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It practically gallops!

One Who Presides

Dennis Reedy, president of the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association, asked for a motion to approve the slate of new officers on Thursday night. The motion was made, seconded and then approved by voice vote. With that, I was elected to be the new president of the group.

The rest of the evening consisted of making plans for the year ahead. Our next meeting will be held in the William M. Bass Forensic Anthropology Building, which should insure a good turnout. Special Agent in Charge Richard Lambert said he would give us a briefing on cyber-terrorism threats at an upcoming meeting.

A few events are already on our calendar. The Alumni Association will help promote the Law Enforcement Memorial Run on May 12. Our annual field trip to FBI Headquarters and Quantico is locked in for August. I found out that one of my responsibilities as chapter president will be to attend the National Citizens Academy Alumni Association annual conference in Denver this September.

On a sad note, we learned of the death of FBI Chief Division Council Martin J. King. We all knew Mr. King from his annual presentation to the Citizens Academy on the legal powers and limitations of the FBI. The Alumni Association voted to make a donation to the memorial fund being set up to benefit his family.

January 27, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Playing Kitsch-up

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile visited some of my old haunts in Burbank and North Hollywood this week. My friend Susan Olsen was an honored guest along with songwriter Allee Willis and Americana archivist Charles Phoenix. For starters, the three friends rode the giant hot dog to the Brady Bunch house on Dilling Street. I always loved taking out-of-town guests to see it, even though the subsequent owners took pains to change its appearance and discourage looky-loos.

Allee posted great pictures of the journey on her blog. They went to two Burbank restaurants that I used to frequent: Bob’s Big Boy and Chili John’s. Perhaps the most clever picture was taken at Circus Liquor, which was also used as a location in the movie “Clueless.” They positioned the Wienermobile so that it looks like the giant neon alcoholic clown is standing atop the vehicle.

I had my first experience with the Wienermobile when I was working at WAVA. One morning I had privilege of riding in the vehicle while broadcasting via cellphone. I had my upper body through the sun roof as we drove around Washington D.C. and Arlington. I tossed wiener-whistles to people and shouted “I’m in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! Don’t you wish you were me?”

December 22, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Virginia Real

Shortly after Northern Virginia was rocked by an earthquake, my sister called to tell me about it. She felt a violent shaking, as opposed to the rolling motion that characterizes many California quakes. She wanted to know what to tell her kids in case of aftershocks. Should they run outside or stand in a doorway? I told her to have them stay away from windows that might break or any bricks that might fall.

When I lived in California, they advised people to get under a desk or table during a quake. A doorway was a good second choice. My daughter remembered that advice and crawled under her desk when the quake struck. She works on the third floor of an office building in Northern Virginia and her cubicle is next to some large windows. She yelled out to her co-workers to do the same thing. The building was evacuated as a precaution and the employees got to go home early.

My daughter had a hard time making cell phone calls or even sending a text message. Her call to me was the first that went through. I suggested that she send a text to her boyfriend while she was still on the phone with me. I figured that it might be more likely to go through since she had a connection with a local cell tower while we talked. It worked.

After the two phone calls, I tuned in to WTOP.com on my WiFi clock radio and looked online for updates. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were loaded with comments about the quake. Many of my friends live in the D.C. area and wrote about their experience. One of my college friends posted that she was changing clothes at the time and was only concerned with getting dressed in case they had to pull her from the rubble. Fortunately her home in historic Fredericksburg was unscathed.

There was an abundance of jokes online. Many of my Democrat friends posted that the GOP was blaming Obama for the quake. Many of my Republican friends posted that Obama was blaming George W. Bush. One of my Libertarian friends re-posted a joke that the quake was caused by the founding fathers turning over in their graves. Knoxvillians got into the game by adding to the currently popular Stephen A. Burroughs meme: “The Earthquake Felt Him.”

August 24, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

Ch’i and Crackers

The Dalai Lama visited Washington DC for ten days last month. He conducted prayer rituals at the Verizon Center, where my sister’s husband works.

On one of the days, the Dalai Lama announced that the crowd was free to leave, unless they wanted to come closer to the stage as he blessed some food in a tsog ceremony. Instead of traditional Tibetan bread, they used cases of snack foods from Costco, which were stacked on a table in front of the stage. They said it was a “concession to modern times.” My sister’s husband, who needed to know when his staff could go home, asked in all sincerity, “how long does it take to bless the Cheez-Its?”

Toastchee that was blessed by the Dalai Lama during Tsog ceremony in Washington, DC The pile also included Oreos and peanut-butter crackers called Toastchee. My sister’s husband got some of the leftovers and gave me two packs. He gave the rest of the crackers to his kids’ swim team. They did especially well that day.

August 16, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Change Was Made Uptown

The report that Clarence Clemons suffered a stroke is sad news for all fans of rock music. Bruce Springsteen’s best songs are the ones with The Big Man’s signature saxophone sound. There are some encouraging reports as of this writing.

My first true rock concert was a Bruce Springsteen show. I had been to classical concerts and comedy concerts but the closest I had come to attending a rock concert was going to see “Beatlemania” on Broadway. No wonder the Beatles haven’t interested me since.

I got a job at Wolf Trap shortly after moving to Northern Virginia. One of my co-workers was from New Jersey and was a huge Springsteen fan. When it was announced that the E Street Band was coming to the Capital Centre, we asked our boss to use his connections to get us tickets for The Boss.

Our boss was a guy named John Vaughn. He made a couple of calls and arranged for us to buy good seats at face value. When we got to the show, we realized that our seats were better than good. They were great. The four of us were on the floor in the third row. Needless to say, the experience was amazing and made me a fan of Springsteen and of the rest of the band members too.

June 14, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

Surrattogate

The opening scenes of “The Conspirator” depicted Abraham Lincoln’s assassination exactly like I imagined it after visiting Ford’s Theater and reading “Manhunt.” The film questions whether Mary Surratt should have been executed as a co-conspirator in Lincoln’s death. Those not familiar with that chapter of history might be surprised by the movie’s ending.

In its on-screen logo, The American Film Company promises to make entertaining and accurate historical films. The company’s website features more than enough reading material to keep me busy for a week. I think I’ll start with “Historians View the Assassination.” My wife was interested in the article about J.A.G. Joseph Holt and the subsequent comments debating whether Surratt’s trial was influenced by an anti-Catholic bias.

I went to Chinatown last summer but didn’t realize I was near the Surratt boarding house. According to Wikipedia, it is now a restaurant called Wok and Roll. I wonder if they have any menu items named after the Surratts.

Before the movie we saw a promo for Sprite Refreshing Films. I caught a glimpse of Knoxville Catholic High School student Carla Javier in the behind-the-scenes footage. “Wonderland,” the film Carla worked on, is currently trailing behind the entry from Dallas. Voting is open until Friday, April 22. Text ATL to 777483.

April 18, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Statue of Limitations

U.S. Capitol - Frank on the steps of the Capitol Visitor Center U.S. Capitol - Apotheosis of Washington on ceiling of Rotunda Of all the valuable artwork visible during my tour of the U.S. Capitol, the statues of famous Americans were the most memorable to me. Sure, I looked up at “The Apotheosis of Washington,” which was discussed in Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol,” but the statues were my favorite thing to see. Each state has two statues. Our tour guide, an intern named Logan from Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr.’s office, pointed out that Tennessee technically has three famous sons represented: John Sevier, Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston, who was governor of Tennessee before becoming governor of Texas.

U.S. Capitol - base of Ronald Reagan statue with Berlin Wall stripe U.S. Capitol - statue of Fr. Junipero Serra The two figures from California interested me. The states are allowed to replace their statues. The addition of Ronald Reagan sent some other guy into cold storage. The base of his statue in the Rotunda includes a visible ribbon of rubble from the Berlin Wall. Later, our tour guide was pointing out something else in Statuary Hall when he said, “it’s over by the guy with the cross.” My wife and I didn’t need to see the name on the base to recognize the iconic figure of Fr. Junipero Serra, who founded a string of Catholic missions along El Camino Real. Our kids had to each choose a mission and build a model of it in fourth grade at St. Finbar School.

U.S. Capitol - unfinished women's suffrage monument A “portrait monument” honoring three women’s suffrage leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott, appears to be unfinished. Our tour guide said that the rumor around Capitol Hill is that the hunk of unhewn marble will someday be carved into the likeness of our first female president. He also told us that no living person can be represented by a statue in the Capitol.

U.S. Capitol - statue of astronaut Jack Swigert Astronaut Jack Swigert died of cancer after being elected to Congress but before taking office. His colorful statue, one of the two from Colorado, is on display in the Capitol Visitor Center. He is best known as one of the three crewmen aboard Apollo 13. Kevin Bacon played him in the movie.

U.S. Capitol - Frank kneels on star on floor in center of crypt below Rotunda In the crypt under the Rotunda, we could stand in the exact center of Washington and simultaneously be in all four quadrants of the city. We were told that many lawmakers rub their foot on the spot for good luck before one of their bills is voted on. Nearby is a model of the Capitol grounds, which we were studying when I looked up to see freshman Congressman Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee’s 4th district. I knew that his incumbent opponent had waged a brutal and misleading mudslinging campaign, which obviously failed. I congratulated the congressman on “fighting the good fight” with a fist-bump on his shoulder. In hindsight, I felt stupid about touching a congressman, even if I had momentarily thought of him as a regular guy from Tennessee.

March 22, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

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