COLLEGE IS MORE THAN ACADEMICS

One reason you might not want to attend MIT:  you need to be able to swim 100 yards before graduating.  However, no one has ever been confirmed to not graduate.  According to their guide, if you fail the test, all you need to do is take a beginner swim course.

At Bryn Mawr, you must swim continuously for ten minutes.  But, again, a swim course would suffice.  The message here?  Check if the university you're applying to has a swim test or not if you don't want this added stress factor.  In 1977, 42% of universities had some kind of swim requirement.  Today, very few, and all in the East.  I'm not sure if I could have graduated from Stanford if they had one.

Speaking of Stanford, it has won the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Learfield Director's Cup now for 24 straight years.  This is an annual award given to the institution with the best overall record in collegiate athletics.  Last year UCLA was #2.  The scoring system is so complicated that I send you to the source.  You explain it to me.

However, it was not always like that.  In my four years there, our baseball team might have been competitive, but we were close to or at the bottom in other sports.  Cactus Jack Curtis spoke before the freshman class and proudly bragged:  that he recruited every one of those high school stars who qualified to enter.  And both of them actually showed up on campus.  Clearly, they then could lower standards if necessary, but we still mostly lost.   His four-year record when I matriculated was 14 wins and 36 losses.  He was fired just after I left.  Interestingly enough, I searched and searched, and couldn't find a photo of him.

Today:

With high academic standards, Stanford has a limited pool of recruits, putting them at a disadvantage. David Shaw recently mentioned that only forty to fifty high school players are legitimate prospects. Shaw told CBS sports, “I’m not kidding. If we’re recruiting more than fifty guys, we’re kidding ourselves.” With twenty five spots to fill, Shaw probably aims at getting around twenty players per year, so he must convince about forty percent of his potential recruits to choose Stanford.

At the social level, are there secret societies in colleges?  Of course.  Here are ten from the USA and Europe.  Ivy League schools are particularly noted for them, but, when you come down to it, they are not really secret anymore, and the changing times have resulted in some being abolished by the administration.

• Yale:  Skull and Bones, now coeducational, meet twice per week (both George Bushes, John Kerry, William Buckley--and why 322--the year of the death of Greek orator Demosthenes, when ancient Athens shifted from democracy to plutocracy...rule by the rich)
• Pennsylvania:  Sphinx, now multi-racial and coeducational (John Legend, Jon Huntsman)

• Dartmouth:  Sphinx, one of 14 of these societies on campus
• Harvard:  Porcellian Club, not secret, but mysterious, and fighting the university to stay non-coed (I'm guessing that the XCI, roman numeral for 91, is symbolic of 1791, the year the club was founded)
• Cornell:  Quill and Dagger (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Janet Reno)
• Princeton eating clubs, which are not secret, with the most prestigious being Ivy Club (Woodrow Wilson)

Stanford had eating clubs, and they existed for 117 years, initially created to offer an option for non-whites and non-Christians, except the one I belonged to had all Caucasians, save for me.  However, all seven eating clubs were imperiously abolished in 2009.  Why?  Read on.

We mostly lived in Toyon Hall (right), adjacent to the L, a bank of dining areas for each club, also used for social activities.  Our group still gets together on campus annually during a football weekend.  To quote:

Our uniqueness allows us to do our own thinking and planning. We have no one to imitate, no national affiliation to determine our traditions and policies. Our independence, even from University control, gives our members the chance they need and deserve to do with their talents as they wish. [From the Stanford Eating Clubs President's Report, 1974].

In a way, that was the problem, the University couldn't control them.  Was this good or bad?  Here, a case is made for good riddance:

     The Best Reason for Why Stanford: No Final Clubs

Oh, Harvard has taken steps to outlaw all final clubs.

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IS CHINA THE CAUSE OF HIGH WINE PRICES?

A University of Hawaii colleague, Bruce Liebert, lent me an Australian documentary produced in 2013 narrated by Russell Crowe, Red Obsession, which received an 86% Rotten Tomatoes reviewers rating.  The world has long blamed China for all those astronomical Bordeaux prices, and they are mostly right.  But how this happened is a whole different story.  While somewhat dated, with one curious omission, the film traces what happened to wine prices, particularly Bordeaux, from 2008 to 2012, and specifically Chateau Lafite Rothschild, a winery I visited earlier this year.

