Joseph G Blake

Thanks John and Alaina for the messages. 

John

I will always admire people who play bridge or do crosswords. I can do neither. I have known a few wo could do the NY Times puzzle in pen and ink. That skill passed me by,

Glad you both are finding a way to give back and growing in the experience. Keep at it. Poor Kellyanne. She is such an easy target. So glad I am not a celebrity.

Joe

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Oh my, where to begin, where to begin...

Alaina, I have been in awe of your keen script-writing chops ever since our senior year, when I was honored to receive a draft copy of a play you wrote in 1963 or '64 with characters "loosely-based" on some of the most "memorable" of our SHHS classmates...  which draft copy I returned to you only a year or so ago, when you told me you had no idea what ever happened to YOUR copy of the still-as-yet unperformed script!

I think you have honed your skills even further in the intervening years!

(AND I love the "Baby Alaina" in christening gown in overstuffed chair photo as well...)

............

Reflecting on how to avoid "acting one's age" at all costs, and keeping one's mind sharp:

1.  My 106 year old cousin Ellen Cooper is my role model, and I only wish I could see her more often!  She lives ALONE in the Watergate apartments in DC, with a housekeeper who comes in once a week to clean. She reads and absorbs the NYTimes and Washington Post daily.  She is totally computer-literate, she emails me well-written and insightful updates and questions; she has no problem opening photos or other links I attach!  (IF only she were a blood-relative and not the widow of my mother's first cousin...)

2.  Joe, I DO do the NYTimes crossword puzzle daily, IN INK - although - full disclosure - often only Mon-Tues-Wed...  truth be told...  But, hey -- it's better than not doing any, right?!

3.  I have been taking ballet class for the past 46 (FORTY SIX!!) years, and not an age-appropriate "ballet exercise for seniors". I take a 90 min Advanced/ Professional class at least 2ce a week, with a pianist in the studio, and a nationally-respected teacher -- where my fellow students are in their 20s + 30s, with some in their 40s!  No, I can no longer do everything the young'uns can, but I am also not prepping to audition like they are!   And it keeps my mind and body fresh to have to be reacting in real time to specific counts and steps.  Also just being with people that age is a breath of fresh air.

4.  I've also been involved on the board and committee level for decades with Joffrey Ballet here in Chicago, and in a lesser way with American Ballet Theatre in NYC.  I've become friends (rather than "acquaintaces") with dancers from both companies over the years - hanging out over lunch or dinner or a walk to the Zoo or going to a performance with my 30-something friends is so different than participating in the same activity with another 70-something!  Even my formerly-young dancer friends who are now in their 50s - totally different social dynamics than my friends in their 70s + 80s!

5.  AND  - last, but for sure not least -- my fabulous family keeps me young - my 47 and 51 year old sons and their same-age wives, AND my 22-22-and 19 year-old grandchildren!

And for good measure, I'm attaching a photo taken of Michael and me Sat June 18 2022 - on our 55th anniversary!

;    ))

Alaina Weisman (Zachary)

OH Dana! What a life you've led!  Some of the wonder is your unswerving devotion to ballet.  Brava.  Beginning in March 2020 (beginning of the lockdown) I began studying comedy writing seriously, which is funny all by itself. It has kept me present! And now, I am one of the writers among reallly smart and young ones, for a live revue. So my week now has a shape and my heart beats faster because I have something at stake! Pitching my ideas in front of talented colleagues. We pitch tonight and  I want to write a sketch about RGB coming back to earth as part of the Justice League. She comes back as Wonder Woman and also wakes up her old pal Antonin who, having seen the error of his ways, is now a liberal. He appears as Superman and they bring along Prince as Batman to save us..

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Alaina, I love the idea. And if I remember correctly, RBG and Scalia were friends  

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Alaina - RBG and Scalia - in a comedy - I LOVE how your mind works!!  And how rewarding it must feel to be holding your own "in the room where it happens" with the young'uns.  Keep it up!

