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. As it’s often tough with a Picasso to distin- nese wasn’t strong enough to catch it all. of Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal. I was getting set to leave for Tokyo, the guish one body part from another. Hisako But the hint of disgust in the man’s voice (He is remorseful but has learned some movers descended on my apartment like Ueno, who works in the Times Tokyo was plain: “You know, most people would most valuable life lessons that he was a whirlwind. They wrapped everything bureau these days, tells me that some have us just throw the magazine away.” delighted to pass along.) in sight. They even bundled up a filled restrictions have been eased; pubic hair Finally, we were done. My sanitized All of these, of course, can be re- wastebasket. And, for sure, they packed may now be shown. But in my day it was Playboy was now acceptable in Japan. prised on our website for any of our up my old magazines, the Playboy in- out of the question. But life as a censor, I decided, wasn’t for members or friends who could not cluded. One June day in 1983, the bureau’s me. Once outside, I tossed the magazine be with us! Just go to: https://www. It took many weeks for my belongings editorial assistant, Yasuko Kamiizumi, into a trash basket, and headed back to silurians.org/ and “click here to view to arrive by sea at the port of Yokohama. informed me that the customs authorities Tokyo. the videos” on the right side. That was when I got an early lesson in in Yokohama had called to ask what I I can promise you more excitement how thorough, and unyielding, certain wanted to do with my Playboy, which was Silurian Clyde Haberman, who was a ahead. The inestimable Times colum- Japanese ways could be. The customs declared unfit for entry into the country. I foreign correspondent, columnist and ed- nist Dan Barry, for instance, among authorities had rummaged through all my had three choices: (a) throw it away, (b) itor at The New York Times for 35 years, other luminaries, followed by our stuff, and happened upon the Playboy, send it back to the United States, or (c) is still a frequent contributor to the paper. Peter Kihss Award lunch in April. So be sure to get your dues paid up so as not to miss a single event. Finally, we are most anxious to bring to life our Press Freedom Com- mittee, under the chairmanship of past president Allan Dodds Frank (ADF). LES HINTON ON RUPERT MURDOCH Do reach out to him. We need to add heft to our efforts, which we are confi- Hinton worked for Murdoch for you had to say. loyalists spreading the word of their dent can have some important results, more than 50 years as a reporter, Sometimes I wouldn’t hear from him wonderful lives with Rupert, recall- especially as we combine efforts with editor and executive. Author of a for weeks. I still have fond memories ing small moments in his presence such like-minded organizations as the recent autobiography, An Untidy of those weeks. and seeming blessed to have been Overseas Press Club and Committee It was the way Rupert operated. Life, about his life and career, he victims of his ire. They had tales of to Protect Journalists. He was like a visiting comet, and the spoke on Jan. 19 at a Silurians lun- his furies and mistakes, but for them As you might imagine by reading mysterious astronomy of Rupert made every transgression faded away in virtually any newspaper or website cheon. Excerpts: it impossible to know when he would the burning light of his cleverness or watching any news channel, our appear and how long he would stay… and energy. profession is under the most intensive was shoulder to shoulder a lot Maybe News Corp was a person- Like many driven people, he could attack of any of our lifetimes. We must of the time with the man who ality cult. It didn’t occur to me when I be hell to work for - I can vouch take up that challenge whenever and would become the biggest, worked there, which might be the proof for that. … No doubt, he’s a driven wherever possible. Our size and rep- andI I guess the most notorious, itself. Certainly Rupert’s attention was businessman with heavy boots who utation are a brilliant and persuasive media mogul of them all. He was on the drug of choice for some needy ex- bruised a lot of people. At times, he weapon if we learn to master it and the phone. Walking into my office. ecutives. He could also be a tyrant, but deploy it effectively. That is perhaps has deserved a kicking. And he did Inviting me to breakfast and dinner. big business has never been short of our ultimate challenge as Silurians. it all to take care of his best friend tyrants, and not many earned the intense Our nation’s youngest Congress- And to long trips on his private jet. -- and his best friend has been the person, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez And to weekends on his yacht. devotion he did. business. (AOC), called us “a luncheon club” in And however some of that makes The feeling of his presence ran As a boss, he could be hands-off deepest in the places he built from declining my invitation to speak. We it seem, it wasn’t always an easy or autocratic, charming or irascible, must demonstrate that life. Not at all. nothing. In Australia and Britain, he felt There was an unreliable rhythm a closeness to his businesses, an emo- forgiving or fierce, and sometimes we are indeed so much just a comprehensive pain. But he more than that! to life with Rupert. Sometimes he tional ownership that was not always called several times a day, asked the same everywhere. His charismatic also imbued his companies and his people, with a fantastic sense of pos- All the best, you to lunch, laughed at your jokes, authority was an aura in these places. Your President seemed fascinated by everything Old hands were his agents, undaunted sibility — and got big results. David A. Andelman MARCH 2019 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 3
A WOODSTOCK MEMOIR Continued from Page 1 on the News on Friday morning. staff scrambled to cope with the crowd. resumed at 6:30 p.m. with Country Joe Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, No matter where you are, a barber Engineers dug four wells on the farm and the Fish. I held on until The Band Joan Baez, Joe Cocker and many more. shop will always give you a good sense so there would be a sufficient supply of finished their set at 11 p.m., but the It was an amazing lineup. of a place. So I interviewed Frank the water. Tens of thousands of sandwiches music would go on all night and into Though known to history as barber and one of his customers. Frank were shipped in, including 5,000 made the morning. Woodstock, the festival actually took thought it was fine to have the young by the good people of Bethel and White Wet and muddied, I drove back to place at nearby White Lake, the only hippies around. “The kids are giving us Lake. Police cleared traffic lanes for the motel, which by now had become town where officials gave their approval a jolt of the future. They’re going to be emergency vehicles. Dozens of doctors an encampment for those who did not for such a massive gathering. The okay,” he said. “They’re just up here for flew in to supplement the small staff of make it to the site. In fact, many small promoters also made a deal with dairy the music.” The man whose hair he was onsite doctors and nurses. The Red Cross unofficial Woodstock festivals sprang farmer Max Yasgur to rent part of his cutting disagreed. “They’re dope heads, was on the scene. Extra security staff up all weekend along 17B, gatherings 600-acre farm, including a sloping long-haired dope heads.” were recruited from three surrounding featuring young people singing and hillside where history would be made. Back at the motel, I dictated my story counties. And the Daily News frantically playing guitars, harmonicas, tin I didn’t camp out in the mud with the to the News and advised the news desk sent two more reporters. whistles, violins, saxaphones, and revelers, but stayed in the Pine Motel that this thing was going to be big and Friday night’s program, interrupted makeshift drums. People danced, with Besterman and his wife Gittel, they better send more reporters. The desk briefly by rain showers, ended at 2 a.m. smoked marijuana and drank. sweet, gentle people who had no idea editor was dismissive. “It’s only a traffic when Joan Baez, six months pregnant, After eating and showering , I caught what was about to hit them. On Thursday jam on the way to a music festival,” he finished her 65-minute set. She asked several hours sleep. morning as the traffic on 17B began When I returned to the site at 8:30 am, to increase, I drove to the festival site, all had changed. The city on the hill was where a stage and two adjacent towers gone. Only about 40,000 now remained for speakers were under construction. I “The kids are giving us a jolt of the future. They’re to hear Jimi Hendrix and his band play interviewed two young promoters, Art going to be okay,” he said. “They’re just up here for the the final set. Just past 11 a.m. Hendrix Cornfeld and Mike Lang, who assured ended his set with his bizarre version me that all their preparations were on music.” The man whose hair he was cutting disagreed. of the Star Spangled Banner. The music schedule and they would be ready when “They’re dope heads, long-haired dope heads.” stopped. Woodstock was now a legend. the program got underway on Friday It had been an amazing few days. afternoon. But on the site , carpenters Three people had died, two from and electricians told me the stage overdoses, the third a young man in was woefully behind schedule. Other said. “No big deal” everyone on the hillside to light a a sleeping bag who was accidentally workers were busy installing fencing, Then came Friday morning and all match. They responded and the hillside run over by a tractor. Only about 100 building ticket offices, clearing the hell broke loose. Route 17B was backed shimmered magically. medical cases were reported, including parking area and setting up 600 portable up solid for 17 miles, as were the several Saturday broke sunny again and bad LSD trips, cuts, ankle sprains and toilets. other routes leading to White Lake. The the music started at 12:15 pm. It then a woman in labor. The police had made I also caught up with Max Yasgur, a New York State Police had to close the went on for 19 straight hours, winding only 75 arrests, most for possession of tall, pleasant 49 -year-old dairy farmer Harriman and Newburg exits on the down at 9:40 a.m. Sunday morning major drugs like LSD. But the most whose big black eyeglasses gave his New York State Thruway to stop more when Jefferson Airplane finished their amazing things about the weekend face the look of a human racoon. “I cars from heading for White Lake. set. were the good natured crowd and the think it’s going to be just fine,” he told Many of the acts that were to perform The sound of the festival was the absolute lack of violence. Not one me. “I just hope they leave my cows Friday evening were stuck in the traffic. sound of the music and the “chak a incident had been reported over three alone. There are 600 of them, mostly Helicopter shuttle flights were hastily chak” of helicopters ferrying acts to and days in the pop-up city of 400,000. It Guernseys. They’re great milkers.” The organized to get performers onto the from the site. The smell of the festival had indeed been three days of peace and following day several signs appeared site. As the crowds kept pouring in, was the smell of marijuana. Police had music . near meadows where Max’s cows were fences were trampled down. There were decided early on they would not make And Max Yasgur’s cows came eating grass or reclining in it: “THESE not going to be any ticket takers. The any pot arrests. “If we started to arrest through it all just fine. ARE MAX’S COWS. PLEASE LET size of the crowd had overwhelmed the people for smoking marijuana, there THEM GROOVE.” site. And so from the stage on Friday would not be enough jail space in the six Earlier that day the Daily News afternoon came the announcement: surrounding counties to hold them,” one Silurian Board of Governors member dispatched photographer Paul DeMaria “This is now a free festival.” The crowd of the deputies said. Jack Deacy was a reporter and columnist to join me at the festival. We met in the roared. On Sunday morning the hillside was one-street town of Bethel near the site. From my spot near the stage, I was a muddy mess and the high spirits of for the Daily News before joining New In front of the Ritz Barber Shop we absolutely dumbfounded by the size of the massive crowd started to wane. By York Magazine as a contributing editor. came across several long haired young the crowd covering the hillside. The 2 p.m. Joe Cocker was on stage with He later spent a year in Belfast covering men and women who were sitting on the stage was finally ready about 5 p.m. the Grease Band and played a fabulous the Northern Ireland “troubles”. After pavement eating sandwiches. DeMaria and out came Richie Havens and the hour and a half set. Then the sky grew his journalism years, he held major shot the scene, catching the irony of marathon program was underway. As dark and a thunderstorm with on and off public affairs posts in the Koch, Cuomo all the flowing young hair in front of a the music continued into the night, torrential rain showers rolled through and Giuliani administrations. His email barber shop. It was the front-page photo organizers and police, medical and other the site for three hours. But the music is [email protected].
