The Markives for 02009   

15 December 02009: A Song For The Season

If Neil Diamond can cross religious barriers, the floodgates are open for the rest of us.

In other news, the Large Hadron Collider is up and running in Europe--and the planet is still here.

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6 December 02009: Photography Update

A couple of posts back (28 October), I mentioned the ongoing assault inflicted on the world by semi-skilled people with digital cameras.  Here is an example of what I mean when I say that the digital camera has done considerable harm along with its not-insignificant good.

For those without the inclination or stomach to click through, this is from STFU, Parents, which collects annoying posts on Facebook from oversharing parents.  In this installment, we learn about a woman who brags that she has taken 311 pictures of her child in one day.

311.  In film terms, assuming 24 exposures/roll, that's almost 13 full rolls of film.  Unless there's a wedding going on, I can't manage that.  Even in Las Vegas, that's a week's worth of shooting for me, not a day.  It's really straining the bounds of credibility to claim that any more than a homeopathic fraction of those have archival value, or that this is an accomplishment worth trumpeting on the I'net.

311 pictures of one subject.  One picture every 4.63 minutes, on a 24-hour shooting schedule.  The mind reels.

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6 December 02009: Overplay Defined

Word from South Bend, which is getting way too much play on the news*, is, of course, that Notre Dame's football team will not be playing in a bowl game this year.

Some of the story that's not being as widely reported is this:

1. No one has yet invited ND to their bowl game.  It's not news when you announce that you're not going to do something that isn't a meaningful possibility yet.  Turning down an invitation might be newsworthy.  This is just elitist nonsense.

2. In looking at ND's legitimate bowl game suitors, it doesn't seem like this is much of a sacrifice.  All indicators were that the boys from South Bend were only being considered for the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl (formerly the Motor City Bowl) in Detroit and the GMAC Bowl (formerly the Mobile Alabama Bowl) in Mobile, Alabama.  Last year, with the same record, the team happily accepted an invitation to...the Hawaii Bowl.

That's in Honolulu.  In December.

Sometimes geography makes it a lot easier to pretend to have principles.

In other news, the Large Hadron Collider is up and running in Europe--and the planet is still here.

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*--Seriously.  This was part of the lead in the crawl on ESPN the other night.

21 November 02009: ACME-6

In the annual Christmas music entry, it's time for a tip o' the visor to the good folks at Sirius satellite radio.  On 16 November (too early), they launched a pair of all-Christmas, all the time channels, and on 7 December (still too early, but only three days), there'll be two more all-Christmas channels and an all-Hanukkah channel.

Why this, despite it's fivefold gun-jumping, is a good thing: One of the Christmas stations ("Holly": channel 3 or XM channel 23) will be on the air and all-Christmas until December 31.*    Very good on them.  I have long maintained that the rush to reshelve the Xmas tunes because the calendar has flipped to 26 December is just wrong--if you can pull the tunes out in early November, why not let them hang around a while once the world has caught up with your overanticipation?

Terrestrial radio, take note.

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*--A New Year's tune could slip in, I suppose.  I wouldn't object to that.

21 November 02009: Update

The Large Hadron Collider is again up and running in Europe--and once again, the planet is still here.  Further update, as always, may be found here.

Let's hope they can avoid stray baguette pieces long enough to do what the collider was designed for.

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7 November 02009: The Beginning

That faint keening you heard from the general direction of Albion on Thursday night was the service department at Albion Ford, lamenting the demise of my Escort and, by extension, a diminution (one would hope) in the frequency of my business there.

Seriously.  They, in a fit of boredom, went back through their records and tallied up how much I've spent there over the years.  In related news, the Mark Bollman--> Living Memorial Service Bay will be dedicated next Thursday.

The final mileage on the Escort was 368,225.5, for those who asked.  The mileage on my Focus when I picked it up yesterday was 97.7.

As to the details of the new car:

    ● It appears to lack the carjack-deterrent feature of my Escort--to wit: the ability to remove the key from the ignition while the car is in motion without incident.*  A carjacker might have gotten my car, but shutting it off would have been a challenge.

    ● Apparently satellite radio is a standard feature on new Fords.  Apparently, cruise control is not.  That, I had to order.

    ● "Bright red" was not a color option.  It should have been.  "Sangria red", while not part of the Crayola 48-pack, is as close as I could get, and not a bad alternative.

    ● I miss automatic shoulder belts.

I had never doubted that I got full value out of my Escort, but that point was confirmed when its trade-in value was...$0.

True story.  My previous car, post-engine-compartment fire, was worth $50 in trade.

Almost enough to make me want to drain the gas tank when I was reclaiming the contents of the old car yesterday.

On the other hand, for the next year or so, I can rant about students who drive better cars than I do and be taken a little more seriously.

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*--Credit to Eric for first discovering this, approximately in 01996.

2 November 02009: The End

For obvious reasons, Eric was the first family member other than Laurie to hear of this.  Time to catch everyone else up.

It's official: At about 1:03 PM today, I took my Escort off life support.  I was coming off I-94 in Albion last Wednesday and my car died at the top of the off-ramp.  It's been acting up a bit lately, but it really wouldn't restart this time.  So...I pushed it the quarter-mile to the Albion Ford dealership and basically asked them to look at it and see if there was any point in fixing it.

Repairing it, I found out Friday, would require a new engine (its third).  As a result , several of us in Albion now know that there are two used 01992-ish Escort engines on the used auto parts market.  The word "melted" was used to describe what happened inside the engine compartment, to such an extent that

    1. They really couldn't tear it apart to find out what was actually wrong.

    2. Engine coolant was escaping through the exhaust system, which it shouldn't do.

The new engine that they found has about as many miles on it as the current engine, so while this would be buying time, it probably wouldn't be a lot of time.  After a few hours' thought in the guise of "taking the weekend to think it over", the decision to pull the plug somewhat short of 400,000 miles was pretty obvious.  Due to some recently discovered rust in the undercarriage, I'd be looking to replace it next spring anyway.  I was hoping for one more winter, but the cost of a new engine for 6 months' more use just didn't make sense.

Final mileage: 368,255 or 368,225 (I'm not sure; I'll get that number soon.)  Either way, it was a great ride for nearly 17.5 years.

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28 October 02009: The State Of Photography

That would be Nevada.

At least for the purposes of this entry, which is some reaction to what photography has become here in the last quarter of 02009, and which is inspired by three things:

1. A lot of camera-watching on my recent trip to Las Vegas.

2. Two quotes, one from elsewhere on the I'net, one from TV:

    a. "Pictures or it didn't happen."

    b. "Every hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she's a photographer."--Stewie Griffin.  (This is, of course, behavior not restricted to XX-types.)

The widespread availability of relatively inexpensive digital cameras seems to have led to a lot of people really thinking that they're some reincarnation of Ansel Adams.  Which is a little odd, because now that digital technology has dramatically increased the margin for error in photography (Didn't get the shot?  Re-aim and re-shoot!), I see many people playing around with a zoom lens* like it's a microscope.  Which is a level of precision that's not necessary when you're taking a picture of people standing in front of a building, and blocking foot traffic while doing so

This is what PhotoShop or any of its public domain imitators are for.  The field of interest can be adjusted on the computer if you're working digitally.

And this maddening behavior continues after the shutter clicks, for then it's time to look--very quickly--at the screen and assess the shot.  At least one would think it would be quick, but no--it's not.

As to the first quote, I find myself oddly repelled by the quest to document, via digital photographs or video, everything that happens in life.  I'm a big fan of documenting experience, but there needs to be some judicious restraint in play.  Watching nothing happen through a viewfinder or an LCD screen, waiting for a shot, is sad in a lot of ways.

(Disclaimer: I know I fit in somewhere on this spectrum, and I don't claim that I'm immune just because more than 99% of my camera playing is done with film.)

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*--The fact that pretty much everyone has one of these is also part of the problem.  When people were shooting with Kodak Instamatics, things went much more quickly.  They had to--there were far fewer options.

1 October 02009: On The Samoas Tsunami Of 2K9

I've been following the aftermath of the recent tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa very closely, for a variety of reasons:

1. A long-running interest in the Pacific island nations/territories.

2. My preferred office radio station, KQNG in Kauai, Hawaii, was under a tsunami watch on Tuesday morning (Hawaii time) before anyone fully knew what would happen.

3. I was there last year, which means, given what we know now, that my vacation album from American Samoa has now become a set of "Before" pictures.  This "After" shot (from CNN) struck me particularly hard yesterday:

Last July, that car looked like this:

It's the official car of Pago Pago radio station KKHJ, to which I occasionally listen in-office.  We parked near it on one of our runs to the National Park of American Samoa.

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29 September 02009: Curious Advertising

1. There's a new version of The Wizard of Oz being released, and it's being promoted variously as "a 70^th anniversary edition" and "First time ever on Blu-Ray".

Like the latter is a noteworthy milestone.  Blu-Ray won the format war only about two years ago, as this February 02008 edition of Rockwood indicates:

Pretty much everything released on Blu-Ray is "first time ever on Blu-Ray".    Now if this version of Wizard was coming out for the "first time ever on Betamax", I might be impressed.

2. As citizens of TV-land, (not TV Land), we need to rise up and retake the word "marathon" from cable TV programmers.  There are just too many of those flooding the air these days, with a disrespect for length that I find inexcusable.

My suggestion: It's not a marathon of a series unless you're airing at least 26 episodes, or the complete run of a series (I, for one, would welcome a Flying Blind marathon.).  Anything less is lazy programming, not a marathon.

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21 August 02009: Waiting For 51

Hawaii is commemorating the 50th anniversary of its statehood today, which has been described on Kauai's KQNG radio as "50 Years of 50 Stars".

Which brings to mind the question: When will we be getting the next new American state?

This is not just the rambling of a geographic thrillseeker--there are important historical issues here.  To wit: Right now, my generation of Bollmen stands a good chance of being the first to live their entire lives under the same American flag.

I have a hard time accepting that kind of vexillological vacillation.  Plus, since my "states visited" count is at 38, I'm close enough to the end to be looking for new travel milestones, and 2-6 new states would be a good place to start.

This point is made--and a list of candidates (Cuba 5-1?  Book 'em, Daño!) evaluated--in this excerpt from Esquire.

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17 August 02009: The Future of Nostalgia

To quote Peter DeVries, it isn't what it used to be.

Over at Popdose.com, they've made the interesting suggestion that the recent deaths of Michael Jackson and John Hughes spell the beginning of the end for 80's nostalgia.  There's a certain logic to that that I can't argue with.

The unfortunate consequence of that, of course, is that we're now in for a decade of 01990's nostalgia.  And while I don't begrudge anyone a chance to have their childhood brought back 20 years later, this doesn't look like a good musical development.  Oddly, Popdose themselves called this in this post about the fragmentation and outright manipulation of the Billboard Hot 100 during the 90's.

Trolling the I'net seems to suggest that this will be a tricky sell--most of the top results in a search for "all-90's radio" turn up online radio operations rather than broadcast outlets. Of course, it may be a bit too early for that yet.

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13 August 02009: Leftover Observations

A couple of travel notes that slipped my mind the other day:

1. Seen on a personalized license plate in Wisconsin: PRND21.  You know, just in case anyone thought that this guy's Cadillac didn't have an automatic transmission.  Points for cleverness, but I wonder about the point of the inscription here.

2. Apparently, it's "strange" to travel with a laptop but not have a cell phone.  This according to some of Laurie's relatives.*

I. of course--since this was directed at me--beg to differ.  If I'm driving somewhere (hence no luggage issues) and am going to be staying in a hotel that offers free I'net access, it's wrong not to take advantage of it.  Both of these applied on our unexpected Madison trek.

And if we return, I'll do that again.

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*--None of whom, to the best of my knowledge, visit this site.

11 August 02009: A Travelogue of Sorts

Having spent a big chunk of the last 3.5 weeks traveling about the northwestern semisphere, I've observed a few interesting things:

1. St. Maarten/Martin hasn't changed a lot since our 02006 trip there (The Markives, 25 July 02006), which was kind of nice to see.  In all of our travels, this is the first time that Laurie and I have returned somewhere.  (Las Vegas, we have decreed, no longer counts as a vacation spot--it's more like an alternate residence where we live for 10-12 days out of the year.)  One thing that's in-progress new is the island's embrace of traffic circles, three of which were in construction during our week there.

That having been said, the St. Maartenites/St. Martinians/whatever the appropriate collective noun is* need to take a lesson from the Scots on labeling their roundabouts for ease of use.  After a couple of encounters, of course, it's easy to have all the right routes memorized, but the learning curve on all that is kind of tricky.

2. Puerto Rico may be best served by toning down their tourism campaigns until they find a way to accommodate the people who are there and who visit now.  This applies both the the extended parking lot that is the street grid in Old San Juan and their badly undermarked freeway system.  When a sign says your exit is coming up, exit then.  PR has no custom of advance warnings of exits 1-3 miles in the future that we have on the mainland.

