:: Wikler News ::

:: 7.23.2004 ::

i can't believe it has taken me this long to add this tidbit to the news page-our own ben wikler (he's the tall one holding the baby, in the pic below) is producing "the o'franken factor" on air america radio which everyone i know who listens to anything is listening to and loving. ben also did a LOT of work behind the scenes on al's book, "lies and the lying liars who tell them- a fair and balanced look at the right." rumor has it that ben got the job because, for one thing, he came up with the title (this has not been fact-checked, but i *think* it's true. the fact-checking website to which ben posted a link on the o'franken factor blog was unable to help me with this one thing. anyway, it was the title that shot the book to the top of the amazon.com bestseller list, thanks to bill o'reilly (who is trying to patent, or name-brand, the words "fair and balanced" as we speak) getting all mad and trying to sue al. the case was thrown out of court. now there's a big enormous petition going around to prevent fox news from hoggiing the phrase "fair and balanced" - it's worth signing so if you haven't, and you happen to read this, you can find the petition (as well as print out your own copy to circulate among your friends) at MoveOn.org's website. anyway, ben is very busy now and my friends who have met him are all name-dropping like mad- not like i'm not doing the same thing or anything. we are proud, ben is still sticking it to the Man.

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2 new things have just been added to this site: on the memorial page there is a new piece from an anonymous person who was a neighbor of norma's at the olcott hotel. what amazed me about this bit of writing is that without ever having met norma, he/she brought her right back to life for me, for a few minutes, with this testimony. it's the kind of thing that makes you realize that you might be having an affect on someone's life without ever knowing it... which is something to keep in mind.

the other thing is a photo of the building in which abraham wikler (my grandfather) was born. it's on (3rd ave & e. 8th st.) and i was staying with a friend right around the corner from it over the winter holidays. it was intense, the sense of wikler history that i felt standing there looking at the building... increased my desire to move to NY but really, hopefully i will someday be bi-coastal like norma was, living in NY and berkeley, alternately. i deeply share what was her love of both places. perhaps it is part of the gift she left me.

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ben sticks it to the man!!!

WSJ News: West graduate works with comic Franken

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not just a computer anymore...

this... is G3. not the computer, the generation!!! just so's you all have an image to put to the names... soon this and many more great wiklerpix will be on the pictures page, but i'm kind of overwhelmed with work right now, and can't quite get to it.

anyway from left to right: me (jenna) ruth, ben holding sam, jef, diana.



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dear everyone: thank you for sending in your thoughts and stories about norma... please keep sending them. and please check out the new stuff on this site: there are pictures, and a little movie (it's on the picture page) and jeanne's account of norma's goodbye after the memorial, which makes me cry every time i read it.

-jenna

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we welcome writing from anyone who has a story to tell about our norma, and are collecting these on the memorial page. photos, poems, drawings are welcome too...

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