At the think tanks: 'Sandra Day O'Connor' was 'First'

I can't wait to read First: Sandra Day O'Connor by Evan Thomas which he and his wife, Oscie, presented last week at the Washington office of the Aspen Institute.

Evan Thomas said he saw Justice O'Connor, 89, about three weeks ago when he visited her at a care facility to give her a copy of his new book about her. "She was not in great shape," he said.

She was the First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and now suffers from early stage Alzheimer-like dementia. Last October she withdrew from public life.

Evan and Oscie Thomas at the Aspen Institute, April 2, 2019, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

Thomas and Justice O'Connor have the same publisher, Random House, and when he was brought in on her book project a while back, he figured it was to be her ghost writer.  Random had been after O'Connor to write her memoirs, but "I could tell she didn't want to do it," Thomas said.


The O'Connor family enthusiastically welcomed the Thomases as writers/researchers and granted them access to the justice's letters, papers, photographs, and more materials, not all of which the family had read, including 14 letters from a classmate at Stanford University, William Rehnquist.

Justice O'Connor and Justice Rehnquist later served together on the Supreme Court, years after Justice Rehnquist had asked Justice O'Connor to marry him (one of at least four marriage proposals she received while at Stanford).


She strung him along then, waiting to hear the magic words from the one she really loved, who became her husband, John O'Connor. 


(When Justice Rehnquist died in 2005, I wondered why Justice O'Connor cried so hard, shedding more tears in public than one would have expected. Perhaps, she was in love with him.)

Mr. O'Connor also suffered from Alzheimer's and died in 2009, but not before he developed a relationship with "Kay" at a treatment facility where he lived. It was "terribly painful" for Justice O'Connor when he did not recognize his wife and introduced her to Kay whom he identified as his wife.

When he held hands with "the other woman," Justice O'Connor held his other hand.

After Mr. O'Connor was diagnosed in 2000, Justice O'Connor brought him for a time to the Supreme Court where he watched proceedings from a chair.


When she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 and the couple moved to Washington, her husband found transitioning to "Washington law" difficult, said Oscie Thomas. He never succeeded here because his expertise was different from that required in Washington.  

After moving to a second Washington firm, his mental deterioration became evident.  In early 2006 Justice O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court to take care of her husband. 


The authors described their book as "a love story" which, like all love stories, ends tragically.   

In the question and answer session which followed the presentation, a young woman who may have been a student, asked why Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg occupies much more of the public platform than does Justice O'Connor. 

Without realizing the reflexive answer which matched my silent one, Mr. Thomas immediately answered: "Well, she's alive", and he noted that two films were released last year about Justice Ginsberg who cuts quite a public swath in town, out and about like she is.


Justices O'Connor and Ginsburg had a "cordial" relationship, the Thomases said. Justice O'Connor advised Justice Ginsburg about treatments for cancer which they both suffered.

They asked Justice Ginsburg if the rumors were true that she had driven her car twice into Justice O'Connor's car in (presumably) the Supreme Court parking garage.

Throwing her hands up in the air, Justice Ginsburg  confirmed the rumors, adding that she was trying to avoid Justice Antonin Scalia's car. (Thomas said RBG was "the least shy person I've ever met.")

Scalia and O'Connor had a "bad relationship." More than once, the Thomases said that not all the justices like any other. (From their remarks, one can infer that some of the justices "tolerate" each another, more than their public appearances would suggest.)

After Justice Scalia publicly criticized Justice O'Connor, her clerks inserted "zingers" about Justice Scalia in some review materials, all of which Justice O'Connor deleted.

She rarely spoke ill of any of the justices, but, because of his "ideological position,'" she regretted that Samuel Alioto was named as her replacement.

She couldn't stand disharmony and did her level best to discourage it on the court, urging newcomer Justice Clarence Thomas repeatedly to please join the court for lunch when members discussed anything but court matters.

In an interview with the Thomases, Clarence Thomas told them he finally relented, praising Justice O'Connor as the "glue" which held the place together. (Said Evan Thomas: To those of you who don't know him, Clarence Thomas is a very funny man.  (Let's laugh.))


The Thomases interviewed seven justices and 94 clerks, half of were women (why is that important?) among many others. I believe they said they met with Justice O'Connor six times.  The O'Connor family urged all her colleagues, clerks, and others to welcome interviews by the authors. 

To keep up with her Supreme Court tasks,  Justice O'Connor read about 1000 pages daily.

When President Ronald Reagan was presented the opportunity to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court in 1981 and was given the name of a man (somebody Burns?), he said, "'Nope, go find me a woman.'"


Sandra Day O'Connor was confirmed by a vote of 99-0.


She was considered a "swing vote" who cast the deciding ballot in 330 cases and is generally considered the one who ultimately determined Bush v. Gore (5-4), and who, to this day, remains the target of criticism for that vote in the pages of the New York Times.


Evan Thomas said he thinks she cast the vote for Bush because she didn't want to drag out the process for the nation, she didn't like conflict, and "she is a Republican who did not like Al Gore, and maybe, deep inside her heart, that was a factor." 

In 2013 she told the Chicago Tribune that perhaps the Supreme Court should not have taken the case.

When asked about the Kavanaugh hearings, Thomas said: "She would have hated" them "because they were contentious" and she could not bear discord. "I am projecting" here, he said, and "I'm not even sure she saw them."

She liked to cook and entertained her clerks on Saturdays. She made every recipe in a Julia Child cookbook. Her husband was always supportive, and they were quite active on the Washington social scene, often going dancing before they were overtaken by illness. 

Justice O'Connor greatly lamented the termination of a favorite undergraduate class, "Western Civ," which, through her efforts, thrives now as "iCivics." It's taught to middle schoolers, and encourages civil discourse and engagement which, so far, has enrolled about five million students in "her greatest legacy."

patricialesli@gmail.com

Last weekend to see 'Bill Traylor' at the Smithsonian

Bill Traylor, Self-Portrait With Pipe, 1939-1942; pencil and colored pencil on cardboard, collection of Siri von Reis

.

For those who haven't reached their "pinnacle" or are still searching for it, take heart and learn from a pro, a master, artist Bill Traylor (c.1853-1949) who started his renowned life's work when he was only 86.  (There is hope.) 

Then he started drawing and painting, and now, a quick web search find his works commanding prices from $25,000 to almost $400,000, the fee Christie's reported in January that a buyer paid for Woman Pointing at Man with Cane.
 

Expect prices to climb.

 Bill Traylor, Female Drinker, 1939-1942; gouache and pencil on cardboard, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mr. Traylor may be the only known artist who was formerly a slave and an illiterate to see an exhibition of his work while he was alive, a show which was assembled by a white artist captivated by Mr. Traylor whom he found drawing on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. (Although the exhibition included 100 works, none sold.)

Formerly labeled "outsider" or primitive art, the new definition calls Mr. Traylor's, "modern."  Self-taught, Mr. Traylor lived most of his life as a slave and laborer in Alabama where he was born.

 Bill Traylor, Untitled (Woman With Umbrella and Man on Crutch), 1939; pencil and opaque watercolor on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

When he was about 12 (his birth year is uncertain), he and family members, with about four million of their brothers and sisters, were freed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery.

Mr. Traylor spent the next 45 years as a laborer.

 Bill Traylor, Untitled (Smoking Man With Figured Construction), 1939-1942; poster paint, crayon, and graphite on cardboard, High Museum, Atlanta

In his mid-70s he moved to Montgomery where he resided on streets, in businesses, and in funeral homes in-between visiting relatives in other states and places until his death.

A few years earlier found him on the sidewalks of Montgomery and later, in his daughter's backyard, drawing and drawing, using recycled materials and pencil, charcoal and watercolors, to make thousands of works, to attract the attention of Charles Shannon who befriended him and began supporting the budding artist with art materials.

