Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Pope Francis died yesterday, Monday 21 April 2025. He was 88. The cause of death is stated to be a stroke followed by heart failure. He had been in and out of the hospital the last several weeks, and was last seen in public on Sunday delivering Easter greetings.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the former pope represented many firsts for the leadership of the Catholic church. He was the first pope from outside Europe in over 1,000 years, the first from Latin America, the first from anywhere in the Americas, the first from the southern hemisphere, and the first from the Jesuit Order. He was also the first to take the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), known for his support of the poor and the environment.

Pope Francis leaves a mixed record— mixed in the sense of the perception of his leadership vs. the reality. With all those firsts, it was widely believed that Francis would be a progressive leader. He was certainly a more charismatic figure than his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who came from an academic background and was a staunch ideologue. Though it's worth remembering that the pontiff who preceded both of them, John Paul II, was widely regarded as rock star for his energy and public appearances in his younger years (he served from 1978 to 2005) but was conservative in his interpretation of the faith.

One early sign that Francis might change Catholic teaching to align with widening modern social values came when he quipped, "Who am I to judge?" in 2013 in response to a question about gay people as practicing Catholics— or even as members of the clergy. But while that offhanded quip sent immediate shockwaves through the faith, that's all it was— an offhanded quip, an informal style of speaking Pope Francis employed regularly. Francis made no policy change on the acceptance of non-heterosexual people in the faith, nor did he change the church's teachings or policies on any other modern issues: sexual abstinence, contraception, abortion, divorce, or the ordination of women into the clergy.

I wrote earlier today about the death of my Aunt Carol. As I searched for things to say I found it hard to escape my frustration over some negative aspects of her personality. That journal entry is friends-locked. As I reconsidered it with greater detachment I realized I could share positive things, too. I'll do that here.

My aunt, Carol K., passed away on Sunday. She was just a few days shy of her 88th birthday. She was born and raised in New York City. She was the first of three children. My aunt Diane and my mother are her younger sisters.

Carol graduated with a bachelors degree from Wellesley College and earned a Masters from Columbia University. Her academic achievement put her in a select group of women at the time. After earning her post-graduate degree she worked for the publisher of Time magazine. Women were not well embraced in advanced jobs in industry at that time. Sure, plenty of women were typists, secretaries, and phone operators. But Carol had the academic preparation to be a researcher and a writer. She left the magazine after a few years without ever getting a byline.

Carol married Ed K., a university professor, and began raising a family. Their sons, William and James, are my cousins and are close in age to me. Sadly I only saw them once every few years growing up. They lived in Indiana, then Texas, as my uncle pursued his teaching career. Today I'd think nothing of traveling to their old homes to visit relatives; but when I was a child, money was tight in the family and travel was a rarity. I wish it could have been different as I always treasured our time together on their visits and longed for the next.

Carol lived in Texas for 25 years where, in addition to being a wife and mother, she also worked as a high school teacher. She moved from Texas to Nebraska in 2011 after her husband died. She was suffering from Alzheimer's and not able to live on her own. She moved into a care facility in the town where my cousin James had recently taken a job as a college professor— sort of following in his father's footsteps.

Carol lived in Nebraska the past 13 years. While her Alzheimer's condition progressed she was in a good place, with some family nearby. James visited her regularly along with her granddaughter.

Carol is survived by her two sisters, her two sons, three grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews and their children.

Today actor Donald Sutherland passed away. He was 88.

His passing today is ironic to me, at least, because just yesterday I watched a few episodes of a 2023 TV series he acted in. He played the recurring (minor) character Judge Isaac Parker in Lawmen: Bass Reeves (link: IMDb page). That show seems to me like a spinoff, at least in concept, of an episode in the TV series Timeless from several years ago that featured the character Bass Reeves. I'm several months behind on writing about Timeless so I haven't addressed that episode yet. It was one of the best of the series. I'll write about Lawmen: Bass Reeves after I catch up on blogging about Timeless... which I'll do sometime after catching up on blogging about my trip to Alaska... which is currently falling even further behind because I've been busy with work today. Wow, is the common thread of this blog entry my blog backlog or Donald Sutherland? 🤣

I've got to say I'm not familiar with Sutherland's earlier work. He starred in 1970's M*A*S*H, the movie, though his portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce never registered with me like Alan Alda's enduring TV portrayal of that character did. When I watched 1967's The Dirty Dozen his character there wasn't memorable like Lee Marvin's hard-boiled lead, Charles Bronson's earnest convict seeking redemption, or Telly Savalas's bulging-eyed psychopath. And the movie that many critics say cemented his early career, 1980's Ordinary People, is one I was never aware of until I read about it in obituaries today.

To me, Sutherland was always old— and played old characters. And he did it amazingly well. His white hair and beard surrounded his face like a lion's mane, amplifying his presence as a person of stature and wisdom... and danger. Sutherland seemed to excel at portraying characters who could be warm on the surface while planning something terrible underneath.

Bringing that back full circle to his Judge Parker character in Bass Reeves, it makes me wonder what horrible villainy he's plotting. I've only seen the first 4 episodes so far, so I don't know if he turns out to be the master villain of series. Though now with his passing and only a single, 8-episode season of the show made, I wonder if the showrunners will recast the character.

Norman Lear, a famed writer, producer, and showrunner in both TV and film, died today. He was aged 101. Example news coverage: Variety article, 6 Dec 2023.

Lear was most famous for creating the TV show All in the Family, which ran for 9 seasons from 1971-1979 and spawned no fewer than 6 spin-offs, including The Jeffersons. It featured "lovable bigot" Archie Bunker, his wife Edith, their daughter Gloria, and Gloria's boyfriend, later husband, Michael "Meathead" (Archie's insulting nickname for him) Stivic. The show was groundbreaking for taking on issues of the day that had been considered too controversial for staid network television, such as racism (part of virtually every story line), women's liberation and equal rights, abortion, and homosexuality. The show spoke to all of these issues with a clear voice of the need for tolerance and acceptance, but did so in a gentle enough fashion that made it one of the most-watched shows on TV during its run. In seasons 2-6 it was actually #1. It's widely regarded as the best TV show ever made in the US.

Lear was no one-trick pony, though. In addition to All in the Family and some of its spinoffs he also created Sanford and Sons, One Day at a Time, and Diff'rent Strokes. These were all influential shows on network television back in the 1970s through mid 1980s.

Lear had writing credits on some popular films, too. I did not know until I read coverage of his death that he has writing credits for Stand By Me and The Princess Bride. I also did not know that he he wrote and directed Cold Turkey, a 1971 dark comedy about the tobacco industry.

RIP, Norman Lear. I wish Hollywood had a dozen more people like you.

Senator Diane Feinstein passed away today. She was aged 90.

Feinstein had been an icon in politics for decades. She was the oldest member of the Senate, the longest-serving female senator and the longest-serving senator from California. But her political career and reputation as a trailblazer for women in politics started long before her first Senate victory in 1992.

In 1969 Feinstein won election to the San Francisco Board of County Supervisors. Journalists in the media at the time were disgusting with the sexist tropes they promulgated. They wrote about wondering "who wears the pants" in her family and asked her then-husband if he felt "humbled or intimidated" by her success. (To his credit, Dr. Feinstein responded that he felt neither.) But what journos missed with their sexist sneering and offensive questions was that the people of San Francisco had elected her. They were not representing the people of San Francisco with their reporting, they were representing a biased minority.

Nine years after that Feinstein became Mayor of San Francisco under grim circumstances. On November 27, 1978, Mayor George Moscone and and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated— by a fellow county supervisor, no less. The duty fell to Feinstein, who by then was President of the Board, to announce the sad news on the steps of City Hall. As board president she became acting mayor, and a week later the board appointed her to finish Moscone's term. She later was reelected mayor twice.

Two things define Feinstein's long political career: persistence and bipartisanship. While working her way up through politics starting in the 1960s she doggedly pursued her duties and aspirations, not letting insults or roadblocks deter her. She not only endured countless slights along the way but bounced back from several lost elections. She lost her first bid to become a county supervisor, she ran and lost a race for mayor (before later becoming mayor by appointment and then winning reelection), and she ran and lost a race for governor. Despite people opposing her for her politics (though she was always a centrist Democrat) and her gender she remained steadfast in reaching across the aisle to find political consensus. As one of her contemporaries said many years ago, ironically thinking it was an insult more than a compliment, "Diane wasn't in politics, she was in government." We need more politicians like that today.

At Del's memorial service on Sunday guests were once again invited to share a memory of him. It's a custom in Jewish mourning. Unlike a few days earlier at the house when everyone, all 8 of us, spoke, at the service only a few of us rose to speak. Maybe people felt intimidated by the audience of 30, maybe the fact that our sharing was the last thing standing in the way of dinner had people just wanting to get past it. 😅 Here's the story I shared:

Back in March or April of 2021 I was with Del and D at a custom suit shop in San Francisco. This was a few months before their wedding, their second wedding, with a big Jewish ceremony in New York. They were getting their suits refitted as they'd both lost weight. D had been successful with diet and exercise. Del's weight loss happened for a different reason— cancer. The cancer he beat, at the time. Del was fretting about how well-wishers at the wedding would congratulate him on losing weight and ask how he did it.

"You've got to get ahead of it," I suggested. "Own the topic. Tell them it was cancer and losing weight was, like, the one good thing that came out of it."

"Well, I tried a lot of of methods unsuccessfully," Del vamped with comedic delivery. "None of them worked. But then I got cancer and the pounds just melted away!"

I share this moment not to make light of a dark subject but to recall how, even at times of darkness, Del found and shared the bit of light within it.

The other day my last piece of CorningWare broke. Hawk was moving it from the sink to the dishwasher, accidentally banged it against the lip of the granite countertop, and it cracked.



This piece is a small saucepan, maybe 0.5L rated capacity. It was part of a small set I originally purchased back in 1991. I've had this piece of cookware— and used it regularly— for 32 years!

The other components of the set, a small skillet and a 1.5L saucepan, didn't last as long. The nonstick coating on the skillet wore off maybe 15 years ago, so I tossed it. The 1.5L saucepan cracked even longer ago than that. My mother told me the folklore that CorningWare "could survive one drop but not two". Indeed the other saucepan cracked after a small drop a few years after it survived a big drop. This piece... I don't remember how long ago, if ever, we dropped it.

Some might wonder, "Half liter/one pint, that's so small, why bother?" In a two-person household it's actually very useful. It's the right size for heating a can of vegetables or a cup of sauce. And the beauty of CorningWare is that it's safe for the stove top, the microwave, and the dishwasher.

Ironically within a day of this last piece of my old CorningWare collection breaking, Instant Brands, the company that now owns CorningWare— along with brands like Instant Pot, Pyrex, and Corelle— declared bankruptcy. 😬 Example coverage: ABC News article 14 Jun 2023; CNN article 13 Jun 2023.

The bankruptcy is only Chapter 11, a restructuring bankruptcy not a liquidation, so the company may come back. But already reports have emerged that classic kitchenware sets on auction sites have shot up in price. A quick check I performed showed the 0.5L saucepan by itself going for about $65. A three-piece set (technically it's called "5 piece" because they count the lids) similar to what I bought in 1991 is around $250 now. In 1991 I paid $12.99, new.

Actress Angela Lansbury passed away today. She was 96. The star of many stage, film, and TV productions is perhaps best known to people my age as lead character Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. The weekly TV series about a polite but shrewd novelist with a penchant for being in the right place at the wrong time ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996, totaling 264 episodes. It was one of the most popular shows on TV in that era, and Lansbury was nominated for 12 Emmy and 10 Golden Globe awards.

Mihkail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, died today. He was 91.

For those of us who were kids of the 80s, or already adults in the 80s, Gorbachev was a household name. He became the Soviet leader in 1985, at the height of the Cold War. Turn on TV news any night and you'd see news involving the USSR and/or Gorbachev.

From a Western perspective, Gorbachev brought stability to the fraught US-USSR relationship of the Cold War. At age 54 he was the youngest Soviet premier, rising to the position after 3 predecessors in 3 years had died in office under circumstances deliberately obfuscated by the ruling party. Even with the USSR being the US's sworn enemy, it felt marginally more reassuring to see that it was at least led by an actual, living person instead of a secret committee publishing obtuse communiques in someone else's name.

Gorbachev soon became a darling of the West as he introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). With the USSR more willing to sit down for nuclear negotiations with the West, and with sporadic humanitarian progress such as the release of political prisoners and allowing some religious liberties. BTW I say sporadic because the progress was not steady. There were backslides, including times Gorbachev sent troops to crush rebellions. I see this through the lens of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous observation, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

From the birds-eye view of history I see Gorbachev as a wise but flawed reformist. He knew that the Soviet Union, as it was structured coming out of the 1970s, was doomed. Although it held a lead in certain areas of manufacturing it was losing ground to the US and Western Europe in every economic area because of the inherent inefficiencies of its command-and-control system. Ronald Reagan's foreign policy that leaned in from containment to something more resembling rollback would hasten its demise. Gorbachev saw the writing on the wall and strove to reformulate the USSR to survive. He misjudged things, though— perhaps, most notably, that all the USSR's satellite states hated the USSR— and lost control of the broad changes he set in motion. Mikhail Gorbachev ended his term as premier with his announcement of the dissolution of the USSR on December 25, 1991.

In the 30 years since then and now, Gorbachev has been remembered more fondly in the West than in Russia. To the West, he's the leader who helped "end the Cold War without firing a shot." To many Russians, he's the horribly failed leader who destroyed their country's position as a glorious and powerful world leader. ...The latter view, of course, has been seeded by Vladimir Putin, Russia's autocratic leader of the past 20 years, who repeatedly boasts of the glory of the USSR and czarist Russia.

RIP, Mikhail Gorbachev. You were far from perfect, but right now we could sure use another leader like you.

Update: comments will be screened. I will not be giving a platform to strangers peddling drive-by disinformation.

Al Qaeda terrorist leader and 9-11 attack planner Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike at his home in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. The strike, which was months in planning, was notable for its lack of collateral damage. Zawahiri was killed as he stood on a balcony of the building. No other residents of the building were harmed, the building itself was not collapsed, and nobody in the neighborhood was harmed.

Intelligence experts studied al-Zawahiri's movements, and those of people around him, and pinpointed his habit of spending time on a balcony of his building. He apparently hasn't left that building since moving to it earlier this year. His wife and children do run errands, though, and intelligence operatives found them using sophisticated counter-espionage techniques as they moved about the city. Anyway, the US targeted him with a drone strike as he stood on the balcony and killed him without harming family in the house or anyone in the neighborhood.

Zawahiri had been the leader of al Qaeda since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Prior to that he was the terrorist organization's second-in-command, having joined it when he merged the group Islamic Jihad into it in the 1980s. Islamic Jihad, BTW, was the group that claimed responsibility for the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.