The Lark: Vol 5, Issue 7, October 2025

INSIDE THIS EDITION:

GREECE REMEMBERED by Gloria DePaola
ELECTION SKULLDUGGERY by Bill Hudson
MIRACLE AND WONDER: CONVERSATIONS WITH PAUL SIMON by Leslie Walden
ANNUAL AUTHORS BRUNCH FEAT. LISA GENOVA, NANCY RUBIN STUART, AND DAWN TRIPP (Oct 26)
SISTERHOOD OF TEMPLE BETH-EL ARTISAN MARKETPLACE (Nov 9)
APACHE BLESSING

Click on the links to jump to the article.

Greece Remembered

by Gloria DePaola

It’s been three months since our Greek family odyssey but I still remember lots of other wonderful discoveries – the pristine island beaches, impossible to resist bakeries in every neighborhood, an outdoor performance of Greek folk dances in a neighborhood park with its own amphitheater, the tiny village of Anafiotika that clings to the Acropolis, where the houses at the top perch on roofs of lower ones, forming a whitewashed cliff.

On our last day my daughter Claudia and I got all of the aches and calluses steamed, massaged and scrubbed out of us in a spa visit. An hour of pure bliss for 60 euros. It was an indulgence that helped us prepare for the 5 am flight back to Heathrow, loaded down with folk art slippers, fur lined red suede gloves and a fig-scented cologne I bought in a drugstore that was founded in 1890. Its fragrance carries me back to those islands.

Picture of shutters

Election Skullduggery

by Bill Hudson

Recent news reports say that President Donald Trump is giving serious consideration to serving a third term in office despite the 22nd Amendment prohibiting Presidents from running more than twice. He claims there are possible work arounds that would allow him to serve a third term. One he mentioned was for J.D. Vance to run for president in 2028 with him as Vice President. Once they were elected, Vance would step aside in favor of Trump. According to proponents of this maneuver, Trump would not have run for a third term and could serve a third term because the 22nd amendment prohibits running more than twice not serving more than twice. Sounds clever, but it would not work. The 12th Amendment happens to prohibit anyone ineligible for running for president, which would be Trump’s situation, from running for vice president. You would think these bozos would read the Constitution before cooking up these schemes.

This imagined scenario of a Trump third term, however fantastical, recalled for me a memory of a time when a classmate and I organized a similar maneuver in a class election. Here is that story.

The year was 1959. I was in the 6th grade and a fervent anti-communist. Since first grade, I had watched numerous short films in school about the spreading menace of world communism. The image of red paint oozing from the USSR and Communist China spreading across the globe was embedded in my mind. I had read J. Edgar Hoover’s Masters of Deceit so was au courant to the dangers of communists at home. They could be our neighbors, our friends, even our elected officials and emerge anytime to impose tyranny. These views were reinforced in our daily newspaper, the Indianapolis Star that editorialized in practically every issue about the subversive machinations of communists at home and abroad. I was well schooled in the need to be vigilant in face of the communist menace. But were my 6th grade classmates? That question spurred the electoral maneuver that I planned for them.

To carry out my plan I needed a co-conspirator. I convinced a classmate to help me in turning the upcoming class election into a communist style coup. If we could enact for our classmates the subversion of an election, communist style, I reasoned, they would be educated in the real-world dangers of communism. My plan went like this:

I was quite popular among my classmates, and everyone was certain I would win the upcoming election for president of the 6th grade. My plan was to win election through the normal process then declare to the class that I was turning over power to my friend the Communist Party Boss. He would declare that from now on the class would be run according to communist principles.

Before carrying out the plan, we had the good sense to warn our teacher about what we were cooking up and its pedagogical rationale. She, a good anti-communist herself, thought it a clever educational moment and said she would not stand in our way. So, with authority on our side, we were all set.

