Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts and such like. In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived) - Bishop George Berkeley

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.). The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com website.
http://www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

While everybody seems to be fingerpointed to Greece, for the mess they got themselves in (by lying and cheating on their national budget for years), more countries have made a mess of things. Between the countries it was agreed not to exceed a national deficit of 3%... Now look at the statistics above! Portugal and Spain, as well as Ireland, are in a real mess! Politically Germany and France are the most powerful countries in the EU, but France is setting a bad example too. And small countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium can foot the bill

More news...
Worldwide, some 25 million suitcases got lost at the airports last year... This was reported by SITA, manufacturer of baggage systems. Fortunately, most bags seem to be recovered and delivered to the rightful owners.

Worldwide, over the last 10 years, a lesser percentage of forests have disappeared than in previous decade. This was reported by the Food- and Agricultural Organisation of the UN (FAO). But forests are still in decline: every year an area the size of Costa Rica (or 25 times the size of the Netherlands) are being deforrested.
Between 2000 - 2012 some 13 million acres were lost due to actions by mankind or by natural causes. The decade before that it was 16 million acres.
China, India and Vietnam were instrumental in the positive change, fighting the decline.

The ailing British newspaper 'The Independent' has been bought for 1 Pound Sterling (1.11 euro) by former KGB-agent and Russian entrepeneur Alexander Lebedev. Last year he bought the (British) 'Evening Standard', for the same amount.

In Belgium an elderly woman, Georgette van den Bosche, was billed by the city of Aalst for having bled on the street! She fell on her face, broke two fingers and her blood marked the spot. This was subsequently cleaned by the fire brigade and Mrs van den Bosche found a bill waiting at home when she was dismissed from hospital after 8 days, billing her for 250 euros (almost 335 us dollars).
The mayor confirmed this was standard procedure.

More on this remarkable woman here: www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/smith_e.html

Elliott James Murphy Jr., born 1949, grew up in nearby Garden City, started playing the guitar at 12 years old. He began writing songs while singing on the streets of Europe in 1971.
His music was post-Bob Dylan poetic rock heavily influenced by New York's Velvet Underground and propelled by Murphy's driving electric guitar, harmonica and,occasionally, keyboards.

After four albums on major labels Murphy was one of the first American artists to go independent (by both choice and necessity) with the release of the EP Affairs (1980) that sold well in Europe and set the stage for the successful Murph the Surf (1982).

Elliott moved to Paris in 1989, where he continues to live with his wife and son. Selling the Gold (1995) featured a duet with Bruce Springsteen, long-time friend, who often has invited him on stage during his European shows.

Murphy's 30th studio album, Notes from the Underground, came out in 2008 and received 4 stars on the prestigious All Music Guide, In fact, 18 of Murphy's albums have received 4 or 5 stars on All Music Guide.

Wikipedia
www.elliottmurphy.com
More photos on Flickr.com

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is the first of Robert M. Pirsig's texts in which he explores his 'Metaphysics of Quality'...

I started to read this as a classic tale of a roadtrip... And indeed, this (1974) book describes, in first person, a motorcycle journey across the United States by a man and his son Chris.
For the first part of the journey they travel with their friends, a married couple, named John and Sylvia. Sofar so good, but this is not what the book is about.
While driving, the narrator burrows deep in his thoughts and refers to a person (Phaedrus, a teacher), who went in search of concepts of Quality ((a term which he deems to be undefinable).
This thinking is being referred to by the author as Chautauquas. Wikipedia refers to this as "numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as by the author, on topics including epistemology, ethical emotivism and the philosophy of science."

In the books's introduction, Pirsig explains that, despite its title, "it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
How the narrator relates to maintenance of his motorcycle, compared to his companion's (John) view, is being explained as different attitudes to life.

There is very little writing spent on the relation between father and son, compared to the Chautauquas. In fact, it pissed me off no end to read about the narrator going on within his own thoughts, while his son screams for attention (claiming stomach pains, being evasive in responses); dad is preoccupied and gives his son hardly the time of day, because after all his driving and thinking he is exhausted. What an asshole; so this is Zen?

After some 100 pages I began to flick the pages with the philosphical ramblings: yaaaawn, not interested! 400 more pages to go...
This guy Phaedrus, on his quest, becomes isolated and disfunctional. He has a family (wife and son), but only his quest and freefalling career is being detailed.
Phaedrus seems to run himself in the ground mentally.
The narrator refers to himself being declared insane at some point, confirming my suspicion that the he and Phaedrus are one and the same. The narrator dreams of a vision of his wife and son behind glass, being seperated by them and unable to reach out or communicate - probably when he was in a mental institution. He feels himself slipping away again and in the last pages contemplates suicide.

