From A Bird's Eye View

The Interesting Month of April

April 15, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:4 Comments

Ogden Nash

April has been the subject of many great writers from Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, T.S. Eliot to Edna St. Vicent Millay, to name a few. But, for me, the zany Ogden Nash, summed April up best with his poem, Always Marry an April Girl (which I did!):

“Praise the spell and bless the charms,

I found in my April arms.

April golden, April cloudy,

Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;

April soft in flowered languor,

April cold with sudden anger,

Ever changing, ever true —

I love April, I love you.”

Nash is famous for his short poems and observations; the one that speaks to me the loudest is:

“You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.”

He also came up with:

“Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.”

And, he also offers up some really good poetic marital advice:

“To keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup,

Whenever you’re wrong admit it, whenever you’re right shut up.”

and

“There is only one way to have a happy marriage, and as soon as I learn what it is, I’ll get married again.”

Here’s one he wrote many years ago, but is apt today:

“I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people”

Lots of other things happened in April, but before we leave Mr. Nash, an interesting factoid is that the city of Nashville, is named after his forebearers.

Many famous and infamous people were born in April, from William Shakespeare to Adoff Hitler; and of course, the most famous to me, my wife, Linda!

RMS Titanic

But what I really wanted to write about this week, was a great historic event that occurred exactly 112 years ago, on April 15, 1912, the sinking of the Titanic. It took over 70 years to find her as she lies 12,600 feet under water. Of the 2,224 passengers on board, 1,496 died, in part because the ship was supposed to have 64 lifeboats on board, but only had 20, and those ended up being filled to only 60% capacity!

Aside from the 13 couples who were celebrating their honeymoon on board, there were several famous people who died, John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man on board and Benjamin Guggenheim, along with several other titans of industry in the day. The luckiest people were those who purchased a ticket for the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but ended up having a conflict that kept them from getting on board – Milton Hershey, who gave us the Hershey Bar, J.P. Morgan and George Vanderbilt to name just a few of the eight very wealthy men who luckily didn’t make it on board.

Not the iceberg’s fault? Recent evidence has shown that a fire of 1800 degrees had burned in the ship’s hull for three weeks prior to the ship’s departure, thus weakening the hull and ultimately was responsible for the hull splitting when it hit the iceberg.

The longest living survivor of the disaster was Millvina Dean, who was the youngest survivor on the Titanic at two months old. She died at the age of 97 in 2009.

Hoping your April is more Nutty Nash than Tragic Titanic!

Posted in opinion

A GAME CHANGER

April 8, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:8 Comments

Okay, first of all, my brother’s post last week was an April Fool’s Day joke. You cannot get rid of us that easily! But a surprising number of people didn’t even read through the first paragraph to learn he was fooling us. I just want to say that these people might want to start reading the fine print, lest they be taken advantage of by people more nefarious than my brother! Anyway, we’re here again on a Monday morning with a perspective on some history that was new to me, and perhaps will be to you as well. As a life-long student of WWII history I’ve read hundreds of books about the war and the people who fought it. But last week I came across an article that was a surprise and once again illustrated why the British were known as masters of spy craft.

Clayton Hutton, the mastermind

When the first British airmen were captured by the Germans in 1940, the British intelligence services established a new section, MI9, specifically to help captured Allied prisoners of war escape. Intelligence officer Clayton Hutton was put in charge of masterminding a plan that would be both effective and foolproof. He came up with a plan to devise some “toys” that could be introduced into the POW camps in an innocuous – and continuous – manner. Hutton seized upon the fact that the Germans liked to see games in the prisoner’s care packages, as they thought that prisoners concentrating playing games wouldn’t be concentrating on plotting an escape. The prisoners, for their part, liked playing familiar, ordinary games as a welcome pastime to help them forget the realities of war, if even for a short time. So, Hutton conspired with the U.K. Monopoly manufacturer, Waddington’s, to produce special Monopoly boards that could be distributed as part of larger aid packages. In addition to the standard thimble and dog game pieces, each board contained metal “playing pieces” that were actually escape tools, such as a file and magnetic compass. He also invented a sort of Swiss Army Knife piece, but with wire cutters and lock breakers along with the traditional screwdrivers and bottle openers.