In 2007 Henry Tang (right), with a somewhat shady background (did he really graduate from Yale, and with a couple of sensational extra-marital affairs), became the new Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong.  He orchestrated the elimination of wine tariffs in Hong Kong, dropping the percentage from 40% to zero in 2008.  High Bordeaux prices can directly be traced to him.

According to a Robb Report in 2015, he owns the world's largest wine collection.  He sold a small portion of his prized Burgundy for $6.22 million, not for profit, but to share with other burgundy lovers.

But Bordeaux is the ultimate in fine wines, and The Wall Street Journal in 2010 reported that China pushed the price of Chateau Lafite Rothschild to record highs.  This began in 2008, that fateful year when Tang in Hong Kong accomplished his dastardly deed.

In 2011 Fortune said that Chateau Lafite Rochschild (CLR from now on) sold for $83.99 in 1982 and only $49.50 in 1983.  In 2011, the value was 1982 =  $5,500, 1983 = $1,100 and 2008 = $1,800.  If the 1982 followed inflation, it should be $173, not $5.500.  The article never explained why.  For the record, in 1982, less than $10,000 worth of Bordeaux was sold to China.

Let me now add Robert M. Parker to this mix, who launched his career in 1982, and became the person who rated wines, and, incredibly enough, people believed him.  He is responsible for Wine Spectator, which also tracks wine prices.  In 2011, they were shocked that 2010 wines from the 15 leading chateaus had more than doubled in price from 2009.  Nowhere was there a mention of Hong Kong.  Incidentally, Parker just retired, placing the wine field in some flux.

Much of the following comes from The Wine Cellar Insider:

• In 1855 the France government gave classified status to 61 chateaux over the others in Bordeaux
• In 1982 Thomas Yip set up a trading company to supply the top Chinese hotels with wine.  He bought several hundred cases of the 1983 Lafite Rothschild.
• Soon thereafter, CLR became the official  prestige gift within the Communist Party.
• Cathay Pacific, the airline, bought over 20,000 cases of Chateau Lynch Bages for their First Class customers.

• Peter Kwok bought Haut Brisson in 1997 and Tour Saint Christophe in St. Emilion, while Pan Sutong purchased Le Bon Pasteur on the Right Bank (Chinese ownership is almost exclusively here) and Sloan Vineyards in Napa Valley. 
• Over time, more and more of the very rich in China selected Bordeaux as their wine of choice.
• In 2008, Bordeaux Index, known as BI Wines, opened their office in Hong Kong.

• Henry Tang and connected collaborators were able to reduce wine taxes in Hong Kong from 40% to nothing that year.  How this happened would be a most interesting film.
• Sales of Bordeaux in China skyrocketed, and that $100 bottle of wine, shot up to $300.  Supply and demand.  The rich in China had to spend money on something, and they were only enamored of Bordeaux.

• Hong Kong became the center of the wine universe, for in that time frame more wine was bought and sold there than any other market.
• It helped that the American stock market tumbled in 2008, allowing for the availability of other investment funds.
• In one year, wine  revenues jumped up 200%.

• The 2008 CLR smartly placed the number 8 (very good luck in China) in Chinese embossed on the bottle, and the $200 price shot up to $1600.
• By 2010 the amount of Bordeaux sold in Hong Kong (and Macau) dominated.
• The 2009 crop sold in 2010 was extraordinary, with Robert Parker giving 100 points to 29 Bordeaux wines.  The 2010 wines were also exceptional, on the level of 1989 and 1990 vintage years.
• Bordeaux purchases grew from 2,000 hectoliters (100 liters or 133 bottles of wine) to 538,000 hl in 2012, the peak.
• In 2013 China bought 532,000 hl of this wine, compared to the USA with 159,000 hl.

• However, in 2014, sales to China of Bordeaux began dropping, and this was primarily because of a crackdown on corruption.  President Xi Jinping became the anti-Tang.  Can't give expensive wines to officials anymore.

