Gene Stern

Phil: Is that the museum with one of Rodin's Thinker on the outside?

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Gene, the San Francisco museum that houses a large collection of Rodin sculptures is the Legion of Honor.

Nancy Messer

Somewhere during the varied history of the Alms and Doepke building, wasn't it a furniture store - or furniture with other things too?  Many years ago I was looking through the ads in the paper where people list all kinds of used items for sale.  I was looking for a reasonably nice dining room set.  The one I got has the little placque on the inside of the top drawer of the buffet that says Alms and Doepke.  That set is still in my dining room!

Philip Spiess

Gene:  The Rodin statue is outside the Palace of the Legion of Honour, a branch of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the other branch is the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, the result of an earlier exposition in the 1890s, the California Mid-Winter Fair).  There is also a Rodin Museum on The Parkway in Philadelphia, just below the Philadelphia Museum of Art; it also has a copy of "The Thinker" in front.  "The Thinker" was originally the centerpiece of a much larger and more complex composition called "The Gates of Hell," but I can't think of it anymore without remembering when it was portrayed by Jerry Lewis in a body stocking (on some television show) with the line, "I'm thinking and thinking, but I just can't remember where I put my clothes!"

Nancy:  I'm pretty sure your furniture comes from when Alms & Doepke's was a department store; it sold furniture, too.

We've discussed Alms Park (above); any particular memories of Ault Park?

Gene Stern

Phil: you are a veritable encyclopedia of varied information.  I remember when Jeffrey Rosen anchored his Columbia team on the 60's version of Jeapordy (called College Bowl, I believe) and he led that team to record breaking scores.  Have you ever thought about applying for Jeapordy?

Philip Spiess

Gene:  My varied information shows a scattered font of intellect, but that's what a professional cultural historian does.  I'm afraid my mental encyclopedia has more to do with my capacious memory than with any programme of organized and rigorous training, but I pursue what interests me; anything else I don't really know.  (Many acquaintances have privately asked me to "think back inside the box.")  "College Bowl," I believe, is still on TV, although its long time moderator either retired or died within the past year or so.  As to "Jeopardy," my wife and I used to watch it, and I would answer many questions -- but only in those categories I knew (sports, recent rock stars, economics, sociology, etc. -- forget it!).  She sometimes still suggests I go on "Jeopardy," but my reflex/answer time has now slowed down significantly; I have to comb through the synapses first (Hercule Poirot's "little grey cells").

David Buchholz

OK, Phil...we're all awestruck with your vast encyclopedic knowledge, so I thought I'd do what I do and let's see how  much you can riff on Arizona...we spent four days last week in the Phoenix area (Tina, are you listening?) and had some memorable experiences...perhaps Phil, you can tell us more about what we saw:

We'll start with Superstition Mountain...Then, after taking this photograph I narrowly missed stepping on the most dangerous viper in North America...

Thankful to have survived I went to a nearby church to pray.  I was puzzled that the deity behind the altar was isn't wearing the customary robe w/ halo...

Rellieved, we returned to our Air B and B home in Phoenix  (and you architects can perhaps critique our Craftsman style Colonial abode.

after which point...we took in an athletic contest between the Cincinnati Reds and our hapless San Francisco Giants...(sunsets tend to follow me)

Please feel free to expound upon any, all, or none of the above.  Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

Oh, and for Henry...the four Alou brothers were Jesus, Felipe, Matty, and Boog Powell.  Boog changed his last name because he didn't want to be known as Boogaloo...

Philip Spiess

Okay, Dave, Arizona was the 48th state, meaning that it was the last part of the United States as I first knew it.  Later, along came two other states that, welcome as they were (nod to Steve Levinson here), screwed up the design of the flag as I had learned it.  Further, by the age of 16, I had visited those 48 states, and have yet to visit the 49th and 50th; they're off-contiguity, and drive elementary school puzzle makers nuts.

However, belated as those states were, they do exist, but now we get into the realm of the incredulous.  A capital called "Phoenix"?  Really?  Named after an imaginary bird!  And one that commits suicide by immolating itself into ashes, then rises again!  (Coincidence you mention this now?  This is Holy Week -- Lent starts with Ash Wednesday and ends 40 days later in a Resurrection, a rising again!  Oh, Arizona, are you religious or irreligious?  Were those 40 days of Lent spent in the wilderness, i.e., a desert?)

