By

Andrew DeMarco

 

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more you are a leader.”    John Quincy Adams

 While cleaning up my office files I came across an old article from the New York Times sports section from February 4, 2001. The article was entitled “The Little Point Guard Who Could” and the article was about my friends’ daughter Michele. At the time, Michele was a junior at the University of Richmond and told the story of how she was able to make it in Division 1 basketball with the handicap of being only 5 feet tall. The article tells her story from the time when she was a freshman in high school and was told she would never be able to play basketball let alone for a Division 1 team.

 In high school she was quite a good little athlete playing soccer, softball and tennis with softball being her real “natural” sport. When she was told she would not be able to compete, it only steeled her resolve to become a basketball player and really gave up softball to prove the naysayers wrong. Well she did and went on to become a two-time Westchester County player of the year. She went on to sign a letter of intent to play at the University of Richmond and by the time she graduated she was number 20 on the all-time NCAA career assist list and scored over 1,200 points. She still is the Richmond all-time assist leader and in the top 15 all time in scoring, and even played professionally in Greece for one year. So much for a handicap! It is interesting to note that Michele’s hero is appropriately Mighty Mouse.

 After graduating and playing in Greece for one year, basketball, which was never supposed to be her forte, was still in her blood and Michele was determined to become a coach. So she embarked on her career like most paying her dues as an assistant at Columbia, U Penn, Old Dominion and American U. Last April, Michele got the opportunity to become a head coach and accepted the position at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her last name is Koclanes so Coach K was out of the question and she now goes by Coach Belle.

 I have known Michele since she arrived home from the hospital with her parents over 30 years ago and although she has never let anything get in her way she has always shown herself to be a leader both on and off the court and an inspiration to many who she has come into contact with. I remember when she was in high school and later on when she was home from college, how the younger girls playing CYO would flock to her and how receptive she was to all of them.

This was further proven a few weekends ago when my wife and I decided to join Michele’s parents for a weekend trip to Hanover. It was the last weekend of the basketball season which would close out Michele’s first year as a head coach. It was a tough season for Michele and the team and we figured she could use some moral support.

After a tough final weekend and the emotion of Senior Day, we were invited to join her, the team and parents for the season ending awards luncheon. My wife and I were honored to be part of the Coaches family and enjoyed the awards and the program that Michele and her staff put together. But it was the honoring of the seniors that really told the story and hence my quote by John Quincy Adams at the beginning of this Glow.

During the ceremonies, Michele got up and thanked her team for their effort and for accepting her as their new coach. She realized how difficult it was for them, since she brought in a new system, new ways of doing things and since none of them were recruited by her it made it all the more difficult. Then it was the seniors turn to speak and that is when I realized that Michele was no longer Michele, but truly Coach Belle.

 Nicola Zimmer the team captain got up and thanked Coach Belle for all she had done and then the waterworks started. She looked at Coach Bell and told her through tears that she thought she knew everything about basketball, life and being a team captain and leader, but she was wrong. She went on to tell Coach Belle that she had learned more in the one year that Michele was coach than she had in her three previous years playing for Dartmouth. With that statement, I looked over at the Coach’s parents and saw the pride in their eyes and gave them a thumbs up. After the ceremonies, I spoke with the other players and what Nicola had stated was pretty much the consensus among all of them, especially to those players that were returning and really looking forward to next year.

 So I realized that it really isn’t about the number of wins, and that Coach Belle is living up to John Quincy’s thoughts about leadership. Coach Belle is proving that it is about being a leader and educating and building those leaders for tomorrow. I have no doubt that eventually Coach Belle will put together that winning team, because she has proven that she can inspire, lead and teach others to do more. Knowing this I know gives her parents and all those that know her and who will be playing for her in the future, that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…… Rosy Glow.

 

 

 

By

Andrew DeMarco

 

With the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards season completed and officially over, there is no more hype on who was or wasn’t nominated, who should have won, who got the short end of the stick, and how they celebrated their victories or defeats. No more pre-game red carpet shows and who is wearing borrowed clothes and jewelry from which designer and who looks good and who is absolutely hideous, while these stars are being asked some of the most inane questions.

I have always been amazed at people’s fascination with movie stars and celebrity.  Even celebrities are amazed at how people are fascinated with them. For instance, I am not a fan of Alec Baldwin and I never thought I would agree with him but a few months back he summed it up pretty well.

Mr. Baldwin was involved in a case where a woman was accused of stalking him and his family. According to the woman they had a romantic fling and why she stalked him nobody knows. She was convicted and sentenced to 210 days in jail. But she was just a minor annoyance for Mr. Baldwin. During the trial the paparazzi, which is Italian for people who need to get a life, camped out in front of the Baldwin apartment building and hounded Mr. Baldwin, his wife and new child. It got to the point where he assaulted a camera man and asked, “What is your fascination with my family and my business?”  I could not have asked it any better, and does anyone really have an answer?

Mr. Baldwin was in the news even more recently and said, “To be a New Yorker meant you gave everybody five feet. You gave everybody their privacy.”  This reminded me of all the stars who came into my father’s store on the Upper West Side and why they continued to shop with us because we never made a fuss over them. They were customers and in many cases more than that they were friends, all because we treated them like any other customer. I never asked any one of them for an autograph and in retrospect maybe I should have.  Long after my father sold that store, the family received Christmas Cards every year from 2 Academy Award winners and a world famous mezzo-soprano.

Maybe this frenzy is fed by the media, and our 24 hour news cycle with shows like Access Hollywood, Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight and even local news, occasionally on a slow news day keeps track of which celebrity got into trouble that day. Then there are the newspapers which have added gossip sections like Page Six in the New York Post and Confidential in the Daily News adding to all this madness. All of them keeping track of the comings and goings of the likes of George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson and minor celebrities like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Rhianna and whoever else makes the paper that day.  It is no wonder that people have become infatuated with celebrity.  We are talking about people who make far too much money for what they do, and in many cases do not deserve all the attention that is lavished on them.

Perhaps because of my contact with stars on a regular basis when I was younger is the reason why I cannot understand all this frenzy.  So between Mr. Baldwin, all the award shows and with the recent passing of Shirley Temple I was reminded of a quote by one the greatest actresses of all time.

“Acting is the most minor of gifts… After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four. “

While I agree with this quote, I have to make a correction or two. Shirley Temple was actually just three years old not quite four when she made her acting debut and won a special “Juvenile Academy Award” at the age of seven. The quote by the way is by none other than Katherine Hepburn, who with 12 Academy Award nominations and 4 wins all for Best Actress would know something about acting.  Miss Hepburn tried to keep her life private, at a time when it was a lot easier, but even back then found it difficult and her relationship with Spencer Tracy was big news.

Further proof that Kate was right on with her assessment are Academy Award winners Tatum O’Neal winning at the age of 10, Anna Paquin at 11 and the old timer Jennifer Lawrence at 23. If you still need more proof on how minor a gift acting is Lassie, Rin-Tin-Tin and Mr. Ed all had long careers.

So next time I hear all the commotion about some actor and see all the paparazzi going crazy, I will think of all the stars I have met and fondly remember my time working with my father and how we treated those stars just like everyone else, and how they appreciated it. Maybe when we all realize that all they want is to be treated like everyone else and have a little privacy this frenzy will end. I will watch an old movie with no fuss. I will remember that these overpaid stars and paparazzi are just like you and I and think of those words by Katherine Hepburn. You know those words will fill me with that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…… Rosy Glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By

Andrew DeMarco

 

As most of you know this blog was started in memory of Cousin Bob LaTorre whose original Rosy Glows were published 25 to 30 years ago. When I started this blog I was amazed how after all this time his insights were still relevant. With President’s Day approaching I thought I would take a quick look at two of our Founding Fathers and show how over two hundred years later there insights are still relevant now more than ever.

Let’s take a look at Thomas Jefferson our third president. As we all know Mr. Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom which is the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution and founded the University of Virginia. One of his takes on the Constitution almost 200 hundred years ago is as timely today as it was then and below is his quote.

“Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them, like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched.”

“I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions…but I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of humankind.” – Thomas Jefferson 1816

 

Think about this for a moment, Mr. Jefferson did not have disdain for constitutions, but he realized that even then that great strides would be made by the human race and that laws and institutions would have to adapt with changing times. Even before it became popular to refer to the constitution as a “living document” he knew that it would need to be so.  He could not have foreseen such events as the Suffrage Movement and later a woman’s right to choose, Prohibition and its repeal and the ongoing question of the Separation of Church and State, all issues that required amendments to the Constitution or Supreme Court decisions and all occurring in different eras and changing times. So his thoughts are still timely just about 200 years later.

