Sunday, September 21, 2014


News Clips For The Day


https://www.yahoo.com/movies/cape-fear-actress-polly-bergen-dies-at-84-97989076367.html

'Cape Fear' Actress Polly Bergen Dies at 84
Associated PressSep 20, 2014
By Jake Pearson

NEW YORK (AP) — Emmy-winning actress and singer Polly Bergen, who in a long career played the terrorized wife in the original Cape Fearand the first woman president in Kisses for My President, died Saturday, according to her publicist. She was 84.

Bergen died at her home in Southbury, Connecticut, from natural causes, said publicist Judy Katz, surrounded by family and close friends.

A brunette beauty with a warm, sultry singing voice, Bergen was a household name from her 20s onward. She made albums and played leading roles in films, stage musicals, and TV dramas. She also hosted her own variety series, was a popular game show panelist, and founded a thriving beauty products company that bore her name.

In recent years, she played Felicity Huffman’s mother on Desperate Housewives and the past mistress of Tony Soprano’s late father on The Sopranos.

Bergen won an Emmy in 1958 portraying the tragic singer Helen Morgan on the famed anthology series Playhouse 90. She was nominated for another Emmy in 1989 for best supporting actress in a miniseries or special for War and Remembrance.

Talking to women in a business group in 1968, she said her definition of success was “when you feel what you’ve done fulfills yourself, makes you happy and makes people around you happy.”

Bergen was 20 and already an established singer when she starred with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in her first movie, At War With the Army. She joined them in two more comedies, That’s My Boy and The Stooge.

In 1953, she made her Broadway debut with Harry Belafonte in the revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. In 1957-58 she starred on the musical-variety The Polly Bergen Show on NBC, closing every broadcast with her theme song, The Party’s Over.

Also during the 1950s, she became a regular on the popular game show To Tell the Truth.

Bergen published the first of her three advice books, The Polly Bergen Book of Beauty, Fashion and Charm, in 1962. That led to her own cosmetics company, which earned her millions.

Bergen became a regular in TV movies and miniseries, most importantly in the 1983 epic The Winds of War and its 1988 sequel, War and Remembrance. She appeared as the troubled wife of high-ranking Navy officer Pug Henry, played by Robert Mitchum.

Mitchum also had the key role in the landmark 1962 suspense film Cape Fear, as the sadistic ex-convict who terrorizes a lawyer (Gregory Peck) and his wife (Bergen) and daughter because he blames Peck for sending him to prison. The film was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese.

In 1964’s Kisses for My President, Bergen was cast as the first female U.S. president, with Fred MacMurray as First Gentleman. (In the end, the president quits when she gets pregnant.) When Geena Davis portrayed a first woman president in the 2005 TV drama Commander in Chief, Bergen was cast as her mother.

Among her other films was Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, Susan Seidelman’s 1987 Making Mr. Right, and John Waters’ 1990 Cry-Baby, with Johnny Depp.

A fierce ambition prevailed throughout Bergen’s entertainment career and in her business life. She walked out of early contracts with Paramount and MGM because she thought her film roles were inadequate.

As the president of the Polly Bergen Co., founded in 1966, she arrived at her office at 9 a.m. and worked a full day. “It was very difficult at the beginning,” she said in 2001, “because everybody considered me just another bubble-headed actress.”

She sold the company in 1973 to Faberge, staying on for a couple of years afterward to run it as a Faberge subsidiary.

Bergen employed the same zeal in reviving her performing career after a series of personal setbacks of the 1990s. She played successful dates at cabarets in New York and Beverly Hills.

When she was refused an audition for the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies, she contacted composer Stephen Sondheim. He auditioned her and gave her the role of a faded star who sings of her ups and downs in show business. The show-stopping song “I’m Still Here” was reminiscent of Bergen’s own saga. She was nominated for a Tony award for her role.

In 2002 she played a secondary role in the revival of Cabaret and the following year she was back on Broadway with the comedy Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

Nellie Paulina Burgin was born in 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee, into a family that at times relied on welfare to survive. They family eventually moved to California, and Polly, as she was called, began her career singing on radio in her teens.

"I was fanatically ambitious," she recalled in 2001. "All I ever wanted to be was a star. I didn’t want to be a singer. I didn’t want to be an actress. I wanted to be a star."