Well, I did make it to the end of the book, mostly interested in developments in the relation towards his son, Chris. And Phaedrus going mental, at some sitting in front of his students, not speaking a word.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was originally rejected by 121 (!) publishers, before a brave publisher accepted it and was rewarded to see it sell over 4 million copies in 27 languages and was described by the press as "the most widely read philosophy book, ever."
You'll have to grant him perseverence, I'd given up after 3 rejections...

After suffering a nervous breakdown, Robert Pirsig spent time in and out of mental hospitals from 1961 to 1963. After undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and clinical depression, and was treated with shock therapy.
The journey which the book refers to was actually made, in 1968. Photos made by Robert Pirsig during that trip can be found on this website: http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/gallery/albums.php

Robert Pirsig had married Nancy Ann James on 10May1954. They had two sons: Chris, born in 1956, and Theodore, born in 1958. After Pirsig was first hospitalized in 1961, his wife filed for divorce, which was finalized in 1978. Pirsig remarried.
Chris, his son, was stabbed to death during a mugging outside the San Francisco Zen Center.

In 1974, Pirsig was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to allow him to write a follow-up, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991), in which he elaborates and focuses on a value-based metaphysics, called 'Metaphysics of Quality', to replace the subject-object view of reality.
I think I'll pass on that one and admit defeat here!

Pirsig died 24Apr2017.

Wikipedia
www.robertpirsig-org
www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/robert-pirsig-dead-...

The index page of Mr White's website www.tonyjoewhite.com  shows the finest opening image:

Tony Joe White was born one of seven children and raised on a cotton farm near the small town of Oak Grove, Louisiana. When Tony Joe was 16, Charles, the oldest of the White children, brought home a Lightnin' Hopkins album and started teaching blues guitar to his younger brother.
As a child he listened to not only local bluesmen and country singers but also to the distinctive cajun music of Louisiana, a hybrid of traditional musical styles introduced by French-Canadian settlers at the turn of the nineteenth century.
In 1967, White signed to Monument Records which operated from a recording studio in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee, and produced a variety of sounds, including Rock and Roll, Country and Western, and Rhythm and Blues. Billy Swan was his producer.
"Polk Salad Annie" had been released for nine months and written off as a failure by his record label when it finally entered the U.S. charts in July 1969. It climbed into the Top Ten by early August eventually reaching No. 8. It was the biggest hit Tony Joe White ever had.
Several more singles quickly followed, all minor hits, and White toured with Steppenwolf, Sly & the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other big rock acts of the 1970s, playing in France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and England.
"Rainy Night in Georgia" is a song written by Tony Joe White in 1962 and popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970. The song has been covered by a number of musicians, including Ray Charles, Otis Rush, Little Milton, Randy Crawford, Dolla, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Amos Garrett, Hank Williams, Jr., Shelby Lynne to name a few...
Between 1976 and 1983, White released three more albums, each on a different label. Trying to combine his own swamp-rock sound with the at the time popular disco music, the results were disappointing and White gave up his career as a singer and concentrated on writing songs.
In 1989, White produced Tina Turner's Foreign Affair album. Playing a variety of instruments on the album, he also wrote four songs, including the title song and the hit single "Steamy Windows".
1991's Closer to the Truth was a commercial success and put White back in the spotlight.
[Wikipedia, more...]

TUNICA MOTEL

They say these are dangerous times
Got to be on guard
Bad news across the land
Rumors of war

And all along the border lines
You can feel the strain
And looking back through the years
Ain't nothing changed

They shook the redman's hand
And forever changed his destiny
Put him on some Godforsaken land
And took away his dignity

Now he floats in dreams where eagles fly
Sinking in the stream of wasted lives
They're just standing by
Until they reach the other side

Homeless people shuffle alone in the dark
With everything they own in a grocery cart
And still the lines are drawn between colours of skin
Just a broken wing that never mends

They took their heavy load
With discrimination on the run
Marching down the dusty roads
Singing we shall overcome

Standing up for all they believe was right
They knew that God was on their side
Will we ever see the light
Before we reach the other side

Far across the sea
Young people gather on the square
Trying to set their spirits free
There was revolution in the air

Singing songs of freedom through the night
Who could know they would have to lay down their lives
And never know the reason why
Until they reach the other side

Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper’s farm just outside Memphis, TN, on September 28, 1928, Koko, nicknamed for her love of chocolate, fell in love with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and WDIA blues disc jockeys B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor began belting the blues with her five brothers and sisters, accompanying themselves on their homemade instruments. In 1952, Taylor and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, traveled to Chicago with nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.”

