Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:20 PM

Most modern Americans know only a few things about King John of England:

• The Lion in Winter introduces King Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine and their three sons: Richard (the eldest), Geoffrey, and Eleanor's favorite, young John
• His role in the Robin Hood myth (as the villainous Prince John, left in charge while Richard went on Crusade)
• The weak king bullied by his nobles into signing the Magna Carta

Don't let unfamiliarity keep you away. The setup is quite easy to understand.

A strange beginning: 'borrow'd majesty!'

By the laws of primogeniture, John should not have been king after Richard. That right instead belongs to his (deceased) brother Geoffrey's young son. Great shades of Richard III, but for two major differences: John has already been crowned and has the support of the English nobles. And the King of France is willing to provide armies to back the boy's claim. Both sides are gearing up for a big bloody battle...

And that's really all you need to know going in. [Shakespeare & Company preceed their evening productions with short "Preludes" about 45 minutes before showtime. Previous visits, I've seen Renaissance songs, short scenes from Shakespeare, and other silly antics. They don't publish a schedule, but the night we went, we got a four-person history of Britain through King John. Not only helpful but very funny, and kudos to the writer and performers!]

There's lots more I could praise about this production, including the costuming, but I've taken long enough and you should see it for yourself. Tina Packer twice mentioned her interest in directing more of the obscure plays, but she can only do so if people turn out for King John. The play is worthy in and of itself, so think on this as an added incentive.

King John directed by Tina Packer
playing at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA through September 3rd

Allergy Warning: Incense is used during one scene in the second half.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:22 PM

Having gotten to know numerous authors through their blogs and journals, the phrase "professional writer" refers to more than just the condition of having been published. [That's intended as a compliment, by the way.]

(Context for the curious)

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:05 PM

Scary new phrase of the day via Jerome Armstrong on MyDD:

"Backlash Insurance", it refers to the Republican efforts to institutionalize a majority through means such as partisan redistricting, destabilizing the funding constituancy groups of the Democratic Party through intimidation or legislation, and appointing as judges those ideologues that are in their 40's-50's to insure multi-generational judicial rule. For the minority-visioned Republicans, it's all about thwarting the majority through undemocratic means, by rigging the system so that even with a 60% majority nationally opposed to their leadership direction, they remain entrenched in power.

I believe I mentioned earlier this week getting a phonecall advocating the "Permanent Republican Majority."

What other seemingly isolated tactics are actually part of a coordinated campaign?
As Matt Taibbi of the New York Press recently wrote about voting irregularities in the 2004 election:

Here's the thing about Ohio. Until you really look at it, you won't understand its significance, which is this: the techniques used in this particular theft have the capacity to alter elections not by dozens or hundreds or even thousands of votes, but by tens of thousands.

And if we ignore this now, we're putting proven methods for easily ripping off major elections in the hands of the same party that had no qualms whatsoever about lying its way into a war in Iraq. In the hands of a merely corrupt political party, a bad election or two would be no big deal. But these clowns we have in power now imagine themselves to be revolutionaries, and their psychology is a lot like that of the leadership of Enron, pre-meltdown-with each passing day that they get away with it, they become more convinced by a delusion of righteousness.

What do you think? At what point do a multitude of trees become a forest?

Update: Josh Marshall reminded me of 2002 election-tampering in New Hampshire which adds further grist to the mill. As Marshall explains: "Put simply, the fact that the RNC is paying Tobin's legal bills means either that he was acting under authorization or, frankly, that they're trying to keep him quiet. There's really no other reasonable explanation of this." The NH Democratic chair provides further context (and sleaze) which ties the coverup to the DOJ. Read it and either weep or get furious.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:22 AM

Did you know there are at least 44 places serving Kosher food in the Boston area? Here's a map, centered on Boston. Unsurprisingly, most of them are in Brookline, but I never heard of Levine's Kosher Meat Market in Peabody, much more convenient than most of the other options. My mouth is watering already.

I haven't poked around PilotYid (which apparently focuses on Jewish PDA software) but they offer similar maps of other metro areas.

Thanks to Michael Burstein for the heads-up.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:00 AM

If you haven't heard, The Muppet Show Season One is now out on DVD as of this week. [For those of you who are CostCo members, they're selling it for $26.99 -- not much less than Amazon, but probably better than local retailers and you can get it immediately. The DVDs do include the original opening credits, a lot of obscure guest stars, and zillions of memories. We watched the first few episodes last night and I nearly got a crick in my neck from watching Ian's reaction...

The DVDs aren't perfect: the first DVD (fortunately it only seems to be the first) has ads and trailers before the show -- but fortunately they allow the Menu button to skip them. And there are no chapter breaks within episodes to navigate to a specific skit. But it's still great fun.

Did you know that Kermit is nearly fifty years old? For more info on what Henson and the Muppets are planning, see MuppetNewsFlash@blogspot: More Dark Crystal, Tokyopop manga sequels and prequels to Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and MirrorMask, a Muppet "reality" TV show and more classics making their way to DVD.

