fauxklore

Celebrity Death Watch: Lisa Brown acted in soap operas. Marilyn McLeod was a singer-songwriter. Jim Warren was a computer scientist and co-founder of Dr. Dobb’s Journal. Yvonne Wilder was an actress who appeared in several plays and films, including West Side Story. Charles Moose was the chief of the Montgomery County (Maryland) police from 1999-2003. Adolfo was a fashion designer, whose clients included Nancy Reagan. Curley Culp was a Hall of Fame football player. Shirley McBay was a mathematician and advocate for improving education for members of minority groups. Eddie Mekka was an actor, best known for playing Carmine in the series Laverne and Shirley. Arlene Dahl was a prolific film and television actress. H. Jackson Brown, Jr. wrote Life’s Little Instruction Book and other “inspirational” books. Buddy Merrill played steel guitar. Bill Staines was a folk musician. Fred Hiatt was the editorial page editor of the Washington Post. Steve Bronski was the keyboardist for The Bronski Beat. Sir Christopher Hogg was the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline in the early 2000’s. Robbie Shakespeare was a reggae bassist. Lina Wertmuller was a film director. Cara Williams was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Les Emmerson sang with Five Man Electrical Band. Vicente Fernandez was a Mexican singer and actor. Lillian Luckey was a pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Charles Morris wrote several books, primarily about business and finance. Ken Kragen founded Hands Across America. Henry Orenstein was a poker player and toymaker, who is credited with the success of Transformers. Bridget Hanley was an actress, best known for playing Candy in Here Come the Brides, a TV show which girls of my generation all watched because Bobby Sherman was the celebrity crush du jour. Wanda Young sang with The Marvelettes. Alan B. Scott was the developer of Botox, in the context of its use in treating strabismus. Eve Babits was an artist and memoirist. Judith Davidoff was a violist, cellist, and promoter of early music on the viola da gamba. Robert H. Grubbs won a Nobel prize in chemistry in 2005. Sally Ann Howes was an actress, best known for playing Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Grace Mirabella was the editor of Vogue through the 1970’s and most of the 1980’s, after which she founded an eponymous magazine. Sarah Weddington was the lawyer who won the Roe v. Wade case. Andrew Vachss wrote crime fiction. Michael R. Clifford was a shuttle astronaut. Ted Gardner cofounded Lollapalooza. John Madden was a football coach and sportscaster. Sam Jones was a Hall of Fame basketball player. Stephen J. Lawrence was a composer, best known for writing songs for Sesame Street. Dan Reeves was a football player and coach. Richard Leakey was a paleoanthropologist and conservationist. Jim Corsi was a pitcher whose career included a couple of years with the Red Sox, who he later covered as a reporter. Joan Copeland was an actress whose career included theatre, films, and television. Peter Bogdanovich was a film director. Lani Guinier was a civil rights attorney whose controversial opinions on a few subjects blocked her from an appointment in the Clinton administration.


Bob Dole was a long-time Senator from Kansas. He was the Senate majority leader for 3 (non-consecutive) years, as well as the Republican candidate for Vice President in 1976 and for President in 1996. He was generally viewed as a moderate and was active in hunger relief and in disability rights. However, he lost a lot of political credibility for joining the Trump bandwagon later on. After his political career, he was probably most famous for shilling for Viagra (and other products).

Al Unser was a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Michael Nesmith was a singer, guitarist, and song-writer, best known as one of The Monkees.

Anne Rice wrote best-selling books about vampires.

bell hooks was a feminist author and scholar, who wrote primarily about the intersections of race, capitalism, and gender. Her book, Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism was particularly influential.

Hans Mark was the director of NASA Ames Research Center in the 1970’s. He was Secretary of the Air Force from 1979 to 1981 and then became Deputy Administrator of NASA. He was the Director of Defense Research and Engineering from 1999-2000. He played a huge role in promoting space technology, both for civilian and military use, as well as having an important academic career at various institutions, including MIT and the University of Texas.

Joan Didion was a novelist, essayist and memoirist. Her best known works include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and The Year of Magical Thinking. Her work was deeply personal and often California-focused.

Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and anti-apartheid activist, though I sincerely hope you didn’t need me to tell you that. He chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated human rights abuses (on both the pro and anti-apartheid sides). In that work, he exemplified forgiveness. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He also became involved in other issues, notably support for gay rights.

E. O. Wilson was an observational biologist (specializing in ants) in an era where molecular biology was more in favor. He wrote numerous books about ecology and sociobiology among other topics and is regarded as the successor to Darwin’s legacy. (Except without the plagiarism. Sorry, but I will never believe that it is sheer coincidence that Darwin managed to publish something he had allegedly been working on for years only after getting a letter from Alfred Russell Wallace.)

Harry Reid was a senator from Nevada for 30 years, including 8 years as the Senate Majority Leader. He led the Democratic majority in passing a lot of major legislation, e.g. The Affordable Care Act. The Las Vegas airport was renamed for him only two weeks before his death. (It is my firm opinion that airports should not be named for living people, so I consider this action as a contributing factor to his death.)

Betty White was an actress whose career extended over pretty much the entire history of television. She was well-known for her roles in such TV shows as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, as well as being a panelist on several game shows. She was also the first woman to produce a sitcom in the U.S. I had been sure she would live to see 100, so it is particularly sad that she died just a few weeks before that milestone.

Sidney Poitier was an actor, whose career included numerous major movies, such as In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. He was the first Black winner of the Oscar for Best Actor (for his role in Lilies in the Field). He was also an activist, who, for example, insisted on half of the people on his film crews be African-American.

Snow: We got 9 inches of snow on Monday. Here is the view from my balcony when it was only about halfway through snowing.



We got another 3.5 inches or so last night. I am hoping that having had all day to clean things up means that the roads will be fine by noon tomorrow when I need to drive somewhere. I hate winter.


Idiot Neighbors: We have trash rooms on every floor in my condo building. There is a trash cute down which you are supposed to toss your trash bags. There are also bins for recycling, labeled for glass, paper, and plastic / cans. Most people understand this, but there are a few idiots who put recycling in the wrong bin. Or, even worse, leave their trash bags on the floor next to the chute.


Hot Toddy: I am still working on the wrap-up from 2021, mostly because goal planning is hard. But one goal I have come up with is to try a new cocktail each week, specifically on Friday night.. Given the current weather, I am starting with hot cocktails. Tonight’s cocktail was a hot rum toddy.



This had honey, lemon juice, dark rum, boiling water, and a cinnamon stick. I thought it was a bit bland, so I will keep trying. There is certainly no shortage of recipes out there.

I’ve been exhausted all day. I had intended to go to bed at 11 last night, but there was somebody making a lot of noise in my complex. After about an hour and a half of not being able to sleep, I got dressed and went to go complain to them. It turned out not to be my next-door neighbors, but the people on the other side of them. And it sounded like they were having a knock-down drag-out fight. I even heard what sounded like glass breaking. I decided it would be too dangerous to confront them, so went back to my place and sent an email to the building manager (who I am sure won’t see it until Monday morning). In retrospect, I should have called the police.

Anyway, it was almost 2 a.m. before it was quiet enough to sleep. I assume these are the same people who were playing music loudly on Friday night (which I only heard when I got up to use the bathroom at about 3 a.m.) Sigh. Normally the only noise I hear comes from birds in the courtyard and cicadas in summer.

I did get up early to run some errands - mailed off my packages (there is a post office a few miles away that is open on Sundays), dropped some cookies off with a friend, put a few books in the Little Free Library down the street from her house, and did my grocery shopping. I had a genealogy-related zoom meeting at noon, so I didn’t really have a chance to take a nap until mid-afternoon.

Hopefully, the neighbors will be quiet tonight.

Celebrity Death Watch: Clive James was an Australian critic, broadcaster, and writer. Frank Biondi was a media executive including heading HBO, Viacom, and Universal Studios at various times. Marion McClinton was a theatre director who specialized in the works of August Wilson. Irving Burgie was a songwriter who wrote a number of pieces for Harry Belafonte. Yasahiro Nakasone was the prime minister of Japan from 1982-1987. Pat Sullivan was a football player. Shelley Morrison was an actress, best known for playing Roasario in Will and Grace. Mark Butler was the majority owner of the Harrisburg Senators (the AA affiliate of the Washington Nationals). Robert K. Massie wrote biographies of the Romanovs, including Nicholas and Alexandra. D.C. Fontana was the first female writer for Star Trek. George J. Lauer invented the Universal Product Code. Ron Liebman won a Tony for playing Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Carroll Spinney was a puppeteer whose work included Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

Jonathan Miller was a neurologist, humorist, theatre director, and general public intellectual. I particularly remember him for The Body in Question, and I believe I have a copy of the book that accompanied the television program. I am less fond of some of his theatrical decisions, including a production of The Mikado for which he admitted to not liking Gilbert and Sullivan.

William Ruckelhaus was Deputy Attorney General during Watergate and resigned in the wake of the Saturday Night Massacre. He became the first (and fifth) administrator of the EPA.

Paul Volcker was an economist who chaired the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. He is credited with ending high levels of inflation.

Rene Auberjonois was an actor. While he was well-known for both films and television roles, he also did a lot of theatre, starting with performing at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He won a Tony for his performance in Coco in 1969. He also played a major role in founding theatres companies, e.g. The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

The Past Week: I spent a lot of time catching up on admin chores at work. Aside from that, I also bought a lot of tickets to do things with friends in the coming year. I got a little closer to catching up at home, though I am still suffering CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). In a truly miraculous achievement, I actually finished reading the Sunday Washington Post on Sunday. By the way, the magazine section had a good (i.e. reasonably well-balanced) piece on the Space Force.

Service Charges: Having done all those ticket purchases reminds me of how much I hate service charges. It’s rather deceptive when a site advertises free tickets to an event, but then charges a five buck ticket fee. The most annoying part is that you don’t generally see what the fees are up front, though you do before you hit the button to pay.

The best of the theatres in this respect is Ford’s where there is only a two dollar fee and that is earmarked towards restoration costs. I still think it should just be part of the ticket price, but I can live with that.

Breakage: One of my corelle plates slipped off the counter on Saturday and shattered. It’s not a big deal really as we are talking about a cheap dish that was bought probably 40 years ago. But it was a pain in the neck to clean up. That stuff shatters into a lot of sharp pieces. And I couldn’t find a dustpan, so made do with a piece of cardboard. I did get it cleaned up so it would be safe enough for me to walk around in the kitchen without shoes on. I still think that I must have a dustpan somewhere, but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near any of my other cleaning supplies, all of which I keep in the laundry room.

Speaking of Searching for Things: My toiletries bag has the ability to become invisible any time I am going on a trip. I also need to find where I put my camera bag. And my headlamp. Sigh.

Celebrity Death Watch: In a rather belated item, Richard Siegel, who was one of the co-editors of The Jewish Catalogue died in mid-July, but I missed seeing his obituary until this week. Tommy Peoples was a Donegal fiddler who played with The Bothy Band. Moshe Mizrahi was an Israeli film director, best known for Madame Rosa. Charlotte Rae was an actress, probably best known for her television roles on Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, but also significant for playing Mammy Yokum in the Broadway musical, Li’l Abner. Joel Robuchon was a French chef, who had the most Michelin stars of any restaurateur. Stan Mikita played hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Avoiding Whininess: I wrote a rather kvetchy entry yesterday, mostly about the level of chaos in my life. I decided not to post it. Instead, I did get some decluttering done when I went home, including finding the most urgent thing I was looking for (new auto insurance card). And, more importantly, I figured out a way to sort some things out so I can tackle them in a more orderly manner. In other words, it is still chaos, but I feel more optimistic about coping with it.


Charities: A lot of people use social media (particularly facebook) to solicit charitable donations to celebrate their birthdays. I have reservations about this, as it seems both ineffective and pushy. But I will note that my birthday approacheth (as do the Jewish High Holidays, a traditional time for extra charity). So I thought I would recommend a few charities I think are worth giving to:

Mines Advisory Group – focused on removing unexploded ordnance in various countries. I have seen the good they have done in southeast Asia (Cambodia and Laos) and am particularly impressed with their efforts to educate children not to handle bombs they may find. They are also active in several countries in Africa. Not rated by Charity Navigator because much of their funding comes from government grants, versus individuals.


SOME – serves poverty and homelessness in Washington, D.C. Their services include affordable housing, as well as food, clothing, health care, job training, and addiction treatment. Rated 4 Star by Charity Navigator. You might also look for similar organizations where you live.


Women’s Prison Book Project – provides free reading materials to women and transgender persons in prison. Focus is on books with specifically relevant topics, including women’s health, law, and education. Not rated by Charity Navigator.


I also donate heavily to my alumni association, earmarked for scholarships. I also recommend donating to local arts organizations (e.g. I donate to Signature Theatre in Alexandria, Virginia). In general, it is better to donate larger amounts to fewer organizations, in my opinion.

Celebrity Death Watch: Jake LaMotta was a boxer, best known from the movie, Raging Bull. Lillian Ross wrote for The New Yorker. Maurice Nivat was considered one of the fathers of theoretical computer science. Liliane Bettencourt was a socialite who inherited the L’Oreal fortune and was, hence, the richest woman in the world, despite losing a lot of money in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Daniel Yankelovich was a social scientist and influential pollster. Charles Bradley was a soul singer. Kit Reed wrote both science fiction and mystery stories. Bobby Knutt, Elizabeth Dawn, and Tony Booth all acted on Coronation Street. Barbara Blaine was an activist who fought against clergy abuse.

Federal Budget: Last Tuesday night I went to an MIT Club dinner meeting with a speaker (Josh Gordon of the Concord Coalition, which exists to educate people about the federal budget) talking about the future of the federal budget. When I arrived, the organizer asked me if I had anything to do with the federal budget and I explained that my job touches on parts of the defense budget, so he decided I should sit at the head table. That meant some reasonably lively conversation with the speaker (and, of course, the others at the table.) I don’t think I learned much from the talk, but it was fairly interesting. Too many of the questions focused on health care for my interest level. In short, every other developed country has decided that single payer is the way to go to achieve good health outcomes at an affordable price. I formed my opinion on that long ago. For the record, our for-profit insurance system is inefficient, as a very low percentage of the money taken in actually goes to health care. The fact that there are thousands of people who are paid to figure out what code to use for a large number of different insurance companies is evidence enough of the absurdity.

The Anthem Controversy:I have no interest in football, but I do have a few things to say about the anthem controversy. First of all, it is clear that people have the right not to stand for the anthem. However, there are lots of other examples of first amendment rights not applying in the relationship between employers and employees, so the owners could require players to stand. That would send an undesirable message, but it wouldn’t be illegal. It would be akin to not allowing you to use corporate resources to write a letter to the editor of the newspaper.

Second, that particular protest is not inherently disrespectful to the flag or veterans or apple pie. One can argue about how effective it is, because it doesn’t really tie directly to the issue at hand (namely, racism in policing) but that is a separate (and irrelevant) matter. I can’t really fault people whp have a public platform for using it to speak up about important matters.

Third, some people have shown pictures of President Trump standing without his hand over his heart during the anthem as a statement of hypocrisy. While the Flag Code does say that the right hand over the heart is proper, it isn’t the case for the military, who are supposed to stand at attention. I would argue that the President, who is Commander in Chief of the military, could acceptably do that. And, by the way, remember that Obama was also criticized for not putting his right hand over his heart during the anthem. I will also note that when I was growing up, we put the hand over the heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, but not during the national anthem.

Application to My Workplace: By the way, our all-hands meetings at work start with the Pledge of Allegiance. This annoys me, but I don’t feel like I could not say the Pledge. I do ignore the applause when I am sitting in a conference room at the opposite end of the country where the actual meeting is taking place. We’re muted, so what’s the point of clapping?

Rosh Hashanah: I went to Sixth and I, which had its pluses and minuses. The traditional service was almost traditional. The deviations did, alas, annoy me – calling multiple people for an aliyah, for one, and not really doing the priestly blessing, for another. On the plus side, I thought Cantor Larry Paul did an excellent job of the balance between cantorial showiness and congregational participation, with most of the people around me singing quite a lot. Rabbi Avis Miller’s sermons could have been more tightly written, in my opinion. (I apparently missed Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who was there Wednesday night.)

The main thing I wanted to note was that the shofar blower during Shacharit had an interesting technique. I can’t really describe it well, but his shevarim had two notes, in a way that made a siren-like sound. I don’t know if that is specific to some particular region (e.g. I have heard a Yemenite shofar, which sounds somewhat different, but that is because it is made from an antelope horn, not a ram’s horn), but it was really quite striking. He did this both with the plain shevarim and the shevarim teruah, by the way. (For those who have no idea what I am talking about, there are three different shofar calls. Tekiah is the long drawn-out one. Shevarim is three shorter notes. Teruah is 9 or more short blasts.)


Mail: Both my email and my snail mail seem to have been especially slow last week. Should it really take 4 days for something to get less than 20 miles from where it was sent to my mailbox? And the 5 days for an email to reach me was even weirder.

Don’t Analyze This Dream, Part 1: I don’t remember the entire dream, but the gist of it was that two men, one American and one Israeli, had to kill and drink the blood of people to keep from being eaten alive by aliens who looked like a cross between spiders and starfish. They both kept journals about this, with the focus on their trying to be sort of avenging demons. For example, they directed three Korean women to a good diner and paid for their meals, and then went to kill the people who had been keeping the three women as slaves. It is possible that one of the men was actually Bat Boy. At least there was a scene where he was hanging upside down from the crown molding of a room, supported by his toenails.

Don’t Interpret This Dream, Part 2: I was at a restaurant for brunch. For some reason, I had to order at the hostess stand, not at the table. I knew what I wanted (a Mexican omelette), but couldn’t figure out what this particular restaurant called it on their menu.

Celebrity Death Watch: Marian Javits was an arts patron and the widow of Jacob Javits, who a few of you may remember from the days when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. Joseph Wapner was the first judge on The People’s Court. Shrley Palesh played for a few teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Howard Schmidt was a major figure in government cybersecurity strategy. Joe Rogers co-founded Waffle House, thus saving the stomach linings of many a drunken Southerner. Rene Preval served two terms as president of Haiti. Tommy Page was a singer-songwriter. Miriam Colon was a Puerto Rican actress. Edi Fitzroy was a reggae singer. Fred Weintraub owned The Bitter End, an important venue for folk music and comedy. Kurt Moll was an opera singer. Robert Osborne as a film historian and hosted Turner Classic Movies. Joni Sledge sang as part of Sister Sledge. Robert James Waller wrote The Bridges of Madison County. Amy Krouse Rosenthal was a prolific writer of children’s books, among other things. Mother Divine was the leader of a cult founded by her husband. Royal Robbins was a big name in rock climbing but, more significantly to me, founded an eponymous clothing company that makes awesome clothes for traveling, including that green plaid shirt I am wearing in the overwhelming majority of my travel photos.

Errata: I erred. It was Jason Chaffetz, not Paul Ryan who made the stupid statement about iphones and health insurance.

Don’t Analyze This Dream: I was in Japan and upset over finding I had inadvertently taken my (work) cell phone with me. I was with another woman and we went down an escalator to exit a building with a very tall skylight. We were held up at the bottom of the escalator until there was a group of 4 men and 4 women and we all had to walk through a metal detector and send our things through an x-ray machine. Then we had to sing a song together before we could exit. Afterwards, I found out there was a side exit and people waited in line to sing, with fans of them gathered at the side of the security screening.

Story Slam: This month’s story slam theme was Womanhood, so I pulled out my "Woman of Valor" story, which is starting to get to having a reasonable ending. It went fairly well, though I finished third, so didn’t walk away with any money. I do wish, however, that this would go back to being on a Thursday night, because it conflicted with The Grapevine and I had to make an actual choice.

World Baseball Classic: Oh, well. Israel had a good run, but blew it in the second round.

