Last night we watched "Active Measures" on Hulu.
You didn't see it. It's had little impact. Because Hulu has few subscribers. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have seen it either, except the outlet gave me a three month subscription to view another of their shows.
Last weekend Michael Moore opened his new movie in a trove of theatres and almost nobody went to see it, despite glowing reviews, because movies are passe, kinda like books.
What I mean by that is the book business did its best to be antiquated. You can get all the music for ten bucks a month, but you pay almost as much for a digital copy as you do for a hardcover, that's winning? Of course not! But I'm really talking about the trophy of having a book published. I'm not talking fiction, for that I refer you to the aforementioned price issue, but with non-fiction, why in hell would you want to write a book, especially with today's publishing constraints? You write it and it's published a year later and it's already out-of-date, whereas you can write and have your work published immediately online and be part of the discussion. But you're playing an old game, an east coast traditional game, kinda like Kavanaugh boasting about Yale, that doesn't wash on the west coast, where the public universities are good enough, albeit going up in price, and the goal is to get into Stanford so you can change the world as opposed to impressing your parents' friends.
It's about reach. And right now the number one place to reach eyeballs is Netflix, because it has the most subscribers! If Michael Moore's film had debuted on Netflix it'd be a sensation, instead it's a flop. I'm not going to the theatre, this is not 2002, my time is too valuable, only retired boomers go, and those who cherry-pick films, like "RGB," are small in number, the grosses are anemic, and when the flicks hit streaming services all the publicity is depleted, there's a tsunami of new product to gain your attention. So Michael Moore invented a format, the political documentary, and got stuck in distribution, to his detriment.
Then again, are you interested in cash or reach? You'd better be interested in reach, because that's what it's all about these days. It's hard to gain the public's attention, and you've got to regularly appear to keep it. Why is it rappers know all this and everybody else does not? They embraced the internet, gave it away for free and now they rule. Unless you're planning to immediately disappear, always temper cash with distribution. You need the reach.
So "Active Measures" lines up Trump's connections with Russia. It's pretty convincing. Including talking heads that are elected officials, and the President of the United States according to Fox News, Hillary Clinton. It's not perfect, it's a little too fast-paced, but even if you leave the Trump stuff out the insight into Putin is both fascinating and important for our myopic citizens who believe the world ends at the coasts of the United States. Imagine the buzz if it were on Netflix! Might even change the course of conversation!
The movies are dead unless they're two-dimensional cardboard cut-out superhero dreck. If you're making a movie for theatrical distribution, forget about it. If you can't sell it to a streaming outlet, preferably Netflix, put it on YouTube, give it away. Didn't you learn the lesson of the last decade? You gain notoriety first, cash second? It's got to be available, the barrier to entry must be low.
As for the cineastes lamenting that Netflix releases films day and date, i.e. on TV the same day as in theatres, welcome to the future, even if you don't want to be here, this is the way it is. Having to go to a theatre to see a film is like having to navigate without a smartphone. That's right, no Waze or Google Maps. Hell, you'd probably stay home rather than go out, get the point?
Disinformation does not only apply in politics. You want to play in the biggest pool, in the largest arena, you want to make it easy for people to partake, they'll sample, but they may not stay, but that has to do with quality. And you never want to hinder word of mouth, that's what sells your product. And movie distribution is all wrong, films come and go. Whereas if something starts to percolate, at first word of mouth is slow, then it picks up, your product must be AVAILABLE!
We heard about "Active Measures" at a Labor Day party. Didn't see it, still wouldn't have seen it if I didn't get the free Hulu account. You see I have too many choices, time is at a premium, there's so much on Netflix I still haven't watched, it's not the seventies, I'm not bored staring at the four walls.
As for Moore's movie, I used to be a fan, I still am of the man, but I didn't see the last movie, wouldn't go to a theatre and by time it played on TV it was passe.
But no one will acknowledge these truths. Because media is controlled by boomers, posting film grosses and not Netflix ratings, which are not given by the company anyway. And media is always last to the phenomena, the stuff on Netflix that captures the youth.
As for its competitors...
HBO's audience is too small and Amazon doesn't have traction yet.
Welcome to the twenty first century, one of winners and losers. There is no middle ground. I'm paying two hundred bucks a month for cable and Netflix and Amazon Prime... How many outlets do you expect me to shell out for? It's a game of musical chairs I tell you, get in it quick distributors and be wary of getting knocked out. As for price...you start low and then raise, you cannot build a business worth anything on an elite audience only.
And you cannot triumph in today's over-messaged world unless your product is available to all on demand. That's it, forget the past, it's screwing up your vision.
I'd tell you to immediately watch "Active Measures," but you don't have Hulu.
As for "Fahrenheit 11/9"? I HAVEN'T SEEN IT!
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Saturday, 29 September 2018
Friday, 28 September 2018
Marty Balin
"I had a taste of the real world (just a drop of it)
When I went down on you girl"
That's what passed for salaciousness back in '75, when the Jefferson Airplane, reconstituted as Jefferson Starship, sans Jorma and Jack, came out of nowhere to dominate the charts once again.
Actually, there was a prelude, back in '74, on the previous album by this incarnation, when Marty Balin guest-starred on "Caroline," the best track on "Dragon Fly."
But Grace Slick gets all the credit. Not that she does not deserve a lot of it, she was one of a kind, Courtney Love with better music and a better temperament, even though Grace did go off the rails at the end of her fame with her drinking.
But Jefferson Airplane has been forgotten completely. Whittled down to two tracks, "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit." An oldies act for oldies radio. Nothing meaningful, whereas that was anything but the case.
The curse of the Airplane was to be a progenitor, the first act from the San Francisco scene to break through, in '67, before FM, before album rock. They were before their time, it's just that they were so good, they ultimately succeeded on AM radio. But never having another hit when everybody was paying attention to LPs, their fame faded. Sure, they got footage in the "Woodstock" movie, but all the buzz was about the previously unheralded, those coming up, like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And to be honest, by 1970, politics were starting to fade. Sure, there was Kent State, but the boomers were burned out, the era of hedonism, of retreating into the land, had begun. Jefferson Airplane was a band out of time. And now there's no time left at all.
Paul Kantner passed with barely a whimper, although to be accurate, he went in a flurry of passings, Bowie and Frey eclipsed him. Furthermore, nobody in the Airplane was warm and fuzzy, they were a bunch of irascible hotheads, at least the three front people, Grace, Paul and Marty. They were not sanitized for consumption. According to Bill Graham, once they had any money they just wanted to go home and smoke dope. But, if today's acts really wanted to break through, they'd study the Airplane, because their middle class ethos was the soul of the sixties. We're as smart as anybody on the planet and we'll mess you up while having fun all the while. It was all about testing limits.
But that did not mean the music was not ear-pleasing.
Sure, the band had no success without Grace, who debuted on their second album, with those aforementioned radio hits, but what sticks out besides them is "Today"...
"Today, I feel like pleasing you
More than before"
If you want to truly experience the sixties, get stoned in a dark room and listen to "Today," that's what it was really like, preserved on wax.
"To be living for you
Is all I need to do
To be loving you
It'll all be there
When my dreams come true"
It wasn't about assets, acquisitions, ho's, it was about feelings, about love.
"Today everything you want
I swear it will all come true"
That was the optimism of the sixties. We believed we could have it. Not a bigger house and a bigger car, but personal fulfillment.
And it was Marty on "Young Girl Sunday Blues" from "After Bathing At Baxter's," Marty could not only be soft and sweet, after all he wrote and sang "Plastic Fantastic Lover" on "Surrealistic Pillow," then again his voice was sweet and mellifluous, no matter what the material. This was back when you had to have talent to make it, pipes, and TV was for sell-outs.
And Marty cowrote "Volunteers" with Paul Kantner and supplied the enthusiastic, emphatic vocal.
"One generation got old
One generation got soul"
But now that generation is old and soulless. Overpaying to see their heroes perform the hits of yore, too many who were unwilling to grow their hair and stand up for something when that mattered.
But not Marty.
Actually, if you're an attorney, it's his name that adorns the most famous case in California entertainment law, Buchwald v. Katz. That's right, Marty's real name was "Buchwald." You see they were in the band, it was their act, but their manager Matthew Katz held all the money.
So, the band broke up. There was that reconstitution as Jefferson Starship. Then there was another breakup, seemed like Marty could never go straight, never accept success, never do it for the money. Then Starship cut the execrable "We Built This City" and the whole band's image has been in the dumper ever since, even though Marty, Jorma and Jack had nothing to do with that. Marty cut a solo LP for EMI, I bought that, it was not successful, and then, Marty faded away.
Oh, let's not forget, before leaving Jefferson Starship, before they became AOR darlings then jokes, it was Marty who cowrote and sang the only hit on "Red Octopus"'s follow-up, "With Your Love," from "Spitfire," and although he did not write "Count On Me" from "Earth," it was his voice once again that put it over the top. But if you ask someone under thirty who he is, you're gonna get blank stares. Hell, it won't be long before Grace Slick will garner the same result. She retired, you're not supposed to. But the point is these people are fading away, and they are not radiating.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, if you made it through you were supposed to last. If you made it to retirement age, you were at least supposed to make it to your eighties, hell, look at Paul McCartney, he's chugging along, but his contemporary, Marty Balin, has bitten the dust.
And if you talk about performance, that's another place the Airplane excelled. Because every show was different, because they were rough and experimental and then the band's time passed. They tried to recapture the magic in '89, but that failed, as it usually does, music is of a time and place. But it's supposed to last forever, right? Seemingly not, can't tell you the last time I've heard anything from "Volunteers" on the radio.
But for a moment there, for more than one moment...
"If only you believe like I believe, baby"
We all believed. Music was the baby boomers' fuel. It was not entertainment, it was soul-fulfillment. If you wanted to connect with the universe, you turned out the light, lay down on your bed and let the music wash over you. And when you heard your favorites on the car radio that was all we had, no phone, no interruptions, your mind was set free, those were our peak experiences, and we've never forgotten them.
We lived in the age of miracles.
And Marty Balin helped perform them.
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When I went down on you girl"
That's what passed for salaciousness back in '75, when the Jefferson Airplane, reconstituted as Jefferson Starship, sans Jorma and Jack, came out of nowhere to dominate the charts once again.
Actually, there was a prelude, back in '74, on the previous album by this incarnation, when Marty Balin guest-starred on "Caroline," the best track on "Dragon Fly."
But Grace Slick gets all the credit. Not that she does not deserve a lot of it, she was one of a kind, Courtney Love with better music and a better temperament, even though Grace did go off the rails at the end of her fame with her drinking.
But Jefferson Airplane has been forgotten completely. Whittled down to two tracks, "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit." An oldies act for oldies radio. Nothing meaningful, whereas that was anything but the case.
The curse of the Airplane was to be a progenitor, the first act from the San Francisco scene to break through, in '67, before FM, before album rock. They were before their time, it's just that they were so good, they ultimately succeeded on AM radio. But never having another hit when everybody was paying attention to LPs, their fame faded. Sure, they got footage in the "Woodstock" movie, but all the buzz was about the previously unheralded, those coming up, like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And to be honest, by 1970, politics were starting to fade. Sure, there was Kent State, but the boomers were burned out, the era of hedonism, of retreating into the land, had begun. Jefferson Airplane was a band out of time. And now there's no time left at all.
Paul Kantner passed with barely a whimper, although to be accurate, he went in a flurry of passings, Bowie and Frey eclipsed him. Furthermore, nobody in the Airplane was warm and fuzzy, they were a bunch of irascible hotheads, at least the three front people, Grace, Paul and Marty. They were not sanitized for consumption. According to Bill Graham, once they had any money they just wanted to go home and smoke dope. But, if today's acts really wanted to break through, they'd study the Airplane, because their middle class ethos was the soul of the sixties. We're as smart as anybody on the planet and we'll mess you up while having fun all the while. It was all about testing limits.
But that did not mean the music was not ear-pleasing.
Sure, the band had no success without Grace, who debuted on their second album, with those aforementioned radio hits, but what sticks out besides them is "Today"...
"Today, I feel like pleasing you
More than before"
If you want to truly experience the sixties, get stoned in a dark room and listen to "Today," that's what it was really like, preserved on wax.
"To be living for you
Is all I need to do
To be loving you
It'll all be there
When my dreams come true"
It wasn't about assets, acquisitions, ho's, it was about feelings, about love.
"Today everything you want
I swear it will all come true"
That was the optimism of the sixties. We believed we could have it. Not a bigger house and a bigger car, but personal fulfillment.
And it was Marty on "Young Girl Sunday Blues" from "After Bathing At Baxter's," Marty could not only be soft and sweet, after all he wrote and sang "Plastic Fantastic Lover" on "Surrealistic Pillow," then again his voice was sweet and mellifluous, no matter what the material. This was back when you had to have talent to make it, pipes, and TV was for sell-outs.
And Marty cowrote "Volunteers" with Paul Kantner and supplied the enthusiastic, emphatic vocal.
"One generation got old
One generation got soul"
But now that generation is old and soulless. Overpaying to see their heroes perform the hits of yore, too many who were unwilling to grow their hair and stand up for something when that mattered.
But not Marty.
Actually, if you're an attorney, it's his name that adorns the most famous case in California entertainment law, Buchwald v. Katz. That's right, Marty's real name was "Buchwald." You see they were in the band, it was their act, but their manager Matthew Katz held all the money.
So, the band broke up. There was that reconstitution as Jefferson Starship. Then there was another breakup, seemed like Marty could never go straight, never accept success, never do it for the money. Then Starship cut the execrable "We Built This City" and the whole band's image has been in the dumper ever since, even though Marty, Jorma and Jack had nothing to do with that. Marty cut a solo LP for EMI, I bought that, it was not successful, and then, Marty faded away.
Oh, let's not forget, before leaving Jefferson Starship, before they became AOR darlings then jokes, it was Marty who cowrote and sang the only hit on "Red Octopus"'s follow-up, "With Your Love," from "Spitfire," and although he did not write "Count On Me" from "Earth," it was his voice once again that put it over the top. But if you ask someone under thirty who he is, you're gonna get blank stares. Hell, it won't be long before Grace Slick will garner the same result. She retired, you're not supposed to. But the point is these people are fading away, and they are not radiating.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, if you made it through you were supposed to last. If you made it to retirement age, you were at least supposed to make it to your eighties, hell, look at Paul McCartney, he's chugging along, but his contemporary, Marty Balin, has bitten the dust.
And if you talk about performance, that's another place the Airplane excelled. Because every show was different, because they were rough and experimental and then the band's time passed. They tried to recapture the magic in '89, but that failed, as it usually does, music is of a time and place. But it's supposed to last forever, right? Seemingly not, can't tell you the last time I've heard anything from "Volunteers" on the radio.
But for a moment there, for more than one moment...
"If only you believe like I believe, baby"
We all believed. Music was the baby boomers' fuel. It was not entertainment, it was soul-fulfillment. If you wanted to connect with the universe, you turned out the light, lay down on your bed and let the music wash over you. And when you heard your favorites on the car radio that was all we had, no phone, no interruptions, your mind was set free, those were our peak experiences, and we've never forgotten them.
We lived in the age of miracles.
And Marty Balin helped perform them.
--
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The Power Of Protest
These people feel inviolate.
You cannot reach them and they don't want to be reachable. That's why they live behind gates, fly private and vacation in locations you've never heard of. There are a lot of bad actors these days, but now they're being called out.
Like Purdue Pharma. Individuals run that company, and they've got our nation hooked on opiates. They say they're just trying to salve our pain, but the truth is they spread false information to gain market share and profits, they literally said OxyContin was not addictive, even though no study ever proved that, just a comment from a doctor in a hospital after dealing with patients after treatment.
Someone's got to pay for our flaws. Especially now that Wall Street has not.
I know, I know, you feel powerless, but never forget, the youth stopped the Vietnam War.
But that was a different era, when everybody under thirty was a liberal, when the Youngbloods sang about getting together and smiling on your brother, before the age of greed where if I succeeded and you failed who cared, and if you were poor and downtrodden it was your own damn fault. Never mind health issues, accidents, you should have made better choices and dem's the breaks.
But protest got confused in the MTV era, despite the eradication of the fairness doctrine, outlets felt they had an obligation to depict both sides. But there aren't always two sides. And sometimes one side has more value than another. But those pursuing good have been protecting the rights of those doing bad for so long that we entered the age of false equivalencies. If someone said the Earth was round, you had to write that someone else said the Earth was flat. And don't laugh, there's truly a flat Earth movement today, despite photos from space, that's right, that's how far science has been kicked down by people who want to do what they want willy-nilly for personal gain.
So we weren't born with the protesting gene. Or maybe it was just dormant. My point is, in the early sixties not everybody protested, but some did. Most notoriously against racism in the south. And suddenly, people you knew were going. Our rabbi did. I wasn't even ten, but that was surprising, shouldn't he have been at the temple? No, sometimes you've got to crawl over the walls of your domain to stand up for the right thing, which is why when people say celebrities and sports stars should mind their own business you should ignore them. Because only people with mindshare, with traction, can get heard these days.
Unless there is a crisis.
We are in a crisis.
The patriarchy has been abusing its subjects for far too long. Is there a man in the universe who wants to stand up for sexual abuse? Other than the truly demented, no. So...
That brings us to the elevator pitch. No, it's not just for business. Why is everything business in America, at the cost of people? Kinda like college, I went for the liberal arts, there was no business curriculum at Middlebury, nor any objective exams, everything was an essay, so you were forced to be able to write. How many Americans have this skill today? Yes, I am privileged, but I wish my brethren were too. I wish schools didn't teach to the test, I wish it was legitimate to expand upon emotions as well as facts. Those are the teachers I remember, the ones who set my mind free, had me questioning precepts, like Mrs. Hurley and Mr. Harrity.
So we watched the Freedom Riders. We listened to folk music. And then came the Vietnam War. Did you want to get your ass shot off in Southeast Asia?
Now at first we thought we'd win. Easy, we're the USA! Kinda like those nitwits chanting at sports events and rallies. Words are easy, accomplishments are difficult. Turns out we couldn't win. And too many lives were sacrificed in the process. Did you want to sacrifice yours? HELL NO!
