Tuesday, August 22, 2023

On Joking

Another from Nyah Wynne to get things started.
Somehow we have gotten this notion in the culture that humor is value-neutral. That something being a joke means it doesn't mean anything, it doesn't affect anything. But it's absurd. Humor has a powerful social function. Several in fact. It can help people bind over shared adversity. It can smooth over feelings of social discomfort around uncomfortable or uncertain events and ideas. In this last, a message about how to think about something is often included implicitly. But it also plays a very large role in social censure and definition of in/out group. As social censure it acts as an attack against people -doing- things that are culturally deemed unacceptable but not so bad that they warrant punishment(or where social systems don't exist to enact punishment). This can be very useful, as mocking those acting rudely or engaging in petty cruelty can help to correct those actions, or can be destructive if the taboos they enforce/reinforce are unjust.
But this same social censure can end up targeting whole groups of people along utterly arbitrary lines. And when they do they tend to create/reinforce and recreate in each new generation systems of social advantage/oppression. Humor is possibly The Strongest Inculcation Tool for teaching prejudice. Because it is a set of social cues we are primed to respond to without thinking. Because humor has such a strong group-bonding component, the social incentive to laugh along with the joke is high. And when you see others laugh with the joke, the incentive to tell similar jokes is high. And the group bonds over it, and the message sinks in without really ever being critically appraised. And eventually that message forms a baseline subconscious assumption about the world unless you run into a strong reason to actively work to weed it out.
It ends up defining on a deep level who is and isn't fully worthy of empathy. Who 'deserves' abuse. Who should automatically be respected and who shouldn't. And these same things end up coloring how we see the world. How we respond to what people in various groups say and how they act. Who is given the benefit of the doubt and who is suspect.
Because the same mechanism involved in many of these sorts of jokes is the social tool we use to single out rude people, or liars, or people who cheat. It's never just a joke. It's a bit of prejudice you learned at some point that you never even noticed yourself learning, which you are passing on without realizing you are doing it.
And the people it targets aren't likely to find it very funny.

In general a useful analysis of joking.

The in-group bonding function of humor is its most important function.  Jokes about the out-group reinforce the behaviors that are unacceptable for the in-group.

Why I am Not a Feminist Part n + 5: Feminism Ignores The Basic Women's Issues

 Motherhood: In most species, including humans until circa 1960 (women controlled contraception) males are expendable protectors and providers for the nest, den, home or whatever. 

Females of all species until recently had no control of fecundity and bred whenever a male was available to protect the territory around the den and provide food for the brood. The female was necessarily preoccupied with breeding and training offspring until they were ready to exist on their own. Males competed for the opportunity to breed by exhibiting the ability to protect a territory and provide resources for the female.  

Unfortunately, from the beginning (I was there as a parent in a dual career marriage with children) “Feminism” had nothing to do with equal opportunity or equal rights for women. It was about not treating women as sex objects and breeders.  News Flash!  Males and females are sex objects in all species that want to survive as a species, and generally only the females are breeders. 

This is what “Feminism” was against and why I am not a “Feminist” nor a “sexist.” I am a human.
If “feminism” were dealing with women’s issues like supporting proper education for young women, supporting working mothers, and supporting mothers in general, note that 99+% of mothers are women, instead of trying to change male humans into something else, I would be an early feminist by definition. “ Feminists” refused to support my circa 1970 case for a full tax deduction for child care expenses to enable both parents to work full time jobs and refused to support an appeal when I lost in tax court. I couldn’t afford the appeal I had to pay the tax and continue working full time to support my family. They were too busy shaming cat-callers and trying to change English from the use of “men,” male pronouns and “chairman” from generic human to specifically male only.

How Elite Rooter San Jose, Ca uses good service to scam.

1.  Use a low price which incorporates a "Senior Discount" (You don't get both) and excellent service on a first drain problem to generate good reviews and call backs.  Use friendly, well dressed people with shiny new equipment on the first call, exact time projections, with office follow up, etc.

2.  On a call back send a typical plumber with well used equipment to fail to clear the drain and generate a need for an inspector/estimator/salesperson with drain cameras and tech tools to find the problem for a $440 inspection fee to be refunded if the job was done as agreed. (Actually added to the bill)  The snake the second plumber used in my second call was, I found out later, only 15 ft. long for a 30+ foot pipe and had no auger, just the bare cable.

3. Have the salesman use both jobs to generate lies about reasons to replace drains under the house camereas and tech tools are replaced with lies and props to justify inflated estimates for "immediately necessary" work, including an inflated estimate for a full job.  As usual both owners had to be present
at the presentation so that the person most affected by the problems was in on the pitch.  Whatever is needed to close the sale immediately is promised, but not delivered.  E.g.  an itemized invoice was promised "As soon as I get back to the office." but the itemized invoice was simply the same job description as provided at the sale. (in an email which somehow disappeared from my inbox.  A call said the detailed invoice couldn't be provided until the job was completed. 

4. Final bill, is not presented until after the 72 hour recision period is closed and is not negotiable in any case.  "We are paid by the job, not the work done." Pay up or I file a lein on your house for the full balance." 

5. Management will agree to negotiate, but are never available for either phone discussion or in person meeting.  Insist on somebody to talk to and the "manager" repeats we are paid by the job not the details, except for insurance companies.      














