So, I DID drive home when I left at the break (Quad Cities of IA/IL) and, of course, we were hit by a ‘mini-tornado” at 6 a.m. on Monday that knocked out power to 100,000 homes, including ours. It blew trees down in our back yard and through people’s cars and bedrooms and houses, (in 3 cases, homes of people I personally know.) Neighbor across the street: tree down. Neighbor next door: tree down. Mother-in-law: tree down.  One young couple had to fly home from Vegas when the news reached them that their house had had a HUGE tree fall on it and there is only one crane in town large enough to hoist it off their house (and, of course, THAT crane was already occupied. Isn’t that always the way?)

 I had to use a Coleman lantern to pack to leave for Chicago on Monday, and we had no A/C until 11 p.m. last night. The winds reached 94 mph. Moline declared a State of Emergency. (In East Moline, nobody thought to turn on the sirens,. Typical.) Across the river in Davenport, Iowa? Fine, just fine. No problems at all. Weird.

The fast food joints were JAMMED with people lined up 20 cars deep at 2:30 P.M. when I left to drive back here on Monday. Why so many people lined up at Hardee’s and McDonald’s? My husband theorizes that it was because nobody could cook. Our freezer full of meat: gone bad. He had to sleep in the basement and said he went outside on the deck and listened to the Cubs game on a transistor radio until it got dark and he couldn’t read any more. No TV. No computer. No fun. They closed the MALL, for crying out loud! The MALL. OH THE HORROR! Hospitals had to operate on generators, as did the supermarket (where I picked up a refill for my prescription of sleeping medication.)   100,000 people without power and they say it might take “3 to 4 days” to get it back on.  My sister had an electrical wire on fire outside her house and, when she called it in, it took 2 days to get electricians to come fix it because of the vast numbers of others without power. It was a larger power outage than the huge one we had during an ice storm last winter.

I finally got a “wrap” at a Subway in Colona, Illinois, where the two Indian (or Pakistani?) boys minding the store were doing so in about 100 degree heat (no A/C). They said, immediately, “We don’t have any bread,” Why no bread? Apparently, they bake it, and the ovens wouldn’t work. Only one microwave worked, and they had 2 cookies left (which I bought.) The younger of the two said, “I think we could just lay the bread dough out here on the counter and it would cook.” (True statement). We were all like pioneers, and the Indian boys described how they had been CAMPING with 15 family members near Lake Kenyada when the winds hit and BLEW THEIR TENT INTO THE LAKE. I’m not kidding. They ran for their cars and sat it out. (I always hated camping. My idea of roughing it is black-and-white TV. Or NO TV. Or sleeping on the floor of a college-aged group for 5 days in Denver.)

Me?  I went to bed at 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning after extensive posting on several blogs and slept through the entire thing. I did notice it when I was trying to pack in a dark interior room the next day, however. Had to dry my hair outside in the sun and a Coleman lantern really does not give off enough light to pack your suitcase by.

The new Batman film “The Dark Knight” had its World Premiere at Navy Pier in Chicago on Wednesday, July 16^th, and I was there. The screaming fans in front of the entrance got to see Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and the film’s director and writer, Christopher Nolan (”Memento”) who wrote the script once again with Jonathan Nolan (as they did for “Memento”) and whose soaring vision displays Chicago to good effect.

Much has been said about the memorable performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, and he may well earn that posthumous nomination and Oscar for Best Actor. Certainly the film is as much about the Joker as it is about Batman, and it also has an added allegorical layer of meaning as it displays Chicago filming sites like the (still under construction) Trump Tower, the Sears Tower, the former Brach’s Candy factory at 401 N. Cicero Ave, which doubles as Gotham City Hospital and is blown up. The fancy party that the Joker crashes was inside the Illinois Center Buildings, Building 2 at 111 E. Wacker Drive. The aerial shots of Batman’s secret underground lair are 1500 S. Lumber St. The old (abandoned) Chicago Post Office at 404 W. Harrison St. doubled for the Gotham City Bank in opening heist sequences, and, in addition to the funeral procession down LaSalle Street and the chase scenes on lower Wacker Drive, there were various location shots at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, which was once known as the IBM Building. These included the Mayor’s office, District Attorney Harvey Dent’s office and the boardroom of Wayne Enterprises.

The movie created about 4,500 jobs in Chicago last year, which meant $17 million to the city. There were more than 300 Illinois vendors involved, from security providers to cleaning and catering services ($22 million in sales).

The political subtext of the script is there for anyone to see and hear. There is the issue of the invasion of privacy, which causes the character played by Morgan Freeman to tender his resignation rather than unethically use a sonar device he has created to spy on the public. (Shades of recent legislation involving amnesty for the telecommunications industry!) Lucius says, “This is too much power for one person. Spying on 30 million people isn’t part of my job description.”

Here are just a few of the politically charged lines: “Do I really look like a man with a plan? I’m like a dog chasing a car. I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I caught it.” This line (spoken by Ledger’s Joker character) certainly smacks of “W’s eight years in office.  Ledger goes on to say, “I’m an agent of chaos, and you know the thing about chaos, it’s fear.” (Orange alert, anyone?) Another line that resonated, for me, was: “You should have thought of that before you let the clown out of the box.” Indeed, we, as a nation, should have. The Joker also says, “It’s not about money; it’s about sending a message” and “I’m not a monster; I’m just ahead of the curve.”

Batman (Christian Bale) says, “I was meant to inspire good. Not madness. Not death” as we learn that, in the inevitable  sequel, he will have a “bad” reputation, since he is taking the fall for the mayhem another character has created.

Harvey Dent, the crusading District Attorney, is played by Aaron Eckhart (”Thank You For Not Smoking”), who says, “In their desperation, they turned to a man they don’t fully understand.” Harvey is in love with Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), but so is Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).

Repeated more than once is the line, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to be a villain,” and that seems to be the script key for the next installment of the Christopher Nolan-directed series. Nolan has single-handedly taken the franchise to new heights, aided by truly wonderful special effects, gorgeous aerial photography of both Chicago and Hong Kong (some shooting, also, in London and Cardington in the UK).

Here’s another politically charged message: “I told you my compound would take you places. I never said it would be places you’d want to go.” (The Joker). Another good one: “Know your limits. What’s gonna’ happen on the day that you find out?” How about this one that could well have been uttered by the “Decider:” “I don’t get political points for being an idealist. I have to do the best with what I have.”

There are a few clunky lines that will sound familiar (”The night is darkest just before the dawn, but I promise you, the dawn is coming,” as articulated by D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). There is also, “I know the truth. There is no going back. You’ve changed things forever.” (Ain’t it the truth?) Harvey Dent declares, “The Joker’s just a mad dog. I want whoever let him off his leash.” (That would be Dick Cheney, for openers, and Rumsfield aiding and abetting.) With talk of “a misplaced sense of self-righteousness” and “decent men in an indecent time” where “the only morality is chance” a plot is woven that combines terrific action sequences with great special effects and wonderful music (James Newton Howard).

Again and again, the critics have pointed to the fine acting by one and all. Christian Bale as “the Batman” is set to continue this series and even to take on another sacrosanct movie of yesteryear, playing John Connor in “Terminator Salvation.” Michael Caine, as the Butler Alfred, turns in his always-competent support, and Gary Oldman as the Lieutenant who becomes Police Commissioner is good. But the best is Heath Ledger’s Joker, matching Jack Nicholson’s demented work that preceded this portrayal.

“The Dark Knight” made a record $18.5 million from 3,040 theaters, according to Warner Brothers (distributors of the film), as of Friday, July 18^th. That bests the 2005 “Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” ($16.9 on 2,915 screens) and puts it on pace to clear more than $100 million on a non-holiday weekend, placing it in the top ten.

The movie is beautifully made, finely crafted, well-written, has great music, is well-acted and plotted and…most interestingly for me…makes some strong social commentary, as when we hear lines like, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” You can hear that simply as dialogue from a Super Hero movie, or you can really pay attention to the messages this movie is sending out, loud and clear in this, a political year unlike any other. When supporting players like Eric Roberts (”King of the Gypsies”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (”Stranger than Fiction,” “Sherry Baby”), William Fichtner (”Prison Break,” “Invasion” on television) and the leads mentioned above add their expert thespian talents to the mix, you’re watching one of the best movies of the summer and the year.

Yes, I mean Kevin Costner, the actor best known for his Oscar-winning year with “Dances with Wolves” (1990), which garnered 7 Academy Awards and, according to Kevin Costner in an interview in July 20, 2008 “Parade” magazine, put such strain on his marriage of 16 years (they were wed in 1978) that it collapsed under the strain. Costner had three children with his college girlfriend from Cal State, Fullerton (Cindy Silva):  Anne (now 23), Lily (now 21) and Joe (now 20). Costner also fathered a child out-of-wedlock with socialite Bridget Rooney, a Pittsburgh resident. That child, Liam, is not 11, but the marriage-shy Costner did not tie the knot with the child’s mother.

Then he met Christine Baumgartner, the blonde, younger trophy wife (whom he had met once before on a golf course many years prior when practicing for his role in “Tin Cup.” Baumgartner is 33 years old, to Costner’s 53, and they have been married for four years (2004). They have a son, Cayden, who is one.

So, what pearls of wisdom does the marriage-shy Costner have to share with readers who might miss his Midwest tour with his band? Yes, his band. It seems that old movie stars never really die; they just form a rock band and tour, and that is what Costner is going to be doing with his band, the country rock band Modern West, which will be playing Chicago’s House of Blues soon. (Costner says his wife joins him as often as possible on the road.)

I heard Costner sing in “The Postman” and my Costner fix will have to wait until his latest movie, “Swing Vote” hits theaters on August 1^st. To say it was a painful experience to watch (and/or listen) to Costner sing is being kind.

But back to Pearls of Costner Wisdom, and I mean this seriously. The man has given some thought to life and love and one of my favorite quotes from way back when is “Marriage is a tough gig.”

New Pearls of Wisdom are these:

• “We’re afraid of a lot of things in life. It’s part of the human condition. What do we fear? Love? Failure? Telling the truth about ourselves? I think we don’t show people all we truly are because we’re afraid that if they actually know everything about us, they won’t love us. I’m as guilty of that as anyone.”
• “Falling in love is a really tricky thing. If you pretend you’re in love when you’re really not, it ends up bloody.”
• “When I met Christine, I wasn’t prepared to be in loved again. It took me a long time before I said, ‘ I love you’ to her, a long time.”
• “After my marriage ended, I never dated anyone consistently. I stayed single. When I wanted some company in my life, I was like the classic single guy—who do I love this week, who next week? I wouldn’t even use the word ‘love’ with someone, because that makes things trickier.”
• “I have never wanted to be afraid in my life, but after my divorce, I was. The pain of that experience had been so strong that I never wanted to go through it ever again.”
• “Sometimes you learn that the thing you’re most afraid of in life is the thing that will save your life.”

So, those are today’s Costner’s Pearls of Wisdom (courtesy of Dotson Rader’s interview of the 6′ 1″ heart-throb in the Sunday, July 20^th, “Parade” magazine. He may not be much of a singer, but he has some experience at living life, and I always look forward to his latest observations on same.

                                           More Chicago News
The Whole Foods store near Lincoln Park failed a Health Inspection test not once, but twice, in the past two days. The store was handing out $5 gift certificates to people who were being turned away by the closing, and one wag suggested that the mouse droppings the Health Inspectors had found could be “packaged nicely as a topping for toast points and get $10.99 per ounce.”

Apparently, not only was mouse poop found, but an actual mouse, caught in a trap. Gack! The store asked for a second inspection immediately, one occurred an MORE mouse poop was found. (Will the mouse poop never end?)

Also, the big news was nuts. Nuts as in Jesse Jackson’s comments about Barack Obama’s. See it on YouTube as Jesse whispers his derogatory comments. Jesse seems, to me, simply to be jealous that he is not in Obama’s shoes at this point.

On a sadder note, Officer Richard Francis was shot and killed in the line of duty on July 2, while struggling with an irate, 4-foot-11 inch woman who was allegedly causing a disturbance with a CTA bus passenger. The officer joins these others killed in the line of duty in Chicago:

• Aug. 15, 1998 - Michael Ceriale, on drug surveillance at a public housing complex.
• Jan. 9, 1999 - James Camp, shot with his own gun during a routine traffic stop.
• June 30, 2001 - Brian Strouse, who walked into an alley and identified himself as a police officer to a young man he encountered there.
• Aug. 19, 2001 - Eric Lee and two partners rushed to protect a transient being beaten by a man who then shouted, “F*** the police” and opened fire.
• March 18, 2002 - Donald Marquez, Sr. - while serving a 77-year-old man with a warrant for a housing code violation.

In the Quad Cities, Officer Tom Peterson was shot while attempting to serve a warrant on a suspect in the robbery of a convenience store in Watertown. His bulletproof vest saved his life, although some wounds are still healing slowly that he sustained beneath the vest and, I’m sure, he may be re-examining his choice of careers, as are others who knew Officer Richard Francis, who, from all accounts, was a model police officer, working alone in a squad car at the time of his death.

    A quick look at Chicago’s news, where I now report from, tells me that there are some issues in Chicago that have not made the local Quad City newspapers. For instance, there was a shooting near the Taste of Chicago, which Mayor Daley is trying to play down as having had anything to do with that massive annual event. The cab talk is all about whether it will have a negative effect on Chicago’s bid for the Olympics. If the shooting outside Grant Park and off the Festival site doesn’t do it, then will the 10.25% sales tax deter visitors to this fair city?

     Another city vignette: a newborn baby boy was found abandoned in the courtyard of an Uptown apartment building at about 2:00 a.m. The 5 lb. Baby boy left in the 4600 block of North Beacon Street inside a grocery bag amid shrubbery was crying to save his life (which it did) in the 70-degree temperature. His body temperature had dropped to 86 degrees in the cool night air and he might not have survived if one of the apartment’s residents had not gone outside to investigate, found the child, and taken it to a nearby fire station. The child had cried for at least two hours before anyone thought to investigate, but it was after 2 in the morning.

      A third interesting story detailed how a Lake Hills man known as Edward F. Bachner IV tried to hire a hit man to kill his wife, after he had taken out a $5 million dollar life insurance policy on her. The odd thing is that the wife didn’t know about the “hit-for-hire” until she found out in court, and the method that the would-be murderer eventually settled on to do her in: Pufferfish.  I just wrote a story entitled “Pufferfish.” Who knew that Pufferfish venom is among the most deadly of poisons? Dr. Frank Paloucek, clinical expert in toxicology, says that the Tetraodontidae family of poisons (specifically, the deadly poisonous pufferfish) “would be a terrible way to die, in my opinion, because you could be very easily conscious at the time you stop breathing. You wouldn’t be feeling that you weren’t breathing, and you would be conscious of it, and you would die because you would pass out. The death is a respiratory death. Your lungs stop working and your brain loses enough oxygen for long enough, and then you’re dead.” Yup. That’ll do it. Stay away from Pufferfish. Edward F. Bachner IV had apparently pretended to be someone who had a legitimate reason for owning pufferfish poison, and he had a bunch of it! He also had 50 knives, garrotes that could be used to choke people to death, a gun, two passports, and a phony CIA badge. Wow! The Pufferfish Conspiracy has made all the papers, and I’m thinking that I was way ahead of THAT learning curve with my little story! Just so you know: “If it was a 220-pound person, you would need one-thousandth of a gram, or one-32,000^th of an ounce to kill an adult” with Pufferfish poison. Another wow, there. The reason given? Marine animals have to be far more poisonous than land animals to kill their pretty, because they are operating in 3 dimensions instead of 2. (I’m not sure I understood that last part, but I’m just here to report the news of the day in Chicago by the Lake.)

