Shopping Moves For A Movin' Shopper

Has the Christmas shopping got you down? Do you wonder what you might do in long lines that would pass the time less painfully? Are people telling you that you need to execrcise more these days?

But more importantly, does the store music hit the spot for you?- You might be in Super-A, hearing the familiar oldies while waiting for the line to move and just need to express yourself.

This tune, "Goin' to A 'go-go" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, might lighten things up for you- It did for this shopper who was not shy at all. (But sometimes shy could be a good thing. You can decide.)

Having a Happy Thanksgiving (celebration) in Claremont

Thanksgiving for kindergartners in Claremont

Do you remember these holiday times in elementary school where the origins of the holiday were often presented in class activities and performances as plays? Well, doing things like that might get up a little controversy, maybe a lot of controversy. In days of old, or older days for some, or maybe, not too old days for others of you, WE did those things and we learned, in the old hands-on learining style that gets us into the subject so that we can understand it better..

Over in Claremont, there were these two elementary schools, Condit and Mountain View, that had a decades-old tradition of having kindergarten students dress up as Pilgrims and Indians, all coming together for the Thanksgiving feast. The students would alternate by years, with one school taking the role of Indians and the other being the Pilgrims. The students walked over from one school to the other for the festivities.

This got one of the parents, Michelle Raheja, to object with a claim that this whole process was demeaning to American Indians and was racist. The parent an English professor at UC Riverside and objected to this. The school board met last week and heard from both sides on this, deciding to allow the festivities but no costumes for the kids. This all is too much political correctness that happens to dampen lots of things from the way we had seen in the past. Do you see Cinco de Mayo celebrations cut out the costumes because they are not “authentic” representations or racist? I haven’t heard that.

The history of Thanksgiving is of peace and sharing, and the idea that this is about genocide, racism and false events is simply bogus. The conflicts between the settlers and American Indians were not same as what the Thanksgiving celebration was all about. All things were not hostile and should not be assumed to have been so. The real haters in my view are the purveyors of dissension and hate who seek to "uncover" as politically incorrect whatever they decide impinges on their view of society, past and present.

Learning about the history that make up our culture comes to kids in representations for the sake of simplicity; something age-appropriate, and those more detailed history books come later. But some people use the events to raise their personal agenda issues, loudly objecting in their protest to whatever falls within their view. This is one of those cases.


The parents decided to go ahead with the childrens' festivities and have the kids wear Pilgrim and Indian costumes they made, and the officials did not interfere. People protested that to some degree, but it was pretty peaceful. After all, these are kindergarten kids enjoying the holiday with a completely positive feeling, not one of the holidays based on a sad event. A lot of people look to things to find whatever they disagree with and call it racism or something that it is not. The personal agendas of a few in this case almost took away an enjoyable experience.

The parents decided to keep their kids home from school today to send their message to the Board. The district gets money based on an ADA, Average Daily Attendance, and it is affected by absences. Parents were of the opinion that the Board might consider money being more important than words as the parents’ response to the decision of the Board. I normally object to students missing school as a form of protest, but for kindergarten, the day is a short one and a pre-holiday early day off for a young kid is not pivotal to gaining an education, where it might be productive for older students. I will say one thing that this certainly shows, and that is parent-involvement.

You can read more on this with a Google “Claremont, thanksgiving, kindergarten” or such to search to find the several stories, with details on more of the objections and the responses. Objectors even tried to make comparison of the event to Jews having a celebration with Nazis, so you can see the extremes to which the opinions ranaged.

For one source of an historical perspective See Nathaniel Filbrick, “Mayflower,” (Description: http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/mayflower/index.html ) for a view of the details of the time.

This book, like so many other books, is at the L.A. Public Library [Call No. 974.4 P545] so you don’t have to buy to read for two weeks at a time; the borrower cards are issued free with some lightweight proof of being a city resident.) The web site is a wealth of information and searches as well as requests for books to be sent to your local branch for pick up is a helpful service provided online.

Dodgers have ups and down, but Vin Scully is always a hit.

Vin Scully was honored last Friday by the Pacific Pioneers Broadcasters. Scully has been bringing the word picture of the DODGERS games to the listeners in Los Angeles, mainly on radio, but on t.v., too, ever since 1958, when they came here from Brooklyn, N.Y. He also has done excellent jobs announcing NFL Football and PGA Golf, too.

There's a feature item in today's laradio.com website, with Don Barrett, site creator, covering that lucheon event. He presents a lot of information that the average listener may not even have heard about before. Several other notable figures in sports, radio and news were there to give comments about the honoree, Vin Scully, and Vinny also has some good stories to tell. Check this out at www.laradio.com that is offered free for the month of NOVEMBER (see the "link" in the left sidebar here).

There are only a few more days left and then it goes back to being the subscription website. The website contains 11 years of archives of the past columns that you can check through meanwhile, and, subscribe for a relatively low price yearly price and monthly, if you feel that' better. If you compare the plans offered to a lot of other things, it's not a bad deal. Today's stories are the kinds of things you won't find elsewhere, and it's a fresh edition Monday through Friday at 7 a.m.

A "Heads up" on a couple of things

There are a few items for your information here, especially useful to know if you are a parent home on Wednesday, or getting home early that day and thought you might get a some extra rest before Thanksgiving Day. Be advised. This is the customary "minimum day" that means your child or children at Lincoln High will be getting out of school at 12:24 p.m.

If you happen to have very ambitious children who have that wonderlust spirit, this news might help you to manage a little closer attention to those parental responsibilities. For some students, getting an early start on vacation just gets them home sooner to help or just lounge around. For others, more free time could just be more uninvolved or undirected time for them to find a way that makes their day more interesting. Sometimes they are invovled in productive things, and sometimes the choice is more things that may include bad decisions of assorted types. Just something to think about while you still have an influence and before time passes you by on these situations.

But for teachers, the short school day allows an early out that helps those who did not already manage to use any other reason to head out sooner for the holiday travel. Even teachers for just going home, as usual , the short day is welcome. They might get a break in their daily trip since there are more teachers who have longer commutes than did the teachers of my Lincoln years, and there are a few more cars on the freeway now, too, if you have noticed.

Second "heads up" announcement- more time allowed here, though, is that Representative Linda Sanchez, the sister of Representative Loretta Sanchez, announced last week that she is pregnant- and, "No," she is not married. The 39-year-old elected official is not married yet, but said that she is "unofficially engaged." Usually, that phrase means "no ring, no date." The due date for her baby is May 21, 2009. Well, it looks like unplanned pregnancies don't just happen to high school teens. Latina teens have a rate twice the national average, and teaching in high school would demonstrate that this doesn't help teens get the most of their educational opportunities.

Rep. Sanchez is an adult, and the topic is covered very well by Patt Morrison's column in the L.A. Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison20-2008nov20,0,2576813.column . As a role model, this one fall far short of what we would like in our elected officials (with so many being major dissappointments for other reasons).

Teen pregnancy has always been a problem, and over the years it has become worse for Latinas, while the rate has dropped for African-Americans. What changes because of teen pregnancy, anyway, or, what is the big deal? Well check a number of angles on this topic at the home page for "The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy," at http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/reports.aspx

Friday, November 22, 1963- Dallas, Texas

"Three shots were fired today at President's Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas, Texas."

YouTube audio, First Kennedy Assassination Bulletin- ABC Radio, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UHz0k3kkFw ) (1:07 min.)

