Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

The Curious Cops of Wales…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Cops,Depression and Hope,Friendship & Compassion,Jewish Themes,My Own Personal Hell — Bob at 10:26 am on Thursday, September 4, 2014

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355

Originally published on © October, 2008 I was a very obscure writer. Now only slightly obscure, and hopeful

(#1 of 4 chapters, all here this time. 21 rich pages or 15,775 words. Don’t be shy. Take a chance on me)

Bendith Duw ar Bobl Cymru a`u plismyn gwaraidd!!!
(God bless the Welsh People and their civilized policemen!!!)

My original motivation to travel to Britain for the first and only time, in 2001, was to investigate Notting Hill.

Notting Hill was long famous, even before the warm-hearted film of the same name with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, for its incredibly congested, unbroken mass of bargain-seeking and perspiring humanity crushed within its mile long length, as the best flea market in Europe.

While I did find beautiful ceramics, overflowing tables of eccentric flotsam and jetsam, and the original 1964 Beatles periodicals I was actually seeking, as well as a priced-to-sell full suit of medieval English armor for mounted combat or jousting, the memory I find that lingers longest are my three unplanned days in Wales.

The distance from London to Cardiff, the capitol of Wales, was slightly less than driving from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin. Interesting places are much closer together in Great Britain than in the States. The approximate size of the former homeland of the world wide British Empire is about the same size as Illinois and Indiana, together.

Britannia…small, but mighty!
(Read on …)

Bill Reynolds: July 11, 1896…by Robert M. Katzman

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story:  http://www.differentslants.com/?p=355

by Robert M. Katzman © August 3, 2013 

(Some dates and words updated, seven years later)

When Bill was born, Grover Cleveland was president of the United States.  Horses walked the streets of New York City and Chicago.  Victoria was on Britain’s throne and seven million Jews lived across Europe, my family among them.

The Spanish-American War was two years away.  World War One?  Eighteen years in the future.  About 65 million people lived in America.  Civil War veterans, tens of thousands of them, marched in military memorial parades. Penicillin was decades away and women couldn’t vote until 1920, nor Native Americans until 1924.  Great Britain was the most powerful nation on earth, or at least they thought so.

Truman was my first president, April 30, 1950.  Hitler was dead five years exactly. My horses were only in the movies.  No Interstate Highways yet, but soon, after Eisenhower was elected.  Israel was a new country, and Europe was emptied of Jews.  But all four of my grandparents were living in the USA.  My relatives who couldn’t get here in time, evaporated with the rest of them.  Great Britain?  Now, an insignificant and irrelevant island, a little larger than the State of Illinois, sitting quietly about twenty miles off the coast of France.

(Read on …)

A Way To End Terror in America’s Schools…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Children,Cops,Depression and Hope,Friendship & Compassion,Life & Death,Politics,Rage! — Bob at 9:27 am on Saturday, December 15, 2012

My name is Robert M. Katzman and I am a Chicago writer. Like everyone, I too was horrified by Friday’s school killings and that gave birth to a possible solution to the terror.  Not idealistic, but with practical multiple benefits.  Nothing means more to me than protecting our children from terror.  This is it:

Create a domestic service to protect every elementary, middle and high school. Call it the National School Guardian Force, NSGF, or whatever name people agree on.  That’s not important.  Hire only unemployed, honorably discharged, physically-fit veterans between 20-40 years old to cover two different entrances to all schools. Pay them a decent wage or salary. This will solve several problems all at once.

It will add a very good primary layer of protection to all schools. It will remove a very large number of vets from unemployment. They are already covered by veteran’s benefits medically and educationally. They already know how to handle weapons and hand-to-hand combat, or many of them will. But they aren’t paying any taxes if they are out of work.

(Read on …)

Atonement Among the Christians…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Cops,Depression and Hope,Friendship & Compassion,Jewish Themes,Marriage and Family,Travel — Bob at 12:57 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story:  http://www.differentslants.com/?p=355

Âby Robert M. Katzman  October 1, 2012

Choosing to be in a small town in Central Illinois over praying for forgiveness for my sins in a North Shore Chicago area synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, is no simple decision.

God, may be watching.

Possibly, not approving.

The risk could be fatal.

But then, who knows?

When a person belongs to a group of people whose numbers worldwide consists of less than 2/10ths of 1% of the entire world’s population of seven billion or so, why worry about God noticing you, no matter what you do?

To give it context, there are twice as many Kurds as there are Jews. Most people haven’t a clue and think there are 100 million of us roaming around the planet. An actual number would be closer to fifteen million, or the populations of Arizona and North Carolina put together, not that they’d like that.

A more interesting combination would be Israel and Switzerland put together.  That would make the Swiss cheer, I bet.  Interestingly, on Wikipedia when I looked these numbers up, those two countries were next to each other (Switzerland # 96, Israel # 97).

Yom Kippur follows Rosh Hashanah, which translates to “Head of the year”, or the Jewish New Year of 5773. The exact day moves around within September or October every year because of a different calendar.  Jews who don’t ever go to Temple otherwise overwhelmingly do go on Yom Kippur because the psychic consequences are impossible to live with.  If there is a God and you don’t go, and he wants you to go, man, you could be in real trouble.  Why live with pressure like that?

Also, there is a part of the text that says on that day, it is determined for the coming year:

“Who will live and who will die; who will prosper and who will suffer; who will find happiness and who will be miserable” and this is my favorite part: “Who will die by fire, by drowning or be torn apart by wild beasts.”

Observant Catholics have to worry about eternal damnation in hell when they eventually die.  Jews have to worry about lions and tigers and bears eating them within the next twelve months! This explains why Jews invented psychiatry and possibly Valium.  In effect, God wants what he wants and are you in or are you out?

(Read on …)

The Outcome of the Unusual Case was Unquestionably Black and White…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Black/White relationships,Cops,Gritty Katzman Chicago Stories,Rage!,Social Policy and Justice — Bob at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story:  http://www.differentslants.com/?p=355

First posted August 8, 2007

Second posting July 18, 2012

One morning some years ago, near Chicago, I was at a currency exchange where I would go to pay my utility bills. I suppose I could have mailed my payment, but it was faster for me to pay it in person. Besides, the dark-eyed girl working there behind the glass had a great rack on her and she always smiled at me, her blood-red lipstick gleaming on her soft, luscious lips. And when she walked over to punch my account numbers into her machine, I got a global view of all her–assets.

I didn’t mind, she didn’t mind, and the whole day was better for the experience.

So, on this particular day, I was waiting in line to see my favorite cutie. I was on the left side of the small room where she always worked behind the bullet-proof glass, and there was another young guy at the teller down the way from me paying a bill too, with about a four yards between us.

I am white. He was black. I think my sexy teller was Assyrian, but that wasn’t crucial to what followed next, on what seemed to be just another ordinary morning.

It was very quiet with the four us going about our business. Then, another young white guy, about twenty, blonde and thin, maybe five foot eight, walked in the exchange and stood silently behind me. I was almost ready to go, when the chime on the only door to the place clanged loudly as the door was suddenly shoved open and three adorable, very young black children scampered into the room, followed by a short, hesitant, and thin to the point of appearing to be nearly anorexic, man of about thirty or so. The kids were full of energy and called the petite man “Dad”.

Then, to my disbelieving eyes an enormous blob of a woman ended this little parade. She was close to six feet tall, and for lack of a more accurate description, the woman most closely resembled the evil Jabba, The Hut character from the Star Wars movie.

(Read on …)

The Compassionate Cops of Wales (reprinted Christmas 2011)…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Cops,Friendship & Compassion,Humor,Jewish Themes,Philosophy,Social Policy and Justice,Travel — Bob at 10:46 am on Saturday, December 3, 2011

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story:  http://www.differentslants.com/?p=355

(First published October 16, 2008)

Bendith Duw ar Bobl Cymru a`u plismyn gwaraidd!!!

(God bless the Welsh People and their civilized policemen!!!)

My original motivation to travel to Britain for the first and only time, in 2001, was to investigate Notting Hill.

Notting Hill was long famous, even before the warm-hearted film of the same name with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, for its incredibly congested, unbroken mass of bargain-seeking and perspiring humanity crushed within its mile long length, as the best flea market in Europe.

While I did find beautiful ceramics, overflowing tables of eccentric flotsam and jetsam, and the original 1964  Beatles periodicals I was actually seeking, as well as a priced-to-sell full suit of medieval English armor for mounted combat or jousting, the memory I find that lingers longest are my three unplanned days in Wales.

The distance from London to Cardiff, the capitol of Wales, was slightly less than driving from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin.  Interesting places are much closer together in Great Britain than in the States.  The approximate size of the former homeland of the world wide British Empire is about the same size as Illinois and Indiana, together.

Britannia…small, but mighty!

To me, the charm of travel is experiencing the unexpected, and that is what the Welsh Police Force was unprepared for, when I attempted to explore their part of that lovely little island, and they kept crossing paths with the continuously confused Jewish guy from the far more dangerous South Side of Chicago.

I just love those guys.

 

In May, 2001, without warning them first, I flew from Chicago to England for four days, three of them of exploring Wales.

I was going to rent a car in London so I could wander through the Welsh hills, dales and towns. A helpful guy from American Express advised me that my rental car was covered by them as an additional benefit of having their Optima card, and not to take the expensive local insurance policy because that was unnecessary.  I thanked them, packed up my guide books and road maps and left the American Midwest to seek British adventures.

This was at the height of the international concern about whether there was an outbreak of mad-cow disease in England, so being a carnivore, I was concerned by how limited that might make my choices of what I could eat there.  Because of severe food allergies, including many fruits, vegetables and even some spices, and not being a fan of East Indian cuisine, this was more than a casual concern. Plus, being slightly kosher, I didn’t eat pork.  Or drink coffee.  Or beer.  Or wine. That little British Isle was beginning to look smaller and smaller.  And even more of an adventure, too.

Tea, however, was ok.

Not enough, of course, but it was a start.

My initial desire to go to Wales was to visit the world famous town of Hay-on-Wye.  I first heard about it years ago when I owned a world-travel bookstore.  It was claimed to be the only town in the world with thirty-five used bookstores, each specializing in a different subject, like cooking, science fiction, art and so on.  Just thirty-five used bookstores, a pub, a gas station and the Wye River swiftly flowing by, to add to the romantic setting.

Mae`r Gelli Gandryll yn nefoedd ar y ddaear i  lyfrgarwyr! 

(in Welsh–Hay-on-Wye is Heaven on Earth for booklovers!)

I wondered if all that fairy tale charm could actually be true.  I had to see for myself.  It was irresistible.

So I landed at Heathrow Airport with my one carry-on bag.  I never take more than a single bag under the theory that the airlines can’t lose something of mine unless I give it to them.  To date, I have never a lost bag.  I also carry a little day bag with me with some essentials: a dozen prescriptions (sigh…); a 1982 antique Olympus X-A 35 millimeter camera, not digital and great pictures, plus ten roles of 36 exposures film; a good historical book set aside in advance especially for a long airplane ride; band aids; a tiny flashlight and a couple of imported dark chocolate bars for hunger emergencies.  My standards for what constitutes an emergency is somewhat flexible when it comes to dark chocolate, now considered to be a health food, thank God.

Then I went to the car rental company to pick up my reserved compact Ford, which looked somehow European to me.  The steering wheel being on the right side might have had some small influence on my first impression of how the car seemed kind of alien.  Kilometers prominently displayed on the odometer were another distraction.  But, I dismissed that as no big thing.  As advised by my credit card company I refused the offer of 100% collision insurance from the car rental company and paid them for the three-day rental with my Optima credit card.  My brief thought about that was:

“Well, that’s a nice savings.”

It would not be my last thought on that subject after the tumultuous days to come.

My first impression of London, while trying to escape from it was:

 “Jesus Christ! This is one huge, complicated and jam-packed city, man!”

 There was concrete everywhere, big buildings, bridges and thousands of fast cars whizzing around me, as I searched for my exit. The signs being in English were of little comfort because all the names were still foreign to me. There were huge trucks and a great deal of noise surrounding me.  I wanted to get out of London as quickly as I could.  Then the exit I’d been searching for appeared in my windshield and I did.

I was 132 miles from Cardiff, or about two hours away.   Now, I was in no great rush.

The road from London to Cardiff, Wales was beautiful and surprisingly empty.  Little traffic and no visible towns for the majority of the distance between the two cities. No billboards.  Just green, everywhere.  England was many shades of green, was my first impression.  I read they had sixty million people living in Britain, but I saw no evidence of any of them for a long time between London and Cardiff.  That was also when I first noticed that the highway seemed somewhat narrower than in the States. The individual lanes seemed more compact, too, but I thought I might be imagining that part.

So, driving along, casually, I passed exits for Windsor, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Hungerford, Marlborough, Calne, Chippenham, Corsham, the ancient Roman town of Bath, then rolling through the gentle Cotswold Hills I passed Keynsham, the bigger city of Bristol, past the Bristol Channel just by the border of Wales to Newport, and then down the west side of the narrow channel to one of Wale’s largest city, Cardiff.

Cardiff, a modern city of 320,000 people and the Capitol of Wales since 1955, was first inhabited by European Celts, according to excavations, at about 600 B.C.  Its name in Welsh is Caerdydd, which translates, according to most historians, into Fort Dydd or Diff, possibly named after the river Taff where the ancient Cardiff Castle is located.  The Romans built that fort in 75 A.D.

It was attacked by the Normans in 1081 A.D. after the successful 1066 invasion from Normandy, now part of present day France.  The Normans built the castle over the foundations of the destroyed fort. It wasn’t until 1536 that Cardiff and all of Wales became legally part of England, involuntarily, from what I read. Calling the Welsh people British doesn’t necessarily make them believe that, in their hearts.

(Read on …)

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