An Inside Look at the Supreme Court

From the Citizens United ruling that corporations are people and as such can contribute to political campaigns to its impending ruling on health care, the U. S. Supreme Court has been making big news recently. But that wasn't always the case. In fact, in its early  years, the highest court in the land didn't have any cases and had difficulty finding justices.

"It didn't seem like a place that was going anywhere," says Linda Greenhouse, who covered the supreme court for the New York Times for 30 years and won a Pulitzer Prize for her efforts. "The court is the author of its own story. Its role has been largely self-created."

Greenhouse, who appeared to discuss her new book The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction at Politics and Prose tonight, said that while Article III of the Constitution ordered the creation of the court, that document specified nothing about its operation. There wasn't even a mention of a Chief Justice to lead the court. The idea of a Chief Justice had to be inferred from the article that calls for such a position to serve in the case of an impeachment trial of a president.

Until the 1920s, the Supreme Court simply heard whatever cases came to it. However, in that decade, the justices began setting their own docket, deciding to hear some cases and rejecting others that failed to meet their standards of questions of constitutionality.

"That really was the key to making the court the institution it is today. It's the court that's setting the country's legal agenda," Greenhouse said.

So how does the court decide which cases its should hear? To some extent, its decisions are an outgrowth of issues that are affecting the country. "The justices don't live in the bubble that we think they do. They know what's going on," Greenhouse said.

Just as times change, so obviously has the criteria for judges. Initally, religious affiliation was a concern. Today, however, it isn't a consideration. For example, on the current court, there are no practicing Protestants. The court is made up of 6 Catholic members and 3 Jewish members. "The Founding Fathers would be turning over in their graves," Greenhouse joked.

Geography used to be a big deal. But today all 9 justices come from the Eastern part of America and received their training at either Harvard or Yale.

Initially, judges came from the political world. But Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female judge (currently 3 of the justices are female) who retired in 1981, was the last justice with political experience. Today, 8 of the 9 justices served as federal judges before their appointment to the court. In the Warren Court of the mid 20th Century, none of the justices had ever served as federal judges.

Of course, judges are appointed for life by the president, but must be confirmed by Congress. Today, that confirmation cannot be taken for granted. "That's changed the whole narrative," Greenhouse said. As an example she cited the recent confirmation process for President Obama's choice, Sonia Sotomayor. Initially, many Republicans were prepared to vote for Obama's choice. However, GOP leaders asked the National Rifle Association to rate Sotomayor. Since Sotomayor had not handled any gun cases in her court, she could not receive a high rating from the NRA. This in turn led GOP support to fade and few Republicans voted for confirmation.

One of the main charges against the court today is that it is too political, a charge some feel is supported by the number of cases decided by a 5-4 vote along strict political lines. Greenhouse said she isn't really surprised that the majority of Republican judges hold different views than their 4 Democratic counterparts. "The justices are chosen by the president and the country is pretty sharply divided," Greenhouse noted.

Other critics want to do away with life-time appointments for justices contending that when the Founding Fathers designed the court, they never considered that appointments would serve for 35 or 40 years. "It has taken on a kind of different meaning," Greenhouse said. The author noted that all other modern democracies have either age or term limits for their justices. "Initally, I was against it, but it is interesting to consider," Greenhouse said.

Greenhouse said she isn't surprised about President Obama's recent comments that he didn't believe the Supreme Court would overturn the health care plan he promoted. Those comments started a political firestorm with Republicans claiming the President was interfering in court matters. "There has always been struggles between the branches of government," Greenhouse said. "The relationship is not static and it has never been static. There is a struggle for supremacy. Sometimes one branch is up; sometimes another branch is up."

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Of course, many members of the large crowd that packed Politics and Prose had the fate of the health care law on their minds. Last month, the Supreme Court held 3 days worth of oral arguments on the question. And how does Greenhouse think the court will rule? Will they, as so many feel, vote along political lines and reject the health care package endorsed by President Obama and passed by Congress. "I believe the law will be upheld," Greenhouse said. "I actually feel they are going to vote on the law and the law is going to lead them to uphold the statute."

Time and Chance: The Burdens of Vietnam

McNamara tried to keep Americans on point in Vietnam ...

In 1968, when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, worn down by years of dealing with the burdens of the Vietnam War, resigned his post, his associates at the Department of Defense gave him a large globe inscribed with the words: "To the outstanding public servant of our time."

But during the ensuing years, that view came to be severely challenged. Disgruntled with a seemingly unending, unwinable contest, a rising death toll, and the harsh divisions it was causing in America, McNamara's critics began calling Vietnam "Mr. McNamara's War."

One of McNamara's associates, Dr. Robert Brown, who was there on the day McNamara received his going away gift and later himself became Secretary of Defense in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, believes if you judge his former boss solely on his first four years, the accolade is deserving. "He revolutionized the Department of Defense," Brown says.

... however pictures like this told a different story.

However, all those brilliant advances were undone during his second 3 years, Brown contends  "That was a tragedy, a tragedy of almost Shakespearean proportions," Brown explained. "It was a tragedy for him, for President (Lyndon) Johnson and, most of all, for the country."

Brown was one of 3 panelists who participated today in a program at the National Archives entitled McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965 - 1969. The program was presented by the Archives, the Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University.

Initially a strong proponent of the war, McNamara, like so many of his contemporaries, didn't become skeptical of the chances of a U.S. success until the war had expanded to almost a point of difficult return. "He tried to find ways to limit the war, but he couldn't and so he resigned," Brown said.

Toward the end of his tenure, McNamara, who was known for his fierce loyalty to the office of the presidency, had to support positions he didn't hold. "We knew when a position wasn't his," Brown said. "He would speak louder, lean forward, and pull his socks up."

Ironically, McNamara had only intended to serve 4 years, according to Brown. "There is an old saying in Washington that friends come and go, but enemies accumulate," Brown said. "Four years is long enough. You begin to mistake familiarity with wisdom. It's hard to rethink things. It's hard to clean up your own mess."

Dr. George Herring, a professor and Vietnam War historian, agreed with Brown's assessment of McNamara's brilliance and energy. "He came to personify the ethos of the (early) 69s," Herring said. "He was the can-do man in the can-do society in the can-do era."

Herring said that President Johnson's decision not to seek re-election and McNamara's steeping down from his post, both triggered by the Vietnam quagmire, heralded "the end of an era bright with promise."

As the war continued, McNamara found himself besieged by critics on both sides of the political spectrum. The doves on the left blamed him for starting and continuing a senseless war. Meanwhile, the hawks on the right chastised him for failing to give the military the support it needed for victory.

"In my 40 years of talking to Vietnam veterans, only the name of Jane Fonda is likely to provoke more anger than that of Robert McNamara," Herring said. "He put his loyalty to the president above the truth. Ultimately, he was done in by the war that came to bear his name."

Dr. Edward Drea, whose book McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965 - 1969, gave its title to this presentation, said that those setting American policy failed to take into account the unrelenting determination to prevail by the North Vietnamese and the deep corruptness of the South Vietnamese government.