Today, Saturday, November 22, 2008, marks the 45th anniversary of the day that President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas. Like other things in our past, a lot becomes ignored over time and the significance becomes lost, with our young people becoming more and more ignorant of things and events that we, as witnesses to those events, would not forget. This is one of those significant dates, one that brought an end to a special life and robbed all of us of so much that he envisioned for our future.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uw2yruChK8 YouTube video on the breaking news of JFK's assassination events (from breaking the story to the rest of announcements as they progressed.) (7:20 min/sec.)

Reflections- from personal recollections of the time.

For many people like me, the whole story of this assassination of the President was something we experienced, minute by minute, something that was as stunning and incomprehensible at the time as nothing else we had experienced. For many of you younger readers who weren't born yet, you might compare what happened here with another tragic event that you should vividly remember. It was as maybe, in many ways, the kind of feeling that we had as we experienced the events of the 9-11 attack and the feelings that this tragedy left us with, lasting in various ways to now. But it still was different. It was one man, not 3,000 people killed, yet the impact was enormous.

I was still in Nightingale Jr. High and it was right before lunch time that we heard the news of the shooting and they told us that the President was taken to the hospital. The news came back almost two hours later and the announcement was made that President Kennedy died.

I did not see the television reports or hear the radio news directly until I got home and then all the stations had stopped regular programming for four days, going with continuous coverage that supplied more and more details on this unimaginable turn of events. For me, as the news gradually sunk in, I felt sadness for our loss and then, thinking of his family, for their loss.

That continuous coverage included Sunday's morning's fatal shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, by Jack Ruby, as Oswald was being moved with detectives at his side. We were still at home getting ready for church when that happened. Jack Ruby's bullets, apparently fired to avenge the President's murder, selfishly robbed us of the opportunity to learn anything more from Oswald about the assassination.

The funeral for JFK was held on Monday after the casket bearing the President was kept in the Capitol rotunda for 24 hours while mourners filed past it to pay their respects.

Thinking back to those events still is sad for me after all these years. At that time, we were typical jr. high kids and reacted with denial and even joking around before the death was announced, since the gravity of the situation was nothing like anything ever presented to us before. And I remember we mostly all liked Kennedy a lot, so different from now. Not even President-elect Obama, as popular as he is, had that amount of admiration. So, for us being concerned with regular things of youth, you really don't want to believe that something serious could be happening as it was in this case. We found out later that the report was not a mistake when they told us he was shot and he was dead.

P.E. class was after lunch and I don't remember much detail except that the teacher said we probably would be back in school Monday. That teacher was Mr. Hodson, who said in his usual loud voice, but in an oddly quiet way, "President Kennedy would have wanted us to stay in class" or something like that. Of course, he couldn't know anything of the sort, but we just listened. He was probably trying to keep things at a low key level since the teachers must have been stunned by the news, too. Of course they were, they were adults. We were 13 and 14 years old, most of us, so what experience did we have to apply here to judge anything?

The Assassination.

President Kennedy arrived in Dallas at 9:40am Pacific Standard Time (9:40 am PST, and 11:40 am CST) and was shot while riding in a motorcade from the airport to the Dallas Trade Mart where he was to give a luncheon speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. He was 46 years old. He was the youngest person ever elected as President of the United States at 43 years of age. Only Theodore Roosevelt, at age 42, was younger when he took office after President William McKinley's assassination in 1901.

President Kennedy was riding in the Presidential limosine with the bubble top taken off, accompanied by his wife, Jackie, and the Governor of Texas, John Connelly and the Governor's wife. Governor Connelly also was shot but would recover from the wounds.

The motorcade went immediately to Parkland Hospital with the wounded President and Governor. And about an hour later, on t.v., you could see Walter Cronkite make the announcement that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dead.

President Kennedy's official time of death was 2 pm CST (11am PST) and was announced in the news about 40 minutes later, right after the information was released..

CBS news announcement of death of JFK, Walter Cronkite reporting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CjWbemTNcw&feature=related (00:26 sec.)

The Funeral.

The funeral was held on Monday, November 25, 1963. That Monday was also the third birthday of John F. Kennedy, Jr. I remember watching the procession that went slowly from the Capitol to the Cathedral with a riderless horse ahead of the casket. I also remember when watching this on t.v. that my grandmother mentioned, in Spanish, that it was like President Roosevelt's funeral. I say here, "in Spanish," since that was all she and my grandfather spoke. We never considered why ONLY Spanish; there weren't classes everywhere like now, and many free, to learn English, but they still managed in all their years.

That recollection later reminded me of how much we lose in those memories from our own families. We don't do something as simple as write down or video record or audio tape little "interviews" on subjects to preserve things as our parents and grandparents remembered them, and a lot of it all before our time. We take much for granted until we have lost both the person and the opportunities of the moment.

I have included a link to another website that contains photos and details of the funeral that carry, in images and words, the message of loss for those days. (You can see other details and photos concerning the assassination in separate pages on this same website.) http://www.fiftiesweb.com/kennedy/kennedy-assassination-25.htm

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More about the history of the 35th President of the United States,

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

There is a lot of material that tells us about President Kennedy, his family, the times and the assassination, that give different opinions covering many of these subjects. There was even a movie, "JFK," directed by Oliver Stone, that has been used in some schools to present its views, often taken as fact, on the assassination. The film fuels the position that there was conspiracy to kill President Kennedy and that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, did not act alone in the shooting.

The movie portrays several convincing "facts" that have not been established and remain only as opinion. Some parts of the moview are inserted as part of the story but did not happen, a criticism of other movies by Stone, with subjects including Nixon, and the Doors band. There are many people who use that movie to form their opinion as to conspiracy.

I found a good website http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm that you can scroll through to see a very readable history of President Kennedy and his related events, with links to other reference sources.

One thing that stood out as a distinguishing feature of President Kennedy was his sharp wit. He seemed to be able to respond with agility of thought and word in most situations, adding his own taste of humor in a spontaneous way that you do not see anymore.

There are some of the more polished areas of his speeches that brought us many well-remembered quotes, as well as others quotes that may not appear as familiar. A collection of John F. Kennedy Quotes can be found at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_f_kennedy.html

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A list of "coincidences" is compiled for these two major American figures in history

It brings out a lot of coincidental things about President John F. Kennedy and President Abraham Lincoln, another president who was assassinated almost 100 years earlier- and for whom our school was named.

And sadly, Lincoln High students have generally little knowledge of our namesake, Abraham Lincoln, one of the most important of the Presidents of our country. Even more sadly, that condition is allowed to continue by the institution that should be promoting more education and using the numerous "teachable moments" presented so frequently. Bringing back more education can bring back the some of the pride that's gradually been lost at Lincoln.

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"Now For Some Strange Facts About Abraham Lincoln's & John F. Kennedy's Assassinations"

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
*
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
*
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.
*
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
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Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.
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Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
*
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908
*
Both assassins were known by their three names.

*

John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
*
Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."
*
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
*
Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theater.

LHS Tigers Reach The Last Football Game For 2008

The Lincoln Tigers look they have played the last game this year for this season's roster of players. In a last matchup for 2008, last night's scoring contest resulted in Huntington Park High coming away with the 42-28 win over LHS. Congratulations are in order for this year's varsity players, the coaches and staff, who dedicated themselves in producing a "team," first of all, and giving us all a season of good football.