So suddenly there was a movement, and you protested too.
Now there is a women's movement, but the patriarchy wants to ignore it, because it never confronted it. Women were for housework, cleaning and raising babies. And even if they had a job, they still had to perform these tasks, and stand by their man. Hell, how long until we have a woman President? And we keep losing female CEOs. Sure, there's some affirmative action, but that's gotten a bad name too, so white privilege can be sustained.
Then Johnson said he wouldn't run.
After a D.C. protest Richard Nixon went to the Lincoln Memorial to speak with college students. Sure, he talked about surfing, but he tried. He got the message, the youth were unhappy. HOW IN HELL DID THE REPUBLICANS NOT GET THE MESSAGE THAT WOMEN ARE UNHAPPY?
They're half the constituency. Are these guys so caught up in their game that they can't see the forest for the trees? Sure, politics is a team sport, but without fans you've got no business.
And then you've got some women confronting Flake in an elevator.
No one likes to be called on the carpet, no one likes to be confronted, which is why we have the Secret Service, why every celebrity has bodyguards, to keep them from the hoi polloi. Sure, there are bad actors, but unless you're willing to interact with the populace, you've got no idea what's going on.
The Republican team has no idea what's going on in America.
You can only push people so far before they revolt.
I thought it was about abortion, when it was eliminated we'd see civil warfare. But that hasn't happened yet, even though it's nearly impossible to get an abortion in some states.
But sexual offenses...
What do they say, it's about power?
And no one wants to feel powerless.
And it's bad enough enduring the offense, but being ignored when you bring it up?
Kavanaugh wants to be considered innocent before proven guilty. How about all those women who had to defend themselves after they were sexually assaulted? And don't bring up some liars, there are exceptions to every rule. That's gotcha! politics. One immigrant commits an offense and all immigrants are guilty.
But they're not.
You're taken advantage of and you're guilty?
NO WAY!
So protest needs to be rethought for the twenty first century. Grabbing placards and hanging in a designated space does nothing. But when you're in someone's face, someone's space...
I'm not preaching violence, I'm not preaching civil disobedience, I'm preaching access and action. Go to the source, because that's where the problem lies.
It starts with the individual. Someone has to refuse to go to the back of the bus, someone has to confront Jeff Flake in the elevator. And somehow it's always a member of the rank and file, with supposedly little to lose. Got anything in America and you cower, but that's not what our nation was built upon.
And I don't care about the right wing position, not a whit. They've controlled the dialog, never mind the government, for far too long, but somehow they've convinced America it's our fault, the hardworking people. It's most of America that has been battered, and based on the economics, we're living in the shelter. But it's our fault. IT'S NOT!
Just like the Arab Spring. It only takes one person to stand up for justice.
There's not a woman alive who has not been disadvantaged by men. It starts in kindergarten, if not before. And the truth is change is hard, it makes men uncomfortable, but that does not mean it should not happen.
Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is secondary to sexual abuse. There it is, plain and simple. Whether he gets confirmed or not. Maybe he's just unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the last to squeak through before new rules. But some things are bigger than the individual. Sometimes you've got to jump out of your little life and stand up for what's right.
Come on, you know what's right. Deep inside. No matter what you say, it's the telltale heart that cannot be denied.
Just because everybody else is a lying, cheating scumbag that does not mean you've got to be one too... As a matter of fact, you're categorically against being one, you can't bend the rules, you can only be honest.
But to triumph in America today that's anathema. It's all duplicity and shading 24/7. Not only in government, but tech. Hide behind the cloak of anonymity, but achieve your goals.
That's not the American way.
What Ana Maria Archila did is more American than anything Lindsay Graham bloviated.
Let her be a beacon. Truth and passion go a long way, and always triumph in a game of rock/paper/scissors.
That's the American Way.
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You cannot reach them and they don't want to be reachable. That's why they live behind gates, fly private and vacation in locations you've never heard of. There are a lot of bad actors these days, but now they're being called out.
Like Purdue Pharma. Individuals run that company, and they've got our nation hooked on opiates. They say they're just trying to salve our pain, but the truth is they spread false information to gain market share and profits, they literally said OxyContin was not addictive, even though no study ever proved that, just a comment from a doctor in a hospital after dealing with patients after treatment.
Someone's got to pay for our flaws. Especially now that Wall Street has not.
I know, I know, you feel powerless, but never forget, the youth stopped the Vietnam War.
But that was a different era, when everybody under thirty was a liberal, when the Youngbloods sang about getting together and smiling on your brother, before the age of greed where if I succeeded and you failed who cared, and if you were poor and downtrodden it was your own damn fault. Never mind health issues, accidents, you should have made better choices and dem's the breaks.
But protest got confused in the MTV era, despite the eradication of the fairness doctrine, outlets felt they had an obligation to depict both sides. But there aren't always two sides. And sometimes one side has more value than another. But those pursuing good have been protecting the rights of those doing bad for so long that we entered the age of false equivalencies. If someone said the Earth was round, you had to write that someone else said the Earth was flat. And don't laugh, there's truly a flat Earth movement today, despite photos from space, that's right, that's how far science has been kicked down by people who want to do what they want willy-nilly for personal gain.
So we weren't born with the protesting gene. Or maybe it was just dormant. My point is, in the early sixties not everybody protested, but some did. Most notoriously against racism in the south. And suddenly, people you knew were going. Our rabbi did. I wasn't even ten, but that was surprising, shouldn't he have been at the temple? No, sometimes you've got to crawl over the walls of your domain to stand up for the right thing, which is why when people say celebrities and sports stars should mind their own business you should ignore them. Because only people with mindshare, with traction, can get heard these days.
Unless there is a crisis.
We are in a crisis.
The patriarchy has been abusing its subjects for far too long. Is there a man in the universe who wants to stand up for sexual abuse? Other than the truly demented, no. So...
That brings us to the elevator pitch. No, it's not just for business. Why is everything business in America, at the cost of people? Kinda like college, I went for the liberal arts, there was no business curriculum at Middlebury, nor any objective exams, everything was an essay, so you were forced to be able to write. How many Americans have this skill today? Yes, I am privileged, but I wish my brethren were too. I wish schools didn't teach to the test, I wish it was legitimate to expand upon emotions as well as facts. Those are the teachers I remember, the ones who set my mind free, had me questioning precepts, like Mrs. Hurley and Mr. Harrity.
So we watched the Freedom Riders. We listened to folk music. And then came the Vietnam War. Did you want to get your ass shot off in Southeast Asia?
Now at first we thought we'd win. Easy, we're the USA! Kinda like those nitwits chanting at sports events and rallies. Words are easy, accomplishments are difficult. Turns out we couldn't win. And too many lives were sacrificed in the process. Did you want to sacrifice yours? HELL NO!
So suddenly there was a movement, and you protested too.
Now there is a women's movement, but the patriarchy wants to ignore it, because it never confronted it. Women were for housework, cleaning and raising babies. And even if they had a job, they still had to perform these tasks, and stand by their man. Hell, how long until we have a woman President? And we keep losing female CEOs. Sure, there's some affirmative action, but that's gotten a bad name too, so white privilege can be sustained.
Then Johnson said he wouldn't run.
After a D.C. protest Richard Nixon went to the Lincoln Memorial to speak with college students. Sure, he talked about surfing, but he tried. He got the message, the youth were unhappy. HOW IN HELL DID THE REPUBLICANS NOT GET THE MESSAGE THAT WOMEN ARE UNHAPPY?
They're half the constituency. Are these guys so caught up in their game that they can't see the forest for the trees? Sure, politics is a team sport, but without fans you've got no business.
And then you've got some women confronting Flake in an elevator.
No one likes to be called on the carpet, no one likes to be confronted, which is why we have the Secret Service, why every celebrity has bodyguards, to keep them from the hoi polloi. Sure, there are bad actors, but unless you're willing to interact with the populace, you've got no idea what's going on.
The Republican team has no idea what's going on in America.
You can only push people so far before they revolt.
I thought it was about abortion, when it was eliminated we'd see civil warfare. But that hasn't happened yet, even though it's nearly impossible to get an abortion in some states.
But sexual offenses...
What do they say, it's about power?
And no one wants to feel powerless.
And it's bad enough enduring the offense, but being ignored when you bring it up?
Kavanaugh wants to be considered innocent before proven guilty. How about all those women who had to defend themselves after they were sexually assaulted? And don't bring up some liars, there are exceptions to every rule. That's gotcha! politics. One immigrant commits an offense and all immigrants are guilty.
But they're not.
You're taken advantage of and you're guilty?
NO WAY!
So protest needs to be rethought for the twenty first century. Grabbing placards and hanging in a designated space does nothing. But when you're in someone's face, someone's space...
I'm not preaching violence, I'm not preaching civil disobedience, I'm preaching access and action. Go to the source, because that's where the problem lies.
It starts with the individual. Someone has to refuse to go to the back of the bus, someone has to confront Jeff Flake in the elevator. And somehow it's always a member of the rank and file, with supposedly little to lose. Got anything in America and you cower, but that's not what our nation was built upon.
And I don't care about the right wing position, not a whit. They've controlled the dialog, never mind the government, for far too long, but somehow they've convinced America it's our fault, the hardworking people. It's most of America that has been battered, and based on the economics, we're living in the shelter. But it's our fault. IT'S NOT!
Just like the Arab Spring. It only takes one person to stand up for justice.
There's not a woman alive who has not been disadvantaged by men. It starts in kindergarten, if not before. And the truth is change is hard, it makes men uncomfortable, but that does not mean it should not happen.
Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is secondary to sexual abuse. There it is, plain and simple. Whether he gets confirmed or not. Maybe he's just unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the last to squeak through before new rules. But some things are bigger than the individual. Sometimes you've got to jump out of your little life and stand up for what's right.
Come on, you know what's right. Deep inside. No matter what you say, it's the telltale heart that cannot be denied.
Just because everybody else is a lying, cheating scumbag that does not mean you've got to be one too... As a matter of fact, you're categorically against being one, you can't bend the rules, you can only be honest.
But to triumph in America today that's anathema. It's all duplicity and shading 24/7. Not only in government, but tech. Hide behind the cloak of anonymity, but achieve your goals.
That's not the American way.
What Ana Maria Archila did is more American than anything Lindsay Graham bloviated.
Let her be a beacon. Truth and passion go a long way, and always triumph in a game of rock/paper/scissors.
That's the American Way.
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E-Mail Of The Day
From: Robin Hickenlooper
Subject: RE: Beto O'Rourke
Bob!!!
Greetings from Denver, Colorado. I am one of your giant fans--I read these emails soon as they arrive. And forward a lot.
I'm also married to John Hickenlooper. So guess what? I can tell you who he is and, EVEN BETTER, I can tell you what he does. And what he has done as Mayor of Denver and Governor of Colorado. John is is mad about music, passionate to his bones. So maybe we will see you at a concert here in CO and you can hear for yourself. Just let me know if you're out our way.
Until then, thanks for the distribution...good or bad, distribution is king. Just ask...
Best,
Robin
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Subject: RE: Beto O'Rourke
Bob!!!
Greetings from Denver, Colorado. I am one of your giant fans--I read these emails soon as they arrive. And forward a lot.
I'm also married to John Hickenlooper. So guess what? I can tell you who he is and, EVEN BETTER, I can tell you what he does. And what he has done as Mayor of Denver and Governor of Colorado. John is is mad about music, passionate to his bones. So maybe we will see you at a concert here in CO and you can hear for yourself. Just let me know if you're out our way.
Until then, thanks for the distribution...good or bad, distribution is king. Just ask...
Best,
Robin
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Thursday, 27 September 2018
Kavanaugh/Ford
He acted like a guy who always gets his way.
There's a path. I'm not sure the underclass can see it, I'm not even sure the middle class can see it. Where you go to a good prep school to get into a good college to go to a good graduate school to end up at the top of the heap. In the legal world, it's about making partner. You do well in law school to get into a great firm where you work your butt off and...
It usually doesn't go this way. Life has a way of bumping you off the track. Not everybody can make partner, never mind get a job with a top-tier firm. And there are personal challenges. Your own health, that of your family. Death, accidents. No one lives a charmed life.
But Brett Kavanaugh believes he's entitled to one.
We live on the internet, our privacy is shot, but somehow Kavanaugh is immune. He says how his life has been ruined. Ask anybody else in the public eye, raise above the riff-raff and you're a target, and not all of the accusations are truthful, sometimes people, even anonymously, are just out to sully your reputation, hold you back, prevent you from getting not only what you want, but what they want.
Kavanaugh seems to be completely unaware.
And he's labeling it all politics, as if the Republicans have been angels and the Democrats devils. This is especially prevalent on Fox News, where Tucker Carlson keeps calling Avenatti the "creepy porn lawyer" even when he agrees not to. You know these people, they are the devious ones, not popular, who are out to get revenge. What happened to Laura Ingraham that made her this way? And why is David Hogg's personal life relevant and not hers? What about Laura's romantic relationships...
I don't really care, but if you want to be paid the big bucks, if you want to be on the court, you've got to endure the slings and arrows. Go to an NBA game, there's always some nincompoop yelling at some player. But you can't go into the stands and throttle them, you've got to be a bigger person.
Brett Kavanaugh was not the bigger person today.
Don't make this left and right, don't make this Democratic and Republican, just make this people. Someone is lying here, who is it? Furthermore, would you behave like Kavanaugh did today? Hasn't he ever heard of media training? Hasn't he ever gone to therapy? He will now, assuming he's not confirmed, and he should, because he's got no insight into himself, he's got no idea how he's coming across!
Blow a gasket, weasel around the questions, start to cry...where does this work, in your parents' house when you're called on the carpet for lying?
As for Ford and #MeToo... That's not really the matter in question. It's a side issue. There will be consequences, thank god. Men will be forced to curb their behavior, we've taken the first steps on a long dark road hopefully to redemption. But what Ford's appearance and testimony have broken open is our country...
Are you entitled to a fair hearing?
Can evidence be suppressed?
Can a candidate not only be railroaded, but railroaded through the confirmation process?
What you've got here is an unbelievably biased candidate who was counting his chickens before they hatched. A Republican Administration and Congress who won when they didn't expect to and have rallied around precepts most Americans don't agree with. And having prevented the centrist Merrick Garland from going on to the court, they believe they're entitled to pack it with young right wingers so their views will be protected forevermore.
Yes, the game is rigged folks.
Start with gerrymandering.
And it is a game. The Federalist Society started preparing for this decades ago.
And if you think what you see on screen is the total story, you're ignorant. Watch "The First" on Hulu, where Senators trade horses.
And as for Lindsey Graham's righteous indignation... Hard to take seriously when there have been so many doofus moments previously.
So, whether Kavanaugh gets approved or not, our country will be cracked open. The law is kinda like a contract, it's not always enforceable. Otherwise, people wouldn't be killing each other in the street and eluding punishment. Or, to put it another way, you can win the battle and lose the war. Let's say Kavanaugh ends up on the Supreme Court... No Democrat alive is gonna have a good taste in their mouth. And there are more Democrats than Republicans. Hell, Trump lost the popular vote.
And Trump has lost control over California. Actually, he never had it. The centrist Governor, at least by west coast standards, has turned the Golden State into a powerhouse with a booming economy and a better social safety net than red states. Are there problems, of course. But if you think we want to live in the land of pollution out here, you've probably never gone for a ride in a Tesla.
Then again, the SEC is trying to bring down Elon Musk, but good luck with the rest of the techies. The government is subservient to them.
Furthermore, Trump's policies can be felt on the street, by you and me. I went to buy a suitcase today, they told me it was gonna go up by 10% on Monday, because of tariffs.
So what I guess I'm saying here is yes, I'm smiling that the right-wingers have got their knickers in a twist, how does it feel, to be on your own, in the great unknown?
But I wouldn't be surprised if Kavanaugh gets confirmed tomorrow. Hell, it's not a game of emotions, but numbers, and the Republicans have them on their side.
So we could lose again.
But this episode will prove much.
One, lying is fine in America today. You deny, deny, deny and see if you get caught. Either Kavanaugh or Ford is not telling the truth, you can decide, but one is up for the Supreme Court and the other is not.
And life is about more than achievement. People make sacrifices, make deals with themselves all the time. No one is able to go untouched. And sure, you can move to Alaska and disconnect from the internet, but you forgo so many benefits.
Meanwhile, the Watergate hearings were not like this. We wanted Nixon gone, but we did not believe our entire country's future was hanging in the balance.
Music is a far cry from today's show. There's nothing at the Forum or Staples that compares. Music is mindless entertainment made by nitwits who don't understand the issues, I won't say players have taken themselves out of the equation, they were never in it.
But Kavanaugh and Ford... They're winners. They're on a track TMZ never sees and never comments on. This is true power.
How will it be wielded?
We're gonna find out.
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There's a path. I'm not sure the underclass can see it, I'm not even sure the middle class can see it. Where you go to a good prep school to get into a good college to go to a good graduate school to end up at the top of the heap. In the legal world, it's about making partner. You do well in law school to get into a great firm where you work your butt off and...
It usually doesn't go this way. Life has a way of bumping you off the track. Not everybody can make partner, never mind get a job with a top-tier firm. And there are personal challenges. Your own health, that of your family. Death, accidents. No one lives a charmed life.
But Brett Kavanaugh believes he's entitled to one.
We live on the internet, our privacy is shot, but somehow Kavanaugh is immune. He says how his life has been ruined. Ask anybody else in the public eye, raise above the riff-raff and you're a target, and not all of the accusations are truthful, sometimes people, even anonymously, are just out to sully your reputation, hold you back, prevent you from getting not only what you want, but what they want.
Kavanaugh seems to be completely unaware.
And he's labeling it all politics, as if the Republicans have been angels and the Democrats devils. This is especially prevalent on Fox News, where Tucker Carlson keeps calling Avenatti the "creepy porn lawyer" even when he agrees not to. You know these people, they are the devious ones, not popular, who are out to get revenge. What happened to Laura Ingraham that made her this way? And why is David Hogg's personal life relevant and not hers? What about Laura's romantic relationships...
