fauxklore

From 29 February through 2 March, I was at RootsTech, which is a huge annual genealogy convention. It’s hard to tell how many people participate because they sell millions of tickets for the on-line event, which I’ve done the past couple of years. The problem with going on-line is that there is so much stuff that it’s hard to decide which presentations are worth watching, but there are also all the distractions of home, so I end up not watching a lot. Buying an in-person ticket includes access to all of the on-line presentations for an entire year. There’s also a huge exhibit hall, with all of the major genealogy companies (and many I’d never heard of) contributing. And there were a couple of hundred in-person presentations to attend.

Anyway, I flew in the day before (Wednesday) and my flight to Salt Lake City (via Los Angeles) went smoothly enough, though my arrival gate and departing gate were pretty much as far apart as any two United gates at LAX could be. United uses Terminal B at SLC and, to get out of the airport, you have to walk half the length of that terminal, walk through a half mile long tunnel, and then walk much of the length of terminal A. The signage to get to TRAX (the SLC light rail system) wasn’t great, but I found where I needed to go and was quite pleased to learn that the system was free for people attending RootsTech. It was also a bit of a hike to my hotel from the nearest station. In short, it was going to prove easy to get plenty of steps in during the convention. For what it’s worth, I stayed at the Residence Inn, which was okay, though the bed was too soft, so my back was aching after a couple of days. There are several hotels closer to the convention center, by the way. If I went again, I might consider one of the hotels right across the street.

There were three or four classes I was interested in during every time slot of the event. I marked all of them on my schedule and chose during the time between the sessions. I also spent time visiting the exhibit hall, but won’t really discuss that since I didn’t take notes there. But I will note that several (all?) of the major companies did have mini-seminars about using their products. And I did learn about a few products that could be useful, e.g. some of the archiving materials.

The first session I went to on Thursday was The Quest for Hidden Ancestors - Genealogy Tips from Nancy Drew by Ellen Kowitt. This wasn’t really focused on things I didn’t already know, but I like Nancy Drew and I’ve found Ellen to be an entertaining speaker before. Basically, she pulled out examples from the Nancy Drew novels that are relevant to genealogy research and listed plenty of resources. And that did include a few I had not been aware of previously, e.g. interment.net for burial records and Deep L for translation. She also had a particularly good list of resources for historical maps. Entertaining and informative was a good way to start the day.

The next session I went to was What’s the History in Your Family History? by Rachel and Matt Trotter. This was described as adding historical context to your family history and covered sources like oral histories, oral traditions, diaries, and timelines. While there were a couple of example, It wasn’t really what I was looking for, since it was largely U.S. focused and somewhat more recent history for the most part.

The hottest subject in genealogy these days seems to be artificial intelligence, so (after a mediocre and overpriced lunch in the exhibit hall), I went to a session on Using AI Tools to Expand Your Research Universe Part 1: Chat and Search Tools. by James Tanner. He described the goal as to help organize, analyze, and get insight from data to solve novel problems. He listed several subfields of AI, including cognitive computing, computer vision, machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, natural language processing, fuzzy logic, expert systems, and robotics. He also talked about practical uses of AI, including detecting illegal activity, business apps (e.g. digital personal assistants), generative AI, and data processing. He noted that large language models are what has changed recently and mentioned a few general purpose products, e.g. Microsoft Copilot. I found his talk way too general and would have liked some actual examples of using AI in genealogy. I had considered going to one or more of the talks in his series of presentations, but decided that they were unlikely to be worth my time based on this one.

The next top talk I went to was History, Family History, and Families From the Global to the Personal by Dr. Wanda Wyporska. Her main point was that genealogists are historians. She talked about geography as a genealogist’s worst friend, primarily in the context of forced and voluntary migrations. Her ethnicity is a mixture of Eastern European and Caribbean, which led to an interesting twist on this. The main point was that people connect with communities in various ways. Unfortunately, most of the discussion was centered on race, which is not of much interest to me. So, while her talk was reasonably interesting, I didn’t find much of it of any practical relevance.

The last talk I went to on Thursday was Squeezing all the Info Out of Your Matches by Kate Penny Howard. This was a fairly basic presentation on DNA and was focused on finding the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) with a match. She talked about things like searching across as many platforms as possible ad then building out descendants of the MRCA. She also recommended using DNA Painter. Since her major emphasis was on things like looking for who an unknown parent is (either because of adoption or unexpected DNA results), I didn’t find this particularly relevant.

Overall, I thought that only one of the five talks I went to on Thursday was notable. Fortunately, I had somewhat better success with finding useful sessions the next two days.

The first talk I went to on Friday was Researching the Canadian Census and Early Census Substitutes by David Allen Lambert. Most of this was a review of what information censuses (some federal, some by province) contained in each year. For example, the 1901 census included complete birth date (not just year), year of immigration, and year of naturalization. He also listed where each census can be found, including Family Search, Ancestry, and Library and Archives Canada. The most recent one on Ancestry is 1931. This is useful for me, because of a great-uncle who I know went to Canada (and, later, entered the U.S. via Buffalo. There is a note on another immigration record (for someone who is almost certainly another member of that part of my family) involving an inquiry in Toronto. So, it looks like it may be possible to get more insight into that situation.

The next talk I went to was The High Five - Key Documents for Successful Records Retrieval at NARA by Cecilia McFadden. She talked about record locations and finding record set numbers. But I wish she had traced through some actual examples in detail, as I got rather lost in some other dry information.

One of the highlights of the conference was What’s New and Exciting at My Heritage by Gilad Japhet. He started out with an example of artifact DNA. In particular, he was able to have DNA extracted from stamps, which led to finding half siblings of his great-grandfather. I thought this was completely mind-blowing. Of course, it’s not yet ready for commercialization and is probably too expensive for people who aren’t the CEO of a genealogy company, but the potential is amazing. I definitely have postcards with stamps I assume were licked by my grand-mother and I probably have envelopes sealed by various other deceased ancestors.

He also talked about recent (AI-based) features that have been added to My Heritage. Photo Dater, which estimates when historical photos were taken, looks likely to be useful. AI Biographer, which converts facts into a narrative holds no interest for me, since I know how to write, but at least it includes sources. There’s also an AI Record Finder, which uses an AI chat to search historical records. I think that is probably most useful for beginners. OldNews.com is focused on historical newspapers. Unfortunately, it only covers eight countries initially and, other than the U.S. (and possibly Canada) has limited utility for me. There were several other things he mentioned, which were of less interest to me, but it was a very good presentation.

My most disappointing talk of the day was Why Should I Map My Chromosomes by Tim Janzen. The goal is to determine which portion of your DNA comes from which ancestor. It really only works for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins. And, more importantly for Ashkenazi Jews like me, endogamy is a problem. Aside from that, his presentation was hard to follow because he did things like referring to the 4th column in a dense chart on a slide, but really meant what was actually, say, the 8th column. Overall, this was pretty much useless for me.

The last talk I went to on Friday was Are You an Ethical Genealogist? by Dr, Penny Walters. This was interesting, but I’d have preferred a panel discussion to a lecture. She mostly focused on situations with genuine reasons pointing to two different sets of actions. For example, approximately 12% of DNA tests result in someone finding an NPE (which stands for either “not parent expected” or “non-parental event” depending on which you prefer.) An adoptee can obviously have good reasons for trying to find a birth parent, e.g. understanding their medical history, but there is also potential to hurt a parent who raised them who may not have known of the situation. There are also cases involving an individual vs. their community, truth vs. loyalty, individuals vs. the community, and justice vs. virtue. Any decision you make about privacy and confidentiality vs. transparency has consequences. Each person has to decide for him or herself what information to disclose about their family tree. (Since there are a few people on my tree with readily findable criminal records, this is of direct interest to me. On the plus side, those people are easy to research.)