Culpeper Tells / Virginia Storytelling Alliance Gathering: This past weekend was the Culpeper Tells festival and, once again, the VASA Gathering was held together with it. I preferred when we had a separate retreat, which made for a different sort of event, but I’ll take what I can get. I took off from work on Friday, intending to get some household odds and ends done and drive out earlyish. But I fell prey to the lure of napping and hit the road later than I intended, subjecting me to the inevitable slog through Gainesville. I was not all that enthusiastic to arrive at the hotel and find myself parking next to a vehicle advertising Pest Control and, specifically, "thermo bed bug eradication." Either their method works or the guy with the bedbug truck was just staying overnight at the hotel, as I didn’t get bitten by anything, but it was still disturbing.

Anyway, a bunch of us went out to dinner at Luigi’s which is mediocre red sauce Italian food. At least our server was mostly up to dealing with a big group. We came back to the hotel for a concert by Lynn Ruehlmann and Megan Hicks. Lynn blended the story of Psyche and Eros with the story of her own marriage, while Megan told a folk tale and her personal love story separately. Both were very good. That was followed by a story swap.

Megan did a workshop on Saturday morning, mostly emphasizing that we are all living history. There was a lot of confusion about when we were supposed to get into the room at the library, as well as confusion over who was signed up for what.

The actual festival started after lunchtime. There were four tellers – Geraldine Buckley, Michael Reno Harrell, Adam Booth, and Donald Davis. Each of them had just under an hour in the afternoon and then another half hour in the evening concert. The highlight of the day as far as I was concerned was Adam’s telling of "Ashton," a story from his Appalachian series, involving a coal miner's wife, and the early recordings of country music. It was exquisitely crafted and well-told. I should also note that I thought it was interesting that all of the tellers were telling more or less personal stories and there weren’t any traditional stories at all. By the way, there was also a story slam, but my name didn’t get drawn from the hat, alas.

At the dinner break, I ended up with a few people at a small place called Four C’s. I have this theory that, if you see a few ethnic items on what is otherwise an American restaurant menu, you should order from those, because it means the cook is including some of his family specialties. There were several Peruvian items on the menu, so these were clearly the way to go. I ended up getting some very tasty grilled fish that way. There’s no atmosphere, but the food was good and very reasonably priced and the service was friendly and efficient. It’s a good place to keep in mind for the future.

There was another swap back at the hotel afterwards, but it was too late for me, especially what with changing the clocks.

Sunday morning had the VASA annual meeting (which hadn’t actually been mentioned on the schedule). All I will say is that I am really glad I am no longer on the board. That was followed by "sacred stories" (not my thing) and puns (very much my thing). I told "Why I’m Not a Millionaire" to transition us between the two.

Overall, it was a reasonably good weekend. I was annoyed at various little things, but being among my storytelling tribe made up for them.

Annoying Weather: We had been having lovely spring-like weather, but it changed radically for the weekend. And Monday night was a sort of winter storm. Only sort of, as the snow total can’t have been more than a couple of inches, but there was plenty of sleet. In other words, things were nasty and icy. OPM made a bad call with a three hour delay and my company made a worse call by sending out confusing emails. One said we were on a mandatory delay in the subject line, but the body said all offices were open. Another had a subject line reading "message 1 of 2" but there was no "message 2 of 2." I had brought my laptop home and told my boss I was going to work from home, so none of this affected me per se, but it made me grumpy. I dislike working from home to begin with (too many distractions, including the fact that I really need to replace my desk chair) so I was inclined to be grumpy.

I’m back in the office today. One area of my walk to the metro was treacherous, but most of it was clear. I expect it to be worse tonight, since it isn’t supposed to get above freezing all day.

More Corporate Miscommunication: We are all getting new phones. I got an email telling me mine was ready and that I needed to go to an office 30 some odd miles away to pick it up. Since that office doesn't open until 9 and we are talking about DC metro area traffic, that would kill half my day. In fact, our IT guy came around this afternoon delivering phones for the 50 or so of us in this office. This is much easier, of course, but I would have preferred them sending out the correct info to begin with.

Celebrity Death Watch: Richard Hatch was an actor in Battlestar Galactica among other things. Sir Peter Mansfield won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2003. Mile Ilitch owned much of Detroit or at least its sports teams (the Red Wings and the Tigers) and a mediocre pizza company. Damian was a British pop singer. Al Jarreau was a seven-time Grammy winner for his jazz and R&B music. Raymond Smullyan was a mathematician and wrote books about logic puzzles, e.g. What is the Name of This Book? and This Book Needs No Title.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Howard Margol was a major force in Lithuanian-Jewish genealogy and responsible for a lot of the resources I use regularly. He was helpful in answering questions and teaching others how to do their research. May his memory be for a blessing.

Storytelling – The Grapevine: I made it to darkest Maryland (actually, come to think of it, Busboys and Poets might be on the DC side of Takoma / Takoma Park) Wednesday night to see Jeff Doyle and Anne Thomas tell. I also told "The Three Sisters" in the open mike. Jeff told two stories involving encounters with bears. Anne did a few personal stories about disability. Overall, an interesting night.

Storytelling – Short Story Slam: Thursday night had me back in darkest Maryland – Bethesda, to be precise – for the story slam that Michael puts on monthly. I have mixed feelings about this sort of thing, since a part of me objects to competitive storytelling. But there was plenty of good material on the theme of matrimony. Michael led off with a particularly funny piece about getting married in Communist China, including what he referred to as "emergency sex education." I told an abbreviated version of "Border Crossings." I actually tied for the third highest number of votes, but since the top two vote-getters went over the time limit, it came down to the tie breaker, and I had the shortest story so won first prize, which was exciting. Overall, it was fun and worth the exhaustion the next day.

JGSGW: I spent most of the weekend between suspended animation (i.e. catching up on sleep) and trying, not very successfully, to get some housework done. But I did make it to the JGSGW meeting on Sunday, which had a presentation on debunking myths about Jewish genealogy. I can’t say I learned much, but it was entertaining. And the time for networking was potentially useful.

Weather Whine: I would rather it were consistently cold than this annoying up and down we’ve been having. It got up to 70ish on Wednesday and then dropped to the 20’s on Friday but was back in the 60’s all weekend. This morning it was 30-something (but 25 with the wind chill factor) when I left for work. Just make up your bloody mind for a few days in a row, please.

Metro: Both storytelling events last week involved the Red Line, which meant changing to the Orange Line for the rest of the way home. That’s fine, but they were single-tracking around McPherson Square at night and things aren’t synchronized, so I had 15+ minute waits at Metro Center both nights.

Friday had a different annoyance as they turned the Orange Line train I was on into a Silver Line train. I was napping, so missed the announcement. Fortunately, I woke up at McLean, so only had to go back one station to switch, but they shouldn’t do this. Especially as they already run twice as many Silver Line trains as Orange, despite ridership on the Orange Line being several times higher.

Today started a new SafeTrack surge, which means no Blue Line service for 18 days. I had an early meeting at the Pentagon, so took a bus which was way more crowded than I’d ever seen it before. That worked, but was still annoying. In short, expect me to be grumpy for the next several weeks. It’s still better than driving.

Celebrity Death Watch: Janet Waldo was the voice of Judy Jetson and Penelope Pitstop, among a large number of acting roles. George Voinovich was the governor of Ohio through pretty much all of the 1980's, after which he became a U.S. Senator.

Metro: Surge #1 is over and was not too annoying, thanks to the temporary bus service from Fairfax Connector. Except that last night I was coming from the city and had the usual lengthy wait for a train at Foggy Bottom, complete with inadequate information. It didn't really affect tme, but they were announcing a train as being a Blue Line one, when it was actually Silver. The exact same thing happened this morning at Rosslyn, which was more irritating as I was already in a bad mood and running late due to multiple Orange Line screw-ups. To wit: 1) despite there allegedly being no track work, there was still single tracking between East Falls Church and Ballston, 2) the announcements only were addressing a different (and supposedly resolved) track issue, 3) none of this info was on the rail alerts, and 4) the two trains before mine skipped Ballston, so my train ended up with Tokyo-level crowding.

