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bloglore

I wrote a 500-word-plus meditation on the changing fortunes of Broadway in my neighborhood today. I was sitting in Cafe Septieme waiting for Viv, watching the street as cloudburst after cloudburst cycled between sun and wet. Alas for me, my Palm-based blog app lacks an autosave and due to a moment of inattention on my part, poof, away it went.

Our old neighbors Shawna and Christian walked in while we were there with their one-year old. I did not recognize them at first – the baby might have had something to do with it. I forgot to ask about Mavis, darn it.

Finally, Greg reminded me that I should be reading Stacey’s blog, having badgered her into it over the past couple of years. He’s right, I need to, but due to insane business at work and in real life, my blog reading has been much curtailed of late.

Update – he’s doubly right, Stacey’s got the makings of a great blogger. Her posts are clearly unfiltered internal narrative; it sounds like her talking on the page. Hm, I probably have an obligation here to do some basic blog-lore education.

Man, how weird is that! Blog-lore! There is clearly such a thing, and I can recall when there wasn’t!

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Piratical!

I read this amusing NYT piece to Viv aloud because she was asking why I was chuckling. Extra points to the author for assiduously avoiding the Napoleon Dynamite and Pirates of the Caribbean referents the photographer so carefully captured. While a tad glib, I am filled with admiration for the writing itself in this article.

Geez, 2-for-2 from the Times. I gotta stay in more; my link-fu weakens!

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Diabetes Origin Theory

NYT: New Theory Places Origin of Diabetes in an Age of Icy Hardships

When temperatures plummet, most people bundle up in thick sweaters, stay cozy indoors and stoke up on comfort food. But a provocative new theory suggests that thousands of years ago, juvenile diabetes may have evolved as a way to stay warm.

Hm. Not sure I buy this. Apparently I am not alone:

Most doctors who treat diabetes are extremely skeptical about the idea. In a typical comment, one doctor said, referring to a dangerous complication of diabetes: “Are they kidding? Type 1 diabetes would result in severe ketoacidosis and early death.”

Seems like dying before reproducing might confer some evolutionary limits. The presenter of the theory argues that an Ice Age average lifespan of 25 might have meant that diabetics fared comparably well in the cold climate. The article goes on to note that Nordics are the most prevalently affected by this disease, and moreso in cold climates than in warm ones. I can only note that my wife is Cuban and was affected in sunny California. I will take some salt with this idea, thanks all the same.

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Flight

JG Ballard reviews The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination 1920-1950, by Robert Wohl, in the Guardian.

I have read, and deeply enjoyed, Professor Wohl’s previous book on the subject of the cultural symbology of aviation, A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908 to 1918. I am quite looking forward to reading this newer book as well. The period covered in the latest book represents the zenith of aviation as a pop-culture referent. Therefore, it’s the period in which the aviation archetypes that have always gripped me first gained wide purchase in the popular imagination.

While I loved the prior book, I found it overly documentarian. This complaint probably stems from Wohl’s profession, that of historian. I craved not merely encyclopedic paragraphs stating who did what and how given expression of the symbology of flight was disseminated, but also what it may have meant at the time. That’s not to say Wohl doesn’t provide interpretation, only that documentation is his primary focus.

While I’m at it, what a treat it is to read Ballard’s typically dystopian dry wit on the subject. Maybe he’ll take a crack at it – Plane Crash, anyone?

(Given that my folks are currently winging off to this week’s god-knows-where – is it China? – my own black joke is really quite inapproriate. Let’s hope I lack reasons to regret come tomorrow.)

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And Curtain

So, you’ve probably heard that this time out the NYT’s A. O. Scott rejects, I’m sorry to say, a curb-stomping for Star Wars, Episode III (sorry for the link, but the blogerator appears to be down.) Apparently eager to make up for it, The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane unleashes a review of overreaching vituperation which fails to amuse in (for example) its calls for the extermination of Yoda, and generally appears to reveal the critic as an enemy of fun. From what I can make of it, you’d think he’d actually like the film. He prophetically describes it as a “remorseless non-comedy,” sadly telegraphing a review into which he undoubtedly chortled three decades’ worth of deep loathing. It saddens me, because I do so enjoy a sound sour Star Wars review and had held great hopes, if not for the film, for the reviews.

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Quick

Apple’s QT7 upgrade breaks QT6 Pro. You have to shell out for a new serial number. Sadly, activating the copy of 7 that has auto-updated on your system will not necessarily provide access to the features you need. From Apple’s online fora (quoted, as Apple does not provide permanent online posting of the discussions):

Nick:

Since I’ve installed Quicktime 7 Pro it crashes every time I try to open ‘Show movie properties’. I’ve tried it on a variety of Quicktime movies, old and new. I’ve now repaired permissions and repaired my disk – but to no avail.

russblaise:

This workaround is from “blinkmedia”, it was posted yesterday. And it worked for me.

With QT Player not running:

Open System Prefs > International & change your language setting. Then quit and re-open System Prefs and change your language setting back to what it was/should be. QT Player’s “Movie Properties” should now behave as expected.



I can confirm that this successfully allows access to “Movie Properties.”

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Crudski

Crap! I just realized gmail has been filtering inbound comment notifications straight to spam! Sorry, friends, I’m not deliberately sitting on your comments.

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The Nation

Hey look, ma! I’m an academic reference or possibly case study!

“Late in September, 2004, Mike Whybark, a resident of Seattle, began researching the background story to the original flier and reported his findings in The Nation (see Whybark 2004).”

Sadly, however, The Nation (later in the paper cited as a Seattle-based publication) has never seen fit to send me a check for my work. If only I knew which Nation it might be that Ms. Knobel cites!

Could it be the venerable organ of the Left? If so, the slow-pay might well be understood. Perhaps it was Bangok’s The Nation. Or maybe Pakistan’s.

At any rate, I know that I did not report my findings in The Nation. However, pursuivant to the Articles of the League in fulfulling my obligation toward grandiloquence and overreaching, the next time I have hard, cold water to toss in the face of an internet meme, Katrina gets first right of refusal with up to twenty-four hours turnaround on a no-reply opt-out. After that, it’s Hilly’s turn.

What’s really odd is that John and Mikey’s shirts are cited, and Jeff’s initial post about Terry is also quoted. I really want to understand where the citation forThe Nation originated,