Bill Traylor, Cedar Trees, 1939-40; compressed charcoal on cardboard, collection of Dame Jillian Sackler

Traylor's subjects stemmed from his background on the plantation and the sights and sounds he saw from his art perch in Montgomery.

Distinctive stick figures, usually in one or two colors, mark the works, many, reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphs and cave art. His rich background provided a springboard to pictures of animals, dogs, snakes, dancers, handicapped individuals in dark silhouettes on flat, one-color, plain landscapes.

 Bill Traylor, Untitled (Radio) 1940-42; opaque watercolor and pencil on printed advertising paperboard,  Smithsonian American Art Museum. An example of Mr. Traylor's usage of discarded cardboard and box tops.  He recycled as an artist long before it became a popular medium.


In 1942 Mr. Traylor's works went on exhibition in New York where Alfred Barr, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, offered $1 to $2 a piece for them. Denied. No museum or person bought any.

But it took the now defunct Corcoran Gallery in Washington and its 1982 exhibition, Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980 to whet interest in Mr. Traylor's depictions and fly away, they started.

Bill Traylor, Untitled (Yellow and Blue House with Figures and Dog), July, 1939; colored pencil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The label copy says Mr. Traylor's seven decades on a plantation served as inspiration for his house scenes.  Ladders to the roof were safety features in case of fire. The figure in the chair on the bottom holds a rifle.

Bill Traylor, Untitled (Man, Woman, and Dog), 1939; crayon and pencil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum. The label copy mentions dancing couples "with wild abandon" often seen in "jook"joints near Traylor's artist's station in Montgomery. Like then, like now, "elders" frowned upon suggestive dancing, considered by some to be the work of the devil and a preface to notorious behavior. Is that their hair or halos on their heads? Is the woman pregnant? The dog has a good time, too. Viewers can "hear" the music!

Bill Traylor about 1939 by Jean and George Lewis, courtesy of Caroline Cargo Folk Art Collection, Cazenovia, NY

The white artists' collective, New South, founded by Charles Shannon who organized the first Traylor exhibition: Bill Traylor, People's Artist, 1940; photograph by Jean and George Lewis, courtesy of Caroline Cargo Folk Art Collection, Cazenovia, NY 

Through Sunday, 155 of Mr. Traylor's works will be on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the first retrospective for an artist born into slavery.

 
In a "hot list" of outsider art published last December at Christie's, art specialist Cara Zimmerman listed Mr. Traylor’s works second.

Not one of Mr. Traylor's 15 to 20 offspring (estimates vary about the number of children he had) were left any of their father's art.

Leslie Umberger, the Smithsonian curator, spent seven years researching the show, according to an article in the Smithsonian, and it shows.  When you see an exhibition like this and understand a little about the artist, you rejoice in his achievements and wish he were still around to receive the accolades.

 

What:  Between Worlds:  The Art of Bill Traylor

When: Closes Sunday, April 7, 2019. The museum is open from 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day.

Where: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20004

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-633-1000 or visit the website.

Metro station: Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com

At the think tanks: Women and China's Revolutions

 

Gail Hershatter talked about her new book, Women and China's Revolutions at the Washington History Seminar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The past two centuries of women in China were briefly outlined last Monday at a presentation at the American Historical Association and Woodrow Wilson Center’s Washington History Seminar.
 

Gail Hershatter, professor of history at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Chinese history scholar, presented key findings from her latest work, Women and China’s Revolutions.

Dr. Hershatter is the former president of the Association for Asian Studies and has written several other books.

  

When she entered the Chinese history field in the 1970s, Dr. Hershatter had few associates devoted to the topic like she was. Times have changed, but still, information about women in China is not readily available.

While she described the past plights of rural Chinese women, Dr. Hershatter showed pictures of them at work, busy sewing, farming, and making shoes for their families.

Some women had to work double-shifts cleaning and cooking, embroidering, working in the fields (with children on their backs), and weaving at home, often without electricity which did not arrive in some Chinese villages until the 1970s.