The SHHS connection I neglected to mention regarding my life on the edges of the world of ballet:

My earliest ballet classes were after school at Lomond elementary - taught by the ballerina-mom of Tracy Marshall, who was a year ahead of us - so it was that after-school teacher who initially ignited that spark.  Then in high school I took dance to fulfill our PE requirement (I probably would have chosen just about ANYTHING that did not require me to throw or catch a ball!)  Truly, I don't recall having any other formal dance classes between Mrs Marshall and SHHS.  So I guess I do owe the initial exposure to the Shaker school system.

Alaina Weisman (Zachary)

Betsy - Scalia and RBG were besties. Shopped, went to opera, traveled and their families spend New Years Eve together. They were the "Odd couple" of the SCOTUS.

Dana - as long as I've known you, ballet has been an important focus of your life. I remember seeing y ou on one of your NYC sojourns and you were off to take classes with??? The Joffrey?

Can hardly keep up with the news anymore.  As though we need to wear news shields so as not to be overwhelmed!

Joseph G Blake

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Ha ha - no 106-year-old Cousin Ellen and her late husband were still in Manhattan in 1972!  Moved to DC later to be near their only child. 

And wouldn't it be a hoot, Alaina, to mount the WORLD PREMIERE of your C. 1963/4 play in the actual setting of Shaker Heights, on the occasion of our 60th reunion?!

Cheryl Kushner (Lane)

Joe, I do the wordle every day!  Dana, I am so happy to see and hear good things about you!

Joseph G Blake

As I noted I cannot do word games. I am better at Jeopardy but never get the word ones which are too clever.

Years ago I traveled to Hong Kong several times a year for a client, HSBC. I would stay at their guest center. The lady who managed it was a great at crosswords. She was not a university gra but she explained to me that the creators of crosswords had a system and once you understood how the creator thought you coud figure them out. 

I subsequenlty sent her books of the NY Times crosswords. I do not know how she fared. She generally did cross words in the major British newspapers which were then readily available to her in Hong Kong.

Perhaps those of you who do them may be able to comment if she was right.

Alaina, just an idea. When you do another script maybe you could have Scalia come back like Marley and haunt Thomas in a version of the Christmas Story. 

Thanks

Joe

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Dana Shepard (Treister)

I just tried my 2nd WORDLE, thanks to Joe's challenge - so now I guess I'm hooked.  First game of any sort I've ever done online, rather than on paper - but fingers crossed this willl not be my entry drug into the world of "gaming"!

Jan Whittemore (White)

Hi, guys!  I've been doing Wordle for about three months now (97%), but for those of us in the choir, there is also Byrdle, for choral singers.  All words from or about choral music (one answer a few weeks ago was "warble" ;0)).  Twice the fun, with two games.  Cheers, jan

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Dick and I do Wordle and Nerdle together. At our age takes two brains or should I say a half a brain each!

Joseph G Blake

Ladies,

Great to see how talented you are with the word games. As I said, I admire those skills. My mother was good at determining what words meant because she had studied classical Latin and Greek.Bill Buckley's columns of old were the ones she sometimes needed a dictionary. 

I suspect that you are all well read which helps too.

Well done. 

Joe

Cheryl Kushner (Lane)

Latin helps!  Thank you!

Joseph G Blake

Years ago my son was at the Hill School (Donny Trump was there as well but that is another tale) for three years. They had him take Classical Greek for three years. Very small class but he excelled at it. It trained his mind along with advanced Math.The two teachers were larger than life characters as well.  He now runs a hedge fund. The two seemed to have helped prepare him for college and grad achool. 

My one daughter had Latin for four years and she now has a column in the LA Times. I would like to think it helped.

All four of our children had this one English teacher in 8th grade who was a stickler for grammar. That two helped make them good writers. I thought about Burton Randall and Mr Burnett at the time. My Shaker experience shaped my expectations for schools for my children as I am sure they did for you. 

