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Intoday'scultureofhyperbole,bornof desperate attempts to be noticed amid the Niagara of Internet and other outpourings, the label "genius" is affixed promiscuously to evanescent popular entertainers, fun- gible corporate CEOs and other perishable phenomena. But italmostfits the sa- loon singer — his preferred description of himself — who was born 100 years ago, on Dec. 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is, how- ever, more pre- cise and, in a way, more flat- tering to say that Frank Sinatra should be celebrated for his craftsman- ship. Of geniuses, we have, it seems, a steady stream. Ac- tual craftsmen are rarer and more useful because they are exemplary for anyone with a craft, be it surgery or carpen- try. Sinatra was many things, some of them — libertine, bully, gangster groupie — re- grettable. But he unquestion- ably was the greatest singer of American songs. How should an artist's character and private life condition our appreciation of his or her art? How, say, should knowledge of T.S. El- iot's anti-Semitism condition one's admiration for his po- etry? With Sinatra, tune out the public personality and listen to his music as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan and Oscar Peterson did. They all, according to the culture critic Terry Teachout, named Sinatra their most admired singer. For decades he was, Teachout says, "the fixed star in the crowded sky of Amer- ican popular culture." It speaks well of Sinatra, and reveals the prickly pride that sometimes made him volca- nic, that he refused to adopt a less Italian name when eth- nicity was problematic in the waning days of America's An- glo-Saxon ascendancy. An- thony Dominick Benedetto (Tony Bennett) and Dino Paul Crocetti (Dean Martin) ad- justed. Sinatra was an unad- justed man. In spite of the spectacular vulgarity of Sinatra's choices of friends and fun, he be- queathed to postwar Amer- ica a sense of style, even male elegance. His Las Ve- gas cavorting with "The Rat Pack" (Martin, Sammy Da- vis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford) was an embarrass- ing manifestation of 1950s arrested-development mas- culinity — adolescence for- ever. But never mind his tou- pees and elevator shoes, his loutish flunkies and violent bodyguards, his many aw- ful movies and public brawls, his pimping for Camelot. And never mind that the come- dian Shecky Greene was not altogether joking when he said: "Sinatra saved my life in 1967. Five guys were beat- ing me up, and I heard Frank say, 'That's enough.'" Never mind the tawdri- ness so abundantly reported in the just-published second volume of James Kaplan's 1,765-page biography ("Sina- tra: The Chairman"). But you must remember this: In a re- cording studio, Sinatra, who could not read music, was a meticulous collaborator with great musicians — including the Hollywood String Quar- tet — and arrangers. For Sinatra, before a song was music, it was words alone. He studied lyrics, in- ternalized them, then sang, making music from poems. His good fortune was that he had one of the nation's cul- tural treasures, the Great American Songbook, to in- terpret. It was the good for- tune of that book's authors — Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer and many others — that Sinatra came along to remind some Amer- icans and inform others of that book's existence. This is one kind of popu- lar music: "I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no girl reaction" This is Sinatra's kind: "The summer wind came blowin' in from across the sea It lingered there, to touch your hair and walk with me All summer long we sang a song and then we strolled that golden sand Two sweethearts and the summer wind Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went fl- yin' by The world was new be- neath a blue umbrella sky Then softer than a piper man, one day it called to you I lost you, I lost you to the summer wind The autumn wind, and the winter winds, they have come and gone And still the days, those lonely days, they go on and on And guess who sighs his lullabies through nights that never end My fickle friend, the sum- mer wind" Frequent performing, and too much Jack Daniel's, and too many unfiltered Camel cigarettes took their toll be- fore he acknowledged this and left the road, much too late. However, his reputation is preserved by the short- term memory loss of a na- tion that will forever hear the Sinatra of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Kaplan reports, accord- ing to "legend," that Sina- tra's casket in a Palm Springs cemetery contains some Jack Daniel's and Camels. If so, even in death, Sinatra did it his way. GeorgeWill'semailaddressis georgewill@washpost.com. GeorgeWill TheFrank Sinatra we remember Cartoonist's take Sources say that the often re- vered but seldom sullied Red Bluff Daily News has not only sold their building on Diamond, but is about to move to a prominent block on Main Street and engage in a long term lease. I have mixed emotion about this move. Whereas I did not, in my capacity as a com- mercial real estate broker, partic- ipate in this move, it was never- theless handled expertly by oth- ers. But this move is going to put me in closer proximity to the ed- itor and publisher who have only to walk a short distance to con- front me in my lair at 760 Main St. This bodes no good, for unless I write something outrageous and obviously not fit for a family newspaper, I seldom hear from that august body of newspaper folks. However, being closer will make it much easier for them to criticize. Other column writers are not as accessible and often their work will go unchallenged. In their case, the DN can take the cavalier approach and rational- ize, "Never mind, few read so and so anyhow." Another problem with the move is that, with the Daily News ensconced prominently on Main, that space will not be leased by a retailer and therefore will not enhance the overall ambiance of Main and Walnut. And yet, the staff will add to the local body count, may do their shopping during the noon hour, and scarf down the excellent food available downtown. In conclusion, the DN could have located downtown but in a less conspicuous non-retail loca- tion, but we are delighted they have found a place to land, and relieved to see them still in busi- ness and thriving. ••• Unfortunate remark by a let- ters to the editor writer: "The LGBT community represents a group of people that are proud of a lifestyle that they should be ashamed of." When I read this crap I speculate that such let- ter writers protest too much, and that their own sexual proclivities are equally unusual but firmly in the closet. ••• Thinking of retirement? Sources say 10,000 Americans will turn 65 every day from now until 2030. Investors say you should have between 10 to 12 times your annual income saved for your retirement, and 52% of Americans are at risk of hav- ing insufficient funds to main- tain their current lifestyle. Maybe this is a question that should be asked of the Presidential candi- dates. However the same sources report that 40% of Americans now rely on financial advisors to secure their retirement, this up from 28% in 2010. So, at least some professionals will be secur- ing their own retirement by ad- vising others. ••• Each time we drive down I-5 to the bay area, I think of how convenient it would be to travel underground in a capsule. As time is money it would shave the travel time to minutes rather than hours, avoid head-on auto collisions and save lives. Some- day this may become a reality. A firm called Hyperloop Tech- nologies is pursuing this goal by sending pressurized capsules on a thin cushion of air through pneumatic-style tubes powered by magnetic attraction and so- lar power. Wow, the future is at hand. ••• A Sinatra TV special — a two hour advertisement for The Wynn Casino in Vegas — os- tensibly celebrated the singer's 100th birthday if he had lived to 2015. A big band well played the great Nelson Riddle, Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti, Don Costa and Billy May arrangements to back up some of today's singers. Ex- cept for perhaps Tony Bennett and the fascinating Lady Ga Ga, the performers, one of whom wore a cowboy hat and the other sported a full beard wearing a stove pipe hat, were not of the Sinatra ilk. But who is to com- plain when clips of Frank's orig- inal works are shown in prime time. ••• J. Ward in a letter to the edi- tor corrected me regarding gun terminology. Some are automatic and some semi, and the term "as- sault" is nebulous at best. That said, it remains that the major- ity of weapons used to kill peo- ple contain bullets and often al- low multiple shots per minute to kill multiple people. The John Ward that I once knew worked across the street in a men's store, was an accomplished photogra- pher and was, at the time, a fel- low who would not "disagree with most of what he (meaning me) has to say." However, opin- ions change and some folks be- come fixed in their conception of current events such as mass mur- ders, their cause and solution. So far, we are getting a lot of "guns don't kill people" rhetoric. Un- til the next mass killings are by knife or manual strangulation, I stand by my statement: There are just too many friggin' guns out there, at least those in the hands of the unbalanced. It is unfortu- nate that any efforts of control are termed infringement of our amendment rights. This rebuff appears more shallow with each mass outage, and I don't mean of electricity. ••• Pearl Harbor vets are becom- ing scarce as hen's teeth. Soon there will be no one to represent the tragic event. My late brother- in-law was one such. ••• A man suffered a serious heart attack. He was rushed to the nearest hospital where he had emergency open heart bypass surgery. He awakened from the sur- gery to find himself in the care of nuns at the Catholic hospital. A nun was seated next to his bed holding a clipboard loaded with several forms, and a pen. She asked him how he was going to pay for his treatment. "Do you have health insurance," she asked. He replied in a raspy voice, "No health insurance." The nun asked, "Do you have money in the bank?" He replied, "No money in the bank." Do you have a relative who could help you with the pay- ments," asked the irritated nun. He said, "I only have a spinster sister, and she is a nun." The nun became agitated and announced loudly, "Nuns are not spinsters. Nuns are married to God." The patient replied, "Perfect. Send the bill to my brother-in- law." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail. com. I say Reflections on the impending relocation of the Daily News It speaks well of Sinatra, and reveals the prickly pride that sometimes made him volcanic, that he refused to adopt a less Italian name when ethnicity was problematic in the waning days of America's Anglo-Saxon ascendancy. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS George Will Robert Minch StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerr y Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, gover- nor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Can- non House Office Build- ing, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgom- ery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Su- pervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Wil- liams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Man- ager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Man- ager, John Brewer, 824- 7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, December 11, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4