Well, yes, I suppose it is kind of shallow, at that.

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Pat Greene

Part of the problem with being on painkillers is that it shuts down the part of the brain capable of making complicated arguments.  I can do some of it, but not nearly as well as I would like.  Foregoing the drugs does not help all that much either: when I am in pain the only thing I tend to think about is, well, pain.

So I need a project.  One that can be done lying in bed, preferably: sitting at the table hurts, after a relatively short while. Working on the computer is slow –I do not have a proper bed support, and therefore tend to do all my writing with one hand.  (The Rocket Scientist is a two-finger typist; I don’t know how he stands it.  Not being able to type more than ten words a minute is driving me even crazier than I am by the bed rest.)

So I am recategorizing my blog posts.  I never used categories and tags before moving to WordPress, although I am not sure why.  So I set up a group of tags and categories, which I list in the tag an category clouds on the side.  I kind of like the differing sizes of the tags — although the fact that “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me” is one of my top tags concerns me a bit.

Unfortunately, WordPress assigned the “nothing special” category to all the posts I had written before moving the blog.  If you look at the category cloud, it sticks out like a sore thumb, swamping everything else.  This annoys me:  for one thing, it looks like I never assign importance to anything I write, but more importantly, it is aesthetically unbalanced.

So I am hoping to get enough of the older posts recategorized that some of the categories actually look larger than the others.  I am being careful how I assign categories and tags, but I am trying to categorize as many as possible.  At some point, “nothing special” should decease in size and some of the others grow.

It’s really a trivial thing, but it does bother me.

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Another endangered species: scientific research in America.

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Pat Greene

Sadly, the Western Black Rhino has been declared extinct, and other species of rhino may  be close behind them.

On the other hand…

Scientists have discovered a new species of hammerhead shark in Carolina.  And a new species of “walking shark” in Indonesia. A new species of dinosaur in Utah. A new species of daisy in the Andes. And they have captured footage of ultra-rare cats in Borneo.  Between 2010 and 2013, hundreds of species have been found in the Amazon rainforest.

Scientist have even discovered a new body part: a knee ligament, called the anterolateral ligament (ALL), which 97% of people have.

Our knowledge of the world around us changes every day, with an often bewildering speed.  It’s amazing, and cool.

True, many of those species discovered in the rainforest and elsewhere are themselves endangered or threatened — in many cases because of potential habitat destruction or climate change.  Still, they’re there, and we didn’t know about them until recently.  (My favorite may be the purring monkey.  Yes, it’s specieist, but really, a new primate? Wow.)  This provides us with even more incentive to save habitat in South America and elsewhere.

It also gives us incentives to protect funding for research.  While very interesting, I doubt that the discovery of those species will provide a financial boon to any one.  So why should people fund the research?

So much research is based on helping us understand the universe around us.  Good grief, that is most of what NASA does, or why else would we send rovers to Mars? Finding new species doesn’t save lives; space research  doesn’t help the economy.  But they do increase knowledge, which is a good thing.

Except we, as a country, are increasingly loathe to pay for it.  Even biomedical research, which can help save lives, is being devastated by cuts in funding caused by the budget sequester. Research that could  eventually lead to new treatments for a range of diseases from diabetes to cancer  is struggling to find money, with the risk that work that has taken years might have to be abandoned.

Science takes time.  The short-term view so often adopted by our elected officials and the private sector is at odds with the requirement of research. The Rocket Scientist observed to me once that sequestration was endangering work he had spent the last ten years of his life on.

It is not just the research itself.  Creating the environments — labs, research sites — in itself can take years.  The development of analogue sites for space research, for example, takes more time than most people realized, and these sites have to be maintained.  Money has been sunk — a lot of it — into labs and equipment, money that would be for naught if the experiments that were supposed to be done have to be shuttered.

When the government shut down in October, there was a strong possibility that the field season for Antarctic research would be canceled.  McMurdo Station was sent into caretaker mode.  Even after the shutdown was reversed, there were experiments that had to be scrubbed because of the lost time.   Experiments that had been planned far in advance, sometimes by years.

The effects will last for years to come.  Nor is it limited to the projects themselves: America’s capacity to do research in the future is threatened. Why would anyone spend years of their lives getting a Ph.D. when there is little chance for them to get work? Why would anyone pursue difficult field work — such as that done in Antarctica — when the fate of their projects lies in the hands of a completely dysfunctional political body?

It is not like Congress is alone in their scientific ignorance, though.  A few years ago, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana made fun of the U.S. volcano monitoring program, labeling it as wasteful spending.  Because, of course, no one in America is ever affected by volcanoes — unless you count all the people living in the shadow of active volcanoes, or the people who take flights which cross over volcanoes.  In 1989, a KLM flight  going over Mt. Redoubt in Alaska had all four engines quit — causing the plane to drop two miles before the crew could get them restarted. Over the past few years, eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes have caused occasionally significant disruptions to air travel.