Also out on DVD this month (and not available @ CostCo), The Complete Thin Man Collection. Six movies, and with extras 7 discs. I don't have this yet, but want it.

On a different note, anybody with Comcast cable Internet having problems with intermittent dropouts? In the last several weeks I've been experiencing periods where I lose my connection for a minute or more. Then everything's back again. I'm wondering whether it might be this problem described by Kevin Drum. Anybody else seeing this?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:00 AM

Wednesday and time for my Free Will Astrology horoscope:

After mating for the first and only time, a young queen ant burrows underground, where she lays about 20 eggs a day for 10 years. Sometimes you remind me of her, Cancerian--lately, for instance. You have been animated by an almost insatiable drive to create. You've been spinning out little miracles and making everything fresh again and again and again. The astrological omens say you'll need to take a break soon. Do this under your own power, please, so that fate doesn't have to force you to do it.

I can feel that. I was already thinking of taking a mental health day, and if the way I felt when I woke up wasn't enough to convince me to stay home, this just might've tipped the scales.

9am Update: looks like I'll be going into work after lunch. But maybe I can use this morning to clear off a few stressors that have been weighing me down...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:25 PM

Yet another meme making the rounds of LiveJournal. Use this online doll-maker to first recreate yourself (as best as possible) and then create a Mary Sue version of yourself.

The range of body types are limited, and despite over 800 hairstyles, none exactly suited my ideal Mary Sue (for starters, the long lustrous hair would be blue) but here you go:

Me, and Mary-Sue-me

What do you think? Wanna try? Look, they got boy dolls! Isn't that thoughtful?

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:35 PM

You know you want to see this video (requires RealPlayer, but worth it). And here's a link to the lower-res version for those with slower modems.

Warning: I'm squeamish and found it hard to watch. But it's fascinating nonetheless.

[via Majikthise; also here's the PBS source show if you want more...]

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:20 PM

I've just heard that Elizabeth Bear, author of the recent novels Hammered and Scardown has just won the Campbell Award. Some of her short works are available online at her website. You can congratulate her here.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:20 AM

I haven't been doing much newsblogging of late, but I just saw this AP story and think it deserves wider coverage (and the subject of the story deserves justice):

Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse is the Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting ("PARC" in the alphabet soup of military acronyms) in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lest the title fool, she is responsible for awarding billions upon billions in taxpayers' money to private companies hired to resurrect war-torn Iraq and to feed, clothe, shelter and do the laundry of American troops stationed there.

She has rained a mighty storm upon herself for standing up, before members of Congress and live on C-SPAN to proclaim things are just not right in this staggeringly profitable business.

She has asked many questions: Why is Halliburton -- a giant Texas firm that holds more than 50 percent of all rebuilding efforts in Iraq -- getting billions in contracts without competitive bidding? Do the durations of those contracts make sense? Have there been violations of federal laws regulating how the government can spend its money?

Halliburton denies any wrongdoing. "These false allegations have been recycled in the media ad nauseam," the company said in response to a list of e-mailed questions from The Associated Press.

Now Bunny Greenhouse may lose her job -- and her reputation, which she spent a lifetime building.

She is a black woman in a world of mostly white men; a 60-year-old workaholic who abides neither fools nor frauds. But she is out of her element in this fight, her former boss said.

"What Bunny is caught up in is politics of the highest damn order," said retired Gen. Joe Ballard, who hired Greenhouse and headed the Corps until 2000. "This is real hardball they're playing here. Bunny is a procurement officer, she's not a politician. She's not trained to do this."

Greenhouse has known for a long time that her days may be numbered. Her needling of contracts awarded to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) predated the war in Iraq, beginning with costs she said were spiraling "out of control" from a 2000 Bosnia contract to service U.S. troops. From 1995 to 2000, Halliburton's CEO was Dick Cheney, who left to run for vice president. He maintains his former company has not received preferential treatment from the government.

Since then, she had questioned both the amounts and the reasons for giving KBR tremendous contracts in the buildup to invading Iraq. At first she was ignored, she said. Then she was cut out of the decision-making process.

Last October 6, she was summoned to the office of her boss. Major Gen. Robert Griffin, the Corps' deputy commander, was demoting her, he told her, taking away her Senior Executive Service status and sending her to midlevel management. Not unlike being cast out of the office of bank president into the cubicle of branch manager. Griffin declined to be interviewed by the AP.

Her performance was poor, said a letter he presented. This was a surprise. Her previous job evaluations had been exemplary, she said. The basic theme was that she was "difficult," and "nobody likes you," she said.

If she didn't want the new position, she could always retire with full benefits, the letter noted.

Over my dead body, said Greenhouse.

"I took an oath of office. I took those words that I was going to protect the interests of my government and my country. So help me God," she says. "And nobody. Has the right. To take away my privilege. To serve my government. Nobody."

The rest of the story has more details, and is worth reading.

Other scandals have pushed KBR and Halliburton off the front page, but some people are still dealing with the ramifications and shouldn't be forgotten.