Journal Entries
Snow Time-Travel
Posted Dec 26, 2010
As US-type persons, Elektra and I have only a dim understanding of the term 'Boxing Day'. I looked it up, and the observance seems to be rooted in feudalism and the distribution of leftovers. Nice idea. Elektra said, 'Oh, that's why businesses give gift baskets, and we give things to the postal lady.' Cool.
Then we got confused about why people on h2g2 said today wasn't really Boxing Day. I looked that up. It makes sense: The retailers need to unload all that surplus merchandise, so if it's a weekend, you have a couple of extra holidays. Also cool.
That would be a good thing hereabouts. We woke up to a world covered in snow today. North Carolinians don't do well in snow. We'll be sitting at home, watching it out the window. I'm sure some brave souls with four-wheel drive will be out at the Superbullseye looking for bargains. I'll stay home with my leftover turkey and Netflix. So far, we've seen 'The Colour of Magic' and 'Hogfather'. I'm sure I'll find something else to entertain with. We can sing carols, too - I'll warm up the keyboard.
The snow made me nostalgic, though. Elektra and I both grew up in Pennsylvania, where there's lots of snow. (We don't miss it.)
At Christmas time, my mom had her own version of Boxing Day-type activities. For weeks, she would make candies - she was a handy candymaker. She was also frugal: she saved every candy box she received. Come holiday time, she lined these boxes with tinfoil and filled them with an attractive assortment of candies: divinity, fudge, little Christmas wreaths made of corn flakes in syrup, dyed green, with red-hots for berries, etc. Then she covered the lids in Christmas paper, tied the boxes with bows - she did this like a professional - and added a card.
The postman got a surprise when he opened the mailbox. The newspaper boy was probably just a bit disappointed that it wasn't a fiver. The people at the cleaner's were bowled over, frankly. It was...unusual.
Then my mom would figure out what we should give my piano teacher. One year, it was a perspex bud vase shaped like a treble clef. Sounds tacky, but Miss Lundgren loved it.
Miss Lundgren was my window into the past. A well-organised, superintelligent visitor from the 19th Century, she not only taught me how to pronounce the word 'schön', and how to finger Bach and put the body-German on Schumann, but she told me stories of the past. Miss Lundgren's past was full of wonders: New York City as it was, growing up in an Irish neighbourhood where her friend David, the bookish Jewish kid, was nicknamed 'Murph' by the others, so he wouldn't feel left out. Where a popular song was 'Where do you work-a, John? On the Delaware Lackawann'. What do you do-a, John? I poosh, I poosh, I poosh...'
She taught me how the lace-curtain Irish kids played 'Paddy Fell Over the Dump. First, you all gather in the Parlour. (We didn't have a Parlour, we had a living room. I was jealous.) One child, probably the biggest, gets up and announces that he/she, probably she, is the great pianist So-and-So. With much bowing and fantastical gestures, the performer announces the song she will play. Then comes the careful placement of the piano bench, the tossing of imaginary tails from the evening coat, the cracking of knuckles, etc...
Then, with more flourishes, the performer plays, grandly, seven notes...the song known as 'Paddy Fell Over the Dump'. Much laughter and applause. Great kid's game, huh?
From then on, if something was a big fuss about nothing, I called it 'Paddy Fell Over the Dump'.
Miss Lundgren loved hot tea. I grew up drinking tea, every day - but it was iced tea. We didn't even know how to make hot tea. I was introduced to it one snowy day, which is why I was telling Elektra about it now, while we sat looking out the window at the white stuff lying on all the branches. I had to walk about half a mile to my teacher's house after school, and Miss Lundgren announced that I looked frozen and, while I got out of my coat and boots, she'd make us some tea.
The tea was a revelation - piping hot, favourful, even though it was just some orange pekoe from the grocery, as my teacher lived on a shoestring all her life. With it, she served saltines. 'But you have to butter them, honey dear,' she said.
I had no idea how to eat a 19th-Century buttered cracker, so this daughter of Sweden taught me. 'You butter the edges, then hold the cracker in the center between two fingers,' she explained. 'It's genteel.'
We were both pleased with the result. When I got home, I had a tale to tell about this passing on of ancient knowledge. My mom, whose best friends were always elderly ladies, was impressed.
So, this particular Christmas, my mother found a tea sampler - a little shelf with eight miniature tea boxes with different flavours of tea in them. When we - my mom, my sisters, and I - took the box to Miss Lundgren, she was overjoyed. This lady was always overjoyed. She knew how to express joy in a way that I have never known in another human being. To give her pleasure was to receive it back tenfold. (We took her to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony once. When they performed Beethoven's Fifth, she cried silent tears.)
Delight beamed from Miss Lundgren's round face, and her mild blue eyes sparkled through the bottle-thick glasses.
'We must try them.'
So each of us tried a cup of tea - as far as I know, my mother's first cup of 'hot tea', though I was a pro by now. And crackers. And conversation. A pleasure shared. And joy.
Miss Lundgren's gone to the galaxy now. So is my mother. But that little gift, which cost a couple of dollars and an hour of time, is still giving.
