A “Boesky” After Church And An African Barbeque In OKC

“Greed is good,” a character named Gordon Gecko tells a group of students in the popular 1980’s film “Wall Street,”  and while that role was ably played by Michael Douglas, it was generally considered at that time that Gecko’s character had been inspired by Wall Street stock trader Ivan Boesky, a Detroit , Michigan, native who had made his way to the Big Apple and had amassed a considerable fortune before he was charged by the federal government for insider trading and later served several years in the penitentiary as a result. The period was often referred to as the “Me-Decade,” when individuals placed their own desires and ambitions above the concept of the public welfare and concern for the less fortunate among us, and may also have some relevance to our current times and culture. And the name Boesky was recently heard at the Christ the King Catholic Church   after a Mass when a little boy who was heading to the area where donuts are served referred to a pre-school classmate at the school run by that house of worship as “Boesky.” But it was subsequently made evident that that was not a reference to the now elderly disgraced Wall Street insider but was instead an affectionate term used to address another child whose first name is “Beau” who smiled when he was  spoken to with that appellation. After the children had consumed several donuts, Beau made his way to his grandmother’s home in The Village where he took a long walk with her and her dog and subsequently played in an enclosed porch and told of how his little sister Penny, who celebrated her first birthday several months ago, has begun to walk.  Later that day, the Oryema family of Oklahoma City, who are immigrants from the East African nation of Uganda, hosted an outdoor barbeque whose guests  included an esteemed Roman Catholic priest, Father Martin, who is also a Ugandan native and serves as the chaplain at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. The Oryemas and the cleric are members of the Acholi ethnic group that is part of Uganda’s diverse  tribal mix, and they spoke to one another in that language. The Oryema’s have a son, Henry, who is an honor student majoring in aerospace  engineering  at OSU in Stillwater, and their daughter Kelsi is currently a senior at a charter arts school in Oklahoma City and will graduate next month, and she will then begin her college career at OU where she will study business administration and art. Their youngest child, Vanessa, is still in grammar school, is a precocious and constantly smiling  youngster, who  has been schooled in the dance moves that are part of the cultural tradition of the Acholi Tribe by her mother, possibly  as part of an effort to retain an element of their native culture, and she performed some of them in a confident manner as the rest of the family and guests dined on the tasty barbeque.

“Quiet On Set” Documentary About Nickelodeon Network

As detailed  in a recent documentary  “Quiet On Set,” the Nickelodeon  Network hosted a popular television show  that was directed at children  in the period  from 1994 through 2020 that was titled “ All That” that often featured a character known as “Pickle Boy.”  It was said about him on the show that “he likes to hurt and tease pickles,” and he was often in scenes where he was carrying enormous plates of pickles that he would offer to others. The character was played by actor Brian Peck, an Indiana native who would later serve as a dialogue coach on several of the other Nickelodeon productions that were made by Dan Schneider, who oversaw  the creation of a variety of shows that became popular with adolescents in the US and other nations. One of the young actors on “All That” was Drake Bell, who would later star  in the popular series “ Drake and Josh.” As  reported in that documentary, which is currently being run on several different networks, Peck was popular with virtually everyone on the set, but gradually begin to shower  Drake Bell with interest  and lessened his attentions to other members of the cast. In time the degree of interest he expressed towards the 14 year old actor became a matter of concern to  the senior Bell, who was often on set, and he  saw fit to express his misgivings to the personnel department of the studio, but   was advised that while Peck was openly gay and liked to touch those he worked with, he was not a danger to young people and that his concerns may be the result of the  lingering homophobia  that is found in society . But as it turns out, the  elder Bell’s  concern were well founded, and in time Peck wormed his way into Drake’s life and began to sexually molest him. In time the child actor revealed to the  Los Angeles Police Department what he had been subject to at the hands of Peck, and the former Pickle Boy entered a plea of no contest to three counts of sexual abuse of a minor child and was sentenced to 16 months in prison as a result. As told in the documentary, the younger Bell’s identity was not revealed,  and in an era before social media, the entire story received little attention, and after Peck’s release from prison he would serve as a dialogue coach on the Disney Television series “The Suite Life Of Zach And Cody” that also featured young people in starring roles. While the film is justifiably  critical of Dan Schneider in numerous instances, the younger Bell tells of how Schneider was supportive of him and said that he would be willing to help him in any way after he became aware of  Peck’s molestation. Another young person who was part of Schneider’s acting crew tells the audience of how the entire set attended a birthday party at Peck’s home where they saw many disquieting  things, including   letters that the  Pickle Boy had received from  serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who murdered young men after he had sexually molested, that included a painting that Gacy had had made for him. The younger Bell tells of how he was unable to deal with the pain that he felt as a result of his molestation and for years struggled  with substance abuse issues  and other personal problems as a consequence. One would hope that after the “Me Too”  movement that led to, among other things, of the revelations of the  transgressions of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect the young and vulnerable people who are in the entertainment field.