This Side of Seventy?

 

My very cool DC Birthday Cake

On June 25^th, I turned 70 years old.

The festivities began in Washington, DC with our family there the weekend of June 10^th (Coat of Arms).

My actual birthday fell on a Sunday this year and we celebrated over four days with family.  My aunt and uncle flew in from Boston.  It was their anniversary and we celebrated that.  My mother, aunt, and sister drove in from Detroit.  It was special having them here for the festivities.  There were like five other June birthdays.  We celebrated those as well.   We were at a Greek restaurant on Friday evening, at our house on Saturday night, at an Armenian Picnic in Wisconsin on Sunday, and on Monday we wrapped it Chicago style by gathering for dinner at Portillo’s. 

The relatives that could not be here all called me.  There were hundreds of texts, posts, and messages on social media.  I was overwhelmed and felt very blessed by the outpouring of well wishes and birthday greetings.

Thanks to everyone who reached out.  I greatly appreciate it.

The conception of this blog and the title of it, This Side of Fifty, is tied to my 50th birthday. 

I began writing on a daily basis on June 25, 2002 when I turned 49.  I expected to document my 50^th year with wit, humor, and wisdom.  The goal was to pen a best seller and become a full-time writer. 

That did not happen.  The writing only had scant moments of wit and humor.  As for wisdom?  I didn’t detect any.  Needless to say, there was no book.  But I got into the habit of writing each and every day.  I have enjoyed the daily writing and it has been most fulfilling.

In January 2003, I learned about Aram Kevorkian, a renowned lawyer in Paris, and his brilliant Kevorkian Newsletter.  Aram had passed on December 20, 2003.  A friend of mine who was a childhood friend of Aram’s, sent me a few examples of his Newsletter.  Immediately, I knew that this is what I was going to do with my writing.  I was going to write a monthly letter.  There was no intention to take over where Aram left off or no assumption that my monthly letter was going to measure up to his in terms of quality or intellect.  I just loved the idea of a monthly letter to friends and family.  The content and style of the letter was my own.  In my own way, I wanted to emulate and pay homage to Aram Kevorkian a fellow I wish I could have met.

A commuter friend of mine, with a good measure of marketing acumen, suggested the name of the letter - This Side of Fifty:  A Monthly Letter of Musings and Meanderings.  I sent the letter out by email on a monthly basis until January 2009, when I transformed the monthly letter into a blog.  I kept the name and subtitle even though it is no longer a letter and I post more than once a month.  I am in my 20^th year of musing and meandering.  It has been a most rewarding project.

When I turned 60, I thought that I might rename the blog as This Side of Sixty.  That thought lasted only a fast second.  There was no need for rebranding, and I was still on the same side of fifty after all anyway.  The same applies to turning 70; I am still on the same side of fifty.

Thanks again to one and all for the wonderful birthday wishes!

Memoirs

 

I know of at least four people, around my age, that have written or are currently writing their memoirs.  I have already read one of them and look forward to the second that is currently in production.

Memoirs… hmmm… is this a trend?

I Googled “boomers writing memoirs.”  There is some buzz about folks my age writing memoirs.  Most of the websites talking about it were vanity presses that all seemed to be encouraging the trend.  They provided tips on what to do, how to do, and what rabbit holes to avoid.  Mostly, the vanity presses were most certainly offering to help publish the memoirs of a generation.

Why not write a memoir? Recording one’s thoughts for some small familial audience is a good thing.  There is no doubt some satisfaction in recording one's special memories, people who were major influences, a nemesis here and there, career achievements, hobbies, dreams achieved, and those that weren’t quite realized.  There would be reflections on one’s parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, favorite teachers, and mentors.  How does one view their own life?

Photos?  Sure.  Black and white snapshots from our youth must be included.  Our high school graduation photos are also a must.  Work photos?  Awards and achievements?  College, wedding, children, their weddings, grandchildren photos?  Absolutely.  All of the above.

