A brief poem

The poem is by Yamabe No Akahito, and appears in the book One Hundred Poems from the Japanese, translated by the American poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982).  The book was originally published in 1955 by New Directions.

In the book's notes, Mr. Rexroth writes that Akahito "lived during the reign of the Emperor Shōmu," which extended from the years 734 to 748.  Akahito, he writes, is believed to have died in the year 736.

There is a reference in the poem to "Asuka," which, Mr. Rexroth explains, "was a former Imperial Palace site."

To view the poem more easily, please click on the image below.

 

(Images from the paperback edition of One Hundred Poems from the Japanese, 27th edition, © New Directions Publishing Corporation. Paperback edition first published in 1964.)

From Barton Gellman, writing in The New York Times

His essay is titled:  "Trump’s Stunning Power Grab on Elections."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/opinion/trump-voting-mail-in-ballots.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g08.PjDi.Y7gDJtd3anhG&smid=url-share

Henny Youngman...and Donald Trump

 A joke, decades ago, from comedian Henny Youngman, went like this:

"I have a very fine doctor.  If you can't afford the operation, he touches up the X-Rays."

I've always loved this joke.

Now, though, one turns to Donald Trump.

What does President Trump do, when he is faced with facts he doesn't like, facts that he believes make him look bad?

He tries to touch up the X-Rays. 

On Friday, he fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after the Bureau released less-than-optimal jobs numbers for July--and also released downwardly revised jobs figures for May and June.

Trump wrote, on social media, "In my opinion, today's Jobs numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."

(In the 1970s, journalist Tom Wolfe wrote of the "Me Generation."  We now have the "ME presidency.")

New York Times chief economics correspondent Ben Casselman wrote this, on Sunday, of the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner:

It was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States. And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well.

Here, too, is an important, sobering column by Thomas R. Friedman, of The New York Times. It was published this week, in the wake of the BLS firing, and is titled "The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/opinion/columnists/friedman-trump-labor-firing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cU8.TBHB.a2lklAZyVZc8&smid=url-share

The terror and tragedy, yesterday, in Manhattan

Profiles from The New York Times, of those murdered Monday evening in the office building at 345 Park Avenue.

1.  New York City police officer Didarul Islam, 36 years old.  He was working, in his off-hours, to provide security for the building.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/officer-islam-nyc-shooting-family-friends.html?smid=url-share

2.  Wesley LePatner, 43 years old, a senior executive at the Blackstone company.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/blackstone-executive-wesley-lepatner-killed-nyc-shooting.html?smid=url-share

 3.  Aland Etienne, a security officer at the building, 46 years old.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/nyc-shooting-victim-security-guard-aland-etienne.html?smid=url-share.

All three were killed in the building's lobby.

4. Julia Hyman, 27, an associate at the Rudin Management real estate company, the company which managed the building.  She was shot and killed on the building's 33rd floor.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/julia-hyman-cornell-nyc-shooting-victim.html?smid=url-share

Another man was also shot, but survived.  The Washington Post has reported the following: 

Craig Clementi, an NFL employee who works in the league’s finance department [at the building], was injured...a person with knowledge of the situation said. His father-in-law, Robert Hunter, told the New York Daily News that Clementi “was on his way home when he got shot.”

He “came through the surgery and there was some spinal damage,” but he is “doing well,” Hunter said. Clementi is expected by doctors to recover from his injuries, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A USA Today report also said this: "The belief is that the bullet may have ricocheted before striking Clementi."

The gunman, it has been reported, killed himself on the building's 33rd floor, after killing Julia Hyman.

July 10, 1950

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the first television broadcast of the musical program Your Hit Parade, on NBC.

The show had aired on radio since 1935, featuring, over the years, many singers (including Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Buddy Clark, Dinah Shore, Bea Wain, and Andy Russell), and various orchestra leaders (such as Al Goodman, Carl Hoff, Axel Stordahl, and Mark Warnow).

