Lulu

We went to the opera "Lulu" by Alban Berg last night. Magnificent!
This was the most integrated work I have ever seen. The music, lyrics, staging, plot, directing and acting combined to create an amazingly effective experience. Marlis Petersen in the title role was outstanding - singing and acting - and visibly aging as the plot progressed.

The director of Lulu...

Bread Machine Challah Recipe

Bread Machine Challah Recipe

In your bread machine, follow your bread machine instructions for "Dough Only" prepare the dough using:

22 oz Bread flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk (Keep white for wash)
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) yeast


While waiting for the dough to be completed, warm an oven to 150F and turn it off, warm a large bowl, and oil it well.
Take dough out of bread machine and place it in the warm, oiled bowl.
Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and then with a clean kitchen towel.
Let it rise in a warm, draught-free place (like the warmed, open oven) about 1 1/2 hours until doubled in size.

Prepare an egg wash by beating the reserved egg white with a tablespoon of water

Lightly grease a large baking sheet and set aside (I usually forget this step but ill effects have not yet occurred.

Punch down and braid as follows:

Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface. Divide dough into 2 pieces, one roughly half size of other.

Divide large piece into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into rope, about 1 inch in diameter.
Line up ropes of dough side by side and pinch ends together, braid, then pinch ends together. Place braid on baking sheet.
Divide the smaller piece of dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into rope
as long as the first ropes, about 1/2 inch in diameter. Braid together, pinching the ends together to seal.
Brush some of egg wash on top of large loaf and place the small braid on the larger braid.

Or braid it any way you like!

Loosely drape loaf with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until loaf becomes puffy and increases in size by a third, 30 to 45 minutes.
(or, freeze and remove from freezer 5 hours before baking.)

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. (190 F on instant read thermometer)

Allow to cool on a rack.

Timing (for my machine):
Prepare ingredients: 15 Min
Dough: 2 Hr 20 min
Rise: 1 Hr 30 min
Braid: 15 min
Rise: 30-45 min
Bake: 25 min
Cool down: 15 min

So, start about six hours before your guests arrive!

This recipe is derived from several others that I have have read, modified as I go for every mistake I made. I suspect that the exact quantities may or may not be important - recipes I studied vary widely in their proportions. The process above gives a nice yeasty, moist loaf that pulls off in satisfying long strips. If you prefer a more cake-like challah, the Cook's Illustrated recipe may be more to your liking - I did not like it.

I need this guy to tidy my desk

One final remark on the election: Why Sarah Palin Conservatism is dangerous

One of my favorite sources is Edge. To quote from its "About" page:

"Edge Foundation, Inc., was established in 1988 as an outgrowth of a group known as The Reality Club. Its informal membership includes of some of the most interesting minds in the world.

The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society."

Today's edition contains an article by Jerry Coyne commenting on the war on science being carried out by the Right in the USA.

"In her usual faux-folksy style, Palin lit out after a congressional earmark involving these insects: "You've heard about some of these pet projects — they really don't make a whole lot of sense — and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit-fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not." (Reading this diatribe is not sufficient; only video reveals the scorn and condescension dripping from her words.) ... The research Palin attacked was a perfectly valid project designed to protect American growers from the olive fruit fly, a destructive pest. But fruit-fly research is good for far more than that."

"Trying to bond with the American people by taking pride in your ignorance and making science the common enemy — now that's a bridge to nowhere."

Read the article - and subscribe to Edge.

The good guys won...

... in case you missed it:-)
I will make a prediction. This Blog is the best place for me to do this, because if it is wrong, nobody will know, and if it is right, I can point to it and say "I told you so".

The USA economy will receive a major boost simply from the psychological lift that the election of Obama will give to under-achieving minorities. The power of hope and confidence should not be overlooked. People without hope and confidence achieve nothing.

The opponents of Obama dismiss his rhetoric as "empty words" - but words have the power to motivate and motivated people can achieve great things. Obama talks about hope, and give people hope. McCain used the rhetoric of war even when talking about domestic policy and his campaign. His speeches ended using the word "fight" and the metaphors of war over and over again.
 
People worldwide are tired of fighting. They want hope. This is why McCain lost. His rhetoric was hopeless.
With hope anything can be achieved. With war nothing can be achieved except destruction.

