News & Politics

David Post • August 21, 2012

$5 Billion!

Fifty-some laws. Most were meaningless.

That’s the Congressional record for 2012.

Largely dominated by the newly energized “Tea Party,” this Congress came to Washington two years ago with great expectations and promises to change Washington.

For sure, a few enormous changes have occurred since President Obama was elected four years ago. On his way out of office, President Bush sought and received $700 billion to bail out the big banks. President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus saved the auto industry and propped up state and local governments hit by the Great Recession. Obama also pushed through his signature health care law.
All that happened four years ago, before this Congress came into office.

Since then, nothing.

The Legislative Branch Appropriation now exceeds $5 billion per year, or more than $10 billion for each two-year session of Congress.

In the last two years, gridlock has only worsened and any pretense of compromise has disappeared.
In 1948, President Truman railed against a “do nothing” Congress. That Congress passed over 900 laws, relatively normal for the times. President Truman’s real complaint was not about how much Congress did. He simply opposed the laws Congress passed. He vetoed 75 of them, and Congress overrode his veto six times.

In more recent decades, Congress has passed approximately 400 new laws per session. This Congress has passed about 135 new laws, about eighty in 2011 and fifty-some this year. That’s 15% of what President Truman’s “do-nothing” Congress accomplished.

President Obama has vetoed only two laws, both three years ago. The last time a president vetoed only two laws was in 1881 by President James Garfield who was in office for only six months before being assassinated. Why so few vetoes with a President and Congress at odds with each other? Congress can’t get anything done. Congress has passed nothing for the President to sign into law or to veto.

So, what taxpayers get for $5 billion?

18 laws naming or renaming buildings.

25 non-controversial laws that did things such as approving negotiated real estate deals with states and cities, maintenance on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and increased prosecution of smugglers who build or finance tunnels into the US.

A handful of existing laws were extended for another year such as this year’s Social Security tax cut and rehiring temporary bankruptcy judges to handle the huge backlog of cases.

Five laws fall into the genuinely “new” or “big” category. Five? FIVE!!! Several were mostly about jobs — building highways and airports and reducing regulations on small businesses. Another prohibited Congressmen from trading on insider information.

That’s $5 billion.

That’s not to say that Congress hasn’t been busy. For the past few decades, approximately 8,000 to 9,000 new bills have been introduced during each two year term of Congress. This Congress introduced over 10,000, more than 1,000 more than ever before. In years past, Congress passed about 5% of laws introduced. This year, less than 1.5%.

Most of those 10,000 bills were mere grandstanding, intended to make a statement or enhance a voting record for re-election purposes. (I know. I worked in the Senate for three years and did just that.) For example, this Congress introduced dozens of bills to repeal Obama’s health care law and voted three dozen times, knowing that they would fail.

Even so, this Congress worked fewer hours. Most Congresses are in session about 2,500 hours every two years. This Congress was in session for 1,900 hours, and has declared that the year over, awaiting the election.

Many want Congress do less, to pass fewer laws. Some suggest a part-time Congress. Maybe that’s what we have, though we pay for the full freight.

This Congress kicked the can down the road as never before, but it also painted itself into a corner. Next year will be different by necessity and isn’t going to be pretty.

Expiring Bush tax cuts will force tax changes, like it or not.

The debt ceiling will be reached again and will require action, like it or not.

Automatic, but unidentified, $1.2 billion in spending cuts that Congress passed last year go into effect in January. Those changes will not happen silently or easily. And may be undone.

Next year, Congress has nowhere to hide and much to do.

Georgetowner • August 20, 2012

Totem: Cirque Du Soleil

Now through Oct. 7 | Event Website

It’s finally here! Through the direction of Robert Lepage, “Totem” brings to life the evolution of man. The name Cirque Du Soleil on its own brings to mind flying trapeze artist and bright fun colors, but that is just the beginning. The artists go far and beyond what nature has intended us to do with balance flexibility and focus. The set design cleverly follows the characters’ every move and lend to the story just as any other character would. Come witness the infinite potential of man before it is gone.

Tickets for “Totem” can be purchased at any time online via www.cirquedusoleil.com/totem or at the Cirque du Soleil box office, located inside the entrance tent at National Harbor. (Regular box office hours are from 2 hours prior to show time until 30 minutes after the beginning of the show from Wednesday through Sunday.)

Under the blue-and-yellow Big Top

At the Plateau at National Harbor

Fort Washington, Md.

