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Moving on to 2023, my trip to New Bedford last weekend deserves its own entry. As does the MIT Mystery Hunt, which was this weekend. But I have done a few other things.


Celebrity Death Watch: Terry Hall was the lead singer of The Specials, a ska group I liked quite a lot back in the 1980’s. Franco Harris played football for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thom Bell was a songwriter, best known for “The Rubberband Man.” Joyce Meskis owned The Tattered Cover, an excellent bookstore in Denver. Vivienne Westwood was a fashion designer. Anita Pointer sang with the Pointer Sisters.

Fred White played drums for Earth, Wind & Fire. Edith Lank wrote a syndicated column giving real estate advice. Buster Corley cofounded Dave & Buster’s. Suzy McKee Charkas was a writer, primarily of fantasy. Walter Cunningham was an Apollo 7 astronaut. Casey Hayden was a civil rights activist. Arthur Duncan was a tap dancer who became the first African-American to appear regularly on a weekly television show. Russell Banks was a novelist. Slim Newton was an Australian singer-songwriter. Bernard Kalb covered international affairs for the New York Times. Charles Simic was a poet. Blake Hounsell wrote about politics for several publications, including the New York Times and Politico. Jeff Beck was a rock guitarist, starting with The Yardbirds. Lisa Marie Presley was the daughter of Elvis and a singer-songwriter in her own right. Paul Johnson wrote extensively about history. Robbie Bachman was the drummer for Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Robbie Knievel followed in his father, Evel’s, footsteps as a motorcycle daredevil. Gina Lollobrigida was a film actress. Constantine II was the last King of Greece.

Pele was the first big celebrity soccer player. I remember him fondly from his days playing for the New York Cosmos. He pretty much single-handedly raised the profile of soccer in the U.S. - and that was after an outstanding career playing in Brazil, including three World Cup championships in 1958, 1962, and 1970.

Ian Tyson was a singer (with his wife, Sylvia) and songwriter, best known for “Four Strong Winds.”

Barbara Walters was the first major female television journalist and had a career of over 50 years. She was particular notable as an interviewer, particularly of political figures.

Pope Benedict XVI was the pope from 2205-2013, when he resigned and became “pope emeritus.” That was the first papal resignation since 1415.

Fay Weldon was a feminist author. She was best known for The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. I read it years ago and remember it being a powerful tale of envy and revenge.

Naomi Replansky wrote poetry about women’s lives. She lived to 104, which is impressive. She earned me 32 ghoul pool points.

Frank Thomas played for the original Mets.

Ghoul Pool: Since the lists have been published now, I can reveal my list. Note that the ordering determines how many points you get if that person dies, with a 12 point bonus for uniqueness. You get to refill that slot.

20 Naomi Replansky (who died, giving me 32 points). I backfilled with Agnes Keleti
19 Michael Tilson Thomas
18 Yayoi Kusama
17 Caren Marsh Doll
16 Lee Adams
15 Bob Barker
14 Sam Nujoma
13 Tony Bennett
12 Jimmy Carter
11 Al Jaffee
10 John Goodenough
9 Robert Solow
8 Sandra Day O’Connor
7 Jiro Ono
6 Mel Brooks
5 Shannon Doherty
4 James L. Buckley
3 Bud Harrelson
2 W. Nicholas Hitchon
1 David Oreck

Don’t Analyze This Dream: I was cleaning my ears with a Q-tip (and, yes, I know you are not supposed to do that). Grey ashes kept coming out of my right ear. But swabbing my left ear was normal.

Winter Lantern Festival: Cindy and I had made plans to go to this light exhibit at Tyson’s Corner in late December, but she got stuck in upstate New York due to a combination of weather and the Southwest Airlines meltdown. So we ended up going on New Year’s Day. It was definitely worth going to. Here are a few photos - just a small sample of the spectacle.

They had feathered headbands with flashing lights to wear. They were supposed to be for children, but they let us take them, too.

