But The Guy Came And Fixed It Already

Our power went out tonight
After a tree branch fell
On alley electrical wire.

I thought I might need to write
This little entry by cell,
And go back to heating by fire.

Recovering

The first pc
Was harddrive-free.
You want a backup copy?
Just make another floppy!

But that's ancient history. Back to the present.

The trouble with laptops
Is their tendency to stop-
So you doubt that the harddrive
Is still alive.

I was up till 4am last night, working with M.'s laptop. I think I've gotten everything off it now. The harddrive is running way too slow, and declines to boot into any form of XP, even safe mode.

But I found I could boot it into Linux using a bootable CD. That let me read the harddrive and copy files out the USB port to solid-state backup.

XP said no way.
But Linux saved the day.

No Tears Here For His Passing

Ohio today executed Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-proclaimed prophet who murdered a family of four because he feared they lacked faith.

Yes, his background was a variety of Mormonism.

Was he sorry?

"I cannot say that I am sorry..."

Why not?

"I did what God commanded me to do..."

I read a book about him and the murders. He was a bad, bad man.

His lawyers tried to stop his execution -
Worried that the chemical solution
Might hurt a little just before he died.
What a shame. Too bad he couldn't be fried.

For Medicinal Purposes Only

Here's more research, claiming that alcohol offers protection from heart attacks, at least for men.

It claims that men are helped by 2 drinks a day. You know what this means?

I'd say it means clearly
That I don't drink nearly
As much as I oughter!
Quick, scotch & water!

Locke v. Rousseau

David Kirby, in today's Chicago Tribune book section, reviewed this book, and made a point of philosophical comparison between the U.S. and France:

"As opposed to the world of John Locke, so beloved of Thomas Jefferson and other members of America's founding generation, this is the world of Henri Rousseau; the American model proposes freedom from the state, and the French one proposes freedom through the state."

Give me "freedom from".
"Freedom through" sounds dumb.

Marathon Madness

The winner of today's Chicago Marathon slipped and fell just as he reached the tape. He had to be driven off in a golfcart. I hope he's okay enough to enjoy his winnings. He just made $125,000.00 in 2 hours and 7 minutes and 35 seconds.

At mile 24 of the marathon, I was feeling fine. That's because I didn't run the race. I just went to watch and cheer.


Mostly I cheered for people who met the following 2 conditions:

1) No headphones
2) Name on shirt

That way I could call their name ("Go Joe!) and they would actually hear me.

Maybe later in the year
Someplace far away from here
I'll run and someone else can cheer.

Odd Occurrence

As I ran across a bridge today
Someone threw a bottle my way.
It broke six feet ahead of me
With a crash and a splash of glass debris.
I'm guessing "scare the runner" was the game.
But I just laughed. What a bad aim!

Muzak to my Ears

I know, from reading Wikipedia, that the Muzak Corporation has changed, and I don't wish to malign its present practices.

But, years ago, I worked at a couple of places with the old fashioned Muzak - which was mostly upbeat instrumental versions of pop standards. It was sold as a kind of emotional programming for a firm's office workers. What I disliked was that the performances sounded oddly lacking in personality. Oh - and I also disliked the fact that the tape looped at least once during an 8 hour shift.

Muzak
Was designed to hack
Positive thoughts inside your soul.
That, at least, was the goal.

I felt it as an attack.
My mind had music already,
In the background, pulsing steady.

And their product drowned
That inner sound.

But This Is A Family Newspaper!

From the Chicago Sun-Times: "But now that both men and women have begun wearing jewelry in their genitals, it's theoretically possible that two lovers could get stuck."

Apparently there's an episode of Grey's Anatomy tonight that addresses this problem.

I'm going to resist the obvious rhyming possibilities of "stuck."

Be careful of things that jingle
Attached to things that tingle.

Kim Jong Il Plans More Testing

He's trying to set off pandemonium.
Instead, let's dare him to test and test
Until he uses up the rest
Of his plutonium.

(Idea stolen from Glenn Reynolds.)

Not Good Bedtime Reading

I was talking today with a young woman who recently read a book about Ted Bundy - a sociopath who eventually confessed to killing over 30 women.

Reading it was scary enough. Then she started having dreams about it.

She'd given her brain material
For nightmares all-too-serial.

Time for President Obama?

Time magazine ran a cover story on potential presidential candidate, the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

He should be very wary of this kind of positive press, particularly since his accomplishments so far are few.

After they puff up your reputation, they have a habit of turning around and puncturing it with a vengeance.

First they build you up,
Then they tear you down
Shredding your rep
All over town.

Looking for Hell in All the Wrong Places

electricia and boffo are in Chicago and staying at our house for a few days.

electricia has actually been to one of those Hell Houses that fuzzbean mentioned. She said it included portrayals of babies being aborted and people dying in car accidents. She said it was Southern Baptists who were especially fond of this form of holiday hellraising.

Well, no wonder we can't find a Hell House in Chicago. We lack a critical mass of Southern Baptists!

We've looked all over - back and forth.
But damn it, Chicago is in the North.

The Joy of Networking

Just spent 3 hours or so getting my LinkSys router to talk to my D-Link range extender.

You might think
With so much "Link"
They'd connect in the blink of an eye.

Sigh.