And then we come to -- well, anything named "Superstition Mountain" obviously doesn't exist -- it's a superstition, and a big pile of it at that!  And that's not the most dangerous viper in the United States:  it's clear from the background that it's not a member of the U. S. House of Representatives!  Your third picture is just one of those "folk" National Enquirer Elvis "miracle" sightings, as seen in a puddle or cracked concrete or a piece of pizza; you'll have to altar it to make me believe.  Fourth picture:  that's one big prick -- excuse me, one big "prickly"!  As to your house, that's some erection, too!  (If you think you bought a "Craftsman" style house, you got stucco!)  Last picture:  you've got some nice Reds in your sunset, but I see no Giants (except maybe gnats).  (Reminds me of when I met the lady who is now my wife in Cooperstown, New York:  I was then living behind the Baseball Hall of Fame, but, at the time, I never got to first base with her!)

So, guys, that's what we do as cultural historians:  sort out the intellectual wheat from the socio-cultural chaff, hoping to make hay -- or at least pay -- while the sun shines -- and hoping Congress doesn't notice!

David Buchholz

BTW...here's the graphic response to Gene Stern...(that's The Thinker in the background)

Bruce Fette

OK Phil,

Well as a former Arizonan, there are several things to mention (though perhaps not presented with the funny tilt you so artfully deliver).

1. If you will choose to visit Phoenix in July, I  believe you will come to know quite clearly how the Phoenix bird died in fire. Stay till August, and you may see some fire (often in the mountains nearby). Please dont say that its a dry heat. You can practice the dry heat by turning on the oven and sticking your head in - but I dont recommend it at all.  :)   In fact, winter is the perfect time of year in Phoenix, and generally people dont go outside for recreation in the summer, unless they go out at night or the extremely early morning.

2) When I interviewed at Motorola it was February. They took me to see ASU so that I could get a sense of the university and educational opportunities there. In February, the girls in shorts at the fountain were quite a contrast to the snow in Poughkeepsie NY or Holmdel NJ.  That nice February weather was one of several considerations encouraging the opportunity to live and work in the Phoenix area. Great educational opportunities. :)

3. Superstition mountains:  There were reports of gold mining in the area back in the early 1600-1700 generally associated with Spanish explorers and missionaries. And reportedly these were attacked by Apache indians. Many folks went looking for this mine and reportedly never came back (thus the superstition(s).  Famously, Jacob Waltz, (the dutchman), reportedly gave location-direction to his mine in the Supers on his deathbed to just two people. Even so, noone has been able to locate the mine, and reportedly many have been ambushed trying to follow his directions. Today, the Supers are a wilderness area, and many hiking trails enable a wide range of exploring. Peralta trail is easy to get to from the freeway, and you can choose just how much of it you want to hike. Canyon Lake and Apache Lake are on the north side of the area, and I understand that there are hiking trails that lead east all the way from Apache Junction to Lake Roosevelt, and that it is a several day hike. Being a wilderness area and not generally frequented by humans, there is much wildlife including rattlers, wild boars and occaisional bears. So a wide variety of safety measures are required for hiking the area.   I have heard that one motorcyclist out riding in the dirt roads near the Supers, caught a rattler in the knobs of his tires and threw it up in the air. Very exciting. When I arrived in the Phoenix area, the Supers were a completely separate area. Now they are virtually a suburb to Phoenix.  

4. When I left Cincinnati to go to Phoenix, I had 4 8 track tapes - all 4 were given to me by my girl friend at the time. And one was "By the Time I get to Phoenix" by Glen Campbell.

5. I also hasten to report that its great to go to the spring training baseball games. Crowds are small, tickets are cheap, parking is easy. Just take along a bag of ice to keep cool, and a lot of water. I hope to do that again some early spring.

David Buchholz

Bruce, one small correction...bleacher seats in Scottsdale for a game between Cincinnati and San Francisco were $53 a seat, more than they are in SF...

Henry Cohen

Alous: Matty Felipe, Jay and Jesus, I think. No google aloued  

Philip Spiess

Bruce:  Thanks for the lovely explication of the "facts on the ground" in Arizona.  I take it that the mining operation you're referring to in the Superstition Mountains is the famous (but never found) "Lost Dutchman Mine."

