Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:01 PM

PS: Since the Shakespeare exhibits are closed tomorrow, I may have a little time to kill before the 1:30 pm matinee at the Kennedy Center.

Offhand, I'm thinking the Washington Monument or one of the Smithsonian museums.

Any suggestions?

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:55 PM

Whew...

I just got back to the hotel, after a day spent on the southeast side of the capitol.

Tonight's play, Edward 3, starts at 8pm, but is general admisson, so I want to arrive no later than 7:30. And the front desk suggests 20 minutes for a taxi, so I've got about a half-hour in which to write this. Otherwise, I'll shelve it until after the show.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Last night's flight was delayed by about 90 minutes, so I missed getting a lift from cousins. [Seeing cousins was more important, in my book, than the ride from the airport.]

I was a bit sloth getting out of the hotel this morning, but eventually figured out the farecard system and got into Capitol South.

Detoured slightly down D street to see the Congressional Animal House. Those are shower curtains in the windows!

Then, over the the Madison building to get my reader ID card for the Library of Congress. Woo-hoo. I now have cards at both the LoC and British Library!

From there, I went down to the Folger Shakespeare Library to see their exhibit on Shakespeare in American Life.

A few items on display which caught my eye:

Once I finished at the Folger, I headed over to the Library of Congress

I took the 1:30 tour, and... well, I didn't catch the docent's name, but he was good!

Let's put it this way, our "half-hour to forty-five minute tour" ran until 2:50.

But it was so worth it. Gained a whole new appreciation for the building, which I'll probably talk Ian's ear off about later, but won't bore you guys with.

Spent a little time in the reading rooms after the tour ended, but didn't see anything in the catalog that grabbed me enough to request -- I just wandered among the books and admired the atmosphere.

Late afternoon, they were setting out tables in one of the halls. When I asked what the event was, a guard said somebody was filming a movie. Anybody have more details?

Finally, I wandered thru the gift shop and picked up a couple things for me and a gift for Ian.

Then I grabbed dinner at a little Mexican place on Pennsylvania Ave, and caught the Metro back to the hotel room.

I should probably get changed into a nicer outfit and head down to the lobby to catch a cab.

Hope you're all doing well...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 PM

Nobody offered the slightest guess...

The titles for this week's pre-trip entries on Washington came from the 1965 Disney movie That Darn! Cat starring Halley Mills.

For those unfamiliar with the story, D.C. is the titular applehead Siamese, owned by Halley Mills.

When DC wanders into the hideout of a pair of bank-robbers, their hostage manages to slip her wristwatch over DC's collar.

Dean Jones plays the FBI agent assigned to the case, and... well... hijinks ensue.

Other well-known names in the cast include: Richard Deacon, Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall, and Ed Wynn.

The movie's one of my personal favorites, along with two of Halley Mills' other Disney flicks: Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap (1961).

[Don't even mention the remakes Disney attempted in the last decade...]

Any other fans of this film?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM

Last night, I blogged:

For some reason, when I used the Google "My Maps" feature, none of the placemarks would print. I could only get the placemarks and icons to print by (a) exporting it to KML, (b) uploading it to my webserver, and (c) using standard KML access from Google Maps. And it still won't print the placemark labels, so I'll have to write those on the map...
Actually, I just noticed that my older KML-based Google Maps have also stopped including the index. Bug?

Well, I finally tried to print those pages, rather than just looking at the previews, and discovered another problem.

I could ignore the lack of a legend (which Google Maps did include with KML files as recently as the start of the year) if the placemark icons printed.

Fine, I could just annotate the map by hand and indicate which represented which show.

But the placemark icons don't print at all!

It's fine in print preview, only the actual output is the problem. And I sent it both to a physical printer and a PDF writer (which is where I captured the image), so I know it's not the driver.

See for yourself:

Onscreen	Output
click to enlarge

I don't want to print from Google Earth, because I want maps rather than a satellite photo.

Grumble...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:01 PM

BTW, Ian's written a short-short story today (633 words).

It's rather rough and totally unbetaed, but I like it.

Not fanfic, for anyone who tries to avoid that kind of thing.

Read it and leave him a comment...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 PM

First of all, I find it hard to believe I'm the first person to write "I have no mouth and Imus scream," but searching various engines on the phrase turned up no other instances but mine.

More importantly, though, there was more I wanted to write this morning, but time and then changing events nearly derailed it.

But now Digby gives me the perfect springboard, writing:

As the media elite and various political insiders continue to behave as if they've just been hit over the head with a cudgel on this Imus matter, perhaps they should wake up and recognize that there have been people out there noticing the raw hypocrisy among this Imus Elite for years.

It seems to be human nature that people give their friends more leeway than they'd give strangers.

Ian reminded me of the last time I ever called David Brudnoy's show.

It was nearly a decade ago, during a program about Mike Barnicle's plagiarism.

Brudnoy was defending Barnicle, trying to diminish the severity of his offenses.

After braving the busy signals and waiting a huge time on hold, I asked Brudnoy, then a journalism professor, how he would respond if one of his students acted in the same manner as Barnicle:

If a student turned in a plagiarized paper. When confronted, the student first claimed ignorance of the source material. Then, when it was shown the student had previously recommended the source to otheres, the student claimed that he still hadn't read it.

I wanted to know how Professor Brudnoy would handle that situation in one of his students, and whether a paid professional should be treated more leniently than a student?

In response, David Brudnoy hung up on me.

I lost a lot of respect for Brudnoy after that encounter.

But I'm seeing something similar in the defenses made of Imus. Friends defending friends because they're friends.

Sigh...

Between this and the Scooter Libby trial, maybe we can finally expose the seamy underside of the cozy clubbiness between powerbrokers media and political, returning to a more adversarial relationship.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:33 PM

A few notes for myself as preparation for this weekend's trip:

Google Maps:

 • All expected destinations (with closest Metro stops) for my visit

• Arlington, VA: Hotel, Conference, and Saturday night's show
• Overview of my other destinations in DC
• Close-up on destinations around the Mall

Aside: For some reason, when I used the Google "My Maps" feature, none of the placemarks would print. I could only get the placemarks and icons to print by (a) exporting it to KML, (b) uploading it to my webserver, and (c) using standard KML access from Google Maps. And it still won't print the placemark labels, so I'll have to write those on the map...
Actually, I just noticed that my older KML-based Google Maps have also stopped including the index. Bug?

---

Regular Metro fare appears to be $1.85 per trip.

I can purchase a One Day Pass for $6.50, but it's only worthwhile if I expect to make more than one roundtrip. If (as I expect) I just head into town in the morning and back to the hotel again after the shows, it's not necessary.

[Are any of the neighborhoods I might be walking through considered particularly unsafe?]

---

 • The National Gallery exhibit is closed weekends. :(

 • Folger Shakespeare Library, 10am - 4pm on Saturday

 • Library of Congress:

• Reader Registration: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Saturday (Room LM 140, on the first floor of the Madison Building near the Independence Avenue entrance)
• Public Tours: Saturday at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, and 2:30. [Tours begin in the Ground Floor Visitors Center of the Thomas Jefferson Building.]
• Madison and Adams Buildings open @ 8:30 am; Jefferson Building 10 am - 5:30 pm (exhibitions only until 5pm)

Monday April 16 at 8pm, Barbara Mowat lecturing at Folger, followed by reception, if I'm free...

PS: The title of this entry is related to the title of yesterday's post on my schedule. Any guesses what they have in common?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:10 AM

By the way, for those who think the outrage against Imus is over-the-top, a little more information:

Joan Walsh provides context for those three words:

Let's be clear. He didn't slip one day, for instance, and use the n-word, and then immediately apologize. This was an ongoing shtick. In the segment that got him in hot water, he and McGuirk really enjoyed themselves, one-upping one another with sexist cracks the way sexist losers do: The Rutgers women went from Imus' "rough girls" to McGuirk's "hardcore hos" to Imus' "nappy-headed hos!" Then they reprised Spike Lee's "School Daze," casting the Rutgers vs. Tennessee teams as "the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes," with the Rutgers women, of course, in the role of the dark-skinned Jigaboos. That wasn't enough, though. The Rutgers women, they said, really looked like an NBA team -- the Raptors, no, the Grizzlies. Big, scary, ugly black men -- got it? Or was it big, scary, ugly black animals? Hard to say.

And over on Slate, Timothy Noah provides a litany of other offensive remarks, demonstrating this is far from an isolated incident.

Capisce?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:54 AM

I can't remember where I discovered this site, but I really enjoy:

I Can Has Cheezburger

Okay, I don't really get/care for the walrus/bucket jokes, but I just can't resist the cute kittens with leetspeak slogans, like:

Hee.

Speaking of silly cats (or silly cat owners and the cats who tolerate them)...

Last September, John Scalzi taped bacon to his cat, causing a brief Internet sensation.

Well, for Easter, Elizabeth Bear put ham on her cat -- and the cat was smart enough to make a meal of it. She's since posted photos.

Any other links along these lines?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:24 PM

Oh, and after this weekend's shows, the only Shakespeare plays that I won't have seen in any format will be:

1. Antony and Cleopatra: this summer by Shakespeare & Co.
2. Cymbeline
3. Henry IV, part 1: this summer by Industrial Theatre
4. Henry IV, part 2
5. Henry VI, part 1
6. Henry VI, part 2
7. Henry VI, part 3
8. Henry VIII
9. Macbeth: this fall by Actors' Shakespeare Project
10. The Merchant of Venice
11. Othello
12. Timon of Athens
13. Troilus and Cressida
14. Two Gentlemen of Verona

We're stopping in London for three days on our way to Italy. While we're there, Shakespeare's Globe will be showing Merchant of Venice and Othello.

Both make the claim that:

“The production will employ Renaissance staging, costume and music.”

The leads have already been announced for Othello -- with a black actor in the title role. So much for that level of authenticity...

Is it wrong to confess that I'd rather see Merchant go all out with the orange wig and false nose, rather than witness further attempts to sugarcoat or sweep away the antisemitism?

Face it; Shakespeare was a man of his times, and better to just acknowledge that and view this as a period piece than try to make him sympathetic (and thus -- instead of making Shylock an unrepentant villain like Aaron the Moor -- suggest that if sufficiently wronged, all Jews could perpetrate such evils)

But I suspect that won't happen.

Seeing both plays is probably prohibitive, partly cost but more in terms of the limited time we have in London.

Haven't made up my mind yet -- I may wait until some more information emerges.

BTW, in their Othello, Iago will be played by Tim McInnerny -- probably best known as Lord Percy and Captain Darling in Blackadder.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 PM

This weekend I'm going to Washington.

For work, I'll be attending Computers in Libraries 2007 Conference (aka CIL2007).

But first, I'm taking advantage of the weekend to indulge in the Shakespeare in Washington Festival.

Here are my rough plans:

Friday, April 13
19:00	Flying down to DC (arrive ~8:45 pm)
Saturday, April 14
day	One or more of the following:  • Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare in American Life  • Library of Congress exhibits  • National Building Museum: Reinventing the Globe  • National Gallery Of Art: Sources for Shakespeare's Plays
20:00	Edward III by the Washington Shakespeare Company
Sunday, April 15
13:30	Coriolanus by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center
19:30	Titus Andronicus by the Shakespeare Theatre Company
Monday, April 16
Time	Planned panel	Backup choices
9:00	Keynote: Web 2.0 & the Internet World
10:15	Alternative & Customized Search Engines (SEs)
11:15	undecided	Student's World: Photo Diary Study	Building Collaboration, Communication, & Community Online
13:15	Mobile Search	Mashups, Remixing Info, & Making Data Browsable
14:15	Millennials & the Library	Engines for Multimedia Search	Building Community
15:15	Information Design for the New Web	Using Google & SEs to Expose Digital Collections	Gaming & Libraries: Engaging Strategies
16:15	Social Bookmarking & Folksonomies
17:00	Grand Opening Reception in the Exhibit Hall
Tuesday, April 17
Time	Planned panel	Backup choices
9:00	Keynote: Gaming, Learning, & the Information World
10:30	What's a Mashup & Why Would I Want One?
11:30	Comments in the Catalog: Community Interaction
13:30	Search Tools Using Controlled Vocabularies
15:15	What's Hot with RSS!
16:15	Giving People What They Want	Gaming & Learning
17:00	Reception in the Exhibit Hall
Wednesday, April 18
Time	Planned panel	Backup choices
9:00	Keynote: World Digital Libraries
10:30	Trends in Mobile Tools & Applications for Libraries
11:30	Keeping One Click Ahead: Best of ResourceShelf	Catalogs/OPACs for the Future
13:30	Improving Content with Customer Conversations	Searching, Finding, and the Information Professional
15:15	Federated Search: State of the Art	The Library of the Future
16:15	Production to Portal: Info Delivery Channels	Book Search Engines Update

Disturbingly enough, it's been tough trying to narrow down panel choices at CIL, because they all sound so interesting...

At any rate, that's what I'll be doing the next several days.

I'll blog as much of it as I can.

Oh, and a bonus brownie point for anyone who can identify/explain the title of this entry...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:25 AM

I've got so much to do before I leave for DC Friday night...

Why did an irresistable plot bunny have to bite me this morning, demanding to be written?

No, it's not really one I can share or hand off...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:55 PM

Why are white papers called white papers?

[Beyond the obvious]

Where did the terminology originate? "White" papers as opposed to... what? Notes taken on yellow steno pads?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:04 PM

As I told several people this weekend, the Boston Public Library makes Rosetta Stone language lessons available to anyone with a BPL library card (which anyone in Massachusetts can qualify for -- they even offer temporary ecards if you can't get to the library in person).

Go to the BPL homepage and choose Electronic Resources. From there, select World Languages.

Choose Rosetta Stone: Online Language Learning Center, and at that point you'll need to enter your library card number.

They offer Rosetta Stone lessons in

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• French
• German
• Greek
• Italian
• Russian
• Spanish (Lat. Am.)
• Spanish (Spain)

Considering that Rosetta Stone sells their software for several hundred dollars, this is a terrific deal.

I'm still working through the Pimsleur Italian Short Course, in fits and starts.

However, that's strictly oral language, and I want to understand written Italian as well.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:01 PM

Today's New York Times has an article on new websites for finding travel deals.

I've got a tip they don't mention.

Over the weekend, we booked our flights to Italy through 1800FlyEurope.com, the same outfit I used for my tickets to London a few years ago.

Now, part of their shtick is that they won't identify the airline until after you've made your purchase.

But this is easy to circumvent, if you crosscheck against another travel site (I've grown to like Kayak and SideStep).

1800FlyEurope was about $200 per person cheaper than the best fare I could find on the other sites.

And that's pure antihistimine -- nothing to sneeze at.