Susan Calloway Fine Arts: You Too Can Buy Art

August 17th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | Tel: 202.965.4601 | Event Website

Susan Calloway Fine Arts presents a first ever exhibition, specifically tailored for young collectors and first-time art buyers. On view through Sept. 8, join other first-time art buyers at the opening reception of You Too Can Buy Art on Friday, Aug. 17, from 6 to 8 p.m., and enjoy an evening of hot art, fun music and small bites. The show features a selection of affordable contemporary and vintage artworks, hung assemblage style and curated by Kerin Backhaus and Liz Mixer.

Susan Calloway Fine Arts
1643 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Women of Faith 2012

August 18th, 2012 at 09:00 AM | $99.00 | Event Website

Celebrate What Matters is a brand new Friday night-Saturday event created for you by Women of Faith. Find inspiration, renew your faith and leave empowered. Enjoy concerts by chart-topping musicians Amy Grant and Mandisa, experience breathtaking performances by Ballet Magnificat and worship with our new live band. Be uplifted and go deeper with solid Bible teaching and compelling messages from new voices and familiar friends. It’s an all new, life-changing Women of Faith event like you’ve never experienced before.

601 F St NW

Hear the Titanic Concert

Aug. 18 at 07 p.m. | $20 | Shawn@5thDentist.com | Tel: 202-812-5519 | Event Website

This year, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage and her untimely collision with an iceberg. In commemoration,
Fringe Festival alumni and local playwright Michael Merino is kicking off the production of his play, “Hemispheric Dysfunctionalism and the Cortical Titanic” with a special concert “Hear the Titanic”.

Art Space Lofts’ Dance Place 2 Studio, 3305 8th NE,

Garden Tours at the Franciscan Monastery

Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. | FREE | Event Website

Get an insider’s tour of one of Washington’s “hidden gems”: the gardens at the historic Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. Learn about the history of the monastery, the gardens and the friars who designed them, and the outdoor shrines from the Holy Land, Lourdes and other places.

Free tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 11 a.m., are led by guides from the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild.

Meet at the gift shop entrance.

1400 Quincy St., NE (Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land)

Harbour Kids Entertainment Series

August 21st, 2012 at 10:30 AM | Free | info@thewashingtonharbour.net | Tel: 7037855634 | Event Website

Oh Susanna, Mister Don, and Crooked Landing alternate performing for children on the plaza every Tuesday June through October 16. Free.

June 5, 12, 19, 26

July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

August 7, 14, 21, 28

September 4, 11, 18, 25

October 2, 9, 16

Address

The Washington Harbour 3050 K St NW

Whitney Saupan • August 16, 2012

Does the name Desaleen James sound familiar? It should: James was in a Dec. 29, 2011 car crash in Silver Spring, md., that killed two of her friends. The driver was drunk; the car was speeding more than 90 miles-per-hour. James caught the whole thing on tape. She was interviewed by a local TV news station and wanted to show the video tape to others, especially teens, so that they might think twice before drinking and driving.

Heart-wrenching stories like this happen all of the time. Driving while under the influence is nothing new. In an effort to reduce the incidents of drunk driving, a new act has been enacted in Washington, D.C. The Comprehensive Impaired Driving Act of 2012, effective Aug. 1, has caused major changes to the penalties and fines for DUIs. The act also focuses on better training for breath-testing programs for police officers.

Some of the key changes include an increase in maximum jail time and fine increases. For example, the maximum penalty for a first time offender was 90 days in jail and a $300 fine. With this new act the maximum jail time has doubled to 180 days and the fine is now up to $1,000.

The mandatory minimum jail time for repeat offenders or first time offenders with a blood alcohol content level of .20 percent or higher, jumped from five days to 10 days. If an offender has a .25 percent BAC or more will be sentenced to 10 to 15 days in jail. The act also created a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 days in jail for offenders with a .30 percent or higher.

For commercial vehicle operators, the blood alcohol limit is .04 percent. If this is broken there will be a five day mandatory minimum jail penalty and any other additional penalties they receive.

The Comprehensive Impaired Driving Act also enforces stricter punishments for those who drink and drive with minors in the car. With a minor in the car, a minimum five-day jail sentence is ordered for every child in a required child-restraint seat and 10 days if they are not.

Along with higher penalty minimums and fines, new breath-testing equipment has been purchased to crack down on drunk driving. Breath-testing, suspended last year after a number of convictions were found to be based on inaccurate readings, is being reinstated. Part of the act establishes breath-testing programs and a certification program for officers who use the equipment.

