Dear Commons Community,

On our last full day in London, we decided to stay close by and went to Exhibition Road and spent several hours at the Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum.  After lunch at the Queens Arms, a favorite pub of college students, we went to the Museum of Natural History.  Originally part of the British Museum,  the Museum’s buildings and grounds are impressive.  It is similar in many ways to New York’s Museum of Natural History with a massive collection and scores of exhibits.  The dinosaur, mammal, and ocean life (blue whale) exhibits were the most popular.   An animatronic T-Rex moves and roars and had the children screaming. A new Charles Darwin Center in an eight-story “Cocoon” focuses on biodiversity.

The Science Museum founded in 1851, has a number of exhibits on energy, space, agriculture, and the information age.  It also has a number of hands-on activities popular with children.  I enjoyed especially the information age exhibits including a model of Charles Babbage’s difference engine which he designed but was never able to build because of the limitations of the technology of the 1820s.  There is also the Pilot ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) designed by Alan Turing, and one of the first computers built in the United Kingdom.

Tomorrow we pack and head back to New York.

Tony

Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2

Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE (Automatic Computing Engine)

Dear Commons Community,

Elaine and I took a two-hour train ride to Dover located on the English Channel.  The rich  history of Dover is tied to World War II mainly because of its strategic location as the major point of entry from Europe into the United Kingdom.  A scant twenty-one miles separates it from Calais, France across the English Channel.  Major armament stations such as Dover Castle were used to ward off any attempt on the part of Germany to invade the United Kingdom. 

The most significant engagement in Dover was The Battle of Britain, fought entirely in the skies above Dover and the English Channel.  The battle lasted three months in the summer of 1940 and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 Royal Air Force members and more than 2,500 of Germany’s Luftwaffe.  A memorial to this great battle on a Dover cliff was established with replicas of the planes, a commemorative wall similar to our own Vietnam War Memorial lists the names of all who perished, and an education center that has film footage of the battle.  The memorial celebrates the heroism and valor of the British pilots and crews.

The most significant natural characteristic of Dover is its white chalk cliffs which in sunlight are a sight to behold.  In full sunlight, the cliffs are pure white;  in cloudy conditions, they are a light gray.  They have been the symbol of defense of the homeland, hope, and freedom for centuries. Vera Lynn’s rendition of  The White Cliffs of Dover was used to uplift the spirits of the Allies at a time when Nazi Germany had conquered much of Europe and was bombing Britain.

A great visit and well-worth the trip.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Today was a day of local and light sightseeing.  Elaine and I spent the afternoon in Trafalgar Square which became a pedestrian mall in 2003.  The square works well as a place for people to congregate, for musicians, and street entertainers. The center of the square has the famous Lord Nelson column, flanked by four lion sculptures, and fountains.  The square also is the main entry for the the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and St. Martin in the Fields Church. The National Portrait Gallery has a fine collection of paintings and photographs of British royalty and other important historical figures.

St. Martin in the Fields is an Anglican Church dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, a 4th and 5th century monk and bishop who renounced war and is associated with helping the poor and the homeless.  As is typical in Anglican churches, there are no statues, paintings, or religious icons.   It has a very interesting abstract window above the main altar that according to a pamphlet was designed to represent the “light” shining into the church.  There is also a bronze sculpture inside the entrance of the church depicting the famous photograph of Hector Pieterson, the 13-year old high school South African student killed in 1976 when he and fellow students staged a protest against a new government policy making Africaans and English the official languages to be used in black secondary schools.

Tomorrow we leave for Dover and the White Cliffs.

Tony

National Gallery and St. Martin in the Fields

Main Window in St. Martin in the Fields

Bronze Sculpture of Hector Pieterson Being Carried by Another Student

Original Photograph of Hector Pieterson Being Carried by Another Student

Dear Commons Community,

After our visit to Stonehenge, Elaine and I had a light lunch in Oxford in The Eagle and Child, a pub that has been serving patrons since the mid-1600s.   The pub is well-known as the meeting place of The Inklings, an Oxford writers’ group which included C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. From late 1933, they met on Thursday evenings at Lewis’s college rooms at Magdalen College,  where they would read and discuss various material, including their unfinished manuscripts. These meetings were accompanied with more informal lunchtime gatherings at various Oxford pubs which coalesced into a regular meeting held on Mondays or Tuesday lunchtimes at the Eagle and Child, in a private lounge at the back of the pub known as the ‘Rabbit Room’.   

A Martyr’s Memorial, just outside Balliol College commemorates Anglican bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who were burned at the stake for heresy during the persecutions of King Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Mary.

As part of our bus trip, we also stopped at Windsor Castle, one of the royal family’s homes.  Lots of history, finery, and the burial place of England’s Kings Henry VIII and Charles I.

Tony

Martyr’s Memorial in Oxford

Windsor Castle

Dear Commons Community,

This afternoon, Elaine and I took a bus trip to see Stonehenge in Wiltshire.   Stonehenge, meaning “hanging stones”, is the name for the ruins of a site built 4000-5000 years ago (Neolithic Age) by a people who have never been conclusively identified other than that they settled in the area and were farmers and herders.  It is generally believed that the circle of stones was used in burial and other ceremonial rituals.  A recreated village from the period adds to the experience of walking the area.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Elaine and I spent much of today at the British Museum that opened in 1749.  The outside is a traditional, four-sided building with marble columns across the front. The interior, however, was renovated during the Millennium celebration and features a glass dome, spiral staircases, and a large cylinder built in the center of the courtyard. Most impressive architecture.  The Museum’s collection includes the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles, an Easter Island stone figure, and a host of other exhibits. As you enter the Parthenon Marbles Room, a six-age pamphlet is distributed that explores the issue of whether the Marbles should be displayed in London or Athens. 

We had lunch across at the street at the Museum Tavern where notables Karl Marx and George Orwell would stop for a pint or two.

We finished the day at the University of London and its beautiful urban campus.

Tony

University of London

King Ramses II

One of the Parthenon (Elgin) Marble

Easter Island Stone Figure

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times lit a firestorm this weekend in the Donald Trump presidential candidacy by publishing his 1995 tax return showing that he took a loss of $915,729,293. that likely resulted in him not having to pay federal taxes for the past eighteen years.  One of the reporters, Susanne Craig, tells how she received Trump’s tax return in a manila envelope mailed to her from an anonymous sender.

“My colleagues make fun of my old-fashioned devotion to my mailbox.

It’s about 30 feet from my desk — among all the other third-floor employees’ mailboxes — and I check it constantly, always hoping a tipster will have sent me some revealing letter or secret document.

In Metro, we get a lot of junk mail and are regularly flooded with correspondence from prisoners in New York’s penitentiaries.

But Friday, Sept. 23, was different.

I walked to my mailbox and spotted a manila envelope, postmarked New York, NY, with a return address of The Trump Organization. My heart skipped a beat.

I have been on the hunt for Donald J. Trump’s tax returns. Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has broken with decades-long tradition and refused to make his returns public. I have written extensively about his finances, but like almost every other reporter, I was eager to see his actual returns.

The envelope looked legitimate. I opened it, anxiously, and was astonished.

Inside were what appeared to be pages from Mr. Trump’s 1995 tax records, containing detailed figures that revealed his tax strategies. Almost immediately, I walked over to the desk of David Barstow — a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and my teammate in the quest for Mr. Trump’s tax returns.

He was on the phone. I waved the tax documents in front of him. He abruptly ended the call with whomever he was talking to.

We cleared out the investigations team conference room and, with our colleagues Megan Twohey and Russ Buettner, started drawing up a battle plan.

We obsessed over the documents, the envelope, the postmark, the date on the postmark — everything. We even checked every other mailbox on the third floor — and there are hundreds of them — in case the tipster had mailed additional documents to any other reporter.”

Craig goes on to comment how they verified the tax return and how she and her colleagues developed the strategy for reporting its contents. 

She concluded:

“The whole experience has left me eager to share a bit of advice with my fellow reporters: Check your mailboxes. Especially nowadays, when people are worried that anything sent by email will leave forensic fingerprints, “snail mail” is a great way to communicate with us anonymously.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This morning, Elaine and I attended services at St. Paul’s Cathedral in “The City” area of London. It is called “The City” because it is the oldest part of London dating back to Roman times. The Cathedral itself was built between 1697-1710 although religious services have been conducted in this spot for over 1400 years.  St. Paul’s Choir sung during the services and their voices and harmony are special.  The Cathedral lists the funeral of Winston Churchill, the wedding of Charles and Diana, and the visit of Martin Luther King, Jr. among its important occasions. 

After services, we went behind the Cathedral to Pater Noster Square, a beautiful urban space with cafes, sculptures, and shops.

We then walked across the Millennium Bridge and finished the day at the Tate Modern Museum. I liked especially The George Economou Gallery with its exhibits of city life, power, and political uprising.   

Tony

                      Memorial dedicated to the thousands of firefighters killed during the Blitz of World War II.

                                                             The Tate Modern Museum.

Dear Commons Coumunity,

The New York Times is reporting that Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.  As reported:

“The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Tax experts hired by The Times to analyze Mr. Trump’s 1995 records said that tax rules especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have allowed Mr. Trump to use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.

Although Mr. Trump’s taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.

The $916 million loss certainly could have eliminated any federal income taxes Mr. Trump otherwise would have owed on the $50,000 to $100,000 he was paid for each episode of “The Apprentice,” or the roughly $45 million he was paid between 1995 and 2009 when he was chairman or chief executive of the publicly traded company he created to assume ownership of his troubled Atlantic City casinos. Ordinary investors in the new company, meanwhile, saw the value of their shares plunge to 17 cents from $35.50, while scores of contractors went unpaid for work on Mr. Trump’s casinos and casino bondholders received pennies on the dollar.

Mr. Trump declined to comment on the documents. Instead, the campaign released a statement that neither challenged nor confirmed the $916 million loss.”

Tony