Category Archives: A View from my Porch

A View From My Porch: Baby Boomers, Millennials … Who They Are, How They Differ, ‘Acting Their Wage’ & More

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Millennials are the first “digital natives,” who experienced the internet, mobile devices, and social media from childhood onwards. Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash.

Behavioral economists report that Americans’ attitudes about work and the workplace have gone through some remarkable changes.

News reports on CBS, both national and local, have presented several stories on one aspect of this change, “the rise of the side hustle”. Another aspect, “quiet quitting”, was addressed on 12/06/2022 in the comic pages in “Hi and Lois”, by Mort Walker.  Then, the “side hustle” received some additional coverage in the week of 12/19/2022 in two “Peanuts” comic strips in which Sally Brown pitched her patriotic Bicentennial souvenirs to her brother, Charlie. 

Accordingly, I developed an interest in the topic and decided to do some research that extended even beyond CBS and the “funny papers.” Note that “Peanuts” originally ran from 1950 to Charles Schulz’s death in 2000, but continues in reruns; and so, all current “Peanuts” comic strips are repeats of those that have already been published. There is no “ghost cartoonist,” and the two comics mentioned above were originally published during America’s Bicentennial. I am impressed that “Peanuts” appears to stand the test of time.

This essay reviews some of the generational factors that impact our work expectations, defines a few of the trendy buzzwords that form the lexicon of this emerging work phenomenon, and touches on the longer-term impact that the pandemic had on the workplace. 

I had several hours one-on-one over the holidays and holy days with my youngest daughter, “D”; who was willing to share both her insider-millennial’s view, and provide me with a way to illustrate the topic.

Boomers vs. Millennials:

The “baby boomer” generation includes those born between the end of WWII and the mid-1960s; and named for the booming birth rate that occurred in the post-war period. This was the generation that started the families that Americans postponed during the war — and even earlier, during the Great Depression. They were promised the “American Dream” and enjoyed a sense of confidence that the coming era would be safe and prosperous. However, they experienced the tensions of the Cold War era, and many constructed backyard bomb shelters in preparation for a nuclear attack by the USSR.

Boomers are driven by loyalty, value stability and commitment. Many worked for the same company for long periods of time and were most comfortable when promotions and pay raises were earned by dedicating years of service to the organization. Forty percent of boomers stayed with an employer for at least 20 years, and 18 percent stayed for 30 years or more. 

Baby boomers embraced the “automobile culture” and discovered the suburbs and “country life” in their 20s and 30s.  

They were “digital immigrants” (see below), and needed to accept and adapt to new technologies that then became the tools essential for both work and life. Baby boomers are more comfortable with face-to-face than digital communication.

Millennials are generally considered as those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s, and are mostly the children of baby boomers. They grew up in in a hyper-connected society and became the first generation to be fully globalized online during adolescence and early adulthood. These “digital natives” experienced the internet, mobile devices, and social media from childhood onwards. 

They surpassed the baby boomers as America’s largest generation in 2019 when they comprised more than one-third of the American labor force. They are America’s most racially diverse generation and are less likely to buy homes and get married in their 20s and 30s than their parents. They are the first generation to be happier living in larger, more urban environments than rural or suburban settings. 

They are more willing than baby boomers to change jobs or work independently and are motivated to seek jobs where they feel that their work matters and has an impact. 

Millennial women are much better educated than their mothers and grandmothers and have greatly increased their participation in America’s workforce. The men are also better educated; but a greater share of this generation’s women have a bachelor’s degree than their male counterparts — a reversal from the past. 

Millennials have higher levels of student loan debt and individuals are poorer, in real dollars, than their parents. However, more than one-half of U.S. households are now dual income; so, their total household income may not have changed as much. The events of September 11, 2001 shaped the millennial generation, much as the Cold War affected the baby boomers.

Significantly, millennials are more concerned than their parents with achieving a healthy balance between work and home; and the statement, “It’s not supposed to be fun; that’s why they call it work,” would be anathema to them. They are health-conscious and are probably responsible for menu items like avocado toast.

The Lexicon:

As you might infer from the words, “act your wage” refers to accomplishing only the work for which you are paid and nothing more; and so, if you are making minimum wage, you would put in the bare minimum of effort.

Similarly, “quiet quitting” isn’t really a resignation, since the worker doesn’t actually leave their position and continues to collect a salary. Quiet quitters do their jobs and nothing above and beyond. They may not make themselves available for Zoom meetings after hours and are unlikely to take work home to deal with over the weekend.

Proponents of “act your wage” and “quiet quitting” view them both as just what’s required to set firm, healthy boundaries in the workplace. 

The “side hustle” may be easiest to understand because it seems to be just old-fashioned “moonlighting”. It’s the work you do outside your full-time or primary job and people typically engage in side hustles to supplement their income. It can be online, in-person, freelance, etc. 

Finally, the “hybrid work model” has its roots in the pandemic, and refers to work arrangements that enable the employee to work remotely part of the week at home or somewhere off-worksite; and the remainder of the week in the physical office.

The Pandemic:

Business and government agency leaders had explored work arrangements like flex-time, telecommuting, job sharing, and work-from-home for years. 

However, it was the rapid onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, when businesses closed and millions of workers were forced to adapt to new working arrangements that the transition to remote and hybrid work accelerated. 

A few years later, restrictions were relaxed, and employers had to decide how to re-architect the post- pandemic workplace. Some companies (e.g., Goldman Sachs) required a fulltime return to the physical office. However, many employers still allow employees to work from home full- or part-time. Researchers at Harvard and Stanford have independently concluded that the hybrid work model may be the most reasonable solution going forward for both employers and their employees, who often want to continue to work remotely and be flexible in their schedules. 

Of course, many jobs cannot be performed remotely and require that workers be physically present at their worksites. 

