Reuel Wilson (1938 - 2026)

   Reuel Wilson was on the faculty at UWO/Western University for many years. Given that it is rather quiet on campus right now and that less people read newspapers and, perhaps even less notice obituaries, my purpose here is to provide his obituary and the memorial notice found on the Western website. As well, information about Reuel's last book is included. 
  Many years ago, I played squash with Reuel and for a period when he was away, probably in Wellfleet, I lived in his house on Huron Street. Being the son of a very famous father and perhaps an even more popular mother, it contained photographs of many people who were recognizable, including his uncle, an actor. Over the years I would occasionally run into Reuel on campus and in our brief conversations, the famous people were never mentioned and I am sure he was pleased that the name "Wilson" guaranteed a certain degree of anonymity. I don't think any local reporters bothered him when one of his parents was in the news --- for example, when his mother called Lillian Hellman a liar on The Dick Cavett Show and was sued for $2.5 million, or when they passed on. I am fairly sure he enjoyed his quiet life on campus and he did come to London and stay here. I will say little more, since some of his colleagues provide comments about Reuel after the thorough obituary.

  In recent years Reuel was sometimes seen walking through the stacks in Weldon Library, in which he had a carrel. The "library window" referred to in the blurb for his book, is the one in Weldon where he did his research and writing. If you want to know more about a very interesting and nice fellow, or are curious about what he might have to say about his days at Western and in London, I suggest you buy the book. It is simple to do so. Go to Amazon and look for the title, Holding the Road...
   Order it and, no matter where you are, a copy will be printed close by and delivered to your door. Mine came the next day from Bolton and was quickly read and enjoyed. I am glad I was able to meet him. 
  

   "Reuel Wilson’s new memoir, Holding the Road: Away from Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, follows the author through his childhood, spent in the households of his divorced parents, and then the expanding perspectives of his adult life. The reader meets Reuel’s closest relatives and confidants: Bowden Broadwater, his first step-father, Rosalind Wilson, his older half-sister, his uncle, Kevin McCarthy, the famous actor, and two remarkable Polish women, one a surrogate mother, the other McCarthy’s brilliant translator, who came to play the role of an aunt whom had never had. Following his diverse interests, Reuel traveled widely. Intellectual and cultural history are reflected in the people and places he knew and glimpsed – Montgomery Clift, Peggy Guggenheim, Hannah Arendt, Dwight Macdonald, Renata Adler, James Jones, Edward Said, Eldridge Cleaver in California, a zombie prostitute in Moscow, a flamboyant independent book seller in Havana, a venerable Marxist writer in Port-au-Prince. The book closes with an inside view of academia, the author’s home territory. He also recalls his mother’s stints as a college lecturer, and analyzes her ground-breaking novel The Groves of Academe. The conclusion, punctuated by a student demonstration under the writer’s library window, takes a broader view of the outlying city, landscape, and, by extension, of his adoptive country, Canada. In conclusion, he voices the hope that these fragments of life, now recalled in tranquility, will find wider resonance."

In Memoriam

Professor Reuel Wilson (1938-2026)

Remembering Reuel Wilson

   The Department of Languages and Cultures mourns the passing of Reuel Wilson, who retired from the former Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in 2002. Professor Wilson taught Polish, Russian, and Comparative Literature for many years at Western and is remembered by colleagues as a warm, kind, and generous presence in the department. Those who worked with him recall his wonderful sense of humour, his genuine interest in colleagues and students, and the encouragement he offered to those at earlier stages of their careers. He remained deeply interested in the department’s programs and left a lasting impression on those who had the privilege of knowing him. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, former colleagues, and students.
(This is found on the Western University website - Department of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics)
--------------------------------------------

The Obituary

Reuel Kimball Wilson Obituary
(From the London Free Press, June 22, 2026)

   Reuel Wilson was born on December 25, 1938, in Manhattan, New York. He died at his home on June 4, 2026, surrounded by his loving family in London, Ontario, where he lived with his beloved wife Natsuko for 46 years.

   Reuel Kimball Wilson was named after his father's uncle, a physician much esteemed by the family. His father Edmund Wilson was an influential literary critic, an early champion of European avant-garde and modernist expression, an active chronicler of his times, and an authority on the work of his contemporaries, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others. His mother, Mary McCarthy, was a pioneering novelist, memoirist, and critic. Her bestselling 1963 novel The Group became a cultural phenomenon adapted into a film by Sidney Lumet. Her memoir, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, about her upbringing and the events surrounding the sudden death of her parents during the Spanish influenza epidemic, is considered a classic of the genre and is dedicated to Reuel.

   Reuel's childhood was spent between his parents in New York, Cape Cod, and Rhode Island. As a boy he attended St. Bernard's School in New York, where his cherished stepfather and lifelong friend, Bowden Broadwater, was a well-loved, eccentric mainstay. After attending St. George's School and graduating from Brooks School, he completed his undergraduate studies in Romance languages and literature at Harvard College.

   Raised in an environment shaped by engagement with literary traditions of many cultures, Reuel developed an enduring interest in multilingualism that would define his studies, his scholarly career, and larger outlook in life. In the 1960s he continued his studies of Slavic languages and literature in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. There he studied under, and translated the work of, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz. He wrote a doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago on Russian travel literature published as The Literary Travelogue: A Comparative Study with Special Relevance to Russian Literature from Fonvizin to Pushkin. By then, he had become fluent in Russian, Polish, and French; he would later master Spanish, in connection with his love of travel to foreign countries, especially Cuba and Mexico, and his intense curiosity for the contemporary literature emerging from the Spanish-speaking world.

   Reuel taught Polish at UCLA for some years before he moved to Canada in 1970, with his first wife, Marcia, and joined the faculty of the Slavic Languages and Literatures department at the University of Western Ontario. There he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in language, in comparative literature, and in Russian and Polish literature (in the original languages). As a professor, he mentored many students, published articles and book reviews, and another book, with Jan Pachonski, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of the Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802-1803. It concerns Haiti's war of independence and Napoleon Bonaparte's plan to have his generals conscript the Polish into the war in order to reintroduce slavery into Saint-Domingue, then the wealthiest colony of France.

   After retiring in 2002 he published two memoirs: To the Life of the Silver Harbor: Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod (2008), which revisits moments from his childhood and the works of his parents linked to the landscape to which he held a strong attachment; and Holding the Road: Away from Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy (2019), where he offers vivid portraits of figures from his past, such as Hannah Arendt, Peggy Guggenheim, and his dear uncle, the actor Kevin McCarthy, best known from his leading role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie.

   Reuel continued to travel widely to foreign countries, to spend time in spring and fall in Wellfleet, Cape Cod, and to take pleasure in his various interests, which included cooking, barbequing in summer, gardening, and reading books, newspapers and journals in various languages. He remained close with former colleagues and friends and enjoyed hosting dinners. Eschewing fuss of any kind, Reuel appreciated the straightforward beauty of simplicity in nature, art, music, and friendship. His dry sense of humor and allergy to convention remained intact. His vivid memory of both historical events and of the details of his own and others' personal pasts never faded. He continued to play squash into his seventies and to enjoy bike-riding, swimming and exploring new places by car and on foot for many years afterward. An adventurous traveler quick to pick up the local dialects and idioms of the languages he came to know, he ventured off the beaten path to places such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Poland, and Portugal before the swell of mass tourism.

FROM THE GUESTBOOK

Reuel had a sly sense of humour, and he had a comprehensive knowledge of literature. He grew up in a household in which John Dos Passos and Vladimir Nabokov came to dinner often. I loved the way he often seemed to be mildly amused by life. Thank you, Reuel, for being my colleague.
Laurence de Looze
June 22, 2026

So sad. Reuel was a lovely man. He had a profound knowledge of world literature and a keen interest in sharing it with students and colleagues. I smile when I think of him riding all over London on his bike and surviving some tumbles. We had a brief visit last year and I was looking forward to seeing him again this summer. My condolences to Natsuko and his children.\
Marjorie Ratcliffe
June 22, 2026

Reuel was a wonderful colleague who welcomed me when I joined the Russian studies section of the Dept. of Modern Languages in 1991. We saw each other a lot in the 1990s, and he always wanted to speak to me in Russian, which he did very well. He was an impressive polyglot whose repertoire included Polish and Spanish, as well as French. We had many conversations in his office and saw each other off campus frequently. Reuel was extremely well-read and had a wide range of interests. I will always fondly remember our friendship. Sincere condolences to Natsuko and Sophie.
Vladimir Tumanov
June 23, 2026

I first encountered Reuel's work through the world of Polish studies; we even had the same Polish professor (though in different decades). I was a great admirer of Reuel's splendid book on "Poland's Caribbean Tragedy." When I met him I was of course impressed by his wisdom, erudition, and wonderful amiability. Condolences to Natsuko, Sophia, and the whole family.
Larry Wolff
June 24, 2026

Reuel was a great colleague, full of kindness and humour. I remember being invited to his home and Natsuko made the most wonderful Suchi.
Reuel continued his research after he retired, and after he retired he used to come by for me to sign the forms so he could have a table in the library. I always looked forward to his visits. He is missed.
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito
June 22, 2026

Post Script:
  Over the years, I have often mentioned Western in my blog and some of the people I knew while working there, including Reuel. Most recently, his mother is mentioned in my post about Hannah Arendt. His father wrote many books, including one about Canada, see "OH! Canada?". His father's papers are in Tulsa, along with those of Bob Dylan.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 38)

Known Londoners - Frank Colman -1983 

From Colman's Wikipedia entry:
 "The son of Frederick and Harriet Colman, who operated a shoe store on Hamilton Road in London, Ontario, Colman joined the London Majors of the senior Intercounty Baseball League in the mid-1930s. There, he won the batting title as a pitcher, Most Valuable Player award, and a championship in 1936.....

Before Colman died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 64, he had been working at the University of Western Ontario in the maintenance department. He was cremated, and his ashes were inurned in London at Woodland Cemetery...."
He is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and in 2005 was inducted into the London Sports Hall of Fame.

Guy Tudor - Bird Illustrator

 Another Passing Worth Noting
   I did not recognize the name "Guy Tudor", but the headline above his obituary caught my eye and he is worth our attention.

"Guy Tudor, Whose Art Brought Obscure Birds to Life, Dies at 91," Guy Trebay, New York Times, July 25, 2026.
   "Guy Tudor, a self-taught ornithologist, wildlife illustrator and MacArthur fellow whose field guides to birds trained generations of naturalists and citizen scientists about how to distinguish a Rufous-breasted Leaftosser from a Lesser Hornero, died on July 14 in Greenport, N.Y. He was 91.
   Digital avian databases like eBird were far in the future when Mr. Tudor first set about documenting swaths of the avian world in watercolors and gouaches renowned for their delicacy and precision, and for the artist’s singular knack for capturing the quiddities of winged creatures with paint and brush….
   It was Mr. Tudor’s ability “to capture the unique behavior, motion and exact plumage of obscure species” that earned him a MacArthur fellowship in 1990, said Terence Clarke, an artist and naturalist who was a friend of Mr. Tudor’s....
   “People claim Guy was a curmudgeon, but it’s really that he was alarmed — and rightly so — by what is happening to the natural world,” Mr. Gwynne added. “He always used to say, ‘The infidels have invaded my church, and they’ve almost reached the altar.’”

   I wondered if the Western Libraries had any of his books and took a look. Here are some works where you can find Tudor's illustrations:

1.The Birds of South America
2.Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America: The Passerines
3.A Guide to the Birds of Columbia
4.A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela
5.Ornithology
and there is even one about butterflies- 
6.Butterflies of the East Coast : An Observer's Guide.
   "Here is an accessible, informative, and highly illustrated book that offers a fresh view of butterflies in America's Ease Coast states, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Appalachians. In addition to providing a wealth of facts and photos, this book is the first to furnish detailed and up-to-date photo-illustrated information on the host plants favored by particular species. With 234 full-page species accounts and accompanying range maps, plus nearly 900 large-size color photos, it is an essential reference work for field observers, gardeners, educators, and conservation managers - or anyone interested in appreciating the lepidopteran world close at hand."
   Check the catalogue of the Western Libraries. These books are either in the Taylor Library or the storage facility. 
   I have written other posts about bird books that can be found in the Western Libraries. (Once again, check before you go to campus.)
Bird Art - John Gould
Bird Illustrators - Louis Agassiz Fuertes
 If you are more interested in FISH have a look at Western's ANGLING BOOKS.

The Bonus: Don't Forget About AFAR - The Advanced Facility for Avian Research-

For the Birds.

Eddie Mulcahy

 My Father
   I don't post much of a personal nature in MM so you readers looking for the stuff I usually provide will have to wait until tomorrow. (The stuff I usually offer is difficult to characterize and that is why I had to resort to calling it "stuff.") This post is simply about the death of my dad. 
  I thought about him because he died fifty years ago, while on vacation. I have had many more vacations than he, and have already lived many more years. That is rather unfair; he was a much better father than I was a son. 
  In 1974 the small town in which he lived still had a local newspaper and since Eddie had been the proprietor of "Eddie's Restaurant", his passing was noted on the front page. I see that the "Wilson Funeral Home" held the service. I remember when the owner used to come into "Eddie's", one of the guys sitting and lying in a back booth would usually say, "Here comes the 'Buzzard'." There were nicknames for everyone and it could have been "Hacksaw" Payne who referred to the mortician. 
  I was unable to go to the funeral, so I probably last saw my father around fifty-two years ago. My children will have no recollection of him, nor the grandchildren who never met him. Below, they will at least see a trace of his existence. The front page is provided along with the article. 

 

  Here is one of the ads that appeared in the Marylander and Herald. It was continued by the Somerset Herald, which ceased publication in the mid-1980s.  At least digitized copies still exist. My father, and my mother, are both buried near the Legion home mentioned. 

   Princess Anne is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In the early 1950s, a trip to the Western Shore and the mainland was made easier when a bridge across the Chesapeake Bay was constructed. (See, "The Eastern Shore.") 

Have a Merry Christmas.   

The Grapefruit Effect

    Although I do not have to take any prescribed drugs and do not pay much attention to health-related articles, I was vaguely aware that the word "grapefruit" is often mentioned near the word "medicine." Basically it appears that this citrus fruit can react with many drugs in ways which are not helpful.

   I was not aware at all that the "Grapefruit Effect" was one of those "accidental scientific discoveries" and that the discovery occurred here in London when Dr. David Bailey was trying to figure out ways to hide the taste of alcohol from those who were participating in a study he was doing on a blood pressure drug. The solution was grapefruit juice and it was a suggestion from his wife that led to an accidental discovery of considerable significance:

“It was really my wife Barbara and I, one Saturday night, we decided to try everything in the refrigerator,” says Bailey. They mixed pharmaceutical-grade booze with all kinds of juices, but nothing was really working; the alcohol always came through. “Finally at the very end, she said, ‘You know, we’ve got a can of grapefruit juice. Why don’t you try that?’ And by golly, you couldn’t tell!” says Bailey. So he decided to give his experimental subjects a cocktail of alcohol and grapefruit juice (a greyhound, when made with vodka), and his control group a glass of unadulterated grapefruit juice.
The blinding worked, but the results of the study were … strange. There was a slight difference in blood pressure between the groups, which isn’t that unusual, but then Bailey looked at the amount of the drug in the subjects’ bloodstreams. “The levels were about four times higher than I would have expected for the doses they were taking,” he says. This was true of both the control and experimental groups. Bailey checked every possible thing that could have gone wrong—his figures, whether the pharmacist gave him the wrong dosage—but nothing was off. Except the grapefruit juice."

Mrs. Bailey died in 2020. Dr. Bailey died on August 27, 2022, both in London, Ontario. 

Dr. David Bailey and Western University

   London, Ontario is not alone in being a "local news desert." There is still one  newspaper in the city, but there is little in it that is concerned with London, where the owners of it no longer reside and where it is no longer printed. The few remaining local reporters do a good job, but they can't cover everything. There are a couple of publications up at Western University, but I have not noticed anything about the death of Dr. Bailey and the writers there have no shortage of crucial issues to report upon. 

   I admitted at the beginning, my general lack of awareness and I may have missed some stories about Dr. Bailey and the "accidental discovery", but just in case there are none, I have gathered some information from which additional articles could later be constructed by others. Dr. Bailey, like Dr. Barr, is a name Londoners should recognize. 

   If you are more interested in athletics than pharmacology, I should mention that Dr. Bailey is Canada's Bannister, in that he was the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes. Information about Dr. Bailey, the Olympian, is also provided below.

  I became aware of Dr. Bailey because of an article in the American magazine, The Atlantic Monthly. I received it via email in December: "No One Can Decide if Grapefruit is Dangerous: The Citrus Can Raise the Level of Dozens of Drugs in the Body -- Sometimes to a Worrying Degree, Sometimes Very Much Not," Katherine J. Wu, Dec. 26, 2022. Dr. Bailey's discovery is discussed and, Dr. Dresser, who was mentored by Bailey is quoted. Dr. George Dresser is in the Department of Medicine at Western. Here is a portion of the article that mentions both of them:

"Grapefruit’s medication-concentrating powers were discovered only because of a culinary accident. Some three decades ago, the clinical pharmacologist David Bailey (who died earlier this year) was running a trial testing the effects of alcohol consumption on a blood-pressure medication called felodipine. Hoping to mask the distinctive taste of booze for his volunteers, Bailey mixed it with grapefruit juice, and was shocked to discover that blood levels of felodipine were suddenly skyrocketing in everyone—even those in the control group, who were drinking virgin grapefruit juice.
After running experiments on himself, Bailey confirmed that the juice was to blame. Some chemical in grapefruit was messing with the body’s natural ability to break down felodipine in the hours after it was taken, causing the drug to accumulate in the blood. It’s the rough physiological equivalent of jamming a garbage disposal: Waste that normally gets flushed just builds, and builds, and builds. In this case, the garbage disposal is an enzyme called cytochrome P450 3A4—CYP3A4 for short—capable of breaking down a whole slate of potentially harmful chemicals found in foods and meds. And the jamming culprit is a compound found in the pulp and peel of grapefruit and related citrus, including pomelos and Seville oranges. It doesn’t take much: Even half a grapefruit can be enough to trigger a noticeable interaction, says George Dresser, a pharmacologist at Western University, in Ontario."

Additional information about the "Grapefruit Effect" and Bailey is provided below.

Also An Athlete   

Bailey is on the right. Medalists in the 1500-metre run at the
Winnipeg Pan Am Games.

   At the age of nine, David Bailey lost an eye in an accident and his participation in sports was limited to running. He became quite good at it. His athletic achievements are noted in his Globe and Mail obituary and are provided here:

"He became the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes, and represented Canada in the event, which is rarely staged any more, at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City – after overcoming considerable adversity as a youngster.

David struggled through his early teens and lacked a sense of identity as a result of the eye injury and exclusion from contact sports, according to Harvey Mitro, a runner, writer and long-time friend. But a high-school coach recognized David’s running talent and, in 1961, placed him in the East York Track Club.

The club was led by legendary coach Fred Foot, who later mentored him at the University of Toronto and also worked in the Canadian Olympic program. David flourished under Mr. Foot’s guidance and the opportunity to train, and compete occasionally, with two older athletes: Bruce Kidd and Bill Crothers, who specialized in other distances and would become running legends.

While the three runners trained together, Mr. Kidd, won the 1962 Commonwealth Games six-mile event and competed in the 1964 Olympics. Mr. Crothers, a two-time Olympian during those years, earned an 800-metre silver medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

In 1962 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, David set a world record in the mile for his age group, as a 17-year-old. And, late one Saturday night in June, 1966, in San Diego, he became the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes, posting a time of 3:59.1.

But Mr. Foot wanted him to break four minutes in Canada, too, Mr. Kidd recalled. So the coach organized another race, in July of 1967 at Varsity Stadium – without revealing the goal to David so that he would not feel extra pressure.

Mr. Foot instructed Bryan Emery to set a fast first-lap pace and secretly told Mr. Crothers to drop out at the three-quarter mark, according to Mr. Kidd. David was hot on Mr. Crothers’s heels when he quit running.

“I will never forget the look on [David’s] face when he realized what was happening,” Mr. Kidd said. “Bill just stepped off the track after taking the second step in this superb pace-setting job. Dave looked at him with the expression ‘Oh, my God,’ and then just put his shoulder down and just barrelled ahead to that fabulous time.”

He crossed the finish line in 3:57.7, becoming the first Canadian to break the four-minute-mile barrier in Canada.

Individually and as a team member, he garnered multiple conference and Canadian championships at the university level and berths in the U of T and Ontario sports halls of fame, among other accolades. He also captured silver medals in 1,500-metre races at the 1967 Oslo Bislett Games and 1967 World University Games (now Universiade) in Tokyo, and bronze in the mile at the 1967 Pan-Pacific Games in Winnipeg.

In addition, David ran the mile at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, and the 1968 Olympics but did not medal."

A Brief Bailey Bibliography

Obituaries: (with some excerpts)

1.  Dr. David George Bailey, PhD, Mar. 17, 1945 - Aug. 27, 2022,
Westview Funeral Chapel
"David distinguished himself for two very different reasons in the world of international running, as well as food-drug research.  On June 11th, 1966, in San Diego, CA, he became Canada’s first sub-four minute miler in a time of 3:59.1.  He sought to top this a year later on July 22, 1967, this time in his home town of Toronto, ON, in a time of 3:57.7.  Later in his life, while working on a clinical pharmacology study between a blood pressure lowering drug and alcohol, he discovered the bizarre reaction between some medications and grapefruit juice.  So if you ever see a little sticker on your medicine bottle saying “don’t take with grapefruit juice” you can thank Dr. Bailey."

2.   "David Bailey, Olympian and Pharmacologist Who Discovered the Grapefruit Effect, Dead at Age 77," Monte Stewart, Globe and Mail, Sept. 23, 2022.

"In the late 1980s, Dr. Bailey, an Olympic runner-turned-pharmacologist, was researching the effects of alcohol on the blood-pressure medication felodipine. Seeking to disguise the alcohol’s taste in his experiment, he tried combining it with grapefruit juice and stumbled upon the fact that his subjects’ consumption of the juice resulted in a greater concentration of the drug in their bloodstreams. He went on to discover that grapefruit juice has this effect because it inhibits an enzyme (CYP3A4) in the human gut that breaks down the medication, so the body consequently absorbs a larger than normal amount of the medication."

   At the end of 2022, Dr. Bailey is also mentioned in this G&M article:
"22 Influential People Who Died in 2022..." Dec. 31, 2022.

"David Bailey improved countless lives because of a discovery he made by accident.

3.  "Pharmacologist and Olympian David Bailey Dies at 77," Lisa Winter, The Scientist, Oct. 7, 2022.

"A few years later, Bailey was studying the interactions between alcohol and felodipine, a blood pressure medication. In one clinical trial, he tried using fruit juice to cover up the sharp taste of the alcohol before giving it to participants. He noticed that those who had the juice had much higher concentrations of the drug in their blood afterward, though it wasn’t clear at first whether it was the alcohol or the juice creating the odd reaction.

“So I decided to do a pilot study, on me, to find out,” he told Inside, a publication of the London Health Services Centre, in 2013. “Once I took the drug with water, then I took it with grapefruit juice. My drug levels were five times higher with grapefruit juice. That was a big eureka moment.”

   For a good, long article about grapefruit and Dr. Bailey see this interesting article:

"Grapefruit Is One Of The Weirdest Fruits on The Planet: From Its Name, To Its Hazy Origins, To Its Drug Interactions, There's A Lot Going On Beneath That Thick Rind," Dan Nosowitz, Atlas Obscura, Oct. 6, 2020. It begins this way:

"IN 1989, DAVID BAILEY, A researcher in the field of clinical pharmacology (the study of how drugs affect humans), accidentally stumbled on perhaps the biggest discovery of his career, in his lab in London, Ontario. Follow-up testing confirmed his findings, and today there is not really any doubt that he was correct. “The hard part about it was that most people didn’t believe our data, because it was so unexpected,” he says. “A food had never been shown to produce a drug interaction like this, as large as this, ever.”

Some Local Articles:

  There is not yet a notice about Dr. Bailey's death on the Western website, but there have been articles about him over the years. Here are some samples.

"Grapefruit-Medication Interactions Increasing," London Health Sciences Centre, Nov. 6, 2012.

"The number of prescription drugs that can have serious adverse effects from interactions with grapefruit are markedly increasing, yet many physicians may be unaware of these effects, states an article published in CMAJ.  The article, a review by the researchers who discovered the interactions more than 20 years ago, summarizes evidence to help clinicians better understand the serious effects this common food can have when consumed with certain prescription drugs."

"Grapefruit Part of a Deadly Mix," Adela Talbot, Western News, Dec. 6, 2012.

"That glass of grapefruit juice you usually have with breakfast isn’t as healthy as you think – if you’re taking certain medications, that is. Perhaps you already knew that.“We discovered the interaction 20 years ago. The science of grapefruit-drug interaction has been extensively studied.The science of the (interaction) is well known, but I don’t think it has been applied the way it needs to be now,” said David

Bailey, professor emeritus in the Schulich School of Medicine& Dentistry’s Division of Clinical Pharmacology.Bailey, along with colleagues George Dresser 

and J. Malcolm Arnold, recently published "Grapefruit-medication interactions: Forbidden fruit or avoidable consequences?"

  In 2015 there was a contest by the Council of Ontario Universities' Research Matters to determine research that was "Game-Changing". Here are the ones suggested for UWO and Bailey's is among them:

Dr. Charles Drake (1958) - Developed surgical techniques on the repair of ruptured brain aneurysms.

Dr. David Bailey (1991) - Discovered the dangerous interactions between grapefruit and certain medications.

Dr. Fred Possmayer (1981) - Developed a safe way to extract, purify and sterilize surfactant from animals for use in humans, in particular premature babies suffering from respiratory distress.

Dr. Murray Barr (1948) - Co-discovered an inactive chromatin, known as the Barr Body, linked to genetic disorders such as Down’s, Klinefelter’s and Turner syndromes. This led to a simple diagnostic test for certain genetic abnormalities.

Dr. Henry Barnett (1978) - Led a large international clinical trial to show that Aspirin prevents strokes, changing the way doctors managed heart disease.

Drs. Charles Beer and Robert Noble (1958) - Isolated vincaleukablastine, a powerful anti-cancer drug, from the Madagascar periwinkle plant. The drug turned out to be one of the most useful chemotherapeutic agents.

It should be noted that this bibliography is far from complete and is focused more on articles about Dr. Bailey and not on those articles which he authored.

The Bonus:

   If you on prescribed meds and want to learn more see:

Canadian - "The Effects of Grapefruit and Its Juice On Certain Drugs."
U.S. - "Grapefruit Juice and Some Drugs Don't Mix."
   "Grapefruit and Medication: A Cautionary Note," Harvard Health Publishing, Mar. 30, 2021. 

   The Wikipedia entry is under - "Grapefruit -- Drug Interactions."

Graham Murray

 In Memoriam

   I first met Graham in the late 1960s in London, Ontario. He had arrived at the University of Western Ontario after passing successfully through the London School of Economics and teaching for a bit at Lehigh, in Pennsylvania. I was at UWO having attended, much less successfully, the University of Maryland. Graham impressed me (and everyone else) with his extensive vocabulary, spoken, as Steve Paikin notes below, with a "wonderful English accent." On the anniversary of his passing, he is worth remembering. 

   The information we find easily on the Internet is often ephemeral. For that reason, I have chosen here to capture some of it, although Mulcahy's Miscellany is also not likely to last for very long.  If a few people read this, however, perhaps some vestiges of memories of Graham will linger for a little longer.

   An obituary for Graham appears (for now) on the website of the Humphrey Funeral Home - A.W. Miles-Newbigging Chapel Limited. He died on August 29, 2021. Here it is:

"Graham died at Toronto, August 29, 2021. In death, as in life, on his own terms.

Only son of William Atkinson Murray (1916-1994) and Marjorie Mary Elliot (1916-1987), born in Enfield, England, July 21, 1943. He embodied his Dad's sense of fair play and his Mum's feistiness.

Survived by his sister, Susan Murray of Codrington Hill, London, his wife, Susan Cutler and their son, James Alexander Murray (and Alan the Cat).

He will be much missed by his cousins in England and his in-laws in Canada.

Graham was educated at the Latymer School, England and the London School of Economics (LSE) 1961-1964, graduating with a B.Sc. [Econ] International Relations. At the LSE he was the Editor of The Beaver and President of the Jazz Society. It was in this connection he argued with Mick Jagger over expansion to include blues nights. He taught International Relations at Lehigh University 1964-1966, in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, returning to LSE for a continuance of his degree and then to the University of Western Ontario 1968-1975, in London, Ontario, to teach International Relations.

Enjoying the politics of academia more than the slog of publishing, he joined the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) as Executive Vice Chair 1975-1978, when a strong provincial advocate was needed for effective lobbying.

He worked as a researcher for the Ontario New Democratic Party Leader's Office at Queen's Park 1978-1987, under Stephen Lewis then Michael Cassidy's leadership. Graham abetted on the "welfare diet" in November, 1982, to demonstrate how limited the food budget of the average person on welfare was.

As a member of the NDP, Graham ran twice provincially in the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence (and managed to recoup the deposit).

Graham found his true calling. As publisher of Inside Queen's Park 1987-2015, the definitive bi-weekly record of the political workings of Ontario government, Graham was able to combine his writing skills with his in-depth knowledge of how government could or should but inevitably would work.

At the Legislature, he was instrumental in getting Ontario wines and beers available in the Legislative dining room. His work with the Speaker of the House set up the Speaker's Book Award which recognizes non-fiction works by Ontario authors reflecting the diverse culture and rich history of the province and of its residents.

In 1990, Graham worked with the OSSTF-FEESO political action team on a brilliant campaign over the underfunding of education targeted to key ridings that contributed to the NDP electoral victory.

Graham was a founding member of the Public Affairs Association Canada PAAC and served as President from 1992-1994.

Graham was a man who loved a party, loved long convoluted tales that may or may not have contained outrageous puns, word play or obscure quotes. His store of Ontario provincial election and political trivia was prodigious. An admirer of Samuel Johnson and Winston Churchill, he would have held his own in a battle of wits and temperament with both.

Parkinson's disease did not win in the end. Graham did -- he died as he had lived, courageously and with an unflinching determination.

Our thanks to the Dotsa Bitove program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to our PSWs Fiona and Samantha, to the Staff at St. Michael's Hospital ICU and Palliative Care Unit.

The family will receive friends at the Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles – Newbigging Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, on Thursday, September 2nd from 3:00 – 4:00, 4:30 – 5:30 and 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Funeral service to be held at St. James-the-Less Cemetery Chapel, 635 Parliament Street, on Friday, September 3rd at 2:00 p.m., with visitation to begin in the chapel at 1:00 p.m. Due to COIVD-19 restrictions, attendance at both is limited. Please email your attendance, including the time, to sue.j.cutler@gmail.com.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to TVOntario, B.C. Fire relief or the charity of your choice. Condolences may be forwarded through www.humphreymiles.com."

   Here is a portion of one of the remarks left on the "Tribute Wall" of the funeral home. [The name of the contributor is not included here.]

"I knew Graham back in the 1980s.  As well as being a brilliant researcher at NDP Caucus, Graham was also the President of our small Opseu Local.  Graham took on this thankless, volunteer role in addition to an incredibly demanding job that included preparing reports on issues of the day, and daily briefings of the Leader and MPPS for Question Period.  But no matter how busy Graham was his door was always open to staffers who needed help, advice or just a friendly ear.  As a new staff member I remember feeling overwhelmed about the layoffs that were coming following our loss of seats after the 1981 election. He was kind and reassuring.  He worked tirelessly following that election and others to save as many staff jobs as possible  - mine included."

Here is another from a friend of mine:

"Graham was a person of rare quality and wit, and a kind and generous friend."

I agree.

   The same obituary appears in the Toronto Star, Sept. 2, 2021. Among the condolences submitted, is this one: [I have not included the name of the person who provided it.]

"I only learned of Graham’s passing via Steve Paikin’s blog the other day and was greatly saddened by the news. Graham was a fixture around the Pink Palace during my many tours of duty there and lent the place a humanity and character that it sorely needed most days. I always enjoyed exchanging rapid-fire banter with him, and recall his enjoyment of a way I described our kind of relationship in political terms (I was and remained a diehard conservative). To wit, the old Warner Brothers cartoon about the wolf and the sheepdog who strolled to work together in the morning, beat the living daylights out of each other until closing time, and then marched back out into the sunset arm-in-arm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s the way Graham Murray was. Rest In Peace."

  Here is the short obituary found in Inside Queen's Park:

"Graham Murray, Former IQP Publisher, Passes Away," By David Hains.

"Graham Murray, for decades a fixture at Queen’s Park in multiple capacities, has passed away. He was 78. Born in England, Murray found his way to Toronto and, through a combination of curiosity and an inclination to say yes, found himself in many roles at Queen’s Park. From the late-‘70s to late-‘80s he was a researcher for the NDP. He twice ran (unsuccessfully) for elected office. And in 1987 he joined the nascent publication Inside Queen’s Park as a freelance writer, and INSIDE QUEEN’S PARK would go on to publish and be the face of the publication from the early 1990s until 2015. He was also a founding member of the Public Affairs Association of Canada and served as its president from 1992–94. He also played an instrumental role in ensuring beer and alcohol were served at Queen’s Park, giving another reason for politicos to toast his memory. He is survived by his wife Susan and son James."