      There was also a story about a 96-year-old man who has a lot of opinions (Garrison Keillor) and a happy story about a young boy who was lost for hours, but was found unharmed. That, at least, was a “happy” ending.

Speedo LZR Racer Swimsuit

I’m always interested to learn that the Midwest has done itself proud. That would appear to be the case in the very hot topic of the LZR (pronounced “laser” swimsuit designed by Speedo and currently showcased in the June 30, 2008, issue of Newsweek with Cindy McCain on the cover.

The controversy over the swimsuit, made of high-density microfiber and lined with polyurethane panels, which appears to be contributing to a rash of World Records being set by those wearing them, has Iowa roots.

It seems that a professor of physiology at Ames (Iowa State University) named Rick Sharp, a former collegiate swimmer himself, wrote two papers questioning Speedo’s performance claims for the LZR’s predecessor, the Speedo Fastskin suit. Speedo did not take offense at Professor Sharp’s comments, but, instead, called him up in 2004 and invited him to lead a team of outside experts that would design a better suit.

Sharp recalls, in the Newsweek article, “I laughed and said, ‘Have you read my papers?’”

Speedo had, indeed, read Sharp’s papers. They had taken his doubts into consideration and, says Jason Rance, Chief of Speedo’s Aqualab global R&D Center in England, “He was asking all the right questions.”

NASA fluid-mechanics engineer Stephen Wilkinson was also enlisted to use wind tunnels to detect surface friction on spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere technology to blow air across a variety of fabrics at 63 mph, the simulated speed of a swimmer as fast as Michael Phelps, this year’s American gold medal hopeful.

Samples were stitched together and tried out on Iowa State University swimmers. Says Sharp, “We had one suit that looked great on paper. But then, when we dove into the pool, it ballooned out like a parachute.”

The polyurethane panels that act like a girdle to streamline the swimmers bodies also had to be redesigned so that the girdle structure wasn’t too far up the rib cage, therefore inhibiting swimmers’ breathing.

Whatever the case, the LZR, which had been previously approved for use at the Beijing Olympics, has sparked a storm of protest from competitors, who claim that it constitutes an unfair advantage for other swimmers. The Speedo people, for their part, don’t expect to market many of the $290 a pair men’s jammers nor the $550 full bodysuit. They are meant for true athletes like Phelps and could be considered “the couture version” of Speedo, according to Warnaco Group President Helen McCluskey. The $40 to $78 knock-off versions with stars-and-stripes motifs that will be marketed to little kids: that’s where the market is, with 300,000 kids on swim teams.

Meanwhile, even endorsers of other swimsuits seem to be defecting in droves to the new LZR Suit to get the “rocket” effect that NASA was aiming for. One prominent endorser of a competitor, Olympic medallist Erik Vendt, who previously shilled for TYR, the second-largest U.S. swimwear maker, has switched to the Speedo LZR Racer. A Japanese swimmer under contract to Mizuno just set a world record wearing a LZR. Speedo spent tens of millions developing the LZR Racer over the last four years and, says U.S. swim coach Mark Schubert, “every world record is in jeopardy. The suit is definitely a factor.”

Director Marina Zenovich has made a documentary film that takes a look back at the sensational Roman Polanski trial for having sex with a then 13-year-old girl. The film, produced by Steven Soderbergh, among others, is amazing in that it gets most of the principals to comment, although, in some cases, the commentary is not to Zenovich, directly, but through other interviews Polanski has given since fleeing the country and taking up residence in France. The title refers to the fact that Polanski is idolized and desired in his adopted homeland of France, while, in the United States, he is still, technically, a fugitive from justice who is “wanted.”

HBO, ThinkFilm, a film by Graceful Presents, the BBC and Antidote Films all receive a credit, and the actual alleged rape victim (who publicly forgave Polanski in 1997), Samantha, Gailey (Geimer) is interviewed onscreen at several points.