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Polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic, but they lived together here.

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There were a lot of Tweety Birds. I have no idea why.

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Here’s the aquarium.

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This was my favorite feature. Don’t feed the plants! (Click through to flickr to play the video.)

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Grimmkeepers' Storytelling Show: Grimkeepers is a discussion group about the Grimm fairy tales. There were 7 tellers, all of whom told folk tales, not all from Grimm. My favorite was Marilyn Mcphie’s use of wordplay about fiber in her version of “The Spindle, The Shuttle, and The Needle.”

Schmigadoon!: I got three months of Apple TV free from activating the iPad I got as a retirement gift. I don’t have a lot of time to watch things,, but I had heard good things about Schmigadoon! A musical parody is right up my alley and I did, indeed, enjoy watching this. Sure, it’s a little bit predictable, but that is pretty much necessary for parody to work. I understand that there’s a second season in the works (to be called Schmicago) and I might have to pay for a month or so of Apple TV to watch it.

I am also open to suggestions of other things I might like watching.

Annoyances: I had a fraud incident on a credit card the day after I had activated it. When I called the bank, they said the card had been used physically at a Target store in Maryland, which sounds very odd to me, suggesting an inside job. Fortunately, they were able to overnight me the replacement, since this was the card I wanted to use for hotel room on the New Bedford trip.

Even more annoying, the fire alarm in my condo complex went off around 6 a.m. both yesterday and today. I suspect an idiot neighbor, something of which I unfortunately have no shortage.

Local Politics: We had a special election on Tuesday to backfill our Delegate. The House of Delegates is the lower house of the Virginia legislature. Mark Keam, who had been our delegate, resigned in the fall to take a position with the Biden administration. I am pleased that the candidate I supported, Holly Siebold, won the election. I think she’s going to do great things for us in Richmond.

It's Winter

Jan. 7th, 2022 09:37 pm
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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.

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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.

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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.
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This has been a frustrating day. I did succeed at finding a COVID testing appointment for Wednesday morning, which is better than Friday afternoon, but it took me a couple of hours of searching. The most irritating part of that is that a drugstore very close to my house claimed that they had some appointments available, but there was nothing at all for at least a week. And you can’t find that out until you have entered a whole lot of information. Couple that with searching multiple sites to look for appointments and I was annoyed. It would be much better if they set up a centralized system with the county health department.


Aside from that, I spent pretty much all day on various zoom calls. Part of that was for Yiddish New York, which was mostly enjoyable. I will write more about that when it is over. I also tried to attend a Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington meeting, but had problems with their zoom. When I rebooted my computer and tried to get back in, apparently nobody was monitoring the waiting room, so I gave up. (The other zoom sessions were for my mystery hunt team and for the friends I play board games with.)
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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.
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Resuming the catch-up, much of the first week of June was occupied with the National Storytelling Network virtual conference. I understand going virtual, but I was irritated by replacing a 4 day conference in August with a 9 day conference in June. I was even more irritated by the schedule being published only 5 days before things started – and being published largely incorrectly since they published times as Standard time vs. Daylight Savings Time. This is particularly egregious for an international conference, which should really include both local time and universal time (UTC) so that automated schedule conversions can get it right.

Anyway, because of the short notice, I was only able to go to a very small number of the events, which were at least as much festival / performance as conference. The real conference has some showcase performances and fringe performances, but is at least ¾ workshops. I really missed the fringe, which is an opportunity for greater diversity in telling, albeit often less polished. For the record, for anything that involves more than an hour or two of my time, I would like at least 6 weeks notice. Otherwise, one week is appropriate. Yes, my life is a schedule conflict.

In the end, I registered for the opening keynote by Ekansh Tambe and Elizabeth Ellis, a workshop on virtual events, and 4 performance events. I also attended the NSN member meeting and the Oracle Awards. I should also note that the registration was frustrating as there were repeated server errors when trying to pay. I did eventually get things to work but it took two days. (I had a contact to email, but she wanted to call me, without allowing me to specify a time. This does not work as I am in meetings most of the day nearly every day.)


I didn’t manage to take notes during the keynotes. I remember that Elizabeth spoke well (as always) but not any of the specifics. I was hoping to go back to listen to the recorded version, but there is another screw-up and I can’t see that recording. (More about that below.)

The workshop on virtual events had some interesting tips and a potentially useful handout. Though, to be honest, it mostly convinced me that virtual events, in addition to being unsatisfying, are more trouble than they are worth.

Summary of the membership meeting was that NSN is, again, in dire financial straits. I was also annoyed that the existence of state liaisons (which I am one of) was never even mentioned. As for the Oracle Awards, my one disappointment is that there was never a call for nominees from our regional director to state liaisons for nominees, but we were without anyone in that job for a while and our current regional director is new on the job so it probably just slipped through the cracks.

That leaves performances. I’ve been unable to watch the performance by the Oracle Awards winners yet (and, as you will see below, probably at all). The first performance I watched was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Showcase. I was already familiar with several of the tellers and I am pleased to say that the ones from groups I am involved with were the best of the evening.

I ended up watching the show of Multi-Cultural Stories from Israel after the conference – in fact, just a few nights ago. Most of the stories were Ashkenazi (i.e. Eastern European), but there was one Bedouin story and one Druze story. I was somewhat surprised there were no stories from Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews. The most powerful story was one by the son of a Shoah survivor. Overall, I thought this show flowed well, balancing styles and tones of stories.

The absolute highlight of the whole conference was a concert of Hot Stories From Boccaccio’s Decameron with Paola Balbi, Germana De Ruvo, and Davide Bardi. They told some very adult stories without crudeness or vulgar language. Davide’s guitar playing enhanced the stores and the whole show was absorbing and magical. I hope that someday I get to see them perform in person.


Everything was supposedly recorded and would be available to attendees. However, I never got the email with the link for the recordings and only realized that they’d expire September 1st when I saw a facebook post on the viewing time being extended to then. And when I logged in and went to watch, both the Oracle award winners’ concert and the keynote speech (which I had seen, but wanted to refresh my memory on) were missing from the list. I’m still trying to get that straightened out, but I don’t really expect to have time to view those.

The moral of the story is that rushing through planning for no valid reason is likely to result in significant disappointments. (Or even more disappointment since 99.99999% of the value of the conference to me is the random conversations in the hallways between workshops.)
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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.
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I had a reasonably productive weekend. Along with a rehearsal for an upcoming storytelling show and a genealogy society meeting which offered up good tips on conserving materials, I got a fair amount of household stuff done.

Work is particularly annoying today. Not so much because of actual work, but because of the environment. They've been doing construction in the other suite on our floor and there is constant banging most of the day. Coupled with how bloody cold they keep the floor, my office is decidedly unpleasant.

Now they are cleaning the carpets. I am skeptical about the claim that this is eco-friendly carpet cleaner. Let's just say that I started sneezing constantly right after I got back into my office when they finished cleaning my carpet. Can't they do this stuff on a Friday after hours and have the weekend for the fumes to evaporate?
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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.
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Political rants to follow in a future entry. Here’s some catch-up stuff.

Celebrity Death Watch: Joe Bailon was a car customer who was credited with creating the paint color Candy Apple Red. Barry Dennen was an actor and singer who appeared in several musicals (in London, on Broadway, and on film), notably singing the role of Pontius Pilate on the recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. Ann Jeffreys was an actress, most famous as "the ghostess with the moistest" for her role as Marion Kerby on Topper. Tom Paley was a folk musician who performed as part of the New Lost City Ramblers. S. I. Newhouse was a magazine publisher. Arthur Janov was the author of The Primal Scream and responsible for that particularly bizarre form of therapy. Robert Elsie was a linguist and folklorist, specializing in Albania. (He was the collector / translator of a story I have recently started telling.) Michael Jouvet was the discoverer of REM sleep.

