END OF AN ERA

THIS IS MY FINAL POSTING AT THIS BLOG SIGHT.

Welcomd to Mark Ganzer's Insanity Blog

I'm going to redirect traffic from my political commentary, social commentary, media criticsm blog (MarkGanzersBlog.Blogspot.com) and my creative writing blog (MarkGanzersWritings.Blogspot.com) to this new Blog which will feature regular writers:

Lenora Jean Daniels, PhD, The Black Commentator (weekly)

Larry Pinkney, The Black  Commentator (weekly)

Retired Naval Commander Jeff Huber, ZenHuber.Blogspot.com (weekly)

Bob Somersby, The Daily Howler (daily)

Tom Engleheardt, TomDispatch (daily)

Rehka Basa, The DesMoines Register (twice weekly)

Paul Krugman, The New York Times (twice weekly)

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times (twice weekly)

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online (weekly?)

Arthur Silber, The Light of Reason (daily)

Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque

Dawn (daily Pakistanian newspaper)

Asia Times Online (daily)

Der Speigel (daily)

John Pilger (twice monthly)

Immanuel Wallerstein (twice montyly)

Mark Ganzer (daily)

I will accept ANY and ALL applications to post here, entirely unedited.  PLEASE, readers, especially those of you from outside the United States, be eager to send your postings to me at:

MARKGANZERSINSANITYBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM

Christmas, 2002

Greetings from the Grove Avenue Ganzers.

We are happy to report good health in "our gang."  Our grandsons Adam Ganzer and Scott Offutt are in high school but still spend many Saturday nights at our place.  Our evening meal conversations now include discussion of imaginary numbers and the set of complex numbers (Anne is silent for this part).  Both boys have a penchant for writing and music.  Adam is a drummer at the Barrington High School Jazz band and Scott is a member of the Youth Hand Bell Ringers at our church.  both boys have roles in our Third Service, a contemporary music program where Adam is on drums and Scott runs the projector where the words to the hymns are shown on the santuary walls - a bit of a stretch for our old Lutheran heritage.

Gay and Mike are involved in this service - Mike is in charge of this service and sings and plays the guitar; Gay is a lead singer.  Mike plans to retire from teaching science and AP Chemistry after this year; and Gay is still the horse-lover, particularly of Jake, her latest, and helps take care of a number of horses where she boards Jake.

Marianne has moved to Amherst and works two days a week in Boston and the rest of the time at the shop she shares with Stacey Styles, a fellow violin and stringed instrument restorer. They live together with Stacey's daughter, Liza, who is helping Marianne learn what having a teenager is like. Mark, Gay and Marianne carry on a spirited e-mail correspondence about various theories on young adult rearing.  Pretty exciting.

Mark is still doing some bridge teaching and plays a lot of duplicate.  I think he is a Grand Master, or something like that.  Anne and I still keep trying to come up to his standards.  He also keeps us straightened out when we run afoul of the computers around here.

Anne stays busy with two book clubs and Lydia Circle where they make quilts for Lutheran World Relief, and acting as co-chairman

A Cancer Lurking in Streator is Killing the Most Beloved of Us

A Cancer Lurking in Streator is Killing the Most Beloved of Us

At first we were five:  Billie Arbogast, Billie Cox, Mark Ganzer, Robin Watson, and Greg Williams.

Kindergarten and first grade were the best - we played sun up 'til sun down in the summer, and just loved being in school together, then Billie Arbogast moved away, and it was down to four.  A part of us had departed, and, at some intuitive level we could sense it, but four boys, braving the wilds bounded by Greeley School to the North, Kleaver's Grocery store to the South, along Everett Street, had plenty enough to keep them from getting philosophical, or looking too deeply into the meaning of being a part of.

We played basketball almost year round.  Two on two, or we'd go to the grade school out east, over the bridge across the wide swath of railroad tracks and play teams - the four of us together.  Softball in the summer time - four was plenty for a team - pitcher, shortstop, two outfielders.  If need be, we could substitute a runner.

We'd even watch a little TV.  The American Basketball Association had just formed, and they were exciting!  They dunked!!  They shot three-pointers!!!  They had a red-white-and-blue patriotic basketball, but, mostly we played, ran, and rode our bikes, all over the North side of town, up and down, and down and up, and back again; exploring the streets, and the bridges over the stream that run past the glass factory where we'd find floating six packs of empty cans of beer.

Greg Williams bet me I wouldn't last a month when I got my paper route.  I lasted four plus years 'til we moved.

Billie Cox, so handsome, the tallest one of us, the one we all wanted to be best friends with.

Billie Cox is dead now too.  Didn't make it past '95.  There is something toxic in that little farming community that formed and shaped me.  It might be from the coal mines, it might be from the glass factories, it might be from the DDT, but it certainly kills those whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight off the toxins.

The lives of Streator's children, and my grade school class mates are at risk.

Oh, Billie Cox, if you have not died in vain, then we MUST uncover this killing agent and rid it from the sacred ground of our youth.

MANY ARE CALLED; FEW ARE CHOSEN

HOW DOES THIS GRAB YOU?

How'd you like to play 18 holes of golf each and every day?

How'd you like to drink a 12-pack with a half-pint of whiskey?

How'd you like to smoke some real good dope?

How'd you like to travel with whores (young and foxy whores)?

How'd you like to listen to 50's-80's / blues / gospel music 5-6 hours a day?

How'd you like to ride AMTRACK criss-cross the country

Chicago

 to Macomb

Macomb to Champaign

Champaign to Memphis

Memphis to Yazoo , MS

Yazoo to  New Orleans

New Orleans

 to  Houston

Houston to  Dallas

Dallas to  San Antonio

San Antonio to Austin

Austin to Albequerque

Albequerque to  Taos

Taos to  Seattle

Seattle to Reno

Reno to Boulder

Boulder to  Billings

Billings to  Minneapolis

Minneapolis to Madison

Madison to Milwaukee

Milwaukee to  Detroit

Detroit to  Cleveland

Cleveland to  Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh to  Philadelphia

Philadelphia to Burlington (VT)

Burlington to  Boston

Boston to Washington D.C.

D.C. to Falls Church

Falls Church to Gadsden , AL

Gadsden to  Birmingham

Birminhamd to  Indianapolis

Indianapolis to  Des Moines

Des Moines to Livingston , Iowa , where:

We buy a home on 2.3 acres for $19,600 - build quonset huts and an enormous laundry (complete with showers, coffee service, breakfast grill) and make it biker / trucker haven with a bar open 24/7 where the only charge is $1.00 to keep the beers cold (it's a club), with security provided by local law enforcement agents, again, 24/7.  The goal being, eventually (and sooner rather than later) to sucede from the union, becoming a cash & carry zone with much bartering, home schooling, and one political party - the Poor People's Party.

Does this have any interest for you?

If you believe for one second that you couldn't take your sons along and have them home-schooled in English, Literature, Composition, History, Latin, French, Computer Science, Psychology, Physics, Environmental studies -- and get them scholarships to any school in the country (possibly athletic scholarships!!), then you would be mistaken.

Give me a call, John, if you are interested.

(847) 381-6595

All I ever wanted to do was play the piano and sing for people.

The whole purpose of the train trips is to do fund raising for first responders, public schools, local churches and public hospitals.  The plan is to:

1.  Publicize the event

2.  Collect a relatively nominal cover ($2 - $5, depending on affluence of local venue)

3.  Have two videographers focusing almost exclusively on the crowd.

4.  Sell the DVD's for $10.00 each.

5.  Donate one half the proceeds to the charitable organization for which the funds are being raised.

6.  Split the rest of the money in equal shares amongst the performers, and local roadies.

HAVE I GOTTEN YOUR ATTENTION YET?

THIS CAN, and this WILL HAPPEN, or my name ain't:

Mark Raymond Ganzer