Christiern

Why not a replacement laptop? I understand that blowing up is only one of Dell's serious flaws. Here is a suggestion.

Dell WMD? August 15, 2006 Dell Will Recall Batteries in PC’s By DAMON DARLIN John Gurzinski for The New York Times A Dell notebook computer in Thomas Forqueran’s pickup truck caught fire in July, igniting ammunition in the glove box and then the gas tanks. Dell is recalling 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they could erupt in flames, the company said yesterday. It will be the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. Dell, the world’s largest PC maker, said the lithium-ion batteries were made by Sony and were installed in notebooks sold from April 2004 to July 18 of this year. The recall raises broader questions about lithium-ion batteries, which are used in devices like cellphones, portable power tools, camcorders, digital cameras and MP3 players. The potential for such batteries to catch fire has been acknowledged for years, and has prompted more limited recalls in the past. But a number of recent fires involving notebook computers, some aboard planes, have brought renewed scrutiny. Dell has reported to the safety agency that it documented six instances since December in which notebooks overheated or caught on fire. None of the incidents caused injuries or death. Dell said the problems were a result of a manufacturing defect in batteries made by Sony. The safety agency said the batteries’ problems were not unique to Dell, meaning that other companies using Sony batteries might also have to issue recalls. Sony has sold its batteries to most of the major computer makers. The recalled batteries were used in 2.7 million Dell computers sold in the United States and 1.4 million sold overseas. The total is about 18 percent of Dell’s notebook production during the period in question. Depending on how many of the batteries are still in use, the cost of the recall could exceed $300 million. Dell refused to estimate the cost, but said the recall would not materially affect its profits. Sony, which affirmed yesterday that its batteries were responsible, said it was “financially supporting” Dell in the recall. Dell said it would notify affected customers by mail and online, or through corporate sales representatives, and arrange to send a replacement battery. In the meantime, it advised owners to remove the original battery and use a power cord. The largest previous safety recall of a consumer electronics product, in October 2004, involved a million lithium-ion batteries for Kyocera cellphones. Dell has been bedeviled by reports of burning laptops in recent months. In June, a Dell notebook burst into flames during a conference in a hotel in Osaka, Japan. In that case, an analysis showed the fire was probably caused by microscopic metal particles produced during the manufacturing process. In July, firefighters in Vernon Hills, Ill., were called to an office of Tetra Pak, the food processing and packaging company, to extinguish a notebook fire hot enough to burn the desk beneath it. That same month, a Dell notebook in the cab of a pickup parked alongside Lake Mead in Nevada caught fire, igniting ammunition in the glove box and then the gas tanks. The truck exploded. “A few minutes later and we’d have been coming up out of the canyon when the notebook blew up,” said Thomas Forqueran, owner of the computer and truck. “Somebody is going to wind up getting killed.” The battery problem is the latest setback for Dell, long a highflier on Wall Street. Faced with stiffer competition that has forced price cuts, it has reported lower-than-expected sales and earnings over the last year, sending its stock down more than 40 percent. It is spending $100 million to improve its customer service, which it found had alienated consumers. Dell executives hope the recall, while vast, will prevent further damage to its image. “We’re getting ahead of the issue,” said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president and general manager of the product group at the company. “I don’t want any further incidents to take place.” Other computer makers that use Sony batteries were taking stock yesterday of their possible exposure to similar problems. An Apple spokeswoman, Lynn Fox, said, “We are currently investigating whether batteries that have been supplied to Apple for our current and previous notebook lines meet our high standards for battery safety and performance.” A Hewlett-Packard spokesman said the company’s notebooks would not be affected by the recall because its batteries were designed specifically for its products. A Lenovo spokesman, Robert Page, said, “To date, we have not seen any unusual pattern or problems with notebook PC’s.” The company said its batteries were designed differently from those used by Dell. “Not all notebook batteries are the same,” Mr. Page said. Lithium-ion batteries pack more energy in a smaller space than other types of batteries. They are the cheapest form of battery chemistry and are increasingly being used in more types of consumer products. What that means, said Richard Stern, associate director of fuel, electrical and recreational products at the product safety commission, is “more batteries, more likelihood for quality-control problems and for design problems and so we’d expect more incidents and more recalls of these batteries.” The federal safety agency has negotiated 10 recalls of lithium-ion batteries used in notebook computers since 2000 and another 12 battery recalls for other electronic products, including a Disney-brand children’s DVD player. Federal regulations require that lithium-ion batteries be