Jon Experiments with Rhubarb - 2010-08-26 20:13:55
So Jon has been adding various fruits to various alcohols the past few months. And I have to admit that the strawberry stuff is great - put it over some shaved ice and that'd be a great snowcone.
But then came the rhubarb.
Even though Jon's mom does wonderful things with rhubarb muffins, Jon apparently didn't know that the reason rhubarb is often paired with berries and lots of sugar is that the stuff is bitter. So when he bought some rhubarb and added it to a jar with his other experiments, I snickered quite a bit. Today it had steeped long enough for him to try it and his face was priceless. I didn't get a shot of that, but got this photo of him removing the rhubarb. He's going to keep the resulting alcohol and sugar it up (a lot) and then...well, I'm not too sure what he's planning on then.
I'll try and get a photo the next time he's tasting things.
Later....
So Jon did indeed stop to taste the rhubarb. He also informed me that the rhubarb had both vodka and Everclear added to it. So when he offered me a taste...
...is it any wonder that I said no, thanks anyway?
After tasting it himself Jon said "it tastes like trout." But I notice he hasn't thrown it away yet.
It looks so harmless and pink too. The jar on the left is jalapeno and alcohol. I'm not going to be trying that either. Some might call this unadventurous - but I've seen Jon's face after he's tried some of these concoctions. I'm quite ok with NOT trying some of them!
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Fail Whale's Birds Must Work Out A Lot - Or They're Really Pterosaurs - 2010-08-18 22:51:16
So today I randomly got the Fail Whale, but only briefly. Probably just a hiccup in the system because a few seconds later it was gone.
But I took a screenshot of it because I'd been meaning to, and then I got to pondering the scene. Do you notice how happy the whale is? Are those birds taking him back to the ocean or taking him away...elsewhere? You'd think a whale would look more nervous if he was actually leaving the water for an extended trip via air, so I'm sure there's something more to this story. Also those are some pretty strong birds - note that there are only 8 of them. This makes me wonder if some fellow nerd has already done the math to figure how much weight each of those birds is carrying. Yes, I googled - I'm still looking. Can't find anything so far.
So let's see...thanks to Google I know that whales are around 100 to 150 tons, depending on what kind of course. Since this is a non specific cartoon whale I think I'll just call it at 125 tons. Which means each of those 8 birds is lifting around 15.63 tons. And since a ton is equal to 2,000 then each bird is carrying 31,250ish pounds. (Feel free to check my math.) The "ish" is because you know how it is, there's always someone eager that hefts a bit more and someone lazy that slacks off a bit and carries less....though I'm not sure if that's the case in whale carrying. Works when helping a friend move and helping carry things like beds and pianos though.
Now I'm fairly certain that there are no real life birds that can carry 30,000 pounds....but I have no idea if a
pterosaur would be capable of carrying that kind of weight.
This is an example of a train of thought that can keep me from getting important things done. I am however quite happy with my mental image of a group of pterosaurs carrying a whale.
If anyone knows how much weight a pterosaur can carry please let me know. We'll ignore the fact that there's probably no way they could fly that close together while carrying an object in a net, or take off all at th same time. But as long as I'm ruminating - let's go for one of the big pterosaurs like
Quetzalcoatlus or
Hatzegopteryx. Now if I could just find out how much weight they cold lift...
Oh come on, you know you're trying to picture this now - right?
Randomly here's an article on pterosaurs with a nice graphic showing one as large as a giraffe:
Leap Frogger: Pterosaurs hip-hopped into the air
Access Science from McGraw Hill, 1/21/2009
"It is hard enough to imagine a 500-pound, furry reptile the size of a giraffe soaring overhead. How the largest pterosaurs actually launched their prehistoric bulk into the air in the first place has proved to be a much trickier problem for biomechanics researchers. Now a study published January 6 in the journal Zitteliana seems to have settled the question. John's Hopkins University of Medicine researcher Michael B. Habib showed that pterosaurs didn’t flap their wings to take off from two legs as birds do, but stood on all fours and hurled themselves skyward in a leapfrog-style jump."
Because I know it's what Jon would suggest -
I took this to AskMetaFiler. So far someone's recommended Habib, mentioned in the article above, so I'll either end up reading his articles or trying to send him an email asking what texts he'd recommend reading. (If I can't find that already from what he cites in his articles.) As I noted in the AskMe link I worked with paleontologists in the '90s, so I know that questions like these - while weird - are definitely the kind of things paleontologists theorize about. I'm remembering how interesting the comparative anatomy studies and theories are in all this - lots of "if this dinosaur's function is similar to this living creature's, then it's possible that X is true for this dinosaur." Backing up theory with only skeletons and the odd tracks for evidence is difficult, but it's fascinating reading.
So without the cartoon whale part it's more along the lines of "how much weight could a pterosaur lift" as well as "if it's capable of lifting such a weight would it also be able to take off with it and then carry that weight in flight?" Something tells me I may soon end up reading about weight lifting and carrying capability in birds of prey.
Other links of interest:
Mesozoic Reptile May Have Taken a Flying Leap
Chris Carroll, National Geographic Blog, Aug 17,2009
Great video showing pterosaur skeleton launching into flight.
How Giant Pterosaurs Took Flight: Biomechanics suggests that a giraffe-size pterosaur could have jumped from all fours to get off the ground
Stuart Fox, Scientific American, May 2009
After reading that article I now have
The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time, by David Unwin on my reading list.
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Continued Problems in Bell, CA - 2010-08-18 17:58:56
If you don't live in the state of California (or perhaps a neighboring state) you probably don't know about the continuing saga of the city of Bell. I've been following it avidly, because it's just a jaw-dropping case of small local government corruption. If this had happened in one of the nearby towns when I lived in the deep south then I'd have not been amazed (though equally indignant of course) - because there's a long history of local government corruption in the south, no matter all that jawing over "we don't want big government!" Oftentimes people yelling about the big ol' evil federal government are somehow ok with the government corruption if it's done in their own town by JimmyJoBob, their third cousin twice removed. (I've seen that scenario go down over and over, and if it isn't JimmyJoBob then as long as it's their party - *cough*Republican*cough* - then it's equally ok.) I never have understood this, but whatever. (Honest Republicans - yes, they do exist - don't get upset with me, especially if you haven't spent time with your small town, southern party members. I've no idea if it's as bad in the rest of the country, but believe me, you don't want to be claiming political kinship with many of those folk.) For California this all amazed me somewhat more, because we have a lot of political activists here. I'm wondering how everyone missed this for so long - and why no one was paying more attention.
Anyhow - the Bell Scandal. First and most importantly, this is a small town, located near Los Angeles, and the residents are not rich folk. Via the wikipedia page on the controversy:
"...covering 2.5 square miles ...with a population of approximately 36,000. Bell is one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County. Slightly more than half of its citizens are foreign born, and the per capita income is about $24,800. Roughly 90% of residents are Latino; almost 65% have no high school diploma. Mom-and-pop businesses, auto shops, markets, carnecerias, and panaderias dominate the streets of the small town. The median income is about $40,000, according to the city’s latest annual report. More than a quarter of its residents live below the poverty level. according to City-Data.com. Many said they were forced to look for jobs in neighboring cities or struggle by on part-time work."
Keep all that in mind when you read the following quotes.
Bell admits more hefty city salaries: Several other administrators get six-figure paychecks, and two were given extra payments.
Jeff Gottlieb, Hector Becerra and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2010
"The city of Bell, already under fire for paying unusually high salaries to three top administrators, acknowledged Friday that two more officials were earning over $400,000. ...Documents obtained Friday by The Times also revealed that both Garcia and Bell's former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia, had received additional payments of at least $100,000 beyond their salaries. The payments to Spaccia appear to have been a loan. The documents do not make clear whether Garcia was required to repay the money she received.
...The city has been the focus of national attention ever since The Times revealed that City Manager Robert Rizzo was being paid $787,637 a year, Police Chief Randy Adams' salary was $457,000 and assistant city manager Spaccia's was $376,000. All three resigned amid public uproar.
...A city can make a loan or other outside payment to an employee only if there is a clear benefit to the public, Demerjian said. Sometimes municipal governments offer loans to candidates for top jobs to entice them to live in a city. Typically, such arrangements are made when a person is being asked to move to a city where housing might be out of the employee's price range. Bell, however, is one of the poorest cities in L.A. County, with a median household income of $40,556."
Bell gave employees more than $1.5 million in loans
Jeff Gottlieb, LA Now (LA Times blog), August 18, 2010
"Documents released by Bell show the city's loan program for employees totaled more than $1.5 million - greater than originally reported in a Times article on Wednesday. Based on documents it had obtained, The Times tallied payments to more than a dozen employees for nearly $900,000, all apparently part of "administrative agreements" or loans issued by the city. But in response to a public records request, Bell provided more than 100 pages of additional documents that showed loans totaling $1.49 million. Some were marked paid; others had handwritten notes suggesting they are still outstanding. The city also acknowledged that former City Manager Robert Rizzo also received two loans for $80,000 each, which pushes the total to more than $1.6 million. ...Carrillo and City Attorney Jaime Casso said they have not found evidence that the City Council approved the loan program, which appears to have been created by Rizzo."
When a city manager is making about the same amount as the President of the United States? Oh yeah, this is a big deal. It's also caused the California state government to sit back and start reviewing salaries for EVERY town in the state, and the state media is doing the same. It will be interesting to see what else shakes out of this mass review.
Here's the
LA Times Bell City Coverage page - for those who want to read more. I've just given you the highlights - there's a lot been written trying to trace how the Bell city government was able to create these huge salaries and also impose incredibly high property taxes upon the residents. As in Bell has
the second highest property tax rate in LA county. So you'd pay lower taxes in
Malibu than in Bell. Yes, really.
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Ugly Cakes and Alien Produce - 2010-08-02 20:42:25
Confession! Lately I have been making Ugly Cakes. And there will NOT be photos, for they are very ugly. However both were/are being consumed, because they taste just fine - it's just the aesthetics that are off. I'm ok with this because my grandmother, who I spent many a summer with, got me into the way of thinking that it doesn't matter what the dessert looks like, it's the taste that matters. She had many a cake that fell, or that she added the wrong ingredients to. But it took something REALLY bad happening for us not to eat the results - like mixing in salt instead of sugar. Then the result would be crumbled up and went into the bird feeder (birds are not picky) - not that it was probably good for birds, but my grandmother refused to waste anything. (Don't feel bad for the birds, they regularly got bread soaked in bacon grease, when they could get it before the squirrels.) If my other grandmother (father's mother) had lived longer I might have learned more of the art of presentation - I've always been told about how everything on her table looked like it was out of a magazine, that she ironed her sheets before putting them on the beds - that sort of thing. Ah well, I'm more the shrug-your-shoulders-and-eat-it-anyhow type.
