jwg

I just finished reading a very interesting book: Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham. It was written in 1948 and is about his expedition in 1911 to Peru (and several more over the next few years) where his discovered lots of things about the Incas including the city Machu Picchu. He was a professor of South American History at Yale. He was accompanied by several colleagues and worked with a bunch of local people traversing many ruins. The Incas had o writing so there is jo written record of anything.

I've been to Machu Picchu twice. What an incredible place! The Incas were incredible architects and builders. The buildings are made of huge carved stones that fit together very tightly and used no cement.

Interestingly in 1954 I was visiting a friend in northwestern Connecticut and spent a few days as a caddy at a local golf course and my client was Hiram Bingham! I knew nothing about him at the time but later learned that he had been Connecticut Lt Governor and then Senator a few years after his explorations.



Lots of info and pictures about my trips. https://jwg.livejournal.com/tag/machupicchu/

On Christmas day instead of listening to classical music radio we play some of our own CDs and LPs.

CDs
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos 4, 5, and 6
Schubert — String Quartettes
Tallis — The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Britten — A Ceremony of Carols and other pieces
Bare Necessities — Nightcap (English Country Dance music)
Beethoven — string quartet: Rasumovsky
Voice of the Turtle: Full Circle (music of the Spanish Jews of Jerusalem)
KGB: Contra-intelligence (contra dance music)
Stravinsky — The Rite of Spring (orchestral and pianola version)

LPs
Mozart — Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra
Christmas in Anglia (early English music)
Nonesuch and other Folk Tunes
Miles Davis: Four & More
The Quadrivium: Long Time Ago (medieval, renaissance, and early American)

I was member of Quadrivium as were all the musicians in Voice of the Turtle)
I have danced with Bare Necessities and KGB as the band

The other night we watched a documentary about Freedom Summer or Mississippi Burning - the horrible events in 1964 in Mississippi dealing with rights and voter registration of black people. As part of that Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney - activists - were murdered.

Horrendous story and a slight personal connection for me. In 1958 I was a counsellor at Camp Tacoma Pines in Maine (no longer exists) and one of the campers in my cabin was Andy Goodman.

I am 3rd from the left in the bottom row and Andy was 4th from the left

Evening Dances:
10 times at JP Contra
18 times at JP English
19 times at BIDA
3 times at Harvard Square English
3 day weekend at Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs
3 day weekend at Queer dance Camp in Aptos, CA
3 day weekend at NEFFA in Marlboro
3 day weekend at LCFD dance camp at Pinewoods
That was 62 days — lower than the past — mostly because the JP contra is sporadic — used to be twice a month

Sleeping:
Our unit at Brooksby Village in Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
Saratoga Springs for Dance Flurry
San Juan Airport hotel;
Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands
San Francisco
Aptos for Queer Dance Camp
Pinewoods at Plymouth, MA for LCFD dance camp
Seattle and Astoria, OR for motss con.

Last night I went to a Dalton School Alumni Reception in Boston. Dalton is a progressive private school in NYC that I went to for 1st through 8th grades. At that time the high school was girls only - it is now co-ed. It was and still is a great school. It has expanded - 3 new floors added to the main building. I also taught 7th and 8th grade science for one year while I was in grad school at Columbia.

There about 30 former students there - all after my time.The new headmaster was the host and I had a pretty long conversation with him.

Here is a writeup I prepared a while ago.

Dalton School was (and still is) a progressive school. In 5th grade through 8th grade they followed “The Dalton Plan” with subject teachers: each teacher gave an assignment sheet for the month’s work. The assignment components were assigned “unit” values -usually 1 or 2 for each. You got a Unit Card and as you completed assignments you got the teacher to mark off the units. There were houses with a house advisor and a few people from each class were in each house. At the beginning of the year there was house selection where you could choose the teacher you wanted as your house leader and if accepted that was it. The school day started with a house meeting for a few minutes. After the House Meeting there were several hours of “Lab time” where you went for informal meetings with teachers and worked with other students on projects. At the end of the month you went to each teacher to sign off their section of the Unit Card. When you got all assignments you were considered “off the assignments” and you ran back to your house to post your card on the wall – hoping to be first, and certainly not last.

I remember many of the teachers. My math teacher was Kitty O’Connell – the other math teacher was Miss Newby – I stuck with Miss O’Connell for all four years. History was Mrs DalNegro for 5th grade: Greek, and 7th grade: South America; Ethel Mukerji: Indian and some Europe for 6th grade, and American for 8th grade. Her husband was Dhan Gopal Mukerji who In 1928, he won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal for his children’s book Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. The book’s protagonist is the eponymous Gay Neck, who, along with its companion Hira, serves as a messenger pigeon during World War I. Through the pigeon’s trials and adventures, Mukerji obliquely speaks to the ties between man and animal, the futility of war and its lasting impact.

For English it was Mary Alexander for 5th and 6th grade, and Hortense Tyroler for 7th and 8th. Interesting ly Miss Tyroler and my mother were classmates at Barnard College.

Science was Miss Laylor for 5th grade (and maybe 6th) and Hugo Robus for 7th and 8th grade. Science included lab work and the class room was suitably equipped. Many years later in my part-time job teaching 7th and 8th grade science it was in that very room.
Gwen Davies was the art teacher and she was quite dramatic in explaining how to use the whole piece for paper for the art work. Shop was Thornie (Harold Thorne) and Brownie.

Geography was John Seeger (Pete’s brother). I remember making paper mache maps of the places that we were studying. He encouraged doing research outside of school. I remember going to countries’ consulates to get information. John ran a summer camp – Camp Killooleet and I went there as a camper for 5 years in 1947-1951, and later for 3 years -1959-1961 -as a counsellor.

The Gym teacher was John McCook. The tenth floor gym was small so sometimes we went by school bus to a gym on 54th street (Dalton was on 89th street between Park and Lexington). In spring and fall often went to Randalls Island for football and baseball. He organized us into “heavies” and “lights” so the skills were better matched – I was a light. John McCook ran a summer camp: Tacoma Pines in Litchfield, Maine. I went there as from 1952-1958 starting as a camper and evolving into a counsellor.

In about 7th grade a new music teacher – chorus leader arrived: Harold Aks. I still remember singing

It's me, it's me, O Lord,
Standin' in the need of prayer;
It's me, it's me, O Lord,
Standin' in the need of prayer.

We have now lived in Brooksby Village for 4 weeks and a few days. Pretty well settled in, but still more things to organize and a few more from the old place to bring up. Also still need to run wires to other speakers for surround sound and hang pictures. Our apartment is good sized - with lots of closet space - which is needed. The view out our windows are nice — some of them just facing the nearby woods. The walls are painted white (our choice) and flooring is wood-grainy-veneer — except for the kitchen, sun room (an extension to the living room with lots of windows), and bathrooms which are white pseudo-tile. We have few rugs in various places. Robert's piano, a 7 ft Steinway B grand, just fit into the elevator (the movers were skeptical — but we did a lot of measuring).

Dishwasher, garbage disposal, electric stove, ice maker in the fridge - all things that we've never had.

There are a few different eating places - food is good, but not spectacular. When you go to a restaurant they often ask if you want to sit at a table with other people and we do. The standard package has 1 meal a day - but we are switching to the 20 meals a month plan - and we won't use them all.

There is a fitness center - a short walk from our place in a connected building - not quite as elaborate as the ones I've paid to go to, but fine. Its impressive to see some people who are not in good physical shape using the fitness center.

People here are very friendly - it's nice to have quick chats and also saying hello when you pass people or share the elevator. It's a big place - about 1,600 residents in an array of connected 5 story buildings. In poor weather daily walks can be inside since the buildings are all connected - otherwise around the grounds or somewhere else.

There are lots of activities - haven't done any yet - Robert is about to start playing bridge.

I have lived in Cambridge in my house since 1966 + 4 years in Baker House while a student at MIT in 1956-1960. From 1967-1986 I worked in a ~40 person Cambridge office of a computer company working on Multics, a very advanced computer sysem for the times – for the last several years I was the manager.

I have been involved as a volunteer in many organizations – often as a board member, and sometime as treasurer. Most of them are Cambridge oriented and have worked to make the city a better place. It has been interesting and fun as well. Some of them are LGBTQ oriented. As an out-gay person I have had the pleasure of helping make life better for LGBTQ people.

Partly because we are moving out of Cambridge to Brooksby Village, a retirement Community in Peabody Mass, and because I had enough of this I am no longer doing any of this.