As memoirs are crafted and published, everyone can sing their own version of Sinatra’s “I did it my way.”  We are each unique snowflakes after all.

Here are some questions I would address and like to see how others respond and reflect on our times.

Were we hippies?  Hippie wannabes?  Defiant preppies during those weird and turbulent times?  Did we go to Vietnam or did fate, luck, or whatever you want to call have other plans for us.  How did we navigate the generation gap, the sexual revolution, and all the movements from civil rights and women’s rights to gay liberation?  Is our music really that much better as we all profess than any generation since or before?

Did we change as we aged?  Did we sell out and become the man?  Did we become the establishment accumulating more things than any generation that ever lived?  What do we think about the crazy political polarization?  Climate change? 

I did try to get my peers to reflect on these questions in a spinoff of this blog.  I called it, Songs to Aging Children in homage to Joni Mitchell.  The idea for this came from this blog piece:  Was it the Weirdest of Times? I was very excited and truly believed it could be something special with people writing their own stories, their min-memoirs.  Alas and alack, the project was still born.  Only two friends wrote their stories.  I was a little disappointed.  Truth be told, it failed because I had no real marketing plan, probably because I have no marketing acumen. 

It might have just been a premature idea.

After realizing the writing of memoirs by my generation has become a trend, I had a nanosecond of wondering if I was missing out.  Maybe I should be writing a memoir myself.  Then, there was a big resounding “duh” in my head and realized that at least a third of this blog I have been writing for twenty years is a memoir. 

Some Really Good Writing

      I read two pieces this week in the Wall Street Journal in which the writing really impressed me.  One was in the Saturday, June 17 paper, by Dan Neil the automotive critic in a weekly column called the Rumble Seat.  His article, Maserati Mounts a Comeback, Modestly.  The second article, Trump’s Indictment May Pull Us Back From the Brink, June 13^th was a June 13^th Op-Ed piece in a column titled Free Expression by Gerard Baker. 

At times, I get to think that I am a pretty good writer.  When I get too full of myself, the universe has ways of tempering the ego swell.  One certain way is to have a phone call with Ara.  He has a masterful, yet caring, way of bringing me down to earth or even lower.  Another sure fire way to deflate the ego balloon is to read masterful writers.

One that I read often is Dan Neil.  I try to read every one of his columns.  I find his reviews very entertaining.  His use of language is sophisticated and most impressive.  Here is an example from the review of the Maserati Grecale Modena.  In the paragraph before this one, he noted that the Grecale, a compact crossover, is the priciest in its class that includes “the Porsche Macan, Mercedes-Benz GLC and BMW X3, among others.”

Why, you may wonder? Call it the vowel tax. Just about everybody who comes this way has marveled at the weird stickiness of Maserati—a one-word tone poem, energized by those sizzling consonants. This phonetic pixie dust still casts a spell, despite decades of failed commerce. All most people know is that it sounds expensive. Maserati charges accordingly. 

 Neil deftly filets Maserati without any gore or blood.  The reason I am a devoted reader of his is because of gems like this.  I often read passages of his over a few times because they are so cleverly delicious or because it takes a few readings for me to fully process the subtle richness of his jabs or praise.  I tend to like the jabs more.

Neil has been an auto columnist since 1991.  He has been an auto critic for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Los Angeles Times, and now the Wall Street Journal.  He is the only auto columnist to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.  The Pulitzer folks made note of his “one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism.”

I am not nearly as devoted to Gerard Baker as I am to Neil.  He has been in the editorial ranks of the Wall Street Journal since 2009.  He was Editor in Chief from 2013-2018.  Since then, he has been an Editor at Large.  He is educated at Corpus Christi College of Oxford University.  Here is the paragraph that most impressed me from his column on Trump’s Indictment

If you perused Twitter, sampled a cross-section of our leading newspapers, or dipped randomly in and out of the ever-rising tower of Babel on cable, talk radio and podcasts in the past few days, you were given a vivid demonstration of the binary principle on which our political discourse now operates. You have the impression that approximately half the people of this country regard the federal indictment of Donald Trump as the greatest affirmation of republican democracy since the surrender at Appomattox, while the other half view it as the greatest abuse of power since George III tried to levy a stamp tax on his colonial subjects.

