Richard Murdock

Margery:

Being a colossal packrat, I happen to have Remembrancers for every year at WHHS.   There were 3 female history teachers at WHHS in 1961: 

Elda Baechle

Diane Cherry

Frances Sandlin

Dick

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Thank you, thank you! She was an excellent teacher - better even than many history professors. Much of what she taught we see today in our current world. She was amazing and the reason I pursued history and taught history for several years! Thank you Dick and Dale!!!! 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Margery,

I had Mr. Knab for Ancient and Medieval History.

Paul Simons

Thanks for for mentioning history Margery and for mentioning Mr. Knab, Judy. Looking back, in my opinion he was one outstanding teacher. These days we’re aware of how much outside interests with their own agendas regulate what is taught, and what is forbidden to be taught. For example one family in Texas and other individuals in other places even control what publishers can include in and what they must exclude from the school books, in particular history books, that they sell. Mr. Knab seems to have been one who would just teach what actually happened, as damning as it might be to the traditionally protected social strata.

But I might be looking back through rose colored glasses. We might have learned in passing that slavery was universal in the ancient world and we know it was here until only a few generations ago but nobody ever went into the depths of depravity that exist in the minds and souls of those who practiced it, profited from it, wrote it into law, and to this day don’t regret it.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

I also had Mr. Knab and thought it was a really good class. I remember him discussing the origin of names: He said that the name Eugene (I think it was to Eugene Katona) came from the Greek, meaning "well born" and that the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of that name was "Wilbur." I find that stuff fascinating!

Paul Simons

I find that topic interesting as well Becky. Every word, every name - why? Where did it come from? Of course we can look up the etymology of words.

"Walnut" - from Etymology Online - "Old English walhnutu "nut of the walnut tree," literally "foreign nut," from wealh "foreign" (see Welsh) + hnutu (see nut). Compare Old Norse valhnot, Middle Low German walnut, Middle Dutch walnote, Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss. So called because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy, distinguishing it from the native hazel nut. Compare the Late Latin name for it, nux Gallica, literally "Gaulish nut." Applied to the tree itself from 1600 (earlier walnut tree, c. 1400)."

But who got to call this thing that fell off a tree a "hnutu"?

And "Hills" - also from Etymology Online - "Old English hyll "hill," from Proto-Germanic *hulni- (source also of Middle Dutch hille, Low German hull "hill," Old Norse hallr "stone," Gothic hallus "rock," Old Norse holmr "islet in a bay," Old English holm "rising land, island"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to be prominent; hill." Formerly including mountains"

Okay, great, but again who first made the sound "holm" that became accepted as meaning a rise in the landscape?

Meanwhile people have serious problems like co-workers who refuse to get vaccinated, true, but that doesn't invalidate other avenues of thought.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Wow, Paul. Thanks for the free linguistics lecture. Great Stuff! And I love the colorful names of so many British towns and villages - all with interesting histories. 

Dale Gieringer

  I was sad to see an obit today for WHHS graduate Betty Segal.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=betty-segal&pid=198528484

   Betty was in the class ahead of us, but we took French together under Mme Troeger and Mr Eyck.  She was a good humored spirit in class.  After graduating, she went to UCLA film school, became a photographer, and settled in the Berkeley-Oakland area.   She later became a trained Swedish massage therapist, specializing in lymphedema massage.   She's survived by her cousin Karin, another member of the WHHS Class of 63 with whom whom some of us had the pleasure of socializing.  - Dale G.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

On a happier note, I'm passing on to you a link I received to the bigger museums and art collections of the world. Enjoy!

Bruce Fette

Stay safe over there Judy.

Sorry, I didnt mean for my picture to imply anything about rockets. My rockets are purely hobby rockets and operated under safety rules of NAR and Tripoli and only for the fun of a saturday afternoon.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Bruce!

