The huge swath of extreme ice and snow across the middle and east of the country killed several people and earned a level 3 snow emergency designation in Kentucky which meant that people would get arrested for being on a road in a vehicle. The storm made for beautiful scenery (see picture lifted from Dadvocate and others in his article) but it was enormously dangerous.

I can't figure out why last week's ice and snow emergency received so little media attention and public concern about how it was handled except that it was just a huge and bad storm and there's no one to blame for ineptitude. It seemed a little insensitive, though, for the President to joke about being shirtsleeve-warm in the Oval Office because he keeps the thermostat high, considering that so many areas were without power for a lot of the week, not to mention his urging everyone to turn our own thermostats way down. And although he's right that some districts are a bit wimpy and keep kids home from school for a mild dusting of snow, his suggestion that kids should be tougher and go to school in the snow (presumably uphill, barefoot and on ice, cf Bill Cosby) overlooked the fact that kids have no choice when snow emergencies are declared and that, in this instance, there was no power the whole week in the worst hit areas so obviously schools were closed. Perhaps, for once, all-news hysterically-presented-news-all-the-time-media should have covered the weather more.

Labels: media, weather

He's amazing, isn't he?! He's been at this composing and writing gig since the nineteen-fifties and he just keeps on performing and drawing enormous, enthusiastic crowds. As a reader pointed out, his renewed continued popularity means that some parents and children can bridge the generation gap (at least temporarily) because both of them think he's cool. How many musicians have managed that?!

Plus, on this current tour, he's donating all proceeds from concert merchandise to Hurricane Ike relief. Apparently 2008's Hurricane Ike was the 10th largest hurricane ever in the U.S. and it caused appalling damage, especially around Galveston. I'm not sure why so relatively little fuss was made about it but there's a lot to learn about it. Some details here and some really amazing photos here about Ike. (Just as a point of journalistic note, the hurricane is "Ike" and not "Ikea" which is what the CNN article called it yesterday - I wish I'd screenshot it so I could prove it.)

You'd think there'd have been lots more publicity about Ike (given Katrina) and more national pleas for assistance (given Katrina) but at least there's Neil Diamond and his merchandise proceeds.

Labels: music, people of note

I can hardly believe that it was so long ago although like Laura I can vividly see myself and what happened just after 11:40 a.m. e.s.t., 23 years ago today. I was waiting for the water to boil in the sunny kitchen of my law firm, preparing tea for my boss and myself, sitting at the white round table under the windows and leafing through a magazine. Suddenly my usually sanguine and cheerily upbeat boss (one of the partners) burst into the kitchen saying "no, no" and looking ashen - you don't often see people look as they describe them in novels so I was struck by his color. He more or less lunged for the radio on top of the refrigerator but all we heard was static. It was a small, family-esque place so we left the radio off most of the time in order not to annoy each other, having congenially concluded that silence was preferable to causing discomfort with musical choices we might not all enjoy (and, no, we weren't always that considerate of each other). He fiddled with the tuner and the antenna (how long is it since radios had tuners and antennas?) looking for a station without static. Finally one came in clearly and everything froze and nothing was the same for a long time. We listened to the commentator detail what had happened and I can still see that awful expression on his face while he stared out the window and looked at the bright blue sky that most of the eastern seaboard was enjoying that day.

It had been such an exciting morning. NASA was reclaiming our interest because of Christa McAuliffe's participation, and then it all became so ghastly. I suppose there's an event every decade or two that stuns and scars us and also somehow unites us. I wish we learned closeness, compassion and humanity by less violent and sad means, don't you?

Labels: anniversaries, events

I'm sorry to jump on this bandwagon (pun intended) but this is ridiculous. Washington was ga-ga with excitement and the parade participants had waited hours to do their thing. Why is a nod and a wave such a big deal? Call it military protocol if they want but it's really just plain impersonal and unfeeling.

Labels: madness

According to a CNN bulletin, John Updike died today. He was incredibly prolific and a wonderful writer, deemed good by literary types as well as "lay" readers (for want of a better word). And I didn't know this but he "appeared as an animated version of himself on a 'Simpsons' episode as the ghostwriter of a Krusty the Klown book" which demonstrates the sense of humor he had about himself and the seriousness with which he was taken. I heard an interview with him which was striking in the same regard. Maybe I'll reread the somewhat depressing but also wonderful Rabbit series or Gertrude and Claudius which I always meant to read. . . .

Updates - Obituaries: New York Times and L.A. Times plus long interesting article/analysis.