clearly marked with warnings when they are shipped in bulk on airplanes, and various agencies are considering more stringent regulations after a fire that was detected as a United Parcel Service cargo plane began its descent into Philadelphia in February. Though a cause of that fire, which consumed and destroyed the plane after it landed, has not been determined, lithium-ion batteries are suspected. No one was hurt. A single battery also caught fire in the overhead luggage bin of a Lufthansa passenger jet about to depart from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in May. A flight engineer tossed it to the tarmac, where the fire was extinguished. (Neither of the incidents resulted in injuries, nor are they said to involve Dell computers or Sony batteries.) The Federal Aviation Administration lists three other incidents involving burning lithium-ion batteries on cargo and passenger planes since 2004. The portable battery industry has said there is not a broad problem with lithium-ion battery fires. But makers have known of the ability of lithium-ion batteries to catch fire since its first commercial use in 1991. In 1995, a Sony lithium-ion battery factory in Koriyama, Japan, was partly destroyed when a battery undergoing a quality test caught fire. The current recall also leaves many questions unanswered on how Dell, as well as the product safety commission, deals with information about fire-damaged notebooks. Although Dell told the agency that only six incidents had occurred, a reporter viewed almost 100 photos of melted notebooks that were returned to the company between 2002 and 2004. The photos, from a Dell database, were supplied by a former Dell technician, Robert Day, who said such damage “was more of a common thing than they are letting on.” As many as several hundred a year were returned. Mr. Day said, “I did see so many pallets of stuff coming in that they had to use my lab for overflow storage.” But David Lear, the director of environmental affairs and product safety at Dell, said most of the damage to those notebooks was unrelated to battery issues. “Ninety-nine percent of the time they are not safety issues,” he said. Dell officials refused to say how many computers had been returned because of heat or fire damage, but said the company had acted on the problem as soon as it realized there might be a pattern. Mr. Gruzen said the publicity surrounding the notebook fire at the Osaka hotel did not prompt Dell to look into the problem, because the company was already having conversations with Sony. But the Osaka incident focused the company’s attention on the possibility that the fires might be a more widespread problem than originally thought. “It’s not that six was the magic number; we just didn’t have enough material,” Mr. Lear said. Given the number of computers that Dell sells, even several hundred incidents a year is statistically minuscule, about one in several hundred thousand computers. “We are talking about triangulating on very sparse data,” Mr. Gruzen said. A member of Mr. Lear’s staff, who happened to be in Japan at the time of the notebook fire, retrieved the damaged computer. It was taken to a Los Angeles area lab of Exponent, a failure-analysis firm, for examination. The unit worked when it was plugged in to the power cord, despite the fire, which told the investigators that the problem was not with any circuitry or microchips. An X-ray of the battery pack told them the fire was not caused by an overcharged battery, because a safety device was still intact. Rather, Dell said the cause of the fire was a short circuit in one of the fuel cells. It was caused by microscopic metal particles that contaminated the electrolyte. Dell thinks that the particles were released when the case of the cell was crimped near the end of Sony’s manufacturing process. It was the same problem associated with the 22,000 notebooks that Dell recalled in December. Sony technicians, who took part in the examination at the Exponent lab, looked at additional data on all its batteries, not just those sold to Dell, that suggested a problem in the manufacturing process. “As events trickled in, they seemed to reinforce a conclusion that these Sony cells had an issue,” Mr. Gruzen said. “They don’t show a predictable pattern, which is why we wanted to get them out of the marketplace.” Sony is the second-largest maker of lithium-ion batteries for notebooks, after Sanyo. The new Dell batteries, which the company hopes to distribute over the next four weeks, will be made by Sony and other vendors. Dell said it was confident that Sony had solved the problem by changing part of its manufacturing methods. “We are absolutely confident that when we replace the batteries that we are getting the at-risk batteries out of consumers’ hands and that there will be no more incidents,” Mr. Gruzen said. Here's are a couple of related videos:

A friend of mine called me one day (in NYC) and told me he had hit the numbers, so he was going to Hollywood and see if he could get into something. He was an old showbiz pro, a comedian who had written a couple of rather successful songs (Let the Good Times Roll and I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You). Anyway, the next thing I knew he was on "Sanford and Son," playing Red Foxx's brother. His name was Sam Theard and they called him Spodee-odee. Allen may be the only one here who has heard of him (well, Chuck, too, I suppose). Just a little background in case you see Sam in this marathon. Just realized that the marathon mentioned is long over, but isn't TV Land running the series again? I saw a couple the other night, somewhere on the tube.

