UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • JULY 2017 • 5 A little History...& More! ‘Just Chillin’


Santa Rosa, CA. ~ John Adams, the Harvard Lawyer, and chief persuad- er to get T omas Jeff er- son to fi nish the Decla- ration of Independence, and who served as sec- ond President of our nation, is the one who envisioned fi reworks as part of the festivities that should forever take place on the 4th of July in America. He wrote that there should be “Pomp, pa- rades, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfi res, and illuminations from, one end of this continent to the other from this time forward, forever more!” in his July 3, 1776 letter to his beloved wife, Abigail. And the fi rst Independence Day fi reworks lit the sky on July 4, 1777. John Adams also wrote: “Let us


tenderly and kindly cherish there- fore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak and write!” when he served as Presi- dent. Another passage of impor- tance in his writing is “…I say, that Power must never be trusted with- out a check.” Currently, the immensely tal-


ented Jan Lin-Miranda’s exuber- ant musical, “Hamilton,” continues to excite audiences wherever it is shown. Since tickets are so hard to get, an older but truly impressive re-telling of that chunk of our his- tory is Pete Stone’s musical that was beautifully captured, in technicolor


Upbeat July 4th ~ Happy 241st! by Ellie Schmidt ~ eschmidt@upbeattimes.com


fi lm, titled “1776.” Certainly, I am proud as a peacock that the young genius Lin-Manuel Mi- randa (age 37) is a grad- uate of Hunter College High School—so I can say: “Me too,—but hey, Class of 1947!” And the late, brilliant Pete Stone was a classmate of mine at Bard College. –By no means should such per- sonal musings deter you


from enjoying both of these exu- berant musicals to the fullest. T is 4th of July will be a memo-


rable one at the Hollywood Bowl where the abundantly talented, and very young (now 36), Gustavo Dudamel serves as mu- sic and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Looks like “Pentatonix” will be on the pro- gram. T at is one amazing group since they’ve sold more than 6 mil- lion albums in the U. S. in the last fi ve years! Seems


“billions” and


“millions” applies to all their video viewings and sales. If you are more inclined to “Just


Chill”—as my grandsons guarantee that’s still an acceptable phrase” for “kicking back” and relaxing when- ever you can in the summer—and yearn for a summer reading list, you are at the right place. Surely the most challenging, perhaps pro- vocative, books by Yuri Noah Ha- rari (now 41) are “Sapiens” and his new “Homo Deus.” T e fi rst one


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JAMES FISH CHT, MA, USGTF Certified Instructor 707-548-2664 james524@gmail.com www.EagleEyeGolfCoaching.com “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ~ Mother Teresa UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • JULY 2017 • 5 2183 in this area—if you TV/cable ask to have this get Direc- channel


you need to and


there was no extra charge) recently ran a Carnegie Council of Ethics Matters tvprogram presenting Ha-


begins 70,000 years ago. “Homo Deus” deals a body blow descrip- tion of how the population of this entire planet is act- ing and a fairly harrowing


set of


thoughts about where we are headed.


MHZ Net- work (CH


rari giving an extraordinary lecture. Why not look at some of our


greatest American writers? Re- member Herman Melville? He cer- tainly had a remarkable insight into American society of his time. Look at his last novel, “T e Confi dence Man” to feel as if you were right on the Mississippi fl oat- ing down in a riverboat called “Fidele.” As a fervent member of the “human” race, Melville sharply states his feel- ings that although people wish


for confi dence in one another, the only confi dence they will run into will be “con” or scams. He wor- ried about American society being scammed. Hated gullibility. Both Melville and Walt Whit-


man were born in 1819. Whitman seemed destined to be what he be- came: “T e” American poet, oſt en labeled the father of free verse. He self-published his fi rst edition of


... continued on page 18 JOKES & Humor # 2


A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driv- ing some oxen before him. The farmer stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The husband accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, “You know, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped out of the mud today.”


The husband looks around at the fi elds incredulously and asks the farmer, “When do you have time to plough your land? At night?”“No,” the young farmer replied seriously, “Night is when I put the water in the hole.”


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