Multi-Tasking Behind the Wheel

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

It's a sign of the times that we hate to waste time. Today with the Internet, cellphones, and gadgets whose purposes and abilities are well beyond my ken, we no longer have to "waste" time while standing in line, roaming the grocery store aisles, or driving. Now we can multi-task - get several things done at once.

I'm guilty of eating while driving, something that is stupid and dangerous. I also usually call my Dad every evening as I am driving home. I have things to do once I get home, so I use that driving time to take care of my obligatory daily check on him. And when I take time to study the drivers around me I see similar behaviors. Some people even use their time behind the wheel to handle personal hygiene such as shaving, hair styling, and applying make-up. It is such a comfort to know that everyone else is behaving just as irresponsibly as I am!

I read a story in the New York Times that said that studies show that "talking on a cellphone while driving is as risky as driving with a .08 blood alcohol level - generally the standard for drunken driving." Most military bases outlawed talking on the phone while driving years ago, though it is still allowed on the air base where I work if the driver is using a "hands-free" set.

The article that I referenced in today's New York Times ("Not Driving Drunk, but Texting? Utah Law Sees Little Difference") focused on the latest communication fad - at least the latest one of which I am aware - texting. It stated that texting while driving is at least twice as dangerous as using the cellphone while driving.

The focus of the Times article was on Reggie Shaw, a 19-year-old in Utah, who drove into the path of two scientists who were heading to work, an accident that resulted in the death of the scientists. Reggie was texting his girlfriend at the time of the fatal crash. He was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and a requirement that he read Les Miserables to learn how to make a meaningful contribution to society.

Utah has recently passed stringent legislation regarding texting behind the wheel. Now if a person is caught texting while driving in Utah, they can be fined up to $750 dollars and receive up to three months in jail. If the behavior results in injury or death, the fine can rise to $10,000 and the prison time can be as much as 15 years. And many other states are also taking up this issue in their state legislatures.

If I hurt or kill myself due to my own stupid behavior, that's one thing. But if I injure or kill someone else, I have then become a menace to society and deserve whatever punishment the government sees fit to mete out. Starting now, my Dad is going to have to wait a few extra minutes each day to here from me. I have an obligation as a member of society to behave in a responsible manner. We all do.

Books I Have Almost Read

by Pa Rock
Shameless Reader

Anyone who knows me well can appreciate that I have seldom started a book that I could not or would not finish. Reading is almost a contractual obligation: what is started, must be finished. But there have been a few books from which I have just had to walk away.

I started thinking about the books that defeated me yesterday after enjoying Les Miserables at the theatre. The novel that the play was based on, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, was one of those books that I was never able to finish. It has been many years ago that I fought my way past the first hundred pages or so, only to decide that it was just too sad for my tastes. Perhaps, having matured by a couple of decades (me - not the book), it is time that I picked it back up and tried again.

Another book that defeated me was Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, a German tale of a young man fresh out of the university who goes up a mountain to visit his cousin residing in a tuberculosis hospital. While visiting the cousin, the hero, Castrop, becomes infected with the dreaded disease himself and has to be admitted to the facility for a prolonged stay. I have no idea whether he survived tuberculosis or not, because I set the book down one evening and never got back to it. Please don't tell me how it ends, because I may get back to it also.

While those first two easily qualified as literature by the pound, a third book that I couldn't finish was fairly brief by comparison. That book, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, was one of the most graphically anti-war novels ever written. It came out in 1938 and was undoubtedly a major factor in Trumbo being blacklisted during the McCarthy era. In fact, the book itself was censored during World War II. Johnny is the narrator, and he awakens in a hospital after falling in battle in World War I. At first Johnny doesn't know where he is or what is going on, because he is blind and can't speak. He slowly discovers that he has no arms or legs. I set the book aside when I got to the part about him realizing that the rats were eating at his bandages during the night when the hospital attendants were gone. Johnny Got His Gun is too important not to be read, and I will definitely get back to it.

And when I say that I will try again to read these important works of literature, I mean it. Another book that challenged me for years was Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I gave up on it twice because the characters and situations were just too bizarre to follow coherently, but the third time was a charm. When I began the third reading I was determined that I would read every page regardless of how hard it was to follow - and at some point toward the end of the book it all started to come together and make sense. Catch-22 and I will probably do battle again!

Reading a particular book may be a matter of timing. When the time is right, the book will reveal itself to to the patient reader.

Les Miserables

by Pa Rock
Drama Critic

Les Miserables is a fantastic musical that has been around several years and won numerous awards. And although it is becoming firmly established as a theatrical classic, today was the first time that I have had the opportunity to see it staged. Les Miz has been playing in Phoenix for a couple of months, and its run has been extended twice to accommodate the throngs who wanted to wanted to get in but were unable to obtain tickets.

One of the radio ads said "You've never been this close to the barricades!" I was able to land a seat on the second row - dead-bang center of the theatre - not more than twenty feet behind the barricades. My perch was so close to the stage that I could see the spray leaving the singer's lips as they hit their majestic musical swells!

Les Miserables is a musical retelling of Victor Hugo's monumental novel of the same name. Hugo's 1,200 plus pages are pared down to a stage production of just three hours. The story is an epic struggle of good versus evil and ultimate redemption. It is set in France after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and leads up to the ill-fated Paris Uprising of 1832. It is not, as often thought, a tale of the French Revolution. That bit of history occurred several decades before story of Les Miz begins.

The central character in this morality tale is Jean Valjean, a man who, as the play begins, has just completed serving nineteen years in prison at hard labor for stealing a small amount of bread to keep his sister's son from starving. He is paroled, and promptly learns that his status as an ex-con keeps him from receiving a decent job or fair wages.

Valjean tears up his parole papers and soon steals a silver place setting from a bishop who tries to befriend him. When he is caught fleeing the bishop's quarters with the contraband silver, he tells the police that the bishop gave it to him. To his surprise, the bishop concurs with his lie and enables the man to go free - with the admonition that he has just purchased the man's soul for God. His challenge is to go forth and do good.

Jean Valjean, who never completed his probation and thus remained a wanted man, becomes a successful politician. While keeping his vow to do God's work, he befriends a dying prostitute and promises to raise her daughter, the beautiful Cosette. He keeps his promise to the prostitute, all the while dodging the relentless Javert, a police official who has made capturing him his life's obsession.

If the Valjean-Javert dance sounds familiar, that is probably because it was resurrected in the 1960's in a television show called "The Fugitive," and again in the 1990's in a movie of the same substance and name. No matter how much good Dr. Richard Kimball did, that awful Lt. Philip Gerard remained fixated on bringing him to justice.

There were several standout performers in the Phoenix Theatre's production of Les Miserables. Douglas Webster was a dynamic Jean Valjean. His acting was passionate, and his voice ranged from delicate to thunderous. When Webster traversed the stage, he owned it. Jenny Hintze was the dirty-faced and streetwise Eponine who easily outshone the lovely Cosette. She was compelling and appealing - and her voice was magnificent, with a force that could break windows in the cars driving by out on McDowell.

Beau Heckman and Terey Summers were show-stoppers. They were Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, a pair of coniving street louts who were always on the lookout for a quick franc. They were Eponine's parents and the evil guardians of Cosette when she was a child. The Thenardier's were lovable rogues who could have easily been the creations of Charles Dickens. Their masterful comic relief gave the audience a much needed reprieve from the serious business of persecution, poverty, and war.

Les Miz has a wonderful score, yet it contains few songs that people are likely to hum or sing (or even remember) as they leave the theatre. But it is a show that would be very difficult to forget. The company performing at the Phoenix Theatre have done a terrific job of bringing this great musical production to the stage in the Valley of Hell. I was truly transported to nineteenth century Paris within spitting distance of the barricades!

This was a wonderful afternoon!