fauxklore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hirshorn: After I got back from New York, I had one day where I had nothing scheduled so could run errands. On Saturday, I was off to the Hirshhorn Museum (which is the Smithsonian’s modern art museum) to see an exhibit of works by Yayoi Kusama from their collection. This was free but required tickets given out that day. We took the first Metro train into the city, so got in line for tickets at about 8:15. When they started giving out tickets (at 9:30) that enabled us to get in the first group.

The exhibit was actually pretty small - just 5 rooms, which included two infinity mirror rooms. The first room had this pumpkin sculpture.



Here is me in the first of the infinity mirror rooms. Only two people at a time could go in and you only got 30 seconds inside.



You got a minute and a half in the other infinity mirror room, where there was a path to follow through what seemed like a lot of disco balls.



The whole thing took only about a half hour to go through. So we continued on to the Laurie Andersson exhibit upstairs. There’s not much point in trying to photograph something which relies on multi-media so much, though I did get part of one of the graffitied walls.




The rest does have interesting stories and some rather strange conceptual art, e.g. a series of photos of her sleeping in various public spaces.

We adjourned for lunch at Jaleo, where we ordered too much delicious food. (This is a tapas place, part of the Jose Andres empire. It’s pricy, but he does such great work through World Central Kitchen that I don’t mind spending money at his restaurants.)


Washington Folk Festival: Sunday was the Washington Folk Festival in Glen Echo Park. I was telling stories at 3:30 in the afternoon, so I had time to get lunch (included for performers), browse the crafts tent, and listen to some other storytellers. Jane told a (slightly different version of) a story I had been planning to tell, so I made a last minute substitution. I mostly told stories from the U.S., Mongolia, Poland, and the deep twisty corners of my mind. The audience was very responsive and I had a good time. I left right after my set to minimize the amount of driving right into the sun I’d have to do to get home. (I have a lot of glare issues, alas, which can make for a headache trigger.)


Decluttering: Decluttering is an on-going process but has to be accelerated a bit when I have company coming. I have not made as much progress as I need to. But I have gotten rid of things like coupons that expired two or more years ago, newsletters from events five or more years ago, and assorted scraps of paper with mysterious notes to myself. Why on earth would I have written the phrase “artisanal (cobalt) mines” on a sheet of paper?


More Storytelling: Thursday night I went to the Auld Sheen for a storytelling show I was not performing in. Andrea Young and Jessica Robinson opened the night, with Andy Offutt Irwin from Georgia as the main attraction. Andy is extremely funny and I love his stories, particularly those about his (fictional) Aunt Marguerite who went to medical school in her 80’s. His work is full of character-based humor with insights into southern culture and is delightful. And, of course, there is no substitute for live entertainment.

By the way, there was also a Voices in the Glen story swap (over zoom) on Saturday night. I particularly liked Tim Livengood’s original story about why dogs howl.


The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Speaking of live entertainment, I went to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood, put on by The Britihs Players, on Friday night. This musical won several Tony awards in 1986, but that was not, frankly, a great year for Broadway musicals. It’s based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, which provides an opportunity for the gimmick of having the audience choose the ending. Several of the performers were difficult to understand and there was little humor, aside from predictable jokes told by the chairman of the music hall. I thought the strongest performance was by Meghan Williams Elkin as Princess Puffer, the proprieties of an opium den in London. Overall, I thought it was too long and I drifted off several times during the first act. (The second act was, mercifully,, shorter.) I’ve enjoyed the Old Time Music Hall performances the British Players put on, but this show just didn’t work for me.


By the way, we had dinner at The Tombs beforehand. That’s a Georgetown University hangout and I thought the food was just so-so. The banh mi I got did have good papaya salad, but the baguette was bordering on stale. So, overall, a disappointing outing.


Party: One of my friends had a party on Sunday. He lives in a condo with an excellent view of National Airport, so the big attraction is hanging out on the balcony watching planes (and trains and boats). There was, of course, lots of travel related conversation. And lots of food. My contribution was white chocolate cheesecake in an oreo crust, which is an easy no-bake dessert. (You blend two packages of cream cheese, a can of sweetened condensed milk, a cup of melted white chocolate chips, and about 1/3 c. of sour cream. Then just pour into the oreo crust and refrigerate overnight.) It was good to see people I hadn’t seen in a while and the weather was lovely for sitting outside.

I’ve been fairly busy the past couple of weeks.

The Beltway I picked up some books from a friend who lives in Beltsville and is clearing out some of his collection. The map function on my phone routed me through way too much construction, but I managed to get there fine. I did choose a different route home, but the radio suggested the outer loop of the Beltway was backed up, so I took the inner loop. which is more or less the same distance. So I drove more or less the entire way around the Beltway to run a 15 minute or so errand.

Yom Kippur: I went to a zoom service put on by Shirat HaNefesh, which was not ideal but was better than the other ones available over zoom. I do like their cantor and several things about their services, but nothing over zoom is going to be entirely satisfying. And I don’t really care for the use of musical instruments and some other less than traditional aspects. But at least they do a good job of showing a PDF of the service and have some interesting ideas to think about (in this case, having to do with how we address poverty).


Break the Fast: My chavurah had a breakfast gathering after Yom Kippur. There were standard foods like bagels with cream cheese and lox, as well as various salads. And desserts, including my contribution of tahini and halvah brownies, which were well received. (I did have some leftovers, which I wrapped individually and put in the freezer.)


Mama Tigre: I went out to dinner with a friend Friday night, largely because she said she needed some intelligent conversation to counter some issues at work. We went to Mama Tigre in Oakton, which is a newish Mexican fusion place. Most of the menu is pretty normal Mexican fare, but a few things have Indian touches. I got cauliflower tacos, which were quite tasty. It was good to see her, as she isn’t someone who I see often and we had a lot of conversation about things like travel and dancing and yarn and everybody’s lack of executive function in these days


Story Swap: The Voices in the Glen monthly story swap was Saturday night. I didn’t have anything I felt like telling, so I just listened. Jim had a particularly interesting story that had to do with the construction of the Pentagon.

The Flushies: Sunday was the Style Invitational Awards gathering, called the Flushes. It was at a lovely house in Potomac - a big enough property that 60 people in the backyard did not feel crowded. My food contribution was something called archaeologist’s cornbread, which has layers of white, blue, and yellow cornbread. That tasted fine, but the different colors of cornbread don’t taste all that different, so it’s really just a stupid culinary trick. There were songs to celebrate the Loser of the Year (actually plural, since we did last year as well as this year) and one of the major highlights was Jonathan Jensen’s acceptance speech in song. We also played a pub trivia game. My team was far ahead but blew it on the final question. It was still fun. And, of course, it was good to see people who I don’t see often and meet some people who I hadn’t met before.

Celebrity Death Watch: Randy Suess co-founded the first bulletin board system brought on-line. Danny Aiello was a film actor. Felix Rohatyn was an investment banker and diplomat. Ram Dass popularized Eastern religion among baby boomers. Elizabeth Spencer wrote the novel The Light in the Piazza which was later made into a Broadway musical. Victor Shargai promoted theatre in D.C., including chairing the Helen Hayes Award. Ailee Willis wrote hit songs for Earth, Wind and Fire, as well as lyrics for the musical, The Color Purple. Les Chadwick played bass with Gerry and the Pacemakers. Sleepy LaBeef was a rockablly singer. Don Imus was a radio personality. Neil Innes was a comedian and played with The Rutles. Marian Gibbons was a prolific writer, most notably of the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries, under the pseudonym, M.C. Beaton. David Stern was the commissioner of the National Basketball Association for 20 years. Don Larsen was the only person to pitch a perfect game in the World Series. Tommy Hancock was a big name in West Texas music. Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian general, responsible for several acts of terrorism. Reuben Herch wrote about mathematical experience. Tom Long acted in a lot of Australian movies. Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote Prozac Nation. Neil Peart was the drummer for Rush. Peter Kirstein put the first computer outside the U.S. on ARPANET. Edd Byrnes was an actor, best known for playing Kookie on 77 Sunset Strip. Mike Resnick was a science fiction writer.

Robert Kincaid was a celebrity chef in Washington, D.C. I have often eaten at his restaurant, Campono, while going to events at the Kennedy Center.

Jerry Herman was a composer and lyricist of Broadway musicals. His well known shows include Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage Aux Folles. A lot of musical theatre geeks consider Mack and Mabel his best show. He later had a career as a decorator. He was also my final ghoul pool score for 2019.

Buck Henry was an actor, writer, and director, responsible for (among many other things) Get Smart, Captain Nice, and Quark. The latter had to do with a space garbageman and is a lot of fun for those of us who have occasion to talk about space debris.

Qaboos bin Said Al Said was the Sultan of Oman. He was highly revered there (as I learned during my recent trip) and widely credited with modernizing the country and developing it. He was also notable for a neutral approach towards foreign policy that helped him broker deals, e.g. freeing Americans who had strayed into Iran. I am very interested in how things will develop in Oman without him. (His cousin has been sworn in as his successor.) Also, he was my first ghoul pool score of the year.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Stacey Nakamura was active in MIT Alumni Affairs, including for the Class of 1980. He worked for NASA since graduation and was also active in the MIT Club of Houston. He was a kind and generous man and will be missed by all who knew him.


Book Club: We had a small group for Wednesday night’s discussion of Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent. For those unfamiliar with the book, Vincent disguised herself as a man to experience all-male environments, ranging from a bowling group to an abbey to a men’s therapy retreat. She came away more sympathetic to men than she’d previously been, but she also suffered a breakdown. The one man who was at our discussion was, somewhat to my surprise, the person who liked the book the most. One of the other people completely detested it, largely because of the breakdown. The rest of us had mixed feelings. I had ethical concerns, particularly related to her dating experiences. At any rate, I thought the book was an interesting read.

By the way, there were comments / complaints that asked "what has she done since?" I admit I had not looked things up before the meeting, but 15 seconds of google will take you to her Wikipedia page and note that she has had three other books published, including one having to do with her experiences as a mental patient.

Loser Holiday Party: Saturday night was the annual post-holiday party of Loserdom, i.e. those of us who enjoy the Washington Post Style Invitational. My contribution to the potluck aspect was insalata caprese, which was a success in that I had no leftovers. There was lots of interesting conversation and the usual fun of singing a bunch of song parodies. Overall, it was a nice evening out.

Metro issues getting home were less fun, but so it goes. They had shut down some stations, which would have been okay, but they were not running express buses on the way home, as they had been on the way there. So the shuttle service took about three times as long as it needed to.


Retirement Countdown: I am irritated with a number of admin things at work, so I am happy to report that (as of today), I have 262 days until retirement.

Celebrity Death Watch: Anna Quayle was a Tony winning actress, who died in August but whose obituary was just published this past week. Marko Feingold was a Holocaust survivor and head of a Jewish community in Austria, who lived to 106 years old. Christopher Rouse was the composer in residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012-2015. Robert Hunter was the lyricist for the Grateful Dead. Jimmy Nelson was a ventriloquist. Jimmy Spicer was a rapper who managed to die of natural causes. Jose Jose was a Mexican singer. Jessye Norman was an opera singer. Kim Shattuck was the lead singer of The Muffs. Rip Taylor was an actor / comedian. Karen Pendleton was one of the original Mouseketeers. Larry Junstrom was a bassist, who cofounded Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Jacques Chirac was a former prime minister and President of France. I read that this also made him co-prince of Andorra during that time, which is a cool bit of trivia.

Stephen Lukasik was a physicist who led DARPA and the FCC at various times. He played a key role in development and deployment of ARPANET, as well as supporting technology development related to nuclear device development, computer networking, and AI.

Diahann Carroll was the first black women to win a Tony for best actress in musical (for her performance in No Strings), though she was better known for the television series, Julia.

Ginger Baker was the drummer for Cream. He was probably the most influential rock drummer for my generation, spectacular for his use of jazz and African rhythms.


Work Stress: I had a tedious business trip the week before last. Then I was out of the office for a couple of days for Rosh Hashanah. I came back to trying to catch up on paperwork related to the project the trip was for. I need to get caught up on my actual job, but I suspect this other project is going to have lots of follow-up questions here and there, which I will get sucked into.


One Item re: Hotels: I stayed at an airport hotel the last night of the business trip, since I had an early flight. They charged for parking and claimed the room key would open the gate. Let’s just say it was less than obvious where to swipe the card to do so. Eventually, someone came and helped me, but the whole thing was annoying and could have easily been prevented if they had a light allowing the target to be seen at 5 a.m.


