Happy Birthday, Moveable Type

Yes - today is the anniversary of the first volume of the most influential Bible ever published: the one printed with Johan Gutenberg's moveable type - in 1542.

It was the beginning of a new age - an age of widespread information and literacy, and an end to the Church's monopoly on knowledge. The new printing process fueled the Renaissance and was a major catalyst for the scientific revolution. It may even have midwifed the Reformation. In short, it facilitated, if not outright produced, the end of the Middle Ages.

It is estimated that more books were produced in the 50 years after Gutenberg's invention than scribes had been able to produce in the 1,000 years before that.

All their rights respected...

Sweet. Too bad Tom Lehrer isn't around still... (my italics):

White House counter terror chief John Brennan laid out what could be called the Osama bin Laden raid doctrine, in remarks at Harvard Law School [on Sept. 16]. He says under international law, the U.S. can protect itself with pre-emptive action against suspects the U.S. believes present an imminent threat, wherever they are.

“We reserve the right to take unilateral action if or when other governments are unwilling or unable to take the necessary actions themselves,” Brennan said.

Yet Brennan followed that by saying that does not mean the U.S. can use military force “whenever we want, wherever we want. International legal principles, including respect for a state’s sovereignty and the laws of war, impose important constraints on our ability to act unilaterally.”

Brennan did not explain how that constraint applied when the U.S. Navy SEALs entered Pakistani territory to go after Bin Laden, without Pakistani government knowledge or permission.

We can go anywhere and kill anyone, basically. SEAL teams or drones or a platoon of Marines or an air strike. But if someone tries to kill an American soldier in Afghanistan - let's not even think about in the US - they're a Terrorist.

It's good to be the king, isn't it?

Source: Miami Herald

Okay, then...

Have we really come to this? Is this really a necessary statement on a medication ad:

Don't take Intuniv if allergic to it or any of its ingredients.

Not standing idly by, no sir

Another dispiriting read at Glenn Greenwald's, this time on our noble refusal to "stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy" in Bahrain. It's a little chronology of what's been going on there since March, when Obama made that pledge. Pretty grim reading, especially the last bit (my italics) : a press release from The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, September 14, 2011: 53 million dollars of vehicles, missiles, support and training which

will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major non-NATO ally that has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.

As Greenwald notes, the president is keeping his word: we aren't "standing idly by". We're arming the tyrant.

Shades of Jon Stewart pointing out that Bush was keeping his promise not to engage in "nation building" in Iraq...

And one does wonder if this is because it's a Shia majority rising up against a Sunni monarchy. Wouldn't want the Iranians to get any more allies... Still, I imagine it's more about what this State Department note points out:

U.S. military sales to Bahrain since 2000 total $1.4 billion. Principal U.S. military systems acquired by the BDF include eight Apache helicopters, 54 M60A3 tanks, 22 F-16C/D aircraft, 51 Cobra helicopters, 9 MLRS Launchers (with ATACMS), 20 M109A5 Howitzers, 1 Avenger AD system, and the TPS-59 radar system. Bahrain has received $195 million in FMF and $410 million in U.S. EDA acquisition value delivered since the U.S.-Bahraini program began in 1993. The Bahrain Defense Force also placed orders for 9 UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters and 2 Mk-V Fast Patrol Boats. Delivery of both systems was planned for 2009.

One point four billion dollars. Two hundred million dollars in sales just in 2010. That's a lot of "not standing idly by."

(And we just can't stop... we sell arms to just damn near anybody. It's big business: 40 billion dollars in 2009. And business is the key word. After all, "If you cut off arms sales, a client would go straight to U.S. competitors like Russia or China," as one expert puts it.

And we couldn't have that now, could we?

A master passes

I'm not sure how I manage to miss this... As Arnold Zwicky puts it:

Eugene Nida, a linguist known especially for his work on translation, died on August 25 at the age of 96. An ordained Baptist minister, he had long associations with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and the American Bible Society. At the same time, he made major contributions to linguistics, via his 1943 Ph.D. dissertation at Michigan (published in 1960 by the Summer Institute of Linguistics), A Synopsis of English Syntax, an extensive phrase-structure grammar (the first such grammar of a major language); his huge textbook Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words (1st ed. 1946, mostly known through the influential 2nd ed. of 1949), with its many exercises; and his work on componential analysis in semantics.

But it was Bible translation that occupied most of his life. He traveled the world on translation projects and published widely on translation theory, advocating an approach centered on “dynamic” (or functional) equivalence, rather than formal equivalence.

I'm somewhat of a fan of dynamic equivalence, myself, and I use some of his work in my classes - as well as in my own work. It's hard to draw the line sometimes; nothing exists in a vacuum, and you may end up introducing things that interfere with the cohesion. Reproducing the meaning, though, is the end goal, and that end was stoutly championed by Dr Nida. He was a giant.

(WaPo obit)

Well, let's hope they stay tolerable

We went into Libya - and we did go there, even if there weren't troops on the ground; that's not the only way to define a war. Bodies of the other side killed by our weapons are another pretty good one - to get rid of the evil Gaddafi that we were, not so very long ago, calling a close personal friend... But our ambassador in Libya isn't talking about that now. No, he's talking about oil and jobs for American contractors and businessmen... (my emphasis):

Speaking to reporters after the ceremonial flag-raising over a makeshift post that was once his residence, Ambassador Gene A. Cretz said that about two weeks ago — roughly a week after forces loyal to the deposed Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, were driven out of Tripoli — he participated in a State Department conference call with about 150 American companies hoping to do business with Libya.

“We know that oil is the jewel in the crown of Libyan natural resources, but even in Qaddafi’s time they were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things” after the country had begun opening up to the West six years ago, he said. “If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs.”

