Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archive
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • Page 54

Publication:
Standard-Speakeri
Location:
Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
54
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

E6 Standard-Speaker, Sunday, March 19, 2000 Hunnnu II. JUiipwiiUM I. ill "I'll i imi Books Writer takes serious look at 'Teddy' ELLEN O'CONNELLStandard-Speaker Josh Wirbicki, front, and Colleen Doxsey paint a war scene at the Mountaintop American Legion. ,1 tr if i I I Author Adam Clymer notes that U.S. Sen.

Edward Kennedy was able to achieve more than his brothers, both of whom were assassinated. By LESLIE MILLER Associated Press BOSTON It was midnight Good Friday nine years ago, and a sad and restless Edward M. Kennedy could not sleep. He was haunted by memories of Stephen Smith, his favorite brother-in-law, who had just died. The senator, who had a reputation for boozing and womanizing, asked his son, Patrick, and his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, to join him for a few drinks at one of Palm Beach's more fashionable bars.

Events that day would lead to rape charges against Smith, a sensational trial, an acquittal and a low point in a Senate career marred by recklessness. But the tawdry trial also was a turning point for a man now hailed in a new book as one of the greatest senators in U.S. history. During the year of the trial, veteran New York Times reporter Adam Clymer began writing a book about Kennedy, whom he met in 1955 when Kennedy started as left end for Harvard against Yale. His book, Edward M.

Kennedy: A Biography, provides a serious new view of the Massachusetts Democrat. Clymer had in 1991 what he called a "conceptual the iconoclastic idea that the Kennedy known as "Teddy" was a towering political leader who had achieved more than his older brothers, Sen. Robert Francis Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated before they reached 50. "We're used to Kennedys who stop in their 40s," Clymer said.

"He didn't die a hero's death. In that respect, he has suffered, but his accomplishments, through a much longer career, exceed theirs." Kennedy helped bring about voting rights for blacks, greater inclusion of women and the disabled in the workplace, a volunteer military, the Meals on Wheels program, deregulation of the airlines and the ending of parole in the federal justice system. "He deserves recognition not just as the leading senator of his time, but as one of the greats in its history," Clymer wrote in the conclusion of the book, which was published in November. The view has become more accepted since Bill Clinton became president, Clymer said in an interview with The Associated Press. As Kennedy, 67, prepares for an easy race for an eighth term this year, his legacy is likely to undergo re-examination especially after his recent hospitalization for pneumonia underscored his mortality.

Clymer's 609-page book, though sometimes dry, covers the scandals in Kennedy's life. It includes his expulsion from Harvard as a freshman for cheating and his decision to leave the scene of a fatal car accident in Chappaquiddick in 1969, which many believe doomed his 1980 bid for the presidency. ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, center, poses at the White House in 1962 with his brothers, Attorney General Robert, left, and President John.

Painting (Continued from El) Megan Loftus-Vergari continued the work that had begun several days earlier. With one painting almost finished, Doxsey began yet another war scene. This one depicted a World War II scene with soldiers in a field and burned trees in the background. "They want us to do one (painting) from each war," Loftus-Vergari said. Once all of the scenes are painted, the walls in the lower-level room at the Legion building will have a famous war scene for all to see.

In order to bring life to the paintings, the students use a picture as a model. "We sketched the outline" for the first painting, Wirbicki said. That was done by projecting the picture onto the wall. After the sketch was drawn, it was time for the paint. The students chose acrylic to work with because of its drying ability.

"Oils take too long to dry," Loftus-Vergari said. "Acrylic takes about a minute to dry." That would mean if a mistake happened to be made or if the student wanted to get a shade just right, it could be painted over immediately. The second painting Doxsey was working on was done slightly different from the first. Instead of using a projection, the students are relying on their natural artistic abilities. "We're doing the second one freehand," Doxsey said.

