- Gretchensdad's Blog - Tehachapi News http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad en-us Tehachapi Depot Fire 06/13/08 3:10 AM http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/28329 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/28329


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 building fire 006.jpg 06/13/08 3:10 AM Gretchensdad building fire 007.jpg Gretchensdad VFW Ordered to Leave Savemart by Store Manager. "Buddy" Poppy is a symbol of support. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/27188 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/27188 Political History Quiz The blog begins after I post the answers. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/17754 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/17754 <p><strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">A little history lesson</span><font face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">:<font color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; __styleDocument: [object]">&nbsp; If you don't know the answer make your best guess.&nbsp;&nbsp;Answers will be posted later today or after a sufficient flurry of you all posting your answers.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Who said it?</span></font></span></font></strong><span class="apple-style-span"><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></font></span></p> <p><span class="apple-style-span"><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">[</span></font></span><strong><strong><font face="Arial Narrow" color="#000000" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow'; __styleDocument: [object]">You&nbsp;may be shocked </span></font></strong></strong><strong><strong><font face="Arial Narrow" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow'; __styleDocument: [object]">by<font color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; __styleDocument: [object]"> the answers.]</span></font></span></font></strong></strong><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]"><br /> </span></font><font face="Tahoma" color="#000000"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; __styleDocument: [object]"><br /> </span></font><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><font face="Tahoma" color="#000000" size="4"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; __styleDocument: [object]">&nbsp;1) &quot;We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.&quot;</span></font></strong></span><strong><font face="Tahoma" color="#000000" size="4"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; __styleDocument: [object]"><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_0">Karl Marx</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_1">Adolph Hitler</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_2">Joseph Stalin</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the above</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;2) &quot;It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the&nbsp;few, and for the few... and to replace it with shared&nbsp;responsibility&nbsp;for shared prosperity.&quot;</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; Lenin</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; Mussolini</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_3">Idi Amin</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the Above</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;3) &quot;(We)...can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something&nbsp;has to be taken away from some people.&quot;</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; Nikita Khrushev</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; Jose f Goebbels</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_4">Boris Yeltsin</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the above</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;4) &quot;We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to&nbsp;give up&nbsp;a little bit of their own...in order to create this common ground.&quot;</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; Mao Tse Dung</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_5">Hugo Chavez</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_6">Kim Jong Il</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the above</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;5) &quot;I certainly think the free-market has failed.&quot;</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_7">Karl Marx</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; Lenin</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; Molotov</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the above</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;6) &quot;I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most&nbsp;profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched.&quot;</span><br /> <br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;A.&nbsp; Pinochet</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;B.&nbsp; Milosevic</span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;C.&nbsp; <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1193844164_8">Saddam Hussein</span></span><br /> <span class="apple-style-span">&nbsp;D.&nbsp; None of the above</span><br /> </span></font></strong></p>


