Take it from "Les Miserables"

At the very end of Act One in the musical "Les Miserables," the protagonists are prepared to battle one another at the barricades. The student revolutionaries are joined on stage by the beleaguered Jean Valjean who is relentessly pursued by the malevolent police inspector Javert. Valjean's ward -- his daughter Marius -- has smitten one of the idealistic students, Marius, who must decide as to whether he will join his fellow students or seek out her love. Meanwhile, Eponine, the daughter of the cutthroat thief Thernadier, pines for Marius, hoping he'll notice her. The students, led by Enjolras, wave a red flag in the background as the voices of the hopeful rise in harmony proclaiming "Tomorrow we'll discover what our God has in store! One more dawn! One more day! One day more!" It is riveting theatre and among the most powerful onstage moments in a Broadway musical. It is much the same in the political theatre today. The two presidential candidates are jetsetting across the country trying to haul in as many votes in the traditional red or blue states, but in reality they are just trying to innervate the electorate. Voting lines should be very long tomorrow, but the election is so important to the future of this nation that I can't imagine too many people complaining excessively. Well, there will be voter irregularities. There always are. Make sure that your votes count. Don't wear campaign buttons, paraphenalia, or shirts that may contain logos or the names of candidates. It might be considered electioneering and could be cause for poll workers to prevent your voting. Carry I.D. with you and be prepared to prove to poll workers that you are who you say you are. Proper identification is usually a driver's license, U.S. passport, or state-issued I.D. card. Don't think anything less will be considered valid. Wherever you may be, check out in advance to whom you need to report voting irregularities or fraud. Call them right away and, if you have a cell phone, do so within moments of voting as close to the polling place as you can without being inside. It is important that you document any problems and, if you can do so without inviting injury from others, ask if any other witnesses are willing to come forward as well. Here's the link for the Louisiana Secretary of State, whose office is in charge of elections. Use common sense and don't make a scene. If you feel intimidated or threatened, remove yourself from the polling place immediately and alert authorities. So, one more day! One day more! I hope this real life Act Two turns out better than it did in Les Miserables.

McCain on SNL: politics as unusual

The words "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" had barely left his mouth and I thought to myself. This John McCain is certainly a good sport. He may be trailing in the polls, but he isn't so stiff or incapable of self-deprecation that he can't enjoy a laugh with the rest of us, especially if it's at his own expense. It reminded me of when Richard Nixon appeared on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In."(Sock it to me?") The idea was to soften Nixon's image before he ran for office in 1968 -- no matter how ridiculous he looked -- and it worked. While McCain did let the SNL writers weave a bit of their magic for him (the John McCain pork knives pitch was clever as was the allusion to McCain "fine gold"), I still had the feeling McCain had tarnished his presidential mantle and crown just a bit, but in doing so, had somehow made himself more like one of us. A man whose wife's family owns a brewery could probably never be a "Joe Six-Pack." Then again, it's nice to see him try to peel away some of the layers of his hard veneer and show the nation he's prepared to take a little flak as long as he can get his message to the people. Saturday Night Live's QVC John McCain sketch may go down in history as a comic anomaly of when truth and fiction merge in a quirky way. Sarah Palin managed to keep her name in the spotlight, but in an unfavorable way yesterday when it was revealed that she was the victim of a radio hoax by broadcasters who convinced her staff that it was French president Nicolas Sarcoczy on the phone. ("Palin Punk'd" read the headlines!) Meanwhile, McCain and Palin will be journeying across several key state battlegrounds as they try to pick up the requisite 270 electoral college votes needed for election. According to the pollsters, Obama has a significant lead and is in the driver's seat. But the headlines have two more days before the ink can dry on this matter. It is important that we all vote on Tuesday. It is our right and privilege and this year it means more than just whether we have a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. With the wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy in a shambles and lingering questions on the future of the nation still abounding, all of those undecided voters will be crucial in determining the course for America over the next four, and possibly, eight years.

A shout out to my friends in Cleveland, apparently one of the more heated electoral battlegrounds in the country and one that Obama and McCain seem intent on having in each other's camp. I wish I were up there now reporting on the seemingly endless appearances of the campaign principals, but the weather has been so pleasant in New Orleans these last several weeks that it's taken much of the sting out of my political jones. Besides, the odious task of electing New Orleans and Louisiana politicians has given me plenty to absorb as charges fly from one candidate to another. The four most hotly contested elections are that in the New Orleans District Attorney's office, the First and Second Congressional Districts and the race for the U.S. Senate seat presently held by Mary Landrieu. As to whom the next New Orleans D.A. will be, voters will be choosing between two former first city attorneys in criminal defense attorney Ralph Capitelli and former criminal court judge Leon Canizzaro. I'm going out on a limb here, but I predict that the next D.A. will be an Italian. In the First Congressional District race incumbent Steve Scalise, only elected about a year ago in another close race, is getting a significant challenge from newcomer Jim Harlan, a businessman and Scout leader. Former newscaster Helena Moreno is trying to unseat indicted Congressman William Jefferson in the Second Congressional District, but the polls suggest that he may have a walk of this race. Whether he will be as successful in the Virginia courts following the election remains to be seen. Senator Landrieu has pulled away from Republican challenger and State Treasurer John Kennedy in recent weeks, according to pollsters, but she never has had a large amount of support in north Louisiana. Even though Republican governor Bobby Jindal endorsed Kennedy in a show of party solidarity this past week, Landrieu is still expected to keep her Senate seat and become an even more powerful presence in the U. S. Senate.

This Studs's for you

Studs Terkel died yesterday, a writer many of you know far too little. He was a tireless champion for the little man and the subjects of his Pulitzer Prize winning essays and books were the unknown workers who make up the majority of people across our land. He was an original like no other, who would recount the pain and suffering of the Great Depression in "Hard Times" with hundreds of personal stories, each one a study in determination and the will to survive. Terkel's "oral histories" were collected as a lepidopterist might capture fleeting butterflies and mount them for display. He would conduct interview after interview, with meticulous notes and then move on. He wasn't searcing for an explanation as much as he was looking for the feelings and coping mechanisms people have when dealing with adversity or the mundane. Another of his more well known works was "Working," where the stories of America's working class were revealed in a similar fashion. "Studs Terkel's Working" became a Broadway show and later was shown on PBS, the network for whom he had many projects. He was a prince among writers who asked the right questions until he had run out of them. In talking about his PBS production "Hope Dies Last," Terkel explained in 1990 that his hopes may have diminished, but his curiosity still remained and he had already picked out his epitath: "Curiosity didn't kill this cat," he beamed. Terkel's "The Good War," for which he won his Pultizer in 1985, suggested that, not unlike the VietNam War, World War II was not necessarily a period of national solidarity and unabashed unity. He was born a New Yorker, but became a proud Chicagoan at age eight. He got the acting bug while still a young man, but didn't do much with his career. (He did appear in the movie "Eight Men Out" as a reporter.) He had his own Chicago radio program for over four decades, "The Studs Terkel Program," in which he would interview guests and make commentaries. He was a man after my own heart, favoring well-mixed martinis and chomping on cigars on a regular basis. Because of the controversial positions he held (he would probably admit he leaned towards socialism), he was blacklisted from TV during the McCarthy era. It is interesting to note that Terkel then began his writing career. He started while in his mid-40s due to his love of jazz music. His "Giants of Jazz" was released in 1956, but he wasted no time in continuing his writing and was working all the way up until his passing. As a matter of fact, his last book will be published in just another two weeks. He may be a footnote in the newspaper editions this morning, but the Chicago museum that houses many of the oral histories he donated will be forever grateful as will a nation who mourns the passing of one of its favorite sons.

An anniversary gone by

Tuesday would have been my 24th wedding anniversary. I recall it as one of my most blessed and most perfect of days. Everything had been planned and mapped out for me in advance. All I had to do was show up in my tuxedo and say my "I do's." It was a Sunday and there were meticulous plans as to when I was to make my appearance and when my bride was to be there. We weren't supposed to see each other during that day prior to the ceremony because superstituous members of the family said it would be bad luck. So, I was at the morning brunch for an hour and then I had to leave in anticpation of my wife-to-be showing up to meet with family, friends and well-wishers there. During the day, I cooled my heels waiting until it was time to leave for the synagogue. When it came to the wedding ceremony, I merely had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. My bride had arranged for limousines to pick up her bridal party, which had assembled at the Fairmont Hotel. The grooms, ushers and I had to get to the synagogue by the appointed time on our own. While the crowd gathered, an organist played Beatles songs during the period prior to the actual ceremony. It was a key point upon which my wife and I had insisted. Several qualified organists had turned down the opportunity to perform citing "artistic differences" in our choices for selections. At the last minute a friend of a friend volunteered to take on the job, but he went to Florida the week before to party with some of his friends and made both my future wife and I very stressed because he didn't bother to show up until the day of the rehearsal in order to familiarize himself with the organ and to pick up the music. That was the only real stress we dealt with in the days leading up to the wedding. My bachelor party the previous Thursday night was a disaster, but it was a carefree affair. For those of you who would like to think that there were strippers or pole dancers prepared to give lap dancers to moi, forget it. It was a very tepid evening consisting of a bunch of guys drinking a lot of booze at Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter (a giant hurricane in a souvenier glass about the size of a small fish tank) and a trip back to a hotel room that quickly emptied when one of the members of our party emptied the contents of his stomach in the middle of the carpet. Gee, how romantic! The rehearsal dinner at the Fairmont Hotel the night before the wedding was a very swank affair and the best part was that the master of cermonies was my dad, who also stood as my best man at the wedding the next day. Sadly, the wedding book that he, the rabbi who performed the ceremony, my uncles, my wife and I signed was lost to the ravages of flooding following Hurricane Katrina. So, too, were all of my wedding pictures except for one picture of my bride that was kept in a frame very high on a downstairs wall. So, too, was the book of Beatles music the organist played. Yet, I still remember the day as a bright and beautiful memory of a romance that culminated in a grand candlelit event at Touro Synaogue attended by four hundred of our closest friends and family members. No rank waters or encroaching mold and mildew could ever wipe away my memories of that day or of the woman I loved so long ago or my dad, who both left this world within three weeks of one another ten years before the hurricane that decimated my city.

The Missing Commandments

Aside from having to repair a tire on the same day, the most distasteful thing I had to do this past Saturday at the Fall Encampment (see Monday's "Alone in the Woods with 2,000") was look through a storage shed at Salmen Scout Reservation looking for the Ten Commandments. Perhaps I should explain. For the past four years I have had the pleasure of leading a Ten Commandments Hike for the Southeast Louisiana Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Since 2004 we have had over 1,100 participants take the trek along historic St. Charles Avenue. At each stop along the way a religious leader or Scout leader would talk to the crowd and speak about one of the Ten Commandments. Since the 10 Commandments are generally recognized as the foundation of most of the world's largest religions, the concept is to reinforce the similarities between different faiths and to promote religious tolerance, diversity and acceptance under the umbrella of Scouting. In order to have a graphic reminder of the Ten Commandments, I made up ten foamboard cutouts in the shape of tablets, each bearing a Commandment. We've used them...er....uh....religiously...for the past four years at each stop and stored them after each hike in a room for safekeeping at the Southeast Louisiana Council's building in Metairie. A few weeks back that storage room was emptied in preparation for some new room assignments and the Ten Commandments were placed somewhere for safekeeping. Unfortunately, when I inquired as to their whereabouts, no one knew where they were and several professionals suggested they might have been placed on a truck that ended up being sent to the Scout camp located outside Kiln, Mississippi. The ranger in charge of the camp, Pat Necaise, and I both went through every box, locker and compartment we could find that afternoon. Nothing. Nada. No trace of the Ten Commandments. I sent off worried e-mails to all of the professionals yesterday asking them to make a concerted search again, but I was becoming quite anxious over the prospect of having to re-craft the tablets, each bearing Hebrew and English fonts. The prospect of at least 12 hours of work was looming large. Luckily, I received a call from the Scout Executive's administrative assistant within an hour and several e-mails back from others announced the happy news. "Ten Commandments Found!" read one. It's nice to know that even in the busiest or most turbulent financial times that I will be keeping (quite literally) the Ten Commandments from now on. And I can say for certain that I will positively be keeping them in my home. So, the Commandments are no longer missing and I can praise the Lord that they have been found. I am sure that the Almighty would remind me that the Ten Commandments have been around since Mt. Sinai and that I shouldn't have been so worked up over losing these foamboard representations. Perhaps my favorite saying about the Ten Commandments is this: God may very well have written the first prescription. After all, he told Moses "Take two tablets and call me in the morning!" The hike begins at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 28. It is open to the public. For more information go to

http://secure.bsa-selacouncil.org/registration/calendardetail.asp?ActivityKey=445434.
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Alone in the woods with 2,200 others

This weekend was a special one. Friday afternoon I headed off to Salmen Scout Reservation, located outside of Kiln, Mississippi (the home of Brett Favre) to help run the annual Fall Encampment. An expected 2,000 Cub Scouts, parents, grandparents and siblings blossomed to 2,200 as registration continued on Saturday morning for the event titled "Swamp Stomp." Activities for the Cub Scouts ran the gamut from canoeing (only permitted for Cub Scouts at council events), to preparing discarded flags for proper disposal, to archery, b-b guns and land boat races to name just a few. Several members of the award-winning Chilankatoba Lodge's Native-American dance team performed from the early morning till late in the afternoon on Saturday. On Saturday night the hillside next to the lake was filled with all of the participants who were treated to an incredible arena show with fun skits (pie throwing, "guests" like Homer Simpson, etc.) and a 20-minute long fireworks display that would rival many of those put on by major metropolitan markets. Sunday I helped lead an interfaith religious service that got everyone in a proper mood to pack up and move back to their homes. Despite this being the first camping experience for hundreds of participants, the campsites showed little wear and tear when all was finished. Much of the "Leave No Trace" component of camping was embraced throughout the weekend, I am happy to report. All in all it was a happy time with near perfect weather of blue skies and little wisps of clouds in the sky. Temperatures were pleasant during the day and a little nippy at night, but then that's what campfires are for, aren't they?

FourFront Productions'  presentation of Alan Bennett's "The History Boys" finished its run yesterday at Southern Repertory. Lucas Harms, one of the lead actors in the production and one of the four producers who gave the production company its unique name, thanked everyone who attended and reminded the audience that their next presentation will be "Altar Boys" on April 10 though 19, a short run during a very busy time of year in the city. The very large cast, practically all male, was very ably directed by Fred Nuccio, longtime stage manager at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre. Aside from Harms, veteran director and performer David Hoover, who heads up the drama and theatre department at the University of New Orleans, and Beverly Trask added support to the cast members who portrayed British upper schoolboys. Among the excellent performances were those by P. J. McKinnie (Dakin), Joe Siebert (Lockwood) and Alex Lemonier (Posner). Lemonier sang several duets with Dr. Brian Rosenberg, who played piano throughout the three-hour show (including intermission). Rosenberg was bit by the acting bug prior to his becoming a doctor and it was a pleasure to see him still tread the boards , even after Meanwhile, Cripple Creek Theatre Company continues its production of "Erik the Fourteenth," a never-before-American-staged-play by Swedish playwright August Strindberg, until November 10. Quite compelling was the performance turned in by Keith Launey in the title role of the 16th Century paranoid, schizophrenic Swedish king, who literally went mad.

A Rolling Stone uses no floss

Believe it or not, Bill Wyman, the former bass player for the Rolling Stones makes 72 today. That's not just unbelievable, but downright scary. Wyman, Rolling Stones enthusiasts will tell you, he left the group in 1992 to tour with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. For me, though, the Rolling Stones have always been (as billed) "the greatest rock and roll band in the world." True, they have gotten on in age and they haven't topped the charts lately, but the legacy they have left us since the early 60s is a treasure trove of some of the best rock, blues, dance and, yes, even country songs from the hit parade. The truth is that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been at the core of a hit-making, money machine for over four decades. I've always loved the Beatles, but the Rolling Stones have, due to the length and breadth of their work, have always been at the top of my best band list. It is a fact that the late Stones guitarist Brian Jones and I share the same birthday. When I lorded over my oldies show on WTUL-FM during the 1970s and early 1980, I closed every show with a song by the Rolling Stones. I am also proud to admit that the very first concert experience I had outside of New Orleans was in 1972 at the Rolling Stones' appearance in Mobile, Alabama. The two opening acts were not unknown or without talent. In fact Tina Turner had the first set, while Stevie Wonder followed her. Then the bad boys of British rock took the stage. It was an unreal night, but we were all kept in check by the numerous Mobile police officers armed with billy clubs who hovered over the crowd. Since that time I've seen the Stones in 1975, where they began their world tour in Baton Rouge. There were three other shows beginning in 1978 where I saw them again in the Superdome. All of these shows were special, although I must admit that the memories are a bit hazy now in the...er...ur...twilight of my years. But, then again, with Mick Jagger at 65 and Keith Richards set to reach that hallmark in another month and a half, I'm beginning to feel a bit younger.