Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:33 PM

Oliver Willis:

I don't think anything else can ever claim the mantle of "worlds collide" after this: GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS.

Ezra Klein:

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 PM

Otherwise, I would probably be out a lot of money on retail therapy...

Stopped at three library branches today and walked out with a dozen or so books. I was looking for a few specifics, but picked up whatever caught my eye. Almost certainly won't read them all, but I needed comfort books (plus reading material for two flights next weekend) and this was a lot cheaper than buying 'em.

Here's what I took home with me:

Of course, after the libraries closed I remembered another half-dozen or so books I probably should've looked for, and I've recently seen several promising titles the local libraries don't yet have, but hopefully these can keep me sated for at least a little while.

In other bookish news, Peg Kerr this morning was asking for Elizabethan fantasy recommendations. Naturally, I contributed my fair share. [Hey, it's a hobby.] I've been meaning to compile a list for a while now, but I may wait to see if anything else bubbles up through her thread. If possible, I'd like to get something up before Arisia and its Shakespeare panel.

And speaking of Shakespeare, there's a new LJ community: shaksper_random. Quoting the info page:

Purpose: A Shakespeare community...for the fans. There's more than enough academic-style Shakespeare discussion communities, but what about fandom-style? Shakespeare fic? YES PLEASE! Photoshopped pictures of Shakespeare in a silly hat? Bring it on. Overly detailed textual analyses of the Gay Antonios? Extra points for using the word "buttsex"! Links to hilarious stuff like The Hamlet Crawl? You may just win the internets.

And the pooh-pooh stuff (WARNING: may result in banning and deleted posts):
- homework questions. No. We will not write your papers for you. Go Google it or use SparkNotes or, here's a thought, ask your professor.
- being a jerk. This includes trolling, off-topic posts (I mean, you can get pretty off-topic, but posts should have some relationship to Shakespeare and/or the early modern era), and not putting pics behind LJ-cuts.
- Serious Scholarship. JUST SAY NO to real-life academia bleeding over into the internets! If you would be okay saying it to a professor or supervisor, it probably doesn't belong here. ;) Unless, you know, your professor/supervisor is cool with weird stuff like that.

Oh, this is such the place for me. Between the filks and fanfics I've written, and the other strange stuff in my head... I just need to post an introduction and space my contributions out not to overwhelm the place with my squee.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:11 AM

Overheard:

"Cat, it's oatmeal. See?"

[Sound of cat lapping at bowl.]

"That's not what I intended."

[Sound of Lis laughing hysterically.]

"That's very much not what I intended."

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:38 PM

This week sees new research on the evolution of cats, complete with charts showing how various cats are related to each other and migrating across the world.
Corante has the best wrapup I've seen, including a link to the paper itself.

Also, a bonus essay: “Cats, Our Cute and Pathogen-Rich Friends.”

[Former link via Tyg, the latter courtesy of Feministe]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 PM

Ian and I will not be attending Arisia this year. My grandmother's had ongoing health problems for a long time, but it's becoming increasingly clear that we need to see her again soon, or not at all. So we'll be flying out to Chicago next weekend. [For anybody else reading this and considering the trip, both AirTran and Southwest have really good fares to and from Midway!]

I realize that I already said I was thinking about not attending, but I was considering making arrangements to get in touch with (or even meet) some distant netfriends who will be there. Needless to say, that won't be happening.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:42 PM

A new study on female sexual dysfunction has just been released, describing how some women experience long-term sexual side effects after discontinuing the birth control pill:

Impact of Oral Contraceptives on Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin and Androgen Levels: A Retrospective Study in Women with Sexual Dysfunction.
Panzer C, Wise S, Fantini G, Kang D, Munarriz R, Guay A & Goldstein I. Journal of Sexual Medicine 3 (1), 104-113.

I do intend to write about this in more detail, but first I want to get ahold of the full text article, rather than relying on the abstract, press releases, and the mainstream media's attempts to digest it for laypeople.

At first glance, this appears to be the same study I blogged in June from the endocrinology conference (press release). But six months ago, the story received barely any notice.

This time it finally appears to be making some headway in the American mainstream media. Google News shows coverage from CNN, ABC, CBS and FOXNews, among other sites. And, with news coverage comes lots of blog posts, with varying degrees of accuracy.

Naturally, there's a lot of skepticism. People don't want to believe this could possibly be true. As I wrote in November 2003 when I first started hearing the actual research:

So many abstinence-only groups exaggerate the failure rates and risks of contraception in order to push their political agendas, it feels like conceding any ill-effects to contraception gives the anti-sex-ed forces further ammo.

But I can't deny that my own sexual dysfunctions began a few months after I began taking the birth control pill. When my sex life went sour, I scrutinized that period in my life looking for any possible cause or correlation, and the Pill stood out as the most plausible culprit. [More details on my sexual history.] And the more science is learning about women's sexual physiology, the more they're finding how the Pill dampens the necessary hormones.

In the meantime, my archive has plenty more information on female sexual dysfunction (FSD), including earlier studies relating to the Pill. If you have further questions I'm capable of answering (I am not a doctor!), feel free to ask.

PS: Rob Brezsny intends his horoscopes as self-fulfilling prophecies, an exercise in the power of positive thinking. Needless to say, I find myself particularly amused by this week's horoscope, which I saw before hearing about the study:

There's no delicate way to say this, so please stop reading and come back next week if you're offended by graphic references to pleasure. According to my analysis of the long-term astrological omens, you're on tap to experience more orgasms in 2006 than you have in any previous year. On average, your climaxes are also likely to be longer and more intense. Other varieties of bliss, rapture, and joy will probably occur at record levels, as well. Think you can handle it?

'Twould be nice...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:25 PM

Future health products for aging Gen-X'ers:

St. Elmo's Fibre

Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week...

[Thought occurred to me after hearing the song on the radio. Further Googling the phrase and variants suggests this idea may be unique to me. I'm not above profiting off my puns if any health food companies wish to license the name and offer me royalties.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:05 PM

So, Ian had two of his wisdom teeth removed this morning.

He's fine, resting in bed with the cat; his laptop nearby and ready for him whenever he is.

I've picked up the painkillers and antibiotics, but he's not to take them until he has a full stomach, so I'm going to hang about until I can feed him. [It's not often I get to take care of him; even now he just wants me to go to work and leave him alone.]

Besides, when I had my wisdom teeth removed way back when, I had a bad reaction to the painkillers and ended up puking all weekend (had them removed on a Friday). I've already set up a bucket by the bed and all the rest, but I'd hate to leave him alone.

Added later: Sigh. He insisted on taking the painkillers after just one yogurt smoothie drink so his stomach wasn't empty (he had to fast and abstain from water since last night). He doesn't want anything else to eat and just wants me out of the house and back to work. [I'm not hovering; I'm in the other room on the computer; he's got something that jingles to get my attention.] I've just got a bad feeling about this that he won't eat and will get sick and nobody's around to help.

Yet later: Well, it's 1:15. Ian still hasn't eaten any more. He's mostly napping with the icepad on his cheek, and I suppose I have no further excuse not to go into work. [I'm going to quickly shovel out the driveway while it's light outside, so it doesn't totally freeze into something impassable overnight, and then head out.]

I do love him and worry about him, so if you have a few good vibes to spare send them his way while he's home alone. Although I read the article aloud in her presence, I don't think Boopsie quite took the hint about calling for help. Nor are our phones terribly cat-accessible...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:01 PM

Don't expect a year-end retrospective of 2005 from this blog.

Even Daniel Schorr described 2005 as "a year of almost unprecedented human tragedies and natural disasters."

Probably the best things of the year on the personal front were (a) I continue to be convinced that this job and company are a nigh-perfect fit for my skills and interests, and (b) I achieved a several-year-long dream to be in London for the Guy Fawkes centennial.

We're still coping with the aftermath of this spring's fire, but most of the bad I haven't blogged, because it deals with family and friends and things in my meatlife that I don't discuss publically before strangers. And on top of that, matters in our country (and the world) seem to be steadily getting worse: politically, climatalogically (is that a word?), economically, and so on.

On the whole, as of late, I've been feeling a bit morose, possibly a low-grade depression.

[In an experience I hope doesn't have any predictive power over the next 364 days, I woke up Sunday morning with cramps. Have a bloody painful new year, why don't we?]

As Daniel Schorr concludes: "I hope we all have a better go of it in 2006."

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:01 PM

Just tried to check the current listings on TVGuide.com.

Instead, it gives me a page:

General network error. Check your network documentation.

Took me a second to realize they weren't referring to ABC,CBS,NBC or FOX...

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:15 PM

For all you parents and eighties-throwbacks out there:

Porn Star or My Little Pony?

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:15 PM

The more productions I see by the Actors Shakespeare Project, the more they impress me. This was, as Benjamin Evett pointed out, the company's first true comedy. [Measure for Measure, performed last season, is sometimes lumped withthe comedies for its "happy" ending, but it's also considered one of Shakespeare's problem plays.]

Sarah Newhouse as Viola:

John Kuntz as Sebastian:

So what's this one about? I'll quote Ian's review, because he says it so well:

"Twelfth Night" is one of Shakespeare's basic screwball comedies, with all of his normal screwball comedy tricks -- women disguised as men ending up in awkward love triangles, twins being mistaken for one another (ending up in awkward love triangles), forged love notes (ending up in awkward love triangles), cowards who claim to be brave duelists, cheeseheaded nobles with a weak command of the English language, drunk lecherous dissipated Discordian noblemen who cause trouble for the fun of it, and the rest. Not much of kings, not much of crowns, but chock-full of liars, lovers, and clowns. And I think that just about everyone reading this knows that comedy is hard -- often harder than drama.

This is Actors' Shakespeare Project's fifth production in the past two years, and I'm delighted to say I've seen them all.

One of the joys of ASP productions is their innovative use of space. When I entered the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, I was somewhat suprised by how pedestrian the seating arrangements seemed. An open triangle was set into the center of the square room: seating risers formed two legs, and props were already staged along the third: an obvious focal point.

I needn't've worried. Though the company began with a dance and procession in the the center of the triangle, Greg Steres as Duke Orsinio then walked over to one of the windowsills -- over the shoulder of half the audience -- before uttering the first line of the play.

What most impressed me in this production was the versatility demonstrated by the cast. Given modern theater's long runs, small troupes that exist for only one show, touring companies that rarely play the same place twice, you don't often get a chance to see the same company repeatedly acting together in different roles.

I've seen John Kuntz play sociopath (Richard) and sleaze (M4M) Here, he was the romantic lead. Marya Lowry's been more than adept at the dramatic roles, so it was quite a change to see her goofily giddy in love. [And fie on those critics who insinuate she's too old for the part!]

Similarly impressive were those whose major roles came right on the heels of similarly prominent parts in King Lear. Ken Cheeseman went from Lear's Fool to Malvolio; Sarah Newhouse from Cordelia to Viola.

Michael F. Walker did an excellent job conveying the humor in 400-year-old malaprops as Sir Andrew Aguecheek; even my father-in-law (who has limited hearing and thus sometimes has trouble with Shakespeare) not only got but enjoyed the jokes. And though I'd often heard references to Antonio in Merchant of Venice as "Shakespeare's major openly gay character" (Ian McKellen) I hadn't realized that this play had a similarly homosocial Antonio. [Has anybody written a story where they're the same person in different stages of life? Is that compatible with the texts?]

Returning to Ian's review, "[T]he upshot is that Ben Evett and the Actors' Shakespeare Project have done it again. They've put together a fantastic show, funny, witty, romantic, fast-moving and enjoyable, but with a solid emotional core and message of love, loyalty, and light, realization, and redemption." And, as he also wrote, it's a good romantic date play for maybe twice the cost of first run movie tickets.

Twelfth Night
playing at the Cambridge Multicultural Center through January 8.

[Their next play, and last for this season, will be All's Well That Ends Well, opening late April. Don't forget Bard in Boston for other upcoming listings.]

PS: I just finished reading Pronouncing Shakespeare by David Crystal. He's an academic with a focus on Shakespeare. His son Ben is an actor. ASP's scholar in residence is David Evett, whose son Ben is an actor. Maybe that's a common naming pattern, but I was just struck by the coincidence...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:23 PM

I hate Panix' transition to WebMail.

I still primarily use Unix shell and Pine for my email.

Used to be, at the end of every month, I could just move my inbox folder into an Archive directory and rename it. Now with webmail, I either have to manually move every post within the inbox into a new folder, or (as I just did) move the contents of the inbox into a new webmail folder

Problem is, I can't see the webmail folders from Unix shell.

Can anybody explain in simple dunce terms how to make my webmail folders accessible in Unix shell, so I can use them from there and more easily back them up? Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 PM

So, a few days ago, Mark Kleiman posted The Channukah Story: Ritual and Myth, which states:

Jonathan pointed out a couple of days ago that the well-known and beloved Channukah story -- the miracle by which one day's worth of holy oil burned for eight days to light the rededication (Channukah) of the Temple after it was purged of Greek ritual images ("idols") -- has no basis in the contemporaneous and near-contemporaneous accounts of the Maccabeean revolt that constitute the first two Books of the Maccabeees.
They do, however, make a beautiful fit with the equally well-known and beloved ceremony of the (thoroughly minor) festival: burning one candle the first night, two the second night, on on up to eight.

