GCCCD Grapevine

Volume 14, Number 2                                                Grapevine Home                                                July, 2004

Workshop on Medical Care Options after 65

There will be a workshop open to all district retirees and those about to retire on the options available to persons 65 and older. Topics will include COBRA and Medicare. The workshop is 1-3pm Friday, August 20. Contact the Risk Management/Benefits Office for further information at 619-644-7710.

COBRA Medical Costs Double

Those of you who have reached the age of 65 and are still using COBRA to maintain membership in a GCCCD medical insurance plan might want to reconsider. If you are in Kaiser, eligible for Medicare A and B and live in the San Diego Area (Plan 15), your costs under Senior Advantage as an individual member will be far less than the COBRA premiums. COBRA premiums for a married couple, both age 65 or older, doubled this year to about $400/month. Kaiser eliminated the monthly fee for individuals enrolled in Plan 15 Senior Advantage effective March 1, and made some changes to that prescription drug plan this year such as eliminating the cap. Consequently, even in a worst case scenario, the cost of an individual plan versus the COBRA group plan is virtually the same. However, for an average (not worst case) year, the individual plans are MUCH less expensive. The same may be true for GCCCD Direct Health. Check it out; we’re talking thousands of dollars savings here.

Three More Retire This Year

                                                           
Carole Brown, Child Develop. Ctr.,         Judy DeLong, Student Serv. Asst,             David Luther, Operations,
  Training Spec., Grossmont, 1987                Grossmont College, 1990                          Grossmont College, 1976

    Tom Foster Awarded Administrator Emeritus

Tom Foster was awarded emeritus at the April 20 governing board meeting. Tom came to the district in 1975 to establish an instructional TV unit. In his nearly 30 years of service he went on to become the Director of Learning Resources at Grossmont College before retiring last September . During his tenure, Tom played a major role in the development of educational technology in the district as well as statewide. In accepting the award, Tom said, "Any of the accomplishments I was able to make were solely due to the dedicated and talented staff of the Learning Resources Department".

                      Guest Commentary
Senator Cantwell and Ivan Jones                                       By Ivan Jones

It's not hard to see that a committee conceived the new highly touted prescription drug program. (I'm sure Grossmont retirees know all about committees.)

Take the new Medicare prescription discount drug cards, for instance. The federal government has stamped approval on more than 70 types, and, of course, they are not all equal. Usually they cost between $10 and $30 apiece – or nothing if you are in the poverty level. Some offer greater discounts than others. Some drugs are not available on some cards - but that is challengeable. Changing your mind after choosing a card is not accepted at this time. The card you choose is the card you use at least until next year.   A little homework is needed here, but that should be no big deal for retired teachers. The details of comparison-shopping should be well known by now. But believe me, there is confusion and aggravation enough for everyone if you care to search for it.

I recently attended a seminar on the new bill with U.S. Senator Marie Cantwell (D) of Washington who came to explain why she voted for the bill. She admitted it was a flawed piece of legislation but felt it was the best that could be passed at this time and something, even this, had to be a start. She promised to work hard with her fellow legislators to try to clean up some of the glitches.

She pointed out some of the current problems:  It hands a blank check to the pharmaceutical companies. Along with the discounts, price controls or caps would have protected seniors from getting a 15 percent discount off a price tag that has mysteriously just increased 20 percent.  The so-called "donut" could become a painful problem for some. The bill discounts drugs up to a certain amount, leaves the next level completely uncovered (the hole) and then resumes discounting after expenses surpass the "hole" range.  It opens the door for scam artists who are already creating their look-alike discount cards and, using the best kind of entrepreneurship, plan to sell them to the frail and forgetful door to door.

Senator Cantwell stopped short of calling the bill a bureaucratically contrived and opportunistic piece of legislation. But it is.

