Back to index of "this and that in my life" pages by Donald Sauter.
Dedicated to the proposition that every thought that's ever been thunk may be of use or interest to someone . . .
THEE: My heart just breaks for you that you've lost your Mom from
earth. But, she is very much still with you in spirit. What a
special tribute from the creator--to have taken her on Christmas
eve.
I've skimmed and read portions of your wonderful tribute to your
Mom, Jane Sauter. The photos are so charming and meaningful. You
have every right to be thankful and proud of such a caring,
loving Mother. You'll miss her every day but you have fulfilling
memories to replenish you up when you are feeling empty.
She'll always live on in your heart.
Will write more soon. Have to wipe away a whole bunch of tears
and remember that we will all see our loved ones again one day.
ME: Current average tuition
Are there any statistics on the average monthly tuition currently
charged per subject in Kumon centers in the U.S.? Is there an
estimate of the percentage of instructors who still charge $80
per month? Thanks. [No useful response from Kumon instructors.]
ME: i'll never catch up whoa is me part xxxvi
>Do you have PowerPoint on that computer of yours?
Nope. Think of me as a computer Amish.
>>ds: beat him "brown", eh? Found one of those in my Wit and
Humor of America set, by the way. From "The Deacon's
Masterpiece", by Oliver Wendell Holmes, regarding the year 1755:
>> That was the year when Lisbon-town
>> Saw the earth open and gulp her down,
>> And Braddock's army was done so brown,
>> Left without a scalp to its crown.
>Cool, send be the complete publication information with page
number. It might go in a footnote when I have to explain "done up
brown."
Full name of the poem:
The Deacon's Masterpiece or, The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay" A
Logical Story by Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Wit and Humor of America in Ten Volumes, edited by Marshall
P. Wilder, 1907, volume 1, page 9.
The argument is that shays don't wear out, they break down due to
a weak component; the Deacon was determined to build a shay which
could *not* break down; he built one with *no* inferior parts;
for one hundred years it worked as it did the day it was built;
there are laws of nature which are inexorable; and on its 100th
birthday - kablooie! - "All at once, and nothing first, - Just as
bubbles do when they burst."
>However, my guess is that sales of the Stark version weren't what
Witmark expected since it wasn't the song that many people were
apparently singing - the folk version. Were the Witmark's really
convinced that they had bought the original song? Who knows?
That seems to be what they claimed, anyway.
No need to try to clear me up right now, but this might be my
main source of lingering confusion. If the Carrie Stark song
*included* the folk song, of those who were even aware of a
distinction, who would have felt misled or cheated or
disappointed? You either got what you wanted, or *more* than
what you wanted.
We interrupt catching up for my most recent Spence's auction
acquisition. As a Damon Runyon's horse race tipster would say,
"a story goes with it." There was one seller's lot with two big
boxes of books. I rooted through the first one and found another
nice Mother Goose among mostly adult books. This one's much more
recent than my other three, which makes it interesting to see
what's been done to them in recent years. It was originally
published in Britain, although this was "produced" in
Connecticut. If you remember, the last one I got was printed in
Rumania; this one says "Printed in Russia". What's going on?
When did we get so pal-sy? There's no date. Back to the story.
Then I rooted (systematically) through the other box. The
majority of those books were children's books - Dr. Seuss,
Curious George, books from Disney movies, etc. I thought, a nice
batch for Afghanistan. I moved Mother Goose to the second box -
ok, since it was all in the same lot. I was willing to go a few
dollars for the box (being the last of the big spenders.) I
killed some time, went to the library, copied a flash drive full
of cylinder mp3s, came back, they're still not to the books yet,
started work on a math contest, got sidetracked by a talkative
derelict, etc. They finally get to the row with my box of books,
no poachers this time. The batch of stuff immediately before my
box was a pile of wood - some sort of disassembled shelves and
work table, maybe for a kid's bedroom. Nobody bid, and Blake
took it all the way down to $1, which is rare, and still nobody
bid. My box of books was next in line. What Blake would usually
do in that situation is either announce a "no sale" and start
fresh, or, upon adding another, more valuable item to the current
lot, bump the starting bid up a bit. In this case, he just added
the big box of books at the going $1; I said yeah, and nobody
else bid. Blake knows by now he can soak me for 2 bucks for a
single book, so he immediately realized what he had done and
rolled his eyes and smiled and groaned and muttered, "I goofed
up, didn't I?" Half joking, he pointed to the pile of wood and
said I had to take that, too, but I left it for another lucky
soul.
By now, I've spun through most of the kid's books. Dr. Seuss
ain't Mother Goose, but how about this page from Dr. Seuss's ABC:
BIG M
little m
Many mumbling mice
are making
midnight music
in the moonlight . . .
might nice
Saw a nice H.M.S. Pinafore up the road at the Smyrna Opera House
on Saturday night. Same place I saw Amahl. Only disappointment
was the undiversity of the audience - all apricot, and me single-
handedly bringing the average age down about 3 years.
Got a nice email from the former bassist for Spanky and Our Gang.
The minor coincidence was that I could tell him that in a box of
mostly opera-related records I put together and won at the Dover
auction not long ago, I left in a Spanky and Our Gang album,
"Like To Get To Know You", thinking, they had some nice songs.
Had a good time with it, but the main point is that it was quite
a singular occurrence, me picking up, and playing, a classic pop
record at this stage of my life, worrying to death about how I'm
gonna squeeze in 60,000 operas in the next 20 years.
Still not catching up, am I?
>>>What a dramatic ending for your webpage (well, if I ignore the
final appendix which follows)
>>I trust you noticed the little touch among the names.
>The link go Mizan's photo, I assume. Naturally I clicked on it.
It's a picture you'd already sent me.
"Naturally," she says in all innocence. Do you realize how few
people would visit the page in the first place, much less slog
through or even scroll through to the end, much less notice a
link on an unfamiliar name, much less wonder about it, or get up
courage to click on something that gives no clue about where it's
taking it. "Naturally," she says. U~~, I hate to break it to
you, but you are not one of us.
Remember the letters I quoted from David Kent? I wanted to
invite him to Mom's page. I found two email addresses for him on
the web, and neither address gave a bounce-back, but I haven't
heard from him, which is a little disappointing. To give you a
glimpse into one little corner of this guy's remarkable brain,
here's a letter to the editor of his I found while looking for
his email address:
December 6, 2002
The Austin Chronicle
The Genealogy of a President
Dear Editor,
In his Anglophobic vent ("Postmarks," Nov. 29), Todd Alan Smith
refers to the crowning of George Sr. and his royal sons.
Smith may be interested to know that George Walker Bush does
indeed directly descend from Robert II of Scotland in the 21st
generation, Edward I of England in the 25th generation in one
line and the 28th in another, William I of the 29th generation
(Gary B. Roberts, The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants, pp.
92, 211, 234, 267, 333, and 362 for the ancestries and
sources). In noting this, I in no way endorse any acts
of President Bush. It is embarrassment enough that he and I
are 23rd cousins three times removed.
Sincerely,
David L. Kent
>Did I ever send the skit?
Ok, so you are human. That's about the 6th time you've asked
that.
>I gave a few old kids books to the book drive I mentioned
earlier, but saved the best. I almost saved this one since it
belonged in that category, but I thought it belonged with Mizan.
In the most recent batch of books from the auction was one called
Heaven, which won the Coretta Scott King Award. Between that and
the cover picture, it seemed to be a good match for Mizan. To be
honest, I was disappointed with the story, but I'll give it to
her anyway. She might read and enjoy it some year, but even if
not, a book can be fun to own. Anyhow, I've got tons I haven't
read yet. (What was the story I read once about an eccentric old
man whose house was filled with books, almost literally, haha,
and if anyone ever stopped in, he was ready to go with his answer
to the worn out question, "Have you read them all???" - "Hell,
no! Who'd want to live in a house full of books you already
read???")
>Missing the last page? Egads, that's even worse than spending
days on a jigsaw puzzle to find that the last piece is missing.
Mom and her neighbor across the hall, L~~, generally have a
puzzle going out "in the pod." . . . Everytime I'm over there,
I find myself drawn to the puzzle. Some of them are dandies.
Guess I've always liked putting fragments together--whether
visual or verbal--to make some sort of whole.
I've got a couple of jigsaw puzzles that I'd like to pass on.
They both have a "twist" - one turns out to be a maze, and the
other needs you to solve a crossword first. You think your mom
might enjoy them? The first is borderline diabolical.
>Since H~~ teaches Reading I and has a lower level of the
same series of vocab. texts and is as tired of busy-work grading
as I'd become before spending what seemed like endless hours
creating those exercises to save myself time during the remainder
of my semesters with that text, she wanted to know how I'd
created those exercises.
Reminds me of the hours and hours I sank into computer programs
that would drill particular math skills for the Kumon students.
Some of the masterpieces got used maybe a few minutes. No
matter, the programs are there for any future use.
>>Catch up TBC.
>A little more TBCUON. (Changed the meaning of TBC on you,
though.)
???
Your search - tbcuon - did not match any documents.
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THEE:
>and on its 100th birthday - kablooie! - "All at once, and nothing
first, - Just as bubbles do when they burst."
Maybe that's what happened to our upstairs toilet today . . .
>On the subject of T.G. [Dr. Seuss], I recall a visit to my high
school American history teacher's house with the Thai exchange
student then living with my family. (I was a junior in high
school.) He and his wife were babysitting a couple of young
children belonging to friends visiting from Missouri. The
friends were out shopping. The host and hostess decided to go
out for pizza to feed all of us. (In reality, I think this was a
set-up because there was no reason for both of them to go.) As
they left, they handed Sauvanid a Dr. Seuss book, and instructed
her to read it to the kids. Just when she thought she was
getting the hang of the English language, she was at a loss. The
book was filled with nonsense words, which she assumed were real
words that she didn't know.
>Only disappointment was the undiversity of the audience - all
apricot, and me single- handedly bringing the average age down
about 3 years.
Sounds like a typical ragtime concert audience, nevermind that
it's not apricot music.
I've been playing a few of the remaining oldies recently as I
work on my new class materials. Mostly, though, I've been
playing some of my last LP purchases--last from the days of LPs,
that is. These are by Mocedades (a Spanish group) and Georges
Moustaki (a Greek living in France and singing mostly in French).
Still like 'em after all these years.
Dear Editor,
In noting this, I in no way endorse any acts
of President Bush. It is embarrassment enough that he and I
are 23rd cousins three times removed.
Sincerely,
David L. Kent
And could that possibly mean that I'm related to both David Kent
and the Bush clan? Egads. Was King Duncan related to Robert II?
I know not. Hopefully they were rival clans.
>>Did I ever send the skit?
>Ok, so you are human. That's about the 6th time you've asked
that.
AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . is there a reason that
I'm asking again?
"Have you read them all???" - "Hell, no! Who'd want to live in a
house full of books you already read???"
I like that story. Mom reads far more now than she did when
she was young and telling me to get my nose out of a book and do
something social. Perhaps there's hope that I'll get through
more of these someday.
A few weeks ago, I spotted three books of old Shreveport photos
for sale on amazon.com. These are collections assembled by a
youngish Shreveport historian, who once wrote a column on W. C.
for the Shreveport Times. I already had an earlier book of his,
which yielded some neat W. C.-related finds. I've been so busy
since receiving these newer books of his that I haven't even gone
through them, so I have a treat in store someday soon. On
amazon, however, I could view random pages of Shreveport: Faces
of the Past and was quickly sold on the book when I found a photo
of ""Pansy" (a. k.a Julia Rule), the social columnist who wrote
so much about W.C.'s coming, going, and doing. Figuring I had to
open the book at least one time here at home before sending this
email, I opened at random to page 98. On that page is an 1892
photo of the extended family of banker Edward Jacobs. In the
back row is Australia "Tralia" Jacobs and in the front row little
Julia Alcocke, who can't be more than 8. One year later, listed
on W.C. 's concert program of the Dudley Buck Choral Society,
New Shreveport Orchestra, and Pupils Selected from the Class of
W.C. O'Hare (hanging on the wall to my left) are Tralia Jacobs as
a member of the Dudley Buck Choral Society, which W.C. organized
and directed, and Julia Alcocke as pianist performing a solo
piano "characteristic piece" called "The Hummingbird" by Mayo and
teaming up with Ulen Waring, young violinist, for (Henri) Ernst's
"Gypsy Dance." Next random opening . . . nada of interest. Third
. . . ditto. Fourth . . . drawing of architect Nathaniel Sykes.
Allen,, "drums and effects" for the New Shreveport Orchestra.
Then I started cheating and began flipping pages. Another good
find is a photo of Josie Carter, daughter of L. M. Carter I
know L.M. as manager of the Grand Opera House, and hence, W.C.'s
boss during his 12 years as music director there. I have a
newspaper article in which a cakewalk was given at the opera
house for Josie's birthday, with the opera house orchestra
providing the music. In the photo, Josie appears to be a
teenager, but the notes below the photo say that she made a name
for herself as a political activist, was a delegate to the
Republican National Convention in 1932, and died in 1945.
>They both have a "twist" - one turns out to be a maze, and the
other needs you to solve a crossword first. You think your mom
might enjoy them? The first is borderline diabolical.
She probably would. TownVillage, the retirement commmunity
where she lives, has a collection of puzzles. Most people seem
to donate their personal puzzles to the collection after
assembling them once. When one walks around the place, it's
pretty common to see at least 2-3 in progress in the pods. The
one she has going now is a mystery picture. It comes with a
story that can be read only by using a mirror (or going crazy
trying to read from right to left). They are determined to work
it before reading the story. As of Monday night, they had
completed the border and maybe 30-40 interior pieces.
>No matter, the programs are there for any future use.
What we're creating will definitely be useful since they are
online versions of of text exercises. They don't count major
points but add up slowly over the semester and are used primarily
for practice. If these students don't engage on some sort of
active practice on an almost daily basis, they don't learn much.
Sadly, few of our students would open a book of any sort unless
required to.
Your search - tbcuon - did not match any documents.
Suggestions:
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Funny. Am I surprised that the search failed?
A little more To Be Caught Up On Now.
Fort Gibson is, I bet you can guess, a fort. Tahlequah is the
Cherokee national capital and home of the Cherokee Heritage
Center, which was our main destination. It consists of a good
museum, an reproduction of an ancient Cherokee village, which
shows how the tribe would have lived well before the Trail of
Tears and their arrival in Oklahoma.
The museum was hosting a contemporary Native American art
contest/exhibit with some outstanding pieces--most for sale
anywhere from $150 to several thousand. The art ranged from
drawings and paintings to sculpture and pottery, from traditional
styles to modernistic. A handful of pieces were protest art.
Perhaps the most disturbing, and ironic, piece was titled "Our
Father." It was a large pen and ink portrait of Andrew Jackson.
In the foreground, more abstract, was a hint of gun crosshairs
and several irregular-shaped ink blotches that seemed to
represent spattered blood. Jackson may have gotten the Cherokees
to Indian Territory but only at great loss. One exhibit room of
the museum consists of a series of life-size, realistic human
figures representing the Trail of Tears. All figures are stark
white, dressed in what are clearly real clothes and wrapped in
blankets, all covered with something that stiffens them and makes
the clothing seem to be wind-blown. A soundtrack plays in the
background: raging wind. Around the sides of the room are
several smaller tableaux consisting of the same style figures: a
child standing beside a dying mother, etc. Each scene includes a
quotation from a survivor or a descendent of a survivor, telling
some fragment of the story of the Trail of Tears related to the
scene at hand. Along one wall is a wide stripe composed of
wooden beads. The white beads represent the survivors who made
it to Indian Territory. The two other colors (red and black)
represent those known definitely to have died and those estimated
to have also died. One small exhibit consists of five pairs of
mocassins--two adult pairs and three children's pairs of varying
sizes. Beside it is a small sign saying that for each family at
least one member typically died en route.
Following our picnic lunch on the grounds, self-tour of the
museum, and Cherokee guided tour of the village, complete with
demos such as stickball and blow darts and our guide's three-year
old son stealing the show at every turn, we stayed for a portion
of an outdoor gospel music festival (some in Cherokee, some in
English). Following that was to be a dinner, billed as a "free
pig fry." The outdoor temp was a record high for the day (98).
We fizzled out and headed home to cook salmon in an air-
conditioned kitchen.
Sunday after a couple of hours browsing the artists booths at
MayFest and watching hula dancers (very Oklahoma, huh?), we did a
random tour of Tulsa, such as a walk through our largest park
where S~~'s parents were entranced by the squirrels and the
many types of huge trees, a cruise through a neighborhood of oil
mansions, and a drive by the Golden Driller.
Be sure to click on the Tulsa Landmarks Main Page link to check
out the Blue Whale in nearby Catoosa. It's one of the important
landmarks of Route 66 not to be missed.
The rest of them visited Gilcrease Museum (extraordinary Western
collection and great shop for take-home-to-Italy gifts) and River
Parks (nice walking area and beautiful bronze wild animal statues
at every turn) on Monday and the Davis Gun Museum and Will Rogers
Museum in Claremore on Tuesday. The gun museum includes items
far more interesting than I expected--outlaws guns with a fair
amount of history, many foreign weapons with interesting stories,
and, most surprising, a huge collection of German bier steins,
each of which is an artwork in itself. The Will Rogers Museum is
one of Oklahoma's better places, and the on-going silent films
were perfect for non-English speakers, especially since they
hinge more on rope tricks than on captions.
R~~ and S~~ have plans enough to keep everyone hopping for the
remainder of his parents' stay--an Indian powwow at OKC's annual
Red Earth Festival (an inter-tribal, national scale event), a
jazz banjo festival in Guthrie (whatever jazz banjo is), a trip
to the Wichita Mountains where one can always see prairie dogs
and buffalo a-plenty, and much more.
THEE: opening hard days night chord
Hello, I was passing by your (very good) website when searching
for the opening chord of hard days night. I was playing another
song when I played a chord that reminded me of the first opening
chord of HDN. Its a D7sus4 (xx0213). I think it is more correct
that the chord you friend made up (x53013).
The song is in G so the opening chord has a bass root 7th
dominant D including a C and the G. So it would be a fifth degree
with a diminished major 7th. What I dont hear at all in the
original chord is the middle G and the F that is in your friend
chord. Thats why I think the D7sus4 chord is the most probable
chord used by the beatles.
THEE: Uncle Donald,
I googled a few family members and I ended up at your site. I
found your article on Grandmom beautiful. Most of the
information was new to me and I hope more people will read about
her. The only side of Grandmom that I ever got to know was the
one that played Barbies and dolls with me. Thank you. I look
forward to searching your site and reading more.
ME: What a surprise! I least suspected a family member would
stumble on Mom's page out of the blue like that. Glad you liked
it. I'm not a writer in any usual sense of the word, and I never
know when I start something if I can pull it together.
ME: I needed some way to print out. You *used* to be able to do
that from the system, but Windows is above all that. So Word is
my "system print" function, although now I've used it a few times
for getting at Word files somebody sent me. Does the screwiest
things to good, old characters like ' " and - , etc.
>>The Wit and Humor of America in Ten Volumes, edited by Marshall
P. Wilder, 1907, volume 1, page 9.
>Thanks. Can you throw in a publisher and city of publication if
specified?
Funk & Wagnalls Company; New York and London. And, for what it's
worth, 1907 copyright is Bobbs-Merrill Company; 1911 copyright is
The Thwing Company. Thwing is not a typo. I see my American
Heritage recognizes two words starting with "thw". Can you think
of the common one? The other is onomatopoeic.
>And could that possibly mean that I'm related to both David Kent
and the Bush clan? Egads. Was King Duncan related to Robert II?
I know not. Hopefully they were rival clans.
You have British royalty at the ready in your head? I've always
wondered if that were humanly possible. Even after having just
spent a lot of time with Verdi's Macbeth (I sense that most
people associate him with some other writer), I'd have to go back
to the libretto and notes to see where and how he fits in. And
do I understand correctly, that you are the true and rightful
Princess Duncan? A search of my disk turned up no royal Duncans.
>>That's about the 6th time you've asked that.
>AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . is there a reason that
I'm asking again?
Forgetfulness?
Let me wrap up with my most recent Spence's auction story. There
was a big batch of LPs, about 2/3 of which were classical, and a
few with opera cuts. After picking out the (mostly) junk I was
interested in, I decided to stick around and guard it, since that
table was pretty near the beginning of the auction. When they
got to that table, they auctioned off a few pieces of stereo
equipment. Nobody wanted the reel-to-reel, so Blake added the
big box of reel-to-reel tapes. Still no takers, so they went to
add in the box of records. I had to say, hold it, I'm keeping
this batch aside, which was ok. Still no takers, and they had to
add in I forget what all before somebody took it all for $2.
Then Blake comes back to my batch and, very reasonably and
naturally starts it at $2. There was no competition, so I was
happy to get it for $2. (I was willing to go 4.) The main point
of this little story is that I *could* have gotten my records,
plus the whole rest of the box, plus the reel-to-reel, plus the
tapes, plus plus plus ... all for $2. I hope Blake appreciates
how I doubled the income on that lot of stuff.
Here's a few of the neatest things in my batch: The Esso Steel
Band (nice record, but the old Esso logo alone makes it
priceless); the original Winchester Cathedral album (the funny
puppeteer at Old Dover Days used the song in his act, and gave me
the bug to hear it again); Georges Moustaki In Concet "je suis un
autre" double record (trying to keep up with the Joneses :).
Reminds me a lot of Leonard Cohen, and also a really nice Nana
Mouskouri album I got in Paris); Los Indios Tabajeras "Maria
Elena" (grabbed only because I needed the cover; somehow already
had the record, but no cover); Richard Tucker "Passover Seder
Festival" (Tucker was a renowned Met tenor. This is actually one
big, newly composed, for 1962, that is, work); West Side Story
and Music Man movie soundtracks (I allow those two in with my
operas - West Side Story was actually given an operatic treatment
by Kiri te Kanawa and Placido Domingo. Basically have a soft
spot for the Music Man. I claim the opening number by the
traveling salesman was the first rap song); one complete, boxed
opera, The Saint of Bleecker Street, by Menotti (been wanting
this for a long time); a couple of neat, old opera 10-inchers;
and lastly, of the noteworthy ones, the Carmen Suite on
Masterseal Records. What's so thrilling about the last, you ask.
I could just make out this album hanging on the wall in a FI-RACK
ad in some old March 1959 kiddie magazine or something, page 26
(see my web page). I despaired of ever finding that album or
knowing exactly what it was. Now I do!
THEE: foul balls
I have searched for an answer to the following question without
success. Perhaps you could help me as this question came up
during the last Red Sox Game:
I seem to remember being told at one time or another that if a
batter was to hit 99 consecutive foul balls that he would be
ruled OUT! So, my question: Is there rule that determines the
number of foul balls a hitter can hit before he is ruled OUT?
ME: Wish I could help, but never heard of such a rule. I guess
you've looked for an official baseball rules on the web?
THEE: classical string change
Hello, I am trying to find out if I can put metal strings on my
gibson c-i-d-classic guitar, just repace the first 3 nylons with
metal. It seems everyone thinks metal would have too much
tension, but the 4, 5, 6 are metal. Right? The neck seems to be
very strongly built so it seems that would not be a problem,or
would it.The neck has several strands of different woods running
lengthwise down the center. I appreciate all your knowlege and
hope you could give me an answer.
ME: I'm definitely no expert on your problem. I've been led to
believe, as it seems everyone else has, that steel strings on a
classical guitar are a bad idea. Note that the metal basses on a
classical guitar are metal *wound". It's really nylon filament
that takes the tension. Having said that, I think you raise an
excellent question. It really boils down to *tensions*. If your
steel strings have about the same tension as the nylons you're
replacing, there shouldn't be any problem. Of course,
calculating tensions is a pain in the neck. String makers should
put that info right on the string envelope, but nooooooo....
Hopefully, somebody has put up a string tension calculator on the
web by now. The three important parameters are 1) mass per unit
length of the string, 2) the vibrating length, and
3) the note you're tuning to. Best of luck.
ME: to www.muniopera.org
How about bringing your productions to Delaware, too? We need
more opera. I'm thinking of the Schwartz Center in Dover, or the
Smyrna Opera House in Smyrna. I figure it can't hurt to ask.
Thanks.
ME: to Ann Seaman
My mother, Jane Sauter, died last Christmastime, and I wanted
to invite you to a memorial page I pulled together for her.
There's even a clumsy little book report on "America's Most Hated
Woman" down in the appendices - good work!
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/mom.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/mom.htm ]
P.S. Any hope for a barebones web page to collect any answers
that might trickle in to the "host of unanswered questions" left
in the wake of Madalyn Murray's murder? No doubt much easier
said than done, but it would be greatly appreciated.
THEE: america's most beloved woman: jane sauter
I'm so sorry to hear that your wonderful mother passed away. She
was such a gracious person, and helped me in ways only someone
like her could or would. I very much enjoyed your website and the
charming stories about her. What a nice tribute from her son. I
can imagine how difficult it must be for your family to lose her
so unexpectedly; please give my best regards to your father, who
generously accompanied us to the Abramovitz house and wrote me
about his memories of them. You really do have a family to be
proud of.
As to a website addressing the unanswered questions, it's
tempting! I am still in contact with Tim Young and others
involved in these unfinished things, and we're all addicts on the
topic. Non-fiction isn't tidy -- things aren't always wrapped up
or verfied. Ironically, I just yesterday got a note from Tim,
musing that Gary Karr would probably take the truth about the
O'Hairs' final days to the grave with him, so you can see it's a
topic that will probably always interest the folks involved in
the story. I have started research on another book, this one
perhaps a little less dense and heavy than Madalyn, though it
does involve a missing persons case.
Although many of the atheists I met were fine people, there was a
great deal of anger and negativity and pessimism around Madalyn
and those close to her. It wears you down after awhile, and
people like your parents, who have used their lives to build up,
help, and encourage people, were a breath of fresh air.
THEE: Re: foul balls
Yes, I have looked. Thanks for the reply. It is encouraging to
know that SOME people do READ and ANSWER their emails...
hehehehhehe! Thanks again. Have a wonderful year!
THEE:
>Funk & Wagnalls Company; New York and London. And, for what it's
worth, 1907 copyright is Bobbs-Merrill Company; 1911 copyright is
The Thwing Company. Thwing is not a typo. I see my American
Heritage recognizes two words starting with "thw". Can you think
of the common one? The other is onomatopoeic.
Thanks . . . and not off hand.
>And do I understand correctly, that you are the true and rightful
Princess Duncan? A search of my disk turned up no royal Duncans.
Does Duncan get bumped off in the operatic version. I guess
folks would be disappointed if he didn't. As to whether I'm
related, according to one of the genealogical sites, the Shreve
family traces back to Duncan in one line. All very complicated.
Good enough to be related to the man for whom Shreveport is named
and his great uncle (or some such thing) who wrote all those
letters to George Washington on the American Memory website
>>>That's about the 6th time you've asked that.
>>AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . is there a reason that
I'm asking again?
>Forgetfulness?
I surrender.
I haven't been to an auction in years but never found much in
the old days in Iowa. Not in the market for canning jars and
farm equipment. Heck, there may have been a zillion old 78s, but
I wouldn't have noticed at the time. Everyone should have at
least one copy of West Side Story and The Music Man and, of
course, George Moustaki and Nana Mouskouri. Yup, I have that
double record set, but you need to find the others and the CDs if
you want to keep up with the Jones. Good start, though. Someone
had good taste in music.
ME: *Now* maybe I can work off the backlog. But, for a start,
here are a few odds and ends from my latest Mother Goose book.
Thanks for being a good sport and letting me unload them on
somebody. This book has about 200 Mother Gooses, about 30 of
which are completely new to my collection. Two of those had a
familiar ring. See if these two boys don't sound like brothers
to Bo-Peep and Muffet.
Simon Brodie had a cow;
He lost his cow and could not find her;
When he had done what man could do,
The cow came home and her tail behind her.
There was a little boy who went into a field,
And lay down in some hay;
An owl came out and flew about,
And the little boy ran away.
And here's my lasting contribution to Mother Goosedom. "If all
the world were..." appears in all 4 books. I like that one, even
though something seems a bit off in each of the 3 variants I
have. They are:
If all the world were water,
And all the water were ink,
What should we do for bread and cheese?
What should we do for drink?
If all the world were apple pie,
And all the sea were ink,
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have for drink?
If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were ink,
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink?
Here's my "corrected" cut and paste:
If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were ink,
What should we do for bread and cheese?
What should we do for drink?
Makes sense? Nice and balanced?
Now for catching up.
I just noticed I wrote "admiral" for "admirable" in a recent
email.
>>I trust you noticed the little touch among the names.
>The link go Mizan's photo, I assume.
I checked a few days ago and google has Mom's memorial page
indexed. So now, if you type in "mizan walker", the web will
yield a single hit. She doesn't know it yet. I might see her in
a talent show tomorrow night (Thursday). Trying to think of how
to break it to her to give her the biggest surprise.
I'm dazed by the hatchet job you got from the Tulsey Town Rag. I
had some wild notion that other people, at least, could get their
contributions published without being hacked to smithereens. I
figured it was just a little cloud that followed me around
through life. (Not that any half-decent writer couldn't
*improve* the stuff I write, but, man, the devastation they've
wreaked...) It stinks you have to waste any of your life
searching for half-way diplomatic words to say, "Knock it off,
clowns." Thought of you when I got to this line in "The Lost
Word" by John Paul (although typos are completely forgivable):
And I felt as one feels when the printer
Of your "infinite calm" makes clam.
By the way, I've gotten about 200 of the 700 UCSB opera mp3s so
far. Still, it'd be so much more fun to share the job with a few
other opera fans.
That reminds me, I got a large box of opera records off ebay the
other day. It's actually the second box I got from this seller.
Her collection, whoever's it was, is phenomenal. I bid on this
box for a few goodies, but when I received it and went through
it, I realized how much better it was than what I was hoping for,
even. I plan on sending a nice tip. The 24 opera boxed sets
could easily have cost $500 new, and I got them for $12 or
something. It stinks.
Sorry about the loss of your grad school chums. I trust you to
send me a copy of Glen's "The Goon" if you ever find one.
Congratulations on making contact with Phil. I guess things like
that weren't impossible before the internet, but I still view the
internet as science fiction, almost.
H~~'s paper leaves me more intrigued than anything. Makes me
wonder how other people's minds work. I have a hard enough time
pulling words together when I think I know something; if I have
to write on something I don't understand, I'd stare at a blank
page/screen forever. I wonder what the thoughts were in H~~'s
brain that corresponded to the written sentences. Maybe there
weren't any and she can crank out words, or maybe she's thinking
circles around me and the words just come out garbled. Just
ruminating here; obviously, if H~~ were some sort of savant, you
and others would be aware of that.
Found another "done brown" for you. It's in "Love Sonnets of a
Hoodlum", no. I, by Wallace Irwin. It's in volume II of The Wit
and Humor of America.
Say, will she treat me white, or throw me down,
Give me the glassy glare, or welcome hand,
Shovel me dirt, or treat me on the grand,
Knife me, or make me think I own the town?
Will she be on the level, do me brown,
Or will she jolt me lightly on the sand,
Leaving poor Willie froze to beat the band,
Limp as your grandma's Mother Hubbard gown?
...
What's that about "on the sand"?
Didn't find anything for myself at the auction on Tuesday. There
were a few boxes of books to root through. I found a polaroid of
a dead man in a coffin. One of the regulars I meet at the
auction told me once that such things sell well on ebay. In any
case, I left it for somebody else.
THEE: Re: down town brown gown
>See if these two boys don't sound like brothers to Bo-Peep and
Muffet.
> Simon Brodie had a cow;
> He lost his cow and could not find her;
> When he had done what man could do,
> The cow came home and her tail behind her.
> There was a little boy who went into a field,
> And lay down in some hay;
> An owl came out and flew about,
> And the little boy ran away.
Hmmm . . . I had no idea that "guy" versions existed.
Interesting find.
>And here's my lasting contribution to Mother Goosedom. "If all
the world were..." appears in all 4 books. I like that one, even
though something seems a bit off in each of the 3 variants I
have. They are:
> If all the world were water,
> And all the water were ink,
> What should we do for bread and cheese?
> What should we do for drink?
So we can't drink the water that was the earth? Then, again, I
guess we'd be gone the way of the cows.
> If all the world were apple pie,
> And all the sea were ink,
> And all the trees were bread and cheese,
> What should we have for drink?
Do we have a blender? Apple juice????
> If all the world were paper,
> And all the sea were ink,
> And all the trees were bread and cheese,
> What should we have to drink?
At least we can wrap the sandwiches and label them by date.
>Here's my "corrected" cut and paste:
> If all the world were paper,
> And all the sea were ink,
> What should we do for bread and cheese?
> What should we do for drink?
>Makes sense? Nice and balanced?
Makes sense, but I prefer keeping the bread and cheese. That''s
what I'm living on now along with fresh fruit and water.
>I just noticed I wrote "admiral" for "admirable" in a recent
email.
So you're human, too. I count count my typos of that sort.
Sadly, the Etcetera String Band is defunct. Talked to Bob Ault
today, one of the former members. He confirmed that the group
fell apart. I knew they had, but started wondering if they might
have gotten back together. Bob reports that Dennis Pash, who was
the leader of the group is still playing in Lawrence, KS, as a
street musician.
Bob lived for years in some backwater MO town, (In fact, I think
it was Blackwater) without electricity. I recall D~~ saying
once that Bob was in many ways the most talented, knowledgeable
ragtime performers but that he had never found a way to make a
living.
>H~~'s paper leaves me more intrigued than anything.
This looks not unlike James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. BUT in
H~~'s case, she's very slow. She talks clearly enough, but on a
very simple level. When one tries to talk to her about anything
she has read, she hasn't understood it--the words in themselves
and the composite meaning. She's a nice kid, and one side of me
would like to see her rewarded for trying. However, we have to
grade based on some sort of standards of achievement, and she
doesn't show any signs of learning.
> Say, will she treat me white, or throw me down,
> Give me the glassy glare, or welcome hand,
> Shovel me dirt, or treat me on the grand,
> Knife me, or make me think I own the town?
> Will she be on the level, do me brown,
> Or will she jolt me lightly on the sand,
> Leaving poor Willie froze to beat the band,
> Limp as your grandma's Mother Hubbard gown?
> ...
>What's that about "on the sand"?
And if he's "froze" why is he "limp as your grandma's Mother
Hubbard gown"--or is that merely another pair of opposites?
>I found a polaroid of a dead man in a coffin. One of the
regulars I meet at the auction told me once that such things sell
well on ebay. In any case, I left it for somebody else.
Not something I'd want to profit from either!
ME: krab bark
I know Delaware was not on your itinerary but I thought I'd throw
out an idea for you to turn over a few times: L~~ would be happy
to take us all out on the boat for a crabbing adventure.
ME: Thanks for bidding - and congratulations on a great price
[$46]! Don't know how you did it. When I bought this [cd
recorder] off of ebay a few months ago, cd recorders that didn't
even power up sold for $60. This one cost me $180.
THEE: Fixing Vinyl Records.
I came across you web page on how to fix skips on vinyl records
and thought I would try it. Well I tried and it seems all Greek
to me. I can't understand how you would be able to see the skip
spot. I must hand it to you for being able to fix them. I am
basically giving up. I still would like to fix them and was
wondering if you fix them and if so for how much? I would like
to save my records so I transfer them to my computer before the
are beyond repair.
ME: Sorry my instructions didn't work for you. As far as
locating the skip point, you should be able to see how far in the
tone arm is and what the orientation of the label is when you
hear the skip. Move the needle back again and again until you
are sure of the position of the label at the skip. Admittedly,
if you can't see the defective spot on the vinyl, you're out of
luck. Maybe a good magnifying glass would help. Most of all,
keep in mind that what I am addressing is deformed vinyl. I'm
guessing that the majority of skips come about from crud in the
grooves. My advice there is to wash the record, and play it wet
when you transfer it to your computer. I'm sure sending me
records to try to fix would not be a good idea for lots of
reasons. Good luck.
THEE: I had to drag myself up early to help a friend with the
transparencies for his symposium session on Indianapolis ragtime.
He's a child psychiatrist/hospital administrator and was carrying
around his transparencies in a folder marked "Schizophrenia." A
woman in the audience spotted the folder and asked him if that
was an Indianapolis rag. T~~ writes terrific rags himself. I
told him that he now has a title for the next one.
Remind me to tell you about the 9-1/2-year-old ragtime pianist!
Oh, and the Japanese guy and his family!
ME:
>>Here's my "corrected" cut and paste:
>> If all the world were paper,
>> And all the sea were ink,
>> What should we do for bread and cheese?
>> What should we do for drink?
>Makes sense, but I prefer keeping the bread and cheese. That''s
what I'm living on now along with fresh fruit and water.
Ah, but see, you *get* your bread and cheese because all the
world *isn't* paper and ink. See? It's an admonishment to all
those bad little kids who refuse to pull their noses out of their
doggie and horsey books.
THEE:
My internet access right now stinks. The motel access here is T-
mobile Hotspot, not free as I'm used to in many motels, but $10
per 24 hours, and I'm too cheap since I'd only be using it an
hour or so a day anyway.
A short commute to Dover is fine. As I recall, all the motel
prices I found out there last summer were much higher than in the
Midwest, but such is life. I'm used to staying around $40-
$50/night here. Sedalia was $59 at the cheapo performers rate
for no other reason than that the motel there provides all sorts
or extras such as gameroom, party rooms, restaurant, etc.
Tonight the main library is open until 8:00, so I'm on a hunt of
Chicago papers (assuming there's one here, which I think is the
case) for the Stark-Witmark lawsuit. I know the case was filed
March 6, 1913, because I found a very brief article in the NY
Times. Today I've found the same in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
and a very slightly longer one in the St. Louis Republic, but
some numbskull stuck an historical society label over half of the
article, so I can't make out the main new part. GRRRRRRRRR . .
.
ME: Hate to be a pest or beggar, and begging would be premature
since I don't know yet what R~~ and the tides have to say about
Plan A, but is E~~ sure another day off wouldn't fly? I think of
it like this. When I'm on my deathbed, would I rather think back
on Jun 13 2006 as just another day at the office, or... the day I
found that really cool old tire at Spence's Auction!
ME: the clock stopped
Assuming you're always on the lookout for ways to improve your
teaching skills I found an excellent story - "The Strike at
Hinman's" by Robert J. Burdette.
Go here
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18465/18465-8.txt
and just search down for "hinman"
Me, I jes' laughed my fool head off.
ME: to Sony
This is now the third Sony CD recorder I've had to return, and I
was wondering if there isn't some point at which a customer
receives special consideration. The machine I bought new added
loud "cracks" at points where the recording was stopped and
restarted. The first "reconditioned" unit had smashed in buttons
and knob for the record deck. The unit I'm returning now got
shipped out without the traumatized record deck being repaired at
all. The record deck door is missing, and the record drive
rattles around loose in the machine.
I am now more worried than ever that any "reconditioned" unit I
receive will show signs of abuse from a previous owner. I myself
can keep something looking new as long as I own it - 20 years and
more.
There are many things about the RCD-W500C that make me extremely
unhappy - the 5-disc play tray, the monstrous size, the annoying
and anti-helpful track labeling, the necessity for a remote for
functions as basic as rewind/fast forward, plus more - and if on
top of all that what I see whenever I pass by my expensive, "new"
CD recorder toy I was so excited about is some beat-up old
machine that some former owner tossed in the back of the pick-up
whenever he went deer hunting, I'm afraid I'll cry.
If it's absolutely impossible for you to send me a brand new
unit, or even a lesser model like the RCD-W100, or a voucher for
a brand new unit, or a refund so I can start the whole process
over, will you do me this favor: please have several sumpathetic
employees carefully examine my reconditioned unit to make sure
there are absolutely no signs whatever that the machine has ever
been touched by human hands. None. Including cables and remote.
That would help to bring this back and forth to a close, and
prevent Sony from losing even more money on me. Thanks.
ME: to Sony
I understand the CDR-W500C is the top of its line. Moreover, it
seems to me to be the only show in town as far as cd recorders go
now. Obviously, the machine is a technological marvel, but, as
mentioned in the note above, there are many things about it that
make me very unhappy.
I despise the 5-disc play tray. I would much rather have a
simple single-disc play tray. The 5-disc tray is slow and noisy.
There's so much clanking it's hard to imagine it could last any
length of time. The seemingly flimsy tray looks more suitable to
holding a dollar store sugar cookie. The operation of the play
tray is so slow it must surely outweigh any claimed benefits of
being able to load up a bunch of discs at once. I myself have no
idea what these benefits may be; you still have to load and
unload every disc you play. It's hard to imagine anyone going to
the trouble of programming a play sequence from multiple discs,
and if you do, what advantage is gained over recording the tracks
you want disc by disc?
I despise the monstrosity of the machine. I've never seen a
stereo component anywhere near this large since reel-to-reel tape
decks. Is this for the sake of the dubious 5-disc play
capability?
I despise the track labeling; it drives me insane. Is there some
way to turn it off? Do you have a model without it? If you
designed the gliding labels because that's what a web designer
would do, keep in mind they do it out of malice, to drive us
insane, because we don't buy all the stuff advertised on their
web pages. If you delete a track then the track no. in the track
name disagrees with the actual track no. Crazy! And those
floating track names confuse matters just when you are most
likely to want to monitor the exact timing and track change.
I despise having to juggle a remote for a function as basic as
fast forward/rewind. If fast forward were on the machine itself
I could pack the remote away (better yet, throw it away.)
On the subject of fast forward/rewind, yours has a better feel
than others I've worked with; still, I'd like a short ramp up
period (about a second?) to make it easy to rewind just a few
seconds - a very common operation.
I despise how the unit kicks itself out of the ready to record
mode after a short timeout. I do a lot of intermittent vocal
recording - saying a few sentences now and then as I'm reading a
book. The unit also kicked out of the record mode while I was
recording tape hiss for an experiment. Come on, let the user
make these decisions.
Not being able to turn the ams knob past the last track to the
first track, and vice versa is a huge step backwards. 1st-
generation cd players could do that.
The machine should remember the previous "play mode" when it is
turned on. I'm doomed to a lifetime of punching the tiny button
for 1-disc, and if I forget and start playback, it's too late.
The point is, it infuriates me when I think a recording has come
to its end, and something else fires up.
Given the difficulty of tracking down audio cd-rw discs nowadays,
a pack of ten should be included with every unit.
Given the unavoidable complexity of a cd recorder, might it make
more sense to remove all the MP3 functionality to a simple,
inexpensive, separate MP3 player designed for a home stereo
system?
Let me mention again the problem for which I returned the first
unit, purchased new:
Loud crack sometimes heard at the point where a track was
erased and then a new track recorded. This crack is sometimes
heard on the original cdrw disc played back on the rcdw500c
unit; more often it is heard after the original cdrw disc
has been copied to a data cd and then the data
cd played back. This seems to indicate that the data recorded
by the rcd500w on the cdrw disc is very difficult for
a computer cd drive to handle at the track breaks where
recording has stopped and started.
I still don't know whether this indicates a fault with my
particular unit, or whether Sony considers that normal and
acceptable. If the latter, it will be a long and unhappy life
for me. It would be nice to think that cd recorders are a step
up from cassette decks, not a step back. This problem is not one
that I experienced with my two previous cd recorders, a Philips
and a TDK, bought used off of ebay. They had their own problems,
but I don't recall them adding pops or cracks at track
boundaries.
So, after all that, my question is, is there any chance that
another model correcting the drawbacks listed above is in the
works? If so, please put me on a list for notification when such
a model comes out. I'll even test out a prototype for you.
Also, I see a 2-cd sony model popping up on ebay, but it seems
that it's strictly for the British market. Is it available in
the U.S., and does it meet standards of quality expected by
Americans? (British merchandise is generally 2nd-rate, sorry.)
I've been banging my head against a wall for about a year now
trying to add simple, basic cd recording functionality to my
stereo system. I'll jump off a cliff before I hook a computer up
to my stereo.
While I'm writing, let me make a suggestion regarding cassette
decks. I'm guessing many people are in the same situation of
needing cassette playback ability, but who will never again
record to cassette. How about a single-deck cassette player only
- no record function - with all the design effort sunk into
highest possible playback performance? It would have variable
pitch, plus a calibration tape. NO decisions would be made
internally, such as for tape type. (I find ALL tapes sound
better with the bias set to Normal.) I can envision a variable
Dolby knob so the user can make his own decision how much of that
Dolby nonsense to remove. It should have a manual azimuth
adjustment; also tracking, if that's ever a problem with cassette
tapes. I've never heard of concerns about tracking regarding
cassettes, but I can't imagine that every tape head in the world
laid down tracks in the exact same place. It would come supplied
with the materials and instructions for smooth playback of old
cassettes with tape that has lost its lubricant. This causes the
tape to drag or stop, or screech in a slip/stick movement across
the tape head. I've heard people talk about graphite. It would
come with high-quality, quick open/close empty cassette shells
for the user to transfer reels to.
My signature below attests that I will make NO CLAIM on any idea
offered here that may be used by Sony.
Thanks for your consideration, and especially for any help you
can offer in getting me rolling with a cd recorder that a) works,
and b) is, if not exactly user-friendly, not user-malicious.
ME: I lost out twice today bidding on crab pots.
THEE: Subject: Fw: Billy Preston Has Died
Billy Preston, the American keyboard player who recorded with The
Beatles and toured with The Stones, has died.
Horrible news.
THEE: When she does take time off, she's supposed to
request it two weeks in advance, and her superior at the HAI
office is a stinker.
Got lost only once today, and, even then, I wasn't exactly lost.
I was trying to take bypass 370 E to 270 E and back to I-70 in
order to detour St. Louis. I was blazing along 370E thinking I
had it made when . . . What's this? I came to 270 N and 270 S.
No 270 E in sight. My choices read Chicago and Memphis.
Something told me that if I chose 270 S, I'd be headed back
toward St. Louis, so I opted for N. Then I took the first exit,
checked the map, decided that the small jog I saw must be 270 N
before it turned to 270 E. I did an about face to hop back on
270 N. But, uh-oh. I could enter 270 S, but there was no way
back on 270 N. So . . . back the direction I'd just come to ask
directions in a convenience store. The kid there laughed and
said, "This happens all the time. Go right to the next
intersection [away from the highway]. Turn left at the
intersection. Drive until the road ends. Turn left where the
road ends. You'll run into 270 N." Funny thing is that when I
ran into it, it wasn't 270 N at all; it was 270 E! Now why
couldn't some numbskull have marked it that way in the first
place and saved me (and all those other drivers) all that bother?
