Cogito Ergo Doom

My two youngest children had doctors appointments this evening; a friend brought them to the pediatrician from our neighborhood (West Rogers Park) while Tel and I took the bus up from work (the Loop). The pediatrician's office is almost midway, on Lincoln at Fullerton and Halsted.

Guess what else is going on at Lincoln at Fullerton and Halsted? They are shooting a motion picture about a guy who was shot while exiting a motion picture. Johnny plays John, Depp plays Dillinger; Public Enemies is being filmed.

This was unknown to me, I just saw a massive traffic pileup ahead (a streetcar track had been laid in the center of Lincoln Ave, where one would have been in the 1930s; this area was hosting machinery and production vehicles). But we literally stepped off the bus and into 1934; my eye was caught by an oddly out-of-place nostalgic storefront for National Tea Company, with piles of tins of vintage labels and a large NRA sign in the window. My attention was then caught by the banner hanging from the Biograph marquee that read "COOLED by REFRIGERATION" - something that would have mattered in the 1930s when private homes did not have air conditioning.

It was when I saw the ticket area alive with posters that it clicked; I just blurted out "They're shooting something about Dillinger here", to which a bored-looking security officer nodded his assent.

We did find the pediatrician's office; it was not buried behind a false front (yet), but it did have an overhanging sign advertising Crosley radios.

Of course I did not take pictures, the place was alive with contractors and electricians scrambling to set things up. But other people have, so I will gladly direct you to some Flickr coverage of the Lincoln Avenue Location Set for Public Enemies:

Public Enemies set on Lincoln Ave. by NWB

Public Enemies set pics by mycatispunk

Comtesse DeSpair's photostream, which does not have a separate Public Enemies set, but her black-and-white photos (which add authenticity, oddly enough) are right now on the first page of her album.

ETA: Exclusive: HollywoodChicago.com Photographs Biograph Set For John Dillinger Killing in ‘Public Enemies’

I wish the false fronts didn't have to come down...then again, I have often wished I could live in a world with 1920s and early 1930s art deco design, but with modern electronics and medical science and social attitudes.

News outlets across America are running the charmin' story of a 35 year old Texas woman who spent so long on a toilet (two years, in fact), that her skin had grown around the seat. The seat had to be pried off the commode to facilitate her trip to the hospital.

And while the news outlets point out that her 36 year old boyfriend did nothing to encourage her to leave her ceramic haven (was he scared shitless?), and while they illustrate the fact that the couple live in a trailer, there is a name that does not seem to be attracting the attention that it deserves.

Indeed, I had glanced at the story as presented by three different outlets before I finally noticed (in Australia's The Age), the name of the local sheriff who investigated the initial report and took action.

Sheriff Bryan Whipple.

You just can't make this stuff up.

This is an astoundingly rare video of Michael Flanders OBE (1922-1975) and Donald Swann (1923-1994) in performance of At The Drop Of Another Hat on Broadway in, I would suppose, 1964 or so. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Mr. Leon Berger, the archivist and executor of the Flanders and Swann estates.




Their recordings have been a source of unending delight to me for years, because I dearly love the clever wordplay in which Michael Flanders engaged when writing their songs, as well as the accomplished light-piano style of Donald Swann. Two official videos (transferred from multiple-generation videocassettes, it seems) are on YouTube courtesy of the estates, and provide a glimpse of what they actually looked like in performance. I chose this one to embed because it contains three examples of Syllepsis.

Enjoy.

Congratulations to a dear old friend, Heather, aka Virdilak aka Dragon, whom I have known for about 12 years I think, and who just last night became engaged.  Wonderful news, something to which she has looked forward for quite some time, and my family and I are ecstatic.

This is late because of some computer skullduggery, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIRD!

Alias tallquasimodo
Alias seoulinlimbo
Alias The Boy

Alias Sir Brian

Happy Birthday! May it be filled with cake. And kim chee. :)

( No, you can't. Too much fog. )

( This is what it looked like this morning. And...it's still snowing! )

Oh, BTW. Today is Telecommute Friday. Just so you know. :)

I just changed my friends page to display more entries, because of a couple of busy macro groups to which I now subscribe.

Since I let my paid account lapse and am using free LJ, this means that the minute I changed a setting, my custom layout got borked. My telegram-look is no more.

Whether the system SAVED it and will let me re-invoke it if I fork over money to LJ, I don't know. But this is pissing me off royally because I did a lot of coding to make that layout work, and I'm going to be furious if it's gone.

