Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:10 PM

I keep forgetting how much libraries help recharge me. [Or, even when I don't forget, the hours just aren't convenient.]*

Anyway, after picking up some fresh pleasure reading, I'm even more skeptical about Bush's vacation reading list.

I knew it the moment I picked up The Great Influenza... that sucker's heavy. About 550 pages. Maybe it really flows, I haven't actually started it yet, but just lugging it around will be more of a workout than I want at the moment.

But then I thought further about the announcement of the President's vacation reading, and the manner it was done just doesn't ring true.

I mean, outside of school- or work- assignments, who really sets forth with a list of three books, saying they will read these three books, no more, no less, no others?

I tend to pick up more books than I could possibly read, because I can't always tell from the cover which books are going to grab me. And (unless one has to) why waste time slogging through to finish books you're not enjoying, when you could just switch to a more suitable work? [I'm not saying that books that don't suit are necessarily bad -- just not right for the reader at that particular time.] Also, having a reading list greater than one's capacity gives a ready excuse for why you didn't read that particular book without hurting the authors' feelings. [Not that I've ever had to do that, but it's a drawback of celebrity... ]

Anyway, Bush's spokesman made an awfully specific commitment, for some quite strenuous reading within a limited timeframe. As a heavy reader, it rarely works that way for me. So I'm doubtful.

At any rate, at the libraries today, I checked out the following:

• The Great Influenza: the epic story of the deadliest plague in history
• Flu: the story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it -- looks like more of a popular history approach to the topic. I've been interested in the subject for a while, we'll see which grabs me.
• Expletive deleted: a good look at bad language -- I'm several chapters into this and enjoying it a great deal. It appeals to my pedantic side and I'm finding it oh-so-colorful!
• The people's chef: the culinary revolutions of Alexis Soyer another look at food in Victorian England. Don't know why the subject fascinates me so, but I like learning what everyday life was like.
• Slave in a box: the strange career of Aunt Jemima -- been meaning to read this since I finished Finding Betty Crocker
• Fagin the Jew by Will Eisner; already finished.

I was even kind enough to check out A Scholar of magics for Ian (who just finished rereading A College of magics), even though I'm still rather ticked at him for losing another library book I was kind enough to check out for him.

I'd actually hoped to pick up the latest in the Princess Diaries series plus Melusine by Sarah Monette, but I couldn't get to the libraries with available copies and didn't want them immediately enough to place an actual request.

*I mentioned yesterday at lunch that I felt like I was coming down with a cold. [Went for a walk after posting and discovered it was warmer outside than in the office. Time to keep a sweater in my desk.] Didn't feel much better this morning, so decided it would be better to spend today taking care of myself rather than let things go on and end up really incapacitated. I was moderately productive (I suspect about as much as if I had gone into the office) and after a lunch of wonton soup, went to the Somerville library to soak up the vibes and make use of their wifi until my laptop batteries died (about a quarter to five).

PS: The intermittent Comcast cablemodem connection drops I described last week seem to be getting more frequent and longer. [Another reason I went to the library; ongoing roadwork in front of our house was another incentive.] Seems to be hourly and sometimes as little as a half-hour apart, and they're lasting up to five minutes. Time to make a few calls. Hopefully we'll have better luck than this case.

And now I think it's time for bed. Goodnight!

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:30 PM

From a recent exchange on WoW forums:

Thread begins:

As a reminder to the Alliance and Horde the DFP and fellow Horde will be hitting the Alterac Valley area around 6:00 PM server time. Hope to see some great battles and have a wonderful time.

8/16/2005 3:29:01 AM PDT -- Brion, Level 57 Night Elf Hunter:

ok i have a proposition for the horde, let us kill Korrak while you sit and watch. and well let you get all the honor youll ever want=}. no? ok well it shall be a great battle then, hope to see everyone there!

8/16/2005 8:44:27 AM PDT -- Faydra, Level 59 Human Priest:

((OOC))

Pardon me for hijacking the thread, here..

