Ripples #36

Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck

Tom Cruise Mojo-Rich Pool
Water Up for Bids on eBay

On the odd chance you have no plans to be in the vicinity of Lourdes anytime soon, not to worry…eBay to the rescue! As of this writing, you may bid to own a sample of water from a Miami swimming pool in which actor Tom Cruise swam one time back in July 2011. According to an article on heatworld.com, the eBay listing reads as follows:

There is a very limited supply of this special water. The winning bidder will receive a 5×7 print of Tom swimming in the pool with Katie Holmes by his side as a certificate of authenticity. The bottle is hand-painted and shows a cross to mimic the effect of a bottle of Holy Water. But this cross also bears four gold rays coming from behind, which can also be considered the symbol of Scientology. Tom Cruise water can be used in rituals, potions or perfumes. It can be dabbed behind the ears or on the wrists for good luck. You can place some of it around the hearth of your home or baptize your baby with it. The possibilities are endless. Happy bidding!

Endless, indeed. So much so that Ripples is seriously contemplating putting in a bid, with hopes that sprinkling some of the mojo-infused Magic Tom Cruise Scientology Holy Pool Water on top of the head will reverse an advanced case of male pattern baldness. On second thought, even for such potent celebrity H2O, might that goal still be a Mission Impossible?

Exhibit of Archival Pool Photography
Opens at Palm Springs Art Museum

An exhibition entitled “Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982” has opened at the Palm Springs Art Museum and will run through May 27 of this year.

The exhibition is part of “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” a multimuseum art program organized and funded by the Getty Foundation. “Pacific Standard Time” consists of more than 60 exhibits throughout Southern California.

Mydesert.com reports that in mounting the swimming pool exhibit, Palm Springs Art Museum senior curator Daniell Cornell sought to explore how the backyard swimming pool came to symbolize the good life in post-World War II America — especially in Southern California. The Web site quotes Cornell as reflecting, “When I think about Southern California, I ask myself what is its most iconic symbol? And it is the swimming pool.”

Learn more: For additional information about “Backyard Oasis” and how the exhibition came to be, click here.

Spectacular Water Show Slated to
Open at Netherlands Theme Park

Efteling, the Netherlands’ largest theme park and one of the oldest in the world, intends to unveil an enormous water attraction on May 31, 2012.

The Web site latimes.com reports that the $24 million Aquanura water show will feature “water fountains, flame-throwers, synchronized spotlights and symphonic music set to fairy tale stories drawn from the Dutch theme park’s signature attractions.”

Aquanura is being constructed by Water Entertainment Technologies (WET), the Los Angeles-based outfit behind the dancing fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the Dubai Fountain in the United Arab Emirates. In addition to a colorfully lit nighttime water extravaganza, Aquanura shows will play throughout the day.

“Aquanura has already been drawing obvious comparisons to the World of Color water show at Disney California Adventure,” latimes.com notes.

The Efteling theme park, located in the Dutch town of Kaatsheuvel, opened three years before the original Disneyland and is twice as large as that property. To date, Efteling reportedly has welcomed more than 100 million visitors.

Images: To see images of what Aquanura will look like, click here.

Cincinnati Landlord Posts ‘White Only’
Sign at Apartment Complex Pool

What is shocking about this story is not that it happened, but that it happened in 2011 rather than 1951.

According to abcnews.go.com, landlord Jamie Hein, owner of an apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, posted the “White Only” sign at the complex’s swimming pool in May of last year. Hein has contended that she collects antiques and that someone gave her the sign, which dates from 1931.

ABC News went on to report: “She also said that even though the sign seems to indicate that the pool is public, the pool is on her private property and ‘everybody has to ask before getting in my pool.’ ”
Michael Gunn, an African-American tenant in the complex, objected to the sign and filed a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. He wrote in his complaint: “We invited my daughter, who is African-American, to visit and swim in the pool for the Memorial Day weekend. The owner, Jamie Hein, accused my daughter of making the pool ‘cloudy’ because she used chemicals in her hair. Days later, she posted a sign on the gate to the pool which reads, ‘Public Swimming Pool, White Only.’”

Hein, for her part, denied that the sign had anything to do with Gunn’s daughter; she insisted she posted it before the Memorial Day visit and claimed she never spoke with the girl. Still, she is quoted as saying, “If I have to stick up for my white rights, I have to stick up for my white rights. It goes both ways.”

Fortunately, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission disagreed: On September 29, 2011, it voted 4-0 that Hein’s sign did, in fact, violate the Ohio Civil Rights Act. Hein asked that the decision be reconsidered, but it was upheld earlier this month.

On second thought, the real shock here is not that this case started last year — unfortunately, there will always be racists among us — but that Ms. Hein thought she could get away with posting the sign in 2011.
Happily, she was wrong.

Key Figure in Struggle to Integrate
U.S. Swimming Pools Dies at 94

Despite the previous item, many Americans — especially younger ones — may be unaware that swimming pools once were a major battleground in the fight to racially integrate American society. Judge Robert L. Carter, who passed away on Jan. 3 at the age of 94, undoubtedly never forgot that fact or the role he played in achieving the equal right to swim for all Americans.

The Web site NJ.com relates: “During his senior year at East Orange High School [in East Orange, New Jersey], Carter persisted in entering the segregated swimming pool until the city closed it and no students could use it. East Orange High had a successful all-white swim team in those days. Black students were allowed in the pool only after school on Fridays, alternating by gender. Afterward, the pool was drained and cleaned before the white students used it again.”

Robert Carter was all of 16 when he refused to accept the unjust status quo. In his later years, NJ.com continues, he successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court — the landmark case that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in U.S. public schools.

Ripples doesn’t know if Judge Carter’s contribution to American swimming is recognized at the International Swimming Hall of Fame — but if it isn’t, it should be.

Learn more: For additional information about Judge Robert L. Carter and the role he played in the U.S. civil rights movement, click here.

Until next time, happy watershaping to you!