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 cookie.jpg Gretchensdad Being a good neighbor? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/17454 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/17454 <p>I just returned from a funeral of a person that died in a motor crash at&nbsp;Willow Springs&nbsp;and Backus. The reception was held at the VFW next to the German Bakery on Tehachapi Blvd. I like (d) the foods there and especially the Stollen bread at Christmas.</p> <p>At 3 PM the family and friends showed up for a get together at the VFW.... A lot of people.... Out of town, locals and all.... Many people. One of the cordinators of the&nbsp;reception was contacted by the one of the owners of the bakery and stated that if the people parking in their lot didn't move their vehicles they (the bakery people) &quot;would have them towed out.&quot; The bakery people then had their people (2 or 3) remove their vehicles out of the VFW. (2 of which are&nbsp;parked there every freeking day) Primos, here I come!</p> <p>COMMENTS?</p>


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 TN_kramer038.jpg Gretchensdad Mortgage lenders taking the heat http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/16838 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/16838 <h5 style="MARGIN: auto 0in; __styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">Seems like the mortgage lenders are taking all of&nbsp;the heat for the current fall (in my opinion, the crash)&nbsp;of the economy. What about the real estate &ldquo;Realtors&rdquo; pumping the deals for 6%? What about the appraisers pumping up the deal under the pressure of the realtors to make the deal sell to the mortgage lenders? (i.e. Crisp &amp; Cole)<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: auto 0in; __styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">The recent market dump, </span><st1:date month="11" day="1" year="2007"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]">11/01/07</span></st1:date><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; __styleDocument: [object]"> drop in the Dow of 362+, reflects the whole economy suffering. Builders, their suppliers (i.e. lumber yards), employees, banks etc. All they way through our whole freekin&rsquo; economy and back through again. Am I missing something? (other than a couple more shots of Jack?) I feel like I have been walking around a bunch of chairs, the music stopped, and I don&rsquo;t have a chair to jump in!<o:p></o:p></span></h5>


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 snake.jpg Gretchensdad Is The Pen Mightier Than The Pen? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/16385 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/16385 <h4>The idea of incarceration is to remove criminals from society. The internet puts them back in it. Is that circumventing the system and should it&nbsp; be stopped?</h4> <h5>Here is an article to stimulate thought on the subject.</h5> <h1 id="articlehed">State Pen Mightier Than Speech?</h1> <div class="date_time" style="__styleDocument: [object]"><span class="c cs" id="contributor">Julia Scheeres </span><a href="http://www.wired.com/services/feedback/letterstoeditor"><img class="img_middle" alt="Email" src="http://www.wired.com/images/icon_email.gif" /> </a>07.18.02 | 2:00 AM </div> <!-- only display photo on first page --><!-- start article photo --> <div id="article_text" style="__styleDocument: [object]"> <p>The day Stardust Johnson ran across her husband's killer on the Internet, holding a kitty cat and searching for female pen pals to alleviate his death row boredom, was the day she went from a mild-mannered widow to outspoken victims' rights advocate. </p> <p>&quot;I curled up into a fetal position on the floor, screaming,&quot; said Johnson, whose husband Roy was on his way home from giving an organ recital at a Tucson, Arizona, church when he was kidnapped and bludgeoned to death with rocks by a <a href="http://www.adc.state.az.us/cgi-bin/IAdditional.cgi/085936020701">meth addict</a>. &quot;He didn't mention that he'd brutally murdered my husband and thrown his body into a wash.&quot; </p> <droplink></droplink> <p>Johnson's outrage led to the creation of a 2-year-old Arizona <a href="http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/31/00235.htm">law</a> that makes it a criminal offense for inmates to publish personals, pen pal ads, financial aid requests or even their artwork and musings on the Internet. </p> <p>Critics charge that the ban violates inmates' free speech, but prison officials say they're doing their duty: protecting victims and their families from additional emotional distress, and the public from professional scam artists. </p> <p>The <a href="http://www.aclu.org/">American Civil Liberties Union</a> filed a lawsuit Thursday in the federal district court of Phoenix challenging the law's constitutionality on First Amendment grounds. </p> <p>&quot;This isn't about security, it's about suppressing unpopular speech,&quot; said David C. Fathi, the staff attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project. &quot;Basically some people in Arizona didn't like the fact that prisoners were able to express themselves on the Internet, so they're trying to shut them up.&quot; </p> <p>The subject of prisoners' rights is complicated, Fathi said, with security indeed being a valid concern for the government. </p> <p>&quot;The short answer is that prisoners forfeit rights that are, by their very nature, incompatible with incarceration -- freedom of movement, freedom to gather together with persons of one's choosing, freedom to engage in one's preferred occupation, etc.,&quot; Fathi said. </p> <p>&quot;They do not forfeit rights that are not incompatible with incarceration -- freedom of speech, freedom to practice their religion, etc. These latter rights may be limited only to the extent necessary to maintain prison security.