Les Golden

Les Golden is an astronomer as well as an internationally-known gambling writer, musician, actor, stand-up comic, cartoonist, software developer, and political, environmental, and animal welfare activist. He lives in Oak Park, Illinois. He has written for gambling.com, iGamingBusiness, gamblingonline, and Bluff Europe print magazines. He became aware of card counting systems and became a card counter at the popular casino game of blackjack while a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, by reading the 1966 revised edition of Beat the Dealer, the seminal work of mathematician Edward O. Thorp, who was aided in his computer simulations by programmers Julian Braun and Harvey Dubner. As a graduate student in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, Golden made monthly trips to Reno, Nevada and played blackjack using Thorp’s systems. He is the developer of the Golden Diagram technique for countering casino countermeasures at blackjack and the Magic Circle system for winning at biased roulette wheels. Dr. Golden was named an International Gaming Institute Scholar (IGI) (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) for 2016. He currently resides in Oak Park, Illinois, and Reno, Nevada.

Background

Education and Research

The noted author and biographer Jordan Naoum has published collected writings of Golden in his 2011 book, Les Golden

Leslie Morris Golden (Eliezer Moshe ben Reuven Motl y Chanah Kaileh, Lazar Masche) was born in Chicago, an identical twin, the son of Anne K. (née Eisenberg; March 7, 1909 – November 19, 1999), a legal stenographer and homemaker, and Irving R. Golden (March 15, 1907 – June 22, 2005), an attorney and co-owner with his father Max Goldstein, an immigrant finish carpenter from Belarus, Russia, of a store fixture and bar manufacturing firm, and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, where he attended Horace Mann grammar school and Oak Park-River Forest High School.

File:LesGoldenSemesteratSea.jpg

Professor Golden was the first University of Illinois professor chosen to be a professor on Semester at Sea. He taught courses on astronomer and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

He holds the B.A. (with Distinction) and Masters of Engineering Physics from Cornell University, where he was both a Cornell McMullen Scholar and a Fellow of the Interfoundation Committee of the American Institute for Economic Research (Great Barrington, Mass.). The Cornell website notes him as one of its distinguished alumni writers. He received the M.A. and Ph.D in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, under Professor William J. “Jack” Welch, the Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair emeritus in Extraterrestrial Intelligence. His dissertation was “A Microwave Interferometric Study of the Subsurface of the Planet Mercury.”

At Cornell, he was the award-winning feature editor and then editor-in-chief of the Cornell Engineer magazine and a member of the Engineering Student Council. Some of his early research in astronomy appeared in a book by Stephen Hawking. He performed research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate and the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. He is the director of the Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project (N.E.A.R.), which he founded as a University of Illinois at Chicago professor in 1994. He has been elected to both Phi Beta Kappa (arts and sciences) and Tau Beta Pi (engineering) as well as Pi Delta Epsilon (journalism). He is listed in Marquis Who's Who in Science and Technology and Marquis Who's Who in the World.

In addition to the many citations to his scholarly research in astronomy and the history of science, Golden’s writings and work has been cited in numerous books.

The noted author and biographer Jordan Naoum has published collected writings of Golden in his 2011 book, Les Golden (Duc Publishing, ISBN 978-6-1368-4994-2) which is available worldwide.

Performing

One of the leading environmentalist spokesmen and activists in Illinois, Les Golden as President of the CARE party in Oak Park, Illinois, secured the election of a majority on the Park Board which on their first day in office banned pesticides in the parks and recreation centers.

Golden is a nationally-referenced animal welfare advocate and environmental activist, a professional trumpet player, jazz vocalist, and band leader, and a professional actor with more than 100 stage, film, radio, television, and commercial credits, including multiple principle Shakespearean roles with Oak Park Festival Theatre, an Equity-contract theatre.

Les Golden Renaissance Man feature article

As a model, he has appeared on the covers of numerous magazines including Burpee Seeds, Heathkit, Amway Magazine, and Money Magazine.

In 1966 Golden provided the stimulus for the formation of the University of California Jazz Ensembles by placing an ad calling for student jazz musicians in the Daily Californian. With the arrival of Dr. David W. Tucker to the Cal campus in 1969, the organization became the most prominent musical organization on the Berkeley campus. Golden was a trumpet player, soloist, and vocalist with the elite Wednesday Night big band. For seven years he was the emcee for the program, appearing at dozens of performances annually at concerts and jazz festivals throughout California.

File:DailyCalArticlebyLesGoldenUCJazz1968.jpg

Article by Les Golden in the Daily Californian announcing the first concert of the University of California Jazz Ensembles

Golden's love for big band music was nurtured by playing in The Deuces nine-piece dance band in high school, a group founded by his twin brother Bruce P. Golden and saxophonist Ron Svoboda. They had known each other by playing in the orchestra at Oak Park and River Forest High School.