As a country, we need to recognize the need for and potential benefit from basic research.  Because if we don’t pay for it, who will?

There is knowledge out there to be gained.

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More random thoughts about The Voice’s first live performances.

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Pat Greene

I’ve been rewatching the live performances on YouTube.  Some thoughts:

Watching James Wolpert’s  “A Case of You,” by far the best performance by any artist in the live round (and completely surprising given that his previous songs were all uptempo rock), really makes me want to see him cover something by Tracy Chapman.  It’s not only a matter of vocal chops, but also the ability to convey emotion.  His performance was so… intimate, like he was actually singing to a person. Wow. Apparently he used to be in an a cappella group in college, which would explain his vocal control. (I am so glad Adam kept him in spite of his meltdown in the knockout rounds.)

I loved Nic Hawk — I find his exuberance and out-there persona endearing — but seeing him perform “Blurred Lines” just reminds me how much I hate, hate, hate that song. I’m sad he’s not going further as he was the most interesting performer in the competition, but he is also not everybody’s cup of tea, and the coaches want to win. I think he will land on his feet, though.

Likewise, I would be surprised if Shelbie Z., who for some inexplicable reason neither America nor Blake Shelton saw fit to keep around, did not end up with a country deal somewhere.  Her version of “Fancy” was scorching.  (Maybe not the best choice — I would have loved to see what she could do with Miranda Lambert’s “Baggage Claim.”)  I guess that unlike previous seasons country singers are not highly regarded, as there are no more female country singers in the competition and arguably only one male (Ray Boudreaux), and him really more blues than country.

Team Blake and Team Adam are stronger than Team Cee Lo and Team Christina. Especially Team Adam: any three of his performers could have gone very far.  I am happy with who ended going forward, though — I like Preston Pohl, but I think Will Champlain is more versatile. And Tessanne Chin is amazing.

The annoying thing about the results show is how bloated it seems.  They could not have done this in half an hour?

Why in the world did America save Johnny Gray? Is it because of the hair? Either of the eliminated singers on Team Cee Lo would have been better choices.  Of course, America is not picking blind — and “stage presence” — what the hell does that even  mean? — apparently matters more than simple singing ability. (Except Nic Hawk, who apparently had too much stage presence.

I am so tired of child prodigies on this show.  Last year it was won by a sixteen year-old, and this year there are several sixteen or seventeen year olds moving forward.  It’s not that sixteen year olds can’t sing, it’s that they have such limited life experience.  When Jacquie Lee sings “I Put a Spell On You,” there is something that does not ring quite true, as much as she emotes.

Clearly, when they figure out who to save, the coaches look at past performances in making selections.  Christina saved Josh Logan over Stephanie Ann Johnson, who had a much better performance this week, but who has struggled in previous weeks.  Which is a shame, as Stephanie is the more interesting performer.

What is it with woman using only first names? Shelbie Z. and Grey, you’re not Cher.  Or Madonna.  You have last names, use them.

The coaches have been more incoherent in their comments this season than last.  And I like Cee Lo, but I miss Usher.

Oh, well.  From here on out, it is completely up to the voting public.  Which may mean whoever wins will be technically expert but kind of boring (as I found Danielle Bradbery last season — who was, incidentally only sixteen).

 

Posted in Culture (popular and otherwise) | Leave a comment

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Pat Greene

Tom Cruise is an idiot.

Recently, Cruise equated acting to being a soldier in Afghanistan.  His comment was in the context of a deposition against media outlets. He was commenting upon his inability to see his daughter Suri while shooting.  “At least on this last movie, that’s what it felt like.  It was brutal.”

Clearly Cruise has never been a soldier.  Furthermore, it is also clear that he does not have any family or friends in the armed forces.  I would go so far as to say that he does not read the paper.

Acting as rough as fighting? Only if..

He had to worry about IEDs taking off a limb.

He had to watch a friend and colleague take a bullet in the head, when they are trying to go after insurgents hiding among villagers.

He has to worry about his family at home: whether his pay ($35K for a staff sergeant with 6 years experience) will be enough to cover the mortgage. (Cruise can get $25 million per film.)

He has to come home and struggle PTSD.

He has to worry every day about the possibility of being seriously injured or killed.

I’m sorry that he was unable to see his daughter  for a hundred days.  Contrast that with the average Army deployment of an entire year.

Cruise has made millions from his films.  If he really wanted to be in his daughter’s life, he has more than enough assets to take a few years off. Many actresses do just that.

For Cruise to compare his acting career of that of a soldier shows an amazing lack of understanding of what real people go through.  It is an affront to our troops.

The problem is, I am convinced that Cruise is only an extreme example of a very real phenomenon: people who underestimate the difficulty of being a soldier.  People who pay lip service to the military’s sacrifice, but who are willing to turn to military solutions to international problems at the drop of a hat.

I think that no one should urge war on the country that has not themselves served in active combat.  You should know what it is that you are asking of young men and women.

I have always said that the best way to honor the troops is to not send them into quagmires unnecessarily in the first place, as well as take care of their families both while they are deployed, and after they get home.

The first step, however, is not to equate creating entertainment with risking life and limb every day at the command of the government.

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Hello, Kitty is not historically accurate. Who knew.

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Pat Greene

I love driving my kids crazy, sometimes.

For those of you are unfamiliar with the concept, LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) involves running around the woods (or the local park, depending upon your access to a car), usually waving fake weapons.  Railfan and The Red-Headed Menace are heavily into LARPing: there is no age limit (the guy who runs the local LARP they most often frequent is 30) and it is good exercise, running around in the fresh air.  It was  also the source of the best practical joke in our family in a long time.

It started innocuously enough.  Railfan was repairing LARP weapons (fake swords, flails and other apparatus made of PVC pipe, pool noodles, and duct tape), and requested that I buy duct tape.  “What color? Black, blue, red?” I asked.

“Mom, if you’re buying I don’t care.”

“Zebra stripes?”

Railfan cracked up.  “Neon pink?”

At this point the Resident Shrink broke in, “Hello, Kitty.”

All of us snickered hysterically.  I duly went out and bought Hello Kitty duct tape.  A week later, I sprung.

“Here’s the duct-tape you requested,” I told Railfan, who passed it along to his brother.

The Red-Headed Menace at first simply gave his “SRSLY?” look.  Then he started getting more and more wound up, giving us all sorts of arguments as to why “Hello Kitty” duct tape was just wrong.

“Mom, they didn’t have Hello Kitty in the Middle Ages!”(He conveniently ignored the fact that they did not have pvc pipe, pool noodles, and duct tape in the Middle Ages, either.)  This argument elicited howls of laughter from the peanut gallery.

“But they had cats,” I observed.

“But those were demonic cats…”

“I don’t know, I’ve always thought of Hello Kitty as pretty demonic…”

As I said, I just love driving my kids crazy. They’re so amusing.

Posted in Kids in all their glory | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Voice.

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Pat Greene

[Note: I was writing this while the selections in the first live round were being announced, so that’s why there are asides about the selections.]

I have gotten hooked on The Voice.  For people unfamiliar with the show, it is a singing reality competition show in which the initial selections are made by judges who cannot see the singers, who are going solely on how the contestants sound.  It’s a great gimmick.

It’s not perfect, of course.  After the first two rounds, the viewing public takes over selecting who goes forward.  Sometimes the selections are disappointing.  My favorite performer from last season, Caroline Glaser, was eliminated in the first live round.  She has landed on her feet: she is starting a national tour opening for Straight No Chaser, who is a wonderful group with a loyal following.  My only unhappiness at this is that she was not touring with them when I saw them in August.  My other favorites, Michelle Chamuel and the Swon Brothers, finished second and third, respectively.

The contestants do not perform original music: they cover songs ranging from standards to top-forty.  In a few cases, I prefer  their cover versions to the originals. Caroline Glaser’s cover of “The A Team” is on my iTunes rotation, not Ed Sheeran’s original.  The same is true for Michelle Chamuel’s versions of  Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” and Cindi Lauper’s “Time After Time,”  or the Swon Brothers’ cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.”  This season, I’ve already put James Wolpert’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” and Stephanie Anne Johnson’s  “Georgia On My Mind” into play.

As far as I can tell, the quality of the contestants is higher this season than last.  Watching the first live rounds, for three of the teams it will be a difficult choice for the judges to figure out whom to pick to save after the public picks two. (Looking at the public picks for Team Blake, they opted to keep the two weakest performers.  They ignored the large woman with the diva attitude and the amazing voice, and the remarkable and quirky former dancer. And that was the team where I thought it was obvious who should be moving on.)

The public is usually “safe” in their picks. They often do not go for unusual or interesting, Michelle Chamuel’s success last season notwithstanding. They often pick the weakest singers. (Of course, just as I wrote that America saved a young woman on Team Cee Lo with a voice that is somewhere between a bird and a rasp.  I love her, and expected her to be gone.  Of course, their other pick was a rather uninspiring rocker. He does have great hair, though.) Last season, in response to a public vote that he clearly disagreed with, Adam Levine commented in frustration “I hate this country,” a remark which got him into quite a bit of hot water.  (I understood and agreed with the underlying sentiment — that the voting public was being idiotic — if not how he put it.)

My biggest gripe this season is with the coaches: Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine.  They compliment too much: every singer seems to be the one who can win it all.  Levine seems to be the most willing to give actual criticism, albeit very nicely.  I wish their comments were not so empty: if nothing else, it gives the public no guidance in how to vote. It is not always easy for non musicians to identify if a singer is sharp, for example. Last season, they were more critical.

My other gripe is the tendency of singers to embellish relatively simple songs with unnecessary stylings.  Contestants — too often with their coach’s blessing — add runs and vibrato that detract and distract from the quality of the song. It’s annoying as hell. It is harder to sing a song simply and well, when the melody is not covered up.