3. On the other hand, Madison, WI has struck a fine blow for fraction sense in their mileage signs--on our travels about the town, we saw signs indicating that various upcoming exits were 1/3, 2/3, and 1/6 of a mile ahead.  In the Pacific Northwest the next week, I saw a sign telling of an exit 600 feet away--Madison would have turned that into an inelegant approximate fraction (1/9?), I'm sure.

4. One of the annoyances of traveling is showing up at your intended hotel and finding out that you no longer have a reservation.  An unexpected amusement is to find that you have four rooms booked at your hotel, though you only need one.  Which is what happened to us in San Juan.

Odd, but certainly not catastrophic.  As near as I can tell, something weird happened when I had to call the customer service line at Orbitz instead of booking online.

5. Portland, OR is even more enviro-crunchy than Madison, WI--which I would not have thought possible.  One example: There's a restaurant in downtown Portland that prefers to use dollar coins rather than dollar bills.  Perfectly reasonable on its face, but high on their list of reasons for so doing is that the coins are better for the environment.

That strikes me as a stretch.

And now that it's all done, here's my updated domestic flight map (from the good folks at FlightMemory.com):

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*--I favor "St. Martinis", but that has little chance of gaining any acceptance.

17 July 02009: Sports News

Of course, predicting that the 36-hole co-leader at the British Open would have the initials "TW" wouldn't have been a stretch by any measure.

Predicting that Tom Watson would be a co-leader and that T. Eldrick Woods would miss the cut--well, that would be right up there with "Farrah Fawcett will die and nobody will pay any attention."  I'm loving Watson's return to form--I've been a fan of his for a long time.

At least this weekend we'll be spared all the speculation about how "Tiger Woods is still in contention, only 10 [11, 12, 14, or whatever the number is] strokes back." (with 42 other players between him and the leader--but of course, that part is never mentioned) nonsense from the sporting press.  Should be a good weekend for golf fans--which is not a set that contains all Tiger Woods fans.

For my own part, and in an unrelated development, I'm leaving the country for a week.

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13 July 02009: Best-Case Scenario, or Wishful Thinking

In sorting through all of the recent high-profile deaths of the last two weeks or so, the one that struck me the hardest was Kodak's announcement that they're going to stop making Kodachrome film.  I don't have an immediate dog in this fight, never having shot a roll of Kodachrome, but a film devotee like me cannot help but wonder yet again what's in store for film photography in general.

I would like to think that, from a hobbyist angle, film photography might wind up like amateur radio--enough of a core of aficionados to support a small (in this case, radically-downsized) industry that serves a collection of avid followers.  I'll be in that group for as long as film is easily available.

That may be way too optimistic, however.  And it may come at the cost that what I do with film and paper starts to be considered "art"--which is a label I try to avoid whenever possible.  It's a risk I'm going to have to accept, though.

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13 July 02009: In The News

Concerning the matter of the future former governor of Alaska, I submit the following modification of some of David Letterman's work:

"Lame duck governor" is a big improvement on "lame governor".

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26 June 02009: Spectacularly Bad Timing

In mulling over recent events, I was thinking about so-called "psychics" and their late-December "Predictions for the New Year".  A sure sign of genuine psychic ability, I submit, would be to have predicted this last December:

"Farrah Fawcett will die in June and hardly anybody will pay attention."

I'm guessing that that didn't happen.

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21 June 02009: An Olio Of Updates

I'm back.  Here's some of what I've been thinking since 5 May.  (Most of the intricate details of the 300,000+ calculus exams that occupied my life for a week are not for this I'net forum.)

1. In the news: There was a news report out last week stating that Pizza Hut was changing their name to simply "The Hut".  A quick denial went out over the weekend, confirming my basic belief that this was a bad idea.  I, for one, know of no one who refers to PH as "The Hut", which suggests that this isn't just jumping on a trend.*  I will admit, though, that their line extension into pasta has resulted in a pretty tasty product.

Nonetheless, if you're looking for really good pasta, you should look elsewhere--like somewhere where that's their first priority.

2. Travel report: In the last month or so, I've put a lot of miles on the ol' Escort, including a round trip to Kansas City**, without significant incident.  While this does some cosmetic damage, perhaps, to Monica 2 and Anne's campaign to get me to get a cell phone for car-related emergencies, I will concede that it doesn't undercut their argument significantly.