The Comprehensive Impaired Driving Act was created to help cut down the number of DUIs and alcohol-related accidents in (and around) D.C.

Robert Devaney •

The United States Park Police questioned a person along the C&O Canal Aug. 13 around 4 p.m. The individual appeared to match the description of a suspect who sexually assaulted a woman near the canal in July. The pursuit brought out officers, detectives, members of the SWAT team and a K-9 team as well as a helicopter which circled above the vicinity of Key Bridge and the canal.

After the show of force, most Park Police officers left the scene as detectives continued to question the individual. Officers declined to say whether the “person of interest” was suspected of being involved in the July 25 incident along the Capital Crescent Trail where a female jogger was choked and molested in the area north of Three Sisters Island or the July 7 sexual assault where the suspect led the victim onto the C&O Canal towpath just off of 31st Street and pushed the victim down into the bushes. The victim was able to get away from the suspect.

One officer said he was grateful that the local media, including this newspaper, was getting the word out about the attacks and added that persons need to aware of their surroundings at all times and not be distracted by earplugs and the like. Parks after dark, another said, become different places, requiring everyone to be alert.

The police continue to seek the public’s assistance on these assaults. Call the U.S. Park Police Communications Section at 202-610-7505, or the U.S. Park Police Tip Line 202-610-8737, reference case #12-33695. Also, call Detective Glenn Luppino, 202-610-8750; reference case #12-36735. [gallery ids="100941,130204,130197" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Al Freeman, Jr., was one of those famous actors who you never heard about much as time went on.

Of course, you knew him if you studied drama at Howard University, where he taught for years ever since the mid-1980s.

You knew him too, if you saw the Spike Lee’s epic “Malcolm X,” a biographical movie with Denzel Washington in the title role of the legendary African-American leader.

Freeman, who had trained and performed for years on Broadway in cutting edge plays in the 1960s, had a significant role in “Malcolm X” as Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam’s leader with whom Malcom X battled for political leadership.

Lee called Freeman one of the greatest actors of all time.

Freeman, a Texas native, made his mark on Broadway early in 1962 with “Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright,” and later with the acclaimed African-American novelist and playwright James Baldwin’s “Blues for Mister Charlie.” In addition, he starred in the electric LeRoi Jones’s controversial plays, “Dutchman” and “The Slave.” Later, he appeared as a tough cop in “The Detective,” which starred Frank Sinatra.

Washington audiences got a chance to see Freeman at work in 1993 in “A Community Carol,” an updating of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” in which he played the Scrooge as a contemporary, stingy, heartless money lender in contemporary Washington and Anacostia who, instead of “bah humbug” said—often—”horse puckey.” Freeman shone in showing the warm core of a cold-hearted miser.

Freeman died August 9, of undisclosed causes, according to a Howard University spokesperson. He was 78.

Gary Tischler •

You Britons, you Celts, you English lads and lasses, gentlemen and gentle women, and your mighty cousins from across what we all lightly call the Pond, but which Drake and Raleigh and Hornblower and Cook knew to be a mighty sea, gather around, you happy billion.

Years from now, when you skype your grandchildren, you can tell them—and show them on YouTube—that you were there, when Britain and America rose to great heights, when the crown and all our Londoners, and merry men and women along with our cousins shone like a billion stars at an Olympiad unmatched in the history of Olympiads because those who spoke the English tongue, and those who spoke American with all its discursive magic were the stars in the firmament here thanks be to selective television coverage.

Though presumptive American president Mitt Romney questioned our resolve, we showed him, although he had gone to Israel and Poland and did not see his wife’s horse do dressage, which was sad.

Years from now, we will tell tales of courage, glam, great deeds and flips, and heroics aquatics, of dazzling speed, and wheelies, of batons passed cleanly, and of battles on the beaches with bikinis and you could tell of the night when the queen did fly and the corgies did not.

The names and videos shall resound around the campfire of the world internet, familiar as household words resound again (and in instant replay again still and on Facebook still again): McCartney, and a lot of Harry in the nightclubs, and Phelps in the water, and a flying squirrel astonishing to behold except to fashion critics, we shall talk of the Bolt, and the tall, Guinevere-like dolphin named Missy, and the fabulous millionaires of basketball weeping in triumph at having vanquished the Spaniards. We shall wade again through a sea of tears, of silver medal winners—second place to you, bub—and bronze medal winners—seriously?—and those who did not win at all, who we admired for their spirits to their face and on television, but called losers behind their backs, because, well, they did not win.