At least this time driving in toward DC, I'll know to take follow
the Baltimore signs.
P.S. As for broken toes, they're genetic.
ME: I pulled a road atlas out to follow your blow by blow account
of finding "270 E". You're right; to call 270 where 370 meets it
"270 N/S" is idiotic. It has the barest north/south angle to it.
And to talk about Chicago and Memphis at that point! - why not
Sault Ste. Marie - or Santa's Toy Shop, for that matter - and
New Orleans? I could see bringing Chicago up at route 55.
Have a few little tales from yesterday's auction. In one box of
books I found a box of old post cards and thumbed through them
all. One in particular jumped out at me - a nice old post card
of Maryland's Wye Oak, which brought back memories of the time
our father took some of us to see it on the way back from a
crabbing trip when I was small. The Wye Oak was Maryland's
official State Tree. The claim is that it was the largest white
oak in the U.S. It finally fell down not long before New
Hampshire's Old Man of The Mountain. Once again, it was all I
was really interested in, so I kept it out, hoping Blake would
start it at $1. Well, I finally learned that the policy is a $2
minimum opening bid on things you hold up. I certainly wasn't
going to make a stink over the extra dollar, so I paid $2 for a
single post card - after the man beside me had just gotten about
6 boxes of stuff, including the box of books with the other 100
postcards, for $2. So I finally have this thing doped. If I had
known about the $2 minimum, I would have pulled a bunch of other
post cards with potential interest to friends and relatives.
There were some really neat ones from Yellowstone, for example.
Yellowstone used to have this waterfall of fire every evening.
My aunt and uncle who host our Thanksgiving get-togethers have
worked at Yellowstone quite a few summers and I know they would
have gushed over them.
I tried to win a couple of crab pots for R~~, but got outbid
two times.
Ran into Mizan. She was getting some good giveaways from people
who won more than they wanted. She kept a purse, a fraction
Bingo game, and a funny book. Up near the crab pots she saw a
little plastic wagon she was hoping she could get from whoever
won the bunch of stuff. When the auctioneer came down that row,
nobody was bidding, so he went down to a dollar. I said, sure.
Nobody else bid so I got a half a row of stuff and Mizan got her
wagon. I gave most everything else away, except for a rope and
some weatherproofing foam tape. Had a good time with the wagon,
pulling Mizan around in it with my new rope, and later just
hauling Mizan's stuff.
And just before leaving, I noticed people had left two sets of
encyclopedias. The 20-volume Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge
(1991) in particular looked like it needed a good home. My idea
was to put it in the local paper for $10, but for now I've added
it to my own library. Already read up on the history of
Oklahoma.
All in all, quite a bit of entertainment for $3 - no matter that
2 of them were squandered on a single post card.
By the way, Dover has a white oak that is absolutely magnificent.
Definitely worth stopping to look at and admire.
Tell me about genetic broken toes some time.
THEE: I called my landlord to fix a leaky bathroom water faucet.
He said to call a plumber and get a price first before fixing it.
The plumber wanted $87 just to come out and wanted a week as
well. I decided just to buy and install a new faucet myself for
$58. It works great now.
THEE: Re: world's most valuable post card
>I pulled a road atlas out to follow your blow by blow account of
finding "270 E".
That's history now. Today I had a tangle with a Strathmore exit
sign off of 270 S. Seemed easy. Follow that sign and get to
Meghan's . . . no sweat. So I followed Montrose until it dead-
ended at Tuckerman Lane, which wasn't what I expected. Montrose
should have run into the Rockville Pike, right? Since Meghan
lives just off Tuckerman, I figured this wasn't a catastrophe, so
I flipped a coin to determine which direction to go on Tuckerman.
(There wasn't a second Strathmore sign to decide for me. )
After a couple of miles (at least), I began to think I had a bum
coin, so I found a small mall where I figured I could ask
directions. As I parked, a man pulled in next to me, which saved
my going to CVS and trying to interpret some immigrant's broken
English. Turns out I was headed the right way. He told me to
keep going a couple of miles to hit Old Georgetown Road. Beyond
that, I'd hit the Rockville Pike. I thanked him, saying that I'd
know where I was when I came to Tuckerman and Old Georgetown.
(I've shopped around the corner from there many times at Giant.)
Only a small mishap compared to my usual snafus on the Beltway.
>The Wye Oak was Maryland's official State Tree.
Have you read up on the Council Oak?
>I tried to win a couple of crab pots for R~~, but got outbid two
times.
Any relation to crackpots? One needs a special pot for crabs????
Guess that's not part of cultural literacy in the hinterlands.
>Already read up on the history of Oklahoma.
Have you read up on the Council Oak?
>All in all, quite a bit of entertainment for $3 - no matter that
2 of them were squandered on a single post card.
I've done more damage with postcards on eBay. Just think of the
money that other guy is probably gonna make selling his stash
that way!
>By the way, Dover has a white oak that is absolutely
magnificent. Definitely worth stopping to look at and admire.
L~~'s mom, Rosaria, was enraptured by all the big trees in Tulsa
and Broken Arrow. Sardinia is basically desert, rock, and sand.
Where you find trees, they are palms. She wanted to take acorns
and various other seed pods home and tear out the palms. Guilio
Cesare (That's Julius Cesar, in case your were wondering), L~~'s
dad, asked her if she wanted to go to jail when customs officials
caught her with the agricultural contraband.
>Tell me about genetic broken toes some time.
It's just that I rarely wear shoes at home. I've hit chair legs,
the vacuum cleaner . . . you name it. I guess I've broken a
little toe at least 3 times and a big toe once. Do I learn?
No. Now that we have new carpet, there's all the more reason for
pretending I'm Japanese.
That drive through southern PA is a beaut. Sure would like to
live with a landscape like that.
ME: nobody don't exclamation point all caps
Glad you made to Maryland safe and sound. I tried to follow your
last little glitch on my road map, but couldn't see what happened
that had you thinking that Montrose dead-ended at Tuckerman Lane.
I do know when I was in Maryland I never made full sense of what
goes on with those roads between Rockville and 270.
Got a 20-volume Pictorial History of the United States at
yesterday's auction. As the name implies, it's for kids. It's
only missing volume 3.
In trying to find out a little more about some of the pieces I've
been getting off the UCSB cylinder site, I've re-discovered that
I have 4 very useful reference books about pop music in America
that I haven't made much use of. The point is, some of the
pieces that UCSB calls "opera" really come from American operetta
(and some of that is really imported from Europe.) For example,
I was wondering why the heck they included Lincke's Glowworm (at
least 4 recordings). Turn's out it really was from an operetta
called Lysistrata. There are famous workings of that story, of
course, but Lincke's doesn't get much mention.
One of my formerly little-used books is called Variety Music
Cavalcade. Would you like its blurb on "They Gotta Quit
Kickin'..."? It wouldn't add to your knowledge, of course.
Thought of you also when one of the books mentioned "Ragging the
Scale" by Edward Claypoole. Sounds funny. Something all you
raggedies know?
Did you get around to "Strike at Hinman's" by Robert J. Burdette?
If you only get a tenth of the laughs I did, you should still be
pretty laughed out.
Also, after finding that on the web, it occurred to me, why
couldn't I find the story in volume I that had the last page
missing? Did I just not look hard enough? Sure enough,
Gutenberg has volume I up, but it looks like it wasn't my fault
not finding it. There's a date of May 28 2006, so it appears
they've just started putting up the 10-volume Wit and Humor set.
What a coincidence. Anyhow, I still prefer my musty pages.
Thanks for the lead on the Creek Council Oak. No, it doesn't
seem to be mentioned in any of my encyclopedias, so chalk up
another one for the web. Funny thing about the pictures of it,
they were mostly postage-stamp size - except for one "click to
enlarge", which was about 6 times as big as my computer screen!
(I don't know how to make something fit in IE; thought they did
that for you.) Still, I got good enough images to see it's a
grand tree.
>>I tried to win a couple of crab pots for Charlie, but got
outbid two times.
>Any relation to crackpots? One needs a special pot for
crabs???? Guess that's not part of cultural literacy in the
hinterlands.
Actually, it was a new one on me, too, until meeting R~~. A
crab pot is a large cubic crab trap, about 2.5 feet on a side,
that crabbers leave submerged in the river, marked by a float.
The other standard crab trap is called a "crab trap" and it's
much smaller and folds up and is taken out and in in the boat on
each crabbing trip. In my younger youth, we did two types of
crabbing, neither involving traps - hanging bait on lines over
the edge of a boat, and walking along in shallow areas and
netting them.
>Guilio Cesare (that's Julius Cesar, in case your were
wondering), S~~'s dad, asked her if she wanted to go to jail
Oh, so *that's* who Georgie Handel's opera is all about!!!
THEE: Primitive Man never existed, and there never was a Stone
age
http://www.harunyahya.com/index.php
THEE:
>Glad you made to Maryland safe and sound. I tried to follow
your last little glitch on my road map, but couldn't see what
happened that had you thinking that Montrose dead-ended at
Tuckerman Lane.
I wasn't thinking this. It happened! Probably I should have
gone the opposite direction on Montrose, and it mighta swung
around and run into the Rockville Pike. BUT the exit sign off
270 for Strathmore said Montrose West, which didn't sound right
to me. Still, I followed it, took Montrose West exit, and ended
up at the end of Montrose and Tuckerman Lane.
>I do know when I was in Maryland I never made full sense of what
goes on with those roads between Rockville and 270.
I swear they go in semicircles--at least arcs. Old Georgetown
and Montrose both intersect the Rockville Pike and Tuckerman
Lane. but Tuckerman also intersects the Rockville Pike. Someone
wants to confuse tourists.
>Got a 20-volume Pictorial History of the United States at
yesterday's auction. As the name implies, it's for kids. It's
only missing volume 3. Also picked up something for your mom.
History books with pictures are always good no matter what the
age. If the material isn't substantial, the pictures are
interesting if they're not just drawings.
>I was wondering why the heck they included Lincke's Glowworm (at
least 4 recordings). Turn's out it really was from an operetta
called Lysistrata. There are famous workings of that story, of
course, but Lincke's doesn't get much mention.
"Glowworm" in Lysistrata. I'm trying to imagine how that fit.
Only in popular theater!
We're headed to the farmer's market at Dupont Circle. then to
join the crowds at The DaVinci Code.
THEE:
>Sure enough, Gutenberg has volume I up, but it looks like it
wasn't my fault not finding it. There's a date of May 28 2006,
> Did you get around to "Strike at Hinman's" by Robert J. Burdette?
> If you only get a tenth of the laughs I did, you should still
> be pretty laughed out.
Not yet, but I will. I've been pretty busy. I don't much like
reading literature on the web, but it works when necessary. Too
hard on the eyes.
>Thanks for the lead on the Creek Council Oak.
Did you get the history, too? I see you've added "Creek" to my
question. The Creek Council Oak is in the general vicinity of
downtown, though not quite downtown. I had trouble finding it a
while back but recalled it's position in relation to a round
apartment highrise. That did the trick.
>>Any relation to crackpots? One needs a special pot for
crabs???? Guess that's not part of cultural literacy in the
hinterlands.
Oh, so it's a trap. I wrongly assumed it was a cooking pot.
>>Guilio Cesare (that's Julius Cesar, in case your were
wondering), S~~'s dad, asked her if she wanted to go to jail
>Oh, so *that's* who Georgie Handel's opera is all about!!!
You didn't catch that the opera is set in Serramana, Sardinia?
S~~ may be lucky that he wasn't given a middle name although I'm
not sure what anyone could do with his name. Of course, not
having a middle name is awkward when American forms insist on
having one.
I have a good friend, dating back to junior high, whose dad had
no first name.
THEE: We know about Oungst and Perkins, right? At least more
than Variety Music Cavalcade. And since when was Clark a
Senator. Someone is confusing him with his son Bennet Champ
Clark. Truman, who liked the older Champ, commented that "the
blood ran thin" when it came to Bennet.
ME: $P@m
Sorry for all this spam at a time when you hardly have time to
breathe. Trying to not let the backlog get out of hand!
>>Thanks for the lead on the Creek Council Oak.
>Did you get the history, too? I see you've added "Creek" to my
question.
Yes, very interesting. I suppose you have a hard time
remembering when you didn't know about the Trail of Tears; for me
it would have been not long after Sep 11 2001 when I was curious
about non-war episodes in U.S. history involving loss of life in
the thousands, and which the country seemed to survive without
curling up into a ball for the rest of eternity. Admittedly, the
Trail of Tears doesn't make such a compelling Exhibit X in the
list; who cared about Indians?
>>Guilio Cesare (That's Julius Cesar, in case your were
wondering), S~~'s dad, asked her if she wanted to go to jail
For a while I was thinking Cesare was a cool surname, but your
followup comments indicate we're talking middle name, right?
Otherwise, I would have asked how common Cesares are nowadays. A
search of my disk seems to indicate you've never mentioned
Alessio's surname. (It *might* be on one of those lines that
shoots way beyond the end of my computer screen.) In the guitar
world we had a man named Gregory d'Alessio. Although only an
amateur guitarist he was well-known for his involvement in
starting up New York's guitar society, which attracted *all* the
big names, including Segovia and Carl Sandburg. He was a highly-
regarded professional graphic artist who contributed
illustrations for the Guitar Review, which won awards for its
graphic excellence. And I thought he had a fascinating writing
style - he really stretched me and I had a great time trying to
keep up with him. So, anyhow, if Alessio needs a middle name,
how about d'Gregori? Just an idea.
>You didn't catch that the opera is set in Serramana, Sardinia?
Why would a German composer writing Italian opera in England set
one in Sardinia? For the record, Giulio Cesare was in Egytto.
Nothing outstanding about today's auction. There was a table of
new books, about half kid, half adult, but nothing that
interested me. Most books are just jumbled up in boxes that go
for a buck or two, so it's interesting to see the different
treatment when they're laid out in a nice spread. Somebody got
the bidding going at a dollar for your "choice", meaning as many
as you want at $1 per. After the winning bidder gets his, then
anybody else can choose books at $1 apiece. When that dies out,
the bidding starts again on ill-defined "stacks". After that
runs its course, the last round of bidding is for everything
that's left on the table.
I scored a coup, though. I've always been on the lookout for
some nice thick cushions for the chairs I use the most around
here. They had several boxes of just the thing - about 3 inches
of foam with a layer of gel in inside, and a nice fleecy top
cover. I was shooting for $4 or less. The first round of
bidding per cushion went to $5, and I figured they might all
disappear at that price, but they didn't. Some of the cushions
had been crushed or punctured so they were partly smeared with
gel, even though all the cushions were still in the original
plastic bags. A lot of these got pulled off the table and Blake
started the bidding on "everything under the table." That was
kind of strange, but I thought there was a good chance at least
two were in good condition. The bidding stopped at my $6, and
when I had a chance to pull everything out from under and examine
the merchandise I found three in perfect condition. So I got
just the number I wanted, at $2 apiece. Now I just have to hope
they're not on the verge of exploding like their brothers.
>>Did you get around to "Strike at Hinman's" by Robert J.
Burdette?
>Not yet, but I will. I've been pretty busy.
Bizzy schmizzy. You have till the start of the next school year
to assimilate the teaching techniques described in the story.
They worked like a charm on the author.
THEE:
>I suppose you have a hard time remembering when you didn't know
about the Trail of Tears; for me it would have been not long
after Sep 11 2001 when I was curious about non-war episodes in
U.S. history involving loss of life in the thousands, and which
the country seemed to survive without curling up into a ball for
the rest of eternity. Admittedly, the Trail of Tears doesn't
make such a compelling Exhibit X in the list; who cared about
Indians?
Guess I learned about the Trail of Tears shortly after moving to
Oklahoma--perhaps on my first visit to Tahlequah, which is, to
this day, the capital of the Cherokee nation.
>So, anyhow, if Alessio needs a middle name, how about d'Gregori?
Just an idea.
Great idea. Graphic artist or graphic imaging . . . not so
different either except Alessio d' Gregori is very much part of
the computer age. In his field, are such things as weather
tracking and medical imaging technologies.
>>You didn't catch that the opera is set in Serramana, Sardinia?
>Why would a German composer writing Italian opera in England set
one in Sardinia? For the record, Giulio Cesare was in Egytto.
Yeah, but he was from Italy, right? Sardinia isn't so far from
Rome if one has a boat. That's the way back and forth from the
mainland--directly to Rome by plane, to a port near Rome by
ferry.
ME: Somehow my number came through garbled - sorry about that.
It's 302-672-9356. I get calls all the time with completely
unintelligible numbers, and I try to bite off each number
separately and clearly.
THEE: guitar chord "a hard day's night"
could that chord be just
--1--
--0--
--0--
--0--
--1--
--3--
I'm not much of a guitar player but it doesn't sound that bad !
take care !
ME: Very interesting! If you don't mind, I'd like to add your note
to my web page.
THEE: Right hand fingering
I am beginning to play my acoustic guitar with the fingers of the
right hand. I have read somewhere that one has to play the last
three strings (4, 5 and 6) always with the thumb and keep the i,
m and a for the three first strings. However, when I am playing a
quick sequence of notes going from the 6th string and then 5th,
4th, 3d... I find it hard to do all notes in strings 6, 5 and 4
with the thumb. Should I use also in those string the i, m and a
fingers? Is there any easy rule to remember?
ME: There's definitely no rule about always using the thumb to
pluck strings 6 through 4. I remember being confused about that
when I first started playing - I think a Mel Bay method had me
playing scales up through the 4th string with the thumb and
switching over to the fingers at string 3. I think good players
would not approve of my right hand technique, so take this with a
grain of salt: I think I base my decision about thumb vs. finger
on a bass string mostly on whether I want a fuller bassy sound
(thumb) or need to spin through a moving passage which is too
fast for the thumb alone. I think it's rare for me to find
myself playing passages on the bass strings with my fingers just
like I do on the trebles. It's sort of, if I can't get the job
done with the thumb, I bring in a finger or fingers to help.
Again, a guitar teacher might have a fit reading that, but I hope
it helps answer your question.
THEE: Good Morning on PAUL MCCARTNEY's 64th!
Today marks a very special MACCA day that we've all talked about
for some time. We certainly didn't expect that our famous Beatle
would be in the middle of a rather MESSY personal marriage
breakup. Most of all, we just wanted to wish him well on this
special 64th Birthday!
It seems, for the first time in my memory, they have FORGOTTEN to
list Paul McCartney's birthday in our daily (THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT)
newspaper's "famous" birthday list! Thought you all would get a
little chuckle, that of ALL BIRTHDAY'S TO MISS, they'd miss
PAUL'S SIXTY-FOURTH!
Here is a scan of portion of the page to prove it. I took a
double take--expecting to save it for the one of my many Beatles
scrapbooks--faithfully kept for 42 years...
It's attached for perhaps easier reading!
Have a great day!!!! We'll be singin' WHEN I'M SIXTY-FOUR for
the rest of the day in HONOR OF OUR GUY! We'll always need him,
that's for sure!
THEE: guitar chord "a hard day's night"
hi don i guess I had that chord all wrong. It's {top is high E}
--3--
--1--
--0--
--0--
--0--
--1--
I just had a wrong string order. take care
ME: Thanks, Henry. Yeah, I figured out which string order you
meant!
THEE: re: Dick deadeye movie:
the filmed lead-in to the main title, in which an unseen Queen
(Victoria?, Elizabeth II?) gives Dick (who sounds like Ringo
Starr) his instructions and then declares the film officially
open;
Turns out that's Victor Spinetti's voice!
THEE: Hello DOnald - been a long - yes it has.
I am now an adjunct professor at two colleges.
We need to discuss classical guitar again and Justin Holland -
I'm READY TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
Ernie Jackson
ME: The lunatic is at it again! Take a look at this:
http://dcdl.org/2005/11/05/bizarre-smear-campaign-in-ward-3
and take a look at this!!!
http://dceiver.blogspot.com/2005/11/hey-candidate-rees-you-just-got-served.html
Recognize some of [the jerk]'s made up names?
ME: stopping the lunatic
In my searches of the web and google news I haven't seen much
evidence of an actual effort to stop the lunatic R~~. Is that
because everybody knows, as R~~ does, that our justice system is
completely unconcerned with any case that does not involve a)
money owed to the government itself (e.g. $20 parking ticket) or
b) a knife in the back (within the required 15 degrees of the
vertical, of course)?
The tactics R~~ is using now are the same he used on ~~~ a few
years ago, and all of her family and her employer and all of her
friends, including me. This completely ruined over a year of all
of our lives. R~~ laughed his way through every peace order and
restraining order. If I were to list what he got up to, it would
take an encyclopedia, which shouldn't surprise you. That's
certainly part of his tactics - what lawyer would be inclined to
read half of the top page of the 5-inch stack of "evidence"
produced since the previous consultation?
I discovered a few months ago that R~~ was running for the city
council spot. My mind was spinning with, "What to do, what to
do?" I even emailed ~~~ and asked if I could take it to the FBI.
Her response was, "No way! He's crazy!" She has sons and fears
for her family. (One of R~~'s aliases this time around is the
name of one of her sons.)
A few days ago I dug a few pages deeper on the web and discovered
what he's been up to starting last October or so - again, all old
hat to me. At least I'm glad to see everyone is on to him and he
won't be winning any city council seat.
All of that to bring me back to my original question - is there
anyone anywhere who might accept the challenge of stopping this
guy, whether for personal satisfaction, glory, or possibly money?
If so, it may be of interest that he is a deadbeat father.
Unfortunately, I have virtually no specific information. What I
know is through ~~~. The mother of the child in question lives
or lived in Virginia - which is a, or the, reason R~~ moved
across the line to D.C. I know that when the mother went to
Ayuda in D.C. for help, R~~ opened up every barrel of his
harrassment blunderbuss against Ayuda. He was apparently totally
successful - Ayuda wouldn't touch anything that had to do with
R~~ with a bargepole. I'm sure they remember him.
If any of this is of interest to anyone concerned about stopping
the crazy man, please have them contact me and I will supply them
with whatever I can.
Thanks.
THEE: Re: stopping the lunatic
Appreciate the email. We're taking a fairly hands-off approach to
R~~ until we can figure out a better way to deal with him. If we
hear of any concerted efforts to address the man's actions, we'll
let you know.
FROMWEB: Can you give me an example of a date on these calendars?
When George Washington was born the calendar on the wall in the
English Colonies read February 11, 1731 (or 1731/32). In other
countries still using the Julian calendar, it was February 11,
1732 because their year began on Jan 1, rather than March 25. In
most European countries such as Italy, Spain and France, which
used the modern Gregorian calendar, the same day was called
February 22, 1732. After the Colonies adopted the Gregorian
calendar on January 1, 1752, the date of Washington's birth has
been considered to be February 22, 1732.
ME: Very interesting and helpful calendar faq - thanks! I was
searching the web for how the transition took place in the
colonies. On your page I found, "After theColonies adopted the
Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1752..." That may answer my
question about whether all colonies switched simultaneously. But
it would be nice to see that stated somewhere explicitly if so.
