Queen

May this tidbit of music/sports trivia rock you:

The NASL [San Jose] Earthquakes opening game in 1974 was immediately preceded by a short concert by Queen, who had been commissioned by the owner of the team to write a theme song for the fledgling soccer team. Queen performed only two songs. The first song was We Will Rock You. The second song was the one planned for the flip side of the 45 release, a song that the producers thought would complement We Will Rock You. That song is We Are The Champions. The rest is history. (Source: Wikipedia)

Assuming it's true, I gotta say, that is way cool.
As a total aside, on the radio is one of my favoritest bands. Ahhh, happy Friday.

Wordplay

MOVIE REVIEW
With three you have a pattern, so I'd say there's a new breed of documentary. It focuses on competitive verbal savants, highlighting those for whom the pinnacle of the year is a wordsmithing competition. Spellbound in 2002 made the national spelling bee cute and poignant (quirky might have been a given--have you watched the finals on ESPN?). Word Wars in 2004 was less cutesy and slightly less successful at endearing its adult Scrabble fanatics to the world. Now in 2006 we have Wordplay, possibly the most cinematically together of the three. [One could argue that the genre has an earlier exemplar in Searching for Bobby Fisher, but I don't count that because it's not a documentary plus chess is not a word game, though SfBF is a lovely movie.]

Will Shortz, for those of you not in the know, is a puzzle master. He edits the ultimate crossword--the New York Times puzzle--and shares his puzzling prowess and joy on NPR, in Games magazine, and has published countless puzzle collections. Shortz is the main character here but he is surrounded by puzzle creators, competitors, and celebrity fans (Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, Indigo Girls, and Ken Burns among others). In the movie we learn the rules of a crossword, how they are created around a theme, and observe the annual tournament which Shortz began when he was in his 20's. They talk about the legendary Election Day puzzle. Wordplay is mostly interesting, well organized, and has a good soundtrack. This sort of puzzling does not seem to have the cutthroat feel that the earlier films had, and it leaves you with a pleasant if slightly unaffected feeling in the end. That and a desire to pick up the Monday Times (the week's easiest puzzle is inside).

OTHER MOVIE NEWS... Finally, I'm learning of some promising new movies. Several very intriguing trailers were shown before Wordplay: the apparently faithful rendition of Philip K. Dick's story A Scanner Darkly gets the animated treatment, Woody Allen's next movie (Scoop) features lighthearted mystery and Scarlett Johannson, plus there's a Hispanic teen story a la Real Women Have Curves (Quinceanera), and Once in a Lifetime, an ESPN documentary film about the late 70's New York Cosmos superstar soccer team. I've not seen trailers but the description of The OH in Ohio sounds quite, uh, titillating, and Little Miss Sunshine has gotten solid film festival accolades. Look for more reviews soon.

Security

LONG STORY FOR A SHORT POINT ALERT
How sad when helpfulness can be cast aside in favor of fear. At the airport yesterday I saw a laptop computer face down on the seat behind me. I had heard an announcement referencing it earlier ("A laptop has been found. If you believe it is yours, please pick up a white courtesy phone."). As I glanced at the fancy but forgotten piece of equipment a kindly old security guy came over and told me he had already tested the laptop for bomb material. It was clean, just a computer, he said, but he had put it back where it was left and would keep an eye on it for a little while, in case the owner returned soon. I was glad to know that things like bomb testing went on so unobtrusively. I was also pleased to hear that they didn't immediately whisk forgotten items away to the trash. So I turned the little computer around slightly to read the stickers on the bottom, looking for clues to its owner. It looked like a company owned computer. I gently tilted it up (my gentleness was to allay any potential fears on the part of security of an attempted theft) and saw another sticker on the front, this time a long label.

