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Saturday, December 28, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 3:10 PM
 Back in March, Salon Magazine had an article about Marlovians (people who theorize that Kit Marlowe faked his death and wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare). The article was sparked by a new documentary on the subject, titled Much ado about something. I'll confess, that's part of what got me so curious about Marlowe and it inspired me into a whole lotta research and reading on the submect, with the conclusion that as nice as it might've been for Marlowe to survive, history is probably closer to what we commonly believe. The reason I'm reviving this issue is that for people in the United States, the documentary will finally be airing on PBS Frontline in the first week of January. I'm skeptical, but look forward to finally seeing the film. If anyone else is interested, the usual caveat applies -- check your local listings, because PBS stations don't necessarily air shows at the same time universally. Posted by Lis Riba at 11:10 AM
Back to the news, I find this New York Times story completely unsurprising: "Rigorous testing that decides whether students graduate, teachers win bonuses and schools are shuttered, an approach already in place in more than half the nation, does little to improve achievement and may actually worsen academic performance and dropout rates, according to the largest study ever on the issue." And the causes aren't entirely what you'd expect -- yes, some "struggling students grow frustrated and ultimately quit" but in other cases, administrators "occasionally pressure failing students to drop out." Ugh. The whole goal of this exercise is to better educate all kids, not just enrich the testing companies and make schools look good superficially. Today's New York Times also has a very funny editorial piece by Superman regarding the whole Rawhide Kid coming out issue. It's not terribly up on current comics continuity, but it made me laugh aloud. [And I quite agree with point #7.] In the blogs, Joshua Micah Marshall has an interesting way of looking at accusations of racism between Republicans and Democrats. He calls it "the Honest Republican's Anti-Semitism Substitution Test" or HRASST and I hope the meme catches. Atrios has already picked it up. Yeowch! [Courtesy of Avedon Carol] Need I say more? Also from the Sideshow is this touching story. And an IASAG "So cool!" goes to this announcement. PNH has lots of other good stuff in his journal, so poke around. Finally, don't forget that the Partisan impasse cuts off jobless benefits tonight. I'm hardly the only one affected by this, so let's hope people keep the pressure on lawmakers to resume extended unemployment coverage given the tough economy. And that's probably enough for now. Have a good day, everyone! Posted by Lis Riba at 9:40 AM
A bit more on Harry Potter fanficI just discovered a fascinating site, The Harry Potter Lexicon with loads of information derived from close reading of the books (and interviews with the author). And, on this site, I just found an interesting essay on Rowling's writing style. And that sort of ties in with something I've been considering for a while lately. As I've been thinking on this topic, I realized that one of the reasons why there's so much Harry Potter fanfic is that J.K. Rowling's writing is so sparse. Rowling doesn't put in a lot of character description, so much is left to the reader's imagination. And because so much is left to the reader's imagination, there's plenty of room for fanfic to fill in the gaps. For example, I've laid out a scene from the first book, Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, side-by-side with the same scene from Draco's POV in the fanfic, The World according to Draco Malfoy for comparison purposes. Take a look. Notice how much wordier the fanfic version is, compared to the original. Of course, some of that is for effect -- differentiating Draco's experience from the existing version that readers are presumably familiar with. Still, Rowling's style is almost deceptively simple. And it's really impressive to study. Friday, December 27, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:56 AM
[To the tune of Jingle Bells:] Informational interviewing this week, I went to two news libraries. Wow. It looks like so much fun. I don't want to say much more about them, for fear of revealing trade secrets or anything, but it's really neat and definitely seems like a career I could really enjoy passionately. Other than that, not much to say. Thursday, December 26, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:40 AM
Wow. I think we just saw a bald eagle soaring in the sky above our house. It was definitely a raptor of some sort, and a very large one, too. It had a white head and tail, and the rest of it was colored an indeterminate brown. I checked my Audobon Guide, and don't see any other hawk or eagle of that pattern in the Northeastern states. And I searched online, and apparently there are bald eagles in Massachusetts. Wow. We saw a bald eagle flying over our house. Posted by Lis Riba at 10:00 AM
Okay, as it turned out, I didn't go up to Vermont for Xmas Day. Yesterday morning, the increasingly dire weather forecasts made Ian's parents hint strongly that we should consider the likelihood of spending the night up there. Since I had an informational interview scheduled for this morning, I didn't dare risk not getting home. So, instead, I just stayed home alone for the day. Turned out to be a good idea. It took Ian and his father 2 1/2 hours to get to Vermont in the morning, and over 6 hours to get back. And by the time they got back, Ian's father was too tired (and too concerned over road conditions) to drive Ian from their place to ours, and wanted him to spend the night there. So, I cleaned our car off and successfully drove to Wayland and back at ten o'clock last night. No problems whatsoever. I took it real slow (maximum of 40 MPH on the highways, and stuck to well-lit and well-plowed roads. Ian and I got home shortly after midnight. During the afternoon, I got some personal things done, but not enough. The power flickered for several minutes midday, so I turned the computers off as a precaution, and most of my tasks required my machine. However, I did successfully shovel the entire sidewalk and the walkways to both front doors. [I left the driveway for Ian, which he's going to do shortly.] All in all, it was a nice, peaceful, quiet day. This morning, I did phone my informational interview, and since we've got a lot of digging out to do, arranged to postpone my informational interview until tomorrow. Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:40 PM