I once reviewed a concert for Down Beat (a Caught in the Act assignment) and by the time they printed it, the album was on sale! I'm not being funny, it really happened.

I got nipples on my titties, big as the end of my thumb...

Yes, it was rather a funny little label, but Bernie Brightman put out a lot of releases before the tax people shut him down. I believe he was collecting but not submitting sales tax--something like that. He is no longer with us, but he was an interesting man. I understand that he was hell to work for, but I only saw the pleasant side, as on the many occasions when he (sometimes with his wife, Natasha) dropped by my apartment with delicious lunch-type things from Zabar's (the "gourmet epicurian emporium" onthee upper West Side ).

Yes

Wait a minute. Isn't that one of the opening scenes in Lawrence of Arabia? If so, Mikie borrowed it. Hank O'Neal (of Chiaroscuro), who became John's partner in a unsuccessful record company (Hammond Music Enterprises) told me the story a day after the memorial service. BTW, I should have mentioned that John finally mellowed and recorded a handful of numbers with Ruby Walker (Smith), but nothing more come of it. It was during this session that I introduced John to Alberta Hunter. I think he eventually "discovered" her.

This new set of rules (somewhat an overkill, IMO) also threatens to put airport stores out of business. I was already discouraged by the old regulations, now I won't fly unless it is really necessary.

Allen Lowe: "well, Hammond was good, but he was no Chris Albertson" I'll forgive you for that one Allen. But only if you forgive me the length of the following: I read the book and have mixed feelings about it. I basically agree with Peter's assessment and, yes, Prial's lack of jazz knowledge is painfully obvious throughout, but more bothersome to me is that we only get a blurry picture of Hammond the man. Prial was fortunate to gain access to the many hours of Hammond interviews conducted by Ed Beach, and I suspect that this was his main source. It is certainly from these tapes that he derives such intimate details as Hammond's thoughts when entering a room (there is a lot of that in the book), at least I hope the author wasn't making this stuff up. However, I'm not so sure that John wasn't, because he was the chronic image builder (his own) who routinely enhanced his involvement in the shaping of jazz and would embellish rather than correct wrongfully attributed accomplishments. As Prial correctly points out, John also dealt very loosely with the facts in his autobiography, a case in point being the death of Bessie Smith. Here was an instance where John virtually started a rumor that would become the most widespread of all the myths surrounding Bessie: that she died as a result of not being admitted to a white hospital in 1937. This story persisted despite attempts to set it straight; Edward Albee wrote a play based on it and jazz writers (with the exception of George Hoefer) simply accepted what John had written in down beat shortly after Bessie’s fatal car crash. In 1971, I played for John a detailed eyewitness account of Bessie’s accident by Dr. Hugh Smith, who totally debunked the myth. John listened, nodded, and said that it was interesting, but he didn’t argue with the doctor’s story. When I asked him why he hadn’t made a few phone calls before writing his hearsay account, he just shrugged his shoulders. A few years later, in his autobiography, John not only stuck to his old story, he suddenly recalled previously unmentioned details. Whitney Balliett picked up on that in a review of John’s book (New Yorker Jan. 9, 1978): “And in a queer passage, he refuses to accept the new and seemingly watertight version of Bessie Smith’s death advanced by Chris Albertson in ‘Bessie’.” Here’s the “queer passage” from John’s book: “I talked to the owner of the [silas] Green show, who told me how the old Packard in which Bessie was riding had been forced off the road and her arm nearly severed. He said that two ambulances had passed her by because she was black. It was a long and convincing story from a man who was in a position to know the truth, and there were two other people there nodding agreement as he told it to me. When I told him I wrote for several magazines and was interested, as my readers would be, in what had really happened, he said, ‘Don’t quote me’.” How convenient. The truth is that Bessie’s car (driven by Richard Morgan, her lover and Lionel Hampton’s Uncle) never went off the road, it crashed into the rear end of a delivery truck. Bessie was taken directly to the nearest black hospital, never regained consciousness, and died about 7 hours later. I go into details of this here, because it is a clearly documented instance of John’s imagination (agenda?) at work. It says a lot about his disregard for accuracy. To Prial’s credit, he uses this story as one example of John’s stubborn refusal to admit having been wrong. The fact that Prial does acknowledge John’s credibility gaps makes one wonder why he accepts on face value the interview material and some of the claims made in the autobiography. Let me say that the book contains much interesting material about John’s personal life and background, so it is valuable in that respect, but there is an awful lot of space spent on filler material, such as superfluous details on some of John’s “discoveries.” I find it interesting how some of the people Prial interviewed embrace Hammond and speak of him in glowing terms, directly contrasting previously expressed views. There is, for example, the record company executive who used to ridicule John (as so many others at Columbia did in the '60s), once even joking to me that a heart attack might foil the label's plan for a Hammond tribute at an upcoming Columbia convention. John was regarded as an out-of-touch relic at Columbia in the late 60s. He was referred to as an "untouchable," someone the company was saddled with who could not be be gotten rid of because Goddard Lieberson (who then headed CBS Records) owed his job to him. I spent six weeks seated at John's desk, at his request, taking care of his business while he and his wife, Esmé, were on vacation. You learn a lot about a person that way, and I learned that John made too many promises that he couldn't keep. John left me a note asking that I inform George Braith that the album he had worked on for a year would not be released. You can imagine how difficult that was. Another musician called from a hospital bed, he had a bleeding ulcer and an unfulfilled promise from John. Then there were the stacks of tapes, sent in from all over the world by hopefuls whom John never lent an ear. Granted, 99% of them were horrendously bad, but I thought they at least deserved a listen, so I set about doing that. There was a time when John Hammond was the only name black musicians associated with Columbia, so--and since he was officially the "Head of Talent Acquisition," it was to his small office that hopefuls directed their calls and mail. When budding artists called, John was always very friendly and quick to generate optimism, but he rarely followed through on his promises and there were times when he put people off once too often. Some became so frustrated that they paid him a visit at the office, and--in an era of black militancy--John was not always treated with the awe to which he had grown accustomed. One dashiki-wearing, afro-ed visitor grabbed John by the collar and screamed at him for not returning calls, making empty promises, being typical of “the man,” etc. Understandably shaken, John made sure that future visitors were described to his secretary by the floor receptionist, giving him time to make a quick escape via a conference room trouble seemed to be heading down the hall. The "great white father" never got used to black people not treating him with reverence. Rex Stewart and I had lunch one day, after which I dropped by Columbia. Frank Driggs was working on a Fletcher Henderson reissue ("A Study in Frustration") and John was there to listen to some of the recordings. "I guess you're including some of the sides with Rex Stewart," I said. The answer from John was prompt and firm: "As few as possible!" When I asked Rex why John had seemed so hostile, he told me that John never liked “Negroes” who didn't kiss his ass, or something like that, and that he was known to actually stand in the way of people’s careers. I subsequently found several cases of such abuse of power. After waiting some 20 years for John to make good on a promise to her, Ruby Walker (Bessie Smith's niece) decided to take matters into her own hands and seek a recording contract. Uaware of John’s new executive position at Mercury, she wrote a letter to the label asking for an audition, because “John Hammond promised me the moon but dropped me like a hot potato.” John called her and made another promise, he would see to it that she never recorded again. Then there was Charlie Smalls, a struggling composer whose talent John recognized. Charlie was a charming, good humored guy. John auditioned him in the studio and gave him a contract that called for making a single with the possibility of an album follow-up. Charlie became a regular visitor to the office, always stopping at the newsstand in the lobby to purchase a certain brand of cheroot that he knew John liked. John spoke very highly of Charlie, predicting good things for him.. Shortly after recording the single, and before it was released, Charlie received an eviction notice from his landlord. He told John that all he cared about was his piano and dog, asking for a modest advance to prevent the eviction. John became furious and told Charlie that he would not have given him a contract had he known he was in such bad financial shape! The record was shelved. Not too long after that, Charlie answered an open call from Ken Harper who was looking for composers and lyricists to write (on spec) music for a musical based on "The Wizard of Oz." Charlie, still struggling, went to work and wrote the music (except for one song) for "The Wiz." Charlie died 12 years after the Broadway opening. There is no question about John’s real accomplishments, which makes all the more inexplicable his self-puffery, and Prial does a good job of telling us why John rose to a lofty level in jazz, but--as Peter points out in his review--this is largely a rehash of familiar anecdotes. It could have been a far more interesting book if Prial had dug deeper and wider--after all, there are still many people around who knew John. People who knew that his keen ears could mistake a tenor for an alto, a cornet for a clarinet; people who knew that among the folded newspapers he always carried under his arm, somewhere between The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, rested a copy of Screw a publication he read regularly, but never subscribed to. Once, in the lobby of Black Rock (the CBS building) his papers, including Screw. fell to the floor when he shook someone’s hand. I only knew John for a little over two decades, and I could go on with first-hand anecdotes, so one can imagine how much was missed by Prial. I think he did get to Mikie Harris, John’s last secretary, who--as people filed out of St, Peter’s having sat through a series of Hammond stories--casually remarked to Hank O’Neal, “They bought the story.” Indeed they did, but it wasn’t all fiction.

Here's one of my very amateurish photos, taken during a break. That's Higgy and Buster with the three ladies (left to right: Alberta, Victoria, Lucille):

I spent 28 years reviewing for Stereo Review, an average of 12 albums per month. Since the magazine did not carry record company advertising, that was not a problem. Still, there was a problem with at least one editor who allowed his personal friendship with record company people to interfere. Each month, we (the reviewers) were assigned a greater number of reviews than needed. Ergo, it was up to the editors to select what was printed. A bad review often did not make it to print if the label rep was a frequent lunch buddy; a positive review might also be bumped to make room for one where the editor had a closer relationship. I found that to be disturbing, but I knew that unwritten policies were much worse elsewhere. Cash Box and other trade publications allowed advertising revenue to dictate what was listed on its charts. Some reviewers routinely selected their own productions as "Pick of the Week", etc. The story was that Stereo Review fired Gene Lees when he wrote (and they printed) an fantasy wherein a fine gourmet restaurant gradually became a hamburger joint. It was clear to all that the subject of the piece actually was Columbia Records. Down Beat occasionally actually altered my text (ever so subtly) to make it better suit the editor's or magazine's relationship with the artist or label. I don't think there can be any excuse for any of this.

You're right, Cliff Jackson is missing from the picture. He may have been in the bathroom, or standing behind Jimmy?

Pianist Duke Jordan passed away in Copenhagen this past Tuesday.

That was a hollow cane (relic of the Prohibition). How about Jimmy Rushing? When I told him about the sessions, he invited himself--I was, of course, delighted. Jimmy loved what he heard.

Thank you for remembering this album. I'm glad to hear that you like it, I certainly had a lot of fun getting it all together.

If you are into bop era non-bop, you may have some of this label's releases. Jump was a small, dedicated label with a sense of humor and a good ear for music. This 64-page discography contains photos and a great deal of information on the label from its introduction (July 22, 1944, at 1 PM Pacific time) to acquired releases and CD reissues. IAJRC stands for International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, in case you didn't know.

Yes, the interview included in "Triumph of the Underdog" is from my show, as is one of the musical numbers (not shown in its entirety) Here are 20 of the “The Jazz Set” lineups, I think we did 24 altogether. Dan Morgenstern was kind enough to sit in for me on the first one (Randy Weston), because I took ill (not a good start!). The dates are taping dates and the personnel is in some cases incomplete: February 2, 1972 Randy Weston February 7 Roy Haynes Hip Ensemble February 15 Larry Johnson (the blues singer/guitarist) February 22 Clifford Jordan Jordan (ts); George Coleman (ts); Stanley Cowell (pno); Bill Lee (bs); Al “Tootie” Heath (dms); Sheila Jordan and Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals). February 29 Joe Lee Wilson Accompanying group included Rashied Ali (dms). March 6 Jimmy Heath All-Stars Jimmy H. (ts); Curtis Fuller (tbn); Kenny Barron (pno); Bill Lee (bs); Al “Tootie” Heath (dms); Mtume (congas). March 14 Rashied Ali A trio, as I recall) March 21 Ray Draper and the New Island Social Club Ray (tuba, baritone horn, vocals and perc.); Atlee Chapman (valve tbn); Clive Stevens (sop and ts); Bu Pleasant (organ and voc); Stu Williamson (bs); Richard Crooks (dms). March 28 Irene Reid Don’t have info on accompanying group. April 11 Sam Wooding Wooding (pno); Louis Metcalfe (tpt); Jimmy Wright (ts); Jimmy Shirley (gtr); Al Drears (dms); Rae Harrison (voc). I later did a one-hour special with Sam and his big band, which was mostly an informal interview w. Sam on a set that recreated his Harlem apartment (we even borrowed some furniture and paintings from him). He felt quite at home and was seemingly oblivious of the 3 cameras. April 11 Charles McGhee and The Gap Charles McGhee (tpt). Don’t recall the rest of group. April 18 Keno Duke Keno (dms); Frank Strozier (ts); and others. April 18 Joe McPhee McPhee (tpt and ts); Clifford Thornton (tpt); Mike Kull (pno); Harold Smith (dms). April 25 Lonnie Liston Smith LL Smith (pno); John Gilmore (ts); Jazzbo Alexander (flute); Cecil McBee (bs); Norman Connors (dms); Ná Ná (congas and birimbau). April 24 Jeremy Steig Steig (flute); Gene Perla el-bs); Don Alias (dms). May 2 Ted Curson Curson (tpt and piccolo horn); Bill Barron (ts); Lee Scippers (vibes); Sam Jones (bs); Freddy Waits (dms). May 9 Charles Mingus Sextet feat. Charles McPherson Mingus (bs); Lonnie Hillyer (tpt); Bobby Jones (ts); McPherson (alto sax); John Foster (pno); Roy Brooks (dms). May 16 Ray Bryant Trio Bryant (pno); Harold Dodson (bs); Leroy Williams (dms). May 23 Bobbi Humphrey Humphrey (flute); Harold Mabern (pno); Bob Cranshaw (bs); Mickey Roker (dms). May 30 Bill Evans Trio Evans (pno); Eddie Gomez (bs); Marty Morrel (dms). That’s all the info I have, although a complete list, with personnel, is somewhere in my apartment. I don’t know how many of these tapes still exist—I only have 2 or 3, but I believe that PBS still has the master dupes of the 13 aired by them. There may well be more on YouTube, I haven't really looked. I also may have posted this list before, but perhaps on another BBS.

I hope they don't upload any intros or interviews, I am quite content to be a figured at the bar in the background. Not only did I have sideburns, my hair was shoulder length, I chain smoked, and I wore the most ridiculous "mod" outfits.

Since I am writing notes for a Bill Evans release, I surfed for him on the web and came across some clips from my show, "The Jazz Set," the week Bill was my guest (May 1972). How My Heart Sings My Romance Gloria's Step

Guilty as charged. The late Bernie Brightman put out a series of "concept" (conception?) albums on his Stash label. I helped him pick some of the material and wrote some of the notes. The track bearing my name is a very brief excerpt from hours of interviews I had with Ruby Smith (Bessie's niece by marriage) in 1971. As for the "lady" in the e-bay photo, she looks like a decapitated drag queen to me. Mind you, I have never seen one thus modified, but this--when I was a child with a vivid mind--is how I imagined they looked,.

A couple of picture... Heard here in the early 1950s--that voice (along with Kathleen Ferrier's) is still vivid in my memory.

It does, indeed, rule, Joel. As for your encounter with the "cheers" troll, he is insufferable and generally only pops up when Wynton or any of those guys are mentioned. I think he has a crush one every one of them. I just checked back there, they seem to be at each other's throat as they near the 1,200 post mark. Perhaps Mr. Crouch will return with a pixel punch for minor men. Oh, sorry, I forgot that he turned some kind of charm on you--I've seen that charm myself, but I didn't fall for it/ You are a trusting soul and therein lies your charm.

OP-ED COLUMNIST August 2, 2006 Mel’s Tequila Sunrise By MAUREEN DOWD My mom always warned me to stay away from tequila. She would have given the same advice to Mel. She loved Mel, and always thought he would have been perfect for the role of Michael Collins, the romantic fighter for Irish independence who came to a bloody end in a roadside ambush in 1922. Michael Collins came a cropper in County Cork, not County Quirk, as Mel Gibson did, careering along the same Pacific Coast winding yellow brick road where Robert Downey Jr. and Nick Nolte were snagged by the Malibu police in other momentous events in American history. Mr. Gibson appears to believe that the Jews control everything. It is an ancient anti-Semitic insult. But now that he has gotten into trouble for his bigoted views, he has thrown himself at the mercy of the object of his bigotry. He said he wants to “meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.” He added: “I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery.” It’s not the first time he’s gotten in trouble for intolerance. When “Braveheart” came out in 1995, Mr. Gibson ranted and raved when Frank Bruni, then the movie critic for The Detroit Free Press, asked him about some reportedly homophobic remarks he had made three years earlier to a Spanish-language magazine. The magazine quoted him as saying that he became an actor “despite” the fear that it might lead people to assume he was gay. Ecce homo! He told Frank that the arbiters of political of correctness were “tantamount to Nazis.” Now that the volatile Mr. Gibson has pleaded for guidance from leaders of the American Jewish community, I decided to consult the only one I know. I asked Leon Wieseltier, the author of “Kaddish ” and the literary editor of The New Republic, how he would help Mel heal. “He has been a very bad goy,’’ Leon said. “It is really rich to behold Gibson asking Jews to behave like Christians. Has he forgotten how bellicose and wrathful and unforgiving we are? Why would a people who start all the wars make a peace? Perhaps he’s feeling a little like Jesus, hoping that the Jews don’t do their worst and preparing himself for more evidence of their disappointing behavior. “I have always wondered why people who believe that we control the world do not have more respect for us. Take that cop who arrested Gibson. Do you think it was a coincidence that he was a Jew? We have been following Gibson’s every move since he released that movie. The other night, when our uniformed brother spotted him bobbing and weaving in his star car, we saw an opportunity and we took it. Don’t blame us. It’s what Yahweh would do. “When Officer Mee busted him, we all busted him. “Moreover, it is the elders’ considered view that whereas alcoholism may require a process of recovery, anti-Semitism is a more intractable and less chic failing. This was not a moment of insanity, even if Gibson is insane. His hatred of Jews was plain in his movie and in his twisted defense of it, which was made when he was sober under the influence of his primitive world view. Perhaps he thinks that all he needs to do is spend a few months in AA — Anti-Semites Anonymous — and find some celebrity sponsor and run for absolution to Larry Zeiger, I mean Larry King, where he can say with perfect sincerity that the Holocaust was a terrible thing and gut yontif. “But the elders have instructed Larry to be strict with the uncircumcised offender. He is to appear only opposite ‘American Idol’ and in the company of David Gest. “We understand that Gibson cannot do it alone. But why do we have to do it with him? We would find it hard to be in a room with him unless, of course, he wants to count some money with us. Why doesn’t he turn to the vast number of his Christian brothers and sisters who show no trace of anything resembling his disgusting prejudice? “Mad Max is making Max mad, and Murray, and Irving, and Mort, and Marty, and Abe. But we’re not completely heartless. If he wants to do Shylock at dinner theater, fine. If he agrees to fill his swimming pool with Kabbalah water, fine.” Then Leon was just too aggravated to speak. He mumbled something in Aramaic and hung up.

The weather won't kill me, but my electric bill might! I can't imagine what it must be like to live in NYC without an AC--I just hope the power doesn't go out in Manhattan, as it has in other parts of the city. Tried to find a crank-up radio yesterday, but all were sold out. I've survived 3 blackouts in this apartment, starting with the really, really big one. Back then we didn't have computers--guess we'll feel it more if it happens today, but whatever inconvenience we experience is nothing when compared to what millions of people have to go through every day. Hey, it's 8:30 PM and the temp is only 98°