Dave:  I recognize "The Thinker" in your picture (always looks like a guy on a toilet, possibly the constipated mathematician who worked out his problem with a pencil and a piece of paper), but who's the stiff in the foreground, Madame Tussaud Waxworks?

So what is it with German restaurants?  Tonight for supper I decided to make "Grammer's Chicken Paprikash," from a recipe book I own called Dining in Ohio, and I began to think about all of the German restaurants I have known that have closed, Grammer's included.  Grammer's Schmierkaese was the best (except for Coors' Dairy of Winton Place, which would deliver), and my great-great-grandfather's picture was included in a group photograph of the Cincinnati Maennerchor that hung on the wall in Grammer's. I've already mentioned in these pages Mecklenburg's Biergarten in Corryville, which went Asian/Hippie/Vegetarian in the late 1970s (and may now be closed -- as a result).  For many years, from the early 1950s to the early 1990s [?], there was the Austrian restaurant Lenhardt's south of the University in Clifton near Hughes Corner; their list of schnitzels was amazing -- and tasty; Herr Lenhardt was a gracious host.  Of course, most of Cincinnati's historic German restaurants and beer gardens closed with the advent of Prohibition.

But that was Cincinnati.  I suppose Columbus's "German Village" still exists in some form; I haven't been there in years, but I'll bet it's a shadow of its former self.  The famous Luchow's in New York City and its rival, the Steuben Tavern, where I spent several evenings imbibing beer and the free lunch with Jeff Rosen when he was a student at Columbia, are both long gone, as is, I suspect, Berghoff's in Chicago.  Jacob Wirt's Bierstube in Boston, of enviable memory (the history of it and its sawdust-strewn floors was written by no less a connoisseur than Dr. Walter Muir Whitehill, longtime director of the Boston Athenaeum, a man known as "Old Mr. Boston" and an acquaintance of mine), still exists, but I see on its Website -- to my horror -- that it now styles itself as "Jake's" (probably to pander to Harvard and M.I.T. undergraduates with its presumed "with-it" culture).

Up in Amish and Mennonite country, around Lancaster and York and Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse, Pennsylvania, as you might expect, the so-called "German" or "Pennsylvania Dutch" eateries are mostly tourist traps, given over to ersatz German food and schmaltzlich slogans on the walls.  Better to go somewhat north and east into the true Amish farmland and eat at the Stoltzfus family's several farm eateries (family style).  Closer to home (mine), in Baltimore for many years there was Haussner's, a German restaurant offering glories of both food and kitsch artifacts (it had a large collection of 19th-Century "Beef Trust" paintings over its bars, as well as one of the world's largest balls of string in an upstairs dining room).  It closed several years ago and no wonder:  after dining there numerous times on its Hasenpfeffer mit Nudeln, the last time I had it, it was miserably prepared -- over the years, something had obviously been lost in the translation.  Not so a nearby eatery, Schottzie's, a small German restaurant next to Baltimore's Shot Tower (the greatest of the few remaining shot towers in the United States), where I had the only Sauerbraten in the United States that has ever come close to that made by my grandmother; unfortunately, Schottzie's closed after about a year.  Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 40 minutes south of where I live, has a new German restaurant in its restored train station; it seems pricey, and I haven't tried it yet.

Here in Washington there remain, I think, Old Europe in Georgetown, still a respectable eatery but hard to get into, Cafe Berlin on Capitol Hill where I've happily eaten in times past, and the Cafe Mozart downtown, more renowned for its pastries (and music) than its food.  Then there used to be Old Budapest out on U.S. Route 50 in Fairfax, Virginia, where, when my wife and I had our last meal there, it was evident that the manager/owner and the rest of the staff were obviously fighting with each other, and where, when we ordered dessert and coffee, the waiter managed to set our tablecloth on fire!  (It closed shortly thereafter.)

So my question is:  what is it with German restaurants?  Do Americans, as a whole, no longer care for German cuisine?  (Okay, you'd be a Sour Kraut, too, if you'd lost the war!)

Rick Steiner

David I am still laughing about the  4 Alou   brothers answer.   my kind of humor.come to a spring training game in Goodyear with the Reds and you will not pay much at all to see us play.

Is there no one who follows March madness?it's the greatest spring  theater  event of all..OnWisconsin!

Larry Klein

Yep.  "Boogalou" cracked me up, too.

