 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Monday, December 30, 2002
The Friday Five (late as usual)
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? Finally getting the master bathroom fixed! (Thanks, Doug!) (However, the best time I had this year was going to Nyack to see Thumbs.) 2. What was your biggest disappointment? That so many friends and relatives were sick--and one we even lost. Also that our new neighbors across the street turned out to be such creeps. (We heard Saturday that they've been evicted. Thank God.) 3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? I'll just mess them up, as always... 4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else? In the company of my husband and friends at a party. Would I wish to be somewhere else because I didn't like the company I was keeping?--definitely not. But if I could be in two places at once, I'd also be at First Night Providence, after spending the afternoon walking around Brenton Point in Newport... 5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions? The only one would have to be watching the Rose Parade. Did you know Lassie was in it this year?  » Thursday, December 26, 2002
Thursday Threesome
Onesome: Merry: Merry times? Hey, did you have a Merry Christmas? How did things turn out for you and yours after all the work and time you put in preparing for the big day? We had a very nice day (or actually it was "days"): Christmas Eve we saw The Two Towers. After supper, I couldn't wait anymore: we went upstairs and opened our gifts to ourselves, including James' surprise gift (see Dec. 24). I put some Christmas radio shows on, Willow got her new stuffed squeaky toy (we laughed ourselves silly watching her find the squeaker), and then a bit later we went off to church via a Christmas light survey. (We were disappointed this year; not a lot of creative displays and the Albrittons had already turned their big light display off by the time we got there at 10:15 p.m.) Midnight Mass was lovely, except James and I both got terribly stuffed up by the incense. Christmas morning we slept late, opened the rest of our gifts, made some goodies for dinner, then watched a couple of Christmas TV programs before going to friends for dinner. It was a big gathering with good food but even better company. Twosome: Christmas: Christmas presents? Did you get what you wanted from Santa? ...or are you headed back to the stores with the rejects on 'Reverse Shopping Day'? No returns! I got the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD, an optical mouse and a mouse sander, another DVD, a pretty frame, a Christmas tree sweatshirt, and a big tub full of chocolates that should last until Valentine's Day. Threesome: Everyone! Is everyone back to the normal routine today, like work and homemaking and such. ...or are you still entertaining? ...or maybe just taking a well deserved break from it all? Well, I was supposed to be back to the routine...except I also seem to have caught a cold and am cold and hot by turns with a sore throat. What a way to spend "the feast of Stephen"! The holiday isn't over yet: we still have another gift exchange New Year's Eve, plus a party, and our own Twelfth Night party on January 4 (which is only eleventh night, but who cares?). Hey, I'm Italian--Christmas isn't over until January 6; don't rush it! » Tuesday, December 24, 2002
A Christmas Story
I am a collector of good Christmas specials as well as of books about the holiday (not crafts or recipes, the holiday itself), but most of my favorites are the older things from my childhood, specials like Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, etc. Some of my favorite tales are the Christmas stories they did on Lassie during the Timmy era, in 1958, 1960, 1961, and 1963. But I thought they were all merely heartwarming or fanciful tales until this year. The 1963 Christmas outing for Lassie and Timmy was "Lassie's Gift of Love," a two-part story about Timmy's project to feed wild animals during the Christmas season. He's helped in this endeavor by Mr. Nicholson, an elderly man who mends toys and who volunteers to chip in to help with the Toy Roundup, which will give toys to children in the hospital on Christmas Day. Mr. Nicholson is an odd fellow, even in the Lassie universe; even Paul Martin comments about it. He travels about in a wagon pulled by a donkey named Holly--and when he's around strange and wonderful things seem to happen. Wild animals become unafraid, and lost things are found again. Obviously a man like that doesn't exist. I beg to differ. I met Mr. Nicholson this year, right downtown in Marietta Square. I didn't see him, but I met him. Every year Hallmark did a Star Trek Enterprise ornament, we seemed to miss out. One year it was no money, another we waited until too late. I suppose James could have trolled about e-Bay for one, but we never could afford the horrendous prices. This year was going to be different. The ornament, from the Enterprise series, came out the weekend of November 15. We were going to buy it. No waiting until the last minute, or until Hallmark put their ornaments 40% off. Wouldn't you know that weekend was the definition of "busy," and then next weekend was the same? The weekend after Thanksgiving, then, found us on a fruitless search for the Enterprise ornament. We started at a little hole-in-the-wall Hallmark store, one James figured wouldn't have been stripped. Was he wrong! Not only was Enterprise gone, but almost everything else, too, even all the American Girls ornaments and the Arthur and D.W cookie ornament I'd thought was cute. The saleslady was wonderful. She called around to several other stores in the area. No dice. Every Enterprise had gone. She told us they had not been sent a lot in the first place, and the collectors grabbed them up the first week. I still stopped at Cumberland Mall looking for the fool thing one day after work. No dice. In the meantime, the season passed. On Friday December 21, I did something I'd been wanting to do for the entire seven years we've lived here in Marietta: go walk around the square. Downtown Marietta still has an old-fashioned town square, stores and government business buildings surrounding a little green park, with a fountain, sidewalks, benches. At Christmas they have a big decorated tree, a Nativity scene, and a little booth where Santa visits with children on the weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Up in New England, we called these areas village "greens" or "the common"--the most famous of the latter being Boston Common.) Back in the old days the stores surrounding the Square were probably shoe stores, dress shops, a five and dime or two, clothing stores, etc. When we moved here, the old drugstore next to Schillings (fairly noted restaurant in the area) and a dry goods store named Goldstein's were still in business; they have since folded. So what is left are a couple of costume/antique clothing shops, an a few restaurants, a children's bookstore, the Gone with the Wind museum and Marietta Museum of History, but mostly antique shops. I have to confess, the hook was the antique stores. After wandering around Dupre's (which, from the storefront it's in, was once either a big five and ten like Woolworth's, or a small department store), I'm convinced that if we ever win the lottery, our new house will have some nice antique furnishings. Not frou-frou type, but nice sensibile sturdy cupboards, sideboards, and tables. I even found something in Dupre's I could have afforded: a beautiful red maple hutch circa 1940, well cared for and gorgeous. Only problem: there's no room in our kitchen for it. I nearly cried. Also wandered around in another antique shop where they had many Victrolas, both cabinet models and "portables" (well, in the 1920 sense of the word, anyway), and Edison cylinder phonographs, and you are greeted at the door by a big white standard poodle named Luke. So I strolled the perimeter and finally came upon the Square's one card shop. In part two of "Lassie's Gift of Love," Paul takes Timmy and Mr. Nicholson into town to deliver to the Toy Roundup; Timmy wants to Christmas shop as well. He has seen his mother ooooh and aaah at a pink silk umbrella at Washburne's General Store and is determined to buy it for her. With his latest allowance, he now has enough money--but Mr. Washburne regretfully tells him the last pink silk umbrella was sold the day before. Then Mr. Nicholson suggests, "Why not take another look in the back? At this time of year, stock can get misplaced." Washburne says that they took a quick inventory that morning; there's no pink silk umbrella back there. But for Timmy's sake, he goes to look anyway--and returns, puzzled, to Mr. Nicholson's smile and Timmy's delight, with one last pink silk umbrella. You've guessed this, haven't you? The card shop is a Hallmark store. I went in simply to see if they might have one Arthur and D.W. ornament left, and idly survey the other sci-fi type ornaments: the Doctor from Voyager, a couple of other spaceships, a... My eye flicks back. Sitting there, although I didn't see it the first time, is one last Enterprise ornament. The elderly lady running the store graciously goes into the back, gets its box, and packs it up for me. In deference to what people think of my sanity, I do not emit the whoop building inside me the moment I get out of the store, or spin around like Mary Tyler Moore about to toss her cap. But I was very certain that somewhere, out of the corner of my eye where no one could see him, Mr. Nicholson was smiling... » Friday, December 20, 2002
Thursday Threesome (late as usual)
Onesome: Google's: Did the net help you find gifts this Christmas? ...not just buying things over the net, but actually finding gifts for people. Not really. I usually buy gifts all year 'round. I did use my mom's nice cash gift to buy us some DVDs we've been wanting online. But no, I didn't find anything online. Twosome: Christmas: Got your two front teeth? What is your "wish gift" this Christmas? No, not the one you're hoping to get, but the one you'd love to wish for! No allergies. No sickness. A strong back. Oh...and a winning multi-million lottery ticket! Threesome: Cache: Hiding the gifts again? Where are your favorite spots? Shh... Don't tell us the one they haven't found yet! Maybe you'd be better off telling us of "great hiding places from the past"... The only one who would go looking for presents is James and he doesn't. I keep all my presents in two Xerox paper boxes in the spare room closet marked "Christmas Box." » Thursday, December 12, 2002
Thursday Threesome
Onesome- Faith: Are you faithful in keeping your New Year's Resolutions? Sigh. When pigs fly, I believe is the proper term. I've quit making them. Twosome- Hope: ...and what are your hopes for the New Year? That myself, my family (including the fids) and friends will be healthy. That said, I really would like to go see my mom (and Remember WENN: the Musical). Threesome- and Charity: Do you support any causes or charities? Any special projects this time of year? I haven't been as diligent in buying food for the Can Bank as I usually am. Compounding this is the fact that I loathe going in grocery stores anyway...
The DVD Wish List (probably have missed things, but this is what I could think of):
Lassie Remember WENN All of The Good Life/Good Neighbors (only last season is on DVD) Jonny Quest (original series) A Christmas Story letterboxed The Homecoming The House Without a Christmas Tree (pair it with The Thanksgiving Treasure and that would really be a deal) Big Jake Collections of the shorts from The Wonderful World of Color/Wonderful World of Disney shows: A “Dog Collection”: "Little Dog Lost," "Little Shepherd Dog of Catalina," "Three on the Run," "Greta the Misfit Greyhound," "Pablo and the Dancing Chihuahua," "The Hound Who Thought He was a Raccoon" A “Horse Collection”: "The Horse With the Flying Tail," "Stormy the Thoroughbred," "The Tattooed Police Horse," "Run Appaloosa Run," "Justin Morgan Had a Horse" A “Wildlife Collection”: "Flash the Teenage Otter," "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar," "The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle," "The Yellowstone Cubs" The Complete Gallegher Episodes Christmas DVD: The Small One/Mickey’s Christmas Carol combo (maybe with the old Disney Christmas cartoons, “The Night Before Christmas” and “Santa’s Workshop” and/or special showing of “From All of Us to All of You”) Movies The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (a.k.a. Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow) The Three Lives of Thomasina Escape to Witch Mountain In Search of the Castaways (definitely with commentary!) Follow Me, Boys! The Horse Without a Head High Flying Spy (now there's a nice fantasy: the Darren McGavin Disney movie collection: HFS, Boomerang: Dog of Many Talents, Donovan's Kid...)
Recent Video Searches
Yesterday, on a mission at Costco to get trash bags, I had a look at the new Disney “Treasures” offerings. If you haven’t seen these collections, they’re in a special metal tin with embossing. Last year saw the release of all five Davy Crockett stories, the Silly Symphonies, a collection of programs about Disneyland, and the color Mickey Mouse shorts. The new ones are “The Complete Goofy” (I can’t believe they did Goofy before Donald Duck!), “Mickey Mouse in Black and White,” and the one I want, “Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios.” While doing a search to see what was on the latter (it does include an uncut copy of the movie The Reluctant Dragon, featuring Robert Benchley, which was a glorified behind-the-scenes movie), I discovered there was supposed to be a fourth new “Treasure,” the one that didn’t make it out: “Wartime Disney” (featuring the long-lost Victory Through Air Power) Arrrgh! The one set I’d been interested in for years! I’ve always wanted to see VTAP, even though I understand it is “propagandistic” (well, duh, it was meant to be), and James feels the same way. I was mollified to discover it probably hasn’t been cancelled; it’s just still in production. Still...couldn’t we have waited for Goofy? In a further search of cinematic Disneyana, I found them talking about a release of The Moon Spinners on DVD, as part of the Hayley Mills collection. Seems like a few months ago I read a news item about the “next wave” of Vault Disney releases, which began with Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, Parent Trap, and Old Yeller (these are fabulous, with tons of great extra stuff), and this included The Moon Spinners, too. But no mention was made of that edition. I hope they haven’t cancelled it. "I've got a little list" as the Gilbert and Sullivan song goes; I'm sure most DVD fans do. At least one of my wishes will be coming true in March: Fox is finally releasing Journey to the Center of the Earth, according to a friend of mine who keeps up with these things. (Ahem. Now where's the letterboxed copy of A Christmas Story, MGM?) » Monday, December 09, 2002
Prominently under "news" this morning on both CNN's and Fox News' websites is a big story about the season finale of The Sopranos.
Will someone please "'splain" to me this obscene fascination with anything to do with the Mafia? I'm Italian and I still don't "get it." There's been The Godfather and a host of other imitators and mob movies and now The Sopranos. I've seen one episode. Yes, the acting is fine, but why the interest in the first place? These people are criminals, for God's sake. What's the appeal of a bunch of murderers and thieves? » Thursday, December 05, 2002
Thursday Threesome
Onesome: Free Do you watch the ads for "Buy this and get this trinket free" just so you can get that second gift? ...and then wonder what to do with the first one? A couple of weeks ago I would have said “never,” and it will won’t become a habit. Now, I’ve bought one item that came with a freebie, but only if I wanted the original item in the first place, and could do something with the freebie. However, recently I did find a Windham Hill double CD at Costco which had a Christmas album I had just purchased along with a sampler album I did not have and which was not available in the store. Since the package was less than the cost of a single CD at any other store, I bought it for the freebie and sent the duplicate along to my mom with her Christmas gift, a CD player. She likes pretty music. Twosome: Gift How the heck figure do you figure out how to buy gifts for family members? You know, the ones with no list who say, "Oh, whatever..." I usually keep track of what they enjoy. For the couple of folks that I don’t know what they do want, I give them a gift card to a store I know they like. Threesome: Wrapping Are you a wrapping maven? ..or are are you wrappingly challenged? Who does the gift wrapping around your place anyway? I’m a good wrapper, although I’m no Martha Stewart with the furbelows. Why gussie up a package so well that it’s a shame to rip the wrapping? I end up wrapping all the gifts. “The Mister,” who can put an entire computer together and make it work, and install the tiniest plastic model airplane parts you’ve ever seen, is all thumbs when it comes to making wrapping paper corners! Gift bags were made for him. :-) Thursday Threesome is also hosting a Santa discussion, including “when do you do your Christmas shopping?” All year round, thank you. I have bought gifts for people for the following year on Christmas Eve. I sincerely hope I know most of what my family and friends like and buy accordingly. (I’ve missed out. I’ve seen books I’ve given get traded away, things like that. It’s okay. Sometimes you just miss.) I’m always on the lookout for nice things; they go upstairs in the “Christmas box” until it’s time to come out again. Sometimes it’s just best to buy the magic gift card. Then they can buy what they like instead of what you might have guessed was correct. » Monday, December 02, 2002
While paging through a Woman's Day today, I came upon an ad for "dried plums" from the California Dried Plum Growers. I looked at the accompanying photo and did a double take.
You know, in the old days they used to call these "prunes." :-) I guess the word has negative connotations today. Too, I can't help remembering burly Klingon character Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation, who declared that prune juice was the drink of a warrior... In any case, I was surprised to discover this month's Family Circle (I had coupons for both magazines) was pretty meaty; usually these checkout magazines are pretty lightweight, 2/3 ads and lots of stupid articles about how to dress and make up right. The December FC even had a piece of fiction, "Nana Antonia's Christmas," that left me misty-eyed. » Saturday, November 30, 2002
Thursday Threesome (Late as always)
Onesome. Game- What's your favorite game? Jeopardy. Oh, wait, you mean one not on TV. :-) May I have two? Scrabble and Uno. Twosome. Set- Do you collect anything? Is there anything you've worked to get a full set of? The Jonny Quest and Quantum Leap comics. I'm presently working on getting almost all of the bound volumes of the old children's magazine, St. Nicholas. I don't want all of them because after they changed publishers in 1930, the quality went waaaaaay downhill. (Oh, yeah, the old Bobbsey twins books, back when they used to ride in carriages and not solve mysteries. I like the oldest ones; the 1930s ones are simply so stupid using Dinah as comic relief.) Threesome. and Match- Have you ever broken something belonging to someone else and tried to replace it with a perfect match? Nope. » Wednesday, November 27, 2002
How ironic that the last "Thursday Threesome" I filled out had the following question and my honest answer: Q. When you run up against an unexpected challenge, do you adapt and roll with it or scrap your original plan and go with Plan B? A. Where's Option C--hide until it goes away?
Which is why it’s taken me until now to acknowledge the loss of a friend. We weren’t close friends of Tom Fuller. He wasn’t a frequent dinner guest or someone we visited often. We usually saw him at group gatherings, Bill Ritch’s New Year’s Eve bash, Atlanta Radio Theatre Company rehearsals back when we could still hack our way cross town during rush hour. And of course at ARTC performances. Tom was a grand performer. With his deep rumbling voice, he could portray everything from a villainous demon to a friendly department store Santa. And he was the consummate storyteller. At parties, the thing to do was to sit down next to Tom and let him talk. We remember sitting nearby at one gathering as he waxed eloquent about the folly of writers who wrote about a certain culture or region without knowing about the area and/or doing much research. His example was a romance novelist whose heroine, a Southern belle, is about to make her debut. Our deb descends the graceful curving staircase, he described--with 12 magnolia blossoms in her hair. If the poor girl’s visual impairment predicament wasn’t funny enough to his already laughing audience, Tom added the capper with a dry, “Her mamma didn’t like her very much.” Thomas’ crowning achievement was his writing. He wrote adult fantasy, horror, children’s stories, poetry, and radio drama all with consummate skill. I suppose given the chance I would have sold my soul to the devil to write like Thomas Fuller. Still, what I will miss most is his presence and his voice, and the wonderful tales he told while just sitting around with friends. » Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Typical of life, as February Callendar would comment...
Four big pizza chains in Atlanta, one of them goes away in the area, which one is it? Is it Domino's, who wouldn't know a good pizza if one hit them in the face, or Pizza Hut, which is marginally better than Domino's, but that isn't much of a compliment. No, of course it's Donato's, who will make me a pizza the way I like it without blinking an eye and with a tomato sauce that isn't overloaded with spices and pepper. Figures. Sigh. » Monday, November 18, 2002
As I was driving home from work on Friday, I was enjoying the autumn leaves. They certainly have had more color this year than I expected for having such a hot, dry summer. The colors are so brilliant that even in the constant rainstorms this fall they have managed to glow against the grey. I have been trying to drink in the color as much as possible.
Which gave me an amusing thought: what would the seasons taste like? Autumn would be the best. It would taste of apple cider and spiced wine, gingerbread and cinnamon toast and pumpkin pie. Winter would have the sting of cold and mint: peppermint drops and candy canes, mint ice cream and frozen custard and spearmint gum. Spring would be overly sweetened fruit juices, the mix overloaded with mangoes and strawberries, and sugary fruit pies. Summer. Eh. Lukewarm lemonade and dry toast. » Thursday, November 14, 2002
Thursday Threesome (on time, for heaven's sake)
Shake- Is there anything that makes you shake in your shoes? Any phobias you'd like to share? The usual things that bug me: Worms, snakes, palmetto bugs, ants getting into the house. The worst: small, enclosed places. I couldn't even play hide and seek by hiding in a closet as a kid. And like everyone else, fires. Rattle- What's rattling around in your mental trunk that you need to take care of? Losing weight. And getting the wooden rocking chairs polyurethaned and out of the living room by the time the Christmas tree goes up. (They've only been there since February...) and Roll- When you run up against an unexpected challenge, do you adapt and roll with it or scrap your original plan and go with Plan B? Where's Option C--hide until it goes away? » Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Calling All Cows...
a.k.a. "Till the Cows Come Home" If you read a long post I made back early this year, you’ll know as styles of decorating go, I like “country” best. Not the cute frills, flowers, ruffles, and Mary Engelbreit stuff, but gingham, Shaker lines, country farmhouse, comfy stuff. Way back when I wanted to dress up the light/ceiling fan fixtures I bought inexpensive decorative pull handles for the chains: geese to match the geese on the light cover in the master bedroom, etc. For the kitchen, I found a affable-looking black-and-white cartoon cow with a little bird fluttering over it; it made sense as much as I liked milk! It was cute but not overbearingly so. Later the kitchen began to take on an apple motif that we both liked, as eventually we are planning to paint it a Granny Smith apple green that a red apple motif would go well with it. But I wanted something else there, a secondary motif, and some cows seemed perfect: I painted a Holstein-like cow and some apples on the top of a cookie jar and made a cow toothpick holder. Last November at the “Christmas in Lithia” craft fair we came upon a woman selling ceramic kitchen accessories; one of her themes was cute cartoon cows. We bought a lidless jar to put on the stove to keep wooden spoons in and discovered that the cows on it matched the one on our ceiling fan pull. We could have “cowed out” on her stuff at this year’s craft fair, but got only what we needed: a measuring spoon holder and a spoon rest for the stove. We didn’t need a creamer or sugar bowl or napkin holder, yet the little cow design is quite appealing. Since we had found this same cow motif in two different places, was it possible that it is copyright free or sold somewhere for use on ceramics, wallpapers, etc? Just for the heck of it, I searched for +cartoon +cow in Google and came up with more of these same cartoon cows--on piece of china being sold in Great Britain! Here they are. And again. So evidently this motif is available somehow to be used on ceramic items. I wonder how and where one would find it. There doesn’t seem to be any artist’s name associated with them. Anyone know whose design this is or where it comes from? Feedback appreciated. » Saturday, November 09, 2002
Late, late, late:
Thursday Threesome Onesome: Starbucks. Are you a coffee drinker? Yeah? What's your favorite brew? Not? Then what gets you going each day? Regular coffee gives me palpitations. Decaf gives me indigestion. My beverage of choice: Milk! Twosome: Christmas. Are you ready? ...or is it still a little early? Naw. I've been wishing for Christmas since July...mostly so it would get cool. Threesome: Blend. Is autumn blending into winter for you? ...or are you already there? Still not cool enough! BTW, is the Thursday Threesome lady a Trixie Belden fan? » Wednesday, November 06, 2002
I'm a little puzzled and appalled by an article on CNN's website this morning. Entitled "Blind Preschool Kids Embrace Braille," it talks about--well, just what the headline implies.
The "puzzled and appalled" came from these two paragraphs:
So these poor kids have gone through school not learning how to read just because audio material was available? What kind of nonsense is this? » Saturday, November 02, 2002
Okay, who's glad there are only three more mail days until the election?
You know, every candidate claims to be in favor of helping the environment. Just how many damn trees have they killed with the relentless junk mail we've been getting from them since this summer????? » Friday, November 01, 2002
“Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Eat”
I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. Most of the time I love to hate it. :-) Okay, I’m not trying to sound like the All Hallow’s version of Scrooge. Halloween is great fun when you’re a kid. You have to decide on a costume--and it’s your decision. If Mom and Dad can’t afford a store-bought costume, you might be stopped right there, but otherwise it’s your choice on what to wear, an especially heady thought back when you’re seven or eight and your parents dictate what sort of clothes are appropriate for school, church, and going places. Adults have parties, too. I didn’t grow up in the type of society where adults had costume parties, but I know people now who attend them and have seen them in movies. It looks like fun. There’s a great deal to be said about occasionally pretending to be what you’d like to be, rather than the mundane person you are. On the other hand, I simply don’t get the furor surrounding the entire holiday. A couple of bat decorations, a carved pumpkin, some of that spiderweb stuff--okay. But Halloween lights? Halloween cards? Yards decorated to look like graveyards? And hundreds of adults going berserk over this (I left work an hour early last night and it still took me 80 minutes to get home!)? My usual outside Halloween decorations used to be two foam jack’o lanterns on the glass doors. After Halloween 1999 I thawed a bit and bought on discount a small light-up pumpkin and a small beanbag ghost and scarecrow, then a week before Halloween covered the little table on the front porch with a dark plastic disposable tablecloth and put Mr. Pumpkin out, flanked with the beanbags. On November 1 it comes in and is banished to the closet again. After last year’s rest (we didn’t do Halloween because of 9/11), we had quite a glut of kids this year. I got two small bags of candy, 46 pieces in all, because the most kids we’ve ever had was about 40. In the last half hour (I’m “open for business” between six and eight), I had to break out the bag of York peppermint patties stashed in the fridge. The final total was between 58-60. It was pretty chilly (one girl who came up on the porch was complaining vociferously about the cold) and I was able to light the fire and have it all cozy-looking. The library/living room is our “quiet room” and there’s no TV; I followed the usual tradition by listening to episodes of The Shadow. The spooky organ music is always good for atmosphere. There were tall kids and kids barely old enough to get up the steps. Lots of what James told me were “Scream” masks, some princesses, a gypsy, lots of generic fantasy characters (and probably TV characters I don’t recognize), and one adorable little toddler in a Blue’s Clues outfit. I’d had two complaints in previous years. One was that if you’re going to go out trick or treating you ought to at least put on a bit of a show for the candy distributors and try for some type of costume, even if it’s a Groucho mask or painting your face and wearing Dad’s old jacket. It bugged me two years ago at the number of older boys who just grabbed a plastic Kroger bag and went around trolling candy (especially since I think 12 and up is too old for trick or treating anyway). The other beef--and maybe I'm just being old-fashioned--was that almost none of the kids, especially the older ones, ever said “Thank you.” This year all the kids had made an attempt at some type of costume. In a couple of cases it was pretty thin, but they at least tried. I also noticed that all of the kids who were verbally able said “thank you,” even the couple of rangy older boys, the type who usually don’t think saying “thank you” is cool. Moms prompted the smaller ones and occasionally they made it. It was a bit much for one dazed little fella, though. He wouldn’t let me put the candy in his pumpkin container; he had to take it from my hand, eyes wide and gaping all the while. :-) Wonder if Dad will have to explain to him today that some miracle hasn’t occurred and he can’t go out every night getting candy from neighbors? » Thursday, October 31, 2002
Gee, Daniel, I didn't have a Weather Pixie. :-) I do now.
I hope she has a coat. She's making me cold. » Tuesday, October 29, 2002
When Last We Met in the Computer Saga...
