Rockwell Painting Inspires Movie
The painting is one of the most intricately detailed works from an illustrator with a mania for minutiae: faithfully reproduced ironwork scrolling on the barber chair and cozy stove, comic books on the rack, and chipped paint on a windowpane molding. The painting “stands as one of the finest displays of Norman Rockwell’s talent as an artist,” says Jeremy Clowe of the Norman Rockwell Museum.
For all the painting’s detail and masterful lighting and composition, it is the after-hours peek into the back room that draws us, as barber trades his scissors and razor for a cello to make music with his friends.
Echoes of Rockwell’s painting appear in the new movie A Way Back Home, a Hallmark Movie Channel original starring four-time Emmy nominee Danny Glover as barber Charlie Shuffleton and Austin Stowell as Trey Cole, a celebrity coming to the realization that he has lost himself along the way.
Trey has severed ties with his past and didn’t even return home when his brother died serving in the military. But now memories are stirring, like that old barbershop and his first haircut in the brown leather chair and how Charlie (Glover) took him under his wing when he was a boy, when his own father was cold and often absent. Returning to the barbershop in one of the film’s opening scenes, Trey notices a trio of musicians playing in a dimly lit back room as in Rockwell’s original painting.
“For his cover illustration for the April 29, 1950, issue of The Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell turned to Rob Shuffleton’s barbershop in East Arlington, Vermont,” said Clowe.
Yes, Shuffleton’s Barbershop was a real place; it was where America’s favorite artist went for a trim. “Similar to how he employed both neighbors and family as subjects for his work, Rockwell also found artistic inspiration from his surroundings,” Clowe explains.
The cello player sitting in the interior room is Rob Shuffleton, whom Rockwell once called “a tonsorial virtuoso who always trims his locks exactly the right length.” Shuffleton’s Barbershop was a place, like the little town of Arlington, Vermont, itself, where a world-famous artist could go and be treated like everyone else—just the way he liked it.
As you watch the movie, which premiered Saturday, June 1, look for ways Rockwell’s painting inspired the feature-length film.
Purchase a print of Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop at Art.com.
Life in Jeopardy: A Brain Disorder Often Missed
“Doctors diagnosed me with Parkinson’s disease in the late ’90s and I was just fading away—but they were wrong,” says J.D. Cain, a retired stone-cutter living in Indiana. “My real problem was water on the brain—a condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus. After treatment, my tremors and dementia went away, and I told my grandsons ‘the Jeopardy champ is back!’”
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) can cause disturbing changes in a person’s ability to think and walk, symptoms that are all-too frequently misdiagnosed as dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, or attributed to age.
The good news is that, unlike Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, NPH can potentially be reversed with proper treatment. But an accurate diagnosis is the first step.
According to the Hydrocephalus Association (hydroassoc.org), 375,000 people—or 5 percent—diagnosed with Parkinson’s and dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease, may actually have NPH.
MRI scans help diagnose adults with NPH, an often progressive condition that occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid (a clear fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) builds up within the brain and disrupts memory, walking, mood, and bladder control. In some patients, like Cain, surgery to route extra fluid out of the brain and into the abdomen can dramatically reverse or improve symptoms within weeks.
“Right now, people out there are shaking, stumbling, and unable to control their bladder,” says Cain. “My grandfather, a good ol’ country doctor, once said to listen to your body and keep looking for help if you’re not satisfied. That’s what I did, and I encourage others to do it, too. I still get teary-eyed thinking of all those years that NPH took away from me and my wife. But now my NPH symptoms are completely gone, and it’s great to enjoy life again.”
Resources:
- Life NPH: Take a screening quiz, watch a video, and request a free information kit.
- National Institutes of Health: Get a detailed overview and link to clinical trials.
- Alzheimer’s Organization: Learn about 10 types of dementia.
- Search YouTube for ‘normal pressure hydrocephalus’ to view inspiring stories of lives regained.
Photo credit Codman
Cypriot Chicken Kebabs
These kebabs were inspired by the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has long been a crossing point between Europe, Asia, and Africa. So it’s not surprising that Cypriot cuisine is a unique blend of many influences.
