Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

What If JFK Had Lived? One Surprising Answer

LOG-LINE:  After John Kennedy survives the attack at Dealey Plaza unharmed, the resulting investigation sets events in motion that tear apart his administration.

A few years ago, alternative history novelist Harry Turtledove and I worked on a proposal and the first three chapters of a novel that describes what we think might have happened after a Dallas where JFK lives.That site, with those chapters, is still up and published for your review here.

It's called WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: The Impeachment & Trial of John F. Kennedy. Please drop by and check it out. We still hope to complete the project in time for the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

What if John Kennedy survived Dallas?

Historians love to speculate on this “what-if” scenario, wondering if magically the nation would have been spared the pain of Vietnam and even Watergate.  They have missed the point. 

If he’d gotten out of Dealey Plaza alive, John Kennedy might easily have suffered the same fate as his arch-nemesis Richard Nixon -- humiliation and removal from office.

With the eyes of the world on the United States and the media in a frenzy, with JFK himself alive and not a martyr, an immediate investigation would have been launched into who might have been interested in killing our popular American President. And the Kennedy brothers would have been hell-bent to ensure their political as well as their physical survival.

Starting with the Secret Service, the blame-game would have taken on a life of its own, forcing explosive revelations in mere months that have instead dribbled out over decades. Kennedy’s reckless conduct would have become public: the lies about his medical condition, contacts with mobsters, election money-laundering, numerous attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, and even the hundreds of high-risk sexual encounters that endangered Kennedy’s safety and, by extension, our country’s security.

This alternative history novel covers the period from the November 22, 1963 near-miss assassination attempt of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas through the events of early 1966 when the fate of John F. Kennedy was in the hands of 100 United States Senators worried about their own careers in the next election.

Will the Kids Ever Leave?

Bruce Sallan gave up a show biz career to parent his two boys and now writes about his experiences on "A Dad's Point-of-View" and is the house dad at "Mom Logic."

What an interesting contemporary question: will our kids ever leave? I left home at sixteen to go away to college and never returned, except for visits. I stayed close to my parents, and they did help me financially through college, though I worked every summer to supplement my education expenses and pay for my own spending. Loren (my wife) and I wonder when will our kids be independent enough to afford to leave? 

The other day I talked with a mother who has two teenage daughters. One is graduating from high school this year while the other has two more years to go. I asked what were their plans, and had she discussed it with her husband, and I was surprised to hear she had no clue. Neither she, her husband, or the kids really knew where the girls were heading, especially when it came to the idea of supporting themselves with a real job, after college. 

Her kids have had short-term minimum wage jobs, enough to pay for the occasional designer jeans they love, but certainly not enough for life, as we know it. It seemed clear that they were going to have to support their daughters through college, but then what? From everything I’m hearing from other friends, this is more typical than not of the current state of preparedness of our kids to live on their own. And, more and more, the kids are returning home after college still unprepared to support themselves and, now, with the added problems of diminishing job opportunities. 

Funeral for a Friend

Charlotte Safavi regularly blogs on the Huffington Post, and has written for other publications including The Washington Post. Though born and educated in England, her heritage is Iranian and she now resides in Northern Virginia. 

Last year my eight-year-old son R.J. showed me a bird's nest in our silver maple. The wide-girthed tree crowns our modest backyard, an earth-bound shelter for suburban fauna, scrappy squirrels, toothsome chipmunks and commonplace feathered friends.

I decide the nest belongs to robins. Not because I saw anything through the murky blur of my kid's binoculars, but because he found blue eggshells on the ground beneath the nest.

"R.J., help me take out the trash," I say one afternoon, words that I will regret shortly.

I lug the overflowing recycle bin and he pulls the trashcan-on-wheels down our sloped driveway to the street. While I rearrange newspapers running like a creek, R.J. walks back up the drive.

"Mom, come," he shouts. "A baby bird fell out of the nest!"

Sure enough, a fledgling lies on the patio, beak gaped, neck distended, claws curled, a sad thing. R.J. stands transfixed, before breaking off and running erratic circles around the lawn. For a child who cried inconsolably at age three when a car blew up in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, his reaction does not surprise me.

Always on Your Side

Coleman Luck is a Hollywood writer/executive producer known for such TV series as "The Equalizer" and "Gabriel's Fire."  His first novel, Angel Fall, has just been published.  He posts regularly on his blog, Coleman's Strange Journey.

 In Memory of Edward Woodward, "The Equalizer"   

This morning came the word that my old friend and colleague Edward Woodward had passed away. He was 79 years old. Over recent years our contact was pretty much limited to the exchange of Christmas cards. The one he sent last year carried the note that he was still working at 79 and wasn't that a wonder? 

I didn't create the classic American television series of which Edward was the star. It was created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. Michael was a busy writer/producer and Dick was a top-level executive at Universal Television. After the pilot was written and produced, because of their commitments, neither could join the on-going staff of the show. It was turned over to others. 