• China does grow a lot of grapes (not sure why the USA missed this list, for we till 1.1 million acres, and should be #6--but you can see that we are peanuts to the world):

1. Spain, 975,000 ha, (2.4 million acres)
2. China, 847,000 ha, (2.1 M acres)
3. France, 785,000 ha, (1.9 M acres)
4. Italy, 690,000 ha, (1.7 M acres)
5. Turkey, 480,000 ha, (1.2 M acres)
6. Argentina, 224,000 ha, (554,000 acres)
7. Chile, 214,000 ha, (529,000 acres)
8. Portugal, 195,000 ha, (482,000 acres)
9. Rumania, 191,000 ha, (472,000 acres)
10. Australia, 148,000 ha, (366,000 acres)

• But much of China's grape crop goes for direct consumption as a fruit or into raisin.  
• Interestingly enough, domestic wine production, and these are not so expensive, began dropping from 2014, and in 2018 showed the sharpest decline, falling by 37% from 2017, so  China's world ranking fell from #7 to #9.
• As of 2016, Asian investors have bought 140 chateaux in Bordeaux.  But, keep in mind that there are 7,000 vineyards.

• There are 1,000 certified wineries in China.
• However, the Chinese don't like middlemen and indexing, so they went to Bordeaux to purchase wines and chateaus.
• Basically $2 wines could be repackaged and sold in China for $20.  I might add that you can still purchase a variety of Bordeaux in French markets today from $2 to $3 per bottle, for 26% of all Bordeaux sell for 3 Euro and less.  Every one we tasted was worthy, and, in fact, made me wonder why I should in the future pay more than a few bucks a bottle for wine.  

• Another interesting statistic is that ONLY 3% of the entire production of Bordeaux/year sell for more than 15 Euros ($17 dollars)/bottle.
• Today, these three grapes dominate Bordeaux (right bank is primarily Merlot, while the left bank, like CLR, uses Cabernet Sauvignon--many are wedded to Burgundy, for this is almost all pinot noir):

                Merlot 66% – 74,550 hectares
                Cabernet Sauvignon 22.5% – 25,500 hectares
                Cabernet Franc 9.5% – 11,000 hectares

After all that, you might want to try some wine from China, and maybe not when you see the price.  The two prominent ones are Changyu Moser XV from Ningxia and Ao Yun (LVMH--Louis Vuitton--Moet Hennessey) from Yunnan.  Checked them out and Ao Yun, a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, can be had for between $200 and $300/bottle.  But it comes from Shangri-la.

A 2013 Chateau Changyu Moser XV Grand Vin, a Cabernet Sauvignon, sells for $77/bottle.  Lenz Moser became a partner 12 years ago.

So looking at the 1.4 billion people of China (17 times that of France), you would think the numbers would in time swallow up a lot of wine.  Apparently, that will take longer than initially thought.  There are still not enough rich people there. And sure, you can blame China, or, really Hong Kong, for creating the 2008 bubble that deflated a few years later.

However, at nearly $1000/bottle (which I am holding), Chateau Lafite Rothschild is not exactly cheap.  Again blame China for that.  And I still swear that the average imbiber would not be able to differentiate this prominent elixir from those $2-$3 Bordeaux bottles you can find in any French market.  The reality, though, is that China is a bit player in the production and purchase of wines.  One person (Tang) caused the bubble and another (Xi) burst it.

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WHAT IS RAMADAN?

How many of you knew that the 1.5 billion Muslims are currently fasting, in their most sacred month, Ramadan, marking when Allah first gave chapters of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad in 610?  The consumption of food, sex and smoking of course are allowed after sunset to  sunrise.  Mind you, not even drinking of water during daylight.  This year, it began around May 5, depending on the sighting of the moon, and will begin to end tomorrow (in the USA), when you finish the fast by eating dates during the evening meal. 

The next day will be Eid al-Fitr, a religious holiday, no fasting anymore, but, more importantly, the next stage, when you bestow money to the poor and needy, and perform congregational ritual prayers in a loud voice.

Details vary by country, but, say, in Saudi Arabia, homes are decorated and sumptuous meals are provided by the most senior member to family and friends, followed by further gifting to children and immediate relatives.    Now that this special worship, patience and fasting period to create a stronger bond with the Lord is over, generosity and hospitality prevail, and fireworks shows are common.

What does an NBA player do if he is in the playoffs?  This was a first for Enes Kanter (in the middle) of the Portland Trailblazers.  He has breakfast of yogurt, fruit and peanut butter, and drinks as much water as possible, before sunrise, not even taking any medicines or being treated for his sore shoulder, then playing at night against the Denver Nuggets.  The Trailblazers so respects Kanter's dedication that they built a prayer room for him, something he uses five times/day.  Actually, to condition himself for that coming inevitable, he was this year fasting once or twice a week anyway.

