The End of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program Has one Plus for Columbus

Endeavour lifts off at Kennedy Space Flight Center, last night launch, 2/8/2010 (Photo courtesy: NASA/Jim Grossmann)

The ending of NASA’’s space shuttle program this year is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.  However, something good will come of it for our area. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center will be given $17 million worth of shuttle artifacts.

Yes, one of Columbus’s great tourist attractions will be even more attractive.  Everything about the space shuttle in the Coca-Cola Space Science Center is a replica. 

Space capsule replica, Coca-Cola Space Science Center, Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia

 The  space capsule, the space shuttle, the  NASA control room are all replicas.  Even so, it is a very entertaining and educational place to visit.  However, with the announcement that the Omisphere Director Lance Tankersley’s application to NASA for actual shuttle launch artifacts was granted,  the Center will able to offer the real thing for some shuttle launch  hardware.

NASA has agreed to give $17 million worth of artifacts to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center.  That doesn’t mean the Center won’t have to pay anything.  It is going to have to ante up the money  to go pick  up the artifacts, which will entail trips to Cape Canaveral, Florida; Houston, Texas; and California where the  artifacts are located.

Some of the  artifacts are so  large that  they will require large semi’s to pick  up. For instance, the leading edge of a shuttle wing is 49-feet long. A piece of engine nozzle weighs 4300 pounds.  Also among the artifacts will be an on-board computer, a launch-pad escape basket, a launch control room biomedical console, a shuttle tire, a tool box and a shuttle window.

Since there is not enough  room in the Space Center to display all of these items,  the facility will have to decide how to do it. It probably will  require new construction.  Fortunately, they have until 2011 to work it out. The  artifacts won’t be available until then.

NASA guests watch Endeavour's launch at the Kennedy Space Center (Photo courtesy; NASA- Paul E. Alers)

After September, there will be no more American shuttle trips into orbits to do things like repairing a Hubble Space telescope or go to the International Space Station.  To get to the space station we’ll have to hitch a ride with the Russians since they will still be sending Soyuz shuttles up.  What if relations between the countries sour?  What will we do then?  Who knows, maybe China or Japan will have shuttles operating by then. 

What does the future hold for America’s space program?  Privatization is the buzz word.  It’s already started as NASA has contracted with private firms for some space hardware.  The next step is for private firms to build the rockets and future shuttles that will ride them.  The whole thing is up in the air (no pun intended) because Congress has dramatically cut funding for the space program, and future cuts could be coming. 

Meanwhile, the end of the shuttle program has economic fallout that affects non-governmental elements. For instance, there will be devastation of communities around the Kennedy Space Station on Cape Canaveral that depend on the tourism that space launches provide.  They are going to lose millions when people stop coming because there will be no more shuttle launches. 

We were going to go back to the moon.  That idea has been scrapped.  It’s incredably expensive, especially now during the current budget crisis. Besides, we’ve already done it.  What would be the benefit? I guess no one has answered those questions to Congress’ satisfaction. 

Space Shuttle Endeavour's Crew: From left are Robert Behnken, Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, Kathryn Hire, Nicholas Patrick and Stephen Robinson. NASA says, "The primary payload on STS-130 is the International Space Station's Node 3, Tranquility, a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the station's life support systems." (Photo courtesy: NASA/Kim Shiflett)

What the National Debt and Deficit are Costing You

 Back when I was working in TV news, being cognizant of the importance that local newscasts should provide local news,  when we decided to use a national story, we would always try to “localize” it.  With that in mind, when I decided that I was beginning to feel so concerned about the national budget mess we are in right now that I wanted to do a blog post on it, I tried to figure out how to “localize” it. 

When we say the national debt is now more than $12 trillion,  that’s the big picture.  Maybe to bring it home to each of us, our share is more than $40 thousand each, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock.

 A large share of that debt is generated by defense spending.  That hits home. The Columbus area economy relies heavily on Fort Benning which pumps millions into the stores,  real estate businesses,  and just about everything else.  The annual payroll at Fort Benning is $1.1 billion.  The monthly payroll is $87 million.  Sure, we have to pay our part of the taxes that go into the Defense Department treasury, but we probably get a lot more back than we pay.  The point is that the defense budget directly impacts on us big time. 

Nationally, the proposed defense budget for Fiscal Year 2011 is $708.2 billion.  The base budget, which does not include overseas “contingency operations,” which I suppose means Afghanistan and Iraq, is $548.9 billion, which is $18 billion more than the 2010 budget.

