Riba Rambles: Musings of a Mental Magpie

At a loss for words

2009-09-14T21:40:00.001-04:00

Two months ago today, my grandfather died.

Tomorrow, we would've celebrated his birthday.

While this is something I feel I should blog about, I just haven't had the words to write about it.

So, instead, I'm going to reprint the eulogy I delivered at his funeral.

"Survivor" is a word that you hear a lot as people talk about Zayde. And it's a good word for him. But perhaps an even better word would be "fighter". For Zayde, "survival" wasn't sufficient. He needed to win, to triumph.
And he raised his family to be fighters, too.
As you can imagine, this didn't always make things easy or smooth. But it's who we are.
Everything could be a battle to Zayde. And he had no intention of losing battles. If the rules of the game were against him, he'd just go and change the rules. He had an amazing ability to seek out and find advantage, even if there was no apparent way to win. This is one of the great lessons I've taken from him, and one my husband has sought to emulate, too.
He saw Zayde's combination of guts and chutzpah, Zayde's refusal to believe in unwinnable scenarios, Zayde's ability to see a route to not only survival, but victory, in the most impossible situations.
I do, too. When I'm at work, or in a negotiation, or dealing with unhelpful people, I often ask myself what Zayde would do. It helps. If you don't accept the possibility of failure, and if you don't accept the limitations that everyone else assumes exist, sometimes you find a way to win.
The most important thing in the world to Zayde was us, his family. Not only because we are a group of people he loved, although we are. But also because we are, each of us, symbols of his survival, and of his victory. Each child, grandchild, and especially, great-grandchild is a triumph over those that tried to destroy him. Those that killed his family. Those that burned his world to ashes.
We're here. They're not. He won.
His overwhelming joy when the family got together was not only at being with the people he loved, although it was that, but also a celebration of survival, and a mark of victory. Every phone call from a grandchild was a simple reminder that his victory had a purpose - to allow all of us to exist, and to live well, able to go to college, and have good lives in a country where we could grow up free from fear.
He often gave me a hard time over not phoning him enough. But one reason I didn't was because he was never far from my thoughts. Zayde shaped who I am. I am his granddaughter. I am a Riba, of the family that he created.
Zayde was stubborn, creative, charismatic, passionate, dramatic, infuriating, and loving. It's a cliché, but he was a force of nature, that couldn't be ignored. He raised a family of passionate, stubborn, loving, creative people. There is no greater legacy.

PS: If you want to read more about my grandfather's remarkable life, The St. Petersburg Times printed an extended obituary.

status simple

2009-08-05T07:05:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, I finally resolved the technical problems that had prevented me from posting for the past few months.

Unfortunately, other barriers -- lack of time, lack of energy, lack of... words -- are more difficult to overcome. [Which is among the reasons I hadn't worked too strenuously to address the technical issues.]

Testing... Testing...

2009-07-20T19:54:00.002-04:00

tap-tap-tap

Is this thing on?

Hello?

Can anyone hear me? (Is anybody still listening?)

Oh my doll-ing

2009-05-25T19:45:00.001-04:00

According to today's New York Times, the newest historical character in the American Doll franchise will be Jewish.

Rebecca Rubin "is a 9-year-old girl living on the Lower East Side in 1914 with her Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, siblings and a grandmother known only as Bubbie."

"The goal is that no one be offended and that Jewish and non-Jewish little girls alike will want to play tenement house with their new toy, which costs $95 — plus more for accessories like a sideboard with a challah resting on it." Not to mention the usual series of books. Furthermore, American Dolls has hired Joseph Jacob Advertising specifically "to help market Rebecca through Jewish publications and direct mailings to Jewish households."

So, expect to be hearing a lot more of her in the weeks and months (and years?) to come.

No big surprise

2009-05-17T18:21:00.000-04:00

Results for The Social Persona Test...

The Librarian (QTBF)
Quirky Traditional Beta Female

You know the story--The quiet, smart girl who emerges from her shell to become the new queen bee. Nothing wrong with nerdy girls, in fact there aren't enough of you. Your best match is The Late Bloomer, as he once was the male version of you.

I answered honestly, leaving a few questions blank, as none of the answers applied.

Where no man has gone before

2009-05-14T20:36:00.005-04:00

You know, I am really sick and tired of science fiction stories set in the far-off future which still portray childbirth as a sweaty woman screaming in pain.

In all this time, at the very least somebody will have invented better analgesics which won't risk the newborn.

This is a universe which has transporter technology, for frink's sake! Given it's ability to lock onto individual lifeforms, the applications seem obvious once a fetus is viable.

It's sloppy worldbuilding, and feels like the guys in charge couldn't be bothered to expend the slightest effort in extrapolating about girly stuff.

[I seem to recall a similar point made regarding the attitudes towards artificial uteri in David Weber's Honorverse as compared with Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.]

