All the action is at FaceBook now. No idea why, but that's why I haven't been here. Well, that and work.

I'm sitting here in my favorite nook at Uris Library at Cornell. It's just across from where Yoram Szekely, esteemed librarian, kept a "Comments and Suggestions" notebook during my freshman and sophomore years. Where once was a faded denim three ring binder, with cardstock pages divided into a question area at the top and a response area at the bottom, there are now four Dell computers. Three chairs inhabit my nook, upholstered in sturdy brown leather and nearly as comfortable as the two soft plum chairs that used to be here. The carpet is new, but the view over Libe Slope to Lake Cayuga is the same.

The C & S book was more than its name suggests. It was actually a discussion board, the only difference being that YS faithfully answered each comment in his Courier type. I was "Tursiops" (yes, I've been using genera as pseudonyms for 25 years) and meritahut was "Little Sidhe." I wrote in green ink, she in purple. I can't really remember the discussions we had (probably dreck, that hasn't changed!) but it was a community (mostly of anonymous strangers) and had the same pull we now feel online.

Ah, nostalgia. It appears YS retired in 2003.  I was looking for any vestige of knowledge about the old C & S book and ran into another 2003 blurb from Cornell about the shushing librarian Action figure. And no surprise that they mention Erica Olsen's Librarian Avenger blog (but as it was 2003 they didn't us the hip blog term).

I love libraries. And I'm doing my part to create some online evidence of the old C & S book so there's something there in case someone else Googles it.

What ho! Google wins again. I discovered that a "Dear Ezra" column started up shortly after the demise of C & S back in 1985, and that it is available online and has a little history. Go to http://ezra.cornell.edu/ and search for "Yoram Szekely." The earliest mention I could find was this one.

And that's the extent of today's procrastination (I hope). 

Imagine if you will the quiet repose of an early dawn. Lounging with some light reading, slowly gathering energy to face the busy day. Listening to the gentle drips of a warm summer shower on the lush greenery of an overgrown yard-jungle.

Crash! Sounds like a hundred pounds of books and a bookcase topple somewhere on a floor below, taking a crate of wineglasses with it.

Kids okay, fish tank okay, all bookcases where they are supposed to be.

But a large semi-rotted log has found its way through a basement window. Glass is thrown across half the room. And later, one discovers that there couldn't be a much worse cleanup than a drum set (with all its little knobs and rims and nooks and crannies) with tiny invisible shards all over it.

There is a sort of macabre humor to this story. But I do feel bad about it.

We have a decent-sized fish tank (40 gallons?) and in it rest a castle (former home of the ogre, our Plecostomus, before he got too big) and a facsimile of the Roman coliseum (former home of our blue lobster, who didn't survive an unfortunate molting experience). Now covered in algae, they have been the hiding space for a few rosy barbs.

Yesterday morning we discovered that our larger Bala shark, a sturdy torpedo-shaped fish about six inches long, had managed to get stuck in one of the arched windows of the coliseum. Clearly the fish swam in and was unable to get its dorsal fin through, but was unable to back out, impeded by large silvery scales that faced the wrong way. We aren't sure when this happened -- DH had not fed the fish the previous day and so it could have been more than 24 hours before we discovered poor Bala, still gently panting and swishing pectoral fins.

It took a Herculean effort to un-stick poor Bala, and many scales were lost in the process. Of course there had been considerable swelling of the front end of the fish while stuck.  Immediately the fish started to list and go belly up. We tried to quarantine poor Bala but it was too late. Within moments all signs of respiration stopped and after no motion in 24 hours we concluded the accident had been fatal.

I can't shake the memory of the one Homicide: Life in the Streets episode I've seen, where a man had been pushed off a subway platform and gotten wedged between the platform and an incoming train. The entire episode was about the efforts to reach this man's significant other because it was clear his spinal injuries were going to be fatal and he would die as soon as they relieved the pressure on them. Yet the freak accident had left the man fully conscious, in no pain, and completely unaware of his impending death. It still haunts me.

Who can tell me why the Red Cross shows up in a search on "exterminators columbia maryland"



After a couple of years of peace, we are overrun with carpenter ants again.

Saw a guy fishing in the pond in front of the Applied Physics Lab yesterday. Now, that's odd in itself -- it's a carefully manicured campus and not the kind of place I'd go to get away from it all.

But what was really wrong is that the guy had a cell phone tucked between his shoulder and his ear. I know, I'm one to talk, having developed a terrible habit of checking and even writing email on my phone while driving. But what is the world coming to when a fisherman has to multi-task?

After a couple of drought years I can't believe how much rain we've been getting.

There. I blogged. I know it has been a while. Real life and all that.  What's up?

1. I got a new job! About six weeks ago at the Entomologists Party (TM) various folks were sharing stories of the long and twisted paths they took before finally landing their dream jobs at age 43. Well, the perfect job opened up for me, I applied, and got it. Starting next month I'll be working for the Smithsonian on the Encyclopedia of Life. Just in time to start paying real money into social security before I need to start drawing from it.
2. I figured out a new way to commute that is much more comfortable. Drive ten minutes to a park and ride, hang out on a cushy bus for an hour, and get dropped off right in front of the Natural History museum. See point 1.
3. We finally got the new washer and dryer. They are LG, teal, and eerily quiet (except for the gentle electronic beeps and chimes). I feel like such a grown up. Until now we've always bought used and/or lived with decrepit ones that came with a house. Starting the last two or three years, all of our major appliances -- original to the house which was built in 1984 -- are breaking one by one. Doing our best to stimulate the economy.
4. I've been logging mega-miles on my HiHy doing things like getting fingerprinted for the new job, and chauffeuring my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and for a concert this week. She seems to be be holding ground with respect to memory and mobility (she's turning 80)
5. We successfully completed what are probably the last round of school projects before the end of the year. Yay! I can retire the glue gun and the shoeboxes for a few months.
6. I had a book group meeting and only one person came.  Radical that I am, I chose Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Not surprisingly, I couldn't find any book group questions so had to make up some of my own. I'd like to think everybody had legitimate reasons for missing, but . . .
7. When it hasn't been raining we've been hanging out on the street, worshipping Tiki Bob. When it has been raining, we've been reading. I finished reading Gregor the Overlander to everyone (and finished the series myself). Lately I've been reading this rather gory book by forensic anthropologist about how you can determine age, time of death, etc. from grisly remains.  Number one son read twenty books for the Feed to Read project from Heifer International. He's raised over $500 ($200 of it his own money) so can buy two llamas and two sheep for the Knitting Medley (I know you'll approve, Roger). 

Most of my blogging lately has been over at Fieldmarking.

Our dryer died a couple of weeks ago and (surprise surprise) the Y chromosomes in the house have not yet discovered the ability to hang up wet laundry. They are supposed to do their own, but for some reason I've been doing the mom thing more than usual on that front. The good news is that it is comforting to know it is possible even for suburbanites to live without such major electrical appliance (though hanging up a clothesline outside is an act of rebellion). Not that we plan to do without, we're just slow as usual deciding on a replacement. And shocked that we can't easily compare energy efficiency (Energy Star doesn't evaluate dryers). I'm not at all sure how/where to hang up wet sheets, so they remain unwashed for now.

Spent all day today restoring order to the garage. I got about 1/3 of it done so now we can walk around DH's car and open the extra fridge again. Whee. Small victories. Building lots of karma in the department of "you can't bring new stuff into the house without taking out at least the equivalent volume of stuff."

Friday was movie night again. We've had neighborhood kids over to watch videos that I choose the last few weeks. This time we watched Time Bandits. I think I liked it more the first time I watched it, but I love that the kids were still quoting it and talking about what it means as they spilled back onto the street.

Previous screenings have included: Buckaroo Banzai, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of course, Princess Bride, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail led off the series last fall. Temple of Doom was not a good choice for the 9 year old crowd -- the whole ripping the live heart out thing kind of put them off. Still, want to be prepared for the new IJ movie next month. Banzai was great because we spent the whole thing trying to explain to each other what was going on as if it really made sense.

Any ideas for bygone movies to share? I like to pick ones that are older because *I* like them and none of the kids have seen them. I refuse to watch anything with Bionicles or Pokemon characters in it.

I just found out that Ann Arbor's Shaky Jake died last fall. I would never have known except I was enjoying learning about Urban Fairies and came upon a photo. So here is the unlikely juxtaposition. There is a fascinating world of tiny mysterious doors around Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fairies who live there are only rarely seen, respond to letters (often by children) and hoard the "droppings" that well-wishers leave them. My favorite is the tiny socks someone knitted. Please click to see a whole page full of fun.



One of those "droppings" was a miniature guitar case with a Shaky Jake sticker. Everybody who lived in Ann Arbor through 2007 must surely have been familiar with this friendly street personality. More than a musician, Jake was an institution. The video below tries to capture why he warmed hearts.

A new medical breakthrough! When you've lost the measuring cup for your Dayquil, and simply must find a way to get through the day, follow the simple steps below.

1. Approach your nearest coffee station furtively
2. Grab a single-serving of creamer
3. Drink the cream
4. Fill up the cup with Dayquil, hoping that it is approximately one tablespoon.
5. Repeat step 4
6. Discard responsibly

No doubt the shot of creamer helps, too.

I got word earlier today that a professor I knew slightly has died of a heart attack. It's a shock -- he was the kind of guy who brightened up every room with his enthusiasm. Hard to believe someone so alive is now gone.  Rest in Peace, Bob Denno.

In brighter news, the software of a former colleague of mine was the subject of a Washington Post review a few days ago:

WriteRoom ( http://hogbaysoftware.com), developed two years ago, is an extreme but understandable response to the excesses of multitasking.

( Read more... )

From Science magazine:

Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness

Elizabeth W. Dunn,^1* Lara B. Aknin,¹ Michael I. Norton² Although much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of one's income on others predicted greater happiness both cross-sectionally (in a nationally representative survey study) and longitudinally (in a field study of windfall spending). Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves.

I've flown Southwest twice in the past month. I'm glad I didn't know about this or I'd have been a wreck (uh, poor choice of words).

Southwest grounds 41 jets

I was packing last night for a conference trip. Having done all the laundry early, and working from a <a href="http://ta-dalists.com">Ta-Da list</a> from my last trip, I had most of the evening to get the bags packed. Too tired to think straight though it took me an hour to pick out three sets of clothes. Then I was convinced I'd left my GPS and binocs on the plane on the last trip (see last entry for why these are essential). Spent another hour looking. Finally Dear Husband (DH) gently suggested I check the bin where these should be stored when not in use. I swear I checked this first (without much expectation, as I'm not one to put away things I think I might need again soon). Yet there were the binocs. Looking on the shelves a foot away from the bin I found the GPS, lying flat and unfortunately cryptic. As much as I like my new Garmix HCX Vista, it really needs a coat of fluorescent lime green paint. On my last trip I spent an hour looking for it in a large casino (Okay, I was geocaching in Vegas. Sue me.) Turns out it had fallen out of my pack while I was printing out my boarding pass, and had been kicked slightly under the computer kiosk. Had checked there already of course, but hadn't seen it.  Had even approached security and begun to assume it had been stolen. Not really worth filing any sort of complaint (especially since that boarding pass was intended for a flight mere hours away) and was sure it was my own carelessness. Which it was. But if it had been bright green I think I would have found it quicker. Both times.

All that aside, I finally fell into bed, not quite ready. I had all the electronics but none of the power and data cables. Isn't that pathetic? I spend more energy packing all that (usually) than on the essentials. Not suprisingly, my dreams were tinged with this anxiety. I was packing for the apocalypse.  I don't really remember anything else about the dream, other than DH providing invaluable help. When I woke up I wanted to tell him about it but he was asleep and there weren't enough details to justify waking him up. But isn't that a great name for a short story, "Packing for the Apocalypse?"

Really, I expect the conference to be quite pleasant and worthwhile.

Never did find my snapshot camera's power charger, and now believe that's what I left in Vegas. Oddly comforting to know the cause of nagging feelings.

To be kept at arms reach during a flight.

• a GPS (not only can I now know exactly where I am at all times, I can log my track so I have a record of what I passed over, and make a waypoint for anything I want to look up later.)
• binoculars (to more closely investigate features of the landscape below),
• iPod loaded with music podcasts (just realized that Southwest doesn't offer movies or music, even on cross-country flights)
• a writing journal (to record thoughts about life and the landscape, blogging ideas, and music to get  when back on the internet)

I'd add my laptop to the list but it takes up too room and requires two hands to juggle. And who has hands free when juggling all that smaller stuff. Is it a sickness? OCD? ADD?

I get a little manic during flights. Used to be just thoughts about the landscape. Imagine Georgia O'Keefe's later works of clouds Clearly the result of too many cross-country flights. But my mind wanders incredibly far when I'm free from responsibility not just from caring for my family and work, but when someone else has the job of feeding me. And I don't have the internet.

Then there are times when I'm sitting in seminars by someone else. I am positive that it is a hallmark of ADD that my mind insists on thinking its own thoughts when I'm supposed to be listening attentively to those of others. I never ask questions in seminars because I'm pretty sure I probably would have heard the answer if I were paying attention. I do attend enough to get the general gist, and sometimes I even take notes. Sometimes the speaker serves up a thought that seeds a very productive line of internal inquiry. That's it. From here on out I'm just going to go to seminars and then I can really get all my work done.

The third situation where the creative juices flow is when I'm driving. I'll see something interesting by the side of the road and that sets off a train of metaphors for life that I'm sure is profound. Here, jotting notes is not usually an option. Sometimes I call work or home and leave a message to myself for later. I've always thought I should rig up a good setup where I can do voice recognition to turn those voice mails into text. Okay, I'll just spend all day driving and flying from seminar to seminar.

Found on the eBiquity blog.

Here I am, high in the desert scrub just northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. I was vacationing on the Vegas strip with my mom and my sister and her family, but had to take a day trip on my own to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. I was looking for birds and photographic opportunities. Did a little geocaching too. Didn't find many birds at all, and spent much of the day worrying about damaging my rental car on the rough gravel roads. It was good to be on an adventure, however.

There are a few more pictures on Flickr. Eventually I'll get the rest of Vegas up there too.

If you look closely you'll see I've gotten a little snowy on top myself. While spending time with my sister, who is about 2.5 years younger than me, I noticed she's developed some fine wrinkles on her cheeks. Not crow's feet, but sort of a fine network of lines high on her cheekbones. Wow, I thought. Then I noticed in the mirror that I've gotten them too. Through the weekend it became clear that she's got a few more health problems than I do. Since I don't see her every year, and haven't talked much with her lately, I really had no idea. She's forging ahead in life, however, and doing great.

My 17-year-old niece has blossomed into a very bright young lady. Though she spent the whole time texting fanatically, she tried to be somewhat discreet about it and also stayed on top of our conversations, usually conveying the (correct) impression that she was the only one who knew what was going on. The rest of us were clearly slow to get with the program. Oh, and she's also very pretty and eats healthy. It was nice to spend time with her.

It was also good to hang out with my mother. I'm afraid I had a hard time relaxing so I must have been frustrating to be around. I'm used to the "powerful tourist" mode of DH (dear husband). Also, I didn't even have three entire days. I made her eat sushi, and expensive cheese, and rushed her through several casinos before speeding off to the airport. Well, someday I'll learn to sit back and relax.

Oh, and I didn't drop even a quarter on slot machines.

Why can't I listen to my music/podcasts while my iPod is syncing? And why does it say "ok to disconnect" before the white bar has fully expanded all the way to the right? Am I doing something wrong or is the software just stupid?

And why do I always break the headphone jack on any personal audio device I have? Ok, that's just me being stupid, no answer required.

Making a choice for today's primary has been unusually difficult. It isn't just me, a bunch of us white suburban well-educated moms have held off deciding until today: Clinton or Obama? Below are the reports of two rallies I attended in preparation. By now most of us in Maryland have already voted, so I'm not really trying to sway votes here. Just sharing my observations.

Antoinette did NOT pupate, as I had thought, though goddess only knows how she's still alive. And, astonishingly, somewhere along the way we picked up a new ant lion (possibly in some sand that came with the harvester ants). So now we've got two ant lions mouths to feed, plus what's left of the harvester ants. These are hiding deep in their colony

In other news, our blue lobster molted and is ginormous. All the websites say to expect lethargy for a while, but we are concerned because absolutely no motion at all in 12 hours seems a bit extreme.

Meanwhile, the Maryland primary actually may mean something, so we have candidates on parade. Tonight we saw Hillary at Bowie State University, and tomorrow I'll try to see Obama at UM College Park.

All of these could be beautifully illustrated with fine photographs I have actually taken but that would take another half an hour to dig up. Having finally seen my bad cold turn a corner, I think I'll sleep instead.