Thursday's City Championship first-round playoffs and Invitationals scores (partilal list):

CITY CHAMPIONSHIP

Narbonne 28, Washington 9
Birmingham 27, Garfield 15
Los Angeles Jordan 21, Fremont 12
Crenshaw 42, Wilmington Banning 6
Taft 16, Locke 8
San Fernando 27, Dorsey 19
Venice 25, Carson 20
San Pedro 34, Sylmar 3


INVITATIONAL

Arleta 42, South East 7
Huntington Park 42, Lincoln 28
Los Angeles Wilson 52, Santee 50
Fairfax 21, Reseda 17
Franklin 48, Canoga Park 3
West Adams 31, Cleveland 21
El Camino Real 35, Los Angeles Marshall 28 (OT)
Los Angeles Roosevelt 35, Jefferson 16

Gas Is Under $2.00 a gallon. Thanksgiving Travel Back On?

Yes, the price of gas has fallen to less than $2.00 a gallon for regualr unleaded gas in the Los Angeles area after some really expensive summer months. I don't know if this is going to go any lower, but for the time, it's a brief and welcome relief to the wallet, especially for those of you who thought your only concern with commuting long distances was going to be the traffic.

Thanksgiving is coming in a week. That happens to be a super heavy travel period in this country. Lots of people had cut down on their driving and unnecessary travel because the gas was taking a big chunk of money out of the budget. The lowered price of gas frees up the choices to do some travelling for the holidays and just takes off the pressure coming from one part of these tough economic times.

Some people might be able to dust off the old Winnebago for a last trip while we still have some good weather without having to take out a loan to pay for gas now. I really can't see that the gas price is going down much lower, but then who would have thought it was going to be this low a few months ago? We were glad when it went down 50 cents a gallon, and a dollar less was just too much of a surprise. But then again, I remember when it was 29 to 35 cents a gallon ALL the time, and that was a long time ago in the age of "muscle cars" that were plentiful in the 60's.

You can be sure the oil industry will continue to focus on making maximum profits come in, and low prices at the pump don't mix well with that idea. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the price drop before it starts to head the other way.

What's with seeing new SUV's on the street with those paper labels in the license plate holder that tells you it is a NEW sale? Maximizing mileage is hard enough with a car you ALREADY have without LOOKING for a thirsty, large-sized vehicle. Well, the deal on the selling price must been an irrisistable one for those cars, I suppose, but you have to still feed them regularly.

If you are so fortunate that you have enough money coming in so that the price of gas is no obstacle for you, then good for you. But for the rest of us, this is a good time to make your trips and just be happy it's not still sky-high. The downside of cheaper gas is more traffic. Too bad that this is the natural response. Public transit ridership has dropped with people going back on the road in their own cars because of gas prices dropping. Well, you can't have everything.

Check the sidebar "links to visit" for the Cheapest Gas Prices website that change daily. Costco is usually the lowest with the least hassle when it comes to any lines, but you must be a member, too. It's not a bad choice. Are you getting the best deal?

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Guess What? Another Football Home Game Tonight

The "City Invitational Tournament," otherwise known to many as the “playoffs,” is in progress, and Lincoln High School will be playing Huntington Park High. This game will be AT Lincoln TONIGHT at 7pm. I mentioned in the last posting that LHS didn’t do badly this year and there you have it.

That last home game on Friday against Wilson was the last “season” home game, but not the “last” one this year. Technicalities, technicalities. Come on down if you want to see the Tigers, who are apparently rated as the underdogs in this game, go for the upset victory.

L.A. Times’ “Varsity Blog” reporter, Eric Sondheimer, makes the predictions on the games and here’s the one for this game:

“Huntington Park at Lincoln. The Eastern League was one of the strongest in the
City Section, and that strong competition will help Huntington Park win.”

See the full posting, with his many other predictions on the matchups, including the reader comments at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/2008/11/football-city-i.html . [I see the reader comment by the name of “Sylvia Miller” is in there, too, and she takes another swing at Eagle Rock High in her comments. As in most of her other reader comments and blog postings that she has made in the newspapers when ERHS comes up, she’s using her favorite put-down, “Ego Rock” when mentioning the Eagles. I guess there’s some strong personal history behind the reason for that. I haven’t seen what that reason is myself before in her criticisms that causes her to always bring this into the picture, like here. I bring this up since it’s not really relevant when you consider that ERHS isn’t even in this tournament.]

A current visit to the LHS Official "home page" shows the page view of “This Week @ Lincoln” that is more accurately described as “Last Week @ Lincoln.” The short school week for the Thanksgiving holiday is NEXT week, after all. A quick check of the site did not show that there was a game tonight. If you want to help out to get some more people into the stands to cheer on the home team, send this item along by e-mail by clicking the little envelope icon that shows up after the last paragraph here, add some addresses, and you have helped spread the word.

One of the reasons that this blog and the predecessor website came into being was because of the information vacuum on most things involving Lincoln. There was very little way for any alumni to know what was happening in regard to Lincoln High until AFTER the “upcoming events” turned into “Past Events.” This game almost became one of those events had I not received the thoughtful emailing this morning from another LHS alum.

What About Friday's Football Results?

So what about the Friday friendly Season Closer against Wilson High? Oh, THAT game? Well, it was close but we still had the second-highest score for all teams involved in that game.

And the "East L.A. Classic" was held last night at a full ELA College Stadium, with Garfield High coming away from the game with bragging rights over Roosevelt High for the next year until they meet again.

NORTHERN LEAGUE
Franklin 51, Eagle Rock 24
Los Angeles Marshall 49, Belmont 24
Los Angeles Wilson 28, Lincoln 20

EASTERN LEAGUE
Garfield 26, Los Angeles Roosevelt 7
Huntington Park 24, Bell 8
Los Angeles Jordan 63, South Gate 7

Opinion Time
All in all, it was not a bad season for Lincoln, and definitely without all the drama that played out at Eagle Rock High over the whole year, leading up to the cowardly attack on Coach Lopez and the forfeit to Belmont last week.

ERHS Principal, Mr. Velasco, is marching that school from mountain heights, straight into the ocean after he was handed a campus with generally high morale and academic performance. The football program decision was just another milestone along that trek.

I thought the idea was to have a principal try to move your school forward, not backwards, but all that is just my opinion. LAUSD honchos checked off this situation and said A-OK. The "review" included a personally conducted community meeting to air out gripes regarding "nepotism" claims regarding husband-teacher-coach, Mr. Lord and administrator-wife, Mrs. Lord, by Ray Cortines, "Senior Deputy Superintendent." I was there to hear all this. Talk about conflicting views of the same subject, this was a markedly divided audience. The purpose of the meeting turned out to be more stroking than anything else. At the time, it looked like something might actually be done to correct the problems. Ha.

The principal was never really directly involved in any public process and confidentiality limitations were usually relied upon for his absence throughout. So, LAUSD did the usual thing in a critical situation, nothing, as it reviewed the decisions and all stood unchanged, as well as keeping the catalyst, the principal, at Eagle Rock.

To be clear, Coach Lopez was just caught in the middle of a disastrous scenario not of his making, and he's been trying to make the best of the bad situation he inherited. To me, the former coach, Mr. Chou initially looked like more the good guy before the season started, but did he have any responsibility to get the players in line and act maturely, or were the players to figure that out alone or not at all?

It was a season to remember, but for the wrong reasons.

The "Who's Who" of Lincoln Alumni at 95th Anniversary Gala Reunion

Lincoln High's 95th Anniversary Gala event was held on Saturday, November 1, 2008, at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. A very satisfied and diverse group of LHS alumni and their guests enjoyed the evening as celebrants, dining, dancing, mingling and just having a plain old good time.