I started Saturday with a presentation by Jarrett Ross on Success With Jewish DNA: How to Overcome Issues with Endogamy. This was probably the single most immediately useful session I went to at the conference. He also talked about double cousins and 3/4 siblings, e.g. the result of marriage to a sibling of a deceased spouse. He noted that as you get further back, the differences between endogamy and non-endogamy are greater. More importantly, he had several practical suggestions re: dealing with DNA results in endogamous communities. I already knew some of what he suggested about what level of centimorgan matches to investigate. But he had other tips I hadn’t really thought of before. For example, you can try to build out the tree of a potential match to a specific level. He also suggested looking for connections to towns within 30 miles. Overall, I came away with actionable information, which is always a good thing.


The next presentation I went to was AI-Assisted Genealogy: The Family History of the Future by Daniel Horowitz (from My Heritage). Some of the uses of AI he discussed were language translation, market research, key word research, and customization. Applying those to genealogy tasks, he talked about tombstone translations, summarizing and extracting information from documents, transcribing handwritten records , extracting information from newspapers (including locating OCR text). Within MyHeritage, some tools include an AI Record Finder (which lets people find data without filling in a form), Photo Tagger (which looks useful, but he did warn of its addictive potential), He also talked about some other tools I can’t imagine any reason I’d want to use (e.g. one to turn yourself into a historical figure). Still, it’s good to know what’s out there, even if you want to use only some of it.

After that, I went to Research Planning for Efficiency and Accuracy by Mindy Taylor. Most of her focus was on setting up research logs, including citations. That’s the sort of thing I know in theory but don’t do well with in practice, as I have found myself repeating searches multiple times. Something as simple as noting the date a particular search was made could be very helpful, especially since new sources become available frequently. Er, yes, I do need to get organized.

The final presentation I went to was Working with WATO (What Are the Odds) by Leah Larkin. WATO is a tool from DNA Painter and is intended to help identify an unknown parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent. Anything further back is beyond the limits of autosomal DNA. That means it is fairly unlikely to be of any significant help for me, since I know who all my ancestors in that range are. In addition, it doesn’t work well with endogamy. There’s a newer tool called Banyan DNA which might be more useful, so that’s something to keep in the back of my mind.

It had started snowing in the late morning and I had a nasty slushy walk back to my hotel. In the morning, I got a Lyft to the airport. My flight was delayed first because it was overbooked and they needed to get some volunteers to switch flights. And then it was delayed further for de-icing. Fortunately, United held my connecting flight at DEN long enough for me to sprint to that gate and I made it home on time.

Overall, I thought the conference was reasonably valuable. I came home with a fair amount of stuff to follow up on. And, of course, there are lots of on-line sessions I should try to find some time to watch.

There isn't an obvious reason why I haven't managed to write a post in the past two weeks. I've just been spinning my wheels a lot, mostly with planning and scheduling activities. I've concluded that I need to establish somewhat more routine in my life if I ever hope to get things done. But my tendency is to try to be too detailed when it comes to setting up routines, which creates more stress.

Anyway, all this is to say that I am off to a genealogy conference for the rest of the week and will try to get caught up when I get back.

I do actually do things when I’m home sometimes.

Whoops: Stories About Mistakes: I was part of this Better Said Than Done storytelling show at Clare and Don’s Beach Shack in Falls Church. The show was sold out, but that is mostly because it’s a tiny place. The show was wonderful. I was telling a new story about my terrible sense of direction. And, given the theme, it was appropriate that I left out two prime examples of this. The more notorious example among many of my friends has to do with the time I couldn’t find the rental car return at La Guardia Airport, so I drove to the airport terminal and followed an Avis bus. The other one involves why GPS does not actually help. Still, I got plenty of laughs with what I did remember to include. (By the way, I told the story again at the Voices in the Glen story swap this weekend and did better with it, though it still needs more refinement.)

I also got a photo of myself that I don't actually hate.



The Usual Stuff: Knitting Group. A Grimm Keepers discussion of The White Bride and the Black Bride, which Tim informed us is based partly on a story about Bertha Broadfoot, the mother of Charlemagne. My Litvak (Lithuanian Jewish) mentoring session, in which I was able to help a couple of people with South African records. My on-line needles and crafts group. Two nights of playing board games. The afore mentioned Voices in the Glen story swap. The Crones and Tomes book club discussion of Lessons in Chemistry which the group was strongly divided about. (For the record, I loved it.)

Lots of Yarn: Last Monday, I went over to my friend, Kim’s, house to help her go through her yarn stash, which proved to be much larger than she thought it was. I explained to her how to calculate if she had enough of a given yarn for a pattern, which needs to be based on yardage of a skein, not weight. And I ended up taking four huge bags home, some of which I will use, but much of which I will give away.

By the way, going over to other people’s houses makes me feel better about my level of clutter at home.

Mindplay: Sunday night, Cindy and I went to see Mindplay at Arena Stage. This is a very weird one man show by Vinny DePonto that is a mixture of mentalism and his personal story about dealing with his grandfather’s dementia, which got him interested in how memory work. Much of the show involves audience participation. Before the show, everyone is asked to fill out a slip of paper with a question on it and put it into an envelope on which they write their first name, last initial, and seat number. We verified that we did not have the same question, though I don’t know how many different questions there are. The show opens with a phone ringing on the stage and a person coming up to answer it and relay things to the audience. When I saw a review of a previous production (in Los Angeles), it suggested that the person who did this was randomly chosen from the audience, but a slip in the program we got suggested it was the stage manager and gave her biography. She seemed to be unprepared for things that happened, but maybe she’s just a good actress. Anyway, much of the show consisted of DePonto’s interactions with random people in the audience and I was definitely in the “please don’t call on me” mode. He started with throwing balloons into the audience - and his first attempt at choosing someone that way was a failure since the person who caught the marked balloon clearly didn’t speak English well and he had to ask them to throw the balloon to someone else. He asked some questions and then had that person pop the balloon and reveal a paper inside that had exactly the answers they’d given. I found that to be a definite “how did he do that? moment.

There were other audience interactions that were along the same lines, where he asked someone a question and appeared to have predicted their answer. He also talked about memory and introduced the concept of a memory palace, which I was familiar with from the excellent book Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer. Incidentally, I have some issues with that technique because visual memory is much weaker for me than other sensory modes. For example, I am sitting in my living room right now and I cannot tell you what color my carpet is without looking. At any rate, he demonstrated his memory techniques by having a few audience members lead him to mnemonics for state capitals - and, apparently, couldn’t remember one of them, though I suspect (partly based on something at the end of the show) that this failure may have been contrived. It was more impressive that he could recite a random section from the complete works of Shakespeare verbatim. Incidentally, I was mildly annoyed that he mispronounced the word “mnemonic” as if it were “pneumonic.”

That was entertaining enough, but some of his other audience interactions made me uncomfortable. He said up front that he would not make any of the people he invited up on the stage uncomfortable or embarrassed, but I cringed at some of the things he elicited from them. He brought one woman to tears by getting her to talk about her deceased godmother. And, cringiest of all, had another woman talk about peeing her pants in public when she was small.

There were also a lot of complicated interactions with the set, which I don’t feel capable of describing. Overall, I was mostly entertained, but I hesitate to recommend this because of the cringe factor. And, of course, you can’t really know what to expect because so much depends on the audience members who get pulled on stage at any given performance.

WTF, Facebook: I was attempting to comment on a post about Samoa to note that, according to T-Mobil’s website, they do offer unlimited texting and data at 256 kbps in Samoa with many of their plans, but that American Samoa is not one of the 215 countries they include. And Facebook took down that comment as being against their community standards on spam because “it looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way.” Huh?

Nielsen: I might not have opened this envelope, but I could see two dollar bills through the window in it. It turned out to be asking for an adult resident to fill out a brief survey in exchange for a $5 gift card. It’s not a lot of money, obviously, but it only took a few minutes and I got paid right away. I chose an Amazon gift card, on the grounds that there is always something I could use there.

Continuing last week’s New York trip…

Aside from some random walking around, most of Wednesday was spent going to the theatre.

Harmony: I had been a little hesitant to see this musical, because I generally prefer musical comedy to musical tragedy. And, while I don’t hate Barry Manilow (who wrote the music, with book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman, who is his long-time writing partner), he wouldn’t make my top ten list of songwriters. The reviews had been mixed but a couple of friends who had seen it did recommend it. And it was closing just a few days after my trip, so I decided it was worth trying.

The show starred Chip Zien, who does look his age (he’s in his late 70’s) but can still sing. He is looking back on his youth as part of a group called The Comedian Harmonists, who achieved success in Germany in the early 1930’s and toured the world. But three of their members were Jewish and the group had to disband due to the rise of Hitler. This is based on a true story, but several critics complained that it wasn’t very accurate. I don’t actually care about factual accuracy when it comes to musical adaptations. I’m looking for emotional truths and I felt that it worked at that level, for the most part.

The title song was lovely and something of an ear worm, as is “Stars in the Night,” which closes the show. Some of the songs the group sings are very entertaining, e.g. “How Can I Serve You, , Madame.” There are two beautiful love songs - “Every Single Day” and (especially) “Where You Go.” There’s a shocking moment in the first act, following a double wedding. While I understand why it didn’t end the act, it made the emotional arc a bit strange to go on from that to Carnegie Hall.

Neither of the female characters is fully developed. Mary fares better than the rabble-rousing Ruth. The latter was played by the other big star of the show (Julie Benko) who did fine with what she was given, but her character was not fully developed.

Anyway, I thought it was worth seeing, but I wish they’d handed out packets of tissues with the Playbills.

Once Upon a Mattress: This production was part of the Encores series at City Center, which puts on concert versions “forgotten” musicals. I’m not sure Once Upon a Mattress really qualifies, since it’s popular for schools and summer camps and other amateur groups. But it’s a fun show, with a lively score and a humorous book, and they always get great performers. For anyone not familiar with the show, it is loosely based on the fairy tale of “The Princess and the Pea.” I should also note that this was more fully staged than some of the other shows I’ve seen in the series.

The key here is that the show is a real star turn for the actress playing Princess Winifred the Woebegone (“Fred”). That was the role that launched Carol Burnett to stardom, of course. I don’t normally think of Sutton Foster as being that sort of performer, though she’s a solid dancer. So I was impressed by her willingness to go all out on the physical comedy. That was especially true in the scene where she tries to get to sleep on the stack of mattresses.

As for the rest of the cast, Michael Urie had great chemistry with Sutton Foster in his role as Prince Dauntless the Drab. Both J. Harrison Ghee and Harriet Harris were spot on as the Jester and the Queen respectively. Overall, while the show is somewhat dated and very silly, it’s also very entertaining. I am still humming several of the songs a week and a half later.

Fabric Flowers: I mentioned that I’d found something to do via the newsletter of the New York Adventure Club. This is a wonderful organization that has both virtual tours and in-person tours and I have done several of their events in the past. They periodically do a tour of M&S Schmalberg, the last remaining custom fabric flower factory in New York. I love crafts and I love factory tours, so this was right up my alley. Adam, the owner of the company is the 4th generation of the family business. First, we had time to browse the showroom. There are flowers of every description and every color, with some elaborately beaded examples. And, also, lots of butterflies. Here are a couple of the displays:





Adam told us some of the history of the company before explaining the process of making the flowers. Basically, fabric is starched and folded to create layers, then cut. The cut fabric is pressed into molds (which are surprisingly heavy). The pieces are then put together with things like brooch pins, lapel pins, or hair clips.

We went into the factory and watched all the steps of the process. I was amused that a salad spinner is used to get the moisture out after fabric is starched. Here’s Adam cutting out flowers, which will then be put into molds to be shaped.



At the end of the tour, he put out an assortment of small flowers and we each got to choose one to take home. Here's my selection.



That was followed by time to shop. The prices start at about $20. In addition to their etsy shop, they make custom flowers. I didn’t buy anything, but I will almost certainly buy a few things from them in the future, most likely for decorating hats. Anyway, this was an excellent way to spend part of an afternoon.

The Connector: The final show of my theatre binge was this new musical with a music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Jonathan Marc Sherman. It was conceived and directed by Daisy Prince, who is the daughter of the late Hal Prince. The story involves a news magazine, celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Connector has been taken over by a large corporation but it appears that, aside from data analysis, all they’ve done is paint the offices. The editor-in-chief, Conrad O’Brien (ably played by Scott Bakula - yes, the guy from Quantum Leap) hires a kid named Ethan Dobson (played by Ben Levi Ross), who is fresh out of Princeton and who he views as a younger version of himself. In the meantime, Conrad ignores a copy editor, named Robin Martinez (played by Hannah Cruz), who wants to become a feature writer. Ethan’s story about a Scrabble shark in Greenwich Village makes him an instant success, but what is he going to do to follow that? And will anybody ever read Robin’s work?

If you’ve ever seen the play The Lifespan of a Fact there are some natural comparisons, particularly with respect to the question of what is truth and what is sufficient proof. There are two other characters who play major roles in addressing this question - Muriel, a legendary fact checker, and Mona Bland, who writes letters to the magazine correcting minor details, leading her to be regarded as a crank. However, there are also other issues here, especially the sexism that Robin faces, even in 1996. I was surprised that potential racism (given her obviously Latina name) wasn’t suggested. After all, Linda Wolfe had been writing for New York magazine since the 1970’s. (I still remember her piece about the deaths of the twin gynecologists.)

As it stands now, the show is about an hour and 40 minutes long, with no intermission. I’d have liked to see it expanded a bit (with an intermission added) so some of the characters could be fleshed out more. In particular, I’d like to know more about Robin’s past beyond her singing “Everyone in Texas is an asshole” in a song titled “So I Came to New York.” There’s also a hint (in the form of a phone call to his brother) that there’s more to Ethan’s background than his time at Princeton. The bottom line is that this was funny and provocative, with an enjoyable jazzy score, though not entirely satisfying. Note that I saw it in previews, however, I hope that the creative team continues to develop it further. And I also definitely want there to be a recording of the music.

By the way, I read a couple of reviews which compare this to the real-life story of Stephen Glass. There is apparently a movie about him, titled “Shattered Glass,” which I should try to get around to seeing.

A Quick Note About Amtrak: The train I took home on Friday morning was the Carolinian, rather than a Northeast Regional. For future reference, this is a bad idea. For one thing, it was very crowded. But, more importantly, it doesn’t have a quiet car.

The weekend before the one that just passed, I was home and fairly sociable.

tick. tick . . . BOOM1 On Friday night, I went to see this musical, which was part of the Broadway Center Stage series at the Kennedy Center. That means that the staging is fairly minimal, but they still had a video screen, providing parts of the setting. For those unfamiliar with this show, it was originally a semi-autobiographical monologue by Jonathan Larson and, after his death, was turned into a three person musical. This version (which was directed by Neil Patrick Harris) also had several other characters, with one of them who seemed to deserve as much credit as the three principals.

The plot involves the main character, Jon (ably played by Brandon Uranowitz) , turning 30 and debating whether he should abandon his goal of writing a musical in favor of making money in advertising. His girlfriend, Susan, thinks they should move to Cape Cod. As he says / sings “Johnny Can’t Decide.”

I mostly enjoyed the show, but some of the songs don’t do much to advance either the story or character development. For example, “Green Green Dress” is a fairly generic song Jon sings about Susan. On the other hand, “Sunday” is a brilliant pastiche of the Sondheim song of the same name (from Sunday in the Park With George) and was worth the price of admission alone. And “Why,” effectively summarizes the whole point of the show.

Loser Post-Holiday Party: Saturday afternoon was the annual Loser post-holiday party. My contribution to the pot luck was a mushroom quiche and, since I got requests for the recipe, I’ll include it below. Then there were some awards for people who’d reached certain invitational milestones. And, finally, the singing of various parody songs, mostly with political themes. Plus, of course, lots of interesting conversation, including some discoveries of mutual connections I hadn’t known of before.

Mushroom Quiche Recipe: Since I had requests for the recipe…

Ingredients:
1 deep dish pie crust (I admit I used a frozen one.) Bake in a pie pan according to package directions or recipe if you're less lazy than I was.

8 oz. white button mushrooms
half an onion, chopped
2 T. butter
8 oz. gruyere cheese, shredded (or you can buy cubed gruyere). Do not use smoked gouda.
1 c. heavy cream
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
2 T. grated parmesan cheese, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Salute the onions and mushrooms until browned.
3. Sprinkle the mushrooms and cheese into the bottom of the baked pie crust.
4. Whisk the eggs. Add the cream, seasonings and 1 T. of the parmesan cheese and beat together. Pour the mixture over the mushrooms and cheese.
5. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese over the top.
6. Bake until the top is light brown and the center of the quiche is set, roughly 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool about 10 minutes before serving.


TCC Meeting: Finally, there was a lunch meeting of the Travelers’ Century Club DC chapter on Sunday. Lots of good conversation about travel, of course. It also looks like several of us will be in the Azores together.

I think this will get me caught up on everything up until this month.

I’ve been using the same format for my year in review entries for several years now. It seems to work. Note that I took off the Volksmarch category this time since it’s been a couple of years since I managed to actually do anything there.

2023 started out stressful with mail being stolen, including a check which was washed and used fraudulently and a credit card which had to be replaced. It all got resolved, but I could have lived without the stress. There was a lot of stress later in the year, with the incompetence of the person at the local Social Security office who sat on my Medicare application for over two months without doing anything. That took way too many phone calls to get resolved. And, of course, there was the whole Middle East situation to make 2023 the Age of Anxiety.

Fortunately, things were otherwise good during the year.

Books: I read 53 books over the year. 39 of those were fiction, 3 were poetry, and the rest were nonfiction. Only 3 were rereads.

Favorites included Our Ancestors Did Not Breathe This Air (a poetry collection by Muslim women at MIT), Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozu Adichie, The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre, and The Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Depository by John Connolly. I also read 6 novels by Dick Francis, whose books provide a reliable antidote to ones in which not enough happens to keep me satisfied. Favorite non-fiction was The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro. Least favorite book was Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

I got rid of 39 books and have at least another 33 ready to go out.

In addition to my longstanding book club (called READ for Read, Enjoy, And Discuss), I joined another book club, Crones and Tomes, which was started by a friend from the puzzle world.

Other book events included the Moby Dick Marathon in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which was an amazing experience, and a talk by Ari Shapiro at Sixth and I.

Ghoul Pool: I finished 4th out of 14 players, with 220 points. People I scored on were Naomi Replanski, Steve Harrell, Bob Barker, Tony Bennett, Al Jaffee, John Goodenough, Robert Solow, Daniel Ellsberg, Sandra Day O’Connor, James L. Buckley, W. Nicholas Hitchon, and David Oreck.

Travel: In January, I went to New Bedford, Massachusetts for the Moby Dick Marathon. In February, I went to Tucson, which included going to Saguaro National Park and Biosphere 2, as well as winning some money at a casino. March included a trip to New York City to go to the symphony and the theatre and visit with a high school friend. April’s travel was to Connecticut for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

In May I took a river cruise, which included going to the Kentucky Derby. The Derby arrangements were kind of a fiasco, but the stops at various small towns were a lot more interesting than I expected.

June took me to Svalbard, which featured amazing scenery, though the wildlife (or, more accurately, lack thereof) was disappointing. This was somewhere I’d wanted to go to forever, so I am glad to have had the opportunity.

In July, I went to Montreal for the NPL con. That also included eating a lot of Montreal Jewish food and following in the footsteps of Leonard Cohen. Later in the month, I leveraged off a genealogy conference in London to take a trip to Ireland (including a day trip to Belfast) and the Isle of Man. That included fulfilling a life list item by having a beer at the South Pole Inn in Anascaul. After the conference, I did a few more things in London, including side trips to Canterbury and to Ipswich and Sutton Hoo. Soon after I got back, I took a quick trip to New York City for Lollapuzzoola and theatre going.

LoserFest was in Philadelphia in September. Highlights included the Masonic Temple and the Magic Gardens.

In October, I took a quick trip to San Antonio for the annular solar eclipse, which was awesome. While I was there, I also did a day trip to the Hill Country, where I saw several sites associated with Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as visiting the town of Fredericksburg. Later in the month I went to Boston, mostly to go to a concert by Jonathan Richman.

I’m not sure if taking a day trip to Harrisonburg, Virginia in November counts as travel. But my trip to French Polynesia (Austral Islands and Aranui cruise to the Marquesas) definitely does.

Virtual travel talks I went to included one on Jewish Barbados and a few Travelers’ Century Club zoom sessions. There were also a few in-person TCC meetings.

Puzzles: I participated once again in the MIT Mystery Hunt as part of Halibut That Bass. I think the team worked particularly well together, but we had some issues with the way the hunt was structured, which resulted in our seeing only about half of the puzzles.

I was disappointed in my performance in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I finished solidly in the middle of the pack and I wasn’t surprised to have trouble with Puzzle 5, but I left a blank square in Puzzle 3, which was sheer carelessness. I did worse at Lollapuzzoola 16 in August, because I failed to completely read parts of some clues in Puzzle 5 there. I blame jet lag from my trip just before that event.

As I mentioned above, I went to the National Puzzlers’ League Con in Montreal. Highlights included a couple of games by Cute Mage, as well as Rasa’s over the weekend cryptic.


Genealogy: I continued to volunteer as the Subject Matter Expert for a Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington Litvak Special Interest Group. I also went to several JGSGW virtual meetings. And, of course, I went to the IAJGS conference in London at the end of July / beginning of August. Aside from several interesting talks, the highlight of that was meeting a distant cousin.

Baseball: I went to a little bit of a Nationals game in May, but it got rained out. In September I went to the new Texas Rangers stadium (Globe Life Field), putting me back at having been to a game at every Major League Ballpark. I also went to two minor league ballparks to see the Aberdeen Ironbirds and the Fredericksburg Nationals.

Culture: I’m not a big television watcher but I kept Apple TV+ long enough to watch Schmigadoon and Schmicago, both of which were tremendous fun for musical theatre geeks like me.

In terms of movies, I saw 18 overall, 4 of which were in theaters, with the rest on airplanes. Favorites were A Man Called Otto, In the Heights, Blackberry, Cocaine Bear, Searching for Sugar Man, Barbie, and Remembering Gene Wilder. Most disappointing was Weird: The Al Yancovic Story.

