Shed a tear until the ducts are empty

Shed a tear until the ducts are empty, an immortal named Stan Brooks has passed from our midst after a half a century…. fifty years “this is Stan Brooks of WINS radio 24 hour news radio…”

                                                                             II

What manner of a Clark Kent persona is this Superman of the Bronx and the U.S. Army. His sweetheart wife and  mother to his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and a hero to ordinary mortals justifying their existence, in the worst of times and the best of Cyber Space, leaving avarice greed and denegation in  the dust, “this is Stan Brooks, senior correspondent of WINS radio, all news radio” signing off (two three weeks before the holidays 2014

Richard Starus’s “In Twilight” ,( at age 84) Jessie Norman’s octaves smashing the metronome.

“This is Stan Brooks of Wins, all news radio” beleaguered by the Angels, escorting his soulful voice to the far country.

                                                                              III

Could Ed Murrow broadcasting from the roofs of London,during Hitler’s blitzkrieg, have inspired “this is Stan Brooks” growing up, have inspired Stan.  Or Winston Churchill’s own voice, his mother born and raised in Brooklyn Heights.

“I’m the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” said Lou Gherigas he cherished his career with the New York Yankees,broadcasting  his affirmation…a gift from Heaven….as he physically could no longer play first base and bat clean up behind Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak of 54 games comes to mind as “this is Stan Brooks of WINS radio”  perpetuated the airwaves thru Thanksgiving and those divine moments of the forthcoming holidays.

                                                                       IV

How could we have known growing up that the Lone Ranger and his “kimosabi” Tonto…the Green Hornet and Kato….the Shadow (“Lamont Cranston (Victor Jory) and Margo” were the tinsel wrapping on our imaginations, transporting  listenersthroughout our minor planet and into  the incorrigible corridors of outer space, the shuttle, and space walks.

Could “This is Stan Brooks of WINS radio, all new radio” have done more ? Graduating from Syracuse University…toiling for Newsday on Long Island for a decade, then into WINS all music radio, when the station manager called him into the office.”Arethe ratings falling?” asked Stan, his neurons begging the question. “Let’s change the format to all news 24 hours seven”.

                                                                         V

Searching for twenty voices through the nation, Stan entrainedSanta Fe from Grand Central to Chicago, his ear to the radio..The Union Pacific to Los Angeles listening . And thenfrom Terminal Annex back to Chicago, changing trains for the City that never sleeps.

Fifty years ago, the all news 24 hours a day was born,  Stan morphing thru the Attica Prison riots, Woodstock,  the blackout of the ‘70, Shea Stadium darkening, the ensuing riots  ……9/11.

And the current global horrors…..

To think prohibition was a blight on the nation’s ambitions of the Founding Fathers, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Segal of Brooklyn’s Brownsville, entertained the mob…betting, numbers, murders. The worst in human callousness and consciousness.

”This is Stan Brooks of WINS, 24 hour news radio…”

                                                                           VI

Mayor “Bloomy” in one of his lasting moments of his twelve years Mayoralty, gave tribute to Brooksie”, recognizing “this is Stan Brooks….”City Hall’s Gracie Mansion becoming “Thisa is Stan Brooks” new room.

“An honorable man,” said Mayor Bloomberg, naming the newsroom for the Wins radio Senior Correspondent and in a larger sense a public servant, giving solace and paying tribute to another, who followed  him for a scoop  during Bloomy’s 12 year tenure and Brooksy’s 50. … the Wins 24 hour news radioSenior Commentator for over half a century  till a few weeks before the 2013-14 holidays.

                                                                                  VII

Given their individual karma, who’s to say “this is Stan Brooks of Wins 24 hour radio” that our Bronx born  “Superman”   on being greeted by the High Llama at his retiring 125 years at Shangri-la. “We’ve been waiting for you Stan.”                    

“This is Stan Brooks, senior correspondent of WINS radio 24 hours a day.”

December 28, 2013  The City that never sleeps.

t                  

On hearing earlier from our alter egos

On hearing earlier from our alter egos in the cyberspace loop that Ronald Reagan matriculated at Eureka College in Illinois, our neurons were shaken up and in disarray. How many of the neurons could envisage a smiling sports commentator, evolving into the role of the President of the United States of America.

