TERRE HAUTE —
It’s time for another roundup of items, little ideas that can’t grow big enough for a whole column, but just won’t go away from my field of focus.
• Let’s start with the post office. Since the sad demise of Cecil Tilford’s USPS postal unit in 12 Points earlier this year, Terre Haute has only three options for a post office that is staffed by human beings: the main unit on Margaret Avenue, the Rose Station on Schaal Avenue behind Kroger Plaza, and the North Station on Lafayette and Thomas avenues.
Downtown — that area in which public and private entities have invested millions for revitalization — must make do with a touch-screen machine in a deserted (and, often, creepy) corner of what’s becoming Indiana State University’s Scott College of Business. The irony, of course, is that handsome old 1934 building once housed the main U.S. Post Office for the city.
As I discovered the other day, you can’t even buy stamps in the so-called postal kiosk. You can mail envelopes and packages and purchase metered postage. But if you want a colorful stamp for a special card or a book of Forever, fixed-price, first-class stamps, you need wheels so you can head north, east or south.
The saving grace is, the people in those three staffed units are almost always nice, cheerful and efficient, despite cutbacks in their operations. They know their regular customers and — in my experience — go the extra distance more often than not to help make life a little easier. Naturally, I live in fear of hearing that USPS will close down one or more of them and advise customers to “go online for all your postal needs.”
A related thought: I wish the U.S. Postal Service would issue a specific stamp to put on bills, something that would lift the spirits of the sender but distinguish that kind of mail from the pleasurable kind that includes birthday cards and personal letters. I nominate Aldred E. Newman’s smiling, gap-toothed, what-me-worry visage.
• In a similar vein of officialdom, I recently ran across a disincentive for turning to a life of crime, going on the lam or joining a terrorist organization: BMV photos.
I figured no photograph of me could be any worse than my U.S. passport picture. (I was having a bad hair day and, apparently, a bad karma year when that one was taken.) But my new Indiana driver’s license photo makes the passport shot look as though it was taken by Vogue magazine’s Mario Testino.
Warned against smiling, now, for security reasons, everybody looks like a felon in her or his BMV photo. Mine makes me look like a member of the Bader-Meinhof gang that terrorized Germany in the 1960s. Just the thought of that photograph showing up in newspapers and on TV is enough to keep me on the straight and narrow until 2016, when my license expires.
• Totally unrelated thought: Sometimes, when I drive by the Terre Haute Regional Hospital waiting time billboard on North Third Street, and the illuminated ER wait time is 10 or 12 minutes, I feel like turning around and going down to the hospital just because I know I’ll get right in.
• Before the memory grows too distant, I need to publicly rhapsodize on the remarkable performance I witnessed late last month by the Artie Shaw Orchestra at the Indiana Theatre. Several hundred other Hauteans who were there know why.
People who don’t know or care about Big Band music can’t possibly understand the power of the drug-like rush that a live, hot collection of musicians can deliver. The 17-member Artie Shaw band, which tours the country paying homage to its namesake artist founder, came through with just that level of rush.
Taking its cues from conductor-clarinetist Rich Chiaraluce, the Shaw band did so much more than re-create signature hits such as “Moonglow” and “Begin the Beguine.” Any decent high school ensemble can do that. In two mostly upbeat sets, the Shaw group proved that great Big Band music is timeless, relevant and bursting with a kind of vitality that we associate with youth, but which throbs inside every human being until we breathe our last.
My litmus test for a top-notch Big Band performance has always been, “Did they knock my head off?” On Oct. 31 in Terre Haute, the Artie Shaw Orchestra knocked it off, through the ceiling to somewhere east of 13th Street. Many thanks to the Indiana Theatre and Chris and Rich Productions for making it happen.
• Somewhere in outer space, aliens are observing us and scratching their antennae as they try to make sense of a people who shatter the autumn silence with cherry bombs and dummy gunshots at 6 a.m., sundown and near-midnight in a community effort to chase crows into someone else’s back yard.
• The 2010 election may be over, but the dissonant melody lingers. Two e-mails I received this week from the wildly victorious Republican Party struck a particularly clanging chord.
The first, a big “Thank You” from National Republican Senate Committee Chairman John Cornyn, reiterated the role of a key election element for all candidates — money.
Looking at the contrast between Nov. 2 and the 2008 election, Cornyn noted, “Over the last two years, we were successful in adding nearly 400,000 new, first-time donors to the NRSC, we strengthened relationships with our longtime supporters and ultimately raised over $100 million. In fact, just last month, the NRSC raised $14.2 million, which represented the highest monthly total since the passage of McCain-Feingold in 2002.”
Ah, yes, McCain-Feingold, that short-lived dream known as “campaign finance reform.”
GOP message No. 2 was from Guy Harrison, executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. His pitch also was about money; the Republicans need more of it. Referring to the handful of still-undecided congressional races, Harrison warned, “Make no mistake, Democrats will do whatever it takes to blunt their historic losses.”
Whatever it takes? Yikes.
Harrison urges NRCC supporters to visit the committee’s website and make “an immediate donation” to “make sure Democrats cannot steal these elections …”
I think that’s a wonderful idea. Republicans really should spend some more money on Election 2010. Here’s the address: nrcc.org/stillcounting. Be generous.
Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.
Stephanie Salter
Stephanie Salter: Inside today’s grab bag …: Stamps, bands and GOP $$$
- Stephanie Salter
-
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: The more things change, the more they … change
What the late, great Pittsburgh Pirates slugger knew, so knew the ancient philosopher, Heraclitus, the Buddha and Andy Warhol.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Making room for the least among us — and their kin
Christmas. Quiet time. Down time. Not exactly the kind of day most folks tend to contemplate their fellow Americans behind bars. And yet, the United States leads the world in percentage of population in jail or prison, far ahead of second-place Russia. About 2.3 million people — nearly one in 100 adults — are incarcerated in this country.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Carols for the worn, weary and wigged out
For those who are agog and aglow with “the season” — you who start bouncing and humming in Toys R Us at the intro guitar notes of “Jingle Bell Rock” — better search elsewhere for a soul mate.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Times change. Things disappear. Toilet paper here to stay
You may have seen an email going around with “Nine Things That Will Disappear in Our Lifetime.”
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: What I learned on election day
When I identified myself as a volunteer for the non-incumbent mayoral candidate, the woman on the other end of the line cut me off. “Save your breath, dear,” she said.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Of politics, protests, coupons and e-wishes
It’s roundup time again, that periodic hunting down and herding together of items that have but one thing in common: They grabbed me.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: ‘Understandable’ not the same as ‘wise’
Because I’m not running for office and don’t plan to, I figure I am free to publicly question the designation of some 30 stretches of city streets as “memorial ways” for police and firefighters killed on the job.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Where have all the protest songs gone?
A telling moment came during the annual Eugene V. Debs award banquet late last month, when the career protest singer and songwriter, Anne Feeney, implored a huge Hulman Center audience to join her for the refrain of “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: It’s business as usual, but what does it cost to stay angry?
As painful and profoundly sad as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 has been, I found the actual day a balm.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: The unfortunate bottom line … St. Ann’s will close
Ever since word came down that St. Ann Church and Parish have less than a year to live, there’s been much invoking of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: The Economy: One complex, thorny, bedeviling issue
No matter how much time and energy I spend trying to understand the Hydra we blithely call “The Economy,” I often worry that its mystery will forever elude me.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Thinking, now and then, about now and then
I am lying, poolside, in a plastic chaise lounge, listening to pop music and watching water droplets dry on my skin.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Thousands of things she would have missed
For several years, until she received an official information packet in the mail, my mother planned to donate her body to medical research.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Marriage? There’s an app for that ... but it’s tricky
As I watched all the happy people celebrating passage of New York’s same-sex marriage law, I couldn’t help but project to a time when Indiana adopts a similar statute.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Back in the saddle — with the usual burr under it
I really didn’t expect to be gone nearly six months, but then, that’s par for the course these days: What I expect to happen and what actually occurs are often about 180 degrees apart.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: On the other hand … we’ll have a lot fewer leaves to rake
Editor’s Note: Former Tribune-Star Assistant Editor Stephanie Salter’s column resumes today in freelance form and will appear on this page every other Sunday.
TERRE HAUTE — My neighbor, Andy, had just lowered the bamboo blinds on his front porch when we heard a mournful sound. -
Memorable victories
This was about as much fun as a doubleheader split could get for Rose-Hulman’s baseball team.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Another batch of my status-quo-defending misinformation on schools
The day after state schools chief Tony Bennett responded to my three-column education series, a longtime friend and veteran teacher called.
“I just read the superintendent’s rebuttal in the Tribune-Star,” my friend said. “All I can conclude from it is that you are a dumbass. Welcome to the club. Anybody who doesn’t buy into his vision of education reform is considered a dumbass.” -
Stephanie Salter: One person’s roundup of significant folks lost in 2010
Every late December, as I comb through lists of notable deaths, I swear I will never repeat the process. It takes days of Internet research, mostly because I get distracted by looking up people about whom I know nothing.
-
Stephanie Salter: I've got some really good news for some of you guys
Of all the sentences I’ve imagined writing in my long, moss-covered newspaper career, this is not one of them: I am quitting my job to get married.
-
Stephanie Salter: A little history of mandated intermingling among U.S. troops
Back in July 1948, when President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, predictions for its effect on the U.S. military were dire. Sen. Richard Brevard Russell Jr. of Georgia echoed the sentiments of millions of Americans in an address from the Senate floor.
-
Stephanie Salter: Another wronged woman becomes the nation’s paper doll
A few hours after the death of Elizabeth Edwards last week, the creepy, contemporary American ritual of vicarious grieving began in cyberspace.
“You are with your son now. Rest in peace.” -
Stephanie Salter: You’ve heard from me — now, listen to the teachers
As e-mail from Indiana teachers and principals continues to pour into my box, the portrait of this beleaguered group grows more poignant each day.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: Have you heard Indiana’s schools are failing? It’s a lie
In Gov. Mitch Daniels’ recent state budget PowerPoint, he put up a comparison chart: The percentage of Indiana public school students who’ve attained an advanced level of math achievement versus “the world.” Hoosiers lag behind the national average, trailing such states as Massachusetts, Oregon and New York, and such nations as Poland and Latvia.
-
Stephanie Salter: Bashing teachers in the name of education reform
As I read the Tribune-Star’s recent Page 1 news packages about the governor’s push for education reform, I kept seeing faces.
-
Stephanie Salter: After the turkey and before the pie, a round of giving thanks
As my colleague Alicia Morgan wrote last week, there is no downside to taking time out now and then to list and truly appreciate our blessings.
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: A story of just one corporate lobby ‘investing in advocacy’
For those of you who know in your marrow that the president’s attempt to overhaul the U.S. health care system proves his socialist agenda, take the day off. What reporter Drew Armstrong of Bloomberg News shared this past week will be of no interest to you.
-
Stephanie Salter: Inside today’s grab bag …: Stamps, bands and GOP $$$
It’s time for another roundup of items, little ideas that can’t grow big enough for a whole column, but just won’t go away from my field of focus.
-
Stephanie Salter: Can’t make a decision? Consult strangers on the ’Net
A day after I heard screenwriter and director Nora Ephron talking on NPR about that moment in the aging process when you realize you are no longer cut out to be au courant, that moment arrived for me.
-
Stephanie Salter: The years may pass, but a friend will always ride shotgun
I should have known there would be a first-aid kit. Susan provided for every contingency.
How like her to have tucked a 106-piece, American Medical Association-approved kit under the passenger seat of her Honda Accord. How like me not to have discovered it until I was deep cleaning the car to get it ready to sell. - More Stephanie Salter Headlines
-
STEPHANIE SALTER: The more things change, the more they … change
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Car Crash in NYC's East Village Injures 8
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Aug. Trial Set for Ohio Man in Triple Kidnapping
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
Raw: Car Jumps Curb in NYC, Injures 8
Robot Action Connected to Human Thought
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7
Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Paula Deen Admits to Using N Word
Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone
Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired
Miss Utah Explains Rambling Response
Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
Fists, chairs fly in restaurant brawl
Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash
Hairy Leg Stockings Aim to Deflect Male Attention
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