The next surge includes two weeks of no service between Rosslyn and Arlington Cemetery. They are suggesting people stay on the Orange (or Silver) Line to L'Enfant Plaza and then take the Yellow Line south. Which only adds about 35-40 minutes to the trip. There are a couple of alternatives I know of, but the most useful one is that I am actually going to have to deal with that mess for two days, due to a mixture of travel and a conference.

Kinky Boots: I went to see Kinky Boots at the Kennedy Center last night (which is why I was waiting for the metro at Foggy Bottom in the first place). Anyway, the show has a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. It tells the story of a young man, Charlie Price, who inherits his family's shoe factory and decides to save the livelihoods of the long-term factory workers by entering a niche market. And what niche market is that? High heeled boots for drag queens. See, he had met Lola, whose footwear needs inspire ideas that will be just the thing for this upcoming show in Milan. Winning over the workers, who aren't necessarily comfortable with Lola, is only part of the problem. See, Charlie has to convince himself, too.

You know that everything is going to work out just fine, including Lola's father issues, Charlie's love life, and, of course, the factory. This is pretty much your average feel-good, everything works if you just accept everyone musical, with some gorgeous shoes thrown in. And I say that as a devotee of flats. The score is also fairly predictable. Lola gets some big, showy numbers, while there's a little more thoughtful material about what being a man is ("Not My Father's Son"). The music was pleasant enough for the most part (though the production numbers weren't really my style), but not really memorable.

Adam Kaplan did well as Charlie, but was (of course) overshadowed by J. Harrison Ghee as Lola. I did find myself wondering if the casting was intended to be color-blind or whether Lola being black was supposed to add even more to the whole lack of acceptance vibe. The performer I need to especially single out is Tiffany Engen as Lauren, the factory worker with a crush on Charlie. She was a phenomenal dancer and really conveyed the emotions behind her apparently hopeless feelings.

The most interesting thing about this show is that it's touring here right now, while La Cage Aux Folles is playing at Signature Theatre. Drag queens, self-acceptance, Harvey Fierstein - do I see a pattern here? And that apparent coincidence is why I found myself wondering whether Kinky Boots is anything more than a rehashing of the same old same old. It's not a bad show, but why bother when Jerry Herman's music gives you something to inflict an ear worm on yourself with? (To be fair, I've never really seen the point of drag shows and I've been accused of being the straightest person on the planet. Stilettos don't make me feel good - they make my feet hurt.)

I have other things to write about, but let me drop a quick note re: how miserable this week has been for commuting. Monday was tolerable, but the metro was running on a holiday schedule, which meant long waits at Rosslyn for connecting trains.

Tuesday, the cold weather caused a different problem. But it is best to say it in my preferred poetic form:

Cracked rail outside East
Falls Church this morning. Single
tracking. Late to work.


And, of course, I just missed my connection, so:

It is as cold at
Rosslyn station as it is
outside. Brr, brr, brr.


Was it any better going home? Well, I had an errand to run near Union Station. I got on the Yellow Line at Crystal City and then:

Someone unconscious
on train at Archives. Single
tracking, long delays.


So yesterday I had a meeting for which it made sense to drive in. (I can get to where it was by bus, but that eats up a lot of time and is only worth it if meeting is at beginning or end of the day, not in the middle.) Things were slow coming in, for no particular reason. Going home was the issue. It wasn't even snowing until I was halfway home, but it was still slow. And, once there was a bit of sticking snow, it was just a slippery, nasty crawl.

Note that we got a whopping 1.2 inches of snow and it messed things up badly enough that it took me twice as long as normal to drive home. We are expecting 24-30 inches in the storm that is going to clobber us this weekend.
I am not going more than about 200 feet from my bed.

Please, buy me a condo in Punta del Este, Uruguay?

I have too many projects, few of which I am really excited about. There is one work-related one I would be enthusiastic about, except for various things getting in the way of getting information I need for it. I'm trying to get some things informally in order to figure out what to make a formal request for, but all I've managed so far is a few rounds of telephone tag (not helped by our voice over IP phones that need to be rebooted about twice a day) and an increased level of cursing at our knowledge management system.

If I can get caught up on at least part of my to-do list this weekend and maybe make some decluttering progress, my stress level will drop a lot. But, alas, I don't see that happening.