Information for Frequent Flyers : The First Year-End List

The powers that be have released their list of the most intercepted prohibited items from prospective airline passengers today. While I find lists of all types eminently readable (Harper's Index fer sure!) , this one is so good, and raises so many thoughts, I wanted to share it with you:
Prohibited items intercepted by airport screeners, Jan. 1-Nov. 29, 2005:

Lighters (prohibited as of April 14, 2005): 8,124,525

Ok, let's stop there. As Scout can attest, there is a growing underground behaviour for flying smokers. It seems that once you find an area to smoke at the airport, it is common courtesy to leave your lighter on the edge of the ashtray, for smokers to use once they arrive, nicotine-depleted, from their flight. While I appreciate that consideration, my mind is reeling from the fact that at an average price of a buck a piece, we are talking about eight million dollars worth of product being seized. That makes many local drug busts look like child's play. Do you think that the BIC people are in on this? I had no idea that they sold eight million lighters in a year....whew.

Sharp objects: 3,041,218

Knives and blades: 1,650,894
Less than 3 inches: 1,599,103
3 inches or longer: 51,791

OK, so who needs to carry on sharp objects? Three million people do. I want more specific information here. Obviously, these passengers are not so sharp. And what is with the knife thing? Either many more chefs, taxidermists, butchers and sword swallowers are flying than I thought or people are simply stupid- OR- members of the Swiss Army.

Tools: 819,450

Ya never know when you might need that chainsaw during your flight...

Flammables/irritants: 362,613
Ammunition and gunpowder: 21,939

Hey, at least they stowed the gun in the checked baggage...

Box cutters: 19,499

and finally...

Clubs, bats and bludgeons: 19,183

Please tell me the nineteen THOUSAND bats were from like, little league teams flying to games.

So pack carefully for your holiday travels, folks.

New Music Tuesday - I'm Hacked Off

I am just so very annoyed. I have loved the Eurythmics since the early 80's, loving them (well, loving Annie Lennox, let's be honest- especially in the phase she had when she performed in a red lace bra and black leather pants...but I digress) so much that I even learned how to spell their name, but not so much that I ever took the class in colllege.

Anyway, so I have all of their CDs - including their great TOURISTS hit, I Only Want To Be With You. And what do they do? They have gone and re-released all 8 of their CD's with glorious deluxe packaging, extensive liner notes, photos, blah blah blah AND...AND...BONUS TRACKS! Over 40 spread out on all 8 CDs, which are going for $18 a piece. Now, if you ask me, I would have happily paid $24 for a CD of JUST THE BONUS TRACKS!!! AAARGH. I hate them. Today. For the moment. Can I petition someone? Annie, are you reading this?

That being said, I had to pick up EURYTHMICS - Ultimate Collection. Why? The cover art is perfect. Yes, that is primarily why bought it. I am a marketers dream after all. Interior photos are wonderful as well, with the unfathomable inclusion of a NICE photo of Dave Stewart! Really! The typefaces and general design capture the era of the Eurythmics heyday perfectly. Ah, the days of genderbending, orange haired Annie...it'll take you back.

The bonus tracks, the sublime Was It Just Another Love Affair? and I've Got A Life are worth the price of the CD, but folks, there is scant information in the liner notes - in fact, all you get is the lyrics. It would have been a nice touch to include the YEAR OF RELEASE (especially for the new tracks - I mean, were they old tunes that are included now, or are they fresh new ones?)and from what album the track came from, just for simplicity. Is this too much to ask?

A Special Kind Of Genius

The password is : monorail.

One rail.

How can you have two trains collide? That takes some special genius I tell ya'.

Product Review - Collective Wellbeing

Your Captain has a great tip for you today. Visit Collective Wellbeing and order yourself their Bamboo/Fennel Seed Body Scrub. (The site is very annoying to navigate, by the way. To wit : Bodycare - Body Washes and Scrubs - Bodyscrub).

The fennel not only smells good, but has secret anti-microbial properties. The bamboo is mildly gritty for excellent exfoliation, and it is also a natural deodorizer. Who knew? And God love 'em at the Collective Wellbeing - they use the correct binomial nomenclature for the plants as well as the common name in the list of ingredients.

After using this product, which smells very pleasing to the Captain's nose, I have noticed a dramatic softness to my skin. If it can have that affect on me, I can whole-heartedly endorse it for anyone.

The Perils Of The Irish Joint On A Saturday Night

In the immortal words of Miss Christine Lavin, "What Was I Thinking?"

I really wanted a substantial meal tonight on my "lunch" break, and had my heart set on the enormous plate of cod and chips at the nearby Irish place, whose name sounds like you are clearing your throat of a year's worth of mucous. I was planning on sitting at the bar, real quick, in and out. MyAdoringPublic had even gone there with her as yet un-nicknamed Beau (not to be confused with my Beauregard Van Horne - what a scandal THAT would be!), and they were leaving as I was arriving, off to see Harry Potter.

Hello. It's Saturday night in a mecca of capitalism. The place was a madhouse.

I found the single seat left at the bar. In a mostly timely fashion a waitress found me, took my order, let me pay in advance, and all seemed well. My food even arrived in fifteen minutes. This is going well, right?

Then, the idiot drunk guy next to me, leans over, and I swear, puts his face about 6 inches from my food..."Um, looks good! What is it?" Like he's never seen fish or chips before.

I kinda wanted to poke his eye out with my fork.

Up On The Mountaintop - A Holiday Sighting

Well, for those young at heart, who have fond memories of staying up late looking for the first glimpse of Santa's sleigh, the distant sound of incoming sleighbells, or even of the appearance of the Easter Bunny hopping toward your house on a spring evening (ok, maybe I had a vivid imagination), the waiting is over.

Here are some photos taken by a backpacker up on the poetic-sounding Silver Star Mountain in southern Washington.

It may not be Santa, but then again, maybe it is. Could be a rock. Another backpacker. OR! OR! IT just COULD be the newest candid pix of....Washington's own Bigfoot!

As the article points out: The photos are inconclusive, but they are potentially relevant. Uh. Okay.

I suppose even Bigfoot has to leave the house to get his holiday shopping done...

ScubaSteve To The Rescue!

I have been in a frenzy lately, taking care of things I have been procrastinating, because Scout will be arriving in four short days!

Today's tasks involved driving up north to go to Crate and Barrel and to pick up a Cuisinart hand mixer, which I am told, is an essential element in making real whipped cream, mashed potatoes and possibly pumpkin pie. I really don't know. All I know is that getting a mixer has been on my list for about a year now, and THIS is the one I wanted, so Scout's arrival was a perfect excuse to get it.

Also, the C&B had a lovely piece I wished to use as a headboard. My problem would be in mounting it, because of its size. To that end, I enlisted the aid of my pal, ScubaSteve, to come down and help me hang things on my walls, which seem to be made of titanium and are nearly impossible to drive nails of any type into. Because of this sad fact, my lovely Picasso print has been sitting, wrapped in plastic like Laura Palmer, in my entrance hallway for many months.

So, I ask a salesman for the piece, and am informed that they only have the floor model, which is NOT for sale, but more will be in...in JANUARY. That is so not helpful. Why are they displaying a floor model that might inspire someone to make a design decision, and then NOT SELL IT? And it ain't like it was cheap, either. Oooh, they made me mad. FURTHERMORE, it holds 14 votives. How many votives are sold in a set? That's right, Clever Readers, 12! The same bozos who package the hot dogs in 12's and the buns in 8's thought this one up, too...

Anyway, back to the good part of the day...With a promise of a pre-work Starbuck's of his choice and a meal following, ScubaSteve met me at the shopping center and followed me back down the highway for 45 minutes. That, Faithful Readers, is true friendship. The hanging process didn't take too long, but I thought a nice meal at Bob Evan's sounded better than the pizza we were planning on, so we drove down to the restaurant and had a nice visit (but nothing to be jealous of, Kitty Griffing!)

All went well, and my house is practically perfectly in order. One of the remaining tasks is to choose the right bedding ensemble from my collection of five...it will either be the Classic Linen, which features the most beautiful Matteo duvet cover and Leitner accent pillows, -or- it will be the Neutral bed of Egyptian cotton, which I firmly believe are the best, softest and most luxurious on the planet.

Well, there are still four days to make the bed...decisions, decisions.

New Music Tuesday – Gender Bending Strings

I was eagerly waiting for this new project from Patty Larkin to be released. The full title is La Guitara: Gender Bending Strings. It is in Patty's words " a glimpse of how women have influenced the guitar over time. We made a decision to create a collection of women instrumentalists from many different musical styles, and from many places around the world, including archival selections." In my opinion (shared by many) Patty is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, so I was very excited to hear what she would select for her tour of the distaff world of guitar playing.

The great classical player Sharon Isbin is featured on track two (La Catedral). The tracks fro two other classical artists I am not familiar with ( Muriel Anderson -the first woman to have won the National Finger Picking Guitar Championship- and Badi Assad) are also quite good.

From old blues-playing Memphis Minnie to the jazz stylings of Mimi Fox, the CD encompasses all types of guitar work. My only complaints are that the final three tracks are barely over one minute in length (the CD is only 40 minutes long, so it's not like she was running out of space), and are just little snippets. And, the track Ms. Larkin included of her own work is less interesting than many of her other tour de forces, say Banish Misfortune/Open Hand or even Solo Flight.

All in all, a good CD for study, but the Isbin track is the only one I will be returning to with regularity.

This Means War!

My favorite procrastination device at the moment is a website called KittenWar.

It is the simplest of concepts…folks submit pix of their cats, and two are pitted against each other. There are links where you can see the “winningest” kitties and the big losers. It is readily obvious that voters do not the sphinx/hairless rex varieties of cats.

And my personal dislike of the “flat faced” cats is surprisingly a popular position…in most of my contests I have judged, the flat facers have lost by a substantial percentage.

My On-Going Love Affair With Studio 360

I’ve just discovered Odeo, a web page that collects podcasts that you can listen to on your own time. I’ve been using it to catch up on old Studio 360 shows that I have missed due to my work schedule.

The October 22 show is an interview from 2002 with the late Spalding Gray, with many live bits of Spalding performing in Seattle cut in. It was very moving and quite sad as the details of Spalding’s overwhelming depression come to light, but also nice in a way to get to hear ol’ Spald again.

Besides wonderful shows on March Of The Penguins (focusing on how the Christian Right have tried to make it their own and closing with the absolute best point, that March of the Penguins is….FRENCH), and Herman Melville (where host Kurt Anderson shares that he is also a Starbuck's triple grande latte drinker - ah! AND Laurie Anderson calls Melville "the master of the jumpcut", as well as the author of the weirdest book she has ever read) you can hear a re-broadcast at your leisure of my all-time Studio 360 show, when I discovered The Lonesome Gal.

The Lonesome Gal was a radio host (Jean King)who was first broadcast in Dayton, Ohio in 1947. She did fifteen minutes spots of intimate, one-on-one type romantic interludes, managing to work in ads for tobacco and beer amongst the soft background music. She played an important part in many a lonely, single man’s life in the day, if the interviews with fans are to be believed. You will be shocked at her voice – it is as if she is speaking directly to YOU, in your head. A Laurie Anderson internal, soft, and low quality, but WAY more sexy.

If I remember correctly, someone found old vinyl records of the Lonesome Gal shows…THAT would make a cool CD….

Thoughts On Furniture

I saw the perfect bedside table awhile ago, but it was a bit too pricey for me. Then it went on sale! Hooray! BUT, they didn’t have any in stock…won’t be seeing them until the end of December. Now your very own Captain StL is expecting a visitor for the holidays, and it would be very nice to have a bedside table. December arrival is just not going to work. But I took their silly raincheck, then decided to stop into the store by my work, and Viola! Yes, they had one new in a box and everything. (The Captain StL is very, very good at assembling furniture that comes in boxes, having loads of practice early in life with IKEA products.)

So I get my table home and assemble it. If you have had any experience with IKEA or even Crate and Barrel furniture assembly, you should fall onto your knees and thank them for their well-thought out construction. My table hails from Thailand, and they put the screws (requiring an Allen wrench- enclosed) into such tight locations that the wrench will only rotate a quarter of a turn at best before hitting the top or side or back of the piece. It takes about a half an hour to get one screw in. Thai’s must train monkeys to do this work…

Anyway, my lovely table came together after a bit of forcing and finagaling. Here is what the catalog has to say…

Handsome solid hardwood in a dark walnut finish with black rub-through contributing to a vintage Colonial character. Open shelf, one drawer and handy magazine rack on side.

Honestly, until today I had no idea what the purpose of the “magazine rack” was - I thought it was a cool design element. I am often not that bright.

Country of Origin: Thailand
Approx. Weight: 46.2 lbs

Yes, that’s right folks, I own a 46 pound table. That ain’t no plywood and veneer my friends!

Holiday Craft Idea!

Okay, this is really too sad to make fun of, but it was a slow news day folks, so here we go!

Wondering what to do with the kiddies now that the nights are growing long and the weather is turning chillier by the day? Gather them around the kitchen table, get out that old roll of aluminum foil and let your creativity run rampant! That’s right, a new family tradition…It’s Thought Screen Helmet night!

Well, What IS Leather After All?

I learned a great new phrase today.

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy is the term for...books bound in human skin.

This article from The Record of Harvard Law School details the historical use of human skin as bookbinding. It seems many medical and law texts were bound in executed criminal and cadaver's hides. And, even our very own Cleveland Public Library has a copy of the Koran bound in skin. (Can you say "Field Trip"?) But there was also a rage in having your skin bequeathed for the purpose.

The great Arts and Crafts designer Dard Hunter tells of being hired by a young widow to bind a volume of letters dedicated to her late husband in his skin. Hunter later learned that the widow remarried and wondered whether her second husband saw himself as Volume Two. Hunter quipped, "Let us hope that was strictly a limited edition."

Can You Really Change Your Corner Of The World?

I really enjoyed this article the Times published today. It is about the quest for manners in Chicago cafes and other businesses, which have recently been putting up signs "encouraging" parents to parent, and to keep their children quiet and well-behaved. This, of course, has created quite a battle. I'd love to hear your opinions.

But to me, they really buried the lead of the article. Almost the penultimate paragraph of the article states:

He (Mr. McCauley) likens this one small step toward good manners to his personal effort to decrease pollution by hiring only people who live close enough to walk to work.

"I can't change the situation in Iraq, I can't change the situation in New Orleans but I can change this little corner of the world."

I think McCauley's whole idea of hiring only those people who can walk to work is certainly worthy of its own article. I remember with great fondness living in Portland and being able to walk from my apartment in the Northwest to my job in the Pearl District. And on my day off, everything I needed to do was also within walking distance. I rarely had to use to my car, which was great, because on-street parking was minimal, and once you got a good space, you didn't want to give it up.

There is something terrific about hiring people in the neighborhood to work IN the neighborhood, but that takes a whole different infrastructure than is readily available, especially out here where I live now. And remember, I now commute 2 hours a day to my work, so I am sure that Mr. McCauley is not a fan of mine. I would love to see viable, livable neighborhoods that supported all kinds of businesses and families.

And a resurgence of manners would be welcome, too.

New Music Tuesday - Sentimental

I was reading a magazine and saw an ad for this CD, and I had to get it from Amazon as a French import, but it was worth it.

The CD is Sentimental, by Tanita Tikaram. I've been a fan since the PenPal brought home Tanita's first LP, Ancient Heart, long ago in 1988.

Sentimental is a lovely, jazzy CD and Tanita's voice is maturing like oak casked single malt Scotch. Smooth, deep and dark.

I can't really point to a favorite track on the CD, with the exception of one mood killing misplaced track, the CD flows from track to track, making a very pleasant listen.

Sentimental is closest to a melange of Lovers In The City and Everybody's Angel, but much more focused.

"I wanted to get back to things I had forgotten, fundamental ideas about keeping things simple and interesting and looking at how the voice sits with other instruments. Ideas I felt I lost but which maybe I just knew naturally when I was seventeen."

I am so very glad to have new Tanita tunes!

Wine Tip Of The Year

I have had the good fortune to discover a wonderful wine, Conte di Bregonzo Amarone della Valpolicella. This bottle will serve you well if you let it breathe for an hour or so. The wine is a deep reddish purple color with a nice nose of cherry and spices. The taste wine is rich with the flavor of figs, dates, plums, dried apricots, and light oak. The alcohol level is high at 14.5%.

I had never heard of Amarone before trying this bottle, so I did a little research that I would love to share with you:

Amarone della Valpolicella is an often powerful Italian wine made from dried grapes of the Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara varieties.

Made near Valpolicella, Amarone is made by harvesting ripe grapes and allowing them to dry, traditionally on straw mats. This concentrates the remaining sugars and flavors. Depending on weather conditions, the wine may be influenced by "noble rot". The final result is a very ripe, raisin-y, big-bodied wine with very little acid. Alcohol content easily surpasses 15%. Amarones are not cheap, be forewarned, but they are very, very, good.

Laurie Anderson Revisited

Once again, after work I headed downtown to Playhouse Square. I had a good chicken lo mein and excellent potstickers at China Sea Express, as Otto's was closed on Sunday. The restaurant was almost vacant, which was fairly pleasant, but then a very outgoing certified wack-o came in, and group of four. The wack-o sat across from the four top, but almost instantaneously stood up and joined in their conversation. They were fairly polite, but clearly bothered by his unsolicited attention. I was glad that my meal was just about over, because I was loathe to be the next victim.

Anyway, back to the lobby where I waited for "TinTen" to arrive. We had great seats (about 6 rows back on the aisle) for Laurie Anderson's new show, The End Of The Moon. I was quite surprised on seeing the stage. There was an upholstered armchair on stage right, and at center stage, a small keyboard stand, and a very small screen on stage left. Scattered about the stage floor were about a hundred tea lights. That was it. It was a great contrast to the old Laurie Anderson stage performances, which were multimedia extravaganzas, often requiring so much equipment that it filled two semi-trucks. I last saw Ms. Anderson here at the Palace Theatre way back in March of 1995 performing just such a show, The Nerve Bible, along with my friends Brokenbrush and TunaMusic.

"My own work is more about trying to ask really good questions and not trying to come up with really big shows. Every fashion company is doing that, every car company is doing that. They're all doing multimedia shows. One of the things that I learned from working on the Olympics was that I was hired as a tech geek, someone whose done big multimedia shows. I said, "The world does not need another big multimedia show."

The End Of The Moon is an impressionistic, dreamlike collection of stories and observations, all glued together with music interludes, which attempt to shed light on some of the most brain-melting quandaries we face.

This show began with an inquiry: Who told you what beauty was?

The element of time is also a major theme.

"It begins with this idea of stuttering and how difficult it is to start things. People only stutter at the beginning of the word, they don't say "stuttering-ing-ing-ing" because they're not afraid when they get to the end of the word. There's just regret."

In the course of the show she told two miraculous stories. The first was about a walk she took with her rat terrier on the California coast. She related how the terrier would always run ahead, nose to ground, searching left and right for intruders, protecting her. Then, an eagle swooped down, poised to carry the dog away, but in Anderson's eyes, decided the dog was a wee bit too big, and just ... hovered over it for awhile. Anderson said that she saw a brand new thought pass through the dog's head, that intruders can come from ABOVE. She describes how in future walks, the dog's posture was thrown off, trying to reconcile this new knowledge, and to keep an eye on the skies as well as the ground. This seamlessly segued into our post 9-11 behaviour. It was chillingly, beautifully done.

"End of the Moon is about the queasy feelings you might have. It's dreamier. More abstract. There is a lot more trepidation about the future. There's uncertainty. It's my best attempt at describing life at this moment."

The second story was about a concert she was doing outdoors in Greece. She heard this odd sound, and thought that it might be feedback, or someone playing an instrument, or even a child. When the sound persisted, she noticed that it was mimicking her own vocalizations. Then she looked up into a tree that was near the stage. An owl was there, watching and echoing her sounds. Anderson says she thought that she could drop dead right at that moment, because there was nothing better than doing a duet with that owl.

The last influence on this work was Anderson's recent tenure as the first (and last) Artist-In-Residence for NASA. Indiana congressman Chris Chocola considered the $20,000 stipend paid to Anderson "an example of government wasteful spending" and successfully introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill last June that prevents NASA from funding such a position again. She considers much of this work to be her "official report" to NASA about her tenure there.

Watching Anderson perform is an odd experience. Her movements are few, and there is simply not a lot to watch. But it is her voice, low, quiet and measured that insinuates itself into your thoughts, and for long moments you think that what you are hearing is just your subconscious voice - but it's way more eloquent and poetic than it has ever been. This experience felt very much like a waking dream.

Says Anderson, "I like it when we fall into that communal dream."

There you go.

One Good Reason To Live In Cleveland

Tonight I headed downtown for dinner at Otto Moser's, and to take in the concert of the year, if not a lifetime. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case were hosting the 10th Annual American Music Masters Series, which was a tribute to the life and music of the definitive soul singer, Sam Cooke.

The most exciting thing before the show began was the appearance of a woman in a long white gown accented by a red boa, a huge ostrich feather fan and an enormous hat, easily four feet in diameter, also made of red feathers. Her companion wore white pants and a red blazer and matching bowler hat. They made quite a stir sitting in the box seats. They were the talk of all of the folks in my section of the theatre.

The show began at 8:15, when a video screen lowered and Bill Clinton began speaking about the influence of Sam Cooke. His appearance was met with wild applause.

The first act was the incredible Blind Boys of Alabama, singing, This Little Heart of Mine and If I Had A Hammer. They were terrific.

They were followed by the emcee, Dr. Julian Bond of the NAACP, a man of stunning charisma.

Next on the line-up were Otis Clay and Cissy Houston. Cissy sang Only 16, but she was either tired, old, or hanging out with her daughter. She was out of it and had no enthusiasm whatsoever.

As the set was being prepared for the next act, we were treated to old Ed Sullivan black and white footage of Sam singing You Send Me which was breathtaking.

Then, one of the evening's highlights for me - the performance by The Manhattans. I have to go out and get some of their stuff! They did a great version of Chain Gang, and Wonderful World.

This was followed by another vintage video of Sam performing A Change Is Gonna Come.

The mood kept on rising as the magnificent Taj Mahal came out and sang Lil' Red Rooster and Twisting the Night Away. The crowd was clapping, swaying, screaming - it was a party in the house. The energy was electric. It was impossible not to feel a strong sense of communal harmony and joy.

At 9 pm, the assistant emcee came on stage, the great Morgan Freeman, recipient of a long standing ovation, just for being in Cleveland I guess.

Then came Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band, who really tore up the stage, doing Sam's Everybody Likes to Cha Cha Cha. I've never seen anyone run around a stage like that before.

William Bell did a beautiful version of You Send Me, which lead into We're Having a Party with everyone sans the Blind Boys re-appearing on stage. There was so much energy in the house, it felt like the end of a miraculous concert. But no, it was only intermission!

Going out to the lobby, I ran into a co-worker, "Tripod Dennison", who chivalrously offered to buy me a drink. He concurred that the evening was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that for $35, we were more than getting our money's worth. I was truly concerned, given the level of passion and excitement in the theatre, what would happen when Aretha Franklin appeared. I was pretty sure the roof was going to come off the joint.

The second act began with LC Cooke (Sam's brother) and the Highway QC's .

During the show Gorgeous George and Early Bird ,two famous Apollo emcees, came out and did some recollections of the early days, and their memories of Sam.

The Dixie Hummingbirds also did a song, then came Gavin DeGraw, a youngster, who gave exquisite performances of Cupid and Change my Heart For You , which received a well-deserved standing ovation.

At 10:30 Solomon Burke appeared, wheeled out on an ermine draped throne, wearing a purple sequined suit. His handsome and vocally magnificent son, Selassie, performed a lovely number, and supernaturally evoked the tone and spirit of Sam Cooke. It was kind of spooky.

Then Elvis Costello performed two tunes, That's Where Its At and Get Yourself Another Fool and then finally, Aretha Franklin, my main reason for going to the show.

It was now past 11 pm. The house was dark for a full fifteen minutes as they prepared for Aretha's entrance. There was no videos, no emceeing, no music. Nothing but black silence. It was honestly perturbing. All of the energy of the night had faded. It seemed that the audience on the whole was ready for the night to be over. Finally the curtains parted, and out stepped Morgan Freeman, who simply said , "Here is the Queen Of Soul", and shrugged his shoulders and exited the stage. There is no mistaking that Aretha is a formidable talent. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see and hear her live, but it was a very long and uncomfortable wait. She performed For Sentimental Reasons and Sugar Dumpling, again bringing out the evening's previous performers to the stage, but there was no energy compared to the rousing and electric first act. That first act, even though it had few "heavyweights" had all of the passion and excitement. If the show was simply the second act, it would have been very disappointing.

No Place Like Home For The Holidays

Unless you lived in New Orleans. The New York Times today ran two articles side by side under one headline:

Hurricane Evacuees Face Eviction Threats at Both Their Old Homes and New

and

New Orleans Landlords Are Pitted Against Tenants in Court

Landlords in New Orleans have filed 700 eviction notices in the past ten days, in some cases filing more cases in a single day than are seen in a whole month.

Folks who are trying to make a go of things down in the Big Easy are complaining that their funds have been tied up by minimal and unreliable mail delivery (the mail from August is just getting delivered about now, according to the article).

But landlords need their tenants to pay rent so they can live as well. And many landlords have no viable properties left to collect rents from. Locating displaced old tenants is no easy matter.

So, as you sit around your table this Thanksgiving, please keep in mind how very fortunate you are.

The Trouble With Poetry

When I was fixing to leave Portland, TheSaintedDianne gave me a present. It was The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins. I was perplexed why she had chosen a book of poetry for me, and I had no idea who he was anyway. So I asked her. And she replied, "He is the poet laureate of the United States." So, I don't get out much. Had no idea.

Anyway, three poems from that book were incredibly moving to me (The Invention of the Saxophone, The Blues and Nightclub). So I immediately became a big fan.

So there I was at Border's, and I walk up to the New Releases table and a great book cover catches my eye. It is Billy Collin's new book, The Trouble With Poetry. So I am standing there for like, a good solid six minutes reading it, enjoying it, lost in it...and a worker starts talking. I ignore her, because she obviously isn't talking to ME. Finally she says very loudly, "Excuse me!" I look up and she says," Can I help you find anything?" Now...I haven't moved for about six minutes. Haven't looked up. Been reading and enjoying myself. What in the world made her think I was looking for something...unless she just wanted to (successfully) blow my moment?

So even though I had every intention of buying that book, I had to leave. Of course. And buy it from a store near my work later in the day.

Moral: When someone is reading, leave them be.

Lessons From The Animal Kingdom

I think maybe this idea fell out of Brownie's notebook...

It seems that the fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) has found a very ingenious way of surviving floods. When the flood waters approach, the entire colony (workers, larvae, winged queen, everyone) abandons their mound and binds together into a floating ball until they drift onto higher, dry ground. During their odyssey, the ants continuously reposition themselves so that no ant is left underwater too long. ( No ant left behind...)

Humans have used their superior intellect to take advantage of the pest ant's ingenuity. It seems that if detergent is sprayed around the antball, the surface tension of the water is weakened and the entire mass sinks and drowns...

See a picture of the ant ball here.

New Music Tuesday - RIPLEY

Believe it or not, RIPLEY, is the new vehicle for one Alice Ripley, star of the Broadway hits Sideshow, Sunset Boulevard, and The Rocky Horror Show.

This 5 song EP features Shannon Ford on drums, Skip Ward on bass, and Christopher Schelling on keys. Ms. Ripley plays the guitar and sings, and has composed the tracks as well.

This band is quite a departure from her 2000 release, Everything's Fine, which was much more intimate acoustic / pop.

Ripley is five tracks of rock; one track sounding downright Beatle-esque, and another channeling a bit of Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise. The photoshop'd cover picture is dead-on.

And as they say, five songs. Five bucks. The way it should be.