The L.A.-based veteran band and Eastside original, "Tierra," provided the live entertainment, featuring Lincoln High alumni band members, Steve Salas, vocals and percussion, and two of my 1967 classmates, "Tierra" leader Rudy Salas, guitar and vocals, and Bobby Navarrete, sax, flute and vocals. (www.tierramusic.com )

Just in case you couldn't make it, OR, if you DID attend and you want to know where you can see all those photos that were taken, here's the the answer:

Just email Mike Ibarra to request the connecting link to the 95th Gala web photo album that he has produced for that event, at mikethedadibarra@sbcglobal.net - besides "the dad," he's also the de facto Official Alumni Association Photographer, and always does a commendable job, as you will see.

Lots of bands & singers "of note," for benefit concert Saturday

"The Latin Summit, a benefit concert and toy drive" will be held at the Quiet Canon in Montebello (Pomona Fwy., Garfield exit, go south to entrance), on Saturday, November 22, 2008, at 7 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.)

If you like live music and even some dancing, and you want to see many different bands, some older ones that have made a name for themselves, and some emerging talent, this is the place to be. There is a the added benefit of helping to give toys to make the holidays happier for more kids, and the Alumni Association can be another happy group by your choice here.

A part of each ticket obtained from our alum, Virgi Candales, will go to benefit the LHS Alumni Association's fundraising.

The scheduled performers for this lively evening are:

"The Intruders,"
"Rose Royce"
"Sly, Slick & Wicked"
"AAlon"
"Mr. D and Homies"
"Rudy and Steve Salas"
"Rocky Padilla and Cory Silva"
with special guests, Lil' Gee, Gutta Dub, Lil' Chuko.

Do you like cars, especially customs and classics?
Numerous car clubs will be displaying their cars there, as well.
The cost: $25.00 AND 1 toy to see all these entertainers and help out some kids.

HERE'S THE REQUEST-
It's a good deal, but don't just buy your ticket ANYWHERE you can- make it better. Each ticket obtained through Virgi will be helping the Alumni Association, and the price will still be the same.
Be sure to get your tickets through Virgi Candales- contact her at virgicandel@aol.com
and lend a helping hand.

Support your LHS Alumni Association in it's fund raising efforts, and you will have all that entertainment, too. Do act now- it's next Saturday, after all.

"Something we heard on the radio"

[The earlier copy of this posting incorrectly referenced "today's column, Friday', November 14," for the Lloyd Thaxton story; the correct column was the "Thursday, November 13, 2008" column. The revised text below is the correct version. ed.] *
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* [11-17-08: In re-reading items as I tend to do, I found TWO problems:
(1.) The correction above needs another correction. "Lloyd Thaxton's story was in FRIDAY'S column- 11-14-08, that flashed back through the "_ Years Ago Today" section (the boxed blue-background section). {The "American Woman in Radio and TV" topic was properly corrected as a "Nov. 13, 2008," Thursday column that is now in archives.}

But there's more:
(2.) That column item to see on Lloyd Thaxton (where the "__ Years Ago" column appeared in the blue-box part) doesn't carry over that blue-boxed item with it into the archive section for that column when it's moved there. You can't see any of those "__Years Ago Today" category archived for any day. INSTEAD, you have to go to the ORIGINAL old column where it first showed up, which means yu have to:
(a.) search for the original story, and that's not too simple from my experience, and,
(b.) if you don't remember the story name or want to see what other days had for old story flashback, it's all depends on your memory or a saved note since ALL the blue box infomation is missing (the title, the old date, all of it) from it's spot in the story when that story is moved to the "archives" section.

Final thing here on what started out as a simple correction- the LINKS to other items that I added still work for the other sources- and the LA TIMES obituary also includes a short video clip in his memory showing samples of his antics on the show.

Free access to LA Radio.com has two more weeks to go. ed.
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I linked the website, “L.A. Radio People,” www.laradio.com in the sidebar for the free access being provided this month. I somehow found that website at about the time it began 11 years ago. It is now a subscription website, but still cheap at about $36 for a year (applying my Lincoln-learned math skills, that’s $3 a month- right?). It’s been a huge source of radio information for me, and I bring it up here since radio is almost always woven into our high school experience, bringing the music of the day to us then and again, now. Radio was heard in the home, in the car, and just about any of the places where you heard sounds.

Radio was an especially important thing for the older alumni types. “We” didn’t have I-pods, CD’s or even cassettes. It was radio and albums and 45’s; maybe some 4-tracks and the short-lived 8-track tapes to add music in the car. Lots of music was put on reel-to-reel tape, especially the case for the vets that bought all that stuff during their government-paid travels as they headed to Vietnam and parts related, finding cameras and audio equipment to try balancing out the less pleasant parts of their job.

But radio still is here and changing, like all of us, we lose people those radio people we came to know mostly through their radio presence. Many names from the past are gone now. You might remember some of the names: Wolfman Jack, the Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan (and that “Tina Delgado”- who is rumored to be still alive), Humble Harv, Bill Balance, and Huggy Boy. Most of this information was initially presented to me about all things having to do with L.A. Radio through that web site that somehow misses very little about what is happening now in radio.

I invite you to check it out, as it has that magic word, “Free”, during the month of November. Yesterday's column, Thursday, November 13, 2008, [ http://www.laradio.com/newsite/archives/nov2008c.htm Type in "free" in both username and password pop-up window- valid for Nov. only] featured a panel of female industy standouts in Amercan Woman in Radio and TV, "AWRT." These women have suceeded in radio, many of them knowing what it is to be discriminated against because of their sex. They received praise at this presentation for their excellence in the industry, coming through to overcome assorted obstacles in their careers to get there. Some of their comments may inspire others to stay with their goals and not be discouraged in the face of discouragement. It took a long time for most to advance, but that’s the other tough part for our young students to see when they become used to seeing results happen more quickly. That's something else to be learned for our students.

The LA Radio, THURSDAY edition, has the regular “flashback” feature of past column or story from 1 or more years ago. Included today is a “2-years Ago” essay from Lloyd Thaxton on his short radio career. Lloyd died on October 5, 2008 at 81 years old. (L.A. Times Obit- http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-thaxton8-2008oct08,0,108325.story , 73 comments to date) .

I remember his “Lloyd Thaxton Show” on t.v. in the 60’s where local high school students were invited to come on to dance, while he had music groups there who lip-synched their songs. He did move on to bigger things later, but the dance show was something to watch. His blog is still up with lots of his thoughts. http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/2006/01/why-lloyd-thaxton-disappeared.html

Lloyd Thaxton had a disease that was eventually going to kill him, but it did not control his mind. There’s something that showed me more of his creativity and thought that he posted his blog http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/ - scroll down to the "May 5, 2008," posting- He describes an exercise to try, that I summarize here, but see his words for the whole theme:

Go to a cemetery and look at any gravestone. He gives an example for a man, 91 years old. There’s a name and then there’s two dates; the date of birth and the date of death. In between there’s a tiny dash (-). That tiny dash is supposed to represent his life. Thaxton called that dash a “putdown” since all 91 years comes down to just a tiny dash.

Lloyd's big question was “WHAT WILL YOUR DASH STAND FOR?”

Right there his idea gets really interesting, describing something special- a project to write your own obituary. I recommend that posting of his for further reading. It may give you a different view on life and it’s something to think about from Lloyd Thaxton, a guy who did a lot in that “dash” of his.