,,,we’d gotten the USB card to work on my computer. Later James did get the network card working on my computer--ironically it makes my dial-up connection log on faster (???)--but hadn’t gotten the fool thing to work on his. And now back to our story: Thanks to some advice (you know who you are; thanks!), James went surfing on a site called pricewatch.com and not only found a Slot A processor chip for the computer he’s building, but found an AMD K6 450MHz processor for my computer. They shipped over the weekend and he installed my processor last night. It was understood that the processor was not going to run at 450MHz. The chip runs at that rate only on a 100MHz bus, and I have only a 75MHz bus. That meant any processor speed I had would be decreased by one quarter. A couple of jumper changes and voilá, it was done. And sure enough, the system now clocked at 333MHz, 3/4 of 450. Recall that one of the reasons this upgrade was done was to make the DVD player work. Hmmm. Sound and picture still stutter. Other advice we got was to load the latest version of DirectX from Microslop’s site and then enable DMA. Note to Readers: Do not start downloading DirectX at 10:45 at night if you wanted to be in bed by 11:30. It takes almost an hour to download. I did all my little chores, put Bandit to bed, brushed my teeth and took my nightly meds, and finally sat down for 10 minutes as the download drew to a close. James said, “You might as well install it. It only takes 5 minutes, if that.” I did. Tried the DVD player again. Every time we make some improvement to the system, the DVD plays a little bit better. You can almost watch it now. But it’s not smooth. “Let’s try the DMA thing.” The advice had been to enable DMA in the BIOS. But we saw a DMA checkbox in Device Manager and clicked it. After all, if it didn't work we could always unclick it. Big Note to Readers: Do not click the DMA box in Device Manager (at least not without enabling DMA in BIOS). It causes nothing but a world of trouble. The computer got to a certain spot after Win98 started to boot--and froze, again and again. Naturally, there’s an easy solution: boot in safe mode and unclick the DMA checkbox, right? When you boot in safe mode there is no DMA box to unclick. Egad. James eventually found a minimal boot sequence that would give us the Device Manager panel that did have a DMA checkbox to unclick and got the poor computer back to normal. (In retrospect, this makes sense. DMA was not enabled in BIOS. When Win98 tried to boot with DMA specifications it was like sending someone downstairs before the party to get the cartons of soda chilling in the spare fridge--and then remembering you forgot to put them in there in the first place. They won’t be able to find the soda, and neither will Windows be able to do anything with something that’s not enabled.) We’ll have to try it the other way around. » Monday, October 28, 2002
“Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot...” Part 2
On our way to the computer show yesterday, we saw the rubble before we even passed to the left of the site. All that was left was the right side of the facade, from the front doors to the restaurant, and the rooms off to the right. And even this was not complete, for, in passing, we could see the structure gaping open at the rear. The old Castlegate Hotel is no more. It didn’t really look like a castle, but had a vaguely Tudor style with occasional “turrets,” enough to give it a quasi-medieval feel even if the big glass enclosure at the front ruined the effect. It had been vacant for several years now, its windows gradually being broken, graffiti splotching its sides. One unsuccessful reopening under the aegis of a chain hotel had finally left it bereft. It was probably now overrun with rats and roaches. It had been in pretty bad shape the last time we were there, for one of the last of the Fantasy Fairs or Dixie Treks, whatever. Claudia Christian from Babylon 5 was to stay there, apparently took one look at her room, and walked out, demanding a room at another hotel. This could have been taken as an attack of prima-donna-ism had not anyone with eyes observed the rest of the hotel. The stairs heading down to the convention rooms were dirty, scattered with scraps of paper, dust, and dead bugs. Apparently no one had vacuumed in a long time. The claustrophobic elevator smelled stale. The area where a thriving restaurant had been was now a dusty hangout for con-goers between panels, and the connecting rest rooms were grimy, with dead palmetto bugs lying feet up in the middle of the floor. Had the sleeping rooms had been treated with equal “care,” I would have walked out myself. Yet the old place was a source of great memories as well. We’d met old friends in the lobby for chats, cruised dealers’ rooms clotted with collectors’ pieces and comic books, enjoyed speakers young and old. On that stage James played “Perry White” in a reinactment skit starring Noel Neill, Lois Lane in the 1950s Superman series. Christopher Reeve appeared, months before his debilitating accident, chatting and taking pictures with the crowd. The aforementioned Ms. Christian and Deep Space 9's Nana Visitor, two of the most energetic actresses we’d ever seen, became perpetual motion machines on the main stage. We’d met new friends, collected autographs, laughed and occasionally cried, but in general had a great time. The Castlegate, as it used to be, will be missed. “...so bring on the ball, if you will, and after the ball is through I’ll stay at home, the same as you, Starin’ at the old TV, Thinkin’ how it used...to...be...” ...”Hots Michael at the Piano”
“Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot...” Part 1
When I went back to school for a year in 1981-1982, one of the classes I wanted to take at Johnson & Wales College was one of those newfangled “word processing” courses. It was typing on a computer, which seemed a novelty: when I graduated high school in ‘74, computers were still complicated machines that ran solely on numbers and punch cards. Dad wanted me to have the course, too. Even with only an eighth grade education, he saw that this was the “upcoming thing.” However, J&W determined that my lack of typing speed (only 55 words per minute) meant that I didn't have what it took to learn word processing. (For various reasons, including that one, I’m not one of the people who worships on J&W’s altar. Frankly, I hate their guts.) It was left to some friends with a Commodore 64 to expose me to the wonders of word processing via EasyScript. Later at work I used something called “Spellbinder,” then various Wang systems, and at home used Paperclip for our own Commodore. Then CDC converted to WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. I fell head over heels in love with it in less than two weeks. It was everything anyone could want in a word processor. Somewhat later, when we traded up from a Commodore to a PC, I amazingly obtained, free, a fully, legitimate copy of WP5.1 (from a person who shall remain nameless, but let’s say I will love him for the rest of my life). And as good as 5.1 was, it became a marvel when matched with the magic of WordPerfect Magazine. I hounded the local computer store for each new issue, finally got tired of waiting, and subscribed. Each month--along with some of the oddest abstract graphics ever published--there were glorious new macros that would automate tables, pop up characters on demand, run unusual queries, etc. I got to the point where I could tweak the macros myself (a macro that popped up various ASCII symbols, for instance, I converted into a letter-writing template). WordPerfect could do everything but sit up and bark. WP6.0 looked great, but I found it less than a marvel and it remained unused while I happily typed away in 5.1. The evil Windows interface arrived in the form of WP5.2 (probably the clunkiest version of WP ever made). The folks at WordPerfect Magazine changed the name to WordPerfect for DOS and started publishing WordPerfect for Windows. The Microsoft machine bulldozed on. One day WordPerfect for DOS magazine was gone. I continued to type in DOS, but the magazines were relegated to a box. And once WPWin6 came, a distinct improvement over quirky 5.2, I was converted as well. Flash forward to today. Both James and I are consummate pack rats (the instinct seems to be inherited: he got it from his dad, I got it from my grandfather). Lately we, but mostly I, have been attempting to get out from under the various things that have been stored up, in and around which are now useless. One of the big jobs to tackle is the closet in the spare room, which aside being filled with what it should be storing, has become an enless repository of old things, including SCA feast gear, hospital papers from 1990, Commodore 64 software, curtains my mom sent that I don’t intend to use--and that box full of WordPerfect Magazines. It’s silly to say, but it will hurt me to throw them out, even though they are of no earthly use any longer. In an odd way they were friends that made me happy once upon a time. » Sunday, October 27, 2002
Image from the Past
Like most people, no matter how many pictures I see from the past, I remember my grandparents simply as old. A natural thing, as I only knew them in their elder years. (My paternal grandmother passed away before I could even remember her.) My mother's parents were both bent and silver by the time I remember them, and Grandpa was blind. My Dad's father, Papà, was the only grandparent who lived long enough that I really "knew" him. He wasn't your warm and fuzzy type grandparent. He was a hard worker all his life and even in retirement, spent his days planting not only his own vegetable garden, but one for two of my aunts. He had provided a home and sustenance for his family, but I also knew he'd been abusive to his wife and kids (it was an unfortunate Old Country cultural habit; if your wife said something you didn't like, you had the "right" to physically hurt them). So my feelings were always a bit ambivent toward him. And, despite the formal wedding portraits in the dining room of the old house, I always pictured him as grey, balding, and stoop-shouldered. While wandering around Barnes & Noble today I passed a big coffee table book called Italians in America. Naturally I couldn't resist taking a look at the pictures. One I found gave me pause. It was labeled something like "Street characters of Chicago," then below "a worker for the gas company." My grandfather worked his entire life digging ditches for the Providence Gas Company. The Italian man in the picture was not yet stoop shouldered. He might have been in his forties. He wore a soft slouch hat to protect himself from the sun, and had the luxuriant full moustache as was in fashion around the turn of the century. He was wearing those old-fashioned 19th-century trousers that came up past your waist when held up by the ubiquitous suspenders, and a white work shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He was frozen in time, lifting a shovelful of earth in preparation for another gas line. Had the picture been taken in Providence, it might have been my Papà, developing those stooped shoulders... » Monday, October 21, 2002
Reruns Everywhere
Saturday we partook of whatever newspapers were lying around while we were waiting for our meal at Waffle House. There was most of a Friday and some of a Thursday edition, including the feature sections. I was stopped dead by two articles, one about saving change and another about pumpkins. They looked familiar. Darn right they were. They'd been in the Sunday paper. James shrugged. They were "only feature articles." ??? We only get the Sunday paper now, but when I was living at home we got the Providence Journal and its sister night edition The Evening Bulletin every day, every week. Not once did I ever see any article from a previous paper repeated. So what goes? Are newspapers now too cheap to spring for new news, even of the feature variety? God knows we need something to read between the endless Rich's and Macy's ads...
I've no illusions about "the good old days." Yes, maybe people were more polite, the clothes were nicer looking, there were neighborhoods and neighborhood stores, etc.--there were also incurable diseases that are curable (or at least managable) now, bad sanitation, and glacial communication.
And, unfortunately, a more pervasive bigotry. I collect and read old books, both in print and now in e-books, and in most cases I can get through the prejudices of "the bad old days" with a sigh and thankfulness it's not like that now. Sometimes it's a hard gulp. But heavens, it's no wonder your average white kid grew up with so many prejudices after reading some of the old children's fiction out there (chiefly the "syndicate" material). Morrison's Adventures of a Boy Reporter was bad enough, with its patronizing description of Filipinos, but nearly every other page of The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico is fraught with stereotypes about Native Americans and Mexicans. As much as I tend to loathe extreme political correctness, I'm not certain I want to even see how it comes out. » Thursday, October 17, 2002
Slow and Steady Doesn't Always Win the Race...
Our friend Jerry over at Milblog (see link at left) recommended a small, free computer program called the Belarc Advisor, which tells you all about your personal computer's system. James loaded it and was impressed, so when he finished online I got on and among the various things I did was download and install this little "gadget." A few months ago MicroCenter had a wonderful sale, and I bought, for the heck of it, a DVD player for the computer. At the time, I had only an 8Mb video card, which James advised me was too slow to keep up with a DVD player. If you've read the earlier epic of the new hard disks, you might have noted I now have a 32Mb video card. The DVD, when installed, worked fine as far as it can work...but the picture and sound are jerky and don't synch to each other. James figured my processor, at 200MHz, was just too darn slow. After running Belarc, it's evident why the DVD player doesn't work. The processor isn't even 200MHz, it's 150! Yeah, this means I'm on the lookout for a new processor, if I can find a nice speedy Socket 7... » Wednesday, October 16, 2002
"Dude, You're On the Way Out"
Steven, the Dell kid, is being "rested" by the Dell folks, according to the news. Steven's kinda an acquired taste. He used to make me think of Leave It to Beaver's Eddie Haskell without much of the acid, and I still hate most of the commercials, except for my favorite "Steven, isn't this your dad's car?" "Uhh, noooo." (In other words, "Don't embarrass me in front of the girl, okay?") However, if Steven's replacements are to be "the interns," I think I'll take "Dude, you're getting a Dell" any day.