The games were always sent via private, often fictitious, organizations, like the Licensed Victuallers Prisoner Relief Fund. No escape aids were enclosed in the Red Cross parcels so that the Germans would have no justification for stopping these much-needed parcels from reaching the prisoners. Unique clues, known only to the British, were included in the return addresses and on the game board itself. Each version also contained silk maps packed into the game’s hotels which could be unfolded discreetly without drawing attention, as silk made no noise as it was being pulled from the game piece or a pocket. The silk escape maps were probably the most important part of the secret version of Monopoly, as they provided logistics for European countries such as Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, and Italy. These “special editions” of the game also hid German, Italian, and French currency under the fake Monopoly money for use in bribing guards.

British POWs in Germany

Once the games were being sent on a steady basis, soldiers were told that, should they be captured, they should be on the lookout for the special Monopoly sets. Reportedly, 35,000 prisoners of war managed to escape prison camps in Nazi-occupied Europe, and it is believed that nearly 20,000 of them had a silk map, compasses, and other supplies that had been hidden inside the Monopoly boxes. The success of the Monopoly ruse eventually led British intelligence to conceal maps inside chess sets and packs of cards.

Posted in Historical

Sadly This Will Be Our Last Blog

April 1, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:27 Comments

by Bob Sparrow

Suzanne and I have made a tough decision, based on personal factors, after nearly 13 years of first, Morning News in Verse, which appeared every Tuesday and Friday from August 2011 to March 2012, then From A Bird’s Eye View, which has appeared every Monday morning from March 2012 until today, that this will be our last blog . . . _{this week.}

OK, when I haven’t been traveling, the history of the most current holiday seems to attract my attention, and this week, rather than try to explain why we celebrated the resurrection of Christ by hiding colorful bunny eggs, I decided to explore April Fool’s Day. I know it’s not really a holiday, it’s a . . . well, I’m not sure what it is!! But, I’m sure you are sitting on pins and needles wondering, “What the heck is the incredible history of this crazy day?” Well, wonder no more.

Or maybe you better keep wondering, as April Fool’s Day’s true origin is unknown and probably unknowable. What you may not know is that the day is celebrated around the world, in many different ways. To wit . . .

In Ireland, it is traditional to entrust the victim with an “important letter” to be given to a named person. That person would read the letter, then ask the victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter when opened contained the words “send the fool further”.

Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes celebrate April Fools’ Day with most news media outlets publishing one false story on the front page of their local newspaper.

In Poland, April 1 has been a traditional day of pranks, where very sophisticated hoaxes are perpetrated by people, media and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided; every word said on April 1st could be untrue, as a day of pranks is a centuries-long tradition, but it only lasts until noon.

In France where the fool was called an ‘April Fish’ instead of an ‘April Fool’; due to the prank of taping a paper fish to someone’s back without them knowing it. (Replaced by ‘Kick Me’ in the U.S.) On a possible historic note, in France, in 1564, Charles IX decreed that the new year would no longer begin on Easter, as had been common throughout Christendom, but rather on January 1. Because Easter was a lunar and therefore moveable date, those who clung to the old ways were the “April Fools.”

In Scotland, the day is Gowkie Day, a day for fools and may have been associated at one time with sexual license. The PG rating for our blogs prevents me from any further explanation.

In England there is reference to April 1^st in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where the rooster, Chauntecleer is tricked by the fox. Also in England, on April 1^st, starting in 1698, people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to “see the Lions washed”.

Hope you had a Happy Easter, and if you were duped on April 1, you’ve joined a worldwide brotherhood of ‘Fools’. And sorry for those who had hopes of not having our drivel pop up in their email every Monday morning, but we’re not increasing our prices!

Posted in opinion

ELLIS ISLAND: THE ULTIMATE TEST

March 25, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:2 Comments

By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

Ellis Island

Well, so far, I have not been burgled by the Chilean crime tourists, but I came very close. One evening two weeks ago, a trio of them were caught by our security department trying to get into our community. Around 8:30, just when I was settling down with my book, I heard helicopters overhead. For the next seven hours police helicopters circled over my house and directed their floodlights into my front and back yard several times. They were shouting from their bullhorns, “Come out, with your hands up!”. I assumed they meant the burglars and not me. Thankfully by 6:30 the next morning they caught them. That’s the good news. The bad news is that their presence in our city has generated a lot of conversation about out our immigration and visa policies and, as is usual these days, the “conversations” soon devolve into political debate. People WRITE IN ALL CAPS in the hope it will make their point more factual. Coincidentally, last week I received an email from the history site I subscribe to that contained a piece about Ellis Island. Although I am unofficially the family historian, I’ve never paid that much attention to Ellis Island, as both our maternal and paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Europe between 1854 and 1880, before Ellis Island was established. I thought in light of the current national debate about immigration it might be useful to look back at our previous methods of screening immigrants. I learned a lot. Okay, maybe my previous knowledge was a low bar, but I hope this piece also provides some new insights for you too.