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Friday, January 1, 2021

Blood Drive FAQ



WHY SOULD I DONATE BLOOD? 
  • You save several lives. 
  • You get a short nap.
  • You get a free lunch. 
  • You learn needles aren't scary.  ---  Where is the downside? 

    WHAT CAN I EXPECT AFTER MY DONATION?
    • After the mandatory 15 minute R&R at the canteen (the free lunch) even first time donors are usually able to return to normal activities with no problems. Take a bottle of water and some energy food from the canteen and administer liberally. 
    • A sudden loss of blood occasionally causes a stimulation of the brain that can cause light-headedness or an endorphin high depending on the person. (I am ready to take on the nearest tiger.)  If light-headed, water and rest with head low usually solves the problem. If it lasts for more than a few minutes send for help from the donation center. 
    • People will ask about the Coban wrap on your elbow.  Tell them that you just saved a few lives and that they can too with a wave at the drive table.
    HOW LONG DOES A DONATION TAKE?
    • The actual donation takes 5-10 minutes normally.   
    • Preparation and paperwork is about a half hour.  
    • Save time in the donation process by filling out the eligibility questionaire (when available) on your mobile device on the day you plan to donate.
    • The 15 minute free lunch makes an hour a good bet.  Double Red and apheresis take longer but you already know that.
    CAN I DONATE? 
    RECENT ELIGIBILITY CHANGES.

    • Tattoos, acupuncture and piercings: no deferral in many states for licensed single use facilities.  One year otherwise.
    • Medically controlled diabetes and high blood pressure: generally no deferral. 
    • MSM - Men who have had sex with other men and partners: One year deferral since last contact.  NO LONGER LIFETIME!!!!  YAY!!! You are welcome.   A long hard battle by many friends. 
    • MAD COWS - Military and residents in UK late 80s and certain others in Europe at that time are still deferred.  We are working on it.  Note that blood drives always need non-donor volunteers. 

    LEGALESE 
    • If you have been told by a blood collection agency or other medical professional not to donate blood, get clearance from that professional before scheduling an appointment.  Some changes in eligibility have been noted above. 

    Thursday, December 31, 2020

    Fortune Cookies


     All time fortune cookie:
    The great pleasure in life 
    is doing what people say you cannot do.


     Fortune cookie of the week:
    A person of words and not of deeds
    is like a garden full of weeds.


     Watching the sunrise outdoors statistically increases your odds of having a good day. And needing a nap after lunch. Firefox.7.11.17


    The plural of anecdote is not data. :)

    Tara Goddard
    @GoddardTara


    Don't tell me why it won't work.
    Tell me what you tried that didn't work.
    Carlin Black, DuPont, 1966 

    To try and fail is at least to learn; 
    to fail to try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been.
     Chester Barnard


    Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.  
    Daniel_Burnham


    But I have no beliefs. Belief gets in the way of learning.
    Lazarus Long


    It's not the mistakes that count,
    it's what you do after them that counts.
    -Thelonious Monk

    Thanks Paige Wroble for the find.

    The weather right now in Seattle is cold and rainy.
    It will get better--about April.
    Horizon Air preflight announcement.

    If it is to be it is up to me to do it.
    John Tee-Van
     He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes;
    He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.


    There are two kinds of men who never amount to much:
    Those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else
    Cyrus H.K.Curtis

     Wisdom is knowing what to do next;
    Skill is knowing how to do it;
    Virtue is doing it. 


     Learn from the mistakes of others.  
    You haven't the time to make them all yourself.


     Minds are like parachutes: 
    they function only when open.




    "Butterflies are not insects, they are self-propelled flowers."
    Captain John Sterling. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Robert A.
    Heinlein, 1985.


     

    Wednesday, December 30, 2020

    Sprichwörter

     My candle burns at both ends;
    It will not last the night;
    But, ah, my foes and oh, my friends--
    It gives a lovely light.
    Edna St. Vincent Millay 


    I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
    James Baldwin
     
    Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is
    Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things,
    the divine beauty of the universe.
    Love that, not man apart from that,
    Robinson Jeffers 


    Note to self:
    You can't control how other people recieve your energy.
    Anything you do or say gets filtered through the lens of whatever shit they are going through at the moment.
    Which is not about you.
    Just keep doing your thing with as much integrity and love as possible.
    - Nanca Hoffman
    Posted on Facebook by The Earth Tribe:
    Edit J'C


    What some call luck
    Is simply pluck
    And doing things 
    Over and over

    Perseverance and skill
    Courage and will
    Are the four leaves
    Of Luck's clover
    Anon per Google


    There is no such thing as luck;
    There is only adequate or inadequate preparation
    To cope with a statistical universe. 
    Dr. Samuel C. Russell, Have Space Suit - Will Travel, RA Heinlein, 1958


    The Virile Mind
    One of the most striking things about the virile mind is that at the end of its thinking there is always a question mark.  The ignorant man finds it easy to convince himself that what he does not know is not worth knowing.  It is only those who are willing to go on learning, who becoome aware of how vast are the realms of to be explored beyond the farthest reach of their own understanding.
    Peter Fletcher



    "What makes my truth mythology and your mythology truth?"
    A Hopi "Cathy"
    Quoted on Facebook by friend Brian King



     “Where's your church?”

