The changes at Canada Post: What they mean for Canadians

With the reduction in the volume of  "snail mail" and a severe loss of revenue, changes at Canada Post became inevitable. Unfortunately, this country's postal service is facing a massive deficit of one billion dollars by 2020.  The use of email and the Internet is, of course, greatly responsible for the crown corporation's woes. What should be deeply disturbing to Canadians, however, is the sudden and sneaky manner in which the changes were made.  It is also unsettling is that ordinary Canadians were not consulted.  These changes were foisted upon the public quickly and unilaterally, one day after the House of Commons adjourned for the Christmas break.  That's quite a coincidence, isn't it?  Surely the Harper government was not trying to avoid debating the issue in the House of Commons, particularly after being raked in coals by the opposition over the Senate scandal?  No, it couldn't be that, could it?

As Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau commented on the timing of the announcement, it was "a demonstration of a tremendous level of cynicism."  He said that more vigorous discussion was required before axing such "an important service" as home postal delivery.  “If this happens, it would be the end of an era for Canada Post,” union president Denis Lemelin declared.  "We recognize that Canada Post needs to change, but this is not the way," he remarked.

Nevertheless, on December 11, 2013, Canada Post announced that the following changes will be implemented:

* Door-to-door mail delivery will be phased out over the next five years, beginning in mid-2014. About one-third of Canadian households (over five million people) will be affected.  Rural households will not be affected. (It's worth noting that a great deal of Conservative support comes from rural areas).  Door-to-door delivery will be replaced by community mailboxes.  (Our cities are gong to be littered with community mailboxes.  Gee, won't they make Canada's urban landscape look more attractive?) 

* The price of stamp will increase from 63 cents to 85 cents for bulk purchases or $1 for individual stamps.  The increase will come into effect on March 31, 2014.

*  Canada Post plans to scale down its labour force by between 6,000 and 8,000 workers.  It maintains that this can be done by attrition since approximately 15,000 employees are poised to retire in the coming years.  (It's difficult to believe that no jobs will be lost.)

From a purely business point of view, these changes seem to make sense.  According to David Stewart Patterson, a Conference Board of Canada executive who predicted this spring that Canada Post could lose almost $1 billion annually if it didn't make operating changes, this new business plan will achieve "very significant results" with regard to Canada Post's fiscal stability.

Not surprisingly, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt also defended the move by Canada Post.  She stated, "The Government of Canada supports Canada Post in its efforts to protect taxpayers, while modernizing its business and aligning postal services with the choices of Canadians." (As if the choices of Canadians were ever really considered or that they were even consulted about the matter.)

Canada Post seems to have acted prudently if you believe, as the Harper government does, that government should be run like a business and that profitability is the bottom line.  The problem is that government actions affect real flesh and blood people.  The actions of crown corporations such as Canada Post also affect real human beings.

The elimination of door-to door postal delivery and the increase in the cost of stamps will have the most impact on elderly, disabled and lower income Canadians, particularly in the winter months. Isn't that always the way?  The most vulnerable and the most marginalized are always hurt more severely by misguided cost-cutting measures.  Laurie Beachell, national co-ordinator for the Council of Canadians expressed her concerns when she stated, "This will seriously disadvantage people with disabilities.   Couple that with access issues and climate issues, it will further isolate people, making them dependent on family and friends to pick up their mail."  As NDP MP Olivia Chow put it, "These job-killing and service-cutting measures will isolate seniors, the poor and the disabled living in urban areas."  She also said, "You don't save a business by cutting services, driving away customers and raising costs."

Small business is also going to be hurt by Canada Post's plans.  The increase in the price of stamps will be too burdensome for many small businesses to survive and many will go bankrupt. The high cost of stamps with also further discourage people from using the postal service and Canada Post will lose even more money until the day that it will be no longer be sustainable.

Why are such stringent measures being adopted so quickly without proposing alternatives?  Why can't the Canadian postal service be modified and modernized without gutting the whole operation and eliminating all door-to-door service?  Here's the reason why. This is Stephen Harper's Canada.  It's leaner and meaner and it's losing  its sense of community. The ultra-conservative creed is "everyone out for themselves."  People with low incomes are viewed as lazy welfare bums and the gap between the haves and the have-nots keeps widening into an ever-larger chasm. Stable employment is a thing of the past for the majority of Canadians. Many of the jobs available are contract or temporary jobs with few benefits and without the security of a pension.  More and more social programs are being cut every day.  More and more children are being drawn into the cycle of poverty in a nation rich with resources.

When did you last hear a Canadian politician make a strong statement about fighting poverty, protecting the environment or dealing with the problems of unemployment.  Which leader has had the courage to talk frankly about these issues?  Which leader has the gumption to say that sometimes higher taxes are necessary provided that the money is spent responsibly?  Why are conservative zealots being allowed to set the agenda?  What has happened to more moderate voices?  Do Canadians need to be reminded that Stephen Harper's Conservative party is not the more reasonable and compassionate Progressive Conservative Party of John Diefenbaker, Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark and yes, Brian Mulroney.  Mulroney showed concern for the environment and he was a leader in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.  Stephen Harper's Conservatives can be described as The Tea Party North or the Tea Party of Canada.

Who has the courage to strongly challenge the Harper government's priorities?  Who will tell Harper that tackling the deficit is not more important than creating jobs for the unemployed?  Who will tell him that it is an unnecessary waste of taxpayers' money to build more prisons in order to demonstrate a commitment to law and order?  It hasn't worked in the United States and it won't work here.  Who will tell him that it is better to concentrate on preventing poverty and crime than suffering the huge human, social and financial costs associated with poverty and crime?

For over six years, the Harper government has been chipping away, slyly and stealthily at our social fabric. It's been happening bit by bit so that this country is becoming unrecognizable.  Now we are about to lose door-to-door postal service.  Why must this happen?  Why must we become the only industrialized nation to allow this to occur with such little complaint and so little indignation?  Where is our backbone?  Why do we just accept this with bland resignation.  Why are we not bombarding our MPs with emails?

This is my warning to my fellow Canadians.  Our country is being transformed by a government that received only 40 per cent of the popular vote.  60 percent of those who bothered to vote did not vote Conservative. Where are those 60 percent?  I lament for this great nation!  I lament for what we have lost and what may never be regained, at least until Stephen Harper's government is voted out of office.

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE GOT 'TIL IT'S GONE!!!!!!!!!!

- Joanne

Are watches and wall clocks going the way of the dinosaur?