Adam has the best team this season.  I am pulling for James Wolpert, who left his job at the Apple store to be on the show.  After his performance in the first live round, Blake Shelton exclaimed “You can’t be a geek and be that awesome!” Of course you can, Blake.  Geeks rule. (Remember the uber-geeky Michelle Chamuel?) But he also has four others, any of whom would be respectable choices. (Yay! America saved James!)

I am pretty happy with the people moving forward for Team Adam and Team Christina; the other two teams less so.  I can hardly wait for next week.

Posted in Culture (popular and otherwise) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Random thoughts.

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Pat Greene

I realize that my posts the past few days have been rambling and somewhat incoherent — certainly not my best work.  (See previous post on things I am thankful for: hydrocodone.)  Writing does give me something other than watching television and sleeping to do: I can’t drive anywhere, partly because of the hydrocodone but also because I need help getting into and out of the van.

Right this second, in spite of my ribs hurting, I feel content. I feel as though there is, oddly, hope in the world.  Washington is dysfunctional, there is war in pockets all over the globe, the Middle East is imploding…

And people go about their lives. I am blessed — or fortunate, depending upon your theological point of view: I have a roof over my head, I have food, or at least the means to get food, I have a family who loves me, when I get better I have work.  There are a lot of people in this world who have to make do with a lot less.

Maybe that is the secret to happiness: not to ruminate on the ways in which your life has fallen short of your expectations, but marveling at the ways in which your life works. None of us get out of this world alive; unless you are Albert Einstein or Albert Schweitzer your name will be a footnote soon enough.  For most of us, the lives we live will have only a short impact on history, if that.

And that is okay.  It has to be okay.  We live in a society which almost inculcates envy and dissatisfaction in its members. What have you done lately? You create a “killer app,” you start a company which goes public… you are someone. You work as a clerk in a grocery store, you don’t matter.

The someones forget about how much they owe to just plain folks.  Balaji S. Srinivasan, a biotech guru, has called for Silicon Valley to secede from the rest of the country. Larry Page, head of Google, has, according to a story in The Australian about Srinivasan’s proposal, “has called for “part of the world” to be set aside, free from regulations that might outlaw certain technological experiments.”

So, Mr. Srinivasan, how are you going to take care of all the people who have to commute for an hour just to get into the Valley, because they have been priced out of housing here? Are you going to want a living wage for these people, or are you going to trot out a justification based on “market forces” for treating them like dirt under your feet?  I have a son who wants to move back east, because he cannot make enough money to afford to leave home if he stays in this area. You only have to follow what has happened in the real estate market from San Francisco to San Jose to see neighborhoods being gentrified into homogeneity.

During the most recent BART strike, you heard people who in many cases make a lot of money whining because people who make less than them wanted more. Workers who had made concessions when times were bad were vilified when they asked to be compensated accordingly when times got better.

Those regulations that Mr. Page wants to do away with protect people.  Regulations arise for a reason: if anything, the urge to deregulate in this country (either directly or by underfunding regulatory agencies so that they cannot perform their functions well) do more harm to most people than good.  Not to Page, of course, or Srinivasan, or any of the other one per centers — or even ten per centers — that run the Valley.

The mother of two who has to work three jobs to make ends meet is as deserving of respect as Balaji Srinivisan.  The McDonald’s fry cook, who struggles to pay rent for a bed in the living room in a two-bedroom apartment he shares with four other people in Mountain View has needs as worthy as those faced by Google or its CEO.

During the downturn, Wall Street and Main Street were seen as enemies.  Silicon Valley is not Main Street’s friend either.

Posted in Social Issues, Who I am | Tagged | Leave a comment

Twenty Things I’m Grateful For.

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Pat Greene

In no particular order:

Good insurance, which means that that little fall I took on Sunday is not going to cost me thousands of dollars in ER and doctor fees.

My doctor of 20 years, who completely and totally rocks.

Hydrocodone.

Cable.  So I have something to do when I have consumed hydrocone.

Cutthroat Kitchen and The Voice.

That the government is back up and functioning, for some value of functioning.

New music — new to me, at least — from OneRepublic, Pink, The Band Perry, and Ed Sheeran.

My new to me iPhone 4.

My coworker who dropped me a line to tell me people miss me.

California weather.

Coffee.

That fall is well under way, and we’re heading into winter.

Hot showers.

Chocolate pudding.

The color of the sky at sunset.

Sleep.

My friends.

My family, particularly the Rocket Scientist, who is doing a good job taking care of me.

Love.

Life.

Posted in My life and times | Tagged | Leave a comment

Twenty things I worry about.

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Pat Greene

In no particular order:

That the bruise on my knee is getting larger.  And darker.

That the Affordable Care Act website glitches will make it difficult or impossible for people to sign up by December 15, meaning that vulnerable people will face a potential lapse in coverage.

That the Republican’s tactics in stalling Obama’s appointments to the federal judiciary will be successful in maintaing a federal judiciary willing to undermine women’s rights, among other things.