Despite McNamara's many strengths, like all men, he obviously had flaws, flaws which often become exacerbated with increased power. Drea cited one such flaw of McNamara, pointed out by fellow adviser McGeorge Bundy. "Once his (McNamara's) mind is made up, he does not keep the sharpest eye out for new evidence," Drea quoted Bundy as saying.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
It is one of the most popular, great unanswerable questions in American history. So, of course, it was asked today. What would have happened in Vietnam, and by extension to America itself, if President John Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963? Although Presidents Johnson and Richard Nixon are most often associated with Vietnam, President Dwight Eisenhower and his successor Kennedy, also had roles to play. At  the time of his assassination, Kennedy had more than 16,000 American troops serving in an advisory capacity in Vietnam. "We don't know what would have happened, but we know Kennedy had a powerful aversion to sending in combat troops," Dr. Herring said. "But I don't buy the early withdrawal theory. Those 16,000 advisers would make it much more difficult to get out." Drea said Kennedy might have used his popularity and great political skills to keep public opinion focused on winning the war. "He might have made it a more popular war," Drea said. "He had the rhetorical flair and the charisma. He could have made some decisions that Johnson was terrified to make." However, former Defense Secretary Brown cautioned that there are limitations, even in a popular war. "Making it popular wouldn't have necessarily made it winnable," he said.

Words as Art

Most people don't think of words as art. But for Mel Bochner, a pioneer of conceptual art, they are one in the same. In fact, for Bochner, his copy of Roget's Thesaurus is just as important an art tool as his paint brush. Since the mid 1960s, Bochner has been creating drawings and paintings that force viewers to examine the words we use on a daily basis.

Currently, 9 large word pieces that Bochner has created since 2005 form the focus for an exhibition of his work that are part of the In the Tower series at the East Wing of the National Gallery. 

The 9 works each have short titles. They include:

• Die
• Sputtle
• Useless
• Masters of the Universe
• Oh Well
• Amazing
• Babble
• Observer
• Money

In his works, Bochner begins with the title and then adds related words or phrases meaning approximately the same thing taken from the thesaurus and dictionaries of slang. For example, in his work Amazing, amazing is followed in vertical order by awesome, breath-taking, heart-stopping, mind blowing, out of site, cool, wow, groovy, crazy, killer, bitchin', bad, rad, gnarly, da bomb, shut-up, OMG, and yesss. Each word is in all caps and is followed by an exclamation mark.

Bochner forces viewers to really look closely at the work with his choice of colors. Some of the words appear in a distinct hue; others use a new color for each letter. Both techniques are deliberate attempts by the artist to make reading more difficult.

A National Gallery pamphlet available at the exhibition summarizes Bochner's latest works this way:

The words Bochner paints in these works are ordinary and adamantly contemporary. Just as he once used the thesaurus to portray his friends and their works of art, (in his earlier works, some of which are on display in an adjoining room) now he uses the same reference work to depict language itself. Bochner represents the way we speak now, the chatter of the cell phone and the street. Indeed, many of the paintings seem to portray what some might consider linguistic decline.

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Since the show is closing April 8, you probably won't get a chance to see the Bochner works.  However, more great shows are headed to DC.  For example, opening April 27 at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art is African American Art: The Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Era, and Beyond.  Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape will be arriving at the National Gallery on May 6. The National Gallery will also be housing a major retrospective of George Bellows which begins June 10.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Mr. President)

President Woodrow Wilson shows his form

In 1910, President William Howard Taft started a tradition that all his successors have followed since, with the lone exception of softball-loving Jimmy Carter. Sitting in an extra large stadium chair the Washington franchise had built especially for him, Taft, at 320 pounds America's heaviest president, threw out the first pitch to start the 1910 baseball season.

"One common thread that most of the 20th Century presidents have is a passion for baseball," baseball historian Mel Marmer says.

Marmer, wearing a Baseball Is Life sweatshirt, appeared at The Renwick Gallery here today on the official opening day of the 2012 baseball season to discuss the connection between the American presidency and the sport still known as America's national pastime.

Actually, President Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to become involved with the sport when he hosted the first professional baseball team the Cincinnati Red Stockings at the White House in 1869. In 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to receive a 14-carat gold all-game season baseball pass. However, Marmer said the response of Roosevelt, an avid outdoors man, was "less than enthusiastic."

It remained for Taft to cement the connection between baseball and the presidency. Ironically, during much of the early 20th Century, the hometown team, the Washington Senators, were dreadful. They lost so many games that one baseball writer came up with the slogan, "Washington: First, in war, first in peace, and last in the American League."

Taft had another connection to baseball lore. In 1911, a young boy born was given the name William Howard Mays after the then president. He went on to have a son named William Howard Mays Jr. That son went on to become legendary baseball hall of fame center fielder Willie Mays, "The Say Hey Kid."

President Woodrow Wilson, who became the first president to attend a World Series game, started his college career as a center fielder for the Davidson College team. 

During the 1920s and 30s, baseball's biggest star was Babe Ruth. And, of course, the Babe had baseball tales in his background. When the Republicans wanted Ruth to endorse their presidential candidate because Ty Cobb was backing the Democratic choice, Babe reportedly replied: "Hell, no. I'm a Democrat" before asking "well, how much are they offering?" But the greatest Ruth/president story centers around the then-astounding pay offered the Yankee star in 1930. A reporter pointed out that Ruth's $80,000 annual salary would exceed President Herbert Hoover's salary by $10,000. "I know," Ruth said. "But I had a better year than Hoover."

When it comes to opening games and presidents, the record-holder is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR threw out the first pitch in 8 opening day games. "FDR was a true baseball fan," Marmer said. "It was said that he enjoyed going to a ball game as much as a kid on Christmas morning." In 1937, Roosevelt became the first president to throw out the first pitch at an All-Star game. During World War II, Roosevelt signed his "green light letter" which allowed the major leagues to continue operating to provide a diversion from the war.

President Harry Truman attended 16 home games for the Washington franchise. He also had the distinction of being America's first ambidextrous president, throwing out some first pitches right-handed and some left-handed.

Truman's successor Dwight Eisenhower once showed a preference for golf over baseball. He  planned on missing opening day to be the first president to attend the Master's Golf tournament. However, opening day was rained out and the president made it back to D.C. to perform his ceremonial duties. Eisenhower was the only American president to play baseball professionally. He played for a short time in the Kansas League under an assumed last name before he entered West Point.

President John Kennedy became the first president to preside over the dedication of a new baseball stadium with the 1962 ceremonies heralding the opening of DC Stadium. That stadium was renamed RFK Stadium in 1968 to memorialize Kennedy's younger brother Robert, who was assassinated that year while running for the office his brother had held until his own assassination in 1963.

Kennedy's successor Lyndon Baines Johnson missed throwing out the opening pitch for the 1968 baseball season. The usual festive atmosphere of opening day that year was darkened by the assassination of Martin Luther King just days before the scheduled season start. LBJ was just one of the 20,000 ticket holders who didn't make opening day that year in riot-damaged DC, which was then under guard of federal troops.

President Richard Nixon, before he was forced to resign his post in disgrace by the Watergate scandal, was one of America's most knowledgeable presidents about professional sports. For their part, sports leaders respected Nixon as a sports enthusiast. In 1962, after he lost a bid to become Governor of California, the owners of baseball's professional teams asked him to become the Commissioner of Baseball. Nixon refused. "But don't tell (my wife) Pat," Marmer said Nixon added. "She'll kill me for turning you down"

President Gerald Ford, a former University of Michigan football star who is widely believed to be the best athlete to ever hold the presidency, was in attendance on opening day in Cincinnati when Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hit his 714th home run to tie Babe Ruth's record that he had held for 40 years.

The string of opening day appearances by a president was broken by Ford's successor Jimmy Carter despite the fact that he often pitched competitive softball on the White House lawn. He never threw out an opening day pitch or attended a professional baseball game during the 4 years of his presidency.

Ronald Reagan had several connections to the game. He was the only president to ever broadcast telegraphic recreations of professional baseball games, which he did after college until he took off for Hollywood in 1937. In one of his film roles there, Reagan portrayed baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. Thus, Alexander became the only professional baseball player to ever be named after a president and have an actor who was to become president play him in a movie. Reagan also became the first president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch from the pitcher's mound.

The only president to ever play in the college World Series was Reagan's successor George H. G. Bush, who was the first baseman and captain on his Yale University baseball team. "I'm sure that he was the only president who kept his first baseman's glove in his White House desk," Marmer said.

Bush's son George W. Bush became only the second son of a president to preside in the Oval office. (The first was John Quincy Adams, the son of America's second president John Adams). "When he was young, he dreamed of following in the footsteps of Willie Mays," Marmer said. But instead of starring in center field, the younger Bush became president of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team prior to winning election to the nation's highest office. Bush also starred in one of the most powerful moments in the long history between presidents and baseball, when he threw out the first pitch in New York for a World Series that came just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

President Obama keeps the tradition alive

For his part, current President Barack Obama has kept the baseball tradition alive, although his first sports love is basketball. "He makes no secret about it. He's a Chicago White Sox fan," Marmer said.

Ironically, despite all the baseball in their duties, no sitting president has ever visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. "Both Clinton and Bush have been there, but not while they were president," Marmer said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Following his talk, Marmer held a quiz about baseball opening days and records. And I was one of 3 winners. I won by answering the question: who was the only pitcher in baseball history to throw back-to-back no-hitters? The answer: Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds. And my prize? A baseball containing the pictures of the presidents and 25 replicas of their signatures. See, I knew  those baseball cards and old issues of the Sporting News would come in handy one day.

Joan Osborne R&B's the Birchmere

The pattern was established early. Joan Osborne and her incredibly tight 4-piece band had just finished their 1st number, "Qualified," from Osborne's new CD of soul and blues covers Bring It on Home. As soon as the enthusiastic applause from The Birchmere crowd died down, a lone, loud male voice called out "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted."

It was clear from the outset of the show that Osborne was touring to showcase her new CD. She followed up the opening number with 4 consecutive songs from that collection including the rollicking "I Don't Need No Doctor" and the bombastic boogie "Shake Your Hips."

But it was equally apparent that at least one vocal fan also wanted some of her older, popular material, specifically " ... Brokenhearted," Osborne's phenomenal version of the Jimmy Ruffin song which served as a centerpiece for Standing in the Shadows of Love, the documentary of Motown's legendary musicians collectively known as The Funk Brothers. After most of the new songs, the insistent fan continued to plead "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted"
Finally, about 3/4 of the way into the 90-minute show, Osborne acknowledged the requester. "I'm  keeping count up here," she said, smiling as she sipped from a large tea mug to smooth her throat.

Osborne's situation is a constant for all performers. How do you keep yourself and your fans happy? You want to play new material to keep your performances vibrant and different. Some fans look forward to this. Many, however, have certain favorites they believe they simply must hear. For the early part of her spring tour at least, it appears that Osborne is going for the new. Prior to the encore portion of the set, she only played 2 of her older songs "Spider Web" and "St. Teresa," both from her best-selling 1995 album Relish. In addition to tunes off the new CD, she also performed 2 as-yet unreleased numbers.

For me, the highlight of the show came at about the midway point. "This is a song I used to play all the time in small clubs and venues when I was first starting out. But then I kind of got away from it. It's a song by Van Morrison," Osborne said, as her long-time keyboard  accompanist Keith Cotton broke into the opening notes of "Tupelo Honey." For about 1/2 the song it was just Osborne and Cotton, but eventually they were rejoined by lead guitar, bass, and drums, each instrument entering seamlessly. 

But if the set was all about new stage performances, the encore was a nod to the past. "Here's one you might know," Osborne said before the band struck the opening of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" The final song was a stripped -down, haunting rendition of Osborne's huge 90s hit (and one of my favorite songs of all-time) "What If God Was One of Us" performed with only Cotton's chords and Osborne's sultry voice. Now I'm not sure about God, but with her outstanding performance tonight, I'm sure glad Joan Osborne is still one of us.

Above is a YouTube video of Cotton and Osborne performing "What If God Was One of Us" last year at The Birchmere. If you are getting this post by email and want to view the video, just go to The Prices Do DC blog website at www.thepriceswrite-dlp.blogspot.com

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Tonight's Birchmere show marked the 5th time I have seen Joan Osborne in concert. And each show has been remarkably different. I first saw Osborne in the mid 90's when Relish had just been released and "What If God Was One of Us" was beginning to break out. Next up, was her tour as part of The Funk Brothers review. That was followed by her stint as a vocalist for The Dead. Two years ago, she performed a laid-back show of soul and original hits at the Grand Opera  House in Wilmington, Delaware. And then tonight there was the sexy, ballsy blues performance. So which Osborne version was the best? I know it sounds like a cop-out, but I can't decide. They were all great in their own way, leaving me only to say viva le difference and that I can't wait for Joan Osborne 6.0.

Ah, Wilderness

Leads William Riley and June Schreiner

One of the things about being a writer is that you get to reexamine, re-imagine, revise, and rewrite your own personal story if you choose to do so. Take playwright Eugene O'Neill, whose early life was certainly far from idyllic. Born in a Broadway hotel, he spent most of his formative years on the road and in boarding schools. His father was a self-involved actor who struggled with alcohol. His mother became a morphine addict, never fully recovering from the death of her second son. And his only brother Jamie, whom he revered, lost his own battles with alcohol, despondency, and fast living.

But in 1932, O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness!, an idealized look at family life as it could have been, and indeed was for some. The subtitle for the play strongly hints at O'Neill's intention. That subtitle reads: A Nostalgic Comedy of the Ancient Days When Youth Was Young, and Right Was Right, and Life Was a Wicked Opportunity.

Tonight, we got to see a performance of Ah, Wilderness! at the Arena Stage. A strong cast allowed the basic humanity of the play to shine through. Judging from the laughter in the audience, the struggle between the young and their parents is as pertinent today as it was in the 1930s. But, of course, today instead of socialism, spooning and Shaw, we have tattoos, and violent video games, and rap. All shocking in their time, but all part of the growing process..

In a letter to his own son in 1933, O'Neill outlined what he hoped to accomplish with his latest play:

Ah! Wilderness is more the capture of a mood, an evocation (of) the period in which my middle teens were spent - a memory of the time of my youth - not of my youth but of the youth in which my generation spent youth ... It is a comedy ... not satiric ... and not deliberately spoofing at the period ... but laughing at its absurdities while at the same time appreciating and emphasizing its lost spiritual & ethical values.

Well, Mr. O'Neill, for about 2-and-a-half hours tonight a stellar cast let those lost spiritual and ethical values live again, if only for a few brief moments on stage. If you had seen their performance, I think you would have been pleased. I know I was.

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This was the 1st time we viewed a play at the Arena Stage here. But you can bet it won't be the last. Already, we have purchased tickets for another O'Neill drama, his dark masterpiece A Long Day's Journey into Night. And tonight we discovered 4 more plays we want to attend here as part of the company's upcoming 2012-2013 season. Those plays are:

• One Night with Janis Joplin (Sept. 28 to Nov. 4)
• Pullman Porter Blues (Nov. 23 to Jan. 6)
• Metamorphoses (Feb. 8 to March 17)
• The Mountain Top (March 29 to May 12

Hiaasen Handles The Kids

There is a contention that American kids aren't reading enough these days. But if you had visited the Politics and Prose book store on Connecticut Avenue here this morning, you might think differently. More than 100 youngsters crammed the floor of the store to hear Carl Hiaasen discuss Chomp, his newest book for young adult readers.

 Hiassen credited his 11-year-old granddaughter with prompting him to write his latest entry into the young adult fiction field. "She has pets of all kind and she is always getting chomped by a lot of stuff. She also pointed out that all my books have 1-word titles. She asked me to write another book and so I did. You'll find out that anything your grandchildren ask you to do, you'll do for them," Hiaasen said.

The author of 3 previous young adult books, all set in his native Florida and all containing a save the environment motif, Hiaasen added that the new book was also the result of his addiction to reality shows about nature. "You know, in every episode, they have to eat something gross ... like someone bites the heads off of a centipede. Well that kind of inspired the book, too," he said.

Before opening his talk to questions, Hiaasen provided brief details about Chomp. An actor is cast to portray a survivalist. The truth is the character, Derek Badger, knows absolutely nothing about surviving. Every night he takes a helicopter back to his fancy hotel and has a gourmet dinner. But when in the Everglades, this total klutz gets really lost. And that sets the stage for 2 youngsters to help him survive the ordeal.

After that brief background, Hiaasen opened the discussion to questions. And it seemed virtually every youngster there had something to ask. The questions ranged from his favorite book to how to handle writer's block.

Hiaasen said, as an author, he really doesn't have a favorite book. "It's like asking your Mom or Dad which child they like best. Some days, it's you. And some days, it might be your brother or sister. And some days it's none of you," he said. "Most writers are their own most critical readers. They always want to go back and change the things they have written."

After writing best-selling humorous novels about Florida for years, Hiaasen's first foray into young adult writing, Hoot, came from a suggestion by his New York editor.  "I thought she was insane," Hiaasen said. "Have you ever read anything I have ever written? This is a dangerous idea."

However, his editor maintained that young people would like funny, fast-paced books where characters with values battle those who seem to lack any. Finally, Hiaasen relented. "I thought, well if nothing else, the kids in my family will have a book to read that I have written," he said.

Hiaasen said his inspiration to be a writer stemmed from an insatiable desire to read as a youngster. "I knew somebody was writing these books and I thought that would be the coolest job in the world. What a neat idea - to tell a story and have your name on it," he said. And so when he was 6, he asked his parents for a typewriter. "That's something you write with that looks like a big clunky computer," he explained. "I'm probably the only 6-year-old who ever asked for a typewriter. My Dad was just crazy enough to do it." However, he now realizes that his parents might have had another motive - his horrific handwriting. "I have the worst handwriting of any human ever," Hiaasen said. "It looks like a chicken has walked through ink. My parents believed this would be the only way they could ever read something I had written."

In college, a professor suggested that he ghost write a couple of medical books, one of which was turned into a movie. After college, Hiaasen began a career as a reporter and, in fact, still writes a weekly newspaper column today. He credits his newspaper experience with helping him avoid writer's block. "On a newspaper, there's no such thing as writer's block. You learn to write with a lot of chaos around you. If you get writer's block, you get unemployment block. It really is great training for writing," Hiaasen explained.

Hiaasen elicited incredulous oohs from his young audience when he admitted that he had not read The Hunger Games. "When you're writing all the time. you don't have the luxury of reading as much as you would like to," he said. Hiassen also said he really isn't attracted to the fantasy gendre, either as a reader or a writer. "I like books about real people who have to do something extraordinary, who have to step up in a big way." But he promised that if someone writes The Arthritis Games for his generation he will try to read that.

In closing, Hiassen cautioned any budding writers in the room to be prepared for hard work if they take up the craft. "If it's not painful, you're not doing it right," he said. "Even bad writing is hard work." But, he added, the rewards of writing are immense. "When I'm walking through an airport and I see someone reading something I've written and they're laughing, well that's the greatest feeling in the world."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
What do Ralph Nader, Tom Brokaw, and Carl Hiaasen all have in common? Well, besides being brilliant best-selling authors, they have all touched me. And by touched me, I mean literally touched me. At book talks, all 3 have brushed by me, each one hitting my left elbow. Now if elbow touching only made for transferable writing talent, I might have a future in the book business.  Unfortunately, it doesn't. But I'm still mighty lucky to live in Washington where I can hear about writing from so many talented authors. Just one more reason why DC is perfect for me.

Springsteen Rocks DC

If you are looking for a voice to capture the current state of America, you might consider 63-year-old rocker Bruce Springsteen, who brought the call to restoring the full promise of a fading American Dream to a foot-stomping, hand-raising show in DC tonight.

Springsteen and the E-Street Band, now expanded to a stage-filling 17 members, spent 3 energy-filled, tent-revival-like hours, alternating between allowing the sold-out crowd at the Verizon Center to revel in old memories and urging them to make a kinder, gentler America.

The focus of the show, the 6th in the band's current 1st leg of its world tour, was on Springsteen's new CD Wrecking Ball, which Rolling Stone magazine calls "the most despairing, confrontational, and musically turbulent album Bruce Springsteen has ever made."

"He (Springsteen) is angry and accusing in these songs, to the point of exhaustion, with grave reason. The America here is a scorched earth: razed by profiteers, and suffering a shameful erosion in truly democratic values and national charity. This is darkness gone way past the edge of town, to the heart of the republic," wrote reviewing critic David Fricke.

At a time when many rockers have been reduced to performing greatest hits packages in concert, Springsteen included 11 songs from the new CD during the 26-song set.

Of course, Springsteen didn't neglect long-time crowd pleasers from his immense catalog. Most of them came in the musical flurry of the multi-song encore. After closing the 1st part of the show with "Thunder Road," the band followed with staples "Born to Run," "Dancing in the Dark," and a night-ending "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out."

Springsteen also directed the extremely tight band in some lesser-played nuggets such as a back-to-back offering of "Seaside Bar Song" and "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" both from the band's early 1970s years. There were 3 tour debuts - "Adam Raised a Cain," "Out in the Street," (from a sign request by the audience) and "The Promise." Springsteen has always featured covers in his shows and that category was represented last night by a soaring "Trapped," written by Jimmy Cliff, and an upbeat soul medley of "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "634-5789," during which Springsteen belied his 4 decades as a performer by crowd-surfing on the extended arms of thrilled fans.

But it was really Springsteen as prophet and advocate of the American Dream that truly defined the night. There were the lyrics of the 11 news songs with their combined premise that good governing and the ideal of sharing with others less fortunate is broken and in desperate need of repair. There was the juxtaposition of the themes of "My City of Ruins" and "The Rising." But, perhaps the most reflective moments came during a subdued, but powerful rendition of "American Skin (41 Shots)," originally written as a reaction to the tragic Amadou Diallo killing in New York City, but equally applicable to the Trayvon Martin shooting dominating the news today.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
To see the complete set list from the show provided by NJ.Com click here. To view Washington Post concert photos click here.

What is the Role of the White House?

For more than 200 years, the nature of the White House, home to 43 of the 44 presidents of the United States, has been the subject of debate.

Here we are back at the White House after 39 years

Leery of the trappings of royal power, but cognizant of the inherent symbolism of the presidency, early  presidents and planners struggled to create a house that was grand, but not too grand.  In modern times, that struggle has shifted on how to keep the White House open to the public while still maintaining the security necessary for such a vital center of democracy and freedom to operate. Much of the problem stems from the fact that the White House simultaneously serves as

• a home for the president and his family
• a functioning operational site to determine and run US positions both here and around the world
• a political center to celebrate freedom and contributions of citizens from all 50 states
• a symbol of the power, grandeur, and history of America
• a museum of the presidency and
• one of Washington's leading tourist attractions, a site which can attract as as many as 100,000 visitors a month. 

My wife Judy and I last visited the White House more than 40 years ago. Today, we returned to the home of our presidents to see how much such a visit has changed in 4 decades.

The most obvious changes concern increased security measures. After the 9/11 attacks, all tours must be arranged through a member of Congress, permission that can only be granted after much paperwork and a background check. You may only take 4 items on the tour. The permitted items are cell phones, wallets, car keys, and umbrellas. You will pass through 2 checkpoints where your ID will be scrutinized. You must also submit to a complete X-ray screening.

President Obama listens as Jagger sings in the Blue Room

However, once inside, you are able to wander at your own pace through the open portions of the building and grounds. Although the tour is self-guided, knowledgeable and helpful guide/guards are stationed throughout to answer your questions.You can pause and envision yourself at a presidential press conference or see yourself at a state dinner. I chose to imagine myself at the recent tribute to the blues concert where B. B. King graced the notes of "The Thrill Is Gone," Mick Jagger pranced while singing "Miss You," and president Obama himself sang a few lines of "Sweet Home Chicago."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Probably every one who tours the White House thinks about running into the president. But such encounters are extremely rare. In fact, it may actually be better for you as a visitor if the president is not on site at the time of your visit. That way there is less chance that your tour will be called off at the last moment for some presidential business or crisis. On the day of our visit, President Barack Obama was in Vermont, where one of my favorite bands Grace Potter and the Nocturnals served as his warm-up. Since he wasn't there to greet us, I plan to write him and tell him how much we enjoyed our visit.

Eugene O'Neill: Life as Art

He is considered one of America's premier playwrights. His early experimental plays stretched the boundaries of theater. He transformed the ancient Greek use of masks and Shakespeare's soliloquies into a modern format. He employed psychological ideas and motifs to shape the tragical circumstances of his personal life into great art. He won 4 Pulitzer Prizes for Literature. And now, Eugene O'Neill and his plays are the subject of a 3-month festival here in DC.

Tonight, 4 O'Neill experts engaged in a panel discussion on how O'Neill's life influenced his work. Entitled O:'Neill: My Life in Art, it was held at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.

The panel, moderated by University of Maryland theater history professor Frank Hildy, included Eugene O'Neill Festival producer Erin Dailey, senior theater researcher Aaron Malkin, and actor Rob Janson, who has written a one-man play about O'Neill and has starred as O'Neill's alter-ego in his masterpiece Long Day's Journey into Night.

Dailey said she immersed herself in O'Neill, known for both his on-stage and off-stage tragedies, in the months prior to the festival. "It was a very dark period in my life," Daily joked. "I was amazed about how much of himself he poured into his work."

Janson, who said his first encounter with O'Neill's powerful works "changed my life," agreed with Daily, noting "the blurred line" where the playwright's life and work "runs into one another."

Hildy said O'Neill's greatest contribution to American theater may be that "he was the 1st playwright to look at his own life experiences in a serious way. He was using the plays as a kind of therapy for himself"

The 1st of the festival's 3 major productions, Ah, Wilderness, is typical O'Neill in that it is based on personal experiences, but starkly different from the rest of his work in that it is comedic in nature.

"He put a different kind of spin on this play. This is a play of what he would have liked his family life to be like. He knew people who had that kind of childhood. People (who see the play) say 'I didn't know you could feel so warm at the end of an Eugene O'Neill play," Malkin said.

Dailey said that the greatest of all tragedies surrounding O'Neill is that despite his popular and critical success, the playwright never believed he truly achieved his ambitious writing aims. "He showed that the life we live every day is art. But it's so sad that he never really felt he got it," she said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
The coming weeks are a treasure for O'Neill fans who can make it to DC or live in the Washington area. The main part of the O'Neill Festival consists of 3 of his better-known works. Ah, Wilderness is running until April 8. Strange Interlude ends April 29. Long Day's Journey into Night concludes on May 6. The festival also showcases several original works, readings, rehearsals, and discussions. You can check out the complete schedule by clicking here.

The Titanic Sinking: A New Look After 100 Years

In August 2010, Samuel Halperin and 10 other researchers of  the Titanic began an intensive re-look at the tragedy using modern technology and new information that has surfaced during the 100 years since the initial investigations into the sinking of the ship after it struck an iceberg in the chilly waters of the Atlantic Ocean .

The group planned to publish their findings in a book patterned after the 15-chapter report issued immediately following the 1912 Titanic probes in American and England.

"We wondered if they knew then what we know now 100 years later, how would that report be different," Halperin said. "We modernized our effort, making use of technology and all the information we now know."

Those updated finding were indeed compiled in a book entitled Report into the Loss of the S.S. Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal and Halperin appeared at the National Archives today to discuss the recently released work.

So what did the new group find?

The most tragic finding was a reinforcement of the fact that not only were there too few lifeboats on board, but those that were used for passengers to escape the doomed ship were not filled to capacity.  "The average lifeboat was only filled to a 61% capacity," Halperin said, noting, for example that the group found one lifeboat ferrying only 35 people when it could have held 57.

The new verified outcome of passengers stands at 1,496 lost and only 712 saved. One of the major problems with rescue was that the number of required lifeboats was based on "woefully inadequate" rules from the 1880s which never envisioned the increased passenger capacity of early 20th Century cruise ships. "Clearly, there was never enough lifeboats and life rafts for the passengers and the crew," Halperin said.

"One of the major tragedies of the disaster was that not all classes were treated equally," he added. The poorer passengers in 3rd class died in disproportionate numbers to those in 1st and 2nd class. Halperin said that while only 6.4% of the higher paying passengers did not survive, that percentage was 52.9 in steerage. The main reasons for the discrepancy were locked gates and guards who refused to let the steerage passengers come up on deck.

Other new or revised findings included:

• there were actually 55 seconds between the 1st lookout report of the iceberg and the striking, not the 30 seconds initially reported
•  the ship was filled with water as the result of 5 broken seams, not a 300-foot gash as was originally thought.
• the ship did indeed break into 2 parts before sinking
• the ship would have survived if only 4 compartments had been filled with water; it was unable to handle 5 filled compartments
• the ship was not weak structurally and was not thought by its builders to be unsinkable. "They knew there was no such thing as an unsinkable ship," Halperin said. "Nobody could ever imagine something that would open up 5 compartments."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Halperin's talk, which was accompanied by a host of detailed slides, photos and animations, was only the 1st of a series of programs at the Archives dealing with the Titanic. On April 13,  Julie Hedgepeth Williams will discuss her book: A Rare Titanic Family: The Caldwells' Story of Survival." The following day, there will be a free showing of the classic film A Night to Remember based on the sinking. The Archives is also featuring a collection of artifacts from The Titanic collected as part of the 1912 hearings in Washington about the sinking.

Celebrating Tennessee Williams

In 1935, the 3 college friends spent much time together on Washington University campus in St. Louis, discussing writing as a craft and reading their poems to each other. One - Clark Mills, a senior - was already a well-known poet. The other 2 - Bill, a freshman, and Tom, also a senior - also hoped to become published writers and poets. But probably neither one of them ever envisioned exactly what the future had in store for them. For Bill was to become William Jay Smith, noted American poet and Library of Congress Consultant on Poetry. And his friend Tom was to become Tennessee Williams, one of America's greatest dramatists and the winner of 2 Pulitzer Prizes.

Tonight, Smith, now 93, returned to the Library of Congress to read from his latest book My Friend Tom: The Poet-Playwright Tennessee Williams and discuss his long friendship with Williams, who would have celebrated his 101st today.

The poet William Jay Smith

"I am probably one of the few people alive who knew Tom before he became Tennessee," Smith said. "He was always exactly the same, a warm person."

Smith said his new book "is not a long book, but it has been long in the making."

After college, Smith and Williams went their separate ways for a short period. After Smith returned from World War II, the 2 reunited in New York where Williams' play The Glass Menagerie was being performed. Much of the play was autobiographical and Smith, as a friend, was able to recognize all those details and nuances.

"It was somewhat strange because I spent so many years in that home he depicts so beautifully in that play," Smith said.

From that point on they remained in contact until Williams' death in 1983. In addition to recollections of personal memories and conversations, Smith consulted the vast trove of materials Williams left behind. "He never tore anything up because he thought there might be something in it that could be saved," Smith said.

Smith said that even though his friend became known for his dramas, he never lost the poet's touch. "He had a great ear. His characters spoke as they would. But his work has a rhythm like you would hear if you were reading poetry. I think some of his work is really prose poetry," Smith explained.

Tales, Tips, and Tidbits

Williams at work

I have a few connections to Tennessee Williams. He was the subject of my senior English paper at Villanova University. My assignment was to read everything that Williams had ever published and then try to give it my perspective. Of course, this gave me the opportunity to really learn to appreciate Williams and his craft. Tennessee and I also share the same March 26th birth date. So, attending this free presentation was a birthday gift to myself. However, Smith, in his remarks, gave me one of the the greatest surprise gifts of my life. His poem, "American Primitive" is one of my favorite short poems. After explaining that both he and Williams wrote to reconcile and understand their feelings about their family, Smith proceeded to recite the poem from memory. So thank you, Mr. Smith and Mr. Williams, for making my 60th birthday special.

The Education of a President

It was the summer of 2007. Presidential aspirant Barack Obama, then a political long shot for the White House, was really just an asterisk on the political scene. It was his 46th birthday. He got a call from one of his financial advisers Robert Wolf, who was ensconced on a massive $12 million yacht where a hedge fund manager had just finished  describing a once-in-a-lifetime impending financial collapse. Wolf wanted to alert Obama, "to make him see what I am seeing from where I am standing."

Wolf carefully detailed a grim future. Then he wished Obama a happy birthday, "Yeah, right, happy birthday," Obama said after hearing Wolf's bleak description. But the bad news seemed to enliven the candidate. Maybe real changes could be made in the way America did business.

Obama was surrounded by not one, but 2 economic "dream teams," according to author Ron Suskind, who dubbed the groups Team A and Team B. Team A was headed by economist Paul Volcker. Volcker and his group advocated that Obama, once elected, could use the crisis to create needed fundamental change in the way banks and Wall Street did business. Team B, headed by economic adviser Larry Summers, whom Suskind describes as a colorful "character in search of a good novelist," pushed to first "do no harm," that the financial markets are self-correcting and the situation would take care of itself., Suskind said that eventually Team B "sort of pushed Team A out of the way."

Suskind, who appeared at an Inside Media edition at the Newseum today, said the lack of activity after Obama's election was a missed moment. "You could have had a fundamental Rooseveltian  change. He (Obama) had a 70% approval rating. He arrived on the surf of yearning. He had extraordinary political capital. He was a Prometheus not bound," Suskind said.

Instead, Obama, tried a "let's all get together and work this out tactic and that was the wrong path," Suskind said.

During his talk, Suskind discussed 2 of the more controversial aspects of his book, Confidence Men; Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of the President. One was where Summers was supposed to have said: "We're home alone. There is no one in charge. Bill Clinton never would have done that." The other was detailing a belief on the part of female White House workers that they were being treated "as a piece of meat" and being asked to carry out their duties "in a hostile work environment."

Part of the initial problem, Suskind said, is the difficulty of being President and running the massive White House operation. "Four years before Obama had been a state senator sharing 1 staffer with another senator and now he found himself at the center of the most complex management organization in the world," Suskind said.

"I think the 1st year was a year of real chaos," Suskind said. "Obama showed all kinds of pre-game aptitude, but he couldn't imagine what exactly it would be like to be president. People saw in him what they felt they needed to see. He kind of got the wind knocked out of him. But he ramped up a learning curve faster than anyone could imagine. You could see him everyday growing into his fullness."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
During the question and answer portion, Suskind was asked what might happen to the economy if President Obama gets re-elected. "The betting line right now is that he is in pretty good shape. He is certainly more like Roosevelt in '37 than Hoover in '29. If he wins, it could be viewed as a fresh mandate and he would get another 100 days to push his plans." Suskind cautioned, however, the business world makes a tough opponent. "We are really a nation of 2 capitols," he said. "Washington is the political capitol and New York is the financial capitol. New York has a technical clarity and influence peddling is the business of Washington. You have to fight the currents. It takes real courage."

A Disaster Through Artists' Eyes

Art has the ability to promote peace or provocation. It can soothe or stir up. Sometimes, it has the power to do all of these things simultaneously. And that is the case with 2:46 and Thereafter, an exhibit by a group of Japanese artists at the Edison Gallery on 8th Street.

The title refers to the exact time that the powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku area of Japan on March 11 of last year, damaging nuclear reactors and, for a time, threatening the entire nation.

Members of the Dandan art group were commissioned to create new works based on their feelings and reflections of that natural devastation, about 20 of which were on display here.

"The disaster reminded us of the importance of being humble in the face of the might of Mother Nature. We can never conquer nature; we must learn to live with it," says Dandan General Director Kazuko Aso. "It makes us look at what is the essential value in life? - the value that can never fully be satisfied with materialism."

Probably the most ironic piece is by Mosaharu Fotoyu. It is a replica of an illuminated sign that hung at the entrance to a shopping center less than 3 miles from the damaged Fukushimo Daiichi nuclear power plant. In Japanese, that bright signs reads: "Atomic Power is the Energy of the Brighter Future."

In one piece, "Afternoon" by Yasushi Ebihara (pictured above), there was a definite connection (at least to me) to the famed Japanese monster of nuclear awakening Godzilla. In this painting, a young, sad-looking woman is laying on the floor. Her unnaturally long black hair flows everywhere, appearing almost twisted in to the electric cord powering the single pole lamp illuminating the room. Strewn around her are toy houses and trucks, similar in position to those uprooted by the disaster. Above her prone body looms an ominous, supernaturally large preying mantis.

Another colorful piece was a 2-set painting by Ryota Unno. In the first, called "Tohuko's Ark", historical characters like drummers, dragons,, and baseball players practice local traditions.  In the 2nd, "Tohoku's Hero," rescuers and builders work to restore the Ark and its mountainous area. In both pictures, a giant tsunami is striking.

In another series of 3 works, Shinichi Tsuchigu used photographs he had taken of the area to create 3 picture puzzles in shadow boxes. The pictures all were missing pieces, some of which were scattered on the edges of the 3 framed boxes.

"This work represents my belief that the affected area, too, will make a full recovery and complete its picture," Tsuchiogu says in a booklet describing the exhibition, which was scheduled to close on March 25.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

This particular exhibit may be closed, but there is no shortage of things Japanese to do in DC over the next 4 weeks. It is Cherry Blossom Festival time and flowers and Japanese cultural art works are blooming, not just in the tidal basin and the National Mall, but all over the city. For anyone wishing to take part in the festivities, here are a few on-line sites with suggestions and schedules you can check out.

• Cherry Blossom Festival 2012
• Cherry Blossom Turns 100
• Official Cherry Blossom site

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The Importance of Being Figurative

Whenever Black artist and art professor Kerry James Marshall would tour a major art gallery, he was reminded of the old Sesame Street song that goes "one of these things is not like the other, one of these things is just not the same." The problem, as Marshall saw it, was that all the art work, at least when it came to forms and figures, was exactly the same. All those pictured were of European descent. Rarely, if ever, were there black or brown faces.

When he consulted the major art history books, the situation was much the same. There might be mention of Jacob Lawrence, or Romare Bearden, or Jean-Michael Basquiat, but for the most part African-American art and artists were dismissed as primitive and not worthy of the acclaim awarded their white counterparts.

"There needs to be more about people of color. There is scant representation of black folk at every level," Marshall says. "We ain't goin' nowhere. We're here and we've been here."

Marshall, 57, has spent his career as an artist focusing on black figures. Last year, his painting "Great America" was selected to be included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery. And today, he appeared at the East Wing of the Gallery to deliver a lecture on the state of art entitled "The Importance of Being Figurative."

Including more faces of diverse colors in a collection of art benefits all the works, Marshall contended. "If everything is the same, those things fade into the other things that are just like them," he said. "You want the clearest distinction possible. That has a value in its own right regardless of what you think of the work. You can make the case that an expanded field is not a diminished field."  To prove his point, Marshall showed a slide containing all white portraits; then he replaced one portrait to include a black female face and the contrast did enhance the entire collection.

He said that much of his art work has been designed to "fill in the gaps" that have been created by the exclusion of Black artists from the mainstream.

For example, is perusing books claiming to define beauty, black representation isn't there. "In the Great American Pin-Up there is not a single black figure. That is a problem," Marshall said, adding that he created a series of pin-up posters depicting black females.

The idea of a hero in art culture also excludes blacks. "To allow that to stand unchallenged is unhealthy," he said. To remedy that deficiency, Marshal is continuing to display a comic book character series called Rythm MASTR. There, black figures escape from the Chicago Art Museum to do good and battle evil.

In another series of works called Monuments, Marshall attaches some type of slave reference to established symbols of freedom such as the Washington Monument. "This is to show that there were other people fighting for their freedom, too," he said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

With its elements of folk art, myth and social consciousness, I don't find Black figurative art primitive, I find it powerful. And James Kerry Marshall's "Great America" (1994) is a prime example of that power. The large painting, which is now hanging in the permanent collection of the National Gallery in DC, is an absolute must-see. It re-imagines Black freedom as a theme park boat ride through a haunted house. So much symbolism. The boat trip as Middle Passage journey. The haunting ghosts as white sheet-clad KKKers. The ribbons bearing the title reminiscent of patriotic mottoes. The use of red (and blue and white). The word WOW in stark white letters surrounded by a field of red. The red cross. Judy and I spent more than 10 minutes in front of the painting, talking and trying to take it all in. Powerful, powerful, stuff, indeed.

How Creativity Works

Portrait of Bob Dylan in 1965

It was the early Summer of 1965. Bob Dylan was winding up an exhaustive tour of England. He felt he had been ruined by fame. He was performing the same songs night after night. Reporters were asking him questions ranging from what is truth to why is there a cat on your last album cover? Bored and soul sick, Dylan was giving inane answers like his music was the result of "chaos, watermelon, and clocks." He thought "what good is it having everyone dig your music if you yourself don't dig it." After a bout of severe food poisoning in Spain, he made a decision - he would quit making music forever. He might paint. He might write a novel . But he wouldn't compose any more songs. He was done.

Arriving in America, he headed toward upstate New York on his motorcycle. He didn't even take his guitar with him. But a short time later, something extremely bizarre happened. He was seized by an uncontrollable urge to write something down. He grabbed a pencil and began scribbling frantically. He later called it "a long piece of vomit" that poured from him "as if a ghost was writing." He headed to a recording studio. He and his session band worked on the product. The result was Dylan's masterpiece "Like a Rolling Stone." It revolutionized all of rock and roll. Rolling Stone magazine has repeatedly selected "Like a Rolling Stone" as the greatest rock song ever written. Bruce Springsteen calls the first time he heard the song on the radio "one of the most important moments of my life."

For science writer Jonah Lehrer, the Dylan example is just one of those creative moments of insight in mankind's story which provide the world with something new and true. Archimedes with his eureka moment in the bathtub. Sir Issac Newton with his theory of gravity literally falling from a tree.

Tonight, Lehrer appeared at Politics and Prose to discuss his new best-selling book Imagine: How Creativity Works. Lehrer said that while much study remains to be done, scientists are now finding that insightful creative ideas come from the portion of the human brain that is also involved in understanding metaphors and laughing at jokes.

"Things go through a mental blender. There are remote associations that bring together ideas," Lehrer said. These creative insights are linked to brain-produced alpha waves. Hooking subjects up to brain scanners, scientists have found that there is about an 8 second advance warning that one of these break-through insights is about to occur. "It's sort of like they can say 'sorry buddy, you are wasting your time or in about 7-and-a-half seconds you are going to have an epiphany,'" Lehrer said.

So is there a way to bring on these moments? Yes, Lehrer says, but it the exact opposite of how most people struggle for the break through. It won't come from stressing at a computer or laboring over a problem. It comes through relaxation. "Take a hot shower. Lie on the couch. Drink a beer. Take a walk. Do whatever puts you at ease. Turn the spotlight inward. You just may hear that voice you need," he said.

But what then is the proper place of work and refinement in creativity? Well, they are definitely part of the process.  For example, the great composer Beethoven was known to try hundreds of variations of notes in a passage before he was satisfied that he had created masterful music.

Scientists are finding that truly creative people are not smarter than others, but "are a little more open to experience." They are also finding that time again, the truly creative exhibit "grit", which they define as "refusing to quit."  J. K. Rowling is a prime example. Lehrer suggested that you consider the case of the author of the wildly popular Harry Potter series, then a British mother on welfare, surrounded by a pile of rejection letters, continuing to write in a coffee house with her infant by her side until today she finds herself one of the most-read authors in history and richer than the Queen of England.

But this grit factor can not be tested by any short term measure. It only reveals itself over an extended period of time. That idea is anathema in today's test-happy world where everything must be measured immediately. As a prime example of such fallacious thinking, Lehrer cited the National Football League's combine for prospective draft picks. The candidates are given all kinds of tests. But studies have shown that only 1 - the 40-yard dash for running backs - shows any relationship to later success. "The NFL combine is a big waste of time and money," Lehrer says.

It comes down to grit. "Grit is what allows you to show up again and again and again and again. You can't measure that with some kind of multiple choice test," Lehrer said, adding that creativity is as difficult to produce as it is to measure. "If it (some great insight or performance that leads to a great accomplishment) were easy, it already would have been done," he maintained.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
During the question-and-answer portion of the program, Lehrer was asked how the findings examined in his book could be applied to helping solve America's alarming crisis in education. He briefly outlined a 4-part beginning plan:

• since studies show that the greatest learning gap begins around 4th grade that should be the target area for most of the resources
• there should be much less emphasis on testing and more on promoting creativity at every level and in every learning
• all students should be given mulitiple activities and opportunities to increase their "grit."
• the entire process we use to produce world class athletes should be replicated in the educational world. "The United States is really good at producing athletes," Lehrer says "We have wonderful mechanisms. We need to apply these same basic lessons to our schools. We need to celebrate creativity not just on (football) Sunday, but every day as a culture."

Could Lincoln Be President Today? Probably Not.

From the 1950s fuzzy black and white TV coverage to today's frenzy of 24-hour cable news networks, internet sites, blogs, and Twitter, the media has drastically shaped both the actions of American presidents and indeed who can actually get elected to that post, presidential historian Michael Beschloss says.

The immense power of  visual media first surfaced during the presidential debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Those who watched the debate on TV clearly believed Kennedy was the winner. Those listening on radio gave the victory to Nixon. Kennedy eventually won that highly-contested 1960 election. But another winner was television, which had clearly demonstrated its power, a power that was only to grow during the ensuing years.

Tonight, Beschloss appeared at a special program at the Newseum to discuss how presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama had both used and been affected by the contemporary media of their times.  Beschloss' talk was part of the Newseum's recently opened exhibit Every Four Years: Presidential Campaigns and the Press.

For his part, Eisenhower saw little effect from the media. "He was so popular he could say almost anything and it wouldn't change anyone's opinion of him," Beschloss said.  In fact, Eisenhower, genuinely mystified, once replied to a question by saying "What could a reporter do to me?"

But by Kennedy's time the president/media situation was much different.  "After the debate, it meant you had a different kind of president," Beschloss said, noting that in 1963 national polls showed that more people received their news from television than from newspapers.

Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was obsessed with media coverage. He had 3 television sets tuned to the news showing on the 3 major networks - ABC, CBS, and NBC. He also had 2 ticker tapes constantly running to see what was being reported between the nightly broadcasts. It was not unusual for Johnson to pick up the phone and angrily call a network executive insisting "get that off the ticker, it is completely wrong" or "kill that one for the western feed. That is completely wrong."

Johnson was succeeded by Richard Nixon, who had a testy and challenging relationship with the press which eventually culminated in his resignation as president due to the highly and competitively reported Watergate scandal.

Both Gerald Ford and his successor Jimmy Carter had image problems created in part by the media. Ford, one of the most athletic presidents in history, became portrayed as a a bumbler on Saturday Night Live sketches after he beaned one of his secret agents with a golf ball and stumbled exiting an airplane. Carter never really recovered from admitting in a Playboy magazine interview that he had "often had lust in his heart."

As a former actor, Ronald Reagan was extremely comfortable in front of the camera. "He was LBJ's nightmare of what the presidency would be turned into by television," Beschloss said.

George H. Bush admitted that television was "not a medium he ever handled well." In fact, during a debate with Bill Clinton who would deny Bush a chance at a second term, a defining moment came when Bush kept looking at his watch, an action viewers took to mean that he was "an effete, out-of-touch person who felt that the debates were somehow beneath him" Bush's action contrasted greatly with those of the personable Clinton.

During Clinton's 8 years in office, the modern media that we now have today first came into being. "There were suddenly three 24-hour cable news networks that were extremely competitive and we had the first 50 pages (of politics) on the internet," Beschloss pointed out.

George W. Bush used television to push his agenda after the 9/11 attacks. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected after running the most sophisticated media campaign in American history, a trend that Beschloss is convinced will only grow with Obama's upcoming campaign against his as-yet undecided Republican challenger.

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During his talk, Beschloss raised a truly terrifying possibility from the unrelenting 24-hour news cycle. The time for presidential action has been dramatically shortened. That means hard decisions have to made much more quickly than in the past. As just one frightening example, Beschloss cited the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Initially,  President Kennedy favored military action against the Russian missile sites in Cuba, an action which almost certainly would have plunged the world into nuclear confrontation. However, he was able to hold off his final decision for more than a week and the crisis was averted. "Can you imagine if something like that happened today to President Obama? It's a much different atmosphere. It's much more immediate. When you think about who you want in office, you need to choose someone who has the strength to hold those kinds of decisions off despite media pressure," Beschloss said. Of course, if the press acted the way they do in today's anything is reportable era, there is a good chance that Kennedy would never have been elected. The press knew about his incessant womanizing, but due to the tone and unstated rules of that time, never reported about it. That is a silence that is simply unimaginable today.