The final game against the Nuggets  had tip off at Noon.  However, he was able to play on an empty stomach and no water to beat them.  He played 40 minutes and finished with 12 points and rebounds, about his average. They did subsequently lose to the Golden State Warriors.

But more than basketball, something good is happening around Ramadan in the U.S.  As fasting ends at sunset, in Dearborn, Michigan, food trucks serving halal cuisine convene for "suhoor" time (the food consumed before sunrise during Ramadan), with scents of the Middle East.  Non-Muslims are welcomed.  Less than ten miles away is Detroit, where the dozen mosques of 30 years ago have grown to 30, and here, too, crowds gather at night to break bread, with hot dogs (yes, there are halal versions) cheesesteaks and shawarma, slivers of seasoned meats.

Some complain the sacred is being sacrificed for food, but people are being brought together, binding the community and building bridges...the principle of any holy month.  This is an antidote to hostility.  Education will ultimately make the difference, but Ramadan could well accelerate the process.

The larger festivals will occur on Tuesday for Eid al-Fitr.  Cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago will host tens of thousands, but usually over the weekend, from June 7-9.

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MY WORST WEEK IN DECADES ENDS REASONABLY OKAY

The ordeal began last Thursday, with the gallon drinking session for my colonoscopy on Friday.  I won't know until next week if the polyps were benign or malignant.  But this agony at least led me to Hawaii/Arizona Mystery Woman #2.

Then on Tuesday I had an appointment with a dermatologist, who looked at two skin tags which have been with me for a couple of decades, but recently got sensitive, for they are located where I sit.  The  decision was quickly decisive.  He excised both, with little pain, but, again, had to be sent to the lab for analysis.  He bandaged the wounds and told me to daily change them after taking a shower or bath.

That night I had a practice session, but could not even see the bandages.  I had no cosmetic mirror in the apartment, so, at night, drove all the way to CVS Longs, and bought the only mirror they sold.  I came home and tried it out, but, it was for eyebrow plucking, meaning I could not distinguish anything.

I had several options:

• Go to the clinic in the basement and some nurse could change them.

• Call Mystery Women #1.

• Knock on the door of my neighbor John, who is a doctor.

After some agonizing, I noticed I had a large round mirror on the wall.  That might work.  It was not an easy task to get it down. When I straddled the mirror on the sofa with one leg, I could barely see one bandage.  With the other, the other.  The info sheet said don't use any triple antibiotic or any medicinal ointment.  Simple Vaseline was best.  So I went back to Longs and paid a couple of dollars for the smallest bottle, which is at least ten lifetimes worth of lubricant.  But I succeeded.

So my body has been through a struggle this week.  Mind you, I live at 15 Craigside, where ailments are the foci of dinner table discussions, and virtually everyone has had open heart and brain surgery, joint replacements, and everything else you worry about.  Me?  The last time I spent any time in a hospital was when I was born at Queen's.  I since then haven't needed to stay a night in one, if you don't count that month when my wife was in intensive care and passed away. 

So while my resident friends don't think much of my pains, colonoscopy and skin tag removal are major health issues for me.  Thus, yesterday, after golf, John and I stopped by the Beretania Foodland, and he paid for some poke for him and ahi sashimi for me, as I had found a nice piece of wagyu beef in my freezer, and I was planning to reward my body for surviving this trying week.

My lanai is ideal for this kind of celebration, and note that calamansi citrus is getting close to being large enough for drinks:

So I asked my mind what it wanted to do after dinner, and it told me to play American Grafitti, for Friday night was once the big night out for dancing and music.  At Stanford, we piled into the largest car someone owned and drove across the bay to Garden of Allah, a huge barn where entertainers like Marty Robbins, Chubby Checker and the Marvelettes performed.