                                                                                 II

Our imagination and memory hoisted a flag over Santa Catalina Island (1939) when our mother disembarking from a visualbottom like craft, docking at the pier. Phil Wrigley, the chewing gum entrepreneur, had his Chicago Cubs in spring training…..bunting fungos in the cage, smarting their batting eyes, their palpitating hearts beating the four corners like Joe E Brown in “Alibi Ike”

A henchman in the role of metamorphosing the team(not having a pennant flying over Wrigley Field for a bookmaker ‘s odd of a hundred years (a “c note” on the Las Vegas strip).

                                                                                 III

Not knowing “Win one for the Gipper” was playing out in hisfuturo, Dutch’s teeth lit up the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree like his charm could transcend the ice skaters on the rink next door.

That Eureka circuitry and college education left an indelibleyearning for the Screen Actors Guild and its high office on the mainland. Accepting the challenge, he dated and wooed Jane Wyman, an actress on the Warner lot in Burbank.

                                                                                IV

No nunca  websites of rhapsody when the J.W.  identified withher role.

”Did you ever seen a blind actress who didn’t smile”? The Academy recognizing her silver screen presence, submerging her ego trip , for  “Johnny Belinda”

But when “Dutch” was introduced to the masses as Mister Wyman, his own persona was shell shocked. A sensitive man in search of his own heroics, heard the intro as sarcastic and diminishing.

“Hey Eureka! Where do we go from here?”

                                                                                  V

To the rescue, a Notre Dame football coach’s legacy (Pat O’Brien playing out Knute Rockne) “Dutch” traipsing across the lot, grasping a video of who else but himself for the Rockne producer.

“Win one for the Gipper” was a locker room chant that began as a reversal of roles (“Mister Wyman”)  Abounded in maritalstardom, Dutch began wooing another actress, Nancy Davis, the daughter of a surgeon, practicing out of Chicago.              

                                                                                VI

Always playing himself, the Dutchman manifested his stance *“Is that all that’s left of me” in the dialogue for “Kings Row”*A crippling surgery of both legs.

Notwithstanding Paul Muni, Edward G Robinson, Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains Jack L. Warner playing himself, the Dutchman never getting out of himself.

Indeed, pioneering his GE profile on television, playing himself… into the role of California’s Governor.

Hence thus therefore President of the United States of America.

Eureka indeed!

December 21, 2013 The City that never sleeps.

             

                         

The saga of Shirley Fish

The saga of Shirley Fish: a commute  transcending  any DNAdefense mechanisms  and Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn“Take the A train”

                                                                            II

How could the burly Falstaff of a Fifth Avenue express bus driver know that his two passengers boarding at East 57th Street, up from Mr. Paley’s CBS radio tvee museum , were carrying middle aging identities into their continental marriage (California-the City that never sleeps).

“Gimme a break,” he said, swiveling in his glass contained pilot, taking the hand out, a five spot tendered by the newly wedded husband.“ Express into Brooklyn, people. Scrounge for seats, above the   engine. It’s rush hour on  Friday,” snapping the doors on the hurly burly East Siders, swarming at his express door, his foot on the gas, screeching toward the FDR Drive, across the Bridge, into Brooklyn.

                                                                              III

Although the baggage gutters were above the seats, Major Fenton slipped into his mind’s eye, his memorable image of Julie Christie walking at a brisk pace, on a Muscovite Street athigh noon.” Doctor Zhivago” alias Omar Sharif (“Lawrence of Arabia”, Peter O’Toole’s costar) ,  aroused by the vision of his former nurse  as they ministered to the wounded and dying,during the Revolution’s aftermath in those Siberian death defying  insanities…..

Meanwhile his bride new to the packed can of sardines, found a space,  only a woman, separating her from the window seat and the sprawling East River. The lady’s consciousness cognizant of the Californian’s gaze.

“First time on the Express? Where you hail from?”

“Big mucho ESP. How’d you suspect?”