&quot; </p> <p>It's not the first time the ACLU has fought to defend prisoners' First Amendment rights. In Nevada, the ACLU successfully <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=9th&amp;navby=case&amp;no=9936084">sued</a> state officials on behalf of an advocacy newsletter called <a href="http://www.prisonlegalnews.org/">Prison Legal News</a> when it was banned from cells. And in California, the ACLU is currently <a href="http://www.aclunc.org/cyber/index.html">challenging</a> a Pelican Bay State Prison policy that prohibits inmates from receiving any document printed from the Internet. </p> <p>Victims' rights groups argue that free speech protections don't apply to prisoners. </p> <p>&quot;These people are bad dudes,&quot; said Frank Parish, a board member of the <a href="http://www.pomc.com/">National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children</a>, whose stepdaughter was abducted from the parking lot of a Houston grocery store and murdered. &quot;It doesn't bother me at all that they don't have their <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/const/bor.html">Bill of Rights</a>. They forfeited those when they made the deliberate choice to violate the law.&quot; </p> <p>Meanwhile, prisoner websites -- especially death row inmate sites -- are flourishing. Although most inmates don't have Net access themselves, they snail-mail material to friends and activists who post it online for them, enabling them to reach millions of potential sympathizers with their pleas of innocence, requests for financial or legal aid, denunciations of guard abuse and lonely-hearts ads. </p> <p>And that worries Gary Phelps. </p> <p>The chief of staff for the Arizona <a href="http://www.adc.state.az.us/">Department of Corrections</a> said his department conducted an investigation of the state's death row subculture and found a warren of lying, conniving baddies. </p> <!-- pagebreak --> <p>&quot;They were using the tremendous worldwide reach of the Internet to fleece people and run scams from prison over which we had no control,&quot; Phelps said. </p> <p>Phelps said several death row Don Juans were using the Web to drain the bank accounts of lovesick women, pledging affection to multiple female fans at once in an elaborate con game to see which inmate could bilk sympathizers out of the most money. </p> <p>Then there was the stranger-than-Hollywood case of death row inmate Floyd Thornton. In 1997, Thornton's wife Rebecca, whom he met through an Internet personals ad, arrived at Arizona's maximum-security facility in Florence brandishing an AK-47 and tried to bust her hubby loose as he was weeding the prison vegetable garden. She was killed in the shootout with guards, but not before fatally plugging her husband by accident as he sprinted toward the fence. </p> <p>For all these reasons, cutting off prisoners' Internet access to the world seemed like a logical step to Phelps, who insisted that protecting &quot;vulnerable&quot; women from manipulative inmates was not patronizing. </p> <p>&quot;It's a public safety measure to protect people from their own stupidity, like the laws against drinking and driving. It's the government's duty to protect people from the con artists of the world,&quot; he said. </p> <p>Arizona inmates are given three weeks to remove their material from the Internet or face misdemeanor charges, although most are punished by having their &quot;good time&quot; credits or visitation rights revoked, he said. So far this year, 53 inmates have been cited for their online content. (Arizona has 29,000 prisoners, and roughly 130 are on death row.) </p> <p>But the <a href="http://www.ccadp.org/">Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty</a>, the largest purveyor of Web space to condemned prisoners, has not only refused to take down Arizona inmate sites, but has indeed pledged to create a page for every death row dweller in the state, with or without their consent. </p> <p>&quot;They're sentenced to death, they're not sentenced to silence,&quot; said CCADP co-founder Tracie Lamourie. &quot;As far as we are concerned, the letters they send requesting to take down their material were written under duress and (we) won't honor them.&quot; </p> <p>For every letter the group gets from a prisoner asking to be taken off the site, the CCADP shoots off a <a href="http://ccadp.org/arizona-letter2DOC.htm">response</a> stating that the materials are the property of the CCADP and won't be removed. Lamourie said the group has been thanked by inmates for the bold action. </p> <p>She downplayed criticism that inmates misrepresent themselves, noting that the public can easily search news or state prison sites for the particulars of their crimes. Her goal is to give death row prisoners an outlet to speak freely, she said, not to fact-check every account for accuracy. </p> <p>&quot;We're giving prisoners a voice. Americans should know who they're killing.&quot; </p> </div> "FENCE SITTERS", PIGS, GROUND SQUIRRELS AND THYROID http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/15872 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/15872 <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">I have a brother with a thyroid deficiency. In the mid 1940&rsquo;s, when x-rays were relatively new, as a two year old baby with a intestinal disorder, he was placed under an x-ray machine. Being so small, the radiation &quot;fried&quot; his thyroid gland. The thyroid gland production is stimulated by, among other things, adrenaline. His </span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font face="Times New Roman">psychologist</font></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;"> recognized this problem and sent him to Dr. Katz in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">Beverly Hills</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">. Dr. Katz put him on a synthetic thyroid supplement and explained that the reason of his sometimes sporadic angry behavior (that was destroying his marriage) was due to the&nbsp;need to produce adrenaline and his confrontational behavior was a way to introduce adrenaline to the thyroid gland. The adrenaline is&nbsp;secreted by the adrenal gland to stimulate the secretory cycle of the thyroid gland.