Tip: Get a jump-start on this great dish by marinating the chicken overnight (marinating the chicken ensures flavorful and juicy kebabs). Then simply assemble the kebabs the following day.
Make it a meal: Serve the kebabs with a garden salad dressed with a simple vinaigrette. Add a side of seasoned black beans. All you have to do is sauté some finely chopped green onions and diced tomato along with minced garlic. Mix this with cooked beans and heat through. The result is a healthy, colorful, and appetizing meal.
Cypriot Chicken Kebabs
(Makes 4 servings)
Kebab Ingredients
- 12 ounce chicken breast, boneless, skinless, cut into 12 even pieces
- 1 zucchini, cut into 8 slices
- 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 8 pieces
- 8 cherry tomatoes
Marinade Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (spicy brown may be substituted)
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Dressing Ingredients
- 12 fresh mint leaves
- 1 cup frozen peas, cooked
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- Juice of one lemon
Directions
- Whisk together marinade ingredients and set aside 1 tablespoon for basting later. In shallow dish, cover chicken with marinade until well coated. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Using four kebab skewers, arrange 3 pieces of chicken and 2 pieces each of zucchini, pepper, and tomatoes per skewer. For easier grilling, start and end each skewer with chicken.
- Coat grill lightly with oil to prevent sticking. Place skewers on medium-hot grill. Turn frequently and brush with reserved marinade. Cook for 18-25 minutes or until juices run clean. Cooking time will depend on size of chicken pieces and temperature.*
- In meantime, for dressing, place ingredients in food processor or blender. Puree and set aside.
- After removing kebabs from grill, let stand 5 minutes. Serve with dressing on side.
*An alternative cooking method is to preheat oven to 400°F. Place skewers on shallow baking dish on center rack. Bake 10 minutes. Baste and turn over, baste and bake for additional 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Nutrition Facts
Per serving
Calories: 200
Total fat: 8 g
Saturated fat: <1 g
Carbohydrate: 10 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 21 g
Sodium: 105 g
Cartoons: Gone Fishing
The Presidents and the Press
President Obama isn’t the first president to incur the wrath of America’s media. For most of his first term, he had a fairly good relationship with the press. If he was relentlessly attacked by some networks, he was given fairly friendly coverage from others. But all that goodwill flew out the window when the press learned that the Department of Justice had been trying to track down leaks of sensitive information by subpoenaing the phone records and emails of reporters.
As we look back at former presidents’ relations with the press, we realize how different it was in the days before our defense relied so heavily on secret intelligence.
Coming into the 20th century, newspapers were on fairly good terms with the president, according to reporter Herbert Corey. His 1932 Post article “The Presidents and the Press” explains that the media got their stories from a small handful of reporters selected by the chief executive.
President Theodore Roosevelt added a new feature to this arrangement. He would announce an impending action to a reporter on Sunday, knowing there would be little news in the Monday morning newspapers to compete for readers’ attention.
When the story appeared the next day, he watched the reactions from Congress, the press, and the public. If the response was too critical, Roosevelt would abandon the idea. And he would deny the story, leaving the friendly reporter alone to face the public.
President William Howard Taft came to the White House assuming that this pleasant arrangement would continue. His favorite reporter would arrive daily at the White House. Taft would chat with him and pass on whatever news he felt like sharing.
Soon other reporters were clamoring for the same access. Taft relented and invited in a select number for informal briefings. But when one of these newly admitted reporters published an “impertinently personal” story about Taft, the president was enraged. He petulantly canceled every appointment he had that day and refused to attend a state dinner in the evening. Eventually the first lady, Helen Herron Taft, pressured him into attending the dinner, but he arrived late. The story behind his late arrival was widely shared among Washington’s reporters, but none dared to print it for fear of causing another presidential outburst.