I came on board the team as the junior writer/producer in the fall of 1985. It was show eleven. I had worked on only one other series and that one had lasted for just eight episodes. When it ended I was offered an exclusive deal at Universal TV. I was thrilled to be there, but for months there wasn't much for me to do. Then came a call. Would I like to join the staff of a new series that was in production called The Equalizer? The concept sounded interesting so I said yes. 

Almost immediately I ran into a false conception that plagued the show from beginning to end. When I told a woman writer friend that I was joining The Equalizer she looked disgusted. Why would I want to write for a show about a vigilante? To this day that's how many people perceive The Equalizer. But for those of us who worked on the series it wasn't about that at all. 

Weekend Comix at Movie Smackdown!

Here's a little sneak peek at some of the Smacks we're working on at Movie Smackdown.  For sure Mark Sanchez is going to referee the "2012 -vs- Independence Day" fight.  We're probably talking about "Pirate Radio -vs- Love Actually."  And a good bet is "Women in Trouble -vs- Boogie Nights."

 

 

If you like our Smackdown Comix, by the way, we have literally hundreds of 'em for you to check out, download, and/or send to your friends at www.moviesmackdown.tv.  If you're tired of seeing the same film publicity stills on every review you read, this is a whole new way to look at them!

Swine Flu Is Still Just Flu

Bruce Sallan gave up a show biz career to parent his two boys and now writes about his experiences on "A Dad's Point-of-View" and is the house dad at "Mom Logic."

 My Son Has the Swine Flu – A Daily Journal  

We just went through the swine flu with our older son, Will. We didn’t panic or allow the hysteria of the msm (mainstream media) to scare us.  His first reaction was simply, “Darn, I’m going to miss Halloween.” I believe our media have become hysteria mongers, as well as all too often focusing on their agenda vs. objective reporting.  They devote way too much time to subjects unworthy of so much coverage, such as the balloon boy or the tragic deaths of celebrities. With the swine flu, we’ve been deluged with scare reports from the media, ignoring the fact that each year tens of thousands of Americans die of the regular flu.  As with AIDS, the panic is over-wrought and generalized to scare everyone when the reality is there are more at-risk groups for just about every such illness.  

• EDITOR'S NOTE:  Bruce Sallan is not a doctor and this column is not intended to be giving medical advice.  It is about his experience with his son and the swine flu, and his belief that the media may have exaggerated and scared the public about its risks. Regardless, you should take every precaution, consult your doctor if there are any symptoms, and to secure proper information, go to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) web-sites - http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/sick.htm. And we now return you to our blog...

I kept a daily journal of our experience, which follows.  I hope it’s helpful to all parents and people in giving a more realistic view of this strain of flu. I still caution everyone to be careful, see their doctors, and otherwise be smart about washing hands, but hope you will have a better perspective of this than the media has foolishly scared us to think.  Day One – Will is sent home from school as the nurse called to say he had a mild fever.  We put him to bed, took his temp, and called our pediatrician.  He had a 101 fever, a slight cough, but otherwise seemed fine. The pediatrician’s office said to give him Motrin, fluids, and see if he still had a temperature tomorrow and, if so, to bring him in.  Later that evening, his temp was just 100 and he was feeling pretty good.

Having Writ, Moving On

Lauren Kessler is an author, narrative journalist and director of the literary non-fiction graduate program at the University of Oregon who blogs at Thin House.

I was down at UPS yesterday arranging to have the final edited version of my manuscript sent back to my editor in New York.

“Another book?”  the woman behind the counter asked, all smiles.  She’s been following my work for a while now.  “You must be so excited!”

Actually, not. 

I’m more like…deflated.  Depressed, even.

When I’m excited is when I’m writing, when I’m immersed in a subject, hip-deep in the world of the book, energy focused, all cylinders firing.  The excitement begins to mount somewhere around chapter four.  By then I’ve found a way into the book.  I’m warmed up.  I am seeing the possibilities, and the narrative is starting to make itself visible.  Around chapter four I am keenly aware of the difficulties I face, of the challenges I will encounter and have to master if the book is to be successful.  But, unlike in the throes of chapter one, two and often three, I am not in a state of semi-paralysis, fearful that I am not, nor will I ever be, up to the task at hand.  By chapter four I have a toe-hold.  I am by then – biochemically speaking -- scared enough to have a good adrenaline rush going but not so scared as to be awash in cortisol.  I am alive, alert and ready for action.

More than that:  I am thrilled to be so thoroughly absorbed.  My life takes on a shape.  There is order to my days.  Order to my reading, my thinking, my conversation, even my dreaming.  The book is like a planet, and I am its moon.  I love the tug of that gravitational pull.  I don’t ever want to be released.

Telling It Like It Is

Bruce Sallan gave up a show biz career to parent his two boys and now writes about his experiences on "A Dad's Point-of-View" and is the house dad at "Mom Logic."

Do men really have good support for emotional issues, on a regular basis? When a man reaches a certain age and he’s depressed, he’s struggling with his place in the world, he’s going through family problems or a divorce, or financial and job worries, etc., where can he turn? Add into the mix that he’s a single dad and has no immediate family around and you have my situation, a few years ago. 

When my marriage first broke up, I was blessed to find a circle of men that supported and guided me through the horrible ups and downs that followed. No, it wasn’t some beer-drinking group of women-haters, nor a drumming in Indian war paint Robert Bly-type of thing. It was regular men, with regular problems, getting together and talking about the real stuff. 

I’ve stayed with this group, through various incarnations of men leaving and joining, for going on eight years now. Unlike the stereotype beliefs of men’s groups, ours completely supports parenting and a man’s relationship with his spouse and children. But, unfortunately, this is unusual, as men don’t tend to maintain their close male relationships after they marry, have children, and get further into their careers. 

This is a classic case where the men and women differ greatly, since women, even if they’re working, tend to maintain their female friends which provides a regular outlet, in which to vent, to discuss, to get feedback, and to get help. It isn’t always healthy to go to your spouse with every question or concern you might have. As women tend to be influenced more by their feelings, it’s really helpful to us male slugs, that they can bounce something off their friends, before hitting us with it. 

Technocalypse Now? What's Your Take?

 The End of Showbiz As We Know It... 

I've been thinking a lot about the end of the world lately. Not the end in a "2012" kind of way, but the end of the world in an "end of the world as we know it" kind of way. 

A few months ago, I was asked to give the keynote speech at the "What is Film?" conference sponsored by the University of Oregon that takes place in Portland next Friday and Saturday, November 6 & 7 at the new Turnbull Center. After some thought, the title of my speech hit me, "Technocalypse Now?" 

So let's get out the dictionary, shall we, and create a new word...

Technology. The application of science and engineering, especially to industrial or commercial objectives that interrelate with life, society and the environment.

Apocalypse. A prophetic disclosure or revelation of cataclysm that brings universal or widespread destruction or disaster to life and society.

This means that when we put the two words in a super-collider to see what they create together, we get something like:

Technocalypse. The cataclysmic destruction of the entertainment industry through the creation of digital products that undermine and destroy the economic models that show business was based on.

 

Although I've got a pretty spiffy presentation digitally simmering on my computer (using Mac's "Keynote" program), the more I work on this talk, the more I realize there are multiple answers to the question "Technocalypse Now?"

There is no doubt whatsoever that people are suffering during this disruption. I know or have heard of plenty of people who used to be high-level types in Hollywood who have kicked it in and moved on to try something else. Everything's in flux, downsizing is going on all over the place, and anybody who tells you they know exactly how it's all going to shake down is simply lying. There are educated guesses, informed theories, and wishful thoughts. There are few hard facts.

As I get down to the last days, I'm filling in these hi-tech digital slides with some pithy content from reading, researching and thinking. I'd love for readers, in and out of the Hollywood game, to be part of that process by posting their own thoughts about what's going on and how it's going to shake down.

E-Mail, Etiquette, and Friends

Bruce Sallan gave up a show biz career to parent his two boys and now writes about his experiences on "A Dad's Point-of-View" and is the house dad at "Mom Logic."

E-mail is so ubiquitous that we forget that it isn’t talking on the phone or having a conversation in person.  Subtlety, facial expressions, or tonality are all lost in an e-mail message.  I have found this has gotten me in trouble when I think I’m being funny, subtle, or sarcastic in an e-mail.  And, the habit many of us have of forwarding a joke, photo, or an article creates even greater problems in many cases.

I think e-mail should probably be treated as Eliza Doolittle was advised in “My Fair Lady” about making conversation.  “Stick to the weather and health” was Professor Higgins’s caution.  Even that proved problematic as Eliza went into too much embarrassing detail about her own family’s health, before she completely blew it with her expletive encouraging one of the racehorses to “move your bloomin’ ass!”

I read recently that e-mail, like so many new technological innovations, may be receding in popularity among the younger generation in favor of instant messaging (on cell-phones and computers) or “tweeting” via Twitter, which is limited to something like 140 characters of text.  Acronyms are the norm and the list of these short cuts, like “ttyl” (talk to you later) or “btw” (by the way), just keep growing and growing.

Correspondence, like in the days of pen and ink, has gone the way of the horse and buggy.  But, e-mail is its own special creature and I’ve found it rampant with potential misunderstandings and strains on relationships.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stung by an e-mail reply to something I’ve sent out that I felt that person might really enjoy--or maybe, God forbid, learn something from.  “My bad” to quote my son as I’m learning that almost no one but those closest to you want such e-mail.