fauxklore

I’d made plans for this past weekend back in February. Luka Bloom, an Irish folk singer I’ve wanted to see perform for a long time, was going to be performing in London. You are probably unfamiliar with his name, but you may know of his brother, Christy Moore, who is a big name in Irish music. Anyway, I discussed this with the gentleman with whom I am conducting the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling (who lives in London) and we made plans that included that concert and an excursion to Winchester. By the way, this is an example of his indulging me in my interests since he doesn’t like folk music.

Alas, the universe conspired against me and the concert got cancelled. On the plus side that meant that I could go to another event I wanted to. Namely, RhinoStock, a celebration of the life of the late Clint Weathers, aka ZenRhino (or just Rhino). I flew to Denver on Thursday afternoon and, after picking up my rental car (a Chevy Bolt - see rant below), spent the night at a hotel near the airport.

I had a few options for things I could do on Friday and decided that the best choice was to go to Louisville (a little south of Boulder) and do a Volksmarch for the first time in about 7 years. The weather was very nice for walking. Louisville has a cute enough downtown, but the route between the walk start / finish point (a recreation / senior center) and downtown was pretty much bland suburbia. Still, it was good to stretch my legs and there were some interesting bird sounds that I was unable to identify. After my walk, I had Thai food for lunch (reasonably good drunken noodles with tofu), then headed to my hotel where I took a long nap.

I’d had a vague intention of having supper at an interesting looking place across the parking lot from my hotel (the Courtyard Boulder Broomfield, which is in neither Boulder nor Broomfield). A combination of barbecue and Indian food - what could be wrong with that? Well, what was wrong was that they had a water problem and were closed! I ended up just grabbing a sandwich nearby. (For anyone who didn’t know, tunafish sandwiches are one of the key components of what I consider Purina Miriam Chow.)

RhinoStock didn’t start until early afternoon, so I drove over to downtown Boulder and had breakfast at The Walnut Cafe. It used to be one of my go-to breakfast places in Boulder. A lot of my friends favor Le Peep, but I’d eaten there somewhat more recently, so I figured I might as well go to a place I hadn’t been to in 20-odd years. I’m pleased to report that the food is as good as ever, with a particularly excellent Mexican omelet. And blueberry corn bread. (The latter is another essential component of Purina Miriam Chow.)

I was well behaved and did not go into McGuckin’s, the hardware store of the gods. (Seriously, this is the best hardware store I have ever been in anywhere in the world. I love it even more than I love McLean Hardware, which is my best local option.)

Eventually, I meandered over to RhinoStock central, namely the home of our hosts, Geo and Momerath. I suspect it is boring to read about a party if you weren’t there and don’t know the people who were, so I’m not going to give a lot of details. Let’s just say that there was lots of wide ranging conversation, lots of catching up with people I hadn’t seen in ages, and lots of reminiscing about events from decades ago.

At some point there was a zoom hook up so several people who weren’t able to be there in person could share their memories of Rhino. I should probably explain that most of us knew him (and each other) from a MUSH called Tiny TIM. If anyone cares, my name on there was cypria (Or is? I haven’t logged in for years and I don’t have a working MUD client). Some of the people there have been friends since the usenet days and some things that happened at soc.singles parties of the late 1980’s got mentioned. If you know, you know.

There was also a sing-along of “The Weight” by The Band. And toasts with various alcohol options available. I am smart enough not to become a party victim.

I didn’t stay super late since I had a crazy early flight on Sunday morning. I managed to get barely enough sleep to be able to drive back to the airport. After a decadent breakfast (pancake flight!) at Snooze on the mezzanine level of Terminal B, I collapsed onto the plane and mostly slept my way to IAD. As exhausted as I was, it was definitely worth the trip.

The Chevy Bolt - A Rant: I did not want to rent an electric car. However, Payless Car Rental insisted that the only other options were a minivan or an SUV, which were even worse.