&nbsp;Thyroid hormones stimulate among other things, timing of heart valve opening and closing &nbsp;(Caffeine in drinks like coffee is another, less effective substitute for adrenaline and he drinks a lot of it.) Apparently it is a very common disorder.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">I am suspicious of people who antagonize and continually provoke others &ldquo;for the sake of argument&rdquo; rather than discuss in a rational manner such things as change, agendas and the like. People that come out fighting from the &ldquo;get go&rdquo; suck. Maybe someone should pass out Synthyroid pills before the city council meetings!<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">Further, I believe that before someone is accused of just being a &ldquo;fence sitter&rdquo; or accused of just &ldquo;sitting there and doing nothing&rdquo; maybe we should first consider; &ldquo;Hum? There is someone with a well functioning thyroid. They don&rsquo;t thrive on adrenaline producing confrontations and they don&rsquo;t want to get down and &ldquo;wrestle in the mud with a pig because pigs like it!&rdquo; <o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&ldquo;Fence sitters&rdquo; are like those hawks that sit up on the power poles and watch the ground squirrels dart back and fourth in front of cars, waiting for lunch. Do ground squirrels have thyroid </span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font face="Times New Roman">deficiency</font></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">? I&rsquo;m guessing YAAAH!<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">After all the pigs are exhausted and the mud is dry and cracking or the ground squirrels are splattered in the middle of the road, the &ldquo;fence sitters&rdquo; and those that were &ldquo;just sitting there&rdquo; usually proceed with there rational well thought out<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>mutual amenable solutions and proceed. They eat lunch! (Just kidding} <o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></h5> <h5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;">Judging from the disappearing plethora of adrenaline producing blogs (what a mouthful!) and <span style="COLOR: red">some</span> apologies pertaining to the city government &ldquo;mud wollerin&rsquo;&rdquo; the last few weeks or rather months, maybe it&rsquo;s that time we will see egos wane and production begin.<o:p></o:p></span></h5>


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Credit: Gretchensdad

 pig.jpg Gretchensdad Who is Hedda Hopper? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/15654 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/Gretchensdad/15654 <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN">Hedda Hopper</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN"> (<a title="May 2" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2">May 2</a>, <a title="1885" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1885">1885</a> &ndash; <a title="February 1" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_1">February 1</a>, <a title="1966" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966">1966</a>) was an <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">American</a> <a title="Actor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor">actress</a> and <a title="Gossip columnist" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_columnist">gossip columnist</a>, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival <a title="Louella Parsons" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louella_Parsons">Louella Parsons</a> became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.<o:p></o:p></span></font></font></p> <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">She had but one husband, </font><a title="Actor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">actor</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font><a title="DeWolf Hopper" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWolf_Hopper"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">DeWolf Hopper</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> (married </font><a title="May 8" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_8"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">May 8</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">, </font><a title="1913" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">1913</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">-divorced </font><a title="January 20" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_20"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">January 20</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">, </font><a title="1924" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">1924</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">). They had one child, actor </font><a title="William Hopper" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hopper"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">William Hopper</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> who played </font><a title="Paul Drake" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Drake"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Paul Drake</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"> on the long-running series <em><a title="Perry Mason (TV series)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason_%28TV_series%29">Perry Mason</a></em>.<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p> <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Hopper became known and often despised as well for &quot;naming names&quot; of suspected or alleged Communists, many of them simply committed liberals, during the era when </font><a title="McCarthyism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">McCarthyism</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"> gripped Hollywood<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p> <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]" align="center"><strong><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The Queen Bee and the Stork Club or </font></strong></p> <h1 style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 3pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]" align="center"><font size="5">Hedda Hopper's <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city> </font></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><strong><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">by Gordon Williams</font></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></v:path><o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></o:lock></v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="WIDTH: 380.25pt; HEIGHT: 18pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]" type="#_x0000_t75" alt=""><v:imagedata src="file:///C:DOCUME~1FREDVE~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtml11clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://sonic.net/~doretk/giffs/vinebr.gif"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font></v:imagedata></v:shape></p> <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><br /> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of history becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth. Jean Cocteau, 1889-1993 <br /> <br /> William Hopper, who was best known for his role as Paul Drake in the television series Perry Mason was my step-father. His mother, Hedda Hopper, had a syndicated newspaper column and a national radio program. I grew up wondering why Bill and his mother were estranged. I know that Hopper and her son had frequent arguments about her caustic journalistic style, </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">So finally curiosity got the better of me and through the Freedom of Information Act, I sent off for Hedda's FBI files. To my surprise, the volume I received was two inches thick and cost the government three bucks to mail. <br /> <br /> From the very first moment I opened her files, I realized that one reason Hedda's son avoided her might have been because of her political beliefs. In her day, Hedda was one of the most powerful people in Holly wood. One bad word from her and you didn't work, so one had to lick her boots if you wanted an acting job in old <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>. Politically, she made the John Birch Society look progressive and counted such figures as Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Howard Hughes, Ronald Reagan, J. Edgar Hoover, and William Randolph Hearst as close personal friends. Hedda would never get on an airplane unless Howard Hughes had the craft personally inspected. When staying at the <st1:place><st1:placename>Hearst</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Castle</st1:placetype></st1:place> at San Simeon, Hedda would receive a piece of fine jewelry on her plate at every meal. <br /> <br /> However, what I found most interesting was Hedda's relationship with J. Edgar Hoover. As it turns out, Hopper was in constant contact with the former director of the FBI. What better set-up could the writer of a gossip column ask, than to have the resources of the federal government at her disposal? This explains why she had unlimited sources of &quot;dirt&quot; on people in the entertainment industry. I'm sure, in turn, she provided <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> with plenty of information that went beyond idle gossip-who was seen with whom-to out-and-out red-baiting. <br /> <br /> J. Edgar constantly denied that the Mafia even existed. The Mob paid him off by giving him inside tips at the race track. So instead of fighting organized crime, <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> squandered government resources collecting information on almost everyone in the motion picture industry for fifty years. Was this just the bizarre hobby of an uptight little man with too much power? Or did the government have a motive for suppressing all the freethinkers in <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>? In one of her early letters to Hoover (April 7, 1947), Hedda writes, <br /> <br /> I loved what you said about the commies in the motion picture industry. But I would like it even more if you could name names and print more facts. Who's keeping the truth from the American public? Is that one of the jobs Eric Johnnson was paid to do? I'd like to run every one of those rats out of the country starting with Charlie Chaplin. In no other country in the world would he have been allowed to do what he's done. And he's finished another picture, and Miss Mary Pickford is back in <st1:state><st1:place>New York</st1:place></st1:state> helping him sell it. It's about time we stood up to be counted. <br /> <br /> In his autobiography, Charlie Chaplin categorically denied ever being a member of the Communist Party. However, the government and the press hounded him to the point that he had to move to <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> and never returned