So about these Ugly Cakes - the first one was a two layer vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream icing and fresh strawberries. Now I've never made a two layer cake - I come from a family that has always made bundt cakes. Put everything in one pan and then glaze that sucker and serve it fast is standard operating procedure for me. So making two layers was an experiment.
Problem - as always, "is it done yet?!" I seem to consistently have a problem with over-baking. Even when an inserted toothpick indicates that the interior needs more cooking the outside edges are getting too brown.
Solution - with the layer cake I knew what to do - chop those edges off and cover the sins with icing! (Just like you can hide wrinkled sheets when you make a bed as long as you cover it with a puffy comforter! Same principle!)
Problem - the icing that came with the recipe had an ingredient I didn't have.
Solution - use another icing recipe.
Problem - I didn't read carefully and the recipe only covered a one layer cake. Not fixable. Also the rough edges from trimming the layers made for a tough icing job. I also should have put the strawberries between the two layers but I wimped out at the last minute, afraid that their juicey-ness would make the cake soggy. I don't do fruit cakes see, I'm usually working with chocolate.
Solution - at this point I shrugged and figured it was a learning experience. We ate the whole thing anyhow. I have decided that I'm not using almond extract in icing again, the taste was just cloying. But then maybe the amount used in the recipe was too much.
Cake two is VERY ugly, so much so that Jon has asked to take a photo of it, which I have refused. I've also explained that since he's so horrified by its looks (poor cake) he doesn't have to eat any of it - but I notice he's eaten some anyway! It's a chocolate mocha cake - you get a cake mix and add all sorts of stuff, most importantly coffee and semi sweet chocolate chips. Since I'm a child of the 70's I don't see mixes as cheating, I see them as keeping me from buying more flour than we'll use in a while. (Some people sneer over packaged cake mixes, but if you've ever lost track of how many cups of something you've added - as I have - they're wonderful.) I really love the way the coffee and chocolate taste together, so this is a win in my book, even with the issues I had.
Problem - the cake NEVER seemed to be done, toothpicks continually indicated that interior was still molten. Problem probably made worse by the fact that there were tons of melting chocolate chips in the batter.
Solution - next time, cupcakes.
Problem - cake overflowed the pan in the oven.
Solution - ha! I saw this coming and placed tin foil beneath the pan in the oven! I was quite smug that this was one mess I didn't have to clean. Oh let me have my little wins, I need them.
Problem, major one - even though I oiled and floured the pan like crazy part of the top half stuck in the crevices and the cake broke. This is particularly irritating because the parts that came out of the pan had enough flour still on them that the chocolate cake had big ol' yellowy flour markings on it. So it wasn't going to be a thing of photogenic beauty even if it had de-paned properly.
Future Solution - buy a bundt pan with a simpler design. I love the design on my current pan, but unless its a pound cake that's dense enough to easily hold together I'll have this problem again. Then again, this cake was dense enough so that it should have held together. Will try another cake pan in future.
Solution of the Moment - plated majority of cake and added glaze as best I could, then took the crumbled bits and put them in a bowl drizzled with frosting as a sort of cake cobbler. The crumbled bits would have been epic with ice cream on top, but um, I kinda ate the bowlful already. The large chunk of plated cake looks more like a circular jagged lump of brownie at the moment. Somehow the icing is slightly salty, which is odd because I didn't add any salt. But I'm enjoying that taste. ...Ah ha, now that I think of it, that's because I think I used salted butter in the icing instead of the unsalted that I'd meant to use. Oh well.
So it's been a circus of Batgrl's baking errors the past few weeks. Meanwhile Jon's kitchen experiments have mostly been with alcohol and fruits and every day he will present me with something to taste that smells like fruit scented rubbing alcohol.
Almost all of them are SERIOUSLY strong, so that you'd need to dilute it with a lot of mixer. Jon however laughs at such ideas and puts a teaspoon or two full of mixer in and some ice and enjoys himself thoroughly while I shake my head. Yes, in the years since I've cut back on my drinking I've become a bit of a lightweight, but methinks Jon is a tad immune to the actual taste of these concoctions at this point.
And now - the
Alien Produce Report...
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Why I'm Consistently Annoyed with the Culture Gabfest, And Why I'll Listen Anyway - 2010-07-31 20:09:47
So I've been a longtime listener to the Slate podcast called The Culture Gabfest (and the political Gabfest too, but that podcast never motivates/irritates me enough to blog) and it's a longtime cause of annoyance. As I listen I often find myself rolling my eyes and muttering from time to time. And this often has nothing to do with the content, because I've enjoyed the discussion of books, movies and music. No, this is entirely due to the language, specifically the vocabulary used by a few of the regular podcasters on the show. Ok, mostly Stephen Metcalf. And I should add that it's probably not his fault and he may be unaware of how irritating he is - OR he may actually be playing it up so that listeners will enjoy being irritated by him. Hard to say.