So here's a theory, without any independent factual basis, to combine the two observations. Maybe the Channukah story is an instance of Robert Graves's theory that ritual precedes, and generates, myth. The ceremony of the candles is obviously fitting for a solstice festival, where the natural theme is light increasing. So perhaps the ceremony came first, and the miracle tale was a retrofit, a "just-so" story to explain the ritual.
As I say, this is pure conjecture. As far as I know, there's not much evidence about how or when either the ritual or the story developed.

Of course, it's not conjecture. There is evidence for how the ritual developed. Ian knows it better than I, so I asked him to email Mark with the explanation. Mark Kleiman's blog doesn't have commenting, just email and trackbacks. Unfortunately the email bounced, so I'm posting it here in hopes Mark sees it.

Ian wrote:

My wife, whom I have CCed into this, pointed me at your comment.

Actually, there is quite a bit of evidence about how both the ritual AND the myth developed, although, in the case of the myth, some of it is conjectural. But it tends to hold together.

First, as to the ritual: the only mention of the ritutal in the Mishna is apparently an offhand comment in a discussion of who would be responsible for damages if a camel driver managed to catch a load of flax on fire while driving a camel down a road by the side of which someone had a lit lamp. The upshot is that, if the lamp was on the sidewalk or street --that is, in the public area -- it's the fault of the person who put the lamp there, but if it was actually within the lamp-owner's property, it's the camel-driver's carelessness.

But there's an offhand comment: except during Channukah, since everybody KNOWS that everyone puts lamps out on the street during Channukah.

So we know that, by the time of the compilation of the Mishna, the custom of lighting a lamp where it could be publically seen -- and possibly, actually, in public property -- was already established, and well-known enough that you could safely assume that everybody should know about it.

By the time of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, the tradition appears to have evolved: Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai have a debate about whether you should start with one light on the first night, two on the second, and so forth up to eight on the eighth, the way that we do it today, or to START with eight lights and SUBTRACT one light per night until you end with one light on the last night.

Obviously, Beit Hillel won that argument (although my parents have a habit of lighting one additional hannukiah as per Beit Shammai, just to show respect to his point of view, too)

So that shows that, by the time Hillel and Shammai, the tradition had evolved to include multiple lamps, specifically eight, one for each day. And that there existed multiple traditions as to how to light them, because, if everyone did it the same way, there wouldn't be a question.

I don't know when the tradition and legal fiction of adding a shamash light came in.

As to the evolution of the myth: there is pretty convincing circumstantial evidence that the Rabbis created it out of whole cloth to deemphasize the role of the Hasmodeans.

It seems clear that the Rabbis hated the Hasmodean dynasty (aka the Maccabees.) Their repressive violent theocracy wasn't really a bright spot in Jewish history --although the Rabbinic reasons for hating them have more to do with the fact that Kohanim are specifically forbidden from holding kingship over Israel, and the practical reason that they invited the Romans in, who ended up destroying the Second Temple.

As far as we can tell, it seems that the ORIGNAL holiday that was to be associated with the Hasmodean victory was Yom Nicanor, commemorating the day that Judah Maccabee led his forces victorious against the Assyrian general Nicanor. That was on Adar 13, and Adar 13 was supposed to be a day of rejoicing and feasting, on which mourning was forbidden, for all time, in remembrance of Judah Maccabee's great victory.

It seems rather . . . suspicious. . . that Purim is Adar 14, and that Adar 13 is Tanis Esther -- the Fast of Esther, a day of mourning which supercedes and wipes out Yom Nicanor. And you don't LOSE anything by it, since you get Purim afterwards, so if you were used to celebrating a military victory on Adar 13, you STILL get to celebrate a military and politial victory on Adar 14, so you're not being cheated out of your holiday.

They were able to wipe out Yom Nicanor. But not Channukah. Channukah, as we know, was established so firmly that its existence was taken for granted as a universally accepted fact for purposes of tort law. So, instead of wiping it out, the Rabbis seem to have . . . repurposed it. Changed the emphasis to be one of Hashem's power and glory, rather than one of the power of the Hasmodeans. Our Haftarah for the week tells us that "not by might, not by power, but only by G-d can we overcome," which is, of course, something that Judah Macabee said, more or less --but the emphasis is different. We state that we light these lights to commemorate the miracles, the battles, and the salvations that G-d performed for our ancestors at this season at that time throught Your holy kohanim -- but we don't mention those kohanim by name. We know who they are -- Mattathias, Judah, and the rest -- but their names aren't mentioned in anything OFFICIAL about the holiday.

We take the focus off of them, and put it on Hashem.

And that's deliberate, I strongly suspect.

And there you have it. Hope y'all had happy holidays, whichever ones they might've been.