Hugh Hefner was, of course, the founder and publisher of Playboy. While the magazine did publish some significant literature, we all know that nobody bought it for that. In short, he exploited women for personal gain. The word for that is "pimp."

Monty Hall was the host and producer of Let’s Make a Deal. He was also a major philanthropist, primarily donating to medical institutions.

Tom Petty was a rock star. A few of his better known songs include "Don’t Come Around Here No More," "Refugee," and "Free Fallin’." Given his years heading up the Heartbreakers, it seems appropriate that he died of a heart attack.

Quarterly Goals: I may need to rethink the definition of the word "complete." On the plus side, I have made a lot of progress on tracing down descendants of my grandmother’s first cousin, who emigrated to Petach Tikvah in the 1930’s.

Queen of Katwe: This was the only movie I saw over the past quarter. (I spent much of my airplane time sleeping or doing puzzles, instead.) Anyway, I thought it was superb. The story involves an Ugandan girl from a poor neighborhood who becomes a chess champion. There is a lot of conflict about what her role in life should be. Her coach, Robert Katande, has other conflicts, as a good job opportunity would keep him from being able to help the poor children he works with. If you’re looking for an inspirational story (with, by the way, a great soundtrack) this is a good choice.

Air Force Academy: You may have seen the video of Air Force Academy superintendent Lt Gen Jay Silveria telling cadets to get out if they can’t treat others with dignity and respect. Not to diminish from the importance of that message, but it bothered me that he referred only to race and sex in his message. The Academy has had a lot of issues with respect to religious freedom - e.g. in 2010, 41% of non-Christian cadets said they were subject to unwanted proselytizing during the previous year. (That was a while ago, but it was the only year I found survey info for. I don’t know their record with respect to LGBT cadets, but there have been plenty of sexual harassment cases. So I wish that the message had been broader.

Yom Kippur: I went to Sixth & I for Yom Kippur, which was a mixed bag. The biggest plus was that the financial appeal was actually the best I have heard. This is not quite verbatim, but the shul president said, "This is the 13th year we’ve done High Holiday services, so we think of it as our bar / bat mitzvah year. At my bar mitzvah, my aunts and uncles came up to me and handed me envelopes. We like to think of all of you as our aunts and uncles."

I liked some of the odds and ends Rabbi Miller threw in during the service, e.g. a story from Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and lyrics from a range of songs (from Johnny Cash’s "The Man in Black" to "Seasons of Love" from Rent). I thought her sermon was a bit too long and not particularly insightful. It could have been done in one sentence. ("Be true to yourself.") As for the liturgy, I have probably already kvetched about most of the departures from tradition at other times. The main one to add to my annoyances was that I thought they gave short shrift to Martyrology and Yizkor. And I particularly disliked how they did Martyrology, with all of the readings talking about incidents in the past year, primarily in Israel. (The sole exception was the murder of Sarah Halimi in France, which the French government has acknowledged as a hate crime only in the last week.)

They had also organized a tour of local Jewish landmarks for the break in services during the afternoon. That might have been a good thing, but the tour guide could not project her voice to be heard over traffic and construction noise in the area. So I went home and napped instead.

Knitting Group: Knitting group was Sunday. Lots of lively conversation and it was good to get out of the house for a couple of hours. However, that also means that I didn’t get household stuff done, sigh.

Minor Annoyance: I know this is a first world problem but I was grocery shopping on my way home from knitting group and had four canvas shopping bags with me – two green, two red. I told the bagger to use the green ones first (because they are larger and sturdier and I didn’t know if I would actually need all four.) I had to repeat this five times before she would listen, instead of reaching for the red ones. Of course, she also had no clue how to arrange groceries efficiently, but wouldn’t let me just pack my bags myself. Grrr.
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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.
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Washington Jewish Film Festival: I made it to two movies this year. There were others I was interested in, but couldn’t make the schedule work for. The two I saw were both comedies - Moos and OMG, I’m a Robot. More about those when I do my quarterly movie wrap-up.

Laura Bush Killed a Guy: I went to see this one-woman play, produced by The Klunch, at Caos on Friday night with a friend. We had intended to have drinks and happy hour food at Hill Country BBQ, but there was a long wait for a table and the bar was too crowded, so we sought out something else. The Smith doesn’t do a happy hour and was too noisy. We ended up going to Pi Pizzeria, which was okay. As it turns out, I was wrong about what time the play started, so we could probably have managed Hill Country. So we ended up having a wait to get in to the theatre, during which two homeless guys got into a fistfight several yards from where we were waiting. Oy.

Anyway, the show was worth it. Lisa Hodsoll captured Laura Bush’s voice and manners effectively. Ian Allen’s script had three different versions of the traffic accident in which 17-year-old Laura ran a stop sign and hit another car, killing its driver. In one, it’s a deliberate plot. In the second, she’s drunk. Only the third version is a true accident. There are also multiple versions of how she met her husband. And then there is a lot of material about the Bush family in general, how she was treated by other dignitaries (Caroline Kennedy, in particular, snubbed her), and how she is pretty much the forgotten first lady. It was an interesting show and often quite funny.

Story Swap: The monthly Voices in the Glen swap was Saturday night. We even had a new attendee, who had found us via NSN. There was a good mix of stories, as usual. I told "Sawing Off Manhattan," which I had not done in a long time. I had played with the ending, unsuccessfully, so I decided that I won’t use it at the Folk Festival. If I want an American story, I can always tell a Bill Greenfield tale.

The Man Who: This play, written by Peter Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne, was inspired by The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks, but only some of the vignettes are based on patients Sacks wrote about. All four actors in this production at Spooky Action Theater played multiple roles, both as patients and doctors. The stories are really those of the patients, confronting the puzzling realities of neurological disorders. There was a talkback afterwards and it was interesting that the actors said they focused on performing the physical actions because many of the words were like speaking a foreign language.

Anyway, it’s an interesting show and worth seeing if you’re in the area in the next couple of weeks.

16th Street NW: I think 16th Street NW has to be one of the most interesting streets in D.C., at least from an architectural perspective. There are lots of grand old residences (pretty much converted to apartment complexes), assorted embassies, and interesting churches. Best of all is the House of the Temple, which has something to do with the Scottish Rite Freemasons and has a couple of sphinxes in front of it. Apparently, you can tour the building and I really ought to do that one of these days.

Overheard at Dupont Circle: Two men were embracing at the corner of 18th and Q. One said to the other, "Don’t die in Missouri."

Sleep, or Lack Thereof: I hate it when I wake up around 2 a.m. and never really manage to get back to sleep. Nothing was obviously wrong, but I just couldn’t seem to turn my mind to sleep mode. I did get up for a half hour or so and look at facebook, but, mostly, I stayed in bed, trying vainly to get a decent amount of rest. Sigh.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
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.

Two Rants

Mar. 8th, 2017 11:24 am
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
Rant the First - Republican Health Un-Care: Giving people a maximum $4000 credit when health insurance often costs over $1000 a month doesn't do anything for affordability. Eliminating coverage for things like maternity care and vaccinations will increase the need for more expensive coverage later on. This is sheer cronyism, a break for rich insurance company execs and does nothing to help people.

I firmly believe single-payer would be the right way to go for the simple reason that it would allow a much higher percentage of insurance costs to go to actual health care, instead of paperwork.

As for Paul Ryan's ridiculous iphone comment, an iphone costs well under what a single month of insurance costs. And even the earliest adapters don't change their phones out more than every 12-18 months.