Fees? Fie!

2009-05-13T20:45:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, NPR brought a credit-card expert in for some Q&A.

And I learned something new, worth knowing by anybody planning a trip to Canada:

Credit card companies have almost universally charged 3 percent on transactions that were made outside the United States in another currency.
They've recently changed their policy so that any transaction made in another country -- even if it's made in dollars -- also incurs that same charge.
Capital One is actually the only major credit card company that doesn't have a surcharge, and most of the credit unions only charge a 1 percent fee.

The user from Nantucket?

2009-05-13T07:35:00.001-04:00

Given all the talk of writing requirements in the form of user stories, I started wondering about other narrative forms.

How about limericks, or haiku, or even zen koans?

So I tried writing a few of my requirements as limericks.

Not sure I can share them, since they are about ongoing projects, but they worked disturbingly well, and the rhyme makes them more memorable than prose.

Maybe I can write this technique up and get it published for next April 1st...

Twist and Shout

2009-05-11T19:15:00.000-04:00

This morning, I successfully put my hair up into a French twist, and it stayed up the entire workday.

For me, that's a major triumph.

M is for meshuga, which she made me...

2009-05-09T23:11:00.001-04:00

According to BoingBoing, mom-sourcing.co.in "actually hired call-center workers in India to place Mother's Day calls for people who sign up."

It seems like a great lark, except I don't see any way to indicate what time to call.

Maybe next year...

Instead, I'll let SomeEcards say it for me:

Well-done burgers

2009-05-09T22:35:00.000-04:00

This afternoon in Harvard Square, I saw Mrs. Bartley sitting outside their namesake institution.

So I asked her whether they were going to update their menu to account for the President's preferences in burgers.

She said they had no plans to, noting that Obama "changes his mind more than we do."

MASH note

2009-05-08T08:08:00.001-04:00

David Ogden Stiers explains his reasons for coming out of the closet:

I could claim noble reasons as coming out in order to move gay rights forward, but I must admit it is for far more selfish reasons. Now is the time I wish to find someone and I do not desire to force any potential partner to live a life of extreme discretion with me.

In the words of Inigo Montoya,

True love! You heard him! You could not ask for a more noble cause than that.

Where's the beef?

2009-05-07T22:00:00.000-04:00

According to the current menu at Bartley's Burgers in Harvard Square, if you order The Barack Obama, you'll get a feta cheese burger with lettuce, tomato, and red onion.

But, as our diligent news media has revealed, our president prefers "just your basic cheddar cheeseburger, medium well.... mustard, no ketchup.... like a spicy mustard or something like a Dijon mustard, something like that."^*

That's not on Bartley's menu -- they have cheddar burgers with bacon or mushroom or BBQ, but a plain cheddar burger would require a special order.

Likewise, Bartley's Joe Biden is Bacon cheese & BBQ sauce -- a far cry from the Vice President's actual order, of a Swiss cheeseburger with jalapeño peppers.

Think Bartley's will change their menu to match?

_____
^* Apparently, reporters had trouble hearing the President's order, and some claimed he got a Swiss mushroom burger (what Bartley calls "The John Kerry"), but USA Today went to the source: "Obama ordered a basic cheeseburger, according to Ray's owner, Michael Landrum" and photos bear this out.

Quote of note

2009-04-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

I think I love this quote:

“ Outrage, kittens with bad grammar, and porn are the fuels in the engines of the internet. ”
— Jeremiah Tolbert, Twitter Will Murder You While You Sleep

Rarely have truer words been written.

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

2009-04-24T17:50:00.000-04:00

MaryAnn Johanson just blogged the trailer to a new movie opening in the UK, titled Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.

The question as yet unanswered is when it will be released in the USA. Otherwise, I'd have to assume that I'm their target audience.

In the meantime, you can try your hand at this trivia quiz on time travel movies of the past.

Talk Like Shakespeare Day

2009-04-23T09:45:00.001-04:00

Ian and I started our day on the right note:

INT. BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING

LIS and IAN are asleep in bed. The CLOCK RADIO suddenly BLARES to life,
an NPR NEWSCASTER TALKING. LIS gropes for the snooze button to silence it.

LIS

What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and — crap — that's the sun.

IAN

It is the nightingale, and not the lark.

Speak the speech, I pray you

2009-04-22T21:59:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, April 23rd, is Shakespeare's birthday (observed)

In honor of the occasion, folks have declared it Talk Like Shakespeare Day

See TalkLikeShakespeare.org for more details on how you can celebrate.