Offices will look different with a hybrid workforce. Less space will be needed and every worker will probably not require a designated desk. Companies will need to manage technology in remote settings. Collaborative space in the office will become a priority for more team-focused work, while individual work will, of course, be done at home.

Case histories:

I am a baby boomer and digital immigrant. My first cell phone had a retractable antenna. My e-mail address ends “@AOL.com”; and keeping it has become an “embarrassment” for my middle daughter. I originally connected via a telephone modem. My personal computer was a DEC Rainbow and it was mouseless. I wrote my papers with an early release of “WordStar” and stored files on floppy disks. I still think of myself as an “early adopter”, despite the e-mail address.

I was surprised at how closely our youngest daughter, “D” aligns with the above profile of her generation. She is probably our most millennial child. She announced to the family at age seven or eight that she was no longer eating meat; and she has remained a vegetarian thereafter, which we have all supported. She went on to NYU after graduating from Westminster School; and then, after that graduation, went on to Brooklyn College to pursue advanced training in some arcane computer science field.

Her first job was with an international “big data” company. She kept her Brooklyn apartment and worked from their Manhattan office and was very happy in that environment. Her colleagues were all young, smart, and high energy. 

Her team included a group of engineers located in India and she had the occasion to meet with them in-person on the subcontinent

She now works with a large, international cyber security company. She works with a team of engineers located in Belfast from either Brooklyn or a second residence in Red Hook, NY on the Hudson River.  Except for occasional meetings in her company’s East- or West-coast hubs, she is totally remote. She visits us and her Connecticut nieces and nephew regularly, but not frequently. Her nieces and nephew, who are six years old and younger, all think of her as “Cool Aunty ‘D’”  

Author’s Comments: If this evolution of attitude is at all surprising, it may be because we haven’t been listening to the music; or perhaps, just been too focused on the beat and inattentive to the lyrics. 
Harry Belafonte (1956): “Work all night on a drink of rum; daylight come and we want to go home”.
Pete Seeger (1957): “I’ve been working on the railroad all the live-long day”.
The Who (1965): “Why don’t you all fade away; and don’t try to dig what we all say”.
Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel (1969): “Asking only workman’s wages I come looking for a job; but I get no offers”.
Joan Baez (1969): “Where workers fight and organize; it’s there you’ll find Joe Hill”.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1973): “And if your train’s on time, you can get to work by nine; and start your slaving job to get your pay”.
Donna Summer (1983): “She works hard for the money; so you better treat her right”.
Bob Dylan (2006): “It’s a new path that we trod; and they say low wages are reality if we want to compete abroad”.

Sources:
Fry, Richard, Patten, Eatten, Eileen; and Igielnik, Ruth. “How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50 years ago”. Pew Research Center. 03/16/2018.
Fry, Richard. “Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force”. Pew Research Center. 04/11/2018.
Taylor, Stephanie. “Five major differences between the lives of millennials and baby boomers. Business Insider. 04/03/2019.
Vasel, Kathryn. “Two years later, remote work has changed millions of careers”. CNN. 03/18/2022.
Kaplan, Juliana. “How to ‘act your wage,’ according to two millennials who did it.”. Pew Research Center. 11/27/2022. 
Auginbaugh, Alison and Rothstein, Donna S. “How did employment change during the COVID-19 pandemic?” Bureau Of Labor Statistics Supplement. Vol. 11/No.1.  01/ 2022.
Walsh, Colleen. “Hybrid work’s sweet spot”. Harvard Magazine. 01-02/2023.

Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.

About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.

A View from My Porch: Bumble Bee Economics

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Prologue:

Christina and I both grew up in homes that observed meatless Fridays, which lasted until the Second Vatican Council; after which Pope John XXIII, seeking to modernize the Church, enacted several reforms, which included an end to both Latin services and meatless Fridays.

However, in deference to Christina’s sense of nostalgia for life before the Vatican Council, we still occasionally have tuna melts for dinner on Fridays. I am glad that she is not nostalgic for creamed tuna and peas on toast, any variations of tuna casserole, or fish sticks. 

This essay is not about the popular recipes of the 1950s and 60s. Rather, I am reviewing an economic and retail commodities practice that emerged over the last few decades; and which really became evident to me when I realized that my tuna salad now required less mayo, diced celery, onion, and pickle relish per drained can of Bumble Bee tuna than it did in the past. 

Shrinkflation:

Some companies have reduced the size of their products in order to offset price increases that would have otherwise occurred as a result of inflation or increased production and materials costs. This practice, which crosses countries and industries, is referred to as “shrinkflation”, and was first labeled as such by economist and presidential advisor, Philippa Malmgren.

Accordingly, instead of substantially increasing the price of a product, which would be readily apparent to buyers, manufacturers reduce the size, but might maintain the original price and original “look and feel” on the store shelf.

In these cases, the retail price of the product might not increase, but the price per unit of weight or volume does. The phenomenon has become quite common in the food and beverage industries. Note that I use some recognizable brand names below as examples that illustrate this economic concept. However, I have no financial interest in any of them beyond that of a super market customer.  

Tuna School:

There are two main varieties of tuna in grocery stores; “light” tuna, largely skipjack, and “white” tuna, primarily albacore; and both may be packed in either oil or water. According to the USDA, one-half cup of canned tuna in oil contains 145 calories, while a half cup in water has only 66 calories.

The “Daily Beast” reported in 2017 that “gone are the days of the six-ounce can of tuna, leaving buyers and sandwich lovers outraged.” Most brands are now 5 oz “net weight”, which actually includes the water or oil in which they are packed. Further, labels now indicate a “drained weight” of 4 oz in that 5 oz. can! 

According to the National Fisheries Institute, Americans eat about a billion pounds of canned and pouched tuna every year; about one-third of the world’s consumption; and so, these small weight reductions really add up. 

Coffee:

My parents probably included a “one pound” can of coffee on their shopping lists for brewing in their home percolator; — possibly “Maxwell House” or “Chase and Sanborn”.   With the exception of the occasional thermos-full, they probably consumed their “cuppa(s) joe” mostly at home. They did not enjoy the convenience or ambience of “Starbucks” or “Dunkins”. 

