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  

Looking back thru the ages as a knothole kid “afficiando”

Looking back thru the ages as a knothole kid “afficiando”, sitting in the center field bleachers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.A 55 cents stub in our left hand, munching  a hot dog with the right, watching Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson field those enemy balls, into a pivoting eye and hand coordination like there was no tomorrow.

“Yer out,” cried the umpire named Majorkirth, Robinson  whipping the ball to first base for a double play.

                                                                                     II

Thousand of aeons later, our immeasurably revolving  planet has seen its starry eyed  Major League infielder stars, radiate the ball parks and reenergize their fans.

A metamorphosis transcending “w’s” indeed.  

Didn’t  Ring Lardner ring true with his “Alibi Ike”, Joe E Brown playing out the role of an outfielder who had his eye on the ball hit his way, the other one on the owner’s daughter. .

“How does that mustard grab you, mister?”

                                                                                  III

Across the River into the park that the Sultan of Swat alias Babe Ruth made, a rhubarb seemed to be                                                    

brewing…….   Cyber space dominates the very air we inhabitants eat sleep and live by.  

Indeed, poppy!

                                                                                     IV

The current Yankee second baseman, dependable in and out of stripes, fielding and hitting,  has sent tremors through the fiber optic  configurations where once the Babe could point to, in putting the wood for a homer  

A free agent hero out of Central America tuned into our way ofCapitolism. Robinson Canow  “Do n’t ya knowe”.

                                                                                   V

Shedding his stripes, exchanging his Mozart musical persona to civilian suits- white shirts, ties, Brooks Brothers haberdashery from head to toe.

“Don’t ya know”  and his once beleaguered  agents, lawyers,CPA’s and out and out businessmen are collectively whuppingup a 21st century caper that  “Alibi Ike”,  Pee Wee,  Jackie Robinson and the Babe  himself could ever conceive or imagine in this life or the next.

“Robinson Canow…don’t ya know!

                                                                                      VI

Ten years…a decade in the making. 30 mill a year….the Yankee hierarchy aghast at the 300 million bargaining chip beyond anyLou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle,    61 homers..  teammate  explosiveness.

But an explosion of this sort, how the Steinbrenner family canbargain at this level. Our pop culture  takes a back seat to what was once a field of dreams..Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Pepper Martin and the gashouse gang      ….Dizzy Dean, knuckleballerBobo Newsom. Lefty Gomez, Whitey Ford. Stan the ManMusial  cleaning out his harmonica for a breath of fresh air.

Where is Branch Rickey, the Mahatma? The ancient Dodger offices at Montague and Court Street, in down town Brooklyn.Walter O’Malley’s father in law, a Judge adjunct the Name Detective’s Surrogate’s Court where he spent 36 years in hard labor.

                                                                                         VII

Think of it….300 mill for ten years. “Don’t ya know

Say it ain’t so. Robby Caknow

The field of Dreams, adjunct the house that Ruth built, November 19, 2013.                                                                              

Upon hearing the news that Kitty Genovese’s killer was denied parole for the infinitesimal time

Upon hearing the news that Kitty Genovese’s killer was denied parole for the infinitesimal time, the

Upon hearing the news that  that Kitty Genovese’s killer was denied parole for the infinitesimal time, the murder committed back then (1964) long before the man bull awakened in his Crete like cave off the Aegean   Sea. The Minotaur fought out his interior battle to deny any enlightenment, his fortress a brutalmetaphor for man’s inhumanity to man, the “Red Badge of Courage” playing out.

                                                                                 II

First, Kitty Genovese ‘s  screams awakened her Queens like neighbors in the City that never sleeps, but not a head turned on those pillows. 911 not yet a Thomas Edison Benjamin Franklin  dial tone for an emergency.

Surreal?

“He’s my brother,” said the Colonel medico, rendering assistance to the Filipinos in the midst of their typhoon 24-54hours ago.

A bullying like sadistic murder, assaulting all of us. Those in and outside the cave, the Minotaur reaping his ferocity on aninnocent screaming Kitty.

So her neighbors back then  in Queens sat on their hands. “Why get involved?  Don’t know her. It’s La Dolche vita” playing out…original sin..

                                                                               Iii

 Another Kitty bites the dust because of lethargy and tolerating frailty, submitting to a human perishing because of indifference and apathy.

A half century later, those of us grasping the denial of parole to Kitty’s murderer , hid assault is  an  assault on all of us..

                                                                                IV

In the meantime the underlying bullying and brutality of another human  going cyber space…the cultural malaise among theMiami Dolphins locker room banter and the” on line” impact, two larger than life players bring their word play to the surface,the Minotaur  shaken up but still into his  aggressive taunt onHumanity..

                                                                                  V

A mobile football quarterback, retired Green Bay legend, Bret Favre says “If I had a son , I wouldn’t favor Pop Warner football for him. “Even my memory is being and becoming  shoddy.  All those blitzes, tackles , hits. Concussions. .. Pop Warner    never!.

“Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s………you name it,” said the immortal, making a frontal blitz on the Minotaur stance inhis cave on the island of Crete, off the Aegean Sea…..

The City that never sleeps, November 16, 2013 

                                                                             

On hearing about a robot bee

On hearing about a robot bee , maturing in a Harvard lab, a crow’s flight from the South Str 

eet train station and the arena where the Boston Celtics  playing out their genesis. A stream of NBA, the priceless ingredients of team  basketball , these post WW2 athletic young men, playingout their alter ego consciousness A selflessness of passing, dribbling, shooting, driving, weaving, give&go, feinting,rebounding, fouling,…..playing for the last shot , the shot clock ticking away…12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 .

All of this ballet movement, played on parquet boards, orchestrated by an impresario  named Red Auerbach. A Darwinian* n disguise  from Brooklyn New York’s playground   reality.(Cambridge University*)

From Boston(Cambridge), Massachusetts to the GalapagosIsland of Pauley Pavilion and NBA basketball.

I n this Cambridge, Massachusetts  reality, the Boston Celticsowner saw in Auerbach, a brash ego driven  human, “(I hate to lose”)who could lead the franchise to glory and profits. A full court “mojo”, Red ‘s cigar smoke drifting over the parquet floor and the fans in the sell out arena…. after each ‘w’.                                                                                  

Brooklyn born Auerbach’s karma was to be sure, not unlike Darwin’s evolution   to the Galapagos, don’t you think. A metamorphosis a kin to our discovery of Red’s Bill Sharman, that night in 1945 at Ucla’s men’s gym when Sam Barry’s SC Trojans vied Wilbur Johns Bruins

Sharman, the pure one handed set shooter from Placerville ,California, playing out his dream at forward..

                                                                                  II

Sam Balter, the Bruin announcer and Klac radio spots, may nothave known of the Hank Luiseti connection from Northern California. A one handed flame thrower out of Sanford, Luiseticould very well have been Sharman’s I.D. and inspiration. . Those swishes from downtown, outside the three point line in today’s split second  trance.

However a basketball junkie could very well see Bill Sharman emerge from the Trojan horse’s b elly on the USC campus whereto fore “John Wayne” emerged, to be discovered. Riding shotgun in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”. 

His teammates that  “ Freshman” eye opener at the Ucla gym .…Alex Hannum at center, Tex Winter at guard were lucky in their own NBA module, cyber space in the run and gun fast lane.                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                 III                                                                                

Maestro Auerbach was waiting for the Trojan “swish”, pairing him with Holy Cross’s  playmaker Bob Cousy of Queens.   Bill Russell a 6’9 inch center from San Francisco State (along with KC Jones) Sam Jones John  Havlechik off the bench, and thecurrent Celtic announcer Tom Heinsohn, at the corners , rounding out the first five.

No amnesia here These dynamic players into their full court press,  realizing their dreams and the chemistry of their Dorothy Roberts ,head counselor Middle and Senior High counselorinsights, into role playing through the classrooms. (6-12).  

.                                                                                           IV                                                                                                                         

Bill Sharman into his own Darwinian evolution, stayed with his unconscious, returning to the West Coast in the role of a coach, a la Red Auerbach…..  into the psyches of his players.

A disenchantment in Utah, reverted into a Globetrotter masterpiece in the City of Angels. A 33 game winning streak ,akin to Ucla’s coach Wooden’s  77.

His cast included Jerry West  Elgin Baylor  Gail Godric h  Pat Riley (“Riles”) Wilt Chamberlain Norm Nixon…”Happy” Hairston , Chick Hearn doing the play by play , the time clock winding down.

                                                                                            V

Meanwhile Tex Winter and Alex Hannum were into their karma,Winter coaching at Kansas State, Hannum playing in the BA. Winter rode his C lair Bewe (LIU) academics.

The triangle into the weak side….Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen…..John Paxton, later Steve Kerr at the 3 point killer instinct, the fans erupting.

Phil Jackson orchestrating those 6 time Bull Champions, Tex Winter, sitting on the bench ,behind Red Holtzman’s sixth man;into his role with the Knicks during their run in the70’s.The Zen master, notwithstanding Hubie Brown, a tactician and a math“brain” in his own right.

                                                                                         VI

No Walpurgis  Night  for our Ulysses, spawn  out of the  Trojan Horse’s reality that day 87 years ago on the USC campus.

His passing   ….Redondo Beach, California..  

The city that never sleeps, November 4, 2013..