Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Doing Some Twenty on Ninety
Recently I read Bunny Crumpacker's* Perfect Figures : The Lore of Numbers and How we Learned to Count (New York : St. Martin's Press, 2007, 271 pages). I never quite decided whether I liked it or not, but I rather enjoyed the reading of it. Mostly it was engaging, but the style took me a […]
Churches' Tax Exempt Status: Not a Constitutional Right
San Francisco Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer, in his first extensive explanation about his role in the passage of Proposition 8, on Wednesday defended the church's actions in the successful ballot initiative. "Religious leaders in America have the constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy," Niederauer wrote in a statement posted on the […]
Leaving the Lifestyle, Baby!
The one trait that religious fundamentalists share, that I notice the most, is innumeracy. They have no sense of the size of numbers, or the place of numbers in the world, and it makes them look silly. Their problem starts, of course, with numbers in the bible. Once upon a time, say 2500 years ago […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Laughing Matters
Beard of the Week LX: Spock's Theremin
This week's beard belongs to Mr. Spock, the venerable half-Vulcan who served as the science officer aboard the Enterprise in "Star Trek", the original television series. It is thought that he has another name that is unpronounceable by humans. In grade school I identified quite a bit with Mr. Spock. Personally I hoped to develop […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
One Gay Drop
At the beginning of the week, Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin ("Today In History: 1958 Broadcast On 'The Homosexual In Society'", 24 November 2008) noted the 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking radio broadcast in Berkeley, California. He wrote about the broadcast that "This is not only believed to be the first radio broadcast to […]
Don't Forget the Ligatures!
This morning I was reading my current mystery book, David Handler's The Sour Cherry Surprise. I'm enjoying it. It's published by St. Martin's Minotaur (2008, 230 pages). Right now I need to have a brief word with the publisher. Typeface ligatures were invented for a reason. You have them at your disposal–use them! This morning […]
In: All, Books, Feeling Peevish
Roger Ebert is Openly Heterosexual
Roger Ebert loved Sean Penn in Gus van Sant's new movie "Milk", about the legendary Harvey Milk.* Not only that, Ebert comes out as straight and makes a useful point: In 1977, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Yes, but I have become so weary […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Music & Art
2009 Science-Book Challenge
The time has come to announce the 2009 Science-Book Challenge! (Plus an extra-credit treat about the Mandelbrot Set, below.) I was pleased with the response to last year's challenge–despite it's eleventh-hour appearance–which I'll discuss at more length as we close in on the end of the year. Our attention right now is on getting the […]
Beard of the Week LIX: Accepting PI
This week's beard belongs to Euclid (c. 365 BCE — c. 275 BCE) of Alexandria, Egypt, possibly one of the earliest celebrities to use only one name. Euclid is famous, of course, for writing Elements, his 13-book exposition on geometry and the earliest mathematical textbook and second only to the Bible in the number of […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Ambiguous Praise & Extrapolation
I have no idea why it took me so long to read it when it was available from before my birth, but it's only last week that I picked up and read Darrell Huff's How to Lie with Statistics (New York : W.W.Norton & Company, 1954/1993. 142 pages, illustrated by Irving Geis). It's a good, […]
In: All, Books, Laughing Matters
Recognizing Marriage
I no longer recognize marriage. It's a new thing I'm trying. Turns out it's fun. Yesterday I called a woman's spouse her boyfriend. She says, correcting me, "He's my husband," "Oh," I say, "I no longer recognize marriage." The impact is obvious. I tried it on a man who has been in a relationship for […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Beard of the Week LVIII: The Big Oyster
This week's beard belongs to Mark Kurlansky, celebrated author of Salt and a number of other books. In fact, one of those other books is my subject at hand or, perhaps, at chin. (Photograph by Sylvia Plachy, which I took from this citation for the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Nonfiction given to Kurlansky.) […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Books, Food Stuff
Britten's "Serenade"
Awhile back I bought a remaindered copy of a CD containing music by Benjamin Britten, in particular his "Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings", performed by Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor, Michael Thompson, horn, and Bryden Thomson directing the strings of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.* It's fantastic. I think I've mentioned before that I frequently […]
In: All, Music & Art, Notes to Richard
Kinsey Zero through Sixty
I'm sure I mentioned before the story that I wrote about a year ago for my friend, occasional co-author, and frequent editor Ron Suresha. The story, an episodic "biography" of a copy of the Kinsey Report during it's (so far) sixty-year life, is called "Between Red Covers" (a title that refers to the original book […]
In: All, Books, Personal Notebook
Nostalgic Travel
Powered by a flight of nostalgia I have revisited the remarkable and virtually unknown Mushroom Planet.* In my youth my bibliophilic tendencies were awakened by two significant influences: 1) my cub-scout den mother who was the one who introduced me to the public library (as an idea, via the actual instance in Kansas City, KS), […]
In: All, Books, Personal Notebook
Lifestyle Warning
Humor–particularly mockery–can be very effective. WARNING: This area may contain homosexuals, which are known by the State of California to be harmful to the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. — A sign seen on the door of Kim Light/Lightbox Gallery in Culver City, California [Christopher Knight, "Prop. 8 push-back in Culver City", Los Angeles Times, 11 […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity, Laughing Matters
What Could They Have Been Thinking?
Gosh, this story about the LDS (i.e., Mormon Church) and their opposition to California's proposition 8 — you remember, the one to strip same-sex couples of their already established right to marry — just keeps getting more interesting. I'm not sure I need to fill you in on the details since protests have been breaking […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Has One Life Been Made Better?
I can say with certainty that my attitude about members – and especially leaders – of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has changed dramatically in the past six months. And not for the better. I’ve not seen one individual – within or without the church – whose life has been made […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Causing Trouble
The TimesOnline [UK] reported on a meeting between then presidential candidate Barack Obama and now-familiar Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson ("Barack Obama asked gay bishop Gene Robinson what it was like to be 'first'", 6 November 2008). Many things were discussed, but I was most amused by the reported first words exchanged: Obama: "Well you’re certainly […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Beard of the Week LVII: A Marine in Vietnam
This week's beard belongs to an unnamed US Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. The date was 1966. I found this photograph on the website of the "White House's Commission on Remembrance". Here is the caption that accompanied the photograph (on this page about the Vietnam War): Date: 1966 Title: U.S. Marines forward reconnaissance […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections