MAY 1 2008 UPDATE
COMMITMENTS
Tenea Golson, SoCal Sliderz 18A, ’08 infielder, has committed to play for Menlo College
Jacqueline "JC" Clayton, 2009 - SS Salinas Wildcats Verbally Committed to....BYU
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THOSE OTHER CONFERENCES
Continuing the strand started yesterday, about softball as played outside the big power conferences, I watched, courtesy ESPN/U, the first half of a double-header between Norfolk State and Hampton, which is the leader in their half of the MEAC. Hampton broke a 4-4 tie in the 6th on a throwing error and withstood a Norfolk rally to win 5-4. These teams don’t send players to the elite national squads, and, except for the rare instances of a team like Bethune-Cookman which had a stunning run in the NCAA’s a few years ago, MEAC teams are not likely to challenge the Top 25. But, they play good softball – a few highlight catches, homerun, and a very in-your-face catcher for Hampton who dares you to steal and punishes you for trying. Grateful to ESPN for the opportunity to watch; also to hear old friend Cindy Bristow in the broadcast booth. Knowledgable, crisp and focused on the game in front of her (not her past performances which are the bedrock of so many who provide color commentary).
A DEEP SIGH OF RELIEF
No, that was not another tornado on the Atlantic Coast. That was the sound of collective sighs of relief among Washington politicos and others when they learned that the "D.C. madam" hanged herself Thursday, apparently making good on her vow never to go to prison for running a high-end Washington prostitution ring. The body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found in a shed near her mother's manufactured home about 20 miles northwest of Tampa. Police said the 52-year-old left a suicide note, but they did not disclose its contents. The mother found Palfrey, who had apparently hanged herself with nylon rope from the shed's ceiling. A federal jury convicted Palfrey on April 15 of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington's political elite, including Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. She was convicted of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering. Palfrey had denied her escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge. The trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Vitter was among possible witnesses but did not take the stand.
Reminded me of an instance in New York during my days as a political reporter. A member of the state legislature was widely regarded as being the “bag man” for a bribe of $250,000. When he knew he was dying, we met at a remote diner in the Catskills; incredibly, someone spotted my car and his, made the connection, and he received a phone call at the bar. End of interview. I received criticism for going to the hospital before the end came and trying once again to pry the secret from his lips, to no avail, I told my editors and others. Yet, to this day, there are people in New York who think I know which high-ranking politician was the intended recipient of the bribe and what purpose it secured. Did I learn a death-bed secret which carries the same kind of privilege as a truth told in the confessional? I will carry that one to my grave. (The intended favor was rescinded unconsummated which protected a lot of people, particularly one.) Ironically for a journalist, I come down on the narrow side of the public’s need to know – and endured some withering criticism for deciding that also applied in some instances to Congress. To paraphrase a veteran character actor, Wilford Brimley, “last time anything leaked as bad (as Congress), Noah built himself a boat.” (parenthetical statement my own)
A secret, as someone once said, is a fact known to three people, two of whom are dead. Seems a large number of people are suddenly consumed by a need to “tell all” – whether it’s Barbara Walters confessing that she had an affair with former Sen. Brooke of Massachusetts, or young singers hinting about their relationship with Roger Clemens. Sexual hi-jinks are a tradition with New York governors.
SOLD OUT
The USA Olympic Softball team will be playing at the Baysox Stadium on Saturday, May 10, 2008. The tickets have been on sale since Early October of 2007. Tickets are SOLD OUT. Standing Room only is the only thing left. MDDCASA has held some tickets and will release them after this week. If you are interested in purchasing these tickets you need to contact me now. SPY note: the Olympic team will play the NPF champion Washington Glory.
Jack Mowatt
Maryland - DC ASA Commissioner
2410 Springlake Court W Gambrills, MD 21054
(301) 621-7152 Home/Fax (240) 375-3184 (Cell)
commissioner@mddcasa.org www.mddcasa.org
IN MEMORIAM
Yossi Harel. A true hero by any definition whose attempt to bring Holocaust survivor to Palestine aboard Exodus 1947, the ship he commanded, built support for Israel’s founding, died at his home in Tel Aviv. Harel commanded four expeditions that brought thousands of Jewish refugees to Palestine. His best known attempt was in July 1947; the Exodus left France carrying 4,500 people, mostly Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews, in a secret effort to reach Palestine. Britain controlled Palestine and was trying to limit the immigration of Jews. The British Royal Navy seized the Exodus off Palestine’s shores, and turned the ship back to Europe where, in a great irony, the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany, a factor which helped energize support and sympathy for the refugees. Harel was a veteran fighter with Jewish defense organizations in the 1930’s and 1940’s. What most people know about that effort to create a Jewish homeland they learned from Leon Uris’ book and the 1960 Otto Preminger film starring Paul Newman. It’s a story we all should know intrinsically and because it was such a poignant reminder of the decision by the United States to deny landing of the St Louis, the infamous ship which had to return hundreds of Jews to Europe, where many eventually died in concentration camps.
Edward Lorenz. The Los Angeles times said the third great scientific revolution of the 20th Century, along with relativity and quantum physics, was Lorenz’s chaos theory – which showed inter alia that very small changes in a system (like a weather formation) can have very large and unexpected consequences. If such variables as temperature, air pressure, or humidity were changed by even a fraction of a percent, a weather pattern predicted to cause rain in Las Vegas could instead materialize as a blizzard in Beijing a week later. After his seminal study, “Predictability: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas” was published in 1972, Lorenz’ theories were used to predict everything from the size of snowflakes to box-office receipts. That 1972 paper hs been cited in more than 4,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most referenced scientific studies in modern history. Now, if only the Channel 4 weatherman could be more accurate than sticking his head out the window.
Albert Hofmann. The Swiss chemist accidentally discovered LSD, the drug which alcolyte Timothy Leary made famous as a potent way for people to live up to his 1960’s counter-culture motto, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Although Hofmann, a researcher for the Sandoz pharmaceutical firm, had many pioneering accomplishments, his own use of lysergic acid diethylamide, which is thousands of times stronger than other psychedelics like mescaline, attracted prominent advocates like Aldous Huxley. Initially, LSD was hailed as a “wonder drug” with the potential to treat problems like schizophrenia and alcoholism. But, its widespread recreational use which led to some fatal overdoses and to serious violence under its influence caused it to be banned and criminalized. Even Hofmann, who was working on medicinal uses of a fungus to act as a circulatory heart-lung stimulant, admitted after his first “trip” that it was a troubling experience “as though a demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind and soul.” Warnings about LSD’s effects did little to stop its widespread use among the counter-culture. He criticized Leary’s self-promotion and propagation of LSD use.
A few weeks ago, flying into Long Beach, I encountered a psychologist on the plane who had been a disciple of Leary’s – and who had suffered serious complications from “trips.” I was in charge of a national drug abuse prevention campaign during the heyday of LSD, and we had disagreed on a fundamental principle: even recreational drug use is harmful.
Hundreds, even thousands, of young people paid the price of not sharing that principle.