“Something about your countenance. The air you breathe,” she said. “But you’re not a tourist. You know anyone in the Big Apple?” 

“Only one.”

“And who thou? May we ask?”

                                                                                 IV

In his own space, Major Fenton became” Doctor Zhivago”,  banging on the  streetcar window, screaming his nurse’s name,“Julie Christie” …  she oblivious to the  mayhem, swept up by the ocean of humanity during Moscow’s rush hour.

Her modus operandi ‘”Don’t sweat the small stuff” ala a Peter O’Toole “ Lawrence of Arabia” command post, a role Alec Guinness was born for. (“My name escapes me”, Hastings on Hudson, Good Yarns book store)  

                                                                           V

The bus crossing the East River, past the Navy Yard, down DeKalb Avenue, past Long Island University onto Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza ,the Public Library, Prospect Park,through the Park, the Parade Grounds, where Sandy Koufaxplayed his semi pro ball before joining the Dodgers and becoming a Lefty  pitching  immortal.

“So you were saying,” said the female quiz master, asking Major Fenton’s frau about her staying power in the City that never sleeps. “Shirley Fish was the only one you knew?.”

“We met at the Maimonides   Auxiliary. Shirley was the secretary. A lovable compassionate human being. We took to each other like we were long lost relatives.”

”It’s a small world, may be a cliché but in this instance a higherkarma is playing out. Shirley is a twin. I was engaged to her brother for 19 years,” said the lady, morphing into her premarital pedigree, the non stop bus reeling into Flatbush. “When Herbert wanted to say “Yes”, his daughters disagreed “Not now,Daddy” And when I wanted to sign the dead, McNeil, my kids said “What’s the hurry, Mommy?”.

                                                                           VI

The Fifth Ave Bus rumbling toward its “Last stop. All out,”pulling up at Kings Highway and Ocean Avenue, the unholy triodisembarking from their space above the rear engine.

Mister and Missus Fenton, and the beleaguered fiancé, onceengaged for almost two decades to Herbert, the twin brother of Shirley Fish, Mrs. Fenton’s one and only friend i n the City that never sleeps. A role as secretary to Maimonides ‘s Auxiliary.

The three treading  the sidewalk , their  cadence toward the subway….Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn “Take the A train”

December 16, 2013. The City that never sleeps

Nelson Mandela, a renaissance man, has gone to the far country….

Nelson Mandela, a renaissance man, has gone to the far country…. playing out his divine presence, “Madiba” capturesthat uncommunicable part of ourselves… the pasture of God.                                                                            

                                                                                                                  II

A moral giant, his odyssey prompted Tom Kean to divest New Jersey investments (1985) , Mandela’s Holy Grail morphing acause célèbre  made then Governor of New Jersey, a guru,recognizing “Madiba’s” Walpurgis night, to the tune of 2 billion dollars .

He took on a great hall of reflection where Humanity staggers,thereby putting Plato’s use of banishment for Pretoria’s enemy, condemning evil as apartheid and Tom Kean’s   Emancipation Proclamation coming to grips with the inhumanity.

                                                                                                                   III

The brain’s convolutions wherever. Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Trenton New Jersey, Bedford- Stuyvesant, (Brooklyn).However the diminishing returns: disappointment, retribution,violence, revenge. A determinism, that the Emancipator devoid his soul of any bitterness and violence.

An open minded catechism which harpers back to Gandhi and original sin.. Finding a blending in disparate skin pigments.Humans naturally suspicious of anyone who didn’t look likethemselves.. ( B eau Geste and the French Foreign Legion. TheLives of the Bengal Lancers C Aubrey Smith, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant (Archie Leach)

                                                                                                                    IV

Cyber space and their fiber optics into digital apps, their key padthought to web sites dot.com. But to know is no less to feel.(Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)         The imprisonment onRobbins Island,  Tom Brokaw’s capturing the small cell’s reality: the mat, the prison  guard who risked his role, presenting“Mandela” with  his grand baby. The friend he bonded with during those years….Brokaw out of NBNC Burbank has compassion and empathy , deserving of that  moment.  Robbins Island caught the breath out of my yesterdays, passing Alcatraz on our Air Force Duty in Northern California, outside San Francisco..