That my computer is getting slower and making ominous sounds occasionally.

That the Red-Headed Menace’s SAT scores are not online yet.

That the kid will have a nervous breakdown before all the college apps are in.

That I will have a nervous breakdown before all the college apps are in.

That no one is doing a good job explaining to people whose insurance plans are dropped that in many cases those plans were “junk insurance,” where people were paying premiums that really were not offering them much in the way in coverage.

That I will never make an impact on the world.

That my cat has gingivitis (I need to take her to the vet).

That my friend who has been sent to jail will not be safe.

That my injured leg will prevent me from taking on the contract job I have signed up for.

That my injured leg will impact my ability to make a proper Thanksgiving dinner.

That the NSA is spying on everybody.  (Not that anything I do is likely to be of  interest.) Nothing is perfect in this world; it is inevitable that people will be unfairly charged with various crimes based on information obtained in data sweeps.

That the “recovery” will not actually help people seeking work.  I have heard economists talk about the “jobless recovery,” and it upsets me.  If the only people benefiting are the one per cent, it is not a recovery, just the rich getting richer.

That affordable housing will disappear in Mountain View, reducing the wonderful diversity in the city.

That the developments going up on San Antonio Road will make traffic untenable in the mornings.  Or in the evenings.  Or just in general.

That the developers will succeed in driving out the Milk Pail Market, one of the cutest and most authentic place to shop in the city.

That the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

And, finally, what am I going to make for dinner?

Okay, so that last one is going to go away soon, but it reoccurs frequently…

What do you worry about?

Posted in Miscellany, My life and times | 1 Comment

Art isn’t easy. Especially when it was stolen.

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Pat Greene

It seems that story of the art found last year in the Munich flat is not going to be straightforward.

This art trove, consisting of painting designated “degenerate” by the Nazis, contained pieces by giants of twentieth century art such as Otto Dix and Marc Chagall. The individual holding the paintings was the son of a dealer who obtained quite a bit of art while the Nazis were in power but who died shortly after the war.  When families of Holocaust victims approached his widow in the 1966, she told them that his entire collection was destroyed in a fire.

The German authorities are keeping everything close to their vests, releasing information about only a few of the artworks discovered. Their expert crowed that these were museum worthy pieces.  You have to wonder how much that plays into their reluctance to allow potential claimants to have information about what was recovered. The authorities are citing privacy concerns and the difficulty establishing provenance of the works.

Survivors of the Holocaust and their families have been searching for art that was confiscated or sold for very little under coercion by the Nazis ever since the end of the war.  Undoubtedly, some of the pieces recovered in 2012 will prove to belong to those families. 

The issue of provenance of looted art is often labyrinthine, and not only in the cases of art looted by the Nazis. Issues around museum holdings of antiquities have been problematic for years, with Western museums being forced to return treasures to their  country of origin.  Art is part of the cultural landscape of a country, part of its identity.

So it is with families as well. Art is usually handed down from generation to generation, with pieces being links to their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.  It is not merely a matter of money, even though the works involved are quite valuable. Art is part of who we are.  It is no wonder that these families are searching so long and hard for their heritage.

It’s just a shame that the German authorities seem reluctant to help them.

 

Posted in Art, Culture (popular and otherwise) | Leave a comment

Chocolate pudding, yum.

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Pat Greene

I often have a craving for chocolate pudding.  I don’t keep boxes of mix on hand, so I make my own.  It’s easy: mix cornstarch and cold milk, heat in microwave, stirring every thirty seconds or so, until the mixture is thick and just starts boiling, and then dumping in a large amount of chocolate chips and stirring frantically until they are melted. It’s good, but has an annoying tendency to get a little gritty when it cools.   It’s good (especially when hot), but not perfect.

This afternoon, I wanted pudding, but could not find chips.  Instead, I mixed cocoa powder, sugar, and a little salt with the cornstarch, then added the milk. It took a minute or so longer to get the mixture thoroughly smooth.  It was a little thicker than usual, but not by much.  I then heated it as normal.  When the mixture was done, I mixed in a little butter and some vanilla.

Yum.  It was not quite as chocolate as usual (which can be fixed by adding more cocoa next time), but the texture was amazingly smooth.  I realize that it is not quite as smooth as making a chocolate custard with eggs; on the other hand, it’s a lot easier.

I can see making up a lot of this to have on hand as a mix.  I will need to figure out actual measurements — my usual method is “dump some of a in, followed by some of b,” which I recognize as being less than optimal.

I don’t cook, much, but I do like figuring out new recipes, especially for sweet things.

I wonder what a buttermilk chocolate pudding would taste like…

Posted in Food | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pride & Prejudice: Mrs. Bennett is not *that* silly.

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Pat Greene

Today’s diversion: watching the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice.  The miniseries follows the book pretty faithfully, except for a few gratuitous Colin Firth wet shirt shots.  Given that it is Colin Firth, this increases the sexiness quotient radically.