In Chicago, “Pops” worked for a packing company, and Koko cleaned houses. Together they frequented the city’s blues clubs nightly. Encouraged by her husband, Koko began to sit in with the city’s top blues bands, and soon she was in demand as a guest artist. One evening in 1962 Koko was approached by arranger/composer Willie Dixon. Overwhelmed by Koko’s performance, Dixon landed Koko a Chess Records recording contract, where he produced her several singles, two albums and penned her million-selling 1965 hit “Wang Dang Doodle,” which would become Taylor’s signature song.

After Chess Records was sold, Taylor found a home with the Chicago’s Alligator Records in 1975 and released the Grammy-nominated ‘I Got What It Takes’. She recorded eight more albums for Alligator between 1978 and 2007, received seven more Grammy nominations and made numerous guest appearances on various albums and tribute recordings. Koko appeared in the films ‘Wild At Heart’, ‘Mercury Rising’ and ‘Blues Brothers 2000′. She performed on ‘Late Night With David Letterman’, ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’, CBS-TV’s ‘This Morning’, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, CBS-TV’s Early Edition, and numerous regional television programs. Over the course of her 40-plus-year career, Taylor received every award the blues world has to offer. On March 3, 1993, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley honored Taylor with a “Legend Of The Year” Award and declared “Koko Taylor Day” throughout Chicago. In 1997, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame. A year later, Chicago Magazine named her “Chicagoan Of The Year” and, in 1999, Taylor received the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009 Taylor performed in Washington, D.C. at The Kennedy Center Honors honoring Morgan Freeman. Koko Taylor was one of very few women who found success in the male-dominated blues world. She took her music from the tiny clubs of Chicago’s South Side to concert halls and major festivals all over the world. She shared stages with every major blues star, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy as well as rock icons Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Taylor’s final performance was on May 7, 2009 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards, where she sang “Wang Dang Doodle” after receiving her award for Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year.

www.bluesmusicnow.com
blues.about.com
www.strictlyblues.com

Some magnificent music comes from the US Southern States... I am particularly interested in singer/songwriters. Americana, progressive country or alt.country... whatever. Grayson Capps sure hits the right note for me, love his music, seen him put up a brilliant performance (twice sofar) and his lyrics are quick-witted, talented, comical at times, a protest at times but enjoyable at all times!

Having drawn comparisons over his last few albums to the likes of Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt and Drive By Truckers, to name but a few, Rott ‘N’ Roll proves Grayson Capps an artist equally singular in vision as those to whom he’s compared. He doesn’t always paint the prettiest pictures or offer a gleamy white smile, but he does reach down deep to remind us of our own humanity. Grayson’s own words illuminate it best: “How many times must it be said? Though blood runs blue, you still think it’s red, because that’s how it appears when it hits oxygen. Our life is an illusion, and we create the confusion, so take a dose of seclusion to dilute the delusion. And hope that it’s not in vein that we look into the spheres of the fear-fruit bearing tree before we eat again.”

www.graysoncapps.com
Flickr.com

What a brilliant book, what amazing stories!
Thirty-one short stories, each of them a fascinating read.
The stories are mostly set in rural Georgia, Alabama but some in the Big City. Characters are written in fine detail, almost painted in where they live and you can feel the heat of the South while reading the slowly developing story.
Flannery O'Conner was born in Savannah,Georgia in 1925. When she died at the age of 39, she had made a monumental contribution to American fiction.
O'Connor published her first story, "The Geranium", in 1946 while she was working on her master's degree at the University of Iowa.
This book, 'The Complete Stories', has been arranged chronologically and shows her last story, "The Judgement Day", sent to her publisher shortly before her death, and is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of "The Geranium"...

Several stories reveal that O'Connor was familiar with some of the most sensitive contemporary issues that her liberal and fundamentalist characters might encounter. She addressed the Holocaust in her famous story "The Displaced Person," and racial integration in "Everything that Rises Must Converge."
O'Connor's fiction often included references to the problem of race in the South; occasionally, racial issues come to the forefront, as in "The Artificial Nigger," "Everything that Rises Must Converge," and "Judgment Day," her last short story and a drastically rewritten version of her first published story, "The Geranium."

In 1951 she was diagnosed with disseminated lupus, and subsequently returned to her ancestral farm, Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia. Although expected to live only five more years, she managed fourteen. At Andalusia, she raised and nurtured some 100 peafowl. Fascinated by birds of all kinds, she raised ducks, hens, geese, and any sort of exotic bird she could obtain, while incorporating images of peacocks into her books.
[Wikipedia]

.....
he was a friend of my papa's he used to drink and tell lies
praised Flannery O'Connor, smoked cigarettes and filosophied
so here I am at The Colonial Inn
me and Captain Long and my pretty girl-friend
he charmes her with a poem, then he brakes down and cries
smile a crooked smile, with his broken cheeck-bone side
tells about his life, now he's 63,
he looks me in the eyes, he says come and go with me
he could walk on water, walk on water
but you know you drown themselves and wine
god and a devil, god and a devil,
god and a devil along inside his mind
it's a love song, for Bobby Long
a love song, for Bobby Long
[ Love Song For Bobby Long Lyrics by Grayson Capps - on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Thanks to Alexander for this magnificent gift and making me aware of the lyrics!

In 1609, the first Dutch settlers arrived in America and established trading posts, small towns and forts up and down along what we now know as the Hudson River.
To this day, American children are taught the thrilling history of the transformation of this settlement, New Netherland, and its captial, New Amsterdam, from landmark port into present day New York State and the island of Manhattan.
But the Dutch legacy extended far beyond New York as this book titled Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops reveals...

Dutch place-names from the 17th century.
A number of street names in the city of New York remind us of the presence of Dutch settlers. Bowery Lane (Bouwerij), Bridge Street (Dutch=Brug Straat), Broadway (Breede Weg) and Wallstreet (Walstraat, there was a wall here to protect the city against attacks from Englishmen and Native Americans).

Some boroughs derive their origin from the Dutch settlers.
Brooklyn stems from the Dutch town Breukelen, Flushing from Vlissingen, Harlem from Haarlem, Gravesend probably from 's-Gravensande and New Utrecht from Utrecht.
Dutch names also lie at the roots of the islands Block Island (which was named after Dutch explorer Adriaen Block), Coney Island (after Dutch Conyne Eylandt, meaning rabbits' island!) Long Island stems from Lange Eylandt, Staten Island from Staaten Eylandt, so called in honor of the Dutch States General and Governors Island was named after the Dutch governor Wouter van Twiller, who bought the island -then called Noten Eylandt- from Native Americans.

Outside New York we see the same influence.
Cape May,NJ was named after the Dutch captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, who sailed past this point in the 17th century. Schuylkill,PA is a combination of schuilen, meaning to hide, and kil, meant here to be a stream; the reference meant here may refer to an incident whereby a Swedish vessel hid on this stream!

There are many more placenames, current and faded away, but perhaps more of interest is the fact that many of these names find their origin in reference to fields, brooks and suchlike...
Many names for bodies of water are formed using Dutch loanwords such as kill, binnacle, binnewater and fly... Also many new geographical names contain the elements bush, clove, cripple, dorp, gat and hook.
E.g Peekskill,NY refers to 'Peek's Stream'. Jan Peek was a Dutch trader who settled there around 1665.
Primehook,DE is from Dutch Pruimhoek, so called because wild plums (pruimen) used to grow on this corner of land (hoek, pronounced the same, is Dutch for corner).

I'll be quoting from this book more often, on interesting items, like "dollar" has a Dutch origin too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toponymy_of_New_Netherland

KODACHROME

When I started taking photos of aeroplanes during the 1970s, I could only afford Ilford black & white film. The 'big shots' had Kodachrome loaded in their cameras (Nikon, Canon but mostly Asahi Pentax and Olympus I seem to remember).
In later years I too upgraded to Kodachrome slide film, as Kodachrome was the standard plane spotters traded and expanded their collections. Orwo and Agfa were not accepted, though I tried them out of economic neccessity. Fuji arrived later at the scene. Kodachrome 25 was esspecially liked for its lack of grain and utter sharpness. I mostky used Kodachrome 64, as the sun was often lacking upon my visits to the nearby airbase.
With the advent of digital photography, the slide film rapidly lost its footing in the market, though many plane spotters continue to trade their Kodachrome slides on the internet and trade conventions.

