fauxklore

Two trivia points to anyone (well, anyone except

cahwyguy) who can identify the source of the title of this entry.

I went to Boston the weekend before last. As you may recall, I was originally supposed to be doing the 3-Day Walk that weekend and had made my travel plans accordingly. While I switched the walk to Philadelphia in October, my friend, Suzanne, was still doing the Boston walk, and I figured I should support her in it. The two of us talked Mary Joan, who had never been to Boston, into flying in as well.

I have, of course, spent a lot of time in Boston, so I set up a fairly complicated plan to entertain myself around New England while Suzanne was walking through suburbia and Mary Joan was seeing famous old stuff. After a brief visit and a cup of tea with a storytelling friend from Southern California (who now lives in Alabama and was in town to visit her son in Maryland), I got a Thursday evening flight out of DCA. Remarkably, I managed to get to the airport and get through security fast enough to get stand-by on the shuttle flight an hour earlier than the one I was booked on. It did mean gate checking my bag but the baggage claim US Air uses for the shuttle flights is not too inconvenient. It also meant a middle seat, but it's a short flight.

Suzanne had rented a car and was waiting for Mary Joan, whose flight had been late coming in from LAX, to check into her hotel. Once that was done, she swung by the terminal and picked me up. We managed to find my hotel (the Holiday Inn Express near the Boston Garden, which is intensely adequate but well located) and they dropped me off before going to park the car. I checked in, left my bag, and walked over to the Union Oyster House (allegedly the oldest restaurant in the country) to meet them for dinner. Both of them ate lobster (a first for Mary Joan), while I got scrod (and, no, that isn't the past tense, thank you very much). It was reasonably good and the atmosphere was very enjoyable. As was the company, of course.

Friday morning saw me checking out of the hotel and returning to the airport to pick up a rental car. I drove up to New Hampshire, with vague plans to revisit some places I had not been to in 40+ years. There was a huge rain storm as I was heading north, but it let up just about as I got to Concord. My first order of business was doing the vollksmarch there to add to my state capital obsession. The 10K route was generally pleasant. The Capitol is much less impressive (with a much smaller dome) than I'd remembered. You'd also think that with a legislature roughly the size of India's, they'd have bigger grounds surrounding the facility. The route also included the state office complex (appropriately, on the site of what had once been the state insane asylum) and the Franklin Pierce's grave (and his home).

I'd had a vague notion of driving out to North Sutton and revisiting the shores of Kezar Lake (where I spent a summer at Camp Birchbrook) and/or going over to New London (where we went to the Hospital Day parade and my brother bought the old atlas that started me down the path of travel daydreaming as a child). But I had stopped in at a tourist information center and was reminded of the existence of Canterbury Shaker Village. I have a long standing interest in 19th century Utopian communities, so that seemed worth a stop. I got there just in time to do the docent tour, which is the only way of visiting the interiors of some of the buildings (e.g. the meeting house and the chapel). The thing I found most interesting was that children raised by the Shakers who decided to leave were given clothing and some money to get themselves started in the world. I suppose I probably had heard that before, but it didn't register until I was looking at a placard that referred to one of the orphans at the village deciding to sign the Covenant and become a Shaker. I also learned that the sole living Shaker village (at Sabbathday Lake in Maine) is now up to 5 people, having gotten two converts. By the way, the drive back to I-93 suggested the real origin of the word "Shaker" was their road conditions, not their style of worship.

I spent the night in Hookset (near Manchester), which is convenient and unexciting. In the morning, I drove east to Exeter, where there was another volksmarch to do. That one was mostly around the grounds of Phillips Exeter Academy. The walk was enjoyable but it was definitely a bit hotter out than I'd have preferred.

When I finished, I drove down to Lowell, Massachusetts for the Lowell Folk Festival. I managed to meet up with both

ron_newman and

captain_peleg without too much difficulty. I also got to hear Michael Winograd (Klezmer), Lunasa (Irish) and Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi (from Zimbabwe), all of whom were enjoyable. Mary Joan arrived by train during the latter, but a massive downpour also arrived. We (she, Ron and I) had plans to go to Star Wars night at the Lowell Spinners (minor league baseball) but the game was cancelled. We had dinner at an Asian restaurant before I drove the three back to Boston. The rain was heavy and the lane markings were hard to see, making for a stressful drive. I dropped Ron off near his place, returned the car, pointed Mary Joan to the shuttle to the Blue Line (near her hotel) and headed over to the Cambridge Marriott for the night. That hotel treats me well, but the desk clerk on duty that night had an extremely severe and incomprehensible accent.

The walk was taking Suzanne to a more central location on Sunday morning, so Mary Joan and I met up near Cambridge City Hall to cheer her on. This had been advertised as an official "cheering station" so we expected some sort of signs or balloons or what have you, but there was nothing. We did, however, manage to see (and photograph) her zooming by and applaud for her and so on. After the dust settled, we walked over to the The Friendly Toast for brunch and then hopped the T up to Harvard Square to visit the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. We also had time for a quick look at the rest of the museum. Then we picked up our bags at our respective hotels and went over the Hilton at Logan, planning to leave them and then head over to the closing ceremony for the walk. While we were on our way, Suzanne called. She had finished the walk and didn't want to wait around for the closing ceremony, so was heading over the Hilton. As it happened, our rooms were available, so we just hung out for a while. Eventually we went out to dinner. Sadly, the No Name has deteriorated quite a bit in the years since I had last been there and my scrod was overcooked and bland. Mary Joan and Suzanne also thought their meals were just average.

I had been in New England three entire days without ice cream and needed to remedy that, so bullied my friends into an excursion to Cambridge and the always wonderful Toscanini's. Which is just as wonderful as ever.

All in all, it was a good weekend, except for the Saturday night weather. Now I just have to continue slogging along on preparations for Philadelphia.

As I mentioned briefly in my last entry, I went to Las Vegas last weekend. The trip came about mostly because: 1) I wanted to go somewhere warmish over the holiday weekend and 2) I had a United ecert (a discount certificate given as compensation for a problem on a previous flight) making the fare reasonable.

My flight out was delayed about 45 minutes for a mechanical problem but, as I've said before, I really do prefer that they fix the planes. I had an exit row aisle seat, so I was comfortable enough. The movie was In Time, which involves a futuristic society in which time is literally money. Everybody is genetically engineered not to age past 25 and, on turning 25 a clock goes on in their body (with a count down on it shown on their arm). They can earn or be given more time and the economic barriers become time zones. The rich in New Greenwich are, essentially, immortal, while those in the ghetto of Dayton have to live day by day. A bored rich person gives his time to a ghetto dweller, who is then accused of having murdered the rich guy. The premise is interesting enough and it held my attention, but, overall, I found the movie too violent for my tastes.

I stayed at Harrah's, which was just adequate. I'd gotten a good price, however, and it's not like I spend a lot of time in the room and awake when I'm in Vegas. I spent much of Saturday doing a Volksmarch covering the North Strip. I was surprised at how much demolition had gone on. Presumably this will lead to construction at some point. I should add that the reason it took much of the day (aside from getting a later start than I intended) was that I did stop for a few gambling breaks and a bit of browsing at expensive shops and the like.

Saturday night, I went to see Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show at the Aria. Frankly, this was less impressive than other Cirque shows I've seen. There was one excellent trampoline act, involving guys dressed as superheroes since Elvis allegedly liked comic books. And there was a very impressive aerial act involving a very scantily clad man and woman. But, overall, there was less spectacle and more straightforward dancing than I'd expected or wanted.

I ventured downtown on Sunday in order to see the new Mob Museum. This was a rather mixed bag, with some general history on the rise of organized crime mixed with a lot of Las Vegas specific history. The highlight is the courtroom where the Kefauver hearings were held in the 1950's. They show a film that includes actual footage of the hearings and I found that fairly entertaining. There were also various gruesome elements throughout the museum, including very graphic descriptions (and photos) of mob hits. Overall, I thought they did a fairly good job and it was worth a few hours.

I stayed downtown afterwards, having a disappointing sushi dinner at Island Sushi and Grill and watching part of the Fremont Street light show, as well as gambling at various of the casinos. I should also mention having walked past the Heart Attack Grill, which was in the news recently for someone having actually had a heart attack while eating there. Their gimmick is highly caloric food, with a free meal for anybody who weighs over 350 pounds. And they make their customers put on hospital gowns over their clothes. It escapes me why anybody would find this a good idea. By the way, I also puzzle over the advertised "buffet of buffets," which offers 6 buffets in 24 hours for about $50. Sure, it's cheap. But how could anybody possibly eat a buffet every 4 hours? My brother in his younger days might have been able to, but I'm not sure even he could now.

I had intended to go to the Roman baths at the spa at Caesar's Palace too, but clothing optional spa-going and tampons are a pretty squicky thought, so I left that for a more biologically suitable time.

Overall, I had an enjoyable weekend away and stayed well within my budget. My flight back was actually a connection via Denver. I got upgraded on the LAS-DEN leg, but not DEN-IAD. I should also mention that the movie on that last leg was The Big Year, which I really enjoyed. I'm not a birder (though I have a couple of good friends who are) so I can't testify to the accuracy of the bird information. But I understand the obsessive pursuit of a goal that other people may find incomprehensible, so this story of three men competing to see the most birds in a year resonated with me. It's not an uproarious laughter sort of comedy, but was just warm and quirky.

My usual lengthy format works for me. It's behind a cut to keep from annoying the rest of the world.

( Click here to read on. )

I really didn't intend to go so long without posting here, but life has been hectic.

Celebrity Death Watch: My notes on who to mention go back to Harry Morgan, who had a truly distinctive, immediately recognizable voice. I watched M*A*S*H regularly as a teenager and remember being sad when Col Potter's plane disappeared on his way home.

The literary world offered up the losses of essayist Christopher Hitchens and of Russell Hoban, who wrote some children's books but who I associate primarily with Riddley Walker. The political world has one sad death (Vaclav Havel, bridging the literary world) and one less sad one (Kim Il Jung). The more obscure deaths are those of Jerry Robinson, who created The Joker, and of Erica Wilson, who wrote needlework patterns.

The death I most want to highlight, however, is Cesaria Evora. The "barefoot diva" of Cape Verde had a phenomenal voice and brought a lot of attention to the traditional music of that nation. She was certainly one of the reasons I want to go there. (There are others - Cape Verdeans played a major role in the whaling industry and, hence, New England.) I'm sorry I never got to see her perform live.

Three Sighs for Transportation: I came home from an errand to discover that the right front tire of my car was flat. I'd gotten new tires in April and, thanks to the warranty, that meant getting it fixed at Sears would be nearly free. They told me it would be "an hour and a half to two hours." I came back after two hours (having had breakfast and picked up a couple of things at the adjacent mall) and they hadn't even started on it. In the end, I was there four and a half hours. Sigh.

I've also had a few occasions recently to take the red line of the metro. Single tracking before 9 p.m. on a weekday is annoying. I thought the argument for the weekend shutdowns they've been doing is that they would then not have to single track to do repairs. Sigh.

I also had a frustrating Amtrak trip to New York, with power problems that made the train about an hour late. The delay was not as annoying as the fact that there were no lights while they were doing repairs (at Baltimore). Sigh.

Work: The project that will never end hasn't.

New York: My trip to New York at the beginning of the month was for my 35th high school reunion. The gathering was small but it was good to see the people who were there. I also used the time to do two Volksmarch events in New York City. The midtown walk was, in general, predictable but pleasant enough. The Chelsea / Greenwich Village walk was more interesting, particularly as I had never actually been on the High Line before. It's a good thing I was time constrained as the route passed the Strand Bookstore, which is always potentially dangerous to my budget.

Theatre: I can't go to New York and not go to the theatre. So I saw The Book of Mormon on Broadway. It was lively and funny, albeit a bit crude. It did push some of my buttons about how Africa is portrayed in pop culture, but that is to be expected. I'll also suggest that it is a very bad idea to take a child under about age 15 to see this. But I highly recommend it for thick-skinned adults. (If you liked, say, "Avenue Q," you will enjoy this.)

On a related note, I saw Cannibal: The Musical at Landless Theatre. (It is related via Trey Parker, who also co-created South Park.) There is some lively music and some funny moments (particularly involving the encounter with the Indians) but it was a bit overdone. It turns out, by the way, that Parker got his history mostly correct, but I was still disappointed not to hear a reference to Alferd Packer having eaten the Democratic majority of Summit County.

On a very unrelated note, I saw Billy Elliot at the Kennedy Center on Friday night. As I said on Facebook, it was a good 2 hour musical but is, unfortunately, 3 hours. There is somewhat too much talk for the amount of music. And most of the music is unremarkable. I do think "Solidarity" is powerful and effective and both "Deep Into the Ground" and "He Could Go and He Could Shine" are well done. The piece I hated was "Angry Dance," largely because the volume was so high that my ears were actually ringing through the intermission. The dancing (by Kylend Hetherington the night I saw it) was notable, particularly in the dream sequence when Billy dances to Swan Lake with his older self. But the real show-stopper was Cynthia Darrow as Grandma, an earthy woman indeed.

Finally, I saw Hairspray at Signature Theatre yesterday. I had seen this on Broadway some years ago and wondered how it would be in this much smaller space. The answer is that Signature did their usual excellent job. The songs are catchy, the book is reasonably funny, and the performers looked like they were having fun. So was I.

MAD: There was a talk by Al Jaffee and Mary-Lou Weisman (who wrote a recent biography of him) at the DCJCC on Thursday night. His life was definitely not what one might have expected, having been brought from the U.S. back to her Lithuanian shtetl by his mother when he was 6 and living there until he was rescued by his father six years later. The High School of Music and Arts changed his life - and MAD Magazine made him famous. At age 90, he still writes "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" and does the fold-ins. I feel privileged to have been able to enjoy s much of his work.

Walking: I took an out of town trip (by car for a change) last weekend. I wanted to knock off a few Volksmarch events. I am now just two events away from finishing the America's Gardens programs and one event away from the second Historic Churches book. The events I did were in New Castle, Delaware and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The latter is also qualifies for three other programs (State Capital, Hooray for Hollywood, and Baseball Walks). Both walks were very enjoyable, although the New Castle walk reminded me that uneven brick sidewalks are inherently slow to walk on. The stretch along the Delaware River was a lot faster, though I'm not fond of out and back routing. The Harrisburg walk was slow, too, largely because I am such a compulsive reader of historic signs. I also made time to stop inside the Capitol, which is domed and has a spectacular rotunda. All in all, it was a pleasant weekend and a good way to take advantage of lovely fall weather.

The Week: In addition to work, I had an AMITA Happy Hour to go to on Tuesday night. It is always good to converse with intelligent people, but the place where it was held was annoyingly loud and I left with a mild headache. \

Anne Sheldon was telling stories and reading poems in Friendship Heights on Wednesday night. I like to support these events when I can. I particlarly liked her poem about Rumpelstiltskin.

I also did a lot of work. Some of it was the sort of stuff I am even good at, namely learning rapidly enough about a subject to explain it to senior leadership.

Public service announcement: I had to bite my tongue and not correct someone very senior on this, but I can write it here. The word "ephemerides," which is the plural of "ephemeris" has 5 syllables. That is, it is "eff em err i deez" not "eff em e rides." Yes, really. Blame the Greeks.

Assassins: I saw Assassins at St. Mark's Church on Friday night. I've come to the conclusion that the major problem with community theatre is sound systems with excessive bass. Once again, several of the performers could not be heard over the orchestra. But it is a musical I know well, so not being able to hear every word was not as critical as it might be. I was impressed by Chad Wheeler as Charles Guiteau and Justin latus as John Hinkley. The weakest performance was WIll Emory's as the Balladeer (and Lee Harvey Oswald). I thought that some of the other performances were a bit overdone, but am not sure whether to blame the actor or director in those csses. At any rate, it was worth seeing but I'm not sure that it would sell somebody on the show if they were not already familiar with it.

Tellebration: Last night was Tellebration. This is an evening of storytelling (for adults) all over the world. Voices in the Glen put on our event at Kensington Row Bookshop and had six tellers. I thought the highlight was Geraldine Buckley's personal story about scattering her father's ashes. There was an interesting mix of stories (whcih I might have arranged ina different order, but that is the MC's privilege) and a good turnout. I can't ask for more than that.

A Second Chance: I saw A Second Chance at Signature Theatre this afternoon. This is a new show and I'd call it more of a song cycle than a musical. It's about two people - Jenna and Daniel - who meet and fall in love. Jenna is divorced and looking for her ideal man, while Daniel is recently widowed and not sure he is ready for a new relationship. The book is witty enough (in a very New York way) and the music was pleasant enough, but not a lot really happens. Obviously, a two person show like this does a lot to balance the budget. The chemistry between the performers was helpful, by the way, probably because Brian Sutherland and Diane Sutherland are an actual married couple. I don't think I'd call this essential, but it is nice to have a chance to see new musical works. (This did have a previous concert version in New York, so it doesn't completely qualify as new, but close enough.)

Insight: If you are looking for insight into systems engineering failures, you might as well start with reading Lewis Carroll.

Did You Ever Notice? There is a claim that deaths come in threes. We can start with Andy Rooney, who retired only shortly before his death. Then there was Joe Frazier, whose personal significance is that my very first gambling venture ever was a (successful) bet on him to defeat Ali in their first contest. I was in junior high at the time and I've made remarkably few sports bets since. Finally, there was Bil Keane, who drew the Family Circus cartoon. Admittedly, my taste in cartoons is edgier (check out Wondermark for example) but, again, longevity is worth noting.

Concerto for Coughing and Paper Rustling: Last Thursday night was a Pro Musica Hebraica concert. I go to this series mostly because I want to support having a series of Jewish classical musical. This session was The Last Romantics: Jewish Composers of Interwar Europe. Not being a big fan of romanticism, my primary interest was that several of the composers involved were responsible for trying to develop an Israeli musical culture. There's an interesting question lurking there. Namely, what does it take to create a new national musical identity when the nation is formed from groups that have had disparate traditions (both eastern and western)? I'm pondering whether there is somebody trying to develop a South Sudanese music distinct from other Sudanese music (which I assume is primarily Nubian, but I admit to ignorance).

At any rate, I enjoyed parts of the concert. My favorite piece was Alexander Weprik's "Chant Rigoureux, Op. 9". I also really liked "Two Paraphrases on Old Jewish Folk Tunes" by Juliusz Wolfsohn. What I didn't like was the constant coughing and paper rustling of the two elderly women sitting behind me. At least they didn't have cell phones on.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Contrary to popular belief, I don't have an aversion to Shakespeare. I just never seem to get to Shakespeare plays. So I will leave it as an exercise for the reader whether or not to count The Boys From Syracuse at Shakespeare Theatre Company last Friday night. This is the Rodgers & Hart adaptation of A Comedy of Errors, which I've never seen because the only Shakespeare play I have actually seen (in its straight up version) is Measure for Measure. I've never read it either (or, come to think of it, any of the comedies) so I take it as an article of faith that the plot is true to the original. At any rate, this production was more staged than most concert musicals are and was very satisfying to see. The major issue I have is that I'm still infected with the earworm of "This Can't Be Love."

Arlington Puzzle Festival: Saturday was the first ever Arlington Puzzle Festival at the Central Library. It was fun, though things could have been somewhat better organized. For example, the talks started at 8:30 a.m. (which was on a schedule linked to from the library blog) but most events calendars (e.g. the one in the Washington Post) listed things as starting at 9. The more significant schedule glitch from my perspective is that they rearranged the afternoon activities without announcing that beforehand. I had finished the scavenger hunt and did not want to stay for the sudoku contest, but found I'd missed the prize drawing for the scavenger hunt when I came back.

My main reason for going was the crossword contest, which used the Monday through Thursday NY Times puzzles for this week. (That is, advance copies of them.) There was another screw-up in that they messed up the order of the puzzles. That threw me off as the first one they handed out did not feel like a Monday puzzle. (I made a dumb error because of being unsure about spelling of a name, but that is probably unrelated.) At any rate, I ended up overall finishing 10th out of the 53 competitors, which is respectable enough.

Arlington Volksmarch: If the weather had been dreary, I might have stayed for the suduko contest, but it was nice out and I was in the neighborhood of the starting point for the Arlington Volksmarch. This covered several parks and trails and was a lovely walk for this time of year. It would be nice to go to the Bon-Air Rose Garden when it's actually rose season, of course. But I am a big fan of autumn and got my fill thereof. I've got four more Gardens walks to do, with plans for two this weekend.

Welcome to the Workweek: Work is busy. It is better to be too busy than not busy enough. My major irritation was with Tuesday night's commute. There was an accident on 395, messing everything up. The 4:30 bus didn't show up until just before 5, so became the 5 o'clock bus by default. And then the driver decided to finesse the situation by taking a convoluted route which took an hour for what is normally a half hour drive. I was glad I'd gone to vote first thing in the morning.

I did a Volksmarch at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton last Sunday. It was lovely (and the weather was perfect) but the directions were confusing. They were also impossible to follow even where they weren't confusing since the fragrance garden was closed (for a wedding), but it wasn't hard to improvise around that. Five more garden walks to go. I'd hoped to do one or two this weekend, but it looks like I am too busy.

After I got back from that, I drove over to the Cinema Arts Theatre and saw Moneyball. Baseball economics is an unlikely subject for a movie, but iit worked, largely because the focus was on the people more than anything else. I enjyoyed the movie and one of these days I should really get around to reading the book.

An even more unlikely subject for entertainment is the Leo Frank case, but that is exactly what the musical, Parade is about. It's currently at Ford's Theatre and I went to see it Wednesday night. There is a personal resonance to the material for me, being Jewish and having a lot of relatives in the Atlanta area. From what (admittedly little) I know of the story, the show seemed accurate. Frank, the superintendent of a pencil factory, was accused of murdering a girl who worked at the factory and convicted out of anti-Semitism rather than evidence. His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment, but a mob broke into the prison where he was being held and lynched him.

The most important aspect of musicals to me is the music and I was reasonably pleased with Jason Robert Brown's score. Not every song is brilliant, but there are enough powerful moments to make it worth listening to. It helped that Euan Morton (as Leo Frank) and Jenny Fellner (as Lucille Frank) gave fine performances. The really impressive musical performance, however, was by Matthew John Kacergis as Frankie Epps (and as the Young Solider in the opening scene). I also thought James Konicek gave an excellent performance as Hugh Dorsey, the Attorney General who railroaded Frank.

Overall, I found this to be an entertaining and thought provoking evening, despite a book that needed editing. If it were a half hour shorter, it would be an even stronger show.

Convidence was this year's National Puzzlers' League convention. As the pun suggests, it was held in Providence, Rhode Island. For a number of reasons, I flew up on Thursday afternoon, instead of Wednesday evening. I had a unique and bizarre experience with the flight up. United uses the same gate at Dulles for multiple express flights. They announced that the Providence flight would be delayed due to a mechanical problem and boarded a Syracuse flight. Then they took everybody off the Syracuse flight because they had actually loaded them onto the wrong plane and theirs was the one with the mechanical problem.

Still, I got to Providence safely enough. My next fiasco was my own fault as I made the dubious decision to try taking the train from the airport to Kennedy Plaza. What I didn't know was that the train doesn't run in the middle of the day. There are three trains in the morning and three in the evening, but nothing from 7:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. I ended up taking a bus which was cheap but slow. At that point, I was grumpy enough to just take a taxi the last mile or so to the hotel.

Thursday evening started off with introductions, in which people told their nom, where they are from, and how they heard about the NPL. That was rather lengthier than desirable, but so be it. Then came a couple of games. The first, a mixer, involved switching off with various people to form words with the best Scrabble scores. You had three letters, your partner had three, and one was given that you could use. There was also one already placed on the card that you had to use, which limited the possibilities quite a bit. It was reasonably entertaining. That was followed by a team game which involved choosing words to fit given categories, with the constraint that no word in a set could use letters used in another word in that set. That's the sort of thing that I think often makes a better solo puzzle than a group activitiy.

The best part of con for me is the after hours unofficial games. I played Only Connect, a very difficult but entertaining trivia game. The two teams were pretty much neck and neck until the end, though mine ended up losing. After that came a few Jeopardy games.

jeffurrynpl always puts on an excellent game and this was no exception. His "Children's Literature Before and After" category was especially amusing, though it is harder to buzz in when you can't stop laughing. I followed that with two of Noam's Jeopardy games which were also fun, though not as twisted.

Friday had free time for sightseeing. I had more faith in the weather than I should have and decided that, while rain was a good reason not to go to Newport, it would still be okay to do the Providence Volksmarch. The walk consisted of two 5K loops, which I did in the opposite order of how the directions were written for reasons that will not make sense to anyone other than me. It started out fine and I still think Benefit Street has to be one of the nicest urban walks in the country, but the drizzle turned to torrential downpour just about as I got to Wickendam Street. Fortunately, it was a good time to stop for lunch and I had a delicious falafel wrap at a cafe there. The rain had let up as I left and I confidently strolled along, heading up towards the Brown University campus. The checkpoint for that leg of the walk was a market where I chatted a bit with the owner. Not long after leaving, the next downpour came. There wasn't any particularly handy shelter until I got up to the Brown University Bookstore, which really ought to have umbrella bags so people don't have to feel quite so guilty about dripping all over the floor. At any rate, I had time for a nice browse before the rain let up enough for me to continue the walk. The other loop was basically along the river walk and around the State House. All in all, it was a nice route, but I'd suggest doing it in better weather. It did serve its purpose though as I not only got some much needed exercise, but was able to finish the Artistic Heritage special program.

Friday night's puzzles started with one called "Polar Coordinates" which involved guessing which of two fill-in-the-blank answers would be more popular. I suspect some generational bias in the results. Apparently nobody goes out on a date any more, though they still go out on limbs. That was followed by a team trivia game in which each member of a team of three had to supply one of the answers in a category. The catch was that no verbal communication was allowed. Most teams went for people holding up fingers to indicate how many of the answers they knew. My favorite question of the bunch had to do with naming the three European languages, other than Spanish and Portuguese, which are official languages on the South American mainland. (By the way, I don't think that specifying the mainland was strictly necessary, but specifying European languages obviously was.) The final official event was an elaborate video, with amazing production values, that included five flats. (Flats are basically word puzzles in verse. There are a lot of types of them. Fortunately this was limited to a few types of flats, all of which were explained well, and (more significantly) are types I can actually do.) This was very cute and a good end to the evening.

The unofficial events on Friday night started with a trivia game called Million Point Score Drop. This was a team game and involved judging how confident one was of the answers, so had some team dynamic issues to resolve. It was fun, but not something I would necessarily go out of my way for. After that came an opportunity to play Learned League Live. I'd been introduced to this last year in Seattle and liked the range of trivia subjects and the game dynamics which have a strong element of defense. It proved to be my triumphant moment of con, as I actually went completely undefeated. Most of that was because other people did not do super well at guessing what I would and wouldn't know, while I managed to play defense well. (The play would feel quite different were one playing people one knows well.) While I'd like to play Learned League on-line, it requires you to have internet access every weekday and I can't be sure of that. (For example, I have no idea what connectivity is like in Torshaven, Faroe Islands. I do, alas, know what it is like - or, more precisely, isn't - in Belo Sur Tsiribinha, Madgascar.) I should also mention that a lot of the odder things I know, I know because of song lyrics. Were it not for the Stan Rogers song, "Northwest Passage," I'd never have known the Beaufort Sea, for example.

I finished out the evening with Doubles Jeopardy, a partnered version that I did considerably less well at. (Not terribly, but not brilliantly.) At that point, it had somehow become 4 a.m. and I figured it was wise to go to bed some time before the hour I normally get up at.

After sleeping well but too quickly, it was time for breakfast, followed by the business meeting. The most important things to note are that next year's con is in Portland, Oregon and 2013 will be in Austin, Texas. I will probably make a week or so of real vacation out of the former, since there are other things I'd like to do in that area.

The afternoon puzzles included one that involved filling in consonants in response to clues for answers which used each vowel exactly one and one that involved crossword answers divided into two parts which had to be matched to find where to enter the answer in the grid. (I am sure I am not explaining that well.) These are the sort of thing that can just as well be done as a handout, but were still fun. The main Saturday afternoon event was the flat competition. I ended up with a group of about 5 people. I was sure I'd be completely useless, but that proved not to be the case, as there were a few I was able to see right off.

After a brief break for the group photo, I went off to play Rhode Island Jeopardy. This was extremely weird and entertaining. For example, one round involved a spelling bee with the names of H. P. Lovecraft's elder gods. I didn't do particularly well, but I had a lot of fun.

After dinner came the Saturday night extravaganza. This is a series of interlocked puzzles. Fortunately, my team worked well together, with everybody contributing. There are two types of teams - runners, who are really racing, and strollers, who want to take a more casual approach and work all the puzzles. I go for the latter and we managed to be the fourth of the stroller teams to finish. The main thing I want to say is how much I admire the ingenuity of Mike Shenck, who wrote the puzzles. I can't imagine how much work went into something that is just a labor of love.

I didn't actually play any after hours games on Saturday night, though I did watch some of another game of Rhode Island Jeopardy. That meant I got an almost respectable amount of sleep. So I didn't doze through breakfast or the Sunday awards ceremony. After that, it was off to the airport and the flight delay of the day. (Though, in this case, not for any particular reason I could discern, or at least not for a bizarre one).

I am, alas, not caught up at home yet. In fact, I have not even touched last week's Sunday crosswords yet, never mind this week's. So there are things I must do. But next July, I shall return to the field of trivia. Be very afraid. (And maybe by next year, I will have actually learned what that's a quote from.)

Cleaning out my old office was, not surprisingly, quite a chore. I ended up filling 29 burn bags. (Everything gets burned or shredded there. The hard part is, of course, deciding what goes out and what to leave for whoever backfills me.)

Then I went to Colorado for the weekend to go to a big party friends there have annually. The travel went amazingly smoothly (in both directions) and it was great to spend time having intelligent conversation with people I like. (Which is not really all that unusual, but a few of these folks I do not see often.) I also had time for the shorter (5K) Volksmarch in downtown Boulder, which has changed less than I might have expected given how long it had been since I'd been there. Overall, it was an excellent weekend.

Getting started at the new job is stressing me out, however. The people are fine and I am sure I will be useful sooner or later, but there are lots of administrative things that are taking longer than I'd prefer. I am also trying to deal with a higher than normal level of chaos at home and my usual crazy calendar. I am coping with this via a minor flurry of activity since doing something is pretty much the antidote to depression for me. I may be able to see my desk again soon.

I haven't been posting for a good reason. I was in Alaska.

This was actually a business trip, mostly. The Small Payload Rideshare Conference is an activity I've been involved in for a while, since things like hosted payloads and optimizing launch opportunities for operationally responsive space have been well within my job jar. There was a kerfuffle with my government boss over my going to Anchorage this time, largely because she doesn't quite understand how travel funding for non-government employees works. (It is built into our cost, not part of her travel budget.) But I talked about it with the person who directs the space access area (which is complicated because that person is leaving at the end of this week and I am leaving at the end of the month) and decided it was worth going. And, while I won't write much about the conference itself, I do think I learned some valuable things out of it.

Since it takes nearly an entire day to get from here to there, I arranged the flights to spend more time in Anchorage. Going out, I was routed through San Francisco and Seattle. The flight to San Francisco was delayed by about 2 1/2 hours (due to weather there) but, as I had a 4 hour layover, I was okay. The flight to Seattle ended up being about a half hour late, as the crew arrived late (again, due to the weather). I still ended up getting to Anchorage pretty much on time - some 21 hours after leaving my house. (That does count the time driving to Dulles and waiting there, of course.)

I'd booked two nights at the Courtyard by Marriott near the Anchorage airport. This was perfectly comfortable and convenient, with a reasonably efficient airport shuttle service. I didn't have time to get a lot of sleep the first night, as I'd booked flights to and from Juneau to check off another state capital. I took a taxi downtown and found the starting point for the Juneau volksmarch. The route went past the architecturally unimpressive capitol building, before climbing up above downtown on quite a steep route to Basin Road, where it leveled off and let me catch my breath. That road proved to be a lovely walk up to the foot of the Perseverance Trail and Last Chance Mining Museum. It started raining as I was walking back down, which was okay as I had brought a rain jacket along. The rest of the route went over to Douglas and through more of downtown. I spent some time in the state museum, which had an interesting exhibit on headgear in Alaskan culture. Then I had time for browsing shops and eating a leisurely meal before heading back to the airport and back to Anchorage.

I changed hotels to the Hilton downtown (here the conference was held) the next day. I spent some time working but did get out to walk around downtown for a while. The Hilton could use a big investment in sound proofing by the way. Between train whistles from the station a couple of blocks away and assorted people noises from neighboring rooms, I slept poorly there.

Then came two days of conference presentations (plus working on other things at night - not exactly a relaxing week). Next was the conference highlight - a day trip to the Kodiak Launch Complex. We left the Hilton by bus at 5 a.m. and were all boarded on the plane when we discovered we'd be delayed due to weather on Kodiak. We eventually left a little over two hours late and arrived even later since the pilot had two missed landings and had to go around another way to get us on the ground. But we did get there and then had an hour bus ride to the launch range at Narrow Cape. Along the way, we saw a couple of eagles, one deer, and a lot of the local ranch animals (horses, cattle, bison) - but no bears. Fortunately, we'd found out our return flight would also be delayed, so we were still able to get the full tour of the range. We did have to walk up eight flights of stairs at the launch pad, as the elevator was not working, so I also got my exercise for the day. Most significantly, we saw the Minotaur IV rocket in the integration facility and the satellite it is going to launch later this year. Overall, I was favorably impressed with their facilities.

Before we left, they fed us a late barbecue lunch - with a choice of tri-tip steak, chicken or halibut, along with various salads. We finally made it back to Anchorage at about 7:30 p.m. and to the Hilton about 45 minutes later, as there had been some confusion over where our buses were waiting. A few people were flying out that night and I hope they made their flights.

I still had to get up early on Friday morning as I was taking a day trip to Seward, with a cruise to Kenai Fjords National Park. The Alaska Railroad people say to be at the train station an hour before the train, which is not really necessary. Still, I managed to check out of the Hilton, store my bags there, and walk down to the station to be there in plenty of time to not only get my ticket (and cruise voucher) but get coffee and a muffin. The train was comfortable enough and provides tour guide commentary along the way, with the guides pointing out lots of wildlife (dall sheep, moose, an eagle feeding her eaglets, even a couple of black bears). The cruise I took was on Major Marine and proved to be excellent. We saw porpoises, orcas, humpback whales, a sea otter, harbor seals, stellar sea lions, and lots of birds (including a few puffins). I was also impressed by our time at the Holgate Glacier, watching and listening to it calving icebergs. The connection to the train back was uncomfortably tight, but we did make it. No moose on the way back, but there were more bears. Overall, it was quite a nice day.

I retrieved my bags from the Hilton and walked a short half block to the Historic Anchorage Hotel. (It is easier to keep the business and personal travel separately if you switch hotels.) This was nicer than the Hilton and much much quieter. I did a downtown Anchorage volksmarch in the morning, then checked out the weekend marketplace (a mix of farmer's market, crafts market, and tacky souvenirs) before checking out and heading to the airport. My flight to San Francisco was a little late, but not a big deal as I had a long enough layover there before the red eye home. Fortunately, I was upgraded on both legs, so did get some sleep. I was also reasonably lucky with my luggage coming fairly quickly and the shuttle bus to the parking lot coming right away.

I spent Sunday napping and doing a few errandy things. About 1 a.m. the inevitable side effect of a sleep deprivation hit and I started coughing badly. So I've been home yesterday and today with a cold. Sigh.

I did a quick trip to Nashville this weekend. There were two reasons for the trip - checking off another state capital and going to a Jimmy Buffett concert. It's an easy enough flight down, but Dulles was chaos, largely due to the new United boarding process (i.e. the Continental boarding by row process, instead of the United process of boarding by zone which umpty ump studies have found to be significantly more efficient). Still, one has low expectations for express flights and they were met.

I managed to find the public bus from the airport to downtown, which costs just $1.60 and it was pretty straightforward to walk to the Renaissance Hotel from the bus terminal. I checked in, changed into shorts and sneakers and walked over to the Comfort Inn (just under a mile away) which is the starting point for the Volksmarch events. There are actually two Nashville year round walks. I picked up both maps and decided what made the most sense was to do the University walk on Saturday and the downtown walk on Sunday. I was actually dividing the routes slightly differently, as I had walked from downtown to the Comfort Inn, but it came out to covering exactly the same stuff, without making me re-walk a particularly boring stretch of Demonbreun Street.

The University walk covered Music Row (where all the recording studios are), Vanderbilt University, Belmont Mansion, and Centennial Park. I'd have enjoyed it more had I not tripped on a bit of cracked sidewalk and skinned my knee on the way up to Belmont Mansion. (No real injury, but annoying.) And the searing heat did not really aid the enjoyment either. Still, there were a few bits of nice architecture (e.g. Belmont Mansion and the Parthenon) and it gave me a chance to see a fair amount of the less central part of the city. By the way, there were a lot of cicadas (presumably the 13 year ones) in the park. This proved to be significant later on.

Back at the hotel, I showered, napped, and reminded myself how blessed I am to live in the era of air conditioning. Then I braved the crowds on Broadway, where there was a free block party (associated with the Jimmy Buffett concert). I ate supper at a classic dive - Paradise Park Trailer Park Resort, which makes a perfectly adequate grilled cheese sandwich and tater tots. Like The Varsity in Atlanta and Texas Tavern in Roanoke, Virginia, the point of these sorts of places is atmosphere. Then it was over to the Bridgestone Arena for the concert.

As far as the venue goes, it had its plusses and minuses. On the plus side, I had a seat which, while in the nosebleed section, had a view straight on the stage. On the minus side, there was a group of drunk frat boys behind me, one of whom spilled half a beer on me and did not even bother to apologize. On the very minus side, a margarita (in a plastic cup no less) costs 9 bucks. But it was the right thing to drink under the circumstances, especially as the beer wasn't much cheaper and the selection ran to Bud Lite or Miller Lite.

The concert itself was fine. You can see the set list and judge for yourself. He did several of my favorites ("Volcano" - yes! - and, even though it isn't his, my love for "Southern Cross" knows no boundaries). He was also joined on stage by Kenny Chesney, who made the girls in the row in front of me squeal and jump up and down. All in all, I had a good enough time to think it was worth going to.

It was even hotter Sunday as I did the downtown / capital walk. Trudging up the hill from the Bicentennial Mall back up to the state capitol was particularly exhausting in the heat and humidity. The public buildings look suitably grand, but it doesn't look like downtown Nashville is thriving other than the bar scene. At the end of the route, I went into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but balked at paying $20 for the museum so just hung out in their store and cafe. Air conditioning - ahh!

I retrieved my bag and headed back to the bus station and on to the airport. At first, it looked like my flight might be as much as 2 hours and 45 minutes late, but it turned out to be just about 45 minutes. (I am assuming the weather in Chicago was to blame, as it seemed to be disrupting a lot of flight schedules.) Remember the cicadas I mentioned in Centennial Park? Well, they are at the airport too and, as this was an express flight boarding from the tarmac rather than a jet bridge, the poor flight attendant had to try to fend them off as people boarded. She was waving a magazine at them furiously, until she accidentally tossed it down the airplane steps! I doubt that cicada-cide is part of the training that the airlines give their crew nowadays.

As for today, it has been devoted to sleep and housework. And I need to get back to the latter.

I've been up to lots of things, but writing here has not been one of them. However, today I revised my master list of things to do (an elaborate affair involving graph paper, categories and pens in multiple colors) and writing an entry here will let me cross off something. (Of course, I remembered something else I need to add, so it's not a lot of progress, but still ...)

Celebrity Death Watch: Obviously, the big recent celebrity death was Osama bin Laden. I'll admit to being glad, but I'm also uncomfortable with extrajudicial killing. And I have definite mixed feelings about the burial at sea. Overall, I'd have preferred a trial, execution, and unmarked grave, but we could have done a lot worse. The thing I am puzzled about is why some people said that the affair made them proud to be American. What was uniquely American about the whole thing?

I'll also repeat that I consider terrorism to be like a hydra. Cutting off the head doesn't kill the creature.

Other deaths are ones I am considerably sadder about. Two involved Broadway luminaries. Marian Mercer was an actress who won a Tony for Promises, Promises. And Arthur Laurents wrote the book of West Side Story. But the most significant was in the realm of science. Jerry Lettvin was a true original, one of the best known people on campus in my days at MIT. He was a colorful character and a great inspiration to many students. I didn't know him well, but I felt richer for having known him at all.

Dear U.S. Airways: Days start at midnight. If I am searching for a flight on June 27th at 12:40 a.m., please don't second guess me and show me a flight on June 28th. I did not catch this until after I clicked "buy." Fortunately, I called immediately and could, therefore, cancel since the ticket price on the right day was not worth taking a redeye for.

Product Mockery: While grocery shopping the other day, I saw bags of pre-peeled, hard boiled eggs. I despair for my people.

Tall Tale Contest: I drove to Roanoke on Saturday for the 2nd Annual Virginia Tall Tales Competition. There were nine contestants. Mac Swift won, with an excellent piece (which I had heard him tell before) about his uncle's desire for a flat farm. 11-year-old Olivia Merryman came in second with a piece involving how video games saved her life. Linda Goodman was third with an unusual encounter on a dark road (and an atrocious pun). And Anthony Burcher got the audience choice award with his spooneristic version of the Tower of Babel. For those who care, I told "Why I'm Not a Millionaire." It was all a lot of fun. The evening show had Bil Lep headlining, along with music by Ryan and Paul Little. Much to my relief, the Littles turned out to play jazz and not country music, which is always a risk in that part of the state. Overall, a great day.

Roanoke Walk: Since it is such a long drive (about 4 hours), I stayed overnight in Roanoke and did a volksmarch in the morning. The route went through downtown Roanoke (a bit depressed, but the market square has some life still), the Old Southwest historic district, and greenways along the Roanoke River. It was pleasant enough, though not as exciting as it might be. Still, I appreciated the exercise before the schlep home.

And now I can go and work on some of the other 50+ items on my to-do list.

Last weekend, I took a quick pre-Pesach trip to Reno. Why Reno? Well, it's a convenient base for visiting Carson City and I wanted to check off another state capital.

The first leg of my trip was delayed quite a bit, but I'd scheduled a long layover in Denver, so that wasn't an issue. The Denver to Reno flight actually got in a bit early. I was soon reminded of why I had vowed not to rent cars with Budget any more. Is it really all that hard to get the amount of the taxes correct when you make the reservation? Rental car taxes irritate me to begin with and, while I can afford it, I'd have liked to know up front that the tax was 36%, not 21%. And, of course, I had the usual argument to get the small car I'd reserved. In these days of high gas prices that's a big deal. (Besides which, 2/3 of the parking spots at the hotel were for compact cars. Not that that stops anybody from parking their large cars and taking up two of them, but that's another rant.)

Anyway, downtown Reno is just a few miles from the airport and I had no trouble finding the Silver Legacy. It was late at night, but I still did a quick round of the casino before bedtime.

In the morning, I drove down to Carson City, a pleasant half hour or so drive. I stopped along the way for breakfast at Peg's Glorified Ham and Eggs, which someone had recommended to me. It was a good recommendation and I had a lovely mushroom and spinach omelet which was enough food to last me until dinnertime. The Volksmarch route in Carson City started out through a pleasant enough, but not particularly special, residential neighborhood. I far preferred the part of the route through downtown. That pretty much followed the Kit Carson trail and included the Capitol and various historic buildings. The city was, apparently, only named for Kit Carson at second hand. That is, it was named for the Carson River, which was named for him.

The Capitol itself is a sandstone building, and has what I'd call a cupola rather than a proper dome. According to their historical brochure, it used to have an elliptical dome but it was removed during a 1977 renovation because bats nested there and swooped down on unsuspecting tourists. (Presumably the bats also swooped down on state officials, but they expected it.) There's a frieze on the first floor, depicting various minerals mined in Nevada. There are also the usual portraits of governors. The second floor has a small museum. The most interesting item there is part of the rope used for a particularly well-attended hanging the same day that Mark Twain was giving a just as well-attended lecture.

Other interesting buildings in the historic area included a few churches, the governor's mansion, and several 19th century houses. One of those belonged to Orion Clemens, Mark Twain's brother. There's a sign outside which stretches that connection a bit and refers to it as "Mark Twain's house." (He did visit there, but he was a newspaper reporter in Virginia City at the time.)

Overall the walk was enjoyable, but the 6K route would have actually been a better choice than the 11K, as it would have skipped the less interesting area. I found the same true of the Volksmarch I did in Reno the next day, where the additional distance of the 10K vs. 6K route was pretty much just more parkland along the Truckee River. Again, it was pleasant enough, but there was nothing especially interesting. (The 6K route was mostly out and back along the river, too, but did at least feature a few historic buildings and a rose garden, though this is obviously not the right time of year for it.) Finally, I did a walk in Sparks. That one circled the Sparks Marina before walking through some especially boring residential neighborhoods to Victorian Square. I can see the appeal of the route if you live in the area, but it has little of touristic interest. I should probably have done the Virginia City walk instead.

In addition to walking, I went to a minor league ball game, in which the Reno Aces were clobbered by the Colorado Spring Sky Sox. You can't really beat being able to walk up at the last minute and get a seat on the 1st base line for under 20 bucks. The Aces seem to have some pretty enthusiastic fans - possibly more so than their parent team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. By the way, Wily Mo Pena, who has played for both the Red Sox and the Nationals, was playing for them.

And, of course, I did do some gambling. Reno was the site of my very first casino visit ever, a middle of the night stop on the Green Tortoise coast to coast bus I took back in 1982. I played nickel slots and lost 2 bucks. I lost a little more this time, though I still stayed within my budget. As I have probably mentioned before, I look at gambling as entertainment. I expect to lose and the question is how long I can entertain myself on a set amount of money. If I wanted to get rich by gambling, I'd have to run the game.

The trip back was uneventful and then I threw myself into Pesach. Now I need to throw myself into catching up on the household paperwork I ignored because I was cleaning for Pesach.

Most of this delay was because one of the things I did this past weekend was take some pictures. See, there was a Volksmarch to celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival and I braved the unwashed masses of tourists to walk around D.C. with a camera for a change. It was a particularly enjoyable walk, across the mall, around the tidal basin, and up to the Botanic Gardens and the Capitol.

After that route, I made my way over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and (finally) took some pictures of the completed Smithsonian Community Coral Reef. I added them to my coral reef set on Flickr.

I was intending to insert some photos here, but that function doesn't seem to be working, presumably due to the DDOS attack.

I came home and got some errands done, then went to a story swap in the evening. I used that as an opportunity to rehearse one of my stories for the Kensington Row Story Salon. There was the usual wide range of material and good conversation over snacks afterwards. Ralph is championing the need to revive the art of narrative poetry and we discussed that, which led to talking about sequels. That, in turn, led to a discussion of Flanders and Swann.

The major event of Sunday was seeing And the Curtain Rises at Signature Theatre. This is the most recent product of the American Musical Voices Project, which funds the development of new musicals. The story involves the development of the first American musical, The Black Crook in 1866. The show starts as a dreadful melodrama, Return to Black Creek but the producer takes advantage of a ballet troupe (living in the theatre after being burned out of their own venue) to create a spectacle. There are a few love stories woven in. The show was reasonably diverting, with a few genuinely funny moments, but the music was utterly forgettable. Still, it's good to encourage new musicals to be written and, with some work, this could be a nice second tier show, i.e. the sort of thing that gets done by summer stock companies and high schools.

By the way, I renewed my subscription to Signature for next season.

As for the week, I've been surprisingly productive at work during most of it. Yesterday was the exception. Because I was telling stories in Kensington after work, I drove in to work. And Neptune decided he needed new shoes about halfway to the office. That is, my car (called Neptune because it's a blue-green Saturn and I am a space geek) got a flat. Fortunately, I was reasonably near Sears. And I knew I was going to need new tires soon, so I just got all 4 replaced. Given that Neptune is 17+ years old and the previous tires were only the second set, I can't complain too much. (I also got new front brake pads, while I was at it. I knew that was coming up soon and I figured it was easiest to do it while the tires were already off.) This is why I have a reserve in my budget for contingencies.

I also had a return of my phone issues at work. In short, our building manager has now managed to disconnect my phone twice. While there is an advantage to the phone not ringing, there are times when I need to call people and it is a lot more convenient to do it from my own desk. At least this time, she knew how to fix it herself and didn't have to wait three days for Verizon to come out.

Then there was the joy of driving to Kensington after work. I have finally figured out how to get there without getting lost. (Let's just say that Arlington road signs leave something to be desired.) But there was an accident on the GW Parkway and another slog on the Beltway. All of the times I've gotten lost getting to Jane's house actually helped me there, since I knew how to get across Bethesda on surface streets. That was important since it also let me buy gas. And I got to Kensington on time.

The storytelling went fine. Liz started, with a mixture of personal stories and Hindu myth, plus other snippets about creating stories. I attempted to be seasonal, with a bad pun involving baseball. I followed that with my piece about my father's less than literal translations of the Passover Haggadah. Then I did some material from my "Fortune, Fools, and Fowl" program. That included an Armenian folk tale, a Bill Greenfield story, "Why I'm Not a Millionaire" and a couple of short poems about chickens. And, yes, I had my rubber chicken out, as sort of a prop, though there was not really a good place to put it. Overall, I had lots of fun and got laughs in the right places (and groans in appropriate ones).

All of my good intentions about regular updates seem to fall prey to being absurdly busy.

Last Friday, I had planned to get out of the house bright and early. But I wanted to do two things before leaving - 1) write an entry here and 2) finish the minutes from the Voices in the Glen annual meeting. This was slightly complicated by my internet going down in the middle of the first of those. My phone had no dial tone, too, so I got out the cell phone and called Verizon's customer service. The good news is that unplugging everything and plugging it back in fixed the problem. The bad news is that the customer service representative didn't suggest that until 40 minutes into the call, around when she was telling me they couldn't get a technician out to my place until Thursday morning. (Yes, nearly a week.) Still, things were fixed and I ended up leaving the house just about two hours later than I'd planned to. (The other hour and 20 minutes is because I had underestimated how long I needed to actually finish writing those meeting minutes. Also, despite how much I travel, I still seem to end up packing last minute. And I still managed to forget something I intended to bring with me.)

Eventually I got out the door and headed west. Taking the day off had been a very good idea since the traffic was minimal and I made it to Harrisonburg in just over two hours. That gave me time to do the Volksmarch there. The walking route took in the historic downtown (pretty much like every other historic downtown in Virginia) and parts of the James Madison University campus. In particular, the campus part went to the arboretum, which was lovely except for the part when I couldn't quite figure out the directions and walked an extra kilometer or so. The weather was gorgeous and I'd have liked more time to linger over the route. As it was, I had to restrain my usual compulsive reading of historic signs.

It's just a short ways to the Massanetta Springs Conference Center, where the Virginia Storytelling Gathering was being held. On the way, I made a quick grocery stop and bought chocolate for the white elephant gift basket the Virginia Storytelling Alliance board was putting together. (My basket contribution was what I'd forgotten to stick in the car, despite having left myself two notes to do so. I blame stress.) I picked up my room key and went off for dinner with the rest of the board, the featured tellers and a few general hangers on. L'Italia serves your basic red sauce Italian menu and the eggplant parmesan I got was good enough, but Harrisonburg is not Italy, nor is it New York. The company is more important than the food, of course, and I had no complaints about that.

The Friday night concert started with an amusing story by Donna Will about Volkswagons and small towns. Then Lynn Ruehlmann told a touching story about adopting her son. Mack and Joan Swift closed the concert with a Jack tale, told in tandem. After a refreshment break, we had a story swap. I won't name everyone who told, lest I inadvertently omit someone. I told "The Secret Place," which went over well.

The morning started with a keynote speech by Michael Reno Harrell. He pretty much just talked about how he fell into storytelling. He was entertainingly funny, which is what one needs in a 9 a.m. speech. Everyone had signed up for his workshop on humor so the schedule was rearranged to put that shortly after his keynote. He started off with a truly atrocious pun about how Houdini used trap doors a lot in his early work, but it turned out he was only going through a stage. (Yes, I have repeated that pun to many people in the past week. You should know me well enough to know I can't resist the groaners.) Then he went on to say that the secret to being funny as a storyteller was to be a retired Methodist minister with a bowtie. That reference to Donald Davis got a good laugh, but it also served well to illustrate a point about context and humor. The rest of his talk had to do with how the humorous story (as compared to the comic story and the witty story) is uniquely American, with a lot of references to Mark Twain. I'm not entirely convinced, but I'm also not sure I really grasp the distinction he was trying to make. All in all, his presentation was entertaining. But I'd have preferred an interactive workshop to a lecture.

The other workshops were held after lunch and one had the opportunity to go to two of the three. For the first session, I went to Linda Goodman's showcase, "Shattered Silence." Her two stories, about women who had been abused as children, were powerful and I thought she did a good job of answering questions about how she developed the material. The other workshop I went to was Ellouise Schoettler's "Put Flesh on Old Bones," which had to do with genealogy and oral history. She had some interesting examples (e.g. from old letters) of using genealogical materials to find stories. I wish she'd had the time to go more thoroughly through a speciifc example, so we could see her entire process.

After the workshops came the VASA general meeting. I am now officially on the board for 3 years (starting in July, though I've been an acting board member since Novemberish).

The evening concert started with Ralph Chatham telling a Celtic story about a kelpie. Then Geraldine Buckley told two personal stories - a short piece about her first experience volunteering at a prison and a longer one about sangria and nuns. After a short intermission, Michael Reno Harrell told a few stories (and sang a little). His story about the things he and his siblings found in his mother's house after her death was particularly notable. And, seeing as how I describe my mother as having the largest collection of half-used rolls of contact paper in the greater New York Metropolitan Region, it definitely struck home.

We were doing a basket raffle (hence, the chocolate I mentioned above) as a fundraiser and the raffle followed the concert. I'd bought a dozen tickets and distributed them among a few of the baskets. (My general philosophy on where to place tickets at these things is that wine is a good thing and scented candles a bad thing. Baskets with some of the former and none of the latter are desirable.) I ended up winning one from the Virginia Beach folks. In addition to a bottle of wine, it had margarita mix, cans of roasted nuts, various art objects (e.g. a pin in the shape of a mask which is presumably Lynn's handiwork), aquarium tickets, etc. And no candles.

Saturday night closed with a swap, which I emceed. (Surprisingly few people know that MC really stands for Miriam of Ceremonies.) I made sure that people who had told at Friday night's swap would not tell unless everyone else who wanted to had a chance. At midnight, I gave everyone the option of continuing with the last few names or going to bed. The vote for bed was unanimous.

Sunday morning's swap gave those last few people (and some others) a chance to tell. So, overall, almost everyone who was at the gathering told a story. (There were a few who didn't want to. We encourage but don't coerce.) A session of Inspirational Stories followed. I asked permission to set the stage for our final event and told "The Tragic Tale of Benny the Bum" to start a half hour or so of atrocious puns. I have a reputation to uphold, after all. (My instructions for my funeral specifically call for there to be a 21-pun salute.)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Hanging out with other storytellers is always fun. The attendance was small, but that meant there was plenty of opportunity to get to know everyone there. I'd say it felt like a family reunion, but my family does not reune (and, if we did, I suspect there would be bloodshed involved).

The drive back was also reasonably quick and uncomplicated. I had time to do my grocery shopping and handle a few chores before heading into Arlington for dinner at the Mad Rose Tavern with the Flyer Talk crowd. The best story of that evening was hearing about Greg's attempts to get to South Korea, with his connecting flight scheduled to arrive in Tokyo about 45 minutes after the earthquake. He did make it, with a day's delay, but had to spend way too much money for a hotel room in Kobe - and a taxi to get to it. By the way, Mad Rose has gotten some opening buzz, but I was not impressed by either the food or the service. It's probably worth going to as just a bar, but not for dinner.

I will write about everything else that's been going on in a separate post. I hope not to take so long getting to that one.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about how miserable winter is and how it would be nice to go somewhere warmish for President's Day weekend. I had a $350 off certificate from United, good only for domestic round trip fares, and figured that would help some. I contemplated a Volksmarch weekend in Orange Beach, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida (known as "Floribama," a large event with roughly a dozen walks to do) but wasn't sure I was up to as much socializing as that might entail. But going somewhere with a couple of interesting walks to do was appealing. I settled on San Antonio, which also had the distinction of being the largest U.S. city I had never been to.

My trip started out promisingly, with my upgrade for Friday night's flight clearing well in advance. (That's pretty rare for Airbus flights for a humble Premier Executive. Not that first class on an A320 is anything to write home about, but it is better than coach.) First, however, I had to get to the airport and the 5A bus from Rosslyn was particularly packed. I did get a seat, but I was irked at the group of 8 people who piled up luggage throughout the aisle and extending onto little obstructions like my right foot. If you are that large a group and you are traveling with more luggage than I've taken when I've moved house, you really ought to spring for a taxi or two. Still, I got to Dulles with only minor agony.

I had not quite been thinking when I got dressed in the morning and was wearing a skirt, with a blouse topping it. Which is, of course, deeply suspicious to TSA who selected me for the nude-o-scope. Since I do not believe that the safety of backscatter x-ray scanners to be adequately proven, I opted out. This was annoying in that the area where they have you wait guarantees you cannot see your bags come out of the x-ray. I objected that I couldn't see my belongings and was completely ignored. (Yes, they have cameras, but that just means there is a faint chance they could catch the person who steals your belongings, assuming they don't conveniently lose the video recording.) I should also note that, while under 10% of the people in line were female, every person selected for the nude-o-scope during the time I was there was a woman. I won't claim that's a statistically valid sample, but just another data point to add to the collective wisdom.

The actual pat-down was handled reasonably professionally. The agent did have me lift my blouse so she could see the waistband of my skirt, but did not feel inside the waistband. Nor did she reach all the way up to my crotch while patting down my legs. The greatest annoyance was having been forced to wait for a few minutes out of sight of my bags.

The flight itself was fine and actually got to San Antonio a little early. I took a shuttle downtown to the Homewood Suites, selected for a combination of location and price. The hotel was fine and the location was definitely better than that of the Holiday Inn El Tropicano, which was the start point for the Volksmarch events. The El Tropicano is still on the Riverwalk, but about a mile north of the heart of things. It was an easy trolley ride to get there to do the Riverwalk North walk on Saturday morning.

The 12 kilometer Riverwalk North route took in the new Museum Reach section of the Riverwalk, past the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Pearl Brewery. That stretch was quiet and pleasant. The route then picked up a hike and bike trail along Brackenridge Park, which was okay but considerably less interesting. Had the weather been better, I would have used that section as an excuse to visit the zoo, but it was drizzling off and on. So I opted for checking out a couple of used book stores along the upper reaches of Broadway instead. Overall, the walk was fine, but was a bit more of an out and back than I'd prefer. Still, it did finish off the Museum Walk special program and got me to see a part of the city I might not otherwise have made it to.

The weather on Sunday was much nicer. I did the 11 kilometer Riverwalk South route, which went through downtown, past the San Fernando Catherdral and the courthouse, then along the Riverwalk to the King William area. This is a particularly attractive residential neighborhood, with several historic houses. There is a free cell phone tour to get information about the houses - well, free except for whatever you pay for air time. Heading back downtown, the route then went through La Villita and Hemisfair Park, before heading over to Alamo Plaza and back to the Riverwalk.

Since I believe in visiting the obligatory tourist sites (particularly when admission is free) I did stop to visit the Alamo. The museum inside the Long Barracks has an informative movie, but the museum itself is not very exciting. The most interesting tidbit I picked up is that the distinctively shaped parapet that makes the Alamo so recognizable was not actually added until 1850, 14 years after the famous siege. The actual building (the chapel or shrine) is much smaller and less impressive than I expected. Still, there is enough to see around the grounds that I felt it was worth the time.

Other than the two walks, I ate Tex-Mex food (though I prefer New Mexican and California styles of Mexican food) and browsed touristy shops. The rodeo was going on and I did actually contemplate going, but I decided I couldn't deal with the risk of having to listen to country music. All in all, I found San Antonio pleasant, but it is in the "nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there" category. (That's how I feel about pretty much everywhere in the middle of the country, by the way.)

My trip back was also fine, with my upgrade (on an A319) clearing only last minute at the gate and no TSA grope. (I was wearing slacks today. But it also looked as if the nude-o-scope was not in use.) The flight even got to Dulles about a half hour early.

I have plenty of other things to write about, but they will wait until after I catch up on some household chores. So maybe in a week or so.

This is in my usual, lengthy format. So I am putting it behind a cut on Live Journal.

( click here to read on )

I went up to Niagara Falls for the weekend. There were two reasons for the trip. First, it was a life list item. But it was also a good way to finish off the Volksmarch riverwalk special event program. (That program should have been easy, but then I noticed that you could count any given river only once. So I had to do a few more events to make up for the multiple walks along the Potomac and the James.)

My flight was timed well to allow me to take the cheap public bus from the Buffalo airport up to Niagara Falls, where I stayed at the Hampton Inn on the New York side. The hotel was perfectly adequate, though the breakfast room got too crowded, especially as there was a high school cross country team from Ohio there for a meet. About all I did Friday night was walk down to Prospect Point (in the state park) to look at the American Falls, which are illuminated nightly. Then I walked over to the Seneca Casino, where I had dinner at their Asian noodle bar and played the slot machines for a little while. Interestingly, this was probably the most crowded casino I've been to in ages.

In the morning, I set out to do a 15 km route that covers both sides of the falls. This was slightly complicated by my banging my left foot against a table in the room coming back from my morning shower. I was still able to walk the entire route, but my little toe was aching off and on throughout it.

The route went around all of Goat Island (very pretty and peaceful), across the bridges to the Three Sisters Islands, and on through various viewpoints in the state park. Horseshoe Falls was particularly impressive. Interestingly, because of the curve of the river, Canada is simultaneously north, south, and west of the U.S. at that point. The route continued past the Cave of the Winds, on to Luna Island (views of Bridal Veil and American Falls), back past Prospect Point and across the Rainbow Bridge to Canada.

The Canadian side is definitely more built up with tourist attractions. The views of the falls are more dramatic in one way, as you can see the entire flow, but you are also further from the water. The route went all the way past the falls and on to the Floral Showcase. The msot impressive part of that was the topiary maple leaf outside the greenhouse.

There are also any number of ways available to separate people from their money - wax museums and theme restaurants and two casinos. At any rate, it was pretty easy to spend the better part of the day seeing the sights. I was glad to cross back to the U.S. after dark, as the view of the illuminated falls from the bridge is nicely dramatic.

My foot had begun to hurt more as the day wore on and, when I took off my shoes, I saw it was impressively bruised. That slowed me down quite a bit on Sunday and I just checked out a few of the tackier things on the U.S. side (e.g. the Daredevil Museum, which has the barrels used by a few of the people who went over the falls). I also, er, contributed to the Seneca economy. In the early evening, I went back to the Buffalo airport, where I stayed overnight at the Hilton Garden Inn. Flying back early in the morning is convenient for getting to work, but it is exhausting. It's still worth it to get a life list item checked off.

I made a quick trip to Minneapolis this weekend. I was not in the best of moods, largely out of continued sleep deprivation. That moodiness is my excuse for this being a sort of whiny and boring entry. But the trip was a success as it let me complete a life list item.

Because of schedules and fares, I flew Delta. It's weird flying an airline I have no status on, but it was tolerable. (I put the miles on my Alaska Air account. Delta has a reputation for poor redemption rates and Alaska Air has better partners for my purposes.) The leg room sucked and I had a screaming child behind me who kept kicking my seat. (His father did stop the kicking, but not the screaming. Kids nowadays are not taught the concept of an indoor voice, apparently.) At least I had an empty seat next to me. On the plus side, they still have snacks, of sorts, on a 2 1/2 hour flight. They gave out pretzels, peanuts, and biscotti.

One of my gripes about airports is poor signage and MSP qualified in that regard. I did eventually find the area for hotel shuttles and waited and waited for the Hilton shuttle. After 20 minutes I called them. It took 42 rings for the front desk to answer and tell me the shuttle was on the way. (I know how many rings it was because it sends you back to the "choose your extension" prompt after every 12.) It turns out that they run the shuttle every half hour, which might have been useful information to put on the hotel website. When I did (finally!) get to the hotel, it was fine and they gave me a nice upgraded room.

In the morning, I took the bus to Saint Paul to do the capital volksmarch there. (I'm now up to 24 capitals, should someone care.) The walk started in the Crocus Hill neighborhood (interesting shops and restaurants) and continued along Summit Avenue, with its upscale historic homes, including some associated with F. Scott Fitzgerald. That was definitely the highlight of the walk, which continued past the Cathedral and on to downtown St. Paul, which is fairly deserted on the weekend. Even the Capitol had fairly few people around. I also checked out part of the Minnesota History Center, which is typical of its genre. The local touch showed up best in a gallery devoted to how Minnesotans deal with weather.

Then I took a bus to connect to the light rail and it was off to Target Field for the real reason for the trip. I have now been to a game at every major league ballpark! Target Field is okay and a notable improvement over the Metrodome, but really nothing special. It did have the shortest walk from transit stop to entrance gate that I've ever experienced. My seat was not wonderful - outfield, along the 3rd base line, with an obstructed view of the scoreboard. I could see the field fine, though, which is what really matters. The game was a reasonably good one and the fans were decently enthusiastic. It was also a pretty short game - about 2 hours and 20 minutes for the Twins to beat the A's. Minnesota has a reputation for high social capital and that was reflected in almost everybody singing along to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

It started to rain while I was waiting in line for the light rail back. A canopy over the platform would have been helpful, especially as the rain got pretty heavy just before the train came. I'll note also that the Hilton was a longer walk from the American Boulevard station than I'd realized and either the Embassy Suites or the Holiday Inn Express would have been a better choice in that respect.

The flight back did highlight one of the good things on Delta - at least on a 737. Namely, that plane had their interactive entertainment system. Which let me play their trivia game. It goes a bit slowly, but it still amused me to compete against other passengers. The metro was decently efficient and I got home a little after noon. After a few errands, I squandered much of the day napping.

I do know that Honolulu is not actually in between Northern Virginia and Los Angeles. But I only wanted to spend a few days there and Los Angeles is roughly halfway there, so it made sense to combine the trips.

The high priority was the capitol Volksmarch. The route covered much of downtown Honolulu. I was glad the directions gave bus info, as that made it easy to find the start point, at a YMCA on Pali Highway. The route went past Our Lady of Peace Cathedral, which is claimed to be the oldest Catholic cathedral in the U.S. and was the site of Father Damien's ordination. It also included several historic buildings associated with the sugar companies, before going to the impressive Aloha Tower and its less mpressive marketplace. What surprised me most was how clear the water in Honolulu Harbor is. You can actually look down into the water and see fish. The route continued on to Chinatown, where I had lunch at a noodle place. Then it went to the State Capitol, which has an open central courtyard with a mosaic tile floor and a very modernistic statue of Father Damien. Decidedly unusual architecture, which reminds me of how much my childhood experience of Concord, New Hampshire influenced my idea of what capitol buildings are supposed to look like. (A surprising number don't.) Then there were various municipal buildings and parks, the concert hall and the Blaisdell Center, followed by the Mission House Museum and the intriguing Kawaihao Church. The latter also has the mausoleum of King Lunalilo, who was the first popularly elected king. The route also went throught he grounds of Iolani Palace, back past the Capitol, past the new Governor's residence and the former residence at Washington Place, and around Saint Andrew's Cathedral. All in all, that made for quite a comprehensive tour. I especially appreciated the extensive historic notes that were provided with the walk instructions.

I hadn't really intended so much to do the Waikiki Beach walk, but it's not like I had anything better to do. There are actually two routes and I combined them, which made for a longer walk but more interesting detours on the way back than just walking on Kalakaua Avenue would have been. There are a number of surfboard shaped historic signs discussing the various royal family members and palaces that had been in the area and so on. It was a pleasant enough walk but there's a part of me that finds Waikiki Beach rather horrible, with all of the glitzy hotel and shop development. (Admittedly, I was staying at one of those hotels, namely, the Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, which was comfortable and where I had a lovely view of the ocean from my room thanks to a generous upgrade.)

I mentioned the submarine ride briefly before and that was actually in the middle of the walk, since the tender that takes you out to the sub leaves from the dock at the Hilton. It was a decently short ride out to the sub - maybe 15 minutes. It takes a little time to get the last set of passengers off the sub and onto the tender before you board. The windows were nice and big and the seats fairly comfortable, so it felt less claustrophobic than my previous submarine ride in Bermuda had been. (I don't mind close quarters, but that had bothered some other people.) Most of the trip is past man-made reefs, with things like crashed airplanes and shipwrecks to attract the fish. We saw a few green sea turtles, a couple of reef sharks, and a sting ray, as well as several colorful fish. I found the whole thing very enjoyable, especially because the commentary had plenty of corny jokes. The only catch was that I could not figure out how to turn off the flash on the disposable camera I had with me, so was unable to get photos.

I also did a couple of uncharacteristic things. I'm not really an umbrella drink type of person, being more of a g&t gal. But things like mai tais suit the environment and I had a couple of them along the way. (Okay, one drink with dinner each night, but it still counts.) And I bought something touristy! I am a big fan of Le Sportsac, since I find their deluxe shoulder bag to be the perfect pocketbook configuration for me. They sell some designs exclusively in Hawaii and I bought one with hula girls on it.

My idea of paradise is somewhat lower down the economic scale and has far fewer people, but it was still a pleasant couple of days. If I'd had one more day, I'd have made an excursion to the various World War II related sites. But the real purpose of my vacation was the National Storytelling Conference and I'll write about that in another entry.

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Entries tagged with volksmarch

Walking Among My Yesterdays

What Happens in ... You Know

2011 - Year in Review

How Did I Get So Far Behind?

The Usual Chaos

Shoes and Strings and Sealing Wax

Unlikely Subjects

Convidence

Just a Bit Stressed

Alaska

Nashgaritaville

What I've Been Up To

Biggest Little City

Belated Weekend Write-up (plus a few things since)

Virginia Storytelling Gathering

San Antonio

2010 - Year in Review

Yours til Niagara Falls

Moody in Minneapolis

More on Honolulu