Correct me if I'm wrong: since there was an 11-day error by that
point, December 20 1751 was followed by January 1 1752.
after learning about this weird calendar thing in colonial times
I've been curious how wrenching the transition was. Did people
take it in stride? Did the common man even care or generally
know what the date was? Or was everybody up in arms, thinking
they were losing 11 days out of there lives? And was there any
sort of New Year's celebration back then, and if so, did they
just shift their pot banging from Mar 25 to Jan 1 without missing
a beat?
fromweb: Mystery of the Missing Days
by Bob Brooke
On September 2, 1752, an odd happening occurred that's still
keeping genealogists on their toes. On that day, the British
Isles and all the English colonies, including America, lost 11
days--September 3 through 13. People went to sleep and when they
awoke the next morning, the date had changed to September 14.
There were riots in rural villages since the people thought the
government was trying to cheat them out of 11 days of their
lives. Though these days disappeared in English lands in 1752, a
number had already vanished in other places--France in 1582,
Austria in 1584, and Norway in 1700.
ME: Dear Webmaster,
I believe on page
http://www.usgenweb.org/research/calendar.shtml
you mean to show March 25, 1719 in the list of dates under
"Julian or Old Style".
FROMWEB: What's Benjamin Franklin's Birthday? Why it's 11 days
later than it used to be. By Daniel Engber
On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the city of Philadelphia celebrated Benjamin
Franklin's 300th birthday. According to the Boston Globe,
Franklin was actually born on Jan. 6, 1706, but that was before
the colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
When Great Britain updated to the new system by skipping 11 days
in 1752, Franklin dutifully moved his birthday. Did everyone
change birthdays in 1752?
No. Most people were happy to keep their original dates. The
Gregorian calendar had been in effect for most of Europe since
the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull that
established the new system. Not everyone went for the idea right
away, and Great Britain held out for 170 years. (The Church of
England was particularly resistant to the proposal from Rome.)
Some people protested when Parliament finally made the change.
Posters were drawn up saying ,"Give us back our eleven days."
Franklin supported the change from the start. "Be not
astonished," he wrote in his Almanack, "nor look with scorn, dear
reader, at such a deduction of days, nor regret as for the loss
of so much time." Other prominent Americans supported the new
system; George Washington updated his own birthday from the old
Feb. 11 to the Gregorian Feb. 22. Even so, the majority of early
Americans held on to the birthdays they'd always used.
ME: sony cd recorder
After all this, I still don't have an answer to my main
question: Was there a problem with my original cd recorder, that
is, can a cd recorder in general stop recording, erase the last
track, and pick up recording at that spot in a fluid enough way
so that no properly working cd drive (including but not limited
to the cd recorder itself) will construct spurious new sounds at
the break point?
If cd recorders *can* do this, I'll admit it would seem almost
miraculous. On the other hand, if they can't do it, it's hard to
imagine what good they are and why anyone would pay $5 for one.
I'm baffled.
Is there any chance this question could be directed to the
engineering department, or to a seasoned user of cd recorders, or
both, and the answer gotten back to me?
In the "old" days, the saleskid at the stereo shop could answer
questions like this behind his back. Now with the power of the
internet, you're lucky to drag an answer out in two months, and
as to its applicability and validity, all bets are off.
(Just spent about an hour on the web trying to figure out what
the rcd-w2000es/b does for $600 that the rcd-w500c doesn't. No
luck. By the way, that sony.com home page has got to go - takes
about 15 minutes to fire up. And still didn't see a link for
electronics.)
Any chance my list of concerns about the rcd-w500c can be gotten
in the hands of the design department? I can't help thinking
that a good majority of potential users would agree strongly with
many of them.
ME: I'd like to invite you to my page proposing a simple system
of units of measure to end all simple systems of units of
measure:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/units.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/units-of-measure.htm ]
Would be very grateful if anyone had the energy to double check
me.
At the same time I put up a few more revolutionary pages, dealing
with a streamlined scientific notation:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/scinot.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/scientific-notation.htm ]
switching over to the Base 8 number system:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/base8.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/base-8.htm ]
and my plug for a universal second language:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/usl.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/universal-second-language.htm ]
In case you're wondering why bother, since none of these are
likely to be implemented tomorrow, they might be mildly thought
provoking. Plus, I try to work in a chuckle wherever I can. The
Base 8 page is a gas.)
ME: I just found your nice comments on Mom's page. Thanks! I
sort of wish I were a "writer", but then, maybe something would
be lost if a Time magazine guy ghosted my stuff.
I finally pulled together a few web pages that I let hang over my
head ever since I jumped on the web. It was our discussion of
the calendar that gave me the kick I needed.
Here's my proposal for a simple system of units of measure:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/units.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/units-of-measure.htm ]
Here's my streamlined scientific notation:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/scinot.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/scientific-notation.htm ]
Here's switching over to the Base 8 number system:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/base8.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/base-8.htm ]
And here's my plug for a universal second language:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/usl.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/universal-second-language.htm ]
Not all as impossible as it first looks! (But I'm not holding my
breath, either!)
ME: I wrote to the person who runs a web site being spammed by
R~~ and he said if he hears of anyone trying to get the guy,
he'd get in touch with me. But it looks like the same old story
- the lunatics can do anything they want because everyone knows
the courts won't do anything about it.
I was curious what you knew about R~~'s previous divorce. Sounds
like it dragged on for 8 or 10 years. Also, he sent obscene
emails to the judge. What a guy.
THEE: I came across your site today. Enjoyed it..all of it. I
had a Candelas, one of Segovias practise guitars. One of his
students got it from Segovia-and gave it to me as a present. The
guitar is long gone, smashed by some movers who hauled it along,
took it from the "safe" place I'd put it. It was terrible. I had
named her "Molly", and she was exquisite: fire and sweetness.
I'm a flamenco fan, and played some at one time. A little
classical, too. Was told by some surprised masters of Flamenco
that for a blue eyed blonde, I had a natural feel of it, but
needed to work on it. ("A lot"). I miss that guitar more than I
can say.
THEE: RE: moms
I started reading your beautiful eulogy to your Mom back in May,
"put it down" for the evening, then sort of forgot about it as I
got involved in things that were happening around here. Today, I
suddenly realized that you were still sitting there in my mind
and email....I went back, located and began anew, and finished
reading your Mom's memorial page. I just marveled at what a
beautifully fantastic woman she was. It is easy to see how you
developed as a caring person, and such a wonderful son and family
member. I never really thought about where you grew up when we
were at Johnnycake, just that you were such a likeable,
conscientious and superior student. Now, there are real
connections: Granite, Carlin's Park, Hebbville, Madelyn Murray
O'Hare, to name a few.... Your mother was truly a great woman,
and she deserves every bit of the praise you have given her in
this document.
P.S. I read every word! And, I found your Mom's memorial page
to be all very interesting and intriguing! I also find it
intriguing that it seems a person must pass on before the world
truly becomes aware of what that person has accomplished!
Learning about your Mom was like reading a Who's Who in Human
History.
ME: I got around to putting up a page with my thoughts on the
calendar, and, well, a whole new system of units of measure.
Since you're in there, and you provided me with a big part of the
kick I needed to get my thoughts down, I thought I would invite
you to the page:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/units.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/units-of-measure.htm ]
There are also connections to pages promoting a streamlined
scientific notation, a switch to Base 8, and the implementation
of a universal second language. Ok, so maybe that's a bit much
all at once... :)
ME: It's wet here, but not a show-stopper. Nothing like the deluge
in 2004 that had the hood of my car under water and water up to
within a few feet of the house. Drove to Baltimore County on
Sunday in heavy rain, and heavier on the way back, although the
day itself was quite nice. Played croquet, even. Got a call
from my No. Va. friend Norm who apprised me of the amazing
conditions around D.C.
. . . came up with another idea. My violinist friend Phyllis
also happens to be D.C.'s best tour guide. Positively in a class
by herself. She can tell you fascinating things about something
you've seen a million times, and, on the other hand, tell you
amazing things about things that you can't imagine had any
interest value whatsoever. Even without that, you two could talk
about African-American music forever.
Been making out like a bandit at auctions and book sales lately.
Got a nice, old set of the Book of Knowledge, which I've been on
the lookout for for a long time. We always had a set around when
we were growing up. I've got the fiction and poetry mostly
indexed on my computer now. Luckily for you, it's just too much
to type up all the little neat things I find. (Last night I had
about 12 books in my collection opened to various versions of Tom
Thumb, or Thumbling. And are you familiar with both "Father
Williams"s?) I also got a nice slipcased set of Grimms' and
Anderson's Fairy Tales. I got another book of Gilbert & Sullivan
libretti, which I need like a hole in the head, but this one had
an inscription which turns inscriptions on their heads - "Dear
Bubbles, With all my love, for a gifted singer and a loyal
friend, from your biggest fan, Laurite." You've got to wonder
how it got from Beverly Sills to the Dover library. The most
recent auction had the hugest pile of mostly old books and
records to look through that you ever saw. It would have taken a
person many hours, even if it were possible, which it hardly was
due to how it was all crammed and stacked. But I did find the
Grimms and Anderson and another small book of Grimms. I put
together a small box of records for myself, including tangential
things like Sweeney Todd and Les Mis, but I was only willing to
go $2 (a dollar more than what they were worth) and somebody else
got my box, I suspect to snatch it away from me moreso than
because he actually wanted them himself. But I say good for him;
saved me the trouble of incorporating them in my collection and
listening to them.
I also added the stories from my complete run of Twilight Zone
magazine from the 1980s to my computer index. Found a little
poem - "The Hunchback of Tulsa, Ok." What do you know about
that? Also finally got around to reading the Sherwood Anderson
story you assigned your class way back when. It reminded me so
much of a TZ story that I found really moving. I'll have to make
a copy for you.
One of my three gel cushions sprang a leak the day after I got
it, but the other two are still going strong.
Think yer a researcher? What happened in Maryland and Delaware
on Sep 11 1752?
P.S. After mentioning the Tom Thumb study, thought I would show
you what "thumb" brings up in my computer index. I'm most
curious about the variations between the English versions,
particularly Craik's and Jacobs'. Even the British 1895 throws
me for a loop. At first it seems to be just a slightly condensed
Craik, but then it introduces some little scenes not in any of
the other versions. There was one version that is basically a
condensed retelling of the Grimms version, but with a little of
the British setting (Merlin and King Arthur's court) wrapped
around at the beginning and end. Didn't look into the
Thumbelines to see what, if any, connection she has to Tom.
Search string = thumb 06-26-2006
BOOK: The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls; Folk and Fairy Tales;
Volume 3 Andersen's Fairy Tales
Andersen: THUMBELINA Stories that Never Grow Old
TOM THUMB (cf thumbling)
BOOK: Story and Verse for Children
OLD TALES
Tom Thumb dinah maria mulock craik 272
BOOK: The Junior Classics 1 - Fairy Tales and Fables
The History of Tom Thumb Joseph Jacobs ill. L. Leslie Brooke 31
BOOK: The Children's Hour 2 - Favorite Fairy Tales
IF I WERE THUMBELINA ANNE PEREZ-GUERRA
BOOK: Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes & Fairy Tales (British 1895)
Tom Thumb 268
I had a little Husband no bigger than my Thumb 169
BOOK: The Real Mother Goose (American 1916)
Dance, Thumbkin, dance. 92
I had a little husband no bigger than my thumb 57
BOOK: Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes (Castle Book)
123 Dance, Thumbkin
BOOK: The Library of Wit and Humor, Vol VII, British
henry fielding opening scenes of tom thumb the great 28
BOOK: The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature
184 The History of Tom Thumb Joseph Jacobs
BOOK: The Book of Knowledge, volume 3 Tom Thumb 1021
BOOK: The Book of Knowledge, volume 18
Little Tiny Thumbeline 6787
BOOK: The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (Pantheon: Colum,
Campbell, ill. Scharl)
187 Thumbling
212 Thumbling's Travels
BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales (Scholastic: Nora Kramer)
Tom Thumb 140 (thumbling)
BOOK: The Grimms' Fairy Tales (green book: lucy crane, mrs edgar
lucas, m. edwards)
Thumbling the dwarf and thumbling the giant 81 (The Young Giant)
BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales (Junior Deluxe Editions)
TOM THUMB 176 (thumbling) TOM THUMB's TRAVELS 186 (thumbling's
travels)
BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales (slipcase; mrs. e v lucas, lucy crane,
marian edwards, ill. fritz kredel) * = not in Green Bk
Thumbling the dwarf and thumbling the giant 54 (The Young Giant)
Tom Thumb 268 (thumbling) *
ME: Read and absorb this.
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/base8.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/base-8.htm ]
Do not laugh.
I expect intelligent discourse at our next encounter.
ME: This one gives a list of some of his phony names:
http://dceiver.blogspot.com/2005/11/hey-candidate-rees-you-just-
got-served.html
Search for "~~~" down this page:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcwire/2006/06/cropp_releases_policy_platform.html
Again, it's not such a big deal, because *nobody* (except for
idiot lawyers and judges) believe this guy.
THEE: cats & dogs
How's the weather in Dover? I'm stranded in Rockville today due
to Metro closings in the mall area, and the outlook isn't good
for tomorrow. Hope you get to see the amazing video of the fish
on the Beltway.
As we were driving the WV backroads yesterday morning from
Berkeley Springs back toward I-81, we were nearly stranded.
Water was starting to build up in low areas, rushing down steep
roads in either direction and down the hillsides. There was such
a torrent down the slopes, that we could see the rapid erosion.
Then it poured most of last night.
The only Delaware report I saw on the morning news was from south
of you.
You'd have enjoyed Harper's Ferry Friday. For an hour, we joined
a small tour covering the African American point of view. Our
young guide was one of the best I've had anywhere. When I talked
to him after the tour, I learned that he's a junior environmental
science major at Tuskegee and that this is his second summer at
Harper's Ferry.
More later. Hope you're high and dry.
ME: to sci/physics
Anybody direct me to a discussion group for good-humored
visionaries?
ME: You're right.
I'm wrong.
Updated (useful) proposal: Since nothing can possibly ever
change from the way things are now, everybody roll out of bed
tomorrow and kill yourself.
THEE: Re: sir thomas
I also found a couple of the many Billy Possum music sheets and
have learned that a ragtime friend in Indianapolis has two Billy
Possum rags and a pop song that don't match those I've found.
I've offered him a swap--his three for my three (the two new ones
and W.C.'s orchestration of Billy Possum's Barn Dance). Terry is
pianist for a small ensemble called the Elite Syncopators. He
hadn't connected Billy Possum and Taft until I brought it up.
>Been making out like a bandit at auctions and book sales lately.
Don't know where you put all these auction purchases, but it's
gotta be fun. I had a ball just wading through the sheet music
at the antique mall in Berkeley Springs. I'll have to price May
Irwin's 1895 "New Bully Song" on eBay to see the going rate. Are
you familiar with the Bully Song? Irwin popularized it, but it's
supposedly an African American tune and became closely associated
with the beginnings of ragtime. I don't know the details but
will try to find out now that I own a copy of Irwin's hit
vaudeville version.
>I also added the stories from my complete run of Twilight Zone
magazine from the 1980s to my computer index. Found a little
poem - "The Hunchback of Tulsa, Ok." What do you know about
that?
Nothing, but I'm interested.
>One of my three gel cushions sprang a leak the day after I got
it, but the other two are still going strong.
Don't sit on them.
>Think yer a researcher? What happened in Maryland and Delaware
on Sep 11 1752?
No clue,and a quick google search didn't help.
THEE: Oversights
>And are you familiar with both "Father Williams"s?)
Only this one:
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1544.html
>I got another book of Gilbert & Sullivan libretti, which I need
like a hole in the head, but this one had an inscription which
turns inscriptions on their heads - "Dear Bubbles, With all my
love, for a gifted singer and a loyal friend, from your biggest
fan, Laurite." You've got to wonder how it got from Beverly
Sills to the Dover library.
You have all the luck when it comes to inscriptions! WOW. Now
don't tell me that you didn't know this one until you got home.
ME: In no particular order...
See if this doesn't give a context for Lewis Carroll's version:
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poem=28862
I see I added an extraneous s to "Father William". And
misspelled the Danish Andersen two times, urrgggh...
Forgot to mention, the 20-volume Book of Knowledge cost $2.
>We'd tentatively planned to go to the Rockville farmer's market
and to find F. Scott & Zelda's graves.
Are you aware that there's a "cabin" in Rockville, which I think
is now a protuberance of somebody's house, that makes a claim to
being the original Uncle Tom's cabin? Saw it once on a walk with
the hiking club. I have no desire to doubt it.
The gist of the Hunchback of Tulsa, Oklahoma is in these lines:
The first hunchback you see,
[...]
Is the one you hang on to forever.
Mine was Charles Laughton
[...]
Hopkins, Quinn, Lon Chaney, Sr. -
Never saw them and didn't need to,
[...]
A mini research effort didn't turn up a Charles Laughton/Tulsa
connection, so I guess the poet's point is that his own world was
Tulsa when he saw his first hunchback on a jittery tv.
>>One of my three gel cushions sprang a leak the day after I got
it, but the other two are still going strong.
>Don't sit on them.
I have been, and it seems like they're in for the long haul.
>Don't know where you put all these auction purchases, but it's
gotta be fun.
Things are just slightly out of hand right now, but I can stop at
any point, no problem. Actually, when I had to empty out my
learning center I junked up one of my rooms pretty bad, and that
sort of led to an "Oh well" attitude. I'll get it under control
soon enough. The Book of Knowledge took the place of the Grolier
Encyclopedia of Knowledge I got a few weeks ago. No wonder I
liked that one - it was just an earlier version of my nice
Academic American Encyclopedia, published by Grolier. My idea is
to get the earlier one to Kabul, if they're still accepting
presents from Americans. For now, it's in a box on a floor in a
second room getting a little junked up, along with another box of
kid's books earmarked for Kabul. The hold up there is that I
might want to use them myself in the near future. There's an
adult literacy program here that I've volunteered to get involved
with as a tutor, so maybe I should hang on to fun, easy books.
>Let me know what conclusions you draw about Tom Thumb.
I guess I have to conclude that Joseph Jacobs, England's "Grimm
brother", had Dinah Maria Mulock Craik's 1863 version in front of
him when he wrote his. I had always imagined that he let the
various versions of a given English folk story percolate in his
mind and then set down his.
Here's a totally insignificant little thing that is so crazy I
have to share with somebody, you being my dumping grounds, as you
know by now. In Craik's:
The king was so charmed with this address, that he ordered
a little chair to be made, in order that Tom might
sit on his table, and also a palace of gold a
span high, with a door an inch wide, for little Tom
to live in. He also gave him a coach drawn by six small mice.
In Jacobs:
The king was so charmed with his address that he ordered
a little chair to be made, in order that Tom might
sit upon his table, and also a palace of gold, a
span high, with a door an inch wide, to live in.
He also gave him a coach, drawn by six small mice.
You couldn't possibly guess what's in there to snap my head
backwards. No, it's not Jacobs' bold addition of a comma in the
last sentence. It's the elimination of the "t" from "this" in
the first sentence. Actually, I'm not joking; that's part of it.
Even though Jacobs retains the exact same word "address", he's
using a completely different definition of it! Craik is
referrring to a speech Tom just made; Jacobs is referring to
Tom's "manner". So here, where Jacobs has a golden opportunity
to make his version sound a little different, he bends over
backwards to shoehorn the same word in in a different meaning!
Sound like your run of the mill plagiarist trying to cover his
trail? Have you ary seen aught like it? (Now please don't send
the men in the white coats after me!)
Oh, that little word thingie reminds me of another little find in
my Books of Knowledge today.
If ifs and ans
Were pots and pans,
There would be no need for tinkers!
I just did a google search and confirmed my suspician that the
world at large thinks it's "ifs and ands". And I guess I always
did, too. But now that Howard Pyle has brought me up (down?) to
date on "an" I can make full sense of an old chestnut.
>>Think yer a researcher? What happened in Maryland and Delaware
on Sep 11 1752?
>No clue,and a quick google search didn't help.
Of course it didn't! Only *I* know the answer!!! Ha ha! Ha ha!
THEE: If you're here early Saturday, we're probably starting with
the Rockville farmer's market and our hunt for F. Scott and Zelda
Fitzgerald's grave at the St. Mary's Church cemetery in
Rockville. From there, who knows?
box cube ascii art
. . . . . . . .
.. ..
. . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . .
. . . .
.. ..
. . . . . . . .
THEE: Re: ifs 'n' ifs
>There's an adult literacy program here that I've volunteered to
get involved with as a tutor, so maybe I should hang on to fun,
easy books.
Good for you! Such programs are important.
>>>Think yer a researcher? What happened in Maryland and
Delaware on Sep 11 1752?
>>No clue,and a quick google search didn't help.
>Of course it didn't! Only *I* know the answer!!! Ha ha! Ha
ha!
Kinda suspected that. September 11 turned up all sorts of stuff
for MD/DE as did 1752, but they never joined into one. Remember
that all pieces of information should be known by at least two
people.
ME: talking sense to the world
Hope I'm not jumping to a wrong conclusion about you being the
famous brett watson. Got a big kick out of your Sep 11 1752 page
- I came up with the same brain teaser myself recently. Enjoyed
the whole page. I think, though, your essay wasn't clear about
the Gregorian correction being 3 days in a 4-century span. There
was something else earth-shattering in the second essay I read.
It was the thing about gravity. Thought I was the only person on
earth who knew that describing things fall and giving it a name
is in no way an explanation. Anyhow, please feel free to visit
my most-recent four world-changing web pages. One proposes a
calendar to end all calendars (and that's the least of its world-
changing offerings.) They're at the top of my "what's new" list.
If nutters dot org gets behind me on this, there's no looking
back!
THEE: Croquet Rules
Don - I enjoyed your web site very much. My question is: When do
players become "alive" for the purpose of being able to be
croqueted and roqueted? Is it after they pass through the
starting 2 wickets or is it after they pass through the 3rd
wicket? I contend that players are alive after the first two
wickets and friends argue that you need to pass through the third
to become "alive" for other players.
Any thoughts you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
ME: I'm afraid my answer to that might shock you. Sounds like
you and your friends have a background in official or tournament
rules, and the rules I put on my web page represent something
that's worked well for every group I've played with for many
years, without agreeing in every detail with any official set of
rules. So, having said that, the way *we* play is with *no*
special rule about getting started on roquets and croquets. If
somebody misses the first wicket, he's fair game for the
following players. I think special rules are unsatisfying, and
in this case really doesn't seem necessary - but maybe that's
because it's never crossed out minds before.
ME: a man a plan no canal (except maybe constitution ave)
I've got a plan; hope it sounds as good to you as it does to me.
Turns out that Phyllis is giving a neighborhood walking tour on
Sat. Jul 1, which is open to the public. Specifically, it's Duke
Ellington's neighborhood. The tour is officially called "Before
Harlem, there was U Street".
Hope that sounds interesting; I promise it'll be more fun then
you could possibly imagine. (Hoping that when you say you've
seen everything in Washington you haven't done this already.
Maybe you've already met Phyllis?)
