Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, August 19, 2023

12

OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, August 19, 2023 

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

RICH JOHNSON 

NOW THAT’S RICH

STUART TOLCHIN


PUT THE LIGHTS ON


WHAT'S IN A NAME?

THOUGHTS RELATED 
TO THE FILM 
‘OPPENHEIMER’

 My first question for you 
is have you seen the film. If you 
haven’t, and even if you have. 
Your first question to me will 
probably be “did you like it? 
That’s what everyone asks and 
it’s a pointless question. The real 
question is do you think it is important 
to see the film whether I 
liked it or not. Okay to answer 
your first question, No, I didn’t 
“like” the film; but I did go and 
see it twice and I think it’s very 
important that you go and see it 
because to not see it, as George 
Carlin might have said, “it’s not 
good for you!”

 The ideas raised by the 
film are very important, particularly 
now, when democracy 
is globally threatened it is easy to 
forget basic questions of morality. 
One of the major problems 
with the film for me is that although 
questions of morality are 
raised they seem to be glossed 
over and exchanged for memorable 
sex scenes which people 
come out of the theatre talking 
about. Forget the breasts, the true 
background of the film is the 
ongoing actions of the autocrat, 
the dictator, Adolph Hitler. In 
case you forgot Hitler instituted 
the policy of murdering six million 
innocent civilians, many of 
whom were native Germans flag. 
Albert Einstein born in 1879 in 
Wurttemberg Germany is one 
of the prominent characters in 
the film although he is only on 
screen for a few moments. 

 Einstein’s final conversation 
with Oppenheimer in the 
closing moments of the film 
needs to be thought about and 
I believe that is the intent of the 
film maker, Cristopher Nolan. 
The final discussion relates to 
Oppenheimer’s question relating 
to the impact of the dropping 
of the bombs on Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki. “Did we destroy 
the world”, asks Oppenheimer. 
“Yes. I believe we did” answers 
Einstein. I am still thinking 
about the significance of this final 
conversation.

 Was the dropping of the 
bomb a good thing or a bad thing 
for the world? Prior to seeing 
the film I had quite a long heated 
discussion with a still-practicing 
lawyer friend, who adamantly 
assured me that were it not for 
the dropping of the Atomic 
bombs on Japan, he would not 
exist. In 1945 his father was a 
soldier stationed in Japan who 
at that time was convinced that 
he would die if America invaded 
Japan. He was sure there would 
be countless American deaths 
because the Japanese had absolutely 
no intention of surrendering 
as things stood. What 
changed everything was the 
dropping of the two atom bombs 
on the Japanese cities. The first 
Atom bomb, as explained in the 
movie, was dropped to show the 
Japanese what we could do and 
the second to show “we could 
keep doing it. Somewhere, lost 
among the books, scattered on 
my bookshelves is a signed by 
the author copy of ‘Genius in 
the Shadows’, a book describing 
the life of Leo Szilard. Szilard 
is frequently described as the 
Man behind the Bomb”. Szilard 
conceived the nuclear chain reaction 
and was a friend and colleague 
of Albert Einstein. He 
and Einstein were able to meet 
with President Roosevelt for the 
purpose of informing the President 
about the progress being 
y Hitler’s scientists toward the 
creation of a nuclear bomb. This 
meeting lead to the creation of 
the Manhattan Project overseen 
by J. Robert Oppenheimer and 
the subject of the film.

 What is overlooked, or 
at least glossed over, is the profound 
moral concerns that these 
two scientists experienced regarding 
Hitler. They were aware 
of the frightening possible consequences 
of developing an atomic 
bomb; BUT the horror of Hitler 
they felt required the United 
States to beat the Germans in developing 
the bomb. The United 
States did win the race in bomb 
development perhaps because, as 
stated in the movie, “Hitler’s anti-
semitism lead to the defeat of 
Germany” BECAUSE German 
policies prohibited or at least discouraged 
Jews from working on 
the bomb’s development. Who 
knows; but what is known is that 
by time enemy necessary to defeat 
was Japan. Many felt that 
the Japanese could be defeated 
without ever using the bomb and 
therefore a potential unimaginably 
eventually destructive arms 
race could be avoided. Einstein 
and Szilard were, by this time, 
completely opposed to the dropping 
of the bomb. Oppenheimer 
was unsure of his position, and 
given the amount of work that 
went into the bombs creation, 
he ultimately did not oppose 
its use. That final conversation 
with Einstein displays his confusion 
as he wonders if his actions 
would eventually result in the 
destruction of the whole world. 
Maybe it did says Einstein and 
we are all left to wonder along 
with the film maker what the 
future might bring. If you want 
to join in a discussion with me 
please email stuarttolchin@
gmail.com 

Are you tired of your name? Me too!

I’ve had mine most of my life. Most of my life you ask? True. I’m 
sure a few hours transpired between my sudden appearance on the 
birthing table and my name being codified into the cement of a 
legal birth certificate.

What you may not know about me is I am a twin. There were two of us. Scary? 
Yep! 15 minutes before I popped out, mom gave birth to my twin sister Ruth.

And that’s not all. 12 months and 22 days later, my mom gave birth to Elizabeth 
and Roger. Two sets of twins in 12 months and 22 days. I’m sure the next day my 
father was invited to join a monastery. The baby factory was closed for business.