I don't really care, but if you want to be paid the big bucks, if you want to be on the court, you've got to endure the slings and arrows. Go to an NBA game, there's always some nincompoop yelling at some player. But you can't go into the stands and throttle them, you've got to be a bigger person.
Brett Kavanaugh was not the bigger person today.
Don't make this left and right, don't make this Democratic and Republican, just make this people. Someone is lying here, who is it? Furthermore, would you behave like Kavanaugh did today? Hasn't he ever heard of media training? Hasn't he ever gone to therapy? He will now, assuming he's not confirmed, and he should, because he's got no insight into himself, he's got no idea how he's coming across!
Blow a gasket, weasel around the questions, start to cry...where does this work, in your parents' house when you're called on the carpet for lying?
As for Ford and #MeToo... That's not really the matter in question. It's a side issue. There will be consequences, thank god. Men will be forced to curb their behavior, we've taken the first steps on a long dark road hopefully to redemption. But what Ford's appearance and testimony have broken open is our country...
Are you entitled to a fair hearing?
Can evidence be suppressed?
Can a candidate not only be railroaded, but railroaded through the confirmation process?
What you've got here is an unbelievably biased candidate who was counting his chickens before they hatched. A Republican Administration and Congress who won when they didn't expect to and have rallied around precepts most Americans don't agree with. And having prevented the centrist Merrick Garland from going on to the court, they believe they're entitled to pack it with young right wingers so their views will be protected forevermore.
Yes, the game is rigged folks.
Start with gerrymandering.
And it is a game. The Federalist Society started preparing for this decades ago.
And if you think what you see on screen is the total story, you're ignorant. Watch "The First" on Hulu, where Senators trade horses.
And as for Lindsey Graham's righteous indignation... Hard to take seriously when there have been so many doofus moments previously.
So, whether Kavanaugh gets approved or not, our country will be cracked open. The law is kinda like a contract, it's not always enforceable. Otherwise, people wouldn't be killing each other in the street and eluding punishment. Or, to put it another way, you can win the battle and lose the war. Let's say Kavanaugh ends up on the Supreme Court... No Democrat alive is gonna have a good taste in their mouth. And there are more Democrats than Republicans. Hell, Trump lost the popular vote.
And Trump has lost control over California. Actually, he never had it. The centrist Governor, at least by west coast standards, has turned the Golden State into a powerhouse with a booming economy and a better social safety net than red states. Are there problems, of course. But if you think we want to live in the land of pollution out here, you've probably never gone for a ride in a Tesla.
Then again, the SEC is trying to bring down Elon Musk, but good luck with the rest of the techies. The government is subservient to them.
Furthermore, Trump's policies can be felt on the street, by you and me. I went to buy a suitcase today, they told me it was gonna go up by 10% on Monday, because of tariffs.
So what I guess I'm saying here is yes, I'm smiling that the right-wingers have got their knickers in a twist, how does it feel, to be on your own, in the great unknown?
But I wouldn't be surprised if Kavanaugh gets confirmed tomorrow. Hell, it's not a game of emotions, but numbers, and the Republicans have them on their side.
So we could lose again.
But this episode will prove much.
One, lying is fine in America today. You deny, deny, deny and see if you get caught. Either Kavanaugh or Ford is not telling the truth, you can decide, but one is up for the Supreme Court and the other is not.
And life is about more than achievement. People make sacrifices, make deals with themselves all the time. No one is able to go untouched. And sure, you can move to Alaska and disconnect from the internet, but you forgo so many benefits.
Meanwhile, the Watergate hearings were not like this. We wanted Nixon gone, but we did not believe our entire country's future was hanging in the balance.
Music is a far cry from today's show. There's nothing at the Forum or Staples that compares. Music is mindless entertainment made by nitwits who don't understand the issues, I won't say players have taken themselves out of the equation, they were never in it.
But Kavanaugh and Ford... They're winners. They're on a track TMZ never sees and never comments on. This is true power.
How will it be wielded?
We're gonna find out.
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Tuesday, 25 September 2018
More Prep School
I'm terribly afraid this entire debacle with Kavanaugh/Gorsuch/Georgetown Prep saga is all my fault. I cursed Georgetown Prep everyday day for 2 1/2 years. (I have Lenape Ancestors with special powers). One of those curses obviously worked. You're welcome.
When I was 14 (1975) I was busted for driving my Mom's car for a month when she had her appendix out. My punishment was to be sent away to board/live at Georgetown Prep, only a few miles from Mom's house, with the clear understanding that Military School was next if I got in trouble again. Bob, it was a soul-sucking shit show. Their primary product was obedience and authoritarianism. Oh, and a non-ironic obsession with a completely ridiculous children's fantasy transparently authoritarian joke of dead Zombie Jesus story. I preferred Lord of The Rings.
Everyday my few freak friends met up and listened to records in my room where were actively Proto-Rastafarian. We were the kids who refused to do sports and went to the woods and played guitar for hours and tried to comprehend the Steely Dan Mu chord on guitar. (Impossible to play in most keys on guitar by the way.)
The first thing they said to you when you got to Prep was "Gentlemen you've been chosen to rule the world simply by dint of being here at Boarding School. Don't blow it. Cause if you can't hack it here you are going to be a peasant working for a pittance on a plantation." The message essentially is "We are elite everyone else is a serf."
And yet you also got a completely contradictory egalitarian message WITHIN our school/class. There were many reminders that everyone IN the school was equal, which in typical upper class fashion featured lots of casual group nudity in the locker rooms and showers that the 100 gay alcoholic priests who lived there on sabbatical also used along with the boys. Nothing strange with that right? Actually makes sense. It's about building trust and rapport amongst a fraternity for life. I.e. If you ALL engage in compromising behaviour together then you are you all complicit, but immune if you just circle the wagons and deny deny suppress the news PDA's buyoffs whatever it takes. It's like the prisoners dilemma in Game Theory.
I would have been class if '78 if I hadn't gotten booted halfway through senior year. Kavanaugh is Class Of '83. Didn't know him. Nor would I have hung with him if he was my age. He was a jock. A football player. Bob, football is sick, it's criminal assault, it's awful it's dangerous and teenage boys with no frontal lobes no impulse control should not be encouraged to be violent. Ever. But they are. Still. So yea he'd be the type to do what he is accused of.
I believe the ladies.
Roger Greenawalt
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie's name says it all. That sense of entitlement comes across in the preppy class that inhabits Boulder, Colorado these days... Privileged, arrogant and vacant, the ones who have all the advantages need to compensate... It's not all about them. Economic fascism is just as toxic as any other kind.
-Jeff Holland
_________________________________________
Dookie.... ha ha ha! What a shit bag; it's obvious.
Jeff Sackman
_________________________________________
Thought provoking as always, Bob.
I went to Andover (without repeating a year, as both my brothers did) for
my last two years of high school, and while I gained a lot from it, I
hated it. A couple of vignettes: it?s fall of my senior year, and as usual
it?s all rah-rah about beating Exeter. I had already spent one semester on
Posting and another on Probation, each of which has a story. It was the
peak of the draft-card burning era. To speed up the tale, I burn my ticket
to the Exeter game in front of my dorm-mates. One rushes to beat me up,
but he tries to kick me, so I grab his foot in midair and give it a twist,
dropping him on his head. No one else bothered me, but they all conspired to move my entire room into the bathroom. ?Management? never intervened.
So I stayed there for a week, until the house master told them to put it
all back. Later that year, I helped to found a student political union
that lasted for decades, I?m told. Later in life, when I moved back to the
mysterious East not too far from dear old Andover, I didn?t bother to even drive by the campus. I graduated cum laude, with honors in English, went on to Yale where I also carved my own path to cum laude with Honors in
Philosophy despite a notoriously profligate undergraduate career.
What nobody at Andover knew or cared to know, I wasn?t going to the stupid Exeter game because I was leaving campus to visit a family friend who was
shipping off to Nam the next day as a Navy Seal. Named Mark Catlin, for
the record - we lived not too far from the Catlins in Peru, Vermont. So
football seemed kinda silly.
Anyway, I wasn?t a typical Andover student, a pattern repeated at YU.
I read you compulsively. Don?t ever stop.
Jackson Hogen
_________________________________________
Your characterization of prep schools and those who attend them seems to be biased, at best. My experience is that many of the game-changers in society and business tend to be alums of those so- called "get along" and "group think" prep schools. If I gave you the list of those in my graduating class at Cranbrook, you would be amazed at what they have accomplished and achieved, and the impacts they have made in all areas of society.
And for the record, being the son of a school teacher and a homemaker, I attended Cranbrook on a scholarship. Interestingly, we were all equally inspired and challenged to become all we could be. Like anything else, however, what people do or don't do with their opportunities is up to them.
Cranbrook School
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Class of 1978
Mark C. Nordman
_________________________________________
Wow the preppies came out of the suburbans and escalades for that one!
Preppies ruined lacrosse for me in college. I was a very good lacrosse player and because I didn't fit into the prep school/frat boy mold - I was alone on a team. I remember the captain taking me aside and telling me not to run so fast in practice as I was making him look bad. After being threatened numerous times about what I had to bring to the parties (kegs and booze and I had literally no money) I was ostracized by the team. The coach couldn't figure out what was going on. I was the fastest kid on the team, was a playmaker and goal scorer and I would score a goal and the rest of team would ignore me, on the field, in a game.
And all of this is just over lacrosse! It was still a club that I clearly was not welcome in if I wasn't prepared to dumb it down and not try as hard.
Bobbo
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie proves your point(s)!?!?!
DOUG COLLETTE
_________________________________________
Here in the South, there's a fitting colloquialism that exposes those who say you're generalizing or simply have it wrong: A hit dog squeals.
Jon Sinton
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie is a cunt. Too guilty/insecure not to defend it.
Hugo Burnham
_________________________________________
Wow... Just wow... To see that 'white privilege' attitude so nakedly expressed by some of your readers (Sean Dookie, for example). Suggest to them for one moment that they might have had an unfair advantage in life and they immediately shout: "you're just jealous". Amazing... It's like you can spend so much money on a persons education and they still never really understand how to know themselves a little more moderately - or see themselves through the eyes of someone poor. I guess they never really need to. And there's the rub...
Thanks for quoting me, anyway.
All the best. I don't know how you put up with such arrogance and entitlement.
Adam Blake
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie is a fucking moron. I went to prep school and I come from the same background as you. I only got in because I played sports and financial aid. Dookie doesn't even realize he started life on third base while the rest of us were still in the dugout. Blinded by his privilege. Definition of an asshat.
Chris French
_________________________________________
"I went to school in New England too, know a lot of alums from many schools in the region. Trust me, I know Middlebury has turned out too many heads up their ass low self esteem under-achievers who loved to ski first and barely focus on academics.
Your writing skills and conventions suck in a most unsophisticated and unprofessional way.
Regards,
Charlie Williams
Deerfield, Illinois"
HA!
But you live in gorgeous California, and he lives in grisly Deerfield, Illinois. Not so 'head up your ass' therefore. I have lived in both places, and Deerfield has zero to recommend it. Possibly a negative number now I know this guy lives there.
Colby, Bowdoin and Middlebury are GREAT schools that care about the character of students they admit first. A former [30-year] Admissions Director at Colby is one of my daughter's dearest mentors, and revealed integrity to be their main lens when considering applications.
BTW my daughter is a freshman at Harvard, and many of her classmates applied to those specific schools, primarily to be in conversation with professors who care about transferring knowledge from one generation to another [yes, still relevant]. We are a non-Christian homeschool family from rural/central California doing school and family in a completely different way, and I was my daughter's college counselor. Believe me, most of the students at these schools are interchangeable now.
Chin up lad!
Johanna
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Sean Dookie… what a fitting surname
ADRIAN KELLY
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Wow Bob, you stirred up a can of worms with that piece!
I for one enjoy your odd delve into social/political comment, whilst loving your music missives too.
As one of your readers already said, the US private school system is based on the UK 'Public' (private) school system which feeds the creme de la creme into the university system and then oftentimes into the institutions of power.
I played the Oxford University Ball a while back-a prestige gig by any standards- and, for all the politicians' soundbytes about 'there is no class system any more on these shores' talking to and observing the undergrads there, my God Bob, go there and go see a living, breathing 'elite and those-below us' class system for yourself.
And I can honestly say this is not coming from any resentment or jealousy in me, as one of your readers suggested about you- more from a striking impression I observed passing through one night.
And, like America, these guys go on to run our country, or someone else's.
Kavanagh? Only a symptom, I'm afraid.
Best,
Mickey Wynne
Brighton,
England
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Just want to observe that while it may be true that "not all" (whoever: men, preppies, goldfish) do some horrible thing, that isn't really the point you're making. The point being that enough of a particular group do a thing -- and enough of the rest seem willing to allow it to happen -- that it might as well be all.
My father used to say it took fifty good ones to make up for one bad one. The question isn't whether "all" men or "all" prep school boys do it, but whether you beat the 50-to-1 ratio. Otherwise the perception will be that "all" of them do indeed do it. And perception is literally how we see the world.
Jim Lloyd
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I got kicked out.
Mt. Hermon in Massachusetts. Got the full "Good Will Hunting" treatment!
Jeff Lorber
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Love all the knee jerks here from folks not accustomed to having a finger pointed their way (or perhaps raised, for that matter). Sean Dookie sounds like a grade-A asshole.
Bob Kalill
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Sean Dookie needs to be cast in the remake of Some Kind of Wonderful
Mark Burrell
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I think I'm more surprised at the rebuttals and responses - the negative and contradictory ones.
I went to public school and state college. That world was unknown to me for a long time.
But I teach (music) at a very high end L.A. prep and damn if you aren't just dead on it. Of course there are many kids attending that are conscientious and caring students as well human beings but man there are a lot that aren't and I can tell you that in those cases, the acorn does not fall far from the tree.
Thanks! Ken Lasaine
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You should thank the ever so entitled Sean Dookie for proving your point!
Laurie Gelfand
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That's a weak generalization that you made. Perhaps it was the case a few decades ago but nowadays not as much. Further, the point you made about breakthroughs rarely coming from preps is also false. Many social, technological, and humanitarian breakthroughs have come from prep educated individuals such as Obama, Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel just to name a few.
M T
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Who the hell is entitled asshole, Sean Dookie?
No one wants to be that miserable dude!
jc richardson
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Re Sean Dookie... Bob i'd really love to run into that guy Sean in a dark alley somewhere. It's not the hitting the family lottery jackpot that bugs us regular folks. It's that fucking arrogance that he showed us in his response to you. It's the smugness even though he's done nothing amazing for the life of luxury that he and his peers enjoy.
That's what's irritating
Johnny Vieira
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RE: Prep school.
As my mother always said, "Who has more fun than poor people?"
Sincerely,
Jay Aymar
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"Weak people harbor general opinion on people based on their general background. "
Given that's a general opinion on people based on your general background...what conclusion am I supposed to draw about you?
It's as mindless as if I said those who were born into opportunity take personal credit for their success.
Not all do. Some recognize, with gratitude, when they receive an incredible gift. It may be a high IQ, it may be trust fund, it may be a truly loving family, or being put in a unique position to help others.
It doesn't matter what life you were born into...we are all involuntary players in genetic roulette. What matters is what you do with what you were given.
Craig Anderton
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Of course we all want what is best for our kids, give them a leg up whenever possible, and if we have means we will use it for them. I get that. What does bother me is the idea that because you were born on third base, the world is God given to you and therefore you can use that advantage to be despicable if it serves you, where those who didn't win the DNA lottery are just not allowed. Even more so, they are to be kept out of the club at all costs. Aren't we Americans supposed to be better? Weren't we supposed to walk away from those old European class structures kept in place by ancient aristocracy and religion? Yeah, it's all still there, we just bamboozle the little people with different myths and stories.
Christian Swain
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As late as the mid-60's, New Jersey's PUBLIC TAXPAYER-SUPPORTED STATE UNIVERSITY, Rutgers, was ONLY FOR BOYS. New Jersey girls were shunted to the teachers colleges, or for a lucky few, to DOUGLASS, "the woman's college of Rutgers." We Douglass girls called our school "the eighth sister", after the seven female 'ivies'. We were wrong, of course. We were NOT upper-class. We were just the 500 smartest Jersey girls of any given year. Princeton, a short drive away, WAS emphatically an Ivy, and the boys would come up to New Brunswick on weekends, slumming, confident of lays from girl's presumably dazzled by their preptitude. Creeped me out. Assholes. That said, I married a guy from Brown, and then a guy from Harvard. But one was from Union City, NJ and the other was Jewish....
btw, the cure for these prep jerks is to replace everyone, everywhere, with a smart woman.
Paula Franceschi
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Wow! Bob......
Mister 'Dookie' couldn't have said it better!... it's like you sprung a trap for the guy! I'm laughing out loud.
Now, I don't know too much to argue or to judge......but in this guy's little smackdown of your prep email, he's as translucent as wax paper....... (ain't much light getting through there!)
Quote - "We don't offer up looks into our home life/ we already have it In circles that matter in where we want to go in life"......(ain't that special!)
Quote.... "weak people blame others" .....this is when I knew his deal was sealed! Welcome to the jungle, Spaulding!.....Don't puke in the Beemer!
Mister Privilege, keep this in mind, when life throws you a curve -
Ah, you've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well-read, it's well-known
But something is happening here and you don't know what it is.........Do you, Mr. Jones?
Steve Chrismar
PS. Bob, please don't tell me that this letter from Dookie was a plant?!
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Hi Bob,
So let me give you another take on prep schools. Speaking as someone who went to Phillips Exeter in NH for a year between high school and Middlebury and who sent all three of our children to prep school.
The number one difference as I see it is the quality of the education. I realized that day one when I attended Exeter. I was not a dumb kid, mostly A's in high school and good SAT's. Then I got into my Exeter classes. I was so far behind it wasn't funny. They had to put me in classes for sophomores in math and Spanish. But what I realized was how much more enjoyable learning was from excellent teachers. Here were some of the best high school teachers in the country and I couldn't get over how much better they were than my public high school. Creative, fun to be with but hard and fair. Night and day between what I'd been through in Natick, MA.