In my past life of college prep high school and liberal arts schools I've found that there are two types of people who show off their vocabulary. By which I mean people who pepper their conversation with words like dyspeptic, jejune, quotidian and lugubrious. These are words that may fit perfectly in a written piece but do NOT work in casual conversation. In fact, they seem out of place and odd when used in every day speech, and thus stick out like a sore thumb. Toss those kinds of words into a casual conversation and eventually someone listening will just stop dead and turn to the speaker to say "are you practicing for the SAT/LSAT/etc.?!" Rather than adding to the flow of conversation - the natural give and take of a good discussion among friends - those sorts of "showy" words tend to derail it. Or at least cause a pause while everyone stops to consider the statement and the words.
Short version: anything that disrupts the easy flow of conversation is not good radio/podcasting.
So, based on observation and experience, I've found that those two vocabulary-heavy personality types are:
1) Clueless and Eager: The introverted bookish sort of person who has grown up without much conversation with his/her peers and more conversation with educated adults. Perhaps he/she has grown up with parents who are teachers or doctors and have always spoken to each other with such vocabulary. Or perhaps the person works in a world of academics and is no longer aware that the average folk do not converse this way. This is the eager intellectual type who's more interested in imparting his/her ideas than whether his speech is colloquial and, having spent more time in books than every day talk, has no idea that his polysyllabic gushings make others who've lived in a world where people don't speak like Dickenian or Shakespearean characters look at him/her strangely. (Yup, I do realize most of that paragraph is anything but colloquial.)
And then there's the other type -
2) Self Aware and Scoring Points: The sort of person who, once he/she has learned the new and always-little-used-word is going to show it off like an obnoxiously proud fiance with a five carat diamond engagement ring. (Or for a less feminine experience, someone with a newly purchased and outrageously expensive convertible sportscar that has to mention their ownership of said car in every conversation, relevant or not.) While this person may have some of the same reasons as #1 for using such a vocabulary he/she is also intelligent enough to realize what sort of language is found in every day speech and delights in slipping such words in, so as to exhibit his/her knowledge. It's all about showing off, about reminding the audience "Look how I can turn a clever phrase!" If you're in academia you'll know this type as the fellow scholar that can't help coming off as if he/she was speaking down to you, explaining something that only they were wise enough to know. Or just as bad, that they're giving you the message that "it's understood, only WE are clever enough to understand," a kind of intellectual camaraderie. It's impossible to view such a person as being anything but condescending and pompous.
One of my continuing rants while I was in grad school was along the lines of "why, if we are students in Communication are we speaking like book-bound academics?! Shouldn't our primary goal be communicating ideas in the clearest way?" Because it made no sense that we couldn't speak in every day language without feeling the need to show off linguistically. If you feel your point needs to be dressed up in a certain style of wording - perhaps it's not that good a point. There's a place for flowery prose, but in a conversation or question and answer class period speaking that way is more about showing off than seeking knowledge.
I once had a professor who worked (and still does) as a consultant to television producers. She explained that she never mentioned her degrees to the people she worked with as the production world took a dim view of academics and their knowledge of the real world and the world of production. And while brilliant and well written herself she never used the sort of language that the more "book proud" academics did when I went on to another grad program. This was mainly because her goal was to gather information from others - and one way to get people to stop talking to you is when you start trying to use language that's not conversational.
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The Unusual Effigy of Sarah Hare, Holy Trinity Church, Stow Bardolph - 2010-07-30 14:38:05
It started with this image on Flickr:
Stow Bardolph
Wax effigy of Sarah Hare.
To quote her will of 1743,
"I desire to have my face and hands made in wax with a piece of crimson satin thrown like a garment in a picture, hair upon my head and put in a case of mahogany with a glass before."
And here she is, still lurking behind her cupboard door in the "childrens" corner of this rural village church.
And here's another Flickr photo, a
close up of the wax Sarah's face. I should point out now that no matter how lifelike she looks, what you're seeing isn't the preserved remains of a body, it's just a wax statue. Unlike
Jeremy Bentham whose "
skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "Auto-icon", with the skeleton stuffed out with hay and dressed in Bentham's clothes." I always remember Bentham because of the story that, while his body was kept on public display, at certain times "
it was brought to the meeting of the College Council, where it was listed as "present but not voting."" Oh and the head on top of Bentham's body is made of wax*, which is what reminded me of Sarah Hale.
I know I'd seen photos of Sarah Hare somewhere before, but I can't remember where. Probably on one of those "weird but true" tv shows or magazine articles that I've been drawn to ever since a child. (Yes, I was always interested in the strange. This should not be a surprise.) So I thought I'd see what I could dig up via Google. First of all, the wikipedia page for
Stow Bardolph, which is "in the English county of Norfolk." Sarah's on the wikipedia page in a two sentence description. But of course I wanted something more detailed, or at least some more photos.
Holy Trinity, Stow Bardolph
Simon Knott, The Norfolk Churches Site
"... All around are Hare memorials, dating from the early 17th century up into the late 20th century. There are about twenty of them all told, some more prominent than others, but the one I most wanted to see was the plain mahogany cabinet that sits in the north-west corner.
