I always knew Mr. Rogers was a badass. The following comes from a tumblr post by "magnetic rose" about him. I haven't yet been able to confirm all the points, but if true that makes him pretty awesome.
"Here are some interesting facts about him, though:
He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”
“Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”
According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life."
So for anyone thinking Fred Rogers was some lame cardigan wearing lightweight, I submit the following:
"Here are some interesting facts about him, though:
He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”
“Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”
According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life."
So for anyone thinking Fred Rogers was some lame cardigan wearing lightweight, I submit the following:
Yeh, I really should update this more. Well, here's a quickie.
Writing is going well. (except here) and I just found hard copies of a story that I thought was lost. It needs editing but rereading it after all this time it still makes me laugh. So, I think it's nearly time for me to put it out there, along with the other stuff I've been writing. It's hodgepodge, some editorial, some short story comedy, some long form novel. We'll see.
Sailing is going extremely well even though its winter. I'm not sailing as much, but the upcoming season is shaping up. I'm sailing on 3 and possibly 4 raceboats this summer not including the dinghies. There's a change that I might be doing a long long distance race as well as a very competitive race week. This weekend, i'll be delivering one of the boats to Annapolis so that we can compete in the AYC frostbite series. This past weekend that same boat picked up some awards for this past year's campaign. Can't wait for the next steps.
I'm not going to write the less fun stuff. I'm trying to focus only on the positives...
At least for now.
Writing is going well. (except here) and I just found hard copies of a story that I thought was lost. It needs editing but rereading it after all this time it still makes me laugh. So, I think it's nearly time for me to put it out there, along with the other stuff I've been writing. It's hodgepodge, some editorial, some short story comedy, some long form novel. We'll see.
Sailing is going extremely well even though its winter. I'm not sailing as much, but the upcoming season is shaping up. I'm sailing on 3 and possibly 4 raceboats this summer not including the dinghies. There's a change that I might be doing a long long distance race as well as a very competitive race week. This weekend, i'll be delivering one of the boats to Annapolis so that we can compete in the AYC frostbite series. This past weekend that same boat picked up some awards for this past year's campaign. Can't wait for the next steps.
I'm not going to write the less fun stuff. I'm trying to focus only on the positives...
At least for now.
So, by SG standards I'm basically milquetoast. Maybe that's why I found Goth Brita so hot.
In other news. I'm waking up in a few hours (I write these blogs in my sleep) to load up the boat on which I race and take it down the Potomac. I'll be stopping at the marina that is hosting the final JV regatta of the year. Going on the trip with me is another coach, one of the high schoolers who will be competing on Saturday and his dad. Hopefully this will be a fun delivery down river. I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday, the boat's owner will drop off my car and take the boat the rest of the way to Annapolis.
This is all in preparation for our next big adventure, the 2012 Down the Bay Race, from Annapolis to Hampton Roads. I can't wait! So far we've had a good run this past year and doing well in this challenging race will be another great accomplishment.
Time to get the body to bed and let SG plum fairies dance in my head.
In other news. I'm waking up in a few hours (I write these blogs in my sleep) to load up the boat on which I race and take it down the Potomac. I'll be stopping at the marina that is hosting the final JV regatta of the year. Going on the trip with me is another coach, one of the high schoolers who will be competing on Saturday and his dad. Hopefully this will be a fun delivery down river. I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday, the boat's owner will drop off my car and take the boat the rest of the way to Annapolis.
This is all in preparation for our next big adventure, the 2012 Down the Bay Race, from Annapolis to Hampton Roads. I can't wait! So far we've had a good run this past year and doing well in this challenging race will be another great accomplishment.
Time to get the body to bed and let SG plum fairies dance in my head.
So the past few weeks have been mounting frustration working under a 23 year old "head coach" who is in no way worthy of the title. If I'd known he was going to be hired, I wouldn't have stepped aside. It's frustrating listening to someone who thinks he knows it all make mistake after mistake after mistake all the while talking about "his" team and what he wants. He uses the "I" word alot. The irony is that the old guy (me) has a much more progressive style of coaching and the young guy is straight out of drill instructor school. Fortunately, I suppose his hyper self absorption is a function of insecurity so I and the other coaches have been able to essentially control him. I've tried speaking with him before things got too bad, I've tried teaching him, I've tried along with the others to model the behavior that we prefer. Honestly, he's not a bad guy, but I do think he is insecure and trying to prove himself and from this comes his self absorption.
The real problem, in my opinion, is that he doesn't recognize where the kids are and he tries to get them to do things for which they aren't ready. And he yells or rather barks....alot. These are high schoolers and they are all good kids with a wide range of sailing talent. So we are teaching some how to sail while trying to challenge those who are already racing decently but still not succeeding in our very competitive region. As much as they like to think they know it all and can handle anything, they are much more fragile and require, again in my opinion, a calmer more positive approach that helps them develop the fundamental skills and then build upon those. Instead they've been getting complicated drills that aren't run well and devolve into a bunch of boats doing their own thing and not learning anything or improving their skill.