XPEHA C 2, LJ

The dreaded winter storm hath arriv-ed. From a high of 51 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon, at 9:45 PM we have 7. Yikes. The falling snow isn't the problem, it's the famous Chicago DRIFTING snow. That lake effect wind is something.

( blurry phone pic )

A STRONG COLD FRONT CURRENTLY SPANNING ACROSS WESTERN ILLINOIS WILL COME THROUGH NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA THIS AFTERNOON. PRECIPITATION WILL START OUT AS SLEET AND CHANGE OVER TO SNOW AROUND 5PM AT ROCKFORD AND AROUND 6PM AT CHICAGO WITH SNOW AMOUNTS OF AROUND 1 TO 3 INCHES EXPECTED. VISIBILITIES WILL DROP DOWN TO AROUND A MILE WHEN THE SNOW STARTS UP...WITH IT LIKELY DROPPING LOWER TO ALMOST WHITE OUT CONDITIONS AS THE MAIN BAND OF SNOW COMES THROUGH THIS EVENING WITH SUSTAINED WINDS AROUND 25 TO 35 MPH AND HIGHER GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH.

AS TEMPERATURES RAPIDLY DROP BELOW FREEZING TODAY...UNTREATED ROADS WILL LIKELY DEVELOP ICY PATCHES FROM MOISTURE ON THE ROADS FROM THE RECENT THAW AND LIGHT RAIN...MAKING TRAVEL HAZARDOUS THIS EVENING INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING TO GO ALONG WITH THE BLOWING SNOW.

WITH THE COLD AIR MASS AND STRONG WINDS...WIND CHILL VALUES WILL ALSO DROP INTO THE HAZARDOUS RANGE OF BELOW -20 DEGREES THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL ALSO CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING... PARTICULARLY IN AREAS THAT RECEIVE MORE SNOWFALL THIS EVENING.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW...STRONG WINDS AND DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILLS ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Note: The current temperature courtesy of the bank cater-corner from my building is 51 degrees. In just a ridiculously short time it is predicted to drop to zero.

Obviously the thermometer is "copycatting" the state of the mortgage industry...

EDIT: No snow yet as of 7:00 PM. We shall see what we shall see, but I'm hoping the promised storm continues to ignore us.

EDIT #2: LIES. We have at least an inch outside in the past 45 minutes.

Anyone who has known me for a decade or so will know that I used to grumble about the radio ads inviting listeners to take another mortgage on their homes to "take that vacation YOU DESERVE". Admittedly, I follow a religion that teaches that nothing is guaranteed, not even our waking up tomorrow morning, and that none of us "deserve" anything - so I have long been skeptical of the finance-your-lifestyle agenda. Worse, I personally feel that it is stupid to risk potential loss of one's dwelling over something as capricious and ephemeral as a vacation.

Anyway, the cheery news is coming over the wire services that the coalmine canary has stopped singing and started asphyxiating, as prime borrowers and other wealthy patsies risk-takers are discovering that their adjustable-rate mortgages are adjusting themselves into the stratosphere.

It's really difficult for me to sympathize with their plight; if you don't want stupid losses, don't take stupid risks. Believing ourselves to be invulnerable and invincible is a widespread flaw in the typical American character. Now we have people, as the article says, "using their homes as ATMs", financing all their shit with home equity loans, being unable to repay, and scratching their heads asking "how the hell did THIS happen?".

They're red and blue. Yummy.

Seriously, we just got our mailing yesterday announcing polling locations for the Illinois Primary on Feb 5th.

I noted with some mild amusement that the two candidates between which I have to choose are both Senators, and both have Illinois connections. (Hillary was born here, while Obama is a Senator from here.)

I still remember my first Illinois primary in 1992. I, in my identifiably Orthodox Jewish hat and beard (I had a beard then), went to vote in my primarily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. The table had both Republican and Democrat judges, each assigned to interact with those voting the straight-ticket of their respective parties. As I approached the table, the Republican judge smiled and asked if I'd like a ballot.

Yes, please, I'd like a Democratic ballot.

Oh. The smile faded and she tapped her somewhat bored-looking Dem colleague on the shoulder and announced, "he wants a Democrat ballot".

Ms. Democratic Judge turned to me and brightened up with a huge smile and asked "You want a Democrat ballot?" Yes, I said, I'm liberal commie scum. "That'll work!" she said brightly as she handed me my ballot.

I suppose I expected too much from my politically liberal adopted home town; apparently in my ward Democrat voters are a rarity. Or at least they were 16 years ago; I hope times have changed.

A commercial for Israeli HDTV provider YES, making gentle mockery of the Ultra-Orthodox by having them dance around singing lyrics of protest - to the melody of Y. M. C. A. Maybe they should call themselves The Shtetl People. At any rate, only Jews can get away with one group poking this much fun at another group and still living to tell about it.

Here's what they are singing:

(in Hebrew, with a heavy Yiddish accent)
Be warned holy land
of the hi definition
go out and erase this "to-eivah" (sin)

(in English with occasional Yiddish pepperings)
Oy Vey, the "to-eivah" is here
He said Oy Vey
now the detail's so clear
YES brought HD
Groisse Tatte (Father in heaven) please help
It's a "broch" this HD on YES


Gevald it's Sedom and Gemorah
HDTV it's against the torah
HDTV oy voi voi voi
Now the shikses look well
you will all go to hell
Or in Hebrew Yishmor HoKel (G-d save us)

Cause the HD is now on YES

Personally, I think it's funny...

Happy B-day Linz! Hope it's lovely.

My comp @ work is WinXP. (As the IT guys put it, we are a Vista-free zone.) However, since my task is web development, this makes things interesting. I am working on persuading my boss to permit us to migrate from the expensive proprietary provider they've been using, to a provider that at least has open-source web design and hosting solutions.

Now, there is software I could install on Win XP but it does not seem to be operating the way I want it to.

This will, I hope, be solved with my current fix. I installed VMWare and how have the new Ubuntu Linux 7.10 release working on the virtual machine in its own window. Once I get a few goodies (like MySQL server) installed, then I can install drupal5, zope, and plone. Then I can play with them on the virtual linux box and show them what can be done for far less money.

My computer at home still has its original WinXP partition because there is one audio application I need that has no linux equivilant - the program that takes the content from my recording machine and transfers it to the computer via a USB cable. Running this is a slow painful process that ties up my computer with damnable WinXP while denying me my sweet yummy juicy delicious linux.

I think this problem will shortly be coming to a workable solution. My next computer will be a 200GB (or more) HD, 2GB RAM (at least) machine, on which I will install whatever is that current version of Ubuntu; VMWare is available for Linux, and I can install a minimal virtual XP machine using my Dell disc, which is bought and paid-for and thus legal. This gives me two obscene advantages....one, I can accomplish my file transfer inside the virtual machine, and two, I can deny the WinXP virtual machine all access to the Internet - thus not needing to tie up memory running antivirus and antispyware, because nobody from outside can get in.

Life really can't be that easy, can it?

Welcome to the world of being Jewish, where we have so many arcane holidays that it sometimes seems we make them up on the spot.

The one we are about to enter next week, from Wednesday through the end of that week and the entire of the next, is called Succoth. It celebrates the 40 years that Israel encamped in the wilderness before entering the Land of Israel. During that time crude huts were built as temporary shelters, so for this eight day period we build temporary structures that fit certain minimal guidelines for size, rigidity of the walls, and the roof, but other than that can be as creative as desired. These small dwellings are known as Succoth in the plural, and as a Succah in the singular.

This succah in our backyard has a tubular metal frame, around which is stretched a nylon fabric which serves as the wall. It has grommets and is secured by bungee balls, a rather ingenious fastener whose name sounds like a medical condition. The roof of a succah has to admit sunlight, moonlight, and even rain; usual materials are greenery from trees but some use bamboo poles. I use a bamboo mat, which is a lot more of a pain in the butt than it looks.

( and now, PITCHURS OF WHERE THE HUBBIT FAMBLY WILL BE EATING AND HANGING OUT FOR A WEEK )

This is the first succah we've had on our own for about eight years; we've always used my inlaws' succah, since they live half a block away. Nice to have one of our own again.

We finally have our electrcity back. We managed to save about 2/3 of our refrigerated foods, thanks to kindhearted neighbors who let us stay in their house Friday night and Saturday until the power came back. The rest we hadda toss, but at least we weren't sitting in inhuman humidity. Yay for that.

We're now going about the business of renormalizing life. More updates as situations warrant.

And neither will you, should you click this:




Be warned: This is one of those 1940s novelty songs whose melodies are insanely catchy, and whose lyrics not only make absolutely no sense, they aren't intended to. They lyrics (courtesy of Time in 1941), at least the part you can't understand, are:

Hut-Sut Rawlson on the rillerah,
And a brawla, brawla, soo-it

The song is being performed by The King's Men, a popular quartet of the day who was featured on the radio program Fibber McGee And Molly.

I remember as a kid watching the Warner Bros. cartoon "Horton Hatches The Egg", in which Horton made repeated attempts to remember the words to the song. Now you won't be able to get rid of them.

Muahahaaa.