Golden is an award-winning developer of sophisticated music notation software.

He is a published jazz critic.

He has appeared numerous times as an actor on the live-broadcast productions of "Unshackled!". He was a featured regular on the Eddie Hubbard Show radio program as the character Jeffrey Clayton Maxwell from Bhutan. He was one of the stable of gifted Chicago character actors cast in numerous national and regional television commercials by renowned director Josef Sedelmaier of “Where’s the Beef?” fame. He is a member of both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). He was a charter member of Chicago's Porchlight Theatre Ensemble. He has appeared in featured roles with Broderick Crawford, Tippi Hedren, Troy Donahue, Charlotte Ross, Susan Hart, Robert Petkoff, David Darlow, Bruce Jarchow, Paula Scrofano, and others.

Les Golden possesses a "great character face." Shown here as model for Krey Hot Dogs.

His Bacon number (the number of motion picture role links between a given actor and prolific actor Kevin Bacon - Les Golden, Deadly Spygames with Tippi Hedren, who was in Jayne Mansfield’s Car with Kevin Bacon) is 2 (closer value than 82% of all actors).

He has authored stage and screen plays, including “The Skull Caper,” based on the bequeathal of the skull of his mentor Del Close to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, a full-length murder mystery comedy, Murder by Mistletoe, and a screenplay, Never Split Tens, based on the life of the mathematician who developed the card counting system for the casino game of blackjack.

As "Flash Golden," he was the play-by-play announcer for the California Golden Bears basketball radio broadcasts and hosted Flash's Jazz Patio on KALX-FM. As a stand-up comedian, he has performed at San Francisco's Holy City Zoo and Mustard Seed, the Comedy Store and other clubs in Los Angeles, the Comedy Cottage in Chicago, as well as on the college circuit, Playboy Club, and other clubs from Puerta Vallarta to Boston. He appears both as himself, Les Golden, and as Subrahmanyan Berkowitz from Bhutan. He is a published editorial cartoonist.

Flash Golden at halftime at Oakland Coliseum for Cal-UCLA showdown. He wears his signature gold jacket and blue and gold tie. To his right is color man George Skofis. To his left, standing, is Larry Heavey, baritone sax player with the UC Jazz Ensembles.

As an editorial and comic cartoonist, Les Golden has been widely published. He is listed in Comiclopedia. His subjects are taken from his interest in politics and other careers as a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, musician, environmentalist, animal welfare advocate, astronomer, and professor. He may be best known for his strip "Captain Industry" from the 1980's. His content ranges from politically controversial to school-boy silliness, with a clean line-art artistic style. His textbook, Laboratory Exercises in Physics for Modern Astronomy (Springer-Verlag, 2012), includes numerous of his comic illustrations, including those of possible extraterrestrials. He credits Betty Edwards, author of Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain, as his major artistic influence.

File:LesGoldenCartoona.jpg

As a cartoonist, Les Golden is widely published. Among other venues, he contributes cartoons to various gambling magazines. Copyright 2012 Les Golden. All rights reserved.

Organized Athletics

In athletics he was a two-sport letterman at Oak Park and River Forest High School and was the manager and third baseman of the "Goldenrods" at Cornell and manager and third baseman of the "Foul Balls" in the fast-pitch summer league at U.C. Berkeley. At JPL, he was the third baseman on the champion JPL fast-pitch team in the Glendale City League.

Astronomy Publications and Presentations

Les Golden, astronomer, founded the Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project while a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Golden has published several peer-reviewed refereed articles on applications of probability and statistics to astronomy, and has taught probability and statistics as an Adjunct Professor of Management Science in the Heller Graduate School of Business at Roosevelt University in Chicago in addition to being an astronomy professor in the physics department and the Honors College of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Professor Leslie M. Golden lectures in 2005 on how the East Indian Ocean tsunami-generating earthquake led to a shortening of the length of the day.

He lectures to adult and student audiences on the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the hypothetical shapes of their bodies. A frequent cruise ship lecturer, he was selected by Royal Cruise Lines to be their shipboard lecturer on the high seas during the 1986 apparition of Halley's Comet, and was the first University of Illinois professor selected to be a professor on the Institute of Shipboard Education's (ISE) Semester at Sea program, teaching courses on astronomy and the possibility of extraterrestrial life in the fall semester of 1996.

The review of Les Golden’s "Laboratory Experiments in Physics for Modern Astronomy" by Michael Vollmer, published in Physics Education Journal, July 2013, volume 48, number 4, pages 534-535.

Among his popular writings on astronomy and public presentations, he presented a series of lectures to the renowned Field Museum of Natural History on the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligent life, has been the featured speaker at the meeting of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, and was the keynote speaker for Chicago's Adler Planetarium on the occasion of the dedication of their new wing.

