Happy Birthday, Mary

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born today in 1797 and married to Percy; she's best known for Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus although The Last Man (about the end of humanity due to a plague) is probably a better book.

Happy Birthday, Ernest

Today in 1871 in Spring Grove, New Zealand, Ernest Rutherford - who famously said: "All science is either physics or stamp collecting."

His work took place in the early days of nuclear physics - he discovered the structure of the atom the cause of radioactivity (atomic decay), and alpha and beta radiation. He was the first person to transmute matter (nitrogen into oxygen) and he figured out the principle of half-lives and radioactive dating. But when he won the Nobel Prize - in 1908 - it was categorized as Chemistry - just going to show how very much a creature of its time that famous quote was...

Happy Birthday, Molly

Today, in Monterey, California, in 1944 Molly Ivins was born.

It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.

What are we, the spiritual descendants of Puritans, to make this monument to materialism? So much stuff it makes you sick to look at, like eating too much cotton candy. Stores that sell only stuff to put your stuff in. Subspecialties of stuff beyond the wildest dreams of most of the world’s people. Should we not disapprove? Well, yeah. On the other hand, the Pyramids were built for pharaohs on the happy theory that they could take their stuff with them. Versailles was built for kings on the theory that they should live surrounded by the finest stuff. The Mall of America is built on the premise that we should all be able to afford this stuff. It may be a shallow culture, but it’s by-God democratic. Sneer if you dare: this is something new in world history.

more of her words here

The Week in Entertainment

DVD: Dalziel & Pascoe - some episodes from the third season, nice work. (I had to get them from the Netherlands, with only Dutch subtitles, so occasionally the Yorkshire accent obscured a word or two... nothing serious.) It looks like On Beulah Height is the last novel they adapted, and then they went out on their own; that will be interesting to watch. Also, while the novel The Wood Beyond is one of my favorites, I have to admit that it's almost as much a polemic about British military policies in WWI as a mystery; the filmed version of it caught all Pascoe's obsession without going into too much detail.

TV: Futurama. I can't believe the season finale is next week! At least Psych is just ending for the summer. This week's episode was funny - god, I love Chi McBride. Leverage - I love that Parker was on top of them all. Also I loved when Eliot - holding the guy against the wall, with a knife stuck in him (the guy) - said to the guy's boss on the phone "Why are you sending second rate thugs to kill me?" and then added to the guy "If I'm not honest you won't improve."

Read: A Small Death in the Great Glen - not bad, though it has one of those indeterminate endings some writers some to think makes their books cool, or significant. But those endings don't work for mysteries; mystery readers want closure. Market the thing as something else, if you don't want to actually tell us who did it.

Maybe not a good association nowadays

Out on I-68 near Cumberland is this BP station. I'm not so sure BP really needs this tie-in at the moment.

Happy Birthday, Preston

Preston Sturges was born today in Chicago in 1898. The first man ever to write and direct a film (the same film) - and omg, what films. Classics still funny today:

The Great McGinty
Christmas in July
The Palm Beach Story
The Lady Eve
Sullivan's Travels
Hail the Conquering Hero
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Happy Birthday, Robertson

Born today in Thamesville, Ontario, back in 1913 - a great Canadian writer, Robertson Davies. His four trilogies are enthralling, complex observations of life. And he gave me one of those little shocks that happen when your world-view is challenged: it was in one of his books that I read of Americans fleeing to Canada during the Revolution to escape political persecution. I knew, of course, that Tories (in our sense of the word) had existed, but this was the first book I'd ever read that cast one as the hero. I love his books - Fifth Business and The Lyre of Orpheus especially.

Duel in the Somme

Duel in the Somme by Ben Bova (I don't need to introduce him, right?), adapted for comic by Rob Balder (of Erfworld and creator of Partially Clips), and drawn by Bill Holbrook (Safe Havens, Kevin and Kell, On the Fastrack). It's on page 10 so far and very engaging.

Fortunes for cookies

I like my fortune cookies to have fortunes - you know, you will soon cross the ocean or your hard work will be rewarded sooner than you think. I'm not crazy about aphorisms instead.

Neither is Fred over at Slacktivist. He has a post up with some he suggests, and invites his commenters to join. Some good fortunes and funny stories. Check it out.

Happy Birthday, Master Kung

K'ung-fu-tzu, or Kǒng Fūzǐ - Confucius to the West (his name was Latinised by Matteo Ricci when his teachings were introduced to Europe - everybody's name was; think of Copernicus) - was born today in 551 BCE

The man who in view of gain thinks of righteousness; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life; and who does not forget an old agreement however far back it extends - such a man may be reckoned a complete man.

Happy Birthday, Albert

It was a hot summer afternoon. My mother took us to the schoolyard at Woodland Elementary and she stood in a long line of other mothers (there may have been fathers there, I was too young to remember that now). She stood for hours in the hot Tennessee sun, and we - my brothers and sisters and all the other mothers' kids - ran and played in the school playground. I didn't really understand why we were there; I did know that my mother, all the mothers, were in the grip of some emotion I couldn't understand. They weren't afraid, though - just the opposite: happy, keyed up, talking and laughing and not caring about the heat or the length of the line or long wait. That's really what I remember: that line of women, waiting with relief and joy.

Eventually my mother got to the head of the line, and the five of us kids each got a sugar cube. It was that simple.

I never knew anyone who caught polio. I knew a few who had caught it before I was born, but it was a word to me, not a terror.

Albert Sabin was born today, in Białystok, then in Russia but now in Poland, in 1906. Along with Jonas Salk, he changed the world.

Kennedy

One year ago today. He is missed.

Butterfly Days of August

This is a duskywing. I'm not sure which one - I think it's a dreamy duskywing but perhaps it's a wild indigo instead...




A common buckeye - quite unmistakeably spectacular, isn't it? Also a butterfly whose wings are much the same pattern on top and bottom surfaces.



There's a little duskywing in the background here.


Two fiery skippers


This is a sulphur, but I'm not sure if it's a clouded sulphur or an orange one - possibly even a hybrid.


Here's a monarch. It's a bit raggedy; it's a hard life for such a fragile creature. Look how the upper wing is split, lapping over the lower...




Here's a male tiger swallowtail.




And this is a female. Compare their lower wings - see all the blue? That's how you can tell she's female.

Happy Birthday, Robert

Robert Herrick, the great Cavalier poet, born today in 1591 in London
Some of his verse is here, and a few short ones here:


WHENAS in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes!

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
—O how that glittering taketh me!

To Daffodils

FAIR Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early-rising Sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a Spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay
As you, or any thing.
We die,
As your hours do, and dry
Away
Like to the Summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew
Ne'er to be found again.

Getting the point...

When I posted on the website that offered Mrs and Ms instead of Mrs and Miss, a couple of commenters talked about sites that offer a wider selection.

Here's Ozon.ru, a Russian bookseller. They offer a lot of options:

There's plain Mr and Mrs, in Russian and English and Ukrainian (or Polish), there's comrade and ma'am, and sir and lady, colonel, mademoiselle, dear, citizen ... and field marshal and Your Highness, sovereign and gracious sovereign, and noble lord or lady. And there's a blank field for you to put in whatever you want.

Plus, you can leave it blank.

I like it.

Happy Birthday, Ray

Ray Bradbury is 88!

"I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

"We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts."

"First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see? That's the reason it's going to be around a long time—because it's a Greek myth, and myths have staying power."

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future."

The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and (my favorite) Something Wicked This Way Comes, and all those wonderful short stories. Thank you, Ray, and have a wonderful day!

The Week in Entertainment

Film: I Am Love - I have to say, Tilda Swinton could sit in a bathrobe and read the newspaper and she'd be great. In this film, she's brilliant. But I have to say, the camera called far too much attention to itself, and about the twelfth bug-crawling-on-plant shot during the outdoors lovemaking scene found me actually starting to giggle...

DVD: The Death Kiss and The Perfect Clue, a pair of stylish old mysteries with David Manners, a stylish (and attractive) actor who worked for five years and then quit.

TV: G-Force - which was actually surprisingly engaging. I really did like it. ("What's our plan?" "Stop Speckles and save the world!" "That's more of a goal than a plan.") Psych which featured some funny moments and Shawn and Gus observed the old cops ("Tell me we don't look like that!" "We look exactly like that...") I'm DVR'ing Leverage, but thanks to a sinus cold that kept me asleep until noon (!) today, I'm too tired to stay up and watch it tonight.

Read: Stork Raving Mad - this installment in the Meg Langslow series is compact - it takes place in a single day. It's also tight and amusing, if not as funny as, say, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon. Also Crossfire, which features the Francis father-and-son combo's least appealing protagonist ever.

Attitude

Happy Birthday, Dorothy

Today in West End, New Jersey, Dorothy Parker was born.

On Cheating the Fiddler

"Then we will have tonight!" we said.
"Tomorrow- may we not be dead?"
The morrow touched our eyes, and found
Us walking firm above the ground,
Our pulses quick, our blood alight.
Tomorrow's gone- we'll have tonight!

Comment

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.

More here

Sky Watch: Darkness at Dawn

more Sky Watchers here

Wait, what?

In the print Washington Post today the Peanuts strip features Charlie Brown telling Snoopy his brothers can't stay; the Browns can't afford three dogs, especially as

One of your brothers eats more than all of you.

Wait. Olaf is the brother meant, but he can't eat more than Snoopy, Spike Andy ... and himself.

New?

Last time I was in Barnes & Noble I saw this.

Before and After the Rain

Wednesday, an astonishing amount of rain. Thursday, all dry again. I have never seen the creek and pond as high as they were yesterday. Check out the differences (first two in the absolutely pouring rain, second with my cell phone today):

Happy Birthday, Ogden

Born this day in 1902... Ogden Nash

Everybody knows his funny stuff, but he also wrote more poignant things. Here's one of my favorites (some of the others are very long, like Isabel and Custard the dragon) and another I like. There are a few more here (and lots more here):

Old Men

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.


Good for Our Side and Your Side, Too

Foreigners are people somewhere else,
Natives are people at home;
If the place you’re at
Is your habitat,
You’re a foreigner, say in Rome.
But the scales of Justice balance true,
And tit leads into tat,
So the man who’s at home
When he stays in Rome
Is abroad when he’s where you’re at.

When we leave the limits of the land in which
Our birth certificates sat us,
It does not mean
Just a change of scene,
But also a change of status.
The Frenchman with his fetching beard,
The Scot with his kilt and sporran,
One moment he
May a native be,
And the next may find him foreign.

There’s many a difference quickly found
Between the different races,
But the only essential
Differential
Is living different places.
Yet such is the pride of prideful man,
From Austrians to Australians,
That wherever he is,
He regards as his,
And the natives there, as aliens.

Oh, I’ll be friends if you’ll be friends,
The foreigner tells the native,
And we’ll work together for our common ends
Like a preposition and a dative.
If our common ends seem mostly mine,
Why not, you ignorant foreigner?
And the native replies
Contrariwise;
And hence, my dears, the coroner.

So mind your manners when a native, please,
And doubly when you visit
And between us all
A rapport may fall
Ecstatically exquisite.
One simple thought, if you have it pat,
Will eliminate the coroner:
You may be a native in your habitat,
But to foreigners you’re just a foreigner.

Tiny butterflies

These little guys were the only ones out in the heat Monday afternoon - sachems, a kind of grass skipper.

The Shot Heard Round the World

Back in the day, there were no playoffs in baseball. The team that won the most games in each league (and there wasn't any inter-league play, either) went to the World Series. Period.

But in 1951 the Giants and the Dodgers (both in New York) had identical records, 96-58. So they had to have a playoff. And in the bottom of the 9th, the Giants down 4-1, Bobby Thomson stepped up to the plate and won the game with a home run that has gone down in history.

Today, Thomson died. But his shot will never fade from memory, and you can hear (and see) it today:

Business as usual?

So Senator Jon Kyl (R) says"I thought we were just going to continue doing business as usual" while the Senate debated the new START treaty, after the old one lapsed (you did know that had happened back in December, right?).

Is he really that dumb? Does he have some kind of residual, lingering feeling that the Russians are our friends now that the Commies are gone? Does he live on some other planet, not just in Arizona, or commute to the Senate from another plane of existence?

Does he think we let foreigners into our military installations without a treaty to make us?

Or is he just being disingenuous again?

I mean, it's one thing to not want the new treaty. It might even be a reasonable position. But pretending that the old one is still in effect? That's dishonest.

Actually thinking it is? That's dangerous.

Minimum payment is a really bad idea

I have a credit card that I intend to finally get paid off this year. (Long story of stupid overspending.) I don't generally look at the statement, since I pay on line, and considerably more than the minimum. But today it came (they won't stop sending them in the mail so I just gave up trying) and for no particular reason I did look at it.

O. My. God.

I guess it must be part of new legislation or something, because I don't ever remember seeing anything like this before. At the top is a Payment Information table, which includes this information:


Minimum Payment Warning If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more in interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance. For example:

If you make no additional charges using this card and each month you pay	You will pay off the balance shown on this statement in about	And you will end up paying an estimated total of
Only the minimum payment	24 years	$11,387.79
$170.99 (which is $32 more than the minimum -me)	36 months	$6,155.64 (Savings = $7,232.15)

Everyone tells you minimum payment is a bad idea, but this is pretty dramatic. I'm having a hard time believing the credit card companies are doing this on their own, so whatever made them do it, it's a really Good Thing ™

She had me... then she lost me

I just finished Donna Leon's A Question of Belief, which is set in August. An apparently unrelentingly hot August. Everyone is complaining about the heat (except Signorina Elettra, of course). It's too hot, it's unbearably hot, the rooms are stifling, when they go outside the sun smashes into them, the water bounces the heat at them instead adding cool, they can barely stand to walk across a piazza...

It's August here, too (duh), and since we are also in the northern hemisphere, it's hot here, too. I was sympathizing with Brunetti and Vianello ... until they actually said a temperature. 31 degrees.

Let's see. When I was in Germany I learned this shortcut. 31 doubled is 62, minus 10% is 56, plus 32 is ... 88. (And Online Conversion says 87.8)

88? Guys, I know it's all relative, but when it's near 100, 88 doesn't impress.

The Week in Entertainment

Film: "Get Low" - an extraordinarily beautiful movie anchored by an Oscar-worthy performance from Robert Duval supported by nearly equally wonderful jobs by Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, and especially Bill Murray. Not one false note in the rest of the cast, nor anywhere else.

DVD: Some more of The Chief, which continues to be interesting.

TV: Psych - I loved hearing Lassie say "I've heard it both ways" - and Sean being right about how to pronounce Paget. Leverage - Parker was so cute as she furiously took notes on how to be a grifter, and Sophie's metaphor for stealing "her soul" "I was going to say confidence" was funny. Also watched Planet 51 - which was mildly amusing, though I must ask two questions: why did the male aliens not wear pants, and how damn tiny was their planet that they thought 500 miles was a reasonable estimate for the size of the universe? It looked huge from space.

Read: Alien Emergencies, an omnibus of James White.

Happy Birthday, Walter

Born today in College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh in 1771, Walter (later Sir Walter) Scott, one of the English language's most influential novelists. Best known for Ivanhoe and the other Waverly novels, he also gave us a number of well-known pieces of poetry, including these:

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!


Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!


But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

More of Scott's poetry here

Swallowtails and a Monarch

Two yellow Tiger Swallowtails (one of them a male, as you can tell by the absence of blue on the lower wings) and one black, therefore a female, and one lone Monarch (also a male - see the little spot on the vein on his lower wing?) among the flowers Wednesday afternoon.

There are two in the picture above, though one's hard to spot.

This one's female - see all the blue? It's even clearer on the shot below.


Above, a smaller brown butterfly is out of focus behind the female swallowtail. I don't remember noticing it and I don't know what it was!

This one's male - compare the lower wings with the one above.




All black Tiger Swallowtails are female; all males are yellow, but so are some females.

Note her almost totally missing lower right wing!

Early morning, with geese

I heard them going by, and got out on the balcony in time for one picture.