But over the years, Bergen’s personal life was not as smooth as her career. Her four-year marriage to actor Jerome Courtland ended in an acrimonious divorce in 1955. Her second marriage was to super-agent and producer Freddie Fields. The couple divorced in 1975 after 18 years.

In 1982 she married entrepreneur Jeff Endervelt. She co-signed his loans and gave him millions to invest from her beauty company profits. She said in a 2001 New York Times interview: “He would come home and say, ‘Honey, sign this.’ I wouldn’t even look at it. Because you trust your husband.”

The stock market crash of the 1980s wiped out the investments. She divorced him in 1991, and she said he left her with so many debts she had to sell her New York apartment and other belongings to avoid bankruptcy. She also battled emphysema and other ailments in the late 1990s, a result of 50 years of smoking.

She is survived by her children Peter Fields, Kathy Lander, and Pamela Fields and three grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, her family is asking that donations be made to Planned Parenthood, said her publicist, Katz.

Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press’ late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas.



Cape Fear (1962 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Cape Fear” is a 1962 American psychological thriller film starringRobert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners byJohn D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962. The movie concerns an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal he helped to send to jail.

“Cape Fear” was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese. Peck, Mitchum and Balsam all appeared in the remake.




“Talking to women in a business group in 1968, she said her definition of success was 'when you feel what you’ve done fulfills yourself, makes you happy and makes people around you happy.'... Bergen became a regular in TV movies and miniseries, most importantly in the 1983 epic The Winds of War and its 1988 sequel, War and Remembrance. She appeared as the troubled wife of high-ranking Navy officer Pug Henry, played by Robert Mitchum.... Mitchum also had the key role in the landmark 1962 suspense film Cape Fear, as the sadistic ex-convict who terrorizes a lawyer (Gregory Peck) and his wife (Bergen) and daughter because he blames Peck for sending him to prison. The film was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese.... Mitchum also had the key role in the landmark 1962 suspense film Cape Fear, as the sadistic ex-convict who terrorizes a lawyer (Gregory Peck) and his wife (Bergen) and daughter because he blames Peck for sending him to prison. The film was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese.... A fierce ambition prevailed throughout Bergen’s entertainment career and in her business life. She walked out of early contracts with Paramount and MGM because she thought her film roles were inadequate. As the president of the Polly Bergen Co., founded in 1966, she arrived at her office at 9 a.m. and worked a full day. “It was very difficult at the beginning,” she said in 2001, 'because everybody considered me just another bubble-headed actress.'... When she was refused an audition for the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies, she contacted composer Stephen Sondheim. He auditioned her and gave her the role of a faded star who sings of her ups and downs in show business. The show-stopping song “I’m Still Here” was reminiscent of Bergen’s own saga. She was nominated for a Tony award for her role.”

Polly Bergen is one of my favorite stars, both as a singer and an actress. I remember the jaw dropping thriller “Cape Fear,” very well. All the actors were good, so that a scary plot became bone chilling. The movie's setting is on a houseboat in the swampy landscape of the Cape Fear River in Eastern North Carolina. A maniac played by Robert Mitchum menacingly touches the beautiful Bergen in a sexually threatening way, which wasn't seen much in movies in those days, and her lawyer husband is on his own in defeating Mitchum. They have a prolonged fight including running through the snake-filled swampland. Naturally the lawyer wins and the audience is delighted. The lawyer, being an intellectual and a very good guy, doesn't kill Mitchum, but rather turns him over to the law. I didn't see the 1991 remake, but I have watched the 1962 version at least three times.

Bergen continued her career until very late in her life, and died without any major scandals against her name, at least as far as I am aware. She's the kind of Hollywood star I love. The adoration of fans traps some of them in a web of self-indulgence and egotism which makes them much less appealing to me. I'm sorry she has died.





Another man arrested at the White House
CBS/AP September 20, 2014, 5:09 PM

WASHINGTON -- A man who drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave was arrested on Saturday, the Secret Service said, less than 24 hours after another man jumped the fence and made it all the way into the presidential residence before being apprehended. The president and first family were not at home.

The second incident started Saturday afternoon when a man approached one of the White House gates on foot, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He later showed up at another gate in a car and pulled into the vehicle screening area. When the man refused to leave, he was placed under arrest and charged with unlawful entry. Officials have not released his identity.

CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman reports that, according to Donovan, Saturday's incident doesn't appear to be a copycat of Friday night's intrusion.

Bomb technicians, fully suited, could be seen looking through a white four-door sedan with New Jersey plates and pulling out what appeared to be keys. Streets near the White House were temporarily closed as officers responded, but the White House was not locked down.

It wasn't immediately clear who the man was or why he was trying to enter the White House. President Obama, his wife and daughters were at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where the first family was spending the weekend.

The pair of incidents in short succession heightened concerns about security at the White House, one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world.

Just minutes after Mr. Obama and his daughters had departed by helicopter Friday evening, a 42-year-old man hopped over the fence and darted across the lawn, ignoring officers' commands to stop, Donovan said. He managed to get through the doors of the North Portico, the grand, columned entrance that looks out over Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Secret Service identified the suspect as Omar Gonzalez of Copperas Cove, Texas. He was charged with unlawful entry into the White House complex and transported to a nearby hospital complaining of chest pain.

On a quiet cul-de-sac about an hour's drive from Waco, Texas, where Gonzalez was last known to have lived, former neighbors said he moved out roughly two years ago, explaining only that he had to get out of Copperas Cove, which sits next to the Fort Hood Army post.

Sgt. 1st Class David Haslach, who lives two doors down from Gonzalez's former home, said Gonzalez had been in the U.S. military and told Haslach he had received a medical discharge. He and another former neighbor, Elke Warner, both recalled him seeming paranoid in the months before he left town.

"At the end, he got so weird. He had motion detector lights put in," Warner said. She added that she last saw Gonzalez about a year and a half ago at a nearby camp site, where he was apparently living with his two dogs.

Attempts to reach Gonzalez or his relatives by phone were unsuccessful.

The breach triggered a rare evacuation of much of the White House, with Secret Service officers drawing their guns as they rushed staffers and journalists out a side door.

Officials had originally said that Gonzalez appeared unarmed as he sprinted across the lawn - potentially one reason agents didn't shoot him or release their service dogs to detain him. But, according to the complaint against Gonzalez that was read Saturday, he was carrying a two-and-a-half-inch folding knife with a serrated blade in his right front pocket, Goldman reports. He faces a weapons charge.

The embarrassing incident comes at a difficult time for the Secret Service, which is still struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Mr. Obama's detail.

The Secret Service has struggled in recent years to strike the appropriate balance between ensuring the first family's security and preserving the public's access to the White House grounds. Once open to vehicles, the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was confined to pedestrians after the Oklahoma City bombing, but officials have been reluctant to restrict access to the area further.

Last year, a 34-year-old dental hygienist tried to ram her car through a White House barrier before leading police on a chase that ended with her being killed. Her 1-year-old daughter was in the car but escaped serious injury.




“A man who drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave was arrested on Saturday, the Secret Service said, less than 24 hours after another man jumped the fence and made it all the way into the presidential residence before being apprehended. The president and first family were not at home.The second incident started Saturday afternoon when a man approached one of the White House gates on foot, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He later showed up at another gate in a car and pulled into the vehicle screening area. When the man refused to leave, he was placed under arrest and charged with unlawful entry. Officials have not released his identity.... It wasn't immediately clear who the man was or why he was trying to enter the White House. President Obama, his wife and daughters were at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where the first family was spending the weekend.”

It seems to me that this rash of intrusions at the White House are probably unrelated, and more a sign of the full moon than a conspiracy. Both men on the last two days were behaving, not just suspiciously, but irrationally. The FBI might want to investigate sources like the Internet for any threatening entries toward Obama. He doesn't have to do anything wrong to be threatened. He is black, and a fairly large number of citizens hate him either on racial or policy grounds. I'm surprised that there haven't been any shots taken at him yet. He's been in office almost 8 years now. The Secret Service did its job effectively this time without any Republicans or others complaining, and the President wasn't home. I'm not overly worried about any of this, and I'm just glad everyone is safe.







Meet an 11-year-old voice of reason
CBS NEWS September 21, 2014, 10:28 AM

You're about to meet an outspoken young man, in a town much in the news over this summer. Jane Pauley is our guide. In Ferguson, Mo., last month, after a police officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old, Michael Brown, amid all the anger and shouting on the streets, a boy approached the microphone at a meeting of the St. Louis County Council:

"I would just like to say that the people of Ferguson, I believe, don't need tear gas thrown at them. I believe they need jobs."

Meet 11-year-old Marquis Govan.

"Where are all the African-American police officers in our community?"
In two minutes' time Govan tackled Ferguson's problems with unemployment, housing, and diversity:

"You're paying attention to the wrong things. You're paying attention to the looting and things like that, when the real issues aren't being solved. There's a reason why those people are out there."

"I thought he was right on, he's exactly right," said Hazel Erby, who chairs the council (and whose district includes Ferguson). "You know, the jobs, education, all of that had everything to do with what happened in Ferguson."

Pauley asked Govan, regarding the protests in Ferguson, "What I saw on television was basically your backyard. What did it feel like to watch those protests that inspired you to write that speech?"

"There has always been a problem, even when Ferguson never happened," Govan said. "The minority community, we need more African-American police officers."

Pauley asked if anyone in his school aspires to become a cop. Govan said no.

"Look, let me tell you why: From the beginning we've felt abused by these people. Why would you go up to serve among the abusers? It doesn't make any sense."

If you think Marquis is a young man with a future -- and he does -- well, it didn't always seem that way.

Pauley asked, "What's your story? You started life -- you didn't have an easy life?"

"No, not from the beginning," he said. "A regular child would grow up in America and have two lovely parents, and family of four. That didn't happen."

"It did to me," said Pauley.

"Yeah," he laughed, "because that's a 'regular' American family. But especially in the minority community it's totally different. As soon as I came out of my mother's stomach I wasn't with her anymore. I was completely in the foster care, and then completely with my great-grandmother. That's how it happened from the beginning."

His great-grandmother and guardian Jennie Bracy first brought a nine-year-old Marquis along when she went to vote. After that, she says Marquis just took over.

"When I go to the poll, he say, 'Okay, we're voting for this person, that person and that person,'" said Bracy.

"'We're voting for'?"

"'We are voting'!" Bracy laughed. "And so he said, 'Put your X there, put your check there, put your check there. Okay, want me to hit the confirm?' Boom!"

"But you trust him?"

"Yes, I do."




“'I would just like to say that the people of Ferguson, I believe, don't need tear gas thrown at them. I believe they need jobs.' Meet 11-year-old Marquis Govan. 'Where are all the African-American police officers in our community?' In two minutes' time Govan tackled Ferguson's problems with unemployment, housing, and diversity: 'You're paying attention to the wrong things. You're paying attention to the looting and things like that, when the real issues aren't being solved. There's a reason why those people are out there.'... 'There has always been a problem, even when Ferguson never happened,' Govan said. 'The minority community, we need more African-American police officers.' Pauley asked if anyone in his school aspires to become a cop. Govan said no. 'Look, let me tell you why: From the beginning we've felt abused by these people. Why would you go up to serve among the abusers? It doesn't make any sense.'... His great-grandmother and guardian Jennie Bracy first brought a nine-year-old Marquis along when she went to vote. After that, she says Marquis just took over.... 'When I go to the poll, he say, 'Okay, we're voting for this person, that person and that person,' said Bracy. 'We're voting for'? 'We are voting'! Bracy laughed. 'And so he said, 'Put your X there, put your check there, put your check there. Okay, want me to hit the confirm?' Boom!' 'But you trust him?' 'Yes, I do.'"

This reminds me of a news article in which a Hispanic child who was enrolled in school in America regularly translated from English to Spanish when her mother had to do any kind of business. We modern white Americans with the so-called “helicopter” parental style underestimate our children. They care, they observe, they have feelings, and they are smart in most cases, but they aren't given a say in what goes on. This young man stood before a group of all white adults and testified brilliantly for his community – their needs and the reasons for the negativity which is too common among poor blacks.

Middle class blacks are much more like white people, and to the degree that they differ it is usually because they want to. The inclusion of African heritage in modern black society is a choice now, not a superstition. It is high time whites listen to blacks and value what they have to say. Together we can have a civilized and positive society, and we desperately need to stop fighting the race war that has characterized our interactions since blacks were first brought here as slaves. Listen to this 11 year old boy and look at the racial situation fairly and peacefully.





Large Protests In Hundreds Of Cities Vent Ire Over Climate Change – NPR
by BILL CHAPPELL
September 21, 2014

Demonstrators gather near Columbus Circle before the start of the People's Climate March in New York Sunday. Organizers are hoping 100,000 people worldwide might participate in the rally.

Streets in New York City and other towns are being taken over by marchers Sunday in what organizers hope will be the largest climate change protest in history. The People's Climate March is timed to draw the notice of world leaders gathering for this week's U.N. Climate Summit.

As the New York march prepared to get underway at its official start time of 11:30 a.m. ET, protesters elsewhere were already celebrating large turnouts. A Twitter feed at the march's websiteshowed crowds of demonstrators marching in Perth and Melbourne, in London and Dublin, and in Johannesburg and Tanzania.

As NPR's Joel Rose reports from New York, the idea for the huge march started with professor and activist Bill McKibben, as a way to push for actions that limit greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he'll march with the protesters.

"The stakes are the future of the planet," McKibben says. "And so far, we've seen essentially no action from world leaders that matter on this question."

The organizers say some 2,000 marches are planned around the world today, with large marches expected in cities as varied as Bogota and Berlin, Rio and Istanbul. Overall, the turnout could top 100,000 participants.

"McKibben says there will be no celebrity speakers, no stage, and no speeches," Joel says. "But marchers are encouraged to bring air-horns, trumpets and other noise-makers to 'sound the smoke alarm for a planet on fire.'"

Global climate change expert Jessica Hellman, a professor at Notre Dame, says the march "sends a strong message that everyone is affected by climate change."

"We can still avert catastrophic change if we act quickly to reinvent our economy and our relationship to the earth," she says, "but we must also find ways to live with the climate change that has already started. Corporations and the development community are already helping the world to adapt, but these efforts are not enough."



Protesters to descend on NYC over climate change
CBS NEWS September 20, 2014, 4:02 PM

NEW YORK -- Preparations for a large climate-change demonstration in New York City have reached a fever pitch, CBS New York reports.

At a warehouse in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, artists made banners and floats for Sunday's event that's called the People's Climate March.

"This is a little bit unusual," organizer Rachel Schragis said. "I don't think it's ever been done at this scale before."

Organizers are saying that they expect more than 100,000 people to participate.

The march comes ahead a U.N. summit on climate change, where more than 120 world leaders in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting will meet on the issue. President Obama is expected to speak at Tuesday's summit.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "excited to link arms" with the protesters Sunday, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in an email to CBS News.

"It's clear that climate change is no longer a problem for the future. We can no longer delay action - if we delay we will pay," Dujarric said. "These marches show world leaders that people want action on climate change now."

Schragis said artists are aimed at turning the march into a visual spectacle, "making a pageant or parade."

Joel Stein of Brooklyn donated his time to the march's preparations.

"I'm concerned about the future," he said. "I'm concerned about the future that my children will inherit, that my family will inherit."

"You are not doing enough," Schragis said of the message she wants to send to world leaders. "We demand bold, global action on climate change."

Protesters are expected to wind their way through midtown Manhattan.

"The debate is over," Schragis said. "We see by the outpouring and the variety of people who are so excited about this march, people do care. They get it. They're concerned, and they want to know what to do."




“Demonstrators gather near Columbus Circle before the start of the People's Climate March in New York Sunday. Organizers are hoping 100,000 people worldwide might participate in the rally. Streets in New York City and other towns are being taken over by marchers Sunday in what organizers hope will be the largest climate change protest in history. The People's Climate March is timed to draw the notice of world leaders gathering for this week's U.N. Climate Summit.... A Twitter feed at the march's websiteshowed crowds of demonstrators marching in Perth and Melbourne, in London and Dublin, and in Johannesburg and Tanzania. As NPR's Joel Rose reports from New York, the idea for the huge march started with professor and activist Bill McKibben, as a way to push for actions that limit greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he'll march with the protesters.... 'We can still avert catastrophic change if we act quickly to reinvent our economy and our relationship to the earth,' she says, 'but we must also find ways to live with the climate change that has already started. Corporations and the development community are already helping the world to adapt, but these efforts are not enough.'”

“At a warehouse in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, artists made banners and floats for Sunday's event that's called the People's Climate March. 'This is a little bit unusual,' organizer Rachel Schragis said. 'I don't think it's ever been done at this scale before.'... 'It's clear that climate change is no longer a problem for the future. We can no longer delay action - if we delay we will pay,' Dujarric said. 'These marches show world leaders that people want action on climate change now.'... 'You are not doing enough,' Schragis said of the message she wants to send to world leaders. 'We demand bold, global action on climate change.'"

When I see the deeply cracked soil in California and the rest of the western US resulting from the last few years' drought, the drying up of lakes and rivers in the US and around the world, very violent hurricanes and erratic, unseasonable weather changes, I can't help feeling deep concern, because until now our government hasn't moved to change anything about the CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Power plants, industry and the massive use of gasoline on the highways as the public doesn't change their habits.

Just because the traffic and parking situation in Washington DC when I lived there was so difficult, there was already a move toward carpooling and taking public transportation. Buses had begun to use recycled vegetable oil from restaurants in some cases instead of diesel, and houses had begun to sprout solar panels on their roofs. Now a similar move concerns water availability in a few coastal areas where desalination plants have been built in the last few years.

All that is good, and we need to keep it up and do more. Stop mining coal and start putting in more solar and wind sources. One city power plant was in the news this last year for their quandary over how to bill houses that had solar panels. A number of them were producing so much electricity that they needed to give some back to the electrical grid, and the plant management was complaining about that. They need to be regulated so that they change their economic model to accommodate input as well as outflow of electricity and stop burning so much coal as a result. That was a news story that made me laugh, after big coal and gas had mocked the efforts of solar developers, saying that it isn't possible to make it work. I understand the need to have a residual power source for periods when there isn't enough sunshine, but the plants could at least supplement their power needs with solar or wind power.

Above all, I am glad to see that people are peacefully taking to the streets again for various causes. I believe in writing or calling your congressman for the most part, but there is nothing quite as impressive as 40,000 or more people marching down the street with banners, chanting. It's fun, and it's usually peaceful. If the laws are the same now as when I was young, it's legal to march as long as the organizers get a parade permit. If it was a civil rights march or something like the Occupy groups of a few years ago, there will be a police presence and people who get unruly or lie down in the street may be arrested, but they only got a day or so in jail and had to do some involuntary public service as a penalty; and it does show that you have a large amount of support who are willing to become troublesome if Congress doesn't act in their favor.





Mead, the honey-based brew producing a real buzz
CBS NEWS September 21, 2014, 9:28 AM

(CBS News) Since the beginning of time, resourceful humans have been making beverages from beans and fruits and grains of every sort -- and something else as well. John Blackstone has a taste of honey. This story was originally broadcast on November 24, 2013:

Let us drink a toast to the bees. Before there were vineyards, there was honey. Before there was wine, there was mead. At the Heidrun Meadery in northern California, Gordon Hull gathers honey to make a dry, sparkling mead that could be mistaken for champagne. "Since mead is wine made from honey instead of grapes, we're dependent upon the honey bee," said Hull.

"Without the bee, we're making grape wine or we're making cider or something else."

Near Santa Cruz, Calif., winemaker Michael Sones of the Bargetto Winery uses great vats of honey to produce mead alongside grape-based wines. "Mead is probably the oldest fermented beverage in the world," Sones said. "It's all made from honey; there's no other ingredients."

A drink that reached the height of its popularity in the Middle Ages is clearly making a comeback.

"I'm very interested in history, so tasting mead is like tasting history," said Shane, a customer at a tasting room at the Rabbit's Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale, Calif., which has become a gathering place for mead aficionados.

Customer Don Drake described the drink's preferred characteristics: "A crystal clear flavor, just a tiny hint of citrus. And then a toasted back note, and the honey makes it last a long time on your tongue."

Rabbit's Foot owners Mike and Maria Faul produce a startling array of alcoholic drinks that start with honey, such as the diabhal, a Belgian golden strong ale that's about 8.2 percent alcohol by volume.

"There's nothing else in there but Washington wildflower honey," said Mike Faul. "So very, very, very fragrant. It's like walking into a garden and smelling all the flowers.

"People are drinking it, people are liking it, and people are asking how they can get more. And the next thing you know, I'm in my garage in Sunnyvale making 200 gallons a year and giving it all away."

In 2001 Faul quit his job in high tech, betting his future on a drink from the past.

"Well, there's lots of stories about business starting in garages in Silicon Valley, but not making an alcoholic drink," said Blackstone.

"It took on a life of its own, really," said Faul.

For a place producing an ancient drink, Rabbit's Foot is in an unlikely location: an office park in California's Silicon Valley.

With daughter Shioban at the labeling machine, Rabbit's Foot has grown into one of the country's most successful mead producers, selling about 45,000 gallons a year, and growing.

Blackstone sampled another mead, which Faul said boasted "a lot fo sweetness, a lot of chocolatey qualities and you're gonna get a lot of raspberry quality as well."

"Smells like a brandy," said Blackstone.

"Exactly. And that's what it's intended to be drank like."

What drinkers knew centuries ago, we're now rediscovering: that honey can produce quite a buzz.


“At the Heidrun Meadery in northern California, Gordon Hull gathers honey to make a dry, sparkling mead that could be mistaken for champagne. 'Since mead is wine made from honey instead of grapes, we're dependent upon the honey bee,' said Hull.... Customer Don Drake described the drink's preferred characteristics: 'A crystal clear flavor, just a tiny hint of citrus. And then a toasted back note, and the honey makes it last a long time on your tongue.' Rabbit's Foot owners Mike and Maria Faul produce a startling array of alcoholic drinks that start with honey, such as the diabhal, a Belgian golden strong ale that's about 8.2 percent alcohol by volume. 'There's nothing else in there but Washington wildflower honey,' said Mike Faul. 'So very, very, very fragrant. It's like walking into a garden and smelling all the flowers.'... Blackstone sampled another mead, which Faul said boasted 'a lot fo sweetness, a lot of chocolatey qualities and you're gonna get a lot of raspberry quality as well.' 'Smells like a brandy,' said Blackstone. 'Exactly. And that's what it's intended to be drank like.'”

Mead goes back in stories and historical record to the Middle Ages and earlier. It is thrilling to see it reemerge in modern times. I always thought it sounded delicious, and now those of you who don't abstain from alcohol can have a glass. See the excerpts from Wikipedia here:


Mead
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mead (/ˈmiːd/; archaic and dialectal "medd"; from Old English "meodu"[1]) is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, and inadulterated form with various fruits, spices, grains or hops.[2][3][4] (Hops act as a preservative and produce a bitter, beer-like flavor.) The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV[5] to more than 20%. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey.[6] It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, and it may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet.[7]

Mead is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. "It can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has speculated, "antedating the cultivation of the soil."[8] Hornsey considers archaeological evidence of it ambiguous,[9]however McGovern and other archaeological chemists consider the presence of beeswax markers and gluconic acid, in the presence of other substances known to ferment, to be reasonably conclusive evidence of the use of honey in ancient fermented beverages.[10][11]

Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture."[12] Mead has played an important role in the beliefs and mythology of some peoples. One such example is the Mead of Poetry, a mead of Norse mythology crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir which turns the drinker into a poet or scholar.

The terms "mead" and "honey-wine" are often used synonymously.[13][14] Honey-wine is differentiated from mead in some cultures. Hungarians hold that while mead is made of honey, water and beer-yeast (barm), honey-wine is watered honey fermented by recrement of grapes (or other fruits).[15]

In Asia, pottery vessels containing chemical signatures of a mixture of honey, rice and other fruits along with organic compounds of fermentation dating from 6500-7000 BC were found in Northern China.[16] In Europe, it is first attested in residual samples found in the characteristic ceramics of the Bell Beaker Culture (c. 2800 – 1800 BC). The earliest archaeological evidence for the European production of mead dates to before 2000 BC.[17]

The earliest surviving description of mead is in the hymns of the Rigveda,[18] one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and (later) Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BC. During the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink.[19] Aristotle (384–322 BC) discussed mead in his Meteorologica and elsewhere, while Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) called mead militites in his Naturalis Historia and differentiated wine sweetened with honey or "honey-wine" from mead.[20] The Spanish-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, about AD 60.

Around AD 550, the Brythonic-speaking bard Taliesin wrote the Kanu y med or "Song of Mead."[25] The legendary drinking, feasting and boasting of warriors in the mead hall is echoed in the mead hall Dyn Eidyn (modern dayEdinburgh), and in the epic poem Y Gododdin, both dated around AD 700.[clarification needed] In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the Danish warriors drank mead. Later, taxation and regulations governing the ingredients of alcoholic beverages led to commercial mead becoming a more obscure beverage until recently.[26] Some monasteries kept up the old traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping, especially in areas where grapes could not be grown, a well-known example being at Lindisfarne, where mead continues to be made to this day, albeit not in the monastery itself.




Pope Appoints Moderate As Archbishop Of Chicago – NPR
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 20, 2014

Pope Francis on Saturday appointed Bishop Blase Cupich, a moderate who has called for civility in the culture wars, as the next archbishop of Chicago, signaling a shift in tone in one of the most important posts in the U.S. Church.

Cupich, of Spokane, Washington, will be installed in the Archdiocese of Chicago in November, succeeding Cardinal Francis George, according to an announcement by the papal ambassador to the U.S. The archdiocese has scheduled a news conference for Saturday morning which Cupich is expected to attend. George has been battling cancer and has said he believes the disease will end his life.

George is especially admired in the church's conservative wing as an intellectual who took an aggressive stand against abortion and gay marriage. Cupich has called for a "return to civility" in conversations on divisive social issues. Francis has said he wants church leaders to focus more on mercy and compassion and less on hot-button social issues.

The choice of Cupich is Francis' first major appointment in the U.S. and the clearest indication yet of the direction he wants to steer American church leaders. The Archdiocese of Chicago is the third-largest, and one of the most important dioceses in the country, serving 2.2 million parishioners. Chicago archbishops are usually elevated to cardinal and are therefore eligible to vote for the next pope.

Cupich, 65, is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, where he was ordained a priest. He holds degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and The Catholic University of America. In the 1980s, he worked on the staff of the Vatican embassy in Washington. He was appointed bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1998, and served there until 2010, when he was appointed to Spokane.

In a 2012 essay in the Jesuit magazine America, Cupich said the U.S. bishops "rightly objected" to the original narrow religious exemption in President Barack Obama's requirement that employers provide health insurance that covers contraception. But Cupich called for a "return to civility" in conversations about religious liberty and society.

"While the outrage to the (government) decision was understandable, in the long run threats and condemnations have a limited impact," Cupich said. "We should never stop talking to one another."

Cupich has also defended Francis' views on the economy and emphasis on fighting poverty, which some Catholics and others have criticized as naive and against capitalism.

"Instead of approaching life from the 30-thousand-feet level of ideas, he challenges policy makers and elected officials — indeed all of us — to experience the life of everyday and real people," Cupich said at a conference last June on the Catholic case against libertarianism. "Much like he told religious leaders, Francis is saying that politicians and policy makers need to know the smell of the sheep."




“Pope Francis on Saturday appointed Bishop Blase Cupich, a moderate who has called for civility in the culture wars, as the next archbishop of Chicago, signaling a shift in tone in one of the most important posts in the U.S. Church. Cupich, of Spokane, Washington, will be installed in the Archdiocese of Chicago in November, succeeding Cardinal Francis George... George is especially admired in the church's conservative wing as an intellectual who took an aggressive stand against abortion and gay marriage. Cupich has called for a 'return to civility' in conversations on divisive social issues. Francis has said he wants church leaders to focus more on mercy and compassion and less on hot-button social issues. The choice of Cupich is Francis' first major appointment in the U.S. and the clearest indication yet of the direction he wants to steer American church leaders.... In a 2012 essay in the Jesuit magazine America, Cupich said the U.S. bishops "rightly objected" to the original narrow religious exemption in President Barack Obama's requirement that employers provide health insurance that covers contraception. But Cupich called for a "return to civility" in conversations about religious liberty and society.... Cupich has also defended Francis' views on the economy and emphasis on fighting poverty, which some Catholics and others have criticized as naive and against capitalism. 'Instead of approaching life from the 30-thousand-feet level of ideas, he challenges policy makers and elected officials — indeed all of us — to experience the life of everyday and real people,'”

This is great news, from my viewpoint, for a couple of reasons. First, we desperately need as a society to relax the grip that the very wealthy have on our economy and therefore on the lives of people. Second, as one who was brought up in a Christian church, and having read the words of Jesus, it is clear to me that he stressed “feeding the hungry, clothing the naked” and valuing poor people as highly as we do the wealthy. Our Baptist Church doesn't do that very much, and according to this article, many Catholics don't either. The very center of the Christian message has gone out of such churches' teachings. The Pope wants to bring that back in, and get rid of the rancor involved with the hatred of gays and other sinners. It may be true that gays and all other disbelievers are going to Hell, but the Church is supposed to “hate the sin, but love the sinner!” I think we're definitely moving in the right direction here.

Afghan Rivals Have Signed Power-Sharing Agreement – NPR
by CAMILA DOMONOSKE
September 20, 2014