Deborah Frank Feinen, Mount Holyoke ’89, Illinois Institute of Technology Kent College of Law ’91, God/Empress of Champaign, Illinois.

With Coronavirus deaths in the US, as of 3/16, rising to 69, governmental responses have been enthusiastic and proactive, to say the least.

I think that a record of some kind was set by one Deborah Frank Feinen, two-term mayor of Champaign, Illinois, a small city of 81,000 souls in Central Illinois, joint home with its sister city Urbana of a major satellite [Correction: the main] campus of the state university.

Deborah Feinen, last Friday, issued an Executive Order, confirmed immediately by the city council, which confers upon the mayor such deliciously complete powers that it seems an oversight that the edict did not also modify her title to God-Empress.

Her mayoralty’s ascension to Divine status and assumption of her full powers made national news on the basis of Provisions 6 and 7 which authorized her Imperial Supremeness to ban firearm sales and transfers and to confiscate them at will, but really the full 30 Provisions basically entitle the Divine Deborah to set aside the US Constitution, the entire corpus of Common Law, and all customary rights to personal freedom and property as she sees fit.

After the declaration of an emergency, the Mayor may in the interest of public safety and welfare make any or all of the following orders and provide the following direction:

(1) Issue such other orders as are imminently necessary for the protection of life and property.

(2) Order a general curfew applicable to such geographical areas of the City or to the City as a whole, as the Mayor deems advisable, and applicable during such hours of the day or night as the Mayor deems necessary in the interest of public safety and welfare.

(3) Order the closing of all retail liquor stores, including taverns and private clubs or portions thereof wherein the consumption of intoxicating liquor and beer is permitted;

(4) Order the discontinuance of the sale of alcoholic liquor by any wholesaler or retailer;

(5) Order the discontinuance of selling, distributing, or giving away gasoline or other liquid flammable or combustible products in any container other than a gasoline tank properly affixed to a motor vehicle;

(6) Order the discontinuance of selling, distributing, dispensing or giving away of explosives or explosive agents, firearms or ammunition of any character whatsoever;

(7) Order the control, restriction and regulation within the City by rationing, issuing quotas, fixing or freezing prices, allocating the use, sale or distribution of food, fuel, clothing and other commodities, materials, goods or services or the necessities of life;

(8) (a) Order City employees or agents, on behalf of the City, to take possession of any real or personal property of any person, or to acquire full title or such lesser interest as may be necessary to deal with a disaster or emergency, and to take possession of and for a limited time, occupy and use any real estate to accomplish alleviation of the disaster, or the effects thereof;

(b) In the event any real or personal property is utilized by the City, the City shall be liable to the owner thereof for the reasonable value of the use or for just compensation as the case may be.

(9) Order restrictions on ingress or egress to parts of the City to limit the occupancy of any premises;

(10) To make provision for the availability and use of temporary emergency housing;

(11) Temporarily suspend, limit, cancel, convene, reschedule, postpone, continue, or relocate all meetings of the City Council, and any City committee, commission, board, authority, or other City body as deemed appropriate by the Mayor.

(12) Require closing of business establishments.

(13) Prohibit the sale or distribution within the City of any products which could be employed in a manner which would constitute a danger to public safety.

(14) Temporarily close any and all streets, alleys, sidewalks, bike paths, public parks or public ways.

(15) Temporarily suspend or modify, for not more than sixty (60) days, any regulation or ordinance of the City, including, but not limited to, those regarding health, safety, and zoning. This period may be extended upon approval of the City Council.

(16) Suspend or limit the use of the water resources or other infrastructure.

(17) Control, restrict, allocate, or regulate the use, sale, production, or distribution of food, water, fuel, clothing, and/or other commodities, materials, goods, services and resources.

(18) Suspend or limit burning of any items or property with the City limits and up to two (2) miles outside the corporate limits.

(19) Direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened areas within the City if the mayor deems this action is necessary for the preservation of life, property, or other disaster or emergency mitigation, response or recovery and to prescribe routes, modes of transportation and destination in connection with an evacuation.

(21) Approve application for local, state, or federal assistance.

(22) Establish and control routes of transportation, ingress or egress.

(23) Control ingress and egress from any designated disaster or emergency area or home, building or structures located therein.

(24) Approve the transfer the direction, personnel, or functions of City departments and agencies for the purpose of performing or facilitating emergency or disaster services.

(25) Accept services, gifts, grants, loans, equipment, supplies, and/or materials whether from private, nonprofit, or governmental sources.

(26) Require the continuation, termination, disconnection, or suspension of natural gas, electrical power, water, sewer, communication or other public utilities or infrastructure.

(27) Close or cancel the use of any municipally owned or operated building or other public facility.

(28) Declare, issue, enforce, modify and terminate orders for quarantine and isolation of persons or animals posing a threat to the public, not conflicting with the directions of the Health Officer of the community.

(29) Exercise such powers and functions in light of the exigencies of emergency or disaster including the waiving of compliance with any time consuming procedures and formalities, including notices, as may be prescribed by law.

(30) Issue any and all such other orders or undertake such other functions and activities as the Mayor reasonably believes is required to protect the health, safety, and welfare of persons or property within the City or otherwise preserve the public peace or abate, clean up, or mitigate the effects of any emergency or disaster.

If Deborah the Magnificent should decided to appoint herself a one-goddess Committee of Public Safety and take possession of all private and personal property and food and medicine, if she decided to confiscate all firearms, ban protests and assemblies, ban the personal movement of any or all of her 81,000 subjects, and erect a guillotine in Champaign’s Place de la Concorde, well, there you have it! the city council confirmed all of her powers.

Amusingly, national comment over the possible gun confiscations on the basis of a virus ensued, and faced with criticism, her honor the mayor quickly retreated from Olympus, issuing a public denial stating: “there is currently no firearm ban and no intent to seize property or close businesses. Additionally, there are no restrictions on the sale of alcohol or gas or the ability to enter or leave Champaign.”

The list of 30 powers and authority, sufficient to do anything and everything, was pruned down to a modest 11, and all the grandiose claims of powers over persons and property oddly enough went missing. And, in conclusion, we were all assured that nothing was going on here, we were completely mistaken in being concerned. Nothing was changed.

The Mayor has the authority to exercise other emergency powers under the Champaign Municipal Code Section 12-39, which have been in existence since 2006; however, and under the known circumstances, no further measures are anticipated.

Uh huh! Right!

From Shorpy’s: Papa is sitting next to Mary Welsh Hemingway, holding a Winchester pump .22 of all things, on his second trip to Africa in 1953. It looks like the gun-bearer right behind him is holding the .577 Westley Richards Double Rifle.

Hemingway had lousy luck on that trip getting to survive (barely) two plane crashes. In the second one, the plane caught fire, the door was stuck shut, and Hemingway concussed himself bashing the door open with his head.

In my high school, the better students, in the two Academic class sections, received instruction in Latin in 9th and 10th grade. Our Latin teacher had a curious personal custom. He sacrificed annually, in honor of Great Caesar, on the Ides of March, the male student in each class who had offended him by doing the least work and/or being the most disruptive. He sacrificed additionally one female student from each class whose selection, I fear, was based only upon his own capricious whim and covert sexual attraction.

The sacrifice consisted of the victim being bent over a desk and receiving three strokes of a paddle, delivered by a six foot+, 250 lb.+ Latin teacher laying on the strokes with a will and putting his weight behind them. (I won’t name him.) Mr. X’s paddle was a four foot long piece of 1 1/2″ thick pine, produced in our high school’s wood shop by General Curriculum students, who did not take Latin, but admired Mr. X. The paddle was roughly in the form of a Roman gladius, and its surface was scored by a series of regular lines, because it was generally believed that a blow from an uneven surface was more painful.

Mr. X had a fixed policy of assigning the duty of construing the day’s Latin assignment on the blackboard in strict and completely predictable order, going up and down the aisles of desks. Two or three of the smart kids would always actually do the Latin, (I was one of them) and it was our recognized duty to supply the translations in advance to the person who would be going to the blackboard.

Readiness to translate correctly was really vital, because Mr. X would apply his dreaded paddle to anyone who failed to write out the day’s assignment correctly on the blackboard. It was rare, but every once in a while some truly feckless idiot would neglect to seek out Kenny Hollenbach, Jack Rigrotsky, or yours truly, and would arrive at the blackboard, chalk in hand, unprepared.

Mr. X typically broke the current paddle over the defaulter’s posterior, and the mental defectives in shop class would gleefully commence the fabrication of a new, yet more elaborate, edition of the famous paddle.

Every March 15th, two 9th and 10th grade Academic Curriculum sections would look on with the same sadistic interest of Roman spectators at the gladitorial games, as Mr. X conducted his sacrifices. I can recall that he struck the pretty strawberry blonde with the well-developed embonpoint so hard that he raised dust from her skirt. We were a bit puzzled that girls actually submitted to being beaten with a paddle for no reason, but all this went on undoubtedly because the legend of Mr. X the fierce disciplinarian had enormous appeal in our local community. The whole thing was fascinating, and it all made such a good story that everyone, student and adult, in his heart of hearts, enthusiastically approved.

Mr. X would never be allowed to get away with that kind of thing today. Alas! In Hades, poor Caesar must do without his sacrifice. And it is my impression that Latin instruction has rather overwhelmingly also become a thing of the past. Kids today learn Spanish. Modern languages are easier and are thought more relevant.

My high school Latin teacher is the large chap wearing glasses. He also coached one of our sports teams.

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An annual post in memory of my Latin teacher.

Elmer Keith and Clint Eastwood

This photo turned up on Facebook today, with no context given. I searched and found it in a couple of places on the net, but still no explanation. I expect Clint Eastwood met the famous gun writer, who was largely responsible for the creation of the .44 Remington Magnum caertridge, in the direct aftermath of the huge success of “Dirty Harry” (1971).

In quarantined Italy, tenor Maurizio Marchini belts out “Nessun dorma,” from Puccini’s “Turandot” to the city of Florence from his Balcony. “Nessun Dorma”and concludes:

All’alba, vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!

At dawn, I will win!
I will win! I will win!

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And it was no coincidence that the Italian Air Force chose the very same aria (Pavrotti singing) as musical background for this synchronized fly-over with the Italian colors delivered by con trail. Very, very nice!

HT: Vanderleun.

Chuck Yeager interviewed in 1991 in Grass Valley, CA on aerial combat. This footage came on VHS with the deluxe edition of Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat flight simulation game in 1991.

A Siena, città alla quale sono molto legato, si sta in casa ma si canta insieme come se si fosse per la strada. Mi sono commosso pic.twitter.com/IDPqNEj3h3

— David Allegranti (@davidallegranti) March 12, 2020

Italy is locked down in quarantine. On Thursday evening, David Allegranti, a journalist working for Il Foglio newspaper, shared footage of Italians singing a local folk song together in the darkened streets in Siena, a town in the country’s north. He wrote on Twitter, “In Siena, the city to which I am very attached, you stay at home but you sing together as if you were on the street. I was moved.”

Though he did not take the footage himself, Allegranti told HuffPost he was still equally touched while watching and felt the need to share.

“This video is touching,” Allegranti, who is based in Rome, told the news website. “The first time I saw it I started to cry.”

The French Army Crossing The Niemen’, 1812, (1896). French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) crossing the River Niemen during the invasion of Russia. Typogravure after the aquarelle by F De Myrbach. From Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III, by William Milligan Sloane. [The Century Co., New York, 1896].

“Life is like invading Russia. A blitz start, massed shakos, plumes dancing like a flustered henhouse; a period of svelte progress recorded in ebullient despatches as the enemy falls back; then the beginning of a long, morale-sapping trudge with rations getting shorter and the first snowflakes upon your face. The enemy burns Moscow and you yield to General January, whose fingernails are very icicles. Bitter retreat. Harrying Cossacks. Eventually you fall beneath a boy-gunner’s grapeshot while crossing some Polish river not even marked on your general’s map.”

— Julian Barnes, Talking It Over.

C.B. Fry

“Before 1914 it was beauty that counted in cricket – elegance of strokes, stylishness of bowling action, quixotry in captaincy. The gallant gesture was just as important as the mammoth score, the picturesque as the efficient.”