Last Chance to Submit Changes to Retiree Directory

If you haven’t sent in your reply yet to the Risk Management/Benefits Office letter of June 1, please note that the Retiree Directory will be updated and published by August, 2004. If you’d like to be listed, or unlisted, or have changed phone numbers or address or name, or if you’d like to add your e-mail address, etc., please contact Michelle or Debbie ASAP at the Risk Management/Benefits Office at Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont Drive, El Cajon, CA 92020. They can be reached by telephone at 619-644-7710 or by e-mail at michelle.cuozzo@gcccd.net

     Driftwood
    Snippets of gossip that have been burnished by friends and washed up on the Grapevine desk
     
          by Bob Steinbach                                                                                                                                                   

  For Easy Readers out there Emilie Zouhar suggests authors Nelson DeMille and Dan Brown.

Breakfast at Denny’s - Sixteen of the semi-regulars at the Second Tuesday Breakfast in March welcomed first-timers Ginger Alcazar, Maxwynne Colley, Patsy Colorado, Roberta Eddins,
Barbara Klein, Lynn Magee and Irene Zens. It was exciting to have a strong contingent of classified folks there.

  Don Bellairs and Gwen decided one morning this Spring to jump in their car and head in the general direction of Mt. Lassen. They returned to Eureka a week later refreshed and with serendipitous knowledge of the nooks and crannies of Northern California. Don’s recent genealogical snooping led to the discovery that he and Gwen are eighth cousins once removed. Their Quaker background led to a common ancestor in England in the early 17^th century.

  Sharon Clark writes, "As of May 1, Bob and I are full time RV'ers.  We sold our house and are now traveling around the country still keeping very busy.  We have been elected to the office of Southern Area Vice President for the California Square Dance Council, and we're working on the Bid Committee to have the 2009 National Square Dance Convention in Long Beach.  Soon we'll be off to Denver for this year’s National Square Dance Convention and then to Idaho to visit Gail Standring and her new home.   Please change my address to:  PO Box 1446  Wildomar, CA   92595"

  Roberta Eddins and Ed took a one-month road trip east to Ed’s 50^th reunion. The excursion took them through the lovely hill country in Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina. There’s another trip ahead, because Roberta is on her 50^th Reunion Committee.

  Hazel Lynch (Jack Lynch's wife and frequent switchboard operator during  Grossmont College's early years) writes that she  suffered a mild stroke March 18 but is recovering with a lot of hard work.  She would appreciate a phone call at 619-448-8492 from any who remember her.

  Gordy Shields had a bridge named after him. SANDAG honored our long-time bicycling enthusiast on April 17 by naming a new Sweetwater river bridge after him. The new bridge connects E Street and Bay Boulevard in Chula Vista to Pepper Park in National City. Gordy has been a proponent of the Bay Shore Bikeway from its earliest days, and was an original member and ten year chairman of the Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee of SANDAG.

  Mary Watkins, one of our most recent retirees (May, 2004), was honored with the Chancellors/Classified Senate Award this March. Chancellor Omero Suarez noted that Mary has been an "outstanding employee for the last 28 years" and that "We will miss you an awful lot", joking that she deserves an award just for having to work with the chancellor and governing board for the past 20 years.

Jacquelyn Winn Tom this is so nice to hear what retirees are up to and keep in touch!

Barbara and Lee: Tom, Wow, what an impressive web page. Guess this keeps you out of trouble and busy! Thanks for your work.  

Bibliofiles:
          
  by Tom Scanlan
(click on bookcovers to enlarge; click on title for Amazon.com reviews or purchase)

  Warning of War, James Brady (Thomas Dunne Books, 2002)***

This book falls somewhere between an action/adventure and a historical novel, with significant elements of both. The author, James Brady, commanded a combat platoon during the Korean War and has written several best-selling books on that war. This novel is about a small detachment of Marines who were given the task of contacting and leading to safety those few other small detachments of Marines who were stranded in China when Pearl Harbor brought our country into World War II.

The story, based on real people, events and places, begins in Shanghai in late 1941, in the chaos of the war between Japan and China and the impeding involvement of the United States. When the United States enters the war, there are numerous hazards this small band of Marines must deal with as they make their way inland and north toward the safety of USSR. The Communist Chinese are fighting the Nationalists, both are fighting the Japanese, and there are bandits to deal with in the northern provinces of China, not to mention the hazards of fierce weather in the Gobi Desert, rivers to cross and snow covered mountains to traverse.

Captain Billy Port, a wealthy Bostonian, an Annapolis graduate and career Marine who likes the good life and has grown to like China, is placed in charge of this special detachment, not much larger than a reinforced squad with a few trucks, a mortar and a few machine guns. They book passage on a tramp steamer from Shanghai north to a coastal city from which they make their way inland. Along the way, in addition to more Marines, they are accompanied by some colorful fellow travelers; a Jesuit priest who knows the area they must traverse to reach USSR, a young Chinese doctor who risks her life to save others from an epidemic, and a French raconteur who also functions as an excellent chauffer.

In addition to fighting bandits and a few rogue Marines who are led by a drugged-out deserter, they are pursued by a determined squad of Japanese soldiers, one of whom was raised in California and was a close friend of Captain Port’s before Pearl Harbor. Captain Port’s battles and escapades are numerous and realistically depicted by Brady, who appears to be familiar with Marine battle tactics and the weaponry of that time period. There’s enough geography, archaeology and history sprinkled in to remind the reader that something like this actually happened, if not quite the way it is written, so the story is quite a tribute to the courage, determination and training of these Marines and their resourceful leader. If ever this novel is made into a film, I could imagine a younger Sean Connery playing Captain Port.

  HUNTER’S Last Life, Clair Runyan, (1^st Books, 2003, now Authorhouse)
    Reminder: I don’t use my star* rating system with books by our retirees.

This is Clair’s second published novel (see review of Flight in the September, 1991 Grapevine) and I believe that it is much better than his first.   Without question, it's a real page turner.  Also, even though the plot is involved, the writing was very tight.  Everything connected, if not soon, then eventually.  Every gun eventually was used (Chekov's dictum), no red herrings to upset the reader.  And it moved!!  Best of all, I was able to relate to the main character, Jason Hunter, even though he was a throw back to the time of Cromagnon (no chuckles here, please). 

The story, briefly, involves Jason, a Cromagnon man who drank a special potion which causes him to hibernate for millennia when the world climate cools and to awaken when the climate warms--and he’s been doing this all through history. He is now moderately wealthy and living a gentile life in a small university town. He has just met a student with whom he has fallen in love, in spite of the complications his unusual life places on such a relationship. His life is going pretty well until he realizes that a series of bizarre murders in the United States may be the work of his adversary from the days of pre-Homo Sapiens, Magnus Grote. Grote, a bully and vicious killer, unfortunately had swallowed the same potion. After many such hibernations the two have finally met again in modern times. Grote is a formidable enemy, even more powerful than Hunter, because his roots are Neanderthal. Worse, he has discovered that Jason is alive and well and in love with this attractive student and so he decides to finish off his longtime foe.

Now this may all sound like a bit of a stretch, and I'm not a fan of fantasy nor do I read as much science fiction as I used to, but strangely, I'd not put this book into either of those genres .  It’s really just a good romantic-adventure with a wee bit of 'what-if' thrown in. Clair tells a good story. It's clever, it's  based on reality (even if belief must be suspended at times), it's dramatic, and it’s loaded with conflict and resolution.  RES OLUTION.  WHOMP!!  No pussy-footing around. It’s great fun to read, an escape from the here and now; and all of us need and appreciate those writers who can provide this. 

Bottom line....I really enjoyed it.  I think you will, too. You can read a free preview or purchase the book at http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?q3=dw7njNl%252fObo%253d

  California the Curious, Ray Reynolds (Padre Productions, 1989)               
                                                                                                                                Review by Pat Higgins

"Rarely have I enjoyed a book on California history as I have enjoyed California the Curious . by Ray Reynolds. I have read more ambitious books , more traditionally structured books , more intellectually venturesome books ; but there is in California the Curious a quality of sheer pleasure that I am even yet, after the reading , still savoring . ----- Kevin Starr (excerpt from State Librarian Kevin Starr’s two-page foreword in the first edition of California the Curious.)
*********************
Take it from Kevin Star, the savor stays after the reading , whether you’ve been counting earthquakes striking our state, or marveling at the number of shady ladies who arrived in San Francisco in the 1850s to help miners and related males get through the lonely days and nights. If it’s been interesting and in our state it’s probably in this book. Ray Reynolds spent years visiting libraries, museums and other sources to come up with the nearly 1,500 items he thought should be in this book.

Happenings of long ago get equal treatment with those of yesterday.For example, in Spanish colonial days, the Catholic Church was strict in seeing that its rules were enforced. California the Curious reports that discipline followed those whose behavior was irreverent in church. A notice was posted with a stern warning , "All persons must attend Mass and respond in a loud voice. If they fail to do so they will be put in stocks for four hours." That was the law in 1816 after mission attendance declined rapidly.  Frivolity raised its pretty head in 1821 in the guise of waltzing , and the church’s ire was drawn again. But Juan Bandini brought back the dance nine years later, and it was so popular that the church couldn’t stop it.

During the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 a caravan of 200 private autos was instrumental in saving lives in Western San Francisco, though they ran for days on steel rims because the hot pavement melted their tires. At that time, private car registration in California totaled only 8,000. During the 1906 fire a statue of Abraham Lincoln in a schoolyard melted almost to nothing. But the resourceful Lincoln School Association made a gavel out of Lincoln’s right forefinger.

Chicago was in ruins. Vesuvius had erupted. San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado had fallen into the sea. East Coast cities had been swamped by a tidal wave. These were some of the wilder rumors circulating in San Francisco during the 1906 quake and fire.

Ray’s wife, Mary Claire Reynolds, remembers that Ray spent about five years on California the Curious before it was published in 1989 by Bear Flag Books. California the Curious is not in publication now, but it occurred to us that it’s good reading for the first time or the fourth, and it's easily available on the internet or in libraries in the area.

More About the Author, Ray Reynolds              
   By Pat Higgins                                                   Ray Reynolds

This month marks three years since Ray left us and took off on the trip to see whether there are men out there beyond the clouds. So we’re looking once more at our man and his book. Ray got a good start, being born in Lower Small Point. Newfoundland, the youngest of six boys. His family moved to New England when he was 4 and Ray’s attachment to books began. As a youth he attended Lafayette University, and as a young man he earned a master’s degree at Occidental in Los Angeles.

Ray came to Grossmont College from Fresno State as a member of GC’s first faculty group. He was scheduled to teach journalism, and his resume already was heavy with experience. Ray had worked on the Army Stars and Stripes, first as a soldier. later as a civilian. Subsequently he worked for the Hartford Courant. the New York World and Sun, the Lewiston Idaho Tribune and the Fresno Bee. At GC, in addition to teaching classes he founded the student newspaper, gave it a distinctive title, the G., and supervised the work of its novice journalists. He was a very good teacher, and I think the administration and his colleagues knew this. I knew, because I got feedback from students.

Ray and I were office partners for nearly 15 years, and I’m happy to say we were compatible. I don’t remember any major clashes; whatever small disagreement we had we settled in some civilized manner. I do remember one question which briefly taxed our tempers. We were giving our overhead shelves a rare dusting when we came on a book which we could see was overdue. It wasn’t just overdue but really overdue----10 years overdue. Each of us was sure the other had taken the book out and neither of us wanted to walk into the library and nonchalantly surrender the now-precious volume. I can’t remember who finally did the deed. I guess the library people were accustomed to the vagaries of teachers---both of us remained on the faculty until retirement time.

The Da Vinci Code, Ron Brown (Doubleday:Random House, 2003)                
                                                                                                                                       Review by Stan Claussen

This book is the hot item on the reading club circuit for winter and spring, and has already been optioned for a movie by the producers of A Beautiful Mind.  Does this mean Russell Crow does the Harrison Ford part? Interest in this book seems to have soared because of Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" -- or as one critic puts it, The Jesus Chain-Saw Massacre.  But Brown's interests are not the same as Gibson's.   In the Da Vinci Code Opus Dei -- the back-to-Latin heavy discipline Catholic group committed to overthrowing Vatican II --lurks as the possible villain; and it is this group that energizes Catholics with  Gibson's point of view, especially, it seems, Mel's holocaust-denying daddy. But that is where the parallels end.  Brown's hero is Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, an agnostic where Christianity is concerned, who teams up with Sophie Neveu
(no relation to Ernie), a cryptologist for the Paris Judicial Police.  They are called upon to solve the murder of the curator of the Louvre, who turns out to be Sophie's grandfather. The curator is shot, but he has just enough time before he expires to leave whimsical clues --  not so much telling who killed him but why he was killed. 

The clues revolve around everything  the reader might already know about Leonardo da Vinci: why he used certain geometrical shapes in the famous Vitruvian Man, androgyny in the Mona Lisa, the appearance of Mary Magdalene in The Last Supper, and, of course, his mirror writing.  So as each numerical or symbolic cipher is solved, Brown gets a chance to deal at length with the main thrust of his tale, which is that the Catholic Church will do anything to to keep the feminine side of Christianity subjugated to the celibate patriarchy.  Anything?  Yes, anything!  Secrets that would change the church overnight concerning what the Holy Grail really was are guarded by a secret order descended from the Knights Templar; its leaders are great artists and scientists.   Only Mozart joins the usual suspects from the Hell-Fire Club  (Voltaire, Jefferson and Franklin) to join into the rites of the group.  Its contemporary leaders are stalked by a sinister albino monk who also begins chasing our stalwart code breakers. The reader gets to travel with them as they flee by jet and Jaguar between Paris and London with the French Judicial Police in hot pursuit. It's a great read and impossible to put down for any length of time. And though it's of primary interest to conspiracy theorists, the novel has its tender moments as well.  

Notes From Retirees

  Wilma Redding writes: I was Accounts Payable Clerk under Gene Murray-Bill Burns was in charge of him. My DOB is 9-7-18. I live in an assisted living residence and am busy attending classes in Collin County Community College-SAIL (Seniors Active In Learning). I still drive, travel and live near family that keep me going to their homes, etc.. I worked ten years contract and two years part-time before that. Some of my younger friends might be working. I would enjoy an e-mail. Regards, Wilma.

wilmaredding1@webtv.net 5217 Village Creek Drive, Apt 229 Plano, TX 75093

Questions Prompted by the Death of President Reagan  by Tom Scanlan 

The activities this week accompanying the late President Ronald Reagan’s death and the memories of Reagan’s years in office which this evokes inevitably prompts a comparison between his presidency and that of our current president, George Bush. One stand-out difference is the way that President Reagan was able to reach across party lines, befriending political foes as outspoken as Democrat House Speaker Tip O’Neill. Didn’t our current President once say, referring to the divisive partisanship in both houses of our government, that he would unite, not divide? Do we not now have one of the most polarized governments in recent history?

Another difference between these presidents was President Reagan’s willingness to compromise if he felt it was beneficial to the country, even if it did not suit his own political inclinations. How much did President Bush compromise when he attempted to achieve UN support for an invasion of Iraq?

President Reagan even admitted his mistakes, sometimes on issues as provocative as the Iran-Contra arms affair. How many mistakes did President Bush admit to when asked this very question recently at a press conference?

President Reagan did not lead our nation into a major and preemptive invasion of the USSR, even though they possessed, without question, weapons of mass destruction and posed a clear and present danger to our nation. Why were we led by President Bush (and his Cabinet) into such a war with Iraq, when it was not at all clear that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction nor was a threat to our nation?

During President Reagan’s term, many nations had despotic and tyrannical leaders who slaughtered and tortured their own citizens (and many still do), denying them any role in governing their own country, but President Reagan did not use this as justification for a preemptive war. Why does President Bush believe that such a war is justified, and why just Iraq? Why not North Korea? Why not Syria? Lebanon? Jordan? Or Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of most of the 9/11 terrorists?

In spite of his strong stance on military defense, President Reagan maintained congenial relationships with the rest of the major powers, including the leaders of some of our cold war adversaries. He made friends of our enemies; President Bush has made enemies of our friends. During Reagan’s presidency, our nation was not just respected, it was a revered example to the people of most other nations. It was safe to travel as an American to almost any nation in the world. Whatever happened to those days?

President Reagan asked the citizens of this country on several occasions if we were better off now than four years ago. That’s an especially relevant question to ask this year.

These are some of the questions I’ll be asking when I go to the polls this November.                                                                 

Obituaries

  Martin Gerrish  GC Drama 1961-1986

Martin Gerrish died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease and congestive heart failure on February 19. Born in Madison, Maine, he was 77 at the time of his death. He was a charter member of Grossmont College and founded the Drama Department.

He attended the University of Maine and later the University of Arizona, majoring in drama. Before coming to Grossmont College, he had extensive experience in acting, directing and writing plays and had taught drama at the University of Louisville and Reedly College. In the early years of Grossmont College he directed as many as four shows each year, building the sets himself. In the summer he often acted in plays at Mission Playhouse and the Old Globe theater.

He founded Octad-One Productions which provided theater locally for many years next tothe East County Performing Arts Center and has since moved to Lakeside. Although he preferred directing, his role as ‘big daddy’ at the Old Globe in 1976 was praised by Craig Noel as one of the finest performances ever seen at the Globe. Martin remained active in Octad-One until 1996, when he produced ‘Picnic’. He had lost his wife to cancer in 1994. A private celebration of life was held for Martin on April 4 in La Mesa.

  Sid Herzig  GC Political Science 1971-1998

Sid Herzig died on April 6 of an apparent heart attack while returning from a walk. He was 67. He was born in East Cleveland, Ohio where he later earned his batchelor’s degree from Western Reserve University. He later earned his master’s at the University of Oregon, where he met his wife, Jill, a fellow student. Before coming to Grossmont College, he taught at Idaho State University and at Ithica College in New York.

At Grossmont College, Sid was well known for his efforts to encourage minority students, helping expand their enrollment and scholarships. He was also l known as an extremely enthusiastic teacher who often had his students act out the part of government officials in dealing with various crises, demonstrating very effectively the uses and abuses of power. A memorial was held for Sid on April 17 at Mission Bay Park.

  Lilja Perry  GC Personnel Assistant 1966-1977

Lilja Perry died on April 11, Easter Sunday, from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease. She was born in West Paris, Maine on November 14, 1929 to Finnish immigrant parents, Olli and Anna Pike. She attended two years of business college in NYC and then became one of the first women to join the Navy in 1942. She was honorably discharged in 1945 and went to work in the Veteran’s Administration in San Diego, where she met her husband, Thomas Perry. She later worked for the Grossmont High School District before coming to Grossmont College in 1966. She enjoyed traveling, camping, reading, gardening and bird watching. As a veteran of World War II, she was inurned at the National Cemetery at Fort Rosecrans in Point Loma.

Norm Walker died January 29 from a massive heart attack. He had taught computer technology at Cuyamaca College from 1986 to his retirement in 1996. Norm was born in Jefferson City, Missouri on September 9, 1929. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean Conflict.

He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Electronics Engineering and then worked for Hughes Aircraft and Cubic Corporation and held three patents on a vote counting machine he developed in his own company before teaching at Cuyamaca College. He was also active in the Shaklee business he operated with his wife, Charlene for over 30 years. He had designed his own retirement home in Prescott, Arizona, adding many special features that he and Charlene enjoyed for this last 2 1/2 years.

March Grapevine Printing Errors

You may have noticed that the pictures were missing from the Driftwood section on page 4 in the last issue of Grapevine, as well as the blank column on the same page. The blank column was the last part of Editor’s Comments. These printing errors resulted from formatting problems involving, apparently, a clash between a Quark document and a Docutech printer, along with some other human variables that no one but the idly curious would care to read about. If you wish to see the pictures or read the rest of the column, please see the online version at http://grossmont.gcccd.cc.ca.us/grapevine/Mar04/gvmarch04.htm

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