fauxklore

Another Colleague Gone: I heard that Lance Newman passed away recently. I worked with him for many years, including being his manager for a few of those and having him support me from one of my program office jobs. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago, when our former secretary organized a luncheon reunion of sorts. It was just after his picture had been in the Washington Post, in an article about the first four African American students at a school in Arlington. He was a good engineer and a nice guy, smart and easy to work with. I will miss him.


A Rant About Scheduling: I am trying to be a responsible adult and schedule a couple of routine medical things. Labs are no issue, because they don’t require scheduling, per se, but just a drop in. The problem is that the person who schedules mammograms is not the same person who schedules anything else. So I had to go through the scheduler to get to the mammogram scheduler and then go back to the regular scheduler to schedule the blood pressure check. (Mammogram slots are a rarer commodity so it made snese to schedule that first.) The fact that I couldn’t do this on-line is particularly annoying to begin with, given my feelings about telephones.

I still have to schedule an ophthalmology appointment, but that is even tougher because I need to do it in the afternoon and I have more afternoon conflicts.


Speaking of Blood Pressure: The Red Sox – and, specifically, Craig Kimbrel, seem determined to raise mine.

Roy Zimmerman: I went to Roy Zimmerman’s house concert in Derwood, Maryland on Friday night. The drive there was really irritating, with two accidents along the way. I noticed the engine temperature in my car rising as I was crawling along and was afraid it would overheat, but it dropped rapidly once I began driving at a faster speed. I probably need to get something looked at.

Anyway, I got to the house just in time for the concert. Fortunately, it was worth going to. Roy sings funny songs about politics and they went over well with the crowd. There were some I’d heard before and several I had not. If you want a sample of his material, my favorite song of the evening was Psychedelic Relic:



By the way, the drive home was only mildly annoying, as they start doing roadwork on the Beltway at 10 p.m. on Friday nights. I really prefer going out to places that are reachable by metro.


Richmond Folk Festival: My friend, Paul, invited me to come down to Richmond and go to their annual Folk Festival with him. I made life far less stressful for myself by taking the train down, instead of coping with the inevitable roadwork on I-95 on the weekend. The catch is that only a few trains serve the Main Street Station downtown, but Paul picked me up at Staples Mill, which also meant a drive along Monument Avenue (and his tour guide commentary) along the way.

The festival is in downtown Richmond, close to the James River. There were 8 stages, though we ignored the children’s area and the Virginia Traditions Stage (which had things like an apple grafting demo and an oyster shucking contest). I wanted to hear Josh Goforth (who tells stories, but focused on ballads for what we were there for) so we went over to the Lyft Stage. That meant we also caught part of Lulo Reinhardt, Django’s great-nephew. He’s an excellent jazz guitarist and I liked his performance so much I bought one of his CDs later in the day, when we found one of the sales tents. Josh’s ballads were more familiar and also worth a listen.

We walked down to Brown’s Island, where we listened to Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners at the Dance Pavilion. I thought they were just okay. Then we got some gelato and walked out on the bridge for Paul to take photos of how high the water was after last week’s storm.

We meandered back up to the Lyft Stage and listened to Tamburaski Sastav Ponoc (a Balkan tamburitza band), who I enjoyed. I wanted to check out the crafts marketplace, so we went back down towards the river. The crafts were, alas, not generally to my taste. Then we walked (slowly, as my knee was aching by then) up the hill to stake out some space within earshot of the Altria Stage, where Mavis Staples was performing. She was, in my opinion, one of the must-sees of the festival, though rather too many other people thought so as well.

By the time she was done, we decided we needed dinner. All the festival food areas were downhill and I didn’t want to have climb back up the hill, so we trudged up through town to Perly’s, a Jewish deli I had heard good things about. I thought it was quite good, which is surprising for Richmond. The matzoh ball soup had lots of stuff in it (chicken, carrots, celery) as well as a matzoh ball with a good texture, though there was rather more dill than I’d have preferred. The tongue sandwich I got was excellent. Paul got something called a Jewish Sailor, which had pastrami, chopped liver, beef sausage, and red cabbage. (Apparently, the Sailor sandwich is a uniquely Virginia and mostly Richmond thing, and normally has pastrami, knockwurst, and cheese, by the way. Supposedly it originated with sailors studying at the University of Richmond during World War II.) I also had potato salad (reasonably good) and Paul had French fries, which he said were light and fluffy. Bottom line is that I would eat there again.

