ABULAFIA :: Zeitgeist






2 0 0 4 FEBRUARY 02 FEBRUARY 01 JANUARY 05 JANUARY 04 JANUARY 03 JANUARY 02 JANUARY 01 2 0 0 3 DECEMBER 04 DECEMBER 03 DECEMBER 02 DECEMBER 01 NOVEMBER 04 NOVEMBER 03 NOVEMBER 02 NOVEMBER 01 OCTOBER 03 OCTOBER 02 OCTOBER 01 SEPTEMBER AUGUST 02 AUGUST 01 JULY 02 JULY 01 JUNE 02 JUNE 01 MAY 02 MAY 01 APRIL 02 APRIL 01 MARCH FEBRUARY JANUARY WEDDING			F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 0 4 Church Missed singing Mozart's Ave Verum, another beautiful piece. Al: Technically, this piece is very simple. Other than very very long phrases and pitches that must be clear and perfect throughout, it should be very easy. Oh, is that all. F E B R U A R Y 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 To Akron Commercial developers resource To press. M&D, G to San Antonio ABOVE The Ohio Supreme Court chambers, ceiling shown here under renovation in September, 2001. F E B R U A R Y 1 9 , 2 0 0 4 Could not sleep. Restless, unsettled, ... Finally moved to the couch and slept there. Sometimes a different view is necessary. Choir rehearsal Bexley afterwards. Repairs Necessary to Craig's computer. What exactly was wrong, I still don't know -- but I can't make it freeze any more, so hopefully he won't be able to tomorrow either. Whatever it was, it was more troublesome than the printer problem from last week. I managed to fix that one by turning it on. But warm(er) Outside. Not that I could tell, I was inside fixing computers. F E B R U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 0 4 So it goes ... Deadline, polybag, ... slowly slowly ABOVE The Ohio Supreme Court building, shown here under renovation in September, 2001. F E B R U A R Y 1 7 , 2 0 0 4 The merging Continues... National City is to "buy" Provident Bank in a non-taxable stock-swap. Business First A distressing loss Papers clarify LeVeque tower owner change \| Business First Ownership change at the LeVeque Tower in late January occurred under more distress than initially revealed. Documents filed Feb. 10 with the Franklin County Recorder's Office showed a standard limited warranty deed filed in the 46-story office tower's transfer. But an affidavit filed with the county auditor's office tax shows Kathryn LeVeque, principal of LeVeque Tower LLC, turned over the property to Lennar Properties Inc. of Miami in lieu of formal foreclosure on a $16.16 million mortgage. "No money or other valuable or tangible consideration convertible into money is being paid or is to be paid for the real estate," reads the Jan. 14 affidavit of Robert C. Kiger, an attorney representing the Lennar affiliate that is listed as office tower's owner. Back in the 1940s, Kathryn LeVeque's husband rescued the old AIU Citadel, the iconic image of downtown Columbus, after its original owner went bankrupt. The LeVeques maintained and supported the tower and downtown Columbus through the many years when downtown was the place to escape. LEFT The LeVeque Tower in December. RIGHT The tower yesterday. In both photographs, City Hall is in the foreground. Beyond the thanks owed them for all of that, Columbus will be a less personal and more institutional place for the loss of her stewardship. The first act of the new ownership company was to decree that the building will no longer be lit nightly in red, white and blue, but merely in a functional white. Other personal touches are likely to go, too. Kathryn LeVeque has been a great benefit to Columbus and one of its true personalities (we still talk about some of her phone calls to the newspaper). I hope she gets to keep her home at the top of the tower -- it would be terrible to think of her being forced out into the suburbs after all. ABOVE The new Ohio Supreme Court chambers, shown here under renovation in September, 2001. Rehab Supreme \| Dispatch High Court's new home is worthy showpiece Three years and $83 million later, the Ohio Supreme Court has transformed a dank, dark, poorly ventilated state office building overlooking the Scioto River into a historic edifice worth showing off. After packing eight floors at the Rhodes Office Tower for 30 years, the court is moving into 16 floors at 65 S. Front St. It’s the first time in the 202-year history of the high court that the judicial branch will have quarters separate from the executive and legislative branches of state government. ... A brass bar with lattice will separate lawyers from the audience as they argue in the courtroom where original chairs were reupholstered and a hand-carved bench installed for the seven justices. A regal maroon curtain serves as a backdrop along with the justices’ former bench. Walls in the grand concourse are lined by bronze tributes to Ohio’s eight presidents, eight of its U.S. Supreme Court justices and two U.S. House speakers. Four Indian chiefs — Little Turtle, Pontiac, Logan and Tecumseh — are depicted in bronze bas-relief in the lower lobby, where mosaic tiles line the ceiling. A nurse’s station has been converted into a gift shop. A dream unfulfilled \| The Lantern City organization tries to bring shelter, hope to homeless citizens For Richard Ternavan Jr., a resident at the Open Shelter, it is his criminal background that contributed to his homelessness. "I have felony counts and a burglary charge," Ternavan said. "I'm in a homeless shelter not because of drugs or alcohol; I'm here because of my criminal past. Renters don't like to rent to people with a criminal history." Ternavan has had a difficult time finding work as well. "I have applied at Krogers, Shottenstein's and several other jobs," Ternavan said. "No one wants to hire me." Ternavan said employers have looked at his application and given him positive feedback until they approach the part about criminal history. "I had a potential employer look at my application and take a long pause when he got to my criminal history," Ternavan said. "I don't try to hide my past." Ternavan, who will be 38 next month, spoke about his feelings of hopelessness. "It's depressing to keep getting doors slammed in your face. I feel like I have two choices. I can return to criminal life, or I can deal with my situation and stay in the homeless shelter," he said. Ternavan recounted a banner he once saw, stating, "The toes you step on today maybe the feet you are kissing tomorrow." Ternavan paused and said, "My criminal past continues to haunt me, no matter what I do." A criminal beginning An unwelcome neighbor Monday evening I was pulling into my garage, (still putting the door up and down manually -- I have no driveway, but pull the car to the side of the alley to get out and operate the door), hampered slightly by a dilapidated and rusting gray pickup truck that drove past a couple of times and turned in to no less than three parking spots while I watched. Before I could pull the garage door down, the man pulled up, leaned out of the window, said he was a little low on cash and would I like to buy a nice set of tools? Now there are some people who drive pickups around the neighborhoods and pick up whatever interesting items they find from the curb, but no one finds sets of good tools on the curb. You find sets of good tools behind locked doors or perhaps at lightly secured construction sites. Every time I have been out of my house since I have seen this pickup either parked (behind two different houses or on the street) or cruising up and down the alleys. This guy is a problem. An excellent service, really. We once cut up an old (very old) refrigerator, ripped metal from the sides, cut wires everywhere, tore it in half, and finally managed (barely) with five of us to carry it to the alley. The city will not pick up refrigerators, you have to pay someone to take them away. We put the beast in the alley Sunday afternoon -- by Monday noon I had failed to find anyone willing to haul it away even for good money, but arriving home for lunch -- it was gone. Not only had someone driven by, but that someone had the manpower and the vehicle to haul it off. Impressive. ABOVE Further reflections. The Continental Centre is reflected in the windows of the Columbus Atheneum, downtown Columbus, Ohio. For the first time in 88 years, the Big D is poised to endorse a Democrat for president The Other Paper (as in Not the Dispatch) picks up on its rival's hints -- are they reading the signals correctly? Dispatch dumps Dubya \| The Other Paper "TOTALLY RECKLESS" was the headline of Sunday's lead editorial, in which the Dispatch disapprovingly linked the Bush administration's domestic and military policies. "Having misled the nation on the drug benefit and Iraq, the president now asks the nation to believe that he is sincere about reducing the massive deficits he has run up. Unveiling his $2.4 trillion budget for 2005, he promises to cut the deficit in half by 2009," the editorial said. "But even here, Bush is not being forthright. The 2005 budget proposal doesn't even include the estimated $50 billion needed to continue military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq." "It is becoming increasingly difficult to have any confidence in the fiscal policy of this administration." ... "As more and more cities became one-newspaper towns—and that was really in the '50s and '60s and in the '70s—that's when papers got much more socially responsible about keeping their opinions on the editorial page," [Dispatch President Mike] Curtin said. That's where