Bits and Pieces

The Unsinkable Middle Class?

2012-01-03T23:56:00.000-08:00

Finally working my way down the magazine pile. The Atlantic's September, 2011, cover article painted a grim picture of the American middle class. Essentially, Don Peck writes that the lack of good paying manufacturing and other middle skilled jobs is pushing the non-college educated American middle class into the shark infested waters of the unskilled underclass. The article tries to offer a way out, but it's a hope vaguely pinned on waiting for the next big thing and more taxes for education. (When I hear this, my question is what should one study? The article correctly points out that tech manufacturing instead of gaining 150,000 jobs as predicted by the government in 90s actually lost 500,000. While the health care field seems like a sure thing, this is only if managed health care, with subsequent consolidation, doesn't come back.)

However, what I found very disturbing was the ad on the back cover: it seems the mighty resources of Goldman-Sachs had built a college basketball venue in Louisville, which resulted in creating a job of a most decidedly non-middle class sort for a waitress, one dressed more like a construction worker than a celebrity chef. So the back cover's answer to the front cover's question, "Can the Middle Class be Saved?" seems to be no.

Tommy Revisited

2011-06-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

Recently saw the Tommy movie this evening, and I am reminded why I didn't like it:

Ken Russell represents everything that is bad about the 70s.
Tommy worked better in the abstract: the scenes where Tommy is tortured, drugged, and molested are horrifying.
The album was set post WW1, which gave it some distance from contemporary society, but still attached it an era of disruptive change.
Ann Margaret, the mother, is about Roger Daltry's age: the beach scene makes them look creepy.
Speaking of Ann Margaret, the Who performed Tommy at Woodstock with Hendrix and Janis, and Ann Margaret performed with Elvis in Viva Las Vegas: there's an insurmountable culture gap that leaves the movie looking for an audience.
One improvement over the album was having the mother's boyfriend kill the father.

A Plastron Ripper

2011-05-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

A novel from the Victorian era, which featured a lady fencer accomplished in the parries of quarte, tierce, and flirt. And how did the mid-19th century perceive the female foilist?

"Never had Muriel appeared more fascinating than in this attire which showed full perfection of a form straight supple tall and strong every rounded outline was elegance and whose free was harmonized in grace and beauty."
--From Harrington: A Story of True Love by William Douglas O'Conner, p.232

Senioritis

2011-04-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

One of the stranger effects of the recession has been decreased crime (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1963761,00.html), almost to the 1950s levels; supposedly crime follows poverty, and the U.S. poverty rate is at 14.3% about the 1994 level, and is actually lower than the early 80s, when crime was a national concern. (The present poverty rate is still much lower the 23% rate of 1959, a supposed golden era of harmony and low crime. Another bright spot is the that the poverty rate among seniors has decreased (http://www.aarp.org/work/social-security/info-10-2010/seniors_are_not_on_easy_street_expert_says.html).

The Wall Street Journal is worried that seniors may outlive their savings, especially if they have their funds in near 0 interest bearing CDs. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703410604576216830941163492.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop). The Journal even found a 91 year old retiree who personifies the IRS 97 year IRA payout schedule. With the interest rates low, seniors are having problems paying their $4,000 annual golf club memberships. Are things so bleak for seniors? I don't think so. With their considerable political clout, not to mention mediagenic looks, seniors, who on the whole have been largest beneficiary of the War on Poverty, should be able to weather this recession out.

Ion Drimba - Fencing Olympic Champion Mexico 1968

2011-03-22T00:38:00.000-07:00

A 15 second clip showing Ion Drimba (1942 - 2006) winning form at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Drimba was once asked why he never parried. Drimba was astonished at the question and replied that parries were dangerous, suppose one missed? Drimba's first touch is scored with a rollicking attack and remise that leaves him on the floor. The second, and presumably winning touch, is an athletic rassemblement (go to the 7 second marker to see it unfold). In all fairness to Drimba, he later became a more subdued fencing teacher, and his students always displayed a beautiful, controlled fencing style.

Philip K. Dick at U.C. Berkeley

2011-03-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

One of the most enduring stories surrounding Philip K. Dick involves his time at U.C. Berkeley. Most versions, center on Dick as a German or philosophy major at Berkeley being forced to take ROTC training, and when Dick finds ROTC objectionable, he then drops out of school as a form of protest. For example, Tessa Dick, Dick's fifth ex-wife, said in an interview, "Phil studied philosophy for one semester, and then he dropped out because, at the time, they had mandatory ROTC since Korea was going on."

Anne Dick, the third ex-wife, takes a more measured approach, and states in her memoir that Dick's claustrophobia kept him out of the classroom, and he also disliked ROTC ("The Search for Phillip K. Dick," p. 244).

So which ex-wife is correct? A quick view of Dick's timeline would not support Tessa Dick's version. By looking at Dick's transcript, one can see that he was enrolled in U.C. Berkeley from September until November 11, 1949. The Korean War started June 25, 1950.

Since the draft had been reinstated in 1948, could Dick have been looking at a student deferment? It is possible, though given Dick's health problems, is is doubtful the military would have wanted him. Eventually Dick was deferred because of his high blood pressure.

So what does Dick's university transcript reveal? Not much: Dick did not have a declared major and briefly took classes in military science, history, philosophy, and zoology. There is no recorded grade, a consequence, no doubt, of his abrupt withdrawal. His transcript, publicly available since his death, also shows the college prep courses he took at Berkeley High School, which included three units of German and one unit of Latin. U.C. Berkeley required fifteen high school entrance units, and Dick had seventeen and half, with two units of math and one and half in science.

Dick graduated high school at 18 and enrolled at U.C. Berkeley when he was 20, was that unusual at the time? Dick would not have been alone, because of the veterans using their G.I. Bill benefits. Still the question remains unanswered as to Dick's exact reason for delaying enrollment. Perhaps Dick had health problems. According to Anne, Dick had suffered a nervous breakdown causing him to drop out in his senior year in high school and undergo therapy sessions at a psychiatric institute. Anne states that Dick did not even take his entrance exam until 1949.

Could Dick have been lacking the money to pay for school? In the public universities and college in California tuition was practically non-existent until the 1960s, so Dick's reason for delaying his enrollment was not related to financial issues.

The transcript raises other questions, one being why his father, J. Edgar, is listed as his guardian? Dick's parents had divorced around 1933, and Dick lived with his mother, Dorothy. Also, the transcript shows Dick living in El Cerrito and not Berkeley, who was Dick living with. These questions cannot be answered from the transcript, and truth to tell, neither can the central question surrounding Dick's all too brief stay at U.C. Berkeley: did he really drop out to protest ROTC? Or could Dick have been suffering from one of his anxiety attacks?

At the same time period Dick was capable of holding a job at University Radio, and his claustrophobia and other psychological problems did exert the power to prevent him from losing his virginity to Jeannette Marlin in the store's basement storage area. Dick married Jeannette Marlin when he was 19 and divorced her six months later. His marriage perhaps provided a distraction to his goal of pursuing higher education.

In a time when about half of Americans did not graduate from high school, Dick had received a very good education. As to why it took him so long to enroll in university, perhaps Dick had simply decided to savor Berkeley's golden era of the 1940s, and while he tried higher studies, perhaps he found it not as interesting or fun as the exciting intellectual life off campus. Dick also enjoyed the additional benefits of socializing with Berkeley students, without having to attend classes: he dated a graduate student and eventually married an undergraduate, Kleo Apostolides.

In the end Dick's ROTC story became part of his personal myth, one by most accounts he enjoyed repeating, and it is certainly true in the sense that this how Dick defined himself.

William Gedney

2010-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Duke University has the photographer William Gedney in their digital collection. While obscure today, Gedney taught at Pratt and practiced socially immersive photography. He may have been drawn to the same places as Margaret bourke, Diane Arbus or Gary Winograd, but his style was to draw us into the life as his subjects lived it. His photographs of a Kentucky family in 1964 and 1971 could've turned into a Time-Life Grapes of Wrath exercise, but instead the images are warm, personable, and even allow us into their occasional fun.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gedney/browse/kentucky/?q=duke.collection:gedney+AND+duke.category:kentucky&rows=32&start=32

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/images/gedney/KY/KY03/KY0368/KY0368-lrg.jpeg

Cookies

2010-10-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

In the basement of the Takashiyama department stores in Japan are wonderful foods and treats. One of the best is the Premier Saint-Germain bakery. It's not cheap and breakfast pastries and rolls are available for more modest sums at another nearby bakery in the food court. What Premier Saint-Germain offers are wonderful packaged cookies that come to about five dollars for a box of four. Hadn;t looked at the price, but I figured I was in too deep to back out. Seems excessive, but storing your larger size luggage in a coin locker can cost more. The kicker is that the shop clerk performs an origami wrapping exercise in front of you. Simply choose the wrapping paper, and she will set the box at an offset angle within the paper and start folding, till in about a minute there is a perfectly wrapped box. The cookies were wonderful in a way that only communion wafers should be in your mouth.

