Coincidence or divine intervention?

In my travel to San Diego last week for the National Annual Meeting of the Boy Scouts of America a strange thing occurred, but I will get to that in just a bit. I was on board the USS Midway, the aircraft carrier built at the end of World War II that has the distinction of having the longest service of any carrier in the U.S. Navy. The Midway was commissioned in 1945 and served as a flagship during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Previously, it also saw service in the Korean War and the Viet Nam War, where it registered both the first and the last U.S. air-to-air kills of that conflict.

Following decommissioning, the Midway (CV-41) has had a final resting place in San Diego Bay since 1994. It was a tremendous gamble for the city, which was forced to deal with a hefty $1.5 million cost to transport the carrier to its place of honor as a museum dedicated to the history of aircraft carriers at Broadway Pier. However, since its installation in San Diego, the Midway Museum has drawn a steady stream of visitors and has stimulated a revitalization of the harbor area.

Much of the interior and exterior has been redone with the funds that have been raised and a typical attendance of visitors extends now to over four million annually. I mention the four million visitor figure because it is a very unlikely statistical probability that I would see someone I knew on board on a specific day and a specific time and at a specific location on a vessel that spans the length of three football fields and stands 18 stories high.

Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened.

While visiting the Midway with my Scouting friends Cheryl Baraty and Kim Queen from Milwaukee, I noticed an older couple who was in the engine room with me. The gentleman was wearing a T-shirt, but he looked somehow familiar. His wife wore a lovely gold necklace bearing the Hebrew letters for "Chai" (or "life") twice -- something referred to as a "Double Chai." Almost immediately, I introduced myself and explained I was a visitor from New Orleans. It was then that he told me he had been in New Orleans recently, helping with the recovery effort there, especially in the Jewish community.

Suddenly, it clicked. I did know him.

He continued his story about how he had helped arrange for delivery of a donated Torah scroll to my own Congregation Beth Israel, the Orthodox synagogue that lost seven scrolls in the wake of floods caused by levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina. I saw his face and remembered how I had taken many pictures of his visit to New Orleans with the Torah scroll only a little over a year ago. His name is Kenneth Levin and he works as a senior social services supervisor for Orange County. Ken and his wife Nancy just happened to be down from Anaheim, at least a three hour trip by car. Again, for me to believe that this was simple coincidence might be stretching the boundaries of believability.

After all, I was only due to visit San Diego for a few hours on one particular day. It is an amazing fact that I could have toured the ship later in the afternoon and missed them or I could have passed them in another room, but not been close enough to talk with them and learn of their connection to me. In fact, that we were on the same lower floor at all was amazing when one thinks about it.

The only thing I could think of doing was to notify the former president of my congregation, Jackie Gothard, and to let her chat with Ken over my cell phone. It was then that I knew there must have been a reason for my being there and for Ken and Jackie to make contact once again. It would seem that Ken now has more incentive to come back to New Orleans with another group from Anaheim. After all, he now has another person to show him around and to make his stay in the Crescent City more special. This time he can also bring his charming wife Nancy bearing the "Double Chai" necklace, which means, after all, "two times life."

The Magic Castle

Many decades ago I became acquainted with The Magic Castle, a private club in Los Angeles for magicians, when it was prominently featured in an episode of "Columbo." In this particular episode, the redoubtable Lt. Columbo had to figure out how the villain, played by the late Jack Cassidy, was seemingly able to be in two places at once: performing on stage in front of an audience while committing a murder in an adjacent office. What I didn't know then was that The Magic Castle is much more than a performing hall for magicians. It is the home for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc., an exclusive group of 5,000 magicians who promotes the ancient art of magic and attempts to preserve its history. The Magic Castle is more than a clubhouse. It is a research library, an archives, a fine dining establishment, several bars and three different performing areas. Rare pictures, posters, caricatures and other memorabilia line the walls while magicians and their invited guests enjoy spectacular meals and some of the very best magic shows within four floors of the mansion. Originally built as a private residence in 1908 for Rollin Lane, a banker and real estate tycoon who owned much of present Hollywood, The Magic Castle underwent conversion into a multi-family dwelling and later served as a nursing home before being transformed into a private club for magicians in 1963. Famous performing professional magicians like Marc Wilson and amateurs like Johnny Carson were members when it began with a group of 150. Whether dropping by during the day or visiting the mansion at night, guests and members are required to wear coat and tie and proper dress. No one is admitted as a guest unless they have the name and member number of a member. Guests conducted by members are admitted like guests at a country club, while guests of members who are unaccompanied must pay an entrance fee ranging from $20 at night to $25 on weekends. Reservations are required and require a week's notice typically. Once inside, however, members and guests can witness performances by some of the very best magicians from across the globe on the three stages a main stage that seats about 80 (Palace of Mystery), a smaller hall that seats about 60 (Parlour of Prestidigitation) and a close-up magic parlor (Close-up Gallery) that fits about 20 guests. I was treated to a private tour of The Magic Castle last Friday evening by a magician friend of mine and his wife, who are frequent visitors to the house to enjoy meals by themselves or with guests. What a night! The kitchen was first class with an attentive wait staff. Entrees were well prepared and a full service bar and ample wine list were also available. The ambiance of this transformed Victorian mansion made for a truly special evening and I am eternally grateful for the privilege. If anyone wants to know how to get inside, the answer to the question is simple: magic!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles...and a Bus?

The blog has had to be on hiatus for the past six days while I sojourned in San Diego and Los Angeles. It was a real life case of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," as the John Candy-Steve Martin movie was termed. Only in my case it was "Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a Bus." San Diego, the second largest city in California, is exquisitely beautiful. The temperate clime has a mean average of 72 degrees F per year with a mean differential of nine degrees F throughout the year. I was in San Diego for the Boy Scouts of America's National Annual Meeting. It was an opportunity to meet with friends and colleagues and to sit in on some of the meetings for the two national committees on which I serve. San Diego is a very clean city and the nearby island of Coronado is so picturesque because retail outlets like Burger King, Subway and McDonald's are deliberately required to be low key and to blend into the existing architecture and neighborhood zoning. A U.S. Navy base occupies much of the island and one can see the Navy S.E.A.L.S. units practicing being dropped from helicopters and wenched back up as well as conducting nighttime activities on the San Diego bay in full camouflage and wet suits. After the meetings in San Diego, I took the Pacific Surfliner to Los Angeles. Looking out of the window at the Pacific Ocean seems almost like being on board a cruise ship at certain points of the journey. I travelled Business Class and I would recommend it for anyone considering that form of travel between San Diego and L.A. After the train arrived in downtown L.A., I hopped a Flyways bus to Los Angeles Airport (LAX) so that I could rent a car for the remainder of the week in L.A. Coming up tomorrow will be a description of the Magic Castle, where I was fortunate to be an invited guest on Friday night. I will not speak of the Los Angeles Dodgers game on Saturday night versus the St. Louis Cardinals out of respect for the team that should have posted a win, but suffered a very embarrassing loss before a hometown crowd.

The Bees' Knees

In 94% of all cases where one NBA team in the playoffs jumps out to a 2-0 start, the series ends with that team winning. The New Orleans Hornets joined that slender six percent minority last night when they dropped the seventh and final game of their series with the defending world champion San Antonio Spurs 92-81. It doesn't make any difference that they were in the game, getting as close at three points before the Spurs put the game out of reach. It is just another example of the futility of putting one's hopes on a New Orleans team only to see them dashed on the rocks of chance and circumstance. If I were a betting man, I would have lost it all after having seen how confidently the Hornets took the first two games away from the Spurs. But then the games shifted to San Antonio. It was there that significant blowout wins were won against the Hornets and the momentum seemed to swing towards the Spurs. The Hornets had a chance to put the series out of reach in Game Five and to win the series outright in Game Six, but they allowed San Antonio the opportunity to rebound with consecutive wins both home and away. The doldrums have set in here much as they did Sunday when Cleveland's Cavaliers and King James were put away by Boston. New Orleans has turned around what had begun as a so-so season into one of the best in the league. Attendance has risen sharply and all of the excitement they generated this season will spill over into next year's. But again we sit wondering what went wrong. And again we hear that time honored phrase "Wait 'till next year!"

Two new musical comedies take town by storm

While much of the hoopla in New Orleans has been on a certain NBA franchise, two other items of side interest have hit the local boards and are both worthy of mention. The first is Ricky Graham's new show "The Renew Review" starring Graham and co-writer Sean Patterson with support from distaff members Yvette Hargis and Mandy Zirchenback. With typical Ricky Graham comedic touches, this show lambasts the ongoing recovery effort in New Orleans with updated new songs and skits. The two act presentation running at Le Chat Noir on weekends has been selling briskly and shows are nearly all sold out. Nevertheless, for those who can get tickets, I would strongly suggest you get to Le Chat Noir and catch a very funny production by a proven winning team. The other show that just opened that is also worthy of catching is Rivertown Repertory's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "By Jeeves," a British farce musical that is a romp with director-actor Gary Rucker in the lead role and Vatican Lokey playing the title figure. Both Rucker and Lokey lead a sterling cast of very funny players who don't miss a trick in making the audiences laugh from opening line to final chord.
Goodbye to Rivertown's Cathy Primeaux as she leaves the Kenner theatre after 15 years as stage mother to all and box office manager. Primeaux takes up work again in the medical field, but we know her heart will always be in the theatre...not the operating theatre! Best of luck to her!

The Toll Rises

As per my previous blog, the reports are now flooding the networks with the horrors of what life is like in China and Myanmar following the catastrophic earthquake and cyclones there. I don't want to watch these depressing accounts, but I am compelled to do so. With loss of life on such a grand scale, the numbers are startling. I cannot fathom the loss of 900 young students in one building like occurred in one Chinese city or the loss of entire towns washed away in the wake of the cyclone. It is staggering to think of the hardships imposed on rescue workers and probably true that more people are dying today of disease and neglect than were killed in the initial stages of these tragedies. It is my nature to fix things. It is what I do. When I see a computer not performing correctly or a network down, I right it. When spy ware or viruses threaten an end user, I install the means to thwart these attacks and to keep everything on track. Yet, when I see destruction on such a grand scale, I am cognizant of how ineffective and puny I am in the face of it. I have led a blessed life and I praise God for sparing me from the indignities and vicissitudes of life that my Asian brothers and sisters are enduring. Everything happens for a reason. I do believe that. I hope we generous Americans can once again rally assistance to those who are crying, screaming, and dying for it now. Time is of the essence.

"Oh, the humanity..."

When the giant rigid airship Hindenburg exploded in flame over Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, a radio reporter, Herb Morrison, was on hand recording the scene. His overexpressive reporting was captured on a wire recorder and later presented as an on-the-spot report. The reporter's relaxed, rapid paced delivery was soon pierced by deep sighs and exclamations like "Oh, the humanity!" At one point he apologized as he turned off the recorded to catch his breath. From this ignoble beginning came the journalistic tradition of broadcasting events as they happened. In a way that report and the thousands of others that followed over radio and TV in more recent decades were the precursors of today's modern CNN and Fox News Reports, where seasoned correspondents relate the breaking news of the day. The only difference is that today we are accustomed to seeing our news delivered live as it happens. We've watched two Gulf Wars waged over cable TV and even witnessed reporters delivering their dispatches from the battlefronts via cellphones. Here in Louisiana and New Orleans the nation witnessed the horrors of people plucked by helicopter from rooftops as reporters commented on the action. And there were also those reports which showed those unable to save themselves from rising waters, their bodies found in attics or floating in receding wakes. It all happened live on TV and we witnessed the tragedy firsthand. When America was attacked by Islamic fanatics who chose to crash airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, we watched it happen live. Yet for all the modern technological wonders that exist in broadcasting, there are limitations. Last week an estimated 13,000 to 24,000 victims were claimed as a result of a cyclone in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma. Their military junta refused the entry of Western broadcasters into what remains of their devastated country for political reasons of expediency. Yesterday in another land halfway across the globe, another catastrophic event claimed at least ten times as many victims as Hurricane Katrina and the breach of federal levees did. This was a level 7.9 earthquake that hit the heavily populated Sishuan province of China, a leader of the modern world community. But like the Myanmar cyclone, there were no pictures or videos to be viewed by the Western world. Hundreds of cellphone towers are down and reporters are finding it extremely difficult to file reports from the scene. With estimates of deaths in China running at least to 15,000 and many more thousands of injured still being accounted, these two tragedies will loom large for months to come, even up to the time when China wants to show off its best face for the upcoming Summer Olympiad in Beijing. What we don't see, we can't envision. Without broadcasts from the scene, we don't fathom the scale of these tragedies. I read the words in newspapers and I see abreviated reports on TV that attempt to approximate what huge losses of life and culture are being experienced. But without live from the scene reports, we are at best under-informed and at worst misinformed. I feel like that intrepid reporter shouting into a microphone: "Oh, this is terrible. This is one of the worst disasters in the world!" But no one can hear. No one can see. We are truly deaf and blind in an Information Age without information. The existence of a global neighborhood is hugely dependent on technology and the ability of world leaders to let the rest of us in. In Myanmar and China, Westerners are not largely welcomed, despite the fact they face critical shortages of medicine and supplies to sustain life in these hard-hit areas. It is up to us to ramp up support for these people, who despite their governments, need our help. I urge everyone to be responsible and socially active to help them now. As a former recipient of aid following Hurricane Katrina, I know just how much it will be appreciated by those unable to ask for assistance.