    “We’re standing in it.”

    “But this is a bookstore and it’s a Friday.”

    “Yes, but you might also choose to see it as a cathedral of the human spirit-a storehouse consecrated to the full spectrum of human experience. Just about every idea we’ve ever had is in here somewhere. A place containing great thinking is a sacred space.”

     From Forrest Church’s A Chosen Faith

    In biology when an experiment goes wrong it stinks. 
    In chemistry when an experiment goes wrong something blows up. 
    In physics when an experiment goes wrong nothing happens. 
    Hat tip to Paul Lewis on Facebook

    I like to feel that I've paid rent on the piece of earth I'm using.             Hilda Burroughs.  The Number of the Beast, R.A.Heinlein, 1980.

    We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.
    Thích Nhất Hạnh

    Tuesday, December 29, 2020

    Memorable Quotes


    “Slow up!  I don’t ‘believe’ in anything.  I know certain things—little things, not the Nine Billion Names of God—from experience.  But I have *no* beliefs. Belief gets in the way of learning.”  Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love, Prelude II, Robert A. Heinlein, 1973.


    BRITANNIUS (shocked):
        Caesar, This is not proper.
    THEODOTUS (outraged):
        How?
    CAESAR (recovering his self-posession):
        Pardon him, Theodotus: He is a barbarian, and
        thinks that the customs of his tribe and island
        are laws of nature.

                                                            Caesar and Cleopatra, ACT II
                                                                    —George Bernard Shaw 

     

     

    How on earth does a guy with this much disposable income manage to not pay the housekeeper on time *or* even mop a floor to maintain a property in the city he lives in.  Send him back to his mom; he’s broken.   Ishie Bay on Facebook.




    ...than is walking the dog twice a day the “life’ of of a man who bosses a planet-wide corporation between those walks—even though to a being from Arcturus III those walks might seem to be the tycoon’s  most significant activity — as a slave to the dog.  

    Editorial comment. Stranger in a Strange Land. Robert A. Heinlein. 1961.


    We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.
    Thích Nhất Hạnh

     There is no such thing as luck;  there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.   Dr. Samuel C. Russell. Have Space Suit Will Travel, Robert A. Heinlein, 1958.

     

    Toledo is where you find Velveeta on the gourmet counter at the supermarket.  Gael Greene, Restaurant Critic. 


    “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” – George Carlin 

    Monday, December 28, 2020

    Elegies

    The road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began
    Now far ahead the road has gone
    Let others follow it who can!
    Let them a journey new begin,
    But I at last with weary feet
    Will turn towards the lighted inn,
    My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

    Sleep well, Christopher. Thank you for sharing your father's dreams with us.

    Kevin Black for Christopher Tolkien Facebook, 2020

    Attribution:
    It's Bilbo's final version, recited right before he falls asleep in his chair at Rivendell after the Ring has been destroyed. J.R.R.Tolkien, Return of the King, 1965, p266



    Under the wide and starry sky,
    Dig the grave and let me lie.
    Glad did I live and gladly die.    
     And I laid me down with a will.


    This be the verse you grave for me:    
    “Here he lies where he longed to be;
    Home is the sailor, home from sea,
     And the hunter home from the hill.”
    Requiem.  R.A. Heinlein, 1935.

    From
    This is the epitaph Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) wrote for himself. It is carved on his gravestone at Vailima in Samoa.

    Sunday, November 29, 2020

    Blackie and the Belt Drive Pulley

    Somewhere, lost on a floppy, is the contemporaneous recount of this story.  It is too good to be lost. Doing my best to recreate it here.

     

     After a wonderful Backpack on the John Muir Trail with our four small children, Cousin Peter and J'Carlin were returning to LA via 395 on Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  About Lone Pine, which is about as close to the middle of nowhere as one can get, the Chevy we were in began to overheat and make funny noises under the hood.  We turned onto a side road to a campground hoping to find at least a safe place to stay and maybe a phone.  Alas, a few hundred yards in the Chevy quit in sight of the sign to the campground 2 miles.  Peter and I were matching pennies to see who would trek to the campground when a  well used Jeep pulled up behind us. A gentleman jumped out and asked if he could help? We said probably not but a lift to the campground to get the kids a place to sleep while we waited for repairs or whatever after the weekend would be nice.  He introduced himself as Blackie, and said that when camping season was over he was a car mechanic and would be happy to help both with a camp and possibly with the car.  He looked under the hood and quickly found that the drive belt pulley was torn off its mounting. He sighed and said he would need an new one and the junk yards were closed, but maybe he could find one tomorrow. He said there was plenty of room in his campsite and towed us all to it with the Jeep. 

     Once there he introduced his camping clan of a dozen people, and they invited us in to share dinner. All hints of payment were waived off, with a “Happy to help!” With what, we didn’t know, as all we had was a couple of credit cards, and the small change we were matching with.  After dinner and the kids were down Blackie’s story was told.  He was well known mechanic in the LA basin, and never lacked well paid jobs, but as soon as camping season opened up he left the crowds and hassles of LA for his Lone Pine Campsite.  The camp had a well stocked general store, and was close enough to Lone Pine for other necessities, so camping season was free of pressure and worries and Blackie and his clan could do as they pleased.  