I went to 5 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at the G&S International Festival in England, with the best production being of Ruddigore. I went to two other operas, both by Jeanine Tesori (Blue and Grounded). I also saw two ballets and one modern dance performance, with the ballet of The Crucible being the most satisfying. As far as classical music goes, I saw the National Symphony Orchestra twice and was privileged to see Michael Tilson Thomas conduct the New York Philharmonic. The only popular music concert I went to was one by Jonathan Richman, who is always wonderful.

I saw 14 plays and 9 musicals, assuming I counted correctly. Favorite plays were All Things Equal (about Ruth Bader Ginsburg), The Lifespan of a Fact at Keegan Theatre, Selling Kabul at Signature Theatre, and The Pillowman, which is a Martin McDonagh play I saw in London. I also loved The Enigmatist, which is a mixture of comedy. magic, and puzzles and, hence, I consider sui generis. Top musicals were In the Heights at Next Stop Theatre Company, Signature Theatre’s production of Pacific Overtures. and Shucked and Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway.

Storytelling: I went to several storytelling shows, including one by my Grimmkeepers group. I performed in two shows for Artists Standing Strong Together, and also told at the C&O Canal Visitor Center with Voices in the Glen, at the Washington Folk Festival, and in a Better Said Than Done show at the Stagecoach Theatre. Some other shows I particularly enjoyed were Ingrid Nixon’s show about Shackleton and several of the performances at the National Storytelling Festival. And, of course, the Women’s Storytelling Festival (which I also emceed at) os always a highlight of the year.

On a rather different note, the Grimmkeepers discussions about the Grimm fairy tales continue to be enlightening and enriching.

Museums and Art: I went to 32 museums over the year. Highlights included the New Bedford Glass Museum, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, two exhibitions of miniatures (the Mini Time Machine Museum in Tucson and the Small is Beautiful exhibit in New York), the MIT Museum, the Virginia Quilt Museum, and the Museum of Failure. I also really enjoyed seeing the Book of Kells, the Manx Museum, and Sutton Hoo during my travels in July. My absolute favorite for the year was the Museum of Broadway.


Other Stuff: On New Year’s Day, my friend, Cindy, and I went to the Winter Lantern Festival at Tyson’s, which was impressive.

I went to various Loser events, including the post-Post Loser Party, the Flushes, LoserFest. I should probably count Poetry and Punchlines (a poetry reading associated with Light, which is a magazine of light verse) as a Loser event, too.

My crafting group changed to meeting on-line every other Thursday and in person at one members house on the weeks in between. I make it when I can. Similarly, I occasionally managed to get to my other (mostly) knitting group, which meets at the police station twice a month.

I went to a virtual organizing conference in September, which was moderately useful.

I played board games a few times a week, when I was home. Yes, sometimes I was home.

Goals: So how did I do on my 2023 goals? I went through maybe 10% of the photos from my parents and realized I have no idea where I put the slides, so I’ll give myself a 10% there. I did go to some sort of lecture or other formal educational event, either in person or on-line, every month, so I get 100% there. I get full credit (i.e. 100%) for taking 4 international trips. I finished only 1 craft project, so only get 33% there, though I did make progress on two others. I read 53 books, out of a goal of 75, so get 71% there. I get 100% credit for going to three new (to me) ballparks. I made it to at least one museum each month so get 100% on that goal. I only went to one national park, so get 33% on that goal. And I averaged significantly less than a half hour every day on housework, so I’ll give myself 10% there. Averaging things out, I’ll give myself a 62% on the year, which is not great but not terrible either.

Which brings me to goals for 2024:

• Circumnavigate the globe going westward. The backstory is that way back in 2000, I did an eastward circumnavigation, from Los Angeles to Russia via Germany by plane, overland through Siberia to Mongolia and to China, and back to Los Angeles by plane. I’ve got ideas for how I want to do the westward circle.
  
  
• Go to at least 3 national parks.
  
  
• Clean out my saved files of genealogy related emails.
  
  
• Read 80 books with a stretch goal of 125.
  
  
• Finish organizing my bedroom.
  
  
• Finish 3 afghans.
  
  
• Find and sort through my parents’ slides.
  
  
• Go to games at at least 4 AAA ballparks.
  
  
• Exercise for at least 20 minutes at least 3 times a week, with a stretch goal of at least 30 minutes at least 4 times a week.
  
  

I decided to split up the Aranui write-up because it was getting long.

We had a minor kerfuffle about the timing of our transfer from the Intercontinental to the dock for the Aranui, but it was easy enough to take a taxi. The boarding process was straightforward enough, and I was pleased to see that my cabin looked quite comfortable.



We had the obligatory safety drill, aka “how to put on your life jacket” before departure. After departure there was a meeting to tell us about life on board and about our first stop, which would be Fakarava. The Aranui carries about 200 passengers. A bit more than half were French. There about 35 English speakers and about 10 German speakers. The English speaking group was predominantly American, with a few Australians, but also included people from places ranging from Greece to Peru. Apparently, pre-COVID, it had been more evenly divided between Americans and French speakers and it isn’t clear why that changed. The ship also carries a lot of freight (which was its original raison d’etre) and it was interesting watching freight being unloaded at some ports.

This is as good a place as any for a word about meals. Breakfast was always a buffet,, which was pretty much the same, with fruit, eggs, breads, yogurt, etc. Lunch and Dinner were normally served in two seatings, which were separated only by half an hour, mostly as a way of managing service. These were generally three course meals and also included wine (which holds no interest for me). Sometimes there were buffets. Some lunches were buffets served on-shore and a few dinners were buffets served on the pool deck. In general, they did a particularly good job with fish. And the desserts were normally extremely good.

Our first stop was Fakarava, which is in the Tuamotu Archipelago. We transferred by barge to the shore. The seamen did an excellent job of hauling us onto and off of the 40 or so passenger barges.



Basically, we were set free in the village of Rotoava. There were a couple of crowded, not particularly appealing beaches one could go to. Sorry, but I prefer soft white sand. There is supposedly good diving and snorkeling, but further south than where we were anchored.



I opted for wandering around the town. I have a longstanding interest in religious architecture and the church in Fakarava is particularly interesting, with a lot of seashells in its interior decor.





There were also a few shops, but nothing I wanted. And lots of pretty flowers. Since I am person who can just barely tell a rosebush from a weeping willow, don’t ask me what they were.



Back on board, there was an interesting documentary about the revitilization of Marquesan language and culture.

The next day was at sea, as we headed north to the Marquesas. We had a talk about our two days at the festival on Nuku Hiva. There was also a presentation about poisson cru (raw marinated fish) and kaaku (pounded breadfruit with coconut milk). In the afternoon, there was a lecture by Keao Nesmith, a Hawaiian linguist, who talked about Marquesan Origins and Polynesian Languages. I found him to be an excellent and engaging speaker. There was also an early evening fashion show, which taught people a few ways to tie a pareu (local terminology for a sarong). I was happy to have time to read, do laundry, use the internet, and nap.

Nuku Hiva was a place I was particularly interested in, because, aside from the festival, it was where Herman Melville deserted the whale ship Acushnet in 1842. He spent a few weeks there, which led to him writing the novel Typee. Anther part of the back story there is that the Acushnet arrived about the same time as a group of French ships carrying missionaries, who had a large (mostly negative) influence on the Marquesan culture.



But, as I said, we were there for the festival, which happens every two years (previously, every four years), moving among the different islands of the archipelago. On the first day, we were at Taipivai during the day. It was an easy walk from the landing site to the festival site, where we had plenty of time to look around at drumming, cooking, people in elaborate costumes, etc. Also, because it was Sunday, there was a church service, which was held in French.