to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> again. Chaplin's only crime was being a progressive and promoting friendship between the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the former <st1:place>Soviet Union</st1:place>. As a matter of fact, Chaplin met with dignitaries, including Ghandi, from all over the world. Was <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city> infiltrated by Communists-or by the far right? Most likely the latter. Let's not forget that Ronald Reagan got his start in politics as President of the Screen Actors Guild, a post he couldn't have received without the help of Hedda Hopper! In a 1947 report to a Joint Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, Hoover reported that in 1934 a considerable sum of money was sent from the Soviet Commissar to a Communist in Hollywood to recruit movie stars into the party, capturing key trade unions and having control over everything on wheels, from sound trucks to tray dollies in the cafeterias. According to <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city>, the Communist Party infiltrated a myriad of front organizations with pseudo-liberals, commies and parlor pinks. These organizations included the League for Women Shoppers, the old John Reed Club, and the Hollywood Theatre Alliance. <br /> <br /> <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city> is a veritable mecca for the Communist cultural elite, claimed <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> in an ardent frenzy. The above goes to show that even at the end of WW II, the powers-that-be were desperately scrambling to have someone as an adversary. As the case is today at the end of the Cold War, the Armed Services had to prove they weren't obsolete. It's like that old Lenny Bruce schtick, <strong style="__styleDocument: [object]; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="COLOR: red; __styleDocument: [object]">&quot;If we ain't got no enemies, we'll go out and create some.&quot;<o:p></o:p></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><br /> In another letter to <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city>, Hedda applauded the 1947 investigations of the studios by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Promptly ostracizing &quot;lefties&quot; such as John Houston, Lauren Bacall, Humphry Bogart, Danny Kaye, and anyone who dared to oppose the witch hunt on grounds of privacy, Hedda saw only Red when it came to her politics. Another interesting item in Hedda's file was a newspaper clipping with the headline &quot;'Town Meeting' Meets Hollywood Dilemma.&quot; <br /> <br /> Planned broadcasts of <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s Town Meeting of the Air from here Sept. 4, with topic, &quot;Is there Really a Threat of Communism in <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>?&quot; has touched off ticklish situation. With Hedda Hopper set to take affirmative and Emmet Lavery negative side of debate, show's producers are having tough time lining up two more <st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place> names to fill out teams. Many fear hooking up with Avery will lend pink tinge, but more important, no star yet approached wants to oppose Hedda Hopper. <br /> <br /> Personally, I can see why anyone would be wary of opposing Hedda in a debate. It would have been death to anyone's career. Also Hopper did her homework. In a letter (August 7, 1947) before the broadcast, she asked <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city>, <br /> <br /> Would you give me some facts to hurl back at the angry mob in the [audience] who is going to ask embarrassing questions. Naturally, I won't be able to accuse certain stars of being registered Communists, as even those who are deny it, always have always will. But you're so wise and have so many facts at your fingertips that I feel that I can call upon your friendship for help. I know you're just as anxious to rid the country of our enemies as I am. If you had your way I feel sure you'd name names, which is the only way we'll get rid of them. Some day they've got to stand up and be counted. Your information will be confidential. I will not use your name unless you give permission. In that case I'd be very proud to say, &quot;Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, who is my choice for President, tells me so and so.&quot; Blessings on you always. <br /> <br /> <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> replied to her request with a stack of files and clippings from Pravda and the Daily Worker. The actor Robert Taylor was attacked for his lack of &quot;political morality&quot; for making the film Song of Russia. <st1:city><st1:place>Taylor</st1:place></st1:city> had to report to a closed session of the House Committee of Un-American Activities. According to Chairman J. Parnell Thomas, <st1:city><st1:place>Taylor</st1:place></st1:city> said he &quot;was virtually forced to play in Song of Russia, which he [Taylor] considered Communist propaganda.&quot; <br /> <br /> Hedda's correspondence mentions meetings with <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> at the Stork Club and there are numerous letters arranging &quot;off the record visits.&quot; One internal memo is a request by Hedda Hopper to have an investigator look into the background of Michael Wilding, movie actor and former husband of Elizabeth Taylor. In Hopper's book, The Whole Truth and Nothing But, she refers to Wilding and Steward Granger as &quot;playmates.&quot; Hedda was being sued for $3 million by Wilding and enlisted the FBI's assistance in investigating Wilding's background and the matter in question. On top of everything else, Hopper was a racist. According to FBI records, she was on the American Nazi Party mailing list. The entire list was completely blacked out except for Hedda's name and address. I have sent off for a complete list, but so far have not had a reply. On one occasion my stepfather was anxiously awaiting a visit from Jesse Owens. Hedda warned her staff and Bill not to be alarmed if they saw &quot;a nigger running around the house.&quot; Little did she know that the legendary athlete was standing right behind her. Bill was humiliated and described the incident as one of the most embarrassing of his life. <br /> <br /> In the days when even Sammy Davis, Jr. couldn't use the front door of a Vegas Hotel, there was a rumor of an interracial romance and possible marriage between two celebrities. Again, Hedda contacted the FBI stating that if this became known, it would shock the entire industry and she would appreciate it if &quot;my dear Edgar&quot; could &quot;pin this matter down one way or the other.&quot; Both parties were contacted by FBI field agents and had to deny any relationship. <br /> <br /> The list of people and organizations Hedda Hopper and J. Edgar slandered is almost endless. It would behoove anyone who had been in the public eye to write the FBI and request his/her file under the Freedom of Information Act. Why did Hedda step on so many people? Probably for the most part for poser and just plain greed, and also perhaps for revenge. In the beginning of her career, Hedda was an unsuccessful actress who never landed a job and who was most likely jealous of anyone who did. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the only way she could have made it as a journalist was to jump through Mr. Man's hoops. But she seemed to jump through them willingly and well. Today in <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>, bad publicity is considered good publicity but in Hedda's day, it meant you didn't work. And Hedda ruined many a career. According to her correspondence, &quot;a career was a small matter compared to keeping the country safe from communism.&quot; Her barbs ranged from innuendoes, such as so-and-so's in the pink, to outright attacks against films she deemed subversive. In a speech before 6,000 members of the American Legion of American Women, Hopper attacked many films that are considered classics today, such as Mr. Smith Goes to <st1:state><st1:place>Washington</st1:place></st1:state> (because it implied that there were no honest men in our nation's capital) and Meet John Doe (because it qualified for a command performance at the Kremlin). She urged all Americans to boycott pictures with actors who had Communist connections or any film made at Metro Goldwyn &quot;<st1:city><st1:place>Moscow</st1:place></st1:city>.&quot; <br /> <br /> So why was <st1:city><st1:place>Hoover</st1:place></st1:city> and the government involved in red-baiting at the studios? I doubt J. Edgar Hoover or Joe McCarthy caught any real Communists. I think the aim of the American inquisition was to gain control of the motion picture industry because if you control the media you control the people. This is very evident today. If the government wants support for its policies in the <st1:place>Mideast</st1:place>, just have Chuck Norris make a few films depicting stereotypical hooknosed Arabs invading <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Give your operation a catchy name like Desert Storm, and your constituents will go for anything. The government has been doing this since John Wayne was making pictures. Fortunately, even the Duke couldn't drum up much support for <st1:country-region><st1:place>Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <br /> <br /> As a child I was disappointed that I never got to spend much time with Hedda. Now I feel fortunate that I didn't get exposed to her infested programming during my formative years. After all, anyone who considered Richard Nixon her prot&eacute;g&eacute; would have made a very dysfunctional stepgrandmother. </p> <p style="BACKGROUND: #f8fcff; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span lang="EN" style="__styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]; mso-ansi-language: EN"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">And from James Mason:<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman">Hedda Hopper was ten times the bitch that Louella Parsons could ever <br /> be. Whenever I read her column she was saying something vile about <br /> people I liked or respected: She was vile to Rex Harrison, and she <br /> practically went to war against Charlie Chaplin. So much so that I <br /> would say that she, more than any other individual, was responsible <br /> for Chaplin's shabby treatment at the hands of the United States <br /> Immigration Department. <br /> -James Mason (from BEFORE I FORGET/Hamish Hamilton-London, 1981)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]"><strong style="__styleDocument: [object]; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;; __styleDocument: [object]">I hope this is not the same Hedda Hopper who said she was going to show up at the council meeting tomorrow night! (If it is please keep J. Edgar home with you)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]"><strong style="__styleDocument: [object]; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;; __styleDocument: [object]"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]"><strong style="__styleDocument: [object]; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: &quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;; __styleDocument: [object]">Gretchensdad<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; __styleDocument: [object]; styleDocument: [object]">&nbsp;</p> </span>