Rant the Second - Ticketmaster: There are really two parts to my annoyance. The first is that I was buying tickets to go to the circus with a couple of friends (because this is it for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and I have never been, though I've been to a number of Cirque du Soleil shows and to the Moscow Circus). The tickets show up as being $65 plus fees. The fees added 17 bucks a ticket. That's about 26%, which is fairly extortionate. But what really bugged me is that there was no apparent way to see what the fees would be up front.

The second annoyance was that a new block of tickets for Hamilton went on sale yesterday. After some searching, I actually found a couple of dates with single tickets that were only mildly exorbitant (in the 200 dollar range). Only to get an error message when actually trying to purchase such a ticket. And, of course, they were gone when I tried again later. There are still tickets available for some dates, but only at prices starting at $549. Yes, I could afford that if I really wanted to. But there are plenty of other things I'd like to see at far more reasonable prices.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
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.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
Celebrity Death Watch: Betsy Bloomingdale was a socialite and fashion icon. Dave Bald Eagle was a Lakota chief who is probably most famous for having acted in the movie "Dances with Wolves." Miss Cleo was a TV psychic. Jack Davis co-founded Mad Magazine. Richard Thompson was a cartoonist ("Cul de Sac") and illustrator. Doug Griffin played second base for the Red Sox in the 1970’s. Fred Tomlinson wrote "The Lumberjack Song" for Monty Python.

Forrest Mars, Jr. inherited money from the candy company, some of which went to support historical projects, including support of Fort Ticonderoga and funding the construction of a coffeehouse in Colonial Williamsburg.

Marni Nixon dubbed the singing voices of several actresses in movie musicals. James M. Nederlander owned a number of theatres on Broadway and elsewhere. Zelda Fichandler co-founded Arena Stage, one of the major regional theatres here in Washington and, apparently, the first racially integrated theatre in the region.

The death I most want to highlight is that of Mary Ann Madden. She edited the New York Magazine Competition for many years and some of the best entries were compiled in such books as Maybe He’s Dead and Thanks for the Giant Sea Tortoise. I have distinct memories of several of the entries from the 1970’s. She was long retired and had, apparently, been ill for some time, but her spirit lives on in the Washington Post Style Invitational and the community it has fostered among its devotees.

Lesser of Evils: It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I intend to vote for Hillary Clinton in this year’s presidential race. I’m not especially enthusiastic about her (she is, after all, a Yankees fan), but this is a clear lesser of evils for me. I challenged myself to see who would be so awful that I would vote for Donald Trump over them and came up with two names. The first was Robert Mugabe, who is not, of course, eligible, not being an American. The other was Cthulhu, who I could argue was born in Rhode Island. I generally prefer my political candidates without tentacles.

On a More Serious Note: The major impact of the veepstakes is that it gives some insight into how a politician makes decisions. I’d argue that the single most important thing a President does is make political appointments. (That is especially true of the Supreme Court, of course, but applies to various Cabinet and other posts.) The choice of a running mate is our first opportunity to see this in action.

This is an area in which I think Hillary Clinton made an excellent choice. I’ve lived in Virginia through Tim Kaine’s term as governor and his tenure in the Senate. I don’t agree with him on everything, but I’ve been impressed with his integrity and with his ability to work across the aisle. I think he can provide some good balance to the race.

One More Political Note: There is nothing wrong with trying to develop third parties to better represent certain advocacies. However, it makes sense to start doing so at the local level. Not enough attention gets paid to city and county races to begin with. Even at the state level, there is plenty of room for expanding the slates. For example, I remain appalled at how many candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates run unopposed.

Damn You, Noodles & Company: They added spicy Korean beef noodles to their menu. I have no particular objection to that, but in doing so, they got rid of the Indonesian peanut saute. That, with tofu, has been my mainstay of their menu.