Pride & Prejudice is one of my favorite books.  I reread it at least once a year, and although there are other of Austen’s works that I have read and enjoyed (Sense & Sensibility, Lady Susan), Pride and Prejudice holds a special place in my heart.

Part of it is Austen’s wit.  Her sharp eye for the fallibilities of society (and its members) are translated into wonderful prose and great character development.  But lately I have been trying to think differently about the book, and what it says about the world.  I usually read it with a 20th century sensibility, which shades how I see some of the characters.

My thinking about this started when the Red-Headed Menace was assigned to read the book for his AP Lit class.  He whined through the first several chapters, and then got caught up in the story.  Like me,  he felt that the book really came alive in its second half, starting with Elizabeth’s rejection of Darcy’s first proposal, and kicked into high gear with Lydia’s elopement.  We started dissecting some of the characters, how their reactions fit into their times. *

The one character I keep coming back to is Mrs. Bennett. Viewing her through modern eyes, she seems silly and  obsessive.  Checking my modern prejudices at the door, however, she becomes a much more interesting character.

The chief goal of Mrs. Bennett’s life is to get her daughters married — preferably married well. In the context of the times, this was eminently reasonable.  She is still silly, and her methods are obvious, manipulative, and most often unsuccessful, but her need to make sure her children’s future secure is very serious.

There is much talk of the entail that will result in the Collins’ getting Longbourne after Mr. Bennett’s death.  This was a very big deal.  As Mrs. Bennett notes on more than one occasion, Mr. Collins can have her and whatever daughters are living at home tossed out once he succeeds to the property.  They would be forced to live on whatever relatively small amount they are left through Mr. Bennett’s will, and whatever assets Mrs. Bennet brought into the marriage. (Just how small an amount this will be is brought up when the arrangements for Lydia’s marriage to Wickham are discussed.) Six gentlewomen with no place to go, and relatively little to live on, is not a pleasant fate to contemplate.

In this light, Elizabeth’s refusal of Mr. Collins’s offer of marriage is infuriating. She has a chance not only to secure her own future, but to shelter her mother and her sisters until they marry.  She tosses this away.  In our modern eyes, Collins is ridiculous and obsequious, in all ways a bad match for the lively and intelligent Elizabeth.  In her time, the notion that she insists on marrying for love is unusual, to say the least.

Elizabeth’s first refusal of Darcy seems even more remarkable.  She is sought by a wealthy man who is in a position not merely to take care of her, but to offer support to her sisters.  Had Mrs. Bennett known of it, she would have been apoplectic, notwithstanding her dislike of Darcy. (A dislike which evaporates upon Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s engagement.)

The need to marry, and marry well, was clearly expressed by a much more reasonable character than Mrs. Bennett.  When Elizabeth was first attracted to Wickham, Elizabeth’s Aunt Gardiner, shown to be a cautious and refined person, warns her about the dangers of becoming attached to a man who would have little ability to support a household.  Part of the tragedy of Lydia’s later elopement is not merely that she has disgraced herself and her family, but that she is now married to a man with no means to take care of her, or any children they might later have.

Elizabeth is not the only character to express the notion that marrying for love was important.  Mr. Bennett, in trying to dissuade Elizabeth from marrying Darcy, says “let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life.” There is no chance of that: Lizzie has shown by her previous actions in refusing both Collins and Darcy the first time that she requires a husband that can be a proper match for her liveliness, wit, and understanding.

I realize I am rambling here, but it amazes me how my opinions have changed.  Not that I think that Elizabeth should have married Collins, but that Mrs. Bennett’s exasperation no longer seems unreasonable.

Actually, I know why my assessment of Mrs. Bennett has changed: I, too, now have grown or nearly grown children, and their future security is a very major concern for me.  I have grown more sympathetic to her as I become more like her.

This is why it is such a joy to reread good books: you are never the same person, so they are never the same characters.

*Let me just say how delightful it is to discuss literature with your children.  I am so fortunate to have sons who love to talk about art and literature, and who have intelligent (and usually informed) opinions.

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Guy Fawkes Day Randomness

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Pat Greene

It’s day celebrating the patron saint of Anonymous.

It’s two days after the great fall, and I have spent most of the day in bed on opiates.  Part of this is that I have been sleeping a lot, but more so because sitting in a chair is very uncomfortable since I cannot bend my leg.

I’ve been reading various blogs, partly to amuse myself, and partly to find things to write about, since the opiates make me fuzzy-headed. (Because I have to write at least 1800 words today.  I am sure that this post will be absolutely scintillating.  Not.)

So  just a few observations:

About the Congresswoman who demanded of Kathleen Sebelius when had a man ever gotten pregnant, implying that men should not be forced to pay for maternity coverage?  The obvious answer to that is, when has a woman ever gotten testicular or prostate cancer?  (I thought of this when I first heard of it, but a lot of bloggers, including Brian Beutler in this Salon piece, have said the same thing.)

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Mike the Mad Biologist makes an important observation regarding people “giving away their privacy.”  I agree to TOS and privacy policies every day that I do not like because I need the product.  (Not always free products, either.) Companies are so arrogant about this that when I was signing up to use Docusign, the link to the Terms of Service that you were required to agree with was broken and I had to call customer service to get the working link.  In the TOS, you were required to agree to a Privacy Policy they did not even link to.  I decided not to sign up for the service, since there was literally no way for me to read what it was I was agreeing to.  I emailed them, so they may have fixed the problem, but I have no inclination to check.

Speaking of privacy, Apple released a report on requests from law enforcement across the world.  They take a deliberate swipe at some other tech companies *cough*Google*cough*:

Perhaps most important, our business does not depend on collecting personal data. We have no interest in amassing personal information about our customers. We protect personal conversations by providing end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime. We do not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form. … Unlike many other companies dealing with requests for customer data from government agencies, Apple’s main business is not about collecting information.

Heh.  Of course, most of Apple’s products are not free (OS X Mavericks not withstanding) so you pay up front.  There is no free lunch, and with Apple you know what you pay for, pretty much.  (Not completely, but certainly more than with “free” services.)

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When I am more coherent and better able to formulate ideas, I want to write on the state of scientific research.  Various bloggers and writers have been sounding the alarm about papers being trumpeted as significant when the results have not been replicated, for example, or studies with adverse findings being unpublished.  It is a problem — Andrew Wakefield was an aberration, but there are still problems out there.

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Because, of course, the victim brings it on herself: “Student Op-Ed Argues ‘Drinking Responsibly’ May Reduce Risk of Rape.” This was written by a young woman.  Her argument?

Men might be less likely to try to take advantage if women “quit putting themselves in situations where they appear vulnerable,” she wrote. “If the media would focus more attention on the fact that the majority of the women who are sexually assaulted are intoxicated, as opposed to stating and restating how horrible the perpetrator is,  then maybe young women would start to listen. [emphasis mine.]

“The details on the offenders should not be omitted, but how are young women supposed to learn from the incident when they don’t know the details?”

First of all, how does she know the majority of rape victims are drunk? And the media is not supposed to restate how horrible the perpetrator is?  This is victim-blaming at its worst, although it is of course cloaked as being simply common-sense advice. Funny, no one asks if the victim of a mugging was drunk.

Rape is the fault of the rapist. Always. And yes, the media should state and restate how horrible the perpetrator is, because he is.  And young men should be told frequently that inebriation does not equal consent.

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A politician caught plagiarizing.  When will people realize that, in this Internet age, it is almost impossible not to get caught?  But Rand Paul, unable to admit anything wrong, accused the people challenging him as being “footnote police.”  Yep, they’re out there… the footnote police. Sheesh.  The most annoying comment on that story (when, oh, when will I learn not to read the comments?) was the gentleman arguing that it was impossible to plagiarize Wikipedia: “Wikipedia is a registered trademark, and that is all. Nothing written there is under copyright: nothing can be plagiarized.” First of all, plagiarism is a matter of ethics, not law.  Secondly, Wikipedia is distributed under a Creative Commons License. Of course it is copyrighted.

I am trying not to let my generalized dislike for Rand Paul color my opinions here. Aaron Blake’s take on this, that it shows sloppiness on Rand’s part, and that sloppiness is not anything you want in an elected official, is spot on.  It is possible to plagiarize because of carelessness (I’m sure I’ve occasionally done so, although I do try to use actual quotes and link wherever possible), but the answer to getting caught is to admit and apologize.

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Art lovers everywhere should rejoice in the 2012 recovery of some 1,400 art works which had disappeared during W.W. II.  from a Munich apartment.   It’s wonderful. Except that the Bavarian police have pretty much lost track of the guy who was holding the art works, stating they don’t have enough information for an arrest warrant. Ooookay….  Anyway, it took them long enough to announce the discovery.  There are a lot of families who are going to want their art back.

So much was lost under the Nazis.  This find just reinforces my belief that there are a lot of works out there hidden in back rooms by people who know their provenance as looted works and who just do not care.  Although it also strikes me that this would also be a great opportunity for a forger: if you have a twentieth century work that was “lost,”  it might be easy to recreate it.

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Well, I have not written nearly as much as I should have today.  Tomorrow I hope to write more, and more importantly, write more coherently.

Posted in Art, Miscellany, Politics, Social Issues | Leave a comment

“Poverty is Mainstream in America”

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Pat Greene

This is a very important piece about poverty in America.  Read it.  Share it with friends.

I’ve always supported efforts to help the poor, even before I read this.  What shocked me is how widespread poverty is.  All of this makes efforts like the Affordable Care Act (for all its shortcomings) and trying to raise the minimum wage so very important.

Posted in Social Issues | Leave a comment

You never know what you’ve got ’til its gone.

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Pat Greene

Before last night, I had not really appreciated the wonder that is the articulated joint in the middle of my leg. Knees were things to be skinned, with ligaments that were occasionally stretched and needed physical therapy, but in general, I never thought about them.

Not today, though.

Remember when I wrote last night that my ribs were in pain but it was not worth going to the ER over? Well, maybe the ribs were not, but the knee ended up being so.

After my fall, the knee stung, like when you have a bad scrape.  I could walk (the ankle was giving me more trouble), so I thought everything was okay.  I went home, laid in bed for a while with my leg up, then went in the living room to watch NetFlix.

After a while, I looked down at my (increasingly painful) knee.  It was swollen to roughly double its twin, and when I tried to straighten it out all the way, I couldn’t.  I couldn’t put weight on it either, and my toes were beginning to go a bit numb.

The Not So Little Drummer Boy ended up driving me to the ER, after suggesting that maybe I should just ice it and wait and see what it was like in the morning.  I, on the other hand, figured that if I couldn’t walk, then maybe a doctor would need to look at it right away.  Not to mention, my ribs were starting to feel like someone was sticking an ice pick in my side when I moved the wrong way.

So we went to the ER.  As far as Stanford ER visits go, it wasn’t too bad — one of the advantages of hurting yourself on a Sunday evening.  Far fewer bar fights, shootings, and accidents, and most people who get sick figure they can wait it out until Monday to see their doctor.  I was one of only a couple of people in the main waiting room, and they probably got me back into a bed within a half-hour.

The visit itself took a while, if for no other reason than they kept changing what parts of me they wanted to x-ray.  They did the knee, of course,  and then the ribs, and then to be sure, the ankle.  I had no problem with them doing any of that, except that I ended up going to Radiology three times, rather than the once which would have happened had the doctors got their act together.  (The reason for x-raying the ribs, which is usually not done because a) it’s often hard to tell if there really is a fracture and b) the way you treat most rib fractures is simply pain management, was that the sort of pain I was having made them worried that there might be a fractured rib sticking into a lung.  That would not have been good.  Fortunately, that was not the case.)

Also, they decided not to give me pain meds until after the x-rays were done.  I had had a combination of ibuprofen and Klonopin when I first got home, which helped a lot. (I find Klonopin to be helpful in keeping muscles relaxed, even though it is not an analgesic per se.)  By the time I had been in the ER for a while, those had worn off.  I have a relatively high pain tolerance, and I hate making demands on people, so I meekly waited (whimpering occasionally) until they finally gave me Norco (like Vicodin) and sent me home.  They gave me a prescription, so now I am at home on opiate painkillers, feeling not much pain at all. Except when I walk and try to put too much weight on the knee.

The knee was not broken.  On the other hand, it was still swollen, and painful, and there was water on the knee.  The ER doctors told me that what I really needed to do was see an orthopedist.

They also placed my knee in a splint.  I can’t bend it, which makes even simple things like standing up from a chair difficult.  Because my knee is out straight, using crutches is not really possible.  (I also have an ankle boot for when I need to walk much.) Dressing is insanely hard.  Going to the bathroom… well, I’ll leave that to your imagination. It is one of the few times I’ve ever wished I could urinate standing up, like a man.

I am supposed to keep this on until I see the orthopedist.  I can take it off for showers (although even in the shower I am supposed to keep the knee as straight as possible).  My orthopedic appointment is on the 18th, so in effect this means two weeks.

I am sure that I won’t need the painkillers except for the next few days. But I am not sure that I can drive:  it is my left leg, but I would still need to bend it in order to sit close enough to the steering wheel to control the car.  (Getting in and out of the van last night looked vaguely like something out of a silent film comedy. I felt really stupid.)

This is my fourth bad fall this year, and it’s starting to worry me a little bit.  The doctors, when they heard  that I had fallen twice in two days, asked if my house was safe.  I then had to admit that I had fallen in two entirely different places, neither of which was my home.

And the opiates mean that I cannot really do anything requiring heavy mental lifting for the next couple of days, so work is probably not a good idea.  (A man on the phone once asked if I was drunk, based on the fact that it was the end of a shift and my voice was gravelly and I probably sounded a little punchy.  I can only imagine what I would sound like on Norco.)  Job searching is out, but I should probably check in with my job counselor tomorrow to let her know what is going on. (I have decided that I want to see if I can’t find a less stressful temp job to carry me over until next campaign season.)  And the new contract assignment I had gotten involving assessing preschoolers as part of a UC Berkeley study on the efficacy of various teacher training methods is probably not going to happen, as I would need to be able to sit in the small chairs to talk to the kids, and that might be impossible. (On the other hand, maybe I could just sit on the floor.)

I am still going to try and write, at least some, so that I can try and keep up with my 50K for the month of November goal. (I am currently at 3,782, which is 2885 short of where I should be to be on track, which given that I was 3800 short yesterday means that I have caught up almost 1,000 words shy of where I should be.) It just might not be very good.

And I keep telling myself that I will never take my knees for grated again.

Posted in My life and times | Tagged | 1 Comment