President Woodrow Wilson realized Taft’s methods of communicating with the press wouldn’t meet modern demands for more timely and more detailed news. He believed the American public wanted to know everything the president was doing. And so, one hundred years ago, he held the first press conference. At first, things went well; Wilson had already shown a talent for handling the press when he was governor of New Jersey. As president, he assumed reporters would appreciate his openness and would eagerly pass on his message to the public. He soon realized that they were straying from his points and was incensed when a reporter printed a personal story about his daughter. When he appeared before the correspondents, according to Corey, he said what many presidents have wanted to tell the press, “I am about to address you as Woodrow Wilson and not as the president. … This must stop. On the next offense I shall do what any other indignant father would do. I will punch the man who prints it in the nose.”
Wilson enjoyed generally enthusiastic support from the press as he sent American troops to fight in the First World War. But after the war, the newspapers were highly critical of Wilson’s Peace Treaty and his League of Nations, which would involve the United States in a global peacekeeping body. With many newspapers bitterly attacking what he felt was the only way of preventing future wars, Wilson lost his trust in the press. In 1919, he stopped holding press conferences.
By the time he left the White House, Wilson was so disillusioned with the press, according to Corey, he warned his successor, Warren G. Harding, “Be careful what you say to the press.”
But Harding was a newspaperman. He’d successfully run Ohio’s Marion Daily Star for 30 years. Corey reports that Harding said, “I know all about reporters. They will not throw me down.” Which, of course, they went and did.
“He had assumed they were friendly. Most of them were friendly to him, personally, but professionally they were cold as snakes,” writes Corey. In 1922, Harding made an uninformed remark about a naval treaty, implying that Japan was not covered by the mutual-protection agreement. “Instead of warning Mr. Harding, they printed the story. It was hardly on the streets before the Secretary of State was in the White House to offer his resignation.”
From this point on, Harding insisted that all questions from the press be submitted in writing, which might prevent him from making careless remarks. And when Congress began investigating the illegal sale of government oil by Harding’s secretary of the interior, he found he had very few friends in the press corps.
President Calvin Coolidge had an easier time than Harding, not because the press had suddenly become more respectful, but because he entered the White House during a time of peace and prosperity. The press was less inclined to dig into his remarks for an exposé. Also, ‘Silent Cal’ was not given to talking too freely; he made no embarrassing slips of the tongue that reporters could turn into news items.
The good times that prompted the press to take it easy with Coolidge ended seven months after his successor took office. The American press had sung the praises of President Herbert Hoover when he’d saved war-torn Belgium from starvation, and he’d been secretary of Commerce during the Coolidge prosperity. But when the economy collapsed and unemployment rose to 25 percent, the press became highly critical.
President Franklin Roosevelt got better treatment from the press simply for not being Hoover. In time, however, the criticism grew, particularly when Roosevelt pushed hurried new legislation and—especially—when he proposed expanding the Supreme Court with a few, administration-friendly judges. Yet, even with all the hostility, the press never mentioned Roosevelt’s paralysis, or printed pictures of the president in his wheel chair. It was a courtesy never requested by the White House but extended nonetheless.
All the way up to the time of President Harry Truman, the press conferences had been off the record. If the president misspoke, he had the chance to offer a corrected quote. So when Truman told reporters in 1950, “I think the greatest asset that the Kremlin has is Senator [Joseph] McCarthy,” he worked with reporters to issue a more acceptable do-over: “The greatest asset that the Kremlin has is the partisan attempt in the Senate to sabotage the bipartisan foreign policy of the United States.”
Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to speak entirely on record in the press conferences. He was also the first to televise the event. In 1960, the press’s regard for the war-hero president changed after it learned the government had lied about the U-2 spy planes that had been flying over the Soviet Union. That scandal ushered in a new era of heightened suspicion and mistrust, which President John F. Kennedy inherited. A new spirit of adversity grew as the administration began launching covert operations. The Bay of Pigs, the attempts to assassinate Castro, and the introduction of American ‘advisors’ to Southeast Asia—all increased the skepticism and, at times, outright hostility of the media.
We’ve come a long way from the days when the White House could safely pass war news to the public because it was weeks, or months, old. Today’s conflicts are, more than ever before, wars of time-sensitive intelligence. We shouldn’t be surprised that there are conflicts between our government, whose job is the gathering of intelligence, and our press, whose job is to broadcast it.