PAGE 4 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2019 Truth, Lies, Facts and Fake News BY LEIDA SNOW
t started at the very beginning of our nation: The Declaration Iof Independence flat-out stated that certain truths are self-evident. The first among them was that all men are created equal. That particular truth wasn’t so evident until much later. After all, we had to fight a civil war over slavery, and are still grappling with the chasm between our aspirations and our realities of race and gender. We live in a post-truth world. What is the lifespan of a fact? Many among us, notably most journalists, complacently believe that objective, provable facts are true, and that they must be accepted by any rational, thinking person. But that would be laughably wrong. As President Donald Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway so piquantly expressed it just after the inauguration, it is altogether possible to embrace alternative facts. And, as Rudolph Giuliani, one of the president’s lawyers, enthused, Truth isn’t truth. It s somebody’s version of the truth. As he later expanded, sometimes further inquiry can reveal the truth; other times it doesn’t. In a classic he-said-she-said situation, where can we find the truth? In recent books, anthropologist and philosopher Bruno Latour and professors of logic Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall try to Aren’t we in the same situation Lifespan of a Fact” was based on the piece. If news coverage states how puzzle out why so many dismiss today? Climate change deniers are real-world experience of an intern a person was killed, then the writer facts and embrace fake news. Turns firmly convinced they are correct assigned to fact-check a published shouldn’t change that because if the out the answer is enough to worry because, after all, no one can author’s essay. reader can’t trust the verifiable facts, any of us who live in what a Bush absolutely prove the link between The dialogue supplied by play- why would he or she suspend disbelief administration aide called a reality- human actions and glaciers melting. wrights Jeremy Karen, David about other aspects of the story? based community. In the world of journalism, doz- Murrell, and Gordon Farrell was What was lost, in the chaos on In Down to Earth, Latour explains, ens if not hundreds of people are consistently interesting and often stage, was that facts do matter. rather obviously, that reality exists frantically fact-checking Trump’s funny, but I watched in dismay as the In the end, Lifespan set up straw men whether we accept it or not, and that false assertions, adding the nuance of fact-checker and the essayist wandered but got me thinking about our current our ability to accept it depends on context to outlandish statements, as if into the land of conflicting extremes. world. If all it takes for fake news to our social context. O’Connor and the huge collection of facts will stop The intern eventually focused on spread is to sow doubt, then we are Weatherall, in The Misinformation the flood of lies. If that weren’t so sad, whether something was eight or nine in deep trouble: advertisers have long Age, have a simpler and more it would be funny. In this, journalists seconds long, and the author screamed been doing it, politicians are doing it, frightening explanation. All that is are much like Trump. He states that a that his truth was more important than foreign adversaries are doing it. necessary for fake news to spread, wall on the southern border will keep any facts. All the fact-checking in the world they write, is to inject doubt into the the caravan of Central Americans In memory, as in an essay, for won’t save us. conversation. from invading the United States. We example, certain facts may be muddled. The tobacco folks discovered that believe the mountain of facts will In the play, the author character is years ago. After all, the link between keep the ocean of lies at bay. firm that he is not a journalist, but an Silurian Leida Snow is a writer smoking and cancer could not be But, truthfully, just how important essayist. Certainly that can provide and coach. The former theater critic definitively, scientifically established. is the truth anyway? How much does some cover: Who is to say what is right for WINS-AM and an anchor at ABC So, millions of people were lulled it matter? or wrong about someone s memory of Radio, her byline has been in Forbes, into believing there was no proven A recent Broadway play tangen- an event? On the other hand, when PBS Next Avenue, Newsday, NY Daily connection, even though the scientific tially reflected on current events, facts are verifiable, they should be News, Straus Media, & more. evidence was overwhelming. even as it never mentioned them. “The respected, even in an essay or opinion @LeidaSnow TONY SCHWARTZ ON DONALD TRUMP s Schwartz, ghost author of material for Art of the Deal] Trump got that the best way to stay safe was to take The Art of the Deal and the Si- impatient within three minutes… It was no prisoners. He treated every encounter Alurians’ guest speaker on Feb. impossible to keep him focused on any as a contest he had to win because the 20, finished up his prepared remarks, topic for more than three minutes. He only other option was to lose which was he paused to make a statement, and as had, as you well know, a stunningly short equivalent to him of being obliterated... he did so he choked up. Recovering, he attention span and virtually no capacity When he looks out today even as said he has made a series of speeches to reflect on his past... President he sees a jungle filled with since Trump was elected President “in More than any human I’ve ever met, predators he must defeat to survive him- the service of absolution. I carry so much or you are likely to meet, Trump had the self. This is why he admires autocrats shame about what I did and this audience ability to convince himself that whatever like Putin and Kim Jong un, who seem is the one I feel most ashamed in front he’d say at any given moment is true, or to have an invulnerability he knows he of.” Excerpts from Schwartz’s searing sort of true, or at least ought to be true. does not... assessment of the man he helped make Lying is second nature to Trump, just There is no question in my mind that President: one more way to gain advantage. For Trump has committed a huge number of The inescapable truth is that I will him facts are whatever he deems them crimes in the course of his career and the forever be known not for any substantive to be on any given day. When he’s chal- period running for president and as Presi- journalism I ever wrote but for an act of lenged, as he demonstrated last week in dent. He has only one way out of that, to casual complicity in which I created a the fight over the wall, he simply doubles discredit the system that would hold him largely fictional character who America down, utterly unfazed by the fact that responsible. …What I expect to see [in ultimately chose to elect President... what he just said is demonstrably false... the next year] is a war, and we’re already TONY SCHWARTZ In our very first interview [to gather From early in life Trump concluded seeing it and it will escalate... MARCH 2019 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 5