"Mr. Queen's Park"

   This article about Graham appears in the November 1, 2021 issue of TVO Today. The picture at the top is from that publication. Although the link to the article works today, it may not tomorrow. I trust that TVO will forgive me for pasting it here. As the family suggests in the obituary, donations to TVO would be appreciated.

"Remembering Graham Murray: Mr. Queen's Park," Steve Paikin.

"Nowadays, there are a lot of newsletters, websites, and podcasts that focus on what’s happening in Ontario politics. But back in the day, there was only one: Inside Queen’s Park, which started it all. 

It was established by Graham Murray, who was a researcher for the New Democratic Party from 1978 to 1987. It seemed as if everyone at the legislature knew Graham, who died this past summer at age 78. 

Graham knew a ton about Queen’s Park, and every time there was an event of significance, he seemed to be there. He was born in Enfield, England — just north of London — in 1943 and had every intention of becoming a foreign-affairs specialist. In fact, he studied international relations at the London School of Economics, then taught the subject at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and at the University of Western Ontario, in London.

“He enjoyed academia, but he didn’t enjoy the pressing need to publish or perish,” says his 32-year-old son, Jamie, his only offspring. That would prove to be truly ironic, given how much publishing Graham would come to do later in life. 

In 1975, he became executive vice-chair of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), which eventually led him to his caucus research job with the NDP at Queen’s Park. 

Graham wasn’t what you’d call a numbers guy, and that eventually led to his downfall at the legislature. He did some research for then NDP leader Bob Rae. 

“He gave Bob some bad numbers, which Bob used in the house and got embarrassed by using them,” says Graham’s widow, Susan Cutler. The couple met through NDP politics. 

Rae eventually fired Graham, but Graham figured out another way to be part of the provincial political scene. He began publishing the bi-weekly newsletter Inside Queen’s Park, which established the template that so many other online publications now follow. Readers were treated to a recap of the political developments of the past two weeks, an extended interview with a newsmaker, a list of upcoming political events, and a trivia question. To be sure, if you knew the answers to Graham’s questions, you were neck deep in nerd-dom. He published the newsletter from 1987 to 2015. 

“He really enjoyed being an insider,” Jamie says. “He was well-respected by all parties and liked cutting through the spin and providing insight and context for things that were developing.” 

As much as Graham wanted you to subscribe to IQP — in other words, to pay for it — he really just wanted you to read it. He wanted everyone to know they’d be getting nuggets of wisdom not seen in the mainstream daily newspapers, so it wasn’t unusual for him to reach inside his jacket pocket and simply give away the newsletter for free at social events. He retained every ounce of his wonderful English accent and frequently gossiped and name-dropped. 

As much as people thought they knew Graham because he was around so much, his personal life was a bit of a mystery to many of us. I knew Graham for more than three decades, and yet until his death, had never known he’d been married three times. (Jamie is the product of his third and happiest marriage, to Susan, whom he wed in 1987.) 

In 1981, he thought about running in the provincial election for the NDP, but he reconsidered when the party’s leader, Michael Cassidy, began soft-pedalling his support for gay rights. Cassidy had won the party leadership in part because of his championing of gay rights, a politically brave position to take at the time. 

“Gay rights were a touchstone for other issues,” Graham once told me. “If you’d do it to them, why should other groups believe you’ll stick by them?” 

In 2004, Graham started experiencing tremors; he soon learned he had Parkinson’s disease, as his father had. Although the tremors became more severe, he continued to publish IQP for another 11 years. 

“His mobility really suffered,” says Jamie. “Instead of working the room, he’d sit, and people would come to him. He’d hold court. But, eventually, it was harder for him to speak and type.” 

Graham may have been a New Democrat, but his favourite politician was a Tory. 

“He always really, really loved Bill Davis,” Jamie says, referring to Ontario’s 18th premier, who died just a few weeks before Graham. “They went to heaven at the same time, and they’ve probably got a really good table up there.”

Even through the pandemic, when it was impossible for us to see each other, Graham and I stayed in touch. This past August, he called me up to pitch a potential new provincial-affairs idea for TVO. Candidly, at that point in his life, it was increasingly difficult to understand what he was saying, but I told him once I’d returned from a vacation up north, we’d get together and talk through his idea. 

Graham died on August 29, before we got a chance to have that meeting. 

When I told his wife, Susan, about the fact that he was pitching Queen’s Park ideas almost right up until his death, she wasn’t the slightest bit surprised. “He never stopped loving the legislature,” she says. 

To the folks who haunt provincial politics, he was a sort of Mr. Queen’s Park, resplendent in his omnipresent hat and cane. He was part of the atmosphere there for more than four decades. 

To the general public, Graham Murray wasn’t a famous guy. But he might just be the kind of guy who deserves to be the subject of a column on the TVO.org website, because of all the stories and quirky personality he brought to Ontario politics. 

Rest in peace, Graham. And please say hi to Premier Davis for all of us."

Steve Paikin

"Steve Paikin is the host of TVO's flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. He co-hosts the weekly provincial affairs #onpoli podcast and contributes columns to tvo.org. Paikin was born and raised in Hamilton, which explains his love of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Maple Leafs. We’re still trying to figure out his obsession for the Boston Red Sox."

Post Script:

   One learned a great deal from listening to Graham. Every conversation was like a good seminar. In one of our last conversations by phone he casually mentioned the word "sepulchral" which many of us understand, but few of us would be able to insert into a discussion. 

   We benefitted in other ways back in those days. Graham had an account at Blackwell's. He circulated lists from which we purchased books at a discount. There are a lot of Penguins and Pelicans in this London, because of Graham.

James Francis Edwards - Canadian Fighter Pilot

 

   That picture caught my attention when I saw it in an obituary in the Washington Post. The handsome fellow is the Canadian 'Stocky' Edwards who just died out on Vancouver Island in the Comox area. He would have been 101 on June 5. Here is a bit from the long obit:

With the rank of wing commander, Mr. Edwards shot down a confirmed 19 Luftwaffe fighter planes and scored many more “probables,” the aircraft he put out of action but did not see hit the ground. He also destroyed at least 12 more enemy warplanes at their desert bases before they could take to the air…..

In all, he flew 373 combat missions during World War II, mostly over North Africa but also to provide air support for the Allied landings in Italy in 1943 and 1944 and in Normandy on D-Day — June 6, 1944 — a rare “triple” among Allied pilots….

In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded by the United Kingdom during the war, Mr. Edwards was named to the Order of Canada, one of that nation’s highest awards, in 2004. He was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013 and the following year was appointed to France’s Legion of Honor by President François Hollande for his services to France during the war.

   More death notices are found in a number of Canadian newspapers in mid-May of this year and there is a good Wikipedia entry for him, so I need not go on.  I just thought it worth noting the passing of this real, Canadian  "Top Gun" since the newspapers are also full of stories about the new summer "blockbuster" at the movies, Top Gun: Maverick, which is about an unreal American one. 

   Apart from the sources I will provide below, there are two books about 'Stocky'.  One is a memoir authored by Michel Lavigne and Edwards. Here is a summary of,  Kittyhawk Pilot: Wing Commander J.F. (Stocky) Edwards:

"This is the true inspirational story of James “Stocky” Edwards, Canada’s top living fighter pilot. The story begins in Battleford, Saskatchewan where Stocky grew up. During his childhood, shooting partridge, and working hard, Stocky learned the lessons that would serve him well during the Desert War. The story progresses through Stocky's training and then his posting over seas to the Desert War where he flew the P-40 Kittyhawk. This is the incredible story of a young Canadian who goes to war and becomes a superior pilot and leader of men."

   

  The second book is: Kittyhawks over the Sands: the Canadians and RCAF Americans, also by Lavigne and Edwards.  I will provide portions of a review below.

  The books are not readily available, so it is good that "Stocky" has finally gained some recognition. A copy of Kittyhawk Pilot, which came out in 1983, is found in the Western Libraries, but not in many other Ontario universities. A few of them have purchased the more recent Kittyhawks Over the Sands..., but Western does not have a copy. Neither book is available in the London Public Library System. Limited copies of both books are found on used books sites, but they are very expensive.

Sources:
   The Washington Post article: " "Stocky Edwards, Canadian Flying Ace in World War II, Dies at 100: He Was Heralded His Nation's "Top Gun" Over the North American Desert in 1942 and 1943," Phil Davison, May 21, 2022.
   The London Free Press contains an obituary on May 20 which originated in the Comox Valley Record, a newspaper that provides other good material about Edwards. See: "World War II Flying Ace Stocky Edwards Laid to Rest," Mike Chouinard, May 20, 2022; "Comox War Hero Dies at Age 100," Scott Stanfield, May 16, 2022 and "Comox Centenarian Stocky Edwards Reflects on Years," Erin Haluschak, June 4, 2021. 
   For a good biographical profile see the website of  Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame: "James Francis Edwards."
   For a review of Kittyhawks Over the Sands... see this one by Rob Tate: Air & Space Power Journal, Vol. 17, No.4, Winter, 2003. A portion follows:

Canadian author Michel Lavigne has again teamed with the exceptional Canadian ace James "Stocky" Edwards, a retired wing commander, to produce their second book. (In 1983 they joined forces to write Kittyhawk Pilot, Edwards's biography.) Lavigne's latest work, the fourth book he has coauthored, gives historians a superb account of this fascinating subject. Readers should note, however, that Kittyhawks over the Sands is by no means an easy read and not the type of book that lends itself to casual reading; rather, the sheer volume of material makes it a reference work...

"Unlike Fighter's over the Desert, which steps through the North African campaign in a day-by-day format, Kittyhawks over the Sands focuses on Canadian pilots who flew for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Canadian and American pilots who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and squadrons that flew the American-built P-40. Thus, the book deals with the 94, 260, 112, and 250 Squadrons of the RAF and 450 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)-specifically, their battles with the Italians and the German Luftwaffe in North Africa. Lavigne and Edwards present a staggering amount of information about each squadron, including unit histories, casualties, and claims. For example, the data on casualties includes the date, type of aircraft flown, pilot's name and fate, source of shootdown, and location of the battle. For claims, they include date, time, name and nationality of the victorious pilot, type of aircraft shot down, and battle location. Throughout the book, readers will find pilot profiles, anecdotes, and 350 black-and-white photographs as well as 16 color pages of aircraft and pilots. In addition to historical information about the squadrons, the book offers appendices covering the combat records of P-40 units, P-40 aces, Canadian and American RCAF casualties, and claims made by Canadian and American RCAF pilots....
Perhaps what I like the most about Kittyhawks over the Sands are the pilot accounts and stories of aerial combat, ground attack, and pilot losses from both sides. Lavigne and Edwards intriguingly piece together air combats, including photographs of men who shot each other down and of aircraft destroyed later in the campaign. I also admire their brutally honest treatment concerning instances of over claiming by the RAF, RCAF, RAAF, and Luftwaffe. For example, on the one hand, although RAF 112 Squadron claimed 211 aircraft destroyed between June 1940 and May 1943, the authors' research corroborates only 100 to 110. On the other hand, the claim of 65.5 victories by 260 Squadron (Edwards's unit) from June 1941 to May 1943 is almost completely verifiable, demonstrating the book's historical objectivity and desire to present the most accurate and unbiased information possible."

The Bonus:
   In another review of Kittyhawks.... one learns this:

"War writer Michel Lavigne of Victoriaville, Que., in his 2002 book Kittyhawks over the Sands - The Canadians and the RCAF Americans, makes a valiant effort to have these men and their desert air war remembered....
They flew Kittyhawk fighters and decorated the noses with painted-on sharks teeth.
They were the first to do that, but the American Flying Tigers of the Pacific war are best remembered for airplane teeth, thanks to the American style of focusing on heroes.
Factoid: Of the 367 Medal of Honor winners buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, nine are Canadians. The award was struck during the American Civil War and since then some 3,475 have been awarded - 61 of them to Canadians." (rev. by Dan Brown in the Ottawa Citizen, Sep. 12, 2011.)

For local readers it should be noted that 'Stocky' was stationed for a bit at RCAF Station Centralia which closed in 1967. I attended a party not long after it closed that was hosted by a member of the military whose family was housed at the former base.
Also, those interested in the subject of aviation history will find in the Archives and Special Collections up at Western the, Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History.  I could not find much information about it, but some background is likely found in: Catalogue of The Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History: Presented by the Family of Fred H. Hitchins. The Catalogue, was created by Marvin Hopkinson, whose position I assumed in the Western Libraries.
  I did find this useful information at Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, under the entry for Fred Harvey Hitchins. 

"Fred Harvey Hitchins, CD.**, B.A., M.A., Ph.D, was born on July 10, 1904 in London, Ontario. He attended the University of Western Ontario, London, earning his BA in 1923 and MA in 1925. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 with a Ph.D in history. He then joined the faculty of New York University in 1928 where he taught European history. His deep interest in aeronautical history, particularly the Canadian operations of World War I, led him to publish articles on the subject as early as 1931....

He died in London, Ontario on November 3, 1972. The importance of his work has not diminished: his papers and books were donated by his family to the University of Western Ontario as the Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History, available for generations of aviation historians to follow."

For another post related to air warfare (in Vietnam) see the one about Senator John McCain which includes a review of a book about pilots who flew from aircraft carriers during the war in Vietnam. 

Russell Baker (August 14, 1925 - Jan. 21, 2019)

   


    You youngsters will find it hard to believe that in the last century there used to be many newspapers and it was usually fun reading them. Columnists could be both funny and harshly critical and one of them, Russell Baker, wrote a "casual column without anything urgent to tell humanity." It has just been reported that Mr. Baker died at the age of 93. You should read him and you still can. The university close by has several of his books and the London Public Library has a few, including So This is Depravity, a title which should attract you.

Sources: 

  When Mr. Baker turned 91 a few years back, I did a post about him and since it contains some of his writing you should read it: Russell Baker's Birthday.

  For obituaries see: 

"Russell Baker, Droll Columnist and Memoirist Who Twice Won Pulitzer, Dies at 93," Jon Thurber, Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2019

   The obituarist offers this sample from a column in which there was failure to pass legislation that would have put a warning label on cars:

“Put yourself in the Congressman’s shoes,” Mr. Baker wrote. “One of these days he is going to be put out of office. Defeated, old, tired, 120,000 miles on his smile and two pistons cracked in his best joke. They’re going to put him out on the used-Congressman lot. Does he want to have a sticker on him stating that he gets only eight miles on a gallon of bourbon? That his rip-roaring anti-Communist speech hasn’t had an overhaul since 1969? That his generator is so decomposed it hasn’t sparked a fresh thought in fifteen years?”

" Russell Baker, Pulitzer-Winning Times Columnist and Humorist, Dies at 93," Robert D. McFadden, New York Times, Jan. 22, 2019.

“What Baker does,” Ronald Steel wrote in Geo magazine in 1983, “is punch holes in vast bubbles of pretension, humanize the abstract and connect the present with what one predecessor, Walter Lippmann, once described as the ‘longer past and the larger future.’”

His last column, “A Few Words at the End,” on Christmas, “a day on which nobody reads a newspaper anyhow,” spoke of his love affair with newspapers."

 Back in the last century there were also many more reporters and, believe it or not, they had good and enjoyable jobs. Baker notes:

“Thanks to newspapers,” he wrote, “I have made a four-hour visit to Afghanistan, have seen the Taj Mahal by moonlight, breakfasted at dawn on lamb and couscous while sitting by the marble pool of a Moorish palace in Morocco and once picked up a persistent family of fleas in the Balkans.”

RICKY JAY

     Ricky Jay died in Los Angeles on Nov. 24th.  I knew little about him until I did a post about this book which he wrote: Matthias Buchinger: 'The Greatest German Living'. He (Jay) was a very interesting person and you can learn about him quickly by reading this article by Anita Gates: "Ricky Jay, Gifted Magician, Actor and Author, is Dead at 70," New York Times, Nov. 25, 2018. I have also pasted below the biographical information available on his website since it will probably disappear. In some of the interesting articles about him there is mention of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which should itself be worth a post-or-two.

Ricky Jay: the Serious Bio While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists, his career is further distinguished by the remarkable variety of his accomplishments as an author, actor, historian, and consultant.  His one man show Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants was directed by David Mamet and garnered for Mr. Jay the Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Subsequent productions were staged at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles, The Spoletto Festival in Charleston and the Old Vic in London. His most recent show, Ricky Jay: On the Stem, also directed by Mr. Mamet, just closed a seven-month critically acclaimed run in New York City.

As an actor, Mr. Jay debuted in the Joseph Papp production of Midsummer Night's Dream at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in David Mamet's films: House of Games, Homicide, Things Change, Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, and Heist. He can be seen in many other films including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. He also starred in the heralded episode of the X-Files, "The Great Maleeni."  A serious student of his art, he has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society for whom he authored Many Mysteries Unraveled: Conjuring Literature in America 1786-1874. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Guide to American Theater and has defined the terms of his art for the Encyclopædia Britannica. Mr. Jay’s book, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women was published to critical and popular acclaim and was voted one of the outstanding books of the year by the Theater Library Association and one of the "Notable Books of the Year" by The New York Times Book Review, which hailed his work in a rave front page review. As a writer and speaker on subjects as varied as conjuring literature, con games, sense perception and unusual entertainments, Jay has authored numerous articles and has delivered many lecture/ demonstrations. Among his presentations are:  "Sleight and Shadow: at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. November 22, 2005;  “Belknap Visitor in the Humanities” at Princeton University speaking on the relationship between magicians and mediums on November 21, 2005;  "Doing Likewise: Imitation, Emulation, and Mimesis at the New York Institute of Humanities, hosted by Jonathan Miller;  "Hocus Pocus in Perfection: Four Hundred Years of Conjuring and Conjuring Literature," the Harold Smith Memorial Lecture at Brown University; "Splendors of Decaying Celluloid" with Errol Morris, Rosamond Purcell and Bill Morrison at the New York Institute for the Humanities.  "The Origins of the Confidence Game",for the conference of Police Against Confidence Crime;  "Chirosophi: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Conjuring Literature," at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California;  "Fast and Loose: The Techniques and Literature of Cheating" at the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library, UCLA;  "The Mystery of Fasting Impostors," and "The Avant Garde Art of Armless Calligraphers" at Amherst College;  "Sense, Perception, & Nonsense" at the University of Rhode Island Festival of the Arts;  and the keynote address at the International Design Conference in Aspen on "Illusion as Truth." He has spoken on "Prose & Cons: The Early Literature of Cheating" in the Pforzheimer Lecture Series on the book arts at the New York Public Library and at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and on "Magic & Science" for the T.E.D. Conference (Technology, Entertainment, & Design) in Monterey, California.  Mr. Jay is a founder of the biennial Conference on Magic History and is the former curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts. He is the author and co-designer of The Magic Magic Book, an illustrated history of the earliest trick conjuring books, published in the Writers and Artists Series of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His book Jay's Journal of Anomalies, based on his fine press periodical of the same name, was recently named one of the "Notable Books of the Year" by the New York Times and one of the "Best Books of the Year" by the Los Angeles Times. His most recent book, with photographs by Rosamond Purcell, is Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck.  Mr. Jay's consulting firm Deceptive Practices has provided expertise on projects as diverse as the film Forrest Gump and the Broadway production of Angels in America: Perestroika. He was a consultant on the Devices of Wonder exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and was the guest curator for an exhibition on conjuring at the Harvard Theatre Collection.  He has written and hosted his own television specials for CBS, HBO, and the BBC, and was the host and narrator of the first documentary mini- series on conjuring, "The Story of Magic," for the A&E network. He presented of a series of films on con games for Turner Classic Movies and in March of 2003 he debuted as a weekly essayist on the National Public Radio station, KCRW, in Los Angeles.