Miscellany

APNewsBreak: Ex-Peace Corps worker to plead guilty June 27, 2012 NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A former Peace Corps volunteer charged last year with sexually abusing young girls while serving in South Africa plans to plead guilty in Connecticut, authorities told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Jesse Osmun is due in U.S. District Court in Hartford on Wednesday afternoon for a guilty plea proceeding, said Tom Carson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, and Richard Meehan Jr., Osmun’s attorney. He’s expected to plead guilty to traveling from the United States to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children. Authorities have said the 32-year-old Milford resident molested five children under the age of 6, some multiple times, and gave them candy from 2010 to 2011. The Peace Corps has said it was made aware of the allegations after Osmun resigned and called the allegations of sexual abuse “reprehensible.” With the Peace . . .

Over Father’s Day weekend, President Obama went out of his home in Hyde Park to play golf at Beverly Country Club on the southside of Chicago. I’ve been to Beverly Country Club, not to play, but to caddie back when I was a kid caddie. Beverly we used to call “a ritzy club.” But, hey, I’ve been around Chicago! Well, at least as a caddie. Now if I had been advising Obama on where to play golf, I would have suggested Midlothian Country Club, not only for sentimental reasons (my own) but also because it is a better  course.  And famous in ways that Beverly never has been, never will be. I’ll grant that Beverly has more political types and ex-cons as members, but Midlothian has history and pedigree. Take history. Midlothian Country Club was built in 1898; it is one of the oldest golf clubs in America. Members financed their own two-mile railroad . . .

Reggie Pearman, Postwar Middle-Distance Runner, Dies at 89 Reggie Pearman, right, winning the 880-yard run for N.Y.U. in 1947. Reggie Pearman, one of America’s outstanding middle-distance runners in the post-World War II era, winning multiple titles for New York University, died on Monday near his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 89. The cause was complications of pneumonia and renal failure, his daughter Lydia Pearman Harris said. At 6 feet 2 inches and 175 pounds, Pearman, a son of Ethiopian immigrants, won seven national and major collegiate titles for N.Y.U. in events of 440, 600, 880 and 1,000 yards. His fastest times were 47.6 seconds for 440 yards and 1 minute 51.5 seconds for the 880, strong numbers for those years. But his greatest impact came as the anchorman on N.Y.U. relay teams. Dave Johnson, the director of the annual Penn Relays, one of the premier track and field events . . .

WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience. A film by Allen Mondell, Media Projects, Inc. On Thursday, June 21, 2012, filmmaker Allen Mondell premiers his latest project, WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience. The premier will be held at the Collins Center Crum Auditorium on the Southern Methodist University campus. Tickets for the premier include a reception, film screening and panel discussion. Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased online. WAGING PEACE is a collection of letters, journals, blogs and emails that were written by Peace Corps volunteers in the field of their host country. The written material is weaved together with the profiles of four former volunteers who are still trying to make a difference in the world today. The materials range from 1961, when the Peace Corps started, all the way to present day. “I want to convey what it was like to leave this country, whether it . . .

Golf has always been the breeding ground of great rivalries. The Big Three: Hogan, Nelson and Snead. Then Palmer, Player and Nicklaus. Next, a long decade of Nicklaus vs. Watson. And today Tiger against Everyone! But the greatest rivalry in golf is actually not one player against another. The greatest rivalry pits players against championship courses.  And the one to beat, decade after decade, is the Lake Course of The Olympic Club in San Francisco, home of this week’s 2012 U.S. Open. Ben Hogan, who won three majors in one year, could not defeat this course in 1955. Arnold Palmer, who won everywhere and on every golf course, had a seven-stroke lead with nine holes to go in the final round in 1966 and the Lake Course beat him. Tom Watson, winner of five British Opens, two Masters and one U.S. Open, failed to win there in 1987. And the late, . . .

Today’s edition of The Journal News, a Gannett paper in Lower Westchester, top story is about Larry Leamer’s (Nepal 1965-67)  bombshell yesterday in Newsweek. The Richardson family said the Newsweek/Daily Beast report was based on “vindictive lies.” Leamer, who is a noted Kennedy authority, and author of three books on the family, based his account, he says, on documents filed during the divorce proceedings. Leamer also says his research showed the Mary Kennedy was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and that she was in his words, “a desperately sick women.” Leamer said he contacted a Harvard professor and authority on the disorder who confirmed that he had met with Mary and Robert Kennedy and that she exhibited, in fact, clear symptoms of the mental illness. Meanwhile, Mary Kennedy’s attorney, said he and the family are shocked by the accusations. Family court document are “sealed”–only available to those who are a party . . .

Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-94) served as a PCV in the High Atlas Mountains, where she lived in a small Berber village and worked on environmental sustainability projects. Since she has come home, Liz has worked in a wide range of non-profit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Schoolhouse Supplies and the Near East Foundation, and she was a founding Board member and Vice President for six years of the High Atlas Foundation, a nonprofit organized by former Peace Corps volunteers from Morocco. Then in 2011 she started CorpsAfrica to provide young adults in Africa the opportunity to serve as volunteers in their own countries. CorpsAfrica is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. She is inviting everyone in New York City to a cocktail reception to pay tribute to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. It is on Wednesday, June 20th from 6 pm-8 pm. Holbrooke served as Morocco Country Director for the Peace Corps . . .

This afternoon while having lunch I caught Andrea Mitchell’s program on MSNBC. Around 1:45 EST she was interviewing Mark Shriver on his book about his Dad, A Good Man. Early in this interview, they started to talk about Sarge and his friendship with Martin Luther King back in Chicago when Shriver was head of the Board of Education for the City. Next, they shifted to Kennedy nomination and the famous spontaneous phone call that JFK made to Coretta King on the day her husband had been tossed into a jail for a civil rights protest. It was a politically risky telephone call by Kennedy, and any one his advisers would have stopped it, had they been in the room. It turned out to be a key political gesture by Kennedy and turned the Black Vote for him that November. Andrea Mitchell directed the MSNBC conversation this afternoon and Mark went . . .

Jun 11, 2012 1:00 AM EDT She was the love of Bobby Jr.’s life. Then everything unraveled. In Newsweek, bestselling Kennedy historian Laurence Leamer reveals the heartbreaking story of Mary’s long decline, including: The account of the couple’s longtime housekeeper, who recalls Mary’s self-destructive drinking habit, her depression in the days leading up her suicide-and tells how she and Bobby discovered Mary dead in the estate’s barn. Details from Bobby Jr.’s sealed divorce affidavit, which contains allegations that Mary physically abused him, stole personal items from his daughter, ran over the family’s dog in the driveway, and repeatedly threatened to kill herself An interview with Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Gunderson, who had met Mary and believes she had a textbook case of Borderline Personality Disorder More at:http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/10/the-last-days-of-mary-richardson-kennedy.html

The end of Ben Hogan’s brilliant golf career in many ways came to its sad conclusion when an unknown municipal golf pro named Jack Fleck upset him at the 1955 U.S. Open played at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Capturing that moment again for us are two great books that have just been published: The Longest Shot by Neil Sagebiel (Thomas Dunne Books) and The Upset by Al Barkow (Chicago Review Press). These books read like novels (even though we know the outcome) and they take us back once more to that suspenseful summer Sunday in mid-June of ’55. These books also bring the golf world into focus with the return next week to Olympic Club of the 2012 U.S. Open. For a certain generation of golfers who can never read enough about Ben Hogan, both accounts of that tournament are great reads. Finally we have worthy bookends to . . .

I have written a number of times about Bill Moyers on this site. He is important to the history of the agency, and he also is great copy. Moyers started out at the Peace Corps at age 27 or so, as the Associate Director for Public Affairs, and later was the Deputy Director under Shriver, In 1986, he spoke at the Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheatre on the 25th anniversary of the agency. Here is a short except of what he said that bright September Sunday morning. It is, in my opinion, one of the finest statements about the Peace Corps and our place in American history. Moyers Remarks “We are struggling today with the imperative of a new understanding of patriotism and citizenship. The Peace Corps has been showing us the way, and the Volunteers and staff whom we honor this morning are the vanguard of that journey. To be a . . .

Mark Shriver book about his father–A Good Man Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver– will be official published on June 5, 2012. Mark will be everywhere talking about the book and his father, beginning with the Today Show on Monday, June 4. As he wrote me recently, ” I am nervous but excited — excited, really, to share Dad’s story of a strong faith that demanded acts of hope and love.  And those acts were the work of his life — the Peace Corps, Head Start, Job Corps, and Legal Services, to name a few; his efforts alongside my mom to spread Special Olympics around the world; and, most importantly, his role as father and grandfather.” Tom Brokaw of NBC has said of the book, “This is a deeply touching story of a famous family and the private joys and trials that came with it. Mark’s love letter to his Dad . . .

[Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65) was a teacher overseas and is today a documentary film maker living in Texas who has since 1995 been planning to make a film about the Peace Corps. It has taken him 15 years but he never gave up on the idea and now he has his documentary film Waging Peace. It took him 27 months, or as he says, “a second tour” to tell our story. Allen has weaved together letters, journals, emails and blogs written by RPCVs into a film that profiles four Peace Corps Volunteers who are today still trying to make a difference by fulfilling the Third Goal. As he told me, “I wanted the people who watch this to know first that the Peace Corps still exists and that Volunteers are still serving around the world. I also wanted viewers to know that for a great many Volunteers those two . . .

[In talking with Harry Cooper on those long ago sunny afternoons, the conversation shifted to the early days of the tour, and what golf was like in the Twenties, and Harry began to recall players that time, as well as the changes in the game.] II When I first started to play down in Texas, we had to put together our set of clubs. In fact, I was the second-to-last professional to shift from wood to steel shafts. Max Smith, I know, was the very last. At the time–and this would be in the Twenties–one had to put together a ‘set’ of clubs, for there were no two clubs that were just alike. It wasn’t until the early Thirties when they developed a system of golf club uniformity. Before then you might have ten mashie-niblicks and not two of them had the same loft. So we put together the best set of clubs . . .

[Back in 1990 I wrote a book about golf’s senior tour entitled Playing With The Pros: Golf Tips From The Senior Tour. It was published by E.P. Dutton. The book was basically tips on how to play from some of the greats of the game, plus recollections from those professionals. For an introduction, I went to see my friend Harry Cooper, then 89, and still teaching at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, and asked him about the game of golf. Over a period of several long afternoon conversations at the club and at his home nearby, I wrote down Harry’s words of wisdom, his stories of the early tour in America, his golf tips and stories, and then I wrote them up for the Introduction. Here is some of what Harry had to say, in case you play golf, or you are just interested in reading what one . . .