First, the basics. Ellis Island was the designated as the official federal port of entry from Europe in 1892. Prior to that, immigration policies had been handled at a state level. Up until the late 1880’s, most immigrants to the U.S. were from Germany, Ireland, Britain and the Scandinavian countries. But political and economic turmoil in other parts of Europe caused a surge in immigrants to the U.S. Among this new generation of immigrants were Jews escaping czarist Russia and eastern Europe, as well as Italians escaping poverty in their country. There were also Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks and Greeks, along with non-Europeans from Syria, Turkey and Armenia, fleeing for the prospect of a better life in America. Due to the influx of “new” immigrants, congress acted to establish immigration policies at a national level. So, a whopping $75,000 was appropriated for construction of the first federal immigration station on Ellis Island.

The new Ellis Island port of entry opened on January 1, 1892, on six acres of land. Each arriving passenger (almost all immigrants arrived by ship) went through an inspection process that lasted about two hours. Doctors would examine immigrants for signs of physical ailments or mental illness; at one point, they would flip back people’s eyelids to look for a contagious eye disease. If an immigrant had one of these problems, then a letter symbol would be drawn on his or her jacket with chalk — for example, E for eyes or X for suspected mental problem. And contrary to popular belief, the process did not involve changing one’s surname to one that’s easier to pronounce, which is one of the biggest myths that persists about Ellis Island. If names were changed, that would happen earlier, when the ship’s manifest was written in Europe at the home country’s consulate. Overall, despite these procedures, only two percent of immigrants were turned away.

A ship arriving in 1907

From 1900 to 1914—the peak years of Ellis Island’s operation—an average of 1,900 people passed through the immigration station every day. Most successfully passed through in a matter of hours, but others could be detained for days or weeks. The record for the number of people processed in a day was April 17, 1907, when more than 11,747 people passed through Ellis Island. April 1907 was, in fact, a banner month for Ellis Island, with more than a quarter-million passengers from around the world coming through. That year was Ellis Island’s peak year, as more than 1.2 million immigrants came to the United States. Immigration slowed after that in part due to a new federal law excluding persons with physical and mental disabilities, and children arriving without an adult.

World War I caused a huge drop in immigrants, from 178,416 in 1915, to 28,867 in 1918. The military took over the island during World War I to use as a place where injured soldiers could be sent after the war for recuperation. In 1917 a literacy test is introduced for all immigrants; it stayed on the books until 1952. Those over the age of 16 who could not read 30 to 40 test words in their native language were no longer admitted into the country. Nearly all Asian immigrants were banned for no other reason that just being Asian.

In 1921 President Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act into law, which stated that annual immigration from any country could not exceed 3 percent of the total number of U.S. immigrants from that same country, as recorded in the census of 1910. The Immigration Act of 1924 went even further, setting strict quotas for immigrants based on country of origin, including an annual limit of 165,000 immigrants from outside the Western Hemisphere. Interestingly, by 1932 the Depression had taken hold in the U.S., and for the first time ever, more people left the country than arrived.

Japanese on a harbor boat to Ellis Island

From the 1920s to 1950s, Ellis Island was mostly used as a detention center; during World War II specifically, it served as a detention center for “enemy aliens” who were Japanese, German or Italian. After the war, with the advent of modern air travel, immigration points were established throughout the country and Ellis Island fell into disrepair. It was permanently closed in 1954 and was not reopened until 1990, when it became a museum.

I found the history of Ellis Island fascinating and given its history and all that has happened since its closure, it’s clear there is no simple answer to immigration policies. Although little common sense in Washington DC might go a long way. Maybe we need to re-institute an immigration law from 1875 and impose it on Congress: it restricted “lunatics” and “idiots”.

Posted in Holiday observations

May You Be in Heaven . . .

March 18, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:2 Comments

AN HOUR BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD!

BY BOB SPARROW

I REALIZE I’M A DAY LATE (AT LEAST) AND A FEW EUROS OR POUND STERLINGS SHORT, BUT I CAN’T LET ST. PATRICK’S DAY PASS WITHOUT A TIP OF THE PADDY CAP TO THE IRISH. THIS BLOG IS WRITTEN IN LARGE BOLD LETTERS, AS IT’S THE WEEK AFTER ST. PATRICK’S DAY AND I KNOW SOME OF OUR FOLLOWERS’ HEADS MAY BE SOMEWHAT FOGGY FROM A BIT TOO MUCH OF THE ‘GARGLE’. I’LL TRY TO KEEP IT SHORT FOR YOU.