But I'd still rather buy a new car than get a cell phone, if it comes to that.

3. Flood watch: Back again.  With the recent rain in the Midwest, the Kalamazoo River is back to overflowing the west (Read: Not my backyard.) side a little bit, and running close to the edge on the east.  The mill race is also filling up nicely, which means fewer alternatives for the water to go.  Could be fun to watch if there's more rain soon.

4. I'net amusement: The big Facebook craze regarding the AP exams this year was a commitment from a bunch of kids to write "Why so serious?" on their exams--and then cross it out, under the belief that crossed-out work would not be graded.  This is, of course, based on a correct reading of the exam directions, and is probably correct as far as calculus (which remains essay-free) is concerned.  On the other hand, some online speculation among actual essay readers suggests that there might be some subtle bias in their minds when they see the phrase o' the year (Last year, the scam was to write and cross out "This is Sparta".) appearing in a somewhat-subjectively scored essay.  Even crossed out.

The biology exam readers got wind of this early enough that the crossed-out phrase appeared on their commemorative T-shirts.  Very good on them.  Over on the calculus side, we had to "settle" for Sudokulus, which makes for a better shirt design, and may explain why the calculus shirts completely sold out this year, for the first time in history.

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*--As it would be, for example, if McDonald's changed its name to "Mickey D's".

**--The return trip was on my car's 17th birthday, to boot.  It rained for about 11 of the 12 hours.

5 May 02009 (Happy Birthday!): 1000 Words, Condensed

'Nuff said.

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16 April 02009: Accumulata

1. One sign that you're getting old is the death of a childhood icon*, which summarizes my feelings about Mark Fidrych's recent tragic passing.  The summer of 01976 was a great deal more exciting because of his rapid rise on the baseball scene.   Every once in awhile, his name would pop up in a "Where are they now?" article, and it always seemed like he was happy living on his farm in Massachusetts. Good for him. He deserved better than dying under a truck.**

2. This is a pretty good April Fool's Day joke--although I bet it would sell a lot of sets if it was really manufactured.  Not unlike the Tauntaun sleeping bag, which started out as a 4/1 gag and is apparently going to be manufactured if the legal bugs can be solved.

3. Final Final Four note: Someone asked me if I thought Ford Field was a good basketball venue.  I have no complaints about the sight lines or the "center the court on the field" configuration, but they have to do something about the public address system.  A number of times, it would have been nice to have in-stadium confirmation of what the referees were calling.  This may, of course, have been a plot to sell more $15 radios on the stadium concourse.

4. On the current political scene: It seems to me that a lot of the people who have hitched the "no taxation without representation" wagon to the collection of malcontents who were seeking attention yesterday represent another step in the decline of the USA.  We already have too many people who define "fair trial" as "trial where I agree with the verdict"; now that's deteriorated further to define "representation" as "representation that I agree with".  That's not part of the deal, folks.

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*--Another is when your high school classmates start showing up at your college with their kids in hand, either enrolling or thinking about enrolling.  That's a lot less universal, though no less jarring.  On both sides--they then have to ask themselves if it's a good idea to send their kids to a college where I'm allowed to teach.

**--Most people do.

6 April 02009: Final Four Notes

It was never a goal of mine to attend an NCAA Division I men's basketball Final Four.  Chalk at least some of that up to being a fan of Northwestern, one of only 5 teams who've been playing at that level since 1948 without ever being invited to the tournament.*  Waiting for NU to get that far (and of my 3 college alma maters, they're the one I travel to see in sports) would surely be a long wait.

Yet there I was at Ford Field for the national semifinals last Saturday.  Turns out I know people.  And one of those people is an MSU alumna with connections and extra tickets.  Some opportunities are too nice to be missed, and this was one.  Herewith, a report:

1. Apparently, the biggest threat to security at an event of this magnitude is...telephoto lenses.  As I passed through the mandatory patdown corridor outside the stadium (this with about 25 minutes to go before tipoff--parking downtown was, as one might expect, a nightmare**), the security officials were very interested in exactly how long my lens was.  This without taking a look at it, mind you--such was the focus of their questioning.  They judged it too large to be acceptable***, which meant that I had to run/walk about 10 minutes back to my car (which was not close to Ford Field) and drop off my camera.  I made it back in time for the tipoff, although not by a large margin.