     On Sunday Blackie disappeared for the Junk yard, and all of us were treated as part of the clan, our meager remains of trail food were refused with a thanks but no thanks, we eat better than that here, and you are welcome as friends of Blackie.  Later he returned with the bad news that no part could be found but that all was not lost as he knew the home phone of the Chevy Dealer, who would have the part.  After a brief conversation about the dealership being closed on Labor Day Blackie said “you live next door, meet us at the parts door.  We need to get these people back to work on Tuesday.”  A brief contretemps about payment, since we didn’t have that kind of cash and the banks weren’t open on Labor Day, No ATMs then, which was solved by Blackie personally guaranteeing the credit card payment.  

     Labor Day morning Blackie and I picked up the part, he had the car fixed, road tested and ready to go by noon, but insisted that we stay for the afternoon barbecue.  We agreed only if we could provide the meat.  We bought the store out of their best cuts, and dropped them in the cooler.  Much less than the cost of the repair, but the store had a limited supply.  As a result we arrived home early evening, with a repaired car, full bellies and wonderful story of human kindness.  

      

    Thursday, November 26, 2020

    Heinlein’s Unusually Competent Women

     Heinlein’s Juveniles appealed to me in my youth because of the “unrealistically” competent female women. I was raised by a family of extremely competent women in the WWII years and the post war.  In those days women who were competent in anything outside of homemaking were almost invisible in society and strongly encouraged to conform to aspire only to the MRS. degree even while in college. 

     They are not unrealistic, just not common.  I eventually married one.  I learned early on in our relationship when we were both in High School that she had two aspirations: A Nobel Prize and successful children. If I didn’t intend to actively support both I should look elsewhere.  I went to a top tier University and dated normally but my choices were those seeking the Mrs. and non-breeders as they bought into the prevailing culture norm that successful women didn’t plan for children. As a result when she graduated with an honors STEM degree we married to cooperate in both endeavors.

     All Heinlein’s competent women were enthusiastic breeders, and many of his stories contain ways to provide appropriate care for the children of competent women.  Hint “All MEN should be able to change a diaper,...”   I learned that skill for the first middle of the night feeding.  When the baby cried, when she was half awake she asked me to bring him to her and was asleep when I got there to hang him on an available teat.  When he was finished she was fast asleep and I had no choice but learn to change the dirty diaper. Thereby establishing the parenting rule:  When she was asleep, at work, or busy I was a single parent.  Conversely when I was at work or busy she was a single parent.  As both of us were in high paying, demanding jobs we needed and could afford the best daytime nanny.  Until both children were in school, one of us worked for free.  We could have afforded an Au Pair, but parenting was a priority for both of us and we arranged our work schedules to fit. I was the morning parent getting everyone up, fed, and off to school or work, she was the evening parent with a lot of help from me. Our joke was that we split the parenting 60/40 with both of us doing the 60%

    Saturday, November 7, 2020

    Paranormal collection post

    Psychokinesis or telekinesis is a barely useful feature of some young people and the forces it can exert are minuscule. As a result it atrophies unless continually practiced. I have witnessed a run of 95+ of 100 coin spins controlled several times by several people to a called result before the spin. Teenagers all, and once shown that it could be done, did it reliably. Other than fun, a useless skill, but many have it. A related skill and more useful is the ability to control the fair roll of fair dice to 7. Very useful in informal craps games, if used sparingly, and has been done in casinos. The long runs that casinos advertise may be house players with the ability, although used very sparingly can change the odds favorably for the adept person.

    Telepathy is a more common skill but generally useful only for people in close groups performing a desired common task. Most common in musical groups, cults, and mobs. And also the coordination of flocks of birds, Primarily used for synchronizing tempos or responses. I have not yet after many years of observing the phenomenon determined whether it is the group reading the mind of the leader, or responding simultaneously with a neighbor, but the microsecond timing of the responses cannot be explained by reaction as the time lag between observation and reaction is measured in deciseconds and in music microsecond lags are noticeable and disconcerting. (Why zoom choruses are impossible without computer assisted audio and video synchronization of individual players.) As a lifetime choral singer I theorize that most synchronize with a leader but correct by synchronization with neighbors(s). The baton is merely a telepathy aid, as the reaction time of different members is different enough to ruin the synchronization if sight response was all there is.

    More rare is some telepathy in intimately bonded couples, under some situations, but many bonded couples can reliably win the dropped bill bar bet. Reaction time insures that a dropped bill cannot be caught between thumb and forefinger held open over the portrait, even if the fingers holding the drop are observed closely. But if the intent to drop is read telepathically reaction times are cancelled out and the bill is caught near the portrait. I have observed a couple win with their backs to a common wall, the bill held in a doorway in the wall.

    It is also well documented that dogs read a human companion’s mind, and apparently some non-companion minds. “Don’t trust anyone your dog doesn’t like.” Dogs going to the door when their companion steps off the bus no matter if it is the usual time or a later time or when the car turns the corner into the home street is usual behavior. At obedience trials dogs respond to cues, visual or verbal, before any response time lag. I am not familiar with horses, but riders tell me that horses respond the same way.

    Wednesday, November 4, 2020

    Customer service stories

     Reminds me of an unpaid phone bill a long time ago when I was cross country courting and a phone at my new address was not being installed when promised. I was working long hours and couldn’t wait past their 2 hr window.  I came home to a hanger on my door saying I was not home when they got there and would have to reschedule, many times. When they dunned me about a substantial phone bill I asked for a payment window then went after hours and put a hanger on their door saying I tried to pay bill #### but they weren’t open. After several iterations, someone called and asked if I was having trouble getting a new phone installed?  Yep, I  said.  Install my new phone as agreed and you will get paid.  Surprisingly the next installer was on the minute.

    Sunday, November 1, 2020

    Only a Child Can Do It.

     Practically everyone over fifty hated the old math and does it poorly and inaccurately without a calculator.  Because of the way they learned it they are incapable of learning the New Math. ( A whole class of Stanford Seniors learning New Math for a teaching credential, failed a 4th grade review quiz on a midterm.) If you didn’t learn the new math in grade school ferggettaboutit.  You can’t even discuss it intelligently.

    Saturday, July 4, 2020

    Post Office Banking

    From Bernie Sanders first POTUS campaign: 

    I have sponsored legislation to let the Postal Service find innovative new ways to shore up its finances. I have proposed that the U.S. Postal Service offer banking services—“postal banking”—which was provided until 1967, and is still a reality in many foreign countries.

    Simply put, the Post Office would offer basic banking services to customers—like low-interest savings accounts, debit cards and even some simple types of loans. The USPS already takes in more than $100 million in revenue each year by selling postal money orders.

    Not only would this help the U.S. Postal Service, but also a lot of low-income people. If you are a low-income person, it is (depending upon where you live) very difficult to find normal banking. Banks don’t want you. And what people are forced to do is go to payday lenders who charge outrageously high interest rates. You go to check-cashing places, which rip you off. And, yes, I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.

    An estimated 68 million people live in “bank deserts,” areas without access to financial services. The banks don’t want to serve these people because they’re mostly poor, leaving them to be gouged by check-cashing shops and payday lenders. 

    Postal banking could save low-income families thousands of dollars per year, AND provide a new revenue stream for the Post Office.

    J’C. Great idea.  I will remind him once we have a working Government. 

    Friday, May 8, 2020

    Rocket Science



    When I was early in my rocket science career I was asked to design a sounding rocket with certain mission characteristics by the boss at noon.  He wanted the preliminary design by mid afternoon.  I was in my cubicle working frantically with my slide rule so I didn’t notice the crowd gathering around me.  Shortly Bob Truax came in and said “What are you doing with the slide rule, I thought I asked you to design a rocket.” “Er, working on it, Sir.” “Well, what is the diameter?”  “11.5 inches, Sir.” “OK! The circumference is 3 feet.” What is the length?” “22.5 feet, Sir.” OK, 70 square feet, what is the thickness.?” In ten minutes we had the design. “Now give it to the guys with the calculators.  That’s what we pay them for.”

    Thursday, April 9, 2020

    Raising all boats

    The trickle UP economy is the only one that raises all boats the littlest ones the fastest

    Friday, January 10, 2020

    Unexpected Dining Excellence

    I lived 23 years in New York and eating out was our favorite luxury as we both had demanding careers.  So too many elaborate meals to count from moderate to exorbitantly priced.  But the most memorable was in Danville PA.  I arrived, exhausted, at an unpretentious Interstate motel after a long drive just after the poolside burger bar closed.  I was told the only choice was the restaurant but I had better hurry.  I looked at the menu headline “Our specialty is Flambé dishes.”  Oh, great I thought, if you can’t cook burn it. I ordered Chicken Piccata.  After the surprisingly elegant appetizer a rolling brazier pushed by the chef came to my table with a bunch of small dishes surrounding the sauté  pan.  The chef proceeded to make the sauce one ingredient at a time, gently sautéing the filleted chicken breast at the proper time finishing up with the wine and brandy for the flambé.  Delicious to say the least.  Breakfast was crepes flambé.  After work I got the story from the chef. I compared his dinner to Lutèce and he said I might have eaten one of his dishes as he was sous chef there but missed his home in the Poconos and convinced Sheraton to let him run a catering business out of their Interstate motel kitchen.

    Monday, December 9, 2019

    Lois McMaster Bujold

    Many pixels have been expended debating the ‘best’ order in which to read what have come to be known as the Vorkosigan Books, the Vorkosiverse, the Miles books, and other names, since I neglected to supply the series with a label myself. The debate now wrestles with some fourteen or so volumes and counting, and mainly revolves around publication order versus internal-chronological order. I favor internal chronological, with a few caveats.

    I have always resisted numbering my volumes; partly because, in the early days, I thought the books were distinct enough; latterly because if I ever decided to drop in a prequel somewhere (which in fact I did most lately with Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance) it would upwhack the numbering system. Nevertheless, the books and stories do have a chronological order, if not a strict one.

    It was always my intention to write each book as a stand-alone so that the reader could theoretically jump in anywhere, yes, with that book that’s in your hand right now, don’t put it back on the shelf! While still somewhat true, as the series developed it acquired a number of sub-arcs, closely related tales that were richer for each other. I will list the sub-arcs, and then the books, and then the caveats.

    Shards of Honor and Barrayar. The first two books in the series proper, they detail the adventures of Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar. Shards was my very first novel ever; Barrayar was actually my eighth, but continues the tale the next day after the end of Shards. For readers who want to be sure of beginning at the beginning, or who are very spoiler-sensitive, start with these two.

    The Warrior’s Apprentice and The Vor Game (with, perhaps, the novella “The Mountains of Mourning” tucked in between.) The Warrior’s Apprentice introduces the character who became the series’ linchpin, Miles Vorkosigan; the first book tells how he created a space mercenary fleet by accident; the second how he fixed his mistakes from the first round. Space opera and military-esque adventure (and a number of other things one can best discover for oneself), The Warrior’s Apprentice makes another good place to jump into the series for readers who prefer a young male protagonist.

    After that: Brothers in Arms should be read before Mirror Dance, and both, ideally, before Memory.

    Komarr makes another good alternate entry point for the series, picking up Miles’s second career at its start. It should be read before A Civil Campaign.

    Borders of Infinity, a collection of three of the five currently extant novellas, makes a good Miles Vorkosigan early-adventure sampler platter, I always thought, for readers who don’t want to commit themselves to length. (But it may make more sense if read after The Warrior’s Apprentice.) Take care not to confuse the collection-as-a-whole with its title story, “The Borders of Infinity”.

    Falling Free takes place 200 years earlier in the timeline and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series. Most readers recommend picking up this story later. It should likely be read before Diplomatic Immunity, however, which revisits the “quaddies”, a bioengineered race of free fall dwellers, in Miles’s time.

    The novels in the internal-chronological list below appear in plain text; the novellas (officially defined as a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 words, though mine usually run 20k - 30k words) in quote marks.


    Falling Free
    Shards of Honor
    Barrayar
    The Warrior’s Apprentice
    “The Mountains of Mourning”
    “Weatherman”
    The Vor Game
    Cetaganda
    Ethan of Athos
    Borders of Infinity
    “Labyrinth”
    “The Borders of Infinity”
    Brothers in Arms
    Mirror Dance
    Memory
    Komarr
    A Civil Campaign
    “Winterfair Gifts”
    Diplomatic Immunity
    Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
    "The Flowers of Vashnoi"
    CryoBurn
    Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen


    Caveats:

    The novella “Weatherman” is an out-take from the beginning of the novel The Vor Game. If you already have The Vor Game, you likely don’t need this.

    The original ‘novel’ Borders of Infinity was a fix-up collection containing the three novellas “The Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “The Borders of Infinity”, together with a frame story to tie the pieces together. Again, beware duplication. The frame story does not stand alone.


    The Fantasy Novels


    My fantasy novels are not hard to order. Easiest of all is The Spirit Ring, which is a stand-alone, or aquel, as some wag once dubbed books that for some obscure reason failed to spawn a subsequent series. Next easiest are the four volumes of The Sharing Knife—in order, Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, and Horizon—which I broke down and actually numbered, as this was one continuous tale divided into non-wrist-breaking chunks.

    What were called the Chalion books after the setting of its first two volumes, but which now that the geographic scope has widened I’m dubbing the World of the Five Gods, were written to be stand-alones as part of a larger whole, and can in theory be read in any order. Some readers think the world-building is easier to assimilate when the books are read in publication order, and the second volume certainly contains spoilers for the first (but not the third.) In any case, the publication order is:

    The Curse of Chalion
    Paladin of Souls
    The Hallowed Hunt
    Penric & Desdemona tales

    In terms of internal world chronology, The Hallowed Hunt would fall first, the Penric novellas perhaps a hundred and fifty years later, and The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls would follow a century or so after that.

    The internal chronological order of the Penric tales is presently:

    “Penric’s Demon”
    "Penric and the Shaman"
    "Penric's Fox"
    "Penric's Mission"
    "Mira's Last Dance"
    "The Prisoner of Limnos"

    Other e-Publications

    The short story collection Proto Zoa was an e-book experiment; it contains five very early tales—three (1980s) contemporary fantasy, two science fiction—all previously published but not in this handy format. The novelette “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” may be of interest to Vorkosigan completists, as it is the first story in which that proto-universe began, mentioning Beta Colony but before Barrayar was even thought of.

    Also an original e-edition is Sidelines: Talks and Essays, which is just what it says on the tin—a collection of three decades of my nonfiction writings, including convention speeches, essays, travelogues, introductions, and some less formal pieces. I hope it will prove an interesting companion piece to my fiction.


    Happy reading!

    — Lois McMaster Bujold.

    Saturday, November 30, 2019

    On Risk Taking and Dying

    It must be assumed that anyone visiting dangerous places or doing anything life threatening at such places knows and accepts the risk of doing so.  If they don’t even read the signs, how sad, too bad.  I have hiked the mist trail in Yosemite many times knowing full well that one misstep or slip will be fatal.  I don’t take unnecessary risks for a pic or a selfie, but the rewards, including the rush of challenging death are worth the risk.  Everyone dies.  The deaths of those close to me affect me, but strangers or even friends who have accepted the risk of an untimely death and die affect me no more than their death from any cause would.

    A friend of mine was an extreme skier, if you watch those movies you have probably seen herm skiing off a cornice and jumping a rock and free falling hundreds of feet.  His recent death, untimely from cancer, was much more tragic than any accident on the ski slopes would have been simply because hesh was not dancing with death, but running from it.

    Monday, September 30, 2019

    Stonekettle: Time of Danger

    Stonekettle Station


    Posted: 30 Sep 2019 09:03 AM PDT
    Representative Denny Heck (D-WA): "Is it okay for a president to pressure a foreign government for help to win an election?"
    Director of National Intelligence (acting) Joseph Maguire: "It is unwarranted. It is unwelcome. It is bad for the nation."

    We are at a very, very dangerous moment in history.
    Trump is mad. Mad angry. Not mad insane – though that works too.
    Goddamn, is he mad.
    He’s so mad, he’s literally sputtering – something that I thought was mostly just a creative turn of phrase. 
    He stepped off Air Force One on Friday fuming, red faced, seething, sputtering mad, and yelled at reporters that he might try to file some sort of legal action to stop his impeachment.
    What these guys are doing, Democrats, what they’re doing to this country, is a disgrace and it shouldn’t be allowed! There should be a way of stopping it. Maybe legally through the courts. But they’re gonna tie up our country. I mean we can’t talk about gun regulation we can’t talk about … anything. Because frankly they’re so tied up, they’re so screwed up, nothing gets done except for when I do it!
    Shouldn’t be allowed!
    There should be a way of stopping it!
    Maybe legally though the courts.
    And maybe not.
    Maybe not. That’s the implication here, isn’t it? That maybe not part.
    The day before, when Trump was at the United Nations, in a meeting with his staff he raged:
    "They're almost a spy! Who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that's close to a spy."
    I mean, you do see it, don’t you? 
    The sense of outrage. Outrage that anyone should question Donald Trump.
    But the very word “whistleblower” exists for a reason.
    Because it is a legally protected check on power, on abuse, on greed, on crime, on government.
    Our laws, our entire nation is based on this idea.
    Our Constitution was designed around this very idea: that power should be limited. That power should be checked, should be called out, should be held accountable at every turn. And that those who would blow that whistle should be protected to the full measure of the law.
    Because without those willing to stand up, to speak truth to power, to sound the alarm, liberty dies.
    This was the reason for the First Amendment, so that the people would have the power to speak freely in criticism of their government, not just as a right, but as a duty; so that the press would have the ability to hold all of us but most especially government to account; so that the people might assemble in protest and face down government power with their own; so that government would be required to give redress of wrongs against its own citizens. 
    If conservatives are correct in their interpretation of the Second Amendment, then its entire purpose is so ordinary citizens might hold government to the ultimate account.
    And yet here they are.
    Ironically, hypocritically, suggesting that the those who call out suspected government abuse are somehow traitors.
    That it shouldn’t be allowed.
    That there should be a way of stopping it, perhaps legally and perhaps … not.
    We are at a very, very dangerous moment in history.
    Trump has always tended to see himself as a superior specimen misunderstood by the common rabble.
    He believes himself special. Above the laws which bind the common man.
    When he’s held to those same laws, be they natural or manmade, he’s offended. He feels demeaned, lessened, diminished.
    Public office amplifies his sense of martyrdom and he's becoming overtly, obviously, paranoid and publicly unstable. The term “siege mentality” might have been coined just for him. Worse, he surrounds himself with fringe nuts like Sebastian Gorka, political extremists like Stephen Miller and Steve Mnuchin, disgraced fanatics like General Mike Flynn, and an endless host of incompetent amateurs from Betsy DeVos to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and it shows.
    These people, not one of them, has any idea how to run a Republic.
    These people have no idea how to deal with the world on an equal basis – because they do not see the world a place of equality. Far from it. They expect to give orders and have them obeyed. They expect the universe to bow down, to bend to their desires. Because it always has. No one questions the wealthy. No one criticizes a general. No one holds the privileged to account. Not to their faces. They are accustomed to subservience, not accountability. 
    The rules don't apply to these people.
    Not on social media, not in the courts, not in the military, not in the boardroom, not on Wall Street, not in politics, not in the Media, not anywhere.
    This isn’t my opinion, this is theirs in their own words: 
    I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.
    You can do anything.
    They believe themselves entitled to this unquestioned power as their due.
    They believe themselves better. Better than you. Better than me. Better than everyone.
    This is how aristocracy is born, right here.
    And if it's not stopped now, here in this moment, then in a few generations they will be lords and princes and kings, born to power. 
    And we will be their serfs.
    This is a very, very dangerous moment in history.
    Impeachment doesn't just threaten Trump, or his office.
    It threatens the very self image of the privileged, who see themselves as the elite, as better, as born to power and above criticism or accountability, beyond the law and beyond reproach.
    If Trump can be removed from power, so can they.
    That terrifies them. You joke about guillotines, but you’d better goddamned believe they’re not laughing. They know. They remember. And they’re terrified that one day they’ll find their own heads on the block. 
    It’s too close now.
    This is a very dangerous time. For us, but more so for them. And they know it. 
    That’s what they mean when they say Make America Great Again.
    Great like when Robber Barons ruled America and the peasants paid for the privilege of eating out of their garbage cans. Great before the time of social safety nets and social programs, of unions and public education, before the common people claimed power for themselves, when profit was all and no one – no one – dared threaten their power. Like the Kings and the aristocracy who ruled over colonial America before the Revolution, there is nothing these modern elites fear more than the radical idea that power rests not with the privileged, not with those born to it, but with the ordinary citizen.
    And because they are afraid, afraid of you – and they are indeed afraid of you – and because they will do anything to hold on to power, to their image of themselves as superior, they have become very, very dangerous.
    Impeachment of one of their own directly threatens their power structure. 
    Whether it successfully removes the president from office or not, impeachment sets the very example they are most afraid of.
    There's an old saying, apocryphally attributed to Thomas Jefferson and ironically used as a rallying cry by those who would point to the Second Amendment as a proof their right to burn down the government and yet who right now directly support these very elites. It goes like this:
    When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
    Of course, Thomas Jefferson never said this. And likely never would. Because Jefferson of all the Founders understood the dynamics of wealth, privilege, power, and fear.
    Because when government fears the people, and when people fear their government in turn, what you get is chaos, what you get is civilization falling into war, revolution, and violent, bloody murder as each seeks to destroy the other.
    When the privileged feel their power threatened by those they see as their inferiors, that’s when you get tyranny. 
    When government fears its citizens, that’s when the boot comes down on your throat. Every. Time. 
    Worse, there will always be those on the bottom rungs of the ladder who see government falling into absolutism not as tyranny, but as opportunity.
    And they will cheerfully throw in with the powerful, hoping for a few scraps from the table, hoping to save themselves at the expense of their fellows. Hoping for that moment, finally, when they can shoot down their despised neighbors in an orgy of blood and rage. They'll willingly sell their souls, hoping that they themselves will be given some measure of power and privilege over those they – there on the bottom rung of the ladder – see as inferior, if only by a fraction, to themselves.
    This is a very dangerous time.
    Impeachment isn't just a threat to Trump, but to all of those who align themselves with him, and who benefit from his hate and fear, and who would be nothing without their privilege and sense of superiority, the brawlers and the wealthy alike. 
    They are terrified that the dam has been breached, that more whistleblowers will come forward. They don’t trust you, but they for damned sure can’t trust each other, not when the only way to save themselves might be to sell out their fellows. There is no honor among thieves and there is no loyalty among those who see integrity as a roadblock to power and wealth.
    And they will not go quietly.
    They've said so. 
    They will change the laws to give themselves power.
    They intend to spill blood, your blood, if necessary to keep that power.
    They will ally themselves with America's enemies against you if necessary.
    They will lie, cheat, steal, and murder. These are people who put children in cages and see nothing wrong with it and they'll do whatever they must to hold onto that power.
    You look at the White House, you look at who Trump surrounds himself with, who he's given power to, who has access to that power, who benefits from Trump's increasing megalomania – from Exxon to Russia – and you'd better believe the danger is real.
    But here’s the thing: we can face down that danger, return our nation to sanity without blood in the streets and bring that power to heel.
    We can.
    It’s possible.
    It would have been a hell of a lot easier, safer, a few years ago, when there was more of a margin, but you didn't believe the danger was real then.
    I hope you believe it now.
    Now that we stand on the very precipice with the pit yawning beneath our feet, I hope you can see the danger now
    I hope it's finally real to you. Because if you don't show up this time, no matter what – no matter what – then you’re not going to get another chance. 
    Your government, the wealthy, the powerful, they aren’t just afraid of you, they’re terrified
    And they damned well should be.
    But that makes them very, very dangerous – as are all cornered animals.
    Now, right now, is the time to hold these sons of bitches to account and show them who and what America is supposed to be.
    Yes, this is a dangerous moment in history.
    But then it always is.



