[Dixielandjazz] This is nutz

[Robert S. Ringwald]

What???  A Jazz musician have an affair with an 18 year old girl?  Never
happen...

Bob
mr.wonderful@ringwald.com
Placerville, CA USA
Amateur (ham) Radio Station K6YBV
Fulton Street Jazz Band
See: http://www.ringwald.com
Boondockers Jazz & Comedy Band
See: http://www.theboondockers.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie Hooks" <charliehooks@earthlink.net>
To: "DJML Dixieland Jazz" <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 8:01 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] This is nutz


>
>     I had forsworn more postings on the music list in deference to those
> pure musicians and camp followers who abhor anything other than lits of
> coming festivals, but I'm making one last exception.  And I have indeed
> patched in a musical content as a general question.
>
>     Intended originally for the Right Guard members (the conservatives on
> the music list, folk interested (oh, gasp!) in things beyond OKOM--even
> beyond (double gasp!) music itself--I have decided that we all, especially
> our moral superiors in other lands, might be amused by the following post:
>
>     Just this morning I wrote:
>
>     Here in Chicago the columnist, Bob Greene, younger person who admires
> the "Greatest Generation," friend and biographer of "The Man Who Won the
> War," General Paul Tibbets of the Enola Gay, fighter for kids everwhere
> (even if he is an Elvis fan, I forgive him!) has just been fired from the
> Chicago Tribune for having "broken trust" a decade ago by (are you ready
for
> this?) having an affair with an 18 year old girl (note: OVER the age of
> consent!).  The big scandal?  He had met her because of his job at the
> paper.  Wow!  Boy, are these Trib folks clean-handed!  See, they had this
> little rule...
>
>     They've shot themselves in the foot on this, of course, since Greene's
> international rep is far bigger than the Trib.  He'll probably make money
on
> the incident.  But I wondered how the list would view an analogous
> situation:
>
>     Say that as a result of your musician's position onstage you've met a
> young person who wants to...umm, how can we put this?...well, you know...
> You are 45 years old (as Greene was a decade ago) and this attractive
young
> person is over 18.  Let's say that rather than calling out evil names, you
> indulge this young person's desires to your mutual enjoyment.
>
>     Question: if, ten years later, someone sends the bandleader an
anonymous
> e-mail remarking on this incident but not mentioning names, should the
> bandleader be shocked and scandalized to the extent of scouring records to
> identify you as the miscreant?
>
>     Then, having located you and secured your "confession," (as in "Aw,
> yeah, man!  Now I remembrer her.  Ooh, she was fine, fine!) should your
name
> be published, front page, Sunday paper, as having "improper relations"
with
> a girl "in her late teens" and for that reason being terminated?  First
> thing you think is: girl is 16 or 17, right?  But wrong: she's over 18.  A
> fact which is buried down in paragraph wherezit on the FOLLOWING day.
>
>     Of course, we all know that this has never ever happened to a
musician.
> And that, if it had, each of us would have shouted, "Begone, thou devilish
> tempter(ess)!  Unhand my...ooh, dear..."
>
>     So I sent the following letters--to the Trib vox pop, to the Great
> Editor General, Mary Ann Lpinski, and to Steve Chapman, the only level-
> headed conservative on the Trib general staff:
>
> Mr. Chapman:
>
>     As one of the few people at the Trib who actively uses his
> (considerable) brainpower, I wonder how you view this letter:
>
>
> Ms. Lipinski:
>
>     Bob Greene's real mistake was in neglecting first to get himself
elected
> president; then he could even have lied under oath and still kept his job.
>
>     He should feel complimented: you hold him to higher standards than
does
> the Senate Bill Clinton!
>
>     Worst of all: you hold back the "detail" that the girl was over age!
I
> had to dig that out only this morning, and not from a lead paragraph.  Yet
> THAT was what we all wanted to know first!
>
>     In trying first to CYA on Sunday, you succeeded in making such a huge
> ass of the Tribune that no cover is large enough.
>
> Cordially,
> Charlie Hooks
>
>     Steve: Am I wrong?  (I'll take your word on it.)
>
> Chas.
>
>
>
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