Watch again as Britons—including, of course, the Scots—won more medals and gold than ever won by Britons, except for the ransom of noble French prisoners at Agincourt. Remember the mighty leader of London named Boris—seriously?—taunting the world with the spectacles that were staged in our fair city by the Thames.

Remember where you were when, like Ladies of the Lake of old, like Made Marians, there arose from their urban chariots Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Baby and Scary (indeed, and still), spicy very much so, and George of the Michael claimed Freedom for us hearty, irreverent of souls, and thousands yelled, and the ghost of the Lennon arose in the night and we imagined and wept, and the unforgettable Jessie J exhorted us to dance, some of us did, and some of us, sadder and wiser and sitting down did not.

He—and she—that did live those 17 days of the London Olympiad and survived shall never forget what was done here, and will count those days as a treasure and remember Paul Ryan singing “I Am the Walrus”—or was it another dark balladier?—for Ryan was ever present during that time. Yet Who did strive on, in the very final act, to see, feel and inspire another generation?

All of us, we few, we happy few billion, we connected on tape delay band of brothers shall always remember the London Olympics.

But for now: Whom will the Nationals play tonight? Where is this knight named Robert? And did I hear that Jennifer Aniston is now fully engaged?

Jeff Malet •

Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) were greeted by an overflow crowd of supporters at a GOP rally at the Harris Pavilion in Manassas, Va., on Saturday afternoon, Aug. 11. Romney’s stop in Manassas was part of a bus tour of battleground states that started in Norfolk earlier in the morning when Romney introduced Ryan as his running mate.

The candidates spoke of change, turning around the economy and removing the hindrance of “Obamacare” on small businesses. Local law enforcement estimated the number that showed up for the rally to be as high as 10,000, and it was clear that many in the well-mannered crowd had to be turned away from the small Harris Pavillion. Wait times to go through security varied from two to three hours. The event was scheduled for 3:45 p.m., but the candidates didn’t speak until after 5 p.m. Also speaking at the rally were Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Senatorial candidate and former governor George Allen, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Del. Barbara Comstock.

View our photos from the event by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="100940,130103,130111,130119,130127,130135,130143,130151,130159,130167,130175,130095,130087,130209,130202,130041,130196,130049,130189,130057,130065,130072,130080,130182" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • August 13, 2012

Two Critics, One of Art, One of Film, Both With a Little Acid: Robert Hughes and Judith Crist

Robert Hughes, 74, had a life writ large, and he wrote large, too, doing for the visual arts (and his native Australia) a great favor, writing books, essays, criticism and biographies about the former, and a big, giant readable history for the latter and thereby helping large numbers of readers understand both better.

Judith Crist, 90, was one of the top movie critics of the 1960s and 1970s, a field that came to be dominated just a little in that era by women writers, making movies that much the better.

Both critics died this past week, leaving behind a readable accumulation of reading matter on their specialties and lives. The fact of their passing reminded us that critics, when they’re as good, sharp, deeply informed as Hughes and as popular as Crist, could be enormously important and influential, no matter how much you might disagree or get angered by their opinions.

Hughes was skeptical to some degree about modern art, but he also helped make it palatable and understandable to every day sort of readers with his position as a writer for Time Magazine and a PBS television series, and his lively, if often controversial opinions and style, dubbed “pugnacious by many.”

His best-selling history, “The Fatal Shore,” told the history of Australia from its convict settler beginnings to modern time in a lively, detailed style that seemed almost novelistic.

Crist was nothing if not passionate about movies—sharing a fondness for serious films, some foreign directors and, of course, the critics’ darling, Woody Allen. But she was absolute death on Hollywood extravaganzas like “Cleopatra” and star-studded dashers, once calling “Cleopatra,” the Burton-Liz tempest in a pyramid a “mouse.”

Crist was delightfully readable if not particular cutting edge in her tastes or deep in her thinking. That honor, I think, went to Pauline Kael, a contemporary of Crist’s who could also be tempestuous but for my money had deeper insights. Both added immensely to our understanding of movies and to the broadening of our likes (and sometimes dislikes).

One would have to wonder how either Crist or Hughes would fare in today’s Internet world, where every blogger is a critic, and twitterers presume to hold the same job.