It gave me a moment of pure pleasure to share with Elektra. I hope it gives you something, too.
Happy Boxing Day, whenever you celebrate it.
Discuss this Journal entry [33]
Latest reply: Dec 26, 2010
Carolling, Carolling, Now We Go
Posted Dec 17, 2010
The Christmas season is upon us. That means, for many, the season for listening to more music than usual. Special kinds of music that evoke the space/time for us. (I don't use the word 'evoke' lightly, but here it is appropriate.)
Judging by what I hear on 'Christian' radio stations and in the mall, most of my fellow Americans find 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' evocative of the season. Which only proves what I suspected all along: We are living in different universes, they and I. Since they own almost all the bandwidth, I'm going to stake out my tiny corner here and offer a little concert of my own, courtesy of Youtube. Be warned: When I think of Christmas, I DON'T think of 'Jingle Bell Rock' or 'Merry Christmas, Baby'. I'm so retrograde, I even hate 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' and 'I'll Be Home for Christmas'.
Here are some favourites of mine:
For the reason for the season: 'Veni Emmanuel': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjUHjJ_frtg
For the original story, 'Child in a Manger': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgfmspwl3wc&feature=related
For another view, 'A Spaceman Came Travelling': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0q5EEm6iHA (Don't you just love Gregorian chant and Chris de Burgh together?)
For a bit of old-time Christmas feeling, 'Masters in This Hall': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN5OXyok4cE
Just because: Some William Billings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjg6p4y0qXc
Just for fun, a new take on the 'Hallelujah Chorus' (take that, you noisy Gregorian-chanting monks): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU&feature=related
Perhaps counterintuitively, Christmas for me is about that homesickness for the place we've never been before, so I'll end with 'I Vow to Thee, My Country':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTogpa6xnU4
Whatever your carolling or listening preferences, I wish you the joy of the season. May the sounds you love awaken memories, bring insights, and stir hope for a better future.
Kalo Christougenna and Craciun fericit,
DG
Discuss this Journal entry [95]
Latest reply: Dec 17, 2010
Wild Doings in Pittsburgh - Grisly Murder Scene in Haunted Hotel
Posted Dec 1, 2010
It can never be said that Pittsburgh area cops don't have a sense of humour.
When a fire broke out in the laundry room of the famous George Washington Hotel (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicv/vfiles8440.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv8440.php&usg=__rAsL5skZKcRX3cDKB_dbGPXhEQM=&h=544&w=374&sz=175&hl=en&start=0&sig2=RwENBHp2iV6__EVbcPMMfA&zoom=1&tbnid=C99gmbqFT0KfgM:&tbnh=152&tbnw=105&ei=XoT2TLr4I4H88AaNpfS_Bw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeorge%2BWashington%2BHotel%2BWashington%2BPA%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1436%26bih%3D699%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=406&oei=XoT2TLr4I4H88AaNpfS_Bw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=43&ty=84 ) last month, firefighters could have been forgiven for being more nervous than usual - after all, the hotel, which has hosted six US presidents and a lot of famous people since 1923 (http://www.thegeorgewashington.com/distinction.html ), has also seen a dozen deaths, and is generally assumed to be haunted. But what they found in Room 405 amounted to the most grisly murder scene Police Chief JR Blyth had encountered in 35 years of law enforcement. He called out detectives, and they went to work on what they said was a scene from a horror movie - 'blood on the floor, the mattress, the pillows, piece of a scalp with hair still attached in the center of the bed.'
It looked like a horror movie...because it was.
A couple of hours into the investigation, the owner of the hotel showed up. Er, haven't you seen that deathless work of art, the direct-to-DVD instant classic 'New Terminal Hotel' (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://iconsoffright.com/news/NewTerm-poster.jpg&imgrefurl=http://iconsoffright.com/news/2009/04/new_terminal_hotel_teaser_trai.html&usg=__nTYsF-jqcwNjESfXC7deGXOrvRM=&h=628&w=486&sz=212&hl=en&start=0&sig2=WeFGl3LLDHje05C0PtW95Q&zoom=1&tbnid=PmJVm59P5v0TSM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=123&ei=7YT2TKn2K4P48AaWmeG_Bw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNew%2BTerminal%2BHotel%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1436%26bih%3D699%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=411&vpy=165&dur=4875&hovh=255&hovw=197&tx=99&ty=162&oei=7YT2TKn2K4P48AaWmeG_Bw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0)?
It was partly filmed in Room 405 of the George Washington. The hotel owner had obliging left the room 'decorated' - for 18 months - just in case they needed to reshoot.
At first, Chief Blyth was mad, he said, because the misunderstanding had cost his department eight hours of police overtime. But then he laughed about it.
Pittsburghers know how to deal with horror...films, anyway, as George Romero's classic 'Night of the Living Dead' was filmed there back in the day. With the local weatherman, Chilly Billy Cardill, in there pitching, and using offal from a Pittsburgh butcher's.
The next time something goes bump in the night over at the George Washington, they'll probably just look around for the cameras.