Yeah.

If they only had a heart

Rick Perry is catching a lot of flak for saying people in the new GOP don't have a heart. Well, okay, what he said was:

"If you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they've been brought their through no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart."

And he added that it was states' rights dammit and also enlightened self interest. To be precise, what he added was:

"We need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society. I think that's what Texans wanted to do. Out of 181 members of the Texas legislature when this issue came up [there were] only four dissenting votes. This was a state issue. Texas voted on it. And I still support it today."

But the main thing I want to comment on is ... that "don't have a heart" thing? Duh.

These are the people who cheer for executions and applaud letting a sick man die.

Obviously, I hold no brief for Governor Goodhair. But this incarnation of the GOP is no prize either.

Happy Birthday, William

Today in 1906 Sir William Empson was born. He was a critic - one of the greatest English critics ever - and he also wrote poetry - complex and obscure but compelling.

Let It Go

It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange.
The more things happen to you the more you can't
Tell or remember even what they were.

The contradictions cover such a range.
The talk would talk and go so far aslant.
You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.


more poems here)

Terra Predictable

Oh, of course.

The rest of the rebels are wearing body armor and lots of clothes, but the rebel leader is a sexy black woman in a sleeveless t-shirt with no bra and a big gun.

Of course she is.

The couple of shots of dinosaurs have been nice, but the characters are very stock, very two-dimensional - and the hero is a total idiot.

They're from the 22nd century, but they might as well have been from 2011, judging by their hair and clothes. Teenage daughter is geeky with boys. Teenage son is attitudinal and rebellious. And no one has yet explained to me how Dr Mom got pregnant and had a baby and nobody noticed.

This is going to have to pick up plotwise. At least Jurassic Park had Sam Neill and Laura Dern.

For some values of "rare"

Uh, excuse me?

Psychokinesis is a "rare ability"?

If by "rare" you mean "totally undocumented", sure.

Banned Books Week

By the way, it's Banned Books Week here in the States.

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2011 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 24 through October 1. Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. For more information on Banned Books Week, click here

The ten most challenged books of 2010 show a nice mix of old taboos and new ones. Some of these don't surprise me (Brave New World, always unpopular; And Tango Makes Three - o noes teh gay!); some make me sigh (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Revolutionary Voices); and some just (I'm afraid) reinforce my notions about people who want to ban books (Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America - yes. Seriously.) Others were Crank, Lush, The Hunger Games, What My Mother Doesn't Know, and Twilight.

Read any of those? How about old standbys like Huckleberry Finn (the n-word)? People's History of the United States (leftist)? Or Of Mice and Men (profanity)? Or The Diary of Anne Frank (sexy)? Or To Kill A Mockingbird (might upset black children)? That new old stand-by, Harry Potter? Newer ones like Bless Me, Ultima (anti-Catholic attitudes)? Fallen Angels (bad words)? The Kite Runner (unspecified parental objections)? Help the Forest (challenged in Oregon for its portrayal of loggers)? The Lovely Bones (too scary)? The Book of the Secrets of Merlin (occult!)? I Saw Esau (because Maurice Sendak's illustrations were "absolutely offensive in every way"!)? Uncle Bobby's Wedding (gay guinea pigs!!!)?

Or the dictionary? Yes. Kids find all kinds of words in dictionaries.

Note, please, that not all of these books are being banned (or challenged) in middle schools. Some of them are in colleges. Some in public libraries. (That last is particularly egregious.) I don't say everybody should read these books. I do say that pulling them off the shelf, forbidding anybody to read them, in some cases tearing out pages or refusing to return the book to the library at all is just wrong.

See five years worth here and find something to read!

You go, Clyde

Of course, I think Clyde is genuinely oblivious to what he's just done. But, as Utahraptor observes below, what Lamont has done is not just rude, it's pointless, and I love that Clyde just takes it at face value and moves on. (Clyde, by the way, effortlessly moves between registers in a way that Lamont refuses to even try...)

Happy Birthday, TS

Today in St Louis in 1888 TS Eliot was born. He wrote many poems, most famous perhaps "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land" - and of course "The Hollow Men", which begins "We are the hollow men" and ends

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

He also wrote the source poems for "Cats". And many others, including these:

The Boston Evening Transcript

The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript
Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.
When evening quickens faintly in the street,
Wakening the appetites of life in some
And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,
I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning
Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld,
If the street were time and he at the end of the street,
And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."


Cousin Nancy

Miss Nancy Ellicott Strode across the hills and broke them,
Rode across the hills and broke them--
The barren New England hills--
Riding to hounds
Over the cow-pasture.

Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked
And danced all the modern dances;
And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it,
But they knew that it was modern.

Upon the glazen shelves kept watch
Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith,
The army of unalterable law.

More of his poems here

The Week in Entertainment

DVD: Some of season 5 of Psych - can't wait for that to return! - and some more of Pie in the Sky. I'm glad to see that Henderson isn't quite the clown it looked like he was being turned into, and the whole "Public Police" notion - rich people getting to pay for extra attention - is scarily likely to happen here!

TV: The Middle had two cute episodes. Modern Family, also a good start to the season. Actual physical affection between Mitch and Cam (gasp!), and Clare's wonderful line when accused of always having to be right: "Honey, I'd love to be wrong but I just don't live with the right people for that." The Mentalist, a good episode; I love Cho, and Jane's acceptance of the consequences of his actions was well played. And another terrific Doctor Who episode - it was great to see Craig again, and the Doctor's heading toward his death has been coming all season, that dark undercurrent in him played so well by Matt Smith. The collision between him and River has also been coming for quite a while ... Caught the Peter Ustinov version of Appointment with Death - far superior (as an adaptation) to the David Suchet one (though that one wasn't awful considered as an original production, which it basically was, unlike the truly terrible Orient Express...). This one moved the locale from Petra to somewhere in Palestine - Petra doubtless too hard to film at - and lost the French doctor altogether, but did a very nice job. Great cast, too - Debbie Reynolds as the monstrous Mrs. Boynton and Lauren Bacall as Lady Edgeholme, Carrie Fisher as Nadine and Hayley Mills as Miss Quinton the company, and David Soul (who was making a lot of movies back then) as Jefferson Cope - not to mention John Gielgud as the colonel and Peter Ustinov.