Phil - Mecklenburg Gardens is open again and has been for the last 25 or so years as a German restaurant and beer garden.  I get down there once every other year or so for schnitzel.  Nearly every other German eatery in Cincy has been long gone.  My favorite of all time was in Dallas in the 70's - named "der Jagerstube".  I worked graveyard shift at TI at the time and would go to the 'stube for "breakfast" before heading up to Richardson TI plant at midnight.

Bruce - I visit my cousin (currently in Edmond, OK) every other year for our annual golf grudge match (we play in Cincy in the 'tween years).  In the year Y2K, Ron was still in Tucson, AZ, having recently retired from the USAF.  It was late May.  We played our golf match in the morning then headed out to Davis-Monthan AFB for a big air show.  After about an hour walking around on the blacktop, just as we were about to board the 'Stealth' for a tour, I nearly passed out from the 'dry heat'.  We went straight to a taco place for tacos and about a gallon of H2O.  I like the desert, but I prefer Vegas style.

Gene Stern

Phil:  Interesting that you mentioned Coors Dairy..it actually was Coors Brothers Dairy on Gray Road and one of the brothers was a neighbor of mine when I lived in Winton Place.  He was the guy who taught me to throw horseshoes!

Bruce Bittmann

Rick, we are b-ball nuts here in Tucson.  Unfortumately, those hole diggers keep getting in the way of our Wildcats - 2 years in a row.  80+% from deep! yikes.  Karen & I went to Las Vegas the last 2 years for the PAC 12 tourney.  Great times.  My bracket got busted when Wisconsin beat Arizona or maybe the first day.  The Final Four tourney is the greatest.  And, yes, Goodyear is much less expensive that the Giants.  Charge what you feel as champs, though.  It's a Bumgartner for the fans though to pay that much.  

Go Cats!  Next year.

Bruce Bittmann

David, not only is Goodyear less expensive than $cottsdale, but you can see SF from there.  And, the Reds as the home team.  Keep your roots.

David Buchholz

For Larry...pay attention to the newspaper headlines the next time you go...btw, this, I think, was around 1969.  Rick, you know the casino, of course.  (I can't take a "straight" photograph).

David Buchholz

Bruce, you're right.  And, of course, I've been to Goodyear to watch the Reds.  I was so flattered the last time I visited there, and George Foster asked me for my autograph.  Wow!  Here I was going to ask him for his, but he must have been aware of my athletic prowess and beat me to the punch.

Larry Klein

Dave - I see your MS Paint skills are as adept as your camera and photoshop skills.  Here are a couple sepia pics you might enjoy from the Astro Dome in '77.

Yep, that's Joe and Davey and Coach Grammas.

A couple more of the Big Red Machine drop back to the dugout.

JB rounding third and heading for home.  REDS WIN!!

I managed to get four seats two rows behind the Reds dugout from Eddie Kasco, who was retired and working in the Houston law office of one of my Marine buddies, Wm. E Lange, Esq.  Fun night for all ('cept the 'stros.

David Buchholz

On a more serious note...within weeks before he died some friends and I had the opportunity to spend an evening with this man whose birtthday we celebrate this last day of March.

Philip Spiess

Hank Cohen:  I think you now have the answer to the question you posed about Indiana's legislative horrors (Entry #1548):  Apparently the whole country is outraged, now that people have gotten a clear idea of what the Indiana state legislature and its governor were up to!  (And their lame responses to righteous criticism haven't been very convincing, have they?)

Gene:  I thought I remembered that Coors Dairy was on Gray Road, just past the back gate to Spring Grove Cemetery, one of my favorite places on earth.  Few people know that Adolph Strauch, former gardener to the imperial House of Hapsburg in Vienna, was for many years the landscape architect for Spring Grove Cemetery and is buried on an island in one of the lakes near the front of the cemetery.  Henry Probasco, donor of the Tyler Davidson Fountain on Fountain Square and one of the proprietor/trustees of Spring Grove Cemetery, was a millionaire public benefactor (his Anglo-Norman castle still stands in Clifton) whose collection of rare books formed a nucleus of the Newberry Library in Chicago and who eventually gave away all his fortune, becoming nearly penniless in old age.  He ended his days as a caretaker at Spring Grove Cemetery, where he had once been trustee.

Bruce Bittmann

David, David.  I at least got my photo posted at Goodyear during my try out with the Reds!

Bruce Fette

How do I get one of those BRUCE tea shirts?