"She touches her wrist where her watch used to be, her fingers lost without time to hold on to.”
- Jenny Hubbard, American novelist and playwright

From Paper Covers Rock

"If you were to ask me the best time of day to fall in love, I'd say "Now."  But you'd also have to remember to factor in the fact that my watch is eleven minutes fast."
- Jarod Kintz, American author, born March 5, 1982
From This Book is Not for Sale


I really like timepieces - watches, clocks, hourglasses, sundials, you name it.  That is why I am quite dismayed that they seem to be going out of fashion.  Many people these day, particularly teens and 20-somethings, do not wear a wristwatch.  They don't find it necessary because they can check the time on their smart phones and other wireless devices.  Some children do not even know how to tell time on an analogue clock because they are only familiar with digital ones.  They regard analogue clocks as relics from a bygone era along with such items as black and white television and handwritten letters.

As for wall clocks, they too seem to be falling out of favour.  I went to a major department store here in Toronto and was informed that they do not have any wall clocks for sale.  I was advised that there isn't a market for them.  Given these trends, how can one expect anyone to be interested in horology, the study of mechanical time-keeping devices.  It appears that horologists will become as difficult to find as as  typewriter repairmen.  Like typewriters, clocks may gradually disappear from our homes because there are few left with the skills to repair them and few places to buy new ones.

Well, I can't turn back the hands of time, as the old adage goes.  Nevertheless, I will continue to wear my wristwatch and glance at my kitchen clock.  By the way, I am sometimes asked for the time from people who don't wear a watch and have left their cell phones elsewhere or can't be bothered to retrieve their phones from their purses.

There's something romantic and sentimental about watches, especially engraved ones.  Parents pass them along to their children.  How can that be replaced by clocks on a smart phone.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not a Luddite by any means.  I know too well that technological progress can't be halted.  I am, however, also aware of what we will lose if wristwatches and grandfather clocks are banished to museums.

I'll leave the last word to the great author and humourist Mark Twain (1835-1910) who lived well before the digital age.

"Time and tide wait for no man.  A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide."

- Joanne

NUMBER 16 READERS' POLL

Do you wear a wristwatch?
	Yes, I always wear a wristwatch.
	I often wear a wristwatch.
	I occasionally wear a watch.
	I own a watch but I rarely wear it.
	I own a watch but I never wear it.
	I don't own a watch and I never wear one.
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What happened to Lee Harvey Oswald's wife, Marina, and their children?

Fifty years have passed since Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy, was shot to death by Jack Ruby.  At 11:21 on a Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, Oswald was being led through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters on his way to a transfer to the county jail.  Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner and two-bit mobster, burst from the crowd and shot Oswald in the chest.  Oswald was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where President Kennedy had passed away two days earlier, and he died there at 1:07 p.m.  His shooting was witnessed by millions of shocked viewers who were watching the transfer on television.

Many are surprised to learn that Lee Harvey Oswald (born October 18, 1939) was only 24 years old when he died (I've always thought he looked older than that).  Oswald was also a married man with a 22-year-old Russian wife and two very young children.  In March of 1961, he met Marina Prusakova (born July 17, 1941) at a dance in the city of Minsk in Belarus, then a Soviet Republic.  Oswald, a former U.S. Marine, had defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959. Marina, a 19-year-old from Molotovsk (now known as Severodvinsk) in western Russia, had come to Minsk to live at the home of her aunt and uncle, Valentina and Ilya Prusakov, while studying pharmacology. When she met Lee, she was employed as a pharmacist at a hospital.

Marina and Lee wed on April 30, 1961 at the home of Uncle Ilya who worked for Soviet intelligence (He was employed by the MVD, the Ministry of Internal Affairs).  Marina gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter named June Lee Oswald, on February 15, 1962.  In June of that same year, Oswald returned to the United States with his family and settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where his mother, Marguerite, and brother Robert (Bob) lived.  Marina was shy and she spoke little English at that time.

In May of 1963, the family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, Lee's birthplace.  In September, they returned to Dallas where Oswald found employment with the Texas Book Depository.  He began working there on October 16, 1963. Four days later, on October 20th, the couple's second daughter, Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald (known as Rachel), was born. Rachel was barely a month old when her father apparently shot JFK from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository.

Prior to that fateful November day in Dallas, Marina was estranged from Lee.  She and the children lived at the home of her friend Ruth Paine in the suburb of Irving, Texas in Dallas County. Ruth, who had been studying Russian for several years, had recently divorced her husband, Michael.  Marina assisted Ruth with housework and Lee visited on weekends.  It was Ruth who had informed him about the job at the Texas Book Depository.

On the Thursday night before the assassination, Lee made an unannounced visit to the Paine home in an attempt to reconcile with Marina.  He stayed the night but his attempt at a reconciliation with his wife did not succeed. The following morning, November 22, 1963, Lee headed for work at the Texas Book Depository, leaving his wedding ring in a cup on a dresser and $170 in one of its drawers.

After the Kennedy assassination and the subsequent arrest of her husband, Marina was placed under Secret Service protection.  She remained under protection until the completion of her testimony before the Warren Commission's investigation into JFK's death.  As a key witness, she made four appearances before the commission and said she thought her husband was guilty of shooting Kennedy.  In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and was not involved in a conspiracy.

In Marina's fist television interview after the murder of her husband, the young widow talked with KRLD-TV in Dallas. When asked whether she believed Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated the President, she replied, "I don't want to believe, but I have too much facts and facts tell me that Lee shot Kennedy."  She stated that she wished to remain in Texas and had no plans to return to Russia.

Marina during her firs interview after Oswald's death

In 1965, Marina married Kenneth Jess Porter, a twice-divorced electronics technician.  According to a June 24, 1973 article in the Reading Eagle, a daily Pennsylvania newspaper, Ken started his own business as the operator of a bar soon after they wed.  When that didn't pan out, he reportedly turned to repairing sewing machines.  Now 75, Ken Porter is also a former drag car racer.  At the time the 1973 article was written, he and Marina were living in "a red brick home with a shingle roof " in Richardson, Texas, an inner suburb of Dallas. Since the mid-1970s, however, the couple have resided in a ranch style home in Rockwall, Texas, (northeast of Dallas).  Their 47-year-old son, Mark Porter, lives in East Texas.

Marina retired from her job at a now-defunct Army Navy Surplus store where she was employed for over 20 years.  It was located in the Uptown section of Dallas, not far from where John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Marina with husband Ken Porter in 1983 NBC interview

It was not until 1989 that Marina became a naturalized citizen of the United States.  Now 72 years old, and a grandmother, she has lived a quiet life in recent years.  Last month, the Daily Mail. a British tabloid, published the first photos of Marina seen in over 20 years.  In the photograph and videos, she and her husband are seen leaving a Walmart store near their home in suburban Dallas. According to a November, 2, 2013 article by Lizzie Parry and Damien Gaylea (appearing on the website of another British newspaper, the Daily Mail), Marina is said to be "convinced that her phones are still tapped by the. Secret Service and lives in fear of being targeted and killed by spooks herself."

Over the years, Marina has changed her mind about Oswald's culpability.  In 1977, she announced at a press conference that "I believe that Lee acted alone in this murder and shot the President, ironically a man whom he respected and admired."  By 1988, however, she spoke of a conspiracy in  the following statement to Ladies Home Journal.

I'm not saying that Lee is innocent, that he didn't know about the conspiracy or was not a part of it, but I am saying he's not necessarily guilty of murder.  At first I thought Jack Ruby was swayed by passion; all of America was grieving.  But later, we found that he had connections with the underworld.  Now I think Lee was killed to keep his mouth shut.

Marina also told Ladies Home Journal that she believed Oswald "worked for the American government." She questioned why Lee had been given instruction in the Russian language while he was in the Marines.  Do you think that is usual, that an ordinary soldier is taught Russian?" she asked rhetorically.  She also pointed out that "he got in and out of Russia quite easily, and he got me out quite easily."

In an open letter to John Tunheim, Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board (dated April 19, 1996), Marina wrote the following:

The time for the Review Board to obtain and release the most important documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy is running out.  At the time of the assassination of this great president whom I loved, I was misled by the "evidence" presented to me by government authorities and I assisted in the conviction of Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin.  From the new information now available, I am now convinced that he was an FBI informant and believe that he did not kill President Kennedy.

The previously mentioned 2013 Daily Mail piece by Lizzie Parry and Damien Gaylee, quotes Marina's friend, documentary film maker Keya Morgan, as saying that Marina "now believes her husband was set up to take the fall for conspirators in the CIA and Mafia."


END NOTES

* Rachel Oswald, (known as Rachel Porter) recently turned 50 years old.  When she was 28, she was interviewed by David Lifton, author of the 1981 bestseller Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.  At the time of the interview, Rachel was a single woman, living in Texas and studying to be a nurse.  She had come to believe that her father was a victim and that he was framed for the Kennedy assassination.

My whole outlook on life has changed just by hearing that there's evidence that completely exonerates this man of the crime of killing the president.  Now I'm not saying that he is not involved. I believe he's involved or else why would he be there?  But I don't know. I really believe, though, that he didn't kill the president. And my whole life has been plagued by this idea that my father is the murderer of one of the most loved person in the world.  And if he's not responsible for that, then that means a great part of the burden that I have to carry is gone.

* Rachel's Soviet-born sister, June Oswald Porter, now 51, took the name of her stepfather upon entering public school.  June's marriage ended in 1992.and she is the mother of two sons in their early 20s. In a 1995 New York Times Magazine interview with Steve Salerno, she described the time she was told about her father and the assassination.

Something had come up where Mom had old boxes of letters out.  People sent us money following the assassination, because Mom was young with two small children and didn't speak the language. Somehow those boxes came down and she was reading, and I guess she felt it was time to tell us.  She sat us down with my stepfather, and started to explain who our father was - that it wasn't Kenneth - and who Lee was and what he had done.  I just remember crying a lot because Mom was crying. 

* Lee Harvey Oswald's wedding ring was put up for auction this past October.  His gold wedding band, with a mini hammer and sickle engraved on the inside of it, was purchased in the then-Soviet city of Minsk, Belarus in 1961.  It was sold for $108,000 to a Texan who wishes to remain anonymous.

Seized by the Secret Service after the Kennedy assassination, Oswald's ring was eventually returned to Marina's lawyer and remained in his files until 2004.  It was one of many items linked to John F. Kennedy that were auctioned by R.R. Auction in Boston. The gold band was accompanied by a hand-written letter from Marina (dated May 5, 2013) stating that "At this time in my life I don't wish to have Lee's ring in my possession because symbolically I want to let go of my past that's connecting with Nov. 22, 1963." It is no surprise, then, that Marina turned down requests for interviews as the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination approached. She rejected large amounts of money to appear on television. Still, the paparazzi (especially the British tabloids) stalked her and made it difficult for her to bury her past.

* Robert Oswald, 79, Lee's older brother, is a retired salesman, living in Wichita Falls, Texas.  In a 1993 interview with PBS's Frontline, he said that he is convinced that his brother was solely responsible the Kennedy assassination.

There is no question in my mind that Lee was responsible for the three shots fired, two of the shots hitting the president and killing him. There is no question in my mind that he also shot Officer Tippit. How can you explain one without the other?  (About 15 minutes after the assassination of President Kennedy, Officer J.D. Tippit of the Dallas Police Department was shot and killed after confronting a man who fit the description of a suspect in the Kennedy murder (slim white male, 1.78 m. tall (5 ft. 10 in.), 68 kg. (150 pounds) at autopsy).  Oswald was later arrested by police after behaving suspiciously while sneaking into the Texas Theatre, a movie house, without purchasing a ticket).

Robert Oswald also told Frontline that "the facts are there. … What do you do with his rifle?  What do you do with his pistol?  What do you do with his general opportunity?  What do you do with his actions? To me, you can’t reach but one conclusion. There’s hard physical evidence there. True, no one saw him actually pull the trigger on the president but … his presence in the building was there. What he did after he left the building is known: bus ride, taxi ride, boardinghouse, pick up the pistol, leave, shoot the police officer. Five or six eyewitnesses there. You can’t set that aside just because he is saying, “I’m a patsy.” I’d love to do that, but you cannot. …"


NUMBER 16 READERS' POLL

Do you think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone?
	Yes, he acted alone. I agree with the Warren Commission.
	No, he was part of a conspiracy, probably involving the CIA.
	Perhaps there was a conspriracy, but more evidence is needed to convince me.
	Don't know.
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- Joanne

Chubby Checker: He's still twisting after all these years

". . . in a way, "The Twist" really ruined my life. I was on my way to becoming a big nightclub performer, and "The Twist" just wiped it out . . . It got so out of proportion. No one ever believes I have talent."

- Chubby Checker


"The three most important things that ever happened in the music industry are Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Chubby Checker."

- Dick Clark

The 1960s featured several dance crazes.  There was The Mashed Potato," "The Monkey." "The Watusi" and of course, "The Twist."  "The Twist" was popularized by Chubby Checker who, at the age of 72, is still twisting the night away.