In 1993, American news commentator, Andy Rooney, continued his earlier investigation of the practices of “corporate coffee” and reported that, “in 1988 ‘Chock Full O’ Nuts’ had not only reduced the amount of coffee in their one pound can, but they’d also reduced the size of the print that indicated how much is inside.”

His 1993 update reported that “it’s now down to 13 ounces. If they’re not going to put a pound in it, they should at least use a smaller can.” He continued “Maxwell House still says it’s good to the last drop”. Maybe so, but there have been fewer and fewer drops over the years.” 

In a recent trip to our local super market, I noticed that both Maxwell House and Chase and Sanborn are now only 10.5 ounces.

Mr. Rooney is no longer with us.

The Ice Cream Chronicles:

Breyer’s, founded in 1866 in Philadelphia, is the oldest ice cream company in the United States. They incorporated in 1908, and remained  independent until their 1926 sale to the National Dairy Products Corporation/Sealtest, which became “Kraftco” in 1968; and eventually sold its ice cream brands to Unilever, the largest producer of soap in the world. 

Breyers downsized their half-gallons from 64 to 56 ounces, and then again, in 2008, to 48 ounces. They then went on to reformulate their products. Their new product is no longer even called “ice cream”, which is required by the USDA to contain at least 10 percent milk fat, but is now “frozen dairy dessert.” Breyers also removed their “all natural” from their cartons. Forty percent of Breyers’ production is now “frozen dairy dessert”. Many other ice cream producers have converted to 48-ounce cartons, and also offer frozen dairy desserts as an alternative to real ice cream. 

Of note, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield still produce their ice cream in pint cartons that contain a full 16-ounces of ice cream. Their “New York Super Fudge Chunk” flavor is a staple in our house; and Christina will occasionally treat herself to a heaping teaspoon for dessert. 

Unfortunately, the Haagen Dazs “pint” is now 14 ounces.

Shrinkflation Innovation:

I believe that a little “sleight of Hand is required to make “shrinkflation” profitable for the manufacturer.  For example, if the “look and feel” of the downsized can of tuna bears a strong resemblance to the original 6 ounce can, you’re probably less likely to stop in the middle of the aisle and read the label. The new Breyers carton looks a lot like the original black half gallon carton. 

If you check the bottom of your peanut butter container, you’ll notice a dimple. The producers of Skippy peanut butter added a small indentation to the bottom of their jars in 2009. Originally 18 ounces, this subtle change reduced the weight to 16.3 ounces. The dimple was adopted by most manufactures of peanut butter.

Breakfast cereals have appeared to wax and wane by a few fractions over the past several years; and cereal boxes have changed dimensions. 

Companies did not change the height or width of the box, just made it thinner. Consequently, cereal boxes actually contain less cereal; but on the shelf, with the unchanged front panel facing out, they look the same.

Some Thoughts:

I guess that I can summarize this essay with “caveat emptor”, which is Latin for “let the buyer beware”.  As I recall, it’s the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made. 

However, according to a Harvard study, most consumers would rather get less than pay more. In investigating this essay, I began reading the conclusions  of Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts,  who has documented shrinkflation on his “Consumer World” website for years.

Sources: 

  • Chernev, Alexander. “Customers Will Pay More for Less”. Harvard Business Review. 06/2012.
  • Dua, Shrey. “What Is Shrinkflation? 5 Examples in 2022”. 06/13/2022. Investor Place
  • Dworsky, Edgar. “Consumer World Newsletter” Several Dates. 
  • Malmgren, Philippa. “Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World’s Turbulent Economy”. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. (2016).
  • Rooney, Andy A “Pound of Coffee?” 03/09/ 2003. CBS “Sixty Minutes”.
  • Durbin, Dee-Ann. “No, you’re not imagining it — package sizes are shrinking” June 8, 2022. Associated Press.
  • Sherman, William. “Tuna Shrinkage: Cans Now Five Ounces, More Expensive”.  07/14/2017. The Daily Beast
  • Vosding, Adam. “Americans consume a whopping amount of canned tuna each year.” 02/24/2022. Mashed. com
Tom Gotowka

Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.

About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.

A View from My Porch: Tatts & Piercings; A Primer for the Curious

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

Tom Gotowka

In January 2023, Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) will enact regulations for the oversight of the tattoo and piercing establishments and their respective practitioners and operators in the nine communities in LLHD’s SE CT service area. 

Background:

Connecticut had passed legislation requiring some oversight several years ago, but an organized monitoring and inspection system had never really been implemented.

This absence of oversight surprised me, because Connecticut already reviews barbers, cosmeticians, estheticians, hairdressers, and nail technicians; none of whom intentionally pierce the skin or introduce foreign materials into the body.

Connecticut DPH did eventually make such oversight the responsibility of the individual health districts; and per the above, LLHD drafted regulations and office inspection protocols that were reviewed and approved by their Board of Directors. Local body art practitioners had input and were supportive of the efforts.

This essay reviews the need fulfilled by LLHD and broadly considers the body art genre, which not only includes tattooing and piercing, but also branding, and permanent cosmetics. I sometimes use the term “practitioner” in this essay, as equivalent to tattoo “artist” or “technician”.

Note that since 2015, Connecticut has required written consent of a parent or legal guardian for tattoos and piercings for those under age 18. Piercings of the ear lobes are exempt from the requirement for parental consent. 

Body Art by the Numbers:

In my “youth”, tattoos had been the hallmark of the troubled and/or rebellious individual; — somebody with “attitude”; and definitely not someone you should be hanging out with. For example, in 1950s’ Milwaukee, Arthur Fonzarelli (“the Fonz”), with his motorcycle, black leather jacket, and rebel attitude would have had tattoos. Richie Cunningham, would not.