So when my oldest son was floundering in public high school he wanted to go to a prep school. He picked Middlesex in Concord MA and it was the same scenario. A group of outstanding teachers making classes fun and rigorous. My pet peeve with public schools is kids come out not knowing how to write. The difference is essays between a senior at Middlesex and a very good public high school is scary. As if the difference in their ability to think critically. Again, night and day between Middlesex and Clifton Park, NY for someone like my son who was an average student at best.
Here some other things kids at prep schools learn. Actions count. You make a bad decision you pay for it, you're held accountable. All the prep schools I know hold the kids to two strikes. Once you break the rules you're on probation, break them again and you're out. I've seen very rich kids booted out of Middlesex, doesn't make any difference how much money Daddy has. And all three of my kids learned quickly that money doesn't make you happy. They saw a number of unhappy kids in prep school whose parents had more money than God. And it didn't help them at all. Good lesson to learn. And last and I think this is something you've picked up on. Kids from good prep schools are not intimidated by anyone. They know they're smart and can think as well as an adult, they just don't have the life experiences. But they'll get those and they know it. So you can't bullshit them for the most part. They'll look you in the eye and question you and if you don't have your shit together they'll know your winging it and won't respect you. What they do respect is honesty and smarts with some humility thrown in when you don't know what you're taking about. That I think is what you saw at Middlebury.
Last I'm sorry to hear you "didn't learn anything in the classroom" at Middlebury. I was as impressed with some of the teachers at Middlebury as I was at Exeter. Some were truly outstanding and to this day I remember the joy of sitting in their classes learning about architecture, geography and history. Wonderful, wonderful classes. I'd go again in a heartbeat. Just for the experience of learning something new.
Bob Hamilton
Phillips Exeter '71
Middlebury '75
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When I graduated Culver Military Academy in 1967( now Culver Academies, with 500 girls, half), there were only 13 girl students, faculty daughters. A school that was ranked in the same category as Andover and Exeter, with larger endowments and facilities, teachings strong traditions of secular educations including traditions of honor and good behavior, still allowed if not condoned an atmosphere where it was accepted for the cadets to howl, hoot and shout obscenities when the co- eds arrived at the school auditorium to sit in the last row to watch the Saturday night movie every week. They learned to arrive after the lights went down.
The boys club, footplayer worship times of the mid 60's are when men like Kavanaugh, Huffington, who graduated Culver in 1965 and many like them, flourished, knowing from high school the high stature and power in society they would inherit. There was always an aspect of violence to it. Fooootball.......
I had heard some of the coeds were bitter and injured but refused to speak publicly about it. At our 50th last year I brought it up, thought apologies were in order but got no traction, from either side. The men thought the coeds had been treated well.
Those prepies from back then now rule the world, just as they planned .
Jeffrey Bauman
Wendell, MA
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Very Impressive the privileged, white, angry, angst you elicited. I don't know if you are right. But wow, you upset people. It likely is a sweeping over generalization but... you offended these sensitive people and they lashed out.
I came from upper middle Class, Midwest privilege. I feel lucky. I like to read what you write. God's Peace!
mab
Michael A Becker
St. Louis
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I don't envy Sean Dookie; I feel sorry for his pampered, privileged ass. I knew his kind at boarding school; as part of a protected class, he can never know real achievement, and in truth, he's the one jealous of you and he knows this in his bones, even while he protests too much. You hit a nerve; why else would he feel compelled to post?
Mojo Bone
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Re: Sean Dookie
...OMG poor little rich boy, cry me a river on how you've endured the bigotry of wealth.
I grew up middle class but my dad was poor and my mother's family came from money. My mother went to prep school in Switzerland and lived a life of privilege until she married my dad and in many ways they cut her out for marrying beneath her social status. There are people on my mom's side of our family that I love and respect but man I have never seen a more screwed up, paranoid group of people in my life, except for maybe my ex wife's family.
My ex wife comes from money, She went to prep school in Carmel with Aaron Hagar (nice guy actually, there's always an exception), Paul Anka's kids among others. From what I can tell it didn't do her much good other than turn her into a hypocrite and a snob which was a constant point of contention between us when we were married. I hated the way she talked to people that she thought were beneath her. I know it's stereotypical to say this but the way she talked to wait staff in restaurants and hotels was cringe worthy.
She insisted that our son start at Sacred Heart in Atherton for pre-K; Every parent wants their kids to get a leg up in life but $2500 a month for pre-k? totally ridiculous! I can't even elaborate further or smoke will start coming out the top of my head and my hair might catch on fire. Her dad is a total right wing elitist who counts among is associates Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich; you just want to punch him in the face to shut him the fuck up if you ever have the displeasure of meeting him. But if you do he'll surely give you an unsolicited copy of his book Integrity Matters. This guy is the antithesis of integrity, for starters he speaks to is wife like he bought her at a slave auction in Saudi Arabia, I'm surprised he doesn't make her wear a burka. He's a joke and now in his later years he's become a caricature of what he represents. He's sad and Pathetic like O'Reilly and Gingrich, the perfect example of what would happen if a used car salesman mated with a tele-evangelist; Interesting only as an anthropological study but no good to society.
Elites, especially on the far right think everyone is out to get them and they're the victims. Meanwhile everything they do is either oppressing or patronizing anyone they deem lower on the social or moral ladder. They're big on RULES and MORALITY (be especially scared if they bring god into the conversation) but rules apply to everyone but them! Finally if you cross them they show no mercy and will litigate you until you're living in a tent on the side of the road somewhere. Don't bother to beg for mercy, they'll show none.
I'm not against people born into money, I just don't like hypocrites and assholes of which many born into money are unfortunately. Everything I have in life I earned working from the bottom up which is tough but it builds character and the ability to see things from a broad perspective; unlike my prep school counterparts of which many have a view of life that doesn't go beyond their prep school upbringing and their narrow minded social circles. I just pray that I have enough influence over my son that he doesn't grow up to be like this rich idiot that responded to your article. Time will tell…
Mikael Johnston
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If you ever send one of my reply's I hope this is the one . I have read you for years and I think your readers will enjoy my shout out to Boarding school
I went to Fountain valley in Colorado Springs after ten years at Gilman in Baltimore. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and John Perry Barlow who just wrote Mother American Night were several grades above me . John Perry was one of the most amazing lives of anyone who ever lived . He was a cowpoke , wrote 30 songs for the Dead, and managed Dick Cheney's run for Senator before he found his passion and became a major tech guru . Read the Book -Bob Lefsetz you will love this guy. Barley passed at 70 last year. Mountain Girls' tribute to him is on YouTube !!! He had two fabulous chapters on our high school Fountain Valley . He said it was place for intractable and highly intelligent kids . Meaning smart rich kids whose parents could not handle them. I took STP (strong acid) before I had even smoked pot in 9th grade and fortunately loved flying through space while lying in my dorm room bed . Not everyone prospered at Fountain Valley but I did it turned me around and I became a better person.
The highly ranked prep school Gilman I went to in Baltimore took two years of Latin to get to Caesar . Fountain Valley did it in one year . I told FVS I was struggling at Gilman because I did not like Algebra (also was not getting along with mama and papa bear). They started a new course in Symbolic Logic because they knew I and others could learn algebraic functions if you used words which I liked better than numbers . All men are mortal . Socrates is a man . Socrates is mortal . Called an anatomical syllogism instead of a math formula.
Weir got kicked out for drugs and came back a few years ago and the FVS Headmaster told Bob he should thank FVS for kicking him out or he would never have joined the Dead . That took balls for the Headmaster but Weir wrote them a very big check for their performing arts program .
I left FVS because my dad went broke. I graduated from public school in 1970 during race riots in Baltimore . I got the " big 3 High School tour" and I liked all three schools. I disagree with some other posts and the stereotype of prep schoolers. Being rich can be a burden psychologically and promote apathy and I guess some type of insecure snobbery , but the truth is that type of person can come from any socio economic background . Excuses are for losers . Being lazy or blaming others is not a platform to build on for anyone rich or poor. I am an ex-hippie jock with a dose of Ayn Rand logic I got while reading Atlas Shrugged in my freshman year in college.
It was not the Ivy league Bullshit that made prep school great . Because on some levels it had many problems like any other institution. What made it excellent was the one on one attention and Fastrack learning that put some of us into better space to compete in the marketplace of life . Gates and Zuckerberg were gone from school by sophomore year in College. The promise of America still exists read Mother American Night. Cheers and thanks for all your great posts Bob.
Blake Goldsmith
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Wow, the white & privileged do come out to "speak up", don't they! I love the guy who said "my classmates are all doctors, lawyers, MBAs ... " ya know "average Americans"! Hahahahahaha!! The incredible blindness of privilege allows this person to tell himself, and his children, that the "average American" is a doctor or lawyer, when in fact, the average American is in debt and makes $40k a year or LESS!!!
#1 most common job in America is RETAIL
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/04/24/americas-most-and-least-common-jobs/2/
What a fucking joke these people are!! THEY are why people who voted for Obama in 08, then voted for Trump in '16. It's a double-headed dragon - they defend their ilk, even if racist/rapist/whatever, but they decry the "deplorables" and "trump voters" and act all fucking baffled and ring their hands!
Truck Driver is #1 job in most red states:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state
Sure, be careful not too over generalize, but I got your point. It's clear you weren't saying every prep-school kid was bad. I got it. But, those for whom your piece cuts too close to home ... wow, they have yet to reflect on their own privilege, despite all that has been going on! PEOPLE! You don't need to defend yourself. You'll be fine. Your guilt, no matter how deep, won't take away your nice house and your children's safe, comfortable "walkable" neighborhood. It's OKAY! Admitting that, yes, you were privileged won't take away the comforts of your life, won't take away that privilege. Admitting the truth just means SEEING what is around you, ACKNOWLEDGING the damage done by your community - even if you didn't inflict the damage yourself, you are/were part of that community.
This is the crazy/sad thing about defending oneself against criticism of ones abuse of power. The very defense of that abuse is continued abuse. Just ACCEPT the truth and stop trying to silence - even if it feels uncomfortable.
The rest of our society deals with pain, uncomfortableness, and, actually, great suffering ALL THE TIME! It's so normal, that we are often numb. YOU couldn't handle the shit we deal with on a daily basis.
"The U.S Bureau of the Census has the annual real median personal income at $31,099 in 2016."
—And the prep-school kids?
"In 2005 roughly half of all those with graduate degrees were among the nation's top 15% of income earners."- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States
"Thus, while the population as a whole is proceeding further in formal educational programs, income and educational attainment remain highly correlated." - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States (my emphasis added.)
"Average Joe" on Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_Joe
So, let's be optimistic and say the average American makes $35k a year - here's what living on that looks like, if you want to own a house have health insurance and send your kid to college:
Average Yearly Expenses Total:
average American mortgage payment:
$12,000
Health insurance
$9500
Student loan payment:
$3300
Food
$7000
Clothing
$1000
Transportation (car payment, gas)
$6000 - $9000
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06/18/pete-planner-503-avg-car-payment-too-rich-most-us/85493088/
Average American Budget:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/943E4C00-DABD-11E7-84D1-444A4DEE5340
Food and clothes are cheap, but housing is more expensive. Thus, Americans are MORE financially insecure than ever.
And, sorry, but the "average American" is NOT a doctor, lawyer, or public servant.
#1 most common job in America is retail
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/04/24/americas-most-and-least-common-jobs/2/
Truck Driver is #1 job in most red states:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state
Sarah Fridrich
When I was 14 (1975) I was busted for driving my Mom's car for a month when she had her appendix out. My punishment was to be sent away to board/live at Georgetown Prep, only a few miles from Mom's house, with the clear understanding that Military School was next if I got in trouble again. Bob, it was a soul-sucking shit show. Their primary product was obedience and authoritarianism. Oh, and a non-ironic obsession with a completely ridiculous children's fantasy transparently authoritarian joke of dead Zombie Jesus story. I preferred Lord of The Rings.
Everyday my few freak friends met up and listened to records in my room where were actively Proto-Rastafarian. We were the kids who refused to do sports and went to the woods and played guitar for hours and tried to comprehend the Steely Dan Mu chord on guitar. (Impossible to play in most keys on guitar by the way.)
The first thing they said to you when you got to Prep was "Gentlemen you've been chosen to rule the world simply by dint of being here at Boarding School. Don't blow it. Cause if you can't hack it here you are going to be a peasant working for a pittance on a plantation." The message essentially is "We are elite everyone else is a serf."
And yet you also got a completely contradictory egalitarian message WITHIN our school/class. There were many reminders that everyone IN the school was equal, which in typical upper class fashion featured lots of casual group nudity in the locker rooms and showers that the 100 gay alcoholic priests who lived there on sabbatical also used along with the boys. Nothing strange with that right? Actually makes sense. It's about building trust and rapport amongst a fraternity for life. I.e. If you ALL engage in compromising behaviour together then you are you all complicit, but immune if you just circle the wagons and deny deny suppress the news PDA's buyoffs whatever it takes. It's like the prisoners dilemma in Game Theory.
I would have been class if '78 if I hadn't gotten booted halfway through senior year. Kavanaugh is Class Of '83. Didn't know him. Nor would I have hung with him if he was my age. He was a jock. A football player. Bob, football is sick, it's criminal assault, it's awful it's dangerous and teenage boys with no frontal lobes no impulse control should not be encouraged to be violent. Ever. But they are. Still. So yea he'd be the type to do what he is accused of.
I believe the ladies.
Roger Greenawalt
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Sean Dookie's name says it all. That sense of entitlement comes across in the preppy class that inhabits Boulder, Colorado these days... Privileged, arrogant and vacant, the ones who have all the advantages need to compensate... It's not all about them. Economic fascism is just as toxic as any other kind.
-Jeff Holland
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Dookie.... ha ha ha! What a shit bag; it's obvious.
Jeff Sackman
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Thought provoking as always, Bob.
I went to Andover (without repeating a year, as both my brothers did) for
my last two years of high school, and while I gained a lot from it, I
hated it. A couple of vignettes: it?s fall of my senior year, and as usual
it?s all rah-rah about beating Exeter. I had already spent one semester on
Posting and another on Probation, each of which has a story. It was the
peak of the draft-card burning era. To speed up the tale, I burn my ticket
to the Exeter game in front of my dorm-mates. One rushes to beat me up,
but he tries to kick me, so I grab his foot in midair and give it a twist,
dropping him on his head. No one else bothered me, but they all conspired to move my entire room into the bathroom. ?Management? never intervened.
So I stayed there for a week, until the house master told them to put it
all back. Later that year, I helped to found a student political union
that lasted for decades, I?m told. Later in life, when I moved back to the
mysterious East not too far from dear old Andover, I didn?t bother to even drive by the campus. I graduated cum laude, with honors in English, went on to Yale where I also carved my own path to cum laude with Honors in
Philosophy despite a notoriously profligate undergraduate career.
What nobody at Andover knew or cared to know, I wasn?t going to the stupid Exeter game because I was leaving campus to visit a family friend who was
shipping off to Nam the next day as a Navy Seal. Named Mark Catlin, for
the record - we lived not too far from the Catlins in Peru, Vermont. So
football seemed kinda silly.
Anyway, I wasn?t a typical Andover student, a pattern repeated at YU.
I read you compulsively. Don?t ever stop.
Jackson Hogen
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Your characterization of prep schools and those who attend them seems to be biased, at best. My experience is that many of the game-changers in society and business tend to be alums of those so- called "get along" and "group think" prep schools. If I gave you the list of those in my graduating class at Cranbrook, you would be amazed at what they have accomplished and achieved, and the impacts they have made in all areas of society.
And for the record, being the son of a school teacher and a homemaker, I attended Cranbrook on a scholarship. Interestingly, we were all equally inspired and challenged to become all we could be. Like anything else, however, what people do or don't do with their opportunities is up to them.
Cranbrook School
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Class of 1978
Mark C. Nordman
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Wow the preppies came out of the suburbans and escalades for that one!
Preppies ruined lacrosse for me in college. I was a very good lacrosse player and because I didn't fit into the prep school/frat boy mold - I was alone on a team. I remember the captain taking me aside and telling me not to run so fast in practice as I was making him look bad. After being threatened numerous times about what I had to bring to the parties (kegs and booze and I had literally no money) I was ostracized by the team. The coach couldn't figure out what was going on. I was the fastest kid on the team, was a playmaker and goal scorer and I would score a goal and the rest of team would ignore me, on the field, in a game.
And all of this is just over lacrosse! It was still a club that I clearly was not welcome in if I wasn't prepared to dumb it down and not try as hard.
Bobbo
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Sean Dookie proves your point(s)!?!?!
DOUG COLLETTE
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Here in the South, there's a fitting colloquialism that exposes those who say you're generalizing or simply have it wrong: A hit dog squeals.
Jon Sinton
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Sean Dookie is a cunt. Too guilty/insecure not to defend it.
Hugo Burnham
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Wow... Just wow... To see that 'white privilege' attitude so nakedly expressed by some of your readers (Sean Dookie, for example). Suggest to them for one moment that they might have had an unfair advantage in life and they immediately shout: "you're just jealous". Amazing... It's like you can spend so much money on a persons education and they still never really understand how to know themselves a little more moderately - or see themselves through the eyes of someone poor. I guess they never really need to. And there's the rub...
Thanks for quoting me, anyway.
All the best. I don't know how you put up with such arrogance and entitlement.
Adam Blake
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Sean Dookie is a fucking moron. I went to prep school and I come from the same background as you. I only got in because I played sports and financial aid. Dookie doesn't even realize he started life on third base while the rest of us were still in the dugout. Blinded by his privilege. Definition of an asshat.
Chris French
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"I went to school in New England too, know a lot of alums from many schools in the region. Trust me, I know Middlebury has turned out too many heads up their ass low self esteem under-achievers who loved to ski first and barely focus on academics.
Your writing skills and conventions suck in a most unsophisticated and unprofessional way.
Regards,
Charlie Williams
Deerfield, Illinois"
HA!