Passing of a Fashion Journalist: Anna Piaggi

Not everyone that writes about fashion becomes famous unless they somehow become publishers of a fashion magazine, but Anna Piaggi managed that not inconsiderable task. That may have had something to do with the fact that she had a terrific and original fashion sense of her own. She knew hats, she knew drama, and she had a collection of thousands of dresses and shoes. And her writing and flair inspired no less a fashion legend than Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld was so impressed by her that he once said, according to one obituary, that Anna “invents” fashion. Fittingly, she died at 81 in Milan, the fashion hub of Italy.

The Music Man: Marvin Hamlisch

If music were an empire, Marvin Hamlisch would be its emperor. If music were a kingdom, Hamlisch would be its king. If music were a bunch of states, Hamlisch would be the president, by acclamation with no negative ads.

Marvin Hamlisch, who died at age 68 this week, was our music man, maybe the music man. Seventy-six trombones weren’t ever enough—he had music in movies, music on stage, symphonic music, pop music, every which kind of music and he had the Oscars, the awards, the acclaim to prove it. Not that he couldn’t have done it just by talking about it.

Hamlisch, who was the National Symphony Orchestra’s pop conductor—a position created just for him—for 11 years, was in a word everywhere, but especially in our heads and memories. Romance? Try “The Way We Were,” the recurrently romantic song sung and performed by Barbra Streisand in a movie starring Barbra Streisand, but not composed by Barbra Streisand.

In the year of “The Sting” and “The Way We Were,” two classic, hugely entertaining films, Hamlisch collected three Oscars, a haul that seemed almost unseemly until you listened to the Scott Joplin ragtime score for “The Sting” and never, ever forgot it. He was a part of “Performances at the White House,” he was on television playing the piano and educating kids with his versatility, he sang, he talked, he never stopped being music’s music man.

He was also ubiquitous on Broadway, most memorably with the music for “A Chorus Line”, a one-of-a-kind legendary Broadway musical about—Broadway. Dim the lights a little, a flicker, for Marvin Hamlisch, the music man. [gallery ids="100939,130033" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

Invited to TICKETED event a Men Against Breast Cancer & Nordstroms Styling Expo

August 11th, 2012 at 08:00 AM | $50 | BjsEventsDC@gmail.com | Tel: 202 495 8515 | Event Website

Men Against Breast Cancer (MABC) is the first and only national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization designed to provide targeted support services that educate and empower men to be effective caregivers when cancer strikes. On Saturday, August 11th 2012 from 8am-11am Men Against Breast Cancer & Nordstrom will host a Styling Expo. Tickets are $50 which includes:

• $25 Nordstrom Gift Card

• Gift Bags

• Catered light breakfast

• Raffle for a $250 Nordstrom Gift Card

• Special complimentary entry for all attendees to our raffle for a chance to win a Bvlgari watch valued at $4,500.

Address

Hosted by Nordstrom’s- Tyson Corner Center (3rd Fl)

3rd Annual Midsummer Night’s Dream

August 12th, 2012 at 07:00 PM | $15-$20 | press@theartsoiree.com | Tel: 202-841-6441 | Event Website

A group of talented local artists use the magic of art to transform the heart of Georgetown into an enchanted wonderland of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Locals and guests of town are invited to celebrate the summer and immerse into a fantastic, fairy-laden setting of color, art, music and performance Sunday, August 12, at Washington Harbour, 3050 K Street NW, Washington DC 20007.

Address

The Washington Harbour, 3050 K Street NW,

Edible Poems? & Other Literary Foodstuffs.

August 16th, 2012 at 11:30 AM | awwnm1@gmail.com | Event Website

Fulbright Scholar Jennifer Cognard-Black of St. Mary’s College, will moderate a panel of writers who sandwich food history within literary eras and genres. Panelists include: Melissa Goldthwaite and April Linder, professors at St. Joseph’s University, and E.J. Levy, University of Missouri. Event is 11:30-1:30 p.m. All AWWNM events are free and open to the public. AWWNM is a 501 (c) (3) public charity.

Address

American Women Writers National Museum, 1275K St NW, Suite 102 (shared space, 13th St NW entrance) Washington, D.C.

Susan Calloway Fine Arts: You Too Can Buy Art

August 17th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | Tel: 202.965.4601 | Event Website

Susan Calloway Fine Arts presents a first ever exhibition, specifically tailored for young collectors and first-time art buyers. On view through Saturday, September 8, join other first-time art buyers at the opening reception of You Too Can Buy Arton Friday, August 17, from 6 to 8 p.m., and enjoy an evening of hot art, fun music and small bites. The show features a selection of affordable contemporary and vintage artworks, hung assemblage style and curated by Kerin Backhaus and Liz Mixer.

Address

Susan Calloway Fine Arts, 1643 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Karen Feld •

As I awoke Tuesday morning to his “Good Morning, America” theme playing in the background, I was shocked to learn that my friend, Marvin Hamlisch, the award-winning composer, conductor and versatile entertainer had passed away at the relatively young age of 68.

Marvin had an engaging personality and a quick and delightful sense of humor. Over the years, our friendship developed. He was intellectually curious and politically concerned. He spent time in Washington after he was named the first Principal Pops Conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra. Although his main residence was in New York, he bought a house around the corner from mine in Georgetown. But he still preferred to stay a few blocks away at the Four Seasons Hotel where he had a tuned grand piano moved into his suite so he could write. And presidents from both parties frequently invited Hamlisch to perform his numerous hits at The White House. He usually spontaneously incorporated some special material as well. He liked Washington and once told me that the Lincoln Memorial was his favorite monument. He said he could look at the stone, read the words and “feel the man.”

I first met Marvin through a mutual friend some 35 years ago at the Westbury Music Fair in New York where he was performing. We were introduced in his dressing room before the show. Marvin seemed to take an immediate liking to me. I found him smart, funny and real, but he just wasn’t sexy. In fact, he was outright “nerdy.” After all, we were both in our twenties – he, a few years my senior– and sex appeal was important in those days.

He invited me to join him at his mother’s house for an informal dinner after the show. It was the classic story of the haymisheh Jewish guy taking “a nice Jewish girl” home to meet his mother, in this case, a widowed Austrian immigrant. We sat around her dining table as she served up her special goulash, one of Marvin’s favorites, and bragged about “my son, the entertainer.” She must have thought a “shidduch” was in the works. Marvin laughed as she related embarrassing childhood stories about her son.

Our paths crossed again several years back on a cruise ship in the South Pacific. We were both part of the onboard “enrichment” program: Marvin as a performer; and I, as a lecturer on “political dish.” He spent his days composing, and we met in the private dining room for dinner. His nerdiness became more appealing as he matured, and his accomplishments stacked up.

Hamlisch was open to new ideas and beliefs, always curious, always questioning. He believed in the healing arts. He consulted a psychic, Dezia, at the suggestion of his wife Terre. One of Dezia’s best known clients was Yoko Ono, and she is said to have predicted John Lennon’s death. Hamlisch also visited the Dalai Lama. Whatever he believed, it seemed to work for him. Yet, no matter how brilliant he was musically and otherwise, even the best spiritual healers and teachers could not save him from the toll that a recent kidney transplant took on his body.

He barely stopped working long enough to recover, keeping a hectic pace conducting top orchestras, performing at major venues, and creating, writing, composing. Although he accomplished more in those short 68 years, than most in a lifetime, his work wasn’t finished. HBO’s Liberace film is still in the works. The legacy he left is vast.

Four months ago, he quietly accepted a kidney from a close friend. At his age, he would not have had such good fortune waiting on an organ donor list. He was too young to die, but too old to move up the list for an anonymous donor kidney. Though the surgery was deemed successful, just months later his body rejected the kidney and he fell into a fatal coma. Marvin did not want to use his well-nurtured and extensive connections to leap frog the organ-waiting list. Had this very private celebrity gone public with his transplant surgery, speculation as to how he got the kidney when there is a waiting list of younger individuals, would likely have taken on a life of its own via the show biz grapevine. And he wasn’t one to complain or seek sympathy.

Despite his many awards — Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes, a Tony and even a Pulitzer Prize– Hamlisch told me one of his most cherished possessions was the duck that came down during the TV show, “You Bet Your Life,” a gift from Groucho Marx. Marvin had been a pianist for Groucho. And producer Joe Papp gave him a gift he always treasured as well — advice after they opened on Broadway with “A Chorus Line.” It was this encouragement, Hamlisch confided, that changed his life. “Be true to yourself and write the music you feel is right for the show, even if you’re criticized for it.” He lived up to that.

Hamlisch was an authentic man, he didn’t want his life tabloidized even though his success was larger than life. He was what my grandmother called “a haymisheh guy.”

Alevha-sholem.