Here’s the walk to the site.



Drums come in sizes for all ages. The taller ones are played by adults on ladders.



Wondering what to wear? Grass is always in style.



Don’t forget the tattoos!



One of the things that impressed me the most about the Marquesan dancers was the acceptance of body diversity.



After eating lunch at the site, we returned to the Aranui, which relocated to Taiolhae. After dinner, we disembarked and went by bus to the archeological site of Temehea for the evening show.

I wish I’d gotten a better picture of this:



Here’s the Aranui at the dock:



The costumes were spectacular:



You may have to click through to flickr to watch this video. I like the you can tell that this guy is telling a story even without understanding a word of the language.



On the second day of the festival, we docked at Hatiheu and went to the Kamuhihei Archaeological site. There’s a big banyan tree, where we were welcomed to the site.



There was plenty of dancing to watch and plenty of interesting costumes to look at:



At night, we were back at Taiohae and the Temehea Archeological Site. I didn’t have quite as good a seat for picture taking, but here’s one decent shot.



Overall, the festival was definitely worth going to. However, I will note that neither of the two types of insect repellant I had with me had any effect whatsoever on what the Tahitians call “nunus” - sand flies, which ate me alive. I don’t think I had ever gotten an insect bite on an ear lobe before! And the shop on the ship did not have calamine lotion.

To continue the catch-up, here are the books, movies, and goals progress from October through December.

Books:

17 Books this quarter.

1. Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give. I read this for the Crones and Tomes book club. This is nominally a Young Adult novel, but that didn’t make it easy reading. The story involves a 16-year-old girl who witnesses a cop killing her friend. The situation is complicated by her mostly white private school and the reactions of her friends and boyfriend. She needs to overcome her fears to take a stand. Overall, this is complex and interesting, but it’s also very violent.
   
   
2. Michael Lewis, Flash Boys. Lewis has written many books about the financial world. This one has to do with an effort to make Wall Street more fair to small investors. The human stories, especially the case of Sergey Aleynikov, a trader at Goldman Sachs who was arrested without it ever being clear for what crime, were interesting. But I admit that I didn’t completely follow the financial story.
   
   
3. John Connolly, The Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Repository. This was another book in the Bibliomysteries series published by The Mysterious Bookshop. A retired clerk stumbles upon a scene out of Anna Karenina and his investigation leads him to a mysterious library filled with books and characters that have become iconic. It’s a thoroughly charming novella. I especially loved the incident where a storm led to some of Moby Dick dripping onto a copy of Alice in Wonderland, leading to a white whale at the mad tea party. Highly recommended.
   
   
4. Julie Clark, The Last Flight. This was a READ book club selection. The plot involves two women who switch plane tickets as they are trying to run away from difficult situations. Part of the novel is back story, while the rest is what happens after one of the two planes crashes. I liked this book a lot - up until the last 30 or so pages,, when I felt cheated by a contrived revelation.
   
   
5. Rhoda Miller and the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island, Jewish Community of Long Island. This is mostly pictures, with brief text descriptions. Long Beach got some mention and there was one picture of a house in Oceanside, but no mention of Island Park or West Hempstead. And they pretty much ignored Orthodox Jewish communities.
   
   
6. Gloria-Gilda Deak, American Views. This is a collection primarily of prints and lithographs of various places in the U.S. New York City is overrepresented while rural America is underrepresented. The descriptions are pretty bland. Overall, meh.
   
   
7. Ann Patchett, State of Wonder. This was another Crones and Tomes selection. It was an absorbing story, involving a pharmacologist who goes to the Amazon to investigate what happened to a colleague who was investigated progress on their company’s research. The characters were the heart of the story, but there was enough action to keep me interested. And there was a very interesting twist at the end. Well done!
   
   
8. Melissa Balmain, The Witch Demands a Retraction. This is a collection of light verse based on fairy tales. Mama Bear catches Papa Bear having an affair with Goldilocks. Snow White complains one prince isn’t enough. My favorite was Puss in Boots, who didn’t wear the boots, but just peed in them. Delightful.
   
   
9. Neil Travis, Manhattan. This was a thoroughly trashy novel, set in the world of a thinly disguised version of New York Magazine. There’s a takeover being planned, but the magazine employees are too busy with sex and drugs and betrayal. I needed four showers after reading this terrible book.
   
   
10. Julia Whitty, A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga. This was a collection of short stories, on a variety of subjects. The title story follows the parallel lives of a tortoise and the lives of the Tongan royals as the country changes, including its Christianization. “Lucifer’s Alligator” had to do with a rebellion among the animals at Ocean World. My favorite story was “Jimmy Under Water,” about a boy who survives falling into an icy pond and, along with a childhood friend, becomes an ice diver. Overall, I thought this was an interesting collection and worth reading.
    
    
11. Jaroldeen Edwards, Things I wish I’d Known Earlier. Given that this is subtitled “Reflections of a Mother of Twelve,” one would expect her to mention the existence of contraception. But, no, this is standard conservative rah-rah stay at home mom propaganda. I should note this was in a box of books I got from a friend of my mother’s, so that’s no surprise.
    
    
12. Dick Francis, Reflex. I have mentioned several times the value of Dick Francis as a palate refresher. Once again, he delivered, with an action filled (albeit violent) novel about the murder of a racetrack photographer and the story of blackmail behind it. There are interesting details about photography (which no longer really work in this digital era) and a strong moral sense driving the story. As always, a good read.
    
    
13. Katherine Collette. The Helpline. This was a selection for the READ Book Club, but I ended up missing the meeting due to time zone challenges. This novel had been recommended to me as being similar to pieces like Eleanor Elephant is Completely Fine which I’d loved. But, alas, the main character (Germaine) is so completely lacking in charm and self-awareness that I wanted to throw the book - and her - through the window. I think much of the problem is that the relationships that should help to redeem her never get fully enough realized. And I hate the stereotype that people who are mathematically inclined - and, even worse, are absorbed by sudoku, have to be completely lacking in social skills. We need a better reason for Germaine’s failings and more reason to be convinced of her underlying humanity.
    
    
14. Dr. Bertel Brun, Ducks, Geese, and Swans. My parents had a number of these little illustrated books on various topics and, with this one, I’ve finally reached the end of the collection. I’m not particularly interested in waterfowl, but there were a few interesting tidbits in here. Notably, I hadn’t known that ducks are prone to just use any nests they happen to find, apparently not caring much whether or not the eggs are their own - or even those of their own species. I’m not sure that bit of trivia was a good enough reason to read this.
    
    
15. Melissa Balmain, Satan Talks to His Therapist. Another volume of light verse, a lot of this was topical, including several pieces about COVID. There are also pieces about aging and politics. Overall, both funny and relatable.
    
    
16. Marian Keyes, The Mystery of Mercy Close. This was great vacation reading - long, but light, with enough plot to be satisfying. Keyes is a reliable writer of chicklit. This novel has a light mystery element, as Helen Walsh, a down on her luck private investigator, is hired to find a missing member of a boys’ band who are supposed to be doing a reunion concert. She’s also wrestling with financial issues, relationship issues, and mental health issues. It all comes together surprisingly well, with a convincing happy ending.
    
    
17. Rebecca Skloot. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This had been in my to-read stack for ages and I finally got around to it on my flights home. I first learned about HeLa cells back when I was in high school and went to a Saturday science program at Columbia University. And, like everyone else, I knew pretty much nothing about the woman whose uterine cancer provided the cells that were (and still are) widely used in biological research. Skloot delves into the lives of Henrietta Lacks and her family and raises a lot of questions about the ethics of medical research and informed consent. Overall, an interesting read. Recommended.
    