During the summer of 1950--as the weekly Hit Parade radio show continued--there were four experimental television broadcasts of the program.  The shows were telecast from New York's International Theatre, at Columbus Circle.

The show's primary singing stars, for the summer shows, were Eileen Wilson and Snooky Lanson.  

The summer broadcasts also featured singer Dorothy Collins--as well as the Hit Paraders (the show's choral group), and the Hit Parade dancers.  Andre Baruch was the program's announcer, and Raymond Scott its orchestra leader.  

Publicity photo of Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins, the primary singing stars of TV's Your Hit Parade from 1950 to 1952.

Ms. Wilson had starred on the Hit Parade radio program since 1948; for part of her time on the show her co-star was Frank Sinatra.  Prior to joining the program, she had been a singer with big bands--including, notably, the Les Brown orchestra.

Mr. Lanson had joined the Hit Parade radio show only weeks before the initial TV broadcast. 

During the 1940s, he had been a vocalist with the Ray Noble orchestra. In 1950, before being hired for the Hit Parade, he had had a hit song, "The Old Master Painter," recorded with the Beasley Smith orchestra. He was also heard regularly on various Nashville-based radio programs, both local and national.  One of the programs, on which he had starred for a number of years, was the music show Sunday Down South. It originated from Nashville station WSM, and was aired by NBC.

Cover of script, first Hit Parade TV broadcast, July 10, 1950

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorothy Collins had also recently joined the radio program, to sing the show's Lucky Strike jingles, which were written by orchestra leader Raymond Scott.  Mr. Scott had become the radio show's bandleader in 1949, after the death of his brother, Mark Warnow, who had led the orchestra for years.  Previously, Ms. Collins had for several years been a vocalist with Mr. Scott's orchestra--on the radio, on records, and in public appearances.   

In October of 1950--in that the summer experimental shows were a success--the Hit Parade TV program began airing weekly; the radio show continued as well.  Both shows aired on Saturday nights from New York's Center Theatre, at Rockefeller Center.

For the summer TV broadcasts, Ms. Collins had had dual roles: she sang the show's commercial jingles, and also appeared in song productions on the program.

Her dual roles continued, with the start of the weekly telecasts. Yet while the TV program, as noted above, originally featured two main singing stars--Ms. Wilson and Mr. Lanson--Ms. Collins would soon become a co-equal star.  Before long, she would become one of television's most popular performers.

In the image, above, of the cover page for the script of the TV show's debut summer broadcast, one can see the logo "BBDO Television."  BBD&O was the advertising agency which oversaw the production of the Hit Parade radio and TV broadcasts--as well as overseeing many other television and radio programs of the period.

(Please note: some edits were made to this post on July 13th.)

Composer Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin, no doubt best known for composing the theme to the 1960s and 1970s television series Mission: Impossible--for which he received a Grammy Award--died last week, at age 93. 

The theme song was also used in a 1988-1990 version of the TV show--and in the Mission: Impossible series of films, beginning in 1996, starring Tim Cruise.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/arts/music/lalo-schifrin-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TE8.uffQ.8PnO8iaVY2rL&smid=url-share

Mr. Schifrin, as The New York Times noted in its obituary, also wrote the scores for such films as Bullitt, Cool Hand Luke, Voyage of the Damned, and Dirty Harry. During his career, six of his movie scores were nominated for Academy Awards.

Reporter Jeré Longman wrote this, in the Times obituary:

Perhaps Mr. Schifrin’s most provocative movie moment came in “Bullitt” (1968), with what The Washington Post described as “a radical absence of music.” As Mr. McQueen famously squealed through the streets of San Francisco in his Ford Mustang during a 10-minute car chase, there was no background music.

When the movie’s director, Peter Yates, objected, Mr. Schifrin is said to have responded, “Silence is also music.”

June 19th

 Happy Juneteenth...