Marc Ambinder explaining "Unbalanced and Fair"

Marc Ambinder has been my "Blogger of choice" for some time now. Not because his views are exactly mine, but because he does appear to be a neutral observer, calling out the blunders, misspeaks, and distortions of both sides of the race. I find no value in reading blogs that are blatantly partisan on either side.
The McCain forces are intensely irritating because they keep explaining to me why people like me are the problem with America. I am over-educated, concerned about the welfare of other people, not "middle class" enough, don't like hockey, and don't own a gun. (even though I was an expert rifleman in my teen years)
The Obama forces tell me what I think I already know, and irritate me when they exaggerate unnecessarily.

These times remind me of...

... being an undergraduate at the Univeristy of the Witwatersrand in the 1960s. I was learning to play Bridge - the game of intellectuals, and I had to learn it because after all I was a Math and Mathematical Statistics major who was also studying Economics and Philosophy, thus I must be an intellectual, right?

Wrong. I hated it. I was petrified by the need to remember who bid what, and what cards had been played. My hands shook under the pressure of the need to remember trivia of events of the last few minutes.

Math was easy - I could deduce it from first principles. Philosophy was easy, I could deduce what Russel or Plato would say about anything (at least close enough to fake it through a test) because I grokked their view on the world.

Why does this memory of trembling hands holding a bunch of cards surface now?
The South African social situation was a disaster. Police were shooting at protesters in the streets. I was joining with other students in marches. The political situation today in the USA is much milder, but McCain/Palin campaign reminds me of the politics of hate that prevailed in South Africa in the 60s.

My bridge teacher asked - why are we playing Bridge now? Good question, I thought, and stopped learning the game, which seemed totally irrelevant at the time, and continues to appear so to me.

Guilt by assocation...

... could work against you, my few, but esteemed, readers.
The McCain campaign has partially succeeded in painting Obama as "a Marxist" - at least it succeeded with one of my friends who claimed that Obama just that was in an email last night. The fact that the claimer probably does not know what Marx expoused is not relevant.
Marxist is a bad word, even worse than a liberal, which I am.
Well - you, dear reader, and my email friend are associating with me, (either in person or by reading my blog). I am left of Obama, mostly. You are therefore even left of Marxist, by association.
Be wary of embracing the McCain campaign's mud-slinging, and the Palin babbling. It may come back to hurt you.

The presence of my absence...

... has probably not been missed. I have not posted much lately, other rants at the weird politics going on around us. The economic situation has been a distraction, to say the least. I know that I cannot do much to solve the global liquidity problem, so being pragmatic, I am not trying to do so. However, the advice that is being freely dished out along the lines of "Hang in there, it will get better in time" is not really applicable in my case. When the time comes, I may be too old to benefit from it. Living in retirement with no earning power, it is always a concern that the money will run out before I do.
Long running bull markets are nice, and younger people can look at 30 year outlooks and say that mostly they will be fine. However for me a 30-year outlook has me outliving all family members of whom I am aware. So the good news is that I will probably be dead before my assets are depleted.
Or, more likely, the "Right to Life" movement will ensure that so much money is spent on keeping me alive for the last few hours of my life that my assets will depleted about 30 seconds before die, at which point the "Right to Life" folk will decide that health care is available only to those who can buy it in an open market environment, and I should be allowed to expire peacefully with no impact on the bottom line of the hospital in which I am being killed. If I don't like their decision, I can always rip off the oxygen and feeding tubes and go shopping for a different medical insurance policy.
What a beautiful balance between morality and economy.
So, the question posed by the chart below (presented with thanks to the Wall Street Journal, who may sue me for showing this, but I think it is fine to show it with attribution and a comment that while the WSJ's political posture detracts from their journalistic integrity, their presentation of data can be trusted (mostly) to be free of political bias.) is: Is this 1906 (15 years of no growth punctuated by a horrific war), 1929 (13 years of no growth ended by a horriffic war) or 1966 (16 years of no growth for reasons that escape me - this was the era in which computers rose from oddities to essentials)?
The other point to be mentioned that if you can actually understand the deeply nested sentence above, you are clearly a member of the elite, and not be be trusted with a position in government.

What is it that Palin does not understand?

The cocky kook, Sarah Palin, wants to be treated with respect. She will be so treated when she acts in a manner that deserves respect. After her Katie Couric interview she "has accused Mrs Couric of not asking the right questions - those that
would give her an opportunity to attack the Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama."

Palin and McCain are trying to get a job. Their interviews with the press are public job interviews. I have interviewed many candidates for jobs over the course of my career. Not once has anyone felt that the appropriate way to get a job was to talk about how bad the other candidates are. It is generally understood that to get a job one has to demonstrate to the prospective employer (in this case, the American public) that you are the most able candidate.