Thoughts from the 2010 Emerald City Comicon

2010-03-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Attended my first comics convention this weekend 3/13/10 - 3/14/10. I had a hunch Saturday would be an ordeal, but I was determined. First bad sign: I showed after 1 PM and the brochures and floor maps were all gone. I wandered into the exhibit hall on the 4th floor and was overwhelmed by the humanity, a good number in costume. No recession in this convention. Most of the afternoon involved standing in line for a chance to have my taken picture taken with the media guests. A chance for an autograph with Stan Lee went bust: I missed my window to have stood in line to get a pass to stand in the autograph line. I wandered around the booths, took a wrong turn and was in the gaming maze. I found my way out, wandered by the Star Wars photo booth, and booths and booths of comics. One booth was for sale for $100K. Later I milled around in a mob to pick up my pictures, but the printer had broken, so the best chance was for Sunday. By then the line for Nimoy had slowed to a bare trickle, and I simply walked up, shelled out the bucks, and had a picture signed.

Sunday was more interesting. I only went to pick up photos, but after looking at the schedule decided to check out two of the panel discussions. Here's what I learned: the comics industry is being buffeted by the same Internet storm shaking down the music and media business models. One of the panel members even admitted that he hadn't handled a DVD in his house for a long time and is satisfied with streaming his movies through a PS3. He posed the question that tactile media may be dead. The discussion that followed was on the topic of breaking into comics and featured Marvel editors, writers, and artist: Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker, and Christina Strain. Moderating was the Talent Scout CB Cebulski. It seems that breaking into comics was akin to breaking out of jail in so much as the path is closed up afterwards. The moderator was quick to point out that it has never been easier to break into comics: Marvel alone hires three writers a week. On the other hand it had never been harder to get paid. The Internet is medium where the audience expects free as the normal price.

Best advice for writers was do not submit scripts, because nobody reads them. Instead find an artist, and hire (Jeff -or marry the artist) and produce a short 10 page story. Forget the spic! No one will read it. Yes, writers should expect to lay out cash: this is what entrepreneurs do. Web sites are good place for the aspiring comic writer or artist: cheap and provides visibility.

Common theme from the panelists on they broke into the business: "I worked my ass off!" For nothing, at that. Day jobs: coffee shops can be hard on the hands, but no ice cream jobs. Networking is essential: this what the conventions are for and where publishers, artists and writers connect. What are the characteristics of the comics professional: likeable, talented, and fast - 2 out of 3 is enough. Being morose and negative is a sure bounce.

Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter ("I met my best friends on Twitter.") glue the comic community together. After talking with an editor at a convention send a short e-mail, with no attachments. Fine line between persistent and pestering. (By the way, pencilers are in the best position to get a job.)"Computers can help you draw."Writers shouldn't dictate to the artist.

Marvel and DC are not proving grounds and can be loathe to hire new talent. Can a new person make a deadline or even finish the story? Left unstated was that Marvel and DC are in the best position for a comics publisher to survive and prosper in the Internet era. Marvel is owned by Disney, and DC by Time Warner.

Mystery in San Francisco

2009-11-12T23:43:00.000-08:00

Multiple stab wounds to the back? No knife found? San Francisco inspectors decided it was a suicide: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/12/BAKL1AJM3B.DTL&tsp=1

Forrest Ackerman Transcends This Dimension

2008-12-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

I was saddened to read in the L.A. Times today of Forrest "Forry" J. Ackerman's death .
The world of science fiction and popular culture has lost one its truest and dearest friends. Forry was one the earliest science fiction fans, became editor of fanzines, and then the "Famous Monster of Filmland." He was also a science fiction writer in his own right and creator of Vampirella. I read that he had also been an author of lesbian romance stories for the magazine "Vice Versa": my respect for him is now near boundless. One of my regrets is that I never toured his mansion to see his collection of horror and science fiction memorabilia. The tour was free, and part of his collection is now now displayed, not for free, in Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum within the Experience Museum Project. (I hold no regrets for never visiting Allen's Science Fiction Museum.) Forry is the prototype for every fanboy today, and what we all remember about him is that in his magazine, it was always about the monsters.

Captain America Lives

2008-04-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

Rather, Joe Simon, the co-creator of Captain America lives and will address the New York Comics Con this weekend (see the NY Times).

I used to love Jack Kirby's color drenched art work because Captain America almost seemed to jump out of the pulp pages. The modern version of Captain America/Steve Rogers was too psychologically self involved for my my pre-teen sensibilities. What I really enjoyed were the stories that had Captain American back in Word War II fighting the Nazis. Notice the cover of the first Captain America: the date is March. March, 1940, and not 1942. In fact, the comic was on sale a year before Pearl Harbor. A case of premature anti-fascism, as the FBI might have put it, but certainly indicative of how pop culture would eventually triumph.

(Image copyright held by Marvel Comics.)

The Cross of Gold

2008-03-23T02:22:00.001-07:00

On Good Friday my mind wandered down a trail of word associations. Eventually I found myself thinking about William Jennings Bryan, once a widely respected political figure, who in his three unsuccessful attempts to become president invented the modern presidential campaign. His great tragedy was that he wasn't nominated by the Democrats in 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself into an independent progressive and split the Republican party. Woodrow Wilson appointed Bryan Secretary of State, but Bryan later resigned as a means to protest Wilson placing the country on a path to war. Finally Bryan's career and life ended in ignominy in 1925 after he prosecuted John Scopes for teaching evolution. Thanks to the play and movie, "Inherit the Wind," Bryan is remembered, if he is at all, as the archetype of the hide-bound, Bible waving fundamentalist. Such a view is simplistic and does not take into account Bryan's populism, his opposition to war and imperialism, and his undeniable appeal to a mass political party.

I found Bryan's recording of his famous "Cross of Gold" speech, and I can't help but wonder what Bryan would've done with Podcasts and Youtube. I'm sure Bryan would've taken advantage of the new media, but the contents of his speech could well baffle a modern audience accustomed to pop culture references.

The "Cross of Gold" speech rouses the listener to defend the Free Silver Democrats and their bi-metallic monetary system. Essentially Bryan advocated an expansion of the money supply without a national bank through the introduction of more silver. The resulting inflation, as he and the audience full well knew, would favor the farmers holding mortgages. Bryan sang praises to the laborers in factories and farm, and he also expected his listener to know who the players of the French Revolution were and the importance of the Catiline conspiracy. Bryan even defended the income tax. It would be strange today to have a presidential candidate speak in favor of inflation and taxes while assuming his audience had a firm grasp of classical and early-modern history. Bryan framed his speech in Marxist rhetoric and Christian symbolism and concluded it by saying:

"Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

Though undeniably powerful in its emotional eloquence, I still have no idea what in the world Bryan meant, because the supply of silver was still going to be pegged to the supply of gold.

Cause and Effect

2008-03-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

NY Times editorial March 10, 2008: "Criminal behavior partly explains the size of the prison population, but incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen. " ("Prison Nation") So if incarceration rates get lower, would crime rates rise?

Here is an item from the West Seattle Blog that would suggest such a likelihood:

"NOT JUST STOLEN - STOLEN FROM POLICE: Just after 8 o’clock last
night, at 10th SW and Trenton, an officer ran a routine check on the license
plate of an SUV. It came back as stolen from the Port of Seattle Police
Department. Needless to say, the officer promptly pulled over the SUV. The
29-year-old driver wouldn’t give his name, but two other officers recognized him
— because they had arrested him within the past two weeks … for auto theft. His
two passengers were allowed to go, but he was taken to the King County Jail. The
jail register shows he’s still there, and it’s his fifth time there in the past
seven months."

Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, a retired prison doctor, has this to say

"I have never understood the liberal assumption that if there
were justice in the world, there would be fewer rather than more prisoners."
("Policeman in
Wonderland")

National Review of Science Fiction

2008-02-29T00:24:00.000-08:00

The many obits on William F. Buckley, Jr. fail to mention what his greatest accomplishment might have been: his magazine, the "National Review" had a real column devoted to reviewing recent works of science fiction. The reviewer was no less than Ted Sturgeon. Back then this was amazing and astounding, almost a fantasy fulfillment, almost as if I was transported to a fantastic world of tomorrow.

Science fiction was now acknowledged in the magazine of William F. Buckley, the erudite man of letters and rapier witted host of "Firing Line." I used to search for new copies of the "National Review" every time I visited the school or base library. One thing I noticed: the other articles seemed dull and lifeless in comparison to Sturgeon's column, and the merciless fortnight deadline meant that the "National Review" often resembled a political zine rather than a polished journal (still NR never was never as bad as the "New Republic" in the 1980s). The "National Review" has the proud disintinction of having discovered Philip K. Dick years ahead of the "Rolling Stone."

Thanks to a progressive English teacher, I had been reading Marshall McLuhan, and I understood enough to realize that Buckley's true medium was television. Television captured his wit and patrician graciousness. Only television could capture Buckley's prep tell: he always and unconsciously unfastened his lower coat button when he sat down and immediately re-fastened it when he stood up.

For those who lament that we lost sophisticated discourse and civility on television in the era of Limbaugh and Colbert, I would suggest viewing the debate between Buckley and Gore at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Then as now, there were insulting comparisions to the Third Reich and sexually oriented insults:

Taking No for an Answer

2008-02-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

I read Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life by Harry Mount over the weekend and found it fascinating and enjoyable. Especially so since I skipped the declension and conjugation tables, which the author encouraged. Mount, a journalist who majored in classics at Oxford, explains Rome and the Latin language in a breezy and fun manner and confirms suspicions long held about some of the prep-school Latin masters.

Mount and others have said that learning a language is akin to peeking inside a culture's inner thoughts. This may well be true. I was especially struck by how questions in Latin are constructed in two different ways. A question prefaced by "nunc" is asked when the anticipated answer is yes; when prefaced by "num," the answer would be in the negative. Romans, it seems, were adverse to being surprised.

