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 Comments, possibly informed. Tim Wilson Daytona Beach, Florida, USA timatollah@mackandtim.net Personal Homepage Professional Homepage Agenda Bender Dave Barry Bull Moose The Corner Defense Tech Matt Drudge Half Bakered Hit and Run Huffington Post Instapundit Kausfiles Mark Lane Ken Layne James Lileks Josh Marshall PaperFrog Virginia Postrel Shattered Buddha Mike Silverman Sploid Andrew Sullivan TPM Cafe Tapped Matt Welch Archives  |
Friday, February 28, 2003
Mister Rogers and Imagery Was this reality or something my warped mind came up with. I want to say that I remember Mr. Rogers playing with blocks. Talking in his smooth and soothing voice, he said something like, "When I was a little boy, I used to build towers." And he had built a tower. "My sister would build a pit." And near the tower was an area with an indentation in it. Maybe I'm having some kind of cross-wiring between Mr. Rogers and memories of seeing the state capitol in Tallahassee (Executive tower with wings, each with a bump, for the House and Senate on each side, facing a plaza -- very suggestive, at least to this one) for the first time. Welcome Bikers! It's Bike Week here in Daytona. There's a small but not miniscule chance I'll take and post some photos. (There's also this Bike Week link.) Seems like a small crowd so far. The rain today hasn't helped, though. By this time next week, my twenty-minute commute will take an hour. But, it's only once or so a year, and there's plenty of eye candy of many varieties (mechanical, human, etc.) to look at, so who's complaining. Addendum: "But what about the noise?" I know, I know. Some are mighty sensitive to motorcycle acoustic emissions. I'm sympathetic to those folks, but to myself, much of whose intellectual (ha!) life is built around questions of sound separation and identification, having a large number of independent moving sources with similar acoustic qualities around for a week or so is fun and thought provoking. Tommy Kirk? I never knew -- or at least, if I ever knew, I had forgotten -- until today, that Tommy Kirk is gay. Story here. I blame Dragonleg of Shattered Buddha, because I found the link by following his link to the Child Movie Star database. I loved Tommy Kirk in Old Yeller and The Absent Minded Professor. After he got kicked out of the Disney organization because he was gay (hey, things change), he made beach/teen movies. My favorite: Village of the Giants with Beau Bridges and Johnny Crawford (of The Rifleman), too. And Ron (Opie) Howard! And all the rest!! I shoulda known there and then that I was gay. Sorry, it's a bad nostalgia trip here this instant. My apologies. Whack a Peugeot for Our Troops Some folks in Nashville, Tennessee, demonstrated their irritation with the French by smashing a Peugeot. Story here from the Nashville Tennessean. 'What does bashing a Peugeot have to do with peace?'' said Steve Gill, rhetorically. ''Nothing. But most of the peace rallies have nothing to do with peace either. They're just attacking America. By calling our rally this, we just wanted to underline that point.''The quoted demonstrators sound more interested in supporting our folks in the military than explicitly supporting a war. How much of that is accurate reflection of the distribution of attitudes at the demo or accurate reflection of the reporter's biases is unclear. Thursday, February 27, 2003
Fred Thompson Just want to go on record here as noting that in this one's opinion, Fred Thompson made a better Republican senator from Tennessee than he does actor. Gamut, A, B, etc. He's making Diane Wiest as DA look good! Send him to the Actors' Studio!! Bring back Steven Hill!!! And now we return to your regular Timatollah programming or lack thereof.... Not Edith Keeler, Too? This just in: New Age yahoo Deepak Chopra suggests that he, the Pope, and the Dalai Lama serve as human shields in Baghdad. Story here from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Chopra is in Memphis to speak. I don't know if he's hawking a new book or just continuing the hawking of old ones. ("Hawking": ironic word choice.) "Edith Keeler" was the name of a character in the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", in which Kirk and Spock go back in time to prevent a drugged and deranged McCoy from preventing the accidental death of a peace activist. If the activist lives, passivism prevails, and Hitler wins WWII. I know it's difficult to believe that there's serious life instruction in something as cheezy as classic Star Trek can be, but this particular episode, written by Harlan Ellison, is pertinant in the current context. A Sad Day in the Neighborhood Fred Rogers passed away. The New York Times (registration required) obituary is here. At a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the show in 1993, Rogers said, "It's not the honors and not the titles and not the power that is of ultimate importance. It's what resides inside."Though almost all of us only know him via television, I believe that this was a man who made genuine accomplishments in helping folks raise their kids. A testamony to his sublime quietness was that I knew nothing of the fact that he had stomach cancer. I think one take-away message is that individuals can do great things, even in this day and age, and even using television. Monday, February 24, 2003
