View from my perch

From "Speaking of Faith" to Chicago via Berlin and Cheltenham

I have long enjoyed a podcast and American Public Media radio program formerly called "Speaking of Faith"(SOF), now called "Krista Tippett on Being" (or just "Being"). This evening I listened to a series of Krista reading excerpts from her book Speaking of Faith. Browsing further through the list of SOF podcasts, I came upon one entitled The Fall of the Wall, JFK’s Assassination, and Two Birthdays that sounded especially interesting. Krista was born on the evening of JFK's election in 1960. Like me, the JFK assassination is one of her earliest memories. She later lived and worked in Berlin. To quote from her piece:

"Two decades later, I ended up spending most of the 1980s, most of my 20s, in a city that kept Kennedy’s memory alive like no other. He remained the unparalleled icon of the charismatic America that had rushed to Berlin’s side as the barbed wire beginnings of the Wall closed around it on August 13, 1961."

She goes on to describe the astounding fall of the wall, coincidentally on her 29th birthday in 1989. The post SOF Observed - The Fall of the Wall, JFK’s Assassination, and Two Birthdays on the SOF Observed / onBeing blog. From there you can get to the Krista Tippett on Being website.

Somehow I got to onBeing's Flickr photostream. The first photos displayed today (17th September 2010) are from the recent Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham, England.

Finding myself more interested in Cheltenham then the Greenbelt Festival, I found this page on the history of Cheltenham. Included on the page is a picture of E.L. Ward's Department Store from the 1950s. I wondered of course at a connection with Montgomery Ward. 

I had thought that Montgomery Ward was the result of a merger of concerns run by a Mr. Montgomery and a Mr. Ward. Not the case. Aaron Montgomery Ward founded the world's first mail-order retail company in Chicago in 1872.

References

    Ward (Montgomery) & Co. from the fascinating Encyclopedia of Chicago

    Aaron Montgomery Ward from Wikipedia

Related and recommended:

    Innovation, Invention, and Chicago Business also from the fascinating Encyclopedia of Chicago

Apropos, Asheville

On March 10, 1948, Zelda, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was left in ashes when she died in a fire at Highland Hospital, a mental hospital, in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Pero in peril

A friend of ours was recently walking her granddaughter's pet Chihuahua "Chica" when a Red-tailed Hawk swooped down and landed on a nearby street light. It watched the little dog intently. Soon realizing that little Chica might be on the Hawk's dinner menu, she quickly gathered up the little dog in her arms and turn for home. I have to wonder at the scene if the Hawk had swooped down and started flying off with the dog. Would our friend have let the leash pay fully out of its reel? Would an aerial tug-of-war have ensued? If the dog survived, would it have suffered PTSD?

That tobacco note in your wine

If you're like me, you're amused by wine descriptions like " ...tangy flavors of pineapple, peach, charred oak, butterscotch and a tobacco note ...". But, at least in the case of wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle, that tobacco note may be too real to be amusing. 

I thought I remembered the URL for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, so I typed http://www.pmmc.org/. To my surprise, I arrived at the home page of the Philip Morris Capital Corporation (PMMC). To my further surprise, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates is, like PMMC, wholly-owned subsidiary of Altria Group. Chateau Ste. Michelle makes some excellent wines, and Philip Morris probably makes some great cancer causing tobacco products (I wouldn't know), but these big companies being such cozy bed-partners makes me want to put my glass of Riesling down for at least a moment to let the smoke clear.

For a breather, check out the real website of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center at http://www.pacificmmc.org/.

English

Apparently I do look English. I was at a local Rite-Aid the other day. All of the other customers loitering about or in line were Hispanic, or so it seemed, and the Hispanic check-out guy was conversing with them in Spanish, naturally. When I leave the head of the queue and get up to the counter, he says "English? You look English." I replied "Well, English, Irish, mixed ... you know." He speaks to me entirely in English, of course, and as we finish our transaction and I start to leave he blurts "God Save the Queen!" And of course I reply with "Yes, God Save the Queen!"

Now I realize I could have put on a bit of an accent and loudly announced, "Yes, God Save Her Royal Britannic Majesty and Project Her Loyal Subjects Around the Globe, for the Sun Never Sets on Her Vast Empire!" 

But I hadn't had even a single pint of warm beer at the time. Sadly, I know, for a true Englishman that's no bloody excuse whatever. 

