it's zmedsday! (v)

today is tunesday: "bowl full of noses" by country bob & the blood farmers

ethan's essay has unexpected meaning

A family friend issued a writing challenge to Ethan. Now they take turns picking topics, and each one writes an essay. The friend, a former teacher, grades Ethan's essays.

The current question is whether President Truman was justified in using nuclear weapons against Japan in World War II.

Ethan's essay is here.

The day after Ethan posted it, he and I went to visit my mother in Atlanta. Talking about family history, mom mentioned that her father, born in 1914, had been exempted from the draft during World War II because he had a family. By the summer of 1945 that had changed. With the military planning an invasion of Japan, grandpa was expecting to be drafted and go off to war. But the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki altered the course of events.

So the topic has unexpected immediacy for me.

in the lions' den

I wasn't sure how to respond when Blair suggested Ethan and I go see David Priess speak about his new book, How to Get Rid of a President.

Despite a title that one might, given the current political climate, think was a how-to guide for the political left, the book is a historical survey, going back to Washington. I can't say whether I like it or not, as I haven't read it yet. Maybe over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Anyway, on the one hand, Ethan is into history -- especially the personalities. And I'm really into process. So the topic seemed like a winner for both of us.

On the other hand, I'm more or less center-right politically. The talk was to be at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side, and figured (by virtue of title and location) to bring in a decidedly leftist crowd. I wasn't looking forward to going into the lions' den, but it's important not to avoid views with which one disagrees. So off we went.

I should acknowledge, first of all, that the audience wasn't the braying mob that I expected. Actually, it wasn't a full crowd -- which is a loss for those who could have gone and didn't.

Priess started off by talking briefly about impeachment and conviction (a topic he kept returning to) as well as 25A (which he didn't). But he explained that he's taking a broader view of what it means to get rid of a president. He noted that that broad view included assassination -- which he understatedly said was an insult to the voters. He also talked about what he likened to a pocket veto -- the President's staff actively preventing the President from doing his job.

As to that last matter, he talked about how H.R. Haldeman, as Nixon's chief of staff would take orders and simply not follow through. More recently there have been the reports (including an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times) of President Trump's staff conspiring to keep him from carrying out what they consider to be ill-advised policies. When he mentioned that, I sat up and noticed. He had just said that assassinating the president was (among other things) an "insult to the voters." While this kind of removal of a president from his job isn;t as severe or irreversible as assassination, it seems to me that it's also an insult to the voters. Perhaps reading my mind, he did eventually get around to that point. He noted that, however well-intentioned, this substitution by a political appointee of his own judgement for that of the elected president is a dangerous road to go down -- it effectively nullifies an election and reduces the ability of future presidents to trust their staffs.

All in all, an interesting talk. Hopefully the book is as good.

lidsletter or something...

After several years as an active member of LIDS -- I think I joined in 2013, but I'm not sure -- I am now on the board, as the Newsletter Editor. The official election was last Saturday at the potluck luncheon (and business meeting), but I had been approached about it a while ago.

In some ways, the role should be a natural fit for me -- I enjoy writing, and have often blogged about LIDS meetings. On the other hand, I'm somewhat nervous -- LIDS deserves a good quality job, and I hope I'm up to the task.

It would be easier to step into the role of running the newsletter if there were already an existing, regularly produced newsletter. Then I could just step in, learn the procedures and protocols and adapt to them -- maybe also adapt them if I like. But maybe I can view this as a positive -- I have a chance to build this up the way I envision it. 

Seriously, though, there are a lot of decisions to be made and issues to solve, and I'll be seeking the guidance of LIDS' leaders. And of my daughter.

• Should the newsletter be published on paper and mailed to members? Or created as an electronic file for distribution? I vote for the latter.
• Should the newsletter be published on an ad-hoc basis? Or a set schedule? I prefer a set schedule, but that creates all sorts of challenges.
• What tool will be used for creating it? I hope Sharon can help me there. She has a subscription (which I pay for) to the Adobe suite of programs. Maybe there's a good publishing tool.
• How will we get articles? I'm cynical enough to know that getting members to write enough articles will be a challenge. And what will there be to write about? Each meeting can be an article. And maybe previews of regional and national meetings (and writeups after the fact). Maybe something about the award winning cultivars each year. But it would be great to have more. And I still worry about the possibility that I'll end up being the main writer. We'll see.

it's zmedsday! (iv)

mission continues at microsoft

Last night was the first of what we hope will be many regular events -- a special gaming event for veterans. I don't know all the details, but Ethan (I think Blair helped, but I'm not sure) hooked up members of The Mission Continues with employees of Microsoft's flagship store in Midtown Manhattan. Together they came up the get together, Two hours of gaming for the veterans of The Mission Continues in the private gaming room.

I came by at the end of the night (for the photo op, natch!), so I didn't get to experience the whole event. But when I got there, everyone was in a good mood, so I figure it was a success. The fact that they're talking about when to have the next such night is also a good sign.

Special thanks to Andres and Marcella at the Microsoft store, and Daniel at Mission Continues. My apologies if I'm omitting others who were a big part of this, but Ethan was more involved setting this up than I was, and he's in the middle of a writing assignment, so I don;t want to disturb him to ask.

today is tunesday: "roll over beethoven" by chuck berry

scare...over!

At work my company provides monetary incentives to engage in health-related activities. We're not talking about get rich money, but enough that I don't want to leave it on the table. So I document exercises. And I document the screening my dentist performs. And I get a skin cancer screening in the office. Which is where this adventure begins.

I made an appointment to have a skin cancer screening in the office, performed by the dermatologist the company contracts for the purpose. I could, of course, go to my regular dermatologist, but that's less convenient and more expensive (the office screening is free from my perspective). I expected the usual result -- everything is fine. But this time the doctor found something that concerned her -- a small mole on right buttock. It wasn't big, but the color was uneven. "I would get this biopsied," she declared.

She offered to make an appointment at her office (which is near work), but I demured, explaining that my family already has a dermatologist we trust and have a relationship with. So I made an appointment with my regular dermatologist and had him look at the mole. He opined that it was probably fine, but since the color is uneven it makes sense to err on the safe side and biopsy it.

For some reason I was much more nervous in the week before I got the results than I had been between the original screening and the visit to my doctor.

A week later, he called with the results -- it was just a congenital mole I'd had since birth. B"H.

The only question: Is there any need to contact the dermatologist who did the original screening? Just to let her know the outcome?

so why isn't "crepant" a word too?

Years ago, I sent my boss an email about two reports that didn't tie. I referred to the numbers that should have matched (but didn't) as "the discrepant figures."

"Discrepant?" my boss chuckled, questioning my choice of words.

"They don't match. There's a discrepancy." I clarified.

He questioned whether it was a real word, and I suggested he check dictionary.com.

Of course it was there, and my boss conceded the point. These years later I can admit that I wasn't sure it would be in the site -- I wasn't really sure it was a legitimate word.

A couple weeks ago I was reading an article about freedom of religion and came upon a quote by the 17th-century Puritan, Nathaniel Ward*, in which he used the word:

He that is willing to tolerate any religion or discrepant way of religion, besides his own, unless it be in matters merely indifferent, either doubts of his own, or is not sincere in it.

Despite it being more than a decade after we had had the exchange, I emailed my former boss the quote, noting that I am not the first person to use the word.**

My former boss simply noted that coming up with a quote from the 1600's doesn't really prove that a word is in general use today.

*No, I hadn't heard of him either.
** I also noted that I don't agree with or endorse the sentiment.

it's zmedsday! (iii)

today is tunesday: "lucky number" by lene lovich

cinema history class: the vampire and the ballerina

Session: Italian Gothic Horror Month, Week 2
Movie 2: The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960)
Directed by Renato Polselli

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Caught in a storm, members of a traveling dance troupe seek shelter in an ancient castle where they get caught up in vampiric shenanigans. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
V&B isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it's also not a bad little movie either.

The main plotline seems pretty standard, which may be why it didn't really hook me. But the execution isn't bad. Though, at the the end, I was confused about what happened to Luisa. Did she, having been vampirized, die in the sun? Or was there some kind of loophole that let her get away alive? That was never really explained.

One thing that I like is that it put its own twist on the whole vampire legend. The vampires I'd seen -- mostly Dracula and Dracula knockoffs were suave and sophisticated. But here the vampires have two sides -- at times they are quite ugly and demonic-looking, There's also an odd subplot here, with Herman jealously protecting his position. He traps and kills other vampires in order to maintain his status with Alda.

There were two extended dance sequences that really served as nothing but filler. Well, filler and eye candy, though 1960 vintage eye candy is very different than what we get today. At any rate, I think the film would have done better without them, or if they had been shortened. That said, one of the dancers (at about 50 minutes in) is doing what looks like an early version of the Batusi. So that's pretty cool.

Of particular note, the melting scene, when the vampires finally die in the sunlight, was executed particularly well -- it may be the best I've ever seen.

Ratings:
Me: 7*
Dave: 9.3-9.4
Ethan: 6
Joe: 9.9
Sean: 1 out of 4

*Upon initial viewing I rated this a 6. After rewatching on Youtube, I increased that 6 to a 7.

it's zmedsday! (ii)

today is tunesday! "jimmy carter says yes" by gene marshall

sharon and yunhee's great adventure

The girls with Micah from Australia

First, an admission: I don't understand Overwatch. To me it's a bunch of blinky lights on a computer screen. But Sharon and her friend, Yunhee, love it. I'm not sure how long they've been playing it -- at some point they graduated from Minecraft. At this point they're on teams -- Sharon's the captain of her team, which means that she has to schedule practices and scrimmages (against other teams). And she's had to deal with unpleasant tasks like recommending to the coach that someone be removed from the team.

Yeah, video games are team activities with positions and everything. Sharon plays "off-tank." Other positions include "DPS," "healer" and "main tank." As with baseball or football, the different positions do different things. And they play their games, each player in his or her (but usually his) own locations. This is nothing like the videogames -- Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Galaxian -- that were around when I was younger and had to pay a quarter for every game. And it's all possible because of the internet.

And somehow this is getting to be a big time sport. It still has the fan friendliness of minor league baseball, but it's getting lots of coverage in the media.

Anyway, Sharon and Yunhee have been in tournaments at Microsoft's flagship store in Manhattan (and won some money at it). This past summer they were at a videogame camp in Missouri. But this past weekend they were in California for BlizzCon, which apparently has a heavy emphasis on Overwatch. And that was after spending the weekend before at TwitchCon.

With members of the San Francisco Shock
Note the girls are wearing jerseys for the New York Excelsior

At Twitchcon they were in computer-building contests (Sharon's team would have won if not for the fact that one of her teammates broke one of the parts), and got tours of Berkeley's e-sports* complex, and met with the coach and several players on the school's Overwatch team.

I don't quite know how it works, but somehow they became some kind of minor celebrities. Two cute teenage girls who are good at the game, and have the support and encouragement of their moms -- Blair was there as were Yunhee's parents. That attracted attention. By the time TwitchCon was over, they had been contacted by all sorts of big shots from the Overwatch world. They all wanted meet these two girl gamers. At BlizzCon the girls met players, coaches, general managers and owners, big-time streamers. And, of course, the President of Blizzard Entertainment. They were hobnobbing with the big shots, and have already gotten invitations to get the full VIP treatment next year.

computer-building contest

Funny thing -- maybe I shouldn't be thinking along these lines, but if we were still working with a certain red-shirted charity, we would have been giving them lots of great exposure. But, well, that's the way the game goes.

Anyway,  as a father I'm torn about where I hope this goes. Could Sharon turn pro? Could she parlay her abilities into a scholarship? I guess we'll see...

One other thing -- and this was bad for my diet -- the girls brought back sample boxes of the soon-to-be-released Lucio-Oh's cereal (from Kellogg's). It's sort of like Froot Loops or Apple Jack's, only vanilla-flavored.

*Yeah, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around "e-sports" as a concept being treated as a sport, not to mention the fact that major high-status schools offer scholarships in it.

some thoughts on political facebook posts

I have Facebook friends from all over the political oort cloud. From far right to far left. I tend to avoid arguing politics on Facebook -- on all social media, in fact.* Life's just easier that way. But I do see lots of posts, including memes, that my friends post.  Some I take seriously -- and some I don't. I have some general thoughts to share.

Now, before I begin, I should make a disclaimer. If you post your political stuff to vent your spleen without really caring about whether you persuade, then you can ignore any suggestions that I make; my suggestions are made under the assumption that political posts are intended to change opinions.

I am really tempted to illustrate the points below with real life memes that I've seen. But that would take us down the road of arguing specific issues, which isn't my goal here.

