Short hiatus
Because of three work projects whose deadlines are bearing down on me like runaway freight trains, I'm taking a brief hiatus from blogging. But it shouldn't be more than a few days before I'm back. Fortunately, two of the projects are fairly interesting -- a monthlong library display promoting National Poetry Month, and a set of recommended-book bibliographies for an upcoming program about Frankenstein.
Back in a few days --
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Gypsy.... er, Romani Spirit
A week or two ago, I went to see the Budapest Ensemble's travelling music-and-dance extravaganza, Gypsy Spirit. Sadly, I'm not really knowledgeable enough to know whether the music was "authentic" or not, nor to competently evaluate the "artistic merit" of the dancing. I can say it was an enjoyable show -- the music was lively, the songs and choreography were clever, and the dancers were agile and energetic as the men rhythically slapped and stomped the rhythm while the women twirled colorfully around the stage, with rainbow-hued skirts swirling about their waists.
I couldn't help noticing a few things that seemed curious, though. There was a noticeable difference in personal appearance between the musicians and the dancers. The musicians, with the exception of one or two players, appeared dark-haired and dark-complected. I've often been told that the Gypsies (who reportedly prefer to be called Romani) are almost universally dark-haired and dark-complected, and are said to have originated in India. Several of the dancers, though, had noticeably blue eyes and light-colored hair. Curious. (The most captivating of the female dancers, though, had jet-black hair and eyes....)
I bought a CD and a copy of Ian Hancock's book We are the Romani people while I was there. In reading it later on, I came upon the following passages:
p. 3. (caption to a picture showing a female dancer with her skirt whirling above her knees:) The clothing depicted is not Romani, and showing the legs above the calves is taboo in Romani culture.
p. 102. Romani morals are in fact excessively strict by non-Romani standards; showing the legs, for example, is gadzikani forma, or non-Romani behaviour, and neither men nor women should wear shorts. The dancers who lift their colourful skirts on the state of the Teatr Romen are all non-Romanies, since the Romani members of the troupe will not do this.
Now even accepting that Dr. Hancock may be generalizing somewhat, this does seem to cast some doubt on the authenticity of the "Gypsy" dancing in the show.
I suppose it would not be surprising if the programme presented by the troupe were tailored to what audiences expected to see, and were presumably paying to see. After all, tourists are famously unconcerned about the cultural or ethnic authenticity of the entertainment they consume, and the same is presumably true of cultural "tourists" who partake of travelling presentations like this. (Does Silver Dollar City , taken as a whole, accurately reflect the lifestyles of 19th-century Ozark farmers? HA!)
Does it matter whether the dancers are actually ethnically Romani or not? Does it matter whether the dance moves are actually drawn from any real Romani tradition, as long as it's a good show? And does wondering about the authenticity of "Gypsy" music and dancing performed by non-Romanies put one in the same category as those who think that Caucasians can't play jazz or blues, or that blacks make good musicians and dancers because they have "natural jungle rythym"?
A week or two ago, I went to see the Budapest Ensemble's travelling music-and-dance extravaganza, Gypsy Spirit. Sadly, I'm not really knowledgeable enough to know whether the music was "authentic" or not, nor to competently evaluate the "artistic merit" of the dancing. I can say it was an enjoyable show -- the music was lively, the songs and choreography were clever, and the dancers were agile and energetic as the men rhythically slapped and stomped the rhythm while the women twirled colorfully around the stage, with rainbow-hued skirts swirling about their waists.
I couldn't help noticing a few things that seemed curious, though. There was a noticeable difference in personal appearance between the musicians and the dancers. The musicians, with the exception of one or two players, appeared dark-haired and dark-complected. I've often been told that the Gypsies (who reportedly prefer to be called Romani) are almost universally dark-haired and dark-complected, and are said to have originated in India. Several of the dancers, though, had noticeably blue eyes and light-colored hair. Curious. (The most captivating of the female dancers, though, had jet-black hair and eyes....)
I bought a CD and a copy of Ian Hancock's book We are the Romani people while I was there. In reading it later on, I came upon the following passages:
p. 3. (caption to a picture showing a female dancer with her skirt whirling above her knees:) The clothing depicted is not Romani, and showing the legs above the calves is taboo in Romani culture.
p. 102. Romani morals are in fact excessively strict by non-Romani standards; showing the legs, for example, is gadzikani forma, or non-Romani behaviour, and neither men nor women should wear shorts. The dancers who lift their colourful skirts on the state of the Teatr Romen are all non-Romanies, since the Romani members of the troupe will not do this.
Now even accepting that Dr. Hancock may be generalizing somewhat, this does seem to cast some doubt on the authenticity of the "Gypsy" dancing in the show.
I suppose it would not be surprising if the programme presented by the troupe were tailored to what audiences expected to see, and were presumably paying to see. After all, tourists are famously unconcerned about the cultural or ethnic authenticity of the entertainment they consume, and the same is presumably true of cultural "tourists" who partake of travelling presentations like this. (Does Silver Dollar City , taken as a whole, accurately reflect the lifestyles of 19th-century Ozark farmers? HA!)
Does it matter whether the dancers are actually ethnically Romani or not? Does it matter whether the dance moves are actually drawn from any real Romani tradition, as long as it's a good show? And does wondering about the authenticity of "Gypsy" music and dancing performed by non-Romanies put one in the same category as those who think that Caucasians can't play jazz or blues, or that blacks make good musicians and dancers because they have "natural jungle rythym"?
Monday, March 29, 2004
Also found on Lessig's blog:
This amusing quote from a Wall Street Journal review of his recent book Free Culture, in which the reviewer suggests that copyright reform might be an attractive "wedge issue" for the political right. "What’s to fear, that Hollywood will end its generous support of Republican candidates?"
Perhaps the Kahle v. Ashcroft folks are already adopting this approach. From the Stanford Center for Internet and Society's FAQ about the case:
1. What’s this case about?
It is about freeing our culture from unnecessary and harmful regulation....
This amusing quote from a Wall Street Journal review of his recent book Free Culture, in which the reviewer suggests that copyright reform might be an attractive "wedge issue" for the political right. "What’s to fear, that Hollywood will end its generous support of Republican candidates?"
Perhaps the Kahle v. Ashcroft folks are already adopting this approach. From the Stanford Center for Internet and Society's FAQ about the case:
1. What’s this case about?
It is about freeing our culture from unnecessary and harmful regulation....
Another salvo in the Copyright Wars
Found via www.librarian.net and the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education:
In Kahle v. Ashcroft, the Internet Archive and the Preminger Archive of old film and television materials seek to overturn the retroactive application of automatic or "unconditional" copyrighted status to certain "orphan" works published between 1964 and 1978. I'm not sure that I understand their argument. It seems to be more complex than Eldred v. Ashcroft, and it may be beyond my puny reasoning capabilities. It looks to me like a case involving a fairly narrow set of copyrighted works, but Lawrence Lessig seems to think otherwise. He's discussed this on his blog, and suggests that "If the case were to prevail, Congress would have to reenact the Sonny Bono Act to protect non-orphaned works...."
.PDF of complaint is available here .
Found via www.librarian.net and the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education:
In Kahle v. Ashcroft, the Internet Archive and the Preminger Archive of old film and television materials seek to overturn the retroactive application of automatic or "unconditional" copyrighted status to certain "orphan" works published between 1964 and 1978. I'm not sure that I understand their argument. It seems to be more complex than Eldred v. Ashcroft, and it may be beyond my puny reasoning capabilities. It looks to me like a case involving a fairly narrow set of copyrighted works, but Lawrence Lessig seems to think otherwise. He's discussed this on his blog, and suggests that "If the case were to prevail, Congress would have to reenact the Sonny Bono Act to protect non-orphaned works...."
.PDF of complaint is available here .
On a distant northern sea....
Self-described "railfan/boatnerd" Pete Jensen reports via the YooperRails mailing list that the shipping season has begun for Marquette's lower harbor. (The first freighter docked in the upper harbor on Saturday the 27th.)