Cartoons: A Love for TV
Classic Art: Sporty Race Cars
“Motors roaring around the track, skidding on the turns, battles for position, shouting crowds—could even these make the heart of the girl from Boston beat faster?” Frank Leon Smith asks in the 1946 story “Keep the Girl on the Fence.” We don’t know about the girl in the story, but it works during race season every year, in recognition of which, we bring you some midcentury illustrations of race cars.
Auto racing stories were popular in the Post in the ’40s and ’50s, and although the titles were sometimes melodramatic — “Murder Car,” “The Crowd Screamed” — a common denominator was the exciting illustrations by artist Peter Helck (1893-1988).
“The black job roared into second place, but its driver wasn’t trying to win. He wanted to kill the man ahead,” declares the intro to 1951’s “Murder Car” by William Campbell Gault. Although some of the fiction was overly theatrical, Helck was serious about the fast-paced scenes. He was also earnest about car racing, a passion honed as a young man when he witnessed the historic 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, featuring an American car built to beat the Europeans. Known as “Old 16,” the car won the Vanderbilt two years later in 1908.
“Old 16 was built when the American automobile, then only a fast-growing youngster, first challenged the European builders,” wrote Post editors in 1946. “Motoring was just becoming something more than a fashionable—and pretty daring—sport. Two things were at stake: prestige and the booming American automobile market. Citizens of substance, if they had decided to trust their lives in one of these smelly new gas buggies, liked to buy European cars. There was a feeling that nothing built on this side of the water could equal such swank European cars.”
Helck acquired the legendary race car in the early ’40s. “Every time I take Old 16 out for a run, I recall the men who handled cars of that era—under the road and tire conditions they faced — and my admiration for their capabilities becomes a bit fanatic.”
“It was the last lap of 100 miles of murder that he saw a car broadsiding in front of him,” the lead-in to this 1952 story declares, “ready to spill—and [here comes the title], ‘The Crowd Screamed.’” Melodrama aside, this is an all-but-live-action illustration.
Though Helck was best known for these fast-action scenes, he did a great deal of industrial commercial art as well. One testament to the variety of his illustrative skill is his work for Post sister publication, Country Gentleman, with scenes of a more bucolic nature.
[You can view Helck’s rustic scenes here, or visit Art.com to purchase.]
During his life, Helck described himself as an “auto addict” and wrote two books on racing—“The Checkered Flag” in 1961 and “Great Auto Races” in 1976—in addition to numerous magazine articles on the topic.
Learn more about the life and works of Peter Helck at Peter Helck, American Artist, a website maintained by the artist’s son and grandson.
Saturday Evening Post Staff Visits with Mad Men’s Matt Weiner
In a recent trip to Los Angeles, The Saturday Evening Post’s executive team and entertainment journalist Jeanne Wolf met with Mad Men creator Matt Weiner to discuss his recent profile in the publication. In the article, Weiner, interviewed by Hollywood legend Jeanne Wolf, detailed his rise from wannabe scriptwriter who couldn’t get a nibble of interest in his Mad Men pilot show to runner of one of the most influential series of recent memory. At the gathering, he described his upcoming film project, You Are Here, starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, and Amy Poehler.
Don’t miss: Wolf’s exclusive interview with Weiner.
Diet Drink Debate
Diet drinks don’t cause diabetes directly. But, in an ironic twist, these beverages sometimes trigger greater-than-normal cravings for real sugar. Studies show that people who choose diet soda tend to dish up extra helpings of sugary foods to compensate. Doing so overtaxes the body’s ability to maintain a healthy weight and manage blood sugar, and it could lead to an increased risk of diabetes, says Mary Beth Robinson, a dietitian with the Texas A&M Health Science Center.
The healthiest drink? Good old water. If you must indulge your sweet tooth, Dr. Felicia Stone, host of the TLC show Honey, We’re Killing the Kids, says, “I’d rather see someone consume one daily soft drink (sweetened with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or agave) than any drink with a non-nutritive sweetener. But there is no substitute for what we know works best: Eat less, drink more water, and increase daily physical activity.”