Joseph G Blake

I recently was looking at data for the high school and were students go to college.

I am attaching these two lonks which may be of interest.

One is a summary of the last four years.  In our day the high school was grades 10 to 12 and our class was around 600. This was duing the post war baby boom and the golden age of US economic dominance. The period between 1961 and 1968 saw average real GDP growth of 5%.  This has never been excedded since that time. That was the longest period of sustained growth after WW2. In the 80s and 90s average growth was well over 3%. I offer those comments to uderstand how much the world has changed other than just the demographics.

Shaker today is 55% white and the high school is 59% minority enrollment. The difference reflects the large number of school age students who attend private or parochial schools ( there are three private schools north of Shaker Blvd since 1930 and two parochial schools in or adjacent to the city.) This is has always been part of the reality of Shaker Heights. 

Of note the city population has increased 1,000 between 2010 and 2020 (29,000) census. The populaton has been in decline since 1970, most notably between 1970 (37,000) and 1980 when the city lost 10% of its population and another 5% in the 1980s.

Academic and college data for the years 2019 to 2022. You might want to cut and paste the links.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.shaker.org/Downloads/SHHS%20Profile,%20Class%20of%202022.pdf

https://www.shaker.org/Graduates.aspx

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mpGF2IvMAkg_gE8OwST4KttxFjovOEA9SiolsRj2RY/edit

Hope you may find of interest.

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Thanks, Joe. Very interesting data. As always Shaker grads do well. 

Joseph G Blake

Friends

 

I am sending this along in the event you may have an interest in a  talk I am giving for the Shaker Library on on October 19 at 7PM EDT. It will be virtual via Zoom. 

The topic will be the work and achievements of Justice Harold H. Burton. He was Mayor of Cleveland and US Senator from Ohio (1941 to 1945). His chidren and grandchildren attended Shaker schools. Our classmate Christine Adler Phillips was his granddaughter. 

Registration on line is now open and there is room for 100 attendees.

 

Here is the link.  I hope you will be able to attend.

 

https://events.shakerlibrary.org/event/9665034

 

Shaker resident Harold H. Burton was Mayor of Cleveland, U.S. Senator and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His father Alfred accompanied Peary to the North Pole and his sister was the children’s author/illustrator Virginia Lee Burton.

Historian Joe Blake will explore Burton’s political career and his legacy, including Burton’s tenure as a Republican Mayor during the New Deal, and his Supreme Court appointment just as the Court began to reexamine judicial support for segregation.

Again it will be on October 19 at 7PM EDT. It will be virtual via Zoom.

John P Feher

Hi fellow SHS Class of 64 mates.

I have been writing reports Cleveland Baseball Team games this season. They are posted on the Substack site.

All together I have covered about 100 games, starting with the opener in KC last April.

To find them go to Substack.com  -  search "Cleveland Baseball" - my blogs, if that's what they are, will be found at "John's Newletter".

An achive button will provide access to all of the pieces.

Down on the list is an entry title "Read This First".  It introduces me and the project.  Now a little out of date since I posted that just as I began to upload the entries in August.

Read "Decapitation" and "Recapitulation" to understand why I refer to the home team as CBT, never the "g" word.

Stewart M Flate

John.  You must be a very civilized person. The Guards have had a very successful season far exceeding expectations.

Gerald G Lyman

I recently told Jerry Goetz that I have taken to refer to the Tribe as either the 

INguarDIANS or the guardINDIANS

I still have my Chief Wahoo cap

  - Gerry Lyman 

T Stenson White, Jr

I will forever refer to Cleveland's baseball team as "the Indians" or "the Tribe".

Naming them "Guardians" is another example of "Political Correctness" run amok!

I wear my "Chief Yahoo" cap proudly....go Tribe!

Stewart M Flate

Take a look. In their first year as the Guardians, they won the AL Central Division. Did anybody think that was possible when the season started?