    

Movies:

Two on airplanes and two in the movie theatre.

1. It Ain’t Over: I watched this documentary about Yogi Berra on an airplane. Even though he was primarily associated with the Source of All Evil in the Universe, it was still a fun movie. He had a well-deserved reputation for being a character, but his strengths as a player were significant, too. And, of course, he coached for the 1969 Miracle Mets. Overall, a very entertaining movie.
   
   
2. Paris Boutique: This was part of the JxJ Jewish film festival and I went with a couple of people from my Chavurah. The movie has to do with a French lawyer, Louise, who is sent to Israel to negotiate a property deal for her father. A scammer poses as her taxi driver, but turns out to be more helpful than expected. In the meantime, Louise meets a man of indeterminate religion and, despite her engagement to a man back in Paris, she starts a passionate affair with him. It’s a complicated story, with plenty of humor. And it is ultimately about friendship between women, despite the other plot elements.
   
   
3. Remembering Gene Wilder: This was also part of the JxJ film festival. It was an excellent look at Wilder’s career, with a lot of commentary by Mel Brooks,, who he worked closely with. There were lots of clips from Wilder’s film roles, and they were great reminders of his comic genius. I’d have liked a little more about his early life, but I was satisfied with he material on his later personal life (the tragedy of Gilda Radner’s death, his remarriage and his death from Alzheimer’s.) They are planning a theatrical release, hopefully in 2024, and I highly recommend seeing it.
   
   
4. Barbie: I finally watched this on my flight to Los Angeles on my way to the South Pacific. I found it delightfully subversive. I have to admit that part of the fun for me was seeing the various dolls I barely remember, e.g. pregnant Midge. And, as a person who cut open the knee of Bendable Poseable Skipper to see how it worked, I loved Weird Barbie. Highly recommended.
   
   

Goals:

There will be more details in the year in review, coming in a week or so, depending on how otherwise swamped I am with stuff. But for now:

• I didn’t make any more progress on my parents’ photos.
  
  
• In terms of educational activities, I went to a lecture about the Borscht Belt in October, an eclipse talk in November, and three lectures on Polynesian / Marquesan culture on my cruise in December.
  
  
• I took my 4th international trip of the year in December, to the Austral and Marquesa Islands.
  
  
• I didn’t finish any more crafts projects,, though I did make progress on two
  
  
• I finished the year at 53 books.
  
  
• As for museums, I went to the MIT Museum and the Museum of Failure in October, the Library of Congress and the Virginia Quilt Museum in November, and a few museums on the island of Ua Hika in December.
  
  
• I thought about doing housework every day that I was home.
  
  

I got home Friday morning and I am only just now really starting to get caught up on anything. I have at least 5 entries to write here, so I am just going to start with a few easier ones, then write about my trip and get around to the 2023 year in review after all that.


1 – Cookie Cutter Day: Do you own any cookie cutters? Any unusual ones? Tell us about them. I own a lot of cookie cutters. They range from normal things like stars and hearts and circles to various sorts of animals. I have ones shaped like teapots that I like for thin lemony cookies that I think go well with tea. I also do gingerbread men and women and bears.

2 – Play Basketball Day: Have you ever played basketball? We played basketball in gym class in elementary school, junior high, and the first couple of years of high school. (After that we chose elective sports and I favored racket sports and dancing.) The summer I spent at a biochemistry program at a private school (a National Science Foundation program), the different project groups played basketball against one another. There was one girl in my group who refused to play for some reason, so I played more than I might have otherwise done.

3 – Make a Gift Day: Do you make gifts for anybody? How about cards? I’ve been known to knit or crochet gifts for friends. I used to make cards a lot, but haven’t in several years.

4 – Wear Brown Shoes Day: Do you own any brown shoes? I own one pair of plain brown slip-ons that I don’t wear often since I rarely wear brown, though they go well with one plaid dress I own. I also have a pair of mostly brown shoes with fancy ties that one of my friends calls my flibbertigibbet shoes.

5 – National Repeal Day: December 5th marks the end of prohibition in the United States (back in 1933). If you're not American, did your country ever prohibit the sale of alcohol (or maybe it still does)? Does it make sense that alcohol is legal, but other substances aren’t? I’m American. We figured out that prohibition didn’t work. Not that prohibiting many other drugs works, either.

6 – Put on Your Own Shoes Day: How old were you when you learned to put on your own shoes? How about when you learned to tie your own shoelaces? Does anybody actually know the answer to this?

7 – Cotton Candy Day: Do you like cotton candy? (Also known as Fairy Floss.) I detest cotton candy. It has no flavor other than sweet and stains your hands annoying colors.

8 – Lost and Found Day: Have you ever lost something important to you and thought you would never get it back, but then you found it or someone returned it to you? The only thing important to me that I lost was a ring that, alas, I never found.

9 – Christmas Card Day: Do you send Christmas/holiday cards? How many do you send? Do you receive many cards? I normally do send holiday cards. I probably send 20-30 or so. This year, I only got halfway through my list because I was in a mad rush to pack and leave on vacation and hadn’t started soon enough. Finishing writing to people is one of the many things on my to-do list.

10 – World Choral Day: Have you ever sung in a choir? I was in chorus from 4th through 6th grade in school. I think I was also in chorus at one summer camp I went to, but the memory is vaguer.

11 – Stretching Day: How flexible are you? Do you do any stretching or flexibility exercises regularly? I’m not as flexible as I used to be back when I took a lot of dance classes. I really need to make more of a point of doing stretching exercises again.

12 – Gingerbread House Day: Have you ever made a gingerbread house? How did it turn out? I’ve never made a gingerbread house. They intrigue me, but they’re not really part of my culture.

13 – Day of the Horse: Have you ever been horseback riding? Have you read any of the classic horse books, e.g. Black Beauty, the Misty of Chincoteague books, the Black Stallion books, the Silver Brumby books? Are you a fan of any horse-related sports, e.g. racing or show jumping? I went horseback riding at one summer camp I went to, but only a few times. I read Black Beauty, but not any other horse books. I went to the equestrian events at the Athens Olympics and I went to the Kentucky Derby in 2023.

14 – Roast Chestnuts Day: Have you ever made or eaten roast chestnuts? I think I ate some (bought from a street vendor) when I was in high school, but it was a long long time ago.

15 – Cat Herders' Day: Have you ever had to do anything where it felt like you were trying to herd cats? I have organized events, so, yes.

16 – Chocolate-Covered Anything Day: Is there anything that would not be improved by being covered in chocolate? What is your favourite chocolate-covered food? In general, there are two categories of food - those improved by the addition of chocolate and those improved by the addition of garlic. On those grounds, mole is the perfect food. I will admit, however, that even though I love ginger, I am not crazy about chocolate covered ginger. In general, I favor chocolate with nuts, especially hazelnuts.

17 – Wright Brothers Day: How do you feel about plane travel? I understand its environmental impact, but it is the most efficient way of traveling long distances. You really don’t want to know how many frequent flyer miles I have.

18 – International Migrants Day: International Migrants Day emphasizes the protection of migrants’ human rights. The day also recognizes the contributions and efforts of migrants around the world. Has anyone in your family ever migrated from one country to another? What would your country be like without migrants? Many members of my family spent a lot of time fleeing from the Tsar’s Army. A lot of relatives went to various parts of Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba) and to South Africa, due to restrictive immigration quotas for the U.S. Others went to Israel later on.