We walked back to Paul’s car and he drove me to the Hampton Inn, where I was spending the night. It's slightly weird, as it occupies the upper floors of a building, with a Homewood Suites on the lower floors. I got a train in the morning from the Main Street Station (much more convenient and quite grand, though with only limited service). Overall, it was a good trip and I got home in time to get a few things done at home, though I always have more to catch up on.

Celebrity Death Watch: Ward Hall was a sideshow impresario. Chelsi Smith was Miss Universe 1995. Peter Donat was an actor, best known for his television work, though his involvement in the American Conservaory Theatre in San Francisco was also significant. Adam Clymer was a political correspondent for The New York Times. Marin Mazzie was a musical theatre actress. Virginia Whitehill was a women’s rights activist. Dudley Sutton played Tinker Dill in the British television series based on Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy mysteries. Maartin Allcock was the lead guitarist for Fairport Convention and also played keyboards with Jethro Tull. Arthur Mitchell founded the Danc e Theatre of Harlem. George Hatsopoulos wrote an influential textbook on thermodynamics. John Cunliffe was a British children’s author, best known for Postman Pat. Charles Kao won a Nobel Prize for his work on fiber optics for communications.

Denis Norden was an English humorist. I have fond memories of listening to him and Frank Muir on My Word many years ago. I particularly remember a story about Rene Descartes, whose wife told him not to eat the miniature quiches at a party as she was saving them for a late night snack. He explained this request to a friend by saying "I think they’re for 1 a.m."

Health Kvetch, Part 1: I had a (routine) doctor’s appointment on Friday last week. That included getting my annual flu shot, in my left arm. I also got the first shot of the new shingles vaccine, in my right arm. My left arm itched around the injection site until Monday. My right arm was sore whenever I lifted it until Tuesday.

Health Kvetch, Part 2: I had laser gum surgery (LANAP) yesterday, in hopes of it dealing with an infection both less expensively and less painfully than other options. The procedure wasn’t too bad and, so far, the recovery is not terrible, though icing the affected area much of the day yesterday was mildly annoying. (I took part of the day off from work, but did call into a couple of meetings from home.) However, the periodontist said the maximum pain is usually at the 3rd day, so we will see. So far, the pain has been pretty minimal, which might be due to taking Tylenol as a precaution. The other annoying parts (aside from the whole periodontist thing) are: 1) the huge antibiotic tablets that I have to take for a week and 2) having to eat a soft diet for 7-10 days. Hopefully this will prevent the need for worse things.

Museum Day – National Museum of Women in the Arts: Saturday was the annual Smithsonian-sponsored Museum Day. This means free admission to a large range of museums throughout the country. You have to get tickets in advance, which means you need to choose what museum to go to. The trick is to make sure you are going to something that normally does charge admission, which rules out the overwhelming majority of museums around here. I chose the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which proved to be a good choice. Some of my favorite pieces were Red Ice (a photograph by Deborah Paauwe), Jo Baker’s Bananas (textile art by Faith Ringgold), 4 Seated Figures (sculpture by Magdalena Abakanowicz), Carrots Anyone? (artist’s book by Susan Joy Shore), and Wonderful You (painting by Jane Hammond, in which she imagined herself as various mythical and mythological characters). All in all, it made for an enjoyable couple of hours.

JGSGW: The first Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington meeting of the season was Sunday. The topic had to do with Shoah memorials in the former Soviet Union. But there is more value in the general schmoozing before and after the meeting.

Everything Else: I think I am finally caught up on puzzles from when I was gone. I am not, however, completely caught up on reading mail (both e and snail varieties).

Last night was book club. After reading an 800+ page book, we’ve decided to set a 400 page limit on future selections.

I should probably say something about baseball. And/or politics. But anybody who knows me at all can already figure out my opinions.

On Rye: I had a moment of inspiration before going to the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Macbeth last night and got dinner at On Rye, a pseudo-deli that has been getting good buzz. I say pseudo, because of the limited menu, which lacks most of my deli favorites. (No tongue? No chopped liver? No latkes? No knishes? No kishke? Not a real deli by my book!) I got the matzoh ball soup, which was disappointing. The actual matzoh ball was good, but the broth tasted too much of dill and not very much of chicken. I also got a pastrami sandwich. The pastrami was satisfyingly peppery, but the rye bread could not hold up to it, making it annoying to eat. Overall, I was not impressed. I understand that they have a stand at Nats Park and I will take advantage of that to try out their babka ice cream sandwich.

Macbeth: Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest play, but you wouldn’t know that from the current production at Shakespeare Theatre Company, which came close to 3 hours. Overall, the production was weird. Liesl Tommy, the director, emphasized the political aspects of the play, at the expense of both the psychological and supernatural ones. From some of what was written in the program, this was a deliberate choice because this is, after all, Washington. Anyway, it was done in an African setting, though they kept the language to Scotland. As far as I could tell, the only significant change in the script was to turn Duncan into a queen, instead of a king. (A few other characters also got the sex-change treatment.) Most of the characters were dressed in camouflage (with red berets, which kind of defeats the purpose of camo). The witches (and Hecate) were treated as CIA operatives, manipulating the action. I actually liked that aspect for the most part, with one witch shooting cell phone footage of all the dead bodies, and the cauldron scene done as a briefing for "Operation Brinded Cat." The most African moment came in the murder of Lady Macduff, who was "necklaced," a specifically South African form of summary execution in which the victim has a rubber tire placed around their upper body, which is then dowsed in gasoline and set on fire. I suspect that went over the heads of a lot of the audience.

I understand the ambitions of the production and the attempt at relevance, but it didn’t really work for me. It did emphasize Macbeth as a tyrant, but it gave Lady Macbeth very little attention, for example. And I have always thought the right way to handle the witches was to have them be rather ordinary, which would allow the language they use to highlight their strangeness.

I should also note that I believe this was the first time I have ever actually payed to see a Shakespeare play. Admittedly, a heavily discounted ticket via Goldstar, but paid for nonetheless. I saw Measure for Measure in college, but I am fairly sure the guy I went with bought the tickets. The two shows I’ve seen previously at the Shakespeare Theatre Company were Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest, both of which were part of their annual summer Free for All program. This summer’s production will be Othello and I will probably try the on-line lottery to get tickets. Free Macbeth would have been more satisfying.

Cough, cough The pollen count is sky high right now. It also didn’t help that the person sitting next to me at the theatre last night had soaked in some particularly allergenic perfume. Sigh.

Change: I accomplished a slight change this morning, simply by putting on perfume. I do so very little and lightly given how much I whine about people wearing too much scent and potential allergenic effects. But I had bought this vanilla-grapefruit sort of stuff at Sephora a while ago and it is really quite different than the woodsy orientals I normally go for. Doing this actually did help my mood.

Odd coincidence: It turns out that a newish guy at work knows the husband of someone I grew up with. Small world.

Knowledge Could Be Power: I learned that my corporate boss has a phobia about giant spiders. I will not use this information. Yet.

Leprosy: Having watched Ben Hur on a plane the other day, I have been obsessing slightly on the subject of leprosy. As it happens, a friend and I once invested some time in studying leprosy in the Bible. The basic conconclusion was that the disease called by that name was probably not what we call leprosy nowadays, but was more likely a filarial disease, possibly elephantiasis. (The real point is that spiritual leprosy has little to do with physical leprosy.) But what I am wondering about is whether leprosy, which is not very contagious, was ever really widespread in the Middle East and Europe and, if so, how it declined before the antibiotics which can easily cure it nowadays.

I have, by the way, in one of those things that may surprise you to know about me, shaken hands with a (cured) leper. I have also broken bread with a gypsy king. But I have never seen an episode of Doctor Who.

It seems I am busy enough doing things that finding time to write about them is a low priority. This episode gets me only half-way through last weekend and covers primarily much randomness, rather than what I've been up to. I will get caught up real soon now.

Celebrity Death Watch: The obvious celebrity death to note is Whitney Houston. Her music was not really to my taste, but she was a big name.

Health: I had a doctor's appointment last week and can, therefore, testify to the benefits of fish oil. My doctor was pleased with the impact on my triglyceride levels, as was I. I was less pleased with the cold I caught in the waiting room.

Work, part 1: Passing around a bowl of chocolates does not compensate for scheduling a meeting over lunch time. Fortunately, the meeting in question finished in an hour and a half, not the three it was scheduled for.

Work, part 2: The background on this item is that there are 7 people in my group, plus 2 from another group who come to our weekly staff meeting. Two of us are Jewish. We have just inherited an additional responsibility and about all we know about it is that it involves four questions. One of my (non-Jewish) colleagues commented about our need for training and asked, "Does anybody here even know what the four questions are?" David and I immediately turned to each other and said, "mah nishtana ha layla hazeh..."

Missing the Point: The Washington Post had an opinion piece regarding intellectual property a couple of weeks ago. They used the example of an ebook of horror stories which included two pieces by Poe and "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs and decried the copyright violations. A little detail they might have wanted to consider is that all of those stories are in the public domain, so there was not any copyright violation.

Winter in a Day: I was down in Richmond on Saturday for a VASA board meeting. Shortly before leaving, we had a storm come through. There was rain, sleet, hail, wind, snow, thunder, and even thundersnow. Fortunately, it went through pretty quickly and the drive north was just a bit wet for a few counties (and clear once I got up to about Caroline County).

Virginia Rivers: We have two types of river names in Virginia. (I refer only to things identified as a River. Creeks are called "Runs" and don't count for this purpose.) There are polysyllabic ones like the Rappahonack. And there are single syllable ones like the Po and the Ni. The latter was obviously where the knights used to hang out.

Story Swap: The Voices in the Glen story swap was Saturday night. The swap was, as always, a good time. I was particularly pleased that we had a few newcomers, one of whom even told a story.

Things I Left Out:I forgot to mention two things about my trip to New York last weekend:

1) Sonia Sotomayor threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was actually pretty cool. (I can forgive her being a Yankees fan on the grounds that she grew up in the Bronx and, hence, cannot be expected to know better.) And it is actually a good thing that there was only one ceremonial first pitch, as I have been to too many ball games which had 3 or more.

2) On the way back to Manhattan from the Heart of Darkness, there was a very entertaining street musician on the subway. He was making up songs for specific people on the train. He was, in general, way off base in his comments, but that is part of what made it so funny. How off base? He claimed I look like Martha Stewart.

New Stuff - Health and Fitness Department: I'm about a month into trying this anti-inflammation diet plan. I've lost nearly 10 pounds (which is not particularly relevant, but I won't complain) but, more significantly, some numbers were better at my doctor's appointment last week. Whether it will help with fall allergy season is still an open question.

I've also now gone to three different dance classes. (The studio has 15 different classes you can use your pass for, which makes for the flexibility somebody with my crazy schedule needs.) I liked the music best for the Afro Latin Belly Dance Fusion class, but the teacher was hard to follow and the class is a bit too late at night. So I think I will stick to the Bollywood and Zumba classes. I tried the latter today and, aside from not having realized it was even physically possible to produce so much sweat, liked it.

None of this, alas, will do anything about the stress fracture in one of my back teeth which needs a crown. I couldn't get an appointment until December which is, I suppose, the price one pays for having a good dentist.

New Stuff - Political Department: We have a gubernatorial election in Virginia in just about a month. I realize that Bob McDonnell is a neanderthal whose values are pretty much antithetical to mine. But I really wich Creigh Deeds would actually say something about what he intends to do.

On another political note, it seems to me that the hoopla over Obama and the Olympics is a can't win situation. I'm under the impression that he went to Copenhagen because everybody was clamoring over how vital it was that he go. (The leaders of all the other competing countries were already committed to going before he was.) That does not, however, seem to make it a personal defeat that Chicago lost out to Rio. Frankly, as soon as I saw the list of potential host cities, I was sure it would be Rio. The IOC has been wanting things to look more international and having a host city in South America fits in well with that. Cape Town in 2020?

New Stuff - Travel Department: I have almost figured out what I want to do with respect to my trip to Peru next month, but am frustrated by not having quite enough time to do everything. Having to make choices is, at least, a good problem to have.

In one of my periodic attempts to improve my diet, I've been reading about inflammation factors. Some of the information is surprising, e.g. that farmed salmon is inflammatory, while wild salmon is anti-inflammatory, allegedly because of what the salmon eat under different conditions. (I avoid farmed salmon ever since I was near a salmon farm in Chile - the smell was revolting, at best.)

What with the new year starting (that is, my birthday is just a few weeks away), I'm doing some experimenting with this approach. The only specific thing I've done so far is buy a bottle of cod liver oil caplets. But I suspect that I will be blogging about this fairly regularly. Reading about what people eat is fairly dull (other than the food pornography version, of course - and it is, by the way, excellent news that all sorts of spices are so anti-inflammatory that they can cancel out a lot of the ill effects of what you put them on). So I've created a custom friends group for the subject.

If you are interested in this, leave me a comment and I'll add you to that group. Otherwise, you won't hear much about this experiment (which will officially start 1 September, creating the interesting challenge of trying to make change while doing things like going to my mother's.)

I am pretty much over my cold, except for a coughing fit here and there and some residual laryngitis.

The 5 hour raglan sweater will probably end up taking more like 7 hours, but is rescuing the "knit a sweater a month" project.

I managed to not only finish 3 Friday NY Times crosswords, but I did 2 of them in under 15 minutes. That doesn't quite make up for the ones that I stared blankly at forever, but it helps.