Storytelling: Saturday night was the Better Said Than Done show in which I told my summer camp story. The show was an interesting mix of stories, which always makes for more fun for me as a listener. The audience was very responsive and I got plenty of laughs in the right places. All in all, a fun evening.

Knitting Group: There was a fifth Sunday in July, so we met at Starbucks, instead of the police station. The disadvantage of that is more cramped space. But the advantage is that we recruit new members who happen to see us there. I also ran into someone I used to work with who lives a few blocks away from there. And, oh, yeah, I got some work in on a charity afghan, though I am still skeptical about some aspects of the pattern. (Well, one aspect, which has to do with how the final triangle making up the hexagon gets joined and whether there is one or two decreases in that row.)
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
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.)
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
Celebrity Death Watch: Merle Haggard was a country singer. Rachel Johnson was the last native of St. Kilda.

Car Annoyance #1: Neptune has now had two incidents of running a bit roughly and rattling, followed by the engine coolant temperature light flashing on and off a few times, after which everything sounds fine. The annoying part is that the mechanic couldn’t reproduce this behavior so can’t fix it. Oh, well, I suppose you’re entitled to a few rattles at that age. (22 car years is about 140 human years, right?)

Car Annoyance #2: I made the service appointment on-line and got a confirmation email. But, when I got to the mechanic, they had no record of the appointment and told me, "oh, the on-line system hasn’t sent us an update in over two months." And exactly how was I supposed to know that? On top of which, they didn’t have the right person there to do one of the things I brought Neptune in for, so I need to make another appointment for the wheel alignment.

Another Internet Annoyance: I had a discount code for some theatre tickets and finally found a date that would work with the friend who wanted to come along. It took me way too many attempts to find the little checkbox that would activate the discount code and let me buy tickets at the relevant price. And, of course, the annoying Ticketmaster service fees and "convenience fee" add 25% or so to the ticket price.

Household Annoyance: I believe the papers in my house are multiplying when I am not looking. Can one of my neighbors check out any mysterious rustling sounds when I’m not home?

Credit Card Annoyance: Yet another fraud incident, leading to having to get a card replaced. It seems this happens at least every few years. I have a faint suspicion that this may be linked to having used the card in question at a restaurant. At least it isn’t one that I have recurring payments linked to.

A Minor Work Annoyance: It is actually possible to send out a meeting announcement more than an hour before the meeting. It is even possible to send out a meeting announcement before the day of the meeting.

Baseball Annoyance: Not only have the Nationals added yet another racing president, it’s Hoover.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
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?
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
Celebrity Death Watch: Burt Shavitz had bees (and a related business). James Tate was a poet. Ernie Maresca was a songwriter, notable for "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer." Omar Sharif and Roger Rees were actors.

Thing I Want to Make: I just discovered these toy animals made from sock yarn. They’re knitted in a tube and tied like balloon animals, which is just such a cool concept.

I also want to make these crocheted toys, which are done with hexagons and pentagons pieced together. The stegosaurus and the giraffe are particularly cute.

Of course, I should probably finish the three sweaters and two afghans I have in progress first. Come to think of it, make that four afghans. Or maybe five. Um, yes, I have a short attention span and a lack of time to spend playing with yarn. (I did get some stuff done at knitting group on Sunday, but I spent much of the weekend napping, reading the newspaper, doing a few chores, and did I mention napping?)

Reasons to Retire, Part 9753: The things that are frustrating are often things other than work itself. Today’s top annoyance has to do with telecommunications infrastructure, otherwise known as our internet being deadly slow. How bad? It just took me an hour and 17 minutes to get into my corporate website for long enough to enter my time in my timesheet, a task that normally takes about 6 minutes (and really should not take more than 2).

And don’t get me started on our VOIP phones. I am an old person who believes one should not ever have to reboot one’s telephone.

Weather Whine: We are in the midst of the annual block of 90/90 days (i.e. 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 90% humidity). I have, of course, set the air conditioning to stun, but it is still annoying.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
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.

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