And, besides not being particularly religious in the God-fearing sense, I am in fact only partly English, having in fact even a tiny bit of bloody French blood in the mix. Hate to admit that last bit, but thanks to my Mum's Mum, it is true enough.

Still, what can it hurt. God Save the Queen!

 

Cow Catapult

Now for something completely different. It's the Cow Catapult Game!

 
Since the instructions are in German, a little translation is in order:

On the catapult with the left mouse button click, and the button down hold, then it release. The cow will towards the target on the pasture catapulted be. The longer you the button down hold, the greater the force with which the cow catapulted be will. In order the cow to the catapult return, on the left mouse button once click. The goal naturally the cow to land in the center of the target consistently is. Practice makes perfect.

B-52

Yesterday was it. My fifty-second birthday. Unbelieveable. If you'd asked me only a little while ago if I thought I'd make it to this age I have given myself a 50/50 chance.

Shakespeare, born supposedly on April 23rd, 1564, died on his 52nd birthday, in 1616.

For better or worse, I seem to have survived it. Unless I'm a ghost writer.

Not B-52 Bomber, B-52 Bummer!

Great Books Online

If you're looking for great online literature, try Bartleby.com. They have thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.

"The preeminent Internet publisher of literature, reference and verse providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and informations on the web, free of charge."

h2g2

In the process of learning about the Linux distribution SuSE, I stumbled upon the BBC's h2g2 site. It is like Wikipedia, only different. To borrow directly from the website's own description of itself:

h2g2 stands for 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' - an unconventional guide to Life,The Universe and Everything. The site - the Earth Edition of the Guide - is an encyclopaedic project contributed to by people from all over the world. h2g2.com was launched in April 1999, and the BBC took over the running of the site in February 2001 as part of a drive to develop new and innovative online services.

Alas, another site on the web at which to amuse one's self and squander time.

Goin' for Baroque

I've recently begun to appreciate classical music from the Baroque period, thus far particularly as composed by Vivaldi, Albinoni and Telemann.

For an introduction to the wonderful world of Baroque music, try: http://www.baroquemusic.org/

Peace and Quiet in National Parks

A press release from the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees lists America's five best National Parks for finding peace, quiet and natural sounds.

1. Great Basin National Park, Nevada (www.nps.gov/grba)
2. Isle Royale National Park, Michigan (www.nps.gov/isro)
3. North Cascades National Park, Washington State (www.nps.gov/noca)
4. Big Hole National Battlefield, Montana (www.nps.gov/biho)
5. Muir Woods National Monument, California (www.nps.gov/muwo)

See the press release for details.

Members of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees are retired employees of the National Park Service; they come together to voice their concern about threats to the Service and system to which they devoted their professional careers.

David Turnley

David Turnley is another of the several interesting and "semi-famous" people my wife and I met on our recent trip to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. We met him at the Partridge House, the B&B at which we stayed in Pottsville, PA. A Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, David is eminently Google-able. Here are a few links of interest:

David Turnley: Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist and filmmaker from danaroc.com

Picture power: Casualties of war (David Turnley's 1991 World Press Photo contest winning picture) from BBC News

1991 World Press Photo (David Turnley's 1991 World Press Photo contest winning picture) from World Press Photo, which has the winning pictures from other years and the stories behind them

Pulitzer Prize Winners: 1990 from http://www.pulitzer.org/, which has much else of interest

 

Alexander Wilson, American Ornithologist

Reading Scott Wiedensaul's book Of a Feather made me want to know more about early American Ornithologist Alexander Wilson. The book references Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer, by Robert Cantwell. My Google search netted little of note aside from one gem: Alexander Wilson, American Ornithologist. It serves up images of his bird paintings, a biography, and references to more information.

Willem Lange

Willem Lange is one of several interesting and "semi-famous" people my wife and I met on our recent trip to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Mr. Lange was there with a crew from New Hampshire Public Television working on a program about Broad-winged Hawk migration. He is the host of a program on that network entitled Windows to the Wild. To quote from that site, "this beautifully filmed program presents some of New England’s most unique natural environments." Because we live in California, we are not going to be seeing those programs unless we make a trip to New England. Mr. Lange recommended a visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, so perhaps during a trip there we will catch an episode or two.