Smokestacks Coming Down, Part II Today's Daytona Beach News-Journal has this story about the tearing down of the smokestacks at the Florida Power and Light plant in DeBary. Accompanying the story is this particularly nice poster-like graphic by Scott Hestand about the deconstruction process. There's also this dramatic photo by Sam Cranston. (Okay, the story itself is somewhat pedestrian compared to the photo and to the graphic. Sorry. One man's opinion, etc.) Those smokestacks have been a regular part of the Orlando-to-Daytona run foabout as long as I can remember. Things change. Friday, February 21, 2003
Snow for Sale? Were it from Vermont, not New Hampshire, I would suspect the seller to be well-known eBay-fan Alphecca. (Just looking for an excuse to link. And to use the subjunctive. Excuse please. (Snow-seller link from Dragonleg's Shattered Buddha. (All rights reserved. (Do not feed the bears. (Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. (Find the missing close parenthesis. (Parentheses? (Lowell George was a great singer. (Let's hear it for the London Philharmonic Orchestra!))))))) Thursday, February 20, 2003
Quick Jumble of Links Okay, so I'm having a hard time getting content up here. So, I'm going to cop out, and simply give you, the reader, some links accompanied by one-line comments. That's like 200% more comments than you usually get with a link! Let the linkage begin:
Monday, February 17, 2003
Music Notes Just a few quick comments (i.e., no links, at least not right now) about some CDs I've been listening to recently.... Johnny Cash: "American IV: The Man Comes Around". Some great stuff mixed with some not so great. I could've done without the covers of "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "Desperado", but the rest of the tunes -- some Cash originals, some covers, and some traditional -- are winners. Particularly striking are "I Hung My Head" (by Sting -- I'd never heard of it previously, though, which is probably more a reflection of how out of it I am), "Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails), and "Personal Jesus" (Depeche Mode -- the arrangement is totally a winner). The title track (by Cash) is full of biblical allusions and images and sets the tone for the entire album. The closing pair of a tear inducing rendition of "Streets of Laredo" followed by Cash's cover of Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" (which more living people probably know as the music accompanying images of nuclear blasts in Dr. Strangelove than by its WWII off-go-the-boys-to-war origins) is focused on the certainty of death. (In fact, death and loss permeates the collection of songs. Also on the record are "Danny Boy" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".) Phish's new record "Round Room" is a good listen, if you like that sort of thing. It captures the group's improvisational approach about as well as anything I've heard come out of a studio. You know from the first few bars of the opening tune, "Pebbles and Marbles", that this is a Phish record. From its chamber-music sized opening to its extended jam in which all the players are equal, that tune represents the approach of much of the rest of the album. Trey Anastasio's singing has new clarity and focus and timing. It sounds like the hiatus has been good to the boys from Burlington, Vermont. Lastly, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, "Live at the Wetlands." Wow, what a performance. Randolph plays pedal steel like no one else that I know of. He gets all kinds of weird sounds out of it. I happened to catch part of a performance of this group on Austin City Limits not too long ago, and it was one of those, "Hey, com'ere. You have got to see this," moments. The band had the audience on their feet, stomping and dancing and shouting. This is definitely shitkicking music. It makes you want to hoot and holler and jump around. My brother said, "If you play it while driving, all of a sudden, you're going, like, a hundred miles an hour." Sunday, February 16, 2003
"Peace" Demos Mike Silverman has already pointed out (here) the "wouldn't it be nice if the Iraqis could openly protest" angle. My own take is along the lines of these comments by Andrew Stuttaford at (gasp) National Review Online's blog, The Corner. One immaculately dressed old man, watching the proceedings from his wheelchair, was not impressed. “Neville Chamberlain,” he announced to no one in particular, “peace in our time,” he jeered at the demonstrators.I keep wondering if given the opportunity, the some substantial fraction of the current flock of anti-action-against-Iraq protesters would have had the same attitude toward action against Hitler. Friday, February 14, 2003
