Josh Shaine

I miss Voyagers. That's what I would normally (school year) do on a Thursday afternoon.

Instead, I am flying to Chicago and thence being driven to BIQ Midwest, or what there is of it. I will get to see nifty fun people and do some serious exploration of family dynamics. Might even see some kids - anything's possible!

I'll be on and off during the weekend, I expect.

When I am reading a book by respected historians, even if their essays are in the less well respected realm of "counter-factual history," I expect the facts that are not relevant to the changes in the story line to remain the same, or to be explained so we know where the chance came from.

I was reading What ifs? of American History, and finished an essay that explained why Senator Joe McCarthy did what he did, but with a twist. So it was that apparently McCarthy ended up costing Eisenhower his re-election bid, leading to an Adlai Stevenson presidency. And I would have believed it was plausible and well thought out until I got to the actual electoral college vote: 530 for Stevenson, 312 for Eisenhower.

Sorry, folks! There were 531 electoral votes up for grabs - no Alaska, no Hawaii, and no D.C. But under no stretch of the imagination were there 842 of them.

"Sumer is Icumen In"

I sure would like to believe it, but we haven't really even had spring, yet!

But Saturday is due to hit 80* or so, suggesting that perhaps Summer is coming.

We can hope.

Books that stayed with you after you read them...

This is from a FaceBook 'meme' I did, but a) I cheated on the 15, and b) I included some commentary to make the list more meaningful to me.

1. Harold and the Purple Crayon - Crockett Johnson
We can shape the worlds around us, to an extent, but it can be tricky.
2. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - Dr. Seuss
There are arcane forces out there that will mess with our lives, and the powers that be may not believe we really have no control over what's going on.
3. Gremlins - Roald Dahl
Odd things happen. Sometimes they mess things up. Sometimes they make things better. Sometimes they just make things more interesting. But odd things happen, and we have less control over them than we like to think.
4. Andy Buckram's Tin Men - Carol Ryrie Brink
Goodness matters. Kindness matters. Helping matters. But sometimes, things don't work out the way we want them to.
5. The Gilead Bomb - David Sinclair
There are bad things out there. The adults don't always have the answers. And help comes from some surprising places,sometimes.
6. The Ghost of Dibble Hollow - May Nickerson Wallace
Conflicts can come from misunderstanding, and lead to long, bitter division - unnecessarily long, unnecessarily bitter.
7. The Forgotten Door - Alexander Key
Being different is hard. It's lonely. There are people who will hurt you for being different, but there are good people out there, too, who will love and care about you even if you are different - and about whom you can care to. But be aware - they, too, can be targets for caring for and about you.

Really importantly - that the feelings I had inside were not unique to me, even if I had a hard time verbalizing them.
8. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (series) - L. Frank Baum
Too many lessons to name. Friends are important.
9. Patty Fairfield (series) - Carolyn Wells
Normal daily life does not have to be boring. Girls can be cool.
10. The City and the Stars - Arthur Clarke
Idealism upsets the status quo, but it is still worth pursuing, even when it upsets others.
11. Starman Jones - Robert Heinlein
11a. Tunnel in the Sky, Orphans in the Sky, and many others of Heinlein's juveniles
Where to start? You can get ahead even if you don't follow the rules - and some of the rules make getting things done that are important harder, not easier. There are many different ways to view the world - and no one of them is proof that the others are wrong.
12. To Sir With Love - E. R. Braithwaite
Troubled students =/= bad people. Nobody should be given up on. Teachers are important - or can be. Love and respect are more important than academics.
13. Goodbye Mr. Chips - James Hilton
Teachers' impacts go beyond their time with students. Teach and live your values and your values will be taught.
14a. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
The universe is a strange place. Stand up to evil. Being smart =/= being wise. Understanding self is important, but damned hard.
14b. The Arm of the Starfish - Madeleine L'Engle
Science is not inherently good. People wear masks to influence people - and not even remotely always in good ways. Naive =/= inherently bad. Sexual attraction (whatever that is) can prompt poor decision-making.
15a. Telepathist (The Whole Man in its U.S. release) - John Brunner
Things that happen to us have long term impact - emotional/mental, not just physical. Letting others in to help us is as important as helping them is - even if/though it is hard. Just because we cannot express an idea, art, music, does not mean it is any less artistic or musical - merely more frustrating for all that.
15b. The Long Result - John Brunner
Breaking past low expectations - our own or others' - is hard, but often worth it. Unfortunately, the results are not always what those who are urging us on expect them to be - and big growth/change in ourselves can result in loss of what had been important relationships. That doesn't make it a bad thing, but it doesn't make it easy, either.

Our actions have way bigger potential ripples than we ourselves can see at any given moment.
15c. Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
Brilliance and adaptability and independence have their limits. There are other people in the world, still and again.

http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/brown-v-board-of-education-after-55.html
**********

Today is the 55th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's declaration that 'separate but equal' is not a viable approach to education - that it was never, in fact, equal even if the communities involved wished to claim otherwise.

The above link goes into some of the underlying issues then, since, and now far more thoroughly than I would have thought to. It included bits I'd not known, including a Virginia county's response to totally shut down their public schools rather than permit them to be integrated!

It has a couple of quotes from a later decision in which SCOTUS observed that education is not a (US) constitutionally protected right:

Justice Lewis Powell agreed. “Though education is one of the most important services performed by the state, it is not within the limited category of rights recognized by this Court as guaranteed by the Constitution.” If it were, Powell conceded, “virtually every State will not pass muster.”

Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had won Brown v. Board of Education as an attorney, responded in his dissent:

“The Court concludes that public education is not constitutionally guaranteed,” he wrote, even though “no other state function is so uniformly recognized as an essential element of our society’s well being.”

"Separate but equal" is the education system mandated by our funding mechanisms and by our economic structures. It is no more equal, no more appropriate today than it ever was.

Perhaps it is time that education be given status as a right. Perhaps it is time for another Constitutional amendment.

Do any of you know of software that will convert English words into Hebrew letters that would make the same sounds?

That was a really great book - a must read.

At least, if you're a Tammy fan. More later!

Some of you may be interested in the article, Social Consequences of the Internet for Adolescents - A Decade of Research, by Patti M. Valkenberg and Jochen Peter; in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol 18, No. 1.

By the Jewish calendar, a year has passed since my mother's death, though a few days remain on the Christian calendar - a calendar to which, honestly, I am more responsive than that of my ancestors.

Still, the concept of yahrzeit and the burning of a yahrzeit candle make more than a certain sense to me. So, we lit the candle to mark the passage of time and the memory of Frances Shaine.

And oh! my love, for you.
High birds crying, and a
High sky flying, and a
High wind driving, and a
High heart striving, and a
High brave place for you!

-- Paul Linebarger

More snow?!

Clearly, this storm is my fault. If you wish to understand, check my first post in January.

I wasn't going anywhere today, probably, anyway, though breathing seems to be working better this afternoon.

Once upon a time, there was a very unhappy young woman named Mirabel, who was trapped in a very difficult living situation. She had two major personality components that were regularly at war in her worldview. She was a student of philosophy with an abiding interest in ethics, and, at heart, very much a romantic. She would find herself imagining a prince rescuing her from her overbearing siblings and helping her to save her poor father who was trapped. Then she would chastise herself for even thinking of taking advantage of the poor prince that way, when he couldn't possibly know her well enough to love her, nor the obligations that rescuing her father would entail.

Still, she was prone to talking to the birds outside her window, to singing to the mice and cats in the house, and to wishing, idly, to herself, that things might be different. Of course, she knew there was no such thing as magic, and this soothed her self-torture about romantic notions. After all, there was no harm to be had in wishing if there were no way for wishes to come true!

So it was that she was very startled one night when an elegant young woman appeared abruptly in her room, just after she had sent her wishes to get away off to the moon, or wherever unanswered wishes might go.

"Who are you?" As soon as she said it, she mentally kicked herself. She did that a lot. "Oh, don't tell me, you're my fairy godmother." And she sighed.

"Close enough,' said the woman. "I'm a marit, a kind of djinn; you rubbed my lamp tonight while you were cleaning the basement for the 4th time this week. Normally, my lamp is out of reach, but one of your sisters moved a box. You can call me Jinny, if you want"

"Oh. Hmm... Why did you wait so long to appear, then?"

"We're not permitted to let anybody but the person whose wishes we are granting see or hear us. I waited until everybody was asleep."

"I see. Well, it doesn't matter anyway. No wishes for me. It would be wrong. It's wrong even to present me with the option."

"Huh?" The marit sat down in a desk chair, quite perplexed."

"It's wrong. Power corrupts. Wishes are a form of almost pure power, with immense ability to either corrupt or destroy lives. I may be a romantic, but I am *not* an idiot! I've read all the stories and tales and fantasies. I know that inevitably I will screw up, even if I manage to avoid sausage nose or the myriad maladies that befall some wishers.

"Even if I wish to get free of my familial obligations, somehow, all I am doing is forcing things on them as they have on me - and my actions are not justified by theirs. And I know well that any personal profit I seek to gain will come from another, often someone I love. So, I will pass on the wishes, thank you."

Jinny just stared at her.

"Don't you get it? You're not wanted here. Go away."

"Is that a wish?" There was a slightly hopeful tone in Jinny's voice.

"No." There was a coldness in Mirabel's voice that dashed any hope that the spirit might have had.

"But what about your wishes? Can't I do *anything* for you?" It was almost a whine.

In exasperation, Mirabel spoke sharply. "I wish you could understand my point of view!"

A big smile crossed the marit's face. "That's one!" Then the smile disappeared. "Oh," was all she said.

Mirabel started cursing. While it was not her normal mode of discourse, she showed amazing affinity for it, having picked up a lot of juicy expressions from her sisters. It was obvious that her anger was self-targeted, not at Jinny at all.

Hesitantly, Jinny spoke up. "It's clear that you cannot just wish for me to lose the ability to understand, because while giving the understanding to me clearly violated my person - I hadn't given you permission, but neither did I understand enough to have been able to give informed consent - clearly to remove my understanding would be to take away knowledge - both an abuse of power in and of itself, and wrong as a destruction of knowledge in the universe. Boy, you are clearly in one stuck place!"

As she talked, Jinny became more confident.

"You're considering just making me return to the lamp, but are unsure of the consequences of that. Let me assure you that there are none for you - but I know now that this is not enough for you. So, yes, if I go back with ungranted wishes, I will suffer pain every moment from return to my bottle until such time as I finally grant the remaining wish or wishes.

"On the other hand, you are still left with what to do with me, what to do about your sisters, and most especially, to you, about your father."

Mirabel jumped up. "Wait. How do you know about my father? I never said anything about him!"

The spirit grinned. "You wished for my to understand your perspective - you didn't specify this argument. But, fortunately, you didn't insist that I *agree* with your perspective! As it happens, I disagree with pretty much all of your conclusions but one.

"You are bound here to service with your sisters because you cannot see a way to leave that won't also abandon your father, which you will not do. And you do not have the resources alone to take him away from this place.

"You've imagined a prince coming, but didn't actually have any interest in a prince at all - even your dreams won't work.

"And to top it off, now you are stuck with an overly analytical djinn."

Mirabel just nodded, disconsolately.

Jinny continued. "Let's start it in reverse. Yes, you are indeed stuck with one overly analytical djinn. *That* means that you are no longer alone, unless you want to be. Further, your djinn is very capable of helping you to muster the resources when you leave here to take care of yourself and your father, if you let her. Your next wish, then, is to assure yourself that this is what I WANT to do, rather than my doing it out of any obligation.

"And finally, Mirabel, I think you'll find that the two of us can have a lot more fun together than you were ever going to have with some stale old prince!"

And so they did.

February 26th is Tell a Fairy Tale Day.

No, I don't know why or who declared it so. I just know that it is. (If you find the origin, please let me know.)

So, tomorrow, as I did last year (http://joshwriting.livejournal.com/189585.html), I will tell a Fairy Tale. I encourage each and all of you to do the same, even - or perhaps especially - if it is not ordinarily something that you do.

I would be honored if you would share with me whatever fairy tales you tell, and please feel free to share mine with others, if you are so inclined.

***************
Wonderous Stories
(Anderson)

I awoke this morning
Love laid me down by a river.
Drifting I turned on upstream
Bound for my forgiver.
In the giving of my eyes to see your face.
Sound did silence me
Leaving no trace.
I beg to leave, to hear your wonderous stories.
Beg to hear your wonderous stories.

He spoke of lands not far
Or lands they were in his mind.
Of fusion captured high
Where reason captured his time.
In no time at all he took me to the gate.
In haste I quickly checked the time.
If I was late I had to leave to hear your wonderous stories.
Had to hear your wonderous stories.

Hearing
Hearing
Hearing your wonderous stories.
Hearing your wonderous stories.
It is no lie I can see deeply into the future.
Imagine everything
You're close
And were you there to stand
So cautiously at first and then so high.
As he spoke my spirit climbed into the sky.
I bid it to return
To hear your wonderous stories.
Return to hear your wonderous stories.

Hearing,
Hearing,
Hearing,
Hearing,
Hearing,

From dpolicar

Part of being on Livejournal is inevitably gaining a number of LJ buddies. Unfortunately, as time wears on, it's easy to forget where all of them came from. Post this in your journal and have your friends respond with how they recall first 'meeting' you.