Yeah, I'm still here...
My, my, what a surprise this headline is: "Saddam wins 100 percent of vote." [Snort] » Monday, October 07, 2002
If You Can't Beat Them...
After all the publicity about Paramount trying to close down Star Trek related fan websites, followed by the WB's Buffy flap (although the WB's problem was more legitimate, against fans who were posting entire episodes and scripts rather than just pictures and episode guides), it's refreshing to see USA's attitude toward Monk fans: actually encouraging fans to make websites and even offering some pictures. » Friday, October 04, 2002
Spam-a-Rama
When Earthlink expanded our service sometime back, giving us more than three mailboxes, I reserved one for the "travel computer," originally the laptop I purchased when my mom was first diagnosed with cancer, in case I had to make frequent trips to help her. Unfortunately the laptop's on its last legs and the PDA is a lot easier to carry, even with its little keyboard, modem attachment, and power cords. So the e-mail address was now reserved for use there. Since I never use the address for anything else, I've never checked the e-mail box. Today, after cleaning a bunch of spam out of the main e-mail box, I wondered if I should check on this "never used" address. Maybe I never used it, but someone sure knows it's there. I found 976 messages in the box! » Monday, September 30, 2002
Home Shows–Only for the Rich Anymore?
Even before we had a home, James and I used to go to the Atlanta Home Show once a year. These were downtown at the World Congress Center and we’d always have a great time. We’d skip "the gardening junk" (although one year we did fall in love with the "bird-friendly" garden, which had teeny lawn portions) and attend demonstrations. Eventually we couldn't make the schedule: the spring show was perpetually a weekend we were busy and the fall show fell on the last weekend in September, usually a work weekend for those in Government contracting circles like me. Our new branch chief, however, has been trying to dispose of the nonsensical attitude that everything must be spent at the exact last minute, so this year, although the work has been steady, it was not excessive enough to require weekend work--a godsend since we had a double birthday party and an APAzine collation to go to as well. So on Sunday, armed with discount coupons from Borders, we went "a-homeshowing" for the first time in years. The Atlanta Home Show is now held at the Galleria (a.k.a. the world's most boring mall) in Marietta, and seems appreciably smaller than it did when we quit attending them over five years ago. I could swear the display floor of the World Congress Center was a lot larger than this. I must admit now that after the last home show we did manage to make, we were dissatisfied with the exhibitors. When we first attended these things, there were a great deal of different products for the home. Some of these even included food vendors; we remember the year the Wisconsin cheese people came. They had a sharp cheddar cheese spread that was to die for; we nursed our container for months, having the delicious concoction as a treat. The Watkins people used to show up, and there were other special foods and mixes marketed. There were also displays of things in the home for kids, pets, seniors, young couples just starting out, small homes. Granted, some of the regulars are always there. The Lustre Craft folks whom we bought our cookware from 12 years ago were in attendance (you do get what you pay for; this stuff is expensive, but I expect it to last for another 100 years, it's that good), also the other cookware people. The adjustable ladder people, the different mop vendors, the new window people, and the massage chair people were all there as well. But the two main vendor types seemed to be for jacuzzi/pools and fancy glass doors (and a couple of cases, stained glass windows). You couldn't turn a corner without seeing big hot tubs or beveled glass. The other prominent vendor-type was for kitchen re-dos, which seemed a little more sensible--until you noticed the type of kitchen remodelings they were selling. In short, there are fewer and fewer vendors there for people with lower incomes like ourselves. There were kitchen renovation plans there that probably cost half the price of our house (at least). (Heck, there were stoves there that were probably 1/10th the cost of our house.) There were things there we would have loved to have: a nice sturdy awning for over the glass doors, a professional stove, beautiful double-sash "lean in" windows, trim closet organizers with shelves and drawers, etc. Any one of them would have left us in debt out the nose. Where are the things for us "ordinary Joes" who don't want hand-crafted stained glass oriel windows, hot tubs that would graciously support an orgy of ten, "tea houses" that cost $4000 (and aren't even screened in), automated homes, $800 closet organizers, and $20,000 home theatre systems? Is there no room to exhibit something other than commercial-grade (and price) kitchen appliances, mahogany cupboards, and granite counters? Not everyone makes six-figure salaries and lives in a home with a two-story foyer, landscaped backyard, and so much room they need two (or more) air conditioning units. Home shows should send you off with ideas to make your house a better place to live, not how to stress yourself out with redecorating debts for the rest of your life. And certainly not leave you feeling poor and mean, like Bob Cratchit counting his shillings and wondering if he'll ever manage something comfortable for Tiny Tim... » Thursday, September 26, 2002
Neep Tide
Since the last time we'd tried to install the USB card it hadn't worked, I'd purchased a newer, USB 2.0 card (which didn't work either). Last night I plugged in the card and tried to load it again. Alas, the system locked up when I tried to load it--both times. James deduced that my elderly BIOS card probably couldn't handle the new software. But...what the heck. I tried loading the old USB card, and by golly, it worked! Aha, now to load ActiveSync and get the desktop to talk to the PDA. For about ten minutes, I was tempted to bang my head against the wall. Then, as if they'd woken from a deep sleep, both units tweedled at each other and they were connected. I spent an hour copying off finished e-books and loading new ones while Bandit sat on my shoulder and chirbled. Now if we can only get the network card to do its thing... » Wednesday, September 25, 2002
"The Time of New Tech"
(with apologies to Mr. Kipling; warning! "Neep" alert) My computer, frankly, was driving me crazy. It had been upgraded from Win3.1 to Win95, then recently to Win98 (original version). It was getting so that certain things didn't want to work on the fool thing. My modem has never told me the actually speed it was connected at, only one of about four ISP numbers worked, and it got to the point where I had to wait a minute or two before downloading e-mail because it had a predilection for kicking me off immediately after connect. James bought me a USB card so I could sync to my PDA (my dying laptop now being useless for the service) and not only did the software not load, but every time I booted up Windows it detected new software and wanted to re-load it, ending up in putting markers on every IRQ port on the system (one of the things I suspected was bolluxing up the modem). I had minimal hard drive storage (2.1G) in this era of fatware, but it was enough for my use, especially since we were planning to network the computers (another piece of software that wouldn't work on my recalcitrant system; when James installed it, the computer wouldn't even boot). The solution was to reformat the hard drive and reload everything. James, on the other hand, wanted a larger drive for the games he plays and the aviation photos he downloads, so some months earlier he had bought a 20G hard drive but not yet installed it (when he did try installing it, he put Win2000 on it; that just bolluxed up his system as he only has a 375Mhz and a more computer-saavy friend told us Win2000 insists on at least 600MHz). Luckily he could go back to his old drive until he worked out the problems, and eventually that's what I did as well: I bought a 40G hard drive on sale. And then I swapped drives with James. Let's face it, I don't download huge .jpgs of airplanes on my system. I also don't play tech-y large footprint games like aircraft simulators and shooting games. Pac-Man and Jumpman are more my speed. Even with two different graphics programs, Paint Shop Pro 5 and PhotoImpact 6, Word Perfect, Paradox, and my entire kaboodle of website tools, I wouldn't make a dent in 20G, let alone 40. He installed the 40 first, with the usual amount of cussing, with Win98SE as the OS this time. (I reminded him, however, not to get too angry when things go wrong: it upsets the dog! When he tried to install Win2000 and it wouldn't work, his reaction sent Willow clinging to my side with wide eyes. "Daddy's mad at the Not-a-Walk.* Maybe I'm next?") Eventually it worked fine, except for the fact that the software for his video card had somehow done a bunk. For some incredible reason, Win98 only has video support for only 16 colors! We tried downloading the software for his video card, but it apparently was the wrong type, as it didn't work. He eventually just picked up a new card on sale at Micro Center. Luckily with my system all that was missing (or so we thought) was the sound card driver for my computer. Win98 picked it right up--but now my video card wouldn't work! We cursed and then realized upon researach that the software for the fool thing only worked with Win95; no Win98 software existed. So we hunted around on the web, found the correct software driver for his old 32M video card, and now I'm using it. The hard drive gave us minimal trouble and I spent one of my after-the-hospital rest days loading software onto the beast. I was perplexed when I reloaded Eudora and tried to substitute the old mailboxes for the new ones, something I had done before successfully: Eudora told me it couldn't write to them! "Duh moment" here–it dawned on me a day later that I'd backed up the mailboxes on CD-R and the files were now all "read only"! Once this was changed, they worked fine (ditto with my backed-up web pages). The most annoying quirk happened when I loaded the software for my Intellimouse. We'd put the old modem (a WinModem, which James hates) back in the computer and reloaded it successfully, but it was still unstable and still didn't show the connect speed. It also only connected on one ISP number. After loading the Intellimouse software, even that phone number quit working. Sigh. Good ol' Microslop efficiency. James had needed to buy a new modem for his unit anyway, as a fruitless search of software files had not turned up the old modem software (of course, we found software from two or three previous modems, but not that one). The computer show at the Cobb County Civic Center was that weekend, so he made sure he bought a hardware modem rather than a software modem (WinModem), which worked promptly and efficiently when he installed it. So I bought one the other day. Golly, I can finally see what speed I'm connected at, and it has a cool little Intel diagnostic tool to boot. Now if only the fool USB card will work; I have lots of nice "new" e-Books I want to load on my PDA... *I believe this designation is from an old Gary Larson cartoon, something to the effect of "What the dog thinks of your things." It had drawings of a computer, a television, sports equipment, etc., all labeled in the dog's mind "Not-a-Walk." When Wil looks mournful, we're apt to say to her, "Awww, poor Willow. Daddy's playing with the Not-a-Walk and not you." » Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Guilty confession: Okay, if I had to watch one useless network program, it would be The Other Half, a smorgasbord of silliness featuring Danny Bonaduce, Mario Lopez, and Dorian Gregory. Topics include what men say that women misinterpret, the different types of women you meet on a date, recent fluffy self-help books, a tanning booth, foods, etc. For fluff TV, it's reasonably intelligent, without the dregs of society you see on Springer's disaster or Divorce Court, and, okay, all the guys are cute...