If you see a meme that supports a politician or cause you like, or makes fun of a politician or position you oppose or loathe, think for a second before posting it. Does the analogy hold up? Does the logic withstand scrutiny? Is the quote materially accurate and in context? If not, you may not want to post it. I have seen many memes that don't stand up to scrutiny, and it lessens my estimation of the poster's political positions. I have seen claims that someone said something, and thought "wow! Well, I can't defend that!" only to find out that there was some crucial element of context that was missing. In one case someone posted a quote. When I Snopesed it, I found that the politician in question never said what was attributed to him. I sent the Snopes link to the poster, who insisted that the quote was accurate because [highly-partisan website] said it was.

If you repeatedly post political items that don't withstand even minimal scrutiny, then I am less likely to take any of your posts seriously. So when you actually have a valid point to make...well, I assume you've heard about the boy who cried "wolf." Now, that may not be the most logical way for me to approach things. But I don't have the time to research every claim I see. So I am more likely to take seriously the claims from people who don't have a history of inaccuracy.

But, of course, if your Facebook posts are simply your version of primal screams, then have at it.

*which is not to say that I avoid politics completely, so don't look for some post or comment where I git kind of political and think that it's some kind of gotcha moment.

cinema history class: the horrible dr. hitchcock

Session: Italian Gothic Horror Month, Week 1
Movie 2: The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock (1962)
Directed by Riccardo Freda

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Some things happen involving a coffin and some other stuff, but I don't know what, since I didn't see it. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
I had to miss this class because of work. Still, I am posting this for the sake of completeness.

There was clearly a split opinion, with the class' older members rating the film much higher than the youngsters who seemed largely unimpressed.. It's hard to say where I would have stood -- In age, I am closer to the older class members. But, as far as sensibilities go, I am definitely not of the same mind as Joe and Dave.

Ethan told me that the guys expressed some surprise that he didn;t rate this higher, seeing as it was very gothic. His answer is that he likes a movie to have some gothic elements, but he doesn;t want it to be full on gothic. It'll be interesting to see his reactions to other films in this session; will that description of his taste be borne out?

Ratings:
Dave: 10
Ethan: 6
Joe: 10
Sean: 2 out of 4

a final favor

In October, 2014, I got a call from my father. He needed a favor. Could I take my mom to the dentist in a couple days?

At that point, they were spending their summers "in the country" -- at a house they had in upstate New York -- and summer, as far as they were concerned was ending in a week with their flight to Florida. But in that last week before they went south, my mom had an appointment with their dentist in Manhattan. A visit to the dentist was, when you considered travel time, an all-day affair. Normally he would have driven her, but he wasn't feeling well. He'd been having some dizziness that he couldn't shake -- the doctors told him that was a normal after-effect of some procedure (I forget what) that he'd undergone. At any rate, he wasn't confident that he'd be up for the round trip drive.

So I drove up the evening before the appointment, and got to their house well after they were both asleep. In the morning I had breakfast with mom -- dad was sleeping late and took her down to Manhattan. After the dentist and some lunch we headed back up. I went inside to say hello to dad. He was awake, but still in bed. He sat up, and winced at a wave of dizziness. We exchanged some chit chat, but he wasn't up for conversation. Despite the fact that he had spent the entire day in bed, he wanted to get back to sleep. So I left, saying we'd talk more when he was feeling better.

He never did feel better. He made it to Florida, but was in the hospital almost immediately after he got there. He passed away four years ago today without having regained full lucidity.

There are many things that, regretfully, will forever go unsaid. But at least I was able to do that last favor my father asked of me.

'cause i got class

I've been watching the series, Frasier, on Netflix. Don't ask why.

Right now I'm in the second half of the seventh season. A couple seasons ago a glass vase showed up in the background in Frasier's apartment. I'm pretty sure it first showed up in season 5, episode 3 (the one where Niles has a Halloween party and we all find out that Roz is pregnant). At least that's when I first noticed it, and I'm sure it wasn't there at the beginning of the series. The first time I noticed it I thought it looked like a Chihuly. I asked a couple people if it looked like a Chihuly, and got a lot of shrugs.

Well, in season 7, episode 16 I got my confirmation. At one point Daphne says that "the Chihuly needs a good dusting" and picks it up. I was right! I recognized it.

Yay, me and my classiness!