To say that this is frustrating is an understatement. So, we had a little blow out yesterday and I've essentially manipulated the practices since then. By which I mean that I'm acting as a moderator, setting the tone, involving all the coaches in decision making and demonstrating how a collaborative team effort that values each coach and each kid can be much more positive and productive. So, the past day and half have gone well. We'll see how long it lasts. More importantly we'll see if we can help the kids develop the confidence and competence they need. They are at the beginning of their sailing lives and so it's vital that we, the coaches, help them achieve their goals rather than worry about our personal agendas.
Which brings me to the end of life. I belong to a listserv for folks dedicated to a particular series of historical fiction. It's a large group of mostly older folks with time to parse the long series (21 books) and email, often overwhelming amounts, on any subject related or not to the series. Over the years many of us have become particularly close, but all of us feel a bond. We are a community of people some of whom we've met and others we have grown close to via the list with no actual face to face meeting.
One of our group, has for the past few years been going through the most difficult of journeys. He has been caring for the love of his life as she dies. They were high school sweethearts who knew early that they would be together always. They have spirit and have lived amazing lives of such closeness and humor and strength that they seem almost unreal in their happiness together. Whether racing cars, or riding horses, scaring away peeping toms, or killing snakes that killed their favorite horse, whether moving for the job and creating a new life in a new place or, in the end, agreeing not to take the other to the hospital, they have been idyllically together. Their's is the relationship that I have always wished to find.
And so the past few weeks, when it became clear to him that she had suffered yet another stroke and this one would be the final one, and when against his private nature he wrote a long letter, a plaint, that told us of his pain and of her suffering, we have been sitting vigil. We have offered our advice (hospice help), our prayers, our admiration, our love, we have waited for updates and read through tears the slow march.
This morning a simple message was sent, an obituary under the title "requiescit in pace", reached us and we mourn. We mourn a person whom we never met, but whose life has been relayed to us in wonderful stories. All around the world our group is collectively bowing our heads and holding out our arms to him as he lets her go. At the moment of her death, they were alone, holding hands in the sanctuary that he had created for her. She no longer resides in her mortal shell, but her spirit, indomnitable to the last is now unfettered. So we mourn her loss, but celebrate her life and our tangential experience of it.
I can only hope that each of us, each of you, all of the kids that we coach, can experience the love of life, and the love of each other that the two of them have enjoyed for over 50 years.
The real problem, in my opinion, is that he doesn't recognize where the kids are and he tries to get them to do things for which they aren't ready. And he yells or rather barks....alot. These are high schoolers and they are all good kids with a wide range of sailing talent. So we are teaching some how to sail while trying to challenge those who are already racing decently but still not succeeding in our very competitive region. As much as they like to think they know it all and can handle anything, they are much more fragile and require, again in my opinion, a calmer more positive approach that helps them develop the fundamental skills and then build upon those. Instead they've been getting complicated drills that aren't run well and devolve into a bunch of boats doing their own thing and not learning anything or improving their skill.
To say that this is frustrating is an understatement. So, we had a little blow out yesterday and I've essentially manipulated the practices since then. By which I mean that I'm acting as a moderator, setting the tone, involving all the coaches in decision making and demonstrating how a collaborative team effort that values each coach and each kid can be much more positive and productive. So, the past day and half have gone well. We'll see how long it lasts. More importantly we'll see if we can help the kids develop the confidence and competence they need. They are at the beginning of their sailing lives and so it's vital that we, the coaches, help them achieve their goals rather than worry about our personal agendas.
Which brings me to the end of life. I belong to a listserv for folks dedicated to a particular series of historical fiction. It's a large group of mostly older folks with time to parse the long series (21 books) and email, often overwhelming amounts, on any subject related or not to the series. Over the years many of us have become particularly close, but all of us feel a bond. We are a community of people some of whom we've met and others we have grown close to via the list with no actual face to face meeting.
One of our group, has for the past few years been going through the most difficult of journeys. He has been caring for the love of his life as she dies. They were high school sweethearts who knew early that they would be together always. They have spirit and have lived amazing lives of such closeness and humor and strength that they seem almost unreal in their happiness together. Whether racing cars, or riding horses, scaring away peeping toms, or killing snakes that killed their favorite horse, whether moving for the job and creating a new life in a new place or, in the end, agreeing not to take the other to the hospital, they have been idyllically together. Their's is the relationship that I have always wished to find.
And so the past few weeks, when it became clear to him that she had suffered yet another stroke and this one would be the final one, and when against his private nature he wrote a long letter, a plaint, that told us of his pain and of her suffering, we have been sitting vigil. We have offered our advice (hospice help), our prayers, our admiration, our love, we have waited for updates and read through tears the slow march.