Next up is our fourth president James Madison. Mr. Madison was a protégé of Thomas Jefferson and a fellow Virginian and is considered one of the driving forces behind our U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His thoughts from well over two hundred years ago are as follows:

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is, will be tomorrow.” –  James Madison  1788

 

For those who are having trouble understanding what Mr. Madison was getting at, it is simple. His thoughts on laws can be summarized in two words, brevity and clarity. Basically what he was saying that if laws are too big no one will read them and if they are too complicated no one will know what they are about. Mr. Madison was indeed a man of his word when you consider that the U.S Constitution and the Bill of Rights, documents which all our laws are based on, consists of about 4,400 words. Now I am sure that there are many laws out there that are full of verbosity but it is easy to come up with an example that proves Mr. Madison’s timelessness. It proves not only volume but also  a law with constant revisions and changes and delays before being implemented.  Simply consider this quote by a former Speaker of the House.

 “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of controversy.”   Nancy Pelosi   2010

 So what is the point of this Rosy Glow, other than no one could ever equate Nancy Pelosi with Madison or Jefferson or any president for that matter. Well it is simple, on this President’s Day besides looking for sales, remember that although originally begun to honor Presidents Washington and Lincoln, we honor all the men who have served in that position. Whether you agree with them or not, whether good or bad it is an elite club and the office of the President of the United States deserves respect. If we as Americans cannot respect the office than how can we expect others to? Also, we should all take some time and look into our history and study the wisdom and timelessness of our predecessors. Here is hoping that Cousin Bob’s message is still timely many years from now and, hopefully so are the lessons we learn from these Rosy Glows. Most of all I hope that learning from our past we can improve our present and future and by improving, give one that feeling which Cousin Bob would call that ….. Rosy Glow.

 

 

 

By

Bob LaTorre

A look at a calendar of events for the year will show dozens of celebrations scheduled for nearly every day of the year. Every week is a commemorative for something and months are set aside for just about everything. Sad to say that people like George Washington, or at least his memory, get lost in the shuffle of National Pickle Week and Onion History Month.

We really like our holidays in this country and somewhere along the line we began timing our vacations to our honoring our heroes. Now we find that we are forgetting our heroes and just taking days off anyway.

I have nothing against long weekends, but it may be time to reassess our priorities. Let’s decide how many long weekends we want and just space them out through the year. Meantime let’s get back to honoring those who made sacrifices which gave us our great way of life.

I don’t think it would be bad if children went to school on the birthday of men like Lincoln and Washington. Nor would it be so bad if we worked on those days. As a matter of it could be better if we took a few minutes out of that day to remember our heroes.

There could be a special radio and TV Broadcast at, say eleven o’clock. It would last for perhaps five minutes and we could pause for that time and listen to a short biographical sketch of the person being honored. Then we could all go about our work and studies. While not a day off it would do more for our collective understanding of these men and woman than is now done when we take an entire day to supposedly honor their memory.

Today is the birthday of George Washington; he is in the minds of most older Americans, the Father of our Country. The cynicism of the times tends to questions such titles. On the other hand, history tends to make men such as Washington into something more than mere mortals.

The truth is that old George was a man no more no less. He was however a very special man, special, because he was called upon by events of his time. He gave in every sense of the word, a good shore of his life to the creation of this country, and to be sure much of that time was given against his personal wishes. While he accepted the glory bestowed upon him by the people of his times he wished that he could remain at home and tend to his farm, as he referred to it. His plantation is what we call it.

It was his character much more than his wealth, his education, his experience or even his intellect which was called upon so often by his peers.

He was not the most experienced military officer in the colonies at the time but he was accepted as a Virginian, to lead the New Englanders in war. Anyone who understands the feelings of the colonies for each other will know how difficult it was for such a thing to happen.

While he was a member of the “Aristocracy” at least as far as one existed in the colonies at the time, he had spent much of his life amongst ordinary people and slaves relate to them and to gain their trust and loyalty. He was chosen as chairman of the constitutional convention because he was known for his even handedness. Knowing how most of the delegates felt about each other makes this a remarkable reference for Washington.

Finally he was elected to the office of President. That was a position held in contempt by some Americans at that time. It was a job created after much debate and the majority of American Colonials worried more about the abuse of power of the presidency that of any other part of the newly created Federal Government. The truth is that Washington was probably the only man alive in the newly born nation that could have been elected as the first president.

Most importantly he was the perfect man for the job. He did not as he could have turned it into a royal position, nor did he option to hold it for life as he could easily have done. Instead he set a precedent which lasted for almost one hundred and fifty years.

We need to learn more about men like Washington, who set into place many of the basic concepts which make our country great. We will remain a great nation only so long as we adhere to those principles.

Just thinking about old George Washington on the anniversary of his birth should be enough without a day off, to give us all a cherry colored….Rosy Glow.