WHILE I DON’T SUPPOSE ANY OF YOU ARE THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK’S DAY, SINCE IT PASSED LAST SUNDAY, I’M GOING TO GIVE IT TO YOU ANYWAY, AS MY OWN BRAIN IS A BIT FUZZY. THE MAN FOR WHO ST. PATRICK’S DAY IS NAMED, WAS BORN INTO AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY IN ROMAN BRITAIN AROUND THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY, AND AS A TEENAGER WAS KIDNAPPED BY IRISH PIRATES AND TAKEN TO IRELAND WHERE HE WAS A SLAVE FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. HE EVENTUALLY ESCAPTED AND ENDED UP RETURNING LATER AS A MISSIONARY COVERTING THE RESIDENCE THERE TO CHRISTIANITY. HE DIED ON MARCH 17 AND THAT BECAME A HOLY DAY FOR THE CATHOLICS.

SO IT STARTED AS A VERY SOLEMN CELEBRATION, BUT WHEN IT CAME TO AMERICA IN THE 1760S, THE IRISH SOLDIERS SERVING HERE IN THE BRITISH MILITARY, HAD A PARADE . . . AND NO DOUBT HAD A COUPLE OF COLD ONES, MAYBE MORE THAN A COUPLE! BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL THE 1970s THAT PUBS IN IRELAND, WHICH WERE PREVIOUSLY CLOSED TO CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK DAY, BEGAN TO OPEN UP AND CELEBRATE WITH A PINT OR TWO. LEAVE IT TO THE AMERICANS TO TAKE A SOLUMN RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY AND TURN IT INTO A DRUNK-FEST.

I AM ONE OF 35 MILLION AMERICANS WHO CLAIM TO HAVE IRISH IN THEIR HERITAGE – 11% ACCORDING TO ANCESTRY, AND I’M 57% ENGLISH & NORTHWEST EUROPE (I’M THINKING MOSTLY NORTHERN IRELAND!) SO, ON ST. PATTY’S DAY I FIXED MYSELF AN ‘IRISH CAR BOMB’, OOPS, NOT SUPPOSE TO CALL IT THAT ANY MORE, THAT’S POLITICALLY INCORRECT, IT’S NOW CALLED A ‘IRISH SHOT’. SURE, I’LL GIVE YOU THE RECIPE: PUT 1/2 OZ OF IRISH WHISKEY AND 1/2 OZ OF BAILEYS IRISH CREAM IN A SHOT GLASS AND DROP IT IN A PINT OF GUINNESS BEER. SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

A FEW, SOMEWHAT INTERESTING FACTS, ABOUT IRELAND AND THE IRISH . . .

IN 1921, THE IRISH SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE AND IRELAND WAS PATITIONED INTO TWO COUNTRIES: THE IRISH FREE STATE, WHICH WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY CATHOLIC, AND THE SMALLER NORTHERN IRELAND, WHICH WAS MOSTLY PROTESTANT.

‘THE TROUBLES’, LASTING FROM 1968 – 1998, WAS THE NAME FOR THE VIOLENT SECTARIAN CONFLICT BETWEEM IRELAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND; IT IS OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS A RELIGIOUS WAR, BUT IT WAS REALLY THE FIGHT OVER WHO CONTROLED NORTHERN IRELAND, THE IRISH (MOSTLY CATHOLICS) OR THE ENGLISH (MOSTLY PROTESTANTS).

THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF IRELAND ONLY HAS A LITTLE OVER 5 MILLION PEOPLE. AS A REFERENCE, NEW YORK CITY ALONE HAS A POPULATION OF OVER 8 MILLION. BUT DESPITE ITS SIZE, IT HAS A HUGE PERSONALITY – THEY LOVE TO SING, DANCE, FIGHT, DRINK AND DRINK SOME MORE.

An Irish Toast

LUCK OF THE IRISH – THE PHRASE ACTUALLY CAME FROM THE CALIFORNIA GOLD & SILVER RUSH, THE IRISH SEEMED TO BE ABLE TO FIND THESE ORES BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE. THE RARE FOUR-LEAF CLOVER IS CONSIDERED TO BE LUCKY AS IS CAPTURING A LEPRECHAUN, AS THEY ARE TYPICALLY ACCOMPANIED BY POTS OF GOLD AND RAINBOWS. OK, NOW I THINK IT’S THE IRISH WHISKEY TALKING!