Parking Under the Parks

Today our mayor "sold off" our 4 underground downtown garages. They're all underneath city park land. Technically, he didn't sell them, he just leased them out for 99 years.

I'm all for the basic idea.

But as for the years, what's up with 99?
One thousand would be fine.

Eternal Flame

Halloween is a pleasantly goofy pagan holiday, replete with witches and haunted houses.

But I got news today from fuzzbean. Some evangelicals are crashing the party, constructing scary "hell houses" which show how bad hell is. So kids can be frightened into a proper fear of the Lord.

It's sort of like Dante's Inferno... but for kids!

Hey kids - there's no waitin'
For your chance to visit Satan!

Critical Idiom

Why didn't I get the memo?

Today I realized that I was constantly seeing critics use the word "smart" in their reviews as a term of praise.

And then it further dawned on me that I was no longer seeing them use "sly" in this way.

I missed the official start
Of "smart".
And never said goodbye
To "sly".

300 Million People

Apparently the US population count is coming up on 300 million. Newsweek says people aren't in a mood to celebrate.

Is this about immigrants?

I'll tell you what bothers me about a lot of these immigrants - they work hard. What's up with that?

I probably shouldn't worry.
In a generation or two,
They'll quit with all the hurry,
And slack off like me and you!

North Korea

Is it the boom of doom?
And if so, for whom?

Fun in Madison

Had a great NIF meeting in lovely Madison, WI, with a presentation by

kraorh

on some of the technical problems with mind-body dualism.

The next morning I saw a strange being roaming the streets, accosting police officers, and generally trying to inspire enthusiasm. Here he is, badgering a policeman.



Yes, Wisconsin has got
A badger for a mascot.

Shakespeare

Along with all those plays
He created many cliches.

Forms of Grace

There was a quote I liked from tonight's Battlestar Gallactica episode. This isn't exact:

"Symbols are important. They're like pieces of your heart you can see."

Branden's visibility theory of love, and Rand's theory of art, both turn on the idea behind this metaphor - the idea of being able to *see* your inner values outside of you.

It's important for Rand. It validates her Romantic streak within her Enlightenment intellectual context. Loved ones and compelling art works are categorized as things needed for survival, because seeing the pieces of your heart is both clarifying and motivating.

How often our minds
Feed on outward signs.

What I Did On My Autumn Vacation

Someone, namely the perspicuous Ergo, pointed out how obliquely I had touched on my trip. So here are the highlights:

Friday evening we flew into Phoenix, were met by our hosts, had dinner at an old ferry-crossing building that is now a steakhouse.

Saturday morning, we went shooting at a range. Our hosts are both shooting enthusiasts. Neither Marsha nor I had shot a gun in 10 years, but we did okay with coaching. Note to self - don't flinch just before the big noisy gun goes bang - it throws your aim off. In the evening we had the Objectivist club meeting.

Sunday noonish we went to the Arizona Biltmore resort, which Frank Lloyd Wright had a hand in designing. It's a big, gorgeous place. We walked the grounds after eating lunch there.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Sedona, AZ, which has big beautiful red rock formations all over the place. We drove around and got good looks at these pretty rocks.

Monday afternoon we drove up to the Grand Canyon's south rim. We ate dinner at a lodge on the rim, and looked at the canyon in the moonlight.

Tuesday morning we paid for a helicopter ride across the Canyon. We were lucky enough to get the front seats. Wow. Awesome, beautiful, forbidding. Our pilot learned flying in the military, and had flown helicopter gunships in Vietnam. He informed us that the canyon was partly formed by plate tectonic activity - earthquakes.

After the helicopter ride we drove into the park and stood by the rim in the daylight at various spots. There are a lot of spots without railing, and when I got near these my stomach would start fluttering with acrophobia. The first step is a doozy - and your last.

Then we headed for Vegas. Marsha thought it was 2 hours, but it was more like 5. We actually drove across the Hoover Dam on our route. This required being looked at by police officers before we were allowed to proceed. I see where they are building a bypass to get around the Dam bottleneck.

We arrived in Vegas as the sun went down. By a strange coincidence, our son was driving from Chicago to L.A., and was scheduled to make Vegas a few hours after us. So he stayed with us that night. It was here that my work started to seriously interfere with my vacation, cutting considerably into my time. So I saw exactly zero Vegas nightlife.

Wednesday we ate breakfast, said goodbye to our son, and drove down the strip before heading to the airport.

As you can see, this is not a case of "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." It's a case of nothing happening in Vegas.

I figure the staff must have pegged us
As people who hadn't the vaguest
Idea of enjoying Vegas.

Leaving Las Vegas

I had already finished 2 books on this mini-vacation, so in the Vegas airport I went looking for a 3rd. They had a lot of long books, and only a few short books hidden in among them.

Airport books should be organized by length.

I want a book whose length is right
For my particular flight.

I chose Steve Martin's novel, The Pleasure of My Company, a novel about a guy with OCD. I enjoyed it. Funny and touching.

I also read my first Louis Lamour novel, Kiowa Trail. Liked that too. Thrill-a-minute.

Also I finished off The Baby Inheritance, by Ann Roth. Quite heartwarming.

Maybe my enjoyment of the vacation
Is rubbing off on these evaluations.

More Vacation Report

Stayed up late in Vegas last night...

I was working on my laptop, writing programs to make some files balance properly for a client.

While some were in their slumbers,
And some were having fun
I was crunching numbers
Matching pennies one by one.

Water Cuts Rock

After dinner we walked to our car and looked up at the stars. There were more of them than at home. Then we speculated about where the giant hole in the ground was. We agreed on a direction and walked that way. As we approached the railing, a nearby trashcan began to shake. Something was inside it. I started and Marsha laughed. Probably a racoon.

And there was the hole, a mighty gash in the earth, ghostly in the light of the moon. One mile deep.

That's how it looked at night.
I hear the colors are better in normal light.

Not So Holy Foley

So Mark Foley has gone into rehab.

He's the congressman who got in trouble for writing dubious emails to young male pages.

He's also the congressman who sponsored legislation cracking down on people who do things like that.

So he quit the Congress, and now says he has an alcohol problem.

Brilliant.

I have the impression that for celebrities going into rehab is a good way to keep from going to jail. The public furor dies down because now the celebrity is a victim of addiction, rather than simply a bad actor. I'm not saying he's not a drinker. I bet he is.

Boozer or user,
Playing the victimized loser for a while,
Is better than standing trial.

Rhyming Place Name

Near Sedona,
Arizona.

Phoenix

Last night I gave a poetry reading at the Arizona Objectivists in Phoenix. Then, after dinner, Marsha talked about her new-college project. We had a great time, seeing old friends and making some new ones.

I opened with a limerick written for the occasion.

Allergic folks once moved Phoenix
Hoping to need much less Kleenex.
They all planted grass
And, wow, it grew fast.
They're sneezing again... but it's scenic.

Boy Do I Look Beat

The Accenture Chicago Triathlon has a website where you can see any given person finishing the race. I typed in my name and up came a snippet of video.

If you're curious, it's here. I cross at 6:02:05 on the far left side, wearing bib 6062.

In the past, some races would charge you a pretty penny for a "customized video", with only a few snippets of you. I like this way better.

It's perfect for a consumer like me -
I'm glad to watch it for "free".
I know it's built into the overall price,
But I still think it's nice.

Control Theory

When my second youngest brother was about 9, he came to me with a math question.

In school he was doing problems like:

9 + _ = 15

Of course, you're supposed to fill in the blank spot with 6.

He came to me and asked if there was a solution to a problem like this:

_ + _ = 15

I was stunned. I told him, yes, there's a solution, and it's a line.

That was the beginning of teaching him analytic geometry, and some calculus, while he was still in elementary school. I couldn't actually get him interested in the solving algebraic manipulation problems. But he loved graphing the solutions to equations.

He went on to get a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering, specializing in control theory. Oh, and he wrote a textbook on that abstruse but practical topic.

I tutored my own children in math, too. I never got them interested in calculus while they were in elementary school. But my son is taking a professional path eerily similar to my brother - he's an aeronautical engineer publishing research in control theory.

I don't *think* my brother had that big an impact on my son.

What can this mean?
Is there a control theory gene?

Or does it seem
More likely I'm a carrier of the meme?

If Only They Were Just Running For Office

Glenn Reynolds links to a poll showing that the vast majority of Iraqi's don't like Al Qaeda. Who knew?

He suggests that mosque explosions
Haven't stirred up good emotions
Toward Al Qaeda in Iraq.

What a shock.

More Fire

I've worked up a new poetry collection. I haven't put it on Amazon yet. If you're interested, you can download the pdf ("pretty darn frustrating") format free.

Regular readers of this blog, be forewarned, some poems are from this very location. Others are available online somewhere or other.

But I like the look
And feel of a book.

Odd Coincidence

Choriam posted recently about Ted Hughes. He was married to Sylvia Plath who committed suicide. Then he married another poet who committed suicide.

Was it just a bad run of luck?
How did he happen to get stuck
With not one, but two brides
Who were future suicides?

Honoring a Founder

Spent the afternoon at a party honoring my wife for her role in founding - and helping run - Council Oak Montessori school, now in its 16th year.

The current issue of Chicago Magazine has a cover story entitled "The Best Elementary Schools," and Council Oak was listed among them.

The format of the afternoon was kind of a mix between a roast and a toast.

I gave a little talk about her, interspersed with rhyme, ending with this one:

Thank you, Marsha,
For working your butt off,
And helping this school
Make the cut-off.

Tracked from the Sky

I went running for the first time with a satellite GPS unit that told me how fast I was going and how far I had gone.

It's a Garmin Forerunner 201. I got it from Amazon for 109.99.

It took a little time at the start to establish the satellite link. Once I was running, it seemed to stay linked up - except when I was running under railroad viaducts. Of course, I was running mostly through Chicago neighborhoods - very flat, amid houses.

It had a few peculiarities. It doesn't really give you instantaneous speed. It gives you an average over a minute or so. So when you change speeds it takes a little while to really register.

It was fun to know
Just how fast, or rather... slow
My feet would go.

Not a Dry Run

Out for a run,
Caught in the rain,
Soaked through and through.

Water in my shoes
But I don't complain.
Sloshing is fun.

Summer's End

Ah, the days of Autumn.
I cannot say I sought them.
But since they're here, I'll take them,
And as leaves fall, I'll rake them.