But, Brion - if you don't want your mother to know you were up and on the computer at 3:29 in the morning - DON'T post on a forum that she reads.

Busted.
Grounded.

I've never before used the term PWNED but that seems to be most people's reactions.

I've only skimmed the first page of comments, which include my title quote and this gem: "Are you going to take that from her, Brion? Mom nothing, she's only two levels up on you." People are calling it one of the best threads ever. Someone's even made a t-shirt!

Later, Faydra informs the other gamers they "won't be seeing Brion at Alterac Valley tonight..." Gee, I wonder why...

[as seen on Fandom Lounge]

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 PM

Just wondering. Does anybody (outside my immediate family) have fond memories of Brothers, a sitcom that aired on Showtime in the mid-1980s?

Oddly enough, one of the best descriptions of the show comes from a BBC site, but the paucity of info about the show on the web makes me wonder if anybody else remembers the show and/or used to watch it?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:40 PM

While I was scouring the web for a good photo of Nils Olav, I came upon this BBC page in Russian with this scary but inexplicable image:

Babelfish provided some assistance, but it's awfully strange, no?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:30 PM

No, not the documentary film -- I'm talkin' bout Colonel in Chief of the Royal Norwegian Guard Nils Olav, shown here in the medal ceremony which accompanied his latest promotion:

Colonel in Chief of the Royal Norwegian Guard Nils Olav; notice the medal attached to his wing

Nils Olav, an Edinburgh resident, joined the Norwegian Army in 1972 as Lance Corporal in the Royal Norwegian Guard. He's been promoted four times since then until Friday's medal ceremony where he achieved one of the most senior ranks in the Guard and a statue was erected in his honor.

For more information on the plucky penguin, just Google on his name. Scotland Today includes a short videoclip where the soldier who originally recruited him talks about the reason for this promotion and the duties associated with his new rank. ["He will have frontline fighting duties."]

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:02 PM

Michael Schaub, over on Bookslut blog:

"It's a fair bet that George W. Bush is the only person in the entire United States who chose those three books to read on vacation," Osnos said.

No, I swear to God, he said it. That would be PublicAffairs publisher Peter Osnos, reacting to a White House press release (read: comically obvious lie) that Bush is reading Salt: A World History, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar and The Great Influenza on his five-week vacation. (Note to our Canadian and European readers: We're serious. Five weeks. Send help.) I could almost buy the salt and flu books, but why did they have to get greedy and claim he was reading Russian history? Does anyone believe that? Even Dick Cheney is shaking his head and muttering "Bullshit" somewhere.

I don't know whether I believe it of Bush, but I find it a tempting reading list.

What do you think? Will Bush read any of those titles on his five-week vacation? Which, if any, interest you? And are there any other books you'd recommend -- either for the President or for me, since I'm always interested in adding to my booklists.

“‘Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are’ is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.” - François Mauriac

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:51 PM

Last week, Gary Farber pointed out a rather snarky NYT review of "One Man Star Wars" (a show we saw and enjoyed at Worldcon a few years back), which is currently on Broadway.

I wish to draw your attention to this passage:

"One-Man Star Wars Trilogy" may seem like just an oddball summer gimmick, but it is in some ways the logical extension of where commercial theater is headed. The crowds at "Spamalot," a highly polished imitation of old Monty Python skits, laugh before the punch lines. And the many jukebox musicals - which, don't fool yourself, are not going away - preach to the converted.
The element of surprise matters less than the comforting pleasure of seeing something familiar.

Keep that in mind when you read this article (via Elizabeth Bear):

Hello, My Name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father: Prepare to Duet.

Yes, it's true: The Princess Bride is coming to Broadway. And there will be singing involved. cont'd

<eye-roll>

This ties into one of the questions I was trying to raise in this morning's post about putting away childish things.

Are we being held back by what we're holding onto?
And I'm asking this both on an individual personal level (balancing comfort with growth) and in regards to artistic development as a society.