No, "Chubby" is not his real name.  He was born Ernest Evans on October 3, 1941 in Spring Gully, South Carolina, the son of Raymond Evans, a tobacco farmer, and his wife Eartle.  The family moved to South Philadelphia when Ernest was 8 years old and he and his two brothers, Spencer and Tracy, were raised in the projects.  The youngster did a variety of odd jobs such as working as a shoeshine boy.  While in high school, he studied piano at Settlement Music School, a community music school with branches in the Philadelphia area.

As a teen, Chubby Checker worked at Tony Anastazi's Produce Store in Philadelphia and sang in a street-corner harmony group called The Quantrells.  He had a natural talent for doing vocal impersonations and he enjoyed imitating the singing style of Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis for the customers. It was his boss, Tony A., who bestowed him with the nickname "Chubby" due to his portly build.

Chubby later worked in a butcher shop called Fresh Farm Poultry.  The store's owner, Henry Colt, was so impressed by Chubby's performances for the customers that he introduced him to his friend, local recording entrepreneur and songwriter Kal Mann of Cameo-Parkway Records. Through his connection with Mann, Chubby was given a recording contract with Cameo.  His first two recordings for the label, "The Class" and "Dancing Dinosaur," went largely unnoticed.

"The Class," a novelty song n which Chubby performed various impersonations of popular singers, only reached #38 on the charts in 1959.  Mann, however, arranged for the teen singer to do a private recording for Dick Clark, host of Bandstand, a Philadelphia-based television show.  It was at this recording session that Chubby acquired the surname "Checker" from Clark's firs wife, Barbara Mallery. After watching his impression of Fats Domino, she asked him his name. When he replied that he was known as "Chubby," she shot back, "As in Checker?"  That little play on words earned some chuckles and provided the singer with his stage name.

Dick Clark played an instrumental role  in Chubby's early success.  Chubby was just 16 years old when he first met Dick and the two men remained friends for over 50 years, until Dick's death in April of 2012. Chubby first went on Bandstand in 1959 and performed "The Class."  He appeared on the show many more times with "The Twist."  In an April 18, 2012 article, "Chubby Checker, Dick Clark and 'The Twist',' by music critic Dan DeLuca on Philly.com, Chubby commented on the importance of Dick Clark's show to a singer in Philadelphia.   "Being on Bandstand was like getting a Nobel Prize." he declared.  "From 3 o'clock in the afternoon until 5:30, nobody was on the street. They were watching Bandstand."

Chubby Checker with Dick Clark

Despite Chubby's association with "The Twist," the song was actually composed by Detroit rhythm and blues artist Hank Ballard.  Although Ballard and his group, The Midnighters, had recorded several songs for Federal Records, they chose to make a demo of "The Twist" for Vee-Jay Records in 1958.  This caused Federal to issue the tune as the B-side of the group's hit song "Teardrops on Your Letter."

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters

In June of 1959, at the request of Cameo-Parkway Records, Chubby Checker recorded his cover version of "The Twist."  Interestingly enough, Bernie Lowe, president of Cameo, was not taken by the record. According to Chubby's website, Lowe considered it to be a "B" side at best.  Chubby, however, disagreed and worked diligently to promote "The Twist."  For the next 14 months, he made television appearances, gave interviews and performed continually.

Chubby persistence paid off.  Although his version of  "The Twist" was quite similar to the Ballard version, it was Checker's recording that became a huge hit, due largely to the publicity Chubby received on Bandstand.  By September of 1960, "The Twist" was the #1 song in the United States. It was the song that made the kid from Philadelphia a star and it sparked a widespread dance craze.

"The Twist" was fresh and innovative.  Dancers did not touch each other.  Instead, they faced each other, swivelling their hips and dancing in their own fashion.  In the early 1960s, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Librace flocked to a popular New York City discotheque called The Peppermint Lounge to twist the night away. Chubby himself performed there.

In 1961, Joey Dee and the Starlighters recorded and released "The Peppermint Twist," a song composed by Dee and Henry Glover, an American songwriter, trumpet player and record producer.  "The Peppermint Twist" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1962, supplanting Chubby Checker's version of "The Twist" from the top spot.

U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was such an enthusiast of  the nightclub that she arranged for a temporary Peppermint Lounge in the White House.  Below is a 1962 photo of Jackie twisting with designer Oleg Cassini in the London home of her younger sister, Lee Radziwill.

1961 proved to be a stellar year for Chubby Checker.  He enjoyed more Top Ten hits such as "Let's Twist Again," "The Fly" and "Pony Time."  On October 22, 1961, Chubby appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. He performed a medley of "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" with the Do-Re-Mi Dancers.  He also sang "The Fly."  Other guests on the Sullivan show that night included Wayne and Shuster, Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker.

1962 was another banner year for Chubby.  After his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Cameo-Parkway decided to reissue "The Twist." It was re-released and climbed to the top of the charts for several weeks in early 1962, making 'Twist," the only song in modern times to attain the #1 chart position in two separate releases.  That same year, "Let's Twist Again," co-written by Kal Mann, received a Grammy Award for Best Rock 'n Roll Recording

In 1962 and 1963, Cubby continued to popularize new dance crazes with hit records such as "The Limbo" and "The Hucklebuck."  By the mid-1960s, however, his career was on the wane due to the advent of The Beatles and the British Invasion.  Nevertheless, he put together a band and kept on recording and touring.

In January of 1963, Chubby Checker met Catharina Johanna Lodders in Manila, Philippines. Catharina, born in 1942, comes from Haarlem in the Netherlands.  She was then a beauty queen and model who had won the 1962 Miss World contest.  The couple wed on April 12, 1964 at Temple Lutheran Church in Pennsauken, New Jersey and they have three children.  They welcomed their first child, a daughter named Bianca Johanna Evans, on December 8, 1966.  A son, Shan and another daughter, Ilka, followed.

Catharina Lodders in 1963

Shan Evans, also known as Shan Egan and Shan Egan Evans, is the leader singer for Funk Church, a Philadelphia-based neo-soul and rock band.  Ilka Evans is a graphic designer and the owner of Zoet Bathlatier, a small-batch candle, bath and body care company.

Ilka Evans

At 72, the indefatigable Chubby Checker has not slowed down.  He is still very energetic and continues to make as many personal appearances as ever.


END NOTES

* Hank Ballard, who composed "The Twist," passed away on March 2, 2003 in his Los Angeles home.  He was 75 years old and the cause of his death was throat cancer.

* Chubby Checker fathered a fourth child, a daughter named Mistie, with a woman named Pam Bass.  Now known as Mistie Mims, she was born Mistine McCray Bass on December 2, 1983 in Janesville, Wisconsin. Mistie, who stands 6 ft., 4 in. (1.93 m.), is a professional women's basketball player for the Connecticut Suns of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).  In a story published by the Tampa Bay Times on April 4, 2006, Mims told journalist Greg Auman that "I've always had a relationship with my father, and my mother's done a great job of making sure I knew there was always love there.  It's only gotten stronger as I've gotten older."

Mistie Mims

* Chubby Checker appeared in two films featuring "The Twist" craze: Twist Around the Clock (1961) and its sequel, Don't Knock the Twist (1962).  Twist Around the Clock has an identical plot to Rock Around the Clock (1956).  Both films tell the story of a band manager who discovers a new dance sensation while visiting a small town.  Don't Knock the Twist is about twist dancers preparing for a television variety show called "The Twist."

* New York's Peppermint Lounge closed in 1965 after losing its liquor licence.

* In 1969, Chubby's cover of The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R". made the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  In 1988, he recorded a rap version of "The Twist" with The Fat Boys, a hip hop trio from Brooklyn, New York.

* In the early 1990s, Nabisco featured Chubby Checker in a popular television commercial for Oreo cookies.

* Chubby played himself in a 1989 episode of Quantum Leap, a time travel TV series starring Scott Bakula.  In the episode, entitled "Good Morning, Peoria, September 9, 1959" (Season 2, Episode 6, Air Date: November 8, 1989). Dr. Sam Beckett (Bakula) has to help find a way to bring back roll 'n eoll to Peoria, Illinois.  He enters a radio station in 1959 and persuades the owner of the station to play "The Twist." In so doing, Beckett finds himself teaching Chubby Checker how to dance to the song.

Chubby also guest-starred as himself in a 2001 episode of Ally McBeal. entitled "Mr Bo"  (Season 4, Episode 11, Air Date: January 22, 2001).

* Chubby's Checkerbar, produced by Chubby Checker, is a checkerboard pattern of dark and milk chocolate squares.

- Joanne

A Visit to Peterborough and Lakefield and Photos

Last weekend, I visited some friends who have recently moved to Peterborough, Ontario.  They gave me a tour of the area.  Above is a photograph of the Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent Canal.  On Friday, November 8th, a crisp autumn day, we explored the Trent-Severn Waterway.

The city of Peterborough is situated on the Otonabee River, about 110 kilometres (68 miles) northeast of Toronto.  With a population of around 79,000, it is the largest city on the Trent-Severn Waterway and the regional centre for the Kawartha Lakes cottage country.

On Friday, I also viewed Lakefield College School, just outside of Peterborough, where Britain's Prince Andrew graduated in 1978.

The following day, Saturday, November 9th, was cool and drizzly.  On that day, I toured the Canadian Canoe Museum, one of Peterborough's major attractions.  I saw Pierre Trudeau's canoe and his famous buckskin jacket.

Below are some more photos of the Trent-Severn Waterway and the Peterborough Lift Lock.

Below is the clock tower in Lakefield, Ontario. Construction on the tower began in 1912 and the building served as the Lakefield Post Office for many years.  Lakefield is located just north of Peterborough on the shores of Lake Katchewanooka.

Below is a photo of Queen St., the main thoroughfare in Lakefield.

Below are some photos of Peterborough's Trent University.

Champlain College, Trent University

I went to the Riverdale Park and Zoo. There is no admittance fee as it is funded by the Peterborough Utilities Commission.

Below is a Burmese Python that I saw at the zoo.

- Joanne

An Open Letter to Ford Nation

Dear Ford Nation

Let me be frank.  I am at a loss as to how to get through to you.  On the subject of your hero, Rob Fob, you are so delusional and misguided that it's highly unlikely that anything will ever change your minds.  You seem to think the mayor is just a victim of the evil left-wing media, especially that pinko Toronto Star.  Yes indeed, the left-wing media are out to get Rob Ford.  They are always hounding him.  Why can't they just leave him alone?  It was they who made him go to a crack house.  It was they who made him smoke crack cocaine.  It was they who made him spew racist and homophobic epithets.  They are responsible for his "drunken stupors" and boorish behaviour.

I get it.  You like Rob Ford because you identify with him.  You think he's just like you, flawed and unpolished, the kind of guy with whom you'd like to go out for a beer and talk about football.  His mistakes only endear him to you. - but stop and think!  Does that really make him a good mayor?

I really don't know what it would take for you to withdraw your support for Ford's policies or to persuade you to vote against him in next fall's election - provided he remains in office.  The sad truth is that you, my friends, are as bull-headed as the man himself.  In the faint hope, however, that something will sink in, here are some points for you to ponder.

• Rob Ford is not fit to be mayor of the fourth largest city in North America.  Anyone else who behaved as he has would be promptly fired.  Imagine what would happen to you if you continually showed up for work in a state of inebriation.  Imagine if you refused to admit you had a problem or declined to seek treatment.  Sadly, the mayor is in complete denial, as is his family.  His mother thinks his biggest problem is his weight. His brother Doug wants Toronto's police Chief Bill Blair to resign for doing his job and investigating the mayor's activities.  His sister Kathy, who referred to herself as a "former addict," does not consider Rob to be an addict.  Not one of them believes that their Robbie needs to take a leave of absence to sort out his problems. Not one of them feels he should remove himself from office.

• Mayor Ford claims that he loves Toronto.  I'm sure he does, but not enough to do what's best for the city and its people.  The mayor has become a terrible liability and his problems have become such a distraction that the city cannot move forward as long as he is in office.  He says there is work to be done, but he himself is preventing it from being done.  

• Mayor Ford lied to you.  He lied to the people of Toronto.  He lied to his supporters and non-supporters alike.  The mayor openly denied using crack cocaine and denied the existence of the video showing him doing so.  He finally admitted to partaking of the drug once, about a year ago, when he was in a "drunken stupor." (By the way, drunkenness is not an excuse for all sorts of reprehensible behaviour).  Then he confessed that he had made mistakes and apologized profusely, but only because he had no choice. If the police had not gained possession of the infamous crack cocaine video, he never would have apologized for his behaviour or conceded that, yes, he had smoked crack. He only came clean because he was caught.  Ford also denied being an addict although crack is highly addictive.  If he is not habitually doing drugs, how do you explain all those clandestine meetings with alleged dealer Sandro Lisi?  What was in those bags Lisi was giving the mayor?  Do you really think that he was providing Ford with packages of Smarties or M&M's?  

• Rob Ford's antics have made Toronto the laughing stock of the world.  He has made news around the globe, from Britain to China.  He has provided fodder for U.S. television hosts such as Jon Stewart who referred to Toronto voters as "enablers." Another American host, Jimmy Kimmel, showed a video called "How to Tell if your Mayor is Smoking Crack."  He declared that its purpose was  to "protect other major cities from going through the same kind of embarrassment that Toronto is experiencing right now." Yes, "embarrassment" is definitely the word.  Just think what the world will think of us if Rob Ford manages to be re-elected next October.  The damage he has done to Toronto's reputation is incalculable.

• The circus surrounding the behaviour of Mayor Ford may cost Toronto financially, according to Gabor Forgacs, a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerrson University.  Forgnacs stated that cities "are always striving to align their reputation with their image."  The Ford saga, he said, has damaged Toronto's image as a city of culture and diversity.  This may cause investors to think twice before doing business in our city.

• Mayor Ford's policies, they are simplistic and deceptive.  He mouths catchy slogans such as "No more gravy train," "lower taxes," "subways, subways subways" and "the war on cars."  He repeats those phrases incessantly and you, Ford Nation, nod in agreement like trained seals. Here's what the mayor isn't telling you. The services required by a world-class city have to paid for somehow. Either taxes must be levied or services must be cut.  If important services are cut, then people suffer, especially low income people.  Cutbacks result in lost jobs and if people are unemployed, they don't spend money to boost the economy.  They also pay less income tax, causing the amount of money in government coffers to decrease   When this happens, the quality of life inevitably deteriorates.  The private sector cannot or will not  fill the void.   

• As for Ford's so-called war on cars, let me just say that cities are primarily for people, not automobiles.  We need to improve public transportation in Toronto so that there will be less gridlock and less pollution.  Secondly, Mayor Ford does not seem to know the difference between a street car and light rapid transit.  Here's what Ford and his allies have cost the city with their insistence on subways.  Toronto is already on the hook for $85 million because city council cancelled the fully funded seven-stop Scarborough LRT in favour of a 3-billion, three-stop subway extension  That's not all, though.  The cost of scrapping the LRT will increase further due to the cancellation of a storage facility and payments to advisers.  Does this make any sense whatsoever?  Are Ford's policies really saving you any money?

• Mayor Ford declared that he has nothing left to hide.  I don't think so, not by a long shot.  There will be more revelations and more embarrassment for the city of Toronto as long as this shameless, stubborn man clings to office.  We still don't know the contents of the second video.

• Rob Ford is filled with inner rage, as evidenced by a profanity-laced video  in which he threatens the life of an unidentified person.  I shivered when I watched that video.  It is absolutely chilling to watch. I cringed when I viewed it.  Ford chalked it up drunkenness but it is far more than that.  Drunk or sober, it appears that the man has anger issues and could be a danger to himself and others.  The Ford story is not a comedy.  It is a tragedy.  The mayor is a human time bomb.  Unless he gets help, he is going to explode.  Instead of encouraging him to remain in office, why don't you urge him to get the help he so desperately needs?  

I leave you with this thought.

. . . we need to stop supporting leaders with whom we personally identify, with whom we might want to go out for a pint or 10; we need to insist upon leaders with the self-knowledge and sense of shame that allows them to lead and thereby allows us to get on with our often messy lives.

- Daniel Baird

Toronto Star column

November 10, 2013

Sincerely,

Joanne

Rob Ford: Should he resign?

Rob Ford's politics are repugnant to me.  I've made no secret of my distaste for Ford's ideas.  I abhor his ultra-conservative ideology and his good ol' boy approach.  Yet, as much as I wish he weren't Toronto's mayor, the man was democratically elected by the people of this city. Although I disagree with almost everything he says and does, I have never wanted him removed from office unfairly. My hope has been that he would be voted out of office in next year's municipal election.

Now, however, I think Mayor Ford has crossed the line.  Given yesterday's extraordinary events, he should resign or at least take a leave of absence until he sorts out his problems.  It appears that the mayor is in need of professional help and I am not the first person to express those sentiments.  Even though Ford is in denial, he has shown many of the signs of someone with a substance abuse problem.  Toronto is sorely in need of leadership and Ford is incapable of providing it.  His antics have become a distraction, preventing this great city from moving forward.

Yesterday was a Halloween to remember (or forget) for Canada's largest city.  Toronto is receiving world-wide attention for all the wrong reasons.  Rob Ford has simply become an embarrassment and a liability to the city he professes to love and wishes to serve.  Unfortunately, the mayor has no intention of leaving office and claims that there is no reason for him to resign.  He acts as if it's business as usual  and that all the dirt can be swept under a rug.  It can't, as Mr. Ford will eventually discover.  The chickens will come home to roost and he will be held accountable for his behaviour - if not by the law then by the electorate.

Yesterday, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair confirmed that Mayor Ford has been under police surveillance for some time.  The Chief also revealed that the infamous video tape in which Ford appears to be smoking crack cocaine and allegedly spouting racist and homophobic remarks, exists and that the police have it in their possession.

Blair stated that Alexander "Sandro" Lisi,  Mayor Ford's friend and sometime driver, was charged with extortion related to the video.  Lisi, 45, is an alleged drug dealer. According to police documents, Ford and Lisi had more than 100 seemingly clandestine meetings.  Police surveillance succeeded in capturing the two men with a mysterious package of which the contents remain unknown - for now.

None of this will change the attitude of Ford's loyalists, they will stand by their man through thick and thin.  It doesn't matter that he has lied to them and to the other citizens of Toronto.  As Toronto Star columnist Royson James put it, "A hardcore subset of residents, dubbed Ford Nation, care only that Ford is intent on keeping taxes down and care nothing about his moral compass."

In the eyes of Ford Nation, the mayor is quite a guy.  He arm wrestles with Hulk Hogan and, oh yes, he hosts great barbecues.  Don't forget, by golly, that he's going to ensure that the Scarborough subway is built. Just don't ask how it's going to be done without raising taxes.  No! No! No!  Don't go there! Leave the mayor alone. Rob's a regular guy, not some aloof intellectual. He's not one of those snooty downtown elites. You won't catch him riding a bicycle or reading Canadian literature.  

Ford Nation believes that the media has been hounding their man, especially the Toronto Star. Although Mayor Ford has nothing but disdain for the Star, the paper's investigative reporters deserve high praise for bringing the story of the "crack cocaine" video to light.  It was due to their diligent work that the police investigation into Ford's activities was undertaken.  Accused of having a vendetta against Mayor Ford, the news organization went before the Ontario Press Council and stated its case calmly and clearly. Yesterday, the paper was vindicated.

Sadly, Toronto's chief magistrate is his own worst enemy.  It's about time he took responsibility for his own actions and stopped blaming the media for all his woes.  Mayor Ford should note that all four daily newspapers have called for his resignation, including the Ford friendly Toronto Sun. Thank goodness for a free media.  Without it, how would people learn the truth about their elected representatives?


- Joanne

Robert Louis Stevenson, Lighthouses and Fanny

Robert Louis Stevenson

Lighthouses have always fascinated me.  I had the opportunity to visit many of them when I toured Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula  in the summer of 2001 and I also visited the famous lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia back in the 1990s.  It was, therefore, interesting for me to learn that Robert Louis Stevenson, author of such classics as Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, came from a family of lighthouse designers.  In fact, 14 lighthouses dotting the coast of Scotland were built by Stevenson's ancestors.

Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 13, 1850, the only child of Margaret Isabella Balfour, the daughter of a minister of the Church of Scotland, and Thomas Stevenson, a prominent lighthouse engineer.  Thomas's brothers, Alan and David, were also lighthouse builders.

Thomas Stevenson was an expert in optics as applied to the illumination of light houses.  He designed many lighthouses in and around Scotland with his brother David and with David's son, David Alan Stevenson.  A man of great accomplishment, Thomas was also a meteorologist.  He invented the Stevenson screen, an enclosure that shelters meteorological instruments from rain and heat radiation.

Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887)

Robert's paternal grandfather (also named Robert Stevenson) was a civil engineer and the designer of the Bell Rock Lighthouse on the Inchcape, off the coast of Angus, Scotland.  The Bell Rock Lighthouse has the distinction of being the world's oldest sea-washed lighthouse.  The quality of the masonry work on this lighthouse is of of such high standard that it has not been replaced in more than two centuries.  Since 1988, the operation of the Bell Rock Lighthouse has been automated.  Canadians should note, however, that its lamps and reflectors were replaced in 1843 and are now in display in the lighthouse at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland.

Bust of Robert Stevenson (1772-1850)

Bell Rock Lighthouse

                                                                   Attribution: Derek Robertson


Robert Louis Stevenson was a thin, sickly child.  He suffered from lung ailments and nearly died of gastric fever in 1858.  Despite his ill-health and weak constitution, he frequently accompanied his father on official visits to the lighthouses on the Scottish coast.

At about the age of 18, Stevenson dropped his baptismal names of  "Lewis Balfour" and began referring to himself as "Robert Louis."  His close friends and relatives, however, addressed him as "Louis."  In 1867, he entered the University of Edinburgh with the intention of following the family tradition and becoming a lighthouse engineer.

In 1868, as a student engineer, Robert Louis Stevenson travelled to the Scottish coastal villages of Anstruther and Wick.  Prone to ill health since childhood, Robert was not the most robust fellow. Although he tried to be an engineer, he didn't have the stamina required for the outdoor work. More importantly, his heart was not in it.   His preference was for a career in literature.  He could no longer ignore his passion and his great talent for writing.  Around 1870, much to the disappointment of his father, Stevenson abandoned lighthouse building in order to become a writer.

In Underwoods, his 1887 poetry collection, Stevenson reflects on his decision to turn away from the family tradition.

Say not of me that weakly I declined
The labours of my sires, and fled the sea,
The towers we founded and the lamps we lit,
But rather say: In the afternoon of time
A strenuous family dusted from its hands
The sand of granite, and beholding far
Along the sounding coast its pyramids
And tall memorials catch the dying sun,
Smiled well content, and to this childish task
Around the fire addressed its evening hours.

It is obvious from the these line of poetry that Stevenson did not make light of his decision to leave the family profession.  He even wrote a book called A Family of Engineers in which he chronicled the Stevenson family tradition.  Thomas Stevenson, for his part, accepted his son's wishes with sadness and resignation.

According to Life of Robert Louis Stevenson by Alexander Harvey, "Thomas Stevenson, after his first outburst of natural and profound regret, countenanced the literary ambitions of his only son, and gave up with a sigh his one paternal dream.  Nevertheless, the notion that his Louis should grow into maturity without even a nominal profession - literature being inconceivable as the avowed calling of a respectable person - was opposed to a strict Calvinist’s sense of duty to a son."

In order to placate his father and have a "nominal profession," Stevenson reluctantly switched his area of study to law.  Although admitted to the Scottish bar in 1875, he never actually practised law or became involved in the legal profession.  Instead, he went to France.

It was in Grez-sur-Loing, an art colony south of Paris, that Robert Louis Stevenson met the love of his life. She was an American named Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne whom Alexander Harvey describes as "a small, dark young woman with clear-cut delicate features, and endless sable hair. Indianapolis-born Fanny was the wife Samuel Osbourne, a veteran of the American Civil War. They had married when Fanny was just 17 and had three children, although their son Havey died of tuberculous in Paris on April 5, 1876.  The family eventually settled in Virginia City, Nevada where Samuel began cavorting with saloon girls.

Angry at the repeated infidelities of her husband, Fanny had come to Grez with her two young children, Isobel and Lloyd, to study art.  Stevenson became enamoured with the American. Against the advice of friends and without the knowledge of his family, he urged her to leave her philandering spouse and pursued her relentlessly.  Fanny eventually divorced Osbourne and she and Stevenson wed in San Francisco in May of 1880.  For years, the couple searched in vain for a place to settle that would be conducive to Robert's health.  In 1890, they finally purchased a large estate in Upolu, one of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific.

Fanny 

Robert Louis Stevenson passed away on December 3, 1894 at his home in Vailima, Samoa. While opening a bottle of wine, he collapsed and then died of a probable brain hemorrhage.  He was 44 years old at the time of his death.  His wife Fanny passed away in Santa Barbara, California on February 10, 1914. She was 73 years old at the time of her passing.

Below is s photo of Stevenson's home in Vailima, Samoa, showing him on the veranda.

END NOTES

* Robert Louis Stevenson's stepdaughter Isobel (known as Belle) became a successful playwright. She died in 1953.  His stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, was an novelist who died in California on May 22, 1947 at the age of 79.

* Although Stevenson did not remain in the family profession, he remained deeply affected by lighthouses as is evidenced by the following poem he wrote.

The Light-Keeper
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The brilliant kernel of the night,
The flaming lightroom circles me:
I sit within a blaze of light

Held high above the dusky sea.
Far off the surf doth break and roar
Along bleak miles of moonlit shore,

Where through the tides the tumbling wave
Falls in an avalanche of foam
And drives its churned waters home
Up many an undercliff and cave.


* Author Bella Bathurst has written a book about Robert Louis Stevenson and his family's lighthouse building.  It is titled The Lighthouse Stevensons: The extraordinary story of the building of Scottish Lighthouses by the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson.  The hardcover edition was published in 1999 by HarperCollins.  A paperback version came out in 2007.

- Joanne

John F. Kennedy's romance with Danish journalist Inga Arvad

Inga Arvad

Jack saved Inga's letters through the war.  He saved them when he was in Congress.  He saved them when he married Jackie, when he entered the White House, when he had his children.  Inga obviously meant more to him than any other woman he had known, and he visited her with some frequency long after they had broken up.

          - Barbara Gibson and Ted Scharz
          From The Kennedys: The Third Generation


As the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination on November 22, 1963 approaches, the life of the 35th President of the United States is becoming increasingly topical.  I've been reading a book titled The Kennedys: The Third Generation by Barbara Gibson and Ted Schwarz.  Gibson was Rose Kennedy's personal secretary and was privy to the goings-on of three generations of the storied Kennedy clan. Until I began reading her book, I was completely unaware of JFK's relationship with a suspected Nazi spy named Inga Arvad.  I found myself intrigued and decided to delve further into the story.

Inga Arvad was born Inga Maria Petersen on October 6, 1913 in Copenhagen, Denmark.  In 1931, she changed her last name to Arvad.  The tall, blond journalist was selected a beauty queen by a Danish newspaper and, according to Barbara Gibson, she also "won a beauty contest in France, which she apparently entered for the fun of it."  A well-educated woman, Arvad studied in Brussels, London and Paris.  

Inga was married and divorced before she reached the age of 20.  She wed her first husband, Egyptian diplomat Kamal Abdel Nabi, in 1931 when she was only 17 years old.  Her second husband was Hungarian film director Paul Fejos whom she met while playing a small role in a movie being filmed in Denmark.  They married in 1936.  Inga was still married to Fejos when she travelled to the United States in 1939 and during her affair with John F. Kennedy in 1941 and 1942.  She did not divorce Fejos until June of 1942.

Prior to World War II, Inga Arvad accepted a job as the Berlin correspondent for a Danish newspaper. As a young journalist, she interviewed Nazi leaders Hermann Göring and Josef Goebbels.  Inga scooped her colleagues by reporting that Göring was soon to wed German actress Emmy Sonnemann. Inga was a guest at the nuptials which took place on April 10, 1935 and she was introduced to many high level Nazis.  She was even granted interviews with Adolf Hitler.  In 1936, Inga attended the infamous Berlin Olympics and sat in in Hitler's private press box and was photographed with the Nazi leader. The Führer was reported to have described her as a perfect example of Nordic beauty.  Of Hitler, Inga wrote, "You immediately like him . . . The eyes, showing a kind heart, stare right at you."

Hitler with Inga Arvad

When war broke out in 1939, Inga left Europe and immigrated to the United States.  She first settled in New York where she enrolled in the graduate program at the Columbia University School of Journalism. She then relocated to Washington, D.C. where she found employment as a syndicated columnist for the Washington Times-Herald profiling government officials.  JFK's elder sister, Kathleen, was also a reporter at the Times-Herald and assisted Inga with her "Did You Happen to See . . ." column.  It was through Kathleen that Jack met the alluring Inga Arvad.

Jack Kennedy was a 24-year-old U.S. Navy ensign and Inga, at 28, was four years his senior. They began a romantic relationship around November of 1941.  When the FBI discovered that Arvad was involved with an American naval officer who was a member of the Kennedy family, they stepped up their investigation of the Scandinavian journalist through wiretapping her telephone, tracking her movements, intercepting her mail and entering her apartment.  At the time, Captain Seymour A.D. Hunter, JFK's superior officer, was quoted as saying that the U.S. Navy regarded Inga Arvad as a Mata Hari.

Inga may have been a Nazi spy but there is no concrete evidence that that was the case.  While it is true that Hitler and his henchmen lavished her with a great deal of attention, Arvad was a society writer and never overtly expressed agreement with Nazi politics.  In fact, she claimed that she despised Hitler's policies and only met him for interviews.  It is possible that the Germans had hoped to persuade her into performing acts of espionage for them and that she refused. According to Barbara Gibson, Inga immediately fled when the Nazis approached her to retrun to Paris and spy for them and that she temporarily left journalism because she feared that her credibility as a reporter was at risk.

The affair between Inga Arvad and Jack Kennedy cooled after January of 1942 when Kennedy was reassigned to a desk job in South Carolina.  By March, when he was sent to active duty in the Pacific with a PT-boat squadron, the writing was on the wall.  They had no chance of a future together.  The Kennedy clan would never accept Arvad as a suitable wife for JFK.  She had already been married twice and was not of the Catholic faith.  Jack required a spouse who would be an asset to his future political career.  That woman, of course, turned out to be Jacqueline Bouvier, who had also worked at the Washington Times-Harold as an "inquiring photographer," snapping on-the-street photos of people and asking them questions about current happenings.

By 1945, Inga had moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and occasionally filled in for Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham.  In May of that year, she became engaged to Robert Boothby, a British Member of Parliament whom she had met in L.A.  Arvad, however, broke off the engagement because she did not want to harm his political career due to her past association Nazis and Hitler's complimentary words about her.

Inga Arvad eventually became a citizen.of the United States and married 55-year-old American cowboy actor Tim McCoy in February of 1947.  McCoy was also an U.S. Army intelligence officer and an authority on American aboriginal folklore and customs.  They met in 1946 when Inga was a fashion editor for Harper's Bazaar magazine.  The couple had two sons, Ronald and Teremce, and remained together until Inga's passing.  

Inga Arvad steadfastly refused to write a book detailing her relationship with John Kennedy. After working with Tim McCoy's travelling rodeo and wagon show, she helped her spouse run a horse farm near Nogales, Arizona. Inga died of cancer at their Nogales ranch in 1973.  She was 60 years old at the time of her death. Her husband, Tim McCoy, passed away on January 29, 1978 at the U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Arizona.  He was 86.  

Inga Arvad and Tim McCoy

END NOTES

* John Kennedy's nickname for Inga Arvad was "Inga Binga."  She called him "Honeysuckle."

* Coincidentally, the full name of Inga Arvad's third husband was Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy.

* The letters between Inga and JFK are housed in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum just outside of Boston.  Check out the link below.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-004-052.aspx


- Joanne