Old School Storytelling: I got back in time for a Friday night storytelling show. Which is a good thing, since I was one of the tellers. My story had to do with Class Nite, which was a big deal annual event when I was in high school. This involved a competition between the classes, with events ranging from decorations and costumes, to a song and skit, to assorted sports (basketball, volleyball, various races, tugs of war, and something called cage ball. All I remember about the latter is that it involved a ball and a cage.) The thing is that it was all rigged, so that the seniors won, followed by the juniors, sophomores, and freshman. Of course, we believed it was a fair competition, since it was the 1970’s when we still believed that Russian figure skating judges were unbiased. Anyway, the story went okay, but I was disappointed in it, largely because I don’t think I ever really figured out what the point of the story was, beyond making fun of silly things from my youth.


Speaking of Storytelling, It’s Shameless Self-Promotion Time: I’m in a show this coming Thursday night (October 10th) as part of the Fall for the Book Festival. It’s at The Auld Shebeen (3971 Chain Bridge Rd, Fairfax, VA – entrance downstairs, via North Street) at 7:00 p.m. And it’s Free! The theme is True Lies: Lies and the lying liars who tell them.


Rosh Hashanah: I was not very into it this year. I have plenty of personal issues I need to work on, but having a hard time focusing and prioritizing. This is my usual issue with having trouble doing one thing at a time. I did take advantage of some introspection time. There’s something I should say about how ritual helps with that, but I am not quite sure how to articulate that.


Disenchanted: I finished off last week (i.e. three days in the office writing up stuff from the previous week) by going out to dinner and the theatre with a couple of friends. The dinner part was at Pizzeria Orso, chosen for convenience to the theatre part at Creative Cauldron. I should have gotten pizza, but saw eggplant parmesan on the menu and thought it would be a good idea. I was wrong. It was okay, but not as good as I can do myself. (Assuming, of course, that I wasn’t too lazy to make It myself.)

As for the theatre, Disenchanted is a musical by a man named Dennis T. Giacino about Disney princesses. Essentially, each of the princesses (led by Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty) gets to sing a song about what is screwed up in their story. The pieces I thought best were "Without a Guy" (in which Hua Mulan wonders if she might be a lesbian since she is the only princess who doesn’t end up with a prince), "Finally" (in which the Princess Who Kissed the Frog sings about the commercial potential of a black princess), and "Perfect" (in which the chubby Sleeping Beauty explains that she is just fine as she is). The show was reasonably amusing, but the music was unmemorable and it was a bit raunchier than I was expecting. It was still worth the evening out, but could have been much better.

My friends were appalled afterwards when I told them that the Princess doesn't really kiss the frog - she throws him against the wall. As for Sleeping Beauty, her Prince rapes her and what wakes her up is the pain of childbirth.


WBRS Reception: Sunday night was a William Barton Rogers Society reception at the Cosmos Club. (WBRS has to do with giving $$$$ to MIT.) The speaker was Richard Binzel who talked about NASA deep space projects he (and his students) have been involved in. He was informative and entertaining. Overall, it was a pleasant evening out in a ritzy setting.

Don’t Brits Know the Alphabet? I sometimes watch semi-mindless television in the form of British quiz shows. While they are slightly less mindless than American game shows, I have found something really puzzling. Some games on a show from 2012ish called Five Minutes To a Fortune have people figuring out answers by seeing a series of letters and having to come up with an answer by shifting each letter one to the right. So, for example, if the category were animals, the answer DOG would be obtained from the sequence C N F. I am astounded by how many contestants could not grasp the concept and do this.

Celebrity Death Watch: Philip Bosco was an actor, who won a Tony for his performance in Lend Me a Tenor. Jael Strauss was a fashion model. Les Kinsolving was the first White House correspondent to ask questions about the HIV/AIDS epidemic (during the Reagan administration). Julia Vinograd, known as the Bubble Lady, was a street poet in Berkeley. Harry Shlaudeman was a diplomat who served as ambassador to a number of Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Nicaragua. Pete Shelley cofounded and was the lead singer of the Buzzcocks. Victor Hayden, known as The Mascara Snake, was an artist and perfomed with Captain Beefheart. Rosanell Eaton was a civil rights activist. Evelyn Berezin designed the first word processor and worked on computer systems for airline reservations. Alvin Epstein was an actor and director, best known as something of a specialist in the works of Samuel Beckett. Rob DesHotel was a television writer and producer who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer among other shows. Jacques Gansler was the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics from 1997 to 2001. Bob Bryan was the co-creator, with Marshall Dodge, of Bert & I, a series of humorous stories about a couple of fishermen in Maine. Nancy Wilson was a jazz singer. Patricia Marshall was an actress, best known for her roles in Good News and The Pajama Game. She was also the widow of playwright and screenwriter Larry Gelbart. Joan Steinbrenner was the widow of George Steinbrenner and got involved in the business aspects of the New York Yankees. Jerry Chestnut wrote country songs. Colin Kroll was the founder of Vine and HQ Trivia.

Melvin Dummar claimed to be an heir to Howard Hughes’s estate. His story is well known as the basis for the movie, Melvin and Howard.

Penny Marshall was an actress (best known for Laverne and Shirley) and director. She was one of the first women to become well known as a director. In particular, she directed my second favorite movie of all time, A League of Their Own.

Galt MacDermot wrote several musicals, notably Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Holiday Party: Today was the holiday party at work. This year, they went with somewhat Mediterranean catering, with hummus, grilled vegetables, and various grilled protein things, including salmon. There was also salad and cheese and crackers and fruit. And several desserts, including chocolate cake. This fit in well with my contribution to the white elephant gift exchange, which was a Turkish tea set, I had gotten as a gift from a hotel in Istanbul (two plastic cups, with saucers and spoons, plus powdered apple tea). I supplemented that with a Starbucks gift card. I ended up being the last to choose, so I ended up choosing to take a stack of boxes of Godiva chocolate truffles. At least one of those boxes will go with me to book club tomorrow.

Speaking of Work: If it weren’t for the telephone, I would get so much more done. I have been trying to write up notes from last week’s conference, but I keep getting interrupted. Tomorrow will be even worse, as most of the day will be occupied with a briefing on a study we’ve had going on. I should probably read some of the several slide packages in the read ahead, but I am not sure I can stay awake through that.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: I saw the Kennedy Center Center Stage concert production (i.e. minimally staged) on Friday night. Yes, the sexism is problematic, with secretaries whose sole ambition is marrying a tycoon. But there is plenty of humor, along with great songs and outstanding performances. They did cut "Cinderella Darling" – and I’d rather they had cut "Paris Original" – but there’s still the fun of "Coffee Break," "Grand Old Ivy," and "I Believe in You."

As for the performances, I was very impressed by Skylar Astin as J. Pierpont Finch and Michael Urie as Bud Frump. Betsy Wolfe played Rosemary well, though this production made her seem particularly predatory and, hence, less likeable. And then there’s Nova Payton, who is one of the biggest stars among local performers here and whose scat singing in "Brotherhood of Man" stole the show.

All in all, a fun evening.

The Flushies: Saturday was the Flushies, the "awards show" for the Style Invitational. I stopped off at Pie Gourmet on the way over to pick up a strawberry-rhubarb pie for the potluck. I should probably have brought an appetizer or main dish, as there were disproportionately many desserts, but that’s how it goes sometimes. There was lots of good conversation, followed by sing-alongs of parody songs, award presentations, and a game. In short, this is a good group of people to socialize with.

Memory Lab: On Sunday, the JGSGW had a session at the Northeast DC Library on how to use their Memory Lab. This started with a talk about archiving and preservation, which had some helpful info on things like naming files and selecting formats and such. Then we got a demo of both the audiovisual equipment, which you can use to digitize videotapes and cassette tapes (and copy data from floppy disks), and the high-resolution scanner. I probably won’t be able to make an appointment to use things for a while, given how overcommitted I am, but this is a great resource, and I am glad I went to the program.

Farewell to a Friend: Sunday night, I went out to dinner with some FlyerTalk friends, including two people visiting from Australia. The two locals included a guy who is moving to Bangladesh. I’m missing his official going-away party (due to a business trip) so was glad I got to see him. After dinner, we went over to his condo, which has and amazing view, including DCA and some of the monuments in the city. It was a fun evening and I was glad I got to see him before he leaves.

Celebrity Death Watch: Anna Mae Hays was the 13th chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and the first woman in the U.S. armed forces to become a general officer. France Gall wa a French singer. Doreen Tracey was one of the original Mouseketeers. Keith Jackson was a sportscaster, particularly known for college football. Dan Gurney was a race car driver and is credited with creating the tradition of spraying champagne on the podium after the race. Dolores O’Riordan was the lead singer of The Cranberries. Edwin Hawkins was a gospel musician, best known for "Oh Happy Day." Jo Jo White played basketball, largely for the Celtics. Jessica Falkholt was an Australian soap opera actress. Her greatest significance is that she’s the first person anybody scored on in this year’s ghoul pool.

Joe Frank was a radio personality. I used to listen to his show, Work in Progress, on KCRW when I lived in Los Angeles. He was always interesting and, often, quite funny. There is apparently a documentary about him scheduled to be released this year.

Ghoul Pool – 2018: Speaking of ghoul pool (a contest to predict what famous people will die in the next year), the entry lists are now out of the beginning of the game embargo, so I can reveal mine. Note that the number indicates how many points a person is worth and you get an extra 12 points for uniqueness, i.e. being the only participant to have someone on your list.

20. I.M. Pei
19. Robert Mugabe
18. Ed Kranepool
17. Honor Blackman
16. Beverly Cleary
15. Dervla Murphy
14. John McCain
13. Johnny Clegg
12. Al Jaffe
11. Herman Wouk
10. Jimmy Carter
9. Javier Perez de Cuellar
8. John Paul Stevens
7. Tom Jones (the lyricist, not the Welsh singer)
6. Lawrence Ferlinghetti
5. Norman Lloyd
4. Jerry Herman
3. Olivia de Haviland
2. Sheldon Harnick
1. Sara Paretsky

The Pajama Game: Looking back, I realized I never wrote about the production of The Pajama Game at Arena Stage, which I saw just before leaving for my vacation. It’s a problematic show to modern sensibilities. I’m tempted to retitle it to something like "Sexual Harassment at the Sleep-Tite Factory." I also find a lot of the lyrics to be full of cheap, amateurish rhymes ("A new town is a blue town…")

But – and this is a huge redeeming factor – there is fabulous choreography. I was particularly pleased to see that Donna McKechnie, who played Mabel, still has it at age 74. (I saw her as Cassie in A Chorus Line back in the 1970’s!) The most striking dance moves, though, came from Blakely Slaybaugh as Prez (the union president).

I do prefer the modern sensibilities and deplore the sexism. But I also miss the days when people broke out into spectacular dance moves with little provocation. In fact, I often wish that people in real life would spontaneously broke into song and dance. It would certainly liven up many a design review.

Losers’ Post-Holiday Party: Getting back to the present time, Saturday night was the annual post-holiday party for the Style Invitational Losers. As usual with potlucks, I have a long debate with myself over what to bring. Someday I will use up the spring roll wrappers that I bought way too many of because I misunderstood the package labeling. But this time, I went for quick and easy in the form of stuffed mushrooms. You just take baby bella mushroom caps, arrange them on a baking pan. Fill each cap with some alouette (or similar) cheese. Dip the cheese-stuffed end in panko (Japanese bread crumbs). Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or so.

As for the party itself, it was conveniently metro-accessible. Or, conveniently if the Red Line weren’t running only half-hourly over the weekend, so I got there later than I intended. Still, I was in time to get food and, more importantly, in time for the sing-along, which is always a highlight of these things. Throw in lots of intelligent conversation, both with people I already knew and those I hadn’t met before, and it was a good time.

One Day University: On Sunday, I went to One Day University. This time out, it was at the Lansburgh Theatre and consisted of two lectures. The first was The Presidential Library given by Joseph Luzzi of Bard College. I had actually heard Luzzi lecture (on a different literature topic) previously and he’s quite a dynamic speaker. He posed a few general questions about the relationship between reading and ability to be an effective leader. He discussed several presidents in depth, focusing on what they read. George Washington, for example, used Cato as a model of manhood. He also collected etiquette books. Thomas Jefferson read pretty much everything. Lincoln was, of course, an autodidact. As a counterexample, Warren Harding’s reading was limited to things like Rules of Poker. Buchanan and Fillmore supposedly both read a lot, but neither was much of a leader. Grant didn’t get mentioned, but I find it hard to imagine him reading much of anything beyond the labels on liquor bottles. (Apparently, he got in trouble at West Point for spending his time reading James Fenimore Cooper, instead of his textbooks.)

Luzzi compiled an American Library List that included some obvious authors (Locke, Rousseau) and works (Plutarch’s Lives, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Bible). He also recommended things like Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address and Ben Franklin’s autobiography. Fictional works which got mentioned included Great Expectations and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Didn’t any presidents appreciate the real Great American Novel – namely Moby Dick?

Anyway, Luzzi’s conclusion was, essentially, that good readers make good leaders. He made four points to support this: 1) reading fundamentally suggests a person knows he doesn’t know everything, 2) readers are curious, 3) reading supports collaboration, and 4) reading puts one in another’s shoes. As a self-confessed biblioholic, I tend to agree.

The second speaker was Mark Lapadusa of Yale University, speaking on How to Watch Movies Like a Film Professor. He started out by pointing out that this applies to seeing a movie repeatedly and, for first viewing, one should just enjoy it for what it is. Then he showed various film clips and talked about aspects of them. The films he discussed were Casablance, Citizen Kane, Psycho, Dr. Strangelove, and The Godfather (Both I and II). That’s a pretty wide assortment of styles and subject matter. He touched on one subject that I have a long-standing interest in, namely film music, specifically in the case of the shower scene from Psycho. If he’d had time for questions, I might have asked him more about that.

I was also a little disappointed that he didn’t talk about source material. For example, The Godfather is one of a handful of movies that is generally considered far more successful than the novel it is based on. Casablanca was based on an unsuccessful play. What makes a film adaptation successful and why do so many movies based on bestsellers fail either by being too true to the novel or not true enough?

I had a chance to discuss the lectures a bit more after. I had gotten into a conversation with a woman named Ann before the program. We ended up sitting together in the auditorium and decided to go out to lunch (at China Chilcano – tasty Peruvian / Asian fusion food) afterwards. It was nice to have the opportunity to digest some of what I’ve heard. All in all, an excellent way to spend part of a day.

Murder Was Her Hobby: I took advantage of being in the city to go to the Renwick Gallery and see their exhibit of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Frances Glessner Lee. This is a series of miniature rooms depicting what may or may not be murder scenes. They were built to be a teaching tool for forensic science and are incredibly detailed. Apparently, Lee even made underwear for the dead bodies. Because they are still used for teaching, the exhibit does not include solutions to the cases. There were a few where I thought I had a good idea of what had happened, but I was completely puzzled by the majority of them. So much for all the hours I’ve spent reading murder mysteries!

The craftsmanship is amazing and the exhibit included flashlights to allow for closer examination of the crime scenes. However, there wasn’t very much thought given to the flow through the room, so one was stuck standing and waiting for people to move for long stretches of time. It would have been better to set things up so people moved only in one direction through the exhibit. And it would have been much better to limit the number of people allowed in at a time. Even with these annoyances, it was worth seeing the exhibit and I’m glad I took the time to.

I've been busy for most of the past week.

Celebrity Death Watch: Ara Parseghian coached football for Notre Dame and appears in crosswords fairly often. Judith Jones edited cookbooks. Ernst Zundel was a Holocaust denier. Darren Daulton played baseball, largely for the Phillies. Don Baylor also played baseball, including a stint with the Red Sox in 1986, during which he set a record for being hit by pitches. Haruo Nakajima was the first actor to portray Godzilla. Glen Campbell was a countryish pop singer, notable for songs such as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Rhinestone Cowboy."

I want to particularly highlight Barbara Cook, who was one of the greatest Broadway stars of all time. Some of her more famous roles included Marian in The Music Man, Cunegonde in Candide (in which she achieved a tour de force with "Glitter and Be Gay"), and Amalia in She Loves Me. She had a fabulous voice and, unlike many great singers, she could also act.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Michael Cotter was a Minnesota farmer turned storyteller, who told stories of his farm life. He was a quiet and skilled teller, who I was privileged to hear a few times.

I am way behind on reading magazines, so I only just caught the news (via the MIT section of Technology Review) that Kathy Porter-Jordan, a friend from my undergraduate days died nearly a year ago. I particularly remember one year on Shavuout when she and I delved into the subject of leprosy in the Tanach.

Trip to Oregon: I made a quick trip last week to Portland, Oregon for the memorial service for my friend, Mary Joan. The travel was a bit stressful, as a thunderstorm struck just after we had been boarded (but before the plane was fully fueled). In the end, we got delayed about two hours. My decision to take a non-stop was vindicated as I figured I was fine as long as I got there some time on Thursday night. The delay was extended a little on arrival as a guy in the row behind mine had a medical emergency (significant enough for the flight attendant to be bringing him oxygen) and we had to wait for paramedics to take him off before we could disembark. But, I got there, so everything was okay.