A couple examples of what I mean:

 • Roger Ebert has often opined about the lack of truly adult films in modern America. Because the NC-17 isn't commercially viable (many theater chains refuse to show them), major movies can only be cut suitable to 17-year-olds (to receive an R rating). [More from this 1999 Ebert essay]
There's nothing wrong with good entertainment intended for the whole family, but it shouldn't all have to be that way.

 • Similarly in music: Some artists, like Paul McCartney and Billy Joel have moved beyond writing pop songs to classical music projects. But where is the audience?
Sure it's comforting that radio stations are still playing the music we listened to as teenagers (for anyone who's been a teenager in the last half-century). But we've graduated from the bubblegum problems of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" and "Is she really going out with him?" That's not my life any more, yet these songs seem to have crowded out material more suitable for adult listening. [By which I'm referring to music involving more sophisticated construction (lyrically, musically) and/or subject matter more relevant to the issues in our lives.]

How do we set things aside, or do we merely drift away from them, always leaving open the possibility to return? Or do we just keep adding and adding to an already crowded plate? If we don't ever set aside our childhood pursuits, how can we make room for new interests?

Within our home the sheer quantity of books we own inhibits our ability to display artwork. Bookshelves have consumed most of the wallspace, leaving few places to hang paintings. We could weed our book collection -- I could point to dozens of books which we haven't opened in over a decade which are also readily available from the library... But whether it's nostalgia, inertia, or something else, the books continue to gather dust and the paintings sit in the corner.

And we're not alone. Self-storage has become a massive growth industry as Americans have more possessions than can fit in their homes.

[E]ven when the stored items are innocent possessions, a certain poignant sadness haunts them: They are mementos we somehow can't live with, and yet can't live without, and exemplify the downside of acquisition, the moment when you realize there are more bread machines, plastic lawn chairs, and treadmills than anyone could use in a lifetime.

We only have so much time, money space and attention. So when does a security blanket become an anchor? (or am I asking the wrong questions?)

I have no answers at this time, just more questions, but please feel free to share your own thoughts and anecdotes to build upon.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:35 PM

Went to a Chinese restaurant on our way home to get me some wonton soup (since I've been feeling on-and-off feh all day from the change in weather and overpowering AC). Here are our fortune cookies:

Mine:

There is someone owing so many thanks to you.

Ian's:

The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground.

After the workweek I've had (going back to approximately this time last week) I'm not sure which feels more appropriate.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:20 PM

Found out last night that Archie McPhee is offering a Deluxe Librarian Action Figure. Cost is about three dollars more than the standard Librarian Action Figure but this new model comes with "a library diorama with a reference desk, computer, book cart, multiple book stacks and some loose books." The image is small, but Hitchhiker's Guide is clearly one of the books included.

It was only two months ago I mentioned the Buffy library playset for those action figures. Unfortunately, I don't think the scales are quite compatible for Giles and Nancy Pearl to work side-by-side.

What was I saying about setting aside childish things?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:39 PM

(Or maybe my workplace is over-airconditioned today)

I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and now is not a good time to be operating at less than peak.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:30 AM

I recently started reading Marilyn Yalom's A History of the wife and this line about the rituals of Athenian weddings just struck a chord:

The bride sacrificed her toys to Artemis, who was the goddess of chastity and childbirth as well as nature and the hunt.

Ian agreed that was an interesting concept: not just personally setting things aside, but making a sacrifice of them with both religious significance and so they're no longer about as a crutch. As we pondered this, I asked whether he wanted to watch more Muppet Show episodes tonight. :)

Mentioning this to passage to a coworker, he pointed out that as Americans, we don't really have any strong rite of passage rituals. Within Judaism there's the bar/bat mitzvah, but that's turning into a big party and doesn't change life that much on a grand scale for the thirteen-year-old in question (which reminds me, I still want to read Thirteen and a day: the bar and bat mitzvah across America).

The main rites of passage for American youths to become adults are being able to drive and to drink, which popular culture often treat as a license for further immaturity.

