🎭 Theatre Writeups, 🛣️ Highway Updates, 📰 Musings on the News, and other 🗯️ Rants and Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway
In 1961, the humorist Stan Freberg issued Volume 1 of The United States of America, a musical telling of the founding of America through the Battle of Yorktown (Volume 2 goes through the end of World War I (“They’ll never be another war…”)). The first scene on Volume 1 relates the story of how the Indians discovered Columbus. As today is Columbus Day, I present a transcription of the scene:
Read More …
In honor of the day…
Narrator: The trouble continued to brew. It was a time for action, a time for words. On a hot July night in 1776, Benjamin Franklin was aroused from his work by the call of destiny.
OK, I normally don’t do posts regarding “The Other December Holiday” (is that like “The Other White Meat”?). But these two are so cute, I just couldn’t resist…
[snarfed from usqueba]
cahwyguy sent to me…
Of course, if you don’t like those 12 Days, you can always let the DoD do the job for you… (snarfed from mortuus):
The Department of Defense 12 Days of Christmas
The president has authorized the Department of Defense to assist Santa with the Twelve Days of Christmas. Status of acquisitions follows:
Day 1– Partridge in a pear tree: The Army and Air Force are in the process of deciding whose area of responsibility Day 1 falls under. Since the partridge is a bird, the Air Force believes it should have the lead. The Army, however, feels trees are part of the land component command’s area of responsibility and has discussions and repeated Ops Deps tank sessions, a $1M study has been commissioned to decide who should lead this joint program.
Day 2 – Two turtle doves: Since doves are birds, the Air Force claims responsibility. However, turtles are amphibious, so the Navy-Marine Corps team feels it should take the lead. Initial studies have shown that turtles and doves may have interoperability problems. Terms of reference are being coordinated for a four-year, $10M DARPA study.
Day 3 – Three French Hens: At State Department instigation, the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs has blocked off-shore purchase of hens, from the French or anyone else. A $6M program is being developed to find an acceptable domestic alternative.
Day 4 – Four Calling Birds: Source selection has been completed, with the contract awarded to AT&T. However, the award is being challenged by a small disadvantaged business.
Day 5 – Five Golden Rings: No available rings meet MILSPEC for gold plating. A three-year, $5M accelerated development program has been initiated.
Day 6 – Six Geese a-Laying: The six geese have been acquired. However, the shells of their eggs seem to be very fragile. It might have been a mistake to build the production facility on a nuclear waste dump at former Air Force base that was closed under BRAC.
Day 7 – Seven Swans a-Swimming: Fourteen swans have died trying to get through the Navy SEAL training program. The program has been put on hold while the training procedures are reviewed to determine why the washout rate is so high.
Day 8 – Eight Maids a-Milking: The entire class of maids a milking training program at Aberdeen is involved in a sexual harassment suit against the Army. The program has been put on hold pending resolution of the lawsuit.
Day 9 – Nine Ladies Dancing: Recruitment of the ladies dancing has been halted by a lawsuit from the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Association.” Members claim they have a right to dance and wear women’s clothing as long as they’re off duty.
Day 10 – Ten Lords a-Leaping: The ten lords have been abducted by terrorists. Congress has approved $2M in funding to conduct a rescue operation. Army Special Forces and a USMC MEU(SOC) are conducting a “NEO-off” competition for the right to rescue.
Day 11 – Eleven Pipers Piping: The pipe contractor delivered the pipes on time. However, he thought DoD wanted smoking pipes. DoD lost the claim due to defective specifications. A $22M dollar retrofit program is in process to bring the pipes into spec.
Day 12 – Twelve Drummers Drumming: Due to cutbacks only six billets are available for drumming drummers. DoD is in the process of coordinating an RFP to obtain the six additional drummers by outsourcing; however, funds will not be available until FY 08.
As a result of the above-mentioned programmatic delays, and due to a high OPTEMPO that requires diversion of modernization funds to support current readiness, Christmas is hereby postponed until further notice.
According to the Dallas Morning News, and reported via a number of sources, there’s a new “in” color for Christmas trees.
Black.
Yes, black is the new green, or white, or silver. It started in the UK last year, when the Brits embraced the dark side — black trees with black trunks and black branches. According to Susan Rose, editor of Britain’s Ideal Home magazine, “Black-and-white has been a strong interiors trend for a couple of years now. If you want to do an elegant, sophisticated Christmas, black is the way to do it.”
Now, just like Harry Potter and the Spice Girls, Black trees are a hit in America. According to Bill Quinn of ChristmasTreeForMe.com, the black trees that he stocks are selling well (although I should note, for dianec42, that he stocks a purple tree as well, as well as upside-down trees, red trees, and aqua trees).