But you live in gorgeous California, and he lives in grisly Deerfield, Illinois. Not so 'head up your ass' therefore. I have lived in both places, and Deerfield has zero to recommend it. Possibly a negative number now I know this guy lives there.
Colby, Bowdoin and Middlebury are GREAT schools that care about the character of students they admit first. A former [30-year] Admissions Director at Colby is one of my daughter's dearest mentors, and revealed integrity to be their main lens when considering applications.
BTW my daughter is a freshman at Harvard, and many of her classmates applied to those specific schools, primarily to be in conversation with professors who care about transferring knowledge from one generation to another [yes, still relevant]. We are a non-Christian homeschool family from rural/central California doing school and family in a completely different way, and I was my daughter's college counselor. Believe me, most of the students at these schools are interchangeable now.
Chin up lad!
Johanna
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie… what a fitting surname
ADRIAN KELLY
_________________________________________
Wow Bob, you stirred up a can of worms with that piece!
I for one enjoy your odd delve into social/political comment, whilst loving your music missives too.
As one of your readers already said, the US private school system is based on the UK 'Public' (private) school system which feeds the creme de la creme into the university system and then oftentimes into the institutions of power.
I played the Oxford University Ball a while back-a prestige gig by any standards- and, for all the politicians' soundbytes about 'there is no class system any more on these shores' talking to and observing the undergrads there, my God Bob, go there and go see a living, breathing 'elite and those-below us' class system for yourself.
And I can honestly say this is not coming from any resentment or jealousy in me, as one of your readers suggested about you- more from a striking impression I observed passing through one night.
And, like America, these guys go on to run our country, or someone else's.
Kavanagh? Only a symptom, I'm afraid.
Best,
Mickey Wynne
Brighton,
England
_________________________________________
Just want to observe that while it may be true that "not all" (whoever: men, preppies, goldfish) do some horrible thing, that isn't really the point you're making. The point being that enough of a particular group do a thing -- and enough of the rest seem willing to allow it to happen -- that it might as well be all.
My father used to say it took fifty good ones to make up for one bad one. The question isn't whether "all" men or "all" prep school boys do it, but whether you beat the 50-to-1 ratio. Otherwise the perception will be that "all" of them do indeed do it. And perception is literally how we see the world.
Jim Lloyd
_________________________________________
I got kicked out.
Mt. Hermon in Massachusetts. Got the full "Good Will Hunting" treatment!
Jeff Lorber
_________________________________________
Love all the knee jerks here from folks not accustomed to having a finger pointed their way (or perhaps raised, for that matter). Sean Dookie sounds like a grade-A asshole.
Bob Kalill
_________________________________________
Sean Dookie needs to be cast in the remake of Some Kind of Wonderful
Mark Burrell
_________________________________________
I think I'm more surprised at the rebuttals and responses - the negative and contradictory ones.
I went to public school and state college. That world was unknown to me for a long time.
But I teach (music) at a very high end L.A. prep and damn if you aren't just dead on it. Of course there are many kids attending that are conscientious and caring students as well human beings but man there are a lot that aren't and I can tell you that in those cases, the acorn does not fall far from the tree.
Thanks! Ken Lasaine
_________________________________________
You should thank the ever so entitled Sean Dookie for proving your point!
Laurie Gelfand
_________________________________________
That's a weak generalization that you made. Perhaps it was the case a few decades ago but nowadays not as much. Further, the point you made about breakthroughs rarely coming from preps is also false. Many social, technological, and humanitarian breakthroughs have come from prep educated individuals such as Obama, Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel just to name a few.
M T
_________________________________________
Who the hell is entitled asshole, Sean Dookie?
No one wants to be that miserable dude!
jc richardson
_________________________________________
Re Sean Dookie... Bob i'd really love to run into that guy Sean in a dark alley somewhere. It's not the hitting the family lottery jackpot that bugs us regular folks. It's that fucking arrogance that he showed us in his response to you. It's the smugness even though he's done nothing amazing for the life of luxury that he and his peers enjoy.
That's what's irritating
Johnny Vieira
_________________________________________
RE: Prep school.
As my mother always said, "Who has more fun than poor people?"
Sincerely,
Jay Aymar
_________________________________________
"Weak people harbor general opinion on people based on their general background. "
Given that's a general opinion on people based on your general background...what conclusion am I supposed to draw about you?
It's as mindless as if I said those who were born into opportunity take personal credit for their success.
Not all do. Some recognize, with gratitude, when they receive an incredible gift. It may be a high IQ, it may be trust fund, it may be a truly loving family, or being put in a unique position to help others.
It doesn't matter what life you were born into...we are all involuntary players in genetic roulette. What matters is what you do with what you were given.
Craig Anderton
_________________________________________
Of course we all want what is best for our kids, give them a leg up whenever possible, and if we have means we will use it for them. I get that. What does bother me is the idea that because you were born on third base, the world is God given to you and therefore you can use that advantage to be despicable if it serves you, where those who didn't win the DNA lottery are just not allowed. Even more so, they are to be kept out of the club at all costs. Aren't we Americans supposed to be better? Weren't we supposed to walk away from those old European class structures kept in place by ancient aristocracy and religion? Yeah, it's all still there, we just bamboozle the little people with different myths and stories.
Christian Swain
_________________________________________
As late as the mid-60's, New Jersey's PUBLIC TAXPAYER-SUPPORTED STATE UNIVERSITY, Rutgers, was ONLY FOR BOYS. New Jersey girls were shunted to the teachers colleges, or for a lucky few, to DOUGLASS, "the woman's college of Rutgers." We Douglass girls called our school "the eighth sister", after the seven female 'ivies'. We were wrong, of course. We were NOT upper-class. We were just the 500 smartest Jersey girls of any given year. Princeton, a short drive away, WAS emphatically an Ivy, and the boys would come up to New Brunswick on weekends, slumming, confident of lays from girl's presumably dazzled by their preptitude. Creeped me out. Assholes. That said, I married a guy from Brown, and then a guy from Harvard. But one was from Union City, NJ and the other was Jewish....
btw, the cure for these prep jerks is to replace everyone, everywhere, with a smart woman.
Paula Franceschi
_________________________________________
Wow! Bob......
Mister 'Dookie' couldn't have said it better!... it's like you sprung a trap for the guy! I'm laughing out loud.
Now, I don't know too much to argue or to judge......but in this guy's little smackdown of your prep email, he's as translucent as wax paper....... (ain't much light getting through there!)
Quote - "We don't offer up looks into our home life/ we already have it In circles that matter in where we want to go in life"......(ain't that special!)
Quote.... "weak people blame others" .....this is when I knew his deal was sealed! Welcome to the jungle, Spaulding!.....Don't puke in the Beemer!
Mister Privilege, keep this in mind, when life throws you a curve -
Ah, you've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well-read, it's well-known
But something is happening here and you don't know what it is.........Do you, Mr. Jones?
Steve Chrismar
PS. Bob, please don't tell me that this letter from Dookie was a plant?!
_________________________________________
Hi Bob,
So let me give you another take on prep schools. Speaking as someone who went to Phillips Exeter in NH for a year between high school and Middlebury and who sent all three of our children to prep school.
The number one difference as I see it is the quality of the education. I realized that day one when I attended Exeter. I was not a dumb kid, mostly A's in high school and good SAT's. Then I got into my Exeter classes. I was so far behind it wasn't funny. They had to put me in classes for sophomores in math and Spanish. But what I realized was how much more enjoyable learning was from excellent teachers. Here were some of the best high school teachers in the country and I couldn't get over how much better they were than my public high school. Creative, fun to be with but hard and fair. Night and day between what I'd been through in Natick, MA.
So when my oldest son was floundering in public high school he wanted to go to a prep school. He picked Middlesex in Concord MA and it was the same scenario. A group of outstanding teachers making classes fun and rigorous. My pet peeve with public schools is kids come out not knowing how to write. The difference is essays between a senior at Middlesex and a very good public high school is scary. As if the difference in their ability to think critically. Again, night and day between Middlesex and Clifton Park, NY for someone like my son who was an average student at best.
Here some other things kids at prep schools learn. Actions count. You make a bad decision you pay for it, you're held accountable. All the prep schools I know hold the kids to two strikes. Once you break the rules you're on probation, break them again and you're out. I've seen very rich kids booted out of Middlesex, doesn't make any difference how much money Daddy has. And all three of my kids learned quickly that money doesn't make you happy. They saw a number of unhappy kids in prep school whose parents had more money than God. And it didn't help them at all. Good lesson to learn. And last and I think this is something you've picked up on. Kids from good prep schools are not intimidated by anyone. They know they're smart and can think as well as an adult, they just don't have the life experiences. But they'll get those and they know it. So you can't bullshit them for the most part. They'll look you in the eye and question you and if you don't have your shit together they'll know your winging it and won't respect you. What they do respect is honesty and smarts with some humility thrown in when you don't know what you're taking about. That I think is what you saw at Middlebury.
Last I'm sorry to hear you "didn't learn anything in the classroom" at Middlebury. I was as impressed with some of the teachers at Middlebury as I was at Exeter. Some were truly outstanding and to this day I remember the joy of sitting in their classes learning about architecture, geography and history. Wonderful, wonderful classes. I'd go again in a heartbeat. Just for the experience of learning something new.
Bob Hamilton
Phillips Exeter '71
Middlebury '75
_________________________________________
When I graduated Culver Military Academy in 1967( now Culver Academies, with 500 girls, half), there were only 13 girl students, faculty daughters. A school that was ranked in the same category as Andover and Exeter, with larger endowments and facilities, teachings strong traditions of secular educations including traditions of honor and good behavior, still allowed if not condoned an atmosphere where it was accepted for the cadets to howl, hoot and shout obscenities when the co- eds arrived at the school auditorium to sit in the last row to watch the Saturday night movie every week. They learned to arrive after the lights went down.
The boys club, footplayer worship times of the mid 60's are when men like Kavanaugh, Huffington, who graduated Culver in 1965 and many like them, flourished, knowing from high school the high stature and power in society they would inherit. There was always an aspect of violence to it. Fooootball.......
I had heard some of the coeds were bitter and injured but refused to speak publicly about it. At our 50th last year I brought it up, thought apologies were in order but got no traction, from either side. The men thought the coeds had been treated well.
Those prepies from back then now rule the world, just as they planned .
Jeffrey Bauman
Wendell, MA
_________________________________________
Very Impressive the privileged, white, angry, angst you elicited. I don't know if you are right. But wow, you upset people. It likely is a sweeping over generalization but... you offended these sensitive people and they lashed out.
I came from upper middle Class, Midwest privilege. I feel lucky. I like to read what you write. God's Peace!
mab
Michael A Becker
St. Louis
_________________________________________
I don't envy Sean Dookie; I feel sorry for his pampered, privileged ass. I knew his kind at boarding school; as part of a protected class, he can never know real achievement, and in truth, he's the one jealous of you and he knows this in his bones, even while he protests too much. You hit a nerve; why else would he feel compelled to post?
Mojo Bone
_________________________________________
Re: Sean Dookie
...OMG poor little rich boy, cry me a river on how you've endured the bigotry of wealth.
I grew up middle class but my dad was poor and my mother's family came from money. My mother went to prep school in Switzerland and lived a life of privilege until she married my dad and in many ways they cut her out for marrying beneath her social status. There are people on my mom's side of our family that I love and respect but man I have never seen a more screwed up, paranoid group of people in my life, except for maybe my ex wife's family.
My ex wife comes from money, She went to prep school in Carmel with Aaron Hagar (nice guy actually, there's always an exception), Paul Anka's kids among others. From what I can tell it didn't do her much good other than turn her into a hypocrite and a snob which was a constant point of contention between us when we were married. I hated the way she talked to people that she thought were beneath her. I know it's stereotypical to say this but the way she talked to wait staff in restaurants and hotels was cringe worthy.
She insisted that our son start at Sacred Heart in Atherton for pre-K; Every parent wants their kids to get a leg up in life but $2500 a month for pre-k? totally ridiculous! I can't even elaborate further or smoke will start coming out the top of my head and my hair might catch on fire. Her dad is a total right wing elitist who counts among is associates Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich; you just want to punch him in the face to shut him the fuck up if you ever have the displeasure of meeting him. But if you do he'll surely give you an unsolicited copy of his book Integrity Matters. This guy is the antithesis of integrity, for starters he speaks to is wife like he bought her at a slave auction in Saudi Arabia, I'm surprised he doesn't make her wear a burka. He's a joke and now in his later years he's become a caricature of what he represents. He's sad and Pathetic like O'Reilly and Gingrich, the perfect example of what would happen if a used car salesman mated with a tele-evangelist; Interesting only as an anthropological study but no good to society.
Elites, especially on the far right think everyone is out to get them and they're the victims. Meanwhile everything they do is either oppressing or patronizing anyone they deem lower on the social or moral ladder. They're big on RULES and MORALITY (be especially scared if they bring god into the conversation) but rules apply to everyone but them! Finally if you cross them they show no mercy and will litigate you until you're living in a tent on the side of the road somewhere. Don't bother to beg for mercy, they'll show none.
I'm not against people born into money, I just don't like hypocrites and assholes of which many born into money are unfortunately. Everything I have in life I earned working from the bottom up which is tough but it builds character and the ability to see things from a broad perspective; unlike my prep school counterparts of which many have a view of life that doesn't go beyond their prep school upbringing and their narrow minded social circles. I just pray that I have enough influence over my son that he doesn't grow up to be like this rich idiot that responded to your article. Time will tell…
Mikael Johnston
_________________________________________
If you ever send one of my reply's I hope this is the one . I have read you for years and I think your readers will enjoy my shout out to Boarding school
I went to Fountain valley in Colorado Springs after ten years at Gilman in Baltimore. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and John Perry Barlow who just wrote Mother American Night were several grades above me . John Perry was one of the most amazing lives of anyone who ever lived . He was a cowpoke , wrote 30 songs for the Dead, and managed Dick Cheney's run for Senator before he found his passion and became a major tech guru . Read the Book -Bob Lefsetz you will love this guy. Barley passed at 70 last year. Mountain Girls' tribute to him is on YouTube !!! He had two fabulous chapters on our high school Fountain Valley . He said it was place for intractable and highly intelligent kids . Meaning smart rich kids whose parents could not handle them. I took STP (strong acid) before I had even smoked pot in 9th grade and fortunately loved flying through space while lying in my dorm room bed . Not everyone prospered at Fountain Valley but I did it turned me around and I became a better person.
The highly ranked prep school Gilman I went to in Baltimore took two years of Latin to get to Caesar . Fountain Valley did it in one year . I told FVS I was struggling at Gilman because I did not like Algebra (also was not getting along with mama and papa bear). They started a new course in Symbolic Logic because they knew I and others could learn algebraic functions if you used words which I liked better than numbers . All men are mortal . Socrates is a man . Socrates is mortal . Called an anatomical syllogism instead of a math formula.
Weir got kicked out for drugs and came back a few years ago and the FVS Headmaster told Bob he should thank FVS for kicking him out or he would never have joined the Dead . That took balls for the Headmaster but Weir wrote them a very big check for their performing arts program .
I left FVS because my dad went broke. I graduated from public school in 1970 during race riots in Baltimore . I got the " big 3 High School tour" and I liked all three schools. I disagree with some other posts and the stereotype of prep schoolers. Being rich can be a burden psychologically and promote apathy and I guess some type of insecure snobbery , but the truth is that type of person can come from any socio economic background . Excuses are for losers . Being lazy or blaming others is not a platform to build on for anyone rich or poor. I am an ex-hippie jock with a dose of Ayn Rand logic I got while reading Atlas Shrugged in my freshman year in college.
It was not the Ivy league Bullshit that made prep school great . Because on some levels it had many problems like any other institution. What made it excellent was the one on one attention and Fastrack learning that put some of us into better space to compete in the marketplace of life . Gates and Zuckerberg were gone from school by sophomore year in College. The promise of America still exists read Mother American Night. Cheers and thanks for all your great posts Bob.
Blake Goldsmith
_________________________________________
Wow, the white & privileged do come out to "speak up", don't they! I love the guy who said "my classmates are all doctors, lawyers, MBAs ... " ya know "average Americans"! Hahahahahaha!! The incredible blindness of privilege allows this person to tell himself, and his children, that the "average American" is a doctor or lawyer, when in fact, the average American is in debt and makes $40k a year or LESS!!!
#1 most common job in America is RETAIL
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/04/24/americas-most-and-least-common-jobs/2/
What a fucking joke these people are!! THEY are why people who voted for Obama in 08, then voted for Trump in '16. It's a double-headed dragon - they defend their ilk, even if racist/rapist/whatever, but they decry the "deplorables" and "trump voters" and act all fucking baffled and ring their hands!
Truck Driver is #1 job in most red states:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state
Sure, be careful not too over generalize, but I got your point. It's clear you weren't saying every prep-school kid was bad. I got it. But, those for whom your piece cuts too close to home ... wow, they have yet to reflect on their own privilege, despite all that has been going on! PEOPLE! You don't need to defend yourself. You'll be fine. Your guilt, no matter how deep, won't take away your nice house and your children's safe, comfortable "walkable" neighborhood. It's OKAY! Admitting that, yes, you were privileged won't take away the comforts of your life, won't take away that privilege. Admitting the truth just means SEEING what is around you, ACKNOWLEDGING the damage done by your community - even if you didn't inflict the damage yourself, you are/were part of that community.
This is the crazy/sad thing about defending oneself against criticism of ones abuse of power. The very defense of that abuse is continued abuse. Just ACCEPT the truth and stop trying to silence - even if it feels uncomfortable.
The rest of our society deals with pain, uncomfortableness, and, actually, great suffering ALL THE TIME! It's so normal, that we are often numb. YOU couldn't handle the shit we deal with on a daily basis.
"The U.S Bureau of the Census has the annual real median personal income at $31,099 in 2016."
—And the prep-school kids?
"In 2005 roughly half of all those with graduate degrees were among the nation's top 15% of income earners."- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States
"Thus, while the population as a whole is proceeding further in formal educational programs, income and educational attainment remain highly correlated." - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States (my emphasis added.)