-
Over its 74-year production, Kodachrome was produced in formats to suit various still and motion picture cameras, including 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm for movies and 35mm, 120, 110, 126, 828, and large format for still photography. It was for many years used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media.
Kodachrome requires complex processing that cannot practically be carried out by amateurs. The film is sold with processing included in the purchase price except in the United States, where a 1954 legal ruling prevents this.
On 22Jun09 Eastman Kodak Co. announced the end of Kodachrome production, citing declining demand.[4] Many Kodak and independent laboratories once processed Kodachrome, but only one Kodak certified facility remains: Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, where existing film stock will be developed until the end of 2010.
[Wikipedia more...]

A nice website to explore is http://1000words.kodak.com/

The songbook includes some fantastic photography by Jack Spencer (click thumbnail)-

Neil Young's cd 'Fork In The Road' offers great music, but I don't like the design; the lyrics are unreadable and you really have to make an effort to get the cd out of there. It's cheap and lousy.

Today I stumbled (because I typed www.blur.com, instead of www.blurb.com while looking for something totally different...) on a link to a mindblowing, f*cking brilliant, trailer of WARHAMMER -
AGE OF RECKONING, a MUST see!!!

From Wikipedia:
Billy Connolly, CBE (born William Connolly, Jr. on 24 November 1942) is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin (The Big One).
His first trade, in the early 1960s, was as a welder (specifically a boilermaker) in the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue being a folk singer in a pop/folk band and subsequently as a soloist.
In the early 1970s he made the transition from folk-singer with a comedic persona to fully-fledged comedian, a role in which he continues. He also became an actor, and has appeared in a series of films.

I think I became aware of him when he presented some BBC series. We saw him in the streets of Vancouver,BC (2003 I think it was), but since he was engrossed in conversation with someone we did not walk up to him; our stay in Vancouver was too short to try to attend a show of his. Todate I have not had the pleasure of seeing him live on stage, unfortunately.

He has a fantastic website and I don't know who designed it for him, but it is so Billy Connolly...

I very much enjoy watching British crime series; over the years I have come to the conclusion that US-produced crime series mostly have a predictable casting (always a 'senior' in charge, there must be a black man of course and the women are too young and gorgeous) and are crap. The last series I enjoyed was probably Colombo (Peter Falk) and the exception all this is Law and Order, though I have given up on that one too.
Anyway, back to the British crime scene...
Jan.2010 brought the news that actor John Nettles will be finishing Series 13 of Midsomer Murders and that will be the end for him, having played the role of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby since the start.
Midsomer Murders is a British tv (detective) drama that has aired on ITV1 since 1997. It focuses on the main character of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, played by John Nettles, and his efforts to solve the numerous crimes that take place in the fictional English county of Midsomer. It is based on a series of crime novels by the author Caroline Graham and was previously adapted by Anthony Horowitz. [Wikipedia]

The cast (clockwise):
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) & Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey)
DS Dan Scott (John Hopkins)
DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes) & DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles)
Dr George Bullard (Barry Jackson)
Cully Barnaby (Laura Howard)
Joyce Barnaby (Jane Wymark)

Over the years, DCI Barnaby has been (consecutively) assisted by the Detective Sergeants Troy, Scott and Jones. George Bullard has the nasty task to examine the growing number of bodies up close.
Tom's wife Joyce is always there and his daughter Cully drops in every now and then. Joyce and Cully sometimes play a part in the plot, but mostly play an important role in the backdrop that is rural England (fairs, fetes, festivities, plays & parties). There are always manor houses, cottages, winding roads, farms and small villages in the frame. Casting is very diverse on characters and, to me, a big attraction of the series.
Causton and Midsomer County is fictional (a 'map'), but it 'exists'! I know because I've been 'there' many times (though no one, afaik, was murdered upon my visits!).
I was pleasantly surprised to see I visited a location which featured in various episodes: Amersham (see my photos on Flickr.com)

Helpful links:
midsomermurders.org
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Wikipedia

UPDATE: Actor Barry Jackson died 05Dec2013.
He was a part of the Midsomer cast for 14 years, from the pilot in 1997; he played pathologist Dr George Bullard with a real wit and style. R.I.P.
By 2013 the cast had been given a complete make over, those listed above were no longer part of the Midsomer Murder series.

Last week I finally found myself in the opportunity to read this classic by J. D. Salinger. A lot of people know of the title, but many of them haven't actually read it. I quite liked it, it just rolls on in the rather chaotic mindset of main character Holden Caulfield and it kept me spellbound.
A few quotes that may illustrate the contents a little:
...
'About me, for Chrissake?'
'Yeah, I was defending your goddam honour. Stradlater said you had a lousy personality. I couldn't let him get away with that stuff.' (This is Holden talking - webmaster)
That got him excited. 'He did? No kidding? He did?'
I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome. (This is when Holden knows he is being expelled from school - again. - webmaster)
...
There was hardly anybody in the lobby any more. Even all the whorey-looking blondes weren't around anymore, and all off a sudden, I felt like getting the hell out of the place. It was so depressing. And I wasn't tired or anything. So I went up to my room and put on my coat. I also took a look out of the window to see if all the perverts were still in action, but the lights and all were out now. I went down in the elevator again and got a cab and told the driver to take me down to Ernie's.
Ernie's is this nightclub in Greenwich Village that my brother D.B. used to go to quite frequently before he went to Hollywood and prostituted himself. (Holden has returned to New York, roaming the streets restlessly, delaying the confrontation with his parents. - webmaster)
...
After old Sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes. It was getting daylight outside. Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get depressed. I kept telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon's house. (Allie is Holden's younger brother, who died from leukemia, when Holden was thirteen- webmaster).
...
Old Phoebe said something then, but I couldn't hear her. She had the side of her mouth right smack on the pillow, and I couldn't hear her.
'What?' I said. 'Take your mouth away. I can't hear you with your mouth that way.'
'You don't like anything that's happening.'
It made me even more depressed when she said that.
'Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Sure I do. Don't say that. Why the hell do you say that?'
'Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't.'
'I do! That's where you're wrong - that's exactly where you are wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that?' I said. Boy, she was depressing me.
'Because you don't,' she said. 'Name one thing.'
'One thing? One thing I like?' I said. 'Okay.'
The trouble was, I couldn't concentrate too hot. Sometimes it's hard to concentrate. (This is Holden talking to his younger sister Phoebe - webmaster)
...
To learn Holden's answer to Phoebe, and learn about the explanation of the title, I recommend a visit to Wikipedia.

When I read this book, and when I wrote the above, I did not know if Mr Salinger was dead or alive. The news tonight, 28JAN2010, reported J.D.Salinger's death.... what coincidence!

This is part of what Associated Press wrote today-
NEW YORK - J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.
Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.
--Immortal anti-hero--
"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made 'Catcher' a featured selection, advised that for 'anyone who has ever brought up a son' the novel will be 'a source of wonder and delight — and concern.'

The paper used for this historical document was manufactured around the year 1770 and had been produced by people of the Zaanse Baptist community; more precise: by paper manufacturers Adriaan Rogge, Jacob Honig & Sons and D & C Blauw.
Of the ca. 200 copies, which were printed by John Dunlap in the night of 4/5th july 1776 by order of the US Congress, only 25 remain in existence in archives and libraries (mainly in the USA).
The 25th rediscovered copy has recently been actioned for $ 8 million dollar!

Last year, 2009, saw the celebration of 400 years of close relations between the Netherlands and the United States.
Four hundred years ago, a Dutch ship called the Half Moon with Captain Henry Hudson at the helm, arrived at the shores of what is now New York City. This led to the establishment of New Amsterdam and the New Netherland colony.
See www.ny400.org website.

A MATTER OF NATIONAL PRIDE

Through centuries the Dutch have explored and traded the globe far and wide.
They chartered new territories, persons such as Abel Tasman (who mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands) and Peter Stuyvesant (whose accomplishments, as director-general, included a great expansion for the settlement of New Amsterdam -later renamed New York- beyond the southern tip of Manhattan).

The Dutch have known glorious days, esspecially in the 17th century, which is celebrated as the Golden Century; ships returned richly laden with rare commoditities and spices.

Here in lies the Dutch tradition of being open to other cultures, food prepared with exotic herbs, allowing other cultures to celebrate their traditions & religions within our own border. Even to a point where sometimes the accusation may be heard that the Dutch lack pride for their own nationality and national identity. Well, if you've seen the Dutch football supporters or those who cheer for the speed skaters, you know that accusation won't stand.

But I do agree we could have another look at our passport: the coat of arms bears the title JE MAINTIENDRAI (French, for I Will Stand Fast or I Will Maintain, e.g. maintain my principles).
The National Anthem of the Dutch is even bigger joke... The 1st verse of The Wilhelmus -one of the oldest national anthems in history- have the Dutch proudly proclaim them to be of German blood... The 2nd verse proclaims loyalty to... the King of Spain! To make sure, the 3 verse repeats it!
French, German, Spanish... no wonder the Dutch can be extremely critical of their own government and Royal Family: their loyalty has been directed across the border by the very same!