sourced lists of men accused of various forms of harassment and bad behavior? Feminism: Now and Then For instance, there was the men-in-media list and there were several copycat lists Continued from Page 1 the same standard to ourselves. network. I had a college friend who had a at various universities. I have obviously can’t. I would rather cut out my tongue. I What do you think about this anger? rich boyfriend who picked her up in a small gone on the record with my concerns was raised to be sweet, to make men feel Did the feminists of the ‘70s explicitly plane that had landed on the college green about the dangers of these sorts of lists comfortable. So the pull between being thrive on and celebrate anger the way we and took her to Hawaii for an abortion. She but what do you think of them with histor- loved and being bold is no contest for me. seem to be doing now? never returned. Did she live or die? ical perspective? One thing that bothers I would rather be loved. Of course this is Early marriage and mothering caused me is the collapsing of a whole range absurd. I was born in 1935 and it might Anne: many of my friends to drop out of school of behaviors (like “leering” and creepy as well have been 1835 or 1735. There has always been anger in femi- or graduate school or leave a promising direct messages) on the media list, along nism and why not? It came out in hurri- job. We cannot take for granted any part with more serious charges. Another is Katie: cane strength in the first years of Second of the chain of events that led to female the eeriness of anonymous accusations There has obviously been a huge Stage Feminism. The Red Stocking involvement in all areas of the American and often second-hand rumors ruining transformation in women’s rights over feminists were on fire with the desire to workplace. people’s careers. your lifetime. Change has been rapid: provoke, to blow up traditional marriage, the opportunities and attitudes your to question all the ways women had been Katie: Anne: grandchildren live with would have been taught to believe in children and hearth. Slate did a recent piece on what Al Fran- The very word “lists” brings to mind almost unimaginable to you at their age. At one point Betty Freidan was on a na- ken’s questions in the Barr confirmation Joe McCarthy holding up pieces of paper I remember you told me that your father tionwide lecture tour and local feminists hearings would have been if he were still in with names, names of people accused of said to you: “Only ugly women become in several places sent bomb threats to the Senate and it made me think about that communist sympathies or worse, lists of lawyers.” How do you see this change her venues. The fights were bitter. The particular resignation. Did you feel that people who had no opportunity to clear reflected in your granddaughters’ gen- divorces were many. This stage of anger the Democrats should have allowed an themselves, whose lives and work were eration? was about prior repression and exclusion. investigation as he had requested? Or do soon ruined. I understand the anger Women were suddenly given permission you agree with the senators, led by Kirsten against men who used their power to force Anne: to scream and I think they still are. That Gillibrand, who ultimately forced him to or try to force women into sexual contact. I feel like a cave woman taking her is not a bad thing. resign right away? I think there was a sort That is foul and needs to be addressed. first trip on an airplane! Despite all the of mob mentality that swept through the But when we have come to lists--mass arguments along the way, despite all the Katie: country. Zephyr Teachout wrote an inter- accusations always end up with injustice divisions among the 28 flavors of femi- Obviously feminists, including a esting op-ed in The New York Times about somewhere, hysteria flourishing. nism, despite the defeats, despite Trump, younger generation, are definitely ener- the importance of due process, which was despite the anti-choice movement, Amer- gized by Trump. But reproductive rights met with an odd silence by the feminist Katie: ican culture has so dramatically changed do not seem to be a huge focus of younger Twittersphere. She argued for perspective, Is there is a way you think the fem- that most days I am tap dancing over the feminists. In a sense I think people have for calm, for taking time to investigate. inist movement of right now could be graves of old assumptions, prohibitions, forgotten what life was like before Roe v. stronger? taboos, fears and shames. I have a writer Wade. The idea of abortion being illegal Anne: daughter, a lawyer daughter, a doctor is very abstract to them, impossible to I don’t know all the facts here but what Anne: step-daughter. I have a granddaughter seems clear We need to stop hating each other for about to go to medical school. I would is that forcing small differences in focus or policy. We like to tell my father, “You were wrong.” I remember you told me that your father Franken could try to stay focused on our major My mother told me that if I went to grad- out was a goals. We need to stop engaging in ques- uate school no man would marry me; I said to you: “Only ugly women become mistake that tions about who is more pure than whom would become an old maid. Now I am lawyers.” How do you see this change Democrats and just keep moving forward with as an old lady and my granddaughters do inflicted on much attention to matters of justice and not feel like they have to choose between reflected in your granddaughters’ generation? themselves. quality of life for everyone as can be love and work. It is as if the mustered. All political movements have I would also never drive without of- Greeks killed splintered into extremes and righteous fering a man with me the keys, even if it visualize or relate to. Even for my gener- Achilles without trial or discovery and so anger at others. Poor Trotsky. Mourn the was my car. Sometimes in conversation I ation, it feels like ancient history and, as weakened themselves. In this bleak time communist doctors, writers, artists, police still pretend I don’t know something I do bad as things are, we can’t quite imagine of Trump we need Al Franken. His ques- chiefs, who died for falling out of step. so my male dinner partner can explain it it happening again. With Trump’s influ- tions and his energy would have helped to me. I know better than that, but I don’t ence on the courts, though, maybe this is the Democrats in both houses of Congress Katie: always act better than that. a mistake. Do you think younger women to stay strong and alive and protect our I think Twitter has elevated extremes should be more afraid of losing access to democracy. He was a clear voice for us on both sides: the loudest, angriest voic- Katie: safe and legal abortion? and his energy was contagious. es are ascendant, both on the left and One common thread in the current At stake now is the very soul of our right. I think that Twitter feminists end conversation about feminism is anger. Anne: democracy and in hindsight it is very clear up mirroring Trump supporters with Leslie Jamison wrote a great piece in The Yes, I am very worried about Roe V. that punishing Al Franken was a luxury their own Twitter mobs and ideological New York Times about her own relation- Wade. I had a friend at college who came we couldn’t afford. In these dark times we conformity. Anyone who disagrees with ship with anger. Rebecca Traister wrote within an inch of losing her life because ought to focus on who is really abusing a certain rigid set of assumptions is a whole book about female anger. While of an infection caused by an illegal abor- us, as women, as citizens, as believers in automatically an enemy. So: I think the I understand the anger, I think there is a tion. She lost her ability to bear children. human decency. At a time when children movement could benefit from a true and little danger in the way it is being used. Friends went to Puerto Rico, to a doctor are being separated from their families open exchange of ideas, which we do Rebecca Traister wrote about feminists in rural Pennsylvania and the subject was and held in detention centers, Planned not at the moment have. Many younger being just as angry about Harvey Wein- covered with shame and fear and made Parenthood hangs by a thread, fascists are feminists, in particular, really don’t stein as they were about a colleague everyone lie. Guilt and secrecy and fear speaking out and waving torches, I think believe in freedom of expression. The looking down one’s shirt at a company surrounded our early sexual experiences. we have to be clear about our worst ene- conversation is very stunted by people’s retreat. For me, scale and proportion are It was hard to experience sexual plea- mies. I doubt that I would find Al Franken fear of professional repercussions and important. And to be so angry that you sure when the consequences could be so guilty of the cruelty we see every day in anger. Editors are afraid of the 20-some- totally lose perspective does not seem disastrous. It was hard to trust a male and this country. things who work for them; writers are like what we need right now. If we talk impossible to trust your own instincts. We afraid of losing their livelihood. To me about angry Trump supporters we see that were all Hester Prynnes in waiting... Katie: this is where the movement is--in Joan un-interrogated, out-of-control anger can And that was among young women What do you think of the idea of Didion’s words, “no longer a cause but be alarming, and I think we should apply with access to funds and an underground feminists circulating anonymous crowd- a symptom.”
To Tip or Not to Tip at The National Arts Club Now that Silurians are permitted to Why not? Because the staff in clubs a result, you see the same faces year in and when making your lunch reservation have weekday lunches in the members’ like the NAC are paid a high hourly rate, year out when you visit most clubs. These (tel.: 212-477-2389) or when placing dining room of the National Arts Club unlike the waiters in many restaurants, who are considered good jobs. your order in the dining room, parlor, or and may order drinks, nibbles and bites survive on tips alone. Club servers also get You should also know that you are getting at the bar. You will then be allowed to in the members’ parlors on weekdays substantial holiday bonuses. the daytime use of one of New York’s grand pay by credit card. You will not need to from 2:00pm - 5:00pm, the question of NAC members pay a significant amount and glorious institutions for a bargain. And show your Silurians ID, which is a good tipping has come up. of dues to support the club, as well as an if you don’t believe me, let me add that the thing, since we no longer issue ID cards. Should you tip servers when you dine 18% administrative fee on all food and annual membership fee I pay to the National And enjoy! at the club? The answer is no. Most drinks. You will also be paying the 18% Arts Club is more than 20 times the $60 a Your hostess, Betsy Ashton clubs, whether the National Arts Club, administrative fee when you dine at the club. year you are paying to the Silurians! the University, the Ivies, the Union, Lo- (That fee is not a gratuity but is kept by the How to take advantage of this bene- Betsy is a governor and past-Presi- tus, or the Century, do not allow tipping. club to offset the high operating costs.) As fit? Simply identify yourself as a Silurian dent of the Silurians. PAGE 6 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2019 St. Patrick’s Day Through the Ages BY GARY PAUL GATES into the 20th Century, March 17 was strictly a religious holiday to honor the uring my childhood in country’s patron saint. St. Patrick, after Michigan, I was surrounded all, is a revered figure in Irish lore. No, Dby Irish relatives who were he did not drive the snakes out of Ireland fiercely proud of their Celtic heritage. – that’s pure malarkey – but he was a So, inevitably, I was exposed, at a tender deeply influential missionary who, in the age, to the dubious charms of St. Patrick’s 5th Century, brought Christianity to an Day. Such as: the obligatory wearing island that was then a remote backwater of the green, the sight of grown-ups on the northwestern edge of Europe. getting tipsy on whiskey or beer and the I wanted to share my discovery with lusty singing of sentimental ballads that, others, and so it came to pass that on a among other things, assured us that joy March day in 2001, I put together a story and rapture abound whenever Irish eyes for CBS News on the sharp contrast are smiling. between St. Patrick’s Day in New York The Saint Paddy celebrations I recall and the traditional holiday in Ireland. To from those days were certainly festive – strengthen the piece, I reached out to a lots of laughter and giddy conversation source who had deep personal experience gravitated to one clique, he to another. – but they rarely spilled over into with both the New York present and the But through the years that followed the impropriety. Hence, I was completely Irish past: Frank McCourt, the justly heyday of the Head, we kept running into unprepared for the bacchanalia I celebrated author of the blockbuster each other at social occasions of one kind encountered many years later when, as memoir, Angela’s Ashes, a heartbreaking or another, and in time became friends. a young man in a hurry, I moved to New yet highly humorous account of his dirt- Along with his other friends, I rejoiced York. Anyone who has dared to mingle in the glori- with the raucous mobs that swarm ous success of through the streets of Manhattan on Angela’s Ashes. St. Patrick’s Day is well aware that the “To begin with, all the pubs were closed, because Published in experience is not for the faint of heart. in Ireland in those years it was a Holy Day of 1996, it attracted The gaudy parade on Fifth Avenue, a tidal wave of with all its pretentious bombast and Obligation., which meant that we had to get all rave reviews blarney, is just part of the ordeal. Far dressed up, wear a shamrock and go to Mass.” and went on more unsettling are the scenes in bars all to become an over town, where inebriation is pursued international with wretched abandon, especially by best seller. young louts who have not learned how poor childhood in Limerick. Although McCourt had spent two decades to drink adult beverages without getting I had known McCourt, who died in teaching creative writing at the elite told him that my wife, Phyllis, and I sick or starting fights. Their misbehavior 2009, since the early 1970s, when the Stuyvesant High School, this was his first had recently returned from a vacation is not for the squeamish. two of us were among the regulars who book, and what made that literary triumph in Mexico and there, even in February, For years, even decades, I assumed gathered at the Lion’s Head, a lively all the sweeter was that it came at a time they were making plans for a lavish St. that those boisterous revelries took Greenwich Village saloon that, at the when Frank was rather long in the tooth. Patrick’s Day celebration. their cue from memories of the way time, was a haven for raffish journalists, I ran into him shortly after the book “Well, at least Mexico is a Catholic the holiday was celebrated in “the old aspiring literati and sundry hangers-on. was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and I country,” McCourt noted. “So it makes country,” as Ireland was frequently called To the faithful, the nightly parishioners, asked him a teasing question: “So tell me, some sense there. But I was reading the by my grandparents. it was known as “the watering hole for Frank – what’s it like being an overnight other day in the Irish Times that they’re But I could not have been more drinkers with writing problems.” sensation at the age of 66?” going to have a St. Patrick’s Day parade mistaken. For, as I later learned, through In those days, Frank and I had little “You have no idea,” he said with a in Tokyo.” most of Ireland’s history, extending deep more than a nodding acquaintance – I broad grin. He paused to let the wonder of that Buoyed by that experience, McCourt sink in, and then reiterated with more went on to write a second best-selling emphasis: “In Tokyo! Just imagine that!” memoir, “’Tis,” about his struggles as I suggested that perhaps Tokyo had Society of the Silurians Officers 2018-2019 a young immigrant in New York, and a decided to honor St. Patrick because he President COMMITTEE third, Teacher Man, about his experience drove the snakes out of Japan. DAVID A. ANDELMAN CHAIRPERSONS: as an educator. “Yes, I’m sure that’s it,” Frank agreed In my interview with him in 2001, I with a smile. “And isn’t this a grand First Vice-President MICHAEL S. SERRILL Awards: naturally focused on his childhood in world we’ve got for ourselves now?” JACK DEACY Limerick, and asked him straightaway “Ah, ‘tis,” I replied. “’Tis.” Second Vice-President what St. Patrick’s Day was like at that And for that, I was rewarded with an JOSEPH BERGER Constitution and Bylaws: ALLAN DODDS FRANK time and in that place. appreciative chuckle from the man who Secretary “Bleak, utterly bleak,” he replied in chose that terse rejoinder as the title for LINDA AMSTER Awards Dinner: a mournful tone. “To begin with, all the his second volume of memoirs. AILEEN JACOBSON pubs were closed, because in Ireland Treasurer KAREN BEDROSIAN Futures: in those years it was a Holy Day of RICHARDSON ALLAN DODDS FRANK Obligation., which meant that we had to Over a span of five decades, Silurian get all dressed up, wear a shamrock and Gary Paul Gates worked at CBS News BOARD OF GOVERNORS: Membership: BETSY ASHTON MORT SHEINMAN go to Mass.” and other journalistic venues, in both JACK DEACY Frank grimaced at the memory of it all, print and broadcasting. He is also the Nominating: BILL DIEHL and then said, “Of course, St. Patrick’s BEN PATRUSKY author or co-author of five books focused ALLAN DODDS FRANK Day always came during Lent, and that TONY GUIDA on the worlds of media and politics. A Silurian News made everything even more somber.” CLYDE HABERMAN graduate of Notre Dame, Gates will in MICHAEL S. SERRILL, Editor MYRON KANDEL Brightening a bit, he told me that it all April receive the university’s Rev. Robert BERNARD KIRSCH Website: began to change about 20 years earlier. VALERIE S. KOMOR F. Griffin Award “in recognition of his BEN PATRUSKY, “At first gradually,” he said, “but more AILEEN JACOBSON outstanding achievements as a writer MORT SHEINMAN, Co-editors and more each year until now, I’m happy CAROL LAWSON and producer.” DAVID MARGOLICK to say, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland has Webmaster: BEN PATRUSKY become completely Americanized.” FRED HERZOG MYRON RUSHETZKY I asked him if I could then assume that MORT SHEINMAN Social Media: the pubs are now open on March 17. Society of the Silurians BILL DIEHL “Oh yes,” he replied, “open and GOVERNORS EMERITI: PO Box 1195 GARY PAUL GATES roaring with laughter and song all day and night. Just as they should be.” Madison Square Station HERBERT HADAD SILURIAN CONTINGENCY FUND LINDA GOETZ HOLMES BOARD OF TRUSTEES: We then talked about how the New New York, NY 10159 ROBERT D. McFADDEN STEVEN MARCUS, CHAIR York version of St. Patrick’s Day has 212.532.0887 caught on in other countries as well. I www.silurians.org MARCH 2019 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 7 Profile: David Jones BY SUZANNE CHARLÉ sources included Walter Reuther of the UAW, George Meany of the AFL/CIO ilurian David Jones has been in and David McDonald, president of the love with words ever since his United Steelworkers of America—he Smother, an elementary school also covered the most important social teacher in his hometown of Connells- issues of the day, including the Walk to ville, Pa., read him poetry. Jones did Freedom, a civil rights demonstration in not become a poet—but he did rise to Detroit, where Martin Luther King de- national editor and then assistant man- livered his first version of his “I Have a aging editor of The New York Times. Dream” speech. Two months later, King Western Pennsylvania was home to delivered the speech during the March some of the day’s great football quar- on Washington; 5,000 steelworkers at- terbacks, including Joe Namath, Joe tended, bussed courtesy of their union. Montana and John Lujack, the Heisman In 1965, Tom Wicker, who’d recently Trophy winner who had played on the been named chief of the Times’ Wash- Connellsville High School team from ington bureau, called Jones and asked 1939 to 1941, while Jones was still in him to take over the labor desk in Wash- grade school. Naturally, Jones joined ington. Jones went on to edit coverage the high school paper as sports editor. of the 1968 presidential election, a At Penn State, Jones majored in prelude to his next job. National editor journalism. “Writing was easy to do— Gene Roberts asked him to come back why do something that was hard?” he to New York as assistant national editor. explains with a self-deprecatory smile. Jones had first met Roberts in Detroit, In his senior year, he became editor of where Roberts—who was working for The Daily Collegian—where he met the Detroit Free Press—was considered his wife-to-be. He has maintained a “the best reporter.” strong relationship with the university, “He persuaded me—but not with serving on its board of trustees for 15 money this time…. I decided that I was years until 2012. better equipped temperamentally to be Graduating in 1954, Jones served a an editor; I’d have more influence on stint in the U.S. Air Force as a public in- what was covered and how.” formation officer (“stateside--it was When Jones was named national between wars”). He then landed a job editor in 1972, the Washington Post at the Wall Street Journal, after reading a story in a trade journal. “The Journal Then, “out of the blue,” Jones got “I’ve received compliments for had started a program for in- hiring women, but the fact is experienced kids just out of a call from The New York Times’ women did it themselves.” school. I didn’t know bonds Harrison Salisbury, who asked him When a position was open, from stocks, but I applied,” he’d turn to another hire, Bev- recalls Jones. The Washing- to join the Times as a national erly Crandall, the first woman ton Star offered him a job, correspondent based in Detroit. editor on the Times national too: “Fifty dollars a week. desk. He would say to her: “‘We The Journal was offering need a good editor, Beverly. $100. Why not?” was making waves with its explosive Do you know anyone good like And so in 1957 Jones moved to New reportage on the Watergate break-in. you?’ And she’d recommend her York and entered the WSJ training proj- “It was awful getting our ass kicked,” talented friends. The numbers of ect, nicknamed “The Genius Program.” he says. “It started out as a police story women at the Times grew based At a party, he met the managing editor’s and we didn’t have reporters covering on the caliber of the people.” wife. “I introduced myself by saying: the police in D.C. They picked it up, Many of his hires went on to ‘I’m a Genius.’ She raised her eye- and we were slow to recognize the influence the news for years to brows: ‘Really?’“ Jones backpedaled significance.” come: Carolyn Lee became the fast. Jones was given the transportation Soon, the Times picked up its pace. first woman on the Times mast- beat, and got some good advice from One important decision was giving head; Cornelia (Cory) Dean rose the reporter he replaced: “What do you Seymour Hersh a new assignment cov- to science editor. have to do to succeed? Get stories on ering “a White House ridden with lies, From 1987 to 1997, Jones the front page.” deception and fear,” as Hersh writes in served as editor of national He managed to do that in spades his recent memoir. Between April 19 editions, which meant he was in when he was made Pittsburgh bureau and July 1, 1973, Hersh proudly notes, charge of making the Times a national tive scoops among news outlets today, chief in 1961, covering labor. “Steel was “I wrote 42 articles, all but two of which paper. (In 1989 he was also made as- largely inspired in reaction to the Trump the big deal,” he notes. Two years later, were on the front page.” Highlighting sistant managing editor.) “There was a Administration. “No one wants to get Jones won a Loeb award for a scoop Hersh’s reporting was a Jones decision. significant opportunity for the Times”— beat, no one admits they got beaten,” on a pending labor deal. He obtained a “It was nirvana,” Hersh writes. “Editor an opportunity, Jones says, that has he says. At the same time, he is pleased copy of what proved to be a revolution- David Jones became my best friend.” been realized. In his talk at the Silurian by the respect journalists have for their ary labor aggreement the steel workers Jones says Hersh “was a firecracker,” luncheon in November, A.G. Sulzberg- competitors. “Journalism is under were negotiating with Kaiser Steel. and adds that when the Times started er said: “Going national expanded the such assault today, we’re circling the Jones’ story led the newspaper. “For actively investigating, the Post was vision of what our paper could be. Not wagons, and giving recognition to our years, people on both sides kept trying relieved. Hersh recalls that when his only was it profitable, it was perfectly competitors.” Echoing Woodward’s to guess who was my source,” he says. January 1973 story ran reporting that aligned with our mission.” words to Hersh, he says, “We’re stron- Then, “out of the blue,” Jones got a Attorney General John Mitchell was im- When Jones retired in 1997, exec- ger together.” call from The New York Times’ Harri- plicated in Watergate, Bob Woodward utive editor Joe Lelyveld, recognizing son Salisbury, who asked him to join called to congratulate him, saying that Jones’ talent for spotting talent, asked the Times as a national correspondent the Post “needed the Times with them.” him to free lance as a headhunter. Jones’ Suzanne Charle´ is a freelance writ- based in Detroit. “I’d been competing Jones developed a reputation for find- first find was David Barstow, who went er and editor. Late one evening while against the Times the whole time,” ing, hiring and promoting strong female on to win three Pulitzers—the first one working as an editor at The New York Jones says. “It was never my ambition journalists, at a time when women were the same year he was hired. Another Times magazine, she was in the makeup to work there.” traditionally shunted off to the “Food, find was Rebecca Corbett; in 2018, as room overseeing changes that printers Jones was reluctant. “It was hard to Fashion, Family, Furnishings” pages assistant managing editor, Corbett led a had to make by hand. (The paper had leave the Journal; I had a good future (“the four Fs”). While he was national team of reporters that exposed Harvey recently switched from hot type.) A man there.” He finally accepted Salisbury’s editor, Grace Lichtenstein became the Weinstein, reportage that won a Pulitzer in a suit came in, wanting to look at the offer, realizing that the Times offered a paper’s first female bureau chief (Rocky in public service. front page. “One of the printers called chance to “paint on a broader canvas.” Mountain bureau), followed by Molly Looking back at his career, Jones is me over, and snapped: ‘Get manage- While the Journal had expanded the idea Ivins. He brought in Judy Miller as a pleased: “Forty years and I loved every ment out of here or we’re walking.’ I had of business coverage, “at the Times it reporter in the Washington bureau in minute of it.” When met with a raised no idea who the man was, but I hustled would be easier to cover social issues 1977; she went on to become the first eyebrow, he smiles and backtracks him out of the room, saying: ‘They’re and politics.” woman to be named the Cairo bureau just a little: “I certainly never had any going to go on strike!’ That was my Talk about timing. While labor was chief in 1983. For all that, Jones sug- regrets.” He’s also encouraged to see introduction to David Jones, national the core of his reporting—Jones’ regular gests the accolades belong elsewhere: the vigorous competition for investiga- editor of The New York Times.” PAGE 8 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2019 OBITUARIES
nors were breathtakingly brief. He would rian News were regularly sent to him. proudly announce, “We’re still solvent,” On Dec. 10, 2018, the November issue We Remember Leo and promptly sit down. was returned with the word “expired” BY MORT SHEINMAN Leo was born in Vienna on Jan. 28, scrawled on the envelope. Leo Meindl, it 1920, moved to Brooklyn as an 8-year- turns out, had died — on Jan. 26, 2017, hen Leo Meindl was trea- old, saw Army service in Europe during almost two years earlier, two days before surer of the Silurians back World War II, met his future wife in Bel- his 97th birthday. Brief notices provided Win the final years of the last gium, and was a reporter at the now-de- by a local funeral parlor had been pub- century and the first few years of this one, funct Long Island Press for more than lished back then in a couple of commu- his bookkeeping methods were a virtual 30 years. A gregarious, peppy fellow, nity newspapers, but even though Leo’s homage to analog methodology. Leo not he was known in the newsroom as “Mr. association with the Silurians was cited in only paid all our bills, he also collected Fix-It” because he handled such details as those short obits, no one ever notified us. the annual dues, which were for a long getting Working Press badges and NYP For two years following his death, not time mailed directly to his Brooklyn license plates for his colleagues. He often a single piece of mail sent to him from home. He did this without a computer or a arranged tours of the L.I. Press building the Silurians was returned, so there was cell phone. He did not own an answering for local school kids. He also wrangled no reason to assume he was gone. This, machine. Somehow, however, the bills the copy boys, one of whom was Jimmy then, is our formal notice of his passing got paid and the dues were recorded. Breslin. After the paper folded, Leo be- and recognition of who he was. As it said Ten years ago, when he was 89, Leo came an aide to Queens District Attorney on the membership cards once issued to stepped down as treasurer of the Siluri- John J. Santucci. As a Silurian, he was a every member of this organization: “A ans, but remained on the Board of Gov- constant presence at our dinners, along Silurian is never forgotten.” So long, Leo. ernors. The club’s financial records that with his wife, Berthe, to whom he was You’ll always be remembered. he bequeathed to his successor consisted married for 68 years. primarily of several large shopping bags When Berthe died in 2014, Leo, then Mort Sheinman is a member of Silu- stuffed with scraps of paper, including the in his 90s and himself in declining health, rian Board of Governors and the club’s backs of old envelopes and whatever else and numbers that, together, added up to left Brooklyn and moved to Fairfield, membership chair. He is a former Silurian might have been at hand. Each dog-eared a fiscal portrait of the Silurians. Leo’s Conn., to be near his son, Albert. During president and was managing editor of slip was covered with scribbled notations monthly reports to the Board of Gover- his time in Fairfield, copies of the Silu- Women’s Wear Daily.
several years, he became a Times colum- known for his coverage of track and field nist in 1962; he was awarded a Pulitzer and swimming. He was president of the Prize for distinguished commentary in New York Track Writers Association for 1979. His second Pulitzer, in 1983, was 40 years, and in 1997, he became the first for Growing Up, his best-selling autobi- newspaper journalist named to the media ography. wing of the International Swimming Baker produced 15 books, some of Hall of Fame. In addition, for a 36-year them collections of his columns, and period, Litsky wrote yearbooks for the wrote for numerous magazines, including Encyclopaedia Britannica, World Book Life, Look, Readers’ Digest, the Satur- and Collier’s, along with “Superstars,” a day Evening Post, and Ladies’ Home 1975 coffee-table book. Journal. After he retired from the Times in 1998, he wrote essays for The New Richard E. (Dick) Mooney, a York Review of Books on subjects such Silurian who spent most of his long career as politics, history and journalism. He with The New York Times, died of cancer also became a familiar face on television on Jan. 10. He was 91. Mooney, who after he succeeded Alistair Cooke as host specialized in reporting on financial and of “Masterpiece Theater” on PBS from economic affairs, joined the Washington 1993 to 2004. bureau of the Times in 1957, working alongside such Times titans as James Res- Frank Litsky, a stalwart of the New ton, Russell Baker and Anthony Lewis. York Times sports department from 1958 Subsequently, he moved to Paris as a cor- until retiring in 2008, died at his home respondent, then returned to New York, in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 30 after where he served as assistant to Reston a brief illness. He was 92. Litsky was a (then the executive editor), deputy foreign Russell Baker, a longtime Silurian Baker started as a night police reporter hard-working, award-winning reporter editor, and editor of the Sunday business whose “Observer” column enlivened at the Baltimore Sun, eventually becom- and editor whose breadth of knowledge section. In 1976, he left the Times to The New York Times for 36 years and ing the Sun’s man in London and at the allowed him to cover 44 different sports become executive editor of the Hartford secured him a place as one of America’s White House. His work caught the eye for The Times, from archery to wrestling Courant before rejoining the Times in best-known humorists, died Jan. 21 at his of James Reston, then the Washington and from luge to cricket. He also covered 1982 as a member of the editorial board home in Leesburg, Va., following com- bureau chief of the Times, who hired him eight Olympic Games and 15 Super under Max Frankel, then editor of the plications of a fall. He was 93. in 1954. After covering Washington for Bowls, but he might have been best- editorial page. Mooney retired in 1997.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW SILURIANS Ray W. Bassett was executive producer of “The Osgood File,” the Tim Harper, a lecturer and writing coach for students at CUNY’s nationally syndicated radio show hosted by Charles Osgood, from 2007 to Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, was with the Associated Press 2018. His journalism career goes back to at least 1995 when he was a radio from 1974 to 1985, covering national news. He has freelanced for publi- reporter in Duluth and Minneapolis. He was with CBS as a producer and cations ranging from Atlantic Monthly to numerous newspapers, and has tape editor from 1998 to 2002, then worked for the AP from 2002 to 2007, been editor of CUNY Journalism Press since its launch in 2012. writing and editing online videos for newspaper, TV and radio clients. Donald G. McNeil Jr. joined The New York Times in 1976 and has Christopher Dickey has been a journalist since at least 1974, when he filled a variety of roles ever since. For the past 16 years, he has been the was with the Washington Post and was, among other things, a bureau chief Times’ science and health reporter, focusing on plagues and pestilences in Cairo and in Mexico. He left the Post in 1986 and went to Newsweek, such as AIDS, ebola, malaria, swine and bird flu, mad cow disease and remaining until 2013. At Newsweek, he was a bureau chief in Cairo and SARS. Earlier assignments ranged from deputy editor in the Arts & Lei- Paris and was also Mideast editor. Presently, he is the Paris-based World sure section to postings in Johannesburg and Paris. McNeil has reported News Editor at the Daily Beast and a contributor to NBC News. from some 60 countries and is the author of Zika: The Emerging Epidemic, published in 2016. Linda Fasulo has kept an eye on the United Nations since at least the early 1990s. A longtime independent correspondent for National Public Radio, Paul Moses is a contributing editor at Commonweal magazine as she was a UN correspondent and producer for NBC News and MSNBC from well as a freelancer whose work appears in numerous other news outlets, 1994 to 2009 and served as a special UN correspondent for US News and especially the Daily Beast. He was a reporter at the Associated Press World Report from 1993 to 2001. She is the author of An Insider’s Guide from 1980-1984. He then joined Newsday, where he was City Hall bu- to the UN and has been an officer and board member of the Overseas Press reau chief. He left the AP in 2001, and taught journalism at Brooklyn Club and the United Nations Correspondents Association. College until 2017.