THEE: RE: Croquet Rules
Hi Don - Thanks for the speedy reply! My cronies and I play a
variety of "full combat croquet" that is played in every backyard
across America. 6 players pull numbers to choose the sequence for
determining the choice of starting colors. We play all the
standard rules including the out of bounds (with the proviso that
if you force yourself out - you lose a turn getting back on the
course - not so if you are forced out by someone else. I realize
that the player starting last has a great advantage if all
players are "alive" from the get go- there are so many balls to
pick from heading to the third wicket. My friends think however
that in fairness, a player has to go through the third wicket in
order to become "alive", in order for others to play off that
ball. I can see the merits for both arguments. Since the
tournament will be in my back yard - I'm going with alive from
the "get-go" rule. Thanks, Jim
ME: Mind participating in a survey of 1? You say your "full
combat croquet" is played in every backyard in America, so your
answers count 100,000,000.
1. Do you set up the wickets at the stakes about a foot apart,
like they show on the box of the croquet set (and is how I
remember *all* courses as a kid), or six feet between the stakes
and wickets, like the rule booklet says?
2. Do you allow strokes to accumulate, for instance, if you
roquet balls on consecutive whacks? That's how everybody else I
know plays, but I say ditching stroke accumulation was the
biggest breakthrough in turning it into a real game/sport.
"Nothing accumulates; process the last thing that happened."
Brilliant!
Just played a game last Sunday. A friend's grandson joined in.
He said, "Tell me something, is croquet for old people?" and then
came in last anyhow.
ME: I can't let you off that easy in an email. I found a
duplicate "little verse" in the Book of Knowledge today. (It
seems they never use the term "Mother Goose rhyme".) It's one of
my faves.
Volume VIII, page 2908, with full page illustration:
One moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I met a little man
Clothed all in leather;
Clothed all in leather,
With a strap below his chin.
How do you do? And how do you do?
And how do you do again?
Volume XVII, page 6384:
One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather;
There I met an old man
Clothed all in leather;
Clothed all in leather,
With cap under his chin --
How do you do, and how do you do,
And how do you do again?
Each has some nice points to contribute to the definitive mix.
THEE: RE: Croquet Rules
Hi Don - Our version of "FCC" is played in my backyard that has
subtle contours, slopes, rock walls, and the necessary flower
beds. After the stakes are set (on a slope of course) the
wickets are placed 1 mallet length apart. The rest of the course
is placed in a rather traditional manner taking advantage of
slope, trees, flower beds and walls). This being my backyard I
have taken the liberty to allow the grass to grow into US Open
type rough in various places - just changes the strategy a wee
bit on a few occasions. We do not accumulate strokes - we, like
you process the last thing that happened. I like to play that the
ball is alive after the first wicket, my friend likes to play
alive after the third. Oh well. We play men's/women's singles,
and teams. Play starts promptly at 3:15 Saturday afternoon and
will last to dark. Oh yes, players are allowed the beverage of
their choice on the course and soft spikes are required. A trophy
is awarded at the end of play for the singles champions. Hope
this answers your questions. I've never met a croquet player that
I didn't like. Hit'em straight, Jim
ME: I approve!
THEE: By the way, got a kick out of that little story you passed
on. (By the hour). [Actual title is "Plumbers", by Charles Dudley
Waarner] Can't believe that was a problem over a hundred years
ago. Hey good news! As i'm writing, a pop up just said I made a
sale. Hot dogs, made 200%. (50 cent earrings for $1.99) Also just
sold a book on half dot. $2.50 .
ME: kiddie music
Hi Norm,
The thing to do is type "hotel california" and "satan" into
google. 63,000 hits.
THEE: Dear Yahoo! GeoCities customer,
We're writing to notify you that your Yahoo! GeoCities free web
site http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter was unavailable to
visitors 71 time(s) in the past 90 days because your site
exceeded its bandwidth limit.
Bandwidth, or data transfer, is a measure of the amount of
information that your web site visitors view and download. Your
free GeoCities web site comes with a healthy 3GB of monthly
bandwidth, which is measured each hour. Whenever you exceed that
limit, your site becomes unavailable for up to one hour.
Why Have I Exceeded My Limit? Exceeding your bandwidth limit can
happen for a number of reasons, such as including very large
files on your site or seeing a significant increase in site
traffic.
How Can I Prevent My Site From Being Shut Down Again? To help
avoid interruptions in service:
Remove some site content, especially large files such as images,
music files, movies, and animations. Reducing the information
that your site visitors can view and download reduces your
bandwidth usage.
Upgrade your account to a web hosting plan with more bandwidth
and no hourly limits. With more bandwidth, you can accommodate
more visitors and content as your site traffic grows. Learn more
about our web hosting plans by visiting GeoCities today. If you
do not reduce your bandwidth usage or increase your bandwidth
limit, your web site could become unavailable at times when your
site is attracting the most visitors. Please visit GeoCities
today and take action to ensure that your site remains available.
Best regards,
The Yahoo! GeoCities team
ME: WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS EMAIL? MY GEOCITIES SITE IS NOT A
FREE SITE. MY BANDWIDTH ROUNDS OFF TO 0% PER MONTH. HOW IN THE
WORLD IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I HAVE BEEN EXCEEDING MY BANDWIDTH?
[No response, of course.]
ME: It was great to see you and G~~ yesterday. Sure glad you
could work in Phyllis's walking tour. Keep in mind she knows
that much about any square inch in D.C.
Regarding Tom Thumb and my "obvious" conclusion that Joseph
Jacobs made heavy use of Maria Mulock Craik's earlier version: I
thought to look up his own footnote on the story, and he makes no
mention of Craik.
25. TOM THUMB
SOURCE From the chap-book contained in Halliwell, p. 199, and Mr
Hartland's English Folk and Fairy Tales. I have omitted much of
the second part.
PARALLELS Halliwell has also a version entirely in verse. 'Tom Thumb'
is 'Le petit Poucet' of the French, 'Da"umling' of the Germans,
and similar diminutive heroes elsewhere (cf. Deulin, Contes de ma Mere
l'Oye, 326), but of his adventures only that in the cow's
stomach (cf. Cosquin, ii, 190) is common with his French and
German cousins. M. Gaston Paris has a monograph on 'Tom Thumb'.
So could they both have used the same chap-book and Hartland and
come up with something so word-for-word similar? No way.
ME: Thanks for the great walking tour yesterday. I know it's
safe to speak for *all* of us. One time when you really don't
have anything better to do, you might see if there are any
Sauters on the memorial wall. Just curious, even if it's not too
likely my farming ancestors were slaveholders. Like I say, my
ancestors came to Maryland around 1820, they were farmers,
Maryland was a slave state, and the church we went to even had a
gallery for slaves, they say. I hadn't ever considered my
ancestors being slaveholders
It occurred to me a little after you brought up the Federal style
architecture, that I was thinking of Georgian architecture when I
said "brick, symmetric, white trim". I went back to my "The
American Opera Singer - the lives and adventures of America's
singers in opera and concert from 1825 to the present" and
couldn't find a Tibbs or Avanti. I'll do a web search.
P.S. After a bit of poking on the web, I see her name was Lillian
Evanti. Still not in my book, though, which may be because she
did very little performing in America. Some web pages mention
she performed in Traviata with the National Negro Opera Company.
(They got that from Eileen Southern.)
ME: For a classic dog song, George P. Watson's Lauterbach, go to
this page. It's the last one on the page (or was, when I found
it last year).
http://www.meloware.com/records.html
THEE: Well, that stupid man is never going to change look like in
these country people like him have a [it] made well. Take care
and have a nice holiday.
ME: HOW DO I CONTACT YAHOO/GEOCITIES? YOU ARE TAKING MY MONEY, BUT
THEN I GET EMAILS TELLING TO UPGRADE FROM MY "FREE" ACCOUNT TO
AVOID WEB SITE SHUTDOWNS. THERE IS *NO WAY* I AM EXCEEDING
BANDWIDTH LIMITS. PLEASE CONTACT ME.
ME: do i buy this viewpoint on f=ma vs. w=mg?
A Primer on Dimensions and Units Glen Thorncroft Mechanical
Engineering Department Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
Comments:
1. Note that we just used the definition of a newton as a
"conversion factor" to convert the answer above into a useful form.
2. Recall that we determined the gravitational force by the
equation mg W = . Why didnt we use Newtons second law, ma F = ,
where g a = ? Isnt that the same? Absolutely not! GRAVITY IS NOT
ACCELERATION. IT IS A FORCE (PER UNIT MASS). It only looks like
acceleration because it has units like that of acceleration (In
fact, dimensionally, acceleration and force per unit mass are the
same). Think about this. What is the force of gravity acting on
your body right now? Are you in motion right now? If you are
sitting still, you are not accelerating (relative to the ground).
Then a=0! So is the force on your body zero? No! Remember that in
stating Newtons second law, F is the net force acting on the mass
m. If the mass is stationary, the net force is zero. That is, the
force of gravity on your body is exactly balanced by the force of
the ground pushing up on you. You are in equilibrium, and
therefore your acceleration is zero.
THEE: It was great to see you and your friends on the walk. The group
was the perfect size. 'Glad you enjoyed it. I had also expected
a future guide to join us. Although she has been trained by
Washington Walks, we have never met. Some guides take tours
"under cover" because they want to learn secrets and stories that
guides sometime do not share with each other. It's weird. I
always share information openly, regardless of who is present.
I'm not surprised that you didn't find material on Lillian Evans
Tibbs or her grandson Thurlow Tibbs. So much of African American
history is still hidden. Eileen Southern is by far the leading
authority, when it comes to music. She published a text back in
the 70s, The Music of Black Americans.
I'm including a few websites that might interest you.
http://www.cbmr.org/lib/hevanti.htm
http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/info-url3948/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=204758&attrib_id=7970
http://www.afroamcivilwar.org/
ME: Hey, if you're game for a trip out to Dover, it sounds ok to
me. I always feel like I'm not a "complete" host by myself,
which is why I think a guest would have a better time if um came
with a friend. (Um is the proper form of the revolting he/she.)
Don't know how much "action" you'll see at the auction.
Actually, Blake the auctioneer can be quite humorous sometimes.
Missed out on two little lots I put together for myself today;
one because I was outbid on a stack of opera tapes and cds, the
other because they had so much to sell today that it would have
meant sticking around for at least another hour, just for a
little batch of kids' books, but including a neat old textbook
about Delaware (1948).
THEE: Do you know of any recording of Ferranti's carnival of
venice
ME: Others have asked that too, but I don't recall ever hearing
of a recording. Sorry about that.
THEE:
>Sure glad you could work in Phyllis's walking tour. Keep in
mind she knows that much about any square inch in D.C.
You've made a believer of me.
>I had already arranged an afternoon visit with my friend in
Glenn Dale who has the Irish wolfhounds.
Hope you had a good visit with your friend and the houn' dawgs.
>Turned out I couldn't get an answer at any of my family members'
places. I thought that *might* be evidence that they had gone
out to eat, so I took a drive up to Baltimore but found no
evidence my sister had gotten in, and headed back to Dover. All
in all, still, a very successful and memorable day.
This last part sounds more memorable than successful? Has your
family been abducted by aliens?
> Regarding Tom Thumb and my "obvious" conclusion that Joseph Jacobs
> made heavy use of Maria Mulock Craik's earlier version: I thought to
> look up his own footnote on the story, and he makes no mention of
> Craik.
>
> So could they both have used the same chap-book and Hartland and
> come up with something so word-for-word similar? No way.
Hmmmm. What sort of scholarly treatise can you write on all
your findings?
ME: Any publisher for, "I've read lots of fairy tales with
lots of similarities, and darn if I can say anything definite
about any of them"?
THEE: Subject: SETI
Hey Donald, Were you involved in yhe SETI project when you worked
at Arecibo?
ME: No, never specifically involved in SETI. One little
coincidence is that one of the astronomers I knew fairly well in
Charlottesville even though I didn't work for him became the head
of SETI. His name is Seth Shostak, and I think I stumbled him on
a SETI web page when I was researching the Fermi Paradox for my
Human Race is Special page. This was very early on in my
internet involvement. I sent him an email and got a nice reply.
He remembered me and the other co-op students. More recently,
he's gotten a bit of exposure via the intelligent design vs.
evolution flap. People have pointed out that while scientists
reject the most fantastic complexity as evidence of an
intelligent designer, SETI is fixing to latch onto the dumbest
little "beep" from space as an excuse to holler "INTELLIGENCE!"
Seth had to turn himself into a pretzel explaining how the
comparison was faulty.
ME: Whenever something of mine, or something about me, gets
published, I always find myself scared to death to look at the
final product. Almost without exception, something's been
severely hacked (intentionally or accidentally), or, at least,
embarrassing typos introduced (while my own always survive
intact.) So it took a while to get up courage to look up my "Meet
Your Neighbor" (Delaware State News, Jun 18 2006) at the local
library. I was *extremely* disappointed - somewhat devastated,
even - to see that my original, "tossed off" submittal was
printed, and my updated version had fallen through the cracks.
After I had given the invitation a little more thought, I came up
with several significant and interesting things I really wanted
to say. I sent the update in an email dated Apr 18. I suppose
one might argue it was partly my fault for not getting it right
on the first shot, but it's not like there was a problem with
deadlines. Here was a once in a lifetime chance to talk to the
community - and it was fumbled away. I'll be feeling pretty sick
about this for a long time.
I also submitted on paper something like:
>You seem to be very concerned about education. Do you have any
thoughts on schools?
Yes. All levels of administration above the principal should be
abolished, and the principal elected by the community. That
should eliminate much of the lunacy.
THEE: Re: the simplest system of units of measure
>So you won't visit my web page, will you? Ok, I'll bring the
web page to you. (Grumpy gusses can exit now!)
I think the spirit of what you are doing is good. However, the
standards for your units of measure have to be examined under a
critical eye. Most of the universe is quite dynamic. The orbit
of the earth is variable, the rotation of the earth is variable,
the gravity of the earth is variable. This is what Standard
Temperature and Pressure were trying to resolve. You would have
to qualify all of your Units.
What needs to be reexamined are the seven SI Base Units.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_base_unit
What is one Temperature
What is one Time
What is one Length
What is one Matter
What is one Mass
What is one Current
What is one Luminosity
We have to tackle Temperature first.
"The unit of thermodynamic temperature (or absolute temperature)
is the fraction 1/273.16 (exactly) of the thermodynamic
temperature at the triple point of water. Defined by: 13th CGPM
(1967) Resolution 4, CR 104"
Time follows:
The unit of time is the duration of exactly 9 192 631 770 periods
of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two
hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom at a
temperature of 273.16 below the triple point of water. Defined
by: 13th CGPM (1967-1968) Resolution 1, CR 103
Then length:
The unit of length is equal to the length of the path travelled
by light in a vacuum during the time interval of 1/299 792 458 of
a unit of time. Defined by: 17th CGPM (1983) Resolution 1, CR 97
Then Matter
A mole is the quantity of substance that contains the same number
of elementary entities (atoms, molecules, ions, electrons or
particles, depending on the substance) as there are atoms in
0.012 kilograms of pure carbon-12; this number (NA) is
approximately equal to 6.02214199W1023. Defined by: 14th CGPM
(1971) Resolution 3, CR 78
Then Mass and so on.
ME: Why temp first? So what about variable days?
THEE: Subject: Special
Dear Don, So a talking kangaroo would be special, we're
special - whats the big deal? We invented the word, the concept
and in a few hundred years we'll probably be extinct. I guess
I'm thinking all life is special or everything in the universe is
special. Too much ego here, ego is only temporary its gone when
the organism is gone. Special as anything else, so what?
-Richard Wyant
ME: Always glad to receive feedback of any sort, thanks.
Forgetting the word "special", I'm raising the question, "Have
humans developed forms of communication and transportation far
beyond anything anywhere else in the galaxy (or universe)?" The
scientific community is almost unanimous in its agreement that
the conditions that allowed life to develop on earth can exist in
many other places, and life has surely emerged in many, perhaps
billions, of those places in this galaxy. If that is so, and we
are the only ones to have developed interstellar communication
and transportation, I think a lot of people would agree that's
kind of "interesting", at least.
THEE: I have an old translated version of the Grimm Fairy Tales,
published by Grosset & Dunlap with no publication date. It was in
my family since I was little and I have loved the tales.
I too was always intrigued with the fact that "Karl Katz" was so
similar to "Rip Van Winkle", but never knew which story was
written first as there has been no way that I can find when each
tale was written by the Grimm brothers. I had always wondered
who ripped who off on this story.
It is a treasured book with all of their wonderful tales, the
favorite being "King Thrusbeard".
I'm so glad I stumbled on your site, I thought I was the only
one who knew this.
ME: Thanks for writing. Nice to know that somebody else is
curious about the same thing you are. I'm no authority, but it's
pretty clear the Grimms' books came out before Washington
Irving's. But that doesn't necessarily mean he got his idea from
the Grimms. Many of the fairy tales in Grimms have counterparts
in French and English fairy tales, at least (although I'm not
aware of any English or French Karl Katzes.) For instance, look
up the Grimms' Thumbling, and compare it with the English Tom
Thumb story. But Karl Katz really confuses me. Which Grimms'
book did it appear in, and why does it not appear in "complete"
collections of Grimms'?
Anyhow, I enjoy comparing different versions of a fairy tale,
even though I can hardly ever make a satisfying guess at what
came first and who got what from whom.
King Thrushbeard is a favorite of mine, too. I have it in an old
Scholastic Book edition, and in the margin I write a note:
"Good!" - the only one to get the exclamation point.
A few years ago I discovered a more "recent" (late 1800s) fairy
tale writer named Howard Pyle. I really enjoyed his story "The
Apple of Contentment". And then when I read the "complete"
Grimms I discovered the similarity with Grimms' "One-eye, Two-
eyes, and Three-eyes". They're both great. I'm glad there's no
law against reusing fairy tale themes!
ME:
TO: Joseph L. Gibson, Jr.
Gibson, Jones & Associates, LLP
6811 Kenilworth Ave. Suite 210
Riverdale MD 20737
Dear Mr. Gibson,
Back on March 20 2002 I wrote to you on behalf of G~~, who was
robbed by Carol Lawson, working out of your offices. G~~, her
entire family, all of her coworkers, and all of her friends were
harassed mercilessly by a lunatic named R~~. R~~ physically
attacked G~~ and threatened more violence. For her part of the
$750 deal, Lawson never even got R~~ served. Lawson left early
in the first scheduled hearing, leaving G~~ to fend for herself,
and did not even show up for the following hearing. Lawson never
got criminal charges filed against R~~. R~~ kept up his
harassment via phone, fax and internet for more than a year
afterwards until he eventually ran out of steam, or found other
outlets for his lunacy. There are still slanderous lies about
G~~ and her children on the web; I suppose they'll be there
forever.
I bring this up again hoping that R~~'s lunatic behavior in his
campaign for the D.C. City Council Ward 3 seat will give a faint
impression of what that crazy man put G~~ and everyone around her
through for a year and a half. If you've missed the news items
about his slander and harassment in this campaign, and his
spamming of every D.C. political website under dozens of aliases,
you can find it easily enough by searching for "R~~" and "ward 3"
on the web. R~~ is still using G~~'s name in some of his
aliases, for instance, [the name of] one of Maria's sons.
Any reasonable person would have to agree that your offices
failed completely (of course, because no effort was expended) to
bring this public nuisance under control.
Any reasonable person would agree that, as a bare minimum, ~~~ is
entitled to a refund of her $750. There was positively not one
single item in the agreement with Carol Lawson that was
fulfilled.
THEE: MOCB [municipal opera company of Baltimore] performance
Hello Mr. Sauter, apologies for the delayed response. The
company took a much needed break for a few months. We are
planning a fall season to take place at a new home address for
us. It does entail moving of props, costumes, music, office
furniture, etc. I love the idea of performing in Delaware.
Perhaps we may start the process and make it happen later this
fall, or in the spring of next year. I find it best to take the
time and plan thoroughly before mounting a project of this
magnitude. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Lofton Jones
THEE: Truly a work of art---Congratulations to you for truly a
remarkable avenue of intelligence.
As many of your guests have pointed out, reading guitar music
is not as popular as we all would like to think. But, I and a
piano player, are looking, looking, looking!
My partner plays legit piano and is able to read and play very
well. (I say legit because she does not know a Cm7 chord from a
G7,etc.) BUT truly in an excellent pianist. We have played
Diabelli together but since there is little piano and CG sheet
music available, we are at a loss.
ME: Thanks for the kind words and the interest in the guitar &
piano music. A good percentage of the inquiries ask me for my
recommendations, but I have to decline for a number of reasons.
Take another look at my page, and the pdf file with the samples,
and take a chance - it's not a big investment!
http://www.dcguitar.net/donaldsauter/gp.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/guitar-and-piano-music-fs.htm ]
ME: Don't let Susan Ohanian get hold of your press releases. See
the top aticle in the list here.
http://susanohanian.org/show_state.html?state=IA
If you poke around her site, which does battle with modern
education and our testing insanity, you'll see her comments are
in red.
ME: Hi Jim,
I *might* vote for you, but I guarantee I *will* vote for you if
you will make this promise: that you will always poll your
constituents on every issue, and your action on the city council
will *always* reflect majority will.
Think about it.
It's a new kind of "leadership" that goes beyond anything
previously imagined.
Thanks.
ME: Thanks for sending the photos - it's great to see an
elementary school chum! At about the time we were in contact, a
Delaware newspaper was going to run a little feature on me called
"Meet Your Neighbor". I hadn't been photographed in ages, so I
thought I would get their picture to send on to you. Mind you,
they rejected a really cool action shot of me and my nephew
playing roofball on Christmas, with a rainbow in the background!
(The rainbow is extra special to me because this was the day
after my mother died. Did I invite you to stop by her memorial
page?) The newspaper insisted on a blase old mug shot, blecch.
Now you tell me, a) which picture the readers would rather see,
and b) which picture shows more about *me*. For one thing, I
claim to be the inventor of the sport (see my web page on that.)
Not only did they fumble the photo, they also printed my first,
quick set of answers to their questions - after I had sent them a
far, far more fun, meaty and interesting batch of responses.
Grrrr...
THEE: Subject: Only you
. . . could tell me to "try not to look at the cd sleeve on the
first listen."
ME: So did you, or did you not, not look?
ME: While the list of things to catch up on is starting to grow
again, here's a little something I stumbled on that made me think
about you:
http://susanohanian.org/show_testitems.html?id=41
ME: I've made another little shot at getting your money back from
that Carol Lawson thief. Not that I expect them to refund your
money, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let them know
they could have stopped that crazy man a few years ago.
ME: Thanks a million for the phone call. The name I blanked on
was Emmitt Rhodes, who Ray Mason reminds me of. Ray's tape was
actually a different album on each side. I managed to fit them
both on one cd, coming in at 78:29 - my longest cd to date. This
was after I deleted a couple of seconds from between each track.
Didn't get around to explaining the reason for a 4th sony
recorder. The third one they shipped had gotten out *without*
being repaired. There was no door on the record deck side, and
the record drive was just clanking around loose inside. They
agreed with me that at this point I deserved a new unit.
Something that's had me going around kicking puppies and little
old ladies the last few weeks is being done dirty by a newspaper,
as usual. The Delaware State News asked if they could feature me
in their "Meet Your Neighbor" feature. Not without some
misgivings I went ahead with it. I had responded immediately to
their set of questions and after giving it a little more thought
submitted a far, far more fun, meaty and interesting batch of
responses. I was in running communication with the writer, so
had no reason to think the update had fallen throught the cracks,
but it did. They printed the draft. Talk about the mama of all
blown opportunities...
THEE: Re: free at last
Got a kick out of the test items, Donald. Sure, let's send those
Indians trudging through the snow, forcing many of them way off
the logical path through states that no one has cause to cross to
get to Injun Territory, watching them drop dead by the wayside,
all for the sake of freedom from U.S. government control. Yup,
that's surely the reason that the Cherokee art exhibit included a
portrait of Andrew Jackson, titled "Our Father," with rifle
crosshairs and abstract blood spatters, in the foreground.
Did you read SAT (2005)--the Japanese SAT? Of course, you have
to read the source. Nonetheless, the comment that truth is
stranger than humor was apt. One of my favorites was ASVAB
(2005).
Following one of the links, I laughed at this page, especially as
I tried reading aloud:
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~ralph/tt.html
ME: aminals of all kinds
Yes, I had visited those "stupid test item" pages when I first
found Susan Ohanian's site. It was a search on "kumon" and maybe
something else that first took me there. She reprints a "news
item" about Kumon that's nothing more than a press release.
(L~~ pulls this stunt a few times a year.)
This is my all-time favorite tongue twister, I think. Ever heard
it? It's not the most formidable twister, but sure strikes my
funny bone.
Wunwun was a racehorse,
Tutu was one too.
Wunwun won one race,
Tutu won one too.
Or, sometimes I'm in more of a "Buckets of bug blood" mood.
Here's the whole of Chapter 1 of The Story of Mankind [Hendrik
van Loon], a neat old history book (1926) I picked up at the
auction this week ($1).
HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a
rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once
every thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen
its beak.
When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity
will have gone by.
His "Animated Chronology" at the end wraps up with
2000 A.D. To Be Continued Indefinitely.
'Course, you all can get it all for free (supply sarcastic sing-
song) at:
http://www.authorama.com/story-of-mankind-1.html
THEE:
Subject: thanks for Karl Katz!
The header says it all: Thanks for "Karl Katz," and for your
prefatory comments. Take care, and thanks again,
Rob Hughes
THEE: Re: binary critters
Always a pleasure hearing from you--your theories always make me
stretch my brain a bit, which is a good thing as so much of my
work is mindless rote methodology.
Neither A~~ ( I think) nor her father (I know) know what happened
in Baltimore on 9/11/1752, but methinks it was not a Rappahannock
war canoe pulling a kamikaze on Ye Olde World Trade Centre. Give
me until the reunion, and I'll have the answer--and no, I won't
look it up on Wackipedia.
I was hoping you'd have some shortcuts for Sudoku enthusiasts
like myself, but somehow we haven't had a chance to discuss such
gripping issues in the heat of the eBay/CDRW-ROM/Graduation &
Groundhog festivities. Maybe at the reunion...
THEE: Re: aminals of all kinds
> Wunwun was a racehorse,
> Tutu was one too.
> Wunwun won one race,
> Tutu won one too.
Wouldn't it be fun to try to dictate that to some students and
watch them try to write it?
>Or, sometimes I'm in more of a "Buckets of bug blood" mood.
Wasn't the version on the website "black bug's blood"? Looked
so simple until I tried to say it quickly a few times. Maybe we
could now make it "Buckets of black bug's blood."
>His "Animated Chronology" at the end wraps up with 2000 A.D. To
Be Continued Indefinitely.
2000 A.D.? Last thing I see is that 16th century tradesman
driving a 1921 Rolls-Royce.
THEE: The tale of your third CD burner is shudder-inducing, no
question about that.
I can think of nothing interesting to say, but that's alright,
isn't it?
Oh yes, in the world of backlogs, I'm just about to finish Barry
Miles' "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now." I thought it was
very good. Did you read it?
THEE: Subject: Measurements and Music
Forgive me for taking so long to respond to your work on a new
system of measurement....I am still working on a complete
understanding of your proposal. However, I hope you aren't going
to be too upset with the world as it tap dances away from
adopting it--such a radical (but perfectly logical) approach
makes overall sense, but normal/everyday people just aren't going
to be interested/motivated in going away from the very
comfortable English System, particularly in this country--perhaps
it has something to do with being neoconservative or redneck or
closed-minded or whatever. Then, you know how professionals
operate when a new idea comes along.....
So, perhaps one day, some journal will pick it up and realize its
brilliant simplicity and publish it (I'm saying this while still
trying to mentally adjust and become "working-familiar" with your
proposal--I'm assuming I can still do this). I have no doubt the
Sunpapers had no idea what you were presenting.....You might want
to try JIR (The Journal of Irreproducible Results). They
appreciate good stuff like this....
ME: to JIR (The Journal of Irreproducible Results)
I put up a few web pages recently and it was suggested to me
that The Journal of Irreproducible Results might be interested in
such things.
There's a proposal for the simplest, most sensible ever system of
units of measure:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/units.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/units-of-measure.htm ]
a proposal for a much streamlined scientific notation:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/scinot.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/scientific-notation.htm ]
and a plug for switching over to Base 8:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/base8.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/base-8.htm ]
I've tried to infuse them with good humor, and whether people
laugh at my little funnies or the outlandishness of the
proposals, I think some necks should snap back and jaws drop at
what I've come up with. So far nobody has been able to resist
the urge to inform me none of these ideas will get implemented
tomorrow - that in spite of me saying it myself any number of
times in the pages themselves. C'mon people, somehow we moved
away from cuneiform after a run of 3000 years.
Let me know if you'd like to use any of them. I'm not a natural
writer, and I don't have any confidence I could successfully
convert them from web page- to journal-ese.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
THEE: Thanks for your message. I would greatly appreciate your
vote, but I cannot promise that I would poll constituents on
every issue. Some issues may come up and require action too
quickly. Some may require confidentiality (personnel issues and
litigation issues come to mind as possibilities), and some issues
will be more administrative in nature than substantive. I can
promise that I will foster communication with constituents, that
I will seek input from the residents constantly, and that I will
always be open to opinions and ideas. I can also promise that I
will act with he best interests of the third district residents
my primary concern.
Jim McGiffin
ME: Thanks for the extended reply - much appreciated. Pure
democracy has been my "thing" for the last 20 years. Examining
it from every direction, I can't imagine a better system. I
claim it can be logically proved to be the best system. (The
majority rejecting majority rule gives rise to a paradox, see?)
Even if the majority goofed up now and then - which I claim would
be *very* rare - a) we would have nobody to blame but ourselves,
and b) we would know we goofed up and undo the mistake. Compare
that to conventional government, where the ordinary citizen can
only gnash his teeth at our "leaders", and once something is
implemented, we've got it forever. In any event, I have no
doubts about your good intentions. I am a good friend of one of
your opponents, who I also know to be a man of good intentions.
But his natural desire for power and control scares me to death.
He always "knows best."
Moving from the somewhat philosophical to the practical, I want
to point out that the internet can give an instant reading of the
majority position. (Not that telephone technology couldn't have
done the same job for the last 100 years.)
ME: There is a classified category for Instructions (251). I was
informed this is where an ad for a tutoring business would go.
It seems to me that "Instructions" is not a very helpful word for
such educational businesses. (I myself had scanned the
classifieds many times over looking for such a category, and
never noticed "Instructions".) The appended "s" seems almost
wrong, implying user manuals for fixing your hot water heater.
Would it make sense to rename the category using some of these
words instead: Schools/Tutors/Education/ (and lastly)
Instruction? I'm guessing that would be a *very* popular
classified category.
Thanks for your consideration.
THEE: Hey Don,
Thanks for the pictures. I do like the rainbow picture but for
a meet the neighbor piece your face wasn't shown...pulling a
Wilson from Home Improvement!
THEE: Re: classified categories
Thanks for the suggestions. I agree with you about the letter s
and I'll pass along the other ideas. To me, Education seems to
encompass everything that would make sense under the category,
but they may opt to simply remove the s from Instructions.
Note that we print all the categories at the beginning of the
section. That's the easiest place to scan for what you want.
Note to staff: This is something that should be addressed and
fixed in all papers, including Community Publications and the
Exprss.
THEE: your fish one on your website
Hey, I checked your site out, it was cool, but your algebra is a
bit off on the fish question
Let W = Weight of the fish = 10 lbs.
You asked: What is the weight of the fish (10lbs) plus = it's
weight.
W = 10 + W/2 Solving for W,
W/2 = 10
W = 20
Now where you go wrong here is order of operations. X / + - .
so the equation should look like this:
W = 10 + (W/2) since W= 10 , then 10 / 2 = 5.
Then 10 + 5 = 15.
Nice try though!
ME: Hey Timothy!
Thanks for visiting and taking the trouble to drop a note -
hardly happens anymore! But I'm stickin' with my original fish
answer. You're not allowed to start with the weight of the fish
equals 10; that's what we're trying to figure out!
THEE: I agree with you about the use of the internet. I intend
to develop a method of two-way communication with residents of
the district using this medium. I am involved in several
newsgroups and other lists, and I find it very useful. I will
learn from the people of the district, and I can pass on
information about city issues, too. I am not one who always
knows best.
The challenge will be attracting people to the idea - I will need
email addresses. There are over 5,000 registered voters in the
district. I hope that I will have the opportunity to work on
that after August 1. The other challenge is that I am not very
technically adept. Witness that my webpage email account only
receives but doesn't send messages at the moment. I have so much
to learn in so many disciplines!
Jim McGiffin
ME: Sounds good to me - thanks! I wouldn't worry about getting
*everybody* involved. We do so much handwringing about that in
our society, but a non-vote is simply a vote for the status quo.
If there's a hot-button issue, then more people will vote. Also,
simple laws of probability tell us that a relatively small sample
is good enough to determine a distribution, in this case, of
opinions.
Good luck!
ME: rodents maybe?
Thanks for Billy Possum! I enjoyed it thoroughly. Not often
that I read *real* poetry! I made a nice plastic comb bound
edition - and then kicked myself for binding it with all the
printed matter on the right page, as opposed to left and right
and halving the page turns. A little disappointed they missed
Baltimore on the way to Washington. Also disappointed that West
gave up on the neat little 3-line rhymes after the first four
installments - not that I could expound on their significance in
the first place. I had figured Ned would pop up again, but had
forgotten all about him when he finally did. How about "knawed"
in part 7??? Big kick out of the New Jersey "youse" in part 6.
In my tape collection from my punk fanzine days I have a
collection called "Suburban Uprising: The Jersey Beat
Collection". There's a song by the Punsters called "Jive In
Jersey" which starts:
In Boston they know about "who" and "whom",
They learn that grammar in the lecture room,
But it's hard to know the right pronoun to choose,
So in Jersey we just say, Youse!
I was bemused by how easy it was for all of Billy's neighbors to
respond to his call and make it north considering all the
difficulty he had. I couldn't square Billy's "tribe of nine"
with the number of siblings named (6) or the number pictured (8
kids). I wonder if Paul West put it out of mind after writing
it, or whether it kept hitting him through the years how
monumentally bad his prognostication was.
I picked up another old Mother Goose at Spence's yesterday. This
was from a dealer table, not the auction. It had a $15 sticker
on it and without me asking, he said he'd let it go for $5. When
I decided to buy it (I was wrestling with that and/or a nice
Aesop fable collection) I confused matters by offering $7. I
thought the drop to $5 was too extreme. Maybe he thought I was
offering $7 for both books. And his confusion made me think I
had misheard his $5 deal. But we got it straightened out and he
was appreciative of the tip. This Mother Goose is from 1941 and
has about 750 rhymes, so there are many not in my other
collections. Here's one:
Jerry Hall, he was so small,
A rat could eat him, hat and all.
I already have the contents entered in my computer index. The
book's too big to dive into properly, considering I'm still in
the middle of Twains' Library of Humor and Van Loon's "The Story
Of Mankind".
Office space is amazingly hard to find here. Makes no sense to
me, considering how empty downtown is.
I bought a(n) SAT preparation book put out by the College Board.
*Too* much discussion material there to begin to try to type out.
There were some real revelations. The first is that the math
doesn't involve anything higher than what I learned in 7th grade
- *not* that that means they can't whip up a head-scratcher here
and there. I guess over the years I got various advance
placement tests mixed up with the SAT. Another revelation is
that I doubt I would score any higher on it now than back then,
in spite of grinding away at academics in high gear for the last
several years, *and* making major efforts to increase my
knowledge base for even more years. What they claim, and what
everybody already knows, but still seemed almost unbelievable to
me, is true - the reading part of the SAT doesn't require a
person to know anything about anything. I suppose the idea is,
the SAT is to test thinking abilities, the advance placement
tests test knowledge. The book has 8 complete SATs. I can
imagine a person doing the reading sections of one of them to get
a feel for what's in store, but I guarantee that after that it's
a complete waste of time. In the reading sections I am convinced
a few of my "wrong" answers are better than the "correct" ones.
I figure if there are people out there who ace the reading
sections blindfolded, you'd be one of them, and I'm curious if
you could convince me I'm wrong in these cases. But, it's just
way to much to type out.
ME: Thanks for your help. I agree, "Education" says it all.
Coincidentally, I got a State News tossed on my driveway this
morning, and I see they have a classified category
"Education/Instruction".
If the Post renames the category to "Education", I can guarantee
a 26-week ad. "Instruction" won't do it.
THEE: Re: rodents maybe?
>Thanks for Billy Possum! I enjoyed it thoroughly. Not often
that I read *real* poetry!
I started reading it in the LOC, but got funny looks when I
laughed, so I saved it for H~~'s place. There has to be a
place to publish a Billy Possum article someday.
> In Boston they know about "who" and "whom",
> They learn that grammar in the lecture room,
> But it's hard to know the right pronoun to choose,
> So in Jersey we just say, "Youse!"
Funny. Seems like I remember Archie Bunker using that one, too,
although he made fun of New Jersey.
>I wonder if Paul West put it out of mind after writing it, or
whether it kept hitting him through the years how monumentally
bad his prognostication was.
No answers there. By the way, did West's name mean anything
to you?
http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=8073
WC orchestrated music from The Pearl and the Pumpkin and Mrs.
Black Is Back. I'm not sure about others. I think I've come
across a reference to something from The Newlyweds and Their
Baby, but haven't checked.
>I picked up another old Mother Goose at Spence's yesterday. I
confused matters by offering $7. This Mother Goose is from 1941
and has about 750 rhymes, so there are many not in my other
collections.
Less than a penny a rhyme. Not bad.
> Jerry Hall, he was so small,
> A rat could eat him, hat and all.
Such cheerful little rhymes, aren't they?
>I already have the contents entered in my computer index. The
book's too big to dive into properly, considering I'm still in
the middle of Twains' Library of Humor and Van Loon's "The Story
Of Mankind".
A heck of a lot better than watching CNN or any other news these
days. I've had all I can take of the graphic video and photos.
>I bought a(n) SAT preparation book put out by the College Board.
*Too* much discussion material there to begin to try to type out.
There were some real revelations. The first is that the math
doesn't involve anything higher than what I learned in 7th grade
- *not* that that means they can't whip up a head-scratcher here
and there. I guess over the years I got various advance
placement tests mixed up with the SAT. Another revelation is
that I doubt I would score any higher on it now than back then,
in spite of grinding away at academics in high gear for the last
several years, *and* making major efforts to increase my
knowledge base for even more years. What they claim, and what
everybody already knows, but still seemed almost unbelievable to
me, is true - the reading part of the SAT doesn't require a
person to know anything about anything. I suppose the idea is,
the SAT is to test thinking abilities, the advance placement
tests test knowledge. The book has 8 complete SATs. I can
imagine a person doing the reading sections of one of them to get
a feel for what's in store, but I guarantee that after that it's
a complete waste of time. In the reading sections I am convinced
a few of my "wrong" answers are better than the "correct" ones.
I figure if there are people out there who ace the reading
sections blindfolded, you'd be one of them, and I'm curious if
you could convince me I'm wrong in these cases. But, it's just
way to much to type out.
You must have had more advanced math than I did. I always
thought the SAT covered algebra, geometry, and trig? I didn't
get to algebra until 8th grade, and that was a year ahead of most
students. Bet I'd find that SAT a challenge today because my
current math is limited to what I use routinely--nothing beyond
percentages.
As for finding what you think are mistakes, that doesn't surprise
me. I disagree with a few answers in my new reading book, and,
for sure, some of 'em are errors. I've found even more errors in
the new writing book and on the companion website. The writing
material is very good, and the book has features I love that I
haven't seen elsewhere. Some of the grammar sections stink:
insufficient explanation (such as saying that commas "generally
come inside the quotation marks" and just throwing out a few
examples), a couple of sentences with dependent clauses in a
chapter on the "simple sentence." My favorite though has to be a
paragraph with several groups of words italicized. Students are
asked to label each word group as a phrase, an independent
clause, or a dependent clause. In one sentence, the italicized
words are "they simply know." My instructor's edition gives IC
as the answer. What's wrong with that? Nothing . . . and
everything. Here's the full sentence: 'Mexican women who make
tortillas three times a day don't have to think about baking time
or moisture content because they simply know when the dough is
ready and how long they should fry it." What numbskull omitted
the "because" from that DC? In the self-scoring online versions
of these review exercises, I can pick and choose because I don't
need as many questions as appear in the text. I may throw a
bonus question--an extra-credit point for anyone who emails me
with the mistake found in the full original exercise. I'm
thinking about keeping a list of the errors and firing it off to
the publisher.
Now that I've switched to blue and inserted the hypens,
I'm wondering about something. This is probably the first e-mail
I've gotten through my current ISP in my Outlook box that has
marked your text (or anyone's) when I've replied. I'm baffled.
THEE: Subject: Change to Post and other classifieds
We're able to change the category to Instruction/Education. This
will probably go into effect in early August.
ME: To: Yahoo! Marketing
Re: Yahoo! Customer Care Auto Reply
I COULD FIND NO EVIDENCE OF THE FOLLOWING. HOW DOES SOMEBODY ASK
YOU AND IMPORTANT QUESTION?
>If the help pages don't answer your question, click the "No"
button at the bottom of the answer page. This will take you to a
feedback form that you can complete and send to Yahoo! Customer
Care.
>We look forward to helping you.
ME: To: mktg-comm@yahoo-inc.com
Re: Important Information About Your Yahoo! GeoCities Account
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? MY GEOCITIES SITE IS NOT A FREE
SITE. MY BANDWIDTH ROUNDS OFF TO 0% PER MONTH. HOW IN THE WORLD
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I HAVE BEEN EXCEEDING MY BANDWIDTH?
THEE: hi, I came across your info while performing a search for
Kumon Math and Reading centers in the Sacramento, CA area, as I
am considering starting one of their franchises. I'm an out of
work school counselor and my wife is an out of work english
teacher, we were thinking of giving Kumon a try as the area we
are moving to does not have a center nearby. I just wanted to
know your thoughts on Kumon: is it a good francise, how's the
support, do you get anything for the money, can we make a decent
living off of this? If you have the time, I'd like to know your
thoughts aany advice you may have.
ME: The funny thing is, I don't know which version of my Kumon
web page you stumbled on. I've just temporarily removed the one
that dealt with the shoddy treatment I got from the D.C. branch
office and put back up the one with the article on my center
opening.
By no means would I try to dissuade a potential franchisee based
on my unpleasant experience. I will invite you back to my page
when I finally beat it into shape. It will give many more of my
thoughts on the Kumon program.
To make a "good" living from Kumon, I think it's safe to say that
you have to view it as a production line operation. You'd
probably need a hundred and fifty students, at least. With a
center that large, you'd be nothing more than a "director" or
"administrator" - if that's ok with you. If you're enthusiastic
about working with students, you'd have to be content with "extra
income" - if your branch will even allow you to run a "small"
center (less than 100 students.) I think it's safe to say that
*all* Kumon instructors feel like the $34 per month royalty per
student is high, but, to be fair, don't we all think everything
in life is somewhat overpriced?
I kept my price at Kumon's minimum, $80 per month, because I feel
like more than that is a ripoff. I've heard the average in the
Southeast is $115 per month. When I started up two years ago I
heard of centers charging $120 per month. After you've met
certain probationary requirements, your royalty rate drops to $30
per student. So you can juggle some of those numbers and
estimate your yearly income.
Hope that helps.
THEE: Subject: CD postcard
Thanks for the CD!
My comments:
Carol Channing: Tracks 1 - 4 I really liked all the music in the
background while she sings. Quite good! All right.... I admit, I
was too hard on her. The Bull-Frog thing did make me laugh out
loud. I'm a believer!!
Golden Slumbers. (Old English Lulluby) Tracks 5 - 16 Interesting
antecdote! I wonder if Paul still can't read music.... Liked the
first rendition [from Beggar's Opera] the best The way she
sings "and he's so please me", gliding down on the word "and"
Musical Heritage Society. Didn't care too much for this one. A
bit lifeless...
Third one: Interesting artistic license changes...... Can they
do that? There's a whole new verse!! Actually the gentleness
of the duet, with it's soft ending makes "But not with a Highway
Man, you sorry slut!" a lot funnier.
Chorus version: Pretty!
Recorder/Harmonica. Still like it... What's Norm talking about?
The tune is definately burned in!
Operas Tracks 17 - Ring! (The bell) Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody,
when they're singing "Momma mia, Momma mia!"
Colorado Trail: I think I just know the Kingston's Trio version
(or something like them), and I like that one.
Summer [Kitty Brazelton]: This was total perfection!
Opera sections w/o a lot of singing: A "ballet" section?
Nice Guitar playing [minuetto from Falstaff].... It's been a long
time since I heard you play.
Recently, I went to your website and saw the tribute to your Mom.
I'm very sorry to hear about that, please accept my condolences
to you and your family.
THEE: Hi Donald,
I believe you sent this email to me by mistake.
ME: No, I BCC'd you figuring you might find it interesting.
ME:
>Interesting antecdote! I wonder if Paul still can't read
music....
He claims he doesn't, although he's said he tried to learn once.
I'm guessing he can read a little more than he lets on. But
still, he works from ear. When he composed the huge classical
piece The Liverpool Oratorio, he worked side by side with Carl
Davis, vocalising musical lines and playing them on a keyboard.
Did you notice David Wigg chuckled when Paul claimed he didn't
remember the tune? I don't know the history of when Thomas
Dekker's poem Golden Slumbers got put to that melody. Dekker
died about 1641. The Beggar's Opera was 1728, but in the
libretto the tune is called "O Jenny, O Jenny, Where Hast Thou
Been". Some other tunes used in the Beggar's Opera are La Folias,
Green Sleeves, and Lilliburlero. There's a Packington's Pound
that doesn't sound like the guitar version.
>Liked the first rendition the best The way she sings "and he's
so please me", gliding down on the word "and"
Yeah, isn't that a thrill? The irony is, for a long time I was
wondering if I would get completely used to the way they slide
from one note to another in opera. It's quite a shock the first
time you follow the music while listening. But now I'm fully
acclimated.
>Third one: Interesting artistic license changes...... Can they
do that?
You bet. Actually, with the real old music they generally only
have a skeleton to work with anyhow, like a tune and a bass line
for the Beggar's Opera. That's all they have for Mondeverdi
operas, so think about that when you hear the Orfeo overture. I
see that one of my books lists 19 of the most famous
orchestrations of Orfeo. There are versions by Orff, Respighi
and Hindemith. Think they sound the same, ha ha?
>Ring! (The bell) Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, when they're singing
"Momma mia, Momma mia!"
You win! (Nice to know it wasn't my imagination.)
>Colorado Trail: I think I just know the Kingston's Trio version
(or something like them), and I like that one.
Back in the late 1950s the Guitar Review had a guitar composition
competition, and the composers had to set Colorado Trail. They
published the 1st and 2nd place winners, sets of variations by
Duarte and James Yoghourtzian, plus a voice and guitar version by
Yoghourtzian. I liked them all, although I can't pretend that I
could ever do any of them justice. Plus now I see some of the
variations as pretty junky. In those days I figured *all* guitar
music was great, more or less; it was just a matter of playing it
well.
>Summer: This was total perfection!
Did you notice the children yelling in the distance? That was a
*perfect* touch. Hard to imagine it was planned, or that it
happened accidentally. The little slips add to the perfection,
too, like girl who comes in one "Su-uh-u-um-mer" too soon.
>Opera sections w/o a lot of singing: A "ballet" section?
Yeah, man, ballet all over the place in opera. Like Hello Muddah
Hello Foddah, which is the first Dance of the Hours of the Day in
La Gioconda (Ponchielli). You'd recognize the ballet music in
Aida, which follows the grand march, and the big ballet section
in Faust. That famous tune from Prince Igor (Borodin) is from
the ballet section. On the last cd I put together was a neat
little ballet piece from William Tell arranged by Mitch Miller.
A ballet was *required* in French opera. Some people showed up
just for the ballet (near the beginning of act II) and then left.
The Italian guys had to add a ballet section to get their operas
performed in Paris. Even Wagner had to add a ballet to
Tannha"user. Even Verdi's next to last opera, Otello (1887) had
a short ballet with some really nice music. So see, between the
overtures, preludes, entr'actes and ballet music, an opera fan
gets a big dose of nonvocal music.
By the way, did you pick up on those quiet chords at the begining
of La Forza del Destino act I echoing the chords at the beginning
of the overture? I'm guessing the normal music listener wouldn't
much notice the 6 chords before the overture gets rolling, but I
hold you to a higher standard. :) You might have noticed I
goofed and cut the vocal version off a few measures early.
Thanks for the condolences on my mother. It was completely out
of the blue, but it's hard to imagine a more perfect exit. No
lingering on and on, but enough time for everyone see her again.
I had always dreaded losing a parent, and it's still sad, but it
didn't turn out to be the devastating experience I was so afraid
of, for whatever that's worth to anyone who still has his
parents. There's mostly a feeling of, "something's wrong," with
Mom not around.
About Kumon, I think anyone would agree that I got shabby
treatment from them, but parting ways was probably for the best
anyhow. What I didn't foresee was how unpleasant Kumon is for
the kids. At least I had the opportunity to make it as fun as
possible for them at the center, but the truth is, Kumon is a
sort of "math jail" and kids generally hate it. And making kids
miserable isn't my bag.
ME: yep'm
>Such cheerful little rhymes, aren't they?
Yep, and educational and thought-provoking. Here's one on the
importance of punctuation.
Every lady in this land
Has twenty nails, upon each hand
Five, and twenty on hands and feet;
All this is true, without deceit.
Others are simply great poetry:
A jolly fat miller is Poopleton Bun,
With elephant legs that weigh half a ton,
And a face that is round and red as the sun.
At Friday's auction I found two more books by Hendrik Van Loon,
the author of The Story of Mankind. Someone had pasted his
obituary in the front of his History of Art. It was very
interesting. His Story of Mankind was rejected by the first 14
publishers, and made him and the 15th publisher very wealthy
indeed. My copy, for example, is from the 32nd printing. He
also had a tie-in radio show in the 1920s talking about world
history. Taking the obituary at face value, Van Loon was almost
single-handedly responsible for America's burst of enthusiasm for
learning in the 1920s. Sounds like we could use another Van Loon
about now. Here's a link to one of his chapters rejected 14
times over, if you're interested in a taste test. This is not as
fact-filled as most of his chapters, and I'm guessing it sounds
more like his radio show would have.
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?
id=VanStor.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&
tag=public&part=38&division=div2
>How about the adult literacy tutoring? Have you started that?
I've had two of the three classes. The last one is this Tuesday.
I just hope that they come up with a good match-up, personality-
wise. That doesn't mean the same personality, of course. I
would think that's the key to the whole thing. It looks like the
match is made based on a few questionnaire answers, not on tutors
and students actually meeting. (I suppose this sounds like I'm
talking about a dating service.)
>You must have had more advanced math than I did. I always
thought the SAT covered algebra, geometry, and trig? I didn't
get to algebra until 8th grade, and that was a year ahead of most
students. Bet I'd find that SAT a challenge today because my
current math is limited to what I use routinely--nothing beyond
percentages.
For us, algebra was 7th grade. No, there's no trig on the SAT -
surprised me, too. As far as SAT geometry is concerned, if you
know the area of a circle and that there are 180 degrees in a
triangle, you can rule the world. [Actually, they supply the
formula for the area of a circle.]
Here's a percentage problem for you from a Math League book. I
got the biggest kick out of this.
Action Comic #1, which originally sold for 10 cents, now sells
for $18500. This comic has increased in value by what percent?
If you have time for a simple algebra problem, here's one that
I'm always curious about how easily people can handle it.
(Crippled sentence, that.) It's in the form of a riddle, but my
brain says, you can't catch me - I'm going straight to algebra.
If a hat and a feather together cost $1.10, and the hat cost
$1 more than the feather, how much did they cost individually?
>As for finding what you think are mistakes, that doesn't
surprise me.
The ones I have in mind were definition and interpretation
issues. For example, in this excerpt "charged more by
unfathomable visions", does "charged" "most nearly mean"
"inspired" or "commanded"? I went with commanded, figuring that
not only works, but is the only *dictionary* definition for
charge that works. If a writer is making up his own meanings for
words he writes, all bets are off. In this case, I wonder if the
writer himself would have gotten the question right.
There were a couple of essays dealing with great vs. popular
fiction. The writers used these phrases, with the quotes as
shown: deemed to be "genre fiction"; considered to be "literary
fiction"; looking for a "good story"; want very badly to be
"literary". The question was, why did the writer use the quotes?
The blah answer was "to call attention to some common ways of
categorizing fiction." Now I guarantee you neither writer in
either essay would have put science fiction or mysteries or
romance novels, etc. in quotes if they had come up. It's not my
imagination - the quotes lay a put-downy or snide-y or sarcastic-
y or objecting sneer on each one of those terms in the essays.
But the choice "note labels to which writers typically object" is
wrong. You tell me, when you're walking down the street, do you
want people pointing you out, sing-songing, "Oh, she writes all
that 'literary fiction' stuff," or, "All she knows how to do is
write a 'good story'"?
By the way, I clobbered some grammar on that last cd. What can I
say, public speaking makes me nervous!
I got Krystal and Mizan out on Charlie's boat last week. Caught
a few crabs and otherwise had a good time. In Charlie's swimming
pool I was pulling Mizan around on a floating lounge thing and
accidentally sent her over the edge. The side of the pool
collapsed and so it was sort of like Niagara falls with Mizan at
the bottom. Luckily, she got up laughing, which made the
incident the funniest thing in the history of the world.
Admittedly, it would have been a whole lot less funny if she were
hurt. Krystal and Charlie had a good laugh at the terrified look
on my face when the episode was in progress.
FROMWEB: from kumon website
Kumon Instructors regard themselves more as
mentors or coaches than teachers in the traditional sense. Their
principal role is to provide the direction, support and
encouragement that will guide the student towards performing at
100% of his or her potential.
Students who grow with Kumon may find their relationship to their
Kumon Instructor to be among the most rewarding and productive of
their academic careers.
All Kumon Instructors share a passion for education and an
earnest desire to help children succeed. They will invariably
apply these along with their talent and training in the Kumon
Method to make the most constructive contribution possible to
your child's future.
THEE:
>>And the large full page views became fold-outs?
>Yep.
I nearly wrote centerfolds but realized there were too many and
they were improperly spaced. Somehow though, I liked the idea of
possum centerfolds, but I doubt they'd have struck Hugh Hefner's
fancy.
> Every lady in this land
> Has twenty nails, upon each hand
> Five, and twenty on hands and feet;
> All this is true, without deceit.
Ah, I like that one!
>Others are simply great poetry:
> A jolly fat miller is Poopleton Bun,
> With elephant legs that weigh half a ton,
> And a face that is round and red as the sun.
Who on earth thought up that name?????
>Sounds like we could use another Van Loon about now. Here's a
link to one of his chapters rejected 14 times over, if you're
interested in a taste test. This is not as fact-filled as most
of his chapters, and I'm guessing it sounds more like his radio
show would have.
All very interesting. I'd never heard of him, at least not so as
to have the name stick. The couple chapters of the history book
that I read were interesting, though--the kind of history a
person can read, understand, enjoy, and learn a little something
from in the process.
>>How about the adult literacy tutoring? Have you started that?
>I've had two of the three classes. The last one is this
Tuesday. I just hope that they come up with a good match-up,
personality-wise. That doesn't mean the same personality, of
course. I would think that's the key to the whole thing. It
looks like the match is made based on a few questionnaire
answers, not on tutors and students actually meeting. (I suppose
this sounds like I'm talking about a dating service.)
I don't think those require classes . . .
>For us, algebra was 7th grade. No, there's no trig on the SAT -
surprised me, too. As far as SAT geometry is concerned, if you
know the area of a circle and that there are 180 degrees in a
triangle, you can rule the world. Here's a percentage problem
for you from a Math League book. I got the biggest kick out of
this.
I hate to confess that I stopped math in high school with
geometry in ninth grade. We were required to take only two years
of math at the time, and my algebra counted since that was
normally a ninth grade class. Dumb thing to do in retrospect,
but at the time I was far more interested in foreign language,
journalism, and such to "waste" my time on math. My freshman
year of college I faced college algebra after being away from
math for three years. It was a shocker, but somehow I struggled
through with a B. Don't know how.
> Action Comic #1, which originally sold for 10 cents, now sells
> for $18500. This comic has increased in value by what percent?
Sounds like eBay! I remember these problems, but, I'll confess
to having forgotten how to figure them. It would be so easy to
divide by 10, moving that decimal point, but I know that's not
right.
>If you have time for a simple algebra problem, here's one that
I'm always curious about how easily people can handle it.
(Crippled sentence, that.) It's in the form of a riddle, but my
brain says, you can't catch me - I'm going straight to algebra.
> If a hat and a feather together cost $1.10, and the hat cost
> $1 more than the feather, how much did they cost individually?
Uh, isn't that $.05 and $1.05 with no equation needed?
>>As for finding what you think are mistakes, that doesn't
surprise me.
>The ones I have in mind were definition and interpretation
issues. For example, in this excerpt "charged more by
unfathomable visions", does "charged" "most nearly mean"
"inspired" or "commanded"? I went with commanded, figuring that
not only works, but is the only *dictionary* definition for
charge that works. If a writer is making up his own meanings for
words he writes, all bets are off. In this case, I wonder if the
writer himself would have gotten the question right.
Charged as in "energized" or "charged with excitement"? I'd have
gone with "inspired." Must be those visions . . .
>There were a couple of essays dealing with great vs. popular
fiction. The writers used these phrases, with the quotes as
shown: deemed to be "genre fiction"; considered to be "literary
fiction"; looking for a "good story"; want very badly to be
"literary". The question was, why did the writer use the quotes?
The blah answer was "to call attention to some common ways of
categorizing fiction." Now I guarantee you neither writer in
either essay would have put science fiction or mysteries or
romance novels, etc. in quotes if they had come up. It's not my
imagination - the quotes lay a put-downy or snide-y or sarcastic-
y or objecting sneer on each one of those terms in the essays.
But the choice "note labels to which writers typically object" is
wrong. You tell me, when you're walking down the street, do you
want people pointing you out, sing-songing, "Oh, she writes all
that 'literary fiction' stuff," or, "All she knows how to do is
write a 'good story'"?
You'd bury me with math any second of the day, but I woulda
gotten this one, too. In literary circles "genre fiction" would
be a put-down. That's the pulp fiction garbage that often earns
its authors big bucks because it appeals to mass audiences. Then
there's "literary fiction" that might win a Pulitzer Prize or
Nobel Prize for Literature and accolades from all the highbrow
critics but be incomprehensible to and unread by the ordinary guy
or gal on the street. "Genre fiction" is a put-down in some
circles, but not in others. Why not write what sells and get
rich? "Literary fiction" might be a put-down in anti-
intellectual circles. But it all boils down to the two of them
being ways to classify fiction--plain, simple, common, everyday
terms . . . if you happen to have been an English major. What's
wrong with being Stephen King or J. K. Rowling? Is that better
or worse than being William Shakespeare or James Joyce, or is it
just different? Sorta like saying "That one's a magazine, and
that other one is a journal."
ME: It's pretty obvious that disconnecting computer speakers is
too much of a chore, so perish the thought. We'll do ok with my
built-in speaker(s).
According to a letter you drove around Bloomington with the muzak
Beatle tape blasting. (There was a touch of sarcasm, though.)
All depends on whether you throw out tapes like records.
You might also bring the Queen of the Night in glorious wav
format for a wav vs. mp3 test.
Might also consider dressing very lightly. I wear shorts around
the house even though I never show my legs in public.
THEE: Down with the Middle Ages!
It's interesting, though, to read history with humor and
personality.
ME: There was an article about cheaper gas in Maryland in the
Dover Post today. Said that ethanol isn't bad for engines, but
can trigger a weak oxygen sensor. Maybe that's what happened to
me on the trip to Georgetown a few weeks ago.
Remember to check out google news some day. For example, a
search on "kumon" right now brings up 14 hits. Your article is
still there. There's one published list of ASHR students in an
area of Massachusettes, but not with any info on Kumon like yours
have. There's an editorial that starts with some funny comments
on the corporate logo.
There's an interesting interview with Patricia Jones on this
page:
http://coloringwithnelson.blogspot.com/
ME: While I'm thinking about it, thought I'd ask if there's any
way to "capture" or "save" a windows directory listing in a
simple text form. (I probably asked this years ago.) Nothing I
tried works. I can get a blue box to dance around but nothing
happens. Sorry if it's on page 1 of windows for dummies. Maybe
people photo the screen and scan it in and convert to text?
ME: August 2, 2006
Subject: Yahoo! News Story - Push for simpler spelling persists -
Yahoo! News
>A~~ has sent you a news article. Personal message:
>We'd be learning to read again.
>Push for simpler spelling persists - Yahoo! News
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_re_us/simpl_wurdz
These yahoos are barking up the wrong tree. Leave English alone.
Sink all that effort into a good, universal *second* language. I
found a wonderful web page making that point:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7049/usl.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/universal-second-language.htm ]
THEE:
>These yahoos are barking up the wrong tree. Leave English
alone. Sink all that effort into a good, universal *second*
language. I found a wonderful web page making that point:
> http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7049/usl.htm
The Kumon pages were more fun.
ME: Yer outta yer brain. The universal second language page was
part of a 4-page package deal that will not only snap any
thinking person's head back but split his sides in the process.
See, for eg,
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/base8.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/base-8.htm ]
THEE: He says that he has a framed jigsaw of the front page of
the New York Times announcing the first lunar landing. He put it
together when he was a kid and knew no English. It took him 20-
some days.
ME: After I had finished the puzzle I remember wondering if it
wouldn't have been about as easy attacking it with *no* confusing
instructions - just start with the border and build inward.
Anyhow, I like the nuttiness of what they did. Also, hate to be
dense, but I never figured out what the heck "gang of fours"
meant. By the way, I would have bombed out on the crossword
puzzle; I just used the web as my "cheat sheet".
Wrapped up the tutor training on Tuesday and went in to the
center today. I thought the director would just be trying to
match me up, but asked if I would work with Miss Clem(entine) on
fractions. The Laubach program also includes math. Clem is
elderly and black. I had a great time pulling every trick out of
my bag to get across the idea of fractions (lots of pies and meat
loafs pulled out of the oven and sliced up and some fate or
another befalling a certain number of the pieces), and I think
Clem understood everything while I was saying it, but, to be
honest, nothing would stick to the next near-identical question.
As far as I know, we all had a fine time, though. Funny how
"cheat sheet" is popping up today. I made one for Clem to help
her answer all the fraction questions we were doing. She got a
kick out the term - never heard it before.
THEE: Subject: Counting Sheep
I've got at least another hour and a half of work before I can
try counting sheep in base 8 tonight.
ME: Here are some clues to Queen of the Night. The mp3 file I
got from the UCSB site is called cusb-cyl2353d.mp3 . The title
is "Il flauto magico. Aria della Regina [Zauberflo"te.
selections]". The artist is Maria Galvany. Admittedly, there's
not much "queen of the night" in all of that. It might already
be on a cd made or in progress for me.
THEE: Oh, cusb-cyl2353! Sure, that one I can get. See you
tomorrow.
ME: douvres
Thanks for making the trip.
I figured out where we went astray:
bay bridge + mapquest + nap + oregon phone call = 1 tape to cd
xfer
Still reeling over one's complete unfamiliarity with the greatest
*and* most important solo Beatle song, in which one of the boys
himself gives us all the inside poop on himself and the other
three, and at a time when the whole world was speculating madly
on the matter.
I still need to know what you cool kids were listening to in your
mid-teens that kept you completely insulated from radio.
If you've really retired your cd player, let me buy it; I need a
*real* cd player, not some joker that spends its life clanking
and clunking and flashing TOC and OPC.
Don't forget about the Muzak Beatles tape on your digs.
I'm dead serious I need your old letters in digital format.
ME: You'd think this is crazy. When Hself and I went over to
King buffet on Saturday I pulled out a valpac coupon. Instead of
the usual 10% off, it was half-price for the whole table. That
seemed *too* much like ripping them off, so I didn't use it.
THEE: Re: Gang of Fours
>Also, hate to be dense, but I never figured out what the heck
"gang of fours" meant.
I'd planned on asking you what you thought that meant. Here I
thought we were the dense ones. Glad to know we have company.
Wondering about this again today as I was showing the finished
puzzle to Mom, I finally came up with a guess. What about all
those little logos on the back of the puzzle, which help a person
to assemble it? Each logo is comprised of four pieces. Taken as
a whole, we have a "gang of fours." Maybe? Gotta be there for
some reason, don't you think?
ME: Hmmm, I had forgotten about those logos on the back. They
wouldn't seem to mean too much to anybody looking at the
completed puzzle without xray vision. Is that right, that they
helped with the assembly? Were there seemingly ok fits that
could be ruled out by the logos? I vaguely remember an instance
or two of that, but I figure I was a dummy for sticking non-
fitters together.
Do you agree with me that there was a wrong letter on the
completed puzzle? I had even looked for another twist in their
contest where there was a prize for finding their planted error,
but I never saw such a thing in their rules.
Hmmm, didn't expect the puzzle to lead to so much discussion, but
while we're at it, did you all reach a stage where you separated
out the remaining pieces alphabetically according to the most
prominent letter fragment showing on it?
Have you started on the maze puzzle yet?
There was a half a table's worth of old, old puzzles at Friday's
auction. I would estimate 1930s or so. I had my eye on a couple
of the nicest little ones, but blew it. They *all* got lumped
together in a lot and the bidding started before I had a chance
to hold up my two. Not all my fault; the autioneer's helper used
the term "stacks", which implies separate stacks, as he was
pulling them together. And then the person who won them all
wasn't interesting in selling me my two for a good profit.
I picked up an old, old model of a warehouse. No plastic; all
wood and metal. Now that I look at it closer, I'm afraid it will
take me as long to build as a real warehouse. Instead of
instructions like most models, it's practically got blueprints.
THEE: Re: Gang of Fours
>Hmmm, I had forgotten about those logos on the back. They
wouldn't seem to mean too much to anybody looking at the
completed puzzle without xray vision. Is that right, that they
helped with the assembly? Were there seemingly ok fits that
could be ruled out by the logos? I vaguely remember an instance
or two of that, but I figure I was a dummy for sticking non-
fitters together.
I'll have to admit that L~~ did nearly all the work--4 days'
worth. I figured out that the numbers with no clues on the
crossword must be the white letters with blue backgrounds on the
assembled puzzle. That eventually helped him. He went from
assembling the border to assembling all the blue background
pieces.
At first, he had some trouble with the border, but used
the logos as a clue. One trouble spot was the small print
copyright information, which we wrongly assumed belonged at the
bottom and later discovered ran vertically up the lower right
side. He also used the logos to help with assembling some of the
blue background words (the missing clues for the original printed
crossword.) He was at more of a disadvantage there than you
probably were or than I think I would have been, but his English
has gotten so good that he didn't have too much difficulty making
logical word groups out of the blue pieces.
As soon as he figured out that the black spaces all matched the
original puzzle and that the black words with white backgrounds
also largely matched, he was almost home free. The only hang-up
was the fact that some of the words from the original puzzle had
blanks rather than letters.
>Do you agree with me that there was a wrong letter on the
completed puzzle? I had even looked for another twist in their
contest where there was a prize for finding their planted error,
but I never saw such a thing in their rules.
Gosh, I ran downstairs to check before I remembered that the
puzzle is now back in the box. Did you mark that piece with a
pink marker? If so, we were wondering if the mark was accidental
or intentional. Looking at the completed puzzle I didn't notice
a problem, but perhaps I didn't look closely enough. S~~ didn't
mention the letter not fitting the word. After he'd completed
the puzzle, he seemed to think that the mark was unintentional.
About all I recall was that the pink mark was toward the right
center of the puzzle.
>Hmmm, didn't expect the puzzle to lead to so much discussion,
but while we're at it, did you all reach a stage where you
separated out the remaining pieces alphabetically according to
the most prominent letter fragment showing on it?
Not sure if he did that, but it makes sense.
>Have you started on the maze puzzle yet?
No, that one's a terror.
>I picked up an old, old model of a warehouse. No plastic; all
wood and metal. Now that I look at it closer, I'm afraid it will
take me as long to build as a real warehouse. Instead of
instructions like most models, it's practically got blueprints.
About as advanced as my construction projects get was that bird
feeder H~~ and I built. By the way, the birds have loved it,
and the hummingbirds have been swarming around the bee balm. I
came home with my sprout and H~~'s because she can plant only in
pots and didn't have a spare. Those two little sprouts have
turned into a bush this year. The red blossoms are hummingbird
heaven.
ME: The word was PUMELO, which I *thought* was a misspelling of
POMELO. Now I see it is an acceptable alternate spelling. On
the web there are 1,230,000 hits for "pomelo" and only 20,600 for
"pumelo".
THEE: Re: windows question
This is what my search in google came up with:
My search was:
"capturing" output windows "(folder OR directory) (listing OR listings)"
I found:
http://print-listing.qarchive.org/
I was messing around with File Tree Printer, but the amount of
files I have on my computer are so many, it just hung. Good
luck!
THEE: Cheesecake sounds great! I was needing some more desserts!
THEE: I had a friend at "City Paper" who lent me the "Early 1970"
45, telling me that it was very important. So, I have had 20
years to consider it.
ME: a new word (get it while it lasts)
>I'm ready to come back.
Sounds great to me, but - and I don't know the gentlest way to
break this to you - I probably won't have 350+ songs lined up
that you have to hear any time soon.
I got my West Side Story tape from my buddy at the auction today,
and it's already c-deified. Phew! what a stinker! Little
Richard's "I Feel Pretty" turned out to be the highlight. I hit
all the track increments just right on the fly so I could copy
directly to a cheap disk with no computer diddling - the way to
go!
Also got a book called "Kid's Letters to President Kennedy" at
the auction. No doubt it's the greatest JFK book ever written,
but, on an absolute scale, I'd say it's just "kind o' neat". The
compiler is Bill Adler, who apparently hopped in his time machine
to 1961 after his two volumes of "Love Letters To The Beatles".
[Re the subject line: I thought the verb c-deify for digitizing a
cassette to cd was clever.]
ME: Thanks for your help. I'm kind of worried what I need can't
be done. When you're in Windows "Explore" looking at the
contents of a folder, can it be captured in text format? If you
left click while moving the mouse, you set one corner of a blue
box and can pull the opposite corner all over the place. It sure
gives the impression of highlighted text, but no ^X or left or
right click does anything for capturing it. This is important to
me, for example, for folders of mp3 files which have important
"details" listed, such as title, artist and year. In fact, these
are more important to me than the actual file names, which are
nondescriptive (and don't appear on my cd player screen, while
some of the other information does.) I need these "details" in
text format so I can make a searchable index which tells me where
to find any particular track on the cds.
ME: Congratulations on your city council win. I'm still thinking
you could make a big splash by being the first ever politician
who polled the people on every issue of any importance. I'll bet
the Dover Post would be happy to give you a few lines whenever
something comes along. First up might be the charter amendment
that allows the city to increase its borrowing limit without
first going to the voters. Also, I think whoever was most
responsible for the demolition of the Hanson House should be
tarred and feathered and run out of town. And I don't want to
hear anything about, oh, they're going to put it back together
somewhere else. That was absolutely the coolest building in
Dover, and on the most perfect spot. Sold down the river for
chump change...
Perhaps on a more doable level, I'm extremely unhappy with how
they're making the drive by the racetrack [Dover Downs] more and
more ugly all the time with signs, signs, signs, and chain link
and concrete barriers and big tall poles and gravel drives
through the fields. It used to be such a *pretty* drive. What's
made the difference that all this ugly stuff is all of a sudden
needed year round?
Good luck on your new position.
THEE: Subject: From Sebacious opossums, inapproachable skunks,
inexact penmanship, whiskey guzzlin' selectmen, and decahedrons .
. .
http://www.m-w.com/info/reform-glossary.htm
to mouse potatoes with soul patches, drama queens with unibrows,
and labelmates who generate irritating ringtones
http://www.m-w.com/info/new_words.htm
I was just adding major dictionary sites to my courses, but
methinks there's a quick Internet assignment in there somewhere.
ME: I *finally* got comfortable with the word "adipose" - and now
I have to add "sebaceous" to my vocabulary??? Is there no end...
Got a kind-o'-neat book at last Tuesday's auction - "Kids Letters
to President Kennedy" (1961). The editor/compiler, Bill Adler,
says he changed names to "protect the privacy of the writers",
but yours stood out like a sore thumb:
Dear Mr. Kennedy,
I heard that you were a good reader. I am too.
I am the faster reader in my class. I can read 725
words a minute and I can understand what it means.
Sincerely yours,
[we know who]
THEE: Subject: 1806 Headline News
Cloke 'n' dagger wimmen ake after lickin' soop bowls with tungs.
http://www.m-w.com/info/spelling-reform.htm
[These spellings were Webster's attempts at reform.]
THEE: Bill Adler. There's a name. He never met a trend he
didn't like. You remember, of course, that I knew his son, Bill
Jr., slightly at "City Paper."
Right this minute, I'm "breaking down" a Who concert from last
month into separate tracks. The concert was streamed over the
Internet. Technology is the most!
I'll take 200 or even 100 songs, if that's what it takes for me
to come back.
What's my new word, by the way?
ME: Never knew you knew Bill Adler's son. I'm absolutely
stunned.
Forgot to mention the other important reason for a short, silent
track at the end of every cd - to separate any mechanical
clanking and clunking from the music. I got that tip from and
expert on the web, and it's becoming more important than ever,
thanks to Sony's 1920s-era disc-changing technology.
Big news here is that I did an mp3/wav comparative listening
using tracks from Rubber Soul. The identicalness is astounding.
Beyond astounding, actually. They're *identical*, at least with
my ears and my stereo. I'm already tearing through tapes and
compiling my first mp3 disc. So far, it's got 11 tapes on it.
(Not bad for two days?) It's about half filled.
The great new word, and potentially the shortest-lived great new
word ever coined, is for the exhilarating, almost holy, activity
of transfering crummy old vinyl and rust-coated tape to a near-
extinct technology involving shiny 5" discs: c-deified! (Read my
emails, man.)
Hey, I'm ready for another visit! Name your day. I promise,
converting your complete dj college transcripts to mp3 will be
the first order of the day.
THEE: Subject: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
I just finished rereading the first chapter of 1984, which I'll
use use for a week 4 discussion board assignment for my Internet
reading class. This will relate tangentially to a thematic
chapter in their text titled "Computer Technology and Beyond."
(It's actually the chapter that works on general vocabulary
skills, but, in the new text I chose, each skill is taught in
context of related readings.)
The last I read 1984 was in high school, and I find myself
pulling even more for Winston Smith now.
http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html
ME: Thanks. I surprised even myself with how many little bits I
remember. I remember not being able to form a clear picture of
Winston's alcove, for example. (Can't do much better now!) One
passage (not remembered) that really struck home was
"It was curious that he seemed not merely to have lost the power
of expressing himself, but even to have forgotten what it was
that he had originally intended to say. For weeks past he had
been making ready for this moment, and it had never crossed his
mind that anything would be needed except courage. The actual
writing would be easy. All he had to do was to transfer to paper
the interminable restless monologue that had been running inside
his head, literally for years. At this moment, however, even the
monologue had dried up."
Man, if that doesn't describe me when I finally sit down to get
out some of the thoughts that have been swirling or raging for
weeks or months (or years). When are you writers going to make a
pill for the rest of us so all those thoughts return, and come
out complete, correctly formed, and in a logical sequence?
THEE: Re: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
And you think writing is easy for me? At my former campus,
several colleagues once ordered custom-made t-shirts with these
words across the front: "A piece of writing is only a draft
until you're dead."
I thought that was too final.
THEE: Re: From Sebacious opossums, inapproachable skunks, inexact
penmanship, whiskey guzzlin' selectmen, and decahedrons . . .
>Got a kind-o'-neat book at Tuesday's auction - "Kids' Letters to
President Kennedy" (1961). The editor/compiler, Bill Adler, says
he changed names to "protect the privacy of the writers", but
yours stood out like a sore thumb:
> Dear Mr. Kennedy,
> I heard that you were a good reader. I am too.
> I am the faster reader in my class. I can read 725
> words a minute and I can understand what it means.
> Sincerely yours,
> [we know who]
Ah, I have a dream . . . (And, yeah, that's the wrong guy, but
who cares.)
Let comprehension reign in every home and at every desk in Dover,
Delaware. Let comprehension reign on every hilltop and and in
every classroom in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.
Ask not what your teacher can do for you, but what you can do for
your teacher. (?) Take 2: Ask not what your teacher can do for
your vocabulary, but what your vocabulary can do for you.
By the way, that letter to Kennedy reminded me of something one
of my students wrote. Picking up on your comment about being a
slow reader but missing your point ("If there were a contest to
see who reads a story the fastest, I'd lose by a country mile -
but so what? It takes me longer, but I cover more territory."),
one of my students once wrote that she identified with you
because she's a slow reader, too.
THEE: Mp3 is a lossy format! You can't hear it. I can't hear
it, but it is!
I prefer SHN--oops, that's already outmoded. I prefer FLAC!
That compresses to about 80 percent of a WAV, with no loss!!!
Oh, c-deified. Excellent!
We're mad at five-inchers tonight. We watched a rented DVD,
which became unplayable about halfway through. Technology bums
us out again.
I must consult the calendar about my next visit. You'll have to
promise no mp3 conversions and that I'll get to hear a track from
a bootleg opera record!
Oh yes, I ran five significas you gave me by my friend Ben and DJ
Andre. They were: who were Hot Chocolate?, what's "Makin'
Whoopie" got to do with anything?, what's interesting about the
Supremes' "Reflection"?, what's neat about Cosey Cole's "Topsy
II"?, and what's interesting about Robert Palmer's version of
"Not a Second Time"? Ben threw in the towel, and no one tried
the Palmer. Andre got all the others except "Makin' Whoopie."
ME: technology bums r us
>Oh yes, I ran five significas
If I understand, Ben and Andre scored a combined 3 points out of
a possible 10?
>Mp3 is a lossy format!
Be jealous, so what. If you trust your brain more than your
ears, here's how to deal with it. Going from analog to *any*
digital is lossy, so why not go with the most compact of the
identical-sounding lossies?
There are reasons I won't be converting everything to MP3, but
sound quality is no longer one of them.
My mp3 cd ended up with 15 albums and a total of 187 tracks.
Probably could have fit another 5 albums on. That's 187
complete, big, fat, full-length tracks on one cd, as opposed to
the 300 microscopic crumbs spread out over 6 cds you were
grooving to last week.
>Technology bums us out again.
I know what you mean.
>Technology is the most!
I know what you mean.
>You'll have to promise no mp3 conversions
I promise no WAV to MP3 conversions.
I promise one V~~ W~~ to MP3 conversion.
THEE: Subject: I'll see the light!?
Rough guess: How many mp3 CDs will it take to hold the Ring
Cycle? (And I ain't talkin' Tolkien.)
It's been a lazy Saturday. We have to go out tonight, though.
Boo! one of A~~'s friends is having a CD-release party at a
restaurant in Wheaton. She's a jazz crooner. I'd rather stay
home and watch a movie. But, it's great that Hself feels up to
going out.
Your math is completely correct: E~~ and N~~ scored 30 percent,
three out of 10. I challenged them to beat my score: zero! Ben
did not meet the challenge.
ME: down with mp3
According to my calculations, using a factor of 10 between the
file sizes of mp3 and wav and assuming a 79:57 of music per
conventional cd, it would take a little less than 1.09 cds to
hold Wagner's 14.5 hour Ring in mp3 format. Nuts to it. I ain't
putting up with all that clanking and clunking between discs.
How was Diane Daly?
THEE: I found out the problem with my boat motor. It is the gas.
Ethanol is the cause of lack of power and stalling. I took the
boat out this last Tuesday and Friday and continued to have the
same problems. I heard on the radio and saw on the internet the
problems with ethanol and boat motors. It can also affect car
motors with less gas mileage.
THEE: Subject: congratulations
Dear collegue,
Congratulations for you excellent work.
Abel Nagytothy-Toth
ME: Dear Abel,
My pleasure. Thanks for visiting. You were one of the first
world-class guitar scholars I became familiar with when I joined
the GFA in 1981.
THEE: Subject: down with mp3 was I'll see the light!?
Here's what I think about mp3s. They have...
Hey, how the FUDDRUCKERS did you know we saw Diane Daly!?!?!
ME: Ella Fitzgerald. [I thought he would get the John Lennonism.
Should have completed it with "my dear Whopper".]
THEE: Take this brother, may it serve you well
El Dorado?
THEE: Subject: FYI JFK
Check out ebay - the Bill Adler "Kids Letters to JFK" is offered
buy it now for $8. Donna
ME: Great, I saved a cool $6.
Do you remember some dinner entertainment where you and Steven
saw some guy (Caribbean, maybe) take a bite out of a drinking
glass?
ME: ATTENTION, PERSIMMON PARK PLACE KIDS!
PLAY SOFTBALL!
WHERE: Right here.
WHEN: Every non-rainy Saturday morning, 10:30 a.m.
FOR: All kids from 3rd grade on up.
COORDINATOR: Don Sauter, 672-9356.
No need to call, sign up, or register.
Just show up with whatever equipment you have.
ME: Thanks for calling tonight. Obviously, if people didn't call
me, my phone would only get used for computer dial-up.
Tying everything we talked about together: In making this
wondrous mp3 disk with 15 miscellaneous guitar/classical tapes,
one of them was a nondescript tape with no case or insert card
identified only as The Italians Early Songs - no song sequence,
no performers listed on the shell. I have no memory of when or
where or why I got it. I never played it. Can't bring myself to
throw anything away. A web search took me to this page of groovy
old Westminster Gold albums from the 1970s:
http://www.kimbawlion.com/westminstergold/page6.htm
You familiar with those nutty old Westminster Gold covers? It
gave me a clue as to the performers: Cuenod/Leeb. A search for a
singer named Cuenod turned up Hughes Cuenod and his discography,
which linked to this page laying out the Westminster album I
have.
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/wes18776.htm
A little more searching confirmed my suspicion that lutanist Leeb
is the same person as Dutch guitarist Hermann Leeb. I know Leeb
from a Soundboard article about Frank Martin's Quatre Pieces
Breves, and the intrigue involving Segovia's lack of interest,
and the original performance given over to Hermann Leeb, and some
significant differences between Leeb's edition and the widely
available Scheit edition. (I'm doing all this from memory, so
only quote me with a generous sprinkling of asterisks.) One of
Soundboard's top notch jobs. It was written by Jan de Kloe.
***
Some other rainy day links. My response to Jan's fingering
article is the last section of my guitar fingering page:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/gfing.htm
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/guitar-fingering-notation.htm ]
But start at the top for introductory comments.
Here's a link to Hendrik Van Loon's "The Story of Mankind".
http://www.authorama.com/story-of-mankind-1.html
For the briefest taste-test - neither one really representative -
read the first two paragraphs (a mini chapter), "High up in the
North...", and "The Medieval World", which is more conversational
and I suspect more like his radio show.
ME: About F~~ and his liability brain, I may have mentioned
before that he shot down my idea of volunteer labor from the
neighborhood to stain the clubhouse because of his liability
concerns. This is going to be pretty costly. I think I could do
it myself in a day.
In the most recent newsletter he writes, "Negotiations are under
way for exterior astaining and cleaning the inside to permit
maximum use of the building." Sounds like a different tune from
what he wrote me: "Both groups concluded that the Club House
Office must remain closed for general and/or private use at this
time."
Regarding the 2nd Meet Your Neighbor, I plugged one last time for
the action shot of me rather than the mug shot, or at least a
different mug shot. It seems obvious to me that that would help
prevent it looking like it was rerun by mistake. The reporter in
charge of that column wrote back, "No need for a different
photo."
There was a swimming pool at the family reunion last week and I
got up admittedly dopey, but still fun, games of softball and
volleyball in the pool. We probably played volleyball more than
an hour.
Have you been hit by a new telemarket trick lately? I was
getting a call or two per day for about a week using this new
scheme.
Here's the page with the Praxis practice problems if you're
curious. *So* different from Kumon...
http://www.testprepreview.com/praxis_practice.htm
THEE: I am guitarist from Chile and I am looking for the Carulli
op16//Grande sonate. It is in the european collection.
Do you have any advise how can I get that music?
Congratulations for the extraordinary work you did.
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Pirez Carlos Pirez www.carlosperez.cl
ME: If Op. 16 is something you want very much, I'd be happy to
mail you a good copy. How did you hear about it?
THEE: Thank you very much for your kind email.
I am working in a Carulli's CD project right now, and that is a
work I like to include. I have the catalogue of works by Carulli,
I listened a midi file of this work and I liked it very much. I
checked first the library of The Arts Faculty of the University
of Chile (University where I work) that has a direct link to the
Congress Library and I noticed the score listed there. Carulli's
Sonatas are very nice and if He called this one: "Grande Sonata"
it must be something special.
At the same time I was inquiring in the Early Romantic Guitar
Information Page about information to get the piece and I knew
there about your amazing work, I visited your site and I decided
to write you.
I have been inquiring about this piece in many places, It seems
that was published by Minkoff (not sure) but it is out of print
now. That is the replay that of the most important guitar music
stores had told me.
I would apreciatte a lot your collaboration and would be pleased
to send you the Cd when it wll be finished and (if you agree)
including your name with "agradecimientos" for your help getting
this music.
Carlos Perez
ME: I'd be happy to do you a favor - don't worry about payment.
Before I copy Op. 16 and put it in the mail, are you sure there
aren't a few other Carulli pieces in my LC collection you're
interested in? It's not much more effort to copy 2 or 3 or 4
pieces than to copy one. Do you know his Pot Pourri Op. 74? I
think it's really funny because near the end he gives tiny,
little 2-, 3-, and 4-measure "recapitulations" of all the earlier
themes!
ME: Had a good session with my first student today. If I could
do this 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, that would be *living*.
ME: I got a new turntable delivered. It's an Audio Technica
direct drive, fully manual job that got lots of good comments on
Amazon. Too much to say about it to type out.
THEE: Thank you very much!
I was checking the list and I got three items that I would love
to know:
Carulli op21//Trois sonates (I have just modern editions of this)
Carulli op42//Les Amours d'adonis & venus Sonate sentimentale
Carulli op74//Pot pourri (It sounds interesting!)
You are very kind and I apreciatte a lot your wonderful help!
GRACIAS!!!!
ME: to sales@tracertek.com
Dear Tracer,
I could use a component for my sound system with these functions.
I'm guessing others could too. Can you help?
1. Lets the signal through at phono level or line level, or bumps
phono up to line level with or without applying RIAA curve. I've
got a turntable that plays 78s, but darn if I know how to get an
un-RIAAed line level signal. You don't need to be told why some
people might want a flat phono signal.
2. Subtracts out everything right and left, leaving just the
middle - an organic way of getting rid of lots of pops and clicks
in mono records.
2a. Subtracts out the middle, just for the fun of it.
3. Sends just right or just left out both channels. Some old
records have one messed up groove wall.
4. Not only has the Dolbys A, B, C, etc., but even has variable
Dolby so the user can decide. By the way, is it too late for a
class action suit against Dolby for all the billions of
recordings they've screwed up over the years.
Thanks for whipping one of these boxes up for me, or pointing me
in the right direction.
ME: Dear Mr. Bauernschmidt,
I just found a copy of "Caesar Rodney - patriot", by William P.
Frank, at Spence's auction in Dover. In particular, I got a big
kick out of the chapter, "The Sarah Rowland Myth". I had read
Katharine Pyle's "Once Upon A Time In Delaware" and the Sarah
Rowland story really had me wondering.
I was thinking a web page presenting both Pyle's chapter and
Frank's chapter verbatim would be quite fun and interesting,
showing how bogus history is created, and, when we're lucky,
debunked.
The copyright is held by the Delaware American Revolution
Bicentennial Commission, and so I'm asking the Delaware Heritage
Commission for permission to reproduce Frank's chapter verbatim.
Thanks a lot for your consideration.
ME: I think the common wisdom among family members at the recent
reunion is that crabbing gets a lot better late in the season.
Wanted to win a nice wooden file cabinet at Spence's on Tuesday,
but my max was $30 and it went up to $45.
THEE: RE: what i need
Sounds like you need our CTP 1000 phono preamp (delivers a flat
signal with just a line level boost but without the RIAA) as well
as a copy of our DC SIX...which will do everything else...even in
realtime if you choose to use it like a piece of rack gear.
Hope this helps.
Tracer Technologies
ME: Thanks for the personal attention. I will definitely
download the DC Six demo and play with it.
THEE: Cluckoratura!
Hi Donald,
You have such an impressive selection of classical music, I
thought you might like to check out my website for a bit of "comic
relief". www.orrielsmith.com
Cluckingly yours,
Orriel
www.orrielsmith.com
THEE: RE: request to copy william p. frank chapter
The Del American Bicent Commission became the Delaware Heritage
Commission and yes we do hold the copyright. I think it would be
fine to create the information for the web.
ME: Thanks a million! I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy the
web page. By the way, I forgot to mention in my first message
that there's absolutely nothing commercial about the page I
envision, although I think you gathered that already. I will
invite you when it's up.
THEE: Subject: STEVEN MY MAN
Thanks for being patient. I talked to Steven this morning and
told him you would be getting up with him in the next few days.
He is very excited about having a new tutor, however, you must
meet with him at his place, at least until he gets to know you
better. His apt is OK. as far as cleanliness, etc. He said he
definitely was not "gonna go nowhere with a stranger". Ha!
Sounds like Steven!!
ME: Thanks! I had assumed all along it would be at his place,
so no problem there!
A Stranger
ME: I forgot to mention a little coincidence here in Dover. I
told you about meeting Joe and his wolfhound (I forget her name)
on St. Patrick's Day. There's not many people I know in Dover.
I may have mentioned Mizan's family. Her mom had an oils and
incense shop on the walk from my car to work and I got to know
the family. Then she closed the shop and got a job as a
caregiver. She mentioned who she was working for, but the names
didn't ring a bell. It was only one day when Mizan was
describing their dog, "taller than this car," that I started
putting 2 and 2 together. Yes, it was the one and the same
Irish wolfhound. We each knew Joe, but didn't know we had a
common friend.
When you get the urge to come to Dover, give a holler. Gas
prices are falling.
On a less humorous note, I've got an fractured root in a tooth
that had a root canal several years ago. Now it's infected, and
I'm running a fever. The periodontist I saw yesterday
prescribed antibiotics, but so far he and my regular dentist
haven't found an oral surgeon who can see me before Oct. 5. My
dentist extracts teeth--but not the ones in danger of having the
root separage i the process.
It already took a month to get into the periodonist just to have
him confirm that, yes, there is a problem. This is nuts!
ME: pardon my french
Got a neat little book at Tuesday's auction: "Caesar Rodney,
patriot - Delaware's hero for all times and all seasons" (1975).
I got permission to use a chapter in a web page, which I'll
invite you to when it's done.
After despairing forever about finding a good phonograph
turntable, I finally got just the thing from Amazon. I'm a kid
with a new toy, going through my record collection and turning
all my records into cds in the process. Actually, my tests show
that mp3 and wav sound identical to me, so I'm going with mp3,
and that lets me put about 16 or 18 albums on one cd. I've
discovered the benefits of doing this go beyond simpleminded
compactness. I figure about 8 decades should do it.
And today I received from my friend Hself a cd that has 24 hours
worth of the Damon Runyon Theater radio program (1949) on it.
Time's a problem, nec pas?
ME: Dear Dover Post,
The article "School accountability: More than meets the eye;
System little understood by the layman" explained the voodoo
formulas and adjustments used to rank schools. I didn't
understand a word of it. Did you?
The article "Despite financial challenges, CR [Caesar Rodney
School District] again superior" was a weird mix of exultation
and "the sky is falling." Perhaps there is some sort of inverse
proportion at work between between student performance and money
lavished on education? In any case, the article avoided mention
of the single most useful and understandable statistic: money
spent per student. If Caesar Rodney ranks at the bottom of that
list, and if school accountability ratings are any indication of
student performance (who knows?), then CR is doing something
truly worth looking into.
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Helpful keywords not in the main text: LC = LOC = Library of Congress
Parents, if you're considering tutoring or supplemental education for your child, you may be interested in my observations on Kumon.