American Grafitti was shot in Modesto, a bit further east in California.  The timeframe was 1962, the year I graduated.  I recently reviewed Booksmart, sort of the same kind of movie about one night till the next morning of high school graduates today.  Maybe one or two sounded familiar, but there were 39 songs.  The soundtrack of American Grafitti has 41, and I recognized them all.  Click on them for nostalgia:

Side one (Front side of record one)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock"	Bill Haley & the Comets 1954	2:08
2.	"16 Candles"	The Crests 1958	2:48
3.	"Runaway"	Del Shannon 1961	2:18
4.	"Why Do Fools Fall in Love"	Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers 1956	2:14
5.	"That'll Be the Day"	The Crickets 1957	2:14
6.	"Fannie Mae"	Buster Brown 1959	2:52
7.	"At the Hop"	Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids 1973	2:25
8.	"She's So Fine"	Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids 1973	2:18
9.	"The Stroll"	The Diamonds 1957	2:26
10.	"See You In September"	The Tempos 1959	2:03

Side two (Front side of record two)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Surfin' Safari"	The Beach Boys 1962	2:05
2.	"(He's) The Great Imposter"	The Fleetwoods 1961	1:33
3.	"Almost Grown"	Chuck Berry 1959	2:09
4.	"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"	The Platters 1958	2:37
5.	"Little Darlin'"	The Diamonds 1957	2:04
6.	"Peppermint Twist"	Joey Dee and the Starlighters 1961	1:58
7.	"Barbara Ann"	The Regents 1961	2:14
8.	"The Book of Love"	The Monotones 1958	2:17
9.	"Maybe Baby"	Buddy Holly 1957	2:01
10.	"Ya Ya"	Lee Dorsey 1961	2:22
11.	"The Great Pretender"	The Platters 1955	2:35

Side three (Back side of record two)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Ain't That a Shame"	Fats Domino 1955	2:31
2.	"Johnny B. Goode"	Chuck Berry 1958	2:38
3.	"I Only Have Eyes for You"	The Flamingos 1959	3:09
4.	"Get a Job"	The Silhouettes 1958	2:37
5.	"To the Aisle"	The Five Satins 1957	2:44
6.	"Do You Want To Dance"	Bobby Freeman 1958	2:35
7.	"Party Doll"	Buddy Knox 1957	1:54
8.	"Come Go with Me"	The Del-Vikings 1956	2:37
9.	"You're Sixteen - You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)"	Johnny Burnette 1960	1:56
10.	"Love Potion No. 9"	The Clovers 1959	1:53

Side four (Back side of record one)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Since I Don't Have You"	The Skyliners 1958	2:35
2.	"Chantilly Lace"	The Big Bopper 1958	2:21
3.	"Teen Angel"	Mark Dinning 1959	2:35
4.	"Crying in the Chapel"	Sonny Till & the Orioles 1953	3:04
5.	"A Thousand Miles Away"	The Heartbeats 1957	2:25
6.	"Heart and Soul"	The Cleftones 1961	1:49
7.	"Green Onions"	Booker T. & the M.G.'s 1962	2:25
8.	"Only You (And You Alone)"	The Platters 1955	2:35
9.	"Goodnight, Well it's Time to Go"	The Spaniels 1954	2:43
10.	"All Summer Long"	The Beach Boys 1964	2:05

The film cost $0.777 million to make, and earned $140 million.  You can click on this to get the details, but here is where Harrison Ford made that noteworthy impression to play Han Solo in all those Star Wars, then Indiana Jones.  The blonde in that T-Bird was Suzanne Sommers.  The film earned 96/84 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.

I will close by sending you to PBS, for tonight they again show My Music:  Pop, Rock and Soul.  You've no doubt seen it before, for I remember a 2013 version.  Maybe they'll add new tunes, but the standard song list has:

"Daydream Believer" — Davy Jones
"Kicks" — Paul Revere & the Raiders
"Turn Around, Look at Me" — The Vogues featuring Bill Burkette and Hugh Geyer 
"Somebody to Love" — Jefferson Starship
"White Rabbit" — Jefferson Starship
"Mr. Tambourine Man" — Roger McGuinn
"Louie, Louie" — The Kingsmen
"When a Man Loves a Woman" — Percy Sledge
"A Summer Song" — Chad & Jeremy
"Devil with a Blue Dress" — Mitch Ryder
Theme from Hawaii Five-O — The Ventures
"Ooo Baby Baby" — The Miracles
"Knock on Wood" — Eddie Floyd
"I'm into Something Good" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"There's a Kind of Hush" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"This Diamond Ring" — Gary Lewis & The Playboys
"96 Tears" — ? Mark & The Mysterians
"Hey There Lonely Girl" — Eddie Holman
"Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye" — Gary DeCarlo of the STEAM hit
"Classical Gas" — Mason Williams

Some of the above clips are from Dick Clark and other shows of that era.  See how they've aged.  Peter Noone and his Hermits have three songs because he usually  hosts.

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