His textbook, Laboratory Exercises in Physics for Modern Astronomy (Springer-Verlag, 2012) has been enthusiastically reviewed.

Biosphere 2 Candidate

Prof. Les Golden was a finalist for the second crew of Biosphere 2. From Biosphere, Golden hoped to direct the Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project, created by Golden in 1994 when he was a professor in the physics department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. N.E.A.R. is a world-wide network of amateur astronomers and space scientists involved in the discovery and determination of the orbits of near-earth asteroids or more generally near-earth objects with possible earth-crossing orbits.

Renaissance Man Description

Les Golden is a Renaissance Man, a true polymath.

File:LesGoldenAlkaSeltzer.jpg

Principal actor for Alka Seltzer national campaign. This photo appeared in every National Basketball Association program for every team during its season.

He has been so described in numerous newspapers and magazine. "Let's say there was a local character who has a B.S. and M.S. in engineering physics from Cornell University; earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California in Berkeley; is a professional actor; a former stand-up comedian in San Francisco and L.A. and an improv performer with Chicago's Second City, is a freelance jazz and theater critic and playwright; is president of his own software development company; gives lectures on UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial life; was listed in the Marquis "Who's Who in Science and Engineering;" and every July 4 either he or his twin brother lead the band that precedes the fireworks at the local high school. You'd accuse us of making him up, right? Wait, it gets better. Let's say all of that is not enough. Let's say this guy wants to make his mark in politics . . . only he insists on filing under a nickname which usually gets him tossed off the ballot . . . "

Members of the University of California Jazz Ensembles in a publicity photo prior to a performance at the Oakland Museum. From top, Gary Maas, drummer, now an optometrist, Les Golden, trumpet, vocalist, and announcer, and Larry Heavey, baritone sax, now a radiologist.

"Where to start in introducing the complete one-off individual that is Les Golden? Actor, stand-up comedian, humorist UFO lecturer, singer, astronomer, cartoonist, playwright, trumpet player, voiceover artist, political activist . . . we could go on. You can probably tell that Les is a bit of a character. Luckily for readers, he's also a great blackjack player,"

"It would be an unusual man who really went by the name 'Cut the Taxes,' but Golden, of Oak Park, is an unusual man. He is an actor and educational software developer with a Ph.D. in astronomy; he is a trumpet player, writer and physics professor who devotes much of his free time to taxpayers rights issues."

“His interests form a list so long as to stagger the imagination. He is a stand-up comic who has performed all over the United States and Mexico, a professional actor in more than 100 plays, films and commercials; and he is the author of Basic Composer, PC-compatible software that is used to compose, play back, and print music and lyrics. (As an astronomer), in 1986 he went on a Halley’s Comet cruise, following the comet from Acapulco to Greece and transmitting reports to the Syndicated Writers’ Group.”

File:LesGoldenNameGame.jpg

Les Golden is a true polymath, a Renaissance Man. His numerous activities have provided him with many names. Play the Les Golden Name Game!

Unlike many in society who were influenced and aided by family members in achieving success in given fields, Golden is entirely a self-made man. No one in either his maternal or paternal extended families have matriculated at an Ivy League college, earned a Ph.D, nor have had professional careers as an actor, stand-up comedian, playwright, political cartoonist, magazine editor, non-fiction writer, software developer, scientist, or professor. His identical twin brother and he are the only professional musicians in the extended families.

Les Golden has featured listings at the non-vanity websites Library Thing, Illinois Authors, Authors Den, Comiclopedia, and Theiapolis.

In addition to these, he is listed at a remarkable multiplicity of amazon.com websites marking notability:
https://www.evi.com/q/actors_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/comedians_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/musicians_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/writers_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/activists_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/astronomers_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/playwrights_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/scientists_from_oak_park,_illinois
https://www.evi.com/q/professors_from_oak_park,_illinois.

Writings

Les Golden has had books published by reputable publishers in fiction and non-fiction. His biographical novel based on the life of gambling theorist Edward O. Thorp received stellar endorsements.

The cover of the book "Never Split Tens," a biographical novel by Les Golden of Oak Park, Illinois, based on the incredible true story of blackjack scholar Edward O. Thorp. The book contains a comparison of blackjack systems, an acting primer into camouflaging being a card counter, and an extensive biography of Hi-Lo developer Harvey Dubner.

“I found the story tremendously entertaining, with a pantheon of compelling characters such as gambler Ed Thorp and bookie Manny Kimmel taking us from the casinos of Nevada to those of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Les Golden’s novel is a triumph begging for adaptation to the screen.”

LANA WOOD Television and film producer Actress (“Diamonds Are Forever”) Best-selling author, Natalie, a Memoir

“Les Golden has an ever-increasing influence and burgeoning popularity. A significant name in the industry, the ‘go to’ man for strategy and anecdotal literary dexterity. I cannot acclaim his star highly enough.”

JAMES MCKEOWN Editor, iGaming Business Magazine Editor, Gambling.com Magazine

“Les Golden is a comedy genius. It really is as simple as that. An expert in the field, he makes getting educated not only painless but actually funny.”

DAVE BLAND Editor, Flush Magazine British television pundit

“I learn more about strategy through Les’ writings than I do through many failed trips to Vegas. Always concise, easy-to-read, and intelligent.”

JON YOUNG Editor WPT (World Poker Tour) Magazine

“Les Golden makes numbers hilarious. He's simply the funniest gaming strategy writer there is. His writing is ‘rakish’ and ‘bond-esque.’ ”

PHILIP CONNELLER Editor, Bluff Europe Magazine

“The dialog crackles and the fictional elements brilliantly illuminate how cool Ed Thorp is. And there’s just the right amount of blackjack and math. I love it.”

AARON BROWN Professional gambler, Wall Street risk manager Author, The Poker Face of Wall Street

Gambling Writings

Introduction to Card Counting

International poster-boy for United Airlines. These brochures were available at every UAL ticket office and airport terminal in the world. An accompanying poster was on the wall in every UAL ticket office and airport terminal in the world as well as being printed in every major American newspaper (and perhaps foreign as well).

In the months before the premier Wednesday Night Band of the University of California Jazz Ensembles, under the direction of Dr. David W. Tucker, went in 1972 to Reno, Nevada, to compete in its first Reno Jazz Festival, Golden, a trumpet player and vocalist with the band and its announcer, purchased Beat the Dealer at the legendary Moe’s Bookstore in Berkeley, California, and studied Thorp’s complete point count system. In the next five years at Berkeley, Golden made monthly trips to Reno, with additional trips to Lake Tahoe and Virginia City, Nevada. In 1977 he moved to Los Angeles to perform research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate post-doctoral fellow in astronomy, and his gambling excursions were to Las Vegas, Nevada. He continued to perform stand-up comedy at various venues including The Comedy Store and The Improv.

File:CountonLesLogojpg.jpg

Logo for Les Golden's popular "Count on Les" columns for gambling.com print magazine

Writings

He has written for Gambling.com, Gambling Online, iGaming Business, and Bluff Europe magazines, and as a newspaper columnist as a casino advocate. His writing reflects his Renaissance man multiple knowledge bases. With a technical background, many of his articles deal with probability issues in casino games, focusing on roulette, craps, and blackjack, and discussing such topics as the central limit theorem, the normal curve, and Gambler's ruin, and often employing Monte Carlo simulations and references to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an area to which he had been introduced at Cornell University by his mentor Frank Drake and which is one of his research and public lecture areas as an astronomer.

Les Golden had the part of Dr. Armstrong in Agatha Christie’s "Ten Little Indians." Golden is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

With his stand-up comedian background, his style has been described by one of his editors, “You can probably tell that Les is a bit of a character. Luckily for readers, he’s also a great blackjack player,” and by Dave Bland, the editor of Flush Magazine, "Les Golden is a comedy genius. I could write more but it really is as simple as that.” A professional actor with a Kevin Bacon number of 3 who has studied with Ann Woodworth of Northwestern University and Del Close of Chicago’s The Second City improvisational nightclub, Golden periodically writes about applying acting techniques to camouflage both being a card counter and also being a member of roulette and blackjack teams.

File:LesGoldenAsteroidDiscovery.jpg

The beginnings of the Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project was the subject of an article in Compuserve Magazine, which also discussed his being a writer for the Syndicated Writers’ Group reporting as a Halley’s Comet lecturer on the high seas.

Golden has won multiple awards for his writing, including the prestigious Eric Hoffer and Lili Fabilli Laconic Essay Prize,, the Griffith Observatory Science Writing Competition,, the International Compuserve Magazine Essay Contest, and the First Prize in the Nicolaus Copernicus International Essay Competition (American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs). Gambling.com's website refers to Golden as “gambling.com magazine’s resident blackjack genius.” His research into the gambling game of 21 has been published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

Golden Diagram

After the publication of Beat the Dealer, gambling casinos reacted to the advantage that a card counter gains over the house by adopting counter strategies. These included employing multiple decks rather than the single hand-held deck. Two-deck games and games employing four and six decks dealt from a so-called shoe became commonplace.

File:LesGoldenBiologyET.jpg

Dr. Les Golden, a popular UIC professor of physics and director of the Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project, delivers a colloquium on the subject of Extraterrestrial Life to the University of Illinois at Chicago Biology Colloquium.