On the appointed day, as expected, I won the secret ballot election for class president in a landslide. With great fanfare, I proceeded to the front of the classroom and as planned, with my new authority as President, declared my friend communist dictator. The class was in an uproar. “Unfair, unfair” they cried. All my classmates were furious with me. My popular status vanished in a second. “Teacher do something” they pleaded. At this point, our teacher, a smile on her face, turned to me and said, “Bill you better explain what just happened here.” On cue, I launched into a speech about the dangers of communist subversion, quoting liberally from Hoover’s book. I explained that my friend and I had demonstrated how an unsuspecting public could be maneuvered into giving power to communists and urged them to be vigilant in combating the communist menace. J. Edgar would have been proud. I imagined that had he been there he would have given me an honorary FBI badge on the spot.

After things died down, teacher announced that we would hold a new election without any communist coup allowed. Votes were cast. This time I lost in a landslide. The class was not going to risk being fooled a second time. I took the loss in stride. I had sacrificed political ambition to a higher cause.

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon

by Leslie Walden

I just listened to a wonderful audiobook that I thought others at LLC might enjoy. It’s an interview with Paul Simon. It is compelling, informative and a treat to listen to. I, and I am sure many of you, grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel. I’ve followed Simon through his many stages as a singer, songwriter and guitarist.

Malcolm Gladwell and his friend Bruce Headlam, a fellow journalist, met with Simon nine times with each interview lasting 4-5 hours! The two interviewers ask questions as Simon sings and strums his guitar. Simon recounts his thinking as he wrote lyrics and melodies. His memory of his “process” and intentions is prodigious and astonishingly detailed even for songs he wrote 50 years ago. I never get tired of listening to “The Sounds of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and now I have a better understanding what his thinking was behind these songs and the many others that he wrote. Whether Simon is singing or strumming his songs in the background, music is an integral part of the book.

Simon’s father, a professional musician until he got his PhD in linguistics in mid-life, gave him a guitar when he was 13. His father was an important figure in his life. The only mention of his mother was to comment about a remark she made 70 years ago when Paul and Art Garfunkel played together as teens. She told Paul that he had a good voice but that Arthur had a fine voice. Simon still resents that comment to this day.

Garfunkel and Simon met in elementary school in Queens and began singing together as teens calling themselves Tom and Jerry. They admired and tried to imitate the already popular Everly Brothers. Simon pointed out that every street corner in their neighborhood in the ‘50’s had a Rock and Roll band and doo-wop groups such as the Cleftones. (You’ll hear their music on the audiotape.) Dion and the Belmonts rehearsed on subways heading into Manhattan. Gradually Simon took over the writing and composing because his lyrics were more poetic; both he and Garfunkel sang. One of the many reasons this audiobook is so moving is because, throughout, you hear Simon singing and strumming these memorable songs. Simon and Garfunkel broke up in 1970 after recording “Bridge over Troubled Water” and went their separate ways. As Simon tells the story behind their breakup, we hear this wonderful song in the background.

Simon has been writing and performing for seven decades. In 2018 he announced his retirement because of hearing loss but, as he adjusted to this new reality, he had a dream about yet another composition, Seven Psalms, which he recently completed. He is now back performing. Gladwell and Headlam often remark how innovative Simon is and how unusual it is for a musician to be constantly exploring different types of music. They are impressed with his creative mind and his prodigious memory. I am as well.

Simon is never satisfied. He tells the interviewers that he stores parts of songs and instrument sounds in his mind until their time has arrived. Jazzman Herbie Hancock is quoted as saying that Simon “doesn’t mind stepping out of the box”. When Simon finally initiates a new project, he begins strumming, thinking of the lyrics line-by-line and follows where his ear takes him. It is not a planned process.

Over these many years Paul has traveled the world to learn and record drumming and unusual instruments from local musicians. He has produced a wide variety of albums including folk-rock, gospel, reggae, jazz, zydeco (a lively music genre from Louisiana with blues and rhythm) and even a type of South African vocal style. The songs and beats are unique. You’ll get to hear them all in this audiobook.

If you want to learn more about “Wonder and Miracles,” go to miracleaudiobook.com/bonus. But first I suggest you listen to the audiotape. I loved it and hope you will too.