Didn’t see much of Dad after that.

I did my homework and discovered thanks to the WWW (world wide web) that 
in 1951 “Richard” was the 7th most popular boys name (probably not including 
China or India). That means 1 out of every 35 baby boys born in 1951 we’re named 
you know what.

Richard sunk to the 216th most popular boys name in 2021. Thank God.

Thinking of my brilliant editor, in 1951, the 6th most popular girls name was Susan. 
For the rest of the 1950’s Susan was the 5th most popular name.

However, in 2021, Susan, as a name, dropped precipitously to the 1099th most 
popular name.

My son “Alex”, is the holder of the 58th most popular boys name in 1988. Like 
father, like son, Alex sunk to now 194th on the list.

Daughter was named Olivia, the 72nd most popular girls name in 1990.

Can we have a drum roll? According to the latest statistics, Olivia is now THE 
MOST POPULAR GIRLS NAME!

Of course it is. Have you met my daughter? She should get a commission for every 
girl born after her named Olivia.

Where am I getting all this priceless information. Datayze.com. They have a baby 
name uniqueness analyzer. Knock yourself out.

Speaking of “uniqueness” in May of every year the U.S. Social Security Administration, 
having nothing better to do, releases a list of the most popular names 
in the U.S. Big deal. On the other hand, they list some of the more bizarre baby 
names. Are you ready?

130 girls and 11 boys were named Tesla. 12 girls and 6 boys named Espn, 141 boys 
and 53 girls named Denim, 5 boys named Suede, 146 girls and 25 boys named 
Halo, 26 boys and 25 girls named Koi, 17 boys named Havoc, 6 boys named Capone, 
7 girls and 6 boys named Moo, 18 boys named Mister, 40 boys named Jetson. 
And finally, 6 boys named Aesop (Someone gimme a rim shot, I think the last one 
was just a fable.)

Enough already!!

Please permit me to gratuitously promote my upcoming JJ Jukebox rock and roll 
concert, this Saturday night, August 26 at the Nano Café in Sierra Madre. If you 
like 60’s, 70’s rock and roll, good food, adult beverages, and dancing, join us. 322 
Sierra Madre Blvd. 6:30-9:30. Call (626) 325-3334 for reservations.

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Madre, California, 91024. 
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DINAH CHONG WATKINS

CLOSE 

ENCOUNTERS OF THE 
WRONG KIND


PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES 
PART II

I played it out as long as I could, surreptitiously scooching 
down just before I hit the turnstiles but even with my 
late arrival into puberty, it was pretty obvious to the ticket 
agent that I was no 12 year old and had to pay the full ride. 

It was worth it though, with no car, license or willing parent, my only option 
was public transit. I could take the subway downtown, indulge in a heavy 
dose of window shopping at the mall and fill up on the 75 cent hot dog and 
Fanta Orange combo before grabbing the train home. The stale whoosh of 
the train I just missed was the only air conditioning the platform offered. 
Fortunately our subway was a circle line so there was no danger of getting 
lost, even for a 12 year old. 

I graduated from that circle line to the multiverse of the Japanese rail system, 
home to 46 of the 50 busiest stations in the world. To get to work I’d have to 
transfer from a national, commuter and city line while navigating through 
the maze of train platforms amongst the swells of passengers in my Beginner 
Level Japanese. Just figuring out the automated ticket kiosk had me fumbling 
through my English - Japanese dictionary, I hope I got my pronouns right.

Once, after a night shift, I took an escalator to the wrong platform. My train 
passed through 3 stations before I realized I was completely lost. I got off and 
called Kiko my dorm mate on the pay phone for directions when a kindly, 
local gentleman noticed my predicament, took the receiver from me, spoke 
to her in Japanese and hung up. In broken English said he would give me a 
ride home. I was elated.

His English deteriorated even worse when we got into his car, he mimed 
“Let’s go eat.” Some local color I naively thought, I was just out of college and 
ready for adventure. Before going abroad, my experience with alcohol was 
limited to the annual champagne toast on New Year’s Eve with my parents, 
Japan changed all that. Drinking was the national sport, even bigger than 
Sumo or baseball. Alcohol became a great translator. 

But after a few rounds of cheap sake at a hole-in-the-wall, he tired of my nagging 
to take me home and we got into his Daihatsu Charade. After what was 
a suspiciously short drive, we arrived at the entrance to my dorm, he took a 
deep breath and blurted out,

“You kissy kiss?”

I’d report that I karate-chopped my way out of the situation but like a ten 
month block of Breyer's ice cream I froze. My dorm master, a reedy, balding, 
70-ish retiree who in the 3 months that I had been living there, never once 
left the creased leather sofa chair in the common room; rushed outside and 
charged at Mr. Kissy Kiss, yelling in the kind of Japanese they don’t teach 
you in school and ran him off the property. 

I didn’t know the words in Japanese to thank the dorm master properly and 
he didn’t know any English other than “Hello”, so I nodded, he grunted and 
we ended it in the typical Asian way, like it didn’t happen.

I still loved taking the train after that, but kept the directions to get home in 
my pocket and learned a few phrases of Japanese from the dorm master, the 
kind they don’t teach you in school. 

Dinah Chong Watkins column appears every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the 
month.

For more Close Encounters Of The Wrong Kind go to www.ceotwk.com


Mountain Views News

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com