I miss living on Lake Superior and watching it change through the seasons. I can remember watching for the first laker of the season to arrive, and wondering what it would have been like to live there before the coming of the railroads, when the place was almost totally isolated from the fall freeze-up to the spring thaw. I once spent a substantial part of a March afternoon standing on Presque Isle and watching a Coast Guard cutter break its way through the ice to free an oreboat whose captain had been a little too eager to be the first ship of the season. (I think it was the Saginaw, but I can't recall for certain.)
I guess the Detroit River is only about an hour's drive away from here, with several times the ship traffic than Marquette sees, but it's not the same as being able to see them from my front window and casually walk down to the waterfront any time I felt like it.
I will admit, though, that the webcam of the Great Lakes Maritime Institute on the Detroit waterfront is one of the coolest I've ever seen. It's mounted on top of a dethroned oreboat pilothouse, and can be remotely controlled to scan up and down the river for passing boats or anything else of interest. Apparently they funded it by auctioning off, among other things, a couple of bottles of 90-year-old Scotch that spent most of the last 70 years in a shipwreck on the bottom of Lake Huron.
Self-described "railfan/boatnerd" Pete Jensen reports via the YooperRails mailing list that the shipping season has begun for Marquette's lower harbor. (The first freighter docked in the upper harbor on Saturday the 27th.)
I miss living on Lake Superior and watching it change through the seasons. I can remember watching for the first laker of the season to arrive, and wondering what it would have been like to live there before the coming of the railroads, when the place was almost totally isolated from the fall freeze-up to the spring thaw. I once spent a substantial part of a March afternoon standing on Presque Isle and watching a Coast Guard cutter break its way through the ice to free an oreboat whose captain had been a little too eager to be the first ship of the season. (I think it was the Saginaw, but I can't recall for certain.)
I guess the Detroit River is only about an hour's drive away from here, with several times the ship traffic than Marquette sees, but it's not the same as being able to see them from my front window and casually walk down to the waterfront any time I felt like it.
I will admit, though, that the webcam of the Great Lakes Maritime Institute on the Detroit waterfront is one of the coolest I've ever seen. It's mounted on top of a dethroned oreboat pilothouse, and can be remotely controlled to scan up and down the river for passing boats or anything else of interest. Apparently they funded it by auctioning off, among other things, a couple of bottles of 90-year-old Scotch that spent most of the last 70 years in a shipwreck on the bottom of Lake Huron.
The Old Lions of Academia
"Thomas H. Benton", a pseudonymous columnist in the Chronicle of Higher Education, waxes nostalgic over the intimidating intellectual aura of the dignified, demanding, authoritarian professors of his youth. I have mixed feelings about such things.
On the one hand, a professor of the kind portrayed so fearsomely by John Houseman in The Paper Chase demands and deserves respect. By accepting no excuses and demanding the students display mastery of the material, he forces the students to learn not just the class materials but the discipline to learn needed information under time constraints and be able to present it under stress. Like it or not, these are necessary skills in most professions.
On the other hand, my experience in taking classes from three of Thee University's "Old Lions" was that two of them were simply rude, condescending, and stuck in their own little private intellectual rut.
One, in American Literature, airily dismissed all fantasy and science fiction writing as merely "popular" and therefore unworthy of academic attention. His response when I wanted to do a semester-long paper on James Branch Cabell went something like this:
Professor: "Is he on the syllabus?"
Me: "No; that's why I thought I'd ask y...."
Professor: "Well, that answers your question, then."
The second, a history professor, had a reputation as being an interesting and opinionated lecturer. During a study-abroad trip to the United Kingdom, he apparently couldn't stomach it that I disagreed with him about Irish politics, resulting in a tirade while waiting on a Dublin railway platform in which he accused me of being irresponsible and ungrateful, and then refused to speak to me again the rest of the trip. I guess I can see how political opinions could be called irresponsible, but I still haven't figured out what they have to do with gratitude.
The third was one of the oldest history professors in the school. I thought of him as "the last of the New Dealers", and for all I know he might have entered academia during the Roosevelt administration. His lectures were quite openly biased toward a populist-liberal viewpoint, but he didn't seem to mind when I or other students argued with him. That's a quality I respect more than I respect any overbearing self-appointed Unanswerable Authority.
Still, it would be nice to be one.
"Thomas H. Benton", a pseudonymous columnist in the Chronicle of Higher Education, waxes nostalgic over the intimidating intellectual aura of the dignified, demanding, authoritarian professors of his youth. I have mixed feelings about such things.
On the one hand, a professor of the kind portrayed so fearsomely by John Houseman in The Paper Chase demands and deserves respect. By accepting no excuses and demanding the students display mastery of the material, he forces the students to learn not just the class materials but the discipline to learn needed information under time constraints and be able to present it under stress. Like it or not, these are necessary skills in most professions.
On the other hand, my experience in taking classes from three of Thee University's "Old Lions" was that two of them were simply rude, condescending, and stuck in their own little private intellectual rut.
One, in American Literature, airily dismissed all fantasy and science fiction writing as merely "popular" and therefore unworthy of academic attention. His response when I wanted to do a semester-long paper on James Branch Cabell went something like this:
Professor: "Is he on the syllabus?"
Me: "No; that's why I thought I'd ask y...."
Professor: "Well, that answers your question, then."
The second, a history professor, had a reputation as being an interesting and opinionated lecturer. During a study-abroad trip to the United Kingdom, he apparently couldn't stomach it that I disagreed with him about Irish politics, resulting in a tirade while waiting on a Dublin railway platform in which he accused me of being irresponsible and ungrateful, and then refused to speak to me again the rest of the trip. I guess I can see how political opinions could be called irresponsible, but I still haven't figured out what they have to do with gratitude.
The third was one of the oldest history professors in the school. I thought of him as "the last of the New Dealers", and for all I know he might have entered academia during the Roosevelt administration. His lectures were quite openly biased toward a populist-liberal viewpoint, but he didn't seem to mind when I or other students argued with him. That's a quality I respect more than I respect any overbearing self-appointed Unanswerable Authority.
Still, it would be nice to be one.
I wonder why it's held on April 1st?
Behold the International Edible Book Festival.
(From the Bookfinder Insider mailing list.)
Behold the International Edible Book Festival.
(From the Bookfinder Insider mailing list.)
Are you a blogaholic?
Yet another of those lovable internet quizzes.
As for me:
"Your Score: 48 / 100
YOUR SCORE: 48.0% 48.0 points out of 100
AVG SCORE: 42.9% 42.9 points out of 100
12077 people have taken this silly test so far.
4083 people have scored higher than you.
6898 people have scored lower than you.
1096 people made the same grade as you.
What does this mean? *
48 points is in the 21 through 50 precent
You are a casual weblogger. You only blog when you have nothing better to do, which is not very often. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you'd post a little more often, you'd make your readers very happy."
I have to wonder about that last bit. Trebor seems to be getting bored with my postings....
Yet another of those lovable internet quizzes.
As for me:
"Your Score: 48 / 100
YOUR SCORE: 48.0% 48.0 points out of 100
AVG SCORE: 42.9% 42.9 points out of 100
12077 people have taken this silly test so far.
4083 people have scored higher than you.
6898 people have scored lower than you.
1096 people made the same grade as you.
What does this mean? *
48 points is in the 21 through 50 precent
You are a casual weblogger. You only blog when you have nothing better to do, which is not very often. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you'd post a little more often, you'd make your readers very happy."
I have to wonder about that last bit. Trebor seems to be getting bored with my postings....
Friday, March 26, 2004
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Differentiating "us" from the "enemy"
The Carpetbagger Report has an interesting take on the Pledge-of-Allegiance brouhaha.
The Carpetbagger Report has an interesting take on the Pledge-of-Allegiance brouhaha.
Does pledging allegiance to "one nation under God" constitute an "establishment of religion"?
That's the question before the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the plaintiff, Michael Newdow, is not only representing himself, but arguing his first courtroom case. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
The day in court was clearly dominated by Newdow, an emergency room doctor with legal training but no prior courtroom experience. A lively back-and-forth with the justices' quick legal minds can reduce even the most experienced attorneys' arguments to rubble, but Newdow often appeared to be in control of the debate.