Black trees. What is the world coming to?
Well, as everyone else is writing about their Thanksgivings, I might as well add our 2c. Our is, not surprisingly, a Jewish Thanksgiving, in that we’re observing it over two days. Last night we were going to go over to my uncle’s place, but one of the kids was sick and we didn’t want to risk exposure. So, instead we picked up a hunk-o-lamb, invited over ixixlixand her family, and made an evening of it. I went by my uncle’s to drop off some stuff in the afternoon, and they came by in the evening. No turkey (other than what he brought over), but we did have pumpkin seeds on the salad. Today we’re doing Thanksgiving with my wife’s family. That will be more traditional; my wife just put the turkey in the oven.
So what else have I been doing: more and more family tree. For a few days it became an obsession as I was grabbing information on the Weinbaum family line. I’ve learned that a branch of the family may be the basis of the movie Driving Miss Daisy in addition to the previously mentioned Stanley G Weinbaum. There is also a possibily of a connection to Louis Rukeyser of Wall Street Week fame, although I haven’t fully figured out the note yet. This morning I took some time going through old emails and sending out requests for more information. But there is a little burnout: I can only spend so much time investigating old census records on Ancestry, and I still don’t have a good technique to connect from the information in the 1930s to the current generation. Making the census search even more frustrating is when you know that people exist, but they just stubbornly refuse to show up in the census searches. The problem could be variant spellings of names, but I’m not as creative as I used to be. I’ll probably play with it off and on today.
I’m not sure where this post is going: I just know I wanted to write something. I think I need to go get some breakfast…
Today is Halloween, which has morphed from a minor holiday when children went from house to house demanding protection money to a major money-making holiday where people do major dressing up of their house, put on special costumes, go to parties, and generally have fun and make fools of themselves. Reading LJ, I see all sorts of reports of people dressing up, getting into the holiday. They talk about all these creative ideas they have for costumes, and all the stuff they are doing.
I must not have the “halloween” gene. I know I don’t have the “christmas” gene, but then again, I’m Jewish.
By not having the “halloween” gene, I mean that I’ve never been one to enjoy dressing up in costumes. As I kid, it was always store bought stuff, until I got old enough to not care about the candy. Even today, I don’t really have the creativity to dress up in a costume. About the most creative I’ve been is one Purim where I dressed in a green sweatsuit, attached some branches, and went as the president. People ask what I’m dressed up like today. I say an Engineer. They look at me funny. [As an aside: Can you really dress as a nudist for Halloween?]
What is it with wanting to wear costumes anyway? It’s not just Halloween that folks tend to do it. Of course, we see it at Faire and other period events. People seem to love to put on other personas, pretending to be who they are not. Yet I’ve never done this. Even at UCLA, when everyone else in the UCLA Computer Club was active at Ren Faire, I would attend once-a-year and be happy.
(Note that I distinguish a costume from a uniform. The style of a uniform is dictated from above, such as what we wear when we volunteer at Orange Empire. With costumes, you need to be creative in your choices, and often, play act within a specified role)
What is the compulsion that drives the desire to dress up in costume? Am I too much of an engineer to do this? Could it just be that I’m relatively happy with who I am that I don’t need to be something else? Perhaps I just lack the imagination in that area. In any case, with that lack, I tend to feel like a 2nd class citizen on this day.
I’m also not into the elaborate house decorations or the spooky athmosphere. My daughter keeps trying to encourage me, but the spirit, so to speak, just isn’t willing. Our neighbor has gone all out: tombstones and spooky lights. I read about people putting crashed planes in their yards. Me? I turn on the lights. We also don’t decorate our house for other holidays.
There are folks with the holiday gene. They love their holidays. They are the ones out there going all out for Christmas with decorations, clothes, and traditions. They maximize Halloween. They’re as Irish as can be on St. Patricks day. They’re out with the flags and bunting on the 4th. They are out drinking margaritas on Cinco de Mayo. Then there are those like me, with no holiday genes, people to whom popular holidays are often another day on the calendar. We learn what we need to do to survive them, but we’re not into them.
During our Rosh Hashanah evening service, Rabbi Sarah spoke about the establishing of family traditions around holidays. The brisket that is brought out. They way someone reads The Four Sons. I can get into some of these, especially as the relate to holidays like Passover. But the accepted American holidays? I think with the exception of Thanksgiving, the spirit just doesn’t move me.
[Today is Columbus Day (Observered); Thursday is the real Columbus Day. As it is today that the banks are closed, it is all together fitting and appropriate to remind people why we do this… to give bankers 3-day weekends :-)]
Read More …