Players soon realized intuitively that both these changes in the game reduced their probabilities of winning. In games with a multiple deck, compared to single-deck or double-deck games, players experience frequency, magnitude, and depth (the fraction of the deck which has been dealt in playing previous hands) effects: 1) The deck becomes favorable less frequently at all depths, 2) when the deck does becomes favorable, the magnitude of the advantage is not as great, 3) all decks are favorable infrequently until a significant portion of the deck has been dealt and this occurs at greater depths into the deck in games using multiple decks.

File:DrLeslieMGoldenBlackjackArticle.jpg

The June, 2011, paper in The Mathematical Scientist, a peer-reviewed British scholarly journal, established Prof. Les Golden as a recognized expert in the probability and statistics as well as strategy of the casino game of blackjack.

Golden, based on a Monte Carlo simulation and theoretical arguments, calculated the magnitude of these effects. The results of his analysis are displayed as Golden diagrams. He also suggested a stepwise betting strategy to reduce the effects. His paper on the subject was accepted for presentation at the 2016 triennial Gambling and Risk Taking Conference at the Mirage Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.

Magic Circle strategy

The bookseller flyer for Laboratory Experiments in Physics for Modern Astronomy.

The game of roulette, being a game of Simple random sample|statistics without replacement, is not amenable to systems such as card counting, which rely on the non-randomness of the particular game. If, however, the roulette wheel is not perfectly level, laboratory studies, most notably at the British National Weights and Measures Laboratory, and theoretical studies have shown that a skillful croupier can by virtue of muscle memory release the roulette ball with a speed and at a location on the table to bias the bin in which it comes to rest.

The Magic Circle strategy takes advantage of this potential bias and the non-random location of the various bets on the roulette wheel. Golden showed that, after influencing the croupier to direct the ball into certain sectors of the roulette wheel, a team of players can lay bets in strategic locations on the wheel to secure profitable play. His paper on the subject was accepted for presentation at the 2016 triennial Gambling and Risk Taking Conference at the Mirage Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.

Political Activity

Onion the dog

Les Golden began the internationally-noted movement to save Onion the dog of Henderson, Nevada, from euthanasia. The dog was saved after Golden's attorney fought for his life at the Nevada Supreme Court. Animal welfare and animal control laws are being rewritten as a result.

Les Golden being interviewed in front of his Oak Park, Illinois, home on nationwide television feed from WGN-TV in Chicago in May, 2012. Golden began the campaign to save Onion the dog from euthanasia after a tragic family event in Henderson, Nevada. The eventually successful campaign to save Onion’s life, using pro bono attorneys with legal fees paid by Golden and his animal welfare group, reached the Nevada Supreme Court, took nearly two years, and gained international attention.

Local

CARE Party

Featured column on Les Golden in Chicago Tribune.

Golden began his political career with the non-partisan CARE Party. (Citizens Active for Respect for the Environment/Citizens Active for a Responsible Electorate) in Oak Park, Illinois. He later formed the TURF Party (Taxpayers United of River Forest) in the adjacent community. He was the president of UTOP (United Taxpayers of Oak Park) from 1991 through 2005. As CARE party president he has been responsible for slating more than 70 candidates for local political office, achieving the election of eight on tax-accountability and environmental issues. He has sponsored and moderated numerous taxpayer information forums. His advocacy of tax-relief has led him to seek local elected office as “Cut the Taxes.”

Animal Welfare and Environmentalism

A major influence on animal welfare and environmental protection efforts locally and in the State of Illinois, Golden has been a leader in water and materials conservation, recycling, tree protection, wildlife protection, pesticide bans, efforts to retard global warming, and numerous other initiatives, as well as childhood education in these efforts. He has achieved numerous reforms in this regard as president of the CARE Party.

File:LesGoldenOakParkPesticideBan.jpg

In 1991, Les Golden, as president of Citizens Active for Respect for the Environment, achieved a ban on pesticides in the parks and recreation centers of Oak Park, Illinois.

In 2012, Golden learned of the plan by the village of Oak Park to destroy all the pigeons who found shelter among the steel support beams under the train trestle at Marion Street. Some residents complained about the unsightly droppings. Golden discovered that a gel substance placed on the surfaces adjacent to roosting areas was unappealing to all birds who would walk through it, in particular pigeons, starlings, and sparrows. The village trustees opted for that solution, although destruction of the birds had been imminent, and the birds were saved.

At the last hour, in 2013, the Oak Park Park District announced that the expansive Ridgeland Common park area in the center of the village was going to be converted into an artificial turf soccer field. This required the bulldozing of the popular sledding hill, an attraction since 1965, the destruction of dozens of mature trees and bushes, and the termination of the modest dog park and the chip/mulch pile for use by residents. The sledding hill had been a popular year-round attraction for a multitude of exercise, picnicking, fireworks viewing, and nature-oriented activities, and the residence of mature shade-providing hackelberry trees. This occurred despite a sham public planning process that had been in place for several years and which had focused on the renovation of the ice rink/swimming pool complex. In February, 2013, Golden, posing as “Richard Kullman” in order to gain access to the inner sanctum of the local park district while ensuring that the story being about the park and not himself, created what became known as the “Kullman Kaper” and began a media frenzy. He organized and held a rally, generated numerous letters to the local press and emergency government meetings, and stimulated the creation of an online petition. The feckless “Green Committee” had one such emergency meeting, to which it invited an artificial turf contractor make a predictable presentation. The new executive director caved in to the desires of the paid soccer officials sitting on the park board and the destruction of the park began in April.

Golden has long lobbied against the environmental disaster of campaign lawn signs.

Lobbying for Intergovernmental Cooperation

Despite the self-serving claims by local elected officials of trying to work together, intergovernmental cooperation to save the environment and to save taxpayer dollars has been an abysmal failure in Golden’s hometown of Oak Park, Illinois. Golden has suggested numerous means of attaining such, with limited success against the entrenched bureaucracies rampant in Oak Park.

For several decades, Golden has been trying to convince the local Oak Park governments to save costs and display environmentalism by using wood chips from the stumps of trees that were cut down as mulch for the parks. Despite one victory, the park district continues to pay thousands of dollars annually for mulch that is free for the taking. Indeed, officials in nearby neighborhoods of Chicago routinely obtain the wood chips from Oak Park trees and tree stumps.

Dating back to the 1990’s, Golden has lobbied local officials, without any support from the local Green Party, Democratic Party, local political party, any government official, or any private resident, to bundle their newsletters to save paper and mailing costs. In all, about 30 newsletters are mailed to each home annually. These include quarterly self-congratulatory mailings from the township, monthly mailings from the village, quarterly mailings from the park district and two school districts, water quality reports from the village, periodic mailings from the Oak Park library, monthly senior citizen mailings from the township, and other mailings. In the late 1990’s, Golden’s solo effort began to have results, when the library began to bundle its mailing with the village monthly newsletter. In the 2010’s, the two school district started to bundle their mailings with that of the village and library. The township and park district continue to flaunt such efforts at cost savings and environmentalism.

Golden continually exhorts the park district to find alternate means of distributing its near-100 page activities brochure to 20,000 households quarterly at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars in postage. In fact, 90% of households simply discard the hefty brochure, an environmental disaster. Golden has suggested intergovernmental cooperation as a means to resolve both problems. Simply by distributing the brochure at each of the nine public schools, the three firehouses, the three libraries, the dozen parks, and the nearly dozen administration buildings of the local governments, no resident would be more than one or two blocks from a brochure drop-off location. Those residents who actually have enrolled in an activity in the previous two years would continue to receive the brochure. The brochure would, in addition, be available online.

Despite the logic of this suggestion, the park district continues to waste trees and taxpayer dollars. The self-congratulatory propaganda published in the brochure leads the park district to ensure that every household received the document.

In 2013, the authoritative peer-reviewed journal The Mathematical Scientist published Prof. Golden’s analysis of the role of intergovernmental cooperation in optimizing the use of limited resources such as tax revenues in governing. Golden sent the paper to every elected official in Oak Park as well as the executive directors of every board in Oak Park, as well as the editors of the Chicago and Oak Park newspapers.

Tax Relief, Commercial Development, and Candidate Sponsor

Golden’s interest in tax relief has led to a leadership role in large-scale commercial development as principal of Holley Court Partners.

File:LesGoldenParksCandidacy.jpg

As a candidate for the Oak Park Park District, Les “Cut the Taxes” Golden suggested an imaginative use for a local park among tax-saving measures.

His notoriety as a sponsor of political candidates led to his namesake, "Moe Silver," Chairman of the "LOVE Party," being a lead character in the locally-drawn "Shrubtown" comic strip and theatrical play by the same name by artist and writer Marc Stopeck.

Statewide and National

Nickname and Ballot Access

File:LesGoldenTreeRally.jpg

In 2007, Leslie M. Golden discovered the plan by the Oak Park Park District to destroy all the old growth trees in a local park. Within 48 hours, on the July 4th weekend, he organized a committee to hold a Sunday rally, wrote a flyer, had the flyer distributed throughout the community, obtained speakers, and notified the press. Over 200 people attended on the hottest day of the year.

His political candidacies for U.S. Congress and State Representative using the nickname "Cut the Taxes" have led to court actions, a re-writing of Illinois election law concerning allowable names on the ballot propagated throughout the state of Illinois in election guides for candidates, lengthy discussions in the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) handbook on election law which is on display in courthouses in the state of Illinois, scholarly studies on election law and ballot access, and rewriting of election law in other states. In addition, in another part of the revised election law, the Golden Rule, for the first time in Illinois history, allows any election official whatsoever, state as well as local, to extend their previous ministerial powers beyond mere printing of the ballot to actually removing slogans from ballot names. These cases in election law and the revised Illinois election law statutes have been cited repeatedly in jurisdictions throughout the country.

Taxation, Constitutional Convention, and Drug Legalization

As the GOP candidate for the office of State Representative from the 8th Illinois district, Golden suggested means for funding education.

In 2008, he was the statewide spokesman and one of three state-wide coordinators for the group seeking to convene an Illinois Constitutional Convention. He wrote the field guide for campaign workers which was used in other states also seeking to convene constitutional conventions. He has consistently fought legislation removing property tax caps in Illinois. He was selected to be a charter member of the board of the Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation (ITEF) in 1994.

He has repeatedly written about the abuse of “life safety legislation” by the Illinois General Assembly.

He has been recognized by the Media Awareness Project as a key spokesman in the national movement to legalize drugs to combat an epidemic of crime and to generate government revenues.

Recognition and Honors

He is President of Citizens Active for Respect for the Environment/Citizens Active for a Responsible Electorate (CARE) in Oak Park, Suburban Coordinator of the Alliance of (Cook) County Taxpayers (ACT), and heads the National Taxpayers United of Oak Park.

Golden received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the National Taxpayers United of Illinois umbrella group in 1991 for his taxpayer advocacy efforts.

In 2013, the authoritative peer-reviewed journal The Mathematical Scientist published Prof. Golden’s analysis of the role of intergovernmental cooperation in optimizing the use of limited resources such as tax revenues in governing.

Quotes

"The only famous (card) counters are the ex-counters."
“Human beings are the only species that derive joy from the misfortunes of others. The greater the misfortune, the greater the joy.”
“If you set mediocre goals, the most you will ever achieve is mediocrity.”
“We don’t own the Earth; we simply share it.”

Published Books

• Basic Composer: An Analysis of Music Notation Software, Music Education Incentives Publishers (1988)
• Astronomy 101, UIC Press (1994)
• A Field Guide for Political Activists: How to Generate Support and Turn Out Your Voters, Lee Brooke (2008)
• Laboratory Experiments in Physics for Modern Astronomy: With Comprehensive Development of the Physical Principles, Springer Science+Business (2012)
• Never Split Tens, Springer International Publishers/Copernicus (2017 release)
• The Body Shapes of Extraterrestrials and Other Essays in Astronomy to Zoology, World Scientific Publishing Company (2017 release)

Discography

• Deuces Wild, The Deuces

Selected Theatrical, Film, Radio, Television, and Commercial Credits

Title	Director	Role	Co-stars
Kronenbourgh Beer	Josef Sedelmaier	Murray	Bruce Jarchow
Tony’s Pizza	Josef Sedelmaier	Vito
Chicago Tribune	Jim Wotring	Jo-jo	Marji Bank, Ernest Perry
K-Mart	Jim Wotring	Lester	Tim Gamble
Eagle Foods	Gerald Hagner	Les	Ken Anderson (athlete)
Motorola Cellular	Ed Italo	Miller	Lee Trevino (athlete)
Buick	Jim Parish	Cal	Don Majowski (athlete)
True Value Hardware	Jim Lynch	Professor Astroray	(one-person show)
Cognex	Stewart Talent	Timothy McCoy	Paula Scrofano
Illinois State Lottery	Jeff Jones	Big Brother
Heinz Ketchup	Bob Shallcross	Les Golden (stand-up comedian as himself)
Bubble Up	Stan Cottle	Murray	Charlotte Ross
The Len Petrulis Show	Len Petrulis	Phillipe Maurice, Parisian fashion designer	Kajon Mueller
Freeman Shoes	Loren Ostir	Wally Tucker
Thrift Drugs	Clay Covert	Mr. Eisen	(one-person show)
Madison Gas and Electric	Bob Wendt	Bob	(one-person show)
Ohio Edison	Ken Ancell	Mr. Heater	(one-person show)
American Family Insurance	John Alexson	Mark	Rick Plastina
Outtakes	Jack Sell	Harvey Knox	Broderick Crawford
The Nightmare Trial of Billy Barnes	Gerald Rogers	Edward Keppel
The Roommate	Nell Cox	Mr. Chipbeef	Barry Miller, Lance Guest
Welcome Home, Bobby	Herbert Wise	Coach Lazare	Adam Baldwin
How I Became A Holy Mother	Arnold Aprill	Master	Patti Shaughnessy
Taming of the Shrew	Dale Calandra	Gremio	Ned Mochel, Susan Hart, and others
YMCA	Jerold Haislmaier	Michael Marks
Ten Little Indians	Faith Dukor-Chaplick	Dr. Armstrong	June Atkinson, Russ Cady
Stage Struck	James Carter	Herman	Jim Mullen
The Odd Couple	Faith Baime	Vinnie
What the Wine Sellers Buy	Wanda Getsug	George	Lucy Evans
The Little Sister	Ray Andrecheck	Toad	B.F. Helman
Taming of the Shrew	David Darlow	Vincentio	Robert Petkoff, David Darlow, Kristine Thatcher, Greg Vinkler, Michael Halberstam, and others
The Inspector General	Knowles Cooke	Bobchinsky	Stephen Straight, Barbara Tucker
Eddie Hubbard Show Live from Arnie’s	Eddie Hubbard	Jeffrey Clayton Maxwell	Robert Goulet, and others
Unshackled!	Jack O’Dell	Richard Goldstein (and others)	Judith Easton, David Mink, and others
Deadly Spygames	Jack Sell	General Vladimir Korchenko	Tippi Hedren, Troy Donahue
Lady Blue	Gary Nelson	Davey Carlton	Danny Aiello, Jamie Rose, Ron Dean

Writing Awards

Competition	Sponsor	Award
Eric Hoffer and Lili Fabilli Laconic Essay Prize	Eric Hoffer	First Place Winner
Cornell Engineer Feature Article Competition	Cornell University College of Engineering	First Place Winner
Engineering College Magazines Association Awards	Engineering College Magazines Association	Best Editorial, Second Place Winner
Engineering College Magazines Association Awards	Engineering College Magazines Association	Best Editorial, All Issues, Second Place Winner
Griffith Observatory Science Writing Competition	Griffith Observatory	Honorable Mention Winner
International Compuserve Magazine Essay Competition	Compuserve Magazine	First Place Winner
Nicolaus Copernicus International Essay Competition	American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs	First Place Winner, Senior Division
Tau Beta Pi Essay Competition	Tau Beta Pi Association	Honorable Mention Winner

Technical Publications

Probability and Statistics in Astronomy

1. Golden, Leslie M. (1971). “Evolution of Quasar Optical and Radio Luminosity,” Nature, 234, 103.

2. Golden, Leslie M. (1974). “Isotropy of Radio Source Populations from Comparison of Number - Flux Density Curves,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 166, 383.

3. Golden, Leslie M. (1974). “Observational Selection in the Identification of Quasars and Claims for Anisotropy,” Observatory, 94, 122.

4. Golden, Leslie M. (1979). “The Effect of Surface Roughness on the Transmission of Microwave Radiation Through a Planetary Surface,” Icarus, 38, 451.

Technical Articles on Gambling

1. Golden, Les; Thompson-Hill, Jeremy; and Theobold, Rick (2008). “Has Online Gaming Reached Saturation Point?,” iGaming Business, March/April, p. 16-17.

2 Golden, Les; Turner, Noah; and von Bar, Jens (2009). “The Death of the RNG,” iGaming Business, July/August, p. 56-59.

3. Golden, Leslie M. (2011). “An Analysis of the Disadvantage to Players of Multiple Decks in the Game of Twenty-one,” The Mathematical Scientist, 32, 2, p. 57-69.

4. Golden, Leslie (2016). “An Analysis of the Disadvantage to Players of Multiple Decks in the Game of 21.” Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking, University of Nevada Press, Las Vegas.

5. Golden, Leslie (2016). “A New System for Roulette Based on the Physics of the Roulette Wheel,” Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking, University of Nevada Press, Las Vegas.

Peer-Reviewed Articles on Intergovernmental Cooperation

1. Golden, Leslie M. (2013), “The Optimal Allocation of Resources Among Competing Units of Government,” The Mathematical Scientist, 38, 2, December

External links

• [1] Home Page
• [2] An Interview With Les Golden
• [3] N.E.A.R.
• [4] U.C. Jazz
• [5] KALX Radio 90.7 FM
• [6] Illinois Authors Listing
• [7] World Catalog Listing
• [8] Collected Writings
• [9] Library Thing Listing
• [10] Authors Den Listing
• [11] Theiapolis listing as actor
• [12] Cartoonist listing at Comiclopedia
• [13] CreativeHotList
• [14] Amazon.com EVI listing as Actor
• [15] Amazon.com EVI listing as Comedian
• [16] Amazon.com EVI listing as Musician
• [17] Amazon.com EVI listing as Writer
• [18] Amazon.com EVI listing as Animal Welfare and Environmental Activist
• [19] Amazon.com EVI listing as Astronomer
• [20] Amazon.com EVI listing as Playwright
• [21] Amazon.com EVI listing as Scientist
• [22] Amazon.com EVI listing as Academic