March 2019 Issue
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Society of the Silurians EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARDS GALA The National Arts Club 15 Gramercy Park South Wednesday, May 15, 2019 Drinks: 6 P.M. • Dinner: 7:15 P.M. Published by The Society of the Silurians., an organization Meet old friends and award winners of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 [email protected] MARCH 2019 Feminism: Now and Then A WOODSTOCK MEMOIR BY JACK DEACY bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and killed Mary Joe Kopeckne. During that n the sunny morning of memorable year, the Vietnam War raged Friday Aug. 15, 1969, motel on, Nixon was sworn in and Sy Hersh Oowner Jack Besterman and broke the My Lai massacre story. The I walked up the driveway of the Pine Black Panthers brought a militant new Motel in White Lake, New York where phase to the Civil Rights movement, the it meets Route 17B. What we saw Manson murders shook Los Angeles, amazed us. As far as our eyes could see, New York’s Stonewall riots started a gay the roadway was a vast sea of cars. All revolution, and the Beatles broke up. abandoned. The only things moving on And on August 15 upwards of Anne Roiphe (inset) and Katie Roiphe the road were the drivers and passengers who had abandoned them, “I never seen nothing like this BY ANNE AND KATIE ROIPHE York University. She is the author of The all walking slowly west Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism, toward their destination before,” he said to me. “All this ilurian Anne Roiphe was one The Violet Hour, and the forthcoming The five miles away: the for a concert? Who’s playing, of the most powerful and best- Power Notebooks. She has also written Woodstock Music and known feminist writers of the for The New York Times, Harper’s, Slate, Art Fair. In this pastoral Frank Sinatra?” S The Paris Review, and other publications. last century. Her daughter Katie Roiphe setting, for at least a few is one of the most prominent of this one. days, the human foot Silurian News editor Michael Serrill Katie Roiphe: would overtake the combustion engine. 400,000 young people descended asked them to have a conversation about I wrote a piece for The Guardian on Besterman, an elderly Jewish on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm for the what has become known as the MeToo finding out that my male colleagues man who once ran a grocery store Woodstock festival. The country seemed movement, a vigorous debate about the were paid more than me. When they got in Brooklyn, kept staring at the to be spinning out of control. But it was discrimination and sexual harassment their job offers from the university they monumental scene. “I never seen a newspaper reporter’s dream. that continues to plague society here and negotiated and asked for more money nothing like this before,” he said to me. At the time I was writing a Daily News around the world. The format is Katie and when I got mine my instinct was “All this for a concert? Who’s playing, column three times a week that covered interviewing her mother about how things just to say thank you. Since then I have Frank Sinatra?” music, politics, sports, government and have, and haven’t, changed. resolved to ask for more money for my So began my five-day odyssey city characters. I was 25 years old and Anne, a former member of the Silurian work. Have you ever asked for more covering the 1969 Woodstock Festival my cup runneth over. Board of Governors, is the author of Up money for your work? Do you think this for the New York Daily News. I had In late May I began receiving releases the Sandbox, 1185 park Avenue, Epilogue is a feminist issue? come to cover a music festival. But and materials from promoters of a three- and 15 other novels and non-fiction it would morph into an absolutely day concert in upstate New York. It was books. She has written for New York Mag- Anne Roiphe: incredible weekend and one of the going to feature some of the biggest azine, The New York Times, Ms., Elle, I do think this is a feminist issue or major stories not only of 1969 but of names in rock and folk music: the Vogue, Cosmopolitan and a variety of at least a problem for feminists. I would the Sixties. Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater other publications. never dream of asking for more money And what a year 1969 was for news. Revival, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Katie is the director of the Cultural and I am sorry to say that I probably American astronauts walked on the Nash and Young, The Band, Janis Reporting and Criticism program at New Continued on Page 5 moon, Ted Kennedy ran his car off a Continued on Page 3 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2019 President’s Report Greetings, Silurians KEEPING IT CLEAN IN TOKYO Right from the get-go, let me lay all BY CLYDE HABERMAN which carried plenty of photos of women accept the magazine, but only if the of- your fears (and questions) to rest. We who were fully and frontally nude. That fending body parts were first blacked out. will very soon become, officially, The he #MeToo movement has had prepared me for another early lesson, this Intrigued by this cross-cultural Silurians Press Club. We just have a me thinking about my own mis- one in Japanese attitudes on what was moment, I went with (c). And that few hoops to jump through, manned Tconduct back in 1983, when I obscene and what was not. provided yet another early lesson about by government agencies, banks and arrived in Tokyo to head The New Japan: Private property is held in the like. But we’re on it. York Times bureau there. I’m not high regard. It was my magazine. Which leads me to the fun parts of talking about transgressions on The authorities couldn’t do the my letter. We are very much en route the order of a Matt Lauer or Les blackening; I had to do it myself. to another smash Silurians Awards Moonves. My sin was to have Thus, not only did I become a contest. There’s still time left, though, entered the country as a pornogra- pornographer of sorts but also a so by all means enter yourselves or get pher – in the eyes of the Japanese censor. your news organization to enter you authorities anyway. A week or so later, I happened and scads of others, especially since We need first to back up to to be in Yokohama on a story, and there are still a few categories where 1979. I was in New York co- suggested to my esteemed bureau we are very light. writing the Notes on People colleague, Kanji Takamasu, that We’ve had a stellar debut to the first column for the Times with a we swing by the customs office. Fall and (often bitter-cold) Winter of veteran colleague, Albin Krebs The folks there had been ready my presidency. Our September kicked (who died in 2002). Ours was a for many days. They had pasted off with Linda Greenhouse, who trav- collection of mini-stories on the Post-Its on every page with a ful- eled to our luncheon from her post at famous and not-so-famous, half ly exposed woman, maybe 10 of Yale and told some tales from her long a dozen of them on a typical day. them. A customs officer took us to career covering the Supreme Court. The column resembled the work an airless room, where he pulled We followed with her former boss of Cindy Adams or Liz Smith out a black Magic Marker or a at The New York Times, Arthur O. about as much as Donald Trump Japanese equivalent, turned to the Sulzberger. Then we designated The resembles a real president. It turned out I qualified as a pornog- first objectionable photo and – apparently New Yorker’s Ken Auletta as winner One item of mine spun off a Playboy rapher. in a belief that a foreigner needed proper of our Lifetime Achievement Award, interview with Dennis Kucinich, known Despite having provided the world instruction in such delicate matters – welcomed a brilliant conversation then as “the boy mayor of Cleveland,” with its share of erotic art, in 1983 Japan showed me how to cover up the woman’s between Craig Newmark (yes, Darth before he went on to Congress and his had strict rules governing what exactly pubic area. Vader himself of Craigslist!) and Sarah failed presidential races. After the column could be depicted. Shots of genitalia, In for a penny, and all that. Though Bartlett, dean of the CUNY graduate ran, I tossed the Playboy onto a stack of female or male, were taboo. Even a I felt foolish, I now had no choice but school of journalism, now named for magazines in my apartment and forgot glimpse of pubic hair was not allowed. to take a seat and do the deed, page Newmark after a lavish donation. They about it. I was not a Playboy reader. In 1970, for example, 90 Picasso prints after page. At one point, the officer said were followed by Rupert Murdoch’s (“Yeah, yeah,” I now hear you saying were dropped from an exhibit in Tokyo something to Takamasu-san. I needed it longtime right-hand man Les Hinton, disbelievingly. But it’s true.) as being criminally obscene, even though explained to me later because my Japa- then Tony Schwartz, the real author Fast forward to early spring 1983.