A bronze plate tells us that it contains Sarah Hare, who died in 1744. Open it up, and there she is. A wax effigy, dressed in her own clothes. She was about fifty when she died, and it was apparently her own wish to be immortalized in this way. The door to the cabinet is not without reason - she is terrifying, her face dumpy, warted, defiant. I had obviously seen photographs of her in the years since I first read about her, but nothing can really prepare you for the frisson as the cabinet door swings open. It made me think of fairground peepshows that I can just remember, and I realized that I would have paid for this, too."
This is a great essay on a visit to the Holy Trinity Church that houses Sarah's statue - do check out the page if only to see other images of the church and its interior. Also more on the website's author
here. I found that the same author on this blog:
The cabinet of Sarah Hare...
Simon Knott, How To Be A Retronaut (blog), May 6th, 2010
"...Best were the books in leather bindings, bought before the First World War when the school was new. They were so little used that there was a crispness and a smoothness to the pages, despite them being more than a century old.
I devoured them: serials of lost wills and mysterious relatives; proud descriptions of Town Halls, bridges and systems of drains; dire poverty in Calcutta and the East End; life in the Empire: exploring in Africa, factories in India, logging in Canada, missionary work in the South Seas. And the page-fillers – snippets of curiosa, strange things to be seen in the backwaters of England.
...It is with something approaching excitement that I step through the north chancel doorway into the Hare mausoleum. All around are memorials to the Hare family, dating from the early 17th up into the late 20th century. There are about twenty, some more prominent than others, but the one I have come for is the plain mahogany cabinet sitting in the corner.
A bronze plate tells me that it contains Sarah Hare, who died in 1744. I open it up, and there she is...I’m glad I’ve seen her, glad she is still there. I’d first read about her a lifetime ago, in a book that was already a hundred years old. And all that time she’d sat, through two centuries of wars, kings, winters, the rise and fall of Empire. And nothing in all her life was as remarkable as this long, silent, immobile vigil. If she could know, would she still want this immortality? Would I want it for myself?"
Because I'd eagerly skipped to the photos of Sarah the first time I'd read Knott's site it took me a moment or two to realize that this is just an excerpt from
Knott's Stow Bardolph page. In any case, the fact that the Retronaut blog found and enjoyed Knott's site is enough to make me read through its other posts - and to note again that I can't say enough for Knott's style of presentation and again, you should go read through
his essay. Somehow I think Mr. Knott would be a wonderful guidebook author. In any case I plan to go read through his websites and tour his Suffolk and Norfolk churches - virtually at least.
Other Google results for Sarah Hare:
Stowbardolph.co.uk
Vilage Information, History and Genealogy
"...Since that time, the Hare family have played a significant role in the village's history. In 1622, Sir Ralph Hare built six almshouses, and provided them with 86 acres of land for division among the inmates. Later, in 1744, Sarah Hare committed the sin of sowing on a Sunday. Whilst doing so, she pricked her finger and, shortly afterwards, died of blood poisoning. In her will, she requested that six poor men from the parish act as her pallbearers, and they each receive five shillings for their services. She also bequeathed two shillings and sixpence to each of the poor residents of Alms Row, and requested that an effigy of her face and hands be made and placed in a Mahogany case, close to where she was buried. The effigy still remains in the Hare Chapel of Stow Bardolph's Holy Trinity Church, acting as a warning to Sabbath breakers. It is the only funerary effigy of it's kind outside of Westminster Abbey."
Sarah Hare
Molly Potter, Just Pleasantly Floundering Around (blog), 8 December 2009
"...I don't think my general feeling of strangeness is helped by the fact that a few times that I have headed Fens-way (that's probably west-south-west), I have stopped off at the church of the Holy Trinity in Stow Bardolph to eat my lunch in the car park (a strip of gravel near the church gate) and take another peek at Sarah Hare!
Sarah Hare left the following words in her will.
'I desire Six of the poor men in the parish of Stow or Wimbotsham may put me in to the ground they have five shillings a piece for the same. I desire all the poor in th Alms Row may have two shillings and sixpence each person at the Grave before I am put in. This I hope my Executor will see firstly performed before Sunset.... I desire to have my face and hands made in wax with a piece of crimson satin thrown like a garment in a picture hair upon my head and put in a case of Mahogany with a glass before and fix'd up so near the place were my corps lyes as it can be with my name and time of Death put upon the case in any manner most desirable if I do not execute this in my life I desire it may be done after my Death.'
The directions in the will were carried out to the letter.
...It is quite eerie to look into the (albeit waxy) eyes of someone that existed over 250 years ago. I love these kind of curiosities!"
Holy Trinity, Stow Bardolph
Aidan Semmens, article "first appeared in Let's Talk! Norfolk, July 2005"
"On the north side of Stow Bardolph church is the memorial chapel of the long-time lords of the manor. Here are large marble monuments to various members of the Hare family. ...Their grandeur is slightly diminished by the fact that the chapel now appears to be used as a Sunday school. Pinned beneath one more-than-lifesize tragic lady when I visited was a lively line drawing by Alex L captioned, "I learnt to play Skateboarding - Wahoo!"
Tucked away in a corner of the chapel is a fine, but distinctly un-imposing mahogany cupboard - a favourite object, no doubt, of the visiting children. An inscription above the door begins, "Here lyeth the body of Sarah Hare..." Open the door, and there she is. Well, no, actually, there she isn't. What is there, however, is a lifesize wax effigy, almost certainly clad in favourite clothes of Sarah's, while her face and hands are believed to have been moulded in masks taken - either in life or death - from her actual face and hands.
...For 240 years after her death, Sarah's warts-and-all likeness sat untouched in its cabinet. Then, in 1984, Jean Fraser, a former studio manager at Tussaud's**, was asked to undertake its careful conservation. An account of her task, and how she accomplished it, along with the work of Judith Dore in saving and preserving the clothing, is available in the church and makes fascinating reading."
I was especially pleased to find that last webpage because what I'm really interested in is the wax sculpture and its amazing detail. Knowing that historians assume that it's the result of a
death mask explains a lot about the lifelike detail. Of course now I'm interested in Jean Fraser's conservation work. So far I can't find anything more about it. Which is odd because if I'd visited the church and purchased the information about the conservation - which I'd not been able to resist had I been a tourist - I'd also
have to blog about it. ...Hmmm, it occurs to me that "An account... is available in the church" might mean there's a plaque with the information on the wall - in which case the church is really losing out on a fund raising opportunity. Tourists like to buy informative booklets, especially when they contain photos. Anyway, so far I can find no mention of the conservation work online besides the above page. I always forget that not everyone finds artifact conservation an interesting topic. Ah well.
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Surfer Statue Controversy Continues - 2010-07-28 20:21:29
So back here in this post from May I shared the local hatred of surfers for a certain statue. Well, there's been a recent update:
Cardiff sculpture under attack -- by a shark?
LA Now (LATimes blog), July 25, 2010
"...Even given the statue's history, Saturday's stunt was an eye-opener: the surprise appearance of a shark surrounding it, seeming to devour the bronze surfer.
"This is the biggest and best so far," said Bob Olson, 66, a retired Navy dentist who lives in Cardiff. "I don't know how anyone will outdo this, but I'm sure they'll try."
If anybody saw the individual or individuals who encased the sculpture and its pedestal -- total height 16 feet -- under cover of darkness, they did not inform authorities. No manifesto was left behind, no claim of credit was called to the local media.
The "Jaws"-like covering appears to be either canvas or stiff cardboard, with its shape reinforced inside by wood and wire mesh. It did not appear that the sculpture was damaged.
By early Sunday morning, the shark had become a major attraction for surfers, pedestrians, tourists (foreign and domestic), joggers, bicyclists and others along South Coast Highway.
Word that the city of Encinitas soon planned to remove the shark add-on seemed to spur the crowd to capture the moment in pictures."
'Cardiff Kook' meets 'Jaws' in Encinitas
SignOnSanDiego (San Diego Trib website), July 24, 2010
"An often-abused statue of a surfer on Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas was turned into a Jaws-dropping artwork early Saturday morning by a group of unknown pranksters.
Crowds of gawkers and picture takers nearly created a traffic hazard, as they gathered around the bronze statue, which, sometime in the early morning hours, was entombed inside a 15-foot tall papier-mâché version of a great white shark’s massive snout.
A San Diego County sheriff’s deputy briefly stopped by to pluck two 2.5-foot tall papier-mâché fins that had been placed in the traffic median. The deputy declined repeated pleas from camera-laden onlookers to pose with the Jaws-like tableau.
Nearby campers at San Elijo State Beach said they heard a ruckus near the statue about 4 a.m., but didn’t see or hear how the pranksters were able to put the giant shark around the surfer.
They said the shark’s didn’t appear without warning. Large sharklike fins had been placed on the other side of the highway, along San Elijo Road, earlier this week then, over the course of the past two days, the fins were moved closer to the statue, as if the shark was circling in on its prey....
...A large seam along the shark’s jaw indicates it was transported in two large pieces and then stuck together with a foamlike sealer that also made it look like the beast was bursting through the surface of the ocean..."
ENCINITAS: Shark takes bite out of 'Cardiff Kook'
North Country Times, July 24, 2010
"...Papier-mache fins were spotted across the highway earlier in the week, and had been moved closer in the last two days as if the predator were stalking its prey. The statue, created by artist Matthew Antichevich, has been a favorite target of pranks since it was erected in 2007. Some local surfers have been critical, saying the artwork portrays an inexperienced surfer."
Pranksters Strike Surfer Statue Again
NBC San Diego, Jul 26, 2010
"...Pranksters constructed the shark's head around the statue, called "The Magic Carpet Ride," without damaging it sometime in the early morning hours, sheriff's officials said..."
Cardiff Sculpture Shows Shark Swallowing Surfer: ‘Cardiff Kook’ Statue Target Of Multiple Practical Jokes
Channel 10 News, July 24, 2010 (UPDATED: July 27, 2010)
"...Sometimes he's called the 'Cardiff Kook.' Sometimes 'Fairy Mary.' He's a little 'fem' and the surfers don't really care for him," said Cardiff resident Ron Stocks.
That may be why so many have already signed a petition taped to the side of the display to keep the shark up.
"Didn't really like him at first. We were irritated. We thought they were building steps and they built the stupid statue and now because it gets dressed up, we kind of like him. It's fun," said Cardiff resident Shirley Stocks.
Since it was built, the statue has undergone several transformations, including depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ."
All of those links have photos of the shark, just so you know that clicking the link won't be in vain.
Actually there are many newspaper/web stories about public statues that don't show photos of the subject in question - which always makes me shake my head in disbelief. I mean, why bother to write about it if you're not going to at least show us the sculpture? A verbal description isn't going to cut it, especially with modern art that's hard to describe in the first place.
Meanwhile I think the statue of the sculpture is MORE interesting simply because the community is interacting with it. I think that way it becomes something that more people enjoy - and it definitely keeps folk noticing it. Maybe more so than if the surfers approved of its stance. I should note that I approve of the additions mainly because none of them have been destructive to the statue.
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Random Television Shows, Thanks to Google Surfing - 2010-07-25 00:07:32
Every now and then I peruse my Google stats and find out what keywords folk have been searching with that randomly caused them to end up here. And somehow I always end up reading odd webpages, and having the odd nostalgia-fest here and there.
Such as for this show I remember seeing on PBS (or maybe it was Nickelodeon) in the 80s:
Wikipedia: Today's Special
Today's Special - fan page with photos and episode guides, and more on the real-life Canadian department store that was the show's setting.
To give you an idea of why this show sticks in your brain, here's my summing up of the plot: it's about a department store display designer and her work in the store when it's shut, and the night watchman and mouse named Muffy that are her friends. Those two are played by puppets. There's also a mannequin that comes to life when she puts a hat on him. And the store's computer system which talks and seems to be sentient. Somehow it sounds so much weirder than it was at the time.
Thanks to folks in forums talking about partly remembered television shows (such as
here and
here), this is the kind of thing I'll sometimes end up reading about online.
Wikipedia: Thundarr The Barbarian
"...Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future (A.D. 3994) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories—the majority of which are ruled by wizards—and whose ruins typically feature recognizable geographical features from the United States..."
I can remember I watched this show primarily because I was always trying to figure out what Ookla the Mok was. Plus it was just fun to say Ookla the Mok. Which is of course why it's also the
name of a band.
Wikipedia: Herculoids
"...The show debuted on September 9, 1967 on CBS. Hanna-Barbera produced one season for the original airing of the show, although the original 18 episodes were rerun during the 1968–69 television season... This series is set on the distant planet Amzot (renamed Quasar in the Space Stars episodes). The name "Amzot" was first mentioned in the Space Ghost episode "The Molten Monsters of Moltar" (wherein the Herculoids made a brief guest appearance)... For some seasons, episodes opened with the following narration: "Somewhere out in space live The Herculoids...Zok the laser-ray dragon! Igoo the giant rock ape! Tundro the tremendous! Gloop and Gleep, the formless fearless wonders! With Zandor their leader, and his wife, Tarra, and son, Dorno, they team up to protect their planet from sinister invaders! All-strong! All-brave! All-heroes!! They are The Herculoids!!!""
I've always loved the artwork on this show. Particularly the critters. An example of why from the wikipedia:
"
Tundro... a ten-legged, four-horned rhino. He can shoot explosive energy rocks from his cannon-horn... His legs have the ability to extend to a remarkable length, somewhat like stilts. He can also spin his head at blinding speed, allowing him to drill through solid rock, and has the ability to make magnificent leaps."
How can you not love the writers who'd come up with something like that? This was one of my favorite childhood cartoons.
Some other shows via those forum memories, none of which I've ever seen:
Wikipedia: Voyagers!
"Phineas Bogg was one of a society of time travelers called Voyagers who, with the help of a young boy named Jeffrey Jones used a hand-held device called an Omni (which looked much like a large pocket watch) to travel in time and ensured that history unfolded as we know it."
This was another mid 80s live action-er, this time on NBC. But major demerits for coming up with Phineas Bogg - which of course isn't at all related to
Phineas Fogg. *eyeroll* However I have no doubt that there are currently many
steampunk fans who remember this show fondly.
Wikipedia: Read All About It
"...a Canadian educational television series produced from 1979 to 1983 ...Chris who inherited his uncle Derek's coach house after his mysterious disappearance...The coach house contained two artificially intelligent robots: Otto, a device which communicated by printing its thoughts on paper; and Theta, a talking computer with an integrated monitor. The coach house also held a transporter which allowed teleportation to and from the galaxy of Trialviron, as well as transporting many literary characters like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Merlin the Magician from King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable..."
Read All About It - fansite with photos/screenshots of the show
I know that as a kid just seeing the silver-faced ruler of Trialviron would have gotten me to tune in - very Doctor Who-ish looking.
Wikipedia: Harriet's Magic Hats
"The premise was an aunt named Harriet who had a trunk full of magic hats in her attic. Her young niece was transported to a place related to the hat she chose from the trunk. For example, if she wore a chef's hat from the trunk, the girl was transported to a kitchen with professional chefs, where she would learn about the profession."
Another Canadian show, and one that was only 15 min. long, which makes me wonder how that particular length was used. Yeah, I'm a programming geek, I wonder about this sort of thing. But since
its target audience was preschool through 12 year olds, I'm thinking that may have something to do with it.
Wikipedia: Bionic Six
"...an American/Japanese animated television series from the 1980s...In the near future, Earth is at grave risk from a wide variety of menaces from aliens to mad scientists. Professor Sharp, head of the Special Projects Labs, creates a new form of technology to augment humans through bionics. His first subject was Jack Bennett, a test pilot who secretly acted as Sharp’s field agent as Bionic-1..."
And there's a pet gorilla robot named F.L.U.F.F.I. And villians named Glove and Klunk. Another "how DID I miss this one" moment. Be sure to read the full wikipedia article so you don't miss things like:
"...The Bandroids- Created by Dr. Bruce "Bad Brains" Huxter, the Bandroids are androids designed to perform as a musical band."
Wikipedia: Rocket Robin Hood
"...a Canadian animated television series, placing the characters and conflicts of the classic Robin Hood legend in a futuristic, outer space setting, ...from 1966 to 1969."
Wikipedia: Blake's 7
"...a British science fiction television series...Created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer best known for creating the popular Dalek monsters...it ran for four series between 1978 and 1981...follows the exploits of a group of political renegades, led by freedom fighter Roj Blake, and consisting initially of Blake, Jenna Stannis and Kerr Avon. They escape from a prison transport spacecraft and occupy an abandoned spacecraft called by them Liberator with a main computer called Zen."
Wikipedia: Terrahawks
"...a British science fiction television series... The show was Anderson's first in over a decade to utilize puppets for its characters; to date, it is also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-laden TV series included Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Set in the year 2020, the series followed the adventures of the Terrahawks, a taskforce responsible for protecting Earth from invasion by a group of extraterrestrial androids and aliens..."
Read the descriptions of
the Aliens if you want a chuckle or two.
Wikipedia: Hilarious House of Frightenstein
"...a Canadian children's television series...A quirky sketch comedy series, the show's cast included...Vincent Price...All 130 episodes were made in a single nine-month span starting in 1971...Each episode opened and closed with an appearance by the venerable horror star Vincent Price as he recited intentionally silly poetry with toy skulls and shrunken heads in the background. Price also did introductions for segments within the show."
Hilarious House of Frightenstein - fan site with lots of info and a few photos and a
documentary.
I feel sure I saw at least a clip from this from research I did in grad school on Price...
Wikipedia: Turbo Teen
"...about a teenager named Brett Matthews, who swerves off a road during a thunderstorm and crashes into a secret government laboratory. There, he and his red sports car are accidentally exposed to a molecular beam invented by a scientist named Dr. Chase. Man and machine become fused together and as a result, Brett gains the ability to morph into the car when exposed to extreme heat and revert back into his human form when exposed to extreme cold."
This one's from the mid-80s so I have no idea how I didn't catch it on at least once. Check out the
video of the show's intro - now that's some deeply surreal animation... Actually it's not that the animation is all that great, it' just the high level weirdity of the transformation.
At this point I have to log off or my brain will melt...
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The 'Net Remembers Everything: Reasons for Being Private - 2010-07-24 20:15:59
Every now and then I look back on my privacy stance (post few personal photos online, don't use real name if possible) and feel like it's overkill. Then a story comes along that, while nothing I've ever done, reminds me why I took that attitude in the first place.
The Web Means the End of Forgetting
by Jeffrey Rosen, NYTimes, July 19, 2010
"Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.
...Examples are proliferating daily: there was the 16-year-old British girl who was fired from her office job for complaining on Facebook, “I’m so totally bored!!”; there was the 66-year-old Canadian psychotherapist who tried to enter the United States but was turned away at the border — and barred permanently from visiting the country — after a border guard’s Internet search found that the therapist had written an article in a philosophy journal describing his experiments 30 years ago with L.S.D.
According to a recent survey by Microsoft, 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human-resource professionals report that their companies require them to do online research about candidates, and many use a range of sites when scrutinizing applicants... Seventy percent of U.S. recruiters report that they have rejected candidates because of information found online, like photos and discussion-board conversations and membership in controversial groups."
And that pretty much sums up why I think working on maintaining a low profile online is a good thing. Somehow I'm fairly sure that most people who spend a lot of time reading privacy/tech articles are either already this careful or quickly learning to be. And for every clueless high school student with an overly honest blog or a video expose on YouTube there are more and more kids growing up with the idea that, rather than post everything they do online, it's better not to.
Something tells me that's going to be part of curriculum in schools in the future. Or at least as a bit of wise personal advice most teachers will pass on to their students.
Also if you've been under a rock and somehow missed this story, this link to the NYTimes The Lede blog sums up the Shirley Sherrod story with embedded video - the full length video rather than the clip she was pilloried with.
Longer Video of Speech in Question Is Released by N.A.A.C.P.
By Robert Mackey, The Lede/NYTimes blog, July 21, 2010
I'm still in disbelief that anyone would get fired without the supervisors actually, you know,
watching the entire video in question.
I think somehow you can see how both topics I'm linking to are related. And remember - Ms. Sherrod was not only innocent but someone who was good at her job. If you dislike watching video at least read the transcript at the end of the blog entry.
Suddenly I remember that once I went out of my way not to link blogs. Blogs on news websites - at least
some of them - have indeed changed my mind about that.
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