    [Update]

    A day after I wrote this, Trump posted this to Twitter: 



    This is the president of the United States right here suggesting that his political enemies be arrested for "treason."
    This is the same definition -- the very same definition -- of "treason" used by dictators the world over: I.e. anyone who criticizes the state, and the state being me.
    You look at that.
    Look at it.
    I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, EVERY American should feel the hair standing up on the back of their necks right now. This cannot go on. Because arrests for "treason" WILL come next, followed by show trials. Followed by everything else. THIS is how it happens, right here.
    Trump needs to be removed from office.

    [end edit]


    Impeachment is dangerous. And that danger – that very danger right there, the very nature of it -- is why it must be done. And it is in the crucible of crisis, facing the greatest of dangers, when true, authentic greatness is forged.
    Now is the time.
    If you want a better nation, be better citizens.
    I would not be understood my dear Marquis to speak of consequences which may be produced, in the revolution of ages, by corruption of morals, profligacy of manners, and listlessness for the preservation of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind; nor of the successful usurpations that may be established at such an unpropitious juncture, upon the ruins of liberty, however providently guarded and secured, as these are contingencies against which no human prudence can effectually provide. It will at least be a recommendation to the proposed Constitution that it is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction of Tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, than any Government hitherto instituted among mortals, hath possessed. We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government. Should that which is now offered to the People of America, be found on experiment less perfect than it can be made, a Constitutional door is left open for its amelioration.
    -- George Washington, Letter to Lafayette, February 7, 1788





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