Cambridge Political organizations

Cambridge Civic Association – CCA
CCA was formed in 1945 as part of the effort to change the city government to the current strong City Manager, system. It characterized itself as a good-government organization and focused on working with City Councilors, the Mayor, and other parts of the city government, It also endorsed a slate of candidates and helped support the election. I joined in the ‘70s and stayed until it ended in the late ‘80s. I was a board member and the treasurer for most of the time.

Cambridge Lavender Alliance – CLA
CLA was formed in the ‘70s and as a LGBTQ organization and worked to make the public and the government deal with issues faced by LGBTQ people. It endorsed a slate of candidates for school committee and Council. Some of us worked with other people in the city and helped form the LGBTQ+ Commission. I was a board member and treasurer. After the Commission formed it ended.

Cambridge City Government organizations

Cambridge LGBTQ+ Commission
I have been part of this organization since it was formed in 2004 and been co-chair most of the time – retired in April 2022. Commissioners are appointed by the City Manager. We work with organizations in the government – particularly police and health care and have worked with housing and healthcare organizations in the city to help them improve policies and practices with respect to LGBTQ people.

Technical Advisory Committee to the Election Commission
This group was formed to help the Election Commission switch from the time consuming hand count of Council and School Committee preferential ballots to electronic. The hand count took about a week and it was fun to hang around and chat with people who were observing, it. We studied other systems and made a recommendation which was accepted and implemented.

Library 21 Committee
This committee was formed when the City Council rejected a bad plan to extend the main library that messed up the park next to the library among other issues. The committee had city government employees, volunteers, and outside library experts to figure out the program of the expanded library. It was very interesting – we did a lot of research – among other things looking at other library expansions - I as well as some others did a lot of this and visited other libraries when I was traveling and went to a library conference. The plan was well received and got the OK.

Library Design Advisory Committee
This was formed to work with the architects on the details of the design. Again an example of city employees, resident volunteers and library experts working together. The resulting library expansion is wonderful and has been well received.

Silver Ribbon Commission
This was formed by the city to investigate various issues of aging in place and produced a good report. Unfortunately little was done about its recommendations. Another example of resident volunteers working with city employees.

Envision Cambridge – Mobility Group
Envison Cambridge was a set of working groups that looked at possible futures for the city. The Mobility subgroup was dealing with transportation and just getting around. I was a member of this. Most of the recommendations were ignored.

Miscellaneous

Cambridge Postal Advisory Committee
We met with the Cambridge Post Office management a few times a year to look at policies and practices and make recommendations for improvement. We got a prize from the US Postal Service one year for our work. It lasted for a few years but after several changes in the local Postmaster it died out.

The US has the highest incarceration rate of any country. 639 per 100,000 people or a bit more than 2 million people. For comparison Canada's rate is 107.

It is interesting to think about why people are incarcerated.

- In simple terms: it is punishment for the crime that was committed

- Make the victims feel better - the victims suffer from the crime, make the criminal suffer. an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Surveys of victims show that a majority of them would prefer if the money were spent on rehabilitation of the prisoners.

- Prevention from committing another crime while incarcerated

- Setting an example of what happens when you commit a crime to deter other people from committing similar crimes

- In some states prisons are called Houses of Correction. The idea is to retrain and motivate prisoners to not commit crimes after they are let out. Well, that really works well: prisoners are in crowded conditions among many other people who have committed crimes - that is a bad environment. Not enough - if any - properly trained staff to help rehabiltate them by dealing with health problems and skill improvements is another problem.

The US crime rate is in the middle but some statistics are that about 2/3 get arrested within three years of being let out so it doesn't look there is much correction.

I think in some cases instead of treating the people as criminals where they won't talk because what they say can be used against them time should be spent with them to understand the background of why they did it and create a constructive plan for rehabilitation and working with organizations to change policies and procedures that can help avoid similar crimes.

Today is Martin Luther King day.

A very incredible person who was a constructive activist in the civil rights movement in the
50s and '60s until he was assassinated in 1968.

Wikipedia article

He was in prison a number of times as a result of his work.

This picture was taken shortly after King, Ira Blalock (on the left), Gordon Gibson (on the right), and some others were released from the Salem jail in 1965. As it turns out I knew Ira Blalock because he was the minister in a UU church in Wellesley that I went to for a while with a bunch of friends. And Gordon Gibson was a minister in another Boston area church who performed my first marriage in 1966 (in the MIT chapel). -- and yes, I have posted this before.