"Average Joe" on Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_Joe
So, let's be optimistic and say the average American makes $35k a year - here's what living on that looks like, if you want to own a house have health insurance and send your kid to college:
Average Yearly Expenses Total:
average American mortgage payment:
$12,000
Health insurance
$9500
Student loan payment:
$3300
Food
$7000
Clothing
$1000
Transportation (car payment, gas)
$6000 - $9000
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06/18/pete-planner-503-avg-car-payment-too-rich-most-us/85493088/
Average American Budget:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/943E4C00-DABD-11E7-84D1-444A4DEE5340
Food and clothes are cheap, but housing is more expensive. Thus, Americans are MORE financially insecure than ever.
And, sorry, but the "average American" is NOT a doctor, lawyer, or public servant.
#1 most common job in America is retail
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/04/24/americas-most-and-least-common-jobs/2/
Truck Driver is #1 job in most red states:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state
Sarah Fridrich
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Dorothy Carvello's Book
https://amzn.to/2xAXCay
If "Anything For A Hit" was written by a man it would be a best-seller.
Every, and I mean EVERY wannabe should devour this book. Because it delineates the game and how it is played, and it's much worse than you've ever dreamed.
Oldsters know all that. But they'll read for the salacious details anyway, mostly about Ahmet Ertegun, who is dead.
This book is not what it was billed as. It's not the sexual harassment expose. I'm not saying there's not a lot of bad behavior, even actionable behavior revealed, but that's not what the book is really about.
It's the first half that will have you glued.
Dorothy Carvello's time at Atlantic. Which is run like a family, a highly dysfunctional one where executives are underpaid and illegalities are rampant but fun is job one.
This is why people wanted to be in the record business. The endless money, the endless dope, the endless trips, the famous people, the high living. Yup, just as Dorothy tells it, that's the way it was, and she's not even bragging!
This is not a self-congratulatory autobiography like Clive's unreadable "Soundtrack of My Life." You won't be able to put "Anything For A Hit" down, I devoured it and finished it all in one day, today, hell, it's 2:25 AM, I should be in bed, but I'm all fired up!
Carvello is no picnic, but as Don Henley sang, it's one of the things they loved about her. She's sassy, alive, a good hang. One of the boys. And believe me, to make it back then you had to be one of the boys, or be the mistress of one of the boys.
But she's also clueless. When one A&R guy labels her "relentless," you come to believe it. She's constantly misreading the signals, working against her own interests.
But don't we all. I certainly have. Took me DECADES to figure out how this world worked. And I too credit therapy for opening my eyes. After Carvello goes to the shrink, on the advice of Tim Collins, a good man who's been exiled from the business, we've got no space for them here, she changes, she mellows, she understands the game.
Not that the people on top do. They're playing a completely different game, three-dimensional chess. Which is why you have to decide who you want to be, the boss or the employee. The boss can get away with it, the employee cannot.
And if you're not the boss, you're gonna lose your job in the music business. Eventually the bosses do too, but they last longer.
You'll be horrified at Ahmet's behavior, but those who knew him admit the man was charming.
And Carvello's distribution of anger and praise will make insiders laugh. Be nice to her and you get a pass, are these passes deserved? I'll let you read and decide, assuming you know the players.
And she makes a classic mistake, working without a contract. And believing her lawyer is loyal to her, not the industry. Acts come and go, the business remains. Stand up for yourself, tell the truth, and you're history.
At least you were.
That business doesn't exist anymore. Never mind label head, you don't even want to be a rock star...a techie, even a financier lives a better life. The banker stays home most of the time, and he always flies private, and despite the illusion most musicians do not, often it's somebody else's plane they're hitching a ride on.
Music is mature. It's dead. The action is all on the promotion side. It's much harder to get a record deal than a date. And at that date promoters can see whether the audience reacts, they're the first ones to know whether you're hot. And they speak with agents, not lawyers. The whole business has flipped.
And a hit is not what it used to be. You can be number one and most of America has never heard of you.
And you can be reviewed in "Variety," "Billboard," "The Daily Mail"... I figured this book was a stiff because it was published by an indie. But the hype has been as good as that for a book from a major.
But there's no reaction. Because those outlets don't sell books anymore.
You do.
Maybe you were old enough to remember when "Hit Men" came out, the industry all bought and read it in a week. This is the most honest music business book since, but no one cares.
Because the audience is being fed salacious details 24/7 on TMZ. Because we're a long way from Christopher Moltisanti noting Tommy Motttola waltzing by the velvet rope into a New York club. Because everything unknown spreads slowly in this world of cacophony. Getting traction is nearly impossible, but once you get some, it builds.
This is a sexist business. And to a great degree, it's eluded the #MeToo movement. Because everybody involved loves working in it and knows if they blow this whistle they're out. Is this right? Of course not. But it's the truth.
Buy this immediately.
Like I said, the second half drifts and is dispensable, although you read it anyway, but the first half...
It was written about the heyday, when music still drove the culture, when MTV was God, when CDs rained down cash.
I can't tell you about what's coming in the future, but...
"Anything For A Hit" is definitely how it was in the past.
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If "Anything For A Hit" was written by a man it would be a best-seller.
Every, and I mean EVERY wannabe should devour this book. Because it delineates the game and how it is played, and it's much worse than you've ever dreamed.
Oldsters know all that. But they'll read for the salacious details anyway, mostly about Ahmet Ertegun, who is dead.
This book is not what it was billed as. It's not the sexual harassment expose. I'm not saying there's not a lot of bad behavior, even actionable behavior revealed, but that's not what the book is really about.
It's the first half that will have you glued.
Dorothy Carvello's time at Atlantic. Which is run like a family, a highly dysfunctional one where executives are underpaid and illegalities are rampant but fun is job one.
This is why people wanted to be in the record business. The endless money, the endless dope, the endless trips, the famous people, the high living. Yup, just as Dorothy tells it, that's the way it was, and she's not even bragging!
This is not a self-congratulatory autobiography like Clive's unreadable "Soundtrack of My Life." You won't be able to put "Anything For A Hit" down, I devoured it and finished it all in one day, today, hell, it's 2:25 AM, I should be in bed, but I'm all fired up!
Carvello is no picnic, but as Don Henley sang, it's one of the things they loved about her. She's sassy, alive, a good hang. One of the boys. And believe me, to make it back then you had to be one of the boys, or be the mistress of one of the boys.
But she's also clueless. When one A&R guy labels her "relentless," you come to believe it. She's constantly misreading the signals, working against her own interests.
But don't we all. I certainly have. Took me DECADES to figure out how this world worked. And I too credit therapy for opening my eyes. After Carvello goes to the shrink, on the advice of Tim Collins, a good man who's been exiled from the business, we've got no space for them here, she changes, she mellows, she understands the game.
Not that the people on top do. They're playing a completely different game, three-dimensional chess. Which is why you have to decide who you want to be, the boss or the employee. The boss can get away with it, the employee cannot.
And if you're not the boss, you're gonna lose your job in the music business. Eventually the bosses do too, but they last longer.
You'll be horrified at Ahmet's behavior, but those who knew him admit the man was charming.
And Carvello's distribution of anger and praise will make insiders laugh. Be nice to her and you get a pass, are these passes deserved? I'll let you read and decide, assuming you know the players.
And she makes a classic mistake, working without a contract. And believing her lawyer is loyal to her, not the industry. Acts come and go, the business remains. Stand up for yourself, tell the truth, and you're history.
At least you were.
That business doesn't exist anymore. Never mind label head, you don't even want to be a rock star...a techie, even a financier lives a better life. The banker stays home most of the time, and he always flies private, and despite the illusion most musicians do not, often it's somebody else's plane they're hitching a ride on.
Music is mature. It's dead. The action is all on the promotion side. It's much harder to get a record deal than a date. And at that date promoters can see whether the audience reacts, they're the first ones to know whether you're hot. And they speak with agents, not lawyers. The whole business has flipped.
And a hit is not what it used to be. You can be number one and most of America has never heard of you.
And you can be reviewed in "Variety," "Billboard," "The Daily Mail"... I figured this book was a stiff because it was published by an indie. But the hype has been as good as that for a book from a major.
But there's no reaction. Because those outlets don't sell books anymore.
You do.
Maybe you were old enough to remember when "Hit Men" came out, the industry all bought and read it in a week. This is the most honest music business book since, but no one cares.
Because the audience is being fed salacious details 24/7 on TMZ. Because we're a long way from Christopher Moltisanti noting Tommy Motttola waltzing by the velvet rope into a New York club. Because everything unknown spreads slowly in this world of cacophony. Getting traction is nearly impossible, but once you get some, it builds.
This is a sexist business. And to a great degree, it's eluded the #MeToo movement. Because everybody involved loves working in it and knows if they blow this whistle they're out. Is this right? Of course not. But it's the truth.
Buy this immediately.
Like I said, the second half drifts and is dispensable, although you read it anyway, but the first half...
It was written about the heyday, when music still drove the culture, when MTV was God, when CDs rained down cash.
I can't tell you about what's coming in the future, but...
"Anything For A Hit" is definitely how it was in the past.
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Monday, 24 September 2018
Greatest Guitarist Of All Time?
That's this week's Sirius Show topic.
Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday September 25, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
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Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday September 25, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
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Re-Prep School
And of course New Faces was colloquially known as The Pig Book.
Greg Dennis
P.S. One other thing I remember is that based largely on New Faces, a group of guys in our class created the TBG's designation – "Those Beautiful Girls." Of course all those girls were preppies.
I liked your post. You were obviously way of head of me freshman year. I was so stupid that I didn't even realize all the advantages those preppies had.
I never did figure out that I could ask for an extension.
__________________________________________
Sounds like resentment to me. You seem to have learned a lot from the preps that helped you through life. However, due to the fact that they came from money, and you didn't, you harbor resentment towards them for being better equipped financially, mentally, and emotionally, in your opinion.
I am one of those preps who enjoyed all that that upbringing has to offer. Went to boarding school and gained from the experience. That carried on through college. Then into "the real world".
Yes, we are "skittish" to outsiders. We don't offer up looks into our home life like some reality celebrity looking for constant validation. We don't seek it out in the general public. We don't need to do that. We already have it in the circles that matter to where we want to go in life. And you resent those who have what you so desperately would love to have had as well.
So out of resentment and jealousy, you cast judgement on someone because he is a "prep" and grew up in a more affluent household than yours, with more opportunities afforded to him than you, seemingly.
Weak people blame others for their shortcomings in life. Weak people harbor general opinion on people based on their general background. Bigotry.
Sean Dookie
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Dude, you nailed that one.
I sent my kids to private school, it's a long story and a boring one. But one of them went to a Long Island Gold Coast school with many waspy families.
There was definitely a sense of estrangement from the hoi polloi and a sense of entitlement they exhibited when I would get together with them at certain functions. I always felt like an outsider. Because I was.
I didn't really care that much, but they do indeed live in a rarefied atmosphere.
Rik Shafer
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Well said, Bob. If you think it's bad in the US, you should try dealing with the Public (private) schoolboys that run (ruin) this country as if by Divine Right.
Best
Adam Blake
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The US prep school system is largely predicated on the UK prep and 'public' (ie private as opposed to State) school system, which is about maintaining (and defending) privilege.
I am a product thereof. And you are dead right, spot on.
Simon Bailey
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Idiotstick!!
Matt Alan
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BULLSEYE!!!
DOUG COLLETTE
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As an aside to your remarks re: prep school: My parents sent me to New Hampton School in New Hampton NH. Today it's coed, back then it was 250 boys basically imprisoned in a valley in the middle of nowhere. Apart from bussing some girls in from nearby St Mary's School for occasional Saturday night dances, there was absolutely no contact with the opposite sex. The lack of females produced "entitled" graduates whose social development had been severely retarded. No clue how to behave in mixed company. A trainload of boneheads starting from scratch at 18.
lanningpaul
__________________________________________
Bob - love your stuff but not buying it on this one; its one sweeping generalization and it's too easy.
This same type of argument has been made about Jewish people for example and the tribe for a long time; which says "you're a club and you're all the same".
Either way - I don't buy it. In life some are and some are not, and a lot in between.
Edward COLE
__________________________________________
There is no evidence to support her claims and no crime report. No dice. He will be confirmed.
Chris M.
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To follow this flawed logic suggest we should not consider any of the graduates of these institutions to government positions. It also suggest that all people that are born in a certain part of Chicago or LA will end up in prison.
John M. Foley
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I did four years by the beach in Newport Rhode Island at a now rather infamous prep school. You know of what you speak regarding quiet rule bending and always follow the legacy kids , they are really entitled .A few of my classmates in 1974 went to Middlebury. I always thought a small private college was like four more years of the same , I went to a state university to get some perspective, glad I did .
Gerry
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This is a very big generalization of all "prep school" kids which I find very wrong. You don't mention the prep school kids that are on tuition and learn all of the negative things below about the entitled group they are a part of and work hard to change it. Or the wealthy prep school kid who also recognizes the negatives you describe below and use their resources to bring awareness to his community and bring his community closer to the rest of the country. Yes there are more negatives than positives but I think such a generalization from you gots against what you normally preach in your attempt to go after Kavanaugh. I personally think Kavanaugh did it, but I don't think it's a prep school vs non prep school problem.
Jason Roth
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Went to Georgetown in the 80s from a decent academic school on Staten Island, and yet, the culture shock of the entitled prep school kids was severe. I was white. I was an athlete. I was male. And I wasn't poor by any stretch. And yet. Everything you say, 100% true.
Neil Donahue
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Always enjoying your writing. I went to an all boys prep school on the west coast a generation before Kavanaugh. We preppies like to think of our old school as the west coast Exeter. I came from a small, middle class Southern California town in North San Diego County. I knew nothing about privilege or money when I was abruptly sent away to boarding school, but boy I sure did by the time I graduated. Those to the manor born were indeed the most cruel, entitled and knowledgeable. I was so naive and at a social and economic disadvantage. Some great friendships made there, but good lord I learned to be careful.
Good lord.
William Kevin Anderson
Anderson Scores, Inc.
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hi bob,
to paraphrase president jimmy carter:
in america, there are the protected and the unprotected.
marvin etzioni
__________________________________________
No question about what you say. My story? Living in Georgetown, I transferred to Sidwell Friends in Washington D.C. to attend high school. The question of wealth was really not the whole story. In D.C. it always has been and remains, about power My best friend and neighbor at the time was Larry O'Brien Jr. who went to Georgtown Prep. Larry Sr. was JFK's chief of staff and he arranged summer intern jobs for both of us after our freshman year. His father being of the old Boston Irish mold made a teachable moment out of it by making sure he was assigned to the Dept. of Interior, ugh... I got the mailroom at the White House (bingo, some great stories there). But at school, I was an outsider. Most of the kids had been together since kindergarten. They were the offspring of cabinet members, senators, agency directors etc. Trisha Nixon was 3 mos. younger than me and I graduated in '63, but she didn't graduate until '68 (at 22?), she was notoriously dense but that's ridiculous. I guess when your Dad is running for president, entitlement is the name of the game. My step father was a lowly chief of psychiatric research at NIMH (he took acid with Tim Leary at a military base when the army was still looking at how it might be weaponized) so I certainly didn't fit the profile.
It was a different time and so the issue of privilege, for us, did not extend to breaking the rules. A handful of couples had sex and that was a huge deal for a private Quaker school. But by age 16 most kids were driving to school in Corvettes and big convertibles. Our family had just the one car, a VW micro bus. Still, the point remains that even though some of us had to work harder there was no question about who got a pass and why. As most of these kids knew from birth and the rest of us learned with time, opportunity is about privilege and who you know. There are no limits to entitlement and it is disturbing but totally realistic to assume that over the decades that followed, this milieu became unquestionably capable of hideous behavior. Even my alma mater had a scandal of sexual assault just before the Obama girls began attending.
Given Kavanaugh's age, that pretty much puts him a ground zero...that moment when the guilded young of the elite began to feel that the rules no longer applied to them. They could do whatever they felt like doing, with impunity. Georgetown Prep, much like Harvard-Westlake in L.A., was notorious even then.
John Brodey
__________________________________________
I am 71 and a product of the prep school system, West Coast version, which is less WASPy than the East Coast but otherwise similar. I went to Town School in San Francisco, where plenty of my classmates went to Groton and St. Paul's, Lowell High, which might as well have been a private school, and San Rafael Military Academy, a prep school with rifles.
Put a bunch of teenage boys together with minimal adult supervision and not only are they beastly to outsiders like girls, they're beastly to each other. These behaviors were, I believe, milder in the 50s and early 60s but they were there in spades. We drank, smoked, and tried to get over on girls whenever we could. All boy schools amplify this sort of thing because there's only positive reinforcement, and you can't control anything with positive feedback. The adults aren't around enough to stop these behaviors.
Fortunately I took a left turn after high school and went into the rock and roll world but plenty of my classmates, most in fact, stayed on the privilege track and so did their children and grand children.
And Brett Kavanough is the result.
Phil Brown
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Thanks Bob.Growing up in Fairfield county is a little different than elsewhere.It's hard for some people to understand.You can think that you're doing well in business or life,then you find out who is REALLY doing well.Hope you're doing REALLY well.Have a great day,Ted Keane
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This might be the dumbest post you have ever published. And that's saying something.
Charlie Gaylord
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Hi Bob
100% correct. Virginia Episcopal School class of '85.
Dave Richards
14 Hits
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I went to Campbell Hall. Place was a sh*thole of right wing indoctrination -
Michael Olsen
__________________________________________
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Wow
Maybe the funniest delusion yet
AJP
__________________________________________
Wow. You lost me on this one, Bob.
So every white person is racist? And every German hates Jews?
I don't know about Kavanaugh... but I think you're making some pretty big assumptions.
Caroline Lindsey
__________________________________________
"They were much better read than us?" Come on, Bob. You surely know it's "they were much better read than we (were.)" Us receives the action, we performs the action.
I'll tell you one thing, though. It's the people you meet getting KICKED OUT OF prep school that are the most fun. The dealer in the city who sells you your pot, the tough kids in your neighborhood that suddenly think you could be worth something after all, the girls who are suddenly interested in you, where they weren't before. "Wait, he's from a good family AND got kicked out of a private school?" Those were the relationships that taught me the most, not the Hunts, Hartfords and Gettys I left behind in the private school. When I was sent off to a private boarding school, I thought the rich kids ( I was on an arts scholarship) would be so boring. But it turned out they were hellions! They always had booze hidden somewhere, smoking cigs at every opportunity, got A's on term papers, thanks to Dexedrine. Taught me a so much in the way of chicanery and mischief. The only sad part was how unhappy some of them were. One very wealthy kid was visited on parents day by the chauffeur, since his Dad was too busy chasing ingenues in the city. Be that as it may, it isn't fair to paint all us private school kids with the same brush. Some of my schoolmates went on to do great good for those who had less than they. People change between being a freshman in high school and being an adult, and that fact looms largely in the issues surrounding us this week.
Hey, did you read the ink I got in the NY Times?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/summer-in-the-city-lovin-spoonful-soundtrack-for-city-summer.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmusic&action=click&contentCollection=music®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront
Not all of us were narcissistic nutjobs, Bob.
Best,
Mark Sebastian
__________________________________________
Couldn't agree more Bob,
It was a big part of my thinking as a kid when I turned down a sports scholarship to a prestigious college back east, same one our dear leader went to...
I had contact w that world thru sports and the shocker to me back then was the rampant cheating. All of them. Like a pack. Defended and cheated for each other. It was impossible to beat them one on one as the other members of their team had to judge while not competing.
It was crushing as a kid from brooklyn to go up against ivy leaguers and maybe win on talent but loose over and over on lack of connections... Your 100% right it truly does exist. That's how you get Wall Street, all these criminals went to our best colleges, what made so many of them feel above the law?? You describe it perfectly.
For me,
It Didn't make me want to join at all. It's what I went into the arts, my true love.
But those people.
Same ones I bartender to in downtown NYC in the 80's when they came out slumming after days of insider trading on wall st.
Fucking Gross.
Frat boys.
Sorry all you frat alumni, But nuff said.
David Sardy
__________________________________________
Bob,
Wow, I usually agree with you, but for you to accuse and convict an entire group of people is antithetical and below your usual standards of intelligence. Just because kids (KIDS! teenagers!) are sent to preparatory schools does not indicate that they will develop criminal behavior.
I was sent to a high school prep which now costs about $40,000 per year. I am in my late fifties. Of everybody who attended with me, the vast majority are plugging along just as everyone else working towards retirement. Most went to college. A couple became doctors, a couple became lawyers, a few earned MBAs or other post-graduate degrees, a few became teachers or public servants. Some become drug addicts. In short, my classmates became the entire gamut of "average" Americans. In fact, my classmates represent America equally to what my children and their classmates have aspired towards. The only thing most preppies have over many public school kids is that they know that they might not have to save for retirement, that at some point they will inherit some money from their folks.
So for you to disparage and accuse an entire class of people based on where they went to school simply demonstrates your biases, prejudices and inflexible mind.
And IMHO for the vast majority of kids, prep school is an immense waste of money...as is undergraduate degrees in non hard science majors. But as parents we want to give our kids the "best" and opportunities to find their own path/love in life.
Matt Grandi
__________________________________________
Public High School in the city to "top of the heap" exclusive private college in the mid 80's...
Excitedly thinking my mind would be culturally expanded, only to find that the kids I'm now surrounded by from the Prep schools I'd always revered were typically entitled myopic no nothing racist dipshits. Worst part was a decent percentage of the profs & admin were simply just older versions. Yes, it was "baked in" and mind numbingly depressing.
__________________________________________
"Because they believe that whatever happens, you deserve it, wether it's being born into wealth or getting raped. But then again women are never raped unless it's been done by someone from a lower class, when the wealthy are slumming the women are asking for it. Because first and foremost they really do think that they are better than everyone else, no matter what people say about our classless society."
What bothers me the most is that the founding fathers attempted to eliminate this economic royalty using things like the estate tax so some idiot son would have to make it on his own merit and not the millions amassed by his parents and grandparents, and they wrote much more about this than guns. Keep up the good work, regards Chris
__________________________________________
Hmmm, sounds like I'm hearing my own experiences! Right on!
Edward Kaplan
__________________________________________
I went to a relatively new school in Washington state during my middle and high school years. It was all boys then and the kids were almost all from some of the wealthiest families in the area. There were 27 in my graduating class of '68.
Your descriptions of how wealth and privlage put you in a different universe is spot on.
I came from a middle class family that struggled to pay my tuition every year. I worked summers starting when I was 13 to help pay my way.
I never fit in with my classmates. I was seen as an outsider, which I was. I never did the vacations in Hawaii or Christmas in Vail. We couldn't afford it.
Being an outsider gives you a chance to observe how the elite lived. Can I imagine a kid like Kavenaugh doing what he's been accused of? Absolutely. Of course it needs to be proven but to say flat out that he wasn't capable of such behavior? Hardly. That's why I always thought of my classmates as the untouchables. Wealth, power and status changes everything, especially when you are a white teenage boy in America.
Burke Long
You got the vibe right. (I once heard it described as "superiority that is assumed but never expressed.") But you're maybe a bit too broad brush.
I went to Bowdoin — Same thing as Middlebury, only it's Maine. — and was part of the 45% you describe. I admit to being fairly skilled at securing extensions on term papers but don't recall ever ripping off the Pepsi machine. The truth is that most prep school kids don't end up at Middlebury or Dartmouth. And some prep schools are highly supervised places.
Another thing: the really, really smart kids at the Ivies (and the Middleburys) are usually the public school kids. For sure, the "St. Grottlesex" kids are smart, but to your point, they've also been "prepped" on how to appear so.
There is a self-reliance thing that happens at prep school. For example, you learn how to get another day out of a shirt. You learn how to put a meal together from a Kwik Mart. You learn how to function without Mommy on the scene. (And Mommy could sure stand to back off a bit these days.)
And all this self-reliance contributes mightily to a subject near and dear to the hearts of all Lefsetz readers: Rock & Roll. While prep school alums account for only a mili-fraction of 1% of all high school graduates, here's a short list of those who have more than made their marks: James Taylor, Joe Perry, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Huey Lewis, Bob Weir, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Natalie Cole, Adam Durwitz, Rufus Wainwright, Duncan Sheik, Trey Anastasio, Tom Rush, Tracy Chapman, David Crosby, Will Sheff, Townes Van Zandt, and on.
Now some of those folks will deny or assign their prep school experience no value in their success. Even better.
Onward, Malcolm Gauld
__________________________________________
Hi Bob, another spot on column. I went to La Jolla High school in 60-62. It was a public school but drew kids from some of the wealthiest families in the country. In 1958 some magazine reported La Jolla had by far the most millionaires by population in the country, 158. After every Christmas vacation the campus parking lot where students parked would reveal new corvettes, and other sports cars the rich kids got as Christmas presents. But unlike the east coast you write about so knowingly, La Jolla High in hindsight was surprisingly egalitarian socially. The campus was walking distance from one of the best surfing beaches in the world, Windansea. The beach culture,good surfers, and good athletes and good looking kids ruled the school, and money was secondary. Many of La Jolla's middle class alumni went from cheerleaders to the movies, Raquel (Tejada) Welch, Robin Wright, and two beauties from my time, Sally Vining and Linda Opie were dancing in bikinis in all the Beach Party movies. An old high school friend of mine who transfered to La Jolla High, described his previous , pricey , prep school as "a bunch of crumbs held together by their dough". alan segal san diego
__________________________________________
The child sex ring run by priests and cops in Baltimore, noted in The Keepers, had elite "customers." Entitled prepies for sure. That's why the FBI won't release over 4000 pages of investigative material from the 1970's. That cover up included the murder of at least four women, still unsolved to this day. Look at who the mayor of Baltimore was and his relation to Congress. Still in power all these years. Yes. They keep their secrets. Recall the $40 million secret fund to pay off accusers who where victims of Congressmen. Imagine the measures back in the 70's.
So, where is the outrage for the sake of a hundred violated high school girls from the 70'?
J Kauchick
__________________________________________
Bob, You really need to get over the "prep school" ( Ivy League as well) is an edge to opportunity notion. While being "connected" by adolescence may seem critical to career path success, there are millions of exceptions and plenty of successful "commoners" who didn't need any introductions to the upward mobility class. It's really an "east coast" thing.
The key to success is not " who you know", it's "what you are willing to do" (what effort to grow in experience and competence) that makes the difference in outcomes. Are you curious? Are you able to assess the playing field of opportunity? Do you have grit?
I too, attended a college occupied by a large segment of east coast preppies. They were clearly different than me, and while initially " attractive " because of their apparent confidence, it didn't take long to see through it and realize that the lack of parental love and attention had left a deficit in character and commitment to quality friendships. In my adult life, no preppie played any role in my upward trajectory. Same goes for the fraternity guys; no meaningful outcomes in my life have come from seeking membership in any group or club. If anything, I am delighted in being an "outsider" and watching in mild pleasure as many of these folks agonize over decisions that are impacted by the forces of " what others will think" vs. what's really good for me my well being. Don't waste you time and emotions on "envy", these folks got nothing to covet.
Thomas Geimer
__________________________________________
Not surprised to read that you stand on the side that concludes that an allegation from a woman - even one sorely lacking evidence - is enough to ruin a man. It matters not that he is a nominee for the Supreme Court. It could be any man.
Far leftists are redefining the proof of guilt standard so that now, it merely requires a woman to make an allegation and the man must be deemed guilty (and those not willing to accept this guilt premise face harsh punishment professionally and personally).
Everyday I believe more and more that we are doomed as a country as far left politics and conservative values (which do not include abuse of women or of ANYone for that matter) will never be reconciled.
Bob, I wish you would stick to music where you truly excel.
Politics put you at odds with huge numbers of people who are not connected to the Hollywood scene.
Ray Valencia
__________________________________________
Bob, that is just a bullshit ignorant POS statement. Everybody does not know that. Bad actors come from all walks of life. I went to a private Quaker all boys (at that time) prep school in Philly. William Penn Charter, one of the oldest in the country. We drank, and we partied, but we respected women more than my public school friends.
Senior, year I had an English teacher, Edward Shakespeare. You can google his obit. He was the best teacher of all the teachers I had from K through college.
If any of Ted's students ever submitted a paper starting with an "Everybody knows" in the context you chose to lead with here, there would be a big red F on the top of page one.
Our headmaster, Dr. John F. Gummere, wrote the Latin books used by every school in America where Latin was taught at the time. This man got Penn Charter grads into the finest colleges in the country in huge numbers. None in my class, the class before me or after we're ever guided to even apply apply to Middlebury. Your alma mater is nothing more than a Colby or Bowdoin...with a ski hill.
I went to school in New England too, know a lot of alums from many schools in the region. Trust me, I know Middlebury has turned out too many heads up their ass low self esteem under-achievers who loved to ski first and barely focus on academics.
Your writing skills and conventions suck in a most unsophisticated and unprofessional way.
Regards,
Charlie Williams
Deerfield, Illinois
__________________________________________
This is where we intersect. I come from the non prep school world. Shit, I didn't make it out of college. But I know who those people are, the prep school world, it's all about the relationship and the connection. For me, it was always about the work. And that's how It should be, about the work.
Nice post,
fritzdoddy
__________________________________________
You should take this one back. Says more about Lefsetz than prep schoolers.
Jim Edmonston
__________________________________________
Excellent assessment. The converted, to whom you preach (eg, me) will
certainly get it. I fear that the rest are just fodder for the machine.
You try to fit in, assuming that in order to exercise power you have to
gain the respect of those who already have it, and sooner or later you
realize that you are the source of their social power, and at the
donor/mover/shaker level the social power is what drives everything
else. But you're not driving the bus.
When I finally figured this out, I decided to never run for office,
resign from the country club, and simply enjoy life.
Best,
Darryl Mattison
__________________________________________
This is F'n ridiculous. My god, you categorize millions of prep school graduates into a generalization, in order to take a veiled swipe at Kavanaugh?
C'mon, you're better than that. I view the preparers as your target audience for god sake. And no, I'm not one myself.
Greg Badger
__________________________________________
Dear Bob –
I'm so overwhelmed with anger right now. I'm so disgusted by the membership of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Republican party. They are completely tone deaf to the national dialogue about #metoo and the years of abuse every woman who has ever been: a student; a laborer; to a garage to get their car fixed; to a bar to order a drink; ever tried to practice law or exercise a modicum of agency has endured since the beginning of time.
I know, somewhere deep in my heart, that not all men are privileged pigs. But right now, the leadership of our country screams out a different reality. Right now, our country is led by an outspoken misogynist and habitual sexual offender. And the open seat on the Supreme court is being offered to a man who repeatedly abused women. And you're right; maybe he doesn't even understand, maybe it doesn't even register that the way he treated women at a party was harmful. Because he was never called to account for his behavior during his formative years.
So every woman who has been subjected to this type of treatment MUST exercise their voice and call their Senator's office. The Senate is the judge and jury of this man's appointment. An appointment for life where he will not be held democratically accountable. And, as you know, I preach to my students that we are not helpless or tied to the whipping post or without agency. That we, collectively, have the power to change the power dynamics in Washington. But I have to tell you, watching this body of OLD conservative white men, who were clearly raised to believe that women are inferior and as a function of their gender incapable of agency or action, I am so incensed that I am physically ill today.
IT IS UNCONSCIONABLE THAT KAVANAUGH IS STILL THE NOMINEE! IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SO DECREPID AND ILL-SUITED FOR GOVERNANCE THAT WHAT THEY OFFER UP FOR LEADERSHIP IS TRUMP AND KAVANAUGH? ARE THERE NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES? DISGUSTING AND DISAPPOINTING.
Carrie Elizabeth Russell
Greg Dennis
P.S. One other thing I remember is that based largely on New Faces, a group of guys in our class created the TBG's designation – "Those Beautiful Girls." Of course all those girls were preppies.
I liked your post. You were obviously way of head of me freshman year. I was so stupid that I didn't even realize all the advantages those preppies had.
I never did figure out that I could ask for an extension.
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Sounds like resentment to me. You seem to have learned a lot from the preps that helped you through life. However, due to the fact that they came from money, and you didn't, you harbor resentment towards them for being better equipped financially, mentally, and emotionally, in your opinion.
I am one of those preps who enjoyed all that that upbringing has to offer. Went to boarding school and gained from the experience. That carried on through college. Then into "the real world".
Yes, we are "skittish" to outsiders. We don't offer up looks into our home life like some reality celebrity looking for constant validation. We don't seek it out in the general public. We don't need to do that. We already have it in the circles that matter to where we want to go in life. And you resent those who have what you so desperately would love to have had as well.
So out of resentment and jealousy, you cast judgement on someone because he is a "prep" and grew up in a more affluent household than yours, with more opportunities afforded to him than you, seemingly.
Weak people blame others for their shortcomings in life. Weak people harbor general opinion on people based on their general background. Bigotry.
Sean Dookie
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Dude, you nailed that one.
I sent my kids to private school, it's a long story and a boring one. But one of them went to a Long Island Gold Coast school with many waspy families.
There was definitely a sense of estrangement from the hoi polloi and a sense of entitlement they exhibited when I would get together with them at certain functions. I always felt like an outsider. Because I was.
I didn't really care that much, but they do indeed live in a rarefied atmosphere.
Rik Shafer
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Well said, Bob. If you think it's bad in the US, you should try dealing with the Public (private) schoolboys that run (ruin) this country as if by Divine Right.
Best
Adam Blake
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The US prep school system is largely predicated on the UK prep and 'public' (ie private as opposed to State) school system, which is about maintaining (and defending) privilege.
I am a product thereof. And you are dead right, spot on.
Simon Bailey
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Idiotstick!!
Matt Alan
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BULLSEYE!!!
DOUG COLLETTE
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As an aside to your remarks re: prep school: My parents sent me to New Hampton School in New Hampton NH. Today it's coed, back then it was 250 boys basically imprisoned in a valley in the middle of nowhere. Apart from bussing some girls in from nearby St Mary's School for occasional Saturday night dances, there was absolutely no contact with the opposite sex. The lack of females produced "entitled" graduates whose social development had been severely retarded. No clue how to behave in mixed company. A trainload of boneheads starting from scratch at 18.
lanningpaul
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Bob - love your stuff but not buying it on this one; its one sweeping generalization and it's too easy.
This same type of argument has been made about Jewish people for example and the tribe for a long time; which says "you're a club and you're all the same".
Either way - I don't buy it. In life some are and some are not, and a lot in between.
Edward COLE
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There is no evidence to support her claims and no crime report. No dice. He will be confirmed.
Chris M.
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To follow this flawed logic suggest we should not consider any of the graduates of these institutions to government positions. It also suggest that all people that are born in a certain part of Chicago or LA will end up in prison.
John M. Foley
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I did four years by the beach in Newport Rhode Island at a now rather infamous prep school. You know of what you speak regarding quiet rule bending and always follow the legacy kids , they are really entitled .A few of my classmates in 1974 went to Middlebury. I always thought a small private college was like four more years of the same , I went to a state university to get some perspective, glad I did .
Gerry
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This is a very big generalization of all "prep school" kids which I find very wrong. You don't mention the prep school kids that are on tuition and learn all of the negative things below about the entitled group they are a part of and work hard to change it. Or the wealthy prep school kid who also recognizes the negatives you describe below and use their resources to bring awareness to his community and bring his community closer to the rest of the country. Yes there are more negatives than positives but I think such a generalization from you gots against what you normally preach in your attempt to go after Kavanaugh. I personally think Kavanaugh did it, but I don't think it's a prep school vs non prep school problem.
Jason Roth
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Went to Georgetown in the 80s from a decent academic school on Staten Island, and yet, the culture shock of the entitled prep school kids was severe. I was white. I was an athlete. I was male. And I wasn't poor by any stretch. And yet. Everything you say, 100% true.