Quinoa Risotto Primavera
Primavera means spring in Italian. In Italy, risotto primavera, creamy rice studded with colorful baby vegetables, includes slender carrots, the season’s first green peas, and zucchini the size of your little finger. Served slightly al dente, it is a traditional springtime dish. But making risotto requires constant attention for the better part of an hour to get the rice to the right creamy texture. So looking through a stack of recipes, I noticed one for a quinoa risotto that cooked in 20 minutes and required minimal stirring. Another recipe in my pile combined finely chopped cauliflower florets with bulgur. What about mixing finely chopped cauliflower with the risotto-style quinoa? I thought. Cauliflower could give the quinoa some of the creaminess that makes risotto appealing. So on a day when spring was in the air, I combined elements of these two dishes, and quinoa primavera blossomed.
Quinoa Risotto Primavera
(Makes 8 servings)
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cauliflower florets, cut in 1-inch pieces, stems well-trimmed
- 1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
- ⅔ cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
- 3 ½ cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided*
- ⅓ cup thinly sliced baby carrots
- ½ cup frozen baby green peas
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
*Using chicken broth gives this dish a rich flavor. I wish I could say “or use vegetable broth,” but in most commercially made vegetable broths, carrots dominate and the flavor overwhelms the sweetness of the vegetables. If you are vegetarian, try substituting warm water for the broth and adding extra cheese at the end for a better result.
Directions
- Place cauliflower in food processor. Pulse until cauliflower resembles crumbled feta, about 15-20 pulses; there should be 2 cups chopped cauliflower to set aside. Use leftover to add to soup or salad.
- In heavy, wide, large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Add shallots and cook until golden, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add quinoa and cook, stirring constantly, until grain makes constant crackling, popping sound, about 5 minutes. Carefully add 2 cups broth, standing back as it will spatter. Cover, reduce heat and simmer quinoa for 10 minutes.
- Add cauliflower, carrots and ½ cup hot broth and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add peas and enough broth to keep risotto soupy, about ¼ cup. Cook 8–10 minutes, or until quinoa is al dente or to your taste and vegetables are tender-crisp, adding broth ¼ cup at a time, as needed. Risotto is done when liquid is mostly absorbed and mixture is slightly wet, but not soupy. Off heat, stir in cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley and serve. Leftover risotto keeps for three days, covered in refrigerator, and can be served at room temperature as a whole-grain salad.
Nutrition Facts
Per serving
Calories: 120
Total fat: 4.5 g
Saturated fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 14 g
Protein: 5 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sodium: 280 mg
Paris in the Twenties
I did not eat much the winter of my last year in high school. I read compulsively and rarely slept. I didn’t know what I felt when my classmate Ginger Graham died three months after coming to school one day with a bump on the underside of her chin, several months before we were to hear which of the Seven Sisters had accepted or rejected us, and two days after my father hurled a heavy crystal glass across the living room of our penthouse over East 73rd Street, shattering the windowpane in a thousand pieces, and marking one of his last nights in what had been, for all these years, our home.
Miraculously, the heavy tumbler in which he drank Scotch and water, then Scotch and Scotch, bounced back into the room and landed on the grand piano no one played.
It was early 1972, and my parents were good Democrats who opposed the war in Vietnam, supported civil rights, and hated Richard Nixon. It was not politics that pulled them apart, but the political moment—the previous decade of protest, war, burning cities, burning bras—that gave my father the idea that marriage did not have to be a lifetime obligation. And the fact that I, the youngest of three children, was about to leave home. Why couldn’t we all just leave?—that must have been his thinking.
“Are you out of your mind?” my mother shrieked from the armchair that held her, a few beats after the crescendo, once we could see that the drinking glass had boomeranged back to the living room.
“No more than usual.” He did not shriek in return. No need to; evidence of his feelings was everywhere. Bits of glass covered the surfaces like confetti. The air was hushed, electric, and frigid. Cold air blew in through the jagged hole in the pane, and the wind threatened to dislodge even more pieces of glass.
It was her way to shriek and his to respond in dulcet tones, an effort of many years, to make her sound like a madwoman. It didn’t work that night. I felt a sliver of something on my cheekbone, and I could see that my mother was afraid to move. For one thing, she would have to cross my father’s path and feel, from close up, how much distance there was between them.
“Anybody want a refill,” my father said, “besides me?”
She didn’t look up. When he disappeared into the kitchen, she turned to me, her expression as flat and hopeless as I had ever seen it. In 1972 she was a pretty 47-year-old woman—I’m startled by her loveliness in the snapshots I see now, the bright brown eyes and soft smile, her abiding kindness laced with deep despair—but to me that night, she was old and haggard.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Since you’ve got shoes on, would you go to my closet and get my slippers and a pair of socks? I’m afraid to get up.”
When I returned, my father had a broom, a dustpan, and a brown paper bag. He wasn’t a liberated man doing his share of the cleaning, nothing like that—more like he’d made a mess building a cabinet or drilling a hole in the wall, and it was part of the project to tidy up afterward. But to do it properly, he’d need a vacuum cleaner, even I knew that—and he wouldn’t go that far. That was women’s work.
He had chosen the apartment for the view of Manhattan’s skyline that unfurled and glistened through the oversize windows that circled the living and dining rooms and that he hired someone to clean every two weeks. Through them, he could see from high above what he had come to conquer all those years before.
Now he was all out of dreams, out of rage, expectations, and money too. And it was impossible to see the skyline through the web of broken glass.
My mother put on her slippers as my father picked up what he could with his fingers, and I stood watching until I saw that I could retreat to my room, crack open the window to smoke a cigarette, and read a book of letters from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his daughter. They were mostly written when she was at Vassar, and she was so alienated from her frequently soused father that when they arrived, she’d check them for money and news and toss them into a drawer—“these gorgeous letters,” she says decades later, full of regret at not having been a better daughter. I blew smoke rings out into the cold, keeping the tip of the cigarette in the night air. They knew I smoked, but the rule was that I couldn’t do it in the apartment. It was the only thing they agreed on anymore, maybe the only rule left in our household.
We’d moved to the city when I was 8 and my brothers were 11 and 12. The first year, my father ordered Christmas catalogs from Tiffany and Harry Winston, and we played a game with them well into the spring. One of us would cover the prices of things with our hands, and the others would guess how much they cost. He was schooling us in the ways of the rich for future reference.
It wasn’t until my last year of high school that I learned he usually had more credit than money and now had very little of either. He had made bad investments in real estate. He drank too much and made deals with people like himself. That winter a check that was supposed to come any day now did not come, and we ate a lot of spaghetti and were not allowed to charge anything at Bloomingdale’s.
He ate, when he ate with us at all, in a trance, and did not speak unless asked a question. But there must have been someone he liked, because he spent many nights out and returned as I left for school in the morning. We met sometimes at the front door of the apartment and maneuvered around each other silently.
The doorman on duty in the mornings had begun to say “Good morning” to me in a full, somber voice and dash to open the door, which he knew annoyed me. He must have thought I needed caretaking, and I suppose I did, but I wouldn’t know it for many years.
That winter was also the season of my floor-length navy-blue cashmere coat, which I’d bought for $3 in a thrift store and loved to feel billow around my ankles as I charged through the city. When the hem fell and I mended it with safety pins, my mother said I couldn’t leave the house unless it was sewn. My father said, “Since when are we so poor you have to buy your clothes in a thrift store?”
I wasn’t a fighter like my brother Daniel, but a peacekeeper. If I’d been combative, I’d have zinged back a barb: “Since when? All you ever do is complain that you don’t have any money.” Enter pandemonium.
Why the Senate Can’t Fix the Filibuster
Maybe we should blame Frank Capra. Or blame his fictional creation, Jefferson Smith. In Capra’s movie Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, the idealistic young senator single-handedly blocks a corrupt law in the Senate by talking nonstop for 24 hours. The movie puts Senate filibustering in such a flattering light that many Americans regard the practice as a valuable, if quirky, protector of our liberties. Without that image of a lone senator holding up all business in the U. S. Senate as long as he continues talking, Americans might have demanded the Senate abandon this archaic practice.
In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in filibustering. Republican senators have used the filibuster to block the appointment of federal judges and cabinet members, and oppose the use of surveillance drones in the U.S. What was once a last resort is becoming the rule, and Senate business has nearly ground to a halt.
Some Democratic senators say it’s time to reform Senate rules and curb the dependency on the filibuster. But as you can see in “Reform Of The Senate Rules,” people have been saying the same thing for at least 88 years.
The article was written back in 1926, when it was the Democrats who were filibustering. Vice President Charles Dawes warned Americans that the filibusters worked an “evil influence” over the county’s laws.
He believed the filibuster made it impossible to seriously consider lawmaking. He asked readers to imagine they were in a group that had to discuss and act on an important matter. However, “in this meeting any one of us may talk as long as he pleases, whether relevant to the subject we are considering or not. If anyone desires he may use up all the time we have at our disposal, even if he has the purpose of depriving us as a body of the right to act.”
Such an arrangement would be met with “scorn and derision,” except in the U.S. Senate. By permitting the right of unlimited debate, he wrote, “it has surrendered to the whim and personal purpose of individuals and minorities.”
Filibusters, he added, caused delays in business so that other bills couldn’t be properly debated. Generally they didn’t defeat legislation but pressured the senators to change laws shaped by public interest to favor personal and sectional interests. The result of all these amendments, Dawes says, is a spiraling increase in the number of laws.
Of course, the Senate has always had the means to end filibusters. If enough senators vote for cloture, the filibusterer has to yield. In Dawes’ time, cloture required the approval of two-thirds of the senate’s 96 members. Because of the difficulty in obtaining the consent needed, Dawes wrote, “the Senate has amended the Constitution as to make it possible for a 33 per cent minority to block legislation.” He proposed that cloture votes require a simple majority: 51 percent instead of 66 percent.
Today, the rules for ending filibusters are slightly easier. A cloture vote can be carried by three-fifths of the members. But it’s hard to get 60 senators to agree in a Senate polarized between 53 Democrats and 45 Republicans.
Will the current move to reform the filibuster rules be successful? There are two reasons why it’s unlikely. First, changing Senate rules would take the approval of 66 senators at a time when it seems impossible even to get agreement among 60. Second, there are the practical considerations of politics: filibusters can work for either party. The Democrats may find the filibuster very convenient when they are next in the Senate minority.
In the meantime, though, senators will continue talking about the need to reform the rules. And Americans will keep hoping to see a new Senator Smith stage a solitary fight on the Senate floor.
Classic Covers: Yard Work
From mowing and tree planting to a neighborhood nonconformist, 1950s-style, these timeless covers are just in time to inspire you to tackle that yard.
Woman in Wheelbarrow
Ellen Pyle
June 20, 1931
Ellen Pyle (1876-1936) was known for her beautiful use of color. In 1927, she received a note from fellow cover artist Norman Rockwell about how much he liked her Post covers. “They are dandy. So full of color and so broadly painted. Believe me I envy you the latter quality particularly,” he wrote, according to Delaware Art Museum’s Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle.
As in many of her 40 covers for the Post, the model is one of Pyle’s children. In this case, teenage daughter Caroline is taking a wheelbarrow break from gardening duties.
Baseball Player Mowing the Lawn
Stevan Dohanos
July 20, 1946
“When summer rolled around,” wrote Post editors of this 1946 cover, “and the grass in Westport, Connecticut, began to grow as fast as a small boy’s hair, Stevan Dohanos recalled one of the duties of his youth and how mowing the lawn can ball up a man’s more important engagements.”
The frame house, however, was not in Connecticut, but back in artist Dohanos’ (1907-1994) hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Editors noted that he sketched it a couple years before it appeared on the cover. “Obviously it was a good stage, a good setting, but he never had decided just what story to tell against this background. Now he uses it to tell of a common summertime crisis—when the star pitcher has to work,” Post editors wrote.
Put the Tree There?
George Hughes
April 9, 1955
Illustrator George Hughes (1907-1990) was an avid outdoorsman, but we’re not sure how he felt about planting trees. He would probably feel the same as the poor guy from the local nursery on this 1955 cover, if he had to deal with an indecisive homeowner.
Hughes painted 115 Post covers, and was especially productive in the 1950s. Typical output for the more popular illustrators was around 40 to 50 covers during a decade. Hughes’ friend Norman Rockwell, for example, did 44 during this period. Hughes did 80 in this timeframe; mostly fun, slice-of-life scenes from midcentury suburban life.
View more in the George Hughes gallery.
Artist Thornton Utz (1914-2000) enjoyed gently bucking the trend and depicting the neighborhood nonconformist. Mr. Leisure in this 1957 cover uses his backyard purely for relaxation, not caring how high the grass gets.
Meanwhile, in nearby yards, neighbors are flummoxed by Mr. Leisure’s indifference—at least those who can spare a second from their suburban chores.
Spring Yard Work
Thornton Utz
May 18, 1957
Even the little girl in the middle yard wastes no time as she tends to her dog’s bath. Post editors mused that the cover might start a debate “about whether people should nourish their backyards or let their backyards nourish them.” We’ll let the reader decide.
Grilled Salmon and Spinach Salad
Few things are better and more nutritious than salmon combined with fresh baby spinach. You get the taste of the sea and a treat from the spring garden. The salad dressing in this dish adds layers of flavor: Orange juice adds sweetness and acidity; honey balances vinegar; and sesame and ginger impart a subtle Asian accent, while garlic and shredded carrots create a refreshing and tantalizing texture.
You can make it a meal by adding wild rice topped with lentils. Simply place warm rice on a plate and top with several heaping tablespoons of lentils heated with a bit of water or vegetable broth. Of course, you can always serve up some sides of any vegetable leftovers you have handy.
Grilled Salmon and Spinach Salad
(Makes 4 servings)
Ingredients
- 1 pound salmon, cut in four fillets
Marinade ingredients
- ¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder or 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
Dressing ingredients
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon roasted sesame oil (or regular sesame oil)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salad ingredients
- 5 ounces baby spinach, rinsed clean
- 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
Directions
- Whisk together marinade ingredients to combine well. In shallow dish, coat both sides of salmon with marinade. Cover dish and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Coat grill lightly with oil to prevent sticking. Remove salmon from marinade and discard remaining marinade. Place salmon, skin side down, on medium-hot grill. Cook about 6 minutes until skin is browned and crisp. Gently turn fillets over and cook additional 2-3 minutes until desired degree of doneness. Remove and set aside.
- Combine dressing ingredients in food processor or blender and pulse or blend until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Arrange salad ingredients on four serving dishes. Drizzle half the dressing on salad. Place salmon on top and drizzle remaining dressing. Serve.
Nutrition Facts
Per serving
Calories: 270
Total fat: 13 g
Saturated fat: 2.5 g
Carbohydrate: 20 g
Protein: 21 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sodium: 400 mg
How to Shake Off a Chill
We’ve all heard the saying: Cold hands, warm heart. But people who want to feel warm all over can get simple blood tests to check thyroid hormone, vitamin D, and iron levels to help rule out any medical problems that need attention. When test results are normal, as is usually the case, try shaking off the chill with these strategies to step up circulation to hands and feet:
Friction. Clap your hands, stomp your feet, or give them a mini-massage. But you already know that one, so consider…
Yoga. Lie on your back with legs against wall, perpendicular to the floor for as long as comfortable. When leg muscles relax, blood vessels open up and circulation improves.
Aerobic exercise. Take a walk, ride a bike, or do jumping jacks—anything that makes you work up a sweat.
Still feeling frosty? Consider thermal bio-feedback, a natural therapy that trains patients to warm their hands and feet in about 20 sessions. For a referral, talk to your care provider or go to bcia.org.
Cartoons: Everybody’s Favorite Maid
For more than 25 years, Ted Key’s cartoon character Hazel graced the pages of The Saturday Evening Post as the Baxter family’s maid. But readers knew who really ruled the roost.
First published in 1943, the single-paneled cartoon series quickly became a hit. Later on, it even inspired a TV show by the same name that ran for five years in the 1960s.
Cartoons © The Estate of Ted Key. Used by permission.