Shared sentiments

2009-04-22T21:18:00.004-04:00

Charlie Pierce:

I have now lived through three major episodes in my life where the political elite have told me quite plainly that neither I nor my fellow citizens are sufficiently mature to suffer the public prosecution of major crimes committed within my government. The first was when Gerry Ford told me I wasn't strong enough to handle the sight of Richard Nixon in the dock. Dick Cheney looked at this episode and determined that the only thing Nixon did wrong was get caught. The second time was when the entire government went into spasm over the crimes of the Iran-Contra gang and I was told that I wasn't strong enough to see Ronald Reagan impeached or his men packed off to Danbury. Dick Cheney looked at this and determined that the only thing Reagan and his men did wrong was get caught and, by then, Cheney had decided that even that wasn't really so very wrong and everybody should shut up. Now, Barack Obama, who won election by telling the country and its people that they were great because of all they'd done for him, has told me that I am not strong enough to handle the prosecution of pale and vicious bureaucrats, many of them acting at the behest of Dick Cheney, who decided that the only thing he was doing wrong was nothing at all, who have broken the law, disgraced their oaths, and manifestly belong in a one-room suite at the Hague. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm sick and goddamn tired of being told that, as a citizen, I am too fragile to bear the horrible burden of watching public criminals pay for their crimes and that, as a political entity, my fellow citizens and I are delicate flowers encased in candy-glass who must be kept away from the sight of men in fine suits weeping as they are ripped from the arms of their families and sent off to penal institutions manifestly more kind than those in which they arranged to get their rocks off vicariously while driving other men mad.

Hey, Mr. President. Put these barbarians on trial and watch me. I'll be the guy out in front of the courtroom with a lawn chair, some sandwiches, and a cooler of fine beer. I'll be the guy who hires the brass band to serenade these criminal bastards on their way off to the big house. I'll be the one who shows up at every one of their probation hearings with a copy of the Constitution, the way crime victims show up at the parole board when their attacker comes up for release. I'll declare a national holiday—Victory Over Torture Day—and lead the parade right up whatever gated street it is that Cheney lives on these days. Trust me, Mr. President. I can take it.

Paul Krugman: regarding today's revelations

Let's say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link.
There's a word for this: it's evil.

Re: Superheroine Monologues

2009-04-20T09:03:00.001-04:00

Saw the show.

See the show.

That is, if you're a comic book fan in the Boston area who can catch it before it closes next week.

I've never actually seen The Vagina Monologues so have no idea how this play compares in terms of format.

The show starts with Wonder Woman's origins in WW2. Then, decade by decade to the present, different female characters from Marvel and DC tell their stories.

Canonicity of the narratives vary, and some of the monologues are more engaging than others, but on the whole I'm glad I saw it, and would recommend it to fellow feminist comic geeks.

Ian's more detailed review here.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave. Boston

Weds April 22nd - Saturday April 25th @ 8pm; Saturday & Sunday the 25th & 26th @ 4pm.

Art Hennessey has blogged that they're filling the house every show. We successfully bought tickets yesterday afternoon (after my post), but it clearly sold out by performance time.

Rockin' it Old School

2009-04-19T11:45:00.001-04:00

Bohemian Rhapsody as you've never heard it before:

Lead piano by Atari 800XL
Lead guitar by Texas Instruments TI-99/4a
Bass by 8 Inch Floppy Disk
Vocals by HP ScanJet 3C

No effects or sampling was used, but vocals were overdubbed (as in the original)

The Superheroine Monologues

2009-04-18T14:50:00.005-04:00

Playing in Boston thru April 26th:

Anybody else interested in seeing this before it closes?

Modern Monsters

2009-04-13T07:39:00.002-04:00

Pirates and possibly Trolls

PS: Regarding amazonfail and combining the various theories that have been proposed, I suspect Amazon did have a policy to remove sales rank from adult material, but it was supposed to be narrowly applied. Thus, the early CustSat responses were following their assigned scripts. Over the past week, trolls found some kind of glitch and exploited it to massively reclassify works outside the intended purview of policy.
We'll probably have to wait until the workday starts in Seattle to learn more.

In some more positive news...

2009-04-12T19:37:00.000-04:00

The White House Easter Egg roll takes place tomorrow, and the Obama administration has been reaching out to gay and lesbian families to make the event more inclusive.

And get a load of the rainbow lei adorning the Obama's new dog, Bo.

You Don't Say...

2009-04-12T18:48:00.001-04:00

In case you haven't yet heard, #AmazonFail:

According to an official letter from Amazon.com to an author,

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Therefore, Amazon.com has removed sales ranks from books with gay, lesbian, and bisexual content -- including works without any explicit sex, such as children's fiction, history, nonfiction self-help, queer theory.

Meanwhile, many more explicit heterosexual works continue to be ranked. So, too, do anti-gay books. In fact, because Amazon has de-listed so many works of gay literature, searching the bookseller for homosexuality returns Christian propaganda and advice on "curing" gays.

Ugh.

A smile and a song for Sunday morning

2009-04-12T10:05:00.000-04:00