the Dispatch has stayed true to its Republican roots. While a local Democrat might get an occasional endorsement, presidential races have been foregone conclusions. For example, [Dispatch Publisher John F.] Wolfe didn't think much of Bob Dole when he ran for president in 1996, but there was no thought of endorsing Clinton for re-election. This year, though, seems different. With such visceral, personal attacks on Bush's credibility and job performance, it's almost impossible to imagine the comically contorted rationale the Dispatch would have to employ in calling for four more years. BELOW K or T? I or S? Depending on context? F E B R U A R Y 1 6 , 2 0 0 4 The point Of the matter; While the White House day by day releases carefully chosen documents which clearly show that George Bush was alive in 1972, they also argue that the issue was put to rest in 2000 (or 1994, when he was elected governor of Texas), and is besides irrelevant. As the best that is being argued in his favor is that he is credited with service in the National Guard in Alabama for sitting in an office and reading flight manuals, it should be obvious that the point is being obscured in the details. Jimmy Breslin lays it out: Bush was on duty for 26 days from January 1 until April 16. On that last day in Texas, April 16, 1972, the front pages around the nation, which George Bush could see because he was here, far from the shooting, had a photo of Maj. Gale Albert Despiegler, just captured after being shot down over Quang Binh, North Vietnam. Despiegler would be in the same prison with John McCain, who spent five and a half years in a Hanoi jail and was tortured. ... After that April 16, Bush went to Alabama and that pretty much ended his fighting career although he did battle cavities in a dentist's chair at Maxwell Field, Ala. ... What matters to all our senses is that he is a president who struts around as a war hero, who dodged Vietnam and most of the National Guard drills and who with less shame than anybody we have had maybe ever, sends your kids to a war that he ducked as if he was allowed to do it by birth. The picture of him playing soldier suit on an aircraft carrier, the helmet under his arm like he just got back from a run over Baghdad, marks him as exceedingly dangerous. He believes he is a warrior president. He is not. He is a war dodger. Therefore, it is preposterous for George Bush to be a commander of anything. Jimmy Breslin \| Newsday This is an honest point. The honest retort is that George Bush has acknowledged leading a younger life he is not proud of and has since reformed -- do we not offer him a second chance? (Much more Breslin to come -- it was just that kind of day, I guess). Some reporters Still want the details White House Press Secretary lashes out at reporter \| Washingtonian According to reporters in the press room, [White House spokesman Scott] McClellan got red-faced and became so angry, it looked to some as if he were ready to pounce. He characterized the question as coming from “gutter politics.” [Helen] Thomas, who has covered every president since Dwight Eisenhower and now writes a column for Hearst, was not fazed. “I think they are getting pretty nervous about this,” she said Friday afternoon. “I’ve learned over the years that when you put out records, it often leads to more questions.” Don't worry, be happy Bush focuses on economy in Florida \| CNN President Bush courted voters Monday in the state that decided the 2000 election, arguing his tax cuts are helping the economy and suggesting Democrats would endanger America's fiscal health by raising taxes. Those are CNN's words, not the president's. When laid out in his speech, what he said generally makes sense. Raising taxes will slow investment and job growth in the private sector. When encapsulated into one sentence, it is almost laughable:for what it overlooks. Listen, we've got money in government. You don't have to worry about that. Those are the president's words. (White House transcript, six paragraphs from the bottom). As he offers: A $7 trillion debt, a $525 billion deficit in his proposed (and Still unrealisticly optimistic) budget, and projections conveniently cut off at five years in the future because after that the expected deficits spiral towards the heavens. America's fiscal health is already threatened by Mr. Bush's revenue cuts and spending and entitlement increases, and he is oblivious. It's past time to worry. ABOVE & BELOW Reflections. Of the Continental Centre, downtown Columbus, Ohio. The best of the church In New York and London British Cathedrals take fresh look at Christ \| CNN "We sometimes forget that for 1,800 years the Christian story has been the most important single influence in the shaping of art forms in the Western world, whether it is literature or painting or sculpture or music," the Very Rev. John Moses, the dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, says. "I happen to believe that if the Church is serious in working with people where they are today then it needs to rediscover a working relationship with artists of all traditions." Well done, thou good and faithful servant \| Jimmy Breslin \| Newsday This was the end of John Powis' 40th year as a Catholic priest. In his years, his religion has been conducted under more than one script. It was John Powis, Catholic, and any Mormon or Baptist in the house. Or John Powis, Catholic, and the nearest heathen in need. During all this time, some of the people John Powis helped might even have been Catholic. He retires exhausted and ill. He has been through it all. Jimmy Breslin's Catholicism is my kind of religion. ... on the Catholic theory of transubstantiation: The bread and wine being transformed during the Mass into the body and blood of Christ. A Catholic today, upon taking Communion, is not quite nibbling on Christ's toes. As I understand it, he is a person taking the responsibility to be present through transition at the Last Supper and to accept the terrible blend of life: The body betrays and we all die. (The Rev. Ian Paisley: Selling death from the pulpit \| New York Daily News \| October, 1979) That is a "fair enough way to treat life," and as good an understanding of transubstantiation as I've come across. And what the difference between it and consubstantiation (the "real presence of Christ" in the Lutheran Chuch) is seems pointless outside of perhaps some seminary of finest detail; all it means to me is that there are many Catholic parishes in which I do not feel welcome to take Communion and I resent it. All because some would rather quibble about something we don't understand than celebrate together our joys and tragedies. More responsibility: 'Passion' Is Already Generating a Faithful Following \| Washington Post Gibson has defended "Passion" as an accurate portrayal of Christ's final hours and has rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, telling the Global Catholic Network, a radio and television broadcasting service, that his film "collectively blames humanity for the death of Jesus. . . . Now, there are no exemptions here. All right? I'm the first on the line for culpability. I did it. Christ died for all men for all times." ... One of the most sensational moments in the version of the film that has been screened in previews is a line from the Gospel of Matthew, in which the mob calling for Jesus to be put upon the cross shouts out, "His blood be on us and on our children!" Often called the "blood libel" quote, it has been interpreted in the past to call down rage and blame upon the Jews in the centuries-long tradition of Passion plays. This sounds close to how I learned the story, though with the clear understanding that "on us and on our children" applied to all of Us, not just the Jews. Quite a bit of current scholarship argues that the anti-Jewish passages were incorporated into the traditions at a later date. ... From all this we can draw an important conclusion: the decision of Caiaphas to hand Jesus's case over to Pontius Pilate did not reflect his legal incapacity to execute him, but his unwillingness to do so. He was passing the buck - and the decision to crucify Jesus was Pilate's and Pilate's alone. (Geza Vermes \| Never mind what Mel Gibson says, Caiaphas was innocent \| Telegraph) Considering the history of anti-Semitism, the filmmakers ought perhaps to reflect more on their responsiblity before releasing a movie that could be easily taken as a condemnation of the Jews. ABOVE Sun. Blue sky. Bitter wind. Somewhere there must be hints of spring? Gay Street, downtown Columbus looking southeast. F E B R U A R Y 1 5 , 2 0 0 4 Amy to Akron Laudate Dominum Mozart Dinner in Bexley afterwards. > FEBRUARY 02			L I N K S AAA Abulafia Boardwalk Bread CHN Christ Lutheran Church NCCHS Neighborhood Research Institute Old Oaks Olde Towne Polyphony INTP Business First Business First Daily Edition Call and Post Columbus Alive Columbus Dispatch Columbus Free Press Columbus Post Communicator News The Daily Reporter Inner Art The Lantern The Other Paper Suburban News Publications Short North Gazette NBC4 Columbus WSYX 6 10TV WBNS ONN BBC World Service CNN Christian Science Monitor The Guardian IndiaTimes Newsday New York Times StarTribune Washington Post Washington Times AfricaPundit William F. Buckley Jr. Command Post Crooked Timber Daniel W. 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