» Monday, September 23, 2002
The doctor says I may go back to work on Wednesday. There is a rule that anyone who has had a possible cardiac-related incident must wait 10 days from the occurrence to return to work even if they have been given a clean bill of health.
The doctor says I may take my beta-blocker in the evening. Hurrah! It makes me woozy for a few hours if I take it in the daytime, but the nurse at the hospital said I had to take it in the morning. I was upstairs tidying the room Bandit stays in at night and in the daytime; the television up there is not attached to cable. In the times I have sat up there, whether getting over a cold or just "resting," I've discovered that watching broadcast TV is about the best incentive to read a book ever. :-) The main thing I discovered was that on daytime network TV, the ambulance chasers are king. Almost every other commercial is for some earnest person talking about how they were injured on the job and how their employer refused to pay until they hired some lawyer. The saddest thing I saw was actor Robert Vaughn doing one of these commercials! » Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Oh, cool thing that happened while I was reading the bound St. Nicholas mentioned in the previous entry: these are the November 1885-April 1886 magazines, which include the original appearance of Frances Hodgsen Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy. Also in the magazine is a series of articles called Personally Conducted, written by Frank Stockton, who was famous for his fairy tales back in this era. Personally Conducted is a tour of different European cities and areas (if you tour the Mark Twain house in Hartford, Connecticut, a copy of Personally Conducted is one of the books sitting on the table in the library), and the article that interested me in particular was a tour of Naples, Mount Vesuvius, and the surrounding area.
If you have ever seen the web page I did for my mother, I tell that her parents grew up on the island of Ischia, which is just off the coast of Naples, both the children of tenant farmers. My grandfather evidently had the stepmother from Hell and my grandmother, all of nine years old, was the one who would mend his clothes for him and fix him a proper breakfast. In Stockton's article about Naples, written in 1886, he briefly mentions Ischia and a bad earthquake they had had on the island two years earlier in which many people were killed. This would have been 1884, when my grandparents were both about eight years old. So when I talked to my mother on Monday, I asked her if her parents had ever mentioned the earthquake. Yes, she told me, this was how my grandfather's mother had died. In trying to protect her baby (who died), she was struck on the chest by a falling rock and never recovered, dying a year later. Just so odd to pick up a 116 year old book and find something that pertains to your own family in it...
Life Is What Happens...
Sunday was a busy day. We went to Harry's Farmer's Market first, then tiptoed our way through the mud and mist to attend the small craft show at Jim Miller Park. It was sparsely attended due to the weather, so we were home by two. We read the paper, then James started working on his computer and I was getting sleepy, so I decided to do a couple of things that "wanted doing" in the kitchen, including mounting the potholders in a different place so they wouldn't be in the way when we cooked (this involved making pilot holes and climbing up and down on chairs to mount the new hooks). Then I decided the kitchen needed a good scrubbing before I cooked and went to work with sponge and Lysol disinfecting wipes. I include all these homely details to assure you I wasn't being a slug all day. After supper, I had Bandit on my hand and was talking to him as we climbed up the five steps into the kitchen from the den. In the middle of the kitchen I suddenly felt as if there had been a great rush of blood to (or perhaps from) my head. I felt hideously giddy and my heart was suddenly racing, so hard that it only took a moment before I was out of breath. Holding Bandit was a danger, I suddenly knew. If I passed out--and I certainly felt like I might--he might be hurt. So I immediately took him back downstairs. On the way past the bathroom, I turned on the light and could see myself in the mirror. I could clearly see my pulse pounding at the foot of my neck. I let James know there was something wrong, sat down and tried to relax. I've had palpitations before, but only when I've had caffiene. This was more like the "spells" my mom has in which an activity can cause her heart to flutter because she has a sticky valve. (Don't know the medical name for it.) After a half hour, it was evident this wasn't going away by itself. James got me some clothes and we drove down to Wellstar, which is the closest emergency room. Once they found out my heart rate was 190, they whisked me in the back and attached me to a monitor machine, gave me an IV saline drip, eventually smacked a nitroglycerin patch on my arm (to slow my heart rate), and generally fussed about. While I was frightened I was by no means out of it and it occurred to me with only slight amusement that I felt like I was in an episode of Emergency. We had gotten there at 8:30 and by midnight they'd gotten my heart down to about 115-120. We sat and watched the TV that was in the room (saw most of Pleasantville) and talked to each of the doctors, nurses, and technicians who wandered in. I couldn't have been in that bad a shape because they did unhitch me several times to wander to the bathroom on my own. They also contacted Kaiser Permanente, who said I needed to be moved to "their" hospital, Northside. So about 2 a.m. or thereabouts I wended my way across town in an ambulance. The attendants were very nice and the male member of the team took vitals and kept me calm while we made the trip. James followed, with a short side trip to take poor Willow out for a last walk and bring Bandit upstairs to bed. So we were ensconced at Northside at about 3 a.m. Between the bouts of being monitored and questioned, we tried to sleep, but James had only two hard chairs and I gave him my pillow, trying to rest on a folded up sheet instead. Heck, I had the bed and it wasn't very comfortable anyhow. Our 12-year-old Sealy Posturepedic is more firm than this mattress was. My back was aching in minutes and I never could lie flat more than a half hour at the time, a bit of a pain since I had an IV shunt in either one arm or the other the entire time and couldn't lie on that side. Of course the first fear was that I had had some type of heart attack. Over the course of Monday and Tuesday I had several tests, including many blood tests, a stress test, an echocardiogram, and a sonogram on my legs (checking for blood clots). I was supposed to have a CT scan with a dye, but I'm embarrassed to admit my claustrophobia emerged full blown and I ended up hysterically crying and curled up into a fetal position during the "test run" the tech did before inserting the dye. They tried another type of test, but I found I could not even clamp my nose shut and breathe in through a mask without having some type of panic attack. Since all the other tests turned out normal, including a specific cardiac blood test, save for one cardiac enzyme that was "off," the cardiologist and the doctor decided I did not need the CT scan. The enzyme might just as well be "off" because my heart had been beating at such a rapid rate for some hours. I was still pretty funked about it. I managed through a CT scan some years back, albeit without the dye, and thought I could do it again. The doctors and nurses at both places were quite nice, although it was a bit much to be woken at 5:45 a.m. just to check my weight (blood pressure I could understand--but my weight?; did they think it had run off somewhere in the night?). (I also want to know why modern blood pressure cuffs are so darn tight! My upper arms are sore!) At Northside, Monday's day nurse found James a chair that unfolded into a bed, which he gratefully used Monday night, as he had to be at work Tuesday to get the monthly ad out. She also calmed me down both times after both panic attacks. Tuesday's day nurse explained all the medications to me and even found me a regular dinner (no one ever changed my dinner order after I had all the tests, so I was on a clear liquid diet both days; consomme has never tasted so good!) right before I was released that evening. We also talked about books while I was waiting for James to come pick me up. (They have "how are we doing?" cards you can fill out when you leave and I put good words in for both of them.) In the meantime between tests I watched TV (thank God, they have cable now; I could watch HGTV, which is like comfort food to me, and episodes of M*A*S*H on fX) and read the St. Nicholas bound volume James had brought with him when he stopped at home. The doctor's verdict was that either it has something to do with incipient menopause (I have been having hot flashes lately) or it may be severe acid reflux disease (a good possibility since lately Tums is my friend). She also indicated there might be stress factors that she didn't know about that could have contributed to it. The cardiologist gave me a beta blocker just in case--I also had two doses of blood thinner at the hospital--and I also have something for acid reflux. I'll see my doctor on Monday and probably have more tests. The doctor thought the beta blocker dose the cardiologist prescribed was too high for me and told me to keep an eye on my pulse. It does make me a bit woozy. I was also told my blood pressure is too low and, while the dietician didn't want me attacking any salt licks :-), she didn't want me to take any low-salt precautions, either. I'm free to eat salty things and not have to worry about it. I've always said salt, not sugar, wakes me up; turns out I was right! I also need--and this I've known--to lose weight. I'll ask on Monday when I can start using the exercise bike again, and James and I have been talking about taking Willow over to the National Park nearby for walks as we are both horrendously out of shape. I'll continue using the stairs at work (and not just because the elevator scares the bejeebers out of me) as well. Sigh. End-of-fiscal-year has always strung me out, but this wasn't exactly how I wanted to escape it. A nice job editing manuscripts and/or typing them, or doing web page work was more what I was thinking of. Anyway, we got home and Willow danced around my legs and Bandit gave me a blank look until he realized it was "really, really" me. We did have a cute happening that night: it began to thunder, something Wil is really sensitive to lately. When we went up to bed it was still rumbling and poor Willow sat at the foot of the stairs howling like a small wolf. Several times she sounded like she was trying to talk! It thundered all through the night and when the alarm rang this morning, I was conscious that she was in the room. James said she'd been upstairs all night. He'd gotten up to use the bathroom, heard a jingle from the spare room, and found Willow curled up tightly on the futon next to the bird cage! I guess she figured if she couldn't be with "Daddy" she could at least keep company with "Brother." He said he didn't have the heart to send her away. :-) So I get up every so often and walk about, am trying to "eat lightly" and with salt, have talked to my mom and taken Bandit to see the pretty bird in the mirror. It's what I'd started to do Sunday night, after all... » Thursday, September 12, 2002
Oh, well. This week's Word of the Week on the local elementary school (see previous) is at least one word.
Of course it's also misspelled... » Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Of all the little tributes and memorials I saw today, it was Bill Holbrook's Kevin and Kell that made me cry.
I couldn't find a local FM station (AM won't come in our building) that was broadcasting the New York ceremony, so I cast about on the web for a live feed. I found WABC, but grew increasingly grumpy as the announcers talked over the beginning of the event. When they broke into talk about their memories over Gov. Pataki's reading of the Gettysburg Address, which I'd particularly wanted to hear, I gave up on them in disgust. Ironically I ended up watching a very fuzzy--but intact--video feed of the event off WABC's television outlet. Listened to almost all the recitation of the names of the people lost in the buildings, but nature got insistent about the time they reached the V's. At this point the listing of the names and the few short words put in by family of some of the lost had been going on for 2 1/2 hours. We did see a nice special last night on GPTV called Stranded Yanks, the story of the stranded passengers and crew of the diverted American planes that were welcomed so warmly in places like Gander, St. John's, and Vancouver. One Canadian woman actually drove 12 senior citizens home to Iowa from Vancouver. But the evening ended on a sobering note as we watched the last hour of the NBC special airing. It traced the countdown to 9/11 in missed clues and then followed four different families who had waited for news of someone trapped in the Towers. Of the four, only one family had a happy ending; the most affecting story was from a woman who was on the phone with her husband through most of his ordeal trying to escape and trying to make it out to the roof, and finally hearing his voice fade with the effects of the smoke and then disappear as the building collapsed. » Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Late Update: Dragoncon, Day 4
Something odd happened over the weekend, which I'm wondering had anything to do why I'm home today feeling as if I'm about to cough a lung up. Friday night on the way home we stopped at the QT gas station on Austell Road for a Marietta Daily Journal (they'd done an article in which ARTC was featured). The moment we stopped there, my nose swelled up and I sneezed. It went away when we got home, but I awoke on Saturday with a sore throat. This happens often due to my allergy because of a stuffy nose. Once I had a drink and breakfast the soreness vanished. This also happened Sunday morning. We were leaving Sunday night and I was thinking to myself how good I'd felt over the weekend. Three days away from the stuffiness and fluorescent lights at work had worked wonders. I felt lively and had energy and was quite happy. We stopped at the QT on the way home for a Sunday paper and once again the odd stuffiness and sneezing began. There must be something in the area, we thought, that I was allegic to. And boy did it do a number on me this time! I sniffled throughout the night and didn't sleep well. I was still stuffy when we set out for our last day at the convention. It still appeared to be my allergy as, when we drove past the QT, I began to sneeze again. We spent an enjoyable morning watch the Babylon 5 reunion panel. Both Julie Caitlin Brown and David Allan Brooks came in late due to having a great time at the previous night's Jefferson Starship concert. As on a previous B5 panel, the cast was in rare form egging each other on. I was feeling a bit worn out, but still attended the Doctor Who panel about the future of the series. They had a small trivia test and I received a season nine Who booklet for answering correctly the question "What is Ace's real name?" (Dorothy.) James went on for another stroll of the Dealer's Room, but I decided just to stay behind and listen to the Harry Potter Books v. Movie panel. This was lively as one panelist was definitely not a fan of Chris Columbus, the director of the movie. James, sweet thing, came back with a watermelon cup for me. Our last panel was the Blake's 7 one I had been wanting to see, as B7 is generally ignored at recent conventions. It was, sadly, sparsely attended, but it was a Monday afternoon. Many people had already left the convention. Unfortunately by the time we got back upstairs registration had already closed, so we couldn't buy memberships for next year. It was very obvious by now this was more than an allergy problem, so James and I went home so I could nurse whatever it was. It turned out I had a low-grade fever as well, and the stuffiness progressed and a cough appeared as the night went on. I didn't fall asleep until about 4 a.m. this morning. Despite aspirin and copious glasses of water, I am still coughing and stuffy. I've been coughing so hard, in fact, my ribs hurt. What a disappointing way to end a great weekend! » Sunday, September 01, 2002
Dragoncon, Day 3
Since the panel we had wanted to see at ten had been cancelled, we took somewhat of our time going in this morning. We headed to the Dealer's Room first, where the zine distributor let me trade in the duplicate for two smaller zines (Shadow Chasers, if you're interested, a very short-lived series that I only saw one or two episodes of, but I have grown to love the fanfiction). James also bought a book on rocketry and technology in the media. Next we went to Peter David's Star Trek panel. We talked a little about Trek, but the bulk of the panel was his usual reading: this was not from one of his Trek novels, but from a book due out next summer, a sequel to his recently republished Knight Life. I'd left my PDA in the truck, so we made a fast detour to the garage before returning to the dealer area. James bought some Sluggy Freelance books and I bought a critique of the Blake's 7 series and episodes. Here we parted for a while: James went to a spacecraft talk and I went to a panel that was ostensibly about guest stars on Star Trek: the Next Generation, but kept wavering toward Babylon 5 since four of the five panel members (Andreas Katsulas, Julia Nickson, Julie Caitlin Brown, Lisa Wilcox, and Carel Strueyken) had been guest stars or regulars on that series. Julie took the lead in the panel and it was quite funny. We then staked out places for the new MRAP stage comedy/musical, Welcome Back, Potter. Yes, Harry returns to Hogwarts to teach (and Snape still hates his guts) and his students are misfit imports from America--the "Warthogs," Barbarino, Horshack, and Epstein, the two Halliwell sisters Phoebe and Piper, their long-lost sister "Hotzie" Totzi, and Tabitha Stevens. Cordelia Chase and the Doctor somehow also made their way into this hilarious concoction, which featured songs based on music from Grease, Damn Yankees, and Cinderella, among others. (The capper was "Let's Go to Hogwarts Again.") We kept our seats and munched our snacks through the interviening hour and a half (I'll skip the small altercation with security) so we'd have a good view for ARTC's two pre-masquerade performances, the 50s space opera spoof Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, and the infamous Special Order, a.k.a. "The Bookstore Play," about a mysterious and imposing customer who attempts to order The Necronomicon (the real one) from a bookstore and what happens when the volume actually shows up. Fiona Leonard's performance and the climactic scene usually leaves us with lumps in our throats. We stood and chatted around the ARTC table, which was one of the nicest parts of the day. for another hour before heading home. » Saturday, August 31, 2002
Dragoncon, Day 2
Arrived early and had about 30 minutes in the dealer's room before it got crowded. I bought eight zines: one is for a gift, and I discovered later on that I already had one of them; it had a different cover and I didn't recognize it. It is undamaged, so I'm hoping the distributor may let me return or trade on it. There's a Secret Adventures of Jules Verne zine that looked intriguing. Anyway, I bought issues 1-5 of Prime Time, a multimedia zine done by some friends of mine, and Oh Boy! 6. You may be able to guess what that's devoted to. (Me, I'm devoted to Admiral Al Calavicci.) Then James went off to a spam panel and I saw Chris Demetral of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. He's charming and funny, and told some amusing stories of working in authentic Victorian costume. Apparently they are still trying to market a season 2 of the series. James had a panel about spaceships of the future at one, while I went to see Ethan Phillips. I was not a Star Trek: Voyager fan, and really not a Neelix fan, but Phillips was a riot. He not only talked about the series, but regaled the crowd with jokes. We then caught up with each other, and, because Robert Picardo's panel had been moved (sigh...), saw Robin Sachs instead. He was amusing, but not as good, I thought, as either of the previous panelists. We chose to leave that panel a bit early because the next panel featured the Babylon 5 cast and we wanted to get good seats. A good thing, too, because even at 3:25, people were lining up for this 4 p.m. panel! (The DragonCon heirarchy persists in putting the B5 programming in small rooms, despite protests. Well, this year's room was larger than last year's, but not by much!) If laughter is the best medicine, we got a good dose of health at this panel. From the moment the "festivities" began, we were in stitches. The panel consisted of Tracy Scoggins, Julia Nickson, Julie Caitlin Brown, Andrea Thompson, Andreas Katsulas, Peter Jurasik, Richard Biggs, and Jason Carter, and they were all hilarious, especially Biggs and Carter, who came walking in last (the autograph areas they were appearing in was quite a walk from the panel rooms). Julie Brown led the conversation, but everyone had a chance to get some zingers in, and most people ended up laughing until tears came. Our last panel was a wrap up of the Enterprise series with Peter David. Panel and audience debated the pros and cons of the show (the theme song got some bad marks). We debated on whether to stay longer or not, drifted to the ARTC table for a while, then went for supper. By the time we finished, we figured we'd make it an early night and came home by nine. » Friday, August 30, 2002
Dragoncon, Day 1
A short day today. We slept late, spent some time with the fids, then had lunch at Boston Market before braving downtown Atlanta traffic (the streets aren't bad, it's the freeway). When we got to registration, we were asked for "the green card that you were sent in the mail." Well, maybe in your mail, not in ours! Apparently a lot of people didn't get their green cards in the mail, if the comments we heard in line were correct. Spent the next few hours strolling the Dealer's Room, the Exhibit Hall, and the Art Show. Saw a friend we hadn't seen in a couple of years, and said hello to Daniel Taylor, whose heart attack and subsequent problems with his blood thinners are chronicled in his blog. I was overjoyed in the Dealer's Room to see that Jim Butcher's new Harry Dresden book is out, and also that one of the dealers has fanzines! I'll be making a stop in two places tomorrow. Oh,yeah, and Bill Holbrook is there, so I can buy the latest Kevin and Kell comic collection. The Art Show is good and bad. The pro stuff is excellent, but the amateur material is only so-so. James was a bit flaked out, so I attended one panel without him: Armin Shimmerman in a panel for the Buffy programming track. He was pleasant and funny: talked about his first audition for the show, a time when Sarah Michelle Gellar helped him out with a scene, and other small tidbits. He also talked about being a union steward, did a scene from Richard III and talked about being a Shakespearean scholar and teaching Shakespeare courses. Afterwards found James in the main performance room and we had the supper (roast "beast" sandwiches we'd carried with us) while sitting, reading the schedule, and watching the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company people straggle in to set up for their performance. Talked with everyone as they came in, then sat through the short opening ceremony before their production began. Dancer in the Dark is, in short, stunning. I sat there with my eyes fixed on the stage listening to the story, hardly able to wait to hear what happened next. The plot: in 1928, Indian mounds are being excavated in a small Georgia town. Professor Cletius Tremaine arrives from Arkham, Massachusetts, to see the excavation, being handled by his nephew. But there are townspeople telling him it's dangerous to open the mounds, that something under the earth is waiting to be freed... As young Jerry says in the production, "Wow!" And let that suffice. » Tuesday, August 27, 2002
The movie A Ring of Endless Light premiered on the Disney Channel recently.