SNAFU

First the Commerce department loses 1,100 computers, mostly from the Census Bureau.

Then there's John Mark Karr. He's the creep who claimed he killed Jon Benet. But he was also in trouble for having child porn on his computer. The cops confiscated his computer - a few years back - but now they can't find it.

There's a need for remedial lessons, given by tutors,
To explain ways to lessen this strange loss of lots of computers.

Have You Heard?

Hearing voices, often taken to be a sign of something wrong in the noggin, occurs in many people who seem to be fine.

The voices in my head?
Don't tell them to be quiet.
They'll stop when I am dead.
Till then, they all run riot.

I don't always pay attention
To what they have to say.
I brush off their dissension
When I've settled on a way.

But frequently, I listen,
Because of what I've heard -
That precious bits of wisdom
Might show up in these words -

And I don't wanna miss 'em
When that finally occurs!

Talk Like A Pirate Day

When a pirate vessel docks,
So the men can shop for socks,
Their preference brings smiles:
Arrrghyles.

I believe I stole the pun from humblepie.

Making Tracks to the Axis of Evil

Don Parrish gave a fabulous account of his trip to North Korea. Very few outsiders ever get in, and Americans are the least welcome. It seems they see us as the Imperialist Power which is the source of all their problems. He went with four other people who are very experienced at traveling to the ends of the earth.

You want to visit North Korea?
Most likely they don't wanna see ya!

I have a friend who saw their capital,
Watched by a soldier who took no crapatall.

Tortured Thoughts

A. People who are tortured will usually admit to anything. Such confessions, on their own, are valueless.

B. However, a tortured person may also give you information that can be investigated and verified independently.

C. If the person is innocent, you will have imposed horrible suffering unjustly.

D. Torture is, to say the least, cruel and unusual.

President Bush is harping on point B.

In philosophical circles, point B comes up in the "ticking bomb" dilemma, in which many innocent lives will be lost unless the terrorist is tortured into revealing the location of the ticking bomb. This sort of thing happens constantly to Jack Bauer on "24".

Jack Bauer,
In "24" hours,
must always act with urgency.

Is it an error
To equate the war on terror
With an ethical emergency?

Perilous Papal Pronouncements

How will the Pope
Ever cope?

People of a different faith
Riot over what he saith.

Anyway, he was speaking, in passing, about the "sword verse" vs. the "no compulsion verse" in the Koran, and quoted from a medieval philosophical dialogue:

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

He didn't actually say this was the truth. But he did quote it. And he didn't say he disagreed.

The Pope himself came down on the side of "no compulsion" in religion. That's reassuring, since the Church he heads has historically made use of the sword at times.

He also talked about Aquinas, Kant, the scientific worldview, and the proper sphere of rational inquiry. So you can see he covered a lot of ground. (Full text here.)

Now a Turkish government official is comparing him to Mussolini and Hitler.

If this comparison occurred in an online discussion, it might end the argument, since it fulfills Godwin's Law:

There is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.

But this was declared in Real Life, in Turkey, which the Pope plans to visit soon.

I fear that the Pope
May end his life
At the end of a rope
Or the point of a knife.

His safety would be a better bet
If he stuck to appearing on the net,
Thus avoiding any Turks
Who might have chosen to go berserk.

Holiday in Hell

Tomorrow night - Saturday 8 pm at my house - free - Don Parrish will talk about his 2005 trip to North Korea.

Very few Americans get to visit this last gasp Communist outpost which is now arming itself to the teeth.

Don Parrish has circled the globe many times. He has a background in engineering and international business negotiations. A careful student of geopolitcal history, Don can be counted on to provide deep and original insights.

Curious people cherish
Talks by Mr. Parrish.

A liberty lover
Who heads off to discover
What's really going on -
That's Don.

Food Wonderful Food

Hicks linked to this report.
It's progress of a sort:

Experts claims that for the first time ever, there are more overweight people than hungry people in the world.

But I distrust this statistic.

After all, what about people on diets? A lot of them are overweight AND hungry. How did they get counted?

Though you may be overweight,
Though you may be far from sickly,
An under-loaded plate
Produces hunger quickly.

After the Deluge

I've regained my lawn.
Lake Enright is gone.

Last Night

It rained hard enough to make
My yard into a lake.

Sadistic Prank

So a guy posts a fake ad on Craig's List. He claims to be a young woman with submissive and masochistic desires, looking for a guy to, um, treat her right. He posts a provocative picture.

The guy doing the prank gets more than a hundred personal replies, including photos - of faces and other things - and lots of real names - and even some real work emails.

Then the guy posts all these replies on the internet, and asks for help in finding out more about the guys who replied.

When replying with work emails,
Be wary of fake females!

City of Big Boxes

Mayor Daley has vetoed the "Big-Box law" that would have hampered large stores by requiring them to pay higher wages than small stores.

He had declared his opposition to the ordinance a while ago, but vetoed it today - the first time he has ever vetoed anything.

He saw the flaw
And blocked the Big Box law.

City of Big Waistlines

Designer beef is gaining market share, particularly in Chicago, which happens to be the "big" city with the highest beef consumption.

It's my belief
That discerning diners
Should only eat beef
From top designers.

As for "cheeseborgers,"
Please make mine
Calvin Klein.

Probably For Their Own Good, Too

The Grand Mosque in Mecca gets crowded when prayer time rolls around. Dangerously crowded.

So Saudi officials are considering a solution: Why not ban women?

You'll have less of a crowd
If "No Girls Are Allowed!"

Lincoln & Beaver

I've been seeing cryptic ads, feature Lincoln and a beaver, for a drug called Rozerem. I was guessing it was for depression (Lincoln) or obsessive toothpick chewing (beaver)... but no. It's for insomnia.

Well, I guess the beaver is less bizarre than that glow-in-the-dark moth that lands on your head in the Lunesta ads. If that thing ever showed up on my pillow, my eyes would pop wide open - and stay that way all night.

That moth is just plain creepy
And would never make me sleepy.

As for the beaver, I am
Telling it "go build a dam!"

Wait. Lincoln was famous for splitting logs. Beavers are famous for chewing through them. Could this have something to do with the old slang expression for snoring, i.e. "sawing logs"?!

I may be overthinkin'
With this final burst of linkin'.

Search Enginitis

If you're ill but feeling frugal,
Consult with Dr. Google.
From Scurvy to Halitosis
You'll get a diagnosis
Without the need
For some degreed
M.D. to prod
Your bod.

Fragrance Trance

Gardenia scent hovers
Over young lovers.

Your bridal bouquet -
I breathed it today.

In my mind. Then I flew
To Aruba with you,

And watched while the ocean
Rolled with slow motion,

And felt the new ring
On my finger.

Incumbent Protection Act

As of today, you can't run a broadcast ad criticizing specific members of Congress who are up for re-election. Which is most of them.

Worried about the free speech implications? Don't be! Once they're re-elected, you can buy air-time to criticize them again.

McCain and Feingold - thanks for protecting
All those incumbents who need re-electing!

I hope they feel safer - less troubled by doubt
That people might gang up and throw their butts out.

Thank goodness we've stopped all that partisan strife.
Once you get in - the seat's yours for life!

I Hope The Train Had A/C

So this woman is riding on an Amtrak train with her 80-year old father. He dies in Colorado, in a sleeping cabin. Does she tell the conductor? No.

She waits 23 hours till they arrive in downtown Chicago. After all, he had already paid his fare, and she was short on cash. Why pay more to take him off the train, put him in a box, and ship him in baggage?

He was lying in the sleeper
When he finally met the reaper,
But his daughter let him stay
On the train another day.

Limerick Line Lengths

What's the deal with limericks?

When they teach you metric poetry, the vanilla form of a poem is envisioned as one metric line, over and over till it's done. A sonnet is like that - 14 lines in the same meter and length.

But lots of formal poetry is not like that. Including limericks. So why is that? Why does a limerick satisfy the ear? Now it's a standard form we're all familiar with, but why did the limerick get popular in the first place?

To me, the short 2 lines sound like a disrupting change, and the last long line sounds like a restoration of order.

A limerick starts off well-versed
Its pattern precisely rehearsed.
Then things turn hoppy
With lines short and choppy,
But line five's as long as the first.

Labor Day Wrap Up

The beach has gone ghostly.
Summer's mostly done.

Current Affairs

Kayaking on the Kalamazoo,
We scared some blue heron by coming up too
Close for their comfort to get a good view.

Box turtles basked in the sun on a log.
Motor boats passed us with children and dogs.
That's all I have to report for this blog.

Adrenaline Addiction

Saw Crank. It's not a chick flick. More of a men-behaving-violently movie. But my wife didn't actually hate it. This guy inhabits a hostile world, but copes creatively under dire circumstance. And he does love his girlfriend, that's clear.

It's a film with non-stop action
With the thorough satisfaction
Of seeing the bad guys
Pulverized.

This Day in Fictional History

September 2nd
Is the day by which time is reckoned
In Atlas Shrugged. I've heard
It's the day she wrote the first word.

Distant Relatives?

Enright is a fairly common Irish name. And in my age bracket, John was the most common male name. All of which is a lead-in to mentioning that there are 2 other John Enrights with poems on the net.

John Enright

John Enright

Both links have photos, so you can see
That they're not me!

Both write with pleasing coherence,
And so I embrace them as brothers,
Along with any others
Who've yet to make an appearance.

The Old New Logic

I've been reading The Old New Logic, a collection of essays. Frank C. Keil, a psycholologist, has an interesting article on the ways that philosophy provides testable hypotheses to research psychologists:

"...although it might seem that work in the philosophy of mind should have the most direct link to psychological research, in fact work in the philosophy of logic, of science, and metaphysics has often had a more fruitful albeit unintended influence."

As examples, he gives Putnam & Kripke's distinction between artifacts and natural kinds, and Fred Sommers' category-tree theory. Both of these provided grist for research that established that children as young as 5 recognized the distinctions and rules they were putting forth.

The point seems to be that philosophers sometimes give very explicit descriptions of deep rules about how the world works. This affords psychologists the chance to test grown-ups and children - to see whether they implicitly observe these rules.

Learning logic is like that too:
Implicitly old, explicitly new.

New Birds in Town

They're little yellow finches
With a height of just 2 inches.

I saw one hopping around
Downtown.
A lady was trying
To make it stay.
The bird kept flying
Ahead, away.

Perhaps she thought it would make a good pet.
Perhaps it would. But it's wild yet.

Faux-tography

I don't know much about Katie Couric. I don't watch enough TV. But CBS's Photoshop Diet Plan was uncalled for.

She didn't need to lose those pounds.
What's wrong with being a little round?

Senator Santa

A lot of companies have a Secret Santa game. You get gifts and you're not even sure who gave them to you. Eventually, you do find out.

The U.S. has a Secret Senator game. Senators tuck little "earmark" gifts into spending bills, and it seems like it's pretty hard to find out who sponsored what. It almost looks like senators are doing favors for people and keeping it all hush-hush.

There's a bill in the Senate that would render this process more transparent. But it can't be voted on yet. Why? Because it's been put on hold at the request of a senator. Which one? No one knows! It's an official secret!

These secrecy rules

Play us for fools.

All right, now we know. John Karr is not just creepy. He's a big liar too.

They ran his DNA.
He didn't kill JonBenet.

Please, just send him away.
I'm tired of seeing his creepy face
Plastered all over the place!

I did the Chicago Triathlon today.

When swimming in open water, I have a tendency to veer to the right. Having veered one way, I had to veer back the other. Repeatedly.

By the time I'm done, I get the extra benefit of exercising even more than required!

Lake Michigan
Is poorly designed.
Its bottom contains
No clear black lines.

Book Nominations Requested

Tomorrow morning, quite early, I have to drive downtown and wheel my bicycle and stuff to an aluminum rack on the lakefront. Thousands will be doing the same. Then we all have to leave the heavily-guarded corral by around 6 a.m.

Three hours later, I get to jump in the lake and start my swim.

So the question is, what to I do with those three hours? A nap would be logical. But I fear pre-race jitters will make this difficult.

Perhaps I need a really boring book -
One that will knock me out with just one look.

Needle Nosed Fliers

Good news, amigos!
I'm banning mosquitos.

No longer are they allowed
To form in a bloodsucking cloud.

No more shall they prey upon millions
Of innocent, juicy, civilians.

Begone, I say.
Hey - they're flying my way!

Live from the Harold Washington Library

I work across the street from Chicago's central library, and most days I spend about half of my lunch hour there. It's a "love it or hate it" building, of striking appearance and odd internal organization that baffles the first-time visitor.

From the outside
This library looks scary.
Gargoyle owls
Stare down from their aerie.

When you step inside
You feel confused.
You wonder whether
The architect snoozed.

But once you find
Those lovely books
You grab a few
And settle in a nook.

Your thoughts can fly
On their airy ways.
Be careful, or you'll
Stay all day!

Thanks to Ergo and Stolie for inspiring this post!

Serious Prisoner Abuse

Many years ago I read a book about the Spanish conquest of Mexico by a man who was there - Bernal Diaz del Castillo. In the book he vividly describes the Aztec upper class as eating captured Spanish prisoners.

But some people always figured he was lying, exaggerating, and generally trying to justify the conquistadors' obliteration of Aztec culture.

Hard evidence was lacking, but has now turned up. The hard evidence consists of human bones with knife marks and teeth marks.

"It was a continuous sacrifice over six months. While the prisoners were listening to their companions being sacrificed, the next ones were being selected," Martinez said, standing in his lab amid boxes of bones, some of young children.

It helps explain why the Spanish
Wanted this culture to vanish.

Overwhelmed by the Noumenal Realm

I was glancing into Timothy Steele's book about modern poetry at the library today, and I was struck by this passage:

Here it should be noted that the Kantian division of phenomena from noumena has had the effect of leading many poets to a concern with expressing the inexpressible. Extreme examples of this concern may be seen in the "sound poetry" of the Dadaists... Composition of this type does not refer to the phenomenal world, but is devoted wholly to noumenal essence.

Poems about
the inexpressable

Even when shouted
at high decibels

Tend to come out
"inaccessible."

Business Class To Jail Cell

Everyday
The case of JonBenet
Goes deeper into weird
Than even I had feared.

Perplexing Wanderers

Astronomers appear torn on what to do with the definition of "planet." The issue is raised by the discovery of a lot of little Pluto-like spheres in orbits past Pluto. It seems they must decide between:

a) all these little Pluto-like things are planets, including Pluto, naturally, but also including Pluto's moon, Charon. The number of planets jumps dramatically from 9 to lots more, with more to be discovered shortly.

b) they aren't exactly planets, they're dwarf planets, or "plutons" or something. The number of true planets drops from 9 to 8.

Either way, expect some major textbook revision!

Where shall they draw the line?
When it comes time to define
And everyone has voted
Will Pluto be demoted?

By the way, depending on how they decide, this guy is going to be either very busy, or very embarassed.

Busta Rhymes Arrested

Busta Rhymes, noted rapper, has been arrested on assault charges.

No real details are available yet.

But I think it's clear he musta
Decided it was time
To just let loose and busta
Face instead of a rhyme.

On the Trail

I spent part of my afternoon on a funny bike trail that runs between parallel canals, one defunct, one still in use. What's more, a river also runs parallel to the 2 canals. You can see this odd arrangement here.

The bike path is on the old towpath - where mules once walked alongside the canal, pulling the barges by long ropes.

The little strip has a "land that time forgot" feeling, and you can almost imagine the mules digging their hooves into the ground to heave that barge forward.

A fan of industrial history,
I find it oddly cool
To pedal along a path
Designed for mules.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Andrew Young is a notable guy, civil rights leader, former mayor of Atlanta, former ambassador to the UN. WalMart hired him to burnish its image among American blacks.

But in the process of defending WalMart, he slammed mom-and-pop stores because:

"...those are the people who have been overcharging us selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

WalMart hired Andrew Young
So its praises could be sung
To the black community.

His thoughts were out-of-tunity.

Belief Systems in Foxholes

You've heard it said that there are no atheists in foxholes. But according to a recent Newsweek article:

...an increasingly vocal group of activists and soldiers—atheist soldiers—disagrees. "It's a denial of our contributions," says Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson, who founded the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and who will be deployed to Iraq this fall. "A lot of people manage to serve without having to call on a higher power."

I found this part of the story strangely moving:

...an atheist symbol, which resembles an atom, is among the dozens of "approved emblems of belief" that can appear on the headstones of fallen soldiers in military cemeteries.

With no belief in paradise,
They risk their lives with open eyes,
And do not waver.

Who is braver?

Nightcrawlers For Sale Once Again

A few days ago I blogged about the Connecticut boy who was selling nightcrawlers that he dug up in his back yard. The local planning and zoning commission had sent him a letter telling him to stop, since his back yard wasn't zoned for commercial use.

This story was just a curiosity here in Chicago, one of those news items that makes you shake your head as you click on the next story.

But it was big news in the local area in Connecticut - front page news. And today the news is good.

In a unanimous vote, the commission rescinded what some members said was an "unauthorized" July letter sent to Joey that told him to close down his night crawlers business - an action that triggered international outrage against the order and support for the young entrepreneur.

The backlash also prompted finger pointing among town officials who blamed each other for the black eye given the town's reputation.

A lot of angry people showed up at a special meeting Tuesday night. Sounds like New England style democracy at work.

"I'm excited," Joey said after the meeting. He headed home to put up the 18-by-18-inch sign, "NITE CRAWLERS," that drew town officials' attention to his worm business on Washington Road in the first place.

Worms turned.
Officials burned.

In The Name Of Humanity

Consider this quote from a politician in the news:

"I admit to being human and making that error."

What error did she make? Well, she is, er, was, the attorney general of New Jersey, and she reportedly pulled some strings to help out her boyfriend when he was caught driving on a suspended license.

Okay. Personal corruption is in evidence, but it's at least understandable, since it's her boyfriend.

But what is this nonsense about admitting to being human? Did somebody imagine she was something else? Isn't being human a prerequisite for holding office in New Jersey?

Then again,
Based on this report from WWN,
Some politicians may be from space
And members of an alien race.

Written On An Inspiron

Perhaps the plane blower-uppers would find it satisfactory
Just to get onboard with a Dell battery.

Mine, so far, has not
Gotten quite this hot.

Anna Evans' "Not A Sonnet"

Recently I read Anna Evans' chapbook of poems, Swimming. A lot of her poems are available online, but my favorite, "Not A Sonnet," was not.

It's set up as a dialog between the poet and her lover - a dialog about whether their conversation properly constitutes a sonnet.

Here's the 2nd quatrain. I've color coded the speakers' parts. His are blue, hers purple.

Aren't all sonnets meant to be about
love? you said. This isn't, so it's not
a sonnet. -You're in it, I pointed out,
and we're in love. You said, Oh, I forgot.

In the 3rd quatrain she accuses him of being a philistine, suggesting, tongue in cheek, their love is doomed.

Then it twists home in the final couplet:

Well you're a geek, you said, but I would miss you.
And that is where I stopped the verse to kiss you.

I've seen sonnets before where the sonnet is about the process of writing a sonnet. Contemporary art loves self-contemplation. But this was a lot more interesting, particularly because of the dramatic tension between the two lovers.

A dialog in hot pursuit
Of sonnet form -
It's clever and cute
With hints of storm.

Stone Comes In Third

Will Farrell's comedy, Talladega Nights, finished ahead of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center in weekend box office receipts.

As a matter of fact, the new Disney dance movie, Step Up, finished ahead of World Trade Center as well.

But don't feel bad for Stone. It was "the best weekend debut ever" for one of his movies.

I reason thus:
That most of us
Are getting enough
Terror stuff
Whenever we choose
To watch the news.

American Yard

I've been reading American Yard, a book of poems by Dolores Hayden. I especially liked the poems about child-rearing. Consider the opening of Postpartum Pantoum:

We used the diapers up three days too soon.
She's wet five outfits and the bottom sheet.
I brushed my teeth at one this afternoon.
Our childbirth class was rather incomplete.

I really like that. It set me to wondering - how did anyone cope with babies before there were childbirth classes? For instance, how did my mother cope with me when I appeared fifty four years ago to the day?

I guess back then it was normal
For the teaching to be quite informal.

Zoned Out

The town of Cromwell, in Connecticut, has moved to stop a 13 year old boy from selling nightcrawlers from his yard - as bait.

You see, his yard isn't zoned for commercial enterprises.

The boy's dad is mad.
The worms are real glad.

Bombers Busted

Scrappleface has a parody news story in which a panel is formed to ask "Why Do They Hate Airplanes?"

The joke, of course, is that it's not really about planes.

But I wonder if maybe they do hate planes, as well as us.

Vandals set their sights
On spectacular damage
To bring down the heights.

Fashion Bashin'

The Devil wears Prada.
Sharp tongued and done up so smart.
In her heart, nada.

Or, is there? I'm not a bit Streep fan, but I enjoyed her performance. Her fashion-editor character is deeply flawed, but when she's on the screen the sparks fly.

Usually I have zero interest in fashion, but this movie made it look fun, in a high-stakes sort of way.

Warning: moral of movie is muddled!
I was a bit befuddled.

Office of the Independent Poet

The Office of the Independent Blogger (love that name) has finally added a poetry section. I haven't read them all, but I like the first one, The Owl, which reads more like song lyrics than a poem. Here's a few lines from it:

Deal with things like an owl would
Deal with things as an owl would
Take the rat by the tail
Take rats by their tail
And when they wail, just
Hoot!

Bashing Non-Attachment

You are attached to something; then it's lost.
You feel as if a part of you is gone,
And in your grief, you feel as if the cost
Was just too high; you grasp at the false dawn

Of letting go of everything you love -
Except a vague compassion felt for all.
You stick your hand inside a non-stick glove,
Wary of falling back into life's thrall.

You do good deeds, you meditate at length,
Reminding yourself that nothing really matters.
As time goes on, you feel you lack the strength
To concentrate - your mental focus scatters.

So are you are truly the enlightened one,
Or more like an unduly frightened one?

Ozick Kicks

Choriamb, the best source for poetry news in the universe, quotes this amusing opening from Cynthia Ozick, written in retaliation for a negative review:

Stuck-up prose gets up your nose
Edge is what the wise guy knows.
What’s new is true, the rest is quaint.
What Trilling was is what you ain’t.

Nice job, Cynthia.
Who could put it pithier?

The Case of the Missing Train Track

Years ago I heard that our local commuter railroad used to take a different route. Recently I verified that story, and got a look at the map of the old route in this book. So I went on a bicycle ride, looking for traces of the old track route.

Among the few signs I could find:

1) A curve to the current track where the old route took a big turn.

2) Victorian houses - early builders - positioned near a long-gone train station.

The funny thing is, I had wondered about that curve, and wondered about that cluster of Victorians.

That track was erased
With barely a trace,
But the residue
Kept a few clues.

Reuters Photoshopping

A photographer who takes pictures for Reuters has been caught photoshopping - to make bigger smoke clouds over Beirut, and to add some damaged buildings. You can see the photo in "after and before" versions here.

The photographer, Adnan Hajj, has been suspended.

I hope, during this time off, he takes a class in Photoshop. He's not very good at it.

If you must fake it,
Please try to make
Your special effects
Hard to detect.

South Shore Triathlon

I did a low mileage triathlon this morning. I need to remind myself to do that kind. Competitively I do better at those. My muscles must lean toward the fast-twitch side.

It was at the 63rd St. Beach. Gorgeous day. The water was tranquil - and warm by Lake Michigan standards, so I went without a wetsuit.

I place much better when a race is of certain sort:
Real short.

Laser Tag

Here's an article about how our infantry uses laser tag in training.

My favorite quote: "All this revolutionized infantry training, because now new troops quickly learned to take cover. Instructors with combat experience have always struggled to get this extremely important point across to their trainees."

I've heard before that your first few days of combat are among your most dangerous, for exactly this reason.

At first it's hard to keep in mind
That you need something to hide behind.

PSA

Use floss
Above and beneath.

Prevent the loss
Of teeth.

Hard to Escape

I've put away my books on Muhammad and the Koran, and I'm back to reading a book of poetry - Belonging, by Dick Davis. It turns out that he's a professor of Persian literature at Ohio State.

My favorite of his poems, so far, is In the Restaurant. As it opens, it describes an older woman, a "queen in exile" who rules over an extended family at a lively restaurant meal. The poet says she seems to embody "all that's customary, tribal, stable."

Then he gives you the background:

'Who, seeing this plump matriarch, could guess

That thirty years ago she'd risked her life

To cross Beirut's bomb-cratered no man's land,

Defying anguished parents, to say "Yes"

And be an unbeliever's outcast wife,

Careless of who'd condemn or understand?'

I love that.

Amusingly, we are brought back to matters Islamic.

I meant to put it behind me,
But here is this poem to remind me.

Fledermaus

Tonight I led a lively discussion of the Qur'an, and then caught the tail end of a lovely concert by Cristina Branco.

But I want to tell you about something I encountered while walking across the Loop, between the 2 events.

I encountered a bat, a brown one, flapping about on Madison St. It seemed to be flying along with me while I walked. This is not a typical downtown experience. I don't think I've ever been so close to a live, loose bat before. I began to wonder if it was sick.

Maybe
It had rabies!
So, being a chicken
I let my pace quicken.
And that was the last
I saw of the bat.

Inhumane Society

50,000 dogs were recently clubbed to death in China, in one particular province.

It seems that 3 people had recently died of rabies, and most dogs aren't vaccinated for rabies, so the solution was simple:

"Dogs being walked were seized from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. Led by the county police chief, killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then beat the animals to death, the reports said."

Thus, man's best friend
Met an untimely end.