Honest - your picture hugging a rocket never entered my mind as being an "attack" on me!!! And besides, unlike you, when I think "rocket" or "missile", I do not get a mental PICTURE. What I get is a SOUND. Or plural, SOUNDS. First, the siren warning, then the boom or loud thud. Like the thump when a firework is fired....

Since 2018, I live in a city of 95,000-ish people, Modiin, and our last warning siren was on Thursday, the 13th. However, every night we are treated to the sounds of nearby booms, some louder than others, usually barrages lasting several minutes, and several times a night. Modiin is not significant in any way, really, and the terrorist rockets seem to have become more accurate. Ummmm, well actually, MOST of the places devastated by rockets are not "significant", just residential.

BTW, If you want to read about a pretty cool strategic move on Israel's part, google (try on ynet news English) "The IDF land incursion that never came" . It was positively brilliant!! This article gives all the details.

Hope you have a great weekend. How's your weather? It is gorgeous here.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Forgot to say "THANK YOU"

Paul Simons

Judy I am impressed and amazed by Iron Dome. So little time to react and such phenomenal precision! The IDF must have known something like this could happen - barrages of thousands of rockets necessitating thousands of interceptors. I am also amazed or rather outraged that even as Israelis warn Gazans where they are aiming, trying to hit military hardware and not people while Hamas deliberately tries to hit towns, homes, the airport, that some in this crazy world prefer to side with that. Nauseating.

My question is, how does Hamas assemble all those rockets, and install all those launchers? I know they put them right in the middle of densely populated areas, putting the civilian population at risk and in fact getting them killed.  I remember when the IDF literally forced Jews to leave homes they had built in Gaza. The hope was that the Gaza residents and Hamas the government they elected would turn the Mediterranean beachfront into hotels, resorts, and so on. What did they do? Pumped raw sewage into the sea. That's been the modus operandum in Gaza literally and metaphorically.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Paul -

Yep, the technology of the Iron Dome is very impressive. In order to try to overcome its 90+% success rate, Hamas is now employing the crude (but inevitably successful) counter-strategy of throwing over 100 missiles at one target at the same time to overwhelm the Iron Dome. This has had limited success, in that a few missiles have gotten through and done considerable damage to property. HOWEVER, Israelis have been thoroughly indoctrinated about how to protect themselves when they hear a siren, and loss of life has been miraculously low. When I lived in Beersheva, I had 60 seconds to get to a "safe space" before a rocket could land (if it got through the Iron Dome); I now feel rich that I have here in Modiin another 30 seconds! When my daughter was doing a course in Sderot years ago, she had only 45 seconds altogether to find safety..... Beginning in 1995, I believe, all construction of new homes and apartments had to have a "safe room" in the home or apartment. My personal nightmare is being caught going somewhere in my car, or outside, too far from a safe space or underground shelter, so I am stuck at home, reliving the recent COVID lockdown all over again......

All that said, I just read an article on ynet that there are several former IDF soldiers who operated the Iron Domes during their army service who have become sick with various cancers. This needs to be investigated like pronto, even though it seems unlikely.

Bruce Fette

Judy,

We are all glad you are able to stay safe.

It didnt occur to me that my picture could be a mistake until I hit send the first time and saw it. So I quickly updated the text..

Thats an awful lot of rockets. Its hard to imagine that they are producing those rockets in Gaza. Should we assume that the bulk of the rockets come from Iran or from Russia? And what pays for all those rockets. I assume Hamas doesnt have oil to sell?

As for weather here, its been pretty nice here the last week, and expected to be pretty reasonable for the next week, but warmer.

I will see if I can figure out how to change my picture. this time.  Well I tried. But now I get two photos instead.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Bruce,

I know that we have gurus to direct you how to change your picture. Maybe Ira? The updated picture is really nice!!

Well, it can be assumed with a pretty high degree of accuracy that the rockets come from Iran. I don't hear that Russia is involved. Paying for the rockets? Hmmm. Every country that sends support to Iran pays for the rockets! And BTW, very little of money that is sent to Gaza to help its citizens, to pay for hospitals, to supply food, very little actually goes to these goals. Most of the money is taken by Hamas and goes into Hamas pockets.

I totally lost it a little while ago. Heard just a snippet that a reporter was saying about foreign powers looking for "symmetry" comparing Hamas bombing versus Israel's. I started yelling at the TV (never a good sign for me) and waving my arms. SYMMETRY??!! How can any rational human speak of symmetry when Hamas and the jihadis aim to destroy residential areas and kill as many people as they can, while the aim of Israel is to destroy terrorist infrastructure, arsenals, tunnels, etc. and kill as many TERRORIST LEADERS as possible? That isn't symmetry, is it? Am I missing something?

Sorry for the rant. My brother's kibbutz (David Holtzer WHHS 1967) was attacked several times today while I was watching TV....... They are fine, but I am very tense....

Paul Simons

Pardon me for interposing myself here but first Bruce I think that if you navigate to your own page by just picking yourself from the list of our entire menagerie there are links to  upload photos and little camera icons to pick which one sums you up to the Class of 1964.
 

As far as Hamas goes I hear they were elected. Same for various other tyrants all over the world which tells me that there are a lot of fools among the human race. There's a song that goes "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" but some on this planet have a lot more fools than anyone deserves. Voting, democracy don't work if vast numbers of people don't know or care what's in their own best interest, and allow themselves to be guided by greed, racism, hatred, and lies. We are lucky here in America where political candidates would never even dream of lying or appealing to racism to garner votes.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Paul, When Hamas was elected in 2005 (literally and sadly a lifetime ago for many Gazans), their platform was humanitarian, and one of its "wings" was deveoted to charity work. They certainly did not campaign on their terrorist "wing". I truly believe that the vast majority of people who voted for Hamas back then were duped, and not fools. That said, they have seldom stood up to these tyrants and bullies when their true face was known. I am sure that there were opportunities for the terrorized people of Gaza to stand up against Hamas, but were seldom, if ever, taken, so the tyrant just became stronger. Try not to judge the ordinary folks of Gaza.....

Paul Simons

  Judy of course you know that these conversations are completely public, I know it too, and might as well say that you have a more compassionate heart than I do. Maybe that's because I live in a country where there are people who have a similar stance as Hamas towards "the other" - former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer pointed out on NPR today that Hamas advocates the murder of Jews world-wide - and they vote. The worst mass-murder of Jews in the history of America was carried out at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, not far from where I live, Philadelphia. I won't say the murderer's  name and I won't name the politician that he said he admires. But yes we've got 'em here. If you can't read it, the Jan 6 insurrectionist's shirt reads "Camp Auschwitz."

I will say that every situation is different and listening to Dermer draw the same line you draw between the Palestinian people and Hamas that you draw I have to admit that I too must sympathize with the suffering of the Palestinian people and realize that maybe they have had no real choice in elections in Gaza. I understand that one of Hamas' ways of dealing with dissidents is throwing them off rooftops. It is Hamas that has given them no choice and has also given Israel no choice.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Paull, were you ever in Israel for a visit?

Paul Simons

Judy no I haven't. I know nothing of what it's really like. Mexico and Nassau, that's it for my foreign travel.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Paul, I think most Americans do not get out of the States often. You are blessed with so many wonderful vacation spots at home!

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

A sad post. I have just learned that our classmate, Irving Crandall, died in his sleep last night. I will post again once I learn more. I join classmates in remembering Irv and sending condolences to his family. May his memory always be a blessing.

Paul Simons

Thanks Gail. Sorry to hear about Irving Crandall. He was a good dude. At least like in the song "The Gambler" - "The best you can hope for is to die in your sleep."

Judy - it looks like the world is an unsafe place. The beach in New Jersey will have to be the extent of my vacationing for a while.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Paul and others--

Please post memories of Irv Crandall on his In Memory page. Thank you.