19 – Look for an Evergreen Day: Are there many species of evergreens where you live? The Commonwealth of Virginia is the largest producer of Christmas trees in the United States, with the Virginia pine the most commonly grown. We also have southern magnolia, Japanese cedar, common yew, something called Golden Dwarf Hinoki Cypress, American holly, Eastern red cedar (aka Virgnia Juniper), Canadian hemlock, Eastern white pine, Green giant arborvitae (you can identify it because its leaves call out “ho ho ho” to you), Leyland cypress, Concolor fir, Eastern white pine, and Mountain laurel. That is based on 30 seconds of google. I pretty much call most of them just pine trees, though I know that cedars and arborvitae are skinnier.


20 – Go Caroling Day: Have you ever been caroling? Are there any groups in your neighbourhood who go caroling at this time of year? I don’t think I’ve ever been caroling. Not really part of my culture.

21 – Don't Make Your Bed Day: Were you brought up to make your bed every day? Do you make your bed every day? In theory, I make my bed every day. In practice, I do sometimes get lazy.

22 – Mathematics Day: Were you good at mathematics in school? How much of the math/s you learned in school do you use in your everyday life now? I was very good at math in school. In my academic life, I used a lot of linear algebra, but it has been years. In grad school, I took a few classes that I would describe as “topics in applied math that the professor thinks are interesting.” I have forgotten anything I ever knew about the spherical theta function.

23 – Roots Day: How much do you know about your own family history? Do you know the names of your great grandparents? Have any of your ancestors been a part of any significant historical events? I know the names of all of my great grandparents. Many of my ancestors were part of the Shoah, as victims, alas.

24 – Christmas Eve: Christmas Eve is filled with both religious and nonreligious traditions and a variety of foods. What are some of your holiday traditions? How did they begin? We always lit Chanukah menorahs and ate potato latkes.

25 – Pumpkin Pie Day: Pumpkin pie, yes or no? It’s okay, but there are other sorts of pie that I like better.

26 – Whiner's Day: National Whiner’s Day is here to encourage people to appreciate what they have instead of complaining about what they don’t! What do you have to be thankful for today? I’m thankful not to be around whiners.

27 – Make Cut-out Snowflake Day: Have you ever made cut-out snowflakes? How about a string of cut-out paper dolls? I’m pretty sure I made cut-out snowflakes, to be used in making home-made cards. I have no specific memory re: strings of paper dolls.

28 – Card Playing Day: Do you play card games? I play all sorts of games, including board games and card games. When I was growing up my family played several card games, with our favorites being gin rummy and casino.

29 – Tick Tock Day: Tick Tock Day reminds you that the year is almost at an end, and there are things still left to be doing, and in fact, only two days left to do them in. What do you need to get done so that you don't let the year end with regret? I got home on the 29th. All I wanted to do was sleep.

30 – Bicarbonate of Soda Day. How many uses do you know of for bicarbonate of soda? It’s used in baking, as well as to absorb odors and in cleaning (often mixed with vinegar).

31 – Make Up Your Mind Day: How decisive are you? What is likely to make it hard for you to make a decision? I can be very decisive, but I do sometimes get stuck when I feel like I have too many options.

I’m leaving on vacation in the morning, so wanted to get this done before I go. It’s unclear how much internet access I’ll have over the trip, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from me.

1. How do you prefer your toast? Lightly toasted, with a little butter.

2. How often do you post something to social media? Typically, one to three times a day.

3. Do you prefer silver or gold? How about white gold?

4. What’s your favorite movie soundtrack? It’s between A Man and a Woman or The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

5. What is a skill you wish you had? I wish I could sing.

6. Did your parents teach you how to cook/bake when you were growing up? Not really. My mother taught me how to make a few things but, frankly, she wasn’t very interested in cooking and would have been content to eat boiled chicken for dinner every night. My father could cook a few things, e.g. pasta dishes, but he didn’t cook frequently.

7. Where was the last beach you visited? Hmm, it’s been a while. The most memorable in the past several months was Inch Beach in Ireland in July.

8. Have you ever negotiated a pay raise? Not really. I was generally satisfied with the pay raises I got and I was able to verify that they were reasonable based on statistics our union published.

9. What is the last thing you ordered for delivery? Books - some for my book clubs and some written by friends. And, while I’m mentioning that, I would like to request that my friends stop writing books for a while, so I can catch up on all the books I have in the house.

10. Do you like watching TV with the lights on or the lights off? I pretty much watch TV either via streaming on my phone or when I’m at a hotel. In both cases, I have the lights on.

11. If you could change your first name would you? Not at this stage of my life. Back in my early 20’s I contemplated going by my Hebrew name. And, yes, I know Miriam is a Hebrew name, but my Hebrew name is actually Malka. Back in 1950’s America, it was common for people to give someone an English name that started with the same letter as their Hebrew name, Hence, the more modern joke about one woman saying to another, “I’d like you to meet my son, Shlomo. He’s named after his grandfather, Scott.” At any rate, for whatever reason, my parents didn’t think “Miriam” sounded “too Jewish” though I have never met a white American in my age group named Miriam who wasn’t Jewish.

12. Do you prefer plastic or fabric bandaids? Definitely fabric, for the flexibility.

13. Do you and your parents share any of the same hobbies? My parents are both deceased, so we don’t currently share any of the same hobbies. But everyone in my family played games and did puzzles. (In fact, my parents bought two copies of the New York Times on weekdays so they could both do the crossword.) And my mother knitted.

14. Have you ever lost something of sentimental value to you? I lost a sapphire ring my grandfather had given to me. It disappeared about 1982 in Berkeley, in an apartment where none of the walls met at right angles. So it’s not like I am ever going to find it again.

15. When was the last time you ran into something? I stumble over books in my condo every now and then if that counts.

16. What is something you'd love to learn? I’d love to be able to play the didgeridoo.

17. Have you ever been bitten by a wild animal? No. I try to avoid wild animals.

18. Are you afraid of any insects? Not really.

19. Is your handwriting easily read? I can write beautifully if I slow down and try really hard, but my normal writing is barely legible even to me.

20. Have you ever went on a road trip? No, but I’ve gone on more than one.

21. What would you love to do every day? Get enough sleep, maybe.

22. Do you prefer candles in jars or candlesticks better? Definitely candlesticks. I have some lovely ones that were my grandmother’s.

23. Do you know self defense? I took a self-defense class when I was in college, but I can’t say I really know much beyond the first things to do being to run away and scream if possible.

24. If you were granted one wish of any kind what would you wish for? The obvious answer is more wishes. Assuming that isn’t allowed, I’d wish for something along the lines of aging in perfect health.

25. What was the last thing you ate? A tuna fish sandwich.

26. When you get to sleep in, what time do you usually wake up? I don’t keep the most regular hours, but I normally wake up about 5 a.m., do puzzles or read for a while, then go back to sleep until about 10 o 11.

27. If you wake up in the middle of a dream do wish you could go back to it? It depends on the dream. I have a lot of dreams related to transportation. I often get better seats than I do in real life, so sure, I wish I could go back to those.

28. What was the first record/CD you purchased? I don’t really remember. I know that a couple of the first 45’s I had include “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond and “Julie, Do Ya Love Me?” by Bobby Sherman. I’m fairly sure that the first LP I had was one by Creedence Clearwater Revival. My mother had a friend who worked at the record factory on the street behind where we lived and she gave it to me. In terms of albums I actually paid for, probably “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor.

29. How many pets have you had in your household at one time? We had two turtles for a while when I was a kid. Other than that, I’ve never had more than one pet at a time.

30. What was the last thing you wrote by hand? I’m in the middle of writing holiday cards.