That any woman would walk out on her husband was unconscionable. Mothers-in-law depended upon their sons' wives for help with housework and other family responsibilities like caring for elderly relatives, raising children, and helping earn money.

In the past, women could be sold by landlords and were forced into marriage managed by third-parties.

China's two marriage laws have ostensibly ended these practices.

The 1950 marriage law stemmed from the May 4, 1919 movement which gave women equal rights and ended feudal traditions.

China's 1980 “marriage law" has gradually morphed into the “divorce law" since it guaranteed the right to divorce and outlawed unequal gender treatment.

The 1980 law changed the age of marriage to 20 for women and 22 for men which the 1950 law stipulated as 18 for women and 20 for men.

The use of money or gifts as a condition of marriage was outlawed.

Women were and are important for China's economy.

Dr. Hershatter briefly touched on the 1000-year-old practice of footbinding which continued well into the 20th century.  The reasons for the torture tradition are still debated.

She interviewed elderly women whose feet were bound, pictures which may be found in Dr. Hershatter's book. 

Next up for the Washington History Seminar is on April 1 when Sarah Igo presents The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Movie review; 'Gloria Bell' is one heckuva waste and terrible also

Oh, my!  She grasps at air, contemplates brushing her teeth, petting an ugly cat and/or smoking a joint. Julianne Moore in the awful Gloria Bell by FilmNation Entertainment


I swear this the last time I'll spend time and money on any movie which has a differential of 50 degrees awful(!) between the critics' and audience's ratings at Rotten Tomatoes.

The audience (44%, positive) is always right. The critics (94%, not a typo) are always wrong, but I am supposing the latter likes to reward their friends in high places.

It is practically inconceivable that a movie could be more zzzzz than The Favourite (British spelling, por favor) or that dreadful cat movie, but this one had made it to the Top Three list.

Delete from this pathetic re-run of bedsheets, Julianne Moore singing songs in her car (please! One or two scenes were okay, but 45?), the same dancing scenes (like we ain't never seen smoky dancing scenes?), and breasts (a new record for most!  A man wrote and directed Gloria Bell, surprise!), and you're left with nuthin' much, save men are cads. 

Who knew?

We need to spend 90 minutes of movie time to learn that?

Why, Miss Moore, age 58, would stoop to this level, I suppose, rests on the articles that appear several times yearly bemoaning the lack of acting parts for aging females. What else is she supposed to do? 

Maintain some class, that's what! 

Dear Readers, take my words for it and ignore the paid critics in this sad tale, one critic who compares Moore to  "wrap[ping] herself in the role like a soft shawl." Yup, a "soft shawl" all right, one that's been picked up in the nursing home and used for rags after it was mistakenly dragged through the mud when it was dropped in the unpaved parking lot when Aunt Fanny stumbled and fell out the car door as her belongings were gathered for her residency in the death house. That's how good this movie is.  And not a comedy!

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Fallen Angels' fly high in Herndon's hit

 Elizabeth Anne Jernigan, left, and Teresa Spencer in Noel Coward's Fallen Angels at NextStop Theatre Company/Photo by Lock and Company

If NextStop's Fallen Angels were on Broadway, the show would last for weeks and weeks because theatergoers would demand it.  One can only hope these "angels" fly longer than intended in Herndon.

I had a "presentiment" I would like it.  Expectations, exceeded.  

It's charming, it's fun, it's a delight.

Two married women lament their passionless marriages (five years) and dream about the one-time lover they both shared (at different times) before they got married.  

Maurice! 

While their husbands (John Strange and James Finley who treat their wives like pets) take off on a golfing trip, Julia (Teresa Spencer) and Jane (Elizabeth Anne Jernigan) spend an evening together, drinking and eating and drinking (mostly) reminiscing about their long lost lover who has written he is coming to town.

As the evening wears on, the ladies gradually get sloshed and wind up crawling on the floor and over and on each other. 

They talk, they sigh, and they dream about Maurice and what was, and what they hope to be!