Polanski’s main defense attorney, the Lincoln-esque Douglas Dalton, is quoted (today) saying, “What actually happened to the system of justice. I remain flabbergasted after all these years.” Roger Gunson, who, at the time, was the 37-year-old Mormon prosecution attorney, also seems to feel that the chief judge in the case, one Lawrence J. Rittenband, the Senior Judge in Santa Monica, mishandled the case because he wanted to “choreograph” the outcome to enhance his own love of the limelight. Judge Rittenband would constantly send the two opposition attorneys into the courtroom and tell them to play out a little drama according to a script he provided them that would enhance his (the Judge’s) reputation, in return for certain concessions towards one side or the other.

Of course, the fact that Polanski did admit to having had sex with a then-13-year-old girl is brushed over lightly. The fact that he did not view it as a “crime” is, indirectly, laid at the doorstep of his checkered past and his upbringing in Europe, a country which has a far less Puritanical view of sex than the United States. Nevertheless, Polanski’s admssion to intercourse with the then-13-year-old school girl, Samantha Gailey, whom he had been hired to photograph as part of a series on beautiful young girls from around the world, by Vanity Fair seems to be regarded as a “crime” only by a minority of district attorneys and a couple of police officers, who speak of it as likely to draw years in prison for the ordinary citizen

Mia Farrow, speaking of Polanski’s childhood in Poland, when Nazis killed his mother in the gas chamber and when he also lost his father, a childhood he drew upon in making the Academy Award-winning film “The Piano,” says, onscreen, “He didn’t have the blueprint for life that others had.” She remembers Polanski as “Completely infectious” and points out that, after a rough childhood, he thought he had finally found stability in his marriage to actress Sharon Tate, only to have the Manson Clan murder the pregnant actress, her companions and their unborn son, who would have been thirty, today.

(*It is interesting to learn that Polanski, now 74, has been married for 18 years and has 2 children, and that the then-13-year-old victim has also been married for 18 years and has 3 children.)

Both attorneys, the defense and the prosecution, agree that Polanski’s flight from the country was not surprising, given the Judge’s flamboyant behavior. At one point, the comment is made that it was “very unfortunate to have a judge who misused justice” and Polanski, himself, in an interview, says that the Judge toyed with him, like a cat with a mouse, for over a year. There is even a short film illustrating this capricious behavior, with Polanski made to dance while a look-alike for the Judge bangs a drum and shouts orders for him to do this or do that.

The prosecuting attorney, whom the filmmakers compared to a young Robert Redford look-alike, says that he noticed, when researching Polanski through his films at the New Art Theater Polanski Film Festival, which happened to be showing in the area at the time, that all his films involved “corruption-meets-innocence-over-water” and that the nude shots of the young Samantha in the Jacuzzi at Jack Nicholson’s home (Nicholson was out of town, at the time; the use of his home next to Marlon Brando’s house for the tryst supposedly contributed to the break-up of Nicholson’s relationship with his then live-in, Angelica Huston, who was not amused) fit this profile. Prosecuting attorney Roger Gunson thought he could make a case out of that, alone, and, when the young girl’s semen-stained panties surfaced, and were divided between prosecution and defense teams (actual description here of 7 men cutting the panties in half), plea bargains were discussed by the defense team that had previously been disinterested in same.

Polanski’s attitude throughout seemed to be, “Yes, I had sex with a 13-year-old. So what?” It seems to have been established that Samantha was not a virgin and that both individuals had consumed champagne and shared a Quaalude before what Polanski called consensual sex, but which the prosecution termed rape and sodomy. Other charges involving giving a minor illegal substances were dropped, in exchange for Polanski’s plea to the main charge of having sex with a female, not his wife, whom he knew to be 13 years old at the time.

From that point on, things began to go south for Polanski and his case. For one thing, the murder of his wife Sharon Tate was constantly brought up, and the film “Rosemary’s Baby,” in which a young wife is raped by the devil after being tied down, seemed to make a case for Polanski’s willingness to force sex upon an unwilling partner.

When Polanski was allowed to travel out of the country on 90 day “passes” to complete a film he was directing, a friend somehow talked him in to attending Oktoberfest in Munich. A snapshot taken of him seated between two young girls seems to have enraged the judge and caused the judge to decide to welch on deals made, informally, that would have allowed Polanski to serve only probation and the 42 days he was sentenced to Chino for psychiatric observation, where the state’s shrink pronounced him “congenial, but reserved” and said he was not a Mentally Disturbed Sex Offender.

Polanski, himself, admits, early on, “I like young women.” He goes on to say that he thinks most men do. He also comments, at one point, in the face of criticism of his actions following Sharon Tate’s brutal murder by the Manson Family members that, “My real problems started with the murder of Sharon Tate,” and that “Different people have different ways of dealing with life and grief.  Some go to monasteries. Some start visiting whorehouses.” Even his friends admitted that Polanski was a genial host who “liked to be the center of it all.” His romance with Nastassia Kinski when she was only 15, whom he also photographed, was well documented before the charges made against him in California.

Some questioned why Susie Gailey, the young girl’s mother, would allow her under-age daughter to go off, alone, with Polanski, saying, “This was a guy that had a pretty wild reputation.”  The victim, herself, said, “I had to worry about surviving the next day (at school). You can’t stop it, once it starts.” She seems to wish that her mother had not brought the charges against Polanski and that none of the ensuing publicity had ever occurred. Polanski, himself, rails against the press in interviews, at one point saying, “In general, I despise the press because of their inaccuracy and their deliberate cruelty.” References were made to articles printed after Sharon Tate’s brutal murder that accused Polanski, himself, of having flown back to the United States, committed the murders, and then left again. This, of course, was tantamount to punishing the victim and somehow blaming the victims for the crimes committed against them. Those close to the director spoke of his dark, sad, veiled side, his strong vision of death and sadness, his brushes with life and death, but his ability to prevail, despite much grief.

Polanski, himself, in dining with an interviewer in Europe, asks him, near the end of the interview to tell him this, “You think there’s something more to my life than my relationship with young women?” Obviously, the French do, as they made him a member of the Academie Francaise, and the President of the Academie Francaise, Arnand d’Hailtervilla, “He is one of us…”

Polanski faced anywhere from 6 months to 50 years in prison in the U.S., after the Judge became piqued at the photo of Polanski frolicking in Germany, and a year in the county jail was also a possibility, along with deportation. Polanski, who was, at the time, remaking “The Hurricane” for Dino De Laurent is Productions out of the country, chose to flee rather than endure more of the “toying” with him that he maintained the judge was doing. Before his troubles began, he was much sought after in the fast track of Hollywood society, and loved California, saying, “Everything is easy here (in Los Angeles). Everything is accessible in this town.” Everything except underage girls, apparently.

A distraught Polanski, speaking to the press after Sharon Tate’s massacre, called their time together, “The only time of true happiness in my life” and appeared about to break down in tears. A friend who was with him when he received the news of the killings on the phone from his agent Bill Tennent, reports, “I saw someone just disintegrate in front of my eyes. He was devastated.”

The documentary is definitely sympathetic to Polanski’s side. The question of whether the average male in America (of any ethnicity) would simply walk away with “probation” after giving drugs to an underage 13-year-old and having sex with her, if he weren’t rich and able to pay for the very best attorneys, is not addressed. The “double standard” between the European view of sex and America’s Puritanical view of sex is addressed peripherally. The verdict on whether a penalty greater than 42 days of being “evaluated” by a psychiatrist at Chino (California) is appropriate for the charges levied is still out.

Polanski’s friends from the swinging sixties before the murder of his wife appear to still be his friends, and his work such as “The Piano” produced after he fled the United States speaks to his continuing undiminished talent as a director

When the judge assigned to the case displays scrapbooks of his high-profile celebrity cases (the Presley divorce, Cary Grant), the public is right to wonder if this was the most famous judge fiasco since Judge Ito and the O.J. trial, decades later. However, the question still remains as to whether celebrities receive a special “pass” in court, when compared to the rank-and-file of Americans charged with the same crime.

Party Unity the Word for Democrats Today

I saw part of a speech given by Barack Obama from New Hampshire today, with Hillary Clinton standing there lending moral support. It was the usual outstanding speechifying from the electrifying Obama, and Hillary did her pant suited best to look enthusiastic. (It is said that Bill could only manage a written “endorsement” of the party nominee, but I saw a picture of the two of them, together, looking cozy, somewhere.)