This morning a simple message was sent, an obituary under the title "requiescit in pace", reached us and we mourn. We mourn a person whom we never met, but whose life has been relayed to us in wonderful stories. All around the world our group is collectively bowing our heads and holding out our arms to him as he lets her go. At the moment of her death, they were alone, holding hands in the sanctuary that he had created for her. She no longer resides in her mortal shell, but her spirit, indomnitable to the last is now unfettered. So we mourn her loss, but celebrate her life and our tangential experience of it.
I can only hope that each of us, each of you, all of the kids that we coach, can experience the love of life, and the love of each other that the two of them have enjoyed for over 50 years.
I'm crossposting this from rantspace on the feminists group. This has been my day today;
So today, I've been engaging in a facebook debate on the Catholic bishops not agreeing to the Obama compromise that would allow them to not pay for contraception services. The first people who chimed in were women who felt as though their religious freedom was being violated by being "forced to pay for contraception and abortion". When I pointed out that they pay taxes that support wars they said it wasn't the same thing. When I pointed out that under the compromise "they" wouldn't have to pay for any of this they changed it to an argument about the necessity and dangers of contraception. Others from their side have jumped in and so far I've held my own. But It's disheartening to me that others aren't jumping in to help me defend this.
I've pointed out that employers have no right to tell an employee what they can and can't do with any of their employment compensations like retirement funds and direct pay. I've pointed out that there are non-contraceptive benefits to contraception and that the only people who should be deciding whether something is necessary or not is the woman and her healthcare providers. And yet they keep saying its unfair to them. To me this is the height of the victimhood attitude that some religious people are trying to foist upon the rest of us. I do want to emphasize that it is some religious people and not all. But I am tired. Flat out exhausted from fighting this fight alone today. Part of the problem is that this was clearly a coordinated attack on the original post which came from the director of Media Matters, who happens to be a former neighbor of mine. Media Matters has been getting alot of coordinated attacks in the past week over this. So I stepped into it and have not felt comfortable stepping away. A few women have "liked" my posts, but noone else has chimed in and I suspect that may be because people are afraid of inviting the wrath of nutjobs. I can understand that. It's a calculation that I make often too. And that bothers me. Are we ceding the ground because we're afraid to deal with the lunatics? To be fair, the people I've been arguing with today have been for the most part respectful and I've treated them respectfully. I've merely pointed out the flaws in their arguments and when their sources have failed to give the full story. But dammit I am tired. I've been holding in my anger and my snark and trying hard to take the high road only to have them bring up points I've already addressed.
Over the past week I've truly felt as though we are in a war for the rights of women. It's been building for my whole life and now we are seeing the horrible results of our...I don't know, complacency? lack of organization? failure to educate? I don't know. I only know that I'm emotionally wrecked from this but I can't not continue.
So today, I've been engaging in a facebook debate on the Catholic bishops not agreeing to the Obama compromise that would allow them to not pay for contraception services. The first people who chimed in were women who felt as though their religious freedom was being violated by being "forced to pay for contraception and abortion". When I pointed out that they pay taxes that support wars they said it wasn't the same thing. When I pointed out that under the compromise "they" wouldn't have to pay for any of this they changed it to an argument about the necessity and dangers of contraception. Others from their side have jumped in and so far I've held my own. But It's disheartening to me that others aren't jumping in to help me defend this.
I've pointed out that employers have no right to tell an employee what they can and can't do with any of their employment compensations like retirement funds and direct pay. I've pointed out that there are non-contraceptive benefits to contraception and that the only people who should be deciding whether something is necessary or not is the woman and her healthcare providers. And yet they keep saying its unfair to them. To me this is the height of the victimhood attitude that some religious people are trying to foist upon the rest of us. I do want to emphasize that it is some religious people and not all. But I am tired. Flat out exhausted from fighting this fight alone today. Part of the problem is that this was clearly a coordinated attack on the original post which came from the director of Media Matters, who happens to be a former neighbor of mine. Media Matters has been getting alot of coordinated attacks in the past week over this. So I stepped into it and have not felt comfortable stepping away. A few women have "liked" my posts, but noone else has chimed in and I suspect that may be because people are afraid of inviting the wrath of nutjobs. I can understand that. It's a calculation that I make often too. And that bothers me. Are we ceding the ground because we're afraid to deal with the lunatics? To be fair, the people I've been arguing with today have been for the most part respectful and I've treated them respectfully. I've merely pointed out the flaws in their arguments and when their sources have failed to give the full story. But dammit I am tired. I've been holding in my anger and my snark and trying hard to take the high road only to have them bring up points I've already addressed.
Over the past week I've truly felt as though we are in a war for the rights of women. It's been building for my whole life and now we are seeing the horrible results of our...I don't know, complacency? lack of organization? failure to educate? I don't know. I only know that I'm emotionally wrecked from this but I can't not continue.
