Cathy Woolard and her blog-savvy campaign staff
Looking for an Internet candidate in this election year? Cathy Woolard has just declared for the US House of Representatives in the Fourth Congressional District in Georgia. (Cathy, who will be Georgia’s first openly gay congressional candidate, is an outspoken opponent of state bans on gay marriage who has been active in local politics for [...]
Work, uninterrupted
I finally got the side yard overseeded and fertilized again yesterday, taking advantage of our bizarre 80° heat and sunshine to do a little yard work. Just in time: it’s fifty and raining today, so at least I don’t have to water the new grass. And in more excitement, our dogwalker starts today. I actually [...]
Headline writer gets bored
Via the Boston Globe’s Odds and Ends RSS Feed: Lederhosen subsidies axed as government tightens belt. Ba-dum-pssch. Other Boston Globe RSS feeds here (local news especially fun). Thanks to Dave for the pointer.
Beware the white binding with the red and black letters
Salon: Abridged Too Far. Hilary Flower writes of her unsettling discovery of “abridged” children’s literature through reading the “Great Illustrated Classics” version of Wind in the Willows. Whenever a classic work of children’s literature credits an “adapter” and an editor, look out.
Faster than a speeding bullet
The hypersonic test flight of the X-43A, NASA’s scramjet test plane, had special significance for our family. My dad was working on the program that produced the engine while he was in research at NASA. His part was subtle but important: how do you figure out if your engine is running hot (or cold, or [...]
Learning to pray again
I wrote earlier that I joined a church choir after years in semipro vocal groups because I wanted to explore my faith more. I didn’t realize that I would get an opportunity from a completely different direction. My dad had a minor heart attack (now there’s an oxymoron) last Sunday. He spent the past few [...]
What’s been up
It’s been a busy week. I think it’s a good sign on a number of fronts that work has been a blur of productivity as I work on a very important deliverable. I’ve actually been eager to get out of bed in the morning, and that hasn’t been true for a long time. On the [...]
Tired: wardriving. Wired: power rustling
People are getting arrested for using power outlets in public locations like train stations and businesses to charge their laptops. The Register calls it power rustling. Next up: for-pay electrical outlets in airports? I think it’s already being done but I can’t find the reference on my blog. Wait! I know! What we need is [...]
They still call it the White House but that’s a temporary condition too
I finally got around to changing my tagline (the old one, “Because no one has a monopoly on Fair and Balanced,” was getting a little long in the tooth). The new one, “You don’t need the bullet if you’ve got the ballot,” is simultaneously a shout out to George Clinton and the P-Funk crew (the [...]
Never send a soprano to do a tenor’s job
Language Log (my new favorite RSS feed) points to a Physics Today article that explains why you can never understand the words an operatic soprano sings—even if she is singing in your language. The story discusses a study conducted at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, which experimentally shows through acoustics that [...]
Hindemith and Shaw and requiems and me
I felt a compulsion this morning to pull out the Shaw recording of Hindemith’s choral masterpiece, When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d: A Requiem for Those We Love. It occurs to me that I’ve never told my story about the piece, and how I came to meet Robert Shaw. First a word about Lilacs. [...]
Black Dog in the workplace
Fast Company: Depression Impression. The FC blog points to a study by the University of Michigan Depression Center (summary at the Business and Legal Review) that says that only 41% of employees suffering from depression feel that they “can acknowledge their illness and still get ahead in their careers.” This despite 90% of the respondents [...]
I go Pogo, digitally
New today in the iTunes Music Store: Songs of the Pogo, a recording that Walt Kelly made in 1956 with the help of Norman Monath. You can bet that’s being downloaded right now. Alas, no Boston Charlie.
Two years ago today
Time Passing: the birth of Paul Colton’s son Lex. Plus leaving on our trip to Italy, which was the start of one of my longest blog outages: ten days, not counting the post Esta made in my absence.
Quick links roundup
Boston Globe: Job Losses Mount in Bay State. The paper points out that while the jobless rate dropped to 5.3% last month in Massachusetts, much of that was due to people not looking any more. For the record, the jobless rate in Washington State is 6.1%. Clancy Ratliff: Dude, who put a screw in YOUR [...]