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Discuss this Journal entry [21]
Latest reply: Dec 1, 2010
Can They Read This Anywhere? WikiLeaks and the Swedish Pirates
Posted Nov 27, 2010
It's time to talk like a 
, folks.
No, not that silly holiday that annoys Hypatia so much. We're talking about the free-speech pirates.
The Swedish Pirate Party stands for copyright reform, free speech, and privacy for individuals - but not governments. Hear, hear. They are also hosting servers (in underground nuke-proof bunkers) for WikiLeak, the international information marauders who function as a sort of Gutenberg Project for political secrets. The Swiss are planning to help out, possibly offering the founder asylum if the Aussies try to stop him, and the Icelanders are in there pitching with a bid to be the free speech capital of the world.
You can read about WikiLeak here (quoting the hated enemy, please forgive):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks
Everybody's going to be mad at WikiLeak this weekend. They're threatening to release a ton of documents that will allegedly ambarass a bunch of governments.
As an old friend of mine says, 'The best way is to tell everybody everything.' I agree. Their logo is attractive, too.
In the interest of neutral reporting here, I am linking to a very conservative, official source on the goings-on, the redoubtable Voice of America. (Note what they say about Julian Assange.)
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Clinton-Reaches-Out-to-Several-Countries-about-Wikileaks-110903729.html
Transparency is a good thing, in my opinion. While openness may lead to controversy, it's better to clear the air. After all, do you really trust the people in power to have your best interests at heart? Or do you agree with the alleged Marx quote, 'Trust is good, oversight is better'?@ Would world leaders behave better if they knew somebody was watching and listening?
I don't know yet who said what, to whom, about what, in these upcoming documents. Or whether the guys who said it were wearing secret decoder rings and giving the Illuminati handshake. I do know that I would be unfaithful to my tinfoil hat if I weren't interested.
This post probably can't be read in China, because the Great Firewall filters out the word WikiLeaks. Some other countries are thinking about doing the same thing. You might be surprised at who they are. One democracy uses a slightly different technique to discourage this kind of activity, according to a journalist named Asher Wolf:
http://mathaba.net/news/?x=625307
I'm not fond of the word 'blacklist', as it always makes me think of the HUAC.
This should be a fun weekend for those interested in getting at the facts - though not for the people on Damage Control duty, who will have to work overtime.
So. If they start a party where you are, will you say 'aye, matey', or merely 'aargh'?
@In German: 'Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser.'
Discuss this Journal entry [90]
Latest reply: Nov 27, 2010
Tour-Guiding the Distant Past - An Uplifting Sunday Reflection
Posted Nov 21, 2010
Since Mala's just back from sailing the ocean blue with the Vikings and a film crew - complete, she says, with cursing Gaelic narrator - and since we're doing nothing more exciting than eating lunch beside the computer, our thoughts over here turned to the first century and its use of boats.
As I said, I'm sitting next to a computer, so I started Barney Googling.
Hurrah, they found a first-century boat. In Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). Cool. They called it 'the Jesus boat'. That makes sense, at least from a PR standpoint.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/images/galilee/boat/boat-c-zyzy.jpg
According to the online information, a couple of Israelis were 'inspired' to recreate these boats. I imagine the need for a new tour-guide line is a good form of inspiration. They now have 7 boats - JOHN, MATTHEW, MARK, SIMON, NOAH, PAUL, and LUKE. (I want to go ride in the NOAH. I want to take a raven and a dove with me. And snacks.) They have engines for backup, but they soundproofed them so as not to drown out all the pilgrims praying.
This is utterly cool. Apparently, pilgrims from everywhere want to experience the boat Jesus used as a floating preaching platform once. Afterwards, the pilgrims get certificates. This is a very ancient practice: remember Canterbury? The local museum in Cologne had lots of tourist souvenirs from the 13th century. They sold them to pilgrims. I lie not. (Which would you rather take home, a statuette of St Laurence with his gridiron, or one of St Barbara with her tray of what Elektra naively assumed to be hot cross buns?)
I suspect the pilgrims have forgotten how dangerous it was to get into a boat with the Master. He tended to fall asleep, let a big storm come up, and then wake up and tell it to stop, because it was disturbing his nap. Alternatively, he refused to wait for the invention of water skis before venturing out on the surface on foot...
Anyhow, I'll bet the punters have a wonderful time out there. I know I would. They book tours - I'll give you the link in a minute - and demonstrate fishing techniques. I'm totally up for this.
I feel a kinship with these fergusons, and Mala will, too, as soon as I tell you the best bit of their explanation:
The museum site states: 'The boat is made of 12 different types of wood and measures 25.5 ft. (8.2 m) long, 7.5 ft. (2.3 m) wide, and 4.1 ft (1.25 m) high.' (I like these people, they saved me the metric madness.)
It goes on to tell us that the boat had a crew of five, and could carry 15 extra passengers. In case that surprises us, they add...
...wait for it...
People were smaller then.
My kind of tour guides.
Here's the boatmen's website:
http://www.jesusboats.com/jesus_boats.html
When you're tired of the North Sea, Mala, here's your next gig.
Discuss this Journal entry [71]
Latest reply: Nov 21, 2010
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