For “Madiba, that cell on Robbins Island (Alcatraz), sleeping on that mat, sledge hammering the rock pile in the sun earlier, washis  renaissance. His rebirth.”

“Nothing is too wonderful to be true”, Joseph Faraday, Chemistry Building , UCLA.

                                                                                                                   V

But who knew that the Franklin Avenue Shuttle on the BMT line would be the missing link to Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Boys and Girls High on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. The Chancellor honoring the school/s metamorphosis  yesterday, Nelson Mandela High School The first class of 500  students  matriculating in the Nelson Mandela School of Social Justice.

A far cry from the old Boys High on Marcy : Louis Nizer, IrwinZucker, Sy Kaufman, Pearl Washington, Frank Mickens security guard become Principal, Danny Rubin, English teacher prime, Marty  Grossman, Social Studies “teach” , and the musicalwunderkid, Aaron Copeland (“Of mice and men” 1939)

                                                                                                                    VI

A force of nature gives his name to the school he helpedcreate…..Nelson Mandela School of Social Justice. 

”The world is a progressively realized community of interpretation.” Josiah Royce, Royce Hall, UCLA

December 7, 2013. The City that never sleeps                                                                                                                    

On hearing the brain’s electrical neuron circuitry

On hearing the brain’s electrical neuron circuitry was a mirror of the cellular synapses in the genome project, the Cream Cheese Bandit, was optimistic about alleviating, if not curing, his  habitual shoplifting syndrome.

Didn’t Robert Louis Stevenson demonstrate the short circuiting in “Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde”?

                                                  II

He remembered way back back when at ages twelve and thirteen,, he strode the halls and corridors of P.S. 217 (Newkirk&Coney Island Aves), he saw a freckled faced re headed girl named Jewel, being bullied and teased,  for her epileptic fits.

How could the inmates know the neuron s in her brain were short circuiting. That the map had imploded, affecting the mouth, larynx, throat, tongue. The very speech itself, immersed in the stuttering and stumbling.. neuron activity gone “haywire”.  

                                                 

                                                     III

Could the mapping of those neurons way before the digital revolution play a role in Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine discovery? .To allay fears of degeneration, rehab way back when  the pioneering  thinking, prior to WW2, most of us were still living in the dark ages of the La Brea Tar Pits and the spooks of Alley Oop and Dinny the Dinosaur.

                                                    IV

Therefore as the beneficiaries of the cellular DNA discoveries of the genome ten year project fades away, the U/C San Francisco Med brain mapping is at the tip of the  brain neuron iceberg .

Three epileptic patients were “mapped” for their circuitry and the tests were applied for a time period. Whether the prognosis seemed like a Doctor Frankenstein “primitive” we’re not sure. But the software combining with the hardware, brought forth the on line revelations.

In brain neuron circuitry, the three manifested dynamic neuron connections in the circuity. How could the nay sayers not now master their own “frog in the throats?”

                                                 V

Jewel’s peers could no longer plead “stupidity”;  jeering at their classmate’s

disability and neuron electricity short circuiting.

Wasn’t handicapped Jewel but a microcosm of themselves?

                                                  VI

Could Jewel, the butt of her peers bullying “superiority;” become the very mapping in the treatment and cure for theCream Cheese Bandit’s schizophrenic and split personality?

The city that never sleeops, Febraruary 26, 2013  

God’s Way！

                      

(Draft 2, August first, 1997. American Air Museum in Britain, June 11, 2001)

Unlike the Korean war tags we never   were awarded, the stringed I.D. dangling around our

necks ‘The American Air Museum in Britain’ ….Official Opening By Her Majesty The Queen  

August first,1997’,the good wife and ourselves sidestepped the barricade unto the Duxford  

RAF air strip that memorable yesterday outside Cambridge, U.K……

The Pakistani clerk at our London bed & breakfast  digs , 50 miles away, had said  

earlier…”Sir, if The photos you took , make me seem like a Prince Charming ,don’t mail them

back .My brother is on his holiday. Our sister’s apartment He works across the street., Kuwait

Embassy Save your money”, scribbling her phone number, a 718 area code… Brooklyn..

Developing the view  press &click snapshots back on Coney Island Avenue, we dialed the

number, an Omar  Shariff  voice, in its lilting musical tones, answered  “You got my brother’s

pictures….can you deliver them , ipso facto  Major. We’re flying  back to perfidious Albion

from JFK, this afternoon.”

“Where are you, Omar?”

“You know Brooklyn’s   Flatbush ?  815 East 14th Street, apartment One H.”

“Do I know? It’s God’s Way,” we  said. ”It’s a six floor elevator apartment house. on Avenue

H. Two blocks from the Avenue H  station. .The local subway.stop. .A day dreaming punk  

from Santa Monica, California., we were raised there .Attending Public School 217, Midwood  

High School. The best man at our wedding. Doctor Howie,” the pianist, CPA ” lived in the

same apartment,  as your sister. How’s that for being in the flow of the game .The moment, sir?”

Our odyssey begins a month earlier, Fort Hamilton Army Library. Bay Ridge, dating  

historically 1825 Not that far from  Flatbush , Keith  Lewis, Jr.an internet pro, E mailed Sandra

Brooks, Mildenhall R.A.F.,Beck Row Village,29 miles fromCambridge,UK. About standby

billeting for a once Air Force Ready Reservist with 23 years longevity, and his good wife ?

When the electronic mailbox was sorted out for the fourth time, Sandra Brooks who wasn’t  f

from Brooklyn wrote  “Major, call USAF-RAF Lakenheathdirect.”

“Sergeant Gideon,” answered the NCO in charge of lodging. “Com’ on ahead, Major. .We’re

expecting Lady Fenton, the good wife. Our motor pool is on orders for her Majesty’s honor

guard, Transportation Squadron, 48thFighter Wing.”

We thought back all of our yesterdays. 47 years  ago, June 29,1950…..a Second Lieutenant, out

of UCLA’s ROTC, in the role of a Supply Officer on temporary duty to the Officers Club..448th

Reserve B 25 Light Bomb Wing, Long Beach, California,adjoining  Signal Hill’s rasping oil

drills.

President Harry Truman, a no  nonsense  Commander in Chief, activated the 452nd B 25 Light

Bomb Wing, on being  briefed about the North Koreans invading South Korea, crossing  the

demilitarized zone.Colonel  Cochrane, the Long Beach base’s full time operational  officer for

Colonel Keeney, the  448th,Colonel  Sweetzer, later Brigadier General,452nd….”Lieutenant,

you’re on verbal orders .Report Hamilton Air Force Base, the 2567th Processing Squadron, San

Rafael, California. Travis Air Force Base, Japan,  Korea. That’s your fate, my boy.”

Deferred until February ’51, for graduate school in teaching, Colonel Paul  McGuire called

during the Cuban crisis,  Khrushchev   steaming missiles toward Castro’s Cuba ”Be my Group

Intelligence Officer, Canoga   Park, California . We’ll cut orders, giving you jurisdiction from

Santa Barbara to Long Beach, sending you Intelligence School,  Sheppard Air Force Base,

Texas…Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Pentagon. Defense Intelligence Agency, Western

European Desk, Arlington….How’s that sound?”

“How can we resist you , sir?”

For another 12 years…two week tours at a stretch , several in the California desert, two ,the

AF Academy, teaching  Space. in schools,  we found ourselves  August 1st,1997,strolling

toward the ecliptic designed  American Air Museum in Britain, the skies opening up, the

raindrops descending. She ran for cover in the makeshift hangar where 2000 Yanks, many of

them in their tattered khakis, mothballed blues, besprinkled ribbons, medals

Milling around the dining tables , with wives children grandchildren widowers widows girl

friends, sweethearts, lovers, mistresses,  next of kin testing the grub:: sandwiches, English

biscuits, warmed over hot meals,  fish & chips  tarts pastries tea and coffee.

Reminiscing of some 6 decades spilling the air, the BBC audio taping “in yer

face”, London’s Imperial War Museum Greg Smith clicking snapping away…pilots, copilots.,  

crew chiefs navigators, bombardiers, tail gunners , maintenance crews flight officers air

controllers radar techs, Intelligence officers supply operations medics, flight surgeons legal

eagles armaments anti aircraft crews reconnaissance nurses WAFS mess personnel chaplains

M.P.s,  grave diggers.

Meanwhile the Major  “nuisance” in his good wife’s stead.   fled  for  the Air Museum’s cover,

those earlier raindrops pelting the air strip like big chunks  of     hail out of the ice age .inside

the hangar’s door the swooping P38’s, ‘47’s,flying fortresses,step ladders into the cockpits,

nary a B 25, A10…..scaffolding for a Remembrance  reality scene & ceremony, Fall 2002

“Charlton  Heston” he called the echo resounding in the cavernous space, ,the actor stumbling  

at the Museum’s door, hearing his credits. ”It sure is wet,” he said, looking  into & through the

Major, a   limo  pulling alongside the entrance, ”Where did we meet?”

Those yesterdays trailing back 30 years, UCLA’s reality scene of  a bon voyage  for Jules

Stein’s departed soul. Henry  Mancini  playing out his theme from “Romeo et Juliet”, the

solemn airs sounding through the campus. .Dr. Stein, a bandleader turned ophthalmologist had

bought Universal Studios where Mr.Heston had starred, “Airport ‘75”.

The limo driver cried “Charlton, her Majesty’s jet , fromEdinboro Castle, Scotland  is  taxying

.Hurray,    water cress sandwiches without venison is worth writing home. Rank knows no

chow  hounds, sir.”

Insides the dining hangar for the 2000 Yanks, the War Museum’s pro, Greg Smith, continued his

viewing. Snapping, shuttering. For the benediction, the well groomed museum staff, distaff

&male, set up chairs and benches on the strip, the skies closing, raindrops ceasing..

Her Majesty, Prince Philip, former Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, Duke of Kent, a Field

Marshall, Charlton  Heston.

Greg Smith clicking away like into a dot.com on a web site’s home page. Her Majesty in her

yellow ponchos tucked under the canopy  outside the Museum hangar. Her USAF color guard in

their protocol, the band playing  the strains & some Sousa that bonded the American Anglo

Saxon peoples in the Battle of Britain.

“Do you know the Greg Smith singers, playing the UCLA Spring sing?” asked the Major .”Any

relation?”, the Fly Over into the graying mists. 3 F’16’s ,wingtips fingerprinting   through the

skies, a  Flying Fortress… sailing through the ocean of humanity…

The resonating voice of “Airport ‘75”Charlton Heston, leaping into the Bard’s “Henry V”., the

loudspeakers in sync….”My soul shall thine keep company to Heaven; tarry sweet soul for  

mine. Then fly abreast.…As if an Angel dropt  from the clouds….O for a muse of  fire that

would ascend. the brightest Heaven of invention.. A Kingdom for a stage,  Princes to act.

Monarchs to behold the swelling scene….”

On the USAF bus ‘s return ,,passing  Madingley American Military Cemetery, through the

Brandon Suffolk countryside toward  Lakenheath, the Honor  Guard stripped of their protocol,

cajoled the latrine officer from Cleveland’s Shaker Heights, laughing about her moment’s

moment..

On the ‘morrow, Greg Smith called  from London’s Imperial War Museum. ”Major, before

departing for Heathrow. call Andy at  Duxford’s  darkroom. He’sprocessing  all our negatives.

You &Lady Fenton might be lucky.”

Walking through the lush Lakenheath grass toward the post office’s phone, he stumbled, his

blue eyes sighting a buried  tableau. ’To Andy, his was the ultimate sacrifice. Transportation

Squadron.,48th Fighter Wing  Sweeping  into a plaque….

‘To the airmen of many nations who flew with the R.A.F. during the Battle of

Britain. And soared into the Heavens that others might live...”If the British Empire and its

Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say “This was their finest hour.” Sir

Winston Churchill,, Prime Minister….

Saturday, July 12,1997,Lakenheath RAF, England

Saturday, July 6,2002,Brooklyn