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Bill Linneman
February 2 2012
The Marx Brothers
There
were five. Known by their stage name in order of birth—Chico, Harpo,
Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo. But at first they were known as “Minnie’s
Boys,” the sons of Minnie Schoenberg Marx.
Minnie’s brother Al Schoenberg had changed his name to “Shean” and was
half the vaudeville team of Gallagher and Shean. Minnie was stage
struck herself. She encouraged her sons to play musical instruments and
learn singing. The boys started in vaudeville as a quintet. Even Harpo
sang before he acquired his village idiot persona. Gummo soon dropped
out and was replaced by Minnie.
The act evolved from singing to comedy, and Minnie became their
manager. By the 1920s they were good enough to star in Broadway revues.
The revue format can be seen in their early movies like “Duck Soup”
where a chorus summarizes action.
When movies added sound, the Marx Brothers quickly made the transition
and adapted their revues to film. George S. Kaufman became their
writer. After “Duck Soup” Zeppo left the act and joined Gummo as agent
for stars like Jack Benny and Lana Turner.
The Brothers were recruited by Irving Thalberg for MGM. He insisted on
a strong plot line instead of the comedy free-for-alls they had done
for Paramount. When Groucho was questioned about the meaning in the
earlier films, he groused “What meaning? We’re just four Jews trying to
make a buck by telling jokes.”
The plot line of “A Night at the Opera” (1935) involves two young
singers who are in love but are kept apart by the establishment.
Instead of allowing the brothers to deploy their antics against just
anyone, Thalberg directed their mayhem against owners, managers, and
police. In a “Day at the Races” (1937) they help a filly, who had been
denied opportunity to run, win the big race.
During the 1930s Marxist doctrine was gaining foothold in many
countries. In America, Marxism involved three zany brothers wreaking
havoc on those who stood in the way of true love or would not permit
genuine talent to flourish. They didn’t tear down the establishment but
only poked a hole in it.
The later pictures made statements for the unwashed that America had
pushed aside and forgotten. In “A Night at the Opera” these are
steerage passage immigrants, joined by stowaways Chico and Harpo for a
big spaghetti dinner and celebration of song.
In “A Day at the Races,” these are African-American hangers-on at the
track. They sing “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.” Until Harpo
playing on pipes like Pan leads them into “All God’s Chillen Got Swing”
with an exhibition of the new fad of jitterbugging.
Margaret Dumont, who plays a wealthy dowager in seven Marx Brothers
films, constitutes the weak link of the establishment. She is
fascinated by Groucho’s wooing at the same time he’s deceiving her. Off
screen, he called her the “fifth Marx Brother.”
The pictures give the Brothers opportunity to display their musical
talents. Groucho’s outbursts of songs have comic lyrics; Chico’s piano
playing is a comedy in itself. But Harpo when at his instrument for
once seems serious.
Gardeners Tips
by Helen J. Leake
February 2 2012
Phaloenopis orchids are easy to grow
It
seems like almost all kinds of stores are selling orchids now. They are
very pretty and have such pretty colors. One of the most popular one is
the easiest to grow is the Phaloenopis (Fol-en-OP-sis). It has large
thick dark green leaves with a graceful arch of flowers The blossoms
sometimes last for 3 months and they will rebloom with a little care.
When you choose an orchid plant, you want the leaves to look green and
firm, and the roots firm and healthy. Yes, the roots do grow above the
soil. Orchids grow in special potting media, such as fir bark, Some
orchids grow in the crevices of the bark on trees. But you can easily
grow them in your home, In the summer, you can put them outside in the
shade. The sun will burn their leaves. They will like the cool nights
and morning dew. Also the summer rain.
Orchids like high humidity. Place the container on a saucer of gravel
with water. If you have several orchids grouped together, you can place
a container of water on the table between the plants. Also you can
spray a mist on the plants in the morning. If you don’t want to spray
them, wipe the leaves with a wet cloth. The leaves will absorb the
moisture. Phalaenoppsis will grow well anywhere there is adequate
light, moisture, heat and air movement.
Orchids grow slowly, they remind you to be patient. Lift the plant, if it is light weight, it needs to be watered.
After the flowers have faded, let the plant rest and it will bloom again.