You must understand I have been a fan of Madeleine L’Engle’s since Judy Martini recommended A Wrinkle in Time to me in seventh grade. (I will thank Judy for this till the day I die.) I have as many of L’Engle’s books as I can collect, and I’ve even slogged through Ilsa, borrowed from the library, a book which L’Engle admits badly needed an editor. My favorites of her fiction are A House Like a Lotus and A Wrinkle in Time, but I love her nonfiction. When I am mentally or spiritually troubled, it’s L’Engle’s nonfiction I turn to, especially the Crosswicks books or the Genesis Trilogy. So you can see why I’d be interested–and afraid–when The Disney Channel announced they were doing two L’Engle projects, Ring of Endless Light and a miniseries version of A Wrinkle in Time (set to air in November; there’s a preview of it on the Spy Kids DVD). I’d wondered how one earth they were going to do Ring as a movie anyway, since most of it is introspection from Vicky Austin about herself, her life, the two young men in her life, Zachary Gray and Adam Eddington, and the dolphins Adam is researching. I also wondered about the climax, as I couldn’t see Disney doing the sequence where the little girl, Binnie, dies of a seizure (she is epileptic and her religious zealot father keeps throwing her medication in the toilet). Predictably, too, Zachary’s suicide attempt was left out, so there’s no Commander Rodney to die as in the book's opening. (The harbormaster is actually someone named Dan in what looked like a token black role.) In total it was predictably superficial, and I wonder what Madeleine L’Engle thought of it since it’s been so heavily promoted on her granddaughter Charlotte Jones’ website. Let me get out of the way what I did like: Suzy Austin. Suzy was almost perfect. (Little brother Rob was okay. They turned him into your typical little boy tormenting his sister, though, with a bug collection, and in one scene he says a very un-Rob line about girls being gross. But at the end he still asks the thought-provoking question about death perhaps being like people without eyes on an alien planet getting to go to a planet with sight when they die.) Suzy indeed had a great line in the movie: Zach drives up as they are bicycling to the research center and she mutters, “Look, here’s Mr. Thinks-He's-Wonderful” with the appropriate disgusted attitude. Use of some of the Henry Vaughan poetry (including the end) that figures in much of the novel, including lending the book its title. Grandfather actually mentioned as being a minister (Disney usually avoids mention of religion like the proverbial plague). Zach saying that he admires the Austins because they love one another and have dinner together and go to church and say Grace. God being mentioned in a Disney movie (the only other mention I can remember is in Pollyanna). Grandfather giving Vicky all her poems in a bound book, and his final gift to her being another bound book for future poems. James Whitmore as Grandfather. Not how I pictured him, but I liked him. Material I was ambivalent about: Absence of Leo Rodney, another boy interested in Vicky. Mr. Rochester the Great Dane as Grandfather’s dog, not the Austins. The climax of the movie as rescuing Ynid [one of the dolphins] from a drift net. Looks like the scriptwriters took something Adam said about dolphins getting caught in fishermen’s nets and ran with it. As I said, this is a thoughtful novel. How would you bring it to the screen? I can’t see Disney doing the original climax: death of a little girl in an emergency room and Vicky’s resultant depression, with the dolphins—and Adam—to bring her out of it. Too esoteric. Stuff that really bothered me: Grandfather hiding the fact of his leukemia from the family. Quite at odds with the character. His illness is one of the troubling things Vicky must work through during the summer, and it contributes to the climax of the book. It also reeks of filmmaker manipulation. Vicky is played by this tall, scrawny actress who looks like a model instead of a real girl. She’s not too bad acting-wise, but she doesn’t look anything like anyone imagines Vicky, who describes herself as plain. She always seems to be irritated instead of troubled. Zach isn’t dark enough. I always think of Zach as James Dean. This Zach is merely annoying rather than obnoxious. The kid who played Adam, Ryan Merriman, was cute, but he seemed terribly childish and excessively emotional for the role. The novel Adam was quieter and more mature—and he sure wouldn’t have been rude enough to be confrontative when Vicky introduces Zach to him at lunch. Zach’s dad as a one-dimensional eco-oppositionist. Ugh. The scene where Vicky rushes into the tank where Ynid is giving birth. In the book the dolphin researchers are very close to the dolphins and know what they need. In the movie Vicky must tell them (I guess as the all-knowing psychic dolphin guru) not to give Ynid a sedative (good God, what dolphin researcher would sedate a dolphin unless it was an emergency anyway????) and that Basil has to be there to help her with her baby, like Dr. Zand and Adam are the dumbest clots on earth. The final rescue scene where Vicky can “sense” Ynid in trouble from miles away. Urgh. It smacks of Lassie. The thing I completely hated: The reason Vicky is so snappish for much of the movie is that her parents are forcing, forcing, mind you, her to apply for a new high school at the university where they teach (they are not a doctor and a retired singer in this version, evidently), although she feels she would not be comfortable there. Wallace and Victoria Austin would never, never ever ask any of their kids to apply to a school that made them uncomfortable. They might encourage Vicky to apply there because they believed it would be good for her. If she did apply, they would help her with her studies and tell her to do the best she could. They would not force her into doing so. Mrs. Austin would also not just shrug off Vicky’s poetry with an “oh, they’re okay.” They do this in every damn freaking movie these days, even if the source material doesn’t call for it: the kids always, always must be at odds with their parents about something, and the parents must be clueless and unyielding (occasionally stupid as well). Apparently understanding parents are verboten in kids’ movieland these days. They did it with Sarah Plain and Tall, and with the Laura Ingalls Wilder movie mess on CBS, and even with the 1980s remake of Jonny Quest. I expect that when the Wrinkle in Time miniseries comes out, Meg is going to be rude to her mother and have “issues” with her father and all sorts of modern adolescent rot. They wouldn’t take a book that was about a troubled teenager and gloss over the bad parts, so why must they take stories with positive adults and make them into objects of annoyance? » Monday, August 26, 2002
Every once in a while I hear about a condition called "SADD." It a syndrome that hits people in the winter, sometimes called the "winter doldrums." Because it's dark and cold, these people suffer from depression. One of the remedies, I've heard, is "light therapy." Sunlamps are installed in these folks' homes to emulate the illusion of summer and sunshine.
I read this medical news always wondering if there's an opposite syndrome; if so I definitely have it. Although a series of cold dark winter days can be a bit dreary, I revel in the lack of sunshine and heat. Cuddling up in comforters while wearing a snuggly sweatsuit is a joy, as are flannel jammies. When the air is cool and clear I feel alive. Summer and heat is just something to be endured. Suppose they have a "cold dark light" somewhere? » Thursday, August 22, 2002
Maybe This is Why Kids Don't Learn Well...
The sign on the elementary school near our house says "Word of the Week: Self-control/Virtue." Um, folks, where I went to school those were two words.
Sigh. It's so warm at my desk that if someone poured a bucket of water over me, instead of getting wet I'd melt like the Wicked Witch of the West...
Can't Stop the Music
One of the things I have to do in the course of doing purchase orders is phone vendors for quotes. (My regular vendors I have e-mails for; it’s much simpler to cut and paste the requirement and fire it off to them asking for a price.) Naturally doing all these phone calls one has fun with the wonders of voice mail. Someday I'm hoping to hear "If you want to speak to our sales department, press 1. If you want to speak to our support department, press 2. If you want our dial-by-name directory, press 3. If you are sick to death of these voice instructions, press 4." Actually, the directional messages are okay. It's the on-hold music that drives me nuts. Sometimes you get lucky and the background music is some mellow old jazz, easy listening, new age, or lively classical arrangement. CompUSA's hold "music" was actually product plugs interspersed with their radio commercials, which were at least usually amusing. But too many times it's music played too loud, or some intensely irritating twangy, wail-y country type music. Put in one call today and was assailed by the loudest, most dissonant jazz/new age type composition I'd ever heard. I like new age, but this was simply obnoxious. I had to lower the volume on my phone (which, thankfully I can do), but then of course when the "real person" finally picks up, you can't hear them. (This became more annoying when the vendor took a full six minutes to pick up the line.) Several months back I was blasted with rock music so loud that even turning the sound down didn't help–I had to pull the phone about two inches away from my ear before I could stand it. If I didn't have to call them for business reasons, I would certainly not phone them again. |
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