Labels: people of note, writing

There are many time wasters available online, many of them excuses for driving yourself utterly mad. Facebook has Twirl, Scramble, Tetris (a pretty good version, actually) and several word and/or letter games, among others. But now there's this, thanks (or not) to normblog. The record is around 19 seconds, amazingly. When I first posted this, I'd managed just shy of 5 but I'm determined to get higher eventually. (Update - I'm up to 9.36 12.984 seconds!)

Labels: games, madness

The birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is today, according to generally accepted rules of calendar conversion. Talk about prolific -- he wrote over six hundred compositions, beginning at five years old -- and 6,160 recordings of his are available at ArkivMusic. I've always wondered what it must have been like for his parents and older sister one Sunday when they returned from hearing a Bach cantata and their little boy proceeded to work it out on the clavier during the course of the afternoon, perfectly. Papa (Leopold) stopped his own composing when he realized what an astonishing son he had and unfortunately for Wolfgang channeled all his energy into teaching his son and being the original little league taskmaster parent (although I suppose that was fortunate for the rest of us, come to think of it). When Mozart was 13, his father took him on a two-year tour of Italy to establish his reputation. Thereafter, he was highly regarded but often, despite some enormous success, in penurious circumstances. He died at a mere 35 years of age although my father, who wrote a biography of Mozart years ago, believed that in fact Mozart died of old age, packing two or three years of life and experience into each twelve months. A lovely theory which perhaps explains the amazing quantity and quality of his work.

Labels: anniversaries, music, people of note

I finally caught up with this season's three Damages episodes. I think I was avoiding them a bit because I was apprehensive that they wouldn't be as good as last season's. Tough to live up to the best-written and best-plotted t.v. show ever, after all (IMDb's demanding viewers rated it 8.9 out of 10, for goodness sake). And I promise not to say anything specific enough to spoil anything for anyone who isn't' all caught up.

Anyway, there is a small amount of blush off the rose, to borrow and modify a cliché, in that the moving around in time is familiar and easier to follow now that we know how they use the tactic, but they're succeeding (so far, anyway) in keeping the tension and puzzles spinning. Darned impressive. Several new characters, all smarmy and weird in that slick and successful but scary way. And several of the young men continue to look enough like each other that it's hard to know who did or didn't do things and/or who is or isn't dead, and so on. And here's an important question: will be slightly unresolved questions from last season be resolved this season (e.g., Gregory, David, etc.) or are they just to remain unsolved for all eternity?

It's interesting to note that IMDb has placeholders for a full season three. Dare we hope that means they're already plotting/writing one more season?! I don't know if it could hold up beyond that but it would be great to have three.

Labels: tv, writing

It's always seemed to me that the wisest course of awareness and opinion-forming is to listen to everything you can possibly handle and then ponder and weigh it all. Therefore I was unsettled when I heard a news item in which Obama advises people not to listen to Rush Limbaugh. It seems foolish to me to assume he has such a level of importance, for one thing. And to be honest, I can't stand listening to Limbaugh because his tone of voice and his words are so fist-poundingly adamant. Reading him isn't quite as unpleasant but I find him difficult to take in any form. Neveretheless, I am very uncomfortable with anyone advising me to listen or not to listen to anyone with opinions even if the advising person is our newly elected president.

I know I'm skittish about being told what to read or listen to because I was raised by an academic who tried to control my reading material at every turn, even to the extent of banning Nancy Drew because the novels were not well enough written ("trash" was the word my father used) and he wanted my reading teeth to be cut on more literary tomes. The result of his efforts was that for a while I sought and read only so-called trash, of course.

That aside, my sense is that it's far better to get input from various horses' mouths - no matter how disagreeable and no matter how probable that one's opinions will not change - than to be strong-armed by others even if they have our best interests at heart and even when they are correct about some opinions being wrong. In that regard, Fresh Bilge cited this article, one that is certainly one-sided, but better to read than not know about. Attempts at thought control, even by people one generally agrees with, alarm me.

Labels: ideas, politics

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but at the beginning of the month, when Caroline Kennedy was first being mentioned as Hillary's replacement as the junior senator from NYS, I suggested Kerstin Gillibrand:



Maybe Paterson reads blogs! :)

Gillibrand is well educated AND mother AND career-woman AND attractive AND thoughtful AND a good politican. Possibly a boon to both the Senate and to the country.

More power to her! And hurray for New York State - the whole state.