But fortunately for every individual who has “gotten ink” since the days of my “youth”, that negative stigma has faded; and body art now appears to be generally accepted as a form of self-expression.  

A 2019 survey indicates that about 30 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo, compared to only 21 percent in 2012. Forty percent of people 18 to 34 years old, and 35 percent of those 35 to 54 years old have at least one tattoo; and it is estimated that more than 60 percent of adults in the United States have had a body piercing (the estimate includes pierced ear lobes).

Results were not stratified by any measure of attitude.

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash.

Common Procedures:

Tattoos are created by injecting ink into a person’s dermis, (i.e., the middle and thickest layer of skin. The practitioner usually uses a machine that makes many small holes in the skin and inserts ink into the holes.

For cosmetic procedures like microblading, pigment is scratched into the skin to resemble eyebrow hair. The microblade is a manual, handheld tool with tiny needles at the tip that create the shape of a small blade. 

Training and Licensure:

In order to qualify for a Connecticut tattoo license, the applicant must

  • have completed 2,000 hours of practical training and experience under the direct supervision and instruction of a licensed tattoo practitioner
  • have successfully completed, within the prior three years, a course on prevention of disease transmission and blood-borne pathogens that comply with OSHA  standards
  • hold current certification in basic first aid by the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association.

Individuals that only provide body piercings are not required to be licensed. 

However, establishments that provide piercings outside of the ear lobe/will be inspected. Licensing of the individual practitioner is granted by Connecticut DPH, while LLHD has responsibility for inspecting and licensing the facility/establishment and the breadth of services provided therein.

Some Colorful History:

Sailors in the merchant marine had their initials tattooed onto their skin in the 1700s. These tattoos were then recorded in their personal “Seamen’s Protection Certificates”, which were used as identification and to fend off impressment, which was a form of illegal conscription employed by the Royal Navy during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing warships. 

A modification of Thomas Edison’s electric pen, invented in 1875 and designed for duplicating and printing documents, is still used today for tattooing.

The New York World newspaper, a pioneer in yellow journalism, which published independently until 1930, when it merged into the “New York World-Telegram,” reported that by 1900, more women than men in New York City sported tattoos. 

In 1961, it became illegal to provide someone a tattoo in New York City. The city claimed that there was an outbreak of hepatitis B, while many suspected that it was done in an attempt to clean up the less than savory areas of the city in advance of the 1964 World’s Fair. However, the ban remained in effect for 36 years and was finally lifted in 1997.

Of course, the ban had created a busy underground market for tattoos. 

Several religious denominations have decreed that tattoos are a sin to obtain and a sin to display. Father Jerry Herda of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee wrote in the “Catholic Herald” in 2012 that “a tattoo in and of itself is not a sin; but “there are times when getting a tattoo can be sinful.”

He went on to illustrate with the examples of an individual, who gets a tattoo, that is vulgar or offensive to others; and a minor child, who gets a tattoo in opposition to his parents’ wishes, which would be a violation of the fourth commandment. Father Herda’s second example is pertinent to some of the discussion below. 

The Risks:

Although tattooing and piercing can be performed safely, they both carry risks. These risks include allergic reactions, skin infections at the site, and the spread of infectious diseases and bloodborne pathogens, all of which underscore the importance of providing the procedure in a clean environment and under sterile conditions.

Notably, infections can also occur when the ink is contaminated.  

The Role of the FDA:

The FDA considers the inks used in intradermal tattoos, including permanent makeup, as cosmetics, but the pigments used in the inks are color additives that require pre-marketing approval. There are a variety of pigments and dilutants used in tattooing.

Although a number of color additives are approved for use in cosmetics, not all are approved for injection into the skin; and using an unapproved color additive in a tattoo ink makes the ink “adulterated” and possibly harmful.

When the FDA identifies a safety problem associated with a cosmetic, including a tattoo ink, the agency investigates and takes appropriate action to prevent illness or injury.

For example, in 2017 and 2019, the FDA issued safety alerts advising consumers, practitioners and retailers to avoid using or selling certain contaminated tattoo inks. Further, the FDA initiated actions in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2017 that resulted in the voluntary recall and, in some cases, market withdrawal, of tattoo inks and needles due to reports of infection and confirmed microbial contamination.  

LLHD Inspections:

Onsite reviews may be completed annually or in follow-up of a complaint or some corrective action. However, due to the nature of body art and a respect for privacy, inspections will be scheduled, which differs from other regulated establishments, where inspections are unannounced.

Routine reviews could include verification of credentials, review of the sources of inks and additives, record keeping, and the sterilization procedures required to control cross-contamination of instruments and equipment. Note that the industry has progressed to more single-use materials stored in “steri-packs”. 

Closer to Home:

Two-thirds of our daughters and neither of our sons have tattoos; and none, as far as I can tell, have piercings.

Our youngest daughter, “D”, a computer systems professional has a tattoo of an artist’s interpretation of the Fibonacci Sequence.

Our middle daughter, “K”, a teacher, has a small fish tattoo that is only visible on the beach. The fish is an artist’s rendering of the logo of a sports equipment company. “K” has a son, aged 6, and two daughters, aged 3 years and younger. Remember, in the future, “What goes around, comes around”.  

Some Thoughts:

Perhaps this is all just a contemporary continuation of the “Aesthetic Movement” of the late 19th century, — “Art for Art’s Sake”, which prized the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over any didactic, moral, or socio-political function.

Based on a quick search, there does not appear to be a tattoo establishment currently operating in Old Lyme, but Old Saybrook seems to be awash with ink; as are several other Southeast Connecticut communities.

Sources:

CT Department of Public Health (2022). Practitioner Licensing & Investigations Section; Tattoo Technician.
National Environmental Health Association. (2021). Model Body Art Code.
American Broadcasting Company. Happy Days 1974-1984.
Herda, J. Archdiocese of Milwaukee: Catholic Herald. Ask Father Jerry: Is getting a tattoo a sin? (09/20/2012).
Le Blanc, P, Hollinger, K, et al. Tattoo ink–related infections: awareness, diagnosis, reporting, and prevention. NEJM 367(11),985-987
Nalewicki, J. Tattooing was Illegal in New York City until 1997. Smithsonian Magazine. (02/28/2017).
Food and Drug Administration. Tattoos, Temporary Tattoos & Permanent Makeup. 03/01/2022).

Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.

 About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.

A View from My Porch: Brendan and the Pirates — Securing Passage of Crude Oil to The West

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Tom Gotowka

I reported a few “Views” ago that my son had landed in Bahrain on an extended mission with the United States (US) Navy. Brendan is attached to the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC). This is a multinational consortium that was established to provide order and security for trade and shipping in the Arabian Gulf region of the Middle East, with particular focus on global oil supply routes.

This essay describes the critical activities of the IMSC. I also review the status of petroleum imports and exports by the US and consider the global energy implications of Russia’s hostile separation from the West.

 This “View” might also serve as a briefing paper for friends and family, who may be concerned that Brendan’s career has again taken him to what, for his parents, is the equivalent of Patrick O’Brian’s “Far Side of the World”.

Note that I use the term “Arabian Gulf” in this essay rather than “Persian Gulf”.

Background:

The Arabian Gulf countries are collectively the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels — they account for more than 30 percent of global crude oil production and nearly half of global reserves. 

About a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and almost a quarter of total global oil consumption is shipped in tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and provides the only sea passage to the open ocean. 

Consequently, the strait has become one of the world’s most strategically important international trade routes and a “choke point” for the global energy economy, where free passage can be restricted or significantly impeded by a hostile adversary.

Contemporary Maritime Piracy and the Origins of the IMSC:

Piracy is the plundering, hijacking, or detention of a ship on the “high seas,” i.e., beyond the 12 nautical miles limit for “territorial waters”; and thus in international waters. 

2014 Kennedy Center Honoree Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks, pictured left, introduced us to modern-day piracy in the movie, “Captain Phillips,” the story of the 2009 hijacking of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates while en route to Mombasa, Kenya with a humanitarian shipment of nearly 5000 metric tons of food aid and relief supplies for Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia. 

The incident was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the US flag since the Second Barbary War in 1815, which occurred during the administration of James Madison. However, it was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by Somali pirates, who had already extorted tens of millions of dollars in ransoms — and which, almost predictably, fueled more attacks.

In the summer of 2019, Norwegian and Japanese tankers were attacked, and a British tanker, the “Stena Impero”, was seized by Iranian naval forces near the Strait of Hormuz.

Within months, the IMSC was formally launched to enable a more effective and better organized response to such attacks, and to provide large scale support to existing efforts to deter and counter threats to navigation and trade in the Arabian Gulf region. 

There are currently nine member nations in the IMSC: Albania, Bahrain, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the US. 

Coalition Task Force (CTF) Sentinel:

The IMSC patrols the waters of the Arabian Gulf, the Gulfs of Oman and Aden, and the Southern Red Sea through its operational arm, CTF Sentinel. 

Member nations provide ships and personnel. However, the US is the predominant contributor to CTF fleet operations.

In addition, the US Coast Guard maintains a squadron of four Fast Response Cutters and one Island Class Patrol Boat. The latter was originally deployed to the region in 2003 in support of President Bush’s “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” but is now a permanent presence in the CTF fleet and accountable for drug interdiction.

The CTF is charged with protecting all merchant shipping owned, operated, or flagged by the nine member nations.

According to the IMSC website, the CTF fleet, supported by significant reconnaissance and intelligence resources, enables the IMSC to target and engage “state-sponsored malign maritime activity.”

The center of operations for CTF Sentinel is “Naval Support Activity Bahrain” (NSAB), which is one of the military bases operated by the US Navy (USN) outside of the United States. NSAB is a “co-base,” in that it is run by the USN, but under the authority, laws, and regulations of Bahrain. As home to Naval Forces Central Command and the Fifth Fleet, NSAB plays a key role in Middle East Naval operations.

A Few Crude Facts:

In 2021, the US imported 7,623 barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil, and produced 10,038 b/d; yielding a total supply of 17,661 b/d. In that year, about 80 percent of the crude oil imported by the US came from Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Colombia. The Saudis supplied about 9 percent of the total U. S. crude oil supply. 

Note that those imports do not represent our total domestic consumption. Much of the imported crude oil is refined into petroleum products that are then exported. At present, the top five destinations for our refined petroleum products are India, South Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, and China.

Total US crude oil imports have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since 2017. 

Canada is now the largest single source of US petroleum and crude oil imports. In 2021, Canada accounted for 51 percent of total US petroleum imports and 62 percent of crude oil imports. The continued growth in Canadian crude oil import is exceeding current pipeline capacity and has resulted in increased crude oil export to the US by rail.

Finally, the Department of Energy predicts that petroleum and natural gas will remain the most-consumed sources of energy in the US through 2050, and that renewable energy (i.e., energy produced from sources like the sun and wind that are naturally replenished) will likely grow significantly. 

Russian Exports:

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has significant potential to disrupt Western energy supplies. At present, both Germany and Italy import around one-half of their respective natural gas from Russia, while France obtains about a quarter of its supply from Russia.

Japan is the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas after China, which took the lead last year. Japan imports about 10 percent its total natural gas from Russia, with the remainder provided by Australia, Malaysia, and increasingly, the US. 

President Biden banned the import of Russian crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal to the United States last March, immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia now claims that the punitive economic sanctions imposed on it by the West after the Ukraine invasion are responsible for its imposition of an indefinite halt to natural gas supplies through Europe’s main pipeline.

Some Thoughts:

The international energy import and export system is very complicated and fraught with risk. The Department of Energy recently reported that diesel and heating oil supplies in the Northeast are more than 50 percent below recent averages, raising concerns that an extreme weather event could cause supply disruptions. 

Fuel supplies are lower than normal across the country for several reasons, including the war in Ukraine, which upset supply chains and raised much greater concern regarding the adequacy of global energy supplies. 

As a result of the ban on Russian imports, President Biden is reconsidering the 2019 decision by the Trump administration to ban the importation of Venezuelan crude oil, which was imposed shortly after President Nicholas Maduro won reelection in an electoral process that was widely viewed as fraudulent.

Let me leave you with this reminder of an important international holiday, which has just occurred. Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was founded in Oregon in 1995, is commemorated every year on Sept. 19. Brendan has the opportunity to be schooled by experts and it will be a pleasure to accompany him to a celebration in the US in 2023. My treat!

Sources:
Brendan Gotowka: From the ship’s bridge
Associated Press: Low oil inventories raising concerns in in US Northeast. August 28, 2022
Central Intelligence Agency: CIA World Factbook 2022-2023.
IMSC: The Sentinel Watch (monthly newsletter for the maritime shipping industry).
             1. S. Energy Information Administration: “World Energy Outlook 2022”.

Editor’s Note: i) The photo above of Tom Hanks posing for a photo after a dinner hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., was taken on December 6, 2014. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

ii) This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.

 About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.

A View from My Porch: 50 Years — A Retrospective

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Photo by Tetiana Shyshkina on Unsplash.

Editor’s Note: We send warmest congratulations to our longtime contributor Tom Gotowka and his wife Christina on their Golden Wedding anniversary.

Christina and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary this past July 22nd, and that’s gold. 

In preparation for the event, I spent some time reminiscing about those years, and I am sharing some of my thoughts in this “View,” and I hope, not much to her dismay. As I reconsider that half century, I also reflect on the political and environmental factors that had an impact on us. One of my reviewers has said that the essay is a bit maudlin, but E. F. Watermelon has ceased operations and “Fifty” requires more than Connecticut’s finest chocolates.

Hence, this “View”.

We met as undergraduates at the University at Buffalo. I don’t recall the exact circumstances, but I have a vague recollection of being erudite and charming. The new University President, Martin Meyerson, had vowed to make Buffalo the “Berkeley of the East,” meaning its intellectual equal. 

We were near the end of the Sixties era, and almost past a decade that had been marked by extreme unrest due to the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Jr., and RFK. 

Dion sang “Abraham, Martin and John”, and included Lincoln in his tribute to the memory of the four murdered American leaders, who had such a profound influence on civil rights. (N.B., “Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?” makes four.)  

In early-1965, and now as the elected President; Lyndon Johnson escalated Vietnam “hostilities” with a sustained and relentless bombing campaign, and followed it with an endless deployment of ground forces. 

By 1968, his “Operation Rolling Thunder” had dropped an estimated 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam. On one mission, war hero John McCain’s A-4 was shot down. He was seriously injured in the crash, captured by the North Vietnamese, and remained a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton” for over five years. 

A common protest chant during “Rolling Thunder” was: “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Piling on, Arlo Guthrie had published Alice’s Restaurant” in 1967; which wasn’t really about littering in Stockbridge. Mass. 

Vietnam also generated a rise in draft resistance; and we entered a university that was a hotbed of protest and dissent. In that manner, Meyerson fulfilled his “Berkeley of the East” goal; — i.e., Berkeley also had a history of activism and revolution layered on its academic excellence. 

Tragically, the new decade had just started when, on May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine students. The “Kent State Massacre”, as it will always be known, triggered a nationwide student strike and forced hundreds of colleges and universities to shut down, many for the reminder of the term.

A year later, NPR’s “All Things Considered”, in its first-ever broadcast on May 3, 1971, covered the more than 20,000 protesters who gathered in D.C. to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. Their 24 minute “sound portrait” of what was happening on the ground was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2017. 

Curricula Vitae:

Christina had been at the “3 Days of Peace and Music” in Woodstock; and, of course, drove a vintage red VW Beetle convertible. 

She wore Birkenstocks or clogs, but I wore Weejuns. She grew up on Long Island’s north shore, on Gnarled Hollow Road in East Setauket; and I in the “lakes district” of Western New York. (See: https://archive06371.com/2021/02/a-view-from-my-porch-the-marquis-groucho-sam-and-me/). 

She was a Yankees fan, so we could never objectively discuss baseball. 

We were both educated in parochial schools from first through twelfth grades. Immediately after high school, she was educated as a dental hygienist, and planned to practice part time to support the first four years of college expenses. 

 Remarkably, she bowled a “three hundred game” in Phys. Ed. while a dental hygiene student at what is now SUNY at Farmingdale. Unfortunately for bowling fans, she did not pursue the sport beyond the amateur level. 

She loved folk music and had an acoustic guitar. It would eventually become clear to me that Joan Baez would always be her touchstone.

 We may have originally connected because I know lyrics, even the most obscure. She had never met a man who could recite Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” extemporaneously … and in its entirety. Who would have guessed then how prophetic “I’m on the pavement, thinking about the government” would be in our future lives?

She set some boundaries early in our relationship and told me that she planned to youth-hostel her way through Europe on a EuroRail Pass for the upcoming summer before our respective graduate programs. 

Having fulfilled that plan, she entered the School of Graduate Education on her return from Europe; but for me, it was the School of Dental Medicine. 

Courting in Buffalo:

Buffalo is not Boston; it may be more Chicago. However, I’d argue that for college kids or grad students like us, it was a reasonable facsimile. When we began our college lives, over 50,000 students from both public and private collegiate institutions were living in the city. We both lived in Buffalo’s North Park neighborhood, which had a real “town and gown” business and residential mix. 

We dated, and much of that centered on campus events. We saw Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the “Yippies” (i.e., the Youth International Party), who appeared before a crowd of over a thousand just a month after his conviction in the “Chicago Eight” conspiracy trial. We also saw Mary Travers, performing solo, and the Chuck Mangione “Friends and Love” concert. 

I introduced her to the mainstays of the local cuisine; “beef on weck”, “pizza and wings”, and Ted’s hot dogs with the “works”. Date movies were “Midnight Cowboy” and “Butch and Sundance”. 

The University did have its own “Buffalo Nine”, a group of Vietnam War protesters arrested together in 1968 at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Buffalo. 

My family was very impressed with Christina. Coincidentally, Robert Redford’s “Gatsby” had just begun production with abundant publicity. So, their expectations for the north shore were high; and I told them that East Setauket wasn’t really that far from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “West Egg”. I admit that there was some concern that this young and blonde Long Island woman might be just a little too exotic for a kid from Western New York.

Anna Mae, et al:

I was eventually invited to meet the Jenkins family. Her mother, Anna Mae, was a gracious Yankee woman and a single parent who raised five children. Her home was filled with antiques. Anna Mae was a force in the local parish, and a touch imperious. 

She was very welcoming, but I couldn’t stop thinking of her as Katharine Hepburn in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. I learned early in that week that she would not argue, but relied on a world-class “withering look” to express disagreement.

Christina’s siblings included her oldest brother, Ross; who was “Longines Sports Timing”, and focused wholly on winter sports. Nancy was a nurse, Dean was a teacher, and Gregory, the youngest, was on his way to “boarding school”. I also met her very close friends, the O’Sheas, who hosted many of the pre-wedding events. My impression was that Dr. O’ provided occasional counsel, while Mrs. O’ served as another big sister.

The Wedding:

About a month before our nuptials, five men were arrested in a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel and office complex in Washington. 

The break-in had no impact on wedding preparations. What almost did, however, was my best man’s arrival on Thursday. Scott could have been the twin brother of Jim Morrison, lead singer for the “Doors”. Anna Mae asked me whether she should get the barber in town to stop by; he was a member of the parish and would be happy to do so. We deliberated and went with “Scott-as is”.

The wedding ceremony was held in the new St. James Church. Christina had planned on the original historic chapel, which dated back to the founding of the parish in 1889; but that wasn’t possible with what proved to be a crowd on the altar 

The groom and groomsmen all wore traditional morning suits on that very humid 95-degree day. The bride and her attendants were all cool and beautiful. Anna Mae had style and status, so we had three concelebrants on the altar; two for the home team and one for the visitors. Father Nesslin, for the visitors, was my AP physics teacher at the Mindszenty School. 

The ceremony was accompanied by the choir’s performance of four songs:

  • Pete Seeger’s “I Can See a New Day”;
  • Tom Rush’s “The Circle Game”;
  • Paul Stookey’s “The Wedding Song”;
  • Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria”.

As I recall, well over 100 guests then celebrated under a large tent on the Jenkins’ lawn.

The Hopkins Inn:

Ours could not be an extended honeymoon. I was in the final months of completing requirements for graduation and board exams; and Christina was wrapping up her thesis. 

A friend recommended the Hopkins Inn on Lake Waramaug, in Litchfield County. The Inn was run by an Austrian family, and was an excellent choice. Lake Waramaug was only a few miles from Henry Kissinger’s future home in the Kent area; and was the site for some of the qualifying rowing trials for the 1972 Munich Olympic games. 

Tragically, the Munich Olympics, which began in late August, were overshadowed by the September 5th “Munich Massacre” of Israeli athletes.

We returned to Buffalo and consolidated living arrangements, completed academic requirements, and eventually shipped out to the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md. 

Before saying goodbye to Buffalo, we saw the Grateful Dead at the “Aud”; — “Trucking, up to Buffalo”; and stopped in at the Parkside Candy lunch counter for coffee, unaware at the time that it was their lemonade, which would become famous when Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) ordered it while sitting with Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) in “The Natural.”

Anchors Aweigh:

“Pax River” was a very big deal. It headquartered the Naval Air Systems Command, and the multi-services Test Pilot School. Several billion dollars of fighter and surveillance aircraft were housed on the base. The jet jockeys (i.e., the Naval Aviators) were all “Mavericks” at a time when Tom Cruise was still getting ready for “Risky Business.”

The Pax River Naval Hospital was first-rate and a few years in that environment convinced me that “solo practice” would never be a good fit. 

Christina had a horse in Maryland; a grey gelding hunter. I had no experience with horses, so I began training as an apprentice horse groom. Christina had her thesis typed and delivered on time to the University, taught in one of the local schools, and competed in show jumping competitions in Maryland and Virginia. 

Watergate:

Richard Nixon and Watergate dominated the news between the wedding and our transition to Pax River. In 1972, Nixon’s VP, Spiro T. Agnew, was investigated on suspicion of criminal conspiracy and extortion, and resigned from office. Nixon replaced him with House Republican leader Gerald Ford. At the same time, The Washington Post set the standard for investigative journalism with Woodward and Bernstein’s dogged coverage of the break-in. 

The Senate Watergate Committee opened hearings on May 17, 1973. Note that the 1976 movie about Watergate, “All the President’s Men”, would be the third time that Redford intersected with our relationship.

Old Lyme neighbor, the honorable Lowell Weicker, then the outspoken 41-year-old freshman Connecticut senator, was chosen as one of seven members of the Senate Select Committee to investigate Watergate.

He wrote in 1973 that “For this senator, Watergate is not a whodunit; it is a documented, proven attack on laws, institutions and principles”; and also disclosed a White House memo from 1969 in which presidential aide Jeb Stuart Magruder suggested using the IRS to harass unfriendly news organizations.

On Friday, Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon ended his presidency and departed with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn. Within minutes, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States. Thirty days later, President Ford pardoned Nixon 

I still remember how, when I left the Naval Hospital that Friday afternoon, Nixon’s picture was still displayed as Commander-in-Chief. However, on Monday morning, President Ford’s picture was on display. I assume that this bit of housekeeping had somehow been duplicated at military and other government facilities across the globe. Of course, Nixon had done a TV broadcast the night before his exit.

I completed my active duty and we moved to Connecticut, where Christina had an academic appointment at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, and I had secured a staff appointment at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.

Saint Francis Hospital:

My job was to manage a large grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the development of a hospital-based group dental practice; and recruit the members of the group. Late in my hospital tenure, I received an appointment as the Robert Wood Johnson Scholar, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Eventually, I moved on to Aetna Health Plans. 

The Other 36 Years:

I am embarrassed to say that the above chronicle reminds me of the punchline of a joke that I often shared with one of my daughters. It goes, “That’s enough about me, what do you think of my hair”?

We bought our first home in West Simsbury at the base of Onion Mountain. We also managed to develop a division of responsibilities that has lasted the entirety of our marriage. Christina is strategy, I am tactics; or alternatively, “outside” versus “inside”.  

We had five beautiful and much-too-adventurous children over the course of our marriage. Those births all relied on the Lamaze Method, which includes psychological and physical preparation by the mother and her “coach” as a means of suppressing pain and enabling delivery without drugs. I believe that Lamaze and other types of “natural childbirth” are less popular today than with our contemporaries. 

We were lucky. We matured professionally in an era when academic growth opportunities were available and well-funded. The two of us were awarded joint-fellowships at the University of Washington in Seattle. 

Christina received an advanced degree in Human Development and Gerontology from the University of Saint Joseph, and that became the focus of her teaching career. In her quest, she was able to spend a summer in China with Yale, participate in the Women’s Health and Healing Program at Berkeley, and the Hawaii Great Teachers’ Conference. China yielded several “Silk Road Revisited” presentations and a gallery exhibition of some amazing photography. 

She was passionate about teaching; and I had been told at college gatherings by at least one student and a few of her faculty colleagues that her style was energetic and entertaining. She was willing to mentor junior members of the faculty and young women, who may have been the first in their family to enter college. I also learned that her handouts and student contracts were legendary. (“Will this all be on the test?”) 

We also co-authored a paper on healthcare costs that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. 

I don’t know whether she meets whatever the accepted definition of “feminist” is, but I do know that she is a very strong woman; and when appropriate, is outspoken in her beliefs.  We have raised three daughters who are also strong; and two sons who are very comfortable with women in more senior or equivalent positions. 

With a growing family, we built a larger home, also in West Simsbury, and turned our attention to introducing the kids to higher education options and some thoughts about careers.

The Turn of the Century:

There was widespread fear as we approached 2000 that computer systems would shut down. The “Y2K Bug” was a potential computer problem associated with the longstanding programming method of formatting and storing calendar years as the final two digits of the year; which  couldn’t be used after the year 1999 (e.g. “00” could be either 2000 or 1900, etc.).

Fortunately, there was no generalized systems failure, possibly due to the pre-emptive action of government and private industry information technology experts. 

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists took control of four commercial airliners and used them in suicide attacks on four strategic sites in the United States; and led to the still-ongoing Global War on Terrorism. Eleven days after the attacks, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was appointed as the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security in the White House.

The Homeland Security Act was passed by Congress in Nov., 2002, and the Department of Homeland Security became a stand-alone, cabinet-level department.

On July 31, 2022 Ayman al-Zawahiri, known as the planner of “Nine-Eleven” and successor to Osama bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan.

On to the Shore:

We left West Simsbury for the Connecticut shore and built a home on the exact “footprint” of a 1930s cape that sat on the banks of the Duck River on Library Lane. We were drawn to the site because it reminded us of our children’s favorite childhood book, “Wind in the Willows”.

Here’s a bit of Mole’s first conversation with Ratty: “You must think me very rude; but all this is so new to me. This is a river and you really live by the river? What a jolly life!” Ratty responded “It’s my world, and I don’t want any other.”

This relocation would prove to be fortuitous. About a dozen Halloweens ago, the boffins at Yale installed a new heart in my chest with all the connections. Christina kept me focused and my “eyes on the prize” through that grueling period leading to the procedure; after which I was inducted into the highly exclusive and very demanding society of the immuno-suppressed. I still like “long walks on the beach”, but mostly on cloudy days or late in the afternoon; and I’ll often wear a mask in public places, even in the off-season. 

We were here for the Federal Railroad Association’s “half-baked and harebrained” (to quote US Sen. Richard Blumenthal) proposal to improve service by rerouting its Northeast Corridor through Old Lyme’s historic district; and the subsequent resident and bipartisan protest by elected officials, which eventually resulted in the withdrawal of the proposal.

Christina is now a retired professor, and some of her passion for teaching has shifted to her studio and her glorious gardens. She, with other like-minded women also comprise the “Flo-Gris Garden Gang”; (I believe that they still are all women); and without much fanfare, maintain the extensive museum gardens.

Another passion is fitness She has become a “gym rat” and always knows “how many steps?”. She is in two book clubs

Some Thoughts:

I still know all of the lines to “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, but like to experiment with occasional changes in sequence. Our daughters sent us back to the Hopkins for our anniversary, which is still outstanding and they’ve installed air conditioning. I want to acknowledge that Christina is nearly 400 days younger than I and her youthful energy and outlook has contributed to our relationship. 

I believe that if she has any regret, it would be her failure to negotiate détente with the local gang of rogue white-tailed deer, who regularly raid her gardens. 

I was inspired to draft this retrospective by a similar piece that was done by some ‘Englisher’ several hundred years ago; and coincidentally, also at the tail-end of a plague. Unfortunately, and unlike my essay, his work ended,

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head …
For never was a story of more woe
Than this [of Juliet and her Romeo.] 

In closing, I’ll cite Churchill’s comments on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: “It is all true, or it ought to be; and more and better besides.”

Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.

Tom Gotowka

 

 About the author: Tom Gotowka’s entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.