-mail. If not, don't pass it on. Dispose of it immediately and don't clog up your family and friends' mail boxes. In any endeavor or undertaking education is key. It is my hope that you've learned a little something about the threats (real or not) from e-mails. Time for me to go and clean out my Inbox.

Of hoaxes, scams and spam (Part 3)

What has become the most troubling of trends in recent years is something called phishing. Phishing is an attempt to mine for personal information such as Social Security numbers, bank account and routing numbers, passwords to online banking, and driver's license numbers as a way to steal your identity and then your personal resources. The way phishing typically works is through an initial e-mail that purports to come from your bank, your credit union or from Amazon.com, Paypal, or some other Internet entity. The e-mail looks genuine and purports to come from a trusted source. It may even have genuine links leading to a legitimate site. Once you click on the link, you will be whisked to their site and, oftentimes, will be at their prey. Please don't be taken in by these criminals. It is the same as someone randomly dialing you over the phone and asking you to give them your personal information or the keys to your financial kingdom. In some cases the culprits empty bank accounts so quickly and transfer the monies to overseas accounts that are untraceable. Why does a cleverly-designed phony e-mail merit any more attention than a quick deletion? Yet, thousands have been fooled and hundreds of new phishing attempts occur every day. Be concious that things may not be way they seem. Always type the URL (universal resource locator) of Internet sites you know in the browser's address bar. Don't click on links you don't know. Also, take the time out to forward the phony e-mails to your Internet service provider's fraud department. The sooner they can decipher from whom these messages are sent, the quicker the crooked parties will be thrown into prison and their victims will have a chance at getting restitution. The good news is that today's most updated browsers (internet Explorer 7.0 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0) will warn you of phishing attempts and prevent you from making a mistake you will regret for the rest of your lives. Also, check with the federal government's http://onguardonline.gov for more information. Remember: NO banking institution or Internet mainstay like PayPal, e-Bay, Amazon, etc. will ever request personal information via an e-mail. They will utilize secure socket layers (the browser begins with https:) to make certain that the information is encrypted and never sent through an unsecured location. Many doctors' offices and hospitals (pharmacies too) have to comply with H.I.P.P.A and have to provide encryption and security when sending private and personal information over the Internet. It goes without saying to be careful to never give out your full Social Security number to any party other than your bank, your broker, or a true and trusted government official and then only in person. We'll next tackle the problems with hoaxes and why we should all be cautious in forwarding e-mails to warn our neighbors of potential problems.

Of hoaxes, scams and spam (Part 2)

We've already covered how insidious the plague of mass e-mailings are. The majority of these are basically commercial in nature and are attempts to sell some product or service that we can all do well without. Some are salacious invitations to meet women from exotic locales and those can be especially troubling because they may be nothing more than financial lures to meet your money. I always caution men who receive invitations from women from the Philippines, Russia, Japan, etc. that they are probably not dealing with an exciting svelte beauty weighing 110 pounds, but more likely a hairy obese chain-smoking man who is writing anything he thinks someone on the other end wants to read. The words caveat emptor have never been more appropriate. I also have never wanted the massive doses of Viagra, Cialis or God knows whatever sexually-enhancing drugs that are pushed over the Internet through these kinds of e-mails, but I guess they must think I need them. I am sure that the amounts offered to me alone would be enough to keep the Titanic from sinking (rim shot please). Aside from Canadian drug outlets, video cameras, rental properties, airline specials, there are considerable products ad nauseum that are available and will be available in coming months via e-mail solicitations. Suffice it to say the delete key will be your best friend. So why am I so particularly upset at the influx of spam? It's not just the amount of time it takes for everyone to delete these egregious e-mails, although if one does the math, the amount of dollars lost per year per employee in dealing with them is in the billions of dollars. It is also the amount of time and dollars that must be spent to combat them on a local and global basis. These e-mails bog down networks and diminish bandwidth by the sheer volume passed through servers and the resource-hogging applications that must used to stop them from being passed to the end-user. Believe me, were there no filtering on mail servers, the amount of e-mail spam would be 90 times worse than what is happening at present. Much of the more salacious e-mails dealing with sexual content are screened easily, but others are more devious and are passed through because they appear to be innocent on first look. Beware of embedded links in e-mails. Many of these will take your browser to servers that will attempt to identify you and place a cookie on your computer that will continue to identify you to them. Some of these sites will also "mine" for addresses, names, and other personal data in order to assemble other valid e-mail addresses to send out future spam. It's a never-ending cycle. The best bet is to avoid browsing on sites like this and to delete these e-mails immediately when they enter your inbox. The worst of these kinds of e-mails are attempts to "phish." We will deal with this kind of attack in a future blog.

Of hoaxes, scams and spam (Part 1)

Today's topic (the first of a series) is one that is close to my heart and needs to be put into the blogosphere to be distributed across the cyber firmament ad infinitum. But therein lies the problem. Ever since the invention of e-mail, the problem of what to do with unsolicited junk e-mail, known as spam, has become ever more acute. The problem may not seem like much to you, but it costs Internet service providers like AOL and AT&T millions of dollars a year to block spammers. These costs are then passed on to the end users and, like the incoming tide at a beach, the waves of spam keep pounding the shore with no end in sight. Legislation has been passed to deal with this crisis on a national and international scale, but daily mass unsolicited e-mails continue to find their way into our respective inboxes with no end in sight. Mass e-mails sent by spammers can be extremely cost effective; millions of addresses sent out at a time for a few hundred dollars. Anyone who has sent out commercial bulk mail knows that a one to two percent return is considered a successful campaign. For these spammers who continue to operate outside the law, it is a risk they are willing to take for money. And they are getting even more brazen. I speak from experience. Recently, one of these particularly devious hackers cracked my Hotmail account and used my own e-mail to send spam to my entire contact list. I have since changed the password to that account and the illegal, unwarranted e-mails have ceased, but the damage had already been done. This hacker could have done even more damage had he taken over my account and sent e-mails to family and friends insisting that he was me. For that reason, I caution everyone against keeping personal information ESPECIALLY passwords in e-mails stored on web-based providers like G-Mail, Hotmail or Yahoo. Make your passwords a little tougher by changing letters to numbers, adding an uppercase letter or a special character like a $ or a #, and never use less than six characters. Never make your significant other's, spouse's, child's or pet's name your password without those kinds of alterations. A good example would be "charlie" for a password. By simply altering it to read "ChArL1e" you have created a stronger password. Since all passwords are case sensitive, it's a good idea to use several uppercase letters, but the most important ones are not at the beginning or the end of the word, but in the middle, where hackers have more trouble guessing where uppercase letters might appear. One might use the similar or backwards-looking integers 1, 3, 7, 9 and 0 (zero) for i, e, l, g and o. Instead of an S, one might use an $ or employ an # instead of an h. There are all sorts of tricks to be used, but the point is to up the ante so that the hackers don't get the better of you. In upcoming blogs I will address the problem being exacerbated by end users and why we should fight the temptation to pass on unsolicited e-mails from loved ones and friends.
Political pause for the cause: Was Wisconsin the beginning of the end for the Clinton campaign? I remember seeing her poll numbers up by hefty percentage points a little over a week ago. The Obama Express seems to be picking up unbelievable momentum and I have little doubt that Ohio and Texas, crucial battlegrounds for Clinton to win at this late stage of the campaign, may provide less than the overwhelming mandate she is looking for. Meanwhile, McCain keeps adding to his delegate count and an interesting suggestion was made to me yesterday that speculates he might add billionaire New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg as a potential running mate once his nomination is assured. That would certainly enhance McCain's domestic economic package, although the last time a Jewish V-P was proposed (Lieberman in 2000), it didn't have as much impact as I would have surmised.

The Fine Arts Celebrated

Hot on the heels of the NBA's love fest with New Orleans came yesterday's star struck event for the fine arts, the 14th annual Tribute to the Classical Arts held at the Monteleone Hotel. With WWL TV's Angela Hill as Master of Ceremonies, the event featured an excellent luncheon and plenty of talented performances interspersed with awards presentations. Roger Dickerson, a New Orleans native who has excelled in both classical and jazz circles, was given the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award by his lifelong friend and admirer Ellis Marsalis. Only 15 hours previously Marsalis had been on stage playing a Steinway piano opposite Harry Connick, Jr. as part of the halftime festivities for the All Star Game at the New Orleans Arena. He thoroughly enjoyed that, he said, but giving an award to Dickerson held special favor in his eyes too and both he and his wife Delores were delighted to be at the fine arts event to single him out for his many years of playing, composing and teaching. The Outstanding Contribution Award went to Albinas and Manon Prizgintas for their work with the Trinity Church's series through the years that has presented both small and intimate pieces as well as grand and glorious works. Dennis Assaf, a Holy Cross High School graduate, was presented the award noting 30 years of contributions by the Jefferson Performing Arts Society by a Holy Cross teacher, Charles Digange, and one of his former classmates, Clancy Dubos, the editor and publisher of Gambit Magazine, which sponsors the Big Easy Entertainment Awards that presented yesterday's event. The saddest part of the day was when the 2008 Arts Education Award was presented by Dr. Anthony Decuir and New Orleans Opera Association director and fellow Loyola faculty member David Morelock to Ellen and Philip Frohnmayer. Philip has been battling peritoneal mesothelioma for some time now and was noticeably absent from the dais. Ellen graciously accepted the award on his behalf, but acknowledged this rare form of cancer is tough to beat. She vowed that Philip would do so and the hearts of everyone in the room hung heavy, but hopeful. Funds raised from yesterday's ceremonies went to further the Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, a 501 C-3 non-profit that funds programs and projects relating to the culture and economy of the city. The other two big awards shows that it draws funding from are the Big Easy Entertainment and Big Easy Theatre Awards as well as a wine tasting fundraiser each October called the Reds, Whites and Blues. Aside from the foundation, big winners yesterday were the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's "Music of the Spheres" program named after Stephen Dankner's Symphony No. 8 as well as the "New Year's Eve with the New Orleans Opera" program that also merited attention for the best choral arts presentation of last year. Dance award recipients included the Delta Festival Ballet, the Tsunami Dance Company and the JPAS and The Ashe Cultural Arts Center for three different works. Two of those, "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" by Delta Festival Ballet and "Portraits in a Forgotten City" centered on representations of post-Katrina life in New Orleans. One has to marvel at how robust and vibrant the cultural arts are in New Orleans and how fantastic nearly every program has rebounded since the storm that smashed nearly every existing cultural institution here. Thank God for the hard work and drive of the people honored at yesterday's event. But let's not forget to thank those who by their attendance at the Tribute to the Classical Arts yesterday furthered the local arts scene just a bit more.