Labels: politics, women

What a day, indeed. Birthday of A.A.Milne, creator of the magnificent Winne the Pooh (he who descended the stairs, thump, thump, thump, on account of The Bear in his hand). And birthday of the glorious Cary Grant who is, as they say, easy on the eyes, but also brilliant at presenting the people he inhabited.

Labels: anniversaries, people of note

Among other things that make America amazing is how we change governments. When the presidency changes every four or eight years, and particularly when it changes parties and ideologies, no blood is shed, no bullets are shot, no riots occur. It's astonishing and wonderful.

I love that our country is a living and healthy organism that can have moved from the cruelty and stupidity of slavery to electing a black man president. I love that something as old-fashioned as a train ride between two east coast cities excites people. I have to say that I hate that Obama sometimes sounds like a grindingly ordinary politician but perhaps he'd never have achieved the presidency if he didn't walk some of the walk that many seem to recognize and like.

I hope Obama succeeds in keeping himself fee of the glue of typical politics and politicians. If he accomplishes merely that, he will earn enormous respect. And if, further, he rallies citizens' and cities' and states' positive energies and actions, his will be a superb administration.

Labels: america, politics

It was incredible. The plane looked very small once it was surrounded by tugboats and ferries, but its eight tons were glided to stop on a not-quite-frozen Hudson and everyone survived. In this photo, doesn't it look as if everyone not only survived but managed to walk (well, stand) on water? I bet they think Chesley Sullenburger actually does.

Update: Good summary of the facts and decisions here.

Labels: feats

Another power day. Course, it's also the Ides of January so I suppose that's to be expected. Nevertheless, today's honorees are an astonishing lot:

both Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph, Gamel Nasser, Aristotle Onassis and Edward Teller
and an assortment of other amazing people: Molière, Lermontov, Adler (he of Freud, Jung and Adler fame), and the wonderful (for various reasons) Maria Schell, Gene Kruppa, Ed Asner, Thomas Hoving, Lloyd Bridges, Daniel Pinkwater, Margaret O'Brien, Norm Crosby and Jonny Lee Miller. And Charo!

Felicitations to them all.

Labels: anniversaries, people of note

Another surprising read. This woman used to be one of those people whose very name, let alone her prose, made my hair go all over staticky and wild, standing right on end. She was so aggressive and pissed off at the world that she made me crazy. On the other hand, I devoured her first book and was struck by the originality of her thinking and her writing. Perchance it was her staccato delivery and breathlessly self-centered interviewee persona that turned me off? Whatever it was, however, she's now one of those writers with whom one often disagrees - and it's a piece of cake to know what she thinks about anything - but from whom one learns how even disagreeable ideas can be stated in ways that make them sound interesting and good to know about. Her column at Salon was an inspired idea and kudos to them for making it a weekly event. More to the point at the moment, read today's.

Labels: personalities, writing

Who'd have thought MSNBC would have the first piece I enjoyed reading on America Idol this year?

Labels: A.I.2009, music, tv

Just heard Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld extolling the tremendous value and efficacy of various spices such as cumin, cardamon, garlic, cinnamon and several others. How refreshing to hear a mainstream doctor acknowledge spices' anti-inflammatory and even anti-cancer properties.

Labels: health, tv

Seems that Facebook is the up-and-coming internet and social "it" thing. You can interact or just throw yourself out there all by yourself. Perfect for the modern world, eh?

Recently, many people I know put up their own pages and even more are talking about it. Some like it for professional contact and some for social interaction. After hearing an astonishing variety of people talking about it, I've concluded that it's taking over blogging as the keyboard thing to do. One highly placed tech friend was even asked to put up a Facebook page by his manager, with the idea that the company would thereby have a Facebook presence, something the manager considered important. It seems many people get ideas about companies by evaluating Facebook groups. Fascinating. I'd worry somewhat, though, because posting is so easy and feels so personal that you risk having put something up that you won't want out there, way in the future. Old things have a way of coming back to blow people's chances for public respect out of the water especially in this global village that's getting more global and more village-y. I mean, imagine today you post a wild and crazy photo or write something wild and crazy on your wall and twenty years from now you run for a seat on your town council and someone says wait you said . . . . It's hard to be restrained and careful when something is so relaxed and easygoing. On the other hand, maybe the world is changing enough that it won't matter.