The Van Gods Live Again!

2008-02-04T00:23:00.000-08:00

Van art has all but disappeared, but once it was impossible to avoid barbarians and their princesses and Aztecs warriors and their princesses. Perhaps this for the better. It never occurred to me to take pictures of vans in the 1970s. This would've been risky on the free, and I wish there had been some record of the Airborne Infantry tribute panel van I saw in San Jose. Sad to say, this form of pop art went into the crusher two decades ago, but for 30 seconds it comes alive again in, of all things, a Honda Odyssey commercial:

Gus Arriola Passes Away

2008-02-02T23:46:00.000-08:00

The cartoonist Gus Arriola died in Carmel: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/02/BACTUR8VU.DTL

Not well known or appreciated today, Gus Arriola's strip "Gordo," always promised eye catching Mexican themed colors and designs. When I was a child, every Sunday I would grab the comics and be fascinated by how Gordo could talk with his animals (a dog, cat, pig, chicken, and owl); I was very amused by how Gordo's animal friends insisted on taking their siesta on top of him. There were was an insufferably cute kitten named Bete Noire, an eternally shedding cat named Poosy Gato, and even a poetry spouting beatnik spider named Bug Rogers who also used spider webs as his art medium. The strips were not all aimed at children, and at the time, I didn't understood the interplay between Gordo and the attractive female tourists riding in his taxi, Halley's Comet, an antique, tequila fueled bus. Still, "Gordo" was considered acceptable reading material even by the nuns in the predominantly Hispanic school I attended in a Texas border town.

A review of Richard Harvey's work "Accidental Ambassador Gordo: The Comic Strip Art of Gus Arriola" provides a samples of his work: http://www.rcharvey.com/gordo.html

Healthy Skepticism

2007-12-19T00:40:00.000-08:00

Just finished "Clean: a History of Personal Hygiene and Purity" by Virgina Smith, which traces the cultural history of cleanliness, hygiene, and purity back to the neolithic era. The book examines the role of purification, cosmetics, and adornment with no small sense of wonder and examines what clean has meant in different places and times. This is far reaching work of social history (the modern earth goddess cult might be surprised to learn on page 58 that the fertility goddess fulfilled the same role to the ancients as porn stars do today), and Virgina Smith stresses that ideas about cleanliness, health, and beauty follow repeatable cycles.

The holistic and alternative medicine practices have a long history of being enshrined and intertwined with a transcendent spirituality and have a habit of reappearing and adapting itself to an era's dominant ideology. For example, the ascendant English Puritans embraced cleanliness and wove it into their view of God and the superiority of an intellectual life. I think this meant more cold baths.

What exists today as holistic medicine consists of the rag tag remnants of a multi-thousand year tradition that was unprepared for the discovery in the 19th century of pathogenic microbes. Suddenly seeking balance, purity, and beauty in life became less important than avoiding indifferent but deadly germ. Clean water supplies, sewers, vaccinations, and clean hands were now the key to a long and healthy life. Science was to become the determiner of health, not personal rituals.

This is not to say that we don't have a fascination with beauty. If anything, the cosmetics of the upper classes are now available for the first time for everyone. For my part, I am happy that cold baths and running around nude in the snow are now no longer mandatory.

Poodle Exercise Video

2007-12-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Literally.

Watching Astro Turf Grow

2007-09-18T23:56:00.001-07:00

How long does it take for Seattle to put down artificial turf in a playing field? Seven years and counting. See the timeline . The city has faulted the Parks department for not involving citizens to weigh in with their opinions. Of course, the Parks department could've been thinking that since Seattle citizens voted to pay for park and playfield improvements, then they could go ahead and install artifical turf and lights. Not very inclusive of the Parks officials.

In true Seattle fashion the proiject became bogged down in meetings and oversight reviews. The result was a compromise to mitigate, if not minimize, the impact of having teams actually being able to use the playfield during the rainy months, which was the whole purpose of the improvements. The controversy is reported in the Seattle Times .

Questions: Is the type of grass found in parks and playing fields really natural and "green"? Are people who live next to the playing field upset that they they live next to a playing field? Is plastic grass and night lights a symbol of the man oppressing the people?

Mystery of the Ages

2007-08-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I've seen someone saying what I've been thinking for years:

"No one these days can read about the ghastly George Gurdjieff and his sidekick Piotr Ouspenksy without wondering how on earth so many sensible, educated people of the mid-20th century came under the influence of such a disreputable pair. Peddling a hodge-podge of Hinduism, the occult and some rather embarrassing dancework à la Isadora Duncan, this unlovely duo expertly fleeced their wealthy followers." --"A Spoonful for Bile: Review of Mary Poppins She Wrote: The Life of PL Travers by Valerie Lawson," Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian, December 3, 2005.

Gurdjieff created a concoction of unchallenged untruths and sentiments that resonate to this day in new age circles. Part of Gurdjieff's genius, if one can apply such a label to a con man, is that he described a world inhabited by those awoken, i.e. his followers, and the rest of us robots going on about our business. Thus, Gurdjieff and his believers could dismiss criticism as ignorant and incoherent ramblings. One of these days I am going to see if I can find out if Charles Manson had ever read any of Gurdjieff's books.

Quote of the Month

2007-08-06T23:36:00.001-07:00

Or year for that matter:
"The most grandly absurd thing about historians’ obsession with theory is that — for the most part — we don’t even believe the stuff ourselves. In theory, historians are postmodernists, but in practice, we’re pragmatists, both in our historical writing and in our everyday politics. The rest of the academy has mostly moved on, and it’s high time we did so too. "
--Critical Distance I: On Theory
Jason Kuznicki on Jun 30th 2006

Modern Ancients

2007-07-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

If only the ancient Egyptians could've had the benefits of natural organic foods purchased at local famers' markets, they would've been healthier and lived longer: Archaeologist: All royal mummies are suspect - CNN.com: "In late June, Hawass said the ancient mummy of Tuthmosis I's daughter, Queen Hatshepsut, had been identified and it was found she had been a fat woman in her 50s, with diabetes and rotten teeth, who died of bone cancer."

Transaction Accomplished!

2007-06-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Today I picked up the scoring box originally sent to Triplette Competition Arms in 2005. I sent an e-mail last month requesting that Triplette send the device back, repaired or not, within 10 days, and to e-mail me when this had been done and what the tracking number was. As usual there was no reply. I called and found a friendly person who was willing to ship it back, and after only one more call it was on its way. In contrast I ordered an HP 12C calculator from Amazon two days ago for a course that started yesterday. I also picked up the calculator today.

Here's what I have been getting from Amazon since 1996:

A well organized web site
E-mails sent constantly with updated shipping information
Orders filled correctly
A chance to provide feedback

Here's what I have been getting since 1984 by dealing with fencing vendors:

Poorly designed web sites and catalogs
No information when my order will arrive
Items left out of my order
Non-working equipment
No interest in improving the customer experience

Can one do better than shopping at Triplette? It's doubtful. I once overheard a salesperson at American Fencing tell a caller from Australia that they would have to pay several extra dollars, on top of their several thousand dollar order, for an illustrated catalog.

I keep hoping that globalization, lowered transportation costs, and the Internet will facilitate more service oriented fencing suppliers to flourish. The good news is the Amazon sells fencing gear. The bad news is that these sales are not direct from Amazon, but through fencing vendors listed on Amazon.

Taking a Bite out of Crime

2007-06-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Las time this criminal gives a finger to the police: Local News Tacoma police officer bites off attacker's finger Seattle Times Newspaper

Break out the Lawn Darts!

2007-06-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

More revisionism: "Bumps and bruises are 'good for children’"-Life & Style-Health-TimesOnlineBumps and bruises are 'good for children’-Life & Style-Health-TimesOnline: "Children should be allowed to play dangerous games and risk minor injuries as part of a wider lesson in life"

Irreconciable Differences Bandit Nabbed

2007-06-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

Times have sure changed from the days of Scarface, Machinegun Kelly, and Pretty Boy Floyd: Glendale police think they've arrested prolific bank robber - Los Angeles Times: "As in the first robbery, Eimiller said, the bandit often told bank employees that he was going through a rough time personally before he handed over a note demanding money.

Although he was one of the busier bank robbers in recent years, the 'Irreconcilable Differences' bandit was not as prolific as the 'Goofy Hat' robber, who has been linked to 39 heists over the last two years, the FBI said."

Fencing Supplier Update

2007-05-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I've explained past experiences when buying fencing gear from the major suppliers, here's the 2007 update:

Called Triplette Competition Arms, which is under a new management dedicated to the endeavor of diluting the brand name value of the business they bought; however, they are keeping one tradition going--I called last month asking about the scoring machine we sent in, twice, to get fixed in 2005. I'm still waiting for a call back. I never had any luck getting the floor cord they left out of an order seven years ago.
Sent Leon Paul USA an e-mail last week asking about sizing. Haven't heard back. I suppose I could buy the item in question, and if it doesn't fit, I could send it back, which would take a little bit longer than the 10 seconds it would take to answer my question.

The Nickel Coke

2007-05-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Why did Coca-Cola remain at five cents for 70 years? For starters, vending machines didn't take pennies. Hi-tech vending machines ensure that prices can go up quickly: Solving the mystery of the 5-cent Coca-Cola. - By Tim Harford - Slate Magazine

MIT Beans Head Admissions Dean

2007-05-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Marilee Jones held an important and admirable position in MIT. According to a 1997 press release :

"The Dean of Admissions is a key position at MIT. Marilee Jones has been chosen for this position after a long, sometimes arduous and extremely thorough national search by a distinguished and hard-working search committee," said Dean Williams.

Her now pulled biography stated that Ms. Jones worked hard:

"As a national spokesperson on the changes in today’s college admissions climate, speaking out against the pressures it induces in both students and parents, she has been featured on CBS, National Public Radio and profiled in USA Today, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. "

From the NY Times 05/03/2007:

"Last week, in announcing the resignation, the institute said Ms. Jones... had falsely represented herself as having degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Medical College and Union College. "

James Tiptree. Jr.

2007-04-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about some of the science fiction I used to read, and I started going down the whatever-happened-to path. Needless to say, most of the SCI-FI authors I read are dead, but I am struck by how much their lives and works resembled Kilgore Trout's. James Tiptree had an even stranger life: see her Wikipedia entry . What I didn't know at the time was that Tiptree was the pen name of Alice Sheldon (photo right), a bisexual behaviorist and former CIA analyst, who committed suicide after first killing her elderly husband. Her stories and novels were considered New Wave sci-fi at the time and had a literary style that seemed drug induced (see this example). Every base library had a collection of her works, and I admit they used to puzzle and disturb me, but now no more so than the author herself. There's a biography available by Julie Phillps, "The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon" (reviewed by the NY Times). I wonder what ever became of New Wave science fiction?

(Photo: Mary Hastings Bradley Papers, University of Illinois, Chicago)

More Adelanto News

2007-04-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

Adelanto's problems in the last two decades. Victorville Daily Press : Arrest evokes memories of rocky past News reports hints, but doesn't come out and say that before being replaced, the Adelanto police department acted as the hired enforcers for the previous ruling group of developers and politicians. These Adelanto elites were also single handedly responsible for tying up the conversion of the former George Air Force Base in fruitless litigation that spanned many years at a cost of millions of dollars. Ultimately a whole generation of Adelanto land owners, developers, and politicians had to die out before the town could be considered safe by supermarket, banks, and fast food franchises. Until then, Adelanto residents had to purchase their groceries and cash their checks in Victorville. Such a lack of stores and services was a remarkable achievement for a town that adjoined a military base and counted among its local industries a state of the art prison. (Coincidentally a former Adelanto mayor had been in prison even before being elected, see LA Times 4/11/2007).

Adelanto News

2007-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

Adelanto is a small high desert town in California that could well serve as a text book example of small town dysfunction. While not a communty of end-of-the-roaders, Adelanto would be the next neighborhood over. For years groups of local developers and politicians made alliances and carried out complicated feuds in a backdrop of cheerful nickel and dime corruption. A long tradition continues: Mayor of Adelanto arrested in theft of Little League funds: "'He's very principled and very ethical,'"

The Adventures of Lieutenant Rose

2007-04-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Long before James Bond (Lt. Cmdr, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve), there was the dashing Lieutenant Rose, hero of many British one-reelers (one reelers were the forerunners to Youtube). The British Film Institute has a collection, but only viewable through British schools: screenonline: Lieutenant Rose and the Stolen Code (1911)

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

2007-04-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hello, goodbye! His obituary attempts to describe his place in time, and why he was important. Vonnegut had an easy writing style with a simple message: we had to be kind. He was the first to explain that a good index was the next best thing to reading an author's mind.Vonnegut was most fond of his earlier work, which were published as science fiction, and felt his later more literary novels were below average. Vonnegut also understood and detested science fiction and created the archetype of the science fiction author, Kilgore Trout, who worked a series of low paying jobs and wrote scores of bad science fiction novels, read mainly by deranged fans. Trout eventually committed suicide. So it goes. (Photo from NY Times)

Tapping into Water Savings

2007-03-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Up scale Berkeley restaurant serves water from the faucet: Local tap water bubbles up in restaurants: "'Our whole goal of sustainability means using as little energy as we have to. Shipping bottles of water from Italy doesn't make sense,' says Mike Kossa-Rienzi, general manager of Chez Panisse. "

True, but the same could be said about shipping bottles of wine from Italy, or France, for that matter. Then again, the profit margin on wine is consderably more than on water.

UW Women's B-Ball Head Bounced

2007-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Seems the wow wasn't there. Sports UW dumps Daugherty Seattle Times Newspaper: "'Sometimes change for the sake of change is good,' "

Video Game Machines with Personalities

2007-03-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

As if we needed more proof that video gamers are in serious need of a life: Will Ooijer's 1UP Blog: If consoles were girls: "If consoles were girls "

Maybe Fencing is Useful

2007-03-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

I usually tell people that fencing is a sport with no self defense applications in the real world, but it turns out I was wrong: Sword fight ensues after S.C. break-in: "Sword fight ensues after S.C. break-in"

The Marvelous Stan Lee Marches On!

2007-02-28T23:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvE6JJN0_is

Another thing I never imagined I would see in the 21st century: a computerized video of Stan Lee addressing a 21st century comics convention.

Junior High Head Busted

2007-02-28T23:22:00.000-08:00

Was it the huge turn out at the pep rally that provided the first clue? Principal charged with dealing crystal meth - CNN.com: "Principal charged with dealing crystal meth"BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A middle school principal was charged with dealing crystal methamphetamine after police found the drug in his school office.
John Acerra, 50, of Allentown, was arrested Tuesday in his office at Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, where police said they found meth on his desk.
Police said they began investigating Acerra in early February after an informant told them that the principal was using and distributing the drug, The Morning Call newspaper reported Wednesday. Acerra was arrested in his office after allegedly selling drugs to the informant, authorities said.

Largest Gathering Ever of Celibate Males

2007-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

Involuntary celibates that is: New York Comic Con, far more than a comic book show. February 23-25, 2007 New York City.

I knew someone who told me she once went to a science fiction convention and never expected that she would be the hottest chick there. She said that although there were one hundred males for every female, she never once felt unsafe or uncomfortable. Luckily she was an outgoing person and didn't have a problem with starting a conversation.

Smith Tower Goes Condo

2007-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

Seattle PI article ignores the obvious and and instead worries about how condos in Pioneer Square would affect a pizza stand. Even the tour operator for the Underground Tour gets to weigh in: Smith Tower condo conversion raises concern: "Smith Tower condo conversion raises concern"

The typical Seattle resident is far too reserved and polite to raise the more interesting question: what is the projected market for condos located next to two busy sports stadiums, a party spot for drunken eastsiders and frat boys, and a homeless park marked by despair and the smell of urine?

The Eastside Connection

2007-02-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Article about growing crime down the 405 corridor. Eastside police challenged by ID fraud, car thefts, drugs: Local News: The Seattle Times: "'They'll come from Everett, do crimes in Redmond, and drop the car off in Kent,' he said. 'Virtually everyone police arrest is a meth addict. It's an epidemic.'"

Most newspaper articles seem to describe a cause and effect where drug use leads to crime. Could it also work the other way around where crime and its outlaw lifestyle leads to drug use and abuse? From the heightened activity of the criminals, it would seem that criminals are more productive, at least for a while, when they use meth. Eventually, their addiction cause criminals to become sloppy and stupid, thus leading to their eventual capture and incarceration. One last question arises: does a program to take a criminal off drugs leads to a more hard working and efficient criminal just as it would for a non-criminal?

Learn How to Cook for Your Dog!

2007-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

Take classes: Dog Chefs of America :: Micki & David Voisard.

Plutarch Explains the Romans

2007-02-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

It seems that the Greeks were curious about why Roman guys always called ahead.

Plutarch: Roman Questions (Part 1 of 5): "9 Why is it that, when men who have wives at home are returning either from the country or from abroad, they send ahead to tell their wives that they are coming?

Is it because this is the mark of a man who is confident that his wife is not up to any mischief, whereas coming suddenly and unexpectedly is, as it were, an arrival by stratagem and unfair vigilance; and are they eager to send good tidings about themselves to their wives as if they felt certain that their wives would be longing for them and expecting them?
Or is it rather that the men themselves long to hear news of their wives, if they shall find them safe at home and longing for their husbands?
Or is it because during their husbands' absence the wives have more household duties and occasions, and also dissensions and outbursts against those of the household? Therefore the notice is given in advance that the wife may rid herself of these matters and make for her husband his welcome home undisturbed and pleasant. "

Viaduct Options

2007-02-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

For the record: the San Francisco Emarcadero freeway mentioned below was an off ramp from the Bay Bridge to North Beach. It was public works boon doggle, and yes, it was torn and replaced by a boulevard that leads to Fisherman's Wharf, America's most well known tourist trap. Mayor Nickels in Seattle is of the opinion that the Alaskan Viaduct, part of the Highway 99, and important north south corridor, cuts off Seattle from the waterfront. To be precise: downtown Seattle is cut off by a hill from the waterfront. The expensive million dollar condos on Harbor Steps would have a majestic view of the Puget Sound and Cascades if it wasn't for the highway. Defiant Nickels promises to campaign hard for a tunnel : Local News: The Seattle Times: "Nickels noted that San Francisco tore down the elevated Embarcadero freeway on its waterfront and replaced it with a surface boulevard and trolley. The result has been a thriving waterfront, which is 'exactly what we’re trying to achieve' Nickels said. "

Pop Culture Half Life

2007-02-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

When I was young, I enjoyed reading science fiction magazines and Mechanix Illustrated. I thrilled at the idea that in the 21st century I would be flying my rocket helo-car, possibly to the moon or Mars, to work with giant intelligent computers. Never in the wildest moments of my Star Trek fevered imagination did I envision that in the 21st century Zsa Zsa Gabor would still be in the news (I aslo never imagined that Captain Kirk would be doing ads for a discount outlet). So it seems that Ann Nicole Smith intersected with another pop celebrity from the mid-20th century : From today's SF Chronic-Zsa Zsa's Husband: I Might Be Baby's Dad: "The husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor said Friday that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and may be her infant daughter's father."

Anti-Mac Rant

2007-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

Charlie Brooker finds Apple computers and their users to be pretentious and insufferable. I especially like his comparison of the PC to Dr. Who's cranky Tardis. However, think this is the best quote: Guardian Unlimited Comment is free I hate Macs: "If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that 'says something' about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality."

Why Buy When You Can Rent

2007-01-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

A-list musicians available for birthday parties:

You too can rent a rock star - Los Angeles Times: "'You have a lot of people who want to celebrate their 40th or 50th birthday party and have someone there whose music meant a great deal to them during a part of their life,' Norman said. 'They have the money, and if they are willing to spend enough of it, they can get the Rolling Stones. Their wives might also say, 'I love Green Day, and I want them for the 30th birthday party.' You can make that happen these days.'"

Education Reform

2006-12-20T23:17:00.000-08:00

It seems that the greatest hindrance that high school students face in becoming educated is, well, their high school: Christian science Monitor, Dec. 15, 2006, "What if the solution to American students' stagnant performance levels and the wide achievement gap between white and minority students wasn't more money, smaller schools, or any of the reforms proposed in recent years, but rather a new education system altogether?"

Essentially, high school as we know it would change to a system that tested and pushed kids after the 10th grade into college or vocational school. Teachers would give up tenure for better wages, and students would have to let go of high school culture and start looking at their career paths. As a bonus, schools would be better funded and independent; thus, politicians would have to quit looking at schools as a jobs or patronage program.

You can read the actual report, "America's Choice: high skills or low wages," but be warned that it is on a 40 MB PDF file. It appears that HTML coding skills are in short supply in America.

California Students Out of Shape

2006-11-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

I've maintained for years that physical education has been a failure in this country. Here's more proof: Majority of California students fail fitness test: "A 14-year-old girl should be able to hit the mile mark in under 11 minutes. "

From my own experience, the abrupt transition from grade school to junior high was marked by having to take PE classes. Previously I had run about with boundless energy and whacked at balls to my heart's content three times a day. Suddenly, this type of play was replaced by formal classes where I had to learn how to participate in organized team sports; in addition, there were calisthenics and intimidating quarter mile tracks. Any infraction in attire or attitude was dealt with summarily and savagely, and heaven help those of us with breathing problems. PE was made up of equal measures of boredom and terror. And let's not forget about naked communal showering. Certainly adds a prison-like flavor to the whole experience. After I learned that colleges didn't look at junior high PE grades (or any other grades in junior high for the matter), my PE performance became perfunctory and less than half hearted.

So let us fast forward to the 21st century, where American children, when not glued to their couches, are are grossly overweight, short of breath, and have great difficulty in deciding where their right leg might be when asked to move it forward. What is the priority and pedagogy of a modern California PE class? Looking at one school (http://www.vvuhsd.k12.ca.us/vhs/pe.html) I couldn't guess, other than there is the same obsession with locks and uniforms (what does wearing a uniform with a school's name has to do with health and conditioning?). The culture of the whistle blowing redneck with a crew cut lives on, and another generation learns nothing about being healthy or what the human body is truly capable of doing.

Intro of PS3 in California Leads to Riot

2006-11-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

The other night at Safeway I overheard the cashier and bagger (actually they were talking to each other and ignoring me while I was waiting). Their animated conversation centered on the merits of the PS3 over the XBox360. I would have thought that young aimless males in their 20s would have other matters to ponder. This was my first inking that the PS3 was generating tremendous excitement among people otherwise old enough to have lives.

Honest this isn't an Onion article. Two arrested after crowd stampeded store to buy PlayStation 3: "Two people were arrested after a crowd waiting to buy Sony's PlayStation 3 rushed an electronics store, trampling people in the parking lot of a Fresno shopping center, police said."

Recession Proof Investing

2006-11-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

I've wondered for years about about how well a mutual fund could do if it concentrated on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. The answer is quite well. In addition the "vice" fund invests in the defense industry; thus, hitting the trifecta of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Casino, tobacco, alcohol stocks beat market: "...these sectors should perform even better — relative to the overall market — if the economy slows, as most financial experts predict. That's because people will smoke, drink and probably gamble during a recession."

Lego Mania!

2006-11-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

In the future our modern era will be known as the "Lego Age," and here's why: OddPeak - 10 Coolest Lego Creations

Rail Trails and Tribulation

2006-10-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Seattle PI article today on local plans to convert old rail lines into walking and running trails. While looking at the map in the article, I was struck by an incredible new idea: how about converting the rail lines into mass transit? State has long history of converting rails to trails

Scott Adams' Financial Advice

2006-10-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, came up with personal financial advice that fits in one page. My only quibble is that a stock index fund (see 8 below) works great, but only when the market is going up. Even though stock markets may go up in the long run, it is best to remember, as Keynes once put it, in the long run we're all dead.

'Dilbert's' 9-point financial plan worthy of economics Nobel - MarketWatch: " Adams' secret nine-point formula was finally revealed in 'Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels.' Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:
1. Make a will
2. Pay off your credit cards
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4. Fund your 401k to the maximum
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9. If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio
Adams boldly states that this is 'everything you need to know about personal investing.' In just 129 words, nine simple points, one page you have the unabridged 'Unified Theory of Everything Financial.' That's it. Everything! "

Cirque du Soleil Has new Background Music

2006-10-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today's LA Times describes how George Martin is re-mixing tunes from Beatles for a new Cirque du Soleil show. Remix of Beatles music due - Los Angeles Times: "In one number, Harrison's vocal from 'Within You Without You' is heard over the rhythm track from 'Tomorrow Never Knows.' In another, the Martins set Starr's vocal in 'Octopus's Garden' against the string accompaniment to 'Good Night' from the White Album."

Coming Soon to Broadway!

2006-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Gothic Lolita should be making an appearance on Capitol Hill in the near future: How to Be a Gothic Lolita - WikiHow

Fencing in the News!

2006-10-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

In the 1939 news, to be exact. Public domain news clip available through archive.org. Chevrolet Leader News (Vol. 5, No. 2): "Title Card: 'Chevrolet Leader News' over montage. "

"Title Card: 'Clash! Blades Flash in Sand Duel, Throw Challenge to Scoffers.'
Swimsuited women practicing fencing on beach. CU woman's legs (and shadow) thrusting and parrying in sand; CU legs of opponent doing likewise. VS women fencing (with foils) on beach; automobile pulls up behind them and several women (wearing swimsuits) exit and watch. VS women receiving fencing instructions. Women lift up another and carry her to the surf, dunking her several times, then leave her there as they run from water and to car. Dunked woman stands and runs to shore just as car pulls away; CU woman throwing something to sand while smiling, putting hands on hips and looking o.s. "

We may laugh, but think how a 1930s news announcer would've described the gold sabre match in the last Olympics: "The two welders are waving car antennas at each other, and for some reaon all the lights are going on. Looks like they're finished, and hello, those were ladies under the helmets and metal smocks!"

Salman Rushdie Risks Another Fatwa

2006-10-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

But this time from the New York Review of Books: Guardian Unlimited Books Review Interview: Salman Rushdie: "Somewhere in Las Vegas there's probably a male prostitute called 'John Updike'."

Also True of County Jails

2006-09-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

Victor Valley Community College football coach stands by his football players:VVC football players arrested: "The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. There are thousands of kids on this campus who have a misdemeanor on them..."

So that Wasn't Cilantro in the Pho

2006-09-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

Guess that's what made it authentic: King County Journal " Drug Enforcement Administration agents used court-authorized wire taps to gather information about 39-year-old Hong Van Nguyen, the owner of 108 Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine in Kent. Charging papers allege that Nguyen sold marijuana in nearly 60-pound bails for about $95,000 each from his restaurant located at 18114 East Valley Highway."

Entrepreneur Backs Research on Anti-aging

2006-09-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Pay-Pal founder Peter Thiel gives a weird-beard hippy $3.5 million--From the SF Chronic BAY AREA / Entrepreneur backs research on anti-aging / Scientist says humans could live indefinitely: "A controversial scientist who hopes to help humans live for thousands of years has received a multimillion-dollar grant from a Bay Area entrepreneur. "

However, this does goes to show that Barnum was right: there's still one born every minute!

Mocah Girls Robbed in South King County

2006-09-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Mocah Gorls espresson in Auburn keep getting robbed by the lowlifes. Here's an idea. How about an espresso booth called "Big Mofos," with linebackers pulling the lattes: King County Journal : "...working alone in a skimpy halter top and tiny skirt, which are part of the Mocha Girls theme, is daunting..."

Review of Web Based Word Processors

2006-08-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

CNet review in the SF Chronic of web based word processors. The good? They're free and not Microsoft. The bad: according to the reviewer, they can only be used with an internet connection (yes, but isn't that why they're web based?) : Writing 2.0: Free Web-based word processors

Phone(y) Service

2006-08-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Called Qwest a couple of weeks ago to transfer my landline number directly to my wireless service, also Qwest. Two different representatives told me me it couldn't be done. Knowing this to be untrue, I simply went to the Verizon website, ordered a snazzy phone, and requested that they tranfer, or as they call it, "port," my landline number.

When I checked on the order, I got an order not recognized response. I sent an e-mail requesting status and got back "your order should be shipped within 2-10 days" generic resoonse. I eventually recevied an e-mail saying that the order was shipped, but with no other info rmation. It would be nice to be able to track my order. I go through a similar process when checking on how the landline porting is going. Eventually I get an e-mail saying that Verizon has my order, and it should be done in two or so weeks. On a hunch I called Qwest to see if they had an order to transfer my landline number. Sure enough they did and gave me a due date on the order.

Lesson for Qwest: I might have kept my Qwest wireless service had their representatives been better informed or were able to access the correct information.
Lesson for Verizon: They wouldn't have to respond to my e-mails if their web based status system was actually working.

Disturbing trend: no where on the Qwest or Verizon site do they actually give you information on how to cancel your service.

One More Thing to Download

2006-08-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is unable to get away from their traditional paradigm of having their brandname zeros and ones run on your machine. The Windows Live Writer reeks of Frontpage. Writer Zone: "Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service. "

As for me, I'm waiting for the web browser that is accessed on the Internet.

Serial Killer Profiling

2006-08-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Separate article on the press workers who captured a dangerous Washington state fugitive: Captured: "'He didn't look any different from the other High Desert trash,' Iskandar said."

Washington State Serial Killer Captured in California

2006-08-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

John Wayne Thomson was wanted for murder in Washington and California. He follows the three name convention used by newspapers and is at least the second "John Wayne" serial killer. Thomson was captured in front of the Victorville "Cask and Cleaver" no less : Thomson's two carjacking attempts foiled: "VICTORVILLE A suspected serial killer from Washington state was apprehended Monday by two Daily Press pressmen after the accused killer failed to carjack one woman and then made a second carjacking attempt in a parking lot next to the newspaper's office."

Wasting Time

2006-08-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Article about Kent residents being required to sign up for trash service fails to mention that trash pick up is weekly.

King County Journal : "For the past 10 years, Johnson has used his kitchen compactor to bundle up and bag his trash. Around the first or second day each month, he loads three or four garbage cans into his pickup and hauls them to the King County solid waste transfer station in Algona, just south of Auburn, and pays about $16 to dump the load.

According to the letter from the city, Johnson will be billed $14.37 monthly for a standard 32-gallon can or $20.52 for a 64-gallon can provided by Allied Waste. Collection of yard wastes would add nearly $9 monthly.

Johnson worries that setting out an extra can or bag every now and then will ring up extra collection fees.

'It's the principle of the thing,' said Johnson, a retired Alaska oil fields worker, who said he doesn't see why he should be forced to pay for a service he doesn't really need."

Long Tail Turns Out to Be a Tale Tale

2006-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Lee Gomes reports that the "Long Tail" is a an exagerration. Pity, the long tail theory seemed to validate my pack rat collection of odds and ends. Hey who knows, my collection of comics might be worth a bundle one day. WSJ.com - Portals: "Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson's hot, new best seller, 'The Long Tail,' is causing a sensation with its eye-opening claims about the way the Web is rewriting the rules of commerce. But I've looked at some of the same data, and some more of my own, and I don't think things are changing as much as he does."

Incidentally, long tail doesn't quite explain generational shifts that causes ripples in the cultural continuum. Cool today, out tomorrow, cool day after tomorrow is actually pretty rare in music. Nick Drake comes to mind as one of the few exceptions. The common wisdom is that thanks to video stores, old stinkers such as "Plan 9 rose from the grave to become cult classics. One problem with this line of thought: before video stores, there were the art film houses, now mostly extinct, which made the cult classics possible. Most college dorms these days are not decorated with posters of W.C. Fields or the Marx Brothers. College film buffs are a rare breed now, and their favorites tend to be the work of obscure and unbelievably bad young film makers.

To succeed in the future, TV shows must first be hits. The magic number for syndication is 100 episodes. But even the old TV shows now on DVD have a limited or non-existent appeal to a new audience. Let's face it, "Route 66" is not going to have reurgence any time soon.

Even by Hollywood Standards...

2006-07-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

LA Times' top ten list of self aggrandizing directors: Top Ten All-Time Self-Promoting Directors - Los Angeles Times: "Top Ten All-Time Self-Promoting Directors
Cavalcade of auteurs who mastered the art of themselves.
By Richard Rushfield, Times Staff Writer
July 20 2006

Cecil B. DeMille: His film 'The Ten Commandments,' a remake of his earlier film entitled 'The Ten Commandments,' opens with the by-then-legendary master of big-screen epics standing on the stage, as if before you, speaking to the assembled audience, introducing his latest installment in his Bible's Greatest Hits collection.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story indicated that Cecil B. DeMille delivered his speech while sitting in a library.

Walt Disney: Named his theme park 'Disneyland' and his TV show 'The Wonderful World of Disney.'

Alfred Hitchcock: Made comic cameo appearances in all of his films and starred as host of his TV series, 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents.' Also one of the first directors with his own catch phrase: 'Good evening.'

Brett Ratner: The most ubiquitous player in the new Young Hollywood, notably present every time a red carpet lays down in Tinseltown. Not content to leave it to the paparazzi to certify his nearly middle-aged party king status, however, Ratner published a picture book, 'Hilhaven Lodge: The Photo Booth Pictures' � 216 pages of shots of his closest personal friends, from Justin Timberlake to Chelsea Clinton, clowning around in his living room.

Quentin Tarantino: Despite highly questionable talents, has cast himself and taken on numerous acting parts, including a walk-on in the 'Golden Girls' as an Elvis impersonator. Committed the guaranteed attention-getter of spitting at a reporter in the very private set"

Baseball Wild Cards

2006-07-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Good article in Slate about baseball card collections from the 1980s, and why they are worth nothing. The collecting mania was marvelously documented by Charles Mackay over 130 years ago, but the lesson has to keep being re-learned. I knew someone who took a hefty buy-out offer from his employer and opend a baseball card shop. Within two years he was out of business. My favorite quote in the Slate article: Requiem for a rookie card. By Dave Jamieson: "This year there are 40 different sets of baseball cards on the market, down from about 90 in 2004. That's about 38 too many. "

Conspiracy Shopping List

2006-07-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

I was listening to NPR and was astounded at the solemn, breathless attention being paid to Marion Nestle. Among the other rubbish being propounded by Ms. Nestle, it seems milk winds up in the back of the store because of a corporate conspiracy. Be on guard and keep your precious bodily fluids pure!

I could tell Ms. Nestle, assuming her foil hat doesn't cover her ears, that based on my summer job at the non-profit base commissary, my conclusion is that milk and other high turnover perishables are in the back because they are closer to the loading dock and refrigerated storage rooms. In my case, I loaded the milk from the back of the shelves. The same efficiency goes into why the meats are sold in the back close to where the cutting goes on.

This is another example of how paranoia now passes for serious thought.

NPR : Nutritionist Tackles Serious Business of 'What to Eat': "Supermarkets dearly wish dearly wish they could expose you to every single item they carry, every time you shop. Terrific as that might be for your walking regimen, you are unlikely to endure having to trek through interminable aisles to find the few items you came in for -- and retailers know it. This conflict creates a serious dilemma for the stores. They have to figure out how to get you to walk up and down those aisles for as long as possible, but not so long that you get frustrated. To resolve the dilemma, the stores make some compromises -- but as few as possible. Overall, supermarket design follows fundamental rules, all of them based firmly on extensive research. -- Marion Nestle

* Place the highest-selling food departments in the parts of the store that get the greatest flow of traffic -- the periphery. Perishables -- meat, produce, dairy, and frozen foods -- generate the most sales, so put them against the back and side walls. "

Disney Head Iced

2006-07-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

This has to be the most Hollywood of Hollywood business stories ever: Disney Fires Film Production President - Los Angeles Times: "Jacobson, 40, one of Hollywood's most respected movie executives, was fired Monday morning by her boss, studio Chairman Dick Cook, when she called him from the hospital room where her partner was about to deliver their third child. Despite the record-breaking performance of Disney's current release, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,' she was hearing rumors and wanted reassurance that her job was safe. It wasn't. Cook told Jacobson who had two years to go on her three-year contract that Oren Aviv, the studio's marketing chief, was replacing her as president of production."

Classic Look from the 1940s

2006-07-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Turns out the style we all associate with the 1940s was a Hollywood creation: TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES: "There was a glut of feature production in Hollywood during World War II, leading to similar decisions at other studios. Anticipating these factors, costume designers avoided passing fads so the films would remain timeless, and most such films made it into theaters with few changes."

Cut It Out! Quit Abusing Yourself!

2006-07-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the term "self-abuse'" has changed since my youth? The Seattle Times: Nation & World: 17 percent at two Ivy League schools practice self-abuse, survey finds: "For some young people, self-abuse is an extreme coping mechanism that seems to help relieve stress; for others it's a way to make deep emotional wounds more visible."

Spillane: Down for the Dirt Nap

2006-07-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

His hair was white as a Myrtle Beach golf shoe and looked like it had been worked over in a GI barbershop. In his sole movie, he barked out his lines like a wary Rotteweiler, and his shop worn face oozed sincerity like a five dollar hooker. He was Mickey Spillane. He also was a WWII flier, college swimmer, collector of Blue Willow china, a devout Jehova's Witness, award winning children's book author, and one of the most succesful writers of his generation. If you ever get the chance, take a look at the paperback edition of the "The Erector Set." The nude model on the cover, a lean, leggy stacked blonde, with a soft face and a hard body with tan lines in all the right places, was his second wife. In turns out that Spillane got his writing start in the comics and transitioned into paperbacks at the right time before the big crackdown. Reviled by the critics, Spillane's passing is noted in many newspapers, best is the NY Times, but this link should work for a while: The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: Mickey Spillane crafted the steely Mike Hammer: "After starting out in comic books, Mr. Spillane wrote his first Mike Hammer novel, 'I, the Jury,' in 1946. Twelve more followed, with sales topping $100 million. Notable titles included 'The Killing Man,' 'The Girl Hunters' and 'One Lonely Night.'"

Melting Pot Stew

2006-07-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

I was at first charmed then dismayed by the parochialism of this article in the SF Chronic. Where do I begin? Essentially the idea that Americans are only now becoming "adventurous eaters" is patently false. I would suggest that reporter check one of the menus at the Fairmont from about 1920. Then there's that whole thing about remaining pure to the culture. A ridiculous if not impossible concept in food as in any other aspect of culture. I mean we're talking SPAM and hamburger. Hawaiian cuisine seems to have part of its roots in army mess halls, so let's not go overboard on this too much. BAY AREA / More venues offer diners a taste of Hawaii, close by / Diverse population drawn to food that's similar to homeland's: "'I'm proud that the stuff I eat at home is getting popular in the mainstream,' said Eric Tao, 39, president of the Hawai'i Chamber and co-owner of Hukilau bar and restaurant in San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto. 'My only concern is that it doesn't get diluted from the true culture and spirit of Hawaii. The plate lunch started with all these different cultures, working together, bringing their own lunches and sharing.' "

Seattlites Demonstrate Agression Passively

2006-07-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

When did riding bicycles become a lifestyle and avocation? Critical Mass, unaware that the paved roads were built for vehicles, have been staging protest rides during Friday rush hours. How about a pedestrian rally to take back the sidewalks from idiots in spandex? 2 bicyclists arrested at Critical Mass get out of jail: "Zachary D. Treisman, 30, and Jason C. Brien, 18, both of Seattle, were arrested Friday when hundreds of bicyclists were staging Critical Mass, a monthly celebration of bicyclists who ride en masse through downtown to assert their rights on the road, blocked an intersection where the deputies were waiting in traffic."

Little Antonio Sleeps with the Fishes

2006-06-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

LA Times obituary on goldfish used to show how polluted LA River is (the LA River is the dry concrete river bed seen in many movies, such as Grease and Italian Job). Little Ed still thrives (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-goldfish-cam,0,2595017.special): Little Antonio Found Dead in Tank - Los Angeles Times: "Little Antonio, a goldfish made almost famous by living over 111 days in water from the Los Angeles River, was found dead in his tank in the latimes.com newsroom at 1:58 a.m. Monday. He was believed to be about five months old."
"Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but the fish is expected to receive a burial at sea early this week by way of the Los Angeles sanitation system."

How to Spot a Phony Medical Doctor

2006-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Article about a fake doctor caught in Texas. Essentially, people trust doctors who seem to be good listeners: The Make-Believe Doctors: "In an unkind cut, the report stated that the people of Groveton should have known that Reid Brown was not a doctor because he did too many things wrong. For example, he made house calls for five dollars and charged only three dollars for an office visit. He approved of Medicare and would drive for miles to visit a patient, often without fee if the patient was poor. Besides, his handwriting was legible.
What were the secrets of Freddie Brant's success as an impersonator? They were many, but the main ones were his readiness to refer any potentially complicated case to nearby towns, a personality which inspired confidence, and a willingness to take time to listen to his patients."

Million Dollar Challenge

2006-06-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

For all psychics and mediums, the Amazing Randi has a Million Dollar Challenge: "To date, no one has ever passed the preliminary tests. "

When Hippies Attack

2006-06-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Attempts to preserve the forest environment prove futile: The Steamboat Pilot: Tensions run high in forest: "The Rainbow Family peace gathering turned hostile Tuesday when a group of attendees began hurling rocks and sticks at law enforcement officers, U.S. Forest Service officials said. "

Someone Gets Left Behind

2006-05-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Mr. Pike, the colorful and beloved barber of my childhood, loved to regale us on Saturday afternoons with stories about his time with the Commandos in World War II. One point he always stressed was that the Commandos didn't leave their own, wounded, dying, or dead, behind.

"We couldn't very well abandon one of our chaps, and leave him for the Jerries or Eyeties, now could we," he paused as he adressed the seated line of children, waved his scissors for emphasis, and continued, "Not really British, now is it?"

We would agree with him emphatically, "No, Mr. Pike, it isn't!"

"That's right! Nothing British about it all, simply isn't right, it is," and Mr. Pike would go back to cutting hair and telling us more of his hair raising war stories.

I hope Mr. Pike isn't around to hear about the one left behind to die on Everest, it would have shocked and upset him, going against all his deeply held notions of decency and loyalty. I am saddened that Sir Edmund lived long enough for this: Hillary Blasts Climbers Who Left Dying Man: "Mount Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary said Wednesday he was shocked that dozens of climbers left a British mountaineer to die during their own attempts on the world's tallest peak."

Sticking to his Story

2006-05-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Armed robber shoots himself in the leg with his own .357 magnum, which by itself should raise a smile, but the robber claims that he was actually the victim, except there's a flaw in his story: kingcountyjournal.com - Robbery misfire: Teen shoots self in leg: "When questioned at the hospital, Hector Pelayo denied robbing the two men or shooting himself, court documents say. He claimed that one of the two men, the victims of the alleged robbery, shot him from about five feet away. ..
After the interview, according to charging papers, a Bellevue police officer asked Pelayo if it hurt when he shot himself.
He replied: ``Not as bad as I thought it would.'' "

Evel Knievel Lives!

2006-05-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Knievel soldiers on, nursed by his 37 year old ex-wife and travels, with great difficulty, to make apperances and sign autographs. There's been a Knievel resurgence in recent years: SI.com - More Sports - Retired Knievel, 67, living in serious pain - Friday May 19, 2006 3:39PM

Irony? The Stranger?

2006-05-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

OK, the quote is taken out of context, but only a litte. The Stranger Seattle Home: "U-District Landlord Rents House to Sex Offenders on Block With UW Frats ..."

Internet Destroys Life on Telegraph Ave.

2006-05-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Telegraph Ave. intersects the south side of the main Berkeley campus. Businesses on the Ave. feature college gear, novelty t-shirts, souvenirs, ethnic food, ice cream, pizza slices, beer, bongs, new and used books, comics, used and new CDs and albums, and useless hippy crap for the tens of thousands of students, instructors, and tourists strolling around campus. So why is the Ave. ailing? I've seen this in print before: it's the Internet, which as everyone knows, ruthlessly undercuts local , community based beer and pizza joints. Number 2 is something called "problematic street behavior,"Berkeley's appropriately inclusive term for the Ave.'s open air drug market and mental asylum. Which of the two reasons might really explain why shoppers have stayed away? See: BERKELEY / Mayor's plan to revive sagging Telegraph Ave. / Proposal would add police, marketing, help for homeless: "Telegraph has been facing a number of difficult challenges over the past few years, from the increase of Internet shopping to problematic street behavior,' said Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District. 'I am very optimistic that this package will help us turn the corner on those challenges.' "

Burglaries Rise After New Schools Open

2006-05-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

The article below discusses how a normally peaceful neighborhood has been hit by a rash of burglaries since two new schools opened. All the break ins occurred during school hours. This reinforces my long held aversion towards living near middle or high schools. A friend of mine, a vice-principal of a Bay Area school, even told me about students who would ditch school to break into homes so that they could raise the cash necessary to buy pot. (After the students were caught, their parents held the school responsible, and caused the school no small amount of trouble.) I have to admit that this principal certainly came up with good spin. From the SF Chronic: If school's in session, so is crime: "Eric DeMeulenaere, the principal at Community High School, basically tossed gasoline on the fire when he sent neighborhood residents an e-mail suggesting the kids walking through the neighborhood could be members of the schools' volunteer programs doing good deeds in the community. "

Army Enlists Autistic

2006-05-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

Bet there was desperate recruiter involved : "Army releases autistic recruit from enlistment contract"

Back in the day, odd and uncommunicative individuals with expensive and rare skills could count on a different Basic Combat Training experience.

There was one in our company, an overweight fellow in a perma-wrinkled uniform, who was always squinting through thick glasses. He did not drill with us, or show up to formation with any of the platoons. Just as well, as he seemed oblivious and uncoordinated. He had a room to himself--an incredible luxury to the rest of us crammed into the platoon bays--and he used one of the latrines reserved for the training cadre.

His rank was private first class, not very high on the army pecking order, but certainly two steps above we trainees. Someone made the mistake of pointing him out to our drill sergeant and asked why such an unkempt individual deserved special treatment. The questioner's answer was an order to do 25 push ups immediately. Later, we found out, from the first sergeant's clerk, that this un-soldierly soldier was highly sought after for his cryptography skills. The clerk claimed that this person's room was even off limits for inspection by the first sergeant and senior drill sergeant, and that a drill sergeant swept it out weekly for him.

While all this might have been a ridiculous rumor, we personally saw him being driven by a drill sergeant to a rifle range where this near sighted soldier received personal marksmanship training. The rest had to run several miles in the rain. The company armorer claimed that this supposed genius was not trusted to check out his own weapon, and instead a drill sergeant, assigned to him personally, carried and loaded the rifle for him. In fact, this person took the same classes we did, but always one-on-one with an instructor and protectively flanked by his drill sergeant.

We never talked to this strange person to verify these tales, partially because he ate at his own table with his drill sergeant, and partially because we were told in no uncertain terms by our drill sergeant never ever to approach or speak to this mystery soldier.

When the rest of us took a physical training test as a group under the watchful eyes of drill sergeants, our buddy took his test alone alone with his drill sergeant. We assumed he passed.

When our training was finished, he did not graduate with the rest of the company and instead was whisked away that day to his new assignment. Even the first sergeant's clerk didn't know what happened to him.

The Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel

2006-05-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today, May 8, is the feast day of Saint Michael, the Archangel. Technically, it's the feast of the Apparation of St. Michael on Mt. Gargano. His other feast day, Michaelmas, September 29, is shared with with the angels Gabriel and Raphael, and was observed in medieval England and Wales by having hearty and fun-filled dinners with friends and family: this was the forerunner to Thanksgiving in North America.

In addition to being God's sergeant major and beating back Lucifer's slacker minions, St. Michael, by tradition, was very fond of humans, from early on, and used to look out for Adam and Eve after their fall. He taught their children to bury Eve and grieve for her, and some say that St. Michael still pulls guard duty outside Eve's tomb and awaits the day of her resurrection.

As might be imagined, St. Michael is a popular patron saint for many peoples and countries, but we like to think he has a special place in his heart for paratroopers, the soldiers with the figurative wings.

Joltin' Joe and Marilyn

2006-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thinking of Lefty O'Doul a few weeks ago started me reflecting on Joe DiMaggio, another Bay Area ball player of greater renown. A question nagged at me, a half forgotten bit of trivia: was O'Doul one of the few witnesses to joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's wedding i1954 at San Francisco city hall? The answer is yes, and in researching this I came across Art Hoppe's description of the event.

Art Hoppe was one of the most insightful and incisive satirical columnists of the late 20th century, and even his straight news reporting of one of pop culture's greatest mythic moments bears his unmistakable style, evident from the lead sentence: "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio wedded the girl of his and many other men's dreams yesterday afternoon in the San Francisco City Hall."

Perusing the Bulgarian Fencing Site

2006-04-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

On http://get.info.bg/sport/Dir.asp?d=0-3-Fencing came across this history of Bulgarian fencing tidbit: "On 26 September 1931 in Sofia is held the first Balkan tournament in fencing in which participate: Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria."

To put this in modern perspective, this would be similar to a 1975 Middle Eastern Fencing League tournament with entries from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria.Arabia.

Seattle Times Investigation into Abuse by Counselors

2006-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Times has been running a series on misconduct and abuse charged to professional counsellors. I was surprised to learn that in Washington state a "registered counselor" is simply any person who has filled out an applications , paid the fee, and passed the background check. From then on, a registered counselor can set up shop as a therapist or work in a treatment center. The Seattle Times suggests that there should be more accreditation standards, more similar to that of psychologists and family counselors, because, as it stands, the person who does nails has to undergo more formal training, supervision, and testing. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that formal education and certified training does not prevent patients from abuse.

Sounds good, except it seems that professional training and accreditation does not seem to prevent misconduct. Psychologists (10 per thousand) and chiropractors (9.8 per thousand) have the highest rate of abuse and nurses the lowest (0.3 per thousand). Registered counselors fall somewhere in the upper middle, and physicians in the lower middle. See the Seattle Times chart.

It seems that the potential for patient abuse is more tied to the type of person who chooses a particular health profession than the actual profession itself. In addition, nurses, while spending more time with an individual patient (possibly 8 hours per day), abuse patients substantially less often than psychologists or chiropractors who spend considerably less time with a individual patient (usually less than one hour a week).

Working against my argument that nurses are inherently better people, is the nature of their work environment. Nurses work as team to take care of patients. Nurses have supervisors and specialists, and they document and check on what they are doing to the patients. Psychologists and chiropractors work alone with patients, and no one checks their notes; at least not until the matter winds up in court.

Earthquae Commeration

2006-04-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

A participant in the 10th anniversary takes the day off from work to attend the 100th anniversary festivities. He was three years old when the quake hit: from the SF Chronic--"Herb Hamrol, 103, has a shorter trip. He's still working two days a week stocking shelves at Andronico's, an upscale supermarket in San Francisco.
"I enjoy what I do," said the centenarian, who introduced himself with a firm handshake on a recent Thursday morning. His tie is perfectly knotted, his green apron crisp.
Hamrol has a job that requires the stamina of someone, say, 70 years younger. It's a second career for Hamrol, who retired as a grocer in 1967, when he was in his 60s."

Cold Days in San Francisco

2006-04-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

I am constantly annoyed by the out of towners who visit San Francisco and chatter non-stop about its European style cafes and bistros. Like many people from Oakland, while fed up with how San Franciscans always seem so full of themselves, I feel compelled to defend San Francisco from the yuppie barbarians. The appearance of the chi chi restaurants and fragile bars in San Francisco spelled the beginning of the end to an era of cheap eats and easy going camaraderie.

San Francisco has its own culinary traditions. Hofbraus are popular cafeterias where a working person can enjoy an inexpensive but hearty sandwich with a refreshing draft beer. My favorite has always been Lefty O'Doul's on Geary across from the St. Francis hotel. Also on Geary, but on the other side of the Tenderloin (in the evening, don't walk there , take a cab) is the Edinburgh Castle, which was a fine place to relax and unwind after a night's fencing down the block, next to the peep show bookstore, at the old Pannonia Fencing Club.

More upscale, but still part of the San Francisco food scene are the cold day restaurants, the original being, of course, Tadich's Grill on California in the financial district. John's Grill, also in the financial district, while technically not a cold day saloon, still has that same reassuring feeling of old dark wood, brass, and a staff of flinty waiters to match. The cold day name comes from obscure 19th century politicians swearing that it would be a cold day if they weren't re-elected. However, well until the late 20th century, bartenders in respectable San Francisco establishments could still be heard to tell ignorant newcomers and tourists that it would be a cold day in hell when they would ever serve a drink from a blender.

San Francisco Earthquake

2006-04-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

April 18, 1906 at 5:12 AM San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake. Gas and water lines ruptured, and by the mid-afternoon a super heated fire started consuming the city. The San Francisco Fire Department, perhaps the world's best equipped and trained fire fighting force, was helpless, lacking any water to stop the raging fire. In attempt to mount containment and rescue missions, San Francisco firefighters were incinerated in "fire proof" skyscrapers.

Chaos and anarchy was subdued, perhaps illegally, by troops under General Funston's command. The army shot looters on sight and in a desperate attempt to stop the fast spreading fire, dynamited and shelled buildings to create firebreaks. Over 400,000 people were left homeless, and the city government and military deliberately under reported the death toll to 700. The true toll of over 3,00 killed would not be determined until the 1980s, when an enterprising historian simply counted the headstones marked April 1906.

The San Francisco earthquake was perhaps the first mass natural disaster caught on film, yet attitudes were different in that era, certainly more rooted in the 19th century rather than the 20th. In the public squares and parks, the homeless people living in tents were not pitiful refugees or survivors, and instead of being portrayed as traumatized victims they were San Franciscans simply making do in frontier fashion in much the same way as the '49ers had. Instead of providing grief counseling, the government press ganged citizens into work crews. No one thought it strange or out of place that the press tycoon William Randolph Hearst made his way to the charred and smoldering remains of the city in order to provide the latest news and impressions of the devastation:"The hills rolled to the seas as bare as when the pioneers landed in '49. But now they are a blackened waste. North to the bay, west to the Mission -- nothing but ruins. The wholesale district is destroyed, the manufacturing district, the financial district, and the waterfront section -- all destroyed."

San Francisco rose again from the ashes and celebrated its re-birth by hosting the the 1915 World's Fair. The war in Europe was far away, and San Francisco had fought their own battle and had won. While Europe would never be the same, San Francisco regained its position as one of the leading cities of commerce, culture, and finance in the Pacific. No San Franciscan could imagine that their shining, modern city would one day be eventually eclipsed by Los Angeles.

I used to see the gathering of earthquake survivors at the downtown commemoration. Their numbers diminished every year, and I imagine the turnout will be sparser this year. The earthquake survivors provided us with memories not only of the earthquake, but of what San Francisco once was before two world wars and a half century of social change.

Naturally, there was speculation back then that the earthquake was sign of divine retribution. Before North Beach and the Castro district, there had been the wicked Barbary Coast, and many preachers connected the earthquake to San Francisco's tolerance of human nature. To refute this view, Herb Caen always loved to re-print this old and true ditty:

"If, as they say, God spanked this town
For being much too frisky,
Why did He burn His churches down
And save Hotaling's Whiskey?"

Indeed, the firestorm somehow bypassed Hotaling's warehouse on Jackson St. saving thousands of barrels of flammable liquor.