Domestic Partner Benefits Woo-hoo! My employer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (caution, bad web-site design) announced today that it was instituting domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples. That's great for me, because Mack, my unindicted co-conspiritor of The Love That Shall Not Speak Its Name, can now get -- ta da -- health insurance. As Ropobopert Sopilbopert (chairman, Peoples' Bizarro Party) once said: "You give us big hand!!!" The Post-Valentine's Day Concept Mark Lane, Flablogger and Footnoter, runs another great idea up the flagpole, here: Post-Valentine's Day. My helpful suggestion of setting aside Feb. 15 as post-Valentine's Day has, like so many proposals for rational social reform, gone nowhere.I recommend the entire piece. Thursday, February 13, 2003
Kemmons Wilson Memphian Kemmons Wilson, the man who brought the world first the Holiday Inn chain and then later the Hampton Inn chain, has passed away. He was a Memphis institution. Besides making lots of money, he contributed generously to the community. Way back when, my dad, whose name was Kenneth Wilson, would mistakely get the occasional call for Kemmons Wilson. He'd milk it for all it was worth. I don't recall if the two of them ever met, but it wouldn't surprise me. Our family stayed at the original Holiday Inn on Summer Avenue in Memphis once. It was a trip to the Memphis Zoo. That site -- the Holiday Inn, not the Zoo -- was recently (within the past ten years) razed and replaced with a cut-rate funeral home. (The Zoo and Overton Park are still blocking a straight shot of I-40 through Memphis. It's never been clear to me whether the objective was protecting the Zoo or protecting the homes of the rich white folks who lived near the Zoo. They certainly didn't not tear down lots of housing for lower income not-necessarily-white folks before they shut down the project. (Note to self: Get that photo of the Riviera-esque mural of workers shutting down I-95 through Cambridge that's on the back of what used to be the Stop-and-Shop up and online.)) Thanks Public thanks here to the creative forces behind both Dragonleg's Shattered Buddha and Jeff Soyer's Alphecca blogs for the recent kind mentions. I 'preciate it, a bunch. You two, along with Mark Lane's Flablog and Mike Silverman's Red Letter Day are daily reads. In fact, you're all in a collection of Mozilla bookmark tabs called "Daily Blogs". Hmmm. The "One of These Things Is Not Like the Others" song is going through my head. Why is that? Tuesday, February 11, 2003
MAP of the Universe The first results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe are out. The probe, launched in 2001 has an orbit around the Earth that keeps in the the shadow of the moon. Today's New York Times (obligatory "registration required" here) has this story about the new data. Dig the turn of phrase at the end of this paragraph: By comparing their data with other astronomical observations, the astronomers said, they had arrived at a definitive measurement of the basic parameters that characterize the universe, including its age, geometry, composition and weight. The result, they said, is a seamless and consistent history of the universe, from its first few seconds, when it was a sizzling soup of particles and energy, to the modern day and a sky ribboned with chains of pearly galaxies inhabited by at least one race of puzzled and ambitious bipedsThe results do not refute the Big Bang theory in any way. And, hey, it's not every day that I get to say "anisotropy," even though it is a way cool word. Saturday, February 08, 2003
Clarence Clemons Today's Palm Beach Post features this story (possibly local, but AP-writer Antigone Barton attributed) on E Street Band saxaphone player (and Palm Beach local) Clarence Clemons. The Big Man recently turned 61 and is going strong, at least with the help of some aerobic exercise before each three-hour show. More Loopage Mark Lane has some info up in this post about a parade and picnic today, Saturday, 8 February 2003, that the Save the Loop folks are putting on. While no one has asked me, I think someone might say, "Tim, given how anti-developer you seem to be regarding the beach, what's with your fence-sitting regarding The Loop?" Good question. I find it hard to convince myself that some or many of the Save the Loop folks don't have mixed motivations in the matter. I think they ought to make explicit the impact of development in that part of town on their own property values. Those parts of the loop that are already developed are home to some pretty pricey houses. Would more development in that part of town have a negative or positive impact on the net worth of folks in those parts of the loop that are already developed. I mean, we're talking increased traffic, which is a downer, but we're also talking new development of high value, which should increase values. That's not a show stopper: I'd just like to see it made more explicit. (The trick is not to not have conflicts of interest. The trick is to make them explicit so they can be managed openly.) My concern is that the entire story is being framed as strictly environmental, preservationist, recreational, when it ought to be obvious to anyone who takes the ride that there are financial impacts, too. I can't drive past a riverfront million-dollar home with a "Save the Loop" sign in the front yard without cynically asking what the primary objective of saving the loop is: Preserve a shared asset or protect one groups' property values while refusing to allow others to develop their properties. If it's truly a shared asset, then maybe the county, or the state (yeah, right) should buy the appropriate properties. Or seize them with fair compensation through imminent domain. And, to further attempt to answer the original question honestly, I live two blocks from the beach, but ten or so miles from The Loop. The Loop is not in my backyard. Friday, February 07, 2003
While I Was Out Phil Spector got arrested. See this obituary of the victim of the murder Spector allegedly committed. From Joe Bob Briggs in Slate. And while at Slate, there's this article on the weird world of the Wall-of-Sound man himself: "By the mid-'70s Spector was a deeply disturbed control freak, pulling guns on studio engineers, incarcerating artists in various style mansions. At different times he has terrified the wits out of people as different as John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, the Ramones, and Michael Jackson's sister LaToya." But that sound.... I think it's time to whip out "River Deep, Mountain High." It's Alive! My laptop's back. Duration of the problem epoch: About two weeks. It started acted weird about two weeks ago tomorrow (Saturday, 8 Feb). Called IBM about it a week ago tomorrow. (Time on hold: five minutes. Time in consultation with service rep "Noman": about thirty-five minutes.) The box for return service arrived Tuesday, went out Wednesday morning, and returned today, with my computer (IBM ThinkPad T22) repaired just fine. Say what you will about IBM, a three-year warranty is a good thing. Also, I found the service tech on the phone to be knowledgable and understanding; that is, he didn't try to force me to do things I'd already tried to solve the problem just because they were turning up next on his screen. Also, he skipped a few steps when he authorized me to return the computer for repair because it was clear that going through those steps weren't going to solve the problem. While it was a pain to be without this trusty little beast, I'm really happy with how IBM handled this. They had also previous taken good care of me when my old machine, an IBM ThinkPad 760ED had gone down. I had bought it used (i.e., previously leased) from them, but they took care of it under the original warranty. That's http://www.ibm.com. And, yes, I would buy another computer from them. Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Technical Difficulties My laptop, which is my primary compute engine, is down. It's in the box, ready to make it's way back to IBM's repair contractor in Memphis (of all places). So, for those few who read this with some regularity, please expect a reduced rate of blog entries for the next while. Monday, February 03, 2003
Dr. Kalpana Chawla Today's New York Times had this story on Shuttle Columbia astronaut Dr. Kalpana Chawla. Saturday, February 01, 2003
Shuttle Columbia The loss of Space Shuttle Columbia is horrible news. I saw it go up just sixteen days ago and posted pictures of the launch (here) as seen here from sixty or so miles north of Cape Canaveral. I knew it was coming home today, but I wasn't as keyed into the return time as I had been to the launch. The Shuttle approach goes over Orlando, and they hear the sonic booms of the braking manouver there, but, to my knowledge, there's nothing to observe directly here in Daytona Beach. My sympathies go to the crew members' families and friends, and to those who are affiliated with the shuttle program. My hope is that we (take your pick: as species or as nationality) continue to go into space. This tragedy is an opportunity for all of us to renew our committments to such exploration. The risks associated with space flight will never go away, but the activity is worthwhile and noble, even, in some ways, essential. Let's honor the memory of the Columbia crew -- and of all who have died in making space exploration a reality -- by remaining determined to explore beyond the planet. Somewhere on a shelf at home, there's an old VHS tape of the initial Columbia mission with John Young and Robert Crippen. That was back when HBO was about the only cable network, and it carried the NASA feed of Columbia's launch and successful return. It was a worriesome flight, both because of the risks of the launch -- the solid rocket boosters whose O-rings failed in the Challenger flight -- and those of the return -- no one had ever piloted an unpowered flying brick home from space previously. Now the possible negative outcome of the second of those concerns has apparently made itself manifest. As we wait, possibly months, to find out what happened, let's remember and respect the accomplishments of all the people who have left this planet and seen it from above. |