Yawn... Had a pretty good day today. Went on a fascinating informational interview. Don't want to say too much about where, but it seems like a wonderful place and a great job. I'd love to work there. [But, at the moment I don't think they're hiring and I didn't want to ask.] I got a really good fortune at lunch, too:
I certainly hope so. There's a nice vibe for the unemployed. Afterwards, I briefly stopped at Avenue Victor Hugo to browse, but didn't buy anything. So sad when a bookstore closes. Unfortunately, this made me miss my intended train by two minutes, so I was stuck at North Station until the 3PM train. And for some reason, I just felt wiped. Went home, and fell asleep for a few hours. Don't know why I was so tired, but there you have it. Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out what my journal is for, in order to possibly find some stylistic balance. On the one hand, I initially created this journal as a way of keeping distant friends appraised of my whereabouts and wellbeing. This leads to a lot of posts about my mundane day-to-day doings. I'm also using the journal as a personal journal to refresh my own memory on things that were important to me, and to show myself how I've been changing and growing over the months I've been keeping it. On the other hand, I've long coveted Joshua Micah Marshall's career, and would love to become an influential newsblogger. I've always enjoyed finding interesting news tidbits and sharing them with my friends. This journal can extend that. Instead of just verbally telling people about nifty sites, I can provide links. Maybe I'm providing a service by being a filter (as Steven Johnson describes in Interface Culture). But I'm also concerned by a quote from yesterday's Wired:
Now, the first paragraph doesn't bother me so much. I know my life is an open blog, and as I said above, I'm writing that portion for myself and my friends. It's her second paragraph that concerns me. Maybe I'm taking it too personally, but what do I have to add? When Marshall started his journal, he was already an influential Washington DC journalist with connections. I'm an amateur news-junkie, avid reader and black-belt at information retrieval in Massachusetts. I love to follow politics (it's my favorite spectator sport) but I have no real authority. And in the last several days that I've been trying this, I realize that most of my links are culled from the same news sources and blogs that others could read if they want. [Hint: read Talking Points Memo and Atrios!] So, where is the value-add in my filtering? I wonder... Meanwhile, I'm trying to stop reading the news so much in the mornings, because I follow so many sites, sources and chains (of links) that it can seriously impair my ability to start working in the morning. But that seems to make my idea of newsblogging even more pointless. I don't know; maybe I'm being too hard on myself [One friend did tell me that he first heard about the INS story from my website, so I'm doing some good.] I'll have to think more on my priorities in the upcoming weeks. Touching on current events for one moment, however, today's Christian Science Monitor had a good article about North Korea, which partially answers my question from yesterday about why we're treating North Korea so much more gently than Iraq. And in the silly news, it appears that trial by combat is not accepted in English traffic courts. End of an era, it is... Okay, it's now about three hours after I wrote the above. We got together with my in-laws for dinner (at Sushi Corner in Melrose -- I've written about them before; they've got amazing sushi!). They gave me a belated Hannukah gift -- a Rupert Giles action figure! Yes, I've now got my first toy librarian. He comes with a book and everything! After a very delicious and filling dinner, we drove down to Saugus to see the truly garish Xmas lights on Lynn Fells Parkway and Laurine Road. On our way there, we passed a nearby church having a live outdoor nativity scene, including a genuine live Bactrian camel. Really big, and much furrier than I expected (apparently, Gobi Desert nights get quite cold). They had other livestock there as well, including a Zebu, which resembled a miniature ox. After gawking and petting the animals, we headed back towards the Xmas lights by Route One. Truly impressive. I can't recommend more highly that people see these spectaculars. I'm sorry, but I've seen what other people call garish lighting, and these two houses just take the cake. The bottom of this page shows what one of the houses looked like two years ago, but hardly does it justice. I mean, among other things, they've now added big glowing balls on chains to their roof. The other house has a sign labelling it "Holiday Village" and includes homemade moving snowmen and flapping angels. I don't think there was a bare outside surface of either house or lawn that wasn't adorned with something glowing or flashing. There were cars lining up down the street to see them. [Ah, I just found some pictures of these houses on somebody else's blog! The picture on the left is Holiday Village on Lynn Fells, the one on the right is on Laurine.] At any rate, we eventually got back home. Ian's mother was having a toothache, so Ian offered her some of the more exotic potions in our liquor cabinet. Ian's account of the evening can be found here. Tomorrow, we'll be spending Xmas in Vermont with Ian's grandparents (at some point, I need to write further about how odd Xmas celebrations really are) which means, due to the incipient bad weather, we'll probably be leaving at <ugh> 7 AM for a three-hour drive. I can't stay overnight, since I've got another informational interview on Thursday morning. For anyone who celebrates the holiday tonight and tomorrow, have a merry one! And, for everybody else, I'm wishing you a really great day as well. Monday, December 23, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM
Listening to NPR's headlines at the start of the hour raised a few questions:
As expected, Frist was chosen to replace Lott as Majority Leader, despite little press scrutiny of Frist's skeletons. WSJ's political reporter John Harwood said "[Frist] has very, very good relations with the press. That's one of the reasons why he's going to get a good initial ride." Aren't we glad we've got a responsible press to protect the public's interests? [See also Daily Howler.] And why is Frist majority leader instead of minority leader (or, in other words, why didn't Lott resign from the Senate as he originally threatened)? According to Atrios, "movers and shakers in the GOP told Lott that if he resigns from the Senate in an act of petulance over losing his leadership post, he can forget about offers of cushy corporate jobs in private life." Didn't hear that coverage from the mainstream press, have you? As Rob Hansen wittily wrote:
Yesterday's On the media had an excellent story on blogging and how bloggers broke and pushed the story on Lott. The audio has finally been posted, and I'll give an update when the transcript is available. [A less-charitable article on this topic is available from Wired.] Meanwhile, I've really grown to like DayPop's Top 40 -- the most common blog links, providing a quick look at what bloggers are writing about. It's like Google Zeitgeist but on a much faster pace. Pretty cool way of quickly seeing what's happening. [Makes me want to read Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs, because it looks a bit like a pack mentality.] The MIT Media Lab is doing something similar with their Blogdex. Inneresting stuff... Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 AM
Oh, I forgot to mention this Boston Globe story which amused me yesterday. After Governor-elect Mitt Romney went through all that trouble to get voters to approve his choice for lieutenant-governor, political novice Kerry Healey, it turns out that he doesn't really like her after all and has been shutting her out and shutting her up. Too bad he did his best to destroy the more competent and established Republican lootgov candidate in favor of his now-useless figurehead. Posted by Lis Riba at 10:00 AM
Singin' in the rain was a lot of fun. Six of us went, and it was a blast. It's really great to hear everyone laughing at the same quips. And the dance numbers are even more impressive on the big screen. You can read Ian's comments here. In the afternoon (okay, I'm recounting the day in reverse) I went to a former coworker's for a party. Hi! A lot of fun, and good to see people again. That's one of the things that suck about unemployment -- the isolation. I've gotten tired of paying for WIND networking meetings, but if anybody else jobhunting in the Boston area wants to form our own (free) weekly group to help morale and keep each other on track, I'd be interested. Yaay! The Very Secret Diary of Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Part Two! If you're not already familiar with this series, first read the Secret Diaries of Cassandra Claire -- which spoof Fellowship of the Ring, before going onto her Two Towers versions... In yesterday's paper, Roger Ebert gave a delightful review to The Thin Man as part of his series on the Great Movies. And, since the new schedule for the Brattle Theatre just arrived in the mail, I can use that as an excuse to notify everyone that the weekend of January 10th through 12th, the Brattle will be running a Dashiell Hammett double-feature: The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. There are several showings of each film on all three days. We're definitely going; who else is interested? Continuing from yesterday's British Medical Journal article on the Mummy's Curse, they've got another one analyzing the body measurements of Playboy centerfolds. Love those British scientists. [Seen via Planet Swank, courtesy of Avedon Carol.] Also on the Sideshow, Ashcroft irony on espionage and more on taxing the poor. Continuing my watch on the "poor pay too little taxes" meme, at least one Republican is speaking sense on the issue. And, no big surprise, it's John McCain, who said in Sunday's New York Times Magazine: "I believe that low-income Americans in totality bear a much higher tax burden than wealthy Americans do, therefore there is a growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans. At least the tax burden should be equitable." The Christian Science Monitor is also exposing the meme and debunking some of the claims. And Dan Kennedy points out the absurdity in Trent Lott's claims. [If being merely a senior Senator is considered adequate punishment by the Republicans, then they really have little call to complain about senior Democratic Senators' racism, since they're at the same level as "punished" Lott.] As usual, lots more good stuff from Atrios, including more on the INS, a really funny caption contest (be sure to read the comments on this entry) and Frist. Finally, I just found a Which Supreme Court Justice are you quiz -- I'm Breyer! [Seen via Alas, a blog.] Well, that's enough news for now. Sunday, December 22, 2002
Posted by Lis Riba at 1:40 PM
I'm leaning towards the Meanwhile, I can't express more eloquently than Ian this revulsion-reaction to another misstatement by Trent Lott. And as seen a few days ago on Neil Gaiman's journal, The British Medical Journal has published a statistical analysis of the Mummy's Curse. Posted by Lis Riba at 12:25 PM
So, yesterday we drove six hours round-trip to spend six hours with our niece and nephew (and their family) up in Vermont. Yes, the long drive was worth it. The kids (ages 5 & 2) are adorable and smart, and I got a chance to have some good conversations with their parents. At any rate, here are some of the news stories on my mind this morning:
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