There are two significant problems with electric vehicles as rentals. The first one is that I have yet to see one which is not an ergonomic nightmare. For example, I never succeeded in opening the trunk. I googled how to do this and, given the number of hits that turned up, this appears to be a common problem. As another example, given that everything else is done off of a large screen, why is the seat adjustment manual? What I find particularly egregious is how many steps it takes to adjust anything, e.g. the climate settings. In my opinion, sliders or dials are really a much more intuitive way to adjust the temperature and airflow. It also took way too many steps to pull up the radio and I never succeeded in finding the volume controls. (Which are another thing for which sliders or dials are more intuitive, by the way.) And then there is the nightmare of the voice announcing when you are exceeding the speed limit. Except it was usually wrong. If there is a speed limit sign reading 65 right next to me and I am driving 63, I am NOT exceeding the speed limit you bloody idiot.

Of course, there are also many gas-powered cars with sucky ergonomics, too. So what is specifically wrong with an electric car? As far as I can tell, there are roughly 347 different companies running public charging stations for electric cars. And every single one of them has its own app they want you to download. And, if you are driving far enough to need to recharge the car, you may not have a lot of choice in which charger company you are at the mercy of. I don’t know about you, but I need less than one gallon of gas to add 25 miles of range to Twain, my beloved little gas-powered econobox. That takes maybe 2 minutes? (And, of course, I fill the gas tank completely, so I spend maybe 15 minutes buying gas and have a range of over 300 miles.) It takes an hour to charge a typical electric car enough to add 25 miles of range. Yes, there are fast chargers, but only a limited number of them and most of those are for Teslas and only usable by other cars with an adapter that rental car companies don’t necessarily give you. Frankly, I don’t have four or more hours to waste when I am out of town for a couple of days.

In short, an electric car only makes sense if you have a dedicated place to charge it. (Which is also why they don’t work for me as a condo dweller.) But they damn well don’t make sense as rental cars.

2017 was a year of frustration and mild depression and not feeling very accomplished, even though I was actually reasonably successful in any normal sense. I think that much of the problem was spending time feeling stressed out about the state of the world. I am a news junkie at the best of times and that makes it hard to focus on anything when there is so much turmoil around.

Books: I read only 43 books in 2017, which is absurdly few for me. Admittedly, there were several long books (500+ pages) in there. I was also trying to clear out magazines, which didn’t help. The best books I read were Facing the Lions by Tom Wickes, Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich (whose true crime books I have enjoyed in the past), A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman, and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. I particularly recommend the latter two, both of which were selections for my book club, for charm and sheer likeability. They’re similar in that both deal with curmudgeonly, suicidal men having their lives turned around by unexpected encounters with other people. I also enjoyed several books in the Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent. That surprised me, as I didn’t think that the British Navy of the late 18th century would interest me at all. But they’re well-written and Bolitho is an absorbing character. As for the books I disliked, Last Woman Standing by Thelma Adams sounded promising, but the novelization of the story of the Jewish woman who married Wyatt Earp bordered on pornographic. And The Guilty Ones by Dariel Telfer was badly written and intended to be deliberately shocking. I don’t object to sex and violence, but I don’t want them to be their own end.

I didn’t manage any used bookstore runs over the year, but I have about 100 books ready to go out. That should happen in the next couple of months.

Volksmarch: I did exactly one event in 2017. That was the state capital walk in Wyoming. I really need to get myself walking regularly again.

Travel: I had three foreign trips – Nicaragua in January, a long weekend in Budapest in May, and my recent trip to Singapore and Laos. The latter included completing a life list item by seeing the Plain of Jars. My other significant vacation was a trip to Carhenge in Nebraska for my 4th total solar eclipse. And, before anyone asks, yes, I have plans for a 5th. That trip also included going to Wind Cave National Park and doing the Cheyenne, Wyoming Volksmarch.

I had business trips to Los Angeles / San Diego, Colorado Springs, and Palo Alto.

Personal travel included trips to Albuquerque and Portland (Oregon) to go to memorial services for friends. Happier travels were to New York (three times – once for theatre-going, once for a flyertalk event plus theatre-going, and once for Lollapuzzoola), Stamford (Connecticut – the ACPT), Atlanta (to check off the new ballpark), Denver (twice – once for an annual party, once for a flyertalk event), Boston (NPL con), and Reno.

Puzzles: This was a big year for me in that I solved cleanly at both the ACPT and Lollapuzzoola. That moment of turning in a complete puzzle 5 at the ACPT was definitely one of the peak experiences of the year.

Ghoul Pool This was my first year playing and I think I did respectably. I ended up finishing 6th (out of 22 participants) with 99 points. The people I scored with were Irwin Corey, Liu Xiaobo, June Foray, Gord Downie, and Rose Marie.

Genealogy: The most significant things from my year in genealogy were making contact with a couple of branches of my family in Israel. That includes some Bruskin descendants and one of the children of cousin Shlomo. I also had both my uncle and brother submit DNA tests, though I have not done nearly enough with sorting through all of our matches.

Culture: If I counted right, I went to 22 musicals and 6 plays. Highlights included Milk and Honey at York Theatre, Fun Home and Mean Girls at the National Theatre, Kaleidoscope at Creative Cauldron, Laura Bush Killed a Guy produced by The Klunch at Caos on F, The Originalist at Arena Stage. My favorite show of the year was Ernest Shackleton Loves Me.

I also went to the circus. And to 5 concerts, of which the most notable was the farewell concert by The Bobs. And, of course, I went to lots of storytelling events.


Goals: The short version of 2017 is that I am a lot better at planning things and starting things than I am at actually finishing them. Three of my goals involved completing various activities and, no, I didn’t finish anything, though I did make progress. I did manage a few indulgences and did contact some lost relatives with reasonably good success. So the year wasn’t a loss, but I’m not going to take undue credit. I’d say it was another 25-30% type of year.

So what about 2018 goals?

• Finish three afghans. Yes, I know that sounds unlikely, but it is actually feasible if I work at it.
  
  
• Organize photos. This includes uploading stuff that has been on camera cards for way too long, as well as scanning older photos. I should probably buy a scanner.
  
  
• Read at least 52 books, including at least 3 poetry books.
  
  
• Enter the Style Invitational at least 4 times.
  
  
• Do at least 6 Volksmarch events.
  
  
• Get caught up on household paperwork, i.e. shredding, filing, etc.
  
  

I'd been planning to get down to Norfolk and Virginia Beach to do some volksmarch events. My friend, Lynn, was hosting a storytelling house concert in Norfolk the weekend before last, so that provided a perfect excuse.

The downtown Norfolk walk was a mixed bag. There was a long, dullish stretch going up to Doumar's, which is known for having the oldest ice-cream cone machine in Virginia. I can't question that claim, but I will say that their vanilla ice cream is pretty dreadful. (I often order vanilla at these sorts of places, because it is more of a quality test. Looking at yelp after the fact suggests that people seem to like the butter pecan.) The better parts of the walk involved historic houses (and churches) and, of course, the waterfront. The overall highlight was definitely the Armed Forces Memorial, which has reproductions of letters sent by soldiers from various wars (from the American Revolution through Vietnam) shortly before they were killed. It's both moving and tasteful.

As for the house concert, Lynn opened with an entertaining story about a ghost tour in Savannah gone wrong. Then Kim Weitkamp told two sets. The first was about aging and laps and relationships and all that good sort of everything and nothing but warm and cozy. The second set was the more seasonal one, with a really creepy piece about a man who unknowingly married a boo-hag, followed by the story of a cemetery keeper and his fate. All in all, it was an excellent concert and well worth the trip.
In the morning, I drove over the Virginia Beach and, despite somewhat gloomy weather, did the volksmarch there. The section along the boardwalk (really a concrete path) was excellent, especially as I do love walking along the ocean front. But it was a long ways to and from that section and, other than briefly passing the aquarium and watching the harbor seals swimming in their outdoor tank, that was just tedious.

I also got stuck in fairly horrendous traffic on the way back, just crawling along most of the way from Williamsburg to Richmond and then again from Spotsylvania to Occoquan. It took a good hour and a half longer driving home than it had driving down.

Celebrity Death Watch: Judy Carne was the "Sock It to Me" girl on Laugh-In, and apparently had a rather traumatic life of addiction after the show. Jean Darling was an actress, starting as a child star in the Our Gang series in the silent movie era, with her career peaking when she played Carrie in the original Broadway cast of Carousel. She also had over 50 mystery stories published. Martin Milner was a television actor, best known for Route 66 and Adam 12. For some reason, I seem to remember that either he or Kent McCord visited my school when I was in 5th or 6th grade, but it’s all very vague.

Birthday: I turned 57 on Friday. So when exactly am I going to feel like I’m an adult?

Travel and Weather: The other thing I was doing on Friday (in addition to working and aging) was flying to Albuquerque. I had a rather shorter connection in Denver than I would have preferred, so when I saw that there were weather holds in my area, I called up United and changed to an earlier flight (via Houston) with a longer layover. That meant a taxi to the airport, which worked fine, but was pricy. We boarded more or less on time, then got held because another plane in line to take off had smoke in the cockpit. And then came the weather. In the end, my hour and a half layover at IAH turned into about a 6 minute connect time. I did make the connection, but it was stressful.

I also had a bit of a complication when I arrived. Picking up the rental car was straightforward enough. And I could see the hotel. Figuring out where to turn to actually get to it was another matter. It didn’t help that the rental car people had said (incorrectly) I needed to turn before the freeway. So it took me, um, about 45 minutes to drive maybe a bit over a mile.

Old Town / Downtown Albuquerque: I started my weekend by doing a volksmarch in Old Town and downtown Albuquerque. I’d actually done an earlier iteration of this walk several years ago, but they have rerouted it, presumably to highlight some of the newer downtown architecture. It is also possible that they didn’t reroute it, but I have a lousy memory. Anyway, there was a point where I ran into a group being led on a tour by a couple of people from the historical society, who insisted I needed to check out the interior of the Kimo Theatre, which they described as "Pueblo deco." That is, it is art deco with Pueblo themes. It is, indeed, worth a look. I also went through the Holocaust Museum because it was there. Most of what they have are photos, but there are a few artifacts. The museum also addresses various other genocides, though it misses some (e.g. nothing about Cambodia). All in all, it was a good walk, though the section between Old Town and downtown is fairly bland.

Adobe Wonderland: After my morning walk (and a stop for lunch), I drove up to Santa Fe. I stopped by the visitor information center and picked up the map for the Capital volksmarch (which I would do the next day). Then I drove over to Kakawa Chocolate House, which had been highly recommended by friends. The rose almond elixir was a spicy blend of chocolate, almond, rose, and chili – quite tasty, though a bit chunky as hot chocolate goes. I also bought a couple of chocolates to eat for dessert later that evening. Then I drove to my hotel and took a nap before getting dinner (and eating those chocolates).

In the morning, I did the Capital walk, which took in most of central Santa Fe, including the capitol and Canyon Road, as well as the Plaza. I’m not really a fan of adobe and things were rather too crowded, but it was still a pleasant walk. I also appreciated that the directions pointed out a few details I might not otherwise have noted – e.g. the plaque to Billy the Kid across from Burro Alley. And, especially, the triangle with the tetragrammaton carved into an arch over the door of the cathedral.

There were a couple of art shows and a large crafts fair, possibly in connection with the upcoming Fiesta. I wasn’t intending to buy anything, but I saw a salt cellar I couldn’t resist. It’s shaped like a bathtub, with the shower head forming the spoon. I also got a bowl of cashew mole for lunch (and sopapillas, of course). And I decided it was hot enough out by then that I needed to go back to Kakawa and try their ice cream. I went for the citrus pistachio, which I thought would be more refreshing than chocolate.

I drove back to Albuquerque, where I had a light supper and a nice conversation with slymongoose. My flights home (again, via IAH) were fine, with no weather drama. All in all, ir made for a nice weekend excursion.

Aside from the bad hotel experience, I did enjoy the trip to Vegas. I did the North Strip volksmarch event again, and, while there is still a lot of construction leading to bleak emptiness, there is some new stuff of interest.

The most obvious is the High Roller, allegedly the world's tallest observation wheel. I would like to ride it someday, but heard it is best at sunset, which comes too early this time of year. It is associated with The Linq, which seems to have replaced the Imperial Palace and incorporated O'Shea's.

The two new casino hotels I noted are The Cromwell, which is claimed to be a boutique hotel, and the SLS. The latter looked very nice, too, with interesting restaurants. I would try staying there, though the location is kind of out of the way (the north end of the monorail.)

Ah, Vegas. Always changing.

I dragged myself out of the house today to do a Volksmarch in Frederick. I would have preferred doing the walk in Ashland (near Richmond) but I was running late and Frederick, despite being in darkest Maryland, is much closer. In fact, I could have made it there in under 45 minutes had I not followed the directions from google maps which had a series of unnecessary (and, in one case, incorrect) turns.

I've done this walk before, though it has changed a little since the visitor center moved. It's still a jaunt through downtown, over to Hood College, then along a couple of park trails, followed by walking around Mt. Olivet Cemetery. The point was that it qualifies as a baseball walk (since Harry Grove Stadium is visible across the street from the cemetery) and a mural walk (for the trompe l'oeil Community Bridge. It was mostly a good walk, though I am definitely feeling old and achy and, in particular, my left hip was sore at the end of the 10K.

Celebrity Death Watch: Eileen Ford co-founded a modeling agency. Tommy Ramone was the drummer of the Ramones. Nadine Gordimer was a South African novelist and activist. Johnny Winter was a blues guitarist. Szymon Szurmej ran the Jewish theatre of Warsaw. Elaine Stritch was a notable actress and a lady who lunched. James Garner also acted and I associate him with The Rockford Files though he was already well-known by the time that series premiered. Albert Stunkard did much of the research proving that obesity is almost entirely genetic.

I want to particularly highlight Tom Tierney, who was the preeminent paper doll artist of our times. I have several of his paper doll books, but just a small fraction of the over 400 he created. His earlier career was largely as a fashion illustrator, so it’s no surprise that he was particularly well known for his dolls with historic costumes. It’s hard to imagine another artist achieving his dominance in what is, to be fair, a specialized field.

Travel to Maine: I had been scheduled to fly from DCA to PWM via EWR. The problem with regional jets late in the day is that they are flying several segments earlier in the day, any of which can get delayed for any number of reasons. I had a two-hour layover, but that was starting to look shorter and shorter, so I figured it made sense to switch to a non-stop out of IAD. That worked out surprisingly well as, not only did I get in several hours earlier, that change dropped the price of my rental car nearly in half. And I got to the hotel (the Embassy Suites by the Portland Airport) in time for their evening reception, providing me with a perfectly adequate supper.

Augusta: Continuing my obsession with state capitals, I drove to Augusta to do the capital volksmarch there. The walk started with a long, bland section from the Villes Arboretum to the Capitol complex. The Capitol building itself might have been attractive had the dome not been completely covered in scaffolding. There was a reasonably attractive park area across the street from it, however. There were several historical signs (in both English and French), mostly having to do with the Civil War. It turns out that this "museum in the streets" concept is common throughout Maine, with similar set-ups in Bar Harbor and Portland, for example. The route then continued through an area with some fine 19th century houses before a marginally less bland section with views of the Kennebec River returning to the arboretum. Overall, it was just an okay walk, but it served its purpose.

I had intended to go to the state museum after the walk, but it was, alas, closed on Sunday. So I just went to my hotel instead.

The Coast: Monday had me driving to the coast, with a couple of stops on my way north. I checked out the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory, which has nice views but is kind of pricey ($7 for non-residents of Maine). Admission also includes Fort Knox, which is pretty much your standard 19th century fort and not really all that exciting.

My more important stop was just across the bridge in Bucksport. I tell a ghost story based on a legend from that town. The gist of the story is that the town founder, Colonel Buck, had a woman named Ida Black hanged for witchcraft because she spurned his advances. On the way to the gallows, she swore she would come back and dance on his grave. When he died, the image of a boot appeared on his gravestone and kept coming back every time it was sanded off. They even replaced the gravestone and it reappeared. And, yes, indeed, Ida Black is still dancing on his grave. I have photographic proof!

Acadia: My most important destination was Acadia National Park. I had time on Monday afternoon to see a little bit of the park. I should probably have stayed longer then, as it rained on Tuesday, heavily at times. Inevitably, it would start pouring whenever I walked one of the trails and was at the point furthest from my car. The rain did let up, but I still had to deal with puddles and such, especially around Jordan Pond. I earned my popovers at the Jordan Pond House. Also, there are supposed to be lovely views from the top of Cadillac Mountain and around Somes Sound (the only fjord in the eastern United States), but I can only testify to views of fog banks.

I could have used another two or three days up that way, but needed to get back to Portland for the National Puzzlers’ League convention, which was the point of the whole trip. That deserves its own entry. As does the Capital Fringe Festival. Those will have to wait a few days.

As usual, I have a bunch of catching up to do.

Used Bookstores and Spices: I finally got around to doing a used bookstore run last weekend. It was a particularly successful one, in that I left the house with 65 books and came home with only 4 of those (plus 18 new to me books, but that is to be expected). I also took advantage of the last store on my route being in that general vicinity to stop into Penzey’s and buy saffron. I will note, however, that they had no true cinnamon, at least not in stick form, but only cassia. (My issue is not the coumarin, as I don’t use it in huge amounts, but cassia is harder to grind and has a harsher taste.) They also don’t carry rosewater, so I still need to make a trip to one of the Indian stores (probably Aditi) to stock up. Actually, I should check first to see if Shopper’s Food Warehouse in Fairfax has it, since they carry some seasonings other supermarkets around here don’t (e.g. star anise) and do have a Middle Eastern section.

Game Night: My Chavurah had a game night on Saturday night. It was kind of weird, but I realize that most people would consider what I think of as a game night as weird. Basically, there was no interest in strategy games at all and complete distaste for anything that suggested actual competition. It was still reasonably fun. We played Balderdash, which I am very good at because: 1) I have a good vocabulary, meaning I don’t consider words like "succubus" to be the least bit obscure and 2) I understand what dictionary definitions sound like and can, therefore, snooker other people into picking my definition. We also played Sour Apples to Apples, which adds a silly penalty thing if your choice is considered least appropriate. In my opinion, that adds nothing to the game.

I should try to make time to go to real game nights, i.e. ones where people are more amenable to playing things with some level of complexity, thought, and feigned malice.

Knitting Group: Sunday involved knitting group. I finally found the needles, yarn, and pieces in progress for a particular sweater I’ve been working on. I even found my notions bag. So, of course, the pattern went missing. I worked on something else instead, but this is extremely annoying.

Weather: Monday was decent out, but we got 4 or so inches of snow on Tuesday, leading me to work from home. That’s a reminder that I really need a new desk chair. It’s been extremely cold since and I am feeling a certain amount of cabin fever.

Do Not Analyze This Dream: I had a dream the other night in which I stopped at a semi-rural resort / retreat center for dinner on my way to somewhere in Pennsylvania and found that several of my friends were there at a storytelling workshop. They talked me into staying for the night, during which I discovered that I had forgotten to bring my Volksmarch books with me. Much of the dream involved whether or not I should drive back home to retrieve them.

Notes to Myself: I scribbled the following in the front of a crossword book:

102 Loon Lake

105 (?) Yellowhead Lake

I am reasonably sure that there is no significance to this being in a puzzle book and that was just a handy piece of paper, suggesting I most likely wrote it on a plane or a train. If it were not for the question mark, I’d think it had to do with Volksmarch events. But, as it is, I am befuddled. Any ideas?

Make the Punishment Fit the Crime: When I rule the world, anyone who submits a document for approval without an acronym list shall be subject to drowning in a large vat of alphabet soup.

I am, of course, remarkably busy and, hence, behind on writing. This should get me more or less caught up on things I am willing to write about publicly.

Celebrity death watch: There are several interesting celebrity deaths to note. Muriel Siebert was the first woman to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. I have to admit I had not realized that newsman David Frost, who is probably most famous for his interviews with Richard Nixon, was still alive until he wasn't. Another "end of an era" death to note is that of science fiction writer, Frederik Pohl. In my opinion, he was more significant as an editor than as a writer, but I'm also not a big science fiction person, so my opinion is only semi-educated. Cal Worthington was a car dealer whose commercials in California featured his "dog" Spot (various animals, most memorably a lion and a hippo) and a catchy "Go see Cal" jingle. And Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet who translated Beowulf.

Reno Mileage Run: In late August, I did a quick trip to Reno. This was pretty much a mileage run, but Reno is a good place to do that to since you can arrive late at night and depart early in the morning without bothering with a hotel room. In this case, I took a shuttle from the airport to the Peppermill and gambled all night, coming out about 20 bucks ahead. The travel also went fairly smoothly, despite a delay in the first leg that made the connection a bit tighter than I'd have preferred. All in all, with a good price on the ticket, it was a fairly painless way to rack up some miles.

Baseball: Goldstar often has discount tickets for baseball games, so provided a cheap way to see the Nationals play the Mets. It was a bit of a pain picking up the ticket, since the third party ticket office is all the way around the ballpark from the main box office with confusing signage. But cheap is cheap and I even got a free t-shirt. This game was a case of divided loyalties for me. The Mets won and I was pleased that their victory was largely due to a 2-run homer by Ike Davis, who is more or less the Art Shamsky of our times. (So, sue me. When in doubt, I always root for Jewish baseball players.)

Zaytinya and Men's Collars Over the Years: The Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery was presenting the movie Wings, the first ever best picture Oscar winner. I made plans to go with a couple of friends. One of them joined me for lunch at Zaytinya beforehand. This is the Mediterranean outpost of the Jose Andres empire and is every bit as good as his other places. They were continuing Restaurant Week, so it was also excellent value. All of the food was good, but particularly notable dishes included the baba ghannouge and adana kebab.

We had time before the movie to look at a little of the museum. I've been to that museum a lot, so imposed my favorite exhibit there (David Beck's MVSEVM) on my friend. We also looked at the patent models and the portraits of the Presidents. I usually speculate on men's facial hair, but she focused on the collars, which don't lie flat until the late 19th century. There may be some correlation with beards. There are also changes in neckwear, but there is something of a chicken and egg problem here.

I'll write about the movie separately, since I seem to still be seeing enough movies to make them worth their own quarterly wrap-up.

Dinner in Singapore: The MIT Club of Washington provided a slightly early birthday dinner for me, in the form of an event at the Embassy of Singapore. The talks included a short one by the ambassador on the history of Singapore, followed by a marine biologist discussing sustainability. The food was reasonably varied, with meat, chicken, fish and vegetable dishes. Plus galub jamum for dessert. Good food and intelligent conversation always make for my sort of evening.

Speaking of Birthdays: I'm 55. As a few people pointed out, I'm eligible for the over-55 menus at various chain restaurants I don't normally eat at.

Culpeper Volksmarch: I am trying to get caught up on the baseball walks program, so did a year round event in Culpeper. The route was quite hilly and, therefore, kicked my butt. I also need new walking shoes as my feet were killing me for the last kilometer or so (of 10). But the walk served its purpose as (among other things) it passed the childhood home (with historical sign) of Eppa Rixley, who pitched for the Phillies.


Story Swap: We had our regular story swap on Saturday night, which is always fun. I need to find some time to work on some new things. In lieu of that, I told "Why I'm Not a Millionaire." Jane had an excellent Norwegian story.

Miss Saigon: This was the first show of the season at Signature Theatre. They did a reasonably good job, given the limitations of the score. Diana Huey was impressive as Kim, as was Tom Semsa as The Engineer. I also want to note Chris Sizemore as John. I think the score is pretty weak and some of Richard Maltby, Jr.'s lyrics are remarkably amateurish, e.g. rhyming "moon" and "fortune." I can also quibble with the orchestration in a few places, as I firmly believe that a song lyric referring to "a song played by a single saxophone" should not be accompanied by keyboards and percussion (in addition to the saxophone). Still, I thought Karma Camp's choreography for "Enter the Dragon" was impressive and I got all teary-eyed during "Bui Doi," a song about the plight of street children. My bottom line is that Signature did as well as possible, given the limitations of the material.

I think I've figured out how to do these, since I've been using the same format for a few years.

( Behind a cut due to length )