Mindfulness book

I've recently read a book entitled Mindfulness by Harvard social-psychologist Ellen Langer. I also have it as an audio-book and am finishing listening to it as well. The book is not about mindfulness in the Buddhist sense, per se, although the concepts are related. Instead, the book is essentially about the fixed mindsets we tend to have and how to break out of them. More information about the book may be found via these links: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~langer/books2.html, and http://www.slackermanager.com/2007/10/how-to-manage-with-mindfulness.html.

For an example of this kind of mindfulness in action in the world of design, checkout the work of the folks at Ideo.

"The Regulars are coming out!"

That's what Paul Revere shouted on the fateful night of 18-19 February 1775, not "The British are coming!". Since he was British at the time, that would have been silly. The "Regulars" referred to the regular British troops then garrisoned at Boston. They were coming out of Boston, headed for Lexington and Concord. Follow the following links for more information.

Paul Revere (DOE Office of Counterintelligence)

Boston 1775: “The Regulars Are Coming Out”

The Patriot Resource: Lexington and Concord

The Real Story Paul Revere's Ride (The Paul Revere House)

Plenty of additional information on this subject is available on the Internet as well as in good old fashioned paper books.

By the way, "coming out" didn't have the alternate meaning it does today. Almost certainly, some of the King's men were of that persuasion, but "coming out" would have been out of the question, and bloody dangerous besides.

ORD & ETC

ORD is the three letter identifier for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The identifier derives from the name Orchard Place Airport / Douglas Field, the "D" coming from "Douglas", not from the trailing letter of "Orchard", as I had supposed. The original airfield was constructed between 1942 and 1943 as a manufacturing plant for Douglas C-54 aircraft for World War II. Douglas Aircraft manufactured 515 C-54s in Santa Monica, and 655 were manufactured in Chicago.

As a former employee of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company -- a component of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, and hence heir to part of the Douglas Aircraft Company legacy -- I was aware of Santa Monica as one of the early manufacturing site, but I had no idea C-54s were produced at Chicago as well.

For more about airport identification codes, see: Airport ABCs: An Explanation of Airport Identifier Codes.

Trivia Treasure Trove

I stumbled upon a veritable trivia treasure trove at Did You Know????????????????? from "Yahoo! Answers". Some three hundred and twenty trivia tidbits are listed. A particularly funny one is #314.

314. Attila the Hun (invader of Europe, 5th century), Felix Faure (French President; 1841-1899), Pope Leo VII (936-939), Pope John VII (955-964), Pope Leo VIII (963-965), Pope John XIII (965-972), Pope Paul II (1467-1471), Lord Palmerston (British Prime Minister, 1859-1865), Nelson Rockefeller (US Vice President, 1974-1977), and John Entwistle (The Who's bassist) all died while having sex.

Wait a minute, what are Popes doing in that list?! The only possible explanation is that these Popes were Popes before some later Pope proclaimed infallibly that priests -- presumably including Popes -- are to be celibate.

Echoes: A Music Soundscape

Some of the music I most enjoy comes from Echoes. To borrow directly from Echoes' "Intro" page :

"Echoes is a daily two-hour music soundscape, distributed by Public Radio International and broadcast on over 150 radio stations from Maine to California. With host John Diliberto, a writer for Billboard, Pulse and other magazines, Echoes brings together a wide array of styles, from acoustic to electronic, jazz to space music, the avant-garde to rock. Echoes is a sound that is cross-cultural and trans-millennial, merging cultures and forms, technology and tradition, the ancient past and the possible future."

While it is available as a radio broadcast from remotely located PRI radio stations, none are in my little corner of the world, the greater Los Angeles area. So I pony-up for the on-line subscription. Have a listen sometime, and see if you think it's worth it. (Hint: Several of the radio stations also broadcast on the Internet, e.g. via iTunes and/or their own web sites.)

The best darn chocolate

My wife purchased a Dagoba organic dark chocolate bar (59% cocoa) for me in Ashland, Oregon. It was extraordinarily tasty, perhaps the best darn chocolate I've ever had. Dagoba products should be available locally (in Southern California) at Whole Foods Markets

It turns out that Dagoba Organic Chocolate is based there in Ashland. The Hershey Company purchased Dagoba in October of 2006, as described in this press release.

Some pictures of cacao trees on both the Dagoba and Hershey websites reveal the extraordinarily odd appearance of the fruit pods. They are elongated, sectioned, and range in color from bright yellow. See:

"cacao." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 4 Jan. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9111046>.

Cacao in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia