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Tiger parenting
Re “The dark side of ‘Tiger’ parenting,” By Maria Thompson Corley—
I live in Southern California, where the Asian community is significant both in numbers and accomplishment. The University of California system, and especially Berkeley and UCLA, have more students of Asian background than any other ethnic group, disproportionate to the population as a whole. Why? Because those students, many with immigrant parents, work really, really hard to get there.
My sons’ high school advisors told me that in another generation, this won’t be so— that the Asian students in K-12 will want to have a social life, go to the prom, be popular, be cheerleaders, be athletes, be in clubs that are not necessarily academic. In short, they will want their own lives, rather than live up, exclusively, to the well-justified expectations of their hard working, success-seeking, acceptance-seeking parents.
Many immigrant groups have done the same thing over the past 150 years.
My kids? I was a single mom of Norwegian/Swedish/English/Scottish background. We had rules: Do your best in school— if you slack and get a B, you should get an A. Be in at least one athletic activity. Be in at least one other school activity. Play one instrument of your choice for one year; if you don’t like it, you can quit. Don’t get in trouble. That was it.
The result? A high school valedictorian, an all-state musician, a Berkeley Phi Beta Kappa, a summa cum laude, and two happy kids who chose, within those rules, what to do.
Parents, expect excellence, give your kids a chance to find out where they shine and the choice to pursue it, and let them have some fun.
Mary Lenihan
Hermosa Beach, Calif.
January 19, 2011
Three theater divas in New York
Re “Ibsen and Wilde, perfect together,” by Carol Rocamora—
So Oscar is Wilde, Thornton is Wilder and Ibsen is the Wildest.
I always loved the line in The Importance of Being Earnest where a character is admonished by Lady Bracknell, “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?”
Joseph Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
January 24, 2011
Tucson’s victims
Re “Tucson’s other victims,” by John L. Erlich—
When I was young and frisky, I believed I could do something about the evils of the world. Take action! Get involved! Stop the wars!
One of the sorrows of my old age is accepting that I can’t do a damn thing. As I witness the same pain and violence, I wring my useless hands. Then I have to turn back into my own life.
No wonder we geezers look so grumpy. We see too much. To live is to suffer.
Reed Stevens
Campbell, Calif.
January 19, 2011
Professor Robert Zaller’s reflections on Obama’s Tucson speech are timely. We are the nation where two Kennedys and one King were “executed” in a turbulent decade. We lead the world in both incarceration rates and differential punishments for race and class, including executions. Our hunger for guns also leads the world as more and more citizens wrongly believe guns make them safer.
We live in a psychotic culture and should worry less about being overrun economically by China and more about imminent social suicide. My hunch is that we are most vulnerable because of our false “Exceptionalism” as the greatest nation in the history of the world. Until we are mature enough to confess to this absurd false consciousness, we will fondle our guns as a mindless guarantee of safety.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
January 23, 2011
Editor’s comment: Granted, the notion of a uniquely chosen nation leads inevitably to arrogance. But what country, other than the U.S., gets your vote for greatest nation in history so far? Ancient Greece? Rome? Britain? France? The Hapsburg Empire? What?
Living in Vermont, where I’ve been for the past three years, offers a different perspective on the gun issue. Here, more people own guns than don’t, and most of them are used by folks roaming the woods looking for something to eat. Here, the challenge isn’t guns, or gun ownership, or even gun usage. Day-to-day survival is far more of a real challenge.
Most people here will be the first to tell you that the key word is “responsibility.” These folks know why they have guns, and they know how to use them responsibly. And that’s the word that seems to be missing from the national debates.
What I have so much trouble understanding is why the “Second Amendment advocates” don’t take it upon themselves to police their own actions. I’m all for letting my neighbors feed their families with this year’s venison harvest; I’m all against their having (and carrying around) weapons of mass overkill.
Bob Rottenberg
Brattleboro, Vt.
January 26, 2011
Robert Zaller replies: The relationship between guns and gun ownership is more complicated. Many Canadians own guns, but they don’t have nearly the level of violence we do. The real issue is with multiple gun ownership (there are some genuine collectors, but it is mostly about illicit resale), with bans on assault weapons that have no responsible use, and with background checks and screenings to weed out the Loughners as far as possible. I don’t think any legitimate gun owner could object to that.
The Inquirer’s institutional memory
Re “The Inquirer discovers Rendell’s temper,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
More power to Ed Rendell for letting his inquisitors know that they’re really a bunch of jerks. And here, all these years, I’ve been under the delusion that the Riverdale Country Day School taught its students to keep their emotions clearly under a tight lid. I guess the lid finally blew off, allowing Rendell to appear, well, human.
Bob Rottenberg
Brattleboro, Vt.
January 12, 2011
Editor’s comment: Actually, Rendell was suspended by Riverdale for one year for dumping a cafeteria tray full of food on one of his teachers. I am not making this up.
Good column. I remember and even saw many of those sports moments, including Chuck Bednarik’s jump of joy after knocking out Frank Gifford in 1960. It was quite a game. I was 17. Thanks for that, and for the Review.
Charlie Thomson
Center City/ Philadelphia
January 12, 2011
As you will remember, in the previous game of the same 1929 World Series, the A’s scored ten runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, while trailing 8-0, and won that one, 10-8.
It is not true that Mitch Williams was the Cubs’ closer at the time.
Bob Levin
Berkeley, Calif.
January 12, 2011
Make that three of us who remember Richardson Dilworth, our greatest mayor, a fighting U.S. Marine who was a true hero, not only as a warrior and politician, but also during the sinking of the Andrea Doria, on which he was a passenger in 1956.
Governor Rendell may have a temper, but next to Mayor Dilworth, he’s a pussycat.
Ann C. Davidson
Spring Garden/ Philadelphia
January 29, 2011
Yannick and Mozart’s Requiem
Re the reviews of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Mozart Requiem by Steve Cohen and Victor L. Schermer—
Broad Street Review offers two reviews that reflect and teach the way we wish the Inquirer could do the same. How unfortunate that Philadelphia’s one remaining print newspaper is not so endowed.
Nancy W. Bauer
Chestnut Hill/ Philadelphia
January 12, 2011
Editor’s comment: One of two. The Daily News still survives.
Sam Maitin
Re Jane Biberman’s review of Sam Matin’s work at Woodmere Art Museum—
Sam’s work is perfect for the Please Touch Museum. The bright colors and shapes and playfulness of the Tree of Life make the work fun and accessible for even our youngest visitors. The prints/study in the exhibition give the viewer a sense of the mural in the museum.
It was a privilege to be among those from the museum who worked with Sam on the project.
Laura H. Foster
President and CEO
Please Touch Museum,
Fairmount Park/ Philadelphia
January 17, 2011
Mass transit in Johannesburg
“Public transit from the bottom up,” by Alaina Mabaso, was a lovely article. Thanks
Fin Wycherley
Edinburgh, Scotland
January 14, 2011
Punch-drunk Hollywood
Bob Ingram’s review of The Fighter offered a complexity of thought what went well beyond anything I anticipated. His knowledge, point of view and all else distilled into a brilliant piece. I wanted to disagree and I can’t. It is poetic and incisive— a helluva review.
Alex Lowy
Narberth, Pa.
January 9, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed the film and also think this review is right-on.
Thanks.
David Millstone
East Falls/ Philadelphia
January 10, 2011
I know Bob gets it right, and I wonder where he ranks Body and Soul, with John Garfield, a favorite of mine. I do recall Fat City as a masterpiece and thank Ingram for his masterful article!
Dinny Zimmerman
Peterborough, N.H.
January 10, 2011
Bob Ingram replies: Body and Soul is up there… somewhere in my Top Ten.
In his excellent essay on The Fighter, Bob Ingram refers to “the former middleweight Carmen Basilio.” That’s sort of like saying, “The former ball player Mickey Mantle.”
At different points in his career, Basilio, one of the great fighters of his generation, was the world welterweight and middleweight champion. His welterweight championship fight against Tony DeMarco in 1955 is one of my most vivid childhood memories.
Dan Coren
Queen Village/ Philadelphia
January 15, 2011
Bob Ingram replies: Point well taken. Just for the record, in the original version, I wrote: “The Boxing Hall of Fame is run by Carmen Basilio, who was an embodiment of the grit, dedication and talent that go into the making of a true real-life champion.”
Blue Man Group: A boomer responds
Re “Blue Man Group: An ‘80s relic”—
Madeline Schaefer thinks I am a slave and she doesn’t even know me! She wrote, in regard to the recent Blue Man Group performance, that she “was the exception, of course. Most everyone else in the Merriam audience seemed delighted, even excited, to serve as slaves to these strange men painted in blue.”
Reading her whine about how passé the Blue Man Group has become made this Baby Boomer wonder just what it was about the evening that really did delight me.
Schaefer writes that “modern society has outgrown the group’s message” without mentioning what that message might have been. The message (supposedly a quotation from “the International Diplomacy Handbook”) was displayed prominently on a large screen on stage as the audience took their seats. As I recall, it asserted that the best way to get to know a person is to create something together, like a spontaneous dance party, for example.
Truth be told, I liked their message and how it was packaged. The message transcends generations. I commend Blue Man Group for continuing to creatively remind all of us, including you whose generation has yet to be defined, that real relationships are worth the effort and that creating community is delightful and exciting.
Craig R. Tavani
Phoenixville, Pa.
January 6, 2011
Madeline Schaefer replies: I too believe deeply in the message of “creating community.” But the message of real-time connection was cheapened, I thought, by the flashing lights and giant white bouncing balls. This performance offered no deep or moving answers to the ideal it promoted on screen.
Craig R. Tavani replies: Madeline Schaefer says the performance offered no deep or moving answers to the ideal it promoted on screen. Perhaps the intention of any Blue Man Group performance is merely to open us up to the desire for further community through this experience of theater. Life beyond theater is our opportunity to fulfill that desire.
Unsung pianist
Re “The greatest pianist you never heard of,” by Dan Coren—
Valentina Lisitsa will perform the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with the Dayton (Ohio) Philharmonic on Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, at the Schuster Center at 8 p.m.
Richard A. Walter
Muncie, Ind.
January 5, 2011
Black Swan
Re Janet Anderson’s review of Black Swan—
Great article, I really want to see the movie. But, geez! Can we say “SPOILER ALERT”?
Amy Miller
Center City/ Philadelphia
January 5, 2011
Editor’s comment: If I told you how Romeo and Juliet ended, would that spoil it for you?
Secret life of drawings
Robert Zaller’s article on “The Secret Life of Drawings” was very informative. I did not know that there is a choice to make when conservation of a drawing in paper is considered.
Fabiola Knight
Port Washington, N.Y.
January 7, 2011
Far East economy
Re “I have seen the future, and it’s in the Far East,” by Benjamin Olshin—
How did I ever miss this guy? He does what philosophers ought to but rarely do these days: clarify complex issues that are usually distorted ridiculously in the mainstream media.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
January 7, 2011
Antonio Mancini at the Art Museum
Basically I liked Andrew Mangravite’s review of Antonio Mancini’s work at the Art Museum (January 2008). I just wish he had left out the adjective “minor.” Sargent said Mancini was the greatest living painter. He was a contemporary realist of his time. It was unfortunate that he had personal mental problems that no doubt held him back from being financially more successful. He had a precocious natural ability from the start. He was great with pastel, which at that time was in the vanguard. He could sling paint with the best of them!
Ray Mehlmann
Howard Beach, N.Y.
January 6, 2011
WikiLeaks and secrecy
Re “WikiLeaks, secrets and a distant memory,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
If this country didn’t have a record of presidents (and their administrations) lying to the American people, Americans wouldn’t give a good old Yankee Doodle damn about the secrets.
The people in Washington are our servants, not our masters. Which means that we tell them what we want done. To know that, we must have information. If they are to keep “secrets” to serve us, then we must have faith in their honesty and integrity. By their past actions, successive administrations have forfeited their right to our confidence.
The media should resume their role as the advocate of the people and the adversary of government, not the cheerleaders for every action that Washington takes. If they had done their job properly, we wouldn’t be mired in a war in Iraq.
More secrets please.
Andrew Kevorkian
West Philadelphia
December 29, 2010
Perhaps the truth can’t be covered up forever, but long enough will do. The C. Turner Joy was never attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, but the lie about it was perpetuated long enough to give us full-scale war in Vietnam. The lie about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction lasted only a couple of years, but it brought us the invasion of Iraq, a war of aggression as fully premeditated and as little justified as the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland. There was never a war without a lie at its core, and the truth can never come too soon.
In the face of self-censoring media and a citizenry submitted to endless wars, it takes a rogue outfit to challenge the state propaganda machine. WikiLeaks itself plays the game so that the establishment press will print its scoops and cover its back. The uproar over it isn’t about what it’s published but what it hasn’t, and what the government and other nefarious entities fear it might.
The question is never whether the truth will out, but when--and how many of us would want to know it while it might still do us some good.
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
December 30, 2010
We from Portland, Indiana, know this is a true story. I enjoyed it again.
Barry Hudson
Portland, Ind.
December 29, 2010
Dan’s canny recollection of his experiences as a young underling and then overlord of his first news job in small-town Portland, Indiana bespeaks an autobiography to be sweetly relished. I hope I’m still around to read what he remembers of my stumbles over AIDS and anti-Semitism in the Welcomat (circa 1990), and why Seven Arts magazine went under (circa 1996), and how he talked the University of the Arts into sponsoring the Broad Street Review in a time of fiscal crisis. We are indeed all small-towners in the Internet era!
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
January 1, 2011
Editor’s comment: The hangup is: Who will play me in the inevitable film version of my autobiography? Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark and Lee J. Cobb are all dead.
Conductor’s circle
Re “The other side of the podium“,” by Tom Purdom—
I thoroughly enjoyed many years sitting in the conductor’s circle at Verizon Hall. Being in the middle of the sound was terrific. And if the music was not particularly appealing to me, it was easy enough to follow along in the score of the nearest player and not pay much attention to the overall piece!
Two downsides: Vocal soloists are totally lost, and Valery Gergiev appears so crazed that I can’t watch him conduct face-on.
Michael Rissinger
Center City
December 28, 2010
The conductor’s circle is our preferred seating for the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition to the interesting points made in Tom Purdom’s article, it is visually interesting to watch the conductor’s communication with the orchestra and to observe close up, in addition to hearing, the movement of musical themes among the various instrumental groups.
Vic Compher
Society Hill/ Philadelphia
December 29, 2010
I have always wished for giant screens and a running video of the orchestra like what was done at the Wachovia Center for the Carol King and James Taylor shows.
Why not let the audience see the musicians at the back, the hands of the harpist, the flutist performing? I rarely see musicians halfway back in the orchestra. And if I’m seated on the wrong side of a piano soloist, how marvelous it would be to look up to a large screen and watch as she performs.
Joan Myerson Shrager
Elkins Park, Pa.
January 5, 2011
China’s success story
Re “China vs. the West: Who has conquered whom?” by Benjamin Olshin—
How fanciful and democratic this argument is. Reminds me of the fact that Americans trump all other countries in their reported levels of personal self-confidence. Who gives a fig, when only the leaf is exposed?
As James Carville once famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid!”
The greatest achievement that Americans can hope for now is that we collectively discover how to uphold our myth— no small achievement on this shrinking globe.
If that requires the same tough, stubborn, faithful, focused, dedicated and pioneering spirit that first brought us here, hammered out our Constitution and won our wars, it seems that our countrymen today have a long way to go.
If, however, somewhere deep in each one of our souls, we still have a greater cause to share with the world, it might well be the same cause that inspired William Penn: “Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us.”
Margaret Chew Barringer
Penn Valley, Pa.
December 29, 2010
Three generations at The Nutcracker
Re Dan Rottenberg’s piece on three generations at the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Nutcracker—
If there’s a really new Nut to be cracked, we can count on our polymathic editor to oblige. (Jock of all arts and master of many.) At hand is his beguiling double date with granddaughter Thelma (age three) and her mother Julie. Issue: When is it too early to take a tot to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker?
Given the DNAs involved, Thelma would have probably soared and scored silently in utero. As it turned out, she babbled brilliantly on her way back to New York on both Amtrak and the dreary subways.
Which brings me to a coincidence. Shortly after reading about her trip, I Googled the story about the 80-member Chorus Niagara doing a flash mob concert of Handel’s Messiah on the astonished patrons of a very ordinary watering hole— part of the Knight Foundation’s national scheme of willy-nilly upgrading the art experiences of the very unenlightened.
Now, my aesthetic upbringing was as uncultivated as a Detroit Catholic was unlike the obsessive Nutcracking of our Manhattan-bred editor. Yet as much as I enjoyed my first flash-mob Handel, this is putting the hearse before the free carts. Most Americans are culture-poor because their daily lives and surroundings are Handel-less.
The benighted Knights must see that the empty lives of too many Americans are still locked into an official boredom. A flash-mob thrill is better than none, but it just doesn’t add up to cultivated mass citizens. That stems from tutelage that begins with kindergarten and literally never ends. Not enough liberated editors for that task.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
December 28, 2010
May we all live many years to experience the wonders of life as they appear on the stage of our theaters. And do keep us posted about the process of your granddaughter. In a way, she is the symbol of hope.
Henrik Eger
Upper Darby, Pa.
January 2, 2011
True Grit gets a remake
Re “True Grit gets a remake,” by Reed Stevens—
Don’t mess with success Hollywood!
Ted Tucker
Lincoln, Mass.
December 28, 2010
Valley Forge revisited
I enjoyed Steve Cohen’s “Valley Forge reconsidered.” And don’t forget to admire the statue of Von Steuben (and five other Revolutionary War heroes) behind the Art Museum.
Lois Linden
Mount Airy/ Philadelphia
January 2, 2011
The season for ungifting
Re “’Tis the season for ungifting,” by Maralyn Lois Polak—
Serendipitous coincidence. Last week I was reading some old Welcomat columns when I discovered one on Polak’s celebrity interviews in the Inquirer. Good stuff. I mean hers. “Whatever happened to her?” I mused.”
A “recovered journalist,” says her bio. A welcome retrieval, sez I. Idiosyncratically grumpy. Scroogish, even! Whee, she lives.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
January 4, 2011
Merchant of Venice
Re “Shakespeare (and anti-Semitism) on trial”—
Carol Rocamora, full of herself as usual, missed the fact that the present production of Merchant of Venice was totally owned by Lily Rabe, who represented in many ways the stupidity of most women, who are totally captured by their pudenda. And women— in many ways like Jews in that time— were generally held in contempt. Unless the women had a fortune, which Lily did. Unfortunately, love made her unable to hold on to it.
The merchant of Venice in the play was not Shylock, but Antonio, an arrogant, uptight, Italian version of Main Line WASPs in days of yore. Jews were OK to borrow money from, but not good enough to be admitted to the Union League.
No great loss in those days— they had lousy cooks. The food at the Union League only became edible when Jews became members and had enough sense to woo Martin Hamann away from The Four Seasons and properly appreciate him.
The point in the last scene, when Portia/Lily realized that she has married, put her life in control of and is stuck forever with a total schmuck, will stick in my mind even through Alzheimer’s. It reminds me of the expression in my dog Spot’s fiancé Jasha’s eyes when he realized that by following Spot over the fence of the Franklin Institute, he was heading for a four-foot drop.
The other thing that was outstanding about this performance was the set. The opening scene has a Jewish kid with peyes coming up to the Rialto and the fence being shut in his face.
Pacino? Good as always, but unable to take my eyes away from Lily Rabe’s wonderful movements and her gelatinous voice, which gave a whole new meaning to the play.
Myra Chanin
Center City/ Philadelphia
December 29, 2010
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