My friend, Suzanne, was at the same hotel and, fortunately, has a compatible attitude towards timing. (Google maps says it’s a 22 minute drive, so let’s figure 45 minutes and then let’s add an extra half hour just in case we get lost ….) The ceremony was brief, with a few people (each of the two of us included) speaking, with a longer speech by Mary Joan’s husband. Then everybody went out to lunch, at which we learned that the day had been chosen since it would have been their 44th wedding anniversary.

The trip home went smoother, despite it involving a redeye too short for more than a nap. I also had a longish wait for the moon buggy from the D-gates to the main terminal at IAD, so it took longer to get to my car than to drive home. At least I had time to nap for a few hours before my next commitment.

Ben’s Bar Mitzvah: A friend’s son’s bar mitzvah was Saturday. The service was your standard Chabad service, which I won’t comment on. Ben did fine on the Torah reading and his haftorah and his mother did the expected job of bursting into tears during her brief speech afterwards. There was pretty good food at the Kiddush lunch. The big reception was in the evening at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. I only had time for a quick look through the museum, but it would be worth going back and spending half a day to see it all. There was reasonably good food and slightly odd entertainment, mostly oriented towards the kids, e.g. a sword swallower. Overall, it was a pretty nice event.

Embassy of Haiti: I went to an MIT Club of Washington event at the Embassy of Haiti last night. Actually, it was a joint event with the Harvard Club and they far outnumbered us. The embassy is beautiful, with a large art collection – practically a gallery. The ambassador was personable and gave a brief and entertaining speech. The food was okay – rice, chicken, fish, pork – and they had tasty rum punch and cake for dessert. The only problem was that it was very crowded and the food line was quite chaotic. Still, it is always worth going to these sorts of things.

I've had a fairly sociable week or so.

Wednesday night, I went to the California State Society Ahhhscar Night party, as a guest of a friend. He told me he'd be wearing his tuxedo and advised me not to show any restraint, so I wore my most classic black cocktail dress, my feathered hat, and my grandmother's amethyst necklace and earrings. It worked well. Rather amusingly, several people on the metro commented on my hat and there were lots of people at the party itself who complemented me on my outfit. I never really got a handle on the crowd. Not that it was cliquish, per se, but the music was loud and I was mostly waiting for people to approach us. I think the highlight of the evening (aside from spending time with the guy who invited me) was the conga line we got caught up in.

I decided not to go to another party on Saturday night because I had good intentions regarding housework. I did make a little progress but it is emptying the ocean with thimblefuls. There is a reason I refer to my den as the Black Hole of Vienna. On the plus side, I actually finished reading the Sunday newspaper on Sunday for a change, having read most of it on Saturday.

Sunday was a Style Invitational Losers' brunch. I hadn't been over in Rosslyn in ages (well, except inside the metro station, which doesn't count) and was surprised at how much has changed. The building I used to work in has a Target now. (I'm not sure what is on the upper floors. I had an office on the 5th floor and shared a bullpen type space on the 13th floor.) The brunch featured good conversation, including reminiscing about voting machines and old TV shows.

I'd thought I would go to knitting group afterwards, but the brunch ended up late enough that I decided it wasn't worth it. A friend who is getting divorced is storing some things at my place, so she came over with a couple of more boxes. We had a nice chat and ordered in Chinese food for supper.

Monday was a holiday. I did make somewhat more progress on the mountain of papers to deal with. But I also went into the city in the evening for a special tour of Studio Theatre, which was an MIT Club of DC Partners and Patrons event. They showed us all 4 theatres and lots of behind the scenes area (e.g. the set shop, the paint shop, the costume shop). The highlight for me was the set for their upcoming production of The Three Sisters, which has actual birch trees. It sounds like an interesting production, running in parallel with No Sisters in the theatre above, with the same cast using a backstage staircase to move between the two plays. But I'm not really big on Chekhov and my schedule is fairly overcommitted (so what else is new?) so I doubt I will go to the two plays.

In discussing theatre with some of the staff, I realized that as much as D.C. is a great theatre town, we are lacking one thing. There is no company here that specializes in older, obscure musicals, akin to what York Theatre does so well in New York or 42nd Street Moon does in San Francisco.