KISS THE BLARNEY STONE – YOU’LL SUPPOSEDLY RECEIVE THE POWER TO PERSUADE IF YOU KISS THE STONE OUTSIDE THE BLARNEY CASTLE IN IRELAND.

THE CURRENCY IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND IS THE EURO, WHILE NORTHERN IRELAND USES THE POUND STERLING.

AN IRISH GOODBYE IS MAKING A SNEAKY EXIT FROM A GATHERING WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE FIRST. AND SPEAKING OF GOODBYES, IT’S MY TIME FOR ME TO DO SO, AND I LEAVE YOU WITH ‘SLAN LEAT’ – IRISH FOR “GOODBYE AND GOOD HEALTH.”

ERIN GO BRAUGH, WHICH IS GALIC FOR ‘IRELAND FOREVER’. AND OF COURSE THERE IS ‘ERIN GO BRAUGH-LESS’, BUT THAT’S A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER BLOG.

Posted in opinion

IT’S ALWAYS A GOLFER’S FAULT

March 11, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:2 Comments

By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

Yesterday marked the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, an annual event that causes grousing throughout the world from people who wonder where they go to get their lost hour back. And no wonder. Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been linked to negative health consequences that include increased risk of heart attack, traffic accidents, sleep disruption (duh!), mood changes, depression, weight gain, and cluster headaches. Not to mention getting called out by the boss for being late to work. As a resident of Arizona, I no longer have to worry about DST, as our state, as well as Hawaii and several U.S. territories in the Pacific Island region, don’t believe in such tomfoolery. We get enough sun during the summer to last the whole year – we don’t need to have any more “sunshine saving” when it’s 110 degrees outside. But why does most of the world observe DST? Turns out, it all started with a man and his golf game. That always spells trouble.

William Willet

One of the first people to advocate adjusting the clock seasonally was a British builder named William Willett. He had noticed that few people were out in the early morning light during the summer because their clocks indicated it was too darn early to be up. More importantly to Willett, his golf games often ended early because it became too dark to play. So in 1907 Willett started a campaign to “save” daylight by adjusting the time. He published “The Waste of Daylight,” in which he suggested changing the clocks at 2 a.m. on Sundays during the spring and fall — something we still do today. But, unlike today, the transition was to happen 20 minutes at a time over the course of four weeks, twice a year, for a total of eight time changes each year. And rather than an even hour, the time difference would be 80 minutes. Willett’s proposal was considered in the British House of Commons in 1908, but it was soundly rejected. Who in the heck wanted to change the time eight times a year?!

But during World War I many countries were looking for new ways to save money. Inspired by Willett’s original proposal, which had included estimated savings in electricity costs, Germany and Britain implemented “Summer Time” in 1916, changing the clocks just one hour twice a year. Ironically, Willett died of influenza in 1915, so he didn’t live to see his idea come to fruition. The United States first observed daylight saving time on March 31, 1918. Originally scheduled for six months of the year, it was extended by Congress in 2005 to eight months.

According to the most recent polling, most people aren’t feeling great about DST. More than 40 states have passed legislation to make either daylight saving time or standard time permanent. The problem is that states don’t have the authority to actually stop the clocks from moving forward or back. That authority rests with Congress. Senator Marco Rubio and Rep. Vern Buchanan have tried several times to make daylight saving time permanent with the “Sunshine Protection Act”. While the Senate has passed the bill, it has stalled before a House vote and has never gone before President Biden to be signed into law. Given the ability of our elected representatives to agree on anything, I’m not sure the Sunshine Act will ever see the light of day.

The upside of changing clocks is that there has been a tandem effort to remind people to change the batteries on their smoke detectors at the same time they change their clocks. Because we don’t observe DST in Arizona, I guess I am throwing caution to the wind and will have to suffer the consequences when my units start to chirp – inevitably at 2 a.m.

Posted in Historical • Show Business • travel

Hollywood in the Desert

March 4, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:7 Comments

by Bob Sparrow

Charlie Farrell and Dinah Shore

I spent last week in the desert . . . whining & dining, the whining mostly took place on the golf course. Even though it was our 32^nd year visiting our timeshare at Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, I’ve found, unlike me, it never gets old. But you won’t be hearing about my golf game (Thank God!) or the next great place to eat in the desert. I have something even more mundane than that to discuss this week.