As she painted, Doxsey used the picture hanging to her left as a guide, stopping periodically to look at it. The students are using a variety of tools to get each painting just right. Some of those include different size paintbrushes, paper plates used as paint palettes, and lots of paper towels. And, of course, the students use a rainbow of colors including white and black and sometimes mix them together in order to get the right hue. "We use white to make it lighter or a darker color to make it darker," Wirbicki said.

"It just depends on what you're working on." The project at the Legion isn't the first time the students have dabbled in the arts. Doxsey and Loftus-Vergari painted a mural at the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre. And Doxsey and Wirbicki even have painted pictures for their family as presents. Even though they paint for others, all three devote time for themselves as well. "I'm going to Wilkes University part time and taking painting," Loftus-Vergari said.

As for the future, Wirbicki is the only one of three who is sure he will pursue a career in art. He intends to study graphic design in college. Clymer argues that Kennedy's failings spurred him to greater achievement a view Kennedy apparently endorses, having autographed 130 copies of the book and given them to friends. The youngest of nine, Kennedy was born into the wealthy Irish-Catholic political dynasty in Boston. And as an inexperienced 30-year-old, he won a Senate seat from Massachusetts in 1962, thanks to the popularity of his brother, the president.

He immediately took to the Senate, said Clymer, who attributes Kennedy's success to a knack for finding Republican allies and a willingness to give others credit. Though he has shepherded many bills into law, only one bears his name: the 1999 Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act, which allows disabled people to keep their government health insurance while working. Kennedy's most cherished goal of universal health insurance eluded him, but he expanded neighborhood clinics, increased funding for cancer research, made health insurance portable and speeded approval of new drugs. Clymer also reveals in his book Kennedy's previously unpublished foreign-affairs achievements. "He never wanted a committee seat on Foreign Affairs, because he could always see foreign leaders anyway," Clymer said.

Kennedy fought President Reagan on domestic issues, but intervened personally with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to help broker a nuclear arms treaty. He has worked for peace in Northern Ireland since 1971 and played a crucial role in bringing about the Good Friday peace accords. Kennedy's extramarital affairs and his drinking, though, obscured his accomplishments. By 1991, the Palm Beach affair had rendered him powerless to stop the appoint-, ment of Clarence Thomas, whom he consid- ered unqualified, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After Thomas, Kennedy got the worst press of his career, including being lampooned as drunk on TVs "Saturday Night Live." But he had quietly begun dating Vickie Reggie, who became his second wife. And he had resolved to turn his life around, which he cryptically explained at a speech at Harvard. "He's a very tough guy and he under- stands that if somebody accuses you of thing that's true, maybe you're your own worst enemy, and you have to hope that when people add up the score, there will be more pluses than minuses," said President Clinton, who was on the receiving end of pep talks from Kennedy during his impeachment trial in 1999. Kennedy's final legacy will not depend on-, political spin, Clymer said, but on what he continues to get done in Washington. 'Austin' Author's admirer becomes her biographer IP lUOT By RON BERTHEL Associated Press (Continued from El) style of Austin to begin with, which is another reason why it works so well here." John T.

Davis, who's written the history of the show (25 Years of American Music: Austin City Limits, Billboard Books, $35, 192 pages), says it's the focus on the music that has made the show stand out. Ray Benson, leader of the Grammy-winning band Asleep at the Wheel, agrees. "It's a pretty simple deal. It's a show that's all about the music, to present the artists' music the way they do on a daily basis," says Benson, who credits the show for much of his band's success. "Austin City Limits" allowed musicians to perform for TV unscripted and unrehearsed long before unplugged became an MTV-generation buzzword, Davis said.

And because of the show, he says, "when people around the country think of the Texas capital, they don't necessarily envision billionaire moguls like Michael Dell, or pontificating state politicians. They think instead of Stevie Ray Vaughan or the Neville Brothers or Emmylou Harris playing on a hillside above a glittering skyline." Founder Bill Arhos wanted a national showcase for up-and-coming Texas talent and pitched the pilot, starring Willie Nelson, to public television. Over the years, the show has seen competition come from MTV, VH1 and other cable shows with more money. It endured federal budget cuts and other changes at PBS, with the never-ending quest to raise the minimum $800,000 it takes to produce the show every year. Arhos who retired this year from daily operations of the show and its home station, Austin's KLRU-TV says getting money has been a recurrent challenge.