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The Spectator by Jim Bennett
February 2 2012 jwbnnt@aol.com Rick Santorum’s moment of cowardice
FOR
ENTERTAINMENT, there’s nothing quite like a presidential election
campaign. 2012 brings us another one of those. Issues are serious and
consequential, but the nature of modern campaigning brings us more
distractions and trivializations than we can count.
For the past couple of months, Republican primary infighting has
brought us many entertaining moments while at the same time stockpiling
the Democratic National Committee’s campaign machine with countless
clips and political ads to deploy during the general election.
The countless “debates” have provided us with lies, half-truths,
charges, counter-charges, color, hyperbole, outrageous claims,
political attacks, screwy proposals, Super Pac charges and rebuttals,
moments to remember, and moments best forgotten. And plenty of big
spending along the way.
Newt Gingrich thinks it would be a good idea to colonize the moon, and
perhaps let those colonists, once well established, apply for
statehood. We could pay for all this by the giving out of “prizes.”
Herman Cain proposed a 9-9-9 flat tax that would solve our fiscal
problems. Michelle Bachmann didn’t know that Libya is a part of the
African continent of that many of the Founding Fathers were
slaveholders. Rick Perry thought there were eight Supreme Court
justices; he wanted to eliminate federal departments, he just couldn’t
remember which ones.
Colorful stuff. When, I wonder, and how, will Sarah Palin factor in?
Now that it’s become a two-man race for the nomination, Gingrich and
Mitt Romney exchange charges and counter-charges almost by the minute.
Gingrich was a lobbyist for Freddie Mac. No, I never was. Romney has
vast portions of his vast wealth sheltered in offshore accounts. Okay,
so what? Don’t you wish you were rich enough?
NOT THAT these candidates have neglected their daily broadsides on
President Obama, blasting his health care plan, the stimulus
legislation, the automotive bailout, his foreign policy of
“appeasement,” and his “class warfare.”
As time goes by, those policy attacks will join the personal ones, most
of which we have heard time and again, but can expect to hear
throughout the year.
Here are just a few of those: Obama is not a “real” American. He’s a
secret Muslim. He’s a Muslim jihadist. He “pals around with
terrorists.” He’s a Saul Alinsky-trained Radical (that is, when he’s
not a Bill Ayers-trained radical). He hates America. He has a
deep-seated hatred of white people. He’s not a legitimate U.S. citizen.
He was born in Kenya. He is a classic Kenyan anti-colonialist. He
doesn’t love America. He doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism.
He’s the most radical president we’ve ever had. He is the “food stamp”
president. He’s a socialist, a communist, and a Marxist. He has no
legal right or standing to be president.
Most of these-but by no means all-have the Gingrich stamp on them. And
I am asked, as are you, by Republican spokespersons of all stripes, to
imagine that these loathesome personal vilifications surface without
even a smidge of racism. I’m sorry, but my imagination is simply not
that rich.
Many Republicans hope that Gingrich will eventually be their party’s
nominee, because his knowledge of history and sharp tongue will
“dismantle” or “eviscerate” Barack Obama in a debate setting. Saner GOP
leaders warn that underestimating Obama’s intellect and thoroughgoing
knowledge of issues at home and abroad would be a dangerous, if not
fatal, mistake.
More than a few Democrats join the Republican hope to put the impulsive
Gingrich atop the ticket. As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer
wrote recently, “Gingrich has the intellect to match Obama’s, but not
the discipline.”
It would be fun, though, to watch the two of them debate.
BUT TO THIS POINT, for me at least, the most revealing moment of the
campaign has come not from Gingrich or Romney, but from Rick Santorum
(he, like Ron Paul, has no chance of winning the nomination, but
remains firmly in the race.)
Santorum’s moment of spinelessness reminded us once again that most
candidates for political office, when confronted with a difficult
situation, will take the easy way out.
A woman approached the former Pennsylvania senator a few days back at a
Florida campaign stop. She implored Santorum to unseat Obama because
“He’s a Muslim and a terrorist who has no legal right to be President.”
Santorum’s hesitation, signaled by his half-baked grin, didn’t prevent
him from the coward’s reply: “Well, all I can say is I’ll do my best to
get him out of there.” Such personal integrity as Rick may possess
should have triggered a reply like, “No, President Obama is a dedicated
husband and family man, just as I am, and a loyal American. It’s simply
that we disagree sharply on matters of policy.”
He could have been a man, but his gutless reaction when the test came,
assured a failure with flying colors. In the 2008 campaign, John McCain
was confronted by a woman making the same charge; he took the path of
integrity by standing up like a statesman and defending his opponent’s
character as well as his patriotism.
So Santorum didn’t even need creativity; the right answer was already out there.
Countless telling and memorable moments will come and go during the
nine months of campaigning yet to come. I almost hope Santorum gets a
second chance at this one.
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Capitol Facts by Rich Miller
February 2 2012
Local taxpayers... get ready to pay again
Last
week, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared to all
but endorse an idea to force downstate and suburban school districts to
pay a significant share of their state pension contributions for the
first time in anyone’s memory.
Senate President John Cullerton floated that very proposal last year, and Gov. Pat Quinn added his support not long ago.
Needless to say, if all three Democratic leaders are talking about it,
you can probably expect some action this year. However, there will be
strong pushback from suburban and downstate legislators who’ll
undoubtedly fear a voter backlash over potentially massive local tax
increases to pay for the idea.
Madigan spoke for well over an hour last week at an Elmhurst College
event at the invitation of his old nemesis Lee Daniels, who served as
House Speaker for two years after the 1994 Republican landslide.
Madigan almost never talks for that long when he speaks in public, so
his speech was heavily covered by the media.
As is his custom, Madigan didn’t come right out and officially endorse
the idea to ease the state’s ongoing budget strain by passing pension
obligations down the governmental food chain to local schools and
public colleges and universities, but he did indicate that he was
strongly leaning in that direction.
The “normal arrangement,” for pensions, Madigan said, was that the
employee and the employer both pay into the pension system. But, local
school districts pay just 0.054 percent of payroll into the Teachers’
Retirement System fund, Madigan noted (and when he has it down to the
decimal like that, you know he’s focused on the issue), and added that
the universities pay “zero” toward employee pension costs.
“And let’s understand,” Madigan said about education employees, “These
are people that never got a payroll check from the State of Illinois.”
The Speaker went on to note that the state paid $4 billion this year
into the pension funds, half of which went to the Teachers Retirement
System alone. “So over one half of our obligation to pensions, which is
the subject of great public debate today, is for people who never
worked for the State of Illinois,” Madigan said.
Madigan also correctly pointed out that the Chicago school system has
its own pension fund and pays its own employer share. “You’re never
going to read this in a newspaper article... they’re never going to put
a paragraph in there talking about that,” Madigan said, echoing others
who’ve wondered for years why Chicago taxpayers pay for their own
school pension fund while they and the rest of the state’s taxpayers
pick up the tab for suburban and Downstate school districts.
“Even I don’t remember why that happened,” Madigan joked. “I’ve never
found anybody that can tell me why the State of Illinois stepped up one
day and said, ‘OK, school districts, we’ll just pick up all your
pensions costs.’”
The Speaker also pointed out that school districts pay the employer
share for janitors and maintenance people, but not for teachers, “and
the State of Illinois has a huge requirement to make that pension
payment, huge requirement.”
This is truly an odd arrangement. All state taxpayers fund downstate
and suburban teacher pension funds, but Chicago receives just a
relatively small amount of state cash for its own fund. It doesn’t seem
fair, but, then again, life ain’t fair.
The teachers unions haven’t taken a position yet, probably knowing that
freeing up state money could mean more cash for education and that
local districts couldn’t short the pension funds because state law
forbids it. The state is the only government entity in Illinois that
can legally shortchange pension funds, which is what got us into all
this financial trouble to begin with.
About half the state’s school districts actually do pay into the
pension fund, but that’s because the teachers’ unions negotiated
contracts which traded wage increases for their employers picking up
the teachers’ share of pension contributions.
It’s doubtful that anything close to the $2 billion contribution to the
teachers pension system will be passed down right away, but local
property taxpayers may be about to get hit with a big bill nonetheless.
Get ready to pay. Again.
Rich Miller also
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
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