Jamcleat

While shelling a peanut, I had a flashback to a previous time in my grandparent’s yard. Grandma lived to be 102. Grandpa did not live as long. But my memory is of an earlier time in the yard in Clearwater, Florida. There was a chest-high chain link fence around the entire yard. But you could not see the fence except at the gates for the ivy that covered the fence. The fence was there for Granddaddy’s chickens. He had Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, and Banties that I remember, and from what my mother said, the Banties, bantam hens and a fancy bantam rooster, were his favorites.

Granddaddy had peanuts in a brown paper sack. A rotating sprinkler watered the lawn, spinning in the morning, Florida sun, making the coarse, Florida grass sparkle. A crate that had once been used to ship an upright piano had been made into a playhouse by cutting a kid-size door in one end and a North-facing window in one wall. The crate had been there for long before I got there. The wood was the color of driftwood from weather. Setting it on cement blocks had protected it from termites and and tar-paper roofing and siding kept it from wet.

Perhaps if the packers of today’s wide-screen T.V.’s and such would print play suggestions on the sides of the boxes then kids could take advantage of the play value of the packing material before it went to recycling or landfill…

Objection! Liability. Granted. Strike that testimony.

I have just returned from Asheville, NC where I saw a most amazing play. PLUTO V. ERIS. A play to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the publication of Galileo’s The Starry Messenger.

Full disclosure, I probably would not have heard about this play if my daughter did not play a part.

A classic play in the sense that it’s form and presentation model a Greek classic play. Or perhaps a modern civil trial.

A number of gods and goddesses from myth and legend are gathered for a Council of Celestial Beings. Eris, goddess of Discord, is accused by Pluto, god of the Underworld, of treason and general mayhem. Testimony proceeds through dialog and deposition. The costumes of the gods and goddess are outstanding from the Polynesian and Hawaiian god and goddess that open the show to the giant planet giants that join in the testimony. The cut paper figures in the shadow puppet deposition video are worth the visit in themselves. Classic shapes. Classic themes. Great action.

As the play unfolds, the interaction of myth and earth reality are explored. In the end, there are choices to be made.

The Vance Elementary School in Asheville Planetorium is the near-perfect performance space for this play. The semi-circular stadium is reminiscent of the Greek and Roman theaters of ancient times. More so because the ceiling of the Planetorium is hung with models of the planets with Earth the size of a basketball and the others to match.

Just one more performance in this round on the March 27, 2010 at 8:00 PM. A great show and worth the trip. A website for more info. Contributions benefit the Vance Elementary NASA program. A website for more info. Contributions benefit the Vance Elementary NASA program.

Tomorrow night you will be [nodding | shaking | scratching] your head at President Obama’s State of the Union Address. As a politician, Obama (or his speech writers) will make sure that all of the right buttons are pushed. As a citizen, you will be shaking your head at all of the unfulfilled promises of the campaign trail. And as a real live person, you will be scratching your head as to [where are we now? | what should we do? | long range plans?]. Yes, Barack Obama is the ultimate enigma. Perhaps, recent election results will energize him to new ideas and directions. Hopefully the face-to-face with the massed Congress will be a wake up call to both the Congress and the President. I suspect that despite the applause, most of the 435+100+9+1 will sleep through class. Do not blame the professor (at least I expect him to show on time, the Secret Service will see to that), I suspect insufficient pre-class preparation by the occupants of the lecture hall is the main problem.

The previous post started my mind wandering and when it sat down to rest it was thinking of this folk singer. Stan Kelly-Bootle is a favorite of mine, not as a folk singer, but rather for his commentary on the state of computing. I first found his writing in the Unix Review, still worth seeking, old SODA, never flat. And contemporary as the Curmudgeon in the ACM Queue on-line magazine.

Comments received on my earlier blog relative to global warming indicate that some politcos took offense.  While I think they should be wearing stripes ala prison garb, the stripes I had in mind at the time were those worn by family Mephitis mephitis.

Heard this song from REM  on World Cafe.  Had a flashback to the the library hour when the librarian read Five Chinese Brothers, a similar  story, aloud to the gathered children including me. We read it to our kids.  Younger folk may have heard the Seven Chinese Brothers with watercolor illustrations.  If we recognize the talents of all of our neighbors and brothers, it will help us all to achieve our maximimum,

From various sources that I have seen, there was no coup in Honduras, rather an orderly execution of legal proceedings to enforce existing law. Honduras, having put up with dictators who cannot let go (Samoza family), put a clause in its Constitution that presidents serve 1 term. If the president tries to change the law, he is out. It is in the constitution. Former president Manuel Zelaya tried to have a referendum to change the law. When the referendum was was ruled unconstitutional, he was going to hold the vote anyway as a “non-binding” referendum. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled that the former president was trying to change the law and was therefore to be removed from office. He was removed. Previously scheduled presidential elections to follow.

The Obama administration seems kind of thick here. They lifted the visa of the Honduran Supreme Court Justice that signed the removal warrant along with the visas of a couple of others. President Obama may be on the wrong side of of the rule of law. Perhaps the President is getting bad advice from a poor lawyer on his staff. Perhaps that someone needs to be in private practice instead of messing up the hemisphere.

I was at NATTC Memphis at Millington, TN.  I had been there since April and it was hot and humid.  I was learning to be an aircraft mechanic.  Two weeks of fundamentals and 8 weeks of Aviation Metalsmith, Structural  “A” School.  I was just about done and anticipating going to the “real” Navy.

About 80 men lived in our barracks, a 2 story wooden building of WWII vintage.  The TV lounge was about 20×12 with a 21-inch black-and-white TV on a shelf near the ceiling in the corner.  The remote was a sturdy chair and a long arm to turn the channel changing dial.  Some chrome-armed chairs with vinyl cushions were filled early and it was standing room only when the Astronauts stepped down onto the surface of the moon.  This was “LIVE FROM THE MOON”. “Un-f-n-believable” as the common expression went (Sanitized for your protection).

It’s still amazing.

The following January, Capt. John G. Wissler, CO of Weapons System Test Division of Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, later Rear Admiral and CO of NATC, congratulated me on my being promoted to AMS 3rd Class (E-4). I will never forget that handshake and the blue eyes that look so icy.

Rear Admiral Wissler was listed as a source in James Michener’s Space.

My father has been studying CO2 for a number of years. He is convinced that the folks that want to reduce CO2 are the same folks that have starved the third world for years. Ask yourself, “Is <fill in a name here> making any money from this <fill in a noun here>? Try substituting “Al Gore” (who is selling “carbon credits”) and “scam” (just exactly do you get for a “carbon credit” and how is that different from blackmail? Who gets the commission on the sale? Just exactly how did this transaction change any production/consumption relationship?) and you will get the idea. Meanwhile, who is paying for this? Not the mbillionaires, you can be assured of that. My father has sent a letter to the ELCA. Update: The Bishop has referred the letter to his collegues for recommendations.

In my humble opinion, both Hilary Clinton and John McCain fail Economics 101. While they really grasp the politics of the situation, they have really got the economics of the price of petroleum wrong. When the commodity is in short supply relative to demand, the price will go up. If you artificially reduce the price (price cap/tax cut), the shortage will increase because the demand will not decline. If you let the price rise, the demand will go down. Does anyone other than me remember the Jimmy Carter – gas line days. With two-thirds of the current presidential candidates you can expect a return to those good old days.

What we need in this situation is leadership from someone who can lead us out of the mess that we have gotten ourselves into.