Month: August 2011

Let the poor sweat

“Where Heritage sees luxurious poor people, I see a desperately sliding middle class. And there’s no substantial research here to prove either view is right.”

There was this recent article in the National Review, Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox, reporting on a Heritage Foundation report, What is Poverty. The implication was clear: the poor in the United States don’t have it all that bad.

My initial inclination was not to even address the issue. After all, it was one of those unwinnable arguments with people of a particular mindset And look at some of the items- Owning a refrigerator? Probably provided by the landlord; ditto the stove and oven. Air conditioning is a necessity in much of the country. TVs are a relatively cheap form of information and entertainment. Even people in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa have cell phones. And are these new items or second-hand?

But some of my data colleagues made interesting points:

One wrote: “Poverty status is about the ability of a ‘family’ to obtain a given standard of living based on its current flow of resources during some relatively short period, e.g. one year. Much of today’s poor were not poor in the recent past when they were able to purchase the consumer durables” measured. Interestingly, my seven-year daughter made pretty much the same observation when I was talking about this.

Another data colleague reflected on the interesting responses of who “bought stuff when employed and now haven’t worked in years and it’s difficult to replace what they have. Where Heritage sees luxurious poor people, I see a desperately sliding middle class. And there’s no substantial research here to prove either view is right.

“Not to mention the details. If you have an air conditioner, you may not be able to afford to turn it on. Individual pay-as-you-go cell phones are encouraged for the unemployed as help in job searches and more stable than landlines given the instability of housing for the poor… Subsidized housing often comes with washers and dryers because it takes fewer resources than trips to the laundromat. Go into any thrift shop in the U.S. and find used x-box systems for $10 or less as the employed trade up to a better system. And non-digital TVs for the taking.”

It’s clear that the writer created “a ‘straw man’ in selectively picking out polling data indicating that most Americans view poverty as third-world style depravation. If you think that is appropriate to the US, then quite right; few Americans qualify.” But, by American standards, the promise of children doing better than their parents is very much in question.
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The Effect of Income on Appliances in U.S. Households

Visiting Dad’s Grave

Did we want to put anything else on the stone, for either of them? I don’t think anyone ever asked us 10.5 years earlier.

My father died 11 years ago today, and I was going to show you pictures of the gravesite, but in some home construction project, we’ve tidied up and I can’t find them. Maybe in six months, they will turn up.

In truth, those were pictures of my mother’s burial back in February that I wanted to show. Since my father died, I’ve been to his gravesite only twice since, before my mother’s internment.

When I’d go down to Charlotte, NC to visit my mom and sister, we’d talk about going. But it wasn’t just a hop in the car across town, it was nearly an hour away, at the Salisbury National Cemetery Annex, VA Section 8, grave 358. And once we got there, we’d tend to stick around for a while.

In any case, for a marker of such a relatively recent vintage, my father’s headstone seemed to have more than its share of wear and discoloration. At mom’s burial, the guy in charge of the cemetery told us that there would be a new stone prepared. On one side would be my father’s information, including his military service unit, and on the other side would be my mom’s info. Did we want to put anything else on the stone, for either of them? I don’t think anyone ever asked us 10.5 years earlier.

For my father’s side, it had to be short, for space considerations. We, surprisingly quickly, settled on “Renaissance Man” for him. He was a singer, guitarist, painter, writer, flower arranger, civil rights leader, church leader, (failed) businessperson, and general all-around force of nature.

For my mother’s side, we agreed to “The Wind Beneath Our Wings”, based on the related song my sister Leslie sang at both my father’s funeral (to my mom) and my mother’s.

The cemetery folks sent me a survey, asking how well they did, how the facility looked, et al. I must say that it was all great.

The Les Green 45s collection

There was also a country version by someone performing Who Drank My Beer While I Was In The Rear.

Some months back I was listening to a TIME-LIFE collection of songs from the 1950s. One of the tracks was The Impalas – Sorry (I ran all the way home)- (listen) And it reminded me of my father.

I remember his LP collection. It was full of mostly serious artists such as Wes Montgomery, Enoch Light, Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, plus some other folk artists, primarily from the early 1960s.

But his singles collection, which probably predated his albums by a half-decade or so, were filled with sillier fare:

Listen to The Ivy Three – Yogi; and here are the lyrics of the song performed by three dudes from Columbia University.
Listen to The Four Tophatters – 45 Men in a Telephone Booth; I bought a compilation CD of Cadence Records once primarily for this song.
Listen to The Playmates – Beep Beep (The Little Nash Rambler). My sister Leslie and I STILL know most of the words.
Listen to the Everly Brothers – Bird Dog. (This version is a demo of the actual recording, but a pretty close approximation.) It was backed with the lovely Devoted To You (listen).

There was a country single by the group called Carlisles: Nine Have Tried (and Nine Have Died), with Bargain Day, Half Off, the lyrics of which can be found here.

There was also a country version by someone performing Who Drank My Beer While I Was In The Rear. I can’t find out who did it, though Dave Bartholomew (listen) performed a bluesier version.

My sister Leslie recalls The Ventures – Walk Don’t Run, in the collection, which I don’t. The records themselves are long lost to the ages.

Anyway, it’s almost the 12th anniversary of my father’s death, and thinking about him and music was therapeutic.

D is for Death Penalty

Unfortunately, in 1944 South Carolina, George Stinney wasn’t afforded the same opportunity.

Questions: Who was the youngest person executed in the 20th century in the United States? And whatever possessed me to think about that?

Let me take the second question first. A friend and colleague recently saw the 1994 Oscar-nominated film Heavenly Creatures, directed by Peter Jackson. “Based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker [Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, both first-time movie actresses], two close friends who share a love of fantasy and literature, who conspire to kill Pauline’s mother when she tries to end the girls’ intense and obsessive relationship.”

Would it be a spoiler to note that the girls succeeded? You can read about the Parker-Hulme murder in New Zealand here. From that source:

The trial was a sensational affair…The girls were convicted on August 30, 1954, and each of them spent five years in prison. [Apparently, they were not subject to the death penalty.] They were released with the condition that they never contact each other again.

After her release from prison, Juliet Hulme traveled to the United States and went on to have a successful career as a historical detective novelist under her new name, Anne Perry. She has been a Mormon since about 1968. She now lives in Scotland.

Pauline Parker spent some time in New Zealand under close surveillance before being allowed to leave for England… She has become a Roman Catholic and for many years Parker had refused to give interviews surrounding the murder of her mother and expressed strong remorse about having killed her.

In March 2006, Perry said that while her relationship with Pauline Parker was obsessive, they were not lesbians.

The key point here is that, despite this terrible crime, there was a chance for redemption for these young murderers, and they seemed to have made the most of it.

Unfortunately, in 1944 South Carolina, George Junius Stinney Jr. wasn’t afforded the same opportunity, as he “was, at age 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. The question of Stinney’s guilt and the judicial process leading to his execution remain controversial.” To say the least; from his arrest to his execution by an ill-fitting electric chair device took less than three months.

As it turns out, no state has executed a minor since the 1976 ruling reinstating capital punishment in the United States. There have been juvenile offenders executed, but they were not minors by that time.


ABC Wednesday, Round 9

The Rolling Stone Top 10 Albums of the 1980s

There are plenty of Richard Thompson solo, usually live, versions of most, if not all of these songs.

There was a period, before such lists became ubiquitous, that I actually looked forward to Top 10 or Top 100 musical lists. Such was the case with “Rolling Stone – The 100 Greatest Albums Of The 80s”, which someone kindly listed here.

1. London Calling – The Clash
2. Purple Rain – Prince & The Revolution
3. The Joshua Tree – U2
4. Remain In Light – Talking Heads
5. Graceland – Paul Simon
6. Born In The U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen
7. Thriller – Michael Jackson
8. Murmur – REM
9. Shoot Out The Lights – Richard And Linda Thompson
10. Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman

By the early 1990s, I had nine of these albums, all except #9. So one year, probably for my birthday, but possibly for Christmas, I received Shoot Out The Lights from my workmates. It has to be the least well-known album of the bunch.

Here’s the Wikipedia telling about the tortured history of the album, involving the late Gerry Rafferty. “Richard and Linda Thompson’s 1982 masterpiece, Shoot Out the Lights, is a celebration of love gone sour. Like all great works, its themes are at once specific and universal.”

Side one
Don’t Renege on Our Love – 4:19
Walking on a Wire – 5:29
Man in Need – 3:36
Just the Motion – 6:19
Side two
Shoot Out the Lights – 5:24
Back Street Slide – 4:33
Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? – 4:52
Wall of Death – 3:43

There are plenty of Richard Thompson solo, usually live, versions of most, if not all of these songs on YouTube.

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