But there's not so much sense of giving up childish things, we merely add more pursuits and responsibilities to them, while still keeping our old comforts to fall back upon should we need. Now, I enjoy Harry Potter and am not about to give it up or go all fusty Harold Bloom on y'all, but I can't help wondering what we might be losing with this perpetual adolescence?

What do you think?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:54 PM

Just saw "Of God and the case for unintelligent design" and felt compelled to share it. Exerpting:

Take rabbit digestion, for example. As herbivores, rabbits need help from bacteria to break down the cell walls of the plants they eat, so, cleverly enough, they have a large section of intestine where such bacterial fermentation takes place. The catch is, it's at the far end of the small intestine, beyond where efficient absorption of nutrients can happen. A sensible system -- as we see in ruminant animals like cattle and deer -- ferments before the small intestine, maximizing nutrient absorption. Rabbits, having to make do with an unintelligent system, instead eat some of their own feces after one trip through, sending half-digested food back through the small intestine for re-digestion.

Horses are similarly badly put together: They ferment their food in a large, blind-ended cecum after the small intestine. Unlike rabbits, they don't recycle their feces -- they're just inefficient. Moreover, those big sections of hind gut are a frequent location for gut blockages and twists that, absent prompt veterinary intervention, lead to slow and excruciating death for the poor horse. The psalmist writes: "God takes no delight in horses' power." Clearly, if God works in creation according to the simplistic schemes of the intelligent design folks, God not only doesn't delight in horses, but seems positively to have it in for them.

The author includes some of my favorite examples from the human body, such as backs ("Do you know anyone beyond the age of 20 or so who has not had a backache?") and knees, plus some I hadn't thought of like mammalian testicles and marsupials.

The real problem with intelligent design is that it fails to account for the obvious anatomical and physiological making-do that is evident of so much of the natural world. [... T]he intelligent design folks are left with a designer who clearly cannot have been paying close attention. While there are extremely precise and fine-tuned mechanisms in nature, there is also lots of evidence of organisms just cobbled together.

The author concludes by presenting her vision of a Gd who lets evolution take its course without divine intervention. [Which, if adopted, could coexist harmoniously with the current religiously-agnostic methods of teaching evolution.]

Read the rest

Appropriately enough the author, Lisa Fullam, is a former veterinarian and assistant professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

[Via Elizabeth McCoy]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:11 AM

From my fellow Magpie blogger:

A color-coded map of thousands of English nouns.

The artwork is an interactive map of more than 33,000 words. Each word has been assigned a color based on the average color of images found by a search engine. The words are then grouped by meaning. The resulting patterns form an atlas of our lexicon.

The real map is bigger, and clickable. You can zoom in on any noun, and see different sets of related words. It's so cool!

You can find out more about the map here.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:48 AM

The Muppet News Flash is an impressively informative blog if you want the latest on the Muppets (I categorize it alongside The Leaky Cauldron for Harry Potter happenings and Whedon-esque for Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Serenity stuff).

At any rate, since I've been hyping the Muppet Show Season One DVDs last week, it's only honest to point y'all to this post revealing edits to the episodes.

As I've mentioned before regarding other DVD releases, to save money TV producers often only bought the music rights for short durations, and have often have to renegotiate permissions for DVD releases. And when music producers get a second shot at the moneybag -- with the knowledge of how lucrative a program is -- they can get greedy.

Greg writes

Don't get hung up on the 10 minuets that Disney can't sell you - instead try to enjoy the 610+ minuets that they have restored and remastered on a great DVD set.

Still, at least one of the cut scenes (Vincent Price putting a very eerie twist on the lyrics of James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend") did make it onto the recent Time/Life videos, so I'm not sure why there's trouble now. [I guess there's a reason to hang onto those videos, along with the Brian Henson commentary between eps. The DVD box set uses the subtitle track for "Muppet Morsels" which are okay as far as they go.]

By the way, for anybody else who has already bought the DVDs and started watching them, have you noticed any audio oddities? I'm hearing some occasional distortion in some segments (usually in the middle episodes of the disc), and I'm wondering if it's just me or anybody else has heard this kind of thing on their set.