Neil Donahue
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Always enjoying your writing. I went to an all boys prep school on the west coast a generation before Kavanaugh. We preppies like to think of our old school as the west coast Exeter. I came from a small, middle class Southern California town in North San Diego County. I knew nothing about privilege or money when I was abruptly sent away to boarding school, but boy I sure did by the time I graduated. Those to the manor born were indeed the most cruel, entitled and knowledgeable. I was so naive and at a social and economic disadvantage. Some great friendships made there, but good lord I learned to be careful.
Good lord.
William Kevin Anderson
Anderson Scores, Inc.
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hi bob,
to paraphrase president jimmy carter:
in america, there are the protected and the unprotected.
marvin etzioni
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No question about what you say. My story? Living in Georgetown, I transferred to Sidwell Friends in Washington D.C. to attend high school. The question of wealth was really not the whole story. In D.C. it always has been and remains, about power My best friend and neighbor at the time was Larry O'Brien Jr. who went to Georgtown Prep. Larry Sr. was JFK's chief of staff and he arranged summer intern jobs for both of us after our freshman year. His father being of the old Boston Irish mold made a teachable moment out of it by making sure he was assigned to the Dept. of Interior, ugh... I got the mailroom at the White House (bingo, some great stories there). But at school, I was an outsider. Most of the kids had been together since kindergarten. They were the offspring of cabinet members, senators, agency directors etc. Trisha Nixon was 3 mos. younger than me and I graduated in '63, but she didn't graduate until '68 (at 22?), she was notoriously dense but that's ridiculous. I guess when your Dad is running for president, entitlement is the name of the game. My step father was a lowly chief of psychiatric research at NIMH (he took acid with Tim Leary at a military base when the army was still looking at how it might be weaponized) so I certainly didn't fit the profile.
It was a different time and so the issue of privilege, for us, did not extend to breaking the rules. A handful of couples had sex and that was a huge deal for a private Quaker school. But by age 16 most kids were driving to school in Corvettes and big convertibles. Our family had just the one car, a VW micro bus. Still, the point remains that even though some of us had to work harder there was no question about who got a pass and why. As most of these kids knew from birth and the rest of us learned with time, opportunity is about privilege and who you know. There are no limits to entitlement and it is disturbing but totally realistic to assume that over the decades that followed, this milieu became unquestionably capable of hideous behavior. Even my alma mater had a scandal of sexual assault just before the Obama girls began attending.
Given Kavanaugh's age, that pretty much puts him a ground zero...that moment when the guilded young of the elite began to feel that the rules no longer applied to them. They could do whatever they felt like doing, with impunity. Georgetown Prep, much like Harvard-Westlake in L.A., was notorious even then.
John Brodey
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I am 71 and a product of the prep school system, West Coast version, which is less WASPy than the East Coast but otherwise similar. I went to Town School in San Francisco, where plenty of my classmates went to Groton and St. Paul's, Lowell High, which might as well have been a private school, and San Rafael Military Academy, a prep school with rifles.
Put a bunch of teenage boys together with minimal adult supervision and not only are they beastly to outsiders like girls, they're beastly to each other. These behaviors were, I believe, milder in the 50s and early 60s but they were there in spades. We drank, smoked, and tried to get over on girls whenever we could. All boy schools amplify this sort of thing because there's only positive reinforcement, and you can't control anything with positive feedback. The adults aren't around enough to stop these behaviors.
Fortunately I took a left turn after high school and went into the rock and roll world but plenty of my classmates, most in fact, stayed on the privilege track and so did their children and grand children.
And Brett Kavanough is the result.
Phil Brown
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Thanks Bob.Growing up in Fairfield county is a little different than elsewhere.It's hard for some people to understand.You can think that you're doing well in business or life,then you find out who is REALLY doing well.Hope you're doing REALLY well.Have a great day,Ted Keane
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This might be the dumbest post you have ever published. And that's saying something.
Charlie Gaylord
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Hi Bob
100% correct. Virginia Episcopal School class of '85.
Dave Richards
14 Hits
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I went to Campbell Hall. Place was a sh*thole of right wing indoctrination -
Michael Olsen
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Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Wow
Maybe the funniest delusion yet
AJP
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Wow. You lost me on this one, Bob.
So every white person is racist? And every German hates Jews?
I don't know about Kavanaugh... but I think you're making some pretty big assumptions.
Caroline Lindsey
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"They were much better read than us?" Come on, Bob. You surely know it's "they were much better read than we (were.)" Us receives the action, we performs the action.
I'll tell you one thing, though. It's the people you meet getting KICKED OUT OF prep school that are the most fun. The dealer in the city who sells you your pot, the tough kids in your neighborhood that suddenly think you could be worth something after all, the girls who are suddenly interested in you, where they weren't before. "Wait, he's from a good family AND got kicked out of a private school?" Those were the relationships that taught me the most, not the Hunts, Hartfords and Gettys I left behind in the private school. When I was sent off to a private boarding school, I thought the rich kids ( I was on an arts scholarship) would be so boring. But it turned out they were hellions! They always had booze hidden somewhere, smoking cigs at every opportunity, got A's on term papers, thanks to Dexedrine. Taught me a so much in the way of chicanery and mischief. The only sad part was how unhappy some of them were. One very wealthy kid was visited on parents day by the chauffeur, since his Dad was too busy chasing ingenues in the city. Be that as it may, it isn't fair to paint all us private school kids with the same brush. Some of my schoolmates went on to do great good for those who had less than they. People change between being a freshman in high school and being an adult, and that fact looms largely in the issues surrounding us this week.
Hey, did you read the ink I got in the NY Times?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/summer-in-the-city-lovin-spoonful-soundtrack-for-city-summer.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmusic&action=click&contentCollection=music®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront
Not all of us were narcissistic nutjobs, Bob.
Best,
Mark Sebastian
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Couldn't agree more Bob,
It was a big part of my thinking as a kid when I turned down a sports scholarship to a prestigious college back east, same one our dear leader went to...
I had contact w that world thru sports and the shocker to me back then was the rampant cheating. All of them. Like a pack. Defended and cheated for each other. It was impossible to beat them one on one as the other members of their team had to judge while not competing.
It was crushing as a kid from brooklyn to go up against ivy leaguers and maybe win on talent but loose over and over on lack of connections... Your 100% right it truly does exist. That's how you get Wall Street, all these criminals went to our best colleges, what made so many of them feel above the law?? You describe it perfectly.
For me,
It Didn't make me want to join at all. It's what I went into the arts, my true love.
But those people.
Same ones I bartender to in downtown NYC in the 80's when they came out slumming after days of insider trading on wall st.
Fucking Gross.
Frat boys.
Sorry all you frat alumni, But nuff said.
David Sardy
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Bob,
Wow, I usually agree with you, but for you to accuse and convict an entire group of people is antithetical and below your usual standards of intelligence. Just because kids (KIDS! teenagers!) are sent to preparatory schools does not indicate that they will develop criminal behavior.
I was sent to a high school prep which now costs about $40,000 per year. I am in my late fifties. Of everybody who attended with me, the vast majority are plugging along just as everyone else working towards retirement. Most went to college. A couple became doctors, a couple became lawyers, a few earned MBAs or other post-graduate degrees, a few became teachers or public servants. Some become drug addicts. In short, my classmates became the entire gamut of "average" Americans. In fact, my classmates represent America equally to what my children and their classmates have aspired towards. The only thing most preppies have over many public school kids is that they know that they might not have to save for retirement, that at some point they will inherit some money from their folks.
So for you to disparage and accuse an entire class of people based on where they went to school simply demonstrates your biases, prejudices and inflexible mind.
And IMHO for the vast majority of kids, prep school is an immense waste of money...as is undergraduate degrees in non hard science majors. But as parents we want to give our kids the "best" and opportunities to find their own path/love in life.
Matt Grandi
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Public High School in the city to "top of the heap" exclusive private college in the mid 80's...
Excitedly thinking my mind would be culturally expanded, only to find that the kids I'm now surrounded by from the Prep schools I'd always revered were typically entitled myopic no nothing racist dipshits. Worst part was a decent percentage of the profs & admin were simply just older versions. Yes, it was "baked in" and mind numbingly depressing.
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"Because they believe that whatever happens, you deserve it, wether it's being born into wealth or getting raped. But then again women are never raped unless it's been done by someone from a lower class, when the wealthy are slumming the women are asking for it. Because first and foremost they really do think that they are better than everyone else, no matter what people say about our classless society."
What bothers me the most is that the founding fathers attempted to eliminate this economic royalty using things like the estate tax so some idiot son would have to make it on his own merit and not the millions amassed by his parents and grandparents, and they wrote much more about this than guns. Keep up the good work, regards Chris
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Hmmm, sounds like I'm hearing my own experiences! Right on!
Edward Kaplan
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I went to a relatively new school in Washington state during my middle and high school years. It was all boys then and the kids were almost all from some of the wealthiest families in the area. There were 27 in my graduating class of '68.
Your descriptions of how wealth and privlage put you in a different universe is spot on.
I came from a middle class family that struggled to pay my tuition every year. I worked summers starting when I was 13 to help pay my way.
I never fit in with my classmates. I was seen as an outsider, which I was. I never did the vacations in Hawaii or Christmas in Vail. We couldn't afford it.
Being an outsider gives you a chance to observe how the elite lived. Can I imagine a kid like Kavenaugh doing what he's been accused of? Absolutely. Of course it needs to be proven but to say flat out that he wasn't capable of such behavior? Hardly. That's why I always thought of my classmates as the untouchables. Wealth, power and status changes everything, especially when you are a white teenage boy in America.
Burke Long
You got the vibe right. (I once heard it described as "superiority that is assumed but never expressed.") But you're maybe a bit too broad brush.
I went to Bowdoin — Same thing as Middlebury, only it's Maine. — and was part of the 45% you describe. I admit to being fairly skilled at securing extensions on term papers but don't recall ever ripping off the Pepsi machine. The truth is that most prep school kids don't end up at Middlebury or Dartmouth. And some prep schools are highly supervised places.
Another thing: the really, really smart kids at the Ivies (and the Middleburys) are usually the public school kids. For sure, the "St. Grottlesex" kids are smart, but to your point, they've also been "prepped" on how to appear so.
There is a self-reliance thing that happens at prep school. For example, you learn how to get another day out of a shirt. You learn how to put a meal together from a Kwik Mart. You learn how to function without Mommy on the scene. (And Mommy could sure stand to back off a bit these days.)
And all this self-reliance contributes mightily to a subject near and dear to the hearts of all Lefsetz readers: Rock & Roll. While prep school alums account for only a mili-fraction of 1% of all high school graduates, here's a short list of those who have more than made their marks: James Taylor, Joe Perry, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Huey Lewis, Bob Weir, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Natalie Cole, Adam Durwitz, Rufus Wainwright, Duncan Sheik, Trey Anastasio, Tom Rush, Tracy Chapman, David Crosby, Will Sheff, Townes Van Zandt, and on.
Now some of those folks will deny or assign their prep school experience no value in their success. Even better.
Onward, Malcolm Gauld
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Hi Bob, another spot on column. I went to La Jolla High school in 60-62. It was a public school but drew kids from some of the wealthiest families in the country. In 1958 some magazine reported La Jolla had by far the most millionaires by population in the country, 158. After every Christmas vacation the campus parking lot where students parked would reveal new corvettes, and other sports cars the rich kids got as Christmas presents. But unlike the east coast you write about so knowingly, La Jolla High in hindsight was surprisingly egalitarian socially. The campus was walking distance from one of the best surfing beaches in the world, Windansea. The beach culture,good surfers, and good athletes and good looking kids ruled the school, and money was secondary. Many of La Jolla's middle class alumni went from cheerleaders to the movies, Raquel (Tejada) Welch, Robin Wright, and two beauties from my time, Sally Vining and Linda Opie were dancing in bikinis in all the Beach Party movies. An old high school friend of mine who transfered to La Jolla High, described his previous , pricey , prep school as "a bunch of crumbs held together by their dough". alan segal san diego
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The child sex ring run by priests and cops in Baltimore, noted in The Keepers, had elite "customers." Entitled prepies for sure. That's why the FBI won't release over 4000 pages of investigative material from the 1970's. That cover up included the murder of at least four women, still unsolved to this day. Look at who the mayor of Baltimore was and his relation to Congress. Still in power all these years. Yes. They keep their secrets. Recall the $40 million secret fund to pay off accusers who where victims of Congressmen. Imagine the measures back in the 70's.
So, where is the outrage for the sake of a hundred violated high school girls from the 70'?
J Kauchick
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Bob, You really need to get over the "prep school" ( Ivy League as well) is an edge to opportunity notion. While being "connected" by adolescence may seem critical to career path success, there are millions of exceptions and plenty of successful "commoners" who didn't need any introductions to the upward mobility class. It's really an "east coast" thing.
The key to success is not " who you know", it's "what you are willing to do" (what effort to grow in experience and competence) that makes the difference in outcomes. Are you curious? Are you able to assess the playing field of opportunity? Do you have grit?
I too, attended a college occupied by a large segment of east coast preppies. They were clearly different than me, and while initially " attractive " because of their apparent confidence, it didn't take long to see through it and realize that the lack of parental love and attention had left a deficit in character and commitment to quality friendships. In my adult life, no preppie played any role in my upward trajectory. Same goes for the fraternity guys; no meaningful outcomes in my life have come from seeking membership in any group or club. If anything, I am delighted in being an "outsider" and watching in mild pleasure as many of these folks agonize over decisions that are impacted by the forces of " what others will think" vs. what's really good for me my well being. Don't waste you time and emotions on "envy", these folks got nothing to covet.
Thomas Geimer
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Not surprised to read that you stand on the side that concludes that an allegation from a woman - even one sorely lacking evidence - is enough to ruin a man. It matters not that he is a nominee for the Supreme Court. It could be any man.
Far leftists are redefining the proof of guilt standard so that now, it merely requires a woman to make an allegation and the man must be deemed guilty (and those not willing to accept this guilt premise face harsh punishment professionally and personally).
Everyday I believe more and more that we are doomed as a country as far left politics and conservative values (which do not include abuse of women or of ANYone for that matter) will never be reconciled.
Bob, I wish you would stick to music where you truly excel.
Politics put you at odds with huge numbers of people who are not connected to the Hollywood scene.
Ray Valencia
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Bob, that is just a bullshit ignorant POS statement. Everybody does not know that. Bad actors come from all walks of life. I went to a private Quaker all boys (at that time) prep school in Philly. William Penn Charter, one of the oldest in the country. We drank, and we partied, but we respected women more than my public school friends.
Senior, year I had an English teacher, Edward Shakespeare. You can google his obit. He was the best teacher of all the teachers I had from K through college.
If any of Ted's students ever submitted a paper starting with an "Everybody knows" in the context you chose to lead with here, there would be a big red F on the top of page one.
Our headmaster, Dr. John F. Gummere, wrote the Latin books used by every school in America where Latin was taught at the time. This man got Penn Charter grads into the finest colleges in the country in huge numbers. None in my class, the class before me or after we're ever guided to even apply apply to Middlebury. Your alma mater is nothing more than a Colby or Bowdoin...with a ski hill.
I went to school in New England too, know a lot of alums from many schools in the region. Trust me, I know Middlebury has turned out too many heads up their ass low self esteem under-achievers who loved to ski first and barely focus on academics.
Your writing skills and conventions suck in a most unsophisticated and unprofessional way.
Regards,
Charlie Williams
Deerfield, Illinois
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This is where we intersect. I come from the non prep school world. Shit, I didn't make it out of college. But I know who those people are, the prep school world, it's all about the relationship and the connection. For me, it was always about the work. And that's how It should be, about the work.
Nice post,
fritzdoddy
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You should take this one back. Says more about Lefsetz than prep schoolers.
Jim Edmonston
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Excellent assessment. The converted, to whom you preach (eg, me) will
certainly get it. I fear that the rest are just fodder for the machine.
You try to fit in, assuming that in order to exercise power you have to
gain the respect of those who already have it, and sooner or later you
realize that you are the source of their social power, and at the
donor/mover/shaker level the social power is what drives everything
else. But you're not driving the bus.
When I finally figured this out, I decided to never run for office,
resign from the country club, and simply enjoy life.
Best,
Darryl Mattison
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This is F'n ridiculous. My god, you categorize millions of prep school graduates into a generalization, in order to take a veiled swipe at Kavanaugh?
C'mon, you're better than that. I view the preparers as your target audience for god sake. And no, I'm not one myself.
Greg Badger
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Dear Bob –
I'm so overwhelmed with anger right now. I'm so disgusted by the membership of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Republican party. They are completely tone deaf to the national dialogue about #metoo and the years of abuse every woman who has ever been: a student; a laborer; to a garage to get their car fixed; to a bar to order a drink; ever tried to practice law or exercise a modicum of agency has endured since the beginning of time.
I know, somewhere deep in my heart, that not all men are privileged pigs. But right now, the leadership of our country screams out a different reality. Right now, our country is led by an outspoken misogynist and habitual sexual offender. And the open seat on the Supreme court is being offered to a man who repeatedly abused women. And you're right; maybe he doesn't even understand, maybe it doesn't even register that the way he treated women at a party was harmful. Because he was never called to account for his behavior during his formative years.
So every woman who has been subjected to this type of treatment MUST exercise their voice and call their Senator's office. The Senate is the judge and jury of this man's appointment. An appointment for life where he will not be held democratically accountable. And, as you know, I preach to my students that we are not helpless or tied to the whipping post or without agency. That we, collectively, have the power to change the power dynamics in Washington. But I have to tell you, watching this body of OLD conservative white men, who were clearly raised to believe that women are inferior and as a function of their gender incapable of agency or action, I am so incensed that I am physically ill today.
IT IS UNCONSCIONABLE THAT KAVANAUGH IS STILL THE NOMINEE! IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SO DECREPID AND ILL-SUITED FOR GOVERNANCE THAT WHAT THEY OFFER UP FOR LEADERSHIP IS TRUMP AND KAVANAUGH? ARE THERE NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES? DISGUSTING AND DISAPPOINTING.
Carrie Elizabeth Russell
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