Using a mix of emotional appeal and demonstrated knowledge of the court's precedents, Newdow laid out an argument that the justices seemed to have difficulty attacking.
Newdow even drew an uncharacteristic laugh from the court audience when, in an exchange with Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he argued that Congress' inclusion of the words "under God" in the pledge didn't draw more objection in 1954 because "atheists can't get elected to public office."
Unfortunately, there is a side issue which may muddy the waters and allow the Court to rule on this case while ducking the Big Question:
Terrence Cassidy, the lawyer for Elk Grove, hammered at Newdow's standing to hear the case.
"The question is what is in the best interest of the child, and in custody disputes, the court decides which parents has decision-making power," Cassidy said. Sandra Banning, the mother and legal guardian of Newdow's daughter, is a born-again Christian and doesn't approve of the child's involvement in the case.
It will be an anticlimax if the Supremes duck ruling on the Big Question by hiding behind the fig-leaf of a domestic difference of opinion.
That's the question before the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the plaintiff, Michael Newdow, is not only representing himself, but arguing his first courtroom case. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
The day in court was clearly dominated by Newdow, an emergency room doctor with legal training but no prior courtroom experience. A lively back-and-forth with the justices' quick legal minds can reduce even the most experienced attorneys' arguments to rubble, but Newdow often appeared to be in control of the debate.
Using a mix of emotional appeal and demonstrated knowledge of the court's precedents, Newdow laid out an argument that the justices seemed to have difficulty attacking.
Newdow even drew an uncharacteristic laugh from the court audience when, in an exchange with Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he argued that Congress' inclusion of the words "under God" in the pledge didn't draw more objection in 1954 because "atheists can't get elected to public office."
Unfortunately, there is a side issue which may muddy the waters and allow the Court to rule on this case while ducking the Big Question:
Terrence Cassidy, the lawyer for Elk Grove, hammered at Newdow's standing to hear the case.
"The question is what is in the best interest of the child, and in custody disputes, the court decides which parents has decision-making power," Cassidy said. Sandra Banning, the mother and legal guardian of Newdow's daughter, is a born-again Christian and doesn't approve of the child's involvement in the case.
It will be an anticlimax if the Supremes duck ruling on the Big Question by hiding behind the fig-leaf of a domestic difference of opinion.
Free speech in Michigan
The Michigan Court of Appeals has dismissed a lawsuit between the Michigan Education Association sued the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market and pro-educational-voucher think tank that frequently criticizes the MEA and argues against its policy positions. More here and here.
The alleged misdeed? The Mackinac Center, in a fund-raising letter, quoted a public statement by the head of the MEA in which he said that he "admired" them. No one disputed that the quotation was accurate. The Mackinac Center acknowledged in the very next sentence that the MEA was generally "at odds" with them. The MEA sued, claiming that the quotation was an invasion of privacy.
The courts, clearly, thought otherwise.
Good show to the courts this time 'round. I find it difficult to imagine how any meaningful political discussion could take place in a legal environment in which public figures could prohibit political opponents, or news media, from quoting them.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has dismissed a lawsuit between the Michigan Education Association sued the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market and pro-educational-voucher think tank that frequently criticizes the MEA and argues against its policy positions. More here and here.
The alleged misdeed? The Mackinac Center, in a fund-raising letter, quoted a public statement by the head of the MEA in which he said that he "admired" them. No one disputed that the quotation was accurate. The Mackinac Center acknowledged in the very next sentence that the MEA was generally "at odds" with them. The MEA sued, claiming that the quotation was an invasion of privacy.
The courts, clearly, thought otherwise.
Good show to the courts this time 'round. I find it difficult to imagine how any meaningful political discussion could take place in a legal environment in which public figures could prohibit political opponents, or news media, from quoting them.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Not about heroes
Last night I headed over to A-squared again, this time to see/hear a dramatic reading of a two-person play entitled "Not About Heroes", which portrays the friendship between Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, two of the best of the generation of British poets who were cavalierly tossed into the meatgrinder of WWI trench warfare by pigheaded generals who considered the deaths of a hundred thousand men here or a hundred thousand there to be an everyday, blase occurence. It's a powerful play, closely based on the poems and letters of the two men, and it leaves questions lingering in one's mind.
Sassoon's war poems were read and acknowledged largely because he had demonstrated downright suicidal courage under fire, thus pre-emptively absolving himself of the charge of cowardice. Owen died in one of the very last actions of the war, trying to accomplish the same thing.
Does a person need to be a military veteran, or even a military hero, in order to be considered competent to judge the desirability of war and peace?
And how can a society where decisionmakers are completely insulated from the immediate results of their decisions expect to have any rational decisions made on its behalf?
Last night I headed over to A-squared again, this time to see/hear a dramatic reading of a two-person play entitled "Not About Heroes", which portrays the friendship between Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, two of the best of the generation of British poets who were cavalierly tossed into the meatgrinder of WWI trench warfare by pigheaded generals who considered the deaths of a hundred thousand men here or a hundred thousand there to be an everyday, blase occurence. It's a powerful play, closely based on the poems and letters of the two men, and it leaves questions lingering in one's mind.
Sassoon's war poems were read and acknowledged largely because he had demonstrated downright suicidal courage under fire, thus pre-emptively absolving himself of the charge of cowardice. Owen died in one of the very last actions of the war, trying to accomplish the same thing.
Does a person need to be a military veteran, or even a military hero, in order to be considered competent to judge the desirability of war and peace?
And how can a society where decisionmakers are completely insulated from the immediate results of their decisions expect to have any rational decisions made on its behalf?
Which poem are you?
The full text of "me" can be found here. Rather eerily appropriate -- but then again, I also like this poem.
| Which poem are you? Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold You're probably strongly political, and a pacifist. Hey, and you're also slightly depressing. You think a lot of things suck and are pointless. Congratulations!
|
| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
The full text of "me" can be found here. Rather eerily appropriate -- but then again, I also like this poem.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Readers rejoice!
Silverlock is back in print, in a durable and affordable clothbound edition from NESFA! (Also available on Amazon and BN.)
If you don't know what all the fuss is about, read the Amazon reader comments about an earlier, now-out-of-print edition. Or better yet launch into it blind and discover for yourself what the Commonwealth is all about. It's worth the trip.
Silverlock is back in print, in a durable and affordable clothbound edition from NESFA! (Also available on Amazon and BN.)
If you don't know what all the fuss is about, read the Amazon reader comments about an earlier, now-out-of-print edition. Or better yet launch into it blind and discover for yourself what the Commonwealth is all about. It's worth the trip.
Don't get any ideas.
Libraries seem to be magnets for thieves. I've noticed a substantial number of items missing from the shelves of "Huron State U." since starting work here. These are usually items which are currently required textbooks or items which are predictably in high demand among student report-writers, but recently I found that two of the three volumes of an early edition of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica were inexplicably gone from the shelves. That's a three-digit book on the secondhand market, and it seems unlikely to me that its disappearance is entirely a coincidence, or that they were taken by a student who needed them for a class.
The University of Oregon, in this story, is just the most recent university library to find its property being auctioned off on eBay. Miles Harvey, in The Island of Lost Maps, described in painful detail how a mild-mannered thief with the preposterously appropriate name of Gilbert Bland managed to lift millions of dollars worth of rare and salable old maps from library atlases simply by using WorldCat to locate the libraries that owned them, pretending to be a "scholar" in order to get access to them, and then surreptitiously dismembering them with a razor blade. (Amazingly, several libraries could not even be bothered to return the FBI's telephone calls when Bland was finally caught with a Florida strip-mall store filled with stolen library property.) And of course it's common knowledge to anyone who closely followed the sordid career of Mark Hofmann's forgeries that he 'acquired' appropriately-aged paper for his forgeries by slicing endsheets out of old library books.
It's tempting to say that this means secondhand book buyers should be suspicious of ex-library books and all old maps in internet selling venues; however, I know from firsthand experience how often libraries blithely and ignorantly discard books that are in high demand on the secondhand market. Advocating that such ex-libs be shunned, or that libraries summarily destroy discarded materials in order to prevent confusion between legitimately acquired ex-lib books and stolen ones, would be an intolerable injury to those readers who are savvy enough to know what to look for and where to find the legitimate ones offered for sale. Even an injury to learning itself, if I might wax pompous for a moment.
It's likewise tempting to advocate closing the stacks entirely, but this is financially prohibitive for most institutions, and a serious barrier to usage of the library. However, I note that the one volume of the Whitehead/Russell book which is still in the possession of "Huron State" is the one that was inexplicably placed in non-public storage.
As always, I'm open to suggestions. Perhaps the library world needs to hire someone like this.
(Note: if anyone reads this an takes it as an inspiration to start stealing library books, be warned: If I find out about it, I will hunt you down and take them back.)
Libraries seem to be magnets for thieves. I've noticed a substantial number of items missing from the shelves of "Huron State U." since starting work here. These are usually items which are currently required textbooks or items which are predictably in high demand among student report-writers, but recently I found that two of the three volumes of an early edition of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica were inexplicably gone from the shelves. That's a three-digit book on the secondhand market, and it seems unlikely to me that its disappearance is entirely a coincidence, or that they were taken by a student who needed them for a class.
The University of Oregon, in this story, is just the most recent university library to find its property being auctioned off on eBay. Miles Harvey, in The Island of Lost Maps, described in painful detail how a mild-mannered thief with the preposterously appropriate name of Gilbert Bland managed to lift millions of dollars worth of rare and salable old maps from library atlases simply by using WorldCat to locate the libraries that owned them, pretending to be a "scholar" in order to get access to them, and then surreptitiously dismembering them with a razor blade. (Amazingly, several libraries could not even be bothered to return the FBI's telephone calls when Bland was finally caught with a Florida strip-mall store filled with stolen library property.) And of course it's common knowledge to anyone who closely followed the sordid career of Mark Hofmann's forgeries that he 'acquired' appropriately-aged paper for his forgeries by slicing endsheets out of old library books.
It's tempting to say that this means secondhand book buyers should be suspicious of ex-library books and all old maps in internet selling venues; however, I know from firsthand experience how often libraries blithely and ignorantly discard books that are in high demand on the secondhand market. Advocating that such ex-libs be shunned, or that libraries summarily destroy discarded materials in order to prevent confusion between legitimately acquired ex-lib books and stolen ones, would be an intolerable injury to those readers who are savvy enough to know what to look for and where to find the legitimate ones offered for sale. Even an injury to learning itself, if I might wax pompous for a moment.
It's likewise tempting to advocate closing the stacks entirely, but this is financially prohibitive for most institutions, and a serious barrier to usage of the library. However, I note that the one volume of the Whitehead/Russell book which is still in the possession of "Huron State" is the one that was inexplicably placed in non-public storage.
As always, I'm open to suggestions. Perhaps the library world needs to hire someone like this.
(Note: if anyone reads this an takes it as an inspiration to start stealing library books, be warned: If I find out about it, I will hunt you down and take them back.)
Make the pie higher!
Some of you, Gentle Readers, may have already seen the well-known "poem" created from snippets of President Bush's various malapropisms by a Washington Post editorial writer. It was recently forwarded around my place of work, and I've seen it elsewhere. It's quite entertaining; however, being skeptical of the veracity of such things, I turned to the font of all knowledge in such things, the good folks at the Urban Legend Reference Pages.
Somewhat to my surprise, they provide not only an imprimatur of its authenticity, but a detailed analysis of where each phrase came from.
Sadly, the one phrase I thought had real poetic power, "I am a pit bull on the pantleg of opportunity", was the only one for which they could not find a source.
Playing devil's advocate for a moment, I will point out that some of the phrases in the "poem", although they sound quite bizarre when taken out of context, actually do make a kind of sense in the context of their original appearance. Consider for example "Knock down the tollbooth!" Nonsense, huh? It originally appeared in a speech as follows:
"It's not fair!" Bush exclaims. "It's a tollbooth on the road to the middle class, and I intend not only to reduce the fees but to knock the tollbooth down."
Perhaps not the most elegant phrasing, but it does make a kind of sense as a rhetorical parallel to the "tollbooth" reference in the preceding clause.
"I think we all agree, the past is over" turns out to have been said in the course of politically making-up with an internal Republican Party rival after a bitter primary fight. Again, not elegant, but it sort of makes sense in context.
Likewise with "I know that the human being and the fish can coexist."
However, I'm not even going to try to justify mangled verbiage such as "misunderestimate", "How many hands have I shaked", or "Is our children learning". With those phrases, you're on your own, Mr. President.
Some of you, Gentle Readers, may have already seen the well-known "poem" created from snippets of President Bush's various malapropisms by a Washington Post editorial writer. It was recently forwarded around my place of work, and I've seen it elsewhere. It's quite entertaining; however, being skeptical of the veracity of such things, I turned to the font of all knowledge in such things, the good folks at the Urban Legend Reference Pages.
Somewhat to my surprise, they provide not only an imprimatur of its authenticity, but a detailed analysis of where each phrase came from.
Sadly, the one phrase I thought had real poetic power, "I am a pit bull on the pantleg of opportunity", was the only one for which they could not find a source.
Playing devil's advocate for a moment, I will point out that some of the phrases in the "poem", although they sound quite bizarre when taken out of context, actually do make a kind of sense in the context of their original appearance. Consider for example "Knock down the tollbooth!" Nonsense, huh? It originally appeared in a speech as follows:
"It's not fair!" Bush exclaims. "It's a tollbooth on the road to the middle class, and I intend not only to reduce the fees but to knock the tollbooth down."
Perhaps not the most elegant phrasing, but it does make a kind of sense as a rhetorical parallel to the "tollbooth" reference in the preceding clause.
"I think we all agree, the past is over" turns out to have been said in the course of politically making-up with an internal Republican Party rival after a bitter primary fight. Again, not elegant, but it sort of makes sense in context.
Likewise with "I know that the human being and the fish can coexist."
However, I'm not even going to try to justify mangled verbiage such as "misunderestimate", "How many hands have I shaked", or "Is our children learning". With those phrases, you're on your own, Mr. President.
Theater thuggery
When I left the State Theater Saturday evening, I noticed that there were police officers and an ambulance near the front door. I didn't find out why until I read this article from the Detroit Free Press.
.... According to police, [Paul] Elrod was talking loudly Saturday night in the State Theater during a showing of "The Triplets of Belleville" when Eisenbach turned around and said "Shush."
Elrod became irate and turned to his wife and said, "Should I bitch-slap this guy?"
He then began talking in Eisenbach's ear, kicking his seat, throwing popcorn and spitting on him. Eisenbach rose and turned to Elrod and said "Excuse me."
Elrod hit him in the face, the pair grappled and Eisenbach was pushed 13 feet down the stairs of the stadium seating-style theater. He suffered fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and cuts.
Book 'im, Dano. And while you're at it, you might want to investigate the fact that he "says he is on disability due to an injured leg."
(See? Sometimes I support the police!)
When I left the State Theater Saturday evening, I noticed that there were police officers and an ambulance near the front door. I didn't find out why until I read this article from the Detroit Free Press.
.... According to police, [Paul] Elrod was talking loudly Saturday night in the State Theater during a showing of "The Triplets of Belleville" when Eisenbach turned around and said "Shush."
Elrod became irate and turned to his wife and said, "Should I bitch-slap this guy?"
He then began talking in Eisenbach's ear, kicking his seat, throwing popcorn and spitting on him. Eisenbach rose and turned to Elrod and said "Excuse me."
Elrod hit him in the face, the pair grappled and Eisenbach was pushed 13 feet down the stairs of the stadium seating-style theater. He suffered fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and cuts.
Book 'im, Dano. And while you're at it, you might want to investigate the fact that he "says he is on disability due to an injured leg."
(See? Sometimes I support the police!)
More news & photos of last weekend's march
Eastern Echo
Michigan Daily
Detroit Free Press
Windchimewalker
Sadly I'm not in any of the photos, which ought to set Trebor's mind at ease.
Eastern Echo
Michigan Daily
Detroit Free Press
Windchimewalker
Sadly I'm not in any of the photos, which ought to set Trebor's mind at ease.
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