On our way out to the desert on Highway 10, as went by the road sign that read Bob Hope Drive, and it got me thinking about all the streets in this area that are named after celebrities, like Frank Sinatra, Burns & Allen, Bing Crosby, Barbara Stanwyck, Danny Kaye, Ginger Rogers, Dean Martin, Jack Benny, Liberace and many more.

And I wondered, who started all this? Well, a little research revealed that it was Charlie Farrell, the tennis playing movie star turned hotelier turned mayor and owner of the glamorous Racket Club in Palm Springs. He saw value in recognizing celebrities, so he and fellow actor, Ralph Bellamy, realized that many actors took advantage of Hollywood’s ‘two-hour clause’ in their contracts, which stated, in the event a ‘re-shoot’ was needed, actors had to stay within two hours of Hollywood – Palm Springs is just under two-hours away. For those old enough to remember the old television series, My Little Margie, Charlie played Margie’s father. And yes, of course, there is a Ferrell Drive in Palm Springs.

Other notable ‘street stories’ . . .

Which door does Monty Hall live behind?

Monty Hall Street – in 2000 former Let’s Make a Deal host Monty Hall had a street in Palm Springs named after him. Tourists were encouraged to guess which house he lived in. They were asked, “Does Monty live behind door No. 1, door No. 2, or door No. 3?

Fred Waring Drive – Another interesting resident of the desert was Fred Waring, an American musician, bandleader and radio and television personality. Many of you, who have blended a Margarita, may have used a Waring Blender, and while he didn’t invent it, his name is on it because he was the money and marketing behind the product.

Gene Autry Trail – The “Singing Cowboy”, was a movie and TV star of the ‘40s and ‘50s and a Palm Springs entrepreneur. He bought his first Palm Springs home in 1940, and a Palm Springs Holiday Inn in 1961, which he turned into the Gene Autry Hotel; his mid-century residence on the hotel grounds is an elegant guest suite.

Kirk Douglas Way – movie star Kirk Douglas, who passed away just four years ago at the ripe old age of 103, was a resident of Palm Springs for more than 40 years. His house backed up to Dinah Shore’s house in the celebrity-packed Las Palmas neighborhood.

The ‘Singing Cowboy’

Dinah Shore Drive – the vivacious ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s singer, TV personality and avid golfer, put the LPGA on the map in 1972 when she founded the Colgate-Dinah Shore golf tournament at Mission Hills County Club (Now know as the Chevron Championship and it has moved to Houston). Her Palm Springs house is now owned by Leonardo DiCaprio. So look for a DiCaprio Drive soon!

As I thought about all these stars of the past, I thought that my kids would be somewhat familiar with most of the above names, but their kids will have no idea why these streets are named after these random people. For me, it was an interesting trip down another street, Memory Lane; I hope it was for you too.

Posted in opinion

A CRIME SYNDICATE COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

February 26, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:8 Comments

By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

In the shadowy world of organized crime, a peculiar breed of criminals has emerged: South American Theft Groups. They are burglars often referred to as “crime tourists” because they enter the U.S. legally under the Visa Waiver Program that has been in place with Chile since 2014. The Chilean waiver is the only one issued to a South American country. It allows Chileans to be in the U.S. for 90 days for either personal or business reasons. The problem is that for some, their “business” is robbing Americans. This problem has existed for around five years (with a short break due to Covid travel restrictions) and has recently emerged in the greater Phoenix area. Since December there have been 111 burglaries netting more than $3 million…and counting! They almost always hit during the early evening when people are out to dinner, thus earning them the nickname of “The Dinner Time Burglars”. This group is a growing problem nationally – in the past month there has been a rash of burglaries in Philadelphia, New York, Miami, Edina, MN, Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, Ashville NC and Indianapolis, just to name a few. Their method of operation is consistent: they enter the backyard of a home either through open space or a golf course, they smash through a glass door or window (thus not breaking the seal on a home alarm sensor), they upend everything in the primary bedroom and bath, and take jewelry, cash, expensive handbags, and other small items. The average time from beginning to end of their caper is 5-8 minutes.