(And the following are my personal favorite parts )

There’s a lot in the LA Radio, and one reason, but not my biggest one to recommend this to you, is that I usually get my own email letters printed there (often it's to later find the missed typos) but you can see the content yourself and consider it. There’s one printed from yesterday, Thursday, November 13, 2008, entitled, "**On -air issues" that I like, responding to response of others.

Then there's another email appearing on Friday, October 3, 2008, remarking on the “Encyclopedia of Hits” guy, Robert Estrada, who had such impressive knowledge of hit songs and their dates and chart position, all heard in the first hour on www.Talkradioone.com Oct. 30, as a podcast- compare for yourself. More on that site later.

On the Tube

Some television notes-
"Obama Fever" still lingers- Tonight- Thurs. 11-13-08, 8:30 p.m., PBS KCET-Ch. 28, will show Huell Howser's travelling California Gold program as it visits Occidental College in Eagle Rock where Barrack Obama (aka Barry) spent a few years in college before transferring out. More air times: http://www.pbs.org/modules/tvschedules/includes/programinfopopup.html?title_id=884&display_feed=700&display_format=list_airdates&feeds=700&station=KCET&zipcode=90027&transport=&provider=&channelsuppress=f&supersite=&program_title=California
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"Chicano Rock" - PBS will again be the presenter of this rocumentary that features Eastside L.A. bands and music personalities of the past at 9 p.m., Dec. 14, 2008 on PBS, KCET-Ch. 28.
A "Thanks" goes out to LHS alumnus Max Uballez for this information- he's also involved in the production.

This documentary is based on a major reunion performance earlier this year at the historic Million Dollar Theater downtown on Broadway. Lincoln's own alumni, Rudy and Steve Salas, were in the Eastside music scene since they were able to carry a tune and stand in front of a mike. The later-formed band, Tierra, went on to entertain a solid foundation of music fans, initially in the southwest U.S. and spreading over the years. They are among the several featured performers who bring back a part of the past for us to revisit.

See the "Chicano Rock" website link in the side bar, "What to Watch For", or, here: http://www.moonflowercafe.com/chicanodoc.html

LHS Alumni Association meets Saturday

There's an Alumni Association meeting this Saturday, November 15, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. in the Student Cafeteria. The meeting is open to anyone and membership is open to alumni of LHS.

Alumni are encouraged to attend and to become dues paying members, too, should they so choose. Come by and find out more. Volunteers are encouraged to participate in the available areas of interest, both in the planning and event activities.

Reminder: There is a continiuing effort to have alumni supply their email addresses to be included in the assorted notices. Check the official Alumni page to send contact information directly, or to this writer for forwarding. (rg at lhs90031@earthlink.net )

At Lincoln High This Week

WHAT PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE?
You mean your child has not told you about this? Hard to believe.

If you have a child attending Lincoln, Thursday night, Nov. 13th is the day to show up for the Parent-Teacher conference held at the campus beginning at 5 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m.

Find out if your child is really not getting any homework assigned or if there is a classroom problem going on that a little parent-teacher discussion can get worked out.

In any event, it is always a good thing to do- See the people who are teaching your child and let them know you care about what's going on enough to make that trip out there Thursday. Teachers are important, but they can do more with parents who are involved- get involved.

Remember these important words about high school- This is the last time that your son or daughter will have a school that is free- don't let it be wasted.

Street parking on N. Broadway is always perilous- this time I mean that northbound curb parking gets you a ticket between 4 and 6 pm, so check the signs (as any good L.A. traffic survivalist would do).


Friday Night- Wilson Mules come to play the Lincoln Tigers
If you have been following the Tigers this season, there is one last game to be played and it will be at home at 7 p.m. on Friday night against our friendly -and at times, not so friendly- rival , Wilson High. (I knew them when they had their school on the flatlands, a long long time ago.)

Come on to root for our team and while you are there, be sure to bring an appetite so that you can enjoy some LHS Alumni Association food. It's part of the fundraising activites and each year and each game, the menu tries to be better than the last. The prices aren't bad, either.


SATURDAY - THE MAGNET CAMPUS CLEAN UP AT 9 AM.

O.K., you have me there. What are we talking about here? Is the "Magnet Campus" a campus?- and that phrase sounds somehow very magical (that I was not even aware existed separately), or are we just to understand that the "campus clean up" will be done by the "Magnet" school component?

Whoever is doing it needs to be at school at 9 a.m. Simple enough.

The bigger picture, in my view, is "Why do we have to have a CAMPUS CLEAN UP at all?"
If it's an accumulated mess, then the students who attend the school should be KEEPING it clean. What this really does, in my critical view (sorry for that) is to have some constructive-leaning students have to do work for those who are getting a free ride for being untidy members of the student body.

The pride we have in our school should be shown to others in many ways. Keeping it clean is one way. There has to be a bit of "campus beautification" going on at the same time here, and THAT is what everyone should be thinking of. Cleaning up somebody else's mess is not where the energy should go- but we can look at ways to make the school campus look better- and it is one of the better looking ones in the district.

I will leave that whole idea for now. I do want to give credit to those students involved in the Saturday effort that helps keep up Lincoln and it gets our students working together for some improvements that they can immediately enjoy.

Teachers- credit to you, too.
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Veterans Day

The VETERANS DAY holiday is here and for most, as at Lincoln today, there is no school. Many of our traditions and reasons behind what our various holidays are about are not taught to our students as deliberately as our subjects of math and English. Since there is no school today, as with most holidays, not much on the cultural significance of our holidays will be able to be presented in the school setting. Letting that continue tends to erode the significance of these holidays and move our young people away from important parts of our past that should not be forgotten. This short posting is here to be sure that some available knowledge in this area is presented to be passed on so that we can try to turn that trend around.

We are at another yet another legal holiday, and for many, the reason for creating it is not clear. It is a National Holiday, and was begun in November 19, 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson

It began as “Armistice Day” to commemorate the end of World War I, which was referred to then as “The Great War” since they didn’t anticipate another big war like that one to happen again. The “Treaty of Versailles,” officially ending the war, was signed on June 19, 1919, but the fighting stopped seven months earlier, on November 11, 1918. It happened on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”

“Armistice Day” became “Veterans Day” in 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making November 11th the date that this holiday will be observed.

That’s it in brief, but for more details, you can see on the web, the Department of Veterans Affairs page about the “History of Veterans Day” at http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp .

The holiday is a way to commemorate service to the country of persons, as veterans now, in a different way than Memorial Day, where the country remembers the memory of lives lost of service personnel by those still here to benefit from their service.

Lincoln High School has historically had many alumni become members in the many branches of military service to this country and this note is to give the recognition to those still with us and to pause a moment to reflect on those who have passed on during their active service or in later years. The veterans from Lincoln High School can be found in many different jobs and in many different parts of the country and the world.

Let this be our modest way of saying to all of them “Thanks for your service” to all of them.

Mayor Tony, CM Weiss and Garcetti Hit The Urinals

Yesterday, Mayor Villaraigosa, Council President Eric Garcetti (CD-13), Council Person Jack Weiss (CD-5) and DWP General Manager David Nahai held a press conference by a men's restroom in a Century City office building that has converted all urinals to "waterless" urinals.

All the jokes and comments were what they consider to be their priority for the moment. Tony is a camera hog and publicity whore, and you would expect that from him instead of doing real work. Garcetti is a 100% "Go Green" advocate and would go for anything green, regardless of how much the cost would be to anyone, including you and me.

The news media comes out for bizarre things that really aren't at the top of urgent matters that affect life and death in L.A. You see little of what goes on in City Hall in the newspapers, and the Times has fired large numbers of staff in the last year, but they stopped real reporting on city issues long ago. The mayor is expert in news conferences but not so in caring about working for the city, as the LA Weekly story, "All-about-me Mayor" (linked in the sidebar) vividly show.

The crime and violence is something that I suppose gets to be put on "hold" while these city officials spend the better part of the morning to show urinals. You can also bet that there is some money to be made by an industry element who manufactures and installs these things, and that this publicity stunt is for the purpose of priming the pump for such things as getting approval for awarding contracts for city business. It all comes back to money besides their own egos.

When it comes to city development and policies- that's been strangely done, and not much in public, for most cases.

Now let's see how much money is going to these guys by way of salary.

"Raises for L.A.'s top city officials look bad," L.A. Daily News, Oct. 30, 2008, http://www.dailynews.com/ci_10860599 - The story show that in these times of increasing financial hardships hitting so many in the country, you have this runaway machine that continues to create raises automatically for city officials. They like to say, "It's out of our hands," but they could change it. They don't like that topic.

The salary for each City Council member over is $180,000.00 per year. They have lot of perks: a city-paid for vehicle, free gasoline, a staff authorization of 20 persons each, and much more that boost the benefits for these ELECTED officials. Do you have any wonder as to why they would like to stay in office?

All is not as it appears and that is what I want to keep in the forefront amid all the stunts and glad-handing that the city government continue to shower us with.

More of this to come.

Eagle Rock Forfeit Compared to 1977 LHS 63-0

The L.A. TIMES "Varsity Times Insider" Blog writer, Eric Sondheimer, compared Eagle Rock High School's forfeit of Friday's away game against Belmont with the 1977 season forfeit by our own Lincoln Tigers that some may not have forgotten and others never heard of. "Football: Eagle Rock Situation is a Fiasco," Nov. 8, 2008, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/2008/11/football-eagl-1.html?cid=138264158#comments


Mr. Sondheimer's opinion was that City Section got a reputation for forfeits 31 years ago because of the LHS' loss. In concluding that there is a reputation for forfeits due to that reason both mistates facts that do not support any "reputation" carried from that forfeit, and he mischaracterizes the conditions surrounding the Eagle Rock and Lincoln forfeits that have as the only thing in common the fact that a forfeit was charged.

There was more to that game than casual readers of the sports pages would find in the L.A. TIMES, as usual, and I had to take issue with making the comparison of the forfeits based on entirely different facts that each circumstance presented. The comment was done more from memory than research, and I correct one thing now: the Wilson Coach was Vic Cuccia, not "Ric Cuccia." He passed away in January of this year at the age of 80.

A few more observations others made in the L.A. Times' on Coach Cuccia's career show his success in handling Wilson team of that day and the valued offensive performance that was zealously pursued.

"The coach guided the El Sereno school to a 39-game winning streak in which
the Mules won City Section 3-A championships in 1975, ‘76 and ‘77, led by
his son, Ron, a quarterback who set a national record for total offense.

* * *

The Mules were 151-42-6 during his 22-year coaching career, from 1956 through
1977. He taught for 44 years at Wilson, and the school named its football
stadium in his honor in 1999.

During the 1970s, Wilson’s football team drew standing-room-only home
crowds as its wide-open offense, featuring four wide receivers, rolled up points
and victories." L.A. Times, Jan. 12, 2008, "Innovative football coach made Wilson High School a powerhouse," http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/12/local/me-cuccia12

Others' commented on ERHS' overall unenvious situation in various responses to the Blog.

Lincoln Cheerleaders at Veterans Day Parade

The Lincoln High Cheerleaders were able to pause from their march in the parade to show some of their skills as you can see in this clip from Sunday's Northeast Veterans Day Parade.

EAGLE ROCK H.S. COACH ASSAULTED
The ERHS woes continue for their football program- The LA Times reports this morning that Coach Lopez was assaulted during practice on Thursday by a former football player for Eagle Rock High, as another part of the Principal Velasco-Coach Chou controversy continues. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-football8-2008nov08,0,4479688.column

The Friday game at Belmont was cancelled as Principal Velasco considered it too dangerous since half of the team had been sitting out the practices in the stands and not in a condition to play safely. The assault, he said, was not the reason for the forfeit of the season's last home game for Belmont.

The Daily News also covered the story, and has a few more details. http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_10927122

Opinion: Regardless of the loyalty that the students and players feel to Coach Chou and the unhappiness over the situation, there is an extreme lack of maturity shown, a lot of it on the players’ side. If they wanted to protest the decision, they should have continued the protest through their parents and administrative processes, as slow and frustrating as they are.


The idea of being a proponent of sabotage of the team for the entire 2008 season is viewed by many as a high school equivalent of a temper tantrum and pouting child who disagrees with his parents' decisions. The actions on Thursday elevated this to a more serious level.


The whole school suffered this season, and this is one of the best applications for the term, "Cutting off your nose to spite your face." The particular student, according to the story, was urged to hit the coach and he followed their instructions, spearing the coach with a helmet, as the coach was not looking. He ran away afterwards and jumped a fence, which might give you an idea of what he thought his actions represented.


For the student body to accept this level of conduct would be poor policy. The fact that the players were part of the problem, urging the act, shows them to be lacking in the moral character that Coach Chou was credited with instilling in his players. It looks like all the good that Coach Chou was said to have produced in terms of conduct and character did not spill over into all the players, with many on their roster being new players.


While the students may not be happy with the outcome for coaching, they really had an obligation to the school and to the rest of the community to play out their games in the best way that they could. Clearly, this has not been the case. If this team were a private company, you would not see many on that team keeping their jobs.


Part of the high school experience is to prepare the students ready for being full-fledged adults, taking responsibility for their own actions. You are supposed to act accordingly as you move up in grade level, not return to less mature approaches to problems.


The identity of the student who did this crime is known to the players, and probably to the administration, too, since he came into the office to complain about the coach and was told to leave. The routine security procedures would already have made identification here complete, even though the attack was not prevented. If the school did not manage to screen him at all, then the players have a moral obligation to cooperate and give up his name- it will come out sooner or later, anyway. Their are pranks and there are crimes. This was no prank.


It very well could have had more serious consequences. School security, from my observations, is either not taken seriously or applied overly intense for some matters, but weakly or inconsistently in other matters, all in the same school. Entry onto a campus could also endanger other students, which absolutely is intolerable. The attack on the coach was equally serious, with a blatant disregard for authority. Isn’t that the kind of thing that’s been shown in too many high schools where firearms and death have happened? We don’t want to see this again, and we are fortunate if the coach recovers completely. Unexpected bodily impacts can have permanent and disastrous results.


What should happen to the offender? If he is still under age 18, juvenile law will apply, but if he is 18 or over, he is subject to application of the laws as any adult is, and it looks like he should be arrested and charged with the crime and let the criminal process handle the rest. Needless to say, this did not demonstrate any good judgment, but then most criminal conduct provides you with a lot of examples of what reasonable people DON'T do.


Overall, the situation at Eagle Rock High is a shameful situation, with the principal having a history of decisions that certainly have not been crowd-pleasers. It looks like Velasco doesn't care about anything but his own ego, but that's beside the point as far as how the members of the football team (the dissident football players) have handled matters. Even if they think their principal makes lousy decisions does not justify poor performance, and in no way justifies attacking the guy they put in to keep thing running.


If these unhappy players were not going to give it their best effort, they should have quit the team and let students who will try to play give it a shot. Maybe they would have lost every game badly, but they would have had the pride in knowing that they still were not quitters or malingerers who damaged the non-quitters. Doing things like that was simply not honest and again, shows very juvenile attitudes applied to the situation.


There is a Northeast Veterans Day Parade this Sunday at 1pm on Eagle Rock Blvd. Franklin and Eagle Rock usually have their football players appear in the parade in some form as part of the each schools entry. I really don't know whether the ERHS team would have much to be proud of this season to show up, but keeping all of them out would punish the ones who were not blameworthy, and I don't know what that would be in numbers.


I don't think the complainers would want to be in the parade anyway, so that may sort itself out. The rest of the students, as well, already know just who is doing what in this. A good transition season could have come to ERHS even if they lost every game- but, sadly, this situation and tainted season will just be another part of ERHS history.

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LHS FOOTBALL Results up to 11-7-08:

09/12/08 vs Huntington Park High School ........W 34 - 17

09/19/08 vs Fairfax High School ...................................L 8 - 20

09/26/08 @ South Gate High School ...............W 27 - 0

10/03/08 @ Manual Arts High School ...............W 32 - 0

10/10/08 @ Los Angeles High School ..............W 31 - 6

10/17/08 @ Eagle Rock Jr/Sr. High School .........................L 14 - 35

10/24/08 @ Belmont Senior High School ..........W 20 - 14

10/31/08 vs John Marshall High School ............W 27 - 24

11/7/08 vs. Franklin High School ....................................L 29 - 20

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WHAT'S HERE?

Today is Homecoming at Lincoln- JV game time- 3pm; Varsity game time- 7pm.
Franklin High School Panthers will be the opponent in this second-to-last home game.
Remember to stop by the Alumni Association's food stand and buy lots of food- it's really good and reasonably priced- AND remember, when you buy from the Alumni booth, it's helping with the fundraising efforts for LHS student scholarships and needed program assistance.

Next week's home game will be the last for the season and the traditional rivalry continues with Wilson High's Mules coming in to close out the home schedule for this year.

COMING IN THE NEXT WEEK:

Saturday, November 8, 2008: Beginning a weekend to honor veterans and celebrate their service- "Northeast Residents Gather to Salute Veterans"- in Cypress Park/Glassel Park , "The Friends of Cypress Park Community Improvement Association, Inc, (FCPCIA) will partner with the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council to hold the fifth annual event. A traditional ceremony will be held at the Cypress Park Veterans Memorial and then conclude with a Veterans Day celebration at the nearby Cypress Park Recreation Center." See http://egpnews.com/?p=3509 for more details.

Activities planned to include the family of L.A. County Deputy Sheriff Abel Escalante, 27, also a veteran, recognizing his service as well as the service of all others who have served the country. Deputy Escalante was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Cypress Park on August 2, 2008 at 5:45 a.m. as he prepared to leave for work.

Veterans and their families are urged to attend and register according to EGP News -"Marcus Gutierrez, FCPCIA president, said the event is open to everyone not just veterans. He said he is looking for families of veterans to come to the event to help the group in its efforts to identify all veterans from Cypress Park."

More included activities: at Noon- A fly-over by a Blackhawk helicopter, piloted by National Guard pilot Rob Wilson, Garfield High, Class of 1977; a festive performance by local Aztec dance troupe Xipe-Totec; and, the “Shooting Stars,” a team of professional military veteran skydivers to land in Cypress Park Recreation Center field at 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 9, 2008: Northeast L.A. 3rd Annual Veterans Day Parade. “ 1 p.m. preceded by an 11 a.m. ceremony at Eagle Rock City Hall.

"The event, formerly the Eagle Rock Veteran’s Day Parade will begin at 11 a.m. with a solemn ceremony and wreath laying at the Veterans memorial at the Eagle Rock old City Hall located on 2035 Colorado Blvd. At 1 p.m. the parade will start at York Blvd and make its way to Eagle Rock Blvd and end at the corner of Castor Ave and Merton Ave. The Parade will conclude with an entertainment program at 2:30 p.m. Councilman Jose Huizar, the Eagle Rock and Glassell Park Neighborhood Councils as well as the Eagle Rock and Highland Park Chambers of Commerce are sponsoring the parade." From the ENG News item above cited, http://egpnews.com/?p=3509 .

Last year's parade included Eagle Rock High School band, cheerleaders, and drill team, and Franklin High's band, cheerleader and drill team members appeared, as did players from the football teams, local officials and organizations were represented with several car club entries among the marchers and other vehicles. Lincoln High School - a northeast area high school- has not been among the entries as yet.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008, VETERANS DAY- LHS will be closed.

Thursday, November 13, 2008- at LHS, Parent/Teacher conference (an Open House) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. If you have children attending Lincoln, this is a good time to see who the teachers and administrators are, bring any questions you have on your son's or daughter's education and find out what you can do to get the most from attending LHS and see what the teachers need from you, as well, to do their best.

Friday, November 14, 2008- Last Home game for the football season, under the lights- LHS v. Wilson High, JV at 2 p.m., Varsity at 3 p.m.
-----------------------------------------

CITY SPENDING RE-CAP ON SPECIAL EVENT FEE WAIVERS BY CITY COUNCIL

COMING out of the general fund as approved today by L.A. City Council,
locally, are:
Friday's Agenda Item 33:

"b. MOTION (REYES - PERRY) relative to declaring the Cathedral High School home football games on November 1, and November 15, 2008 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $500).
* * *
e. MOTION (HUIZAR - LABONGE) relative to declaring the Third Annual Eagle Rock Veterans’ Day Parade on November 9, 2008 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $6,135).
* * *
h. MOTION (HUIZAR - LABONGE) relative to declaring the St. Dominic’s Annual Parish Fiesta on November 7-9, 2008 a Special Event (fees and costs absorbed by the City = $11,517). "

Motions on Item 33 passed as submitted. Item "e." should be corrected as the "Northeast Veteran's Day Parade."

Money in these categories comes from the City General Fund that is for having the stated expense covered by the City instead of the named event, intended to be something of a general benefit to the community and public, open for all to participate in, and usually not a for-profit event.

The Council has begun to follow these guidelines more often than before when they were very generous and casual, granting event fee waivers for lots of profit-making events.
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Honoring Our Past


Following the re-dedication to honor Dr. Andrus, a bronze plaque was installed over the center aisle doorway in the front entrance lobby. In 1916, Dr. Andrus became the first female high school principal in California. She retired in 1944 after 28 years at Lincoln High School. She then continued working to help others, accomplishing what is considered by most people to be her most significant achievement, founding the AARP- the "American Association of Retired Persons."

Ethel Percy Andrus-(1884-1967)




One familiar view over the years at Lincoln is the Auditorium that was re-dedicated to honor Dr. Andrus in February 2008.







From the CA Focus, May 2008 issue, AARP's California publication:

"AARP Honors Dr. Andrus at Lincoln High Dedication Ceremony
As part of AARP's 50th anniversary celebration, more than 1,200 people attended a February 8 dedication ceremony of the Ethel Percy Andrus Center for the Performing Arts at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. Dr. Andrus served as the school’s principal for nearly 30 years before founding AARP. Joined by civic leaders, formers students, volunteers, and members, AARP toured the newly restored auditorium and enjoyed performances by the students of Lincoln High. Thanks to a $100,000 Ethel Percy Andrus Legacy Award, the refurbished theater will house a pre-professional training program for students interested in the performing arts."

ELECTION DAY IS OVER- finally.
There was enough going on to make people both happy AND unhappy with these election results. Obama, or I should really say, "President-elect Obama," will be sworn in as the new President of the United States on January 20th, 2009, according to my recolletion of tradition and the law.

I can remember back in January 1961 and seeing President Kennedy on tv at Albion St. when we watched him get sworn in as President and it had snowed in D.C and it was cold. There was some kind of electrical short with the podium wiring and Robert Frost, the famous poet, spoke after some singing by Marian Anderson, a famous black singer. We were in the auditorium, I believe, and watching the whole ceremony on a black and white tv, since color tv's were still not a common thing. It was all very impressive looking to us, even though we just knew it was Kennedy becoming president and that was the big thing for us.

There's the famous speech that President Kennedy made that day that gets played on tv a lot, even YouTube should have it. The funny thing about that time was that some people were for Nixon and others were for Kennedy, mostly Kennedy, but we used to see all these bumper stickers (back when cars had real bumpers) and count them to see the popularity of each one.

But we never heard of vandalizing and all this pretty serious tension that you had lately with this Obama v. McCain presidential race. Our times have changed. Lots of people were looking at this more like a sporting event - maybe from seeing too many Laker playoffs and having last year be a waste for them- but there was a lot more similarity to a competitive sports event than to an election campaign with the only real action was when they tallied up votes in each state so you could keep track of who was winning states.


The local props and measures had some surprises. It looks like people can't get enough of taxes and giving out more public money through bonds that have to be paid back by the taxpayers for so long that the interest costs alone can be as much as the bond amount. More like paying for a home mortgage for 30 years.

Really, did we NEED to start spending for a high speed train to San Francisco. Well, I guess by the time it ever gets built we might find a reason. There may be so many people in the state that it will be populated in places that are empty now. I went to college in San Diego after leaving Lincoln and I could tell how long it would take to get home or back to the campus as I drove on the freeway just by looking at the areas I was passing through- Commerce, Norwalk, La Mirada, Santa Ana, Disneyland (Anaheim), El Toro Marine Air Base (Tustin?), OCIR- "Orange County International Raceway, San Juan Capistrano, the Nuclear Plant (San Onofre), Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Carlsbad, La Jolla (Torrey Pines Park) and San Diego, the Navy base and Point Loma. There were big spaces in between and I remember some places had horses and cows in the fields that you could see from the freeway. So much empty and open space, usually green, in between cities.

It's all changed now. You can't tell where you are because of all the buildings everywhere- it all looks the same, and there's no way to know how long it would take because of all the traffic at all hours at any location. One time I came home from San Diego on a Friday early afternoon and did not step on the brake, not even to slow down, until I got off the freeway in Lincoln Heights, the traffic was so light and steadily moving- it was like watching a no-hitter developing in baseball; you wonder how long this can go on until something interrupts it all. That was the only time that happened. The ususal travel time came out to be about 2 hours and 10 minutes with only a few segments that going past 70 mph was not going to get you a ticket. That would be too slow for most open stretches now, but like I said, things have changed. It's time to leave memory lane.


Well, if you voted good for you. My recommendations were based on lots of things and some people might agree, others not, but what happens too often is that you spend all your time evaluation some choices- maybe not all- and then somebody comes in and starts punching their ballot like they are choosing a lottery number, not really even familiar with what the ballot measure is about.

The city tax is not much but it's easy to buy the same things for me in Glendale, Pasadena, Alhambra and so on, where the sales tax would be lower than 8.75%. For some expensive items, maybe like new cars, you know people will do that, but not for everything.

WELL, What's done is done. We can consider that again later.


FOOTBALL- BUT AT EAGLE ROCK HIGH SCHOOL
2007 Season, Coach Chou has winning season; 2008 Principal bars Coach Chou from being head coach, no winning season, but maybe a "whining" season.
See the Daily News story of October 24 http://www.dailynews.com/preps/ci_10811846
gives some update on what has been happening with their football program since their principal got into a dispute with the coach last season, allowed him to continue coaching after he "resigned" in a dispute with the principal and then rescinded it afterwards. The principal said he only allowed the coach to finish the season as head coach, and that was all. The coach said it was understood to be a plain and simple return to his head coach job, and then things went downhill for Eagle Rock's football program from then on.

There is an LA TIMES Varsity Blog story on this from January that gets out more details, which make the principal look to be more interested in power than the overall good of the school. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/2008/01/dismissal-of-ch.html

The local monthly paper in Eagle Rock, The Boulevard Sentinel (taken in part from the old neighborhood paper, The Sentinel that was a sister publication to the Lincoln Height Bulletin News of old) has more and richer details in its report, http://www.boulevardsentinel.com/03-2008.htm "Breaking the Code of Silence."

The next month, "Community Demands ERHS Principal Be Removed" http://www.boulevardsentinel.com/04-2008.htm

In the end, the parents let the ball drop by not pushing further, but they were already becoming afraid of retaliation against their children by the principal and most became intimidated. LAUSD admin turned out to be there just to settle the people down with meetings that went nowhere as far as real remedies and truth, in my opinion.
In the end, the most forceful factor could have been parents, but they could not carry the fight any further. By the way, nearly all forms of retaliation are illegal and actionable in court, but most people don't know how they can use develop their case in terms of proof issues.

Well, let's leave all that for now. Lincoln's Homecoming is coming up Friday night and you might check the Daily News comments regarding the next opponent, Marshall, and the Marshall team player's ideas regarding the Eagle Rock High team's condition. http://www.topix.com/forum/high-school-football/TH0PQL7UMRVS3TFKO#

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ABOUT THE VOTE DECISIONS-

THE GUIDING THEME for the vote on bonds is that our economy is in poor shape right now and BOND measures are costly to the public, so it's not a good mix.

The other factor that sways the decisions is that the poor ability of government and its agencies to spend money wisely and avoid waste and corruption so that you just get little squeaks for your buck. We should hold off for that reason, too.

Most of the ideas sound good, but some also involve HUGE amounts of money that will burden people and their children for years to come and NOT worth it.

Voting down a BOND proposal does not keep it from coming up again in better times, with better language, and more controls so that the money WILL GO to WHERE they SAY it will go. Why is this? Because there's too much language is included-intentionally- that leaves loopholes and we have been deceived too often in the past to "trust" any good intentions and judgment.

OTHER DECISIONS ON VOTES
Some past experience and observations on operations in government and industry show that all is not as it is presented, and the comments include this where possible.

COUNTY Measure J. (almost forgot this one)
"NO" (the opinion below is borrowed from "Mayor Sam's" Blog- I adopt this opinion)

"Community College Classroom Repair, Public Safety, Nursing & Job Training -- Los Angeles Community College DistrictThe community colleges just got a huge bond measure a few years ago and has wasted a good chunk of it. However, there are a few good projects now under way. Lets give the colleges a few more years to prove they can spend wisely and if they really need more money we can talk about it."
Vote No.

THE GUIDING THEME for the vote is that our economy is in poor shape right now and BOND measures are costly to the public, so it's not a good mix.

The other factor that sways the decisions is that the poor ability of agencies to spend money wisely and avoid waste and corruption just give you little squeaks for your buck, and we should hold off for that reason, too.

Most of the ideas sound good, but some involve HUGE amounts of money that will burden people and their children for years to come and NOT worth it.

Voting down a BOND proposal does not keep it from coming up again in better times, with better language, and more controls so that the money WILL GO to WHERE they SAY it will go. Too much language is included that leaves loopholes and we have been deceived too often in the past to "trust" any good intentions and judgment.