They do not seem to understand what the job is. The job is not, as they appear to believe:

• To "shake up" Washington - a task that McCain has already proven that he cannot do after many years trying
  
• To cut "earmarks" which are basically irrelevant in the grand scheme of things
• To win the war in Iraq - which is unwinnable under any reasonable definition of "win"
• To be unblinking

According to the Constitution, the task of the President is to exercise executive power - i.e. to:

• Be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United
  States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual
  Service of the United States
• Make Treaties by and with the Advice and
  Consent of the Senate
• Appoint Ambassadors,
  other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other
  Officers of the United States
  by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate
• Give to the Congress Information of the State of
  the Union
• Recommend to the Consideration of Congress such Measures as he shall judge
  necessary and expedient
• On extraordinary Occasions, convene either or both
  Houses
• Receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers
• Take
  Care that the Laws be faithfully executed
• Commission all the
  Officers of the United States

The job of the Vice-President is:

• To be President of the Senate,
  but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided
• To check the morning obituaries to see if the President is still alive and functioning, and, if not, act as President

The nature and scope of the duties are such that no candidate can ever be expected to have significant relevant experience in more than one of the duties specified by the Congress. In this election the only task in which any of the candidates can claim relevant experience is recommending measures for consideration.
Thus, in course of the job interview with the American public (aka the Campaign), the candidates' task is to convince the public that they (the candidates) have the moral fibre and administrative acumen to establish an administration that will best meet the needs of the public.
Palin will get respect when she begins to treat the American public with respect by getting on with her job interview.
Given the age of McCain, she must show evidence that she can reasonably be expected to capably perform the duties of the President at some time in the future. Her performance to date shows no such indication.

Its marvelous

The "bailout bill" passed by our Congress and signed into law last Friday demonstrates just how smart our congress is. In the short space of a week they managed to cover all the ramifications of the plan to restore stability to our financial system.

The full title of the Act is:

‘‘To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes’’

They have worked though all the details of what it takes to make the law workable and minimize the impact on American people. The Act contains a section entitled:

"Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children."

Who would have thought that some wooden childrens' arrows could have had such an impact on the world financial system. Amazing!

Debate analysis as art

The VP debate - by frequency of word usage by each candidate. Guess who was who, and then click on the image to find out.

Shana Tova

Happy New Year to all.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy and sweet New Year.

May next year be better than this year in every way.

Guess which presidential candidate...

...was born in Central America, is an indifferent churchgoer, graduated near the bottom of his university class, dumped his first
wife, regularly displays an explosive and profane temper, and refers to the Pakistani-Iraqi border?

Hint: Its not Barack Obama

The moral roots of liberals and conservatives

This video is interesting and worth watching.

You may want to take the first test on this website:

http://www.yourmorals.org/

before viewing this video.

Palin - the Cocky Kook - uses "elite" as a pejorative term

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
e·lite       /ɪˈlit, eɪˈlit/
–noun

1.    (often used with a plural verb) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.
2.    (used with a plural verb) persons of the highest class: Only the elite were there.
3.    a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party.
4.    a type, approximately 10-point in printing-type size, widely used in typewriters and having 12 characters to the inch. Compare pica.
–adjective
5.  representing the most choice or select; best: an elite group of authors.

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME elit a person elected to office < MF e(s)lit ptp. of e(s)lire to choose; see elect]

Why do the kook and her supporters disparage elites?

It seems that she does not consider herself as an elite under either of the first two definitions or the fifth definition. I concur with this judgement. However, she clearly aspires to join the group mentioned in the third definition. In this, I hope she fails.

The Cocky Kook in action: Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

From the New York Times

Published: September 14, 2008
Gov. Sarah Palin’s visceral style and tendency to attack critics contrast with her public image, her record shows.

She does not not blink, she says. Also, it seems that she does not think. Would you want her in charge of the nuclear code book?

How did Microsoft ever get a reputation for good marketing?

This is an ad?

Are Republican politicians stupid, forgetful, or unprincipled liars?

Summer is over, time to start blogging regularly

Just completed the edit of July's images - and now it is September! Anyway, here they are. Click on the photo to see them all, or click here for a slideshow.

>

Why McCain may win the election...

Hyperpolitics (American Style) -- Embrace the chaos

Q.When is a book not a book?

A.When it is on an iPod or a Kindle!

Nowadays when I want to read a book, I am faced with several choices.

• Browse and buy in a bookstore
• Browse and buy from Amazon
• Browse and borrow from my excellent local library
• Obtain in spoken form - from the library or from Audible and listen on my iPod
• Buy electronically from Amazon for my Kindle
• Sit down and wait for the urge to pass
  

I have been wondering idly to myself how I decide (or should decide) between these alternatives, so following the principle that I do not know what I think until I write it down, I started on this blog entry.

I have found that I like to browse in Amazon rather than a bookstore because of the user ratings, unless it is a travel book, in which case I go to a book store to evaluate its physical handling properties. If the subject is completely unfamiliar to me, I go to the library and survey dozens of books decide what kind of book I want.

I prefer listen to fiction because that way I do not skim and skip and lose track of the plot and characters. Listening slows me down enough to appreciate (or abhor) the language and imagery. My normal reading speed is too fast for fiction.

I prefer to read non-fiction on a Kindle because I can page back and forth to reread a passage, or use the Kindle's lookup function to delve into a dictionary or get more details from Google.

I look at pictures in a book, because the Kindle's screen is not nearly good enough or big enough.

I wonder what choice will my grandchildren face when they are my age?

Ira Glass (of "This American Life" fame) on how to get past a block

You may (or may not) have noticed that I have not posted many photographs lately. This is because I don't like most of what I have been producing. These comments from Ira Glass have motivated me to get going again - maybe they will help you too.

What John McCain didn't learn in Vietnam

"In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the former POW
insists we could have won. No wonder he talks of occupying Iraq for a
century."

See <http://tinyurl.com/5wlq77> for more.

McCain and his supporters loudly and often proclaim that his "experience" makes him a good candidate for the presidency. His own words, however, suggest to me that he learned nothing from his "experience". He still thinks the US could have "won" the war in Vietnam, and that whatever lives would have been lost would have been worth continuing the battle - for an indefinite "victory".

His own website proclaims "This election is about making sure we have the experienced leadership to guide us to victory in this war" - but he does not tell us what "victory" means. He is all hollow words and bombast.

Bravery, moral character, and inner strength alone do not a good (or even adequate) President make. Good judgment is required and is the the most important characteristic. McCain has demonstrated that his judgment is flawed beyond redemption. Would I want him to be my comrade in a foxhole - absolutely yes - I can imagine no better comrade in arms! Would I want him to set objectives for the armed forces of my country - absolutely not. Great privates do not necessarily make great leaders!

In the "Why am I not surprised" department...

From the New York Times

China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: July 2, 2008

An interrogation class at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was based on a 1957 study of Chinese Communist techniques used to obtain confessions, many of them false,
from U.S. prisoners.

For the full article, see
http://tinyurl.com/5og3zw

Appalling Supreme Court Ruling

The ruling that everyone has an individual right to own a gun is appalling. Are our justices so illiterate that they cannot read all the words in the constitution? The words "a well organized militia" include every home?
Time for a constitutional amendment - and mandatory reading lessons for our judiciary.

In Memoriam George Carlin

Before you fly, watch this!

Jeremy Taylor: A Blast from the past

A Lion in Winter

We are back from Australia, almost over jet lag, installed a new computer, and resumed "normal" life. Last night we saw the Writer's Theatre production of "A Lion in Winter". As always, a very well done performance by a srong cast.

One for Three

ONE - Failure
I spent the whole morning on the telephone, courtesy of systems that almost work the way they should.
We are going to Australia in a few weeks. Australia demands visas for visiting US citizens, and will kindly issue electronic visas via the airlines. Last week I called United, and after about 50 minutes, the transaction was completed. Why so long? The agent to whom I spoke seemed to have been trained on a non-QWERTY keyboard. Whatever information I gave him was entered one keystroke at a time. Rather than the usual clatter that that one hears when giving an agent information, I heard "click" ... pause ... "click"... pause ... "click" ... pause... "click"... pause... "click"... pause... . That would just get my first name entered. And so it went.
At the end of the conversation I was assured that all was well, and that I would be getting e-mail confirmations.
Sure enough, within minutes I got a confirmation. One confirmation. I was expecting two. My wife and I have separate PNRs for this flight (don't ask - its another long story), and different e-mail addresses, so two would be expected,
Being naturally skeptical I checked my credit card account the next day - only one charge from United (for $20) had come through. I had been told that the visa issuance charge would be $30. The weekend was busy, so today I checked again. This time three charges for $20 had come through from United, all dated the on the same day.
So, I called again. Interminable menu hell for a while. Music on hold for 45 minutes or so. Agent comes on line. I explain the story. He checks, puts me on hold. Agrees that I have been charged for two visas. Checks visa status. Only my visa had been issued. He puts Hilda's in again. Says its OK now. I get two confirms by email. Now I will wait to see the credit card charges.

TWO - Failure
I transferred stock from one brokerage account to another with an after-hours online transaction last week. Received an email confirmation. When I checked my accounts on Monday, neither account showed a pending transfer, and the stock was still in the first account. I left it for another couple of days - maybe it was settling, or something like that. Today, still no sign in either account. Called the brokerage - got through quickly. Was told that they had no record of the transaction. They said to try again, so I did another transfer online. This time, it shows as in progress in both accounts, so maybe it will happen.

THREE- Success
A few months ago I bought a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS, with a sexy FM receiver that receives real time traffic reports. The receiver is built into the power adapter that plugs into what used to be the cigar lighter in the car.
An odd engineering decision, but I can see some sense in it. Within a couple of days, the power adapter started falling to pieces whenever we unplugged it from the car. The pragmatic solution was not to unplug it, simply to avoid the telephone hell that occurs when one tries to get a manufacturer to repair something under warranty. Today, I could put it off no longer, so I called the manufacturer. Wonder of wonders, the phone was answered after a couple of rings, I was given an RMA with no protest, and the adapter will soon be gong back for a new one.
This is the second time I have been given great service by Garmin. The first time I bought their stock, held it while it went up, and sold when Nokia bought a major map data provider and it became obvious that pretty soon all phones and cars will have GPS's embedded in them. Garmin's position of dependence on a large, competent competitor for its maps put them in a pretty awkward position. I made enough on that trade to keep me in GPS units for life.

Concerts and stuff

We have had a busy week, mostly related to Pesach and family. I will try to hit the highlights here.
Last week we went to the Chicago Symphony. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted and Bronfman played Esa-Pekka's own fiendishly difficult Piano Concerto. Salonen gave the pre-concert discussion, which gave us interesting insights into how he thinks about music. The CSO's pre-concert talks are always interesting. When the talk is given by the person who is both the composer and conductor, they are absolutely enthralling. In addition, the Concerto was written specifically for Bromson, so we had a triple whammy performance!
My reaction is cautious. It is always hard to know if a new piece of music will end up as a major classic in the repertoire, or disappear without a trace. I was not very taken by this piece, and I suspect not many pianists will want to try it. Bronfman looked terrified during several passages.

Salonen acknowledges the orchestra

On the way to the concert, we saw what happens when two articulated Chicago buses try to take the same corner in opposite directions. We left before they resolved the issue.


For the rest, we watched tke kids play soccer. Julia turned out to be an enthusiatic and effective goalie.


Abigail got a lot of excercise.


We managed to get outside for a quick shot of sunshine in this chilly spring.

Millenium Park Watercolor

My watercolor class started up today for the spring semester. The assigned topic was skin colors - but I was in a monochrome mood, so I did my first monochrome watercolor - all Payne's grey.

Watch this if you care about people

It takes 8 minutes. Hang in there until the end.

Google Docs does not upload titles to the Blog

For the techies (if any) reading this blog - this entry is the first that I have written using Google Docs. If you have not yet tried it - do so immediately. It is the latest incarnation of "cloud computing" which has been nearly ready for prime time for at least 10 years. It is becoming useful, at last.
Thursday we spent the day downtown, getting a dose of "culture". We woke up to a damp and dreary day, typical of what our Chicago spring has been so far. This was the view from our window.

Our first stop was at the Chicago Symphony to watch an open rehearsal of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. Unfortunately, we could hear very little of the dialog between the conductor and orchestra members. The piece had been well rehearsed. It was to feature in Sunday's "Beyond the Score" performance (I always want to call the series "Beyond the Fringe" in memory of the British revue that brought Dudley Moore to the world's attention. If you have not heard the record, try to do so - or visit me, I have it).

We attended the live performance on Sunday. The "Beyond the Score" approach is to play extracts from the work accompanied by commentary and images that provide some background information. After intermission the work is played through at its normal pace. As a result we got to listen to the Planets three times in a a very short period. Unfortunately the rhythmic complexities proved beyond the capability of the conductor's and orchestra's communication skills, and the performance was often a tad ragged - unusual for the CSO, but becoming more common as they continue to drift without a permanent music director.
Anyway, back to Thursday. After the rehearsal I spent some time in the Art Institute. First I stopped at one of my all time favorite paintings - Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 By Gustave Caillebotte.

This painting was doubly appropriate - it mirrored the weather outside the museum

and is painted in a style that foreshadows Edward Hopper - whose special exhibit we saw later in the day.
I next visited an exhibition of photographs by Ed Ruscha. His paintings were way better than his photographs.
Next we toured the parallel exhibits of the watercolors of Winslow Homer and the works of Edward Hopper. We were short on time, but a quick walk-around convinced us that we should return for a more leisurely look.
At 6pm we attended a lecture on "Winslow Homer:Artist and Angler". Interesting.

We walked back to the car and drove home suffering from sensory overload.

Now, if you are reading this it means that I successfully transferred this document to Blogger from Google docs - without it ever existing on my own computer. The wonders of cloud computing.

We saw "The Turn of the Screw"

We went to our favorite little theatre  (Writers' Theatre) tonight to see The Turn of the Screw  adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the story by Henry James.

The acting was intense - but I don't do ghost stories. They leave me cold.

Life is a learning experience

One can learn important lessons from even the most mundane experiences. For example, yesterday I bought a Waterpik. Today I tried it out.

The lesson I learned was that it is important to switch the Waterpik off before removing it from ones mouth.

I have finished posting all my pictures from Bolivia, Peru and the Amazon

I have finished my latest trip pictures. They are here.

Overall it was a fascinating visit. Highly recommended - if you are willing to travel in less than 5 star comfort. Overseas Adventure Travel, the tour company, did an outstanding job. Our tour leader, Johnny Malatesta, was one of the best we have had.

Amazon photographs partly posted

Click on the photo (or here)to see what has been posted so far.

As you Like It

Last night we saw "As you Like It" produced at the Writer's Theater in Glencoe. This company always puts on excellent productions - but this time they outdid themselves. It was brilliantly produced in modern dress and acted with energy and enthusiasm. We smiled all the way through.

My art lessons

I resumed my weekly art lessons - this palette looks better than the painting it produced. I have put most of my output in this gallery.

WGN Weather Center Blog: More than a month’s precipitation could hit from storms the next 2 weeks

Just what we needed:
WGN Weather Center Blog: More than a month’s precipitation could hit from storms the next 2 weeks

Julia Dances at Northbrook Court

Jacob at the Symphony

We took Jacob to his first symphony concert last Thursday night. The program was
Verdi - Overture to La forza del destino
Saint-Saëns - Cello Concerto No. 1
Strauss - Ein Heldenleben

He enjoyed the evening , expressing amazement at the precision of the orchestra. His comment was "They must be robots". Given that as far as I know he was totally unaware of the CSO's reputation for precision, that was pretty insightful.

The next morning we took him to the aquarium.

La Paz, Bolivia

Our first stop was at La Paz, Bolivia.

We both were somewhat affected by the altitude (about 12,000 ft) but we settled down after a couple of days. Drinking Coca tea definitely helped alleviate the symptoms.
The city was a bit of a surprise - it looked pretty much like a slightly run down European city. I was expecting a more "third world" feel.
For all the facts about the city, see Wikipedia here.

Outstanding CSO Concert

We went to the CSO on Saturday night. John Eliot Gardiner conducted, and Robert Levin was the pianist.
The CSO presents a pre-concert lecture series starting an hour before each concert. Last night the talk was delivered by the conductor and soloist. This is unusual. Most of the time the talk is presented by a musicologist, and sometimes by an orchestra member. They are always informative and sometimes amusing. It is a rare treat to hear the principals of the performance describe the works. Their discussion really increased the impact of the performance on me.
The program was:

Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony for Strings in C Minor
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4
Schumann - Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish)

We sat in the seats behind the orchestra, above the timpani. The performances of the Shostakovich and the Beethoven were powerful and moving. The Schuman paled by comparison.

Robert Levin improvised the cadenzas - he assured us they were different each tine he played. Amazing.

An orchestra member, Michael Hovnanian blogs regularly. His take on the concert is interesting.

We went to the Opera last night

Eugene Onegin was performed on a minimalist set. The first half was short on action - the "boy meets girl" part of of the story. The people sitting behind us left. The second half which contained all the action (dancing, duelling, etc) was much more lively.

Back from the Amazon

Well, we are back from our winter escape trip. Our objective was to escape Chicago's snowiest winter in three years - we met our objective. We visited Florida, Bolivia and Peru. The contrast in cultures between the Lake Titicaca reed island people, the Amazon river people and the Florida snowbirds was thought provoking and fascinating.
I will be posting the trip pictures over the next few weeks as soon as I have worked my way through the usual mail backlog.

As usual, the editing work will be slowed by the events know as "life". Life begins today with "Carter's Way" by Eric Simonsen at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

Leaving Winter for a While

Chicago's winter has been one of the snowiest on record. This is our local suburban downtown last week: Time for us to go off to the Amazon for some warmer weather.

Julia receives her first siddur at Schechter

Julia's Dance Recital

Julia (on the left) danced at a Charity event. Click on the picture for a few more images.

Chicago's Rapid Warm-Up - from 0 to 60 degrees F in eighty hours

Who said Chicago is cold in winter?

From my favorite weatherman:

WGN Weather Center Blog: Chicago's Rapid Warm-Up

Happy New Year

I found this patriotic mailbox near my daughters house. Looks appropriate as a greeting card.

We saw Julius Ceasar at the Lyric. Awesome!

I am way behind in posting my quick takes on what we have seen. Problem is that we had to reschedule a lot of stuff that that we should have seen while we were travelling. Life gets in the way of posting.
We saw an outstanding production of the opera Julius Ceasar by Handel - on December 1! Not only was the experience engrossing, we found street parking near the Opera. As can be seen the performance was in anachronistic dress, but it worked. A clear twofer!

Two Days with Two Grandchildren

This raises a variation on the old test question: If two grandchildren can wear out two grandparents with two cameras in two days, how long will it take for three grandchildren to wear out one grandparent with no cameras?
We took Julia and Abigail downtown for two days (Jacob would have come as well, except for a bout of stomach 'flu.) We had a busy two days - Spertus Institute, the park, Chinese dinner, and the Field museum. I amused myself by switching the D300 with the Tokina 16-50mm to P mode with Auto ISO and firing away. The combination is great up to ISO3200. Don't worry - if you don't know what that means, you also don't care. For those who care, the Raw images were processed in Lightroom with default Noise Reduction. I did mess with other parameters, obviously. This small set is edited down from about 170 originals - the rest are only for the family:-) A few are G9 - obvious from the aspect ratio.

Its been cold and snowy in Chicago

I went for a walk in the Botanic Gardens last week during a brief respite from the cold and snow.

S. Africa's Liberation Movement Demands Accountability - washingtonpost.com

S. Africa's Liberation Movement Demands Accountability - washingtonpost.com
This Washington Post report confirms to me my decision to emigrate from South Africa in 1976 - even if my forecast for the future of SA was partially incorrect. Actually my decision was made many years earlier - ultimate timing was dependent on affordability and the Vietnam war - I did no want to be sent to fight a no-win war soon after moving my family to the USA which was the fate of new legal immigrants.

Many knowledgeable people, hearing "1976" and "emigrate" and "South Africa" think that the uprising of 1976 precipitated our departure from South Africa. In fact, when the rioting started, Hilda and I were already in the USA interviewing with the folk that would ultimately bring us to Poughkeepsie. We received a message from Johannesburg, saying "Don't worry, the children are OK".
We did not know what it was that we were not supposed to be worrying about, so of course we went into panic mode. Something bad had happened, we thought, but it could be worse.
In South Africa at that time (only two years since the availability of television), it was assumed that all issues related to unrest or politics were inventions of the foreign press - so of course, we would know about what was happening even before the South African press reported it.

The primary reason I wanted to come to leave South Africa was the conviction that if I did not leave, my children would do so. I wanted to live near my children and the prospect of relocating in my later years did not appeal to me. The other reason was that I worked in computer systems technology - South Africa was far removed from the center of this activity. I did not want to live as a colonial all my life.

My perspective on the political future of South Africa was wrong. I foresaw a government like that of Mugabe in Zambia. By this I mean, quoting from Wikipedia:

"The Mugabe administration has been criticised around the world for corruption, suppression of political opposition, mishandling of land reform, economic mismanagement, and deteriorating human rights"

The government of South Africa has been way better than my expectation (apart from its idiotic view of AIDS). On the other hand I did not expect the level of apolitical criminal violence.

In hindsight I should have seen it coming. A short time before we left SA, our maid's boyfriend arrived at our house, with a stab wound in his side. We put him in our car and rushed him to the nearest hospital. ("Why not call 911" I hear my American friends say. Because I wanted to get him to hospital immediately, not sometime that week.) As we arrived at the emergency room curbside a hospital lifted his upper lip and looked at his gum. She said "Its too late". We went inside and after a wait the ER technician came out and told us he was dead. He had been killed for his jacket.

Criminal violence of this type is the order of the day in South Africa. My white ex-compatriots continue to live privileged economic lives, and make inordinate amounts of money, while living in beautiful houses surrounded by high walls and electrified barbed wire fences, while they and the less fortunate continue to be killed or robbed simply because they have something that that others want.

I understand, now, why this has happened. A generation or more more of Black South Africans missed years of schooling and are unemployed and unemployable. To survive, they rob, steal from, and kill the more fortunate. The policies of the government offer them no hope. Violence for them is the only means of survival.

So - I know now that I was right to move to the USA. The USA has been kind to me and my children. We all live in the same city. We feel safe. What more can be asked?

My solution for South Africa? I have none. Historically every redistribution of wealth and power anywhere has been accompanied by horrendous events - and the outcomes have been awful for many of the participants - on both sides.

Nelson Mandela has been an incredibly effective leader and has held the country somewhat together. What happens next I can neither prescribe nor foresee.

Its been snowing in Chicago!

Our Deck

The city - Lakeview

I attended a watercolor class(3)

The last three posts are my attempts from the last sessions I went to.

I attended a watercolor class,,,(2)

I attended a watercolor class...(1)

The underside of the web

This is what my link to the outside world looked like yesterday. All my phone lines and therefore DSL lines were killed by a backhoe. My trusty T-Mobile MDA provided enough connectivity for email and basic web browsing. I discovered that both Amazon and Ebay have phone-optimized interfaces - so now I can buy anything from anywhere. Cool, but dangerous.

Its not my fault - I am paying attention

Marked Brain Changes Afflict Even Senior Citizens Who Have Escaped Alzheimer's Disease
ScienceDaily (2007-11-07) -- Our brains, unlike the skin covering our bodies, do not wrinkle and sag as we age. But new studies show that our brains do change structurally and functionally in ways that may underlie the memory and thinking impairments that can limit independence and quality of life for senior citizens. Neuroscientists have recently discovered that the region of the brain that stores episodic memories -- those for specific events and their context -- was less engaged in older people, particularly those who have a common variant of a particular gene. Researchers also have determined that senior citizens who suspect that their sense of direction is declining are astute observers of a newly discovered age-related mental change.

Big Chunk Of The Universe Is Missing -- Again

ScienceDaily (2007-11-05) reports:

Not only has a large chunk of the universe thought to have been found in 2002 apparently gone missing again but it is taking some friends with it, according to new research. The new calculations might leave the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter than previously calculated. The same group that found what was theorized to be a significant fraction of the "missing mass" that binds together the universe has discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of "warm" gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons.

... and I think it is odd how often I lose my keys!

I have taken the plunge and joined Facebook

Hearing all the buzz about Facebook, I have belatedly joined it to see if its social networking can be used and useful and fun for someone like me who is way beyond the age of the target audience. If you don't know what it is, go here to check it out.

Another first wave of the future - Eye-Fi � Home

Eye-Fi � Home

Geopolitics of the Middle East

This fascinating map shows who controlled the Middle East over the last 5,000 years.

A pyramid scheme chain letter that is not bogus

I received a letter with the following text

"It really does only take a minute.
A favor to ask, it only takes a minute....
* I * * *Y
Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).
This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
The Breast Cancer Site"
AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10 TODAY "

Being the good skeptic that I am, I immediately suspected a hoax - a social virus - so off I went to check it. Turns out it is true - see The Breast Cancer Site - Click to Donate Free Mammograms - Netlore Archive

So, visit the site and tell your friends!

Gymnastics, Photography and Paranoia

Yesterday I went to watch (and of course photograph) Abigail at her gymnastics class. The gym area had several signs up prohibiting entry to non-gymnasts, so I was photographing through the glass. Her instructor noticed me and invited me in. I sat down out of the way of the participants for a while, taking several shots. An officious lady arrived and informed me that photography in the gym area was prohibited. I protested. She insisted. This being private property, of of course had to comply. However, I cannot understand why officious people in so many places take action against photographers.

We went to Michigan City for a week with the family

We went to Michigan City for a week with the family. Of course, Michigan City is in Indiana, not Michigan. It is also a place for a Hawaii like vacation 60 miles from chicago. Weird.
This is what sunsets look like - the Chicago skyline from a straight line distance of about 40 miles.

I have moved my website to .mac and my blog to blogspot

Please let me know if something stops working. All went smoothly, I think. The biggest glitch was when I discovered that .mac does not accept FTP connections. The switch from a black background to white is intentional.

Downtown at last

After a week of dealing with the Social Security Administration and the IRS, we spent a great day downtown. Click on the picture to see a slideshow.