The 3 Phoenix Burglars

So… why have they been so successful in eluding capture? First, there are a LOT of them. Last week three police officers held a meeting for our homeowner’s group to discuss the overall problem and they said they are seeing an increase in the number of burglary cells because of the ease with which they can obtain visas or enter through the southern border. The detective said that the Chilean crime syndicate has established training camps where the burglars learn how to surveil properties, break through doors and windows, and evade security cameras. The trainees who are the fastest are the ones sent to the U.S. When they arrive here they generally rent a high-end car so as not to look out of place when they’re scouting high-end neighborhoods, and they rent homes through Airbnb or VRBO, so they aren’t observed in hotel lobbies or parking lots. As unnerving as this all is, you would think just setting an alarm and operating security cameras would provide adequate protection. You would be wrong. A woman across the road from me had jewelry and cash stolen. She said that her Ring alarm/camera system was on, but it didn’t capture the burglars who entered her home. And there’s a good reason for that. The latest tool in their bag of tricks is a Wi-Fi and cellular frequency jammer, that disables security systems and cell phone transmissions. Last weekend the technology expert, Kim Komando, was exposed to this group when they tried to rob several houses on her street in Phoenix. Because she recently designed and built her house (and she is a technology expert) her home has a hard-wired security system. Fortunately for her the burglars moved on from her house but she was able to capture the 22 SWAT team members who swarmed her back yard looking for evidence. They found several jammers strewn around the area. Neighbors reported losing their Wi-Fi/phone connectivity, but assumed it was a simple internet outage. The truth was obviously far scarier. In that incident the police were able to capture three of the burglars as they tried to escape. According to court records, all three suspects were of Chilean descent, overstayed their visas, and were carrying bogus ID cards from Spain, with fake names and birth dates.

A New Friend for Dash?

Over the past three weeks we have had two attempted burglaries in my community. In the first one the owner came home from walking her dog and surprised the burglars. The second incident last week involved them shattering a bedroom slider, but they were scared off when they realized the owners were home in another part of the house. I don’t want to get into a discussion about continuing the visa program or our southern border. But piggybacking on Bob’s post from last week, it may be time to throw out ALL of our politicians and find some who can find some solutions. For now, all I know is that in twenty-four years of living in this house I have rarely turned on the alarm system. Now, it’s on all the time. I have installed more security and have taken extra precautions for my personal security. I’m thinking of getting Dash the Wonder Dog a friend. One who bites. I never thought I would live like this.

Posted in politics

Are You Waiting for the Day When Politicians Vote Themselves Out of Office?

February 19, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:12 Comments

by Bob Sparrow

Is this the answer?

I have come to hate election years, where politicians turn into junior high adolescents telling us in a 30-second television commercial, how corrupt and incapable their opponents are, while bragging about the pork barrel appropriation that they got though last year. I have found that I am not alone. Approval ratings for our politicians are abysmal. Congressional approval hasn’t been above 40% since 2005. For about half of the time since 2005, it has been below 20%. Yet, even with such low public opinion, congressional incumbents enjoy a reelection rate that rarely falls below 90%. Put in simpler terms, we don’t like the job our politicians are doing, but we keep re-electing them. What is wrong with us?!

The divide in our country is visually on parade as I hear about the corrupt Republican politicians on CNN and the corrupt Democrat politicians on Fox. I know I’m not alone in believing that our system, in its current state, is broken. California’s debt is about $32 Billion, our national debt is north of $34 Trillion, if we were to run our personal lives like our politicians run our states and country, we’d be sleeping in the streets. But, our politicians are more interested in keeping their jobs and thus blaming all the failures of the country on those on the other side of the aisle.

Best government money can buy

We Americans like to believe that we lead the world in almost everything, but we are not even in the Top 10 of ‘Best Governments in the World’, and we seems to be moving in the wrong direction. While our government may not rank high in the world standings, we can honestly brag that we have the best politicians that money can buy. To wit, in 2020, 88% of House races and 71% of Senate races were won by the top spender. The amount of money spent on Congressional campaigns almost quadrupled over the last 20 years, to $8.7 billion in 2020, and it shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

So, what’s the solution? Many believe that it’s term limits. Proponents say that term limits would bring in a wave of new ideas and passionate citizens ready to serve their country for a time and then return home. Civility would be the new norm as members of Congress begin to see themselves as fellow Americans and not threats to their own careers. I have read a number of articles both for and against term limits, both have an arguement, so I asked ChatGPT to weigh in on the subject; here’s what it gave me:

“Term limits for elected officials have been a subject of ongoing debate in political circles around the world. Advocates argue that term limits bring fresh perspectives, prevent the entrenchment of power, and encourage a more dynamic political landscape. On the other hand, opponents contend that term limits can undermine experienced leadership, disrupt continuity, and limit the ability of effective leaders to stay in office.”