Now begins the character assassination and the jockeying for power and all the rest of it.

I was called to attend a “meeting of interest” to be held at someone’s office. When I asked what the “order of business” was to be, the person calling me (who had been quite insistent that I call her back, even though I had to call long distance, at the time) said that she was trying to organize a “demonstration” that would highlight John McCain’s ties to Big Oil. This would involve being out in the streets with placards, as I understood it.

I don’t go out in the street with placards until I know the entire fact(s) of a situation. I have protested in the streets at least three times, but I need to know the facts of what I am protesting and be pretty honked off about it before I carry paper and wood into battle. I had just done a big piece on the Second Coming of John McCain, for www.jollyjo.com. Admittedly, I was not looking for ties to Big Oil, but, to me, far more dangerous for us are McCain’s ties to war and warlike behavior.

Anyone who had the childhood nickname “McNasty” because he loved to pick fights, who once had a fight on the Senate floor with Strom Thurmond (of all people), whose great ancestors fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War (from Mississippi) and whose grandfather and father commanded the Pacific fleets during two different wars (WWII and Vietnam) has far bigger things to protest there than whether he took money from Big Oil. It is my guess that EVERY BODY took some money from Big Oil.

After careful consideration, I did not attend said meeting, I’m in the Quad Cities about half of the time, and I don’t want to spend it carrying a sign that may (or may not) be true around in the street, protesting something that may (or may not) be true.

When “W” was getting ready to launch all-out war against Iraq and everybody thought that was a hunky-dory idea, THEN I protested. When we needed to get out of Vietnam (1965) THEN I protested (on 2 college campuses). Is it necessary for me to carry a sign linking John McCain to Big Oil on a busy street at this time in history? Methinks not. I will do far better writing about it…if it is true…on this blog, which I promise you will happen, sooner or later.

The stock market plunged a great deal today. It recouped slightly by the end of the day, but it is scary to think of all the controls that have been lifted that would (possibly) prevent another “crash” of the stock market, such as occurred during my father and mother’s lifetime. My father (a banker) predicted a Depression would occur for years and, Dad, if you’re looking down from heaven, you may just be right. If this isn’t a full-out Depression, it sure is beginning to feel like something close.

Now that Cedar Rapids has been inundated, check out what it did to their YMCA by “linking” to the link posted here.

My last post detailed how the flooding of the Cedar and Iowa Rivers had inundated the towns of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. My alma mater, the University of Iowa, was hard pressed to keep the Arts Campus, as it is known, dry, and close to 20 buildings took on water, including Hancher Auditorium, which had water up to the stage, I am told. The Union, the English-Philosophy Building, the Journalism Building, Mayflower Residence Hall…all were hard hit. As my daughter lived in Mayflower Hall her freshman year of college, I can imagine that the flood will not have treated the residence hall kindly.

Now, however, the flood is moving to other parts of the state: Burlington, Keokuk, Oakille, and into Illinois. Finally, Governor Rod Blagovich got around to surveying some of the flood damage, well behind Chet Culver of Iowa and….the very last guy who will be coming….tomorrow, to Cedar Rapids, they say, is our own beloved fearless leader George “W” Bush. Yes, the very same “heckuva job, Brownie” Bush who has been touring France and the rest of Europe on his “farewell tour.”

I can hardly wait to hear good old George’s impressions of pigs stranded on a roof and other such unusual flood sights. He’ll probably pose with some of the locals like he did during Katrina and then disappear forever.

Meanwhile, crops are ruined at a time when the economy is struggling under the cost(s) of $4+ gasoline, and the long trek to cross Iowa (Interstate 80, the main east-west thoroughfare was closed until recently) added an additional 110 miles to the trek.

The recession George denied we were in has now been confirmed, the farmers are hurting (along with a lot of other sectors of the economy) and we can all look forward to much much higher prices for food, after this flood devastates the nation’s breadbasket.