Read: A couple of books by PW Cantanese - The Thief and the Beanstalk and The Brave Apprentice, both very engaging. The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens, first in a trilogy and very good. Dick Francis's Gamble by his son Felix, better than some of the later Francis novels though not as good as old man's best. Sarah's Key, not nearly as good as the movie. The husband is an almost unredeemable caricature and the narrator never really convinced me of her obsession ... plus, her attitude toward her pregnancy is very plot-convenient but neither consistent nor convincing. The Real Macaw, the latest in the always entertaining Meg Lanslow cozies.

Happy Birthday, William

Today in 1897, William Faulkner was born. After around 15 years of being published and remaining fairly unknown, he was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature. This brought him to the attention of the public and the wider world, and he's now regarded as one of the most important writers in American literature.

One more prison

Over at Glenn Greenwald's he has a rundown on the new prison we - the US - is building in Bagram. Yeah. Even if - and at this point, that's one helluvan if - Obama shuts down Gunatanamo, we'll just have another black hole out there to dump people into. Without due process. Without anyone to speak for them. Without even being able to hear the charges against them. Forever, if we want.

Progress...

And Greenwald notes:

One last point: recall how many people insisted that the killing of Osama bin Laden would lead to a drawdown in the War on Terror generally and the war in Afghanistan specifically. Since then -- in just four months since bin Laden's corpse was dumped into the ocean -- the U.S. has done the following: renewed the Patriot Act for four years with no reforms; significantly escalated drone attacks in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan; tried to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with no due process; indicted a 24-year-old Muslim for "material support for Terrorism" for uploading an anti-American YouTube clip after he talked to the son of a Terrorist leader; pressured Iraq to keep U.S. troops in that country; argued that it has the virtually unlimited right to kill anyone it wants anywhere in the world; and now finalized plans to build a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan. If that's winding things down, I sure would hate to see what a redoubling of the American commitment to Endless War looks like.

I am curious

In Dick Francis's Gamble (by Felix Francis), chapter 6 page 91, our hero is going through the papers of his dead friend, of whose estate he is executor. There's this line:

"I was curious to see that Herb had been paid somewhat more than I was."

That sounds odd to me. I can't use "curious" like that - I'd have to say "I was interested to see" or maybe "I was intrigued". But "curious" is something you are before you see, probably why you're looking. Merriam-Webster agrees with me, noting "curious always suggests an eager desire to learn".

How about you? Sound okay - or weird?

Come on!

I was about to blog that Alex's attempt to imitate the accent and cadence of Kennedy and Reagan made identifying the excepts from their inaugurals (already embarrassingly easy: "the torch has been passed" and SDI? C'mon) really easy.

But then they told Jessica that "tariff" was wrong because they'd referenced GATT and it had to be "tariffS". Come on. Really? That's astonishing.

Happy Birthday, Euripides

This is the day we celebrate the birth of one of ancient Greece's greatest dramatists, Euripides. He reshaped Attic drama by featuring petty and uncaring gods, flawed but human heroes, strong women, and smart slaves.

Of his more than 90 plays, only 19 survive (or is "only" the right word? That's more than from Aeschylus and Sophocles together), among them Alcestis, The Bacchae, Elektra, Iphigenia At Aulis, Iphegenia in Tauris, Medea, and The Trojan Women.

PSB Blogging Survey

I got this email from Technorati asking me to take their annual "State of the Blogosphere" Survey.

It's obvious that they really think everyone blogs to make money. In fact, there were numerous questions that I had to lie on because they had no way to say "none" and no way to skip.

Six pages of how I "work with brands" even though I said on page one that I never do.

On the "how much money do you spend" I actually had to put in 0 in the "Other please specify" blank.

This survey is badly designed. BAD-LY.

(Although at least when I got several pages of questions about the ads on my blog - after the question about why I don't have any ads on my blog - the option "I don't have ads on my blog" was there...)

Dodging a pellet

Dah-mahsk-oos, Alex repeats the answer "Damascus". I have no idea where that vowel comes from. It's a schwa in English and a short /u/ in Arabic, though in fact the Syrians call it Al Sham. But it's a sign he's feeling like his old self, even though he's obviously not very mobile yet.

I, of course, am waiting with trepidation for them to get to Russian History, but the contestants are avoiding it. When they get to it, there aren't any actual Russian words - Siberia, Japan, Peter the Great, oligarchs, and Catherine (the Great). Whew!

Nation creating

Guess which state was created by a (no, not United Nations but) League of Nations mandate?

Israel.

Just sayin' ...

A little knowledge

Okay, this almost works.

Google isn't a browser, but is a browser really (a) necessary for getting email? What if she's using Outlook or Thunderbird? and (b) how you connect to the Internet? Isn't that maybe the ISP, or "wireless"?

But clueless-adult-smart-kid is funny anyway, right?

Right?

the monumental fascination

I just cleaned out this comment, which made it past the spam filters. It's extremely inimitable in its language - clearly not from a native speaker:

As a way to design and style remarkably one of a kind and effective Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals; they consider benefit of your very last equipment and technologies in order that you’ll be fully capable of get the brightest and designer sandal designs from them in way. Seems wise, the Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals are extremely inimitable and flexible shoes in an attempt to seize your attentions directly. On the subject of the colours, the monumental fascination is that they use superlative colors for making fancy your Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals.

An object lesson

This is what happens if you think you know a word. Confronted with a request for a notarized receipt for 160 rubles in неплатежные денежные знаки, I built a whole story up about a note of hand or possibly bank draft gone astray and the issuer's fear of it falling into the wrong hands, basing that story on what I thought those неплатежные денежные знаки were.

Problem is, неплатежный doesn't mean "uncashed", or "unpaid". (And I should have known that right off, because the adjectival -н- doesn't have a passive feeling about it.) No, as I discover upon actually doing some looking around, a неплатежный денежный знак is an "untenderable (unusable) bank note" - damaged or defaced.

The writer didn't want to pay a second time without notarized proof that the first payment had actually contained unusable bills...

Moral: if the word's unfamiliar, it never hurts to look it up even if you suspect you know what it means...

Incoherent, though

PBS today has Rat finding "a form of communication that is so carefully encoded [he] can only assume it was accidentally dropped here by aliens."

The sentences don't really cohere, though. It means "I don't know. I am. I'm sorry."

Still, kinda cool to see Welsh in the comics... even as an alien tongue!

Especially the "and depressing" part

Krugman blogs today:

I was recently asked to give a talk on “capitalism and democracy”; that’s bigger-think than I usually do, but I gave it a try. I took as my starting point the famous Fukuyama thesis that liberal democracy — meaning basically a market economy plus democratic institutions — was an end state, a final resting point for state organization.

I always had my doubts about that, largely thanks to the 1930s: what we saw there was that a severe economic crisis could put liberal democracy very much at risk. And it was a close-run thing: slightly better strategic decisions by the bad guys could have made totalitarianism, not democracy, the end state.

It seemed to me even when Fukuyama first wrote that this could and probably would happen again, that there would be future crises that would put our system — which I agree is a very good system — at risk.

But one thing I was sure of was that the next great crisis would be different. It would be environmental, or about resource shortages, or about runaway technologies, or something; it wouldn’t be about a banking crisis and a collapse of aggregate demand, aggravated by bad monetary and fiscal policy. We’d learned too much to repeat that performance — right?

Wrong. The amazing thing now is not that we’re having a crisis, it’s the fact that we’re having the same crisis, and making the same mistakes.

A lot of the blame goes to the economists, by the way, who abandoned what they used to know — and many of whom are giving bad advice now, I firmly believe, based more on ego and political affiliation than on analysis. That is, I believe that we’re looking at a moral failure as well as an intellectual failure.

Anyway, awesome. And depressing.

Heroes

Howard Roark is a hero?? I guess I'm glad they didn't know him.

But I'm surprised no one knew Lew Archer!

Happy Birthday, Stevie

Today in Hull, in Yorkshire, England, in 1902 Stevie Smith was born.


Pad, pad

I always remember your beautiful flowers
And the beautiful kimono you wore
When you sat on the couch
With that tigerish crouch
And told me you loved me no more.

What I cannot remember is how I felt when you were unkind
All I know is, if you were unkind now I should not mind.
Ah me, the power to feel exaggerated, angry and sad
The years have taken from me. Softly I go now, pad pad.



more Stevie Smith poems here

Welcome back, Alex

Nice to see Alex Trebek back on his feet for the new season of Jeopardy! even if he doesn't feel like ambling over to the contestants to do those dopey little interviews.

The Week in Entertainment

Film: Sarah's Key - brilliant, just brilliant. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how they compare, but this movie was intense without being graphic, and wove the two stories together well, avoiding making anyone two-dimensional. Highly recommended.

DVD: Two more (short!) seasons of Pie in the Sky, which continues to be entertaining. Some Peter Gunn, still stylish if dated.

TV: Doctor Who - he said goodbye to Amy! I can see how he fears for them - Rose and especially Donna are raw memories still. But he finally left a companion properly - I love that Rory got his car. Going to be interesting to see how it plays out next week.

Read: Barry Hugheart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox trilogy. I still think the first one (Bridge of Birds) is one of the most exquisite things I've ever read. Some more from We Others including the creepy, but excellent, title story. Some poems from Jane Hirshfield's new collection, Come, Thief.

Happy Birthday, David

Born today in 1933 - David McCallum (my first tv crush, as Illya Kuryakin of course!) It's good to see he's still working.

Ralph, what ARE you thinking

The Economist came yesterday, with this Ralph Lauren ad on the inside cover.

Man. Those horizontal stripes? Looks like he's wearing a French navy sailor shirt or something.

That is ugly!

Happy Birthday, Sam

Born this day in 1709 in Lichfield, England, that great lexicographer and writer, Dr Samuel Johnson, who was also the subject of the first great biography in English.

During a conversation with his biographer, Johnson became infuriated at the suggestion that Berkeley's idealism, the theory that individuals can only directly know sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter", could not be refuted. In his anger, Johnson powerfully kicked a nearby stone and proclaimed "I refute it thus!"

A much quoted man, he also said:

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.

And his Boswell (Boswell) reported this:

Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self- interest.

And I can't resist... lolxicographer Johnson (from Jeff Prucher):

Happy Birthday, Carlos

William Carlos Williams, great American poet, born today in 1883. Like a superhero with a secret identity, he was a doctor by day and poet by night, writing lines of deceptive simplicity.

Winter Trees

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

Pastoral

The little sparrows
hop ingenuously
about the pavement
quarreling
with sharp voices
over those things
that interest them.
But we who are wiser
shut ourselves in
on either hand
and no one knows
whether we think good
or evil.

Meanwhile,
the old man who goes about
gathering dog-lime
walks in the gutter
without looking up
and his tread
is more majestic than
that of the Episcopal minister
approaching the pulpit
of a Sunday.
These things
astonish me beyond words.

(More poems here and poems and short bio here)

Happy Birthday, Lauren

Born today in 1924, in New York City, Betty Joan Perske, much better known as Lauren Bacall.

That smoldering look, that husky voice...

Quite the feat

On the Metro this morning, as the train pulled into College Park, the train driver asked for quite the feat: "All customers on the platform please use all doors. All customers use all three doors."

Happy Birthday, Bobby

Bobby Short, an extraordinary interpreter of the great American songbook, was born today in 1924. Thanks for the music, Bobby, you were always a delight to listen to...

Didn't want to what, now?

Once again, the Biritish meaning of graft offers a chance for humorous misunderstanding. DI Crabbe (in the Pie in the Sky episode "Devils on Horseback") asks about an ex-jockey "Why did he leave, then?"

And the answer from the head lad is "He didn't want to graft, did he?"

A rather blithe admission to American ears! (even if we don't generally use it as a verb...)

Reich on Inequality

Robert Reich wrote a penetrating article for the New York Times Sunday; it's now available on his website. A taste:

The economy won’t really bounce back until America’s surge toward inequality is reversed. Even if by some miracle President Obama gets support for a second big stimulus while Ben S. Bernanke’s Fed keeps interest rates near zero, neither will do the trick without a middle class capable of spending. Pump-priming works only when a well contains enough water.

Look back over the last hundred years and you’ll see the pattern. During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. We created a virtuous cycle in which an ever growing middle class had the ability to consume more goods and services, which created more and better jobs, thereby stoking demand. The rising tide did in fact lift all boats.

During periods when the very rich took home a larger proportion — as between 1918 and 1933, and in the Great Regression from 1981 to the present day — growth slowed, median wages stagnated and we suffered giant downturns. It’s no mere coincidence that over the last century the top earners’ share of the nation’s total income peaked in 1928 and 2007 — the two years just preceding the biggest downturns.

I urge you to read the whole thing.

not just good news, everybody

Hatch Act says I can't link to it, but - got this email from Dennis Kucinich today:

We have a district! The race is on! In a stunning development, the redistricting gave most of the Republican part of my old district to three incumbent Republican congressmen and left most of the Democratic part of my district intact. As a result, about 57% of registered Democrats in the new district come from my old district. With your help I clearly have a good chance to be able to continue to serve the people of Ohio and to remain a strong and outspoken voice for jobs, peace, clean water and clean air, education and civil rights.

This is excellent news.

С днем рождения, Дмитрий Анатольевич!

Today is Dmitry Medvedev's birthday. He was born in 1965, which makes him much younger than me, or even my baby brother... which is depressing, since he's running a whole country. Ah well...

A well-intentioned man in a hard job, in hard times. I wish him the best. Всего хорошего: успехов, радости, здоровья, и счастья!

Closest?

Visual Thesaurus's WOTD says:

If you're at a loss to describe what Rice Krispies do in one word, here's crepitate -- a rather formal word that means "make a crackling sound." It may come as a surprise that crepitate's closest English relative is discrepancy.

I would have thought decrepit was closer, myself.

Pro-Life Party

Well, just as "terrorist" now means "a Muslim who acts against the US, no matter where or why, including in his own damn country", "pro-life" now clearly means "no abortions, but after that not only do we not care, we cheer when they die".

Two Republican debates. Two crowds cheering for death - first, at Perry's execution record; now, at question whether an uninsured man should be allowed to die, the audience began shouting "Yes!" and cheering.

This is deeply disturbing. How did it come to pass that Americans cheer for letting someone die? I know there was a time in this country when executions were public, were entertainment even, but an injured man in a hospital, left to die because he's poor - when did that become something to cheer? When did that become the Christian thing to do? When did that become the way we want our country to be?

I tremble for my country. I really do.

This is terrorism

This is terrorism:

This is the schoolbus which came under attack in Peshawar, Pakistan, this morning. The Taliban in Pakistan are understood to have claimed responsibility for the attack which killed four children, a teacher and the driver, saying they belonged to "a pro-government tribe". Eighteen people, including 15 children, were wounded in the attack using RPG rounds and Kalashnikov rifles.

"Our comrades attacked the bus which was carrying children from the Aka Khel tribe, whose people are fighting against us at the behest of the Pakistani army," Taliban spokesman Mohammed Afridi told Reuters.

"They have been told time and again to desist from any activity against us but they did not listen. We will continue to carry out such attacks."

At Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, children lay in beds with shrapnel and bullet wounds from Tuesday's attack, their uniforms soaked in blood.

"We were in the van, going home like every day. Suddenly I heard an explosion and gunfire," said 8-year-old Sabir. (source The Telegraph)

There is an argument to be made that Taliban militants attacking NATO troops in Afghanistan is war. One could even make the argument that attacking diplomats of a country whose troops are in yours is war - whether you agree with it or not, it's an argument, and I fully expect that if the Soviets had invaded the US it wouldn't have been long before Americans were attacking their troops and their embassy in Washington or New York. (And we love stories about the Resistance, don't we?) But killing children for what their parents - or fellow tribesmen - do is not war. It's terrorism at its worst, no matter who does it or what the adults did "to deserve it".

Period.

Happy Birthday, Roald

Born today in 1916, one of the great children's authors ever









I had a little nut-tree,
Nothing would it bear.
I searched in all its branches,
But not a nut was there.

'Oh, little tree,' I begged,
'Give me just a few.'
The little tree looked down at me
And whispered, 'Nuts to you.'

Happy Birthday, Bill

One hundred years ago today, on a farm near Rosine, Kentucky the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe, was born.

Here are three videos featuring his distinctive mandolin and high, lonesome sound.

Do enjoy.






Uncle Pen:


Blue Moon of Kentucky:


Wayfaring Stranger:

9-11 in the Comic Strips

Yesterday many (though not all - read one cartoonist's explanation here) of the nation's newspaper comics did a Tribute to 9-11. Most were heavy-handed (hard not to be, though), and some overly mawkish or jingoistic... some were just a shoe-horned, almost afterthoughty "never forget" panel at the end. Some were a bit ... timey-wimey - those with the babies that never age, so "10 years ago" they were still babies. But some were really very nice, thought-provoking, or just sweetly sad. Here are my favorites.











(comments closed because I don't want any fighting over what is at bottom an aesthetic judgment heavily influenced by politics)

Happy Birthday, Stanislaw

Today in Lviv - then in Poland though now in Ukraine - in 1921, Stanislaw Lem was born. After WWII he basically invented the genre of far-future science fiction, using it to explore philosophical themes in an often satirical fashion. In the west, his best known novel is probably Solaris, but His Master's Voice and Fiasco, along with the Cyberiad, are also well known.

A couple of years ago, the (I think excellent) Russian film version of Solaris was cited as the definitive example of кино арт-хаус (kino art-khaus, art house film) by one of my students - we were discussing the translation of an article about Fyodor Bondarchuk, not an art-house director.

Happy Birthday, HL

Born today in 1880, the irascible and splendid Sage of Baltimore, HL Mencken.

"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant."

"It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money."

"The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression."

"The only way to reconcile science and religion is to create something which isn't science or something which isn't religion."

The Week in Entertainment

DVD: The first two seasons/series of Pie in the Sky, a delightful British series about a detective/restaurateur starring Richard Griffiths.

TV: "Doctor Who" - "He needs help. He needs a doctor." And he got one - THE Doctor. Matt Smith is rapidly becoming my favorite doctor, and (I think I may have mentioned this before) I love Rory. "Ohhh, we're dead. The lift fell and we're dead. Again." And I love him especially in today's episode, particularly at the end when he and old Amy were talking through the TARDIS door. Also caught a Harold Lloyd film called "Welcome Danger" - Lloyd's first talkie, converted halfway through filming. Much of the dialog was dubbed over silent footage, but the movie holds up fairly well, though it's dated (and as is so often the case, you do wonder how his character could ever mistake Barbara Kent's Billie Lee for a boy). How he did some of those stunts missing his right thumb and index finger is baffling, isn't it?

Read: Spider Web - I like Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper series, but sometimes I'm not sure why. I'm slightly irritated by Benni at times, and I detest Gabe. But once again I've read straight through one of them, and enjoyed it. Some stories in We Others by Steven Millhauser - excellent work, as usual - and Tails of Wonder and Imagination, an anthology of weird cat stories (weird stories about cats).

Is it or isn't it?

The final shot of Harold Lloyd's 1929 film "Welcome Danger" has the Lloyd character and his girlfriend embracing on a Golden Gate Coffee billboard. The slogan plays with their "this must be heaven!" dialog.. but wait!



Are those apostrophes? Gasp!

Up into the building

I was at work that day, and spent much of it in a parking lot as they tried to evacuate our building in nothing flat. But, really, who am I, that anybody cares where I was or what I was doing?

Still, here's what I think about:

A man describing making his way down the stairs from the 67th floor of the North Tower:

"And then when we got to around the 35th floor we had to move over for the firefighters. I mean, we were all trying to get out, and here they came, up into the building."

(2001 tribute page)

Sky Watch: Breaking Dawn

Shafts of silver slice around the clouds as dawn comes.




more Sky Watchers here

A Beauty

Yesterday we not only had sun, we had butterflies!

I've seen little skippers and cabbage whites around, but yesterday I saw silver-spotted skippers, a monarch floating past, and this beautiful girl.

I don't which to hope for

Either I don't understand the theme at all (out size, fair size - sure; press size - maaaaybe; hill size - I don't think so), or else "Size" refers to all the theme answers starting with the /saɪ/ (sī) sound. Which is just dumb.

Absences, necessary and otherwise

Two things from today's comic strips. First, how is this "the deep woods"? There's not a tree in sight! (This is even plainer in the black and white, where the sky isn't melding with the ground in the first panel.)

And second ... this would be unfair if they didn't make appearances in the strip, but - "Spider-Man is in disgrace" is all the Big Boss needs? Where the heck are the Fantastic Four and Iron Man? I sure hope this was the end of the Big Boss's intricate plan for ridding the city of superheroes, which he left for last because it would be easy after the exertions needed to get rid of the competent ones!

Not a good sign

From Bob Park's newsletter today:

2. FIRST AMENDMENT: TEXAS GOVERNOR CONVENES A CHRISTIAN REVIVAL.
Rick Perry led a prayer meeting of 30,000 evangelical Christians in a Houston football stadium last month, calling on Jesus to guide us out of our national travail. It was billed as non-political. I suppose that's possible; under the First Amendment God is not excluded from politics, but if Perry wants to be President he's got to be able to negotiate at every level. The big question then is, how did God respond? It didn't take long to get an answer. The crowd had scarcely left the stadium when God set Texas on fire. It’s still burning. In fact, when God sent Tropical Storm Lee ashore he had it it dump record rains on the other Gulf states, while leaving Texas parched. This is not a good sign.

Back and Forth

It always cracks me up when two contestants start running down columns - one guy picks "Capitals" and the other answers, then picks "Shakespeare" and the first guy answers and picks "Capitals" and the other guy answers and goes back to "Shakespeare", and the other guy ... you get the idea.

It's funny.

Happy Birthday Lev Nikolayevich (or Leo)

Лев Николаевич Толстой, or Leo Tolstoy as he's known in English, was born today (or August 28 Old Style) in 1828 on his family's estate in Yasnaya Polyana. His family was aristocratic (he was a count, or graf) and he lived wildly as a youth, running through a great deal of money. He also served in the army, participating in the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. After his marriage he settled down in an austere lifestyle and wrote... War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and the lesser-known works such as Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, and After the Ball. Ivan Bunin called his unfinished novel The Cossacks one of the finest pieces of Russian prose ever written. In his later life he became a Christian anarchist (though he disliked the term), a pacifist, and (in Gandhi's words) "the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced", and the founding president of the International Union of Vegetarian Esperantists.

Read him in Russian here, and in English here.

Oh, Freddie...

So, the latest Golf Digest just arrived, and with it the news that Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. President's Cup team, says Tiger Woods will be there.

Okay, Woods is 18-11-1 in the President's Cup, not as bad as his Ryder Cup record of 13-14-2, but a .617 is not what the best player in the world should be putting up. He's especially bad at fourballs (which is weird), having lost more of those matches than any other U.S. player. He's still bad at team play. And yes, last time around he went 5-0, but that was before ... well, everything.

Woods may yet play well in Melbourne. But this year he's played in only 8 tournaments, missed 2 cuts (including the PGA), and not finished in the top 3, let alone won. He's 132nd in the world rankings. He should not be a shoo-in for captain's choice.

Yes, it's Couples's choice, and he's made it. I just wish he hadn't - or at least, hope that he'll wait to see how Tiger plays next weekend before confirming it.

Picking on Perry?

Well, maybe so. But at the moment he's the new boy in the race, and he needs looking at.

So let's look at this:

While the debaters clashed, firefighters in Texas fought scores of fires, hampered by a lack of resources due to Perry administration budget cuts.

Jim Linardos, Lake Travis fire rescue chief, told Los Angeles Times reporters that Texas fire district funding is limited by the state at 10 cents per $100 valuation in property taxes. In Lake Tahoe, Nev., where he had been fire chief, he had five times the money to fight fires.

Times reporters Ashley Powers and Molly Hennessy-Fiske reported that volunteer fire departments, which serve much of Texas, face a 75 percent state budget cut under Perry and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

That makes no sense to most people, although it probably does to a lot of Republican primary voters and certainly to the conservatives who run the House of Representatives.

Plus, of course, the governor has no problem taking federal emergency money for those fires.

Just so we're all clear on it: I don't say Texas doesn't deserve or shouldn't get that money. Of course they do; of course they should. I'm just saying if government spending is so awful, if Perry really thinks the only reason he has so many uninsured citizens is the horrible guys in Washington, why is he asking for it?

Answer: now it's his ox being gored, that's why. Federal money is only bad when it goes to them, not when it comes to us.

Perry's not unique in most of this. But he's out there now, running for president.

Happy Birthday, Siegfried

Today in Manfield, Kent, England, in 1886 Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born. One of the great WWI poets, Sassoon eventually rejected the war and refused to return to the front after a convalescent leave, sending a manifesto to Parliament. Refusing to court-martial such a decorated hero and symbol, the Army declared him "unfit for duty" and sent him to a war hospital, to be treated for shell shock. After the war he led a restless life, during which he continued to write, poems and prose both.



A Poplar and the Moon


There stood a Poplar, tall and straight;
The fair, round Moon, uprisen late,
Made the long shadow on the grass
A ghostly bridge ’twixt heaven and me.
But May, with slumbrous nights, must pass;
And blustering winds will strip the tree.
And I’ve no magic to express
The moment of that loveliness;
So from these words you’ll never guess
The stars and lilies I could see.


Falling Asleep

Voices moving about in the quiet house:
Thud of feet and a muffled shutting of doors:
Everyone yawning. Only the clocks are alert.

Out in the night there’s autumn-smelling gloom
Crowded with whispering trees; across the park
A hollow cry of hounds like lonely bells:
And I know that the clouds are moving across the moon;
The low, red, rising moon. Now herons call
And wrangle by their pool; and hooting owls
Sail from the wood above pale stooks of oats.

Waiting for sleep, I drift from thoughts like these;
And where to-day was dream-like, build my dreams.
Music ... there was a bright white room below,
And someone singing a song about a soldier,
One hour, two hours ago: and soon the song
Will be ‘last night’: but now the beauty swings
Across my brain, ghost of remembered chords
Which still can make such radiance in my dream
That I can watch the marching of my soldiers,
And count their faces; faces; sunlit faces.

Falling asleep ... the herons, and the hounds....
September in the darkness; and the world
I’ve known; all fading past me into peace.


(more of his poems here)

The last thylacine

From Why Evolution Is True, a reminder of a sad anniversary:

Today is the 75th anniversary of the death of the last thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus, also known as the “Tasmanian wolf”), a marsupial that once inhabited New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania. A captive individual on display in the zoo at Hobart, Tasmania, was the last one known; it died on September 7, 1936.

Thylacines were top predators, and a superb example of evolutionary convergence, resembling, in both behavior and appearance, the wild placental dogs to which they're only very distantly related. (Though look at the picture (and watch the video) to see how differently they carry their hind legs - they stands on their whole foot sometimes.) As marsupials, they did of course have a pouch in which they nurtured their young. A female with full pouch can be seen in one of the clips linked below.

There are only seven movie clips of living thylacines (from London and Hobart zoos), and you can find them all at this link. The longest is only 54 seconds, so you can watch them all. One is embedded below.

An important note about the Texas Miracle

We're seeing one drawback to it right now: houses in Austin built in fire zones because they ran out of room.

But the key thing to remember is what that is a side effect of: even if the Miracle™ had really done all Perry et al. say it has (which is debatable), it's not replicatable for the whole country. The Miracle depended on siphoning off business and workforce from other states.

The whole country can't siphon them off, because there's no place to siphon them from.

Happy Birthday, Edith

Today in Scarborough (in Yorkshire), England, Edith Sitwell was born.

Heart and Mind

SAID the Lion to the Lioness-'When you are amber dust,-
No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun
(No liking but all lust)-
Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone,
The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,
Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws
Though the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one.'

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time-
'The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun
Is greater than all gold, more powerful
Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes
Like all that grows or leaps...so is the heart

More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules
Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas:
But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind
Is but a foolish wind.'

Said the Sun to the Moon-'When you are but a lonely white crone,
And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood,
Remember only this of our hopeless love
That never till Time is done
Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.'

And how exactly are you going to do that?

Baltimore has a mayoral election next month. I just saw a commercial for a challenger who says she's going to "cut property taxes, invest in our children and our neighborhoods and put more police on the streets."

I wish to hell I understood how anybody thinks you can invest in anything without capital, or hire more police with money for their salaries, and - most importantly - get that money into a government without increasing revenues. (What? Raise income taxes? Sales tax?) Every election somebody - usually a bunch of somebodies - claim they're going to do it, though, and most say they'll "cut taxes" while doing all that "investing".

As far as I can tell, that only leads to borrowing... and those same people are generally self-proclaimed deficit hawks.

So, yeah. I actually like the ones that are upfront about how anybody who's not wealthy can just go take a hike. I despise their priorities, but at least they don't think I'm - or aren't themselves - bone stupid.

If I owned Hell and Texas...

Do you suppose that if God does use weather to send messages - earthquakes, hurricanes, etc - the drought and wildfires in Texas might be one? Especially since Lee managed to miss the state entirely?

(and if not, why not, as the tests back in school used to ask...)

Funny, but Stupid

As Henry Gibson's Nazi in the potted plants would have said. Seriously, who wouldn't have gone to "Lucinda, your niece?" or "Lucinda, your brother Leon's niece?" (in case of family weirdness) first?

I know that sometimes the jokes have to be set up, but this is as bad as Luanne's teacher writing "Chap 5, 6-7" instead of "Chaps 5-7" on the board.

Theory 0 - Reality Way Too Much

From Paul Krugman's Sunday column:

Although you’d never know it listening to the ranters, the past year has actually been a pretty good test of the theory that slashing government spending actually creates jobs. The deficit obsession has blocked a much-needed second round of federal stimulus, and with stimulus spending, such as it was, fading out, we’re experiencing de facto fiscal austerity. State and local governments, in particular, faced with the loss of federal aid, have been sharply cutting many programs and have been laying off a lot of workers, mostly schoolteachers.

And somehow the private sector hasn’t responded to these layoffs by rejoicing at the sight of a shrinking government and embarking on a hiring spree.

O.K., I know what the usual suspects will say — namely, that fears of regulation and higher taxes are holding businesses back. But this is just a right-wing fantasy. Multiple surveys have shown that lack of demand — a lack that is being exacerbated by government cutbacks — is the overwhelming problem businesses face, with regulation and taxes barely even in the picture.

How many jobs were created in August?

Zero.

Happy Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day

This year we in the US celebrate Labor Day today.

By Hammer and Hand all Arts do stand.

Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts. Molly Ivins

Labor Day differs in every essential from other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflict and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation. Samuel Gompers

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. Abraham Lincoln

Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost. Ronald Reagan

With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men. Clarence Darrow

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership - the American worker. US Department of Labor

The Week in Entertainment

Really almost all I did this week was veg out and read...

BUT! Doctor Who! "Let's Kill Hitler" was quite good. I've never been overly enamored of River Song, but this episode was not just pivotal, it showed us (somewhat) of what she went through becoming who she is. And I did like the way she set up Rory and Amy.

Finished How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe, which was fascinating. Then read a bunch of mysteries - Ice Blue which was good enough despite the blood typing error; all the Retreival Artist novels by Kristine Katherine Rusch, which are excellent (though I warn you to read them in order because she spoils earlier books in later ones); all the Leigh Koslow series, which are amusing; all the Claresby shorts, also amusing but very light-weight; Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez, quite a ride - funny and thought-provoking both; and finally, the new Inspector Gamache, A Trick of the Light, as well-written and entertaining as the ones that came before it, particularly good in the way Gamache and Jean Guy recover (or don't) from the traumatic shooting that ended the previous novel.

"I'll pray for it" is not a plan

(I'm totally stealing this from Zeno Ferox over at Halfway There, but since he stole it from PZ Myers, I'm not too worried.)

Back in April Governor Goodhair proclaimed "Days of Prayer" to ask for an end to their unprecedented drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor map makes it abundantly clear: If their prayers were answered, the answer was a resounding "No".



As Linus once remarked to Charlie Brown, "Hoping and praying should never be confused with working and studying."

Praying for it is not a plan. Well, not a good plan anyway.

A little knowledge

I just finished a rather good police procedural called Ice Blue. At one point, the police discover that the murdered man's daughter was actually not his. Unfortunately, the author messed it up.

The family was giving blood, and the suspect spotted how the nurse reacted when Julie, the daughter, said "Dad." The suspect casually looked at the labels on the bags and saw that the man and his wife were both Type O. The daughter couldn't have been theirs.

The problem? The daughter was AB.

Yeah.

Several people said that she was "undeniably" the wife's. But she couldn't have been. Two Type Os can only have O children. The real father was AB - but he and the woman couldn't have had an AB child. Julie needed to be A or B.

Sure, it's very minor. But it jarred. A little knowledge is often not enough.