Indeed, there are some definite advantages and disadvantages to term limits, so perhaps there is a middle ground way to:

Eliminate career politicians. For me, this can be likened to professional sports; I loved watching Michael Jordan play basketball, but there was a time, with age, that his skills diminished, at which point, HE decided that he could not compete at that level anymore. Politicians rarely, if ever, see that their skills have diminished.
Make it a good paying job instead of a great paying job. It’s hard to find a politician who has not become a multi-millionaire in office.
Find ways to have representation of the American people rather than special interest groups with lots of money

You got yourself into this, I can’t get you out!!!

I do know that it is unlikely that today’s politicians would vote themselves out of their cushy jobs. I wish I knew how these things could be accomplished without a real ‘peoples’ revolution’, so I would hope that there are people smarter than me that can figure this out.

I’ll give ChatGPT the final word on this as it is definitely smarter than me:

“As societies grapple with these trade-offs, it is essential to consider alternative measures, such as robust checks and balances, to ensure effective governance while respecting democratic principles.”

I’m Bob Sparrow and I approve this message

Posted in opinion

NORDSTROM HAS ME AT A 2

February 12, 2024By Sparrow/WatsonComments:10 Comments

By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

The lovely blanket

On Christmas Day, as I arrived home from a wonderful celebration with family, I noticed a large box on my doorstep. I had just been with everyone who might possibly send me a gift, so my first thought was that once again I had ordered something from Amazon and completely forgotten about it. But no, the return address was Nordstrom Rack. I opened the box to find the most squishy, soft blanket, in colors that exactly match my decor. The only problem was there was no gift card. I perused the label looking for a clue and literally tore the box apart looking for a gift insert. Nope. Nothing. I decided to call Nordstrom Rack to see if they could help. After all, Nordstrom is known for their outstanding customer service. I called the customer service number for Nordstrom Rack and was immediately connected to someone in the far reaches of Southeast Asia. I explained my situation, told him the order number on the label, and asked if he could provide me with the name of the sender. “Oh, no, madam”, he says, “you would need to give me the name and email address of the person who sent the gift in order for us to provide that information.” Okay, maybe we had a language problem here. I explained again that if I had the name and the email address of the person who sent it, I wouldn’t be calling him. Again, he said that if I couldn’t provide that information, he couldn’t provide me with the name of the sender. Privacy issues, he stated. I tried another tack – I asked if he could provide me with the zip code of the sender. I thought at least that would narrow it down. Well, apparently the zip code request is the equivalent to the nuclear bomb codes and is not in the manual. He had to put me on hold to find a supervisor. When he came back on the line, he once again told me that for privacy reasons, I would need to give him the name and email address of the sender. I hung up … and gave up. The blanket is still intact, I feel too guilty to use it without having thanked whoever sent it.

The whole experience got me thinking about the state of customer service, or more accurately, the lack of customer service. Granted, there are still great examples of it out there. I recently had two unfortunate experiences with tires, and the good people at Discount Tire could not have been more helpful or kind. But generally, good customer service is an anomaly. I’m not alone in thinking this. I found a wonderful interview by Amas Tenumah, who wrote the book, Waiting for Service: An Insider’s Account of Why Customer Service is Broken and Tips to Avoid Bad Service. His research shows that Americans are incredibly gracious when they start out with customer support: on a scale of 1 to 10, he says most people start with expectations at nine or nine and a half. He describes how it goes downhill from there:

People start with a positive outlook about resolving a problem. But then they are met with an automated system — press one, press two — or a voice-recognition machine that asks the customer to state their name, account number, nature of the problem, etc. But oftentimes, the voice-recognition machine isn’t so good at voice recognition, or they are directed to a chatbot on a website. Once they’ve offered up all of their personal information (again) they might be connected to a human, and the human asks them to repeat the information. The goodwill at the beginning of the interaction that started at a nine, is now down to a four, and then, God forbid, the human says they need to transfer the call to another department.

Tenumah says there are a number of reasons why customer service may feel worse – a shortage in workers in some industries, the proliferation of tech as a part of the process, and a lack of incentive for companies without competition. As he accurately points out – have you ever tried to contact your internet provider about anything? His suggestion is that we need to change the social contract and not think of customer service reps as “low skill workers.” As he points out, by the time an issue reaches a human being they are usually complicated requests. If the problem was an easy one, a bot or a machine could have handled it.

I’m not sure it’s “we” who need to change the social contract as much as it is corporate America. I’m convinced this issue will not change in my lifetime, so I’ve learned to set my expectations low and reserve my DefCon 1 outbursts for truly egregious situations. All I know at this point is that due to Nordstrom Rack and their customer service policies, someone out there thinks I’m an ungrateful oaf who doesn’t know how to send a note of thanks.