The more she drinks, the longer and more drawn out are Julia's words which complement her demeanor and attitude, thanks to the artistry of Director Abigail Fine and Ms. Spencer, who also serves as dialect coach.
 
Julia and Jane interlock arms and with their hands, the two become entangled like long vines spreading across the stage.

Sliding from a chair onto the floor with her arms and legs intertwined, Julia is a circus act worthy of Houdini.

At one point last Saturday night, the top of one of the liquor bottles fell impromptu to the floor and while the ladies looked for it from their seats at the dining table, Saunders, the maid (Lorraine Magee), never missed a beat or a moment to scoot under and around the table, hunting the lost top.  

Meanwhile, above her, the actors almost lost it which the audience certainly did. 

The time is 1925 when playwright, Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973)
wrote Angels (soon to celebrate its centennial!). Since he never married and his homosexuality was not publicly revealed until after his death, how did Mr. Coward know so much about married women? 

Angels' costuming by Moyenda Kulemeka and the setting by Emily Lotz are quite fitting, darling, for the era and presentation of residents of an upper-class London flat.

The rich are different from you and me.

An elegant chandelier flanked by two lantern lights on the walls hangs center stage near a velvety Victorian settee. On the side stands a baby grand piano which adds to the mood and refinement.
  
When the ladies' talk turns more romantic as they recall the past, lighting director, James Morrison, dims the lights to a soft hue which quickly change and brighten when life interrupts.
  
The phone rings. 

Someone knocks on the door.  

Maurice?  Is that you? Please come in!  Please come!

Is he a figment of their imaginations? A miracle mirage whom these dreamy travelers believe they see in their desert of life?

Will you come, my Prince in Shining Armour, my darling, and rescue me from my boring existence?
 
Suspense builds.
 
Reid May, sound director, effectively makes noisy, unseen vehicles stop on the street outside the curtained window where the women quickly rush to see who it is. 

It could be Maurice getting out of a car!  Maybe? Perhaps?
 
Meanwhile, females in the audience silently plead for Maurice to show and give a glimmer of hope that Prince Charming does indeed exist.   

The transitions from sophisticated ladies to tanked trollops match increasing audience laughter, a tribute not only to the fine acting by Ms. Spencer and Ms. Jernigan but to Ms. Fine's marvelous directing which keeps the actors in constant motion.

What a delight to attend theatre and have a good time. To not be depressed about the "state of things" like many contemporary playwrights leave us. 

Going to the theatre is a bit like going on a blind date:  You are not sure of what he looks like nor how charming he may be until you get there and a few moments pass. Vulgar language, grey sets, and harsh scripts leave me depressed and downfallen. 

Not a good date, not like the good time I had with Fallen Angels.

The 1925 British censor unenthusiastically let the script pass to the stage, convinced there was no such thing as upperclass women who engaged in premarital sex, let alone, God forbid, thoughts about it while wed!
 
Not so in Amsterdam where the censors knew better and banned the show after a few performances.

In her program notes, Ms. Fine writes that this may be the first production of Fallen Angels in the Washington area.

Also in the cast is Robert Pike. 

Other creative team members are: Hollyann Bucci, assistant director; Alex Wade, properties;  Claire Turner, Cathy Reider, Suzy Alden, scenic painters; Nicholas J Goodman, stage manager; Hollyann Bucci, Marilyn Lopes, Kate York, assistant stage managers; and Jonathan Abolins, electrician

What:  Fallen Angels 
 
When:  Thursday through Saturday nights at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Through April 7, 2019 

Where: NextStop Theatre Company, 269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon, VA 20170 in the back right corner of Sunset Business Park, near the intersection of Spring Street/Sunset Hills Road. Right off the Fairfax County Parkway. Lots of great restaurants nearby.

Lighted, free parking: Available near the door.

Admission: General admission tickets start at $35. Buy online or through the box office at 866-811-4111.

Duration: About two hours with one intermission

Rating: G

For more information: 703-481-5930 or info@nextstoptheatre.org

patricialesli@gmail.com