That's how the 'meme' goes. I'll confess that rather than its being "easy to forget," that it is hard for me to remember how I met many folks - and I certainly won't know your perspectives on it. So, yeah, color me curious.

I've been boggled by this one for a few days now.

Two judges in Pennsylvania have been railroading juveniles into a pair of detention facilities, apparently in return for kickbacks from the facilities - to the tune of ~$2,600,000 between them.

Hundred and possibly thousands of kids have been convicted and sentenced, often for incredibly trivial issues - and usually without either having lawyers or being informed that they were entitled to them.

They pleaded guilty. One of them expressed remorse. The other allegedly closed the public facility and arranged for the private ones to get contracts with the state, contracts deemed excessive - and yet, the process was not examined, let alone the results, for years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29142654/
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/02/2-pa-judges-adm.html&cid=1303722996&usg=AFQjCNHerNw1_KSBOjI6LeQJtfD_Ii-yPA
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h88VgykKcn87UozOYaETJS6yufvgD96AP8FG0

I just don't get it.

I can't believe I actually did that. *sigh*

Tonight, I was heading into Cambridge to have dinner with my friends Eric and Liz, who'd not met, but have lots in common. I noticed, as I got into the car, that I needed to get gas on the way in.

About 30 minutes later, with the gauge showing an 1/8th of a tank below empty, I remembered this. I was on a stretch between I-495 and the Concord Rotary on Rt. 2 - next gas station a few miles ahead, at the rotary.

I pulled into the left lane and hoped.

2/3rds of the way around the rotary, the engine died. With it died the power steering and power brakes.

I coasted the rest of the way around the rotary, into the gas station, and stopped at the pump.

Piece of cake.

John Williams, composer of Star Wars and Close Encounters, Indiana Jones, Superman, Jaws, and so many others...

I knew most of his popular Science Fiction movies.

But, what I didn't know was that he was the composer of the theme music for The Time Tunnel!

For that matter, he also did several episode of Lost in Space, 20 episodes of Gilligan's Island, and orchestrated Gidget!

I've been a good boy today, reading one act plays.

The group I've just read were all sent to me through a friend, written by college students in a playwriting competition over a few years.

The first one has 4 recently dead characters - one shot by her husband, one heart attack, one in childbirth, and one by overdose.

The second one has the best friend and the love interest of the main character die during the play, leaving the lead (pronounced either way) character alone and feeling useless.

The third is filled with angst and despair and job loss and cancer.

The fourth has our recently deceased protagonist discovering he's been betrayed by his wife, brother, and best friend.

I'm not sure I am up to reading more of these!

(Okay. Yes, I am. But, still...)

After a searching two-year look at the economy, the Committee for Economic Development last week came to the conclusion that the U.S. is virtually depression-proof. "Changes since before the war in our financial, budgetary and psychological situation," said the committee's report from top businessmen, have all but done away with the dangers of an oldtime deflationary spiral. While there is no guarantee that there will be no more recessions, the changes do mean that what "might have turned out to be a severe depression would be a moderate recession and what might have been a moderate recession can now be relatively mild."

Such economic stabilizers as the Federal Reserve Board powers to buy Government bonds and make loans to banks (which would give banks needed cash without calling their loans), unemployment compensation and a big backlog of consumer savings "add up to a powerful package." Tax cuts and public works, said C.E.D., should be used only in the event of a serious decline, since "there is a danger of doing too much too soon and causing inflation, as well as a danger of doing too little too late."

The remained of the article is here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819700,00.html

The date? Mar. 29, 1954

For those unfamiliar with the show, America Movie Classics has all of the episodes available for full-screen viewing: http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-series/

They're recreating the series, which makes me excited and nervous.

museteasers had as today's prompt "No Escape" - coincidence? I think not.
*********
Erik was watching the show intently, as his mother shouted up the stairs to him.

"It's time to go, Erik! We have to get you to your new school."

New school. Right. School? Military academy. Boot camp was more like it.

"I'll be right down, mom - I'm just watching the final episode from the DVD series you got me for my birthday, since I won't be able to watch it at school. It's the last one - and he has to get out this time!"

"Right now, young man! This is exactly why we're sending you to this place - you won't do as you're told. Come down NOW."

He shrugged, got up, and grabbed his bag. In a final display of futile resistance, he left the TV and DVD playing, and went down the stairs to the car, to the 'school,' to his new 'life' that was no life at all, as far as he could tell.

As they drove away, Number Six was recaptured and returned to the Village.