My own problem is silly. I like to play Twirl and Pathwords - word games - but it's baffling to figure out what are "acceptable" words. One of my friends and I have been comparing words Twirl takes and/or doesn't take. At first we thought it was the same as the Outlook dictionary but it's stranger than that. It accepts typical crossword words like nee ("formerly known as"), for example, but rejects equally typical ones like oder (a person who writes odes). It takes sic ("as written") but doesn't take turbo (not even necessary to define it). It takes nth (as in to the nth degree) and meg (nickname for margaret? for megabyte?) and ump (nickname for umpire?) but rejects parer (a paring knife) and grump (hardly obscure). It takes some proper nouns but not others: bali but not rome. I could go on and on. On the other what-it-takes side, Pathwords allows millions of combos that don't seem like words at all although I suppose they must just be very obscure. And Pathwords doesn't let you do anything from the keyboard which cuts down on speed something fierce. Also, letters are all the same point value so you don't' get more points for cleverly grabbing "lox" rather than for "lot" or "quiz" instead of "suit".

Too much time on my hands, you say? Nah.

Labels: facebook, games

Yes, space.  Thanks to Alan for a link to Space Weather which is such an interesting site that it will surely detract from all of us otherwise fascinating bloggers.

Labels: blogs (others'), weather

Quite a day for births today - some very powerful, creative, influential people were born on this day:

Mary Queen of Scots, Carl Rogers, Robert Schumann, David Bowie, Stephen Hawking and Elvis Presley

Not to mention Wilkie Collins, Camille Claudel, Frank Dyson, Carl Hempel, José Ferrer, Lee J. Cobb, Gus Hall, Walter Lord, Gerry Spence, Yvette Mimieux, R.L. Stine, Gordon Ramsay, Dave Eggers and Tara Reid.

I guess if we had the ability and if it were ethical or even a good idea to select a child's birthdate, this would be one to consider.

Labels: anniversaries, people of note

I am baffled at the events of the government - federal and a couple of states - in the last few days.

• Hillary Clinton was sworn into the Senate even though everyone knows she won't be serving as the junior senator from New York on account of her move to the Department of State. I understand that she's actually still a senator and that becoming secretary of state must be approved by Congress before she can take on that role. Of course, Congress that must approve it includes the Senate into which she was just sworn. ( See what I mean?)
  
• Burris was barred and then admitted and sworn in as one of Illinois' senators but Reid says he's only allowing the admittance to "my chambers" reluctantly. Who made them his chambers?? And how did Reid become the arbiter of all things senatorial? And why wasn't a special election held to fill Obama's vacant senate seat?
  
• Franken/Smalley was declared the winner in Minnesota's senate race even though more votes were tallied than people who were registered to vote. And, yes, unsurprisingly, another recount is planned and Franken has resisted moving lock stock and barrel to the senate floor but why on earth was he certified with that kind of imbalance without another and more reliable recount?
• Much like Garbo, Caroline Kennedy spoke. She who apparently thought the New York senate seat was hers for the taking if she wanted it. But she was so inane and snotty that Andrew Cuomo has emerged as the front-runner for Hillary Clinton's U.S. senate seat even though he was badly drubbed in the last state election and has hardly any fans or at least none who will say so publicly. Proving one againI suppose, that unqualified women are even less popular with voters than unpleasant political hacks. And why isn't a special election being scheduled to fill Hillary's probably-soon-vacant senate seat?  (And why doesn't Paterson just appoint Kerstin Gillibrand - a Democratic, a woman, someone from so-called upstate instead of yet another person from NYC, someone who had lots of enthusiastic support and who has experience (two terms) plus proven ability to win elections?)

Anyway, I can't help wondering what the heck has been going on with voter ballots in this country -- remember hanging chads? How did the U.S. come to seem more seventh world than the supposed leader of freedom and democracy?? They can manage a fairly straightforward election in Iraq, inky fingers and all, but we have elections with more votes than voters??!

Please tell me how one voter - me, you, anyone - is supposed to have faith in the system and feel that our one vote has any bearing on anything? Sometimes it all seems enough to make a person wonder whether we should pay much attention or even bother to vote.

Labels: 2009, politics

Yesterday morning (January 3rd) I was awakened around 5:30 by the loudest cackling and screeching crows I've ever heard except in wide-open country fields. I have no indea what happened or what was going on but it wasn't just that it was dawn on account of there's a dawn every day. I suppose they might have been celebrating New Year's a couple of days late (ha ha). I read more about them here and here and here and learned tons of interesting things but haven't figured yesterday's early morning rabble-rousing out yet.

Labels: curiosities, weather