 According to the National Priorities Project Cost of War  Counters, so far, since 2001,  the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars  have cost America a little more than a trillion dollars.  Bringing  that to the local level, folks in Georgia have paid more than $27.6 billion.  The counters don’t list Columbus, so I’ll have to go to a city of about the same size, Augusta, where the cost of the wars has been more than $512 million. 

Can we afford that?  That opens up a huge can of worms, but just on the fiscal basis,  let’s just ask, can we pay for it?  Not with our own money.  Incredibly, we lowered taxes when we went to war 8 years ago.  You spend more than you take in, you have to borrow, which leads us to our next post on the fiscal crisis we face. Stay tuned

The Springer Company Kept “Inherit the Wind” Fresh

Having seen the movie three or four times over the years, I decided I wouldn’t see the Springer Production of “Inherit the Wind.”  After attending the evolution versus creationism debate at Springer, I changed my mind.  Then, on learning that Ledger-Enquirer Editorial Page Editor Dusty Nix was playing the judge, I was looking forward to seeing what the Springer could do with the famous play. 

I was impressed.  When going to see an amateur production, I’m ready to make allowances and not expect a lot. No allowances were needed. The production was good, full of life.  As far as Dusty playing the judge is concerned, he nailed it.

The prologue in the program announces that the play is not history. It’s drama. That was true.  The play is nowhere near an accurate portrayal of the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925.  However, it is obviously “based” on that trial.

Scopes knew he would go on trial because he had been approached by the ACLU to be the defendant to test the Tennessee law that banned the teaching in public schools that man was a product of evolution.  At the end of the trial, Clarence Darrow asked the judge to direct the jury to find Scopes guilty.  He was interested in the appeal, which he partially won.  The Tennessee Supreme Court remanded the trial on a technicality.  Scopes didn’t have to pay the $100 fine and the retrial was never held, and the law remained on the books until 1967 when it was repealed.   And the battle between the evolutionists and creationists continues; however, evolution is probably taught in most high school science classes.  The scientific community overwhelmingly supports the theory of evolution.

Formula TV News Reporting

Borden Back, a former broadcast journalist with whom I worked at both WRBL and WTVM (she works freelance for print media now),  sent an email about a satirical TV news package on formula news packaging that is funny, but, also, all too true. You can see it by clicking this link.

The Three Arts League’s Run at Jordan

When I mentioned the Three Arts League in the post about renovating the Jordan High auditorium, it triggered thoughts about the League and what it meant to Columbus.  It was founded in 1927 and ended in 1975, according to Joe Mahan’s history Columbus: Georgia’s Fall Line “Trading Town.   

Arthur Rubenstein, "one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century," according to an article in Wikipedia. Photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1937.

 

The League did indeed bring some really big names to the Jordan stage for a number of years.  The best source I could find about that was  Mrs. Francis Virgina Norman,  better known as Virginia Norman, daughter of the late Mrs. A. Illges, better known as Virginia Illges.  She was president of the League from 1949 to 1967, according to Dr. Mahan.  He wrote, “For many years the scheduling, local arrangements, and general excellence of these performances were managed by Mrs. A. Illeges.”  

I asked Mrs. Norman if she could remember when the League first started using Jordan’s auditorium, and the names of some of the big acts.  This is what she sent me via email: 

“Dick, I’m not certain when the Three Arts concerts first were held at Jordan.  Apparently years and years ago they were at the Springer for a time, then at Columbus High, but, for as long as I can remember going to them, and that’s a long time, they were at Jordan auditorium until 1964, when the old Royal Theatre was renovated and reopened as the Three Arts Theatre. ” The League had to have started using Jordan before 1949 because I remember getting to see a few of the shows in that auditorium, and I graduated in 1948.   I was among the Jordan students  who served as ushers for the League shows and concerts.    

Mrs. Norman also said, “Jordan had excellent acoustics and the sound was wonderful, except now and then when someone forgot to turn off the bells that signaled the beginning and ending of classes -  an unexpected addition to the music!
 
“These are some of the major artists who performed at Jordan auditorium.   
 
“Symphonies (some more than once) – the Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Atlanta
 
“Operas – Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto. Romeo and Juliet, La Traviata
 
“Ballets – Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre, Ballet Espagnole, Chicago Opera Ballet
 
“Pianists – Arthur Rubinstein, Jose Iturbi, Jorge Bolet, Gina Bachauer, Byron Janis, Leonard Pennario, Vronsky and Babin
 
“Violinists – Yehudi Menhuin, Zino Francescatti, Erica Morini, Tossy Spivakovsky
 
“Cellist Gregor Piatagorsky
 
“Classical guitarist Andres Segovia
 
“Singers – Rise Stevens, Lauritz Melchior, Lily Pons, Jerome Hines, Blanche Thebom, Leanard Warren, Jussi Bjoerling, James Melton, Robert Shaw Chorale
 
“Actors – Claude Rains, Katherine Cornell, Brian Aherne” 

That is truly an impressive list.  These were some of the top artists in the world, and they performed on the Jordan stage.  Not only were those international stars on the Jordan stage, as well as the famous Bob Barr Jordan bands, but, thanks to Mrs. Illeges, the 20th century version of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra was organized, with Bob Barr as its conductor, and also played on the Jordan stage until the Three Arts Theater opened. And a few years ago when a Columbus Symphony Orchestra outdoor performance in Lake Bottom was rained out, it was moved to the Jordan auditorium, its old home.   As I said in the previous post, the Jordan auditorium has historical value.

Why Jordan Auditorium Renovation is Special to a Lot of Folks

The architectural firm that will handle the renovation of the Jordan Vocational High School auditorium hasn’t been selected yet.  (It’s in the last 7 of the 15 SPLOST construction projects.  Architects for the first 9 projects were chosen Saturday.)  When it is selected, I am sure somebody will let its leader know just how important their project will be.  That’s not to say the other projects are unimportant, but we are talking some real history here.

1947 JVHS Red Jacket Band, Jordan auditorium, Columbus, Georgia

That Jordan auditorium, which, in my view, is probably still the most impressive of all of the high school auditoriums in Columbus,  not only served the Jordan student body, but was used by the Three Arts League and other organizations. For Columbus newcomers, or those not old enough to remember, the Three Arts League was an organization made up of  Columbus cultural leaders who brought in world-class symphony orchestras,  solo performers, and roadshow Broadway plays and musicals from the 1930’s to almost now.   I don’t recall when it was disbanded, but with the River Center now in operation, it’s not needed any more.  

I went to see a school play in the auditorum a couple of years ago and was impressed that it had a fairly adequate stage lighting system.  I’ll bet it dates back to when the Three Arts League used the auditorum. It probably needs some serious upgrading.  Hopefully, that will happen when the auditorium is renovated.

The Jordan stage was home for the famous Bob Barr Red Jacket Bands that won national awards in places like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.   Barr was the band’s first professional director, coming to the school in 1946 and leaving in 1963.  I was a member of the original band that he started in 1946.   Band practice was the highlight of every day. He was a hard task master, but also very entertaining, doing such things as breaking his baton when we didn’t play something right.  It worked. The band went from 17 pieces to 75 in about six months and played Beethoven’s “Eroica” in its first public concert before the Jordan student body.  He could be mean as a snake, and his expectations were very high, but he got results, and everyone in the band that I knew loved him.  Success means a lot to emotionally charged high school kids.  Remember when you were one?

Some Folks That Truly Deserve to be Called STARS

ROTARY CLUB OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA HONORS 2010 MUSCOGEE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS STAR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS.

 

 

THE SYSTEM-WIDE STAR STUDENT IS ANDREI MARKOV  OF COLUMBUS HIGH SCHOOL,  AND HE SELECTED LUTHER RICHARDS  TO BE HIS STAR TEACHER. ANDREI HAD THE HIGHEST S.A.T AND GRADE POINT AVERAGE.  ROTARY CLUB OF COLUMBUS PRESIDENT BOB JONES PRESENTED THE AWARDS.  

 

SCHOOL STUDENT WINNERS WERE: 

BROOKSTONE: CAROLINE ADAMS AND MICHAEL IPPOLITO; CALVARY CHRISTIAN: McKENZIE HARRISON; CARVER: MARQUIS WAGNER; COLUMBUS: ANDREI MARKOV; HARDAWAY: ASHLEY LEE; JORDAN: JULIAN PLOWDEN; KENDRICK: MARQUISE WESTBROOK; NORTHSIDE: LIZ CARSON; SHAW : SAMANTHA SPECIAL; SPENCER: ANDREW RAMOS; ST. ANNE PACELLI: KATE BIERENFELD.

SCHOOL TEACHER WINNERS WERE: 

 BROOKSTONE: DALE EPPERSON; CALVARY CHRISTIAN: DIANE McGOWAN; CARVER: JOYCE LEE; COLUMBUS: LUTHER RICHARDSON; HARDAWAY:PATSY HALE; JORDAN: JOSEPH POLLOCK; KENDRICK : CAROLYN RANDOLPH; NORTHSIDE: COURTNEY BURNETTE; SHAW : LYNN BUTLER; SPENCER: DEBRA EVERETTE; ST. ANNE PACELLI: JEFFERY KLOTZ.

CONGRATULATIONS! MAY YOUR TRIBE INCREASE. 

STAR stands for Student Teacher Achievement Recognition  program.  More than 21,500 Georgia high school seniors, and the teachers they chose as their STAR Teachers,  have been honored by this program over the last 51 years.

Photographs are courtesy of Jim Cawthorne, Camera 1.

 

 

 

Gay Talese is Not Thrilled with Internet and Tape Recorder Journalism

THE HIGHLY ACCLAIMED NON-FICTION WRITER AND HIS EDITOR WIFE NAN TOOK QUESTIONS FROM A COLUMBUS PUBLIC LIBRARY AUDIENCE

Gay Talese, the man who gave rise to “New Journalism” when he wrote his most famous article for Esquire, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” has a low opinion of the quality of magazine writing today. The only exception to that judgement is the New Yorker, whose writers do it the old-fashioned way: face to face contact with the source. Speaking to an audience at the Columbus Public Library today, he said magazines are all celebrity oriented.l They want to put a celebrity picture on the magazine cover. The story inside might be written by a writer who maybe spent ten minutes with the celebrity, tape recording an interview. He said you can’t really get a meaningful interview that way.

He and his wife Nan chatted a little about their marriage and careers – they have been married for 50 years – and then took questions from the audience. The first question was about his opinion about the blogosphere and the Internet.

Gay Talese

“I don’t know anything about the blogosphere. I don’t use it,” he said. He went on to say that he believed in face to face conversations with sources, not contact with sources via the Internet, or using Google or anything like that. He believes in personal contact. He doesn’t even like or use tape recorders. For one thing, he says they inhibit sources. The person you are interviewing figures he or she has to get it right the first time. “They usually don’t.” When the person being interviewed is more relaxed and becomes comfortable with the interviewer, they come back to a question and give a more thoughtful answer.

When I pointed out that his most famous article, the one that gave rise to the term “new journalism,” the one he wrote for Esquire Magazine about Frank Sinatra, was one without a face-to-face interview, he admitted that was the case. Esquire had paid his expenses to go to Los Angeles to interview Sinatra, but when he got there, “His press agent said Sinatra could not do the interview because he had a cold.” Finally, the press agent told Talese that Sinatra was upset because he had heard that Walter Cronkite was working on a program for CBS on Sinatra’s connections with the Mafia.

Gay Talese

Instead of giving up, Talese stayed on in Los Angeles and interviewed people who knew Sinatra, people who worked with him in movies and recording sessions. “Hundreds of people had worked with Sinatra over the years.” He believes that he probably got a truer picture of Sinatra than if he had actually interviewed him. But, he said, “I was in Los Angeles. I interviewed those people. I made contact with them.”

The “New Journalism” he is credited with starting with that article refers to the technique that he used in writing it. He dropped the old newspaper style of reporting and wrote it in the same way that you would write a novel. It was all true – his stint as a reporter for the New York Times had imbued him with the importance of accuracy – but, the style was novelistic. It worked big time. Esquire ran it as its cover story.

Talese was not happy with what the “New Journalism” became. His complaint is the same complaint he has with bloggers, the lack of accuracy. Too many writers now, he said, sacrifice accuracy. After their appearance in the library’s auditorium, I went up to him, introduced myself, shook hands, and told him I enjoyed their performance – that wasn’t smoke because I definitely did – and handed him a blog business card, telling him that I had a blog and was going to write about their talk. He took the card and thanked me.

Nan Talese

Nan Talese, who is now Senior Vice President at Doubleday, was asked about some of the authors she has edited for the New York publishing firms where she has worked. It was an impressive list, people like James Michener, Pat Conroy and Rosalynn Carter.

She went to Plains to work with Rosalyn on her autobiography First Lady from Plains. She got to know Mrs. Carter well because they spent a lot of time together. She would have dinner with Rosalynn and President Carter. After dinner they would all watch the evening news on television. She said that was an interesting experience, citing one evening when President Carter became irritated with a report about an English public figure and shouted “jackass, jackass” at the TV.

Mrs. Talese said sometimes Jimmy would try to give Rosalynn some advice about how a passage should be written, which irritated Rosalynn, who finally told him, “Jimmy, you wrote your book, now let me write mine.” She said that the two could be competitive and that when Rosalyn’s book hit the number one slot on the New York Times list of best sellers Jimmy was perplexed because none of his books had done that. She added that they were a great couple and she enjoyed being with them.

Fans in line to get Talese books autographed, Columbus Public Library, Columbus, Georgia

I have never read any of Gay Talese’s books, but that is about to change. After today’s delightful presentation by the two of them, he went out into the library’s rotunda for a book signing. I bought A Writer’s Life, which he wrote in 2006, and the best seller about the Mafia, Honor Thy Father, which he wrote in 1971. I got him to autograph both books.

He was born and raised in New Jersey, but when he graduated from high school, he couldn’t get into any universities there or in neighboring states. He was accepted by the University of Alabama, where he majored in journalism. In “A Writer’s Life”, he reports that his journalism instructors weren’t thrilled when he strayed from the newspaper “who, what, where, when, why, and how” inverted-pyramid writing style. But, look what straying from that style did for him when he wrote the Sinatra story in 1966. It played a large role in his publishing success, and revolutionized journalistic style.

Just Because Prime Time Didn’t Work for Leno Doesn’t Mean a Creative Variety Show Wouldn’t Work at 10:00 p.m.

So Jay’s coming back and Conan is leaving the “Tonight Show.”  (Poor Conan, he and his staff only get $45 million in severance pay.)  Both of them failed in the ratings game when NBC tried the experiment of putting the Leno  format in prime time. Probably a lot of people will take this to mean that the format just won’t work in prime time.  Maybe Jay’s format won’t work – it didn’t work for me because it came across as tired and contrived – but that doesn’t mean a variety show featuring comedy and music won’t work.

It really depends on how it’s done.  Just look at the roaring success of “America’s Got Talent.”  Sure, it’s a reality show with winners and loser, joy and pain, laughter and tears as the contestants struggle to win the high-tech update of the old amateur show format.  Frankly, I fast forward through a lot of the judge’s nonsense to get to the actual acts. That’s what I am watching and  find entertaining.  As far as I am concerned, they can cut way down on the airtime they give to the judges.

What NBC should really try is not a return to canned, predictable drama series, but a real variety program,  a contemporary version of the Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows.  There are plenty of comedians, singers, dancers, actors, and other interesting and entertaining folks out there to make for a ratings blockbuster. 

Just moving Leno into 10 p.m., sticking with the tried and true,  didn’t work. You gotta get a little creative, guys. Take a few chances.

Panel Discusses Evolution and Creationism at the Springer Monday

DISCUSSION IS HELD IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SPRINGER”S PRESENTATION OF “INHERIT THE WIND”

Dr. Ian Bond sent the following email to me.

Dr. Ian Bond (Courtesy: Jim Cawthorne, Camera 1)

This week the Springer Opera House will begin a three week run of one of the greatest American plays of the past century, “Inherit the Wind,” to mark the 75th anniversary of the famed “Scopes Monkey Trial.” The play reenacts Clarence Darrow’s squaring off against Williams Jennings Bryan in a Tennessee courtroom on the right of a science teacher to teach evolution in a Tennessee public school. The question of the teaching of evolution and creationism in the classrooms of American public and private schools is still hotly debated today, 201 years after the birth of Charles Darwin.
 
Columbus Technical College Counselor, Dr. Ian Bond, will moderate a panel discussion on Monday, January 25 at 7:00 pm at the Springer Opera House. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.
 
Our panel consists of experts in science and anthropology and professional educators.
 
            Dr. Brian Schwartz (biology professor, CSU)
            Dr. Donald Moeller (former college science teacher)
            Dr. John Studstill (anthropology professor, CSU)
            Dr. David Schwimmer (paleontology professor, CSU)
            Principal Len McWilliams (headmaster, Calvary Christian Schools)
 
This panel of titans ensures a lively, informative, and though-provoking discussion as well as an enjoyable evening at Georgia’s Historic State Theater.