Quote of the Day (James Thurber, on Gym, A Horror of His College Experience)

“If I went through anguish in botany and economics – for different reasons – gymnasium work was even worse. I don’t even like to think about it. They wouldn’t let you plays games or join in the exercises with your glasses on and I couldn’t see with mine off. I bumped into professors, horizontal bars, agricultural students, and swinging iron rings…. In order to pass gymnasium (and you had to pass it to graduate) I had to pass a swimming test. I did not like swimming and the swimming instructor, and after all these years I still don’t. I never swam but I passed my gym work anyway, by having another student give my gymnasium number (978) and swam across the pool in my place….Another thing I didn't like about gymnasium work was that they made you strip the day you registered. It is impossible for me to be happy when I am stripped and being asked a lot of questions.”—American humorist James Thurber (1894-1961), “University Days,” in My Life and Hard Times (1933)

This Day in Media History (Marguerite Higgins, First Woman to Win Pulitzer for International Reporting, Born)

Sept. 3, 1920—Marguerite Higgins, who overcame the rampant sexism of her time and profession to become the first female winner of the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting, was born in Hong Kong, in the Asia-Pacific Rim where she would establish much of her reputation.

In the Library of America anthology Reporting World War II, Higgins was the last by birth among the approximately 80 writers represented. A day shy of 25 when Japan formally surrendered, she reported on some of the major stories coming out of the latest six months of the European conflict: the refugee crisis and the liberation of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.

These would have been great scoops for any reporter. They were extraordinary for a recent graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and a woman in an unrelieved, unapologetic masculine environment.

But it was in Asia—specifically, in Korea and Vietnam—where Higgins advanced closer to achieving her stated post-collegiate goal of becoming more famous than Dorothy Thompson, perhaps the most influential female journalist of the day. How she moved towards her goal has made her the subject of speculation and even controversy ever since.

Stationed in Tokyo as the New York Herald Tribune’s Bureau Chief, Higgins was ideally situated to cover the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in 1950. Despite her credentials as a war correspondent in WWII, she was initially ordered out of the country by Gen. Walton Walker.

Only a direct appeal to Douglas MacArthur, who had become Commander in Chief of the United Nations Command in Korea, enabled her to report on the conflict. She joined MacArthur's troops on the daring invasion at Inchon that, for a time, changed the direction of the war. In fact, she was the only female reporter to land on Red Beach (“a rough, vertical pile of stones”) with the men.

The Pulitzer Prize committee cited Higgins’ "enterprise and courage" in her coverage of the campaign, noting that she deserved "special consideration by reason of being a woman." But even as she was winning a new level of renown, she was stirring animosity among the largely male cadre of war correspondents that would dog her even beyond her early death.

Thousands of readers were amazed at how Higgins smashed through conventions that restricted women’s chances for achievement; a smaller cadre of colleagues were disgruntled at how they believed she ignored traditional ethical codes in pursuit of her laurels. It is still not easy sorting through these issues more than a half-century after her death.

While displaying outward bravado, Higgins was inwardly driven by an insecurity so unrelenting that it manifested itself as bravery so extreme that some males believe it shaded into foolhardiness. (Among them was Herald Tribune colleague Homer Bigart, who, like Gen. Walker, wanted her out of the country--leading not just to heightened competition between the two journalists but also to a closely watched feud between the two.) 

Such aggressiveness might be taken for granted among male reporters but were eyed critically when exhibited by females—and led to speculation that Higgins was not above stealing colleagues’ scoops.

Another serious charge against her arose from her good looks. Anyone glimpsing the stunning blonde in the attached photo might be forgiven for thinking that Betty Grable or even Marilyn Monroe had suddenly morphed into a top-flight journalist.

Those same people were often convinced that someone that glamorous could not have succeeded through her own efforts, but by sleeping with important men to further her career. 

In the process, these critics ignored factors that facilitated her work—knowledge of French and Chinese; extraordinary sympathy and compassion for young soldiers that sealed their bond with her; and willingness to endure extreme discomfort and danger.

(Ironically, when particularly obsessed with a story, Higgins was so oblivious to how she looked that she neglected to clean her face.)

Opinion remains divided to what extent those charges were true. But, if ruthlessness in pursuing scoops and straying outside traditional sexual norms are to be assessed, many if not most of Higgins’ male rivals would be as guilty as she.

A third charge against Higgins is more troubling: that, through personal associations and ideological preconceptions, she abandoned objectivity in her reporting on the early days of the Vietnam War. 

In 1963, younger reporters such as David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan were making plain in their dispatches that South Vietnamese forces were collapsing in the Mekong Delta. Based on her high-ranking military sources, Higgins disagreed strongly, airing their view that the Viet Cong were being progressively crushed. Any problem in Southeast Asia had resulted from journalists accepting at face value the notion that Buddhists in Vietnam were being oppressed by President Ngo Dinh Diem's "Catholic-dominated government":

"In the fall of 1963 Washington went into the business of hiring and firing governments,” Higgins charged in Our Vietnam Nightmare. “We not only forgot the one overriding priority, the war effort, but also, for the first time in history, conspired in the ouster of an ally in the middle of a common war against the Communist enemy, thus plunging the country and the war effort into a steep spiral of decline."

Higgins was ill-prepared to examine the reality of Vietnam dispassionately. In 1947, she had witnessed how Communists employed deception in taking over Poland. Friendly with both Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, she had adopted their view of the need to counter Soviet aggression. And, in 1952, she had married William Evens Hall, an Air Force Lt. General.

Vietnam undermined the credibility of a fellow journalist who accepted the government line, columnist Joe Alsop. Long before that happened, a tropical disease contracted in that country led to Higgins’ death in 1966 at age 45. She is one of a handful of war correspondents buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

During her lifetime, Americans became very familiar with the sight of Higgins—in well-attended lectures, her book covers (War in Korea: The Report of a Woman Combat Correspondent and News is a Singular Thing), and TV appearances (in 1956, the quiz show What’s My Line?). 

Though her celebrity has faded, her face and story have still attracted enough posthumous attention to land her on a postage stamp (in 2002) and have made her the best-known character in a little-noticed film about the early days of the Korean War last year, The Battle of Jangsari.

I have not yet seen that movie, but in a sense its most famous cast member, Megan Fox, should be able to identify intensely with Higgins. In both women’s cases, men were so besotted by their looks that they sometimes had a difficult time taking their drive and work seriously. Time will tell how well Fox counteracts that perception.

Quote of the Day (Pat Jordan, on What Made Tom Terrific)

“Some pitchers are pit bulls for a batter, an inning, a stretch of innings, a game, even a season. Tom Seaver was a pit bull on every pitch, every batter, every out, every inning, every game, every season for twenty years until he retired at forty-two. The depth of his concentration was unparalleled in the game of baseball.”—American sportswriter (and former minor league pitcher) Pat Jordan, Tom Seaver and Me (2020)

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver died Monday at age 75 of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19. But in my mind’s eye—and, I suspect, for many others—the Mets great will forever be 25, leading a team with a reputation as lovable losers to a world championship on the strength of his right arm, keen intelligence and iron will, in a troubled era when New York City needed something and somebody to cheer about.

For all that, “The Franchise” won the hearts of Mets fans—and commanded the enduring respect of aficionados of every team in the major leagues.

Photo of the Day: The Battering of Small Business

Over the last decade or so, I’ve gotten used to small businesses posting closing notices in my hometown of Englewood, NJ. But this past week, the sight of three adjacent businesses with such signs was so stunning that it moved me to take this photograph.

What is happening in my community is being replicated on a wider scale across America now, as Congress flounders around deciding what to do, unable to figure out which components of the first round of massive aid rushed out this spring were most effective.

A front-page article in The New York Times today outlined the challenge being faced now: “The economic recovery that took hold in the spring is losing momentum. The fall will bring new challenges: Colder weather will curtail outdoor dining and other weather-dependent adaptations that helped businesses hang on in much of the country, and epidemiologists warn that the winter could bring a surge in coronavirus cases.”

Small businesses rightly fear what lies ahead. The Census Bureau reports that the share of small businesses who expect that it will take more than six months for business to return to normal has risen from about a third in late April to nearly half by the end of August. More frighteningly, about 5 percent now say they expect to close permanently in the next six months.

Democrats and Republicans diverge in how they view two of the principal programs to keep the economy afloat.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) experienced some pains in being rolled out, with a House oversight committee reporting Tuesday that thousands of its loans for small businesses impacted by COVID-10 were awarded improperly to firms that already had received a PPP loan or were barred from doing business with the federal government, according to Ledyard King and Nicholas Wu's reporting in USA Today.

Bludgeoned for years by the GOP about the “waste, fraud and abuse” of their own social programs, the Democrats have not been shy in criticizing the same fault in the Trump-administered PPPs. Moreover, they would like to limit the number of employees of firm recipients to be no more than 100, while Republicans on Capitol Hill want the cap to go up to 300 employees.

On the other hand, Republicans object that the now-lapsed $600 weekly supplement to state unemployment benefits acted as a disincentive to work. But it is increasingly apparent that the supplement boosted consumption enough to keep many marginal businesses from falling into the abyss.

The price of inadequately supporting small businesses will shortly be experienced in a way that will make lawmakers rue their squabbling.

For years, small businesses have been the greatest generator of U.S. job growth. In fact, small businesses account for nearly half of jobs in the private sector. They have created additional benefits, too, as they have:

*allowed thousands of Americans to work independently, encouraging this nation’s longtime ideal of self-reliance;

*acted as a necessary counterweight to large corporations with major national influence but few roots in local communities;

*enhanced community identity and cohesion;

*fostered family life through local jobs close to home;

*pump tax revenues into the community;

*required less maintenance and infrastructure.

Say goodbye to all that now. All those handouts with tips for running such enterprises will make no difference in the current environment without government aid.

Keep in mind this statistic: Even with the combined effects of the PPP loans, the $1,200 stimulus checks, the $600 weekly unemployment supplements and many states hastily rolling back lockdown restrictions, unemployment was still 10.2% in July. Without a COVID-19 vaccine, when does the administration and Congress expect business conditions to return to normal? Until that happens, how do they expect small businesses--the lifeblood of American communities--to survive?

Congress should put aside posturing and polarization to compromise on another aid package that will continue to buoy consumers—and the small businesses that depend on their patronage—or bear responsibility for the resulting long-term damage to institutions whose loss will leave this nation commercially and emotionally poorer.

Quote of the Day (Ella Wheeler Wilcox, on ‘The Firm Resolve of a Determined Soul’)

“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,

Can circumvent or hinder or control

The firm resolve of a determined soul,

Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;

All things give way before it, soon or late.”—American poet-journalist Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), “Will,” from Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1917)

Offhand, I’m not sure if I can think of an individual who better embodies the notion that “will alone is great” than Jackie Robinson (in the accompanying photo). Because of him, baseball’s longstanding “color line” gave way. It was a powerful example of how change in sports can make possible change in the larger society.

I can’t imagine the daily abuse Robinson took in his career and the psychic abuses he endured for his “firm resolve.” All the more reason, then, why he has come to be known as a hero.

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives," he once noted. His surely did.

Photo of the Day: Steeple of ‘Old North Church,’ Boston MA

Even without knowing it at first, I knew there was something important about this steeple when I saw it from a distance while I was in Boston 12 years ago this October.

Technically speaking, this is now the Episcopal Church’s Christ Church. But it is known to history as “Old North Church,” and if there’s a more famous steeple in American history or literature, I can’t think of one right now. I had to take this picture as soon as I became aware of it.

You know about it from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” with the memorable lines:

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch

Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,–

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

A plaque downstairs commemorates Revere and William Dawes, the other rider who alerted the countryside that, per the steeple signal, the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea across the Charles River and not by land.

The two men, unnamed in Longfellow’s poem, who actually climbed the steeple and held high the two lanterns were Old North Church’s sexton, Robert Newman, and vestryman, Capt. John Pulling, Jr.—men whose courage was all the more conspicuous because, as Patriots, they went against the prevailing Loyalist sentiment in the congregation.

Here I am, using the phrase “technically speaking” again—this was not the original steeple glimpsed by Revere. This is actually the third on this spot. The first, the one seen by Revere, was destroyed in the 1804 “Great Gale of Boston.” The second, built two years later, fell down into Hull Street in 1954 as a result of Hurricane Carol. (Luckily, the steeple was swaying so long that the neighborhood had enough time to be evacuated.)

The steeple you see now was rebuilt a year later, and made to look more like the one that Revere saw—only this time, with added steel reinforcements to safeguard against future storms. So far—God willing—it has held.

Quote of the Day (Jeffrey Ross, on Quentin Tarantino)

“You changed the face of cinema. I just wish cinema would return the favor.” —American stand-up comedian, writer, director and actor Jeffrey Ross, at a Dec. 1, 2010 Friars Club Roast of Oscar-winning writer-director Quentin Tarantino (pictured), quoted in Keith Staskiewicz, “Quentin Tarantino Gets Roasted,” Entertainment Weekly, Dec. 17, 2010

Thank God someone’s said it…

(Photograph of Quentin Tarantino taken by Pinguino at the 2007 Scream Awards, Oct. 19, 2007)