In my view, Baker brilliantly sums up, in one sentence, the polarization in our politics. 

Both these examples come from a daily, albeit international, newspaper.   I admire Journal’s coverage of the world of commerce.  As for the Op Eds, whether I agree or disagree with the views of the paper, it is always well written and thought provoking.

Worrying About America

Knight Foundation

     During the Great Recession, I had written a fair amount the “new normal” and how coming out of the recession the United States was going to be a different country.  By different, I meant something lesser.  If the 20^th Century was the American Century, I was saying that in the 21^st Century, which looked like it was going to be the Chinese Century, we would be more like the United Kingdom (the 19^th Century was theirs) or maybe even Spain or Italy.

I am not sure if that prophecy will manifest in terms of the countries, I thought we might evolve into.  I am sure that we are something lesser than we were.  At a minimum, we are something less than what i believed was our potential.

There are many reasons for this.  My go-to theory was that after World War II, we were the only major industrial country whose manufacturing infrastructure was still intact.  As a result, our economy thrived and the middle class grew and was living so well the idea of the American Dream became more of right than an idea.  The recession from those prosperous times began, in my little mind, with the civil unrest of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and the return to manufacturing competitiveness of Germany and Japan in the 60s and 70s.  Later in the 80s and 90s, we exported a lot of manufacturing to China.  The US is now a country the is polarized between the coastal states and the interior states, urban and rural areas, conservatives and progressives.  We furthermore are immersed in endless arguments about abortion, gender affirming health care of minors, and other issues that are mostly rooted in basic beliefs where one side will never convince the other to change their point of view.

There are theories floated around about us being manipulated by the deep state that just wants to control us or foreign governments that want to undermine our democracy.

As a result, the middle class was squeezed economically.  Through this all, we held on the American Dream.  The Great Recession and then Covid squeezed the middle class more to the point where in the polarized state where ex-presidents are being indicted and the Capital Building was stormed and breeched by a mob upset with results of the last presidential election. 

On the Trump arrest and arraignment for the document in the classified document case, Senator Ted Cruz stated:

I believe it was an abuse of power, and it continues the pattern of weaponizing the Department of Justice and the FBI that has been so brazen under the Biden administration. You know, in the history of our nation, 230 years, we have never seen one administration trying to prosecute and put in jail their predecessor. This has never happened. This is something that banana republics do. It’s something that dictatorships do. It’s not something that America does.

I am not a fan of Ted Cruz, but he is right when he talks about us behaving the way banana republics and dictatorships do.  He is right about weaponizing or politicizing institution government departments and institutions.  Both sides have weaponized governmental institutions.  Given our polarization, this precedent could easily become the norm when a President from the other party is elected.  If the Republics win in 2024, they will undoubtedly prosecute Hunter Biden and maybe Joe if they can make a connection.  It is a worrisome precedent we are starting. 

While we are not colluding or unified in these efforts, the result is that we are essentially working together to become something lesser.

A Coat of Arms

 

I had a project either for school or Cub Scouts way back when I was around 9 or 10 years old.  It was to create a coat of arms or family crest.  I was not really sure what to do.  I was not sure what to put on it.  I recall asking my Mother for ideas, she thought it was a exciting project and we ended it up doing it together.  Mom’s guidance was perfect and provided a great little lesson in family history and lore.   

She suggested we use the same shield as on the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) logo because of the importance of organization in our family. The AYF is where my parents met and fell in love.  We used a ruler and a pencil to create the shield which included three horizontal stripes to bear the red, blue, and orange of the Armenian flag thus hammering home the importance of our Armenian heritage.  Preparing that coat of arms was one of the seminal moment in my being tied to and proud of my Armenian heritage. 

Instead of swords or arms, we crossed a pen in an ink bottle with a shovel.  The shovel represented our farming past.  The last real farmer in the family was my Father’s maternal grandfather, Nishan Asoian, who had a farm in Andover, MA in a community with his wife’s, Elmas nee Loosigian, brothers.  The pen was for the family love of education and writing as exemplified by the aforementioned Nishan, my paternal grandfather Aram, and his brother Rouben.  We had Mount Ararat behind in the top part of the shield between the pen and the shovel.

I was proud of the work we did on that project.

Over the years, I am not sure what became of that Coat of Arms.  I thought I saved it but with the passage of time, I am not sure where it might be and have assumed that it is lost.  The memory of creating it and the impact that simple project on me as lasted.  I am very grateful for that which in retrospect is more important than the piece of paper.

This in itself could have sufficed as a blog post, but it only serves as background for this one.  At the time of this writing, my birthday is a week away.  It is a milestone birthday as it ends in a zero.  Given this is the twentieth year of writing This Side of Fifty, well, you can guess my age.

This past weekend, we were in Washington, DC visit my son, daughter in-law, and their three children, three of my five grandchildren.  We celebrated four birthdays:  Mine (June 25^th), my daughter in-law’s father (June 25^th), my eldest grandson (June 26^th), and my only granddaughter (June 27^th).  It is a very nice cluster of four birthdays, and it is always a joy to celebrate them together.  This year we did it two weeks early as it was the only time that fit all our schedules.

My son and daughter in-law presented me with a unique and most valued gift:  a new Coat of Arms.  They put it on note cards, table top flags, and a couple of banners.  It is perfect gift for me, and I greatly appreciate it.

There is a shield with an Armenian eternity symbol in the center.  The gears in the top quadrant represent my engineering background and career as well as my hometown, Detroit, the Motor City.  There is an oud in the bottom quadrant.  There is a pomegranate tree in the left quadrant, another symbol of fertility, abundance, and luck in our Armenian Heritage.  There is a book, a pen, and ruler in the right quadrant.  The pen because I write, the book represents my academic side and being a life-long learner, and the ruler is for my mathematics education.  To the left of the shield is the lion of Armenia.  Asiatic or Persian lions once inhabited Armenia and is one of our national symbols.  The flower is the Armenian Poppy (Papaver lateritium) which is native to the Armenian Highlands.  The other side of the shield is a Michigan Wolverine and the state flowers of the states I have lived in: Massachusetts, Michigan, Connecticut, and Illinois.  Above the shield is, of course, Ararat but as viewed from the West.  Below the shield is our name in a stylized Armenian script.

I couldn’t have asked or even conceived of a more meaningful and so very thoughtful gift.

I am feeling heraldic. 

Vegas Wins the Stanley Cup

     On May 25^th, I posted the following on Facebook:

It is 2023 and I have not fully processed that:

1. It is May 25th and I am watching the Stanly Cup Semi-Finals

2. The two teams in vying for the Cup are Dallas and Las Vegas

Just feeling my age.

It is now June 13^th, and I am watching Game 5 of the Finals.  It is the Las Vegas Golden Knights vs Florida Panthers.  They are playing in Las Vegas where it is 91 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hockey in mid-June.  Las Vegas vs Florida in the Stanley Cup finals.  The temperature is 91.

It is safe to say that the nineteen days since my Facebook post have not helped me fully process this phenomenon.  My mind is still in the days when there were only six teams in the NHL:  Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, Detroit, and Chicago.  If I think back to the 1965-66 season when I lived and died Red Wing Hockey, the regular season was only 70 games and four teams made the playoffs.  They had a semi-final and finals to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup.  The season began on October 25, 1965 and ended on May 5, 1966.  The playoffs were basically a month long from April 7^th to May 5^th.  Montreal beat my Red Wings 4-2 in games to win a second consecutive Stanley Cup Final. 

I remember the last few games of the Finals that year.  The commentators were concerned about the higher ambient temperature in the arena playing a bit of havoc with the quality of ice.  There was nary a word about the ice quality in tonight’s broadcast.  It is clear the arena HVAC and ice refrigeration technology has advanced quite nicely in 75 years.

This season, there are 32 teams in the league.  They play 82 games.  16 Teams make the playoffs.  The regular season began October 7, 2022 and ended on April 14, 2023.  The playoffs, which should conclude this evening, was two months long.

The first NHL expansion was in the 1967-68 season when the NHL doubled in size.  They added six teams:  Los Angeles, Oakland, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.  Eight teams made the playoff.  I did not like the expansion, and bear in mind that I was only 14 years old.  I didn’t like the change.  I liked the “original six” team league and all the tradition that went with it.  I clearly did not understand the business side of the sporting world.  It should be noted that I was equally unhappy with baseball free agency and the merging of the NFL and AFL.

These days, as I have mentioned in other posts, I tend to watch professional sports, if I watch it all, during the playoffs.  In baseball, basketball, and hockey, that is when you really see the highest quality and most spirited play.  The long regular season, in my view, is just to pay the bills and salaries.  I am happy with a really good one to two month season.

I knew nothing about the Las Vegas Golden Knights nor the Florida Panthers.  The only player I had even heard of was Matthew Tkachuk of Florida.  As good as he is, I might have confused him with his father Keith Tkachuk.  It mattered not, I watched all five games of the Finals and they did not disappoint.  The hockey was very good and most spirited.  Vegas dominated the series but Florida fought them every inch of the way.  Tonight, Vegas was on fire and jumped to a 6-1 lead, eventually winning 9-3.  Mark Stone, the Vegas captain, scored a hat trick himself.  His first goal was a shorthanded beauty to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.  Kelly McCrimmon, the GM of Vegas, played hockey at the University of Michigan and was captain in his senior year.

Just before presenting the trophies tonight, NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettmen, spoke about what a great hockey town Las Vegas is… given the enthusiasm of the fans inside and even more outside the arena, I am inclined to agree whether I have fully processed this or not.

Once the Toothpaste is Out of the Tube

 

Because of the Pandemic, many workers, the white collar workers that could, were forced to work from home.  It was a shock at first to be certain.  There were issues with parents who had to work and also had to manage their children and their remote chaos.  Slowly, chaos of the first days subsided, the children returned to in-person school, and workers invested in better and more comfortable home offices.  People got over the “zoom fatique,” appreciated not having to commute, and began to enjoy the new normal of working from home. 

As we have declared the Pandemic over, the workers that got used to working from home actually prefer to work from home.  As some corporate leaders are trying to get people back into the office, they are finding push back from their employees.  People have adjusted their lives and lifestyles around remote working.  We all know people who have moved to more scenic, rural, or lower cost of living locales because they can and still effectively do their jobs.

I remember in the last days of my corporate life in 2007 when I would be in our division president’s office with the VP of HR and our CFO for a morning meeting.  Now and then, we would look out his window over the parking lot and they would all comment on who was coming in at 8:30, 9:00, or even 9:30.  They thought people were slacking off if they weren’t at their desks right at 8.  They were adamantly against anyone working from home.  I once raised the notion, “Wouldn’t it be OK to work from home now and then if the work still got done?”  The reaction from the rest of the leadership team was short, adamant, and a most resounding “NO!”  I never brought it up again.

It wasn’t only the company I was working at then, it was true of everyplace I ever worked.  Management wanted people in the office, at their desks, under their watchful eyes, and at their beck and call.  This made a lot of sense in the days before everyone had a laptop.  It progressively made less sense with the popularity of the internet, remote access via the cloud to the everything anyone needed to do their job, and texting/video meeting platforms.  Remote working has been possible for at least ten years, but management was not.  The Pandemic changed all that.

Now management is having a tough time reversing the trend.  Part of this is due to the employment market.  Workers can push back on management because there is still low unemployment.  They can and will find other employment if they need or choose to.  Management will have more leverage If and when unemployment increases.

There are advantages to working in an office with everyone.  The advantages are beyond just getting the job done.   There is the comradery and informal team building from people just being together all day.  It is the informal conversations, having lunch or coffee, or hanging out after work.  Trust and alliances facilitated by such interactions.  Even when socializing, work is still somehow discussed.  Younger folk that only know remote work may be missing out on this important aspect of work life.

Basically, I see a mix of work; a split between the office and working remotely.  It would be the best of both worlds.  It is not easy to put the toothpaste back in the tube. 

Adlai E. Stevenson II

 

In his study to the Historic Home

I graduated in June of 1971 from the Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Livonia, Michigan. 

I was aware the Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) had served as a US Senator from Illinois, ran for President twice against Eisenhower, and served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. 

When we moved to Illinois in 2007, we settled in Lake Forest.  In driving around, I noticed the Adlai E. Stevenson Historic Home on St. Mary’s Road a mere 3.6 miles from our house.  I made a mental note that I ought to visit the house, given that my high school was named for him.  But there were no hours on the signage and place never looked open.  Sure, I could have searched online, but honestly my interest level was little more than a passing fancy.  At that point, I was mostly thinking of Stevenson as the poor fellow who the Democrats selected twice to run against the Dwight D. Eisenhower, the hero of World War II.

We signed up for the newsletter of the Lake County Forest Preserves.  As it turns out, the Adlai E. Stevenson Historic Home is owned and run by the Forest Preserves.  The first email newsletter offered a few dates to visit the home and we took advantage of the opportunity. 

I learned a lot about Stevenson today.  I learned his family has long been involved in politics.  His maternal great-grandfather, Jesse W. Fell, was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and his campaign manager.  His grandfather, Adlai Stevenson I, served as Vice-President of the United States from 1893-1897 under Grover Cleveland.  Before being elected to the Senate, Stevenson served as Governor of Illinois from 1949-1953.

Stevenson had three sons Adlai III, John, and Borden.  Adlai III served as Senator from Illinois from 1970-1981.  The actor MacLean Stevenson, known for his role as Colonel Henry Blake on the MASH TV series, was a second cousin.

I also wondered why our high school was named for an Illinois politician and not a notable Michigander?  As it turns out, Adlai E. Stevenson II died suddenly of a heart attack in London on July 14, 1965.  On July 15^th, the Livonia School Board met and naming the new high school was on the agenda.  As Stevenson was highly regarded in the 1950s and 60s, the school board decided to name thyeir new high school after Stevenson.  Ours was the first high school in the nation named for Stevenson.  I am guessing it was also the first school at any level named for him.  On October 24^th of that year, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey attended the dedication and delivered an address in honor of his friend and colleague Adlai Stevenson.  The first graduating class of Adai Stevenson High School was in 1968.  Mine, in 1971, was the fourth.

I am prouder than ever to be a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School.

In thinking about my view of Stevenson before visiting the house most naïve and foolish of me.  He was known for his speeches that touched the heart of issues.  And whether folks agreed with his views or not, he was always respected.  We need more Adlai Stevensons today.   I will read more on Stevenson.  

I was impressed bythe few quotes I read on the tour.  Here are a few examples all from :azquotes.com.

• Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.
• A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.
• The human race has improved everything, but the human race.
• To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man - and also a nation.
  

Here is what others have said about Stevenson (all from Wikipedia):

• Stevenson's gift to the nation was his language, elegant and well-crafted, thoughtful and calming.
  ~ David Halberstam, The Fifties.
• If the Electoral College ever gives an honorary degree, it should go to Adlai Stevenson.
  ~ W. Willard Wirtz, friend and law partner.
• In regard to his two runs for President, “…what would be remembered...were not his public programs and ideas for a New America but, ironically, the private man – his character and personality, his wit and charm, his efforts to negotiate and keep the peace within the Democratic Party, his elegant speeches, and the grace with which he accepted defeat.”
  ~ Jean A. Baker, The Stevensons:  A Biography of An American Family.

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Stevenson's Study