As I slowly flipped the laptop over, I realized I was being intently stared at by a woman sitting several chairs down. My immediate neighbor was intrigued but did not look stricken. This more distant fellow passenger looked like she was about to tackle me, as she sat balanced on the balls of her feet, hands pushing down on her armrest. "Don't open that!" she cried out as I turned the computer to read the name on the label. I read the name out to the security guy who immediately got on the intercom to beckon the laptop's owner by name. (I guess when security tested it, they were focusing on the test requirements not on the stickers, probably reasonable.) "Don't open it!" She was really panicked now. Her husband and another neighbor looked a little funny at me too. "I'm not opening it." I said to her clearly, calmly. I lifted my hands as a show of faith. I understood why she was afraid, but I knew I wasn't playing with fire here. I really did not want to be the cause of a scene. "It's already been tested, it's clean." I tried to reassure her, but she did not look convinced.

Next to the name was a phone number, Connecticut area code. I took the chance that this was not an undetectable, sophisticated, phone-triggered explosive device passing off as an expensive, license-sticker-laden Dell laptop. I picked up my cell phone and quickly dialed, carefully avoiding the evil eye that was directed at me. I moved away from the computer and my chair so she might think I was just making a random call. Well, it turns out the owner had just boarded his flight when I caught him on his cell phone. It took a moment for the guy to comprehend that he had left his laptop on a chair out in the terminal, but soon I saw him jogging towards me. It also took the beady-eyed woman a moment to figure out I had called a number somehow attached to the computer. When the owner arrived, the security man politely asked to see his ID before handing over the computer.

The computer's owner was very gracious and appreciative and then went hustling on back down to the gate whence he came. The woman shook her head at me like I'd done a very naughty thing, but I know I didn't. How sad that we live in such fear. My neighbor commented that I did a nice thing and I told her that someone once mailed me back my wallet which I had left at Taco Bell. I do believe that what goes around comes around.

Flooding

Livingston Manor (where dad and grandpa grew up) is in the news, but not for happy events. The June 29 NY Times features a photo and news of flooding in the Manor. When I started checking around, it seems the little village is all over the regional news. Of course this happens just as I'm about to make reservations to visit the area.

The overflowing Cattail Brook in Livingston Manor, N.Y., suddenly swept one house from its foundation and, with the 15-year-old girl inside, dumped it in the water.

"I saw it just fold up and it was just gone within seconds," said a neighbor, John Parker. "It collapsed like a deck of cards."

Mr. Parker said that rescue workers had been trying to reach the girl, whom he identified as Jamie Bertholf, a classmate of his daughter. She is missing and presumed dead.

AN ASIDE
Sad news abounds, this time out of my alma mater. See the official response and the initial gruesome news story about Chancellor Denice Denton's recent death.

A CHEERIER UPDATE (of sorts): In the July 1 Times is an article about a new arts center near original Woodstock site. The article offers some insight into Sullivan County economy.

Vacation

He's too darn cute, that nephew of mine.

We just returned from a family vacation in Clearlake, just north of Napa wine country. David and I got work done in between boating, chatting, and playing with Michael. We celebrated grandma's 85th birthday by dining in and dining out. Brian even took her out for a ride on his speedboat. We got in a horseshoe game right before we left (Brian won). It's amazing how long it takes to shuffle two carloads of people from point A to point B. It's also amazing how easy it is to push family buttons (and to have buttons pushed in return).

Pleasures

David pointed out some perfectly shaped mushrooms on a neighbor's lawn recently. The jungle-growth weather we've had lately has not brought out the residents' lawn mower yet (their yard is immaculate). I am glad to have been able to enjoy day after day of gigantic white mushrooms, growing in a ring-shaped show of apparent adoration for the stop sign they surround. The pleasures of nature.

In case I haven't mentioned it to you lately, it was my birthday this week. I had a fabulous piece of "classic diner" cake--yellow cake, chocolate frosting--from the Dessert Gallery in Houston. Oh my goodness, that's a profoundly different kind of pleasure than the ring of mushrooms.

David's gift to me was a patient, even encouraging, outing to the bookstore. We browsed, I hemmed and hawed over this and that, he found something not work related to read. When he saw me talking on a cell phone in the store, he busted out laughing over my apparent hypocrisy. The outing was a good gift. A deeply satisfying pleasure that is special and oh so normal at the same time.

It's been all work and play lately. Normalcy is rather low on the event log. But I've taken pleasure in the amusements of cable television (and my good friend Timminy Tivo) during break time. HBO has been good to me. Spiderman 2 lodged itself in my imagination last week and I felt this amazing need to own the DVD (it's not been purchased yet; I do have self control). I have also been unusually drawn to the first 10 or 15 minutes of War of the Worlds (forget the rest of it). I watched an unusual rendition of Pride and Prejudice (set in Provo, Utah, subtitled A Latter-Day Comedy). I've caught snippets of lots of pointless summertime girly flicks. The pleasures of mindless entertainment.

Amidst all this pleasure I was panicked with the idea of my computerized music library disappearing in some horrible natural or manmade catastrophe. I think iTunes brought this on with a warning about backing up your library. Naughty iTunes. Anyway I began creating a series of music CDs that represented favorite tunes. Called Triple Shots and Bonus Blocks it's a collection of more than 300 songs by more than 30 artists for whom I own at least 3 highly rated songs (highly rated by me; you or David might hate them). Got all that? It was a very serious endeavor and David is now subjected to listening to every last CD. Mwahaha! Such a tedious and time consuming creative project gives me great pleasure indeed.

David's birthday card to me said, "Everywhere you look...happiness." So true.

Comical

I need a place to track all my favorite funnies. I could do it privately, but what's the fun in keeping good comics to oneself? So here I share.

Luckily for my sanity, Zippy is delivered to my inbox each day (check it out, they can deliver all sorts of your favorites), but others must be sought out. Some comics have seen better days. Calvin and Opus, in all their wonderful angst or wonder, live on in books. (You are familiar with Bloom County, I hope.) There are plenty of great-when-they're-good comics and admirably controversial or political ones to check out. The New Yorker is the clear leader in single-pane cartoons. The Far Side pioneered--and mastered--weird. Again, luckily for me these things exist.

Learning

If Bill Gates' money can't do it, then what money can? Maybe it's time to consider that something other than funding is at the center of differences in student achievement. Just a thought....

Education

Looking up info on self efficacy studies I happened upon the most amusingly useful website ever for grad students or fans of Calvin & Hobbes, philosophy, The Little Prince, art, cinema, and on and on. You have to click on pictures and quotes at various points to get to something more traditionally useful or sensical, but the entire journey left me inspired. This Frank Pajares guy has become my favorite person of the day, maybe even the month.

Mawwiage

Argh, why are we talking about this again?!? Calm, breathe, calm.

Okay, I understand the President's definition of things is quite different from my own. And I understand that there are a lot of people out there who feel similarly (and that "fact" depends tremendously on what sample of the population you're looking at, not to mention that the feeling is one based in hatred and fear). What I don't get is why so-called gay marriage is such a threat to any of these people. In what way would "changing the definition of marriage...undermine the family structure"? That I do not get.

Seriously, intolerance makes me sick. Believe what you want (truly!), but why oh why do you have to be hateful towards others who hold different beliefs? I can't help but get worked up over it. See, I'm intolerant of intolerance. So perfect.

There are lots of open letters for and against the gay marriage Constitutional ban (oh how I shudder--do we really have that much disrespect for the Constitution of this land?). I've already written to my Senators about that; I took a slightly different approach with a June 5 letter to G.W. I don't expect much, but I said my piece (or is it peace?). Anyway, it's all about being tallied, for that's the next best thing to being heard. ;)

August UPDATE: Is this considered judicial activism? If so I am all for it. How sad when people who plan for the happy upbringing of children are prevented but the biologically capable procreate and abandon or abuse without any legal battle so long as it's not overt.

Capricorn

The June 2006 issue of Fortune Small Business features David's dad Michael on the cover. The related article inside includes a reference to David's burgeoning company, CivicSpace. Pretty darn cool.