But Mary Beth Rogers, the station's president, says the series is in good shape for the future. National underwriters have signed on for the next three years and there's talk of taping 26 instead of 13 shows per season. Plans are in the works to expand the show's presence on the Web, take it on a national tour and distribute some of the show's archives on compact disc, DVD, video and through TV syndication. And despite the competition for bookings with shows that have more money, Likona says: "I think that given the name, the reputation and the history that the show has, there will still be a place for us somewhere." In the next five years, the historic set will be rebuilt as the station converts to high-definition television, and the "Austin City Limits" sign that has shone over acts for 25 years will be retired to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Still, Lucero, who'll soon retire, believes it's the old formula that will keep faithful fans tuned in.

"Austin City Limits" is for "someone who really appreciates it, who comes and gets something out of it," he says. "The fact that you come here free, get free beer and see a great show, see some of your idols. That, I think, that's a lot." Austin Cyber Limits: www.pbs. orglklru laustin lindex.html Poland's leading actress, comes to the United States with her young son and husband, an aristocrat in revolt against his family. She leads a group of countrymen who settle in Southern California to establish a Utopian commune.

When the commune fails, most of the immigrants return to Poland. But Maryna stays, learns English and, as Marina Zalenska, begins a successful acting career in America. Carolina Moon (Putnam) by Nora Roberts Progress, a small town in the South Carolina marshlands, is the hometown of Tory Bodeen, who grew up there with a tyrannical father in a home that stifled growth and discouraged dreams. Her salvation was Hope, a young playmate who made Tory feel like a normal child. But Tory's life fell apart after Hope's brutal murder.

Now 26, Tory returns to settle down in Progress and start a business. Hope's murder is still unsolved, however, and the town is soon hit by a murder spree. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life (St. Martin's) by Donald Spoto The celebrity biographer whose subjects have included Princess Diana, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe turns his attention to a woman who was both first lady of the United States and wife of the world's richest man. Spoto draws upon archival information recently released by the John F.

Kennedy Archives and on interviews with her J- acquaintances. Among the jects: her subtle but powerful influence on presidential widowhood, motherhood, and her career as a book editor in New York. Will Bear Witness (Ran-1 dom House) by Victor Klempererr Volume 2 of Klemperer's diaryi continues his record of daily life in Hitler's Germany. Klemperer, who died in 1960, was a teacher and author who lived in Dresden with his wife. The first volume covered 1933, 1 when Hitler rose to power, through 1941; this volume continues through war's end in 1945.

"1 Klemperer describes how he and his wife escaped Dresden during the Allied bombings, just after they received orders of deportation to a concentration camp. Dish (Avon Spike) by Jean-, nette Wells MSNBC correspondent Wells' delves into five decades of gossip1 the celebrities who inspire it, the publicists who create it, the' media that report it and the public that gobbles it up. She takes readers from the silver-screen i fan magazines through Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the fledgling National Enquirer, tabloid TV and the Internet. Among the players: the first' lady who stripped almost bare during a newspaper interview, the tabloid founder with links to both the CIA and the Mafia, the big star who organized a cott of People magazine. Reading The Group and other books by Mary McCarthy inspired Frances Kiernan to read several biographies about her.

But none satisfied Kiernan's desire to know McCarthy "off the page." So, Kiernan wrote her own biography of McCarthy. Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy (Norton) is an exhaustive 845-page biography, with nearly 100 pages of text notes, bibliography, index, and biographical notes about more than 200 of the book's characters. The book, Kiernan's first, is among the latest hardcovers. McCarthy, who died in 1989 at age 77, is profiled through her correspondence and published works, and interviews with more than 200 people. Comments from friends, foes, relatives and fellow writers including Susan Son-tag, Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow appear throughout the narrative.

Topics include McCarthy's Vassar days, her marriages, step-motherhood, the success of The Group (1963) and her legal battle with playwright Lillian Hellman. Also new on the shelves are: Where You Belong (Double-day) by Barbara Taylor Bradford Val Denning, an American war photographer living in Paris, is the subject of this 16th novel by the author of A Woman of Substance. While Val is covering the fighting in Kosovo, an ambush Frances Kiernan kills her lover. At his funeral, she learns disturbing truths about him. Val plunges into her career, reinventing herself as a celebrity photographer.

On assignment in Mexico, she meets a dashing international artist with a playboy's reputation and a strong attraction to her. The Light of Other Days (Tor) by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter Clarke, whose 60-plus books include 2001: A Space Odyssey, co-wrote this sci-fi story about a world without privacy. A brilliant industrialist devises a way for people to see one another any time around corners and through walls even in their most intimate moments. Meanwhile, a method is discovered for using the same technology to look backward in time and uncover the truth about history.

In America (FSG) by Susan Sontag In 1876, Maryna Zalezowska, 'Girls in America' have something to say By MARIA CODER Associated Press 'Austin City Limits' highlights 1975: First broadcast, on March 22, features Willie Nelson, then relatively unknown, and helps set fund-raising records for PBS stations across the South. 1976: PBS orders 10 more programs for the show's national debut season. 1977: Gary P. Nunn's "London Homesick Blues" opens the second season, and soon becomes synonymous with "Austin City Limits." 1980: The first "Songwriters Special" teams artists and songwriters for round-robin performances. Ray Charles becomes the first major black and the first major pop artist to appear.

1985: 10th anniversary celebration in downtown Austin is the first show taped outside the KLRU studio. Bob Wills' Original Texas Playboys draw a crowd of more than 5,000. 1987: Fats Domino visits and Houston native Lyle Lovett makes his solo debut, the first of nine appearances. 1990: Mary Chapin Carpenter and Garth Brooks record their premieres. Blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan tapes his final performance before dying in a helicopter crash.

1995: 20th season celebrated with performances by Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Tammy Wynette, the Neville Brothers, Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMent. 1997: First tribute show is a celebration of Walter Hyatt's music. 1999: The Dixie Chicks headline a year of breakout performances. welfare, stay in school and build a better life for her baby. "I want him to grow up in a better neighborhood than I did.

We're raising each other. I'm still a teen-ager." A spirit of rebellion and courage echoes throughout the pages as beauty queens, synchronized swimmers, double Dutchers, rugby players, cheerleaders and others openly share their lives. "People have a problem with me having blue eyes because they think that's not the 'white' side of you," says Monique, 15, a bira-cial beauty queen who bluntly challenges society's thinking: "Honestly, do you know how white people act? Do you know how black people act? No, people act differently." All the girls discuss their mistakes and hold themselves accountable for them. While some do point fingers at others, all ultimater -ly see where they went wrong and most of them advise others to not follow in their foot- steps. And all want their gender to persevere.

Says Felicia, 17: "Girls out there, don't give up and don't get discouraged because it's gonna happen. You'll get your day." While the book might seem repetitive because the subjects' circumstances are simi--lar, no two recollections are alike. And despite the harsh realities so vividly described, each girl shows amazing drive and determination. This book will linger in your mind long after you've read it. Carol Cassidy's Girls in America: Their Stories, Their Words (TV Books, $25) is an eye-opening look at what is on the minds of America's teen-age girls.

Cassidy's first book, this collection of interviews with more than two dozen girls provides an in-depth look at their thoughts about sex, boys, dating, relationships and dreams. Their voices are so loud and powerful that at times you might feel you're part of the conversation. "I'm making sure I'm not one of the statistics out there," says Regina, a 16-year-old mother who desperately wants to stay off.

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the Standard-Speaker
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About Standard-Speaker Archive

Pages Available:
1,356,374
Years Available:
1889-2024