2. If I didn't have ample reasons to root against North Carolina tonight, the effect of a multitude of fans in baby blue rising in unison in support of their team would do it.  It looked like a swimming pool was coming at us over in section 102.  Light blue simply doesn't make it as a team color.

To be fair, I picked UNC to win it all in my bracket, but that's a place where reason triumphs over emotion.  I'd put a California team in the "last team standing" slot if I really thought they were the best team--and my thoughts about California sports teams are a matter of record (12 October 02004, if that link's not directing you right there).

3. The media are getting way too carried away with the notion of Michigan State's run lifting up the spirits of a downtrodden city/region/state.  A good season for a basketball team will not erase anything that's happened to Detroit/southeastern Michigan/Michigan during the recent economic craziness.  Win or lose, Michigan State's actions tonight will not subtract anything from the trauma currently afflicting the state--Tuesday morning will be unaffected in any meaningful way.

It's a game, folks.  Should be a good one, too.  Let's try enjoying it for that.

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*--On the other hand, the first tournament was held on NU's campus, which ought to count for something.

**--It took me almost as long to find a parking space as it did to drive from Albion to Detroit--at one point, I was tempted to put my car somewhere, remove the license plate, and have it pose as abandoned for the duration of the games.  With over 355,555 miles on the odometer, this would not have been a completely crazy impersonation.

***--For the record, this was my intermediate telephoto lens, not the 650-1300 behemoth that Kate has (rightly) likened to a telescope.  The same camera and lens were permitted into Ford Field for the 02003 Motor City Bowl--so I'm not sure where this restriction came from.

18 March 02009: Holiday Creep Reconsidered

Hope everyone had a good Evacuation Day.  At least there's still one March 17th holiday that isn't slowly extending itself for no apparent reason.

I refer here to "St. Practice Day", which apparently is the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, and an excuse for drinking heavily before the actual celebration...which also seems to involve heavy drinking.

Like most of the most ardent participants in this annual festival of genealogical shoplifting need practice.

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6 March 02009: Of Time And Space And Springtime

So spring break begins at Albion today, and I'll be spending it doing some applied probability research at various field sites in Nevada.

But before I skip town, a comment on the news: Something that shows up from time to time during this season is news pieces on "alternative spring breaks"--college kids spending their one-week March* break doing some kind of community service.

I have no objection to that, nor to voluntary community service in general**--it's when people start agitating to make volunteering mandatory that I resist.  What I always find interesting about these articles is that the story is invariably portrayed as students deciding to forgo a week at the beach for this service project.  Yet they never identify a student who admits to making that choice, nor I have I, in considerable looking, found a student who said "You know, I was going to spend the week in Daytona Beach/Cancun/Fort Lauderdale, but instead, I'm going to go pound nails/pick up trash/clean up the environment somewhere else."

In my experience, the set of college kids considering spending spring break on a beach or something else recreational who changed course and spent the week doing meaningful volunteer work is pretty close to empty.  Just an observation.

And there's nothing wrong with that, of course.  Once again, though, the media aren't quite telling the entire truth.  (There's room in here to make reference to "the rest of the story" and mention the late Paul Harvey, but I'm not going to do that.***)

And so it goes.  More news on or after St. Urho's Day.

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*--Late February, in the case of some places including the University of Michigan.

**--In the abstract, that is.  Actual instances may be sufficiently pointless or badly-executed to draw my contempt.

***--Oops.

4 March 02009: Department of Obviousness/Dictionary Shoutout

Until last night, I had had no need to know what a "rorqual" is.  Then it came up in my weekly Kalamazoo trivia competition.  Fortunately, a couple of teammates had this information at the ready.

Turns out it's an alternate name for the red whale.

And in a display of whimsy by some low-level writer at Merriam-Webster, the definition in the unabridged dictionary I lug into the bar once weekly for this event closes with the line "some are very large".

No kidding.  I would submit that even the smallest of whales qualifies as "large" by any animal-based standard.  But it was amusing to read that.

It's at once heartening that someone slipped that in and a little depressing that so few people will appreciate his/her work.

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24 February 02009: Sciurine Update

Our hit-and-run appearance at Sunday's Oscar party didn't allow for this news to spread, so in an effort to fill that gap, and to edify those who read this site and weren't there at all: We're at just over 2 squirrel-free weeks.  The trap remains baited and poised for action, but it has attracted no new large vermin.

And for that we are grateful.

Not that the problem is completely solved, of course--there's still some scurrying sounds coming from the walls occasionally--but I think the days of the mysterious appearing walnuts might be at an end for now.  Unless Squirrel 1 and Squirrel 2 find their way back from where we let them go.

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8 February 02009: Sciurine News, Premier Edition

It's amazing how little it takes before you become accustomed to--indeed, almost blasé about--having squirrels in the living room.

We have been occasionally setting a live trap in the emergency backup living room this past week, and each day, it's trapped a squirrel.  The city of Albion now has two fewer of the furry little beasts within its limits.  Despite the fact that the traps we're using have been described as "submersible in a 5-gallon bucket", we've opted not to drown them.*  Instead, we transport the squirrels to a secure undisclosed location about twelve miles away, and release them.

Further bulletins as events warrant.  For those wishing photos, imagine this, but without the hat and somewhat less black:

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*--And if we did opt for watery disposal, we have a backyard river that would do the job much more neatly.
 

20 January 02009 (The End Of An Error*): R Is For Radiation

This was one of my favorite records as a kid:

26 short songs, each a gem about something astronomical, plus "The Planet Song", which has been superseded by recent astronomical reassessments (Pluto's demotion).  Unfortunately, time and distance having had their usual effects, that much-played copy is lost to the ages.  I've looked for another copy off and on in the used-record stores of the Midwest, but to no avail.

Then, while on the I'net looking up other things**, I found Way Out Junk, a site where MP3 versions of out-of-print children's and novelty records like this are preserved for download.  Magnificent.  (If you're so inclined, click on the album cover image above to go right to the Space Alphabet page.)

During the intervening decades, I would occasionally (usually, for some reason, while riding my bike), run through the alphabet and try to remember all 26 topics and some of the tunes.  R always escaped me--"Rocket" and "Radio" didn't seem quite right, and the presence of "Quasar" and "X Ray" (which, to be honest, were about the only possibilities in those pre-Quaoar days--and probably still are the best choices possible) led me away from "Radiation" as a subject.

That personal mystery has now been solved.  I had, in addition, completely forgotten about "The Planet Song", so it was especially nice to enjoy that bonus.

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*--And with that end, Barack Obama is now set to pursue his twin agendas of drawing seemingly endless parallels between himself and Abraham Lincoln, and disappointing those on the far left wing who have held him up as the Messiah for over a year now.  He's got a good head start on both, too.

**--Apologies to S.J. Harris.

12 January 02009 (T - 8 days and counting): Holiday Pictures

There's obviously a delay in posting pix to the I'net when you still use film*, but you can right-click, download, and print these without Kodak Gallery getting a cut.  That strikes me as an advantage.

Here are a few of my holiday shots.

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*--With Ritz Camera closing down its Battle Creek outlet, that delay may increase.

5 January 02009 (T - 15 days and counting): Wildlife Near-Encounters

Some of you know that, in the home of The Markives, we've been unintentionally sharing our space with one or more squirrels, who make their presence known by leaving walnuts in unusual places around the house.*  On New Year's Day, we made something of a hard-target search for access points and took some steps to try and block their/its entry.  If all goes well, and if we haven't trapped any of them inside the house in blocking the hole in the east wall (the north wall was sealed last fall, after a neighbor reported seeing a squirrel enter our house through a hole), this problem may be solved.

But in the recent move to de-Christmas the house, we discovered that these animals are a little more crafty than we'd previously thought.  We discovered a walnut stashed at or near the top of all three of our full-size Christmas trees.**  Impressive work--although, given that squirrels are known for their tree-climbing prowess, maybe not so impressive.  What continues to amaze me is that, in their quest to store nuts for the winter, they haven't broken anything in the house.  We've found walnuts in some semi-obscure locations, near some breakable objects, now including a lot of Christmas ornaments--and yet nothing has been lost to their invasion.

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*--I have as yet seen none of the furry beasts in the house, but Laurie has.

*--For those of you familiar with the layout of 422 Linden, there's a tree in the primary living room (facing west), one in the green room (facing north), and one in the blue room (facing south).  For those of you unfamiliar with the layout...well, that's still where they are.  Next year may see us expanding to a fourth tree (Hey, we own a lot of ornaments.), perhaps in the emergency backup living room, which would face east.

Previous editions of The Markives: