tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91080482024-03-07T22:32:52.447-05:00teleoscopeNothing less than the existence of God can explain this funny world. His edgy sense of humor is manifest in all things. This occasional blog helps you take comfort, of a sort, from that divine finger in your eye.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.comBlogger273125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-90506956676186568042019-12-14T19:06:00.000-05:002019-12-16T22:11:59.389-05:00Christmas Letter - 2019<center><b>Lee and Irene Haslup</b> <br />
<b style="color:red;font-size:24px">Christmas Letter - 2019</b>
<br /><i>Online preview of tedious Christmas card insert</i></center>
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<p>I will start with a note on this year’s choice of Christmas cards. For a number of years we have been receiving mailings with a few “free” Christmas cards every fall from charitable organizations hoping we will give them money. They figure (rightly) that we will be too frugal to throw away perfectly serviceable cards and (wrongly) that they can guilt us into sending them money to pay for the cards. And the cards pile up. This year we decided that the pile was getting excessive and we would send some out. So, if you get a card promising to support The Foundation for Very Short Men Who Can’t Afford Sports Cars or advocating for Vegan Cat Food that’s why. We are sending them to spread holiday cheer and to deputize our friends and family to throw them away for us since we cannot do so ourselves</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_oGJv7SfweoIqQxitABISljj78Y2G1joWJXIU1oU47MxO2rewxuwtEWGKRBF1ehNDZW87oc5o4wSBxOkBNdb8xSS_n8SC5QXVnsD541hSI2wPUwR2px4E2er7_AFf_yY5d6fMQ/s1600/76997957_10107217812457798_286367812044193792_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_oGJv7SfweoIqQxitABISljj78Y2G1joWJXIU1oU47MxO2rewxuwtEWGKRBF1ehNDZW87oc5o4wSBxOkBNdb8xSS_n8SC5QXVnsD541hSI2wPUwR2px4E2er7_AFf_yY5d6fMQ/s400/76997957_10107217812457798_286367812044193792_o.jpg" width="400" height="300" data-original-width="1440" data-original-height="1080" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Amber attempting (for the umpteenth time) to get a photo with Santa for the grandparents</i>
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<br />We had Christmas at home last year. Chris and Reid came over and we did the usual pleasant Christmas stuff. Since it was the McPherson in-laws turn for the grandkids at Christmas we had an opportunity to set up a tree and get out the Christmas Village -- things we don’t get to do when we are off to Oregon for Christmas with the grands. It was very nice but Christmas always seems a bit too quiet without small children around so we were all glad to head off to Florida where we met Amber, Lee, and the grandchildren for a New Years celebration with family in St Petersburg and Tampa, and then a trip to Disney World to bother the mouse, with a side trip to Universal to harry the Potter fans.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WQVO3PJrxsAbsYHCYd4d0EpA-z1i6v0JLI7BlMqenaJjOeaxZc3dsb0WFqc0ciGD1McaSBYlSlmTsiRMDmVhzztBjrCCNRdqKyJGXTTeEQUuahk6mmfEHnrLCLj2L5L4H4pujQ/s1600/zs50-20181227-0049_adj_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WQVO3PJrxsAbsYHCYd4d0EpA-z1i6v0JLI7BlMqenaJjOeaxZc3dsb0WFqc0ciGD1McaSBYlSlmTsiRMDmVhzztBjrCCNRdqKyJGXTTeEQUuahk6mmfEHnrLCLj2L5L4H4pujQ/s400/zs50-20181227-0049_adj_crop.jpg" width="400" height="260" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1040" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Christmas Village set up on even-numbered years.</i>
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<br />We saw Amber, Lee, and the grands again when we met them in Paris. Lee has family in France and he, Amber and the kids were going to a big family get together in the Alps. They took an extra week beforehand to visit parts of France and Spain with Irene and me. Lee and Amber both speak fluent French and it was wonderful having them as translators and tour guides. We saw many of the obligatory tourist attractions in Paris, Avignon, and Barcelona. Paris was fascinating, vibrant, poorly air-conditioned, and very, very hot. We took a day trip by train from Paris to Versailles where we saw the palace, which was impressive … and very, very hot. The famous fountains were lovely but they won’t let you climb in to cool off. In the portrait galleries I noticed that the kings of France all appeared to wear the same natty wig for several hundred years. The grand galleries with the painted ceilings and marble floors are marvels but of limited appeal to small children. I was impressed by the echoes that Sophie managed to get when she balked at proceeding and yelled “NO!” at the top of her lungs. I could see that our fellow tourists were impressed, too.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA74yzkwQFcgkBrIgQXJ8MC2IQJDffnXZwv8Sj83ZZGZupbUta-HTGIyRUsuX36N92jEQH2ETvTGjDHbxmasShOfBIDMhjMvGUE_hhYqKh_1qaup1EwCUlZgM-xKeE9bAax5n_IQ/s1600/one_wig_to_rule_them_all.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA74yzkwQFcgkBrIgQXJ8MC2IQJDffnXZwv8Sj83ZZGZupbUta-HTGIyRUsuX36N92jEQH2ETvTGjDHbxmasShOfBIDMhjMvGUE_hhYqKh_1qaup1EwCUlZgM-xKeE9bAax5n_IQ/s400/one_wig_to_rule_them_all.jpg" width="400" height="300" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Four hundred years of French kings. One natty-looking wig.</i>
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<br />Avignon was beautiful, historic, and also hot. We made an excursion to Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old Roman bridge/aqueduct that spans the Gardon river fifteen miles east of Avignon. It’s a lovely place with swimming in the river, kayaking, cliff jumping, picnicking, constant photo-ops, and a chance to wade in the shallows and cool off… if you bring shoes that can get wet. The river’s stony bottom makes for uncomfortable walking for large barefoot adults. I had my usual big, black Frankenstein shoes and had to content myself with taking photos from the shore.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipmYYkE85_ic9yHYkM6TeuIz_e3_RBfVGN8q3VWUBQ1n1LTqIG_AAMmG2zk8BplZSLrsOyGl_E3mterdCQRm1Yyy1URN-l5jEdelv7iUOY4d3gLBKgRR7-mdmw3vVt0VmjY_Z96w/s1600/zs70-20190703-0682_adj.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipmYYkE85_ic9yHYkM6TeuIz_e3_RBfVGN8q3VWUBQ1n1LTqIG_AAMmG2zk8BplZSLrsOyGl_E3mterdCQRm1Yyy1URN-l5jEdelv7iUOY4d3gLBKgRR7-mdmw3vVt0VmjY_Z96w/s400/zs70-20190703-0682_adj.jpg" width="400" height="300" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">The McPherson family at Pont du Gard</i>
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<br />[At this point in the writing of this letter we took a week off for Lee to catch this season’s cold, and for Irene, not to be outdone, to have her gallbladder removed and then catch the cold. We are both fully recovered and I need to find a different excuse to procrastinate on the Christmas letter.]
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<br />We took a train from Avignon to Barcelona which is filled with amazing architecture, friendly people, and pickpockets. My pocket was picked twice in metro stations. The first time they got my wallet. I only had a little cash but having to cancel my credit cards was a nuisance since any time I wanted to buy anything for the rest of the trip I had to find Irene. I felt like a three-year-old tugging on his mom’s skirt in a toy store. The second time, the pickpockets scored a diaper stuffed in my back pocket -- in case someone needed a change while we were out and about. I wish them joy with it.
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<br />We said goodbye to Amber and family in Barcelona. They departed to visit with the other side of their family and Irene and I boarded the Norwegian Epic for a cruise that zig-zags back and forth across the Mediterranean until Tuscany and Provence are totally blurred together in your mind. Both are lovely. We saw many of the usual sites and sights. We did whirlwind tours of Cannes, Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Pompei, Pisa, etc.. It was particularly hot in Pompei, which added to the experience but, since there was no smell of sulfur, the heat was probably weather, not Vesuvius. Rome was also hot, except for one spot, half way down the Long Gallery in the Vatican, where open-arched windows let in a minute of blessed coolness from the downflow that preceded the rain in a brief thunderstorm that was over when we exited the Vatican, to find Rome steaming and still hot.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjwdJBsF8eIkiFtUdwYCyaaQ_1Rq1hvyDJkn9rGwZvnTwjXR_9MXl7KH2OSZ1h188t41DrAJ0dybr1DmTqzV9i_maz5K7zw3CPqPLZoymQ-nXX3M0jXjQZn-y4X_OIoqyCn8n6A/s1600/zs70-20190709-1327_crop_adj.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjwdJBsF8eIkiFtUdwYCyaaQ_1Rq1hvyDJkn9rGwZvnTwjXR_9MXl7KH2OSZ1h188t41DrAJ0dybr1DmTqzV9i_maz5K7zw3CPqPLZoymQ-nXX3M0jXjQZn-y4X_OIoqyCn8n6A/s400/zs70-20190709-1327_crop_adj.jpg" width="320" height="400" data-original-width="1280" data-original-height="1600" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Irene in Pompei, Vesuvius</i>
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<br />Being cheapskates, we had booked no-assigned-seat tickets and our flight from Barcelona to Toronto ran out of cheap seats, so they had to put us in first class. We were flying Qatar Air and the first class seating was those modules that recline all the way flat to make a bed with real pillows and blankets. The meals, and snacks, and adult beverages, and movies, and the occasional comfy nap, all helped the time pass painlessly. … And apparently quite a bit of time passed because when we arrived in Toronto we had missed our connecting flight and the US customs was closed for the night. The next available flight was the following evening so the airline comped us a hotel room and a meal voucher. We used our bonus day to see the Toronto aquarium which is a marvel.
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<br />Since returning from Europe we have rested up, cooled down, and caught up with work. Lee traveled to Pueblo, Colorado for work and spent a few days in Baton Rouge, Louisiana visiting with friends at a GFMPH* retreat. We also spent a weekend with friends Bill Ritch and Caran Wilbanks in Myrtle Beach where we visited Brookgreen Gardens and played Putt-Putt golf.
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<br />We will be flying to Portland, Oregon in a few days for Christmas with the grandchildren.
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<br />Wishing all of you a joyous Christmas season and a safe, happy, and prosperous new year.
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<br />Lee and Irene Haslup
<br />Cary, NC
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<br /><i>*Google for it, if curious.</i>
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More Photos:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6GJJNhVRjJDrV0bFcn80JFDmQmkSPdHUwmeCYqJIFgHUNejBWZe_yT_fCZyKM7CRxOhAZDzA1Mu9ah9Ko_vIrB1UfMlaj7bys0ETnOqHNJq_zx69O7cz4mlZ0FZzo1iZfHJ5KA/s1600/lee+and+Irene.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6GJJNhVRjJDrV0bFcn80JFDmQmkSPdHUwmeCYqJIFgHUNejBWZe_yT_fCZyKM7CRxOhAZDzA1Mu9ah9Ko_vIrB1UfMlaj7bys0ETnOqHNJq_zx69O7cz4mlZ0FZzo1iZfHJ5KA/s400/lee+and+Irene.jpg" width="399" height="400" data-original-width="707" data-original-height="708" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Photo of Irene and Lee taken by salesman who sold us a used car.</i>
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFnw4eJSziJFJ3ZnTYGqQmchsQMcwhsvDoxMm7EWZbhb8zz7bv_s4H5MFYzwwzP6oVGtyKJ8EY5zgqCUhmZ-m77RVJ5eCwKWxl0XBursnJBFlLIAmN8VgDMszWHqh2eq6AdDg6Q/s1600/78627080_10107218766011868_4244737335645700096_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFnw4eJSziJFJ3ZnTYGqQmchsQMcwhsvDoxMm7EWZbhb8zz7bv_s4H5MFYzwwzP6oVGtyKJ8EY5zgqCUhmZ-m77RVJ5eCwKWxl0XBursnJBFlLIAmN8VgDMszWHqh2eq6AdDg6Q/s400/78627080_10107218766011868_4244737335645700096_o.jpg" width="400" height="391" data-original-width="1440" data-original-height="1409" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">Another photo of wiggly grand children with stately Mt. Hood in background.</i>
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNwJ9_RWs1ZwIzhQlzlVYIcPaLC_uwoCTraRmPP_eOylsmHqCm3TL_Io8IPFhlsefMgeZftTr5wZyO_HL3S4LmN4rBWbl2jZWl5dpmAUqhlVQTFNRnMnM6n0tUFISzDxH8-qBLA/s1600/1Y1A0487_crop_adj.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNwJ9_RWs1ZwIzhQlzlVYIcPaLC_uwoCTraRmPP_eOylsmHqCm3TL_Io8IPFhlsefMgeZftTr5wZyO_HL3S4LmN4rBWbl2jZWl5dpmAUqhlVQTFNRnMnM6n0tUFISzDxH8-qBLA/s400/1Y1A0487_crop_adj.jpg" width="400" height="271" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1083" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">The McPhersons. Photo taken by a pro who outlasted the squirming children.</i>
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYwRy8qCewf5ozNhntbZ_12DglJvxqryT1dv8i02YJI-_dlbUHypThbdZmRp6j9lDBOly3o5csSFU7AvK5Aaoh5Vo0OQcHPhyVAdKIcQ0Euv6lW44V6dwRx-dVFT-NEcBp666CQ/s1600/chris+and+reid.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYwRy8qCewf5ozNhntbZ_12DglJvxqryT1dv8i02YJI-_dlbUHypThbdZmRp6j9lDBOly3o5csSFU7AvK5Aaoh5Vo0OQcHPhyVAdKIcQ0Euv6lW44V6dwRx-dVFT-NEcBp666CQ/s400/chris+and+reid.jpg" width="298" height="400" data-original-width="715" data-original-height="960" /></a>
<br /><i style="font-size:smaller">I had to get Chris to provide this Christmas proof-of-life photo. We see Reid and him
<br />a couple of times a week so there is never an event requiring that I point a camera at them.</i>
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<i style="font-size:smaller; color:blue">If you suspect you are not on our snail-mail Christmas list but would still like a card from us, just print out this message, fold it in quarters, and insert it into one of <b>your</b> unsolicited non-profit Christmas cards, and write "Merry Christmas from the Haslups" on it.</i>
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-30491110796521774452017-12-10T19:10:00.000-05:002017-12-10T19:10:53.679-05:00Handsy Men and Biting Dogs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnxTq5cvIYgXuWSO83Zue1ZVWX36K8HTUzdTfyFro8AA1fVhfn40EMkA2V80sO0nRR9v2KqvJgnGWHrharFZmVlSC8UIE-jQdMo4VzFlIoqzxKX71aWmae10_OwKwjNOCzF6_bA/s1600/fairytale-1735406_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnxTq5cvIYgXuWSO83Zue1ZVWX36K8HTUzdTfyFro8AA1fVhfn40EMkA2V80sO0nRR9v2KqvJgnGWHrharFZmVlSC8UIE-jQdMo4VzFlIoqzxKX71aWmae10_OwKwjNOCzF6_bA/s320/fairytale-1735406_640.jpg" width="225" height="320" data-original-width="449" data-original-height="640" /></a></div>If you think about the species we chose for our companion animals one thing you may notice is that most of them are predators. There are, to be sure, people who keep pet rabbits, or pet mice, or parrots, or potbellied pigs but there are vastly more dogs and cats. For some reason the animals with which we form the closest bonds come from species that are effective hunters.
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As a result we tend to get bitten or scratched from time to time. We try to train our animals not to bite and we try to choose breeds that are relatively docile but all breeds of dogs can bite, and all breeds of cat will bite and scratch. There is something to which we can relate in the curious and interactive way that predators relate to their environment -- something that just isn't there for prey animals. We like to think that in an ideal world dogs wouldn't bite and cats wouldn't scratch but a less than ideal outcome isn't generally a deal breaker. We are quite unwilling to give up our dogs and cats in favor of other animals which would bite less often but would make for poor companions. There is a reason we don't see anyone out on the sidewalk with a sheep on a leash.
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Anyone who has ever flushed a rabbit while walking a dog knows that a dog's instinct to chase after small animals is pretty overwhelming. Dogs are also strongly territorial and given to aggressive behavior while sorting out dominance issues. The best way to blunt these instinctive behaviors is to socialize the dog when it is young and cute. Puppies have sharp teeth but little jaw strength and they tend to look adorable while they are chewing on your thumb. One must remember to discipline them sternly when they act up, despite the cuteness factor, so that they will be better behaved when they reach adulthood and the cuteness fades.
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Which brings me to the topic of men who have high status in social hierarchies and are sometimes poorly socialized to understand the need to rein in their sexual predatory instincts, instincts that all men have in varying degrees. For those of you who have never experienced puberty as a hormonally-normal male I will state that a man's instinct to to grab at attractive females who come too close is about as strong as a dog's instinct to chase squirrels. High status males tend, for whatever reason, to also have slightly higher testosterone which, perhaps, adds extra oomph to the compulsion.
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I have to admit that I take a somewhat jaundiced view of our recent attempts to offer zero tolerance for clumsy and unwelcome male sexual overtures, where sexual crudeness is seen as tantamount to rape. The problem with this is that the policy deprives us of the rolled-up newspaper needed to smack the noses of young, rich, attractive, high-status men when they get out of line. When the only options are to ignore the biting or destroy the pup we tend to let the misbehavior go uncorrected until youth or cuteness have faded or social status has fallen and we finally all agree that the dog needs to be put down.
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-39084071248956061912017-08-13T18:16:00.001-04:002017-08-13T18:16:13.472-04:00Taking photos of the sun<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oyz7e8iQ6Uo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
There's an eclipse coming in a couple of weeks. I want to take lousy photos of it. But, I also want to avoid burning out my eye like an ant on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass. So, a project.
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Problem: The sun is bright. Really bright. Too bright to look at. Too bright to photograph. Both eyes and cameras can be damaged by pointing them at the sun. I'll set up projection rig for most of our eclipse viewing. Its fairly easy. You duct tape a big opaque card over the front of your binoculars with a hole for one side. Then you point the binoculars at the sun and they will project a nice sized image of the sun onto a white card a few feet away. (Caution: Don't look through the binoculars!!) It takes a bit of rejiggering to get things pointed right but it does work. That way you can watch the eclipse while facing away from it -- no blindness, just a bit of eclipse-tan on the back of your neck. Huzzah!
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But, of course I will want to take photos. So I need some really, really dark sunglasses for my camera.
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There are a number of ways to make it safe to look at the sun. They make sunglasses for eclipse viewing. Its best to stick to companies you know for your eclipse glasses. There are cheap imitations out there that are dangerous to use. One quick spot check you can make is to put them on and look at anything but the sun. If you can see anything at all through them then they aren't dark enough.
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You can buy ND filters for your camera that are made for this. They start at around 60 bucks for a screw-on ND 100000 filter and most cost more. So, I decided to try a less expensive do-it yourself alternative.
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On thing you can used to safely look at the sun is the lens from a pair of shade 14 welder's goggles. The lens looks like a black glass disk but if you look through it at the sun you will see the sun as a green disk that won't set your retina on fire. Perfect!
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For my project I needed the aforementioned welding goggle lens (50mm shade 14) plus a couple of step-down rings to adapt the 50mm lens to the 62mm filter size of my camera lens. Here's my kit:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSGh85B4wtQcqhvyhlQMqR0T_fkM1a5Fa3O6oCXIs8vNl-WXbWMQhpr13QGz9Gxr_vS68NkxYvYQYEspNUTob4TRlP7EKfpCdIiiTOZBcsFN6eoWlsHJ8vYNf0qBxVTU8FmPcDQ/s1600/components.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSGh85B4wtQcqhvyhlQMqR0T_fkM1a5Fa3O6oCXIs8vNl-WXbWMQhpr13QGz9Gxr_vS68NkxYvYQYEspNUTob4TRlP7EKfpCdIiiTOZBcsFN6eoWlsHJ8vYNf0qBxVTU8FmPcDQ/s320/components.jpg" width="320" height="212" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1060" /></a>
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And here is the mess that I made of it. Happily, epoxy fingerprints will mostly scrape off of glass with a razor blade.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06fqcRnkbyU3GvIg3K9cVXYP1bsCVlaZqXCmkxXxbIlcVF38wq4-nHRWI3Hn3rY-tpVH0PXcXR-BrH6wHf_gNOOECCn2dNc62RkHvZ0qfQV9X32RTwOKcbZiPOy-f3RclLr306g/s1600/in+progress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06fqcRnkbyU3GvIg3K9cVXYP1bsCVlaZqXCmkxXxbIlcVF38wq4-nHRWI3Hn3rY-tpVH0PXcXR-BrH6wHf_gNOOECCn2dNc62RkHvZ0qfQV9X32RTwOKcbZiPOy-f3RclLr306g/s320/in+progress.jpg" width="320" height="275" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1375" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_xtqXTyA7KGMfv-pNNh-gvoNSXTGF8pU2ZZec7a27ayCRCoeWDmr7RBaBgWTDoV8Zz8SC001olsv8K7JllrFxcQmrWxNX1ZWlXycekIDJFRPQcRGN-KnP9TIIJ-fEzIPQ8EP7g/s1600/assembled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_xtqXTyA7KGMfv-pNNh-gvoNSXTGF8pU2ZZec7a27ayCRCoeWDmr7RBaBgWTDoV8Zz8SC001olsv8K7JllrFxcQmrWxNX1ZWlXycekIDJFRPQcRGN-KnP9TIIJ-fEzIPQ8EP7g/s320/assembled.jpg" width="255" height="320" data-original-width="1273" data-original-height="1600" /></a></div>
<br />
As one might expect, as soon as the glue had set clouds covered the sun which didn't make an appearance for several days. But it did finally come out and I was able to snap a few photos. Here's one of them.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6l2_n7QscWxAkojpdjW9NwLef4OAg2A444Y8ceUNWRuCoZ4o9YqHsuioMHfITVziMtxHhcPT51jMu5BSkhVmlZhE4hWT8CxsDoKHWEatfVBnuyzz36sSuA1OegeWtaiWbIFiog/s1600/sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6l2_n7QscWxAkojpdjW9NwLef4OAg2A444Y8ceUNWRuCoZ4o9YqHsuioMHfITVziMtxHhcPT51jMu5BSkhVmlZhE4hWT8CxsDoKHWEatfVBnuyzz36sSuA1OegeWtaiWbIFiog/s320/sun.jpg" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="654" data-original-height="654" /></a></div>
Not bad. I was hoping to see sunspots. But I checked a solar observatory website and there aren't any right now. This proves my filter works perfectly -- there weren't any sunspots and I couldn't see any! Perfection!!
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-8220214568834622942017-05-27T12:44:00.000-04:002017-05-27T12:44:51.563-04:00Keyser Soze or TinEyeI was recently reading stories on an online magazine website when an image in an advertisement caught my eye.
Here it is, more or less.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Lm3oiEMH3YT_2O2_9RT9sVVFR4-yyVnrjSgR0xibQfMnGSV8V2LgVwqm6PtKKPlwbvOg6k0nuZUesmO5qEg3yDYB-Jh9j15m8ZgKslfBeAxREuAFsu61HDBW99DTo79_IkRfww/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Lm3oiEMH3YT_2O2_9RT9sVVFR4-yyVnrjSgR0xibQfMnGSV8V2LgVwqm6PtKKPlwbvOg6k0nuZUesmO5qEg3yDYB-Jh9j15m8ZgKslfBeAxREuAFsu61HDBW99DTo79_IkRfww/s200/Capture.JPG" width="189" height="200" data-original-width="259" data-original-height="274" /></a></div>It appeared, slightly smaller, with a headline something like "Michael Jordan buys World's Fastest Jet." I blush to admit that I clicked the ad, hoping against countless past disappointments that, just maybe, <i>this</i> time the linked story would contain some reference to the odd-ball photo. It didn't of course. It led me to a perfectly-nice if slow-loading story about celebrities' private jets. It was a slideshow with 40 individual pages with a million ads each. I saw Celine Dion's jet and Harrison Ford's. But nothing about Michael Jordan, and more to the point, the come-on image did not appear.
<p />
The set me to wondering, once again, about what is to be done about click-bait artists who post links that are blatant lies but who none-the-less get paid when they trick us into clicking on their links.
<p />
Two approaches occurred to me. The first would be more satisfying but possibly tricky to implement. That idea is a sort of crowd-sourcing thing to raise funds to hire death squads. Then one could simply find the people responsible for the misleading ads and kill them... and their families... and their livestock... burn down their offices... the whole Keyser Soze thing.
<p />
Any takers?
<p />
No? (*sighs*)
<p />
Ok, then, the other option is to right-click on the image you want information about and pick "view image" from the right-click menu. You can then copy the image's URL from the location bar and paste it into the <a href="https://tineye.com/">TinEye.com</a>* image search engine. They will come up with a list of pages where visually similar images have appeared. You can then scroll down the list looking for a less sketchy url -- skipping <i>clickbait-r-us.ru</i> and the like -- until you find something that looks like an actual story.
<p />
On page three of their list I found this link: <a href="https://sploid.gizmodo.com/i-really-want-one-of-these-biologically-inspired-airpla-1561926814?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook">Formidable biologically inspired airplanes by Al Brady</a>
<p />
So, the image is a computer generated model by a man named Al Brady who designs futuristic stuffola for use in films... or, maybe more accurately, <i>aspires</i> to do so since the one credit I can track down appears to be a completed-but-unreleased 2016 made-for-tv film named "This Is Heaven" for which IMDB lists a runtime of 17 minutes.
<p />
So, there you go. With TinEye and option two my curiosity bump got scratched and <i>no one died</i>. That's better ... isn't it?
<p />
<p />
<i>* I am sure there are other similar search engines for visually-similar images but TinEye.com was the first I found and it is convenient and works well. If you prefer a different one that's lovely. Leave a comment about your favorites.</i>
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-84160167957419277542016-12-27T01:36:00.001-05:002016-12-27T10:42:13.872-05:00La La Land<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZq-qE1DlCNsvvCiFUC7eiDRkFp6QDUkc5-QFytOEObfSHbfsVJ58K3bvWTsHhyphenhyphengsUgRO_q8QjPWWDmpn-6TGVdjbAmDye5dfOmWb5h6u726XxEbWUfQu4MG1Rb_cSY5VkrWGGng/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZq-qE1DlCNsvvCiFUC7eiDRkFp6QDUkc5-QFytOEObfSHbfsVJ58K3bvWTsHhyphenhyphengsUgRO_q8QjPWWDmpn-6TGVdjbAmDye5dfOmWb5h6u726XxEbWUfQu4MG1Rb_cSY5VkrWGGng/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" height="248" /></a></div>
<p />
Fame, Artistic Integrity, Romance, pick two... <i>if you're lucky</i>.
<p />
La La Land is a new musical set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where anyone who can't sing and dance disappears -- sort of like The Omega Man only with toe tapping music. Occasionally we catch a brief glimpse of a non-singer/dancer but they always vanish after a few seconds of screen time.
<p />
Everything about the film is likable. It has likable actors, likable music, and likable characters who sing likable songs while doing likable dance numbers. In it, a likable guy and girl -- he an aspiring musician and she a would-be actress -- struggle with the three-way balancing act of fame, artistic integrity, and a stable personal life. Entertainers, the film shows us, must endure these centrifugal pulls because they have great, sensitive souls.
<p />
I expect it to do well with the Academy and other award-voting organizations. Most of the voting members of the Academy will have some sort of struggle or disappointment for which the film's message provides a convenient excuse: Stalled career? That just shows dedication to ones art and one's family. Type cast in crap roles? Shows hard work paying off and a desire to please ones fans. Marriage crumbling? The cost of a career in art. Its all part of the price that creative types pay for being cleverer, wiser, and more sensitive than the soulless rest of society.
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-29922014377895907572016-12-21T02:07:00.002-05:002016-12-27T08:39:31.819-05:00Rogue One: Brief Review with a Few Anti-Spoilers.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbp7p8ZXkE3y1nOetprZYvqzyStRZclo-zRUsMHGfR8RQLjz53QQppelir51uZiXwYCjYH3BZuUKt7Ducl64HrBQv4pefKLPpwmLPzh42j6CxAKVmL-Q8ahq_4dOST7i5GRyUTPg/s1600/rogue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbp7p8ZXkE3y1nOetprZYvqzyStRZclo-zRUsMHGfR8RQLjz53QQppelir51uZiXwYCjYH3BZuUKt7Ducl64HrBQv4pefKLPpwmLPzh42j6CxAKVmL-Q8ahq_4dOST7i5GRyUTPg/s400/rogue.jpg" width="400" height="240" /></a></div>
Rogue One, for my money, is the best film in the Star Wars series since Empire Strikes Back. It gets off to a slow start but once it picks up speed it pays off big time. You should go see it.
<p />
So, there's the review part of this post out of the way. Now for a few anti-spoilers.
<p />
For those few of you who are unaware of the definition of the term anti-spoiler (which I just now made up) they are like spoilers only they work the other way around. A "spoiler" is a piece of premature information which damages ones enjoyment of a film by giving away some plot twist, surprise, outcome, or other element where a large part of the pleasure of the film is in seeing how the information is revealed -- learning, for instance, that the "Yellow Rose of Texas" is the name of John Wayne's sled -- things like that. So, bearing that in mind, an anti-spoiler is a piece of information given ahead of time that prevents some annoying part of a film from bothering you because you already know about it and have gotten over it ahead of time.
<p />
A few Rogue One Anti-Spoilers:
<p />
1) The first third of the film is a bit tedious. The characters flit from planet to planet never staying long enough to establish much of a sense of locale. The best way to enjoy this part is to admire the astronomical art. There is one sequence where someone is approaching some planet or other -- I don't remember and it doesn't matter -- but the planet has rings like Saturn and you get to see the spaceship fly past the edge of the shadow that the planet casts on the rings and then past the shadow that the rings cast on the planet. It's pretty cool-looking and you shouldn't let it bother you that you've sort of lost track of who is in the space ship or what they plan to do on the planet. Just enjoy the eye candy -- the movie will start in a few minutes.
<p />
2) Please don't listen to anything that the writers say about political messages hidden in the film. There is a long-standing tradition in the Star Wars franchise for the writers/directors/filmmakers to imagine that they are hiding secret political zingers in the films -- starting with the first film which Lucas thought was some sort of anti-Vietnamese war statement. This allows them to think of themselves as politically active while making bang-up movies. Any political content can and should be ignored. In the case of Rogue One the writers are proud of making all of the good guys female, black, ethnic or alien, while all the white guys are evil. Yeah fine. I'm happy they feel good about themselves. The thing is, it is the progressive liberals who obsess about diversity. I don't care one way or the other and you shouldn't either.
<p />
3) Some of the human characters are computer generated versions of actors who appeared in the original Star Wars for which this film is a prequel -- actors who have either died or grown too old. These simulacrums are not entirely convincing.
<p />
4) There is a sequence late in the film where we discover that the secret plans for the Death Star are stored in a giant imperial jukebox and our heroes have to dodge blaster bolts while digging for pocket change for the coin slot. I may exaggerate a bit but that the sequence does seem to feature technology with a decided 1970s high-tech vibe. Like all the other films in the series Rogue One starts with "A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away." I guess the 1970s is getting to be a "long time ago" ...BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-48896924250659309402016-12-18T13:37:00.000-05:002016-12-18T13:38:22.675-05:00Who to Thank for Clinton's Popular Vote VictoryI've seen a number of news stories the last few days that suggest that most of the recounting of votes is done for the Presidential election. So, this is perhaps a good time to take a look at the results. Clinton won the popular vote handily with 65,844,610 votes to Trump's 62,979,636. That gives Clinton a popular vote lead of 2,864,974 votes*. Trump, on the other hand won the Electoral College, even more handily, 306 to 232.
<p />
When this happens -- when the popular vote goes one way and the Electoral College the other -- that generally means that whichever candidate who won the popular vote will have won by large margins in a few states, while the other candidate, the one who won the Electoral College, will have won by narrower margins in a larger number of states. So, here's my question: Which states did Clinton's popular vote advantage come from? Or, to put it another way, if we start with state that gave the most net votes to Clinton and work down, how many states would we have to drop from the total before Trump won the popular vote in the remaining states? I've drawn a map.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbPxUmGIpsH4hZeVuR9xFzHe3K_XjtHw3y2oiipsPEDAK8nh4dWb1hHjYlGsvygT7R0MgAysjGvYz56HjZ12Cu08GaZoxDAZOC_Q8UMW4hcCI4czYm0lYBh7Bx3HQmBwxqNqd_pw/s1600/popvotemap2016US.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbPxUmGIpsH4hZeVuR9xFzHe3K_XjtHw3y2oiipsPEDAK8nh4dWb1hHjYlGsvygT7R0MgAysjGvYz56HjZ12Cu08GaZoxDAZOC_Q8UMW4hcCI4czYm0lYBh7Bx3HQmBwxqNqd_pw/s400/popvotemap2016US.PNG" width="400" height="262" /></a></div>
<center>Enough states to explain Clinton's popular vote lead.</center>
<p />
Yes, Just California.
<p />
Clinton received 8,753,788 votes in California, compared to Trump's 4,483,810, for a California popular vote advantage of 4,269,978 votes. So, of Clinton's 2,864,974 popular vote advantage nationwide, 149% comes from California. Trump won the rest of the country.
<p />
Hmmm.
<p />
So, how many <i>counties</i> in California would we have to drop to cancel Clinton's lead in the national vote? That is, if we start with the whole US and just drop out <i>counties</i> in California, how many would we have to drop to make Trump win the election? I have another map.
<p />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc61m0SB39Q4pQZ3mrmxowhOI7BW6AZaCYi4jg2FAmQ90U5py-tYnmw48bEMAOu_6n2ydGrRt0cAHdzyk7SRElc6E88iSd9c-qHmCHJDSmDREKubXl5wIX59TB5ntKQvNinqolUg/s1600/popvotemap2016.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc61m0SB39Q4pQZ3mrmxowhOI7BW6AZaCYi4jg2FAmQ90U5py-tYnmw48bEMAOu_6n2ydGrRt0cAHdzyk7SRElc6E88iSd9c-qHmCHJDSmDREKubXl5wIX59TB5ntKQvNinqolUg/s400/popvotemap2016.PNG" width="348" height="400" /></a></div>
<center>Enough counties in California to explain Clinton's popular vote lead.</center>
<p />
That would be five. Basically LA and the greater San Francisco area. Between LA, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties Clinton received 2,967,748 more votes than Trump. These five large-population California counties explain Clinton's popular vote lead nationwide.
<p />
*<i>Numbers from Wikipedia, just now.</i>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-20267021888376752072016-12-18T10:09:00.001-05:002016-12-18T10:17:02.652-05:00Christmas 2016<center>With fondest wishes for a very
<div style="font-size:300%;color:green">Merry Christmas</div>
and a happy and prosperous
<div style="font-size:180%;color:red">NEW YEAR</div>
from the North Carolina branch of the Haslup clan.
</center>
<p>
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Fathers Day in Tampa/St Pete
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31118552720/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="ADJ_zx50-20160620_27"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5482/31118552720_eb306c5708_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="ADJ_zx50-20160620_27"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The past year has been a good one although there have been occasions to be sad as well. One of these was the death of my father, Dr. Allen Lee Haslup, who passed away at age 89, surrounded by three generations of family this past 16th of August. He had been in decline for a number of months and his passing was neither unexpected, nor untimely, nor tragic. Through the patience, care, hard work, and dedication of his care givers, Elizabeth, Ron, and Liz, he was able to remain in his own home until the end. There was a Service of Remembrance at St Thomas Episcopal Church in St. Petersburg on August 19th and he will be interred at Arlington on Friday, January 13th 2017. The service will start at the Old Post Chapel at 1:00 pm. Family members and guests should arrive 30 to 45 minutes prior.
If you plan to attend the interment let me know and I will provide additional information. (lee@haslups.com)
</p><p>
Getting rest of the sadder news out of the way while we are in a somber mood, our dog, Jaxon, and our cockatiel, Sugar, also died this year. This leaves Gypsy, our remaining dog, as our only pet.
</p><p>
Irene and I have had a busy year. This is something I didn’t realize until I sat down to write this newsletter and took stock. I had noticed that there was never any time this year but it is only now I realize that it is because I was busy -- really, really, busy. Since last year’s newsletter we have been to the following locales: Colonial Williamsburg, The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News (Irene’s mom’s home town), Sanford NC (Chris and Reid’s house), Pennsauken Township NJ (Lee and Amber’s house, just across the river from Philly), Florida (five different times), Disney world, LEGOLAND Florida, Tampa, St Petersburg (three times, once to spend time with dad, once to be with him at the end, and once to sort out the house), The Salvador Dali Museum, the western Caribbean on a cruise ship (Honduras, Belize, Costa Maya Mexico, Cancun, and Cozumel), Myrtle Beach, Brookgreen Gardens, The Apple Festival in Hilton NY, the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse on Lake Ontario, The North Carolina Zoo, the North Carolina State Fair, Wilmington NC, the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, and Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.
</p><p>
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Cypress Gardens area at LEGOLAND
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I doubt I need to tell about most of these destinations. I mean, who doesn’t know about Disney World or the Hilton NY Apple Festival? But LEGOLAND and Brookgreen Gardens may be unfamiliar, so a bit of information: LEGOLAND Florida is located on the site of the former Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida – Irene’s home town. It is an odd hybrid of a kid-themed amusement park and an old-Florida tourist attraction. The kids activities are mostly quite well done and they have retained some of the famous gardens, of which parts are as lovely as ever and parts are a bit run down and sad. It’s worth a visit if you have the time and the kids. Brookgreen Gardens is a large sculpture garden featuring, among other things, the work of one of Irene’s favorite sculptors, Anna Huntington.
</p><p>
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Lions Bridge in Newport News
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Irene came to admire Huntington’s work when she was a child visiting her mother’s home town of Newport News, Virginia. Irene greatly admired Huntington’s colossal lions on the Lion’s Bridge on the grounds of the Mariner’s Museum. Brookgreen Gardens, just south of Myrtle Beach, is well worth a visit, especially if you like naturalistic American sculpture. Wear comfortable shoes; the gardens are spread over much of the 9,100 acre site.
</p><p>
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Chris, Reid and Sombrero
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The family continues to prosper. Chris and Reid are raising chickens on their 13 acres near Sanford. Last Christmas Irene insisted that I give Chris a chainsaw since she was convinced that all of Chris’ trees would take turns falling across his access road. Chris and I were skeptical – Irene worries about the oddest things -- but I never pass up a chance to buy power tools and, sure enough, about a week after Chris got his new saw he had to cut up a tree to get to work.
</p><p>
Amber finishes her Emergency Medicine residency in the late spring. She and Lee and the kids will be moving from New Jersey to Oregon for her new job which she is excited about. That will put them near Lee’s family and a number of cousins about the same age as Liam (5), Eva (5), Aurelie (1 ½), and my as-yet-unnamed granddaughter due early next summer.
</p><p>
<table><caption align="bottom">
The cast member in the back (in pink) is a relative of one of Amber’s friends and arranged this VIP meet and greet for us.
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31118556620/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="ADJ_d7000-20160116_231"><img src="https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5486/31118556620_bdf3e2b540.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="ADJ_d7000-20160116_231"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Liam at LEGOLAND / Eva at Bond Park in Cary
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31118556250/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="ADJ_d7000-20160116_488"><img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5621/31118556250_49261b60ee_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="ADJ_d7000-20160116_488"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31118554560/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="ADJ_PB242347"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5537/31118554560_eac0e1359e_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="ADJ_PB242347"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Lee at NC State Zoo / Irene in Hilton NY
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31118560630/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="zs50-20160924_199"><img src="https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5513/31118560630_3a25baa9ab_n.jpg" width="240" height="320" alt="zs50-20160924_199"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/31373955341/in/album-72157675828236692/" title="d7000-20161004_90"><img src="https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5488/31373955341_bacc2648f9_n.jpg" width="212" height="320" alt="d7000-20161004_90"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Aurelie Teething at Disney World
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<div style="font-size:150%"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/hbzyon9">These and more photos: http://tinyurl.com/hbzyon9</a></div>
</p>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-88728827774898497672016-08-16T22:42:00.001-04:002016-08-16T22:43:20.772-04:00That Cute Place to Eat I Can Never Find.Ten years ago last month I mentioned a cute little place to stop and eat, somewhere along I-95 between Washington D.C. and Raliegh. (See <a href="http://teleoscope.blogspot.com/2006/07/science-club-reunion.html">Science Club Reunion</a>.) It was just far enough out of D.C. for one to get hungry and it made a nice stop. It's a bit like Brigadoon. Sometimes when I make the return trip to Raleigh after a visit to the Nation's Capitol, there is is when I get peckish. Other rimes I stop at every exit looking for it and it's never there...
<p />
I have since figured out where it is and, since I know you are all worrying about it, I thought I would mention that the little town is Occoquan , Virginia and the place we ate is probably Madigan's Waterfront Seafood Restaurant.
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-7148958650515112622016-05-12T01:33:00.001-04:002016-05-17T17:45:48.891-04:00The New Castrati<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6528qQH3RYFbfqyHd2cvWWMayUiqcev1jr1xTDUr4JatSdRHPLaP44y6hq_ry6Uuu9HRP_V5c5EcKN5QfEqpNAEJ8yjpgjShWK5tP1TWP4msdbFNgWs2IU2igpvJVyKv1Jg5aw/s1600/blingcupid_w_makeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6528qQH3RYFbfqyHd2cvWWMayUiqcev1jr1xTDUr4JatSdRHPLaP44y6hq_ry6Uuu9HRP_V5c5EcKN5QfEqpNAEJ8yjpgjShWK5tP1TWP4msdbFNgWs2IU2igpvJVyKv1Jg5aw/s400/blingcupid_w_makeup.jpg" /></a></div>
<b>First, a bit of history...</b>
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On the 28th of December, 1902, the Roman paper <i>La Tribuna</i> announced that Pope Leo XIII had issued a decree forbidding <i>castrati</i> from participating in the choir of the Sistine Chapel, or in any Catholic choir. This ended over three centuries of the chapel's use of <i>castrati</i> -- men who had been castrated as boys to preserve their higher pitched voices. At the height of their popularity <i>castrati</i> had been much sought after for sacred music, and for opera where parts were commonly written for the peculiarities of their voices. A few of them had become fabulously successful and wealthy. They were the androgynous "rock stars" of their time and were much feted, although they were also ridiculed for their stork-like proportions with large chests, sharp features, and over-long arms and legs.
<br /><br />
During the 17th, 18th, and particularly the 19th centuries the Catholic church had a "<i>complicated</i>" on-and-off relationship with the morality of castrating boys so they could sing the soprano parts in sacred music. Until the end of the 18th century women were not allowed to sing in church and, while boys could sing the higher-pitched parts, their voices were weak and tended to break with puberty. The church officially forbade castration for musical purposes -- anyone caught performing the operation, or associating with those who did, would be ex-communicated -- but at the same time, church choirs actively sought out <i>castrati</i> with superior voices and contributed considerably to the popular demand for their abilities.
<br /><br />
With castration for musical purposes officially banned by the church, and often against secular law as well, the popular demand for <i>castrati</i>, together with the wealth and fame heaped on the ones who achieved rock-star status, resulted in a surprising number of "accidental" castrations. Swans were a particular threat to young men's boy bits in some of the poorer parts of Italy, as were wild pigs. If a swan bit them off, the idea went, the boy might as well head off the music school and try to become rich and famous so he could send money home to his family so they wouldn't starve. It wasn't -- exactly -- that poor families "sold" their sons, but there wasn't a lot of opportunity for advancement in the lower strata of society and the opportunity <i>was</i> tempting...
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17th and 18th century apologists for creating <i>castrati</i> argued that the sacrifice of virility was more than compensated by the contributions to sacred music, and that as long as the boys consented, then castration to preserve singing voices into adulthood was ethical. Others, of course, disagreed but, with the high demand for <i>castrati</i> for choirs and opera, a compromise was struck: boys were castrated in secret so that the clergy and directors of operas didn't have to know about it.
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From a more modern point of view a number of other ethical problems present themselves. These are --
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1) <b>No Possibility of Informed Consent:</b> The operation is irreversible and, since it must be performed before puberty, the boy is by definition a child and not able to give mature, informed consent.<br />
2) <b>Unreasonable Expectations:</b> While the occasional, wildly-successful <i>castrato</i> was pampered, feted, and very much in the public eye, his less-fortunate fellows -- the eight out of ten whose singing careers failed after castration -- were never mentioned and few boys contemplating the "career" had a realistic expectation of his odds for success, and neither did their families.<br />
3) <b>Pressure:</b> The extreme poverty from which most of the candidates were drawn exerted considerable pressure on them to help their families financially.<br />
4) <b>Assumption of the Blessing of Clergy:</b> On the one hand most people probably knew that the church forbade castration for musical purposes, but on the other hand the soprano parts in church choirs were generally sung by <i>castrati</i> so how serious could the objection really be? How big a problem could the <i>castrati</i> represent if the Pope had a dozen of them in his personal choir?</br >
5) <b>Sort of Pointless:</b> While the <i>castrato</i> voice differs from both male and female singing voices, it is not <i>that</i> different from a female voice. Most parts scored for a <i>castrato</i> can be sung just as well by a woman soprano. The whole "no girls in the choir" thing comes from an over-literal reading of a throw-away line by St. Paul in Corinthians and, with an only slightly more-nuanced interpretation, the whole rationale for having castrated men around to sing goes away.
<br /><br />
<b>And some more recent history...</b>
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In February of this year the Charlotte City Council passed legislation by a 7 to 4 vote that added new legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people, including a controversial section that would allow transgender residents to use either a men’s or women’s bathroom, depending on the gender with which they identify. The Charlotte Observer, in <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article61786967.html">a report</a> generally favorable to the City Council's actions, nonetheless admitted that it was "<i>a decision that will likely provoke a battle with the General Assembly, which could nullify the city’s historic vote</i>."
<br /><br />
The Charlotte ordinance was to have taken effect April 1st and as anticipated, in the last few weeks of March, the North Carolina General Assembly formulated and passed House Bill 2 which laid out a statewide anti-discrimination policy and invalidated the Charlotte ordinance. In particular, HB-2 establishes policies for bathroom facilities operated by state and local government agencies, including schools. The policy establishes biological sex -- as listed on a birth certificate -- as the criterion for which facility an individual should use. This sounds more restrictive than it is. Most states will issue a new or amended birth certificate after sex-reassignment surgery.
<br /><br />
<b>Then on to my point...</b>
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A few weeks ago a photo started showing up in my Facebook newsfeed. It showed a pretty young boy with long light-brown hair. He was wearing lipstick and eye makeup and if you clicked through to his story it was about his "transitioning" to become a trans-girl, having just started estrogen shots at the age of fourteen. The reason my "Progressive" Facebook friends were sharing it was because of their opposition to North Carolina HB-2 which, among other things, would require the young person shown to use the boy's restroom at school because he is biologically male. They are sure that it would be a slam-dunk on this issue since those of us who support HB-2 would surely see that this innocent young boy/girl/person-of-intermediate-gender would probably get beat up in the boy's room. He might have his tender young breasts groped, or she might be kicked in her testicles.
<br /><br />
And it <i>was</i> actually something of a slam-dunk for me... only the other way 'round. It reminded me how much I support HB-2. More precisely, it reminded me how much I think the Charlotte ordinance was a bad idea. It's because of that poor young boy in lipstick with his picture all over the Internet. I understand that gender dysphoria is painful and that he is terribly, terribly confused. But he is still a child, giving him estrogen will have permanent effects, and he <i>isn't old enough</i> to give informed consent for something like that. I suppose the idea for his transition is that he would show up in high school passing for a girl. Would that have worked? Maybe. He makes a convincing girl, quite a pretty one in fact. But that is shot to hell, isn't it? His face is all over the internet. He's not going to sneak into the girls room for a discrete, seated pee if he shows up at the bathroom door with a TV news crew, a flying wedge of butch, lesbian bodyguards, a legal team, a mariachi band and a pink piñata filled with complementary cosmetics. He's been ratted out by the fashionable moral preening of the champions of societal change.
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One of the reasons that free-range, gender-of-the-day bathrooms/locker rooms/showers at schools seems like a bad idea to me comes from a recollection of my middle school days a long, long time ago. Some enterprising young men discovered that if one boy stood on the shoulders of another he would be just high enough to peer in the skylight window of the girls' P.E. shower room. I, of course, never did anything of the sort. I am above that sort of thing... A tower of virtue... and rather too heavy to be the man on top so what would be the point? But, anyway, teenage boys are pretty interested in the parts of teenage girls that they don't usually get to see. Interested enough to probably be pretty annoying. Note that I am not talking about transwomen here. They hadn't been invented yet. It's the straight boys I want to keep out of the girls facilities. If teenage boys will stack themselves up like Russian acrobats to sneak a peek they will lie about their feelings about their gender.
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Reading the research about gender dysphoria and its treatments one is struck by how early in the process it all is. If gender transitioning were a drug that had to be approved by the FDA it would be early in the first stages of trials where the proposed drug is shown merely to be safe, and the next phases of the trials -- where it's effectiveness is shown -- would be years away. There is a general agreement in the field that <i>children</i> with gender dysphoria tend to get over it. A clear majority of girls, and an overwhelming majority of boys, who identify with the other gender as children will become adults who identify with their natal gender. Somewhere between 80 and 95 percent of pre-adolescent boys will become adults who identify as male, with a majority of them being homosexual but, nevertheless, reasonably happy with their bodies. Girls tend to persist somewhat more often with gender dysphoria but even then something like three out of four will grow up to identify as female. <i>Adolescents</i>, on the other hand, are said to seldom get over gender dysphoria and will probably require treatment. The question of how young, gender-dysphoric boys come to be male-identifying gay men without passing through adolescence is never clearly explained.
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There is almost no data on outcomes of treatment where gender-transitioned individuals are followed to see how they get on, and what data has been collected is of low reliability. I did find one study that showed that teens receiving hormones seemed less likely to commit suicide than their untreated counterparts but the study was statistically underpowered (not enough participants) and there was no way to show that the benefit didn't arise simply from having their problems taken seriously -- no way to know if saline injections and a really good pimple cream wouldn't have had the same benefit.
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Furthermore, there are a few studies that appear to show that long term problems frequently persist for those who transition. Recent studies that followed transsexuals in Sweden and Denmark found significantly higher rates of psychiatric problems, suicide, and attempted suicide among them than in the overall population. Other recent studies found high rates of "non-suicide self-injury" in similar populations in Belgium and the UK. There is no way of knowing, with this sort of study, how they might have done had they <i>not</i> transitioned and relied, instead, on more conventional therapies, but it seems safe to say that while transition may not have <i>caused</i> their problems, neither did it <i>cure</i> them.
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If you do a keyword search for "transgendered child" on any social media site you will find that gender transitioning is a panacea -- apparently a solution for any and all problems with development or family life. You will see photos of happy children and well-integrated families. Families with transgendered children are as squeaky clean the Brady Bunch TV show without the slightly edgy vibe one got from Marcia. There are advertisements for how-to books on raising your transgendered child. The purveyors of fashionable opinion in the <i>real</i> media have bought into it, too. Big Time. So have celebrities and business leaders. Gender challenged young people are the next big social issue -- the next battle for the forces of "progress", flushed with their victory in the Gay Marriage battle. What gets ignored in the excitement is that we really don't know if (or when) the benfits of gender transition outweigh the harms (and there <i>are</i> harms). In <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/5243/famous-feminist-while-were-navel-gazing-about-james-barrett">a recent interview with Camille Paglia</a> (a radical feminist critical of the left's obsession with gender identity) she put it this way:
<blockquote><i>I really pity young people today in this environment because the pressures are enormous. It’s one thing to feel, ‘I’m not quite comfortable in the gender I was assigned at birth,’ but the pressures are to change, change, change, and to telegraph it to the world. People are pushed into making choices about surgical interventions and taking hormones, which is dangerous, and they will have all kinds of medical problems in the long run…
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I think there are authentic transgender people who had a genetic issue from the start, but they are a tiny, tiny minority of the population, and medical science is still developing to help these people. But now it’s become a fashion statement, or a mask [for other problems]. People are being induced to think that all their unhappiness -- in family life, in school, in relation to society – is to do with this gender issue. Well, maybe it isn’t. Maybe there are other issues a person needs to deal with.</i></blockquote>
So let's revisit my list of qualms about castrating boys for church choirs and see how they line up for gender transition for young people --
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1) <b>No Possibility of Informed Consent:</b> The treatments have permanent effects and, since they are often started before- (or instead of-) puberty in order to minimize undesired secondary sex characteristics, the individuals are often children and not able to give mature, informed consent.<br />
2) <b>Unreasonable Expectations:</b> The majority of information available about gender transition is, quite frankly, propaganda. Some of the propaganda comes from religious organizations and exaggerates the negatives, but most of the discussion arises from those who champion the "rights" of transgendered individuals and are eager to <i>correct</i> any "misconceptions" about the subject -- ignoring the paucity of data behind the "science" and defending the narrative with constant ad-hominem attacks on anyone who questions its correctness.<br />
3) <b>Pressure:</b> The current generation values a "hit count" on YouTube more than money (although properly-managed ad streams can make them the same thing.) Adolescents are famously suggestible and seeing another child become a celebrity by coming out as transgendered is pretty compelling for a conflicted young person with self-worth issues.<br />
4) <b>Assumption of the Blessing of Clergy:</b> The authority of the church is much diminished these days. Our highest moral authority is Oprah. As long as transgendered kids are given instant celebrity on television, those who follow fashionable opinion will assume gender transition is the next big thing.<br />
5) <b>Sort of Pointless:</b> Medical science hasn't gotten to the point where hormones and surgery can make a fully functional man out of a young woman, nor can it make a functional woman out of a young man. What you tend to get is a "non-working replica" rather like the flintlock "pistols" that are made to hang on the wall as part of a colonial-era decor. Trans-men and -women are usually infertile from the hormones, even if they avoid surgery, and their sex lives (and their limited remaining ability to reproduce) tend to involve left-over body parts from their rejected genders.
<br /><br />
While I am not a Catholic or a scholar of the papacy and I can't pretend to speak authoritatively for Pope Leo XIII, I am pretty sure he wasn't <i>afraid</i> of <i>castrati</i>, didn't <i>hate</i> them, or think that they would <i>corrupt</i> the church choirs they sang in. He simply realized that by contributing to the popularity of their voices the church was complicit in a social phenomenon that caused thousands of boys to be harmed.
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Fashionable opinion today has decided to celebrate transgender individuals as, I dunno, "Heroes of the Revolution" I guess. Since I think the benefits of "transition" are overstated in the popular imagination and the risks generally ignored, I believe that all the positive attention given to gender transition stories is part of a social phenomenon that can cause large numbers of troubled young people to be harmed.
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Genuine transgendered individuals represent a tiny, tiny part of the population -- a small fraction of one percent -- and I don't think that establishing policies that are sensible for the ninety-nine point something percent is wildly unfair. We should deal kindly with exceptional cases as they arise* but not forget that they are exceptions to the general rule. By changing the rules to accommodate the tiny minority we would be exaggerating the importance, necessity and desirability of the transition meme. In the case of schools we would be saying, in effect, "We've changed all the rules so you can dress up your troubled son in lipstick and a dress, and send him off to school... Because... you know... that's <i>such</i> a good idea."
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*<i>HB-2 allows for surgically sex-reassigned individuals to use re-issued or revised birth certificates. This seems excessively cumbersome since those documents are often controlled by other states whose policies vary. I would prefer some form of transgendered identification that could be issued and controlled by NC.</i>
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Links:
<br /><br />
The castrati: a physician's perspective:<br>
<i>part 1:</i> <a href="http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=546:the-castrati-a-physician-s-perspective-part-1&catid=77&Itemid=631">http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=546:the-castrati-a-physician-s-perspective-part-1&catid=77&Itemid=631</a><br />
<i>part 2:</i> <a href="http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=535:the-castrati&catid=77&Itemid=611">http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=535:the-castrati&catid=77&Itemid=611</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4822482/">Long-Term Follow-Up of Individuals Undergoing Sex-Reassignment Surgery: Somatic Morbidity and Cause of Death</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21364939">Long-term follow-up of transsexual persons undergoing sex reassignment surgery: cohort study in Sweden</a>.<br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25283073">Non-suicidal self-injury in trans people: associations with psychological symptoms, victimization, interpersonal functioning, and perceived social support.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25929212">Self-injury among trans individuals and matched controls: prevalence and associated factors</a>.<br />
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-26794924537948074102016-03-07T17:31:00.001-05:002016-03-07T17:45:02.929-05:00Cheap Critic: The Good Dinosaur<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62555070@N00/251367552/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/80/251367552_8e71357dc3_o.png" width="400" height="272" alt="cheapcritic" /></a></center><br />
I generally run out and see Pixar films during the first week of their run, often opening night. But somehow the Missus and I had trouble working up a lot of enthusiasm for "The Good Dinosaur." We had seen the trailer several times and both had three-part reactions, notably:
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<br />1) The background and environmental rendering was gorgeous.
<br />2) Against those amazing backgrounds the cartoonish character animation was jarring.
<br />3) And... meh.
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When I noticed that it was playing at our second-run theater where we could see it on the cheap I decided to give it a chance. I had seen several reviews that suggested that Pixar was so excited about their new technologies for environmental rendering that they overlooked the small detail of giving the film more than a pro-forma story. Now that I have seen the film I have to say that those critics were a bit hard on the film, which isn't to <i>quite</i> say they were wrong. The film has most of a decent story... but not all of one. It's frustrating because it was so fixable. But they didn't see it. And they didn't fix it. It's kind of lame but it didn't have to be.
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The main problem -- and I've complained about this with Disney before (see <a href="http://teleoscope.blogspot.com/2012/08/cheap-critic-brave.html">my review of Brave</a>) -- is that they are so into their characters that they can't let them change. At the end of the film the scriptwriters put the characters back where they found them with no scuffs or nicks from their adventure. In The Good Dinosaur our protagonist makes the hero's journey, sees marvels, performs brave acts, earns the respect of the ghost of his dad, rushes home to reach his family before its too late... and they are fine... they're glad to see him, mind you, but his earlier dramatic promise to his mother -- "I <i>won't</i> let you starve!" -- foreshadows nothing, she's fine, the family farm is fine, his brother and sister are fine, there's really no reason for him to have rushed home.
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And then there is the name of the film -- The Good Dinosaur -- what's with that? We see lots of dinosaurs and most of them seem OK. There are a few <i>bad</i> ones, I guess -- the pterodactyls are hard to like and and the archaeopteryxes ditto (apparently feathered and/or flying dinosaurs are evil) -- but most of the other dinosaurs we see are good guys too. Our hero is nice enough but he never quite seems to earn his definite article. He is <i>A</i> Good Dinosaur, to be sure, but it seems like he'd have to change the world, just a bit, to earn the title of <i>THE</i> Good Dinosaur.
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So, bottom line, The Good Dinosaur is worth seeing so you can goggle at the environmental rendering. Their computer animated vegetation is astounding and what they have done with animating water has to be seen to be believed. Just don't expect the story to go anywhere. BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-49684591196397241772016-01-21T16:32:00.001-05:002016-01-21T16:38:40.609-05:00One Hundred Years Ago Today Looking for a Planet Far, Far Away<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/24227185480/in/dateposted-public/" title="neptune"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1465/24227185480_c10877e2f4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="neptune"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<br />
One hundred years ago today astronomer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell">Percival Lowell</a> was looking for a ninth planet in the Solar system. Its existence and its rough location had been predicted by other astronomers based on the perturbations of the orbits of other bodies (notably Neptune) but nobody had ever seen it. Lowell was convinced it was there and he was looking for it.
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Today, one hundred years later, astronomer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_E._Brown">Michael E Brown</a> is also looking for a ninth planet. Today's predicted planet was once again suggested by the peculiar orbits of other bodies (notably the distant dwarf planet Sedna with a highly elliptical orbit). To date, nobody has seen the new ninth planet but Brown is convinced it's there and he's looking for it.
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In the intervening century a lot of stuff has happened but a surprising amount of it canceled itself out leaving us back where we started. Lovell didn't live to see the discovery of his ninth planet (which he called "Planet X"). It was discovered by astronomer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tombaugh">Clyde Tombaugh</a> fourteen years later and named "Pluto." For seventy six years "Pluto" was the ninth planet in the Solar system, but with the dawn of the 21st Century astronomers started discovering lots of new objects as large or larger than Pluto and, rather than posting the current number of planets like a stock ticker that could be constantly updated, scientists decided to set the bar higher, insisting that planets had to be much larger than Pluto, and demoting Pluto, in 2006, to "Dwarf Planet" status (along with all of his newly-found companions.) Once again there were eight planets. And scientists were pretty sure that would be it.
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<br />
Turns out they were probably wrong.
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<br />
The evidence for the 21st Century Planet X comes from the very eccentric orbits of some of the other, smaller objects way out in the Kuiper belt (sort of like an asteroid belt only out past Pluto). It turns out that these objects have really similar orbits -- all 30 degrees off from the ecliptic and all on the same side of the sun. The theory is that they have similar orbits because they have all had close encounters with the same massive object that spends most of its time on the other side of the sun, 30 degrees off the ecliptic in the other direction. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/researchers-find-evidence-for-yet-unseen-planet-nine/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17">This article</a> has a helpful picture.
<br />
<br />
The order of the planets that I learned as a teenager uses one of the few G-rated mnemonic sentences I can easily remember. "<b>Mother very easily made jelly sandwiches under no protest.</b>" for "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto." Some years ago (while Pluto was still a planet) it crossed inside the orbit of Neptune and, technically, became planet eight with Neptune in the number nine spot. But the new Planet X is well outside the orbit of Neptune (as much as 31 times as far from the sun) so as long as they give it a "P" name I won't need any re-education.
<br />
<br />
Perhaps they could name it after <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/researchers-find-evidence-for-yet-unseen-planet-nine/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17">Priapus</a> -- the Greek god of Nature, Gardens and Beekeeping. That'd work.
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-35572687185278860842015-12-02T11:13:00.002-05:002015-12-02T11:25:18.278-05:00Christmas 2015<h2><font style='color:green'>Christmas 2015</font></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhyvDcBN7sao-4xfjqcKXIpvRV7LX3Xyj7Vkx2uzQQ1oPXFvrn37LuQEtd2fW_spd6NJwjTdRQgB7eRUB21jE4pjwoDP6KyPDLaeZej5DXDSCI9IaCQeFdn9CWQgQmYpLyprCdQ/s1600/aurelie_cropped_flower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhyvDcBN7sao-4xfjqcKXIpvRV7LX3Xyj7Vkx2uzQQ1oPXFvrn37LuQEtd2fW_spd6NJwjTdRQgB7eRUB21jE4pjwoDP6KyPDLaeZej5DXDSCI9IaCQeFdn9CWQgQmYpLyprCdQ/s320/aurelie_cropped_flower.jpg" /></a></div>Aurelie <i><b>Jane</b></i> McPherson. I knew her middle name was Jane. Of <i>course</i> I knew. She is my granddaughter after all. I didn’t actually <i>need</i> to page back through three months of Amber’s Facebook timeline looking for that first post with the full name. “Jane”. Of course it is Jane. I knew that. I just panicked when I saw the cursor blinking after “Aurelie”.
<br /><br />
Aurelie is a French name. I’ve been to several web sites to try to learn the French pronunciation. It is Oh-RAY-lee but you have to say it really fast… and sort of gargle it… like you have a bit of cheese stuck in your throat and you are trying not to cough while saying the name. I can almost say it the French way if you give me a minute to prepare but I’m not sure that will be fast enough in real-life grandfather situations. In the time it takes me to wrap my mouth around Oh-RAY-lee I can say “<b>You there, small person, don’t put that <i>vile</i> thing in your mouth!!</b>” which you’d think would take longer. Fortunately, I can say the anglicized version that sounds like “Aura Lee” as in the popular song that was a hit during the Civil War.
<blockquote><i>As the blackbird in the spring 'neath the willow tree<br />
sat and piped I heard him sing praising Aura Lee.<br />
Aura Lee! Aura Lee! Maid of golden hair<br />
sunshine came along with thee and swallows in the air.<br />
<font style='font-size:9'>(Tune is same as Elvis’ “Love Me Tender”)</font></i>
</blockquote>
Aurelie was born at 10:21 pm. on July 24th, weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz and is already quite accomplished for a three month old. She holds her head up like a champ. She looks at faces. She laughs when her mom pretends to sneeze. She gains weight to the satisfaction of her pediatrician (a talent that comes from my side of the family.)
<br />
Aurelie’s brother and sister, Liam and Eva McPherson will be four by the time you read this. They are shown here with their newborn sister, for scale. I don’t have any song lyrics that go with their names. As far as I know there are no “Liam” songs and the best I’ve got for “Eva” is “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” which doesn’t seem that Christmassy.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhESAQadtQVmFGHpSiw58sphjQqNEdkkAprdjomtwbnAzo-2LO088Z76OshCCv2_fw7QnKN1xaTOLp98NOPWCyWu-oYtdIkJlErFVtMr_h8i8TLaGAh3Q-NAT7UjnCHHSicYRF5IQ/s1600/all_three_grands_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhESAQadtQVmFGHpSiw58sphjQqNEdkkAprdjomtwbnAzo-2LO088Z76OshCCv2_fw7QnKN1xaTOLp98NOPWCyWu-oYtdIkJlErFVtMr_h8i8TLaGAh3Q-NAT7UjnCHHSicYRF5IQ/s400/all_three_grands_cropped.jpg" /></a>
<br />
It is boastful for grandparents to go on and on about how smart their grandkids are so I will spare you*. But I did see a scientific study that suggested that women with adipose bottoms have smarter babies, presumably because the infants are slightly better nourished in utero. And based on that study people who spend some time with my grandchildren might imagine that Amber’s posterior would be <i>huge</i>... but, really, that’s not the case.
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Chris and Reid have sold their house in Cary and, if all goes to plan they will have bought another house by the time this card is delivered. The new house they are buying will take ten minutes, each way, off of Christopher’s daily commute without increasing Reid’s. That’s the “official”, sensible reason they chose it. The actual reason is that the new house is not part of a Home Owner’s Association. They had rented out the previous house for several years and Chris grew tired of getting cranky-grams from the HOA whenever his tenants fell behind on their grass mowing. The new house sits on nine rural acres, of which Chris can mow as much or as little as he likes. Perhaps he should go to a local salvage yard and buy a rusty old junker to put up on blocks in his yard… just because he can.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vw8lkh-v8wFkZ-JxcNMcOAYRhDa1N_OwDV-QnkRa3ErRyONfLC08SRTgON3cQg8P3H4SlpX_omL5HHA0KNk-UTBUlox0_qWE3mT-siHAMqdsMCHatzqkr64u89sC6EmDyq3xDQ/s1600/f770-20150214_470_crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vw8lkh-v8wFkZ-JxcNMcOAYRhDa1N_OwDV-QnkRa3ErRyONfLC08SRTgON3cQg8P3H4SlpX_omL5HHA0KNk-UTBUlox0_qWE3mT-siHAMqdsMCHatzqkr64u89sC6EmDyq3xDQ/s200/f770-20150214_470_crop.JPG" /></a></div>Irene and I are fine and we continue to do the usual stuff. Please refer to previous years’ Christmas cards for details. We did get a new dog – Gypsy Rose (shown here with yours truly) - to take the place of Ms. Cello who passed away. Jaxon, our other dog continues to do well. I suspect he would be getting old and slow and fat if it weren’t for Gypsy who chases him around the back yard ten hours a day. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhzBfsBQrD4oCMxygL7ybJsx3ubVnkeZ85LuMayrUeSaN-S-tEF6ET__b_gDNZIZOLGeJE6zB4EJkHhXgOMEljDkbJS92WwAS0ZDWjVpfHMl3787TBCQ2_-GFqpBlT2WNDJKgJA/s1600/d7000-20151114_12_cropped.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhzBfsBQrD4oCMxygL7ybJsx3ubVnkeZ85LuMayrUeSaN-S-tEF6ET__b_gDNZIZOLGeJE6zB4EJkHhXgOMEljDkbJS92WwAS0ZDWjVpfHMl3787TBCQ2_-GFqpBlT2WNDJKgJA/s200/d7000-20151114_12_cropped.JPG" /></a></div>Our Cockatiel, Sugar, (shown on Irene’s shoulder) is quite an elderly bird being more than 20 years old. She seldom comes out of her cage but apparently she wanted to be part of this year’s Christmas letter and she came out to pose for a photo this morning when Irene was filling her seed cup. My father, Allen, continues to do well. He recently celebrated his 89th birthday and is in reasonable health and good spirits.
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<font style='font-size:9'>*<i>What? Don’t all the Christmas cards you get have footnotes? Anyway, Irene insists that I mention how well Liam reads for a three year old. Since that conflicts with my promise not to boast I have hidden her grandmotherly boasting in a footnote which nobody will read and for which I can blame her.</i></font>
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A few additional photos that didn't make the cut for this year's newsletter are available <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHskkMKEjV">here (https://flic.kr/s/aHskkMKEjV)</a>.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-88801449427373586832014-12-19T00:39:00.000-05:002015-01-04T21:02:04.043-05:00NC Haslup Christmas Letter -- 2014<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739709648" title="1. PineCones in Fairbanks Alaska by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8638/15739709648_654dd7c348.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="1. PineCones in Fairbanks Alaska"></a><br />
As I write this 2014 installment of the NC Haslup Clan Christmas Newsletter, I have already missed the first (Partridge in a Pear Tree) through the fourth (Calling Birds) days of Christmas. But there are 8 more so hope remains. I do need to hurry, though, because of the plumbing issue.<br />
<br />
As it turns out, of the houses owned by Irene and me, and by our grown, married children, all three have had significant plumbing problems in the past year or so. Chris and Reid had to replace all the water pipes in their house, Amber and Lee had to tear up their bathroom floor to get at a pipe, and we replaced a burst pipe near our upstairs water heater.<br />
<br />
Because of these painful (and expensive) events there are some days of the song that may have unpleasant connotations: <b>"Twelve Plumbers Plumbing, Eleven Pipers Piping, Ten Loos a-Leaking, Seven Drains a-Swimming, Six Bills for Paying, Five Wax Bowl Rings, Four Floating T-"</b> ... well you get the idea. Days 1,2,3,8 and 9 -- Partridge in a Pear Tree, Turtle Doves, French Hens, Maids a-Milking, and Ladies Dancing, respectively -- are OK because I haven't thought up anything funny that rhymes. So I have to get cracking to try to hit days 8 and 9 for those few people who will be getting a paper Christmas card this year..<br />
<br>
With one notable exception*, we are all reasonably healthy and seem to be thriving. Chris still has the same job as a graphic designer/art director for a communication firm, Amber is continuing her residency in Emergency Medicine. Amber's Lee and Reid are both teaching (college chemistry and high school physics, respectively). Lee and Irene are largely unchanged from last year so I will refer you to <a href="http://teleoscope.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-page-intentionally-left-blank.html">last years holiday letter</a> for details..<br />
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Most of this year's newsletter is being presented as an online slide show because, um, I sorta ran out of time to lay out the newsletter. The link (immediately below) is followed here by an exhibit guide for the photos. You might want to skim the guide before you click the link to decide whether you need to see the photos just now.<br /><br />
<h3>1. PineCones in Fairbanks Alaska</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739709648" title="1. PineCones in Fairbanks Alaska by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8638/15739709648_654dd7c348.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="1. PineCones in Fairbanks Alaska"></a>
Taken in June, near the Morris Thompson Visitors and Cultural Center along the walking/bicycle path beside the Chena River. Christmasy-looking, I think.
<h3>2. (Big) Lee</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739748148" title="2. (Big) Lee by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7526/15739748148_72e4e03aa1.jpg" width="331" height="500" alt="2. (Big) Lee"></a>
Photo of your obedient servant. I am sitting in my comfy chair and kitchen clutter in background is nicely blurred. Chris probably took this one while trying out my new lens.
<h3>3. Irene on the BlueRidge Parkway</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15925208561" title="3. Irene on the BlueRidge Parkway by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7504/15925208561_b95ce0f0c5.jpg" width="331" height="500" alt="3. Irene on the BlueRidge Parkway"></a>
Nice shot of Irene taken at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, mid October, just before sunset.
<h3>4. BBQ w/ Amber, Lee, the twins, Calvin and Pat</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15926559132" title="4. BBQ w/ Amber, Lee, the twins, Calvin and Pat by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7526/15926559132_13292d11c3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="4. BBQ w/ Amber, Lee, the twins, Calvin and Pat"></a>
Here we are, the whole family... except that our friends Calvin (second from the right) and Pat (leftmost) are standing in for Chris and Reid. (Didn't get a family portrait this year.)
<h3>5. James and Ashleigh, newlyweds.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15927152455" title="5. James and Ashleigh, newlyweds. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7503/15927152455_d42df84100.jpg" width="331" height="500" alt="5. James and Ashleigh, newlyweds."></a>
Dancing at the reception after their beach wedding. It was pretty dark in the tent and most of my photos were blurs. I like this one though.
<h3>6. Random Newlyweds Who Asked Me to Take Their Photo</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739710858" title="6. Random Newlyweds Who Asked Me to Take Their Photo by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7573/15739710858_83ccb270b0.jpg" width="331" height="500" alt="6. Random Newlyweds Who Asked Me to Take Their Photo"></a>
No idea who this couple are. They had just been married on the beach and were looking to have their picture taken at Sunset at Fort Fisher. The lighting is the high-beams of our Subaru Outback. The is possibly my favorite wedding photo I have ever taken. I emailed this and a few similar images to the man on the right who had officiated at the ceremony.
<h3>7. Christmas Dinner Last Year at Cousin Bill's House.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15304970404" title="7. Christmas Dinner Last Year at Cousin Bill's House. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7556/15304970404_632643106f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="7. Christmas Dinner Last Year at Cousin Bill's House."></a>
Very nice affair -- good company and fabulous food. Irene was there, too, acting as photographer for this shot.
<h3>8. Foggy bit on the BlueRidge Parkway.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741420887" title="8. Foggy bit on the BlueRidge Parkway. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7554/15741420887_0be9878b10.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="8. Foggy bit on the BlueRidge Parkway."></a>
Richland Balsam overlook. Bit of a different driving experience on a foggy day, offering bottomless gray vistas yawning inches from the passenger side window.
<h3>9. Chris and Reid on the Appalachian Trail (Note White Blaze)</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/16014715746" title="9. Chris and Reid on the Appalachian Trail (Note White Blaze) by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7540/16014715746_850295e107.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="9. Chris and Reid on the Appalachian Trail (Note White Blaze)"></a>
Reids first time on the AT. Chris appears to be doing a movie impression -- the hat, the intense gaze, the stubble -- Kenneth Barnaugh? No, that's not quite it. I can almost... Don't tell me... Um... Ok, tell me.
<h3>10. Chris and Reid's New Dog, Miss Scarlet</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/16053061392" title="10. Chris and Reid's New Dog, Miss Scarlet by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8595/16053061392_6090cdf7ff.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="10. Chris and Reid's New Dog, Miss Scarlet"></a>
Nice dog with soulful golden eyes. May be a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. At least that's what Reid thinks.
<h3>11. Granddaughter, Eva</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15925242501" title="11. Granddaughter, Eva by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7556/15925242501_2fd05f13bf.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="11. Granddaughter, Eva"></a>
Earlier this year, I think. They grow so fast at this age. Love the light here... And, of course, fond of the girl, too.
<h3>12. Grands Liam and Eva</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739711608" title="12. Grands Liam and Eva by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7544/15739711608_b3f0bf58bf.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="12. Grands Liam and Eva"></a>
Being adorable. Obviously plotting mischief.
<h3>13. Amber's Lee and her Eva, too.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15901382766" title="13. Amber's Lee and her Eva, too. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7478/15901382766_7ac55b7d0b.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="13. Amber's Lee and her Eva, too."></a>
Irene took this photo of Lee and Eva posing with the lion beside the steps of some-building-or-other, somewhere, probably in New Jersey. Princeton, maybe. Irene took this one.
<h3>14. Eva with some Over-sized Art.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741158749" title="14. Eva with some Over-sized Art. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7562/15741158749_9552f14038.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="14. Eva with some Over-sized Art."></a>
She is three now. I think the Munch-man is overreacting to the Munchkin. Although she was still in the "terrible twos" at the time.
<h3>15. Lee in The Dr Zeuss Themed Part of Universal Studios, Orlando.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15927186965" title="15. Lee in The Dr Zeuss Themed Part of Universal Studios, Orlando. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7476/15927186965_c7b4b46239.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="15. Lee in The Dr Zeuss Themed Part of Universal Studios, Orlando."></a>
Kinda like that part of the park although there might be more to actually do there if I had the grandkids in tow.
<h3>16. Amber, Liam and Eva</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15901379686" title="16. Amber, Liam and Eva by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7507/15901379686_e0bf1cbae1.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="16. Amber, Liam and Eva"></a>
Irene took this shot and I was able to pull Amber and Eva out of the deep shadow in post-processing without burning out Liam who was in the sun. But that is boring, I know. Sorry. I wasn't along on that trip and don't have much to say about the photos.
<h3>17. Dandilion Taken with Lee's New Lens</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741133989" title="17. Dandelion Taken with Lee's New Lens by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7519/15741133989_0647809e81.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="17. Dandelion Taken with Lee's New Lens"></a>
One of several photos taken in the backyard to try out my new Sigma 18-250mm lens before our trip to Alaska.
<h3>18. Obligatory New-Zoom-Lens Moon Photo</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739749578" title="18. Obligatory New-Zoom-Lens Moon Photo by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7544/15739749578_b015ab0192.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="18. Obligatory New-Zoom-Lens Moon Photo"></a>
You may wonder: what is Christmasy about a photo of the moon? Well, you see the lens -- a Sigma 18-250 zoom -- was an early Christmas present I bought myself. ... or ... maybe it was a late Christmas present from last year. ... Yes, that is. It was <i>last</i> year's indulgence. Wonder what I will get for myself <i>this</i> year???<br />
<br />
Maybe trouble...
<h3>19. Roseate Spoonbill Taken Near Mims Florida</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15927193255" title="19. Roseate Spoonbill Taken Near Mims Florida by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8617/15927193255_6f5440928f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="19. Roseate Spoonbill Taken Near Mims Florida"></a>
Spoonbills are on my list of things that can't be explained by atheists. Without postulating an odd sense of humor behind its design it is impossible to explain how the spoonbill came to be so funny looking.
<h3>20. Portrait of Leopard Frog, Taken with New Lens in Backyard.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739901660" title="20. Portrait of Leopard Frog, Taken with New Lens in Backyard. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7483/15739901660_f78a601915.jpg" width="500" height="331" alt="20. Portrait of Leopard Frog, Taken with New Lens in Backyard."></a>
Yes, I know dear, there is NO reason for this photo to be here. You're quite right. But if I took it out now I'd have to renumber all the other photos.
<h3>21. BigLee and Irene in Dinali Park in Alaska</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741132679" title="21. BigLee and Irene in Dinali Park in Alaska by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7492/15741132679_6653c5138b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="21. BigLee and Irene in Dinali Park in Alaska"></a>
The interior of Alaska is a dangerous place in the summer. It is so beautiful -- and there ARE people who live there year round. It's tempting not to go home.
<h3>22. Photographing Snow Plow last February</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739758198" title="22. Photographing Snow Plow last February by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7512/15739758198_8d0a1a8372.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="22. Photographing Snow Plow last February"></a>
This photo looks like it ought to be part of our Alaska collection but actually it was shot last winter across the street from our neighborhood. I wanted to get an action shot of the snowplow and I got more action than I had figured on. It was a bit like losing a snowball fight with Optimus Prime.
<h3>23. BigLee, Pattye, Frosty and Irene with Alaskan Pipeline</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741156349" title="23. BigLee, Pattye, Frosty and Irene with Alaskan Pipeline by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8618/15741156349_3f75a296bc.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="23. BigLee, Pattye, Frosty and Irene with Alaskan Pipeline"></a>
Fisheye lens selfie taken somewhat north of Fairbanks.
<h3>24. Irene Points to Our Location along Pipeline.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15739733308" title="24. Irene Points to Our Location along Pipeline. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7479/15739733308_80a9bd59e7.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="24. Irene Points to Our Location along Pipeline."></a>
Another fisheye shot. I like it because it makes her look 17 feet tall.
<h3>25. Huskys Go For a Boat Ride near Fairbanks, Alaska</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15741152299" title="25. Huskys Go For a Boat Ride near Fairbanks, Alaska by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8654/15741152299_61a49aefaf.jpg" width="500" height="331" alt="25. Huskys Go For a Boat Ride near Fairbanks, Alaska"></a>
People in Alaska have a different meaning for the word husky than do those in the lower 48. In the lower 48 a husky is one of several breeds of dog some of which have blue eyes. In Alaska it is any sort of dog that loves to pull a sled.
<h3>26. Irene in a Riverside Park in Fairbanks, Alaska.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15927171165" title="26. Irene in a Riverside Park in Fairbanks, Alaska. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7538/15927171165_e4631f3b2e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="26. Irene in a Riverside Park in Fairbanks, Alaska."></a>
Taken along the river walk by the Chena river.
<h3>27. BigLee with Caribou Antler Arch in Fairbanks</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15926524532" title="27. BigLee with Caribou Antler Arch in Fairbanks by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7515/15926524532_e916dd1164.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="27. BigLee with Caribou Antler Arch in Fairbanks"></a>
Taken along the river walk by the Chena river.
<h3>28. Irene Talks with Alaskan Native Come into Anchorage to Sell Handicrafts</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15901362536" title="28. Irene Talks with Alaskan Native Come into Anchorage to Sell Handicrafts by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7530/15901362536_e34b229e73.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="28. Irene Talks with Alaskan Native Come into Anchorage to Sell Handicrafts"></a>
The woman in blue (left) had come into Anchorage to visit her daughter (center) and to try to place some of her handicraft items in some of the local shops. She lives on St Lawrence Island -- a large island in the Bering Sea, much closer to Siberia than to the Alaskan mainland. Among her offerings was a pair of seal fur gloves that were lovely and she assured us that the seal the fur had come from was very tasty and tender.
<h3>29. Irene, Frosty and Pattye in Fairbanks</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15926518652" title="29. Irene, Frosty and Pattye in Fairbanks by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8649/15926518652_fae60fbccd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="29. Irene, Frosty and Pattye in Fairbanks"></a>
Our first two nights in Alaska were spent in the River's Edge Resort in Fairbanks. Between jet lag and the midnight sun (not to mention the 1:00 am sun and the 3:00 am sun) we kept kind of strange hours the first few days. Lovely place to wander down the path by the river at 4:00 am although you had to keep moving or the mosquitoes would fly off with you.
<h3>30. Irene Sitting in an Exhibit at U of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks.</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/15901356686" title="30. Irene Sitting in an Exhibit at U of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks. by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7528/15901356686_f7df4521d5.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="30. Irene Sitting in an Exhibit at U of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks."></a>
Many Alaskans decorate their outhouses. This is an unusually ornate one. That blue foam pad is crucial for an inland-Alaska outhouse since it is an excellent insulator and your butt won't stick to it, even at 40 below.
<h3>31. Lee, Irene, Matt, Pattye, Frosty and Allen Embark on Alaska Cruise</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/16053947962" title="31. Lee, Irene, Matt, Pattye, Frosty and Allen Embark on Alaska Cruise by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/16053947962_2411f98a52.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="31. Lee, Irene, Matt, Pattye, Frosty and Allen Embark on Alaska Cruise"></a>
First few seconds on board the Norwegian Sun sailing from Whittier, Alaska in messy weather.
<h3>32. Lee and Irene in Times Square</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/16027968156" title="32. Lee and Irene in Times Square by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/16027968156_1a278427e2.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="32. Lee and Irene in Times Square"></a>
Having a great time despite cold rain. We stood in the Tckts same-day line and scored half-price tickets to a musical called "Side Show".
<h3>33. All Aboard the Norwegian Sun</h3>
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/16138744901" title="33. All Aboard the Norwegian Sun by Lee Haslup, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7561/16138744901_e01f24ce62.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="33. All Aboard the Norwegian Sun"></a>
This is our official boarding photo from our trip to Alaska this June. The weather was lousy (we had half drowned, half froze trying to reach the terminal) and Irene did not want her photo taken. I LOVE this photo. Makes me laugh every time I see it.<br />
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<b>I will close with a sincere wish that the remaining more-than-half of Christmas will be a joyous time for you and yours and that the new year that will start with the arrival of those Maids a-Milking will be a safe and prosperous one.</b><br />
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<i>* The exception is our small gray dog, Cello who died on the 26th.</i>
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<br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/sets/72157649150411817/show/" target="_blank">Click here to see photos as slide show.</a>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-82389914202824751242014-02-13T01:15:00.002-05:002014-02-13T01:34:30.006-05:00Beer Run in the SnowChris and I. looking for any excuse to get out in the snow, decided to walk down to our neighborhood Food Lion and buy some beer for the winter storm. When we got there, of course, they were closed but fortunately we had foreseen the problem and had a plan. We stood at their locked door and complained loudly that they were <b>closed</b> when we <b>needed</b> them. That was our plan. It went perfectly. After executing our plan (flawlessly) we decided to wander aimlessly around the shopping center (our new plan) and we discovered that the drug store was open and sold beer. Huzzah!
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On the way back to the house we were passed by a number of snow plows. I really wanted a photo of myself with a snowplow in the background. But the first one passed before I could get out my camera...
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... and so did the second...
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... so I gave up on the self-portrait angle and snapped this shot ...
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... and got a serious face full of snow as the plow went past .
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It was a bit like losing a snowball fight with Optimus Prime.
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It's been a long time since I have had an icicle growing on my hat. Marvelous.
I do like a bit of winter weather in my winter.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-45093657803897201262013-12-23T22:04:00.000-05:002013-12-23T22:13:53.305-05:00Christmas 2013 Haslup Newsletter<div style="font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/11390859213/" title="merryxmas"><img alt="merryxmas by bigleehimself" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3725/11390859213_d83a2381d4.jpg" /></a></div>
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No, I guess that won’t do. I must ignore the cursor blinking on the blank screen and get on with this year’s North Carolina Haslups Christmas Letter. So here goes.<br />
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We will start with Liam and Eva who turned two in November. </div>
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In other news, Chris and Reid are in the process of moving to the Washington DC area. Reid is excited to have found a position teaching in a small school near Leesburg, Va. and she and Chris have moved into an apartment near the school.<br />
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Chris is still working in Raleigh for the present while he looks for a graphics design job in the DC area. He does the weekly commute thing – living in Leesburg on the weekends and staying with us during the week – which is a bit of a grind but he is still young and seems to be bearing up well. It is a treat for us to get to spend so much time with him but we miss Reid.<br />
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Amber and Lee have (again) had an absurdly busy but largely successful year. Amber graduated from medical school in June and was accepted for a residency in emergency medicine in New Jersey. Lee found a job teaching at a local college nearby. She and Lee found and bought a charming hundred year-old house in Pennsauken, New Jersey, moved, started work, learned the joys of hundred year-old plumbing – Lee managed to match the original tile pretty well – all while taking care of two energetic toddlers. They are all busy, prosperous and rather too far away to suit the twins’ grandmother Irene.<br />
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Lee and Irene celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary twice. The first celebration was a Valentine’s Day week cruise of the Hawaiian Islands on Norwegian’s Pride of America. Irene had originally planned to schedule the cruise later in the year to be closer to our (August) anniversary but someone told her that if you want to see whales then February was the month to do Hawaii. The photo at right was taken from a boat that was taking us snorkeling. Irene is in the gray plaid. Whales were everywhere. We had a wonderful time and Irene is already talking about doing it again in a few years.<br />
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The second celebration was a trip to Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center. Disney is always fun (that’s what they do and they are good at it) but we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the Space Center. They have a new-ish museum built around the Space Shuttle “Atlantis” and it is a fabulous museum. We recommend it highly.<br />
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This note is sent in the sincere hope that it will find you and yours well, healthy and enjoying a wonderful holiday season and a successful and happy new year.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Lee and Irene Haslup</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">A Few more photos...</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"> Lee and Irene about to get <i>really</i> wet in Hilo, Hawaii</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"> Another shot of Liam and Eva</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Chris and Reid's Dog</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">A Christmas ornament Amber made out of salt dough at the age of four. </span></span> </span></span></div>
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-20323900929797392322012-12-28T22:28:00.002-05:002012-12-28T22:47:17.661-05:00NC Haslups Christmas Card Newsletter: Electronic Version<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">NC Haslups Christmas -- 2012</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Christmas Day 2011: Lee’s sister Holly returns from Afghanistan</span></i><br />
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Let me start by wishing you and yours a happy and blessed holiday season -- a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, a Kwality Kwanza, or an Agreeable Paid Time-off from Work, whichever you prefer – and peace and prosperity in the new year.<br />
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<b>About What Follows:</b> All of the news that follows will be good news. There were no funerals, divorces, bankruptcies or serious injuries. Nobody is in Jail. I mention all this here at the beginning because Christmas is a busy time of year and some readers may prefer an executive summary, to wit: We are fine. Merry Christmas.<br />
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<b>Last Christmas and the Grandbabies: </b>Irene and I first saw our new twin grandchildren, Liam and Eva, on Christmas Eve last year. We had flown to Tampa and first saw the grandbabies in the airport. They were one month and two days old. It had been a difficult time for Irene; she had been a grandmother for five weeks and hadn’t been spat up on even once.<br />
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We did Christmas at dad’s house in St Petersburg. When the presents were all opened we headed back across the bay to the airport again to meet my sister Holly when she returned from Afghanistan. We stayed in St Pete long enough to see in the New Year and flew back on the 2nd. The photo below was taken New Year’s Day on the Pier in St Pete. It’s a nice shot of Holly and as for me… well… it makes a useful “before” photo of me for my diet.<br />
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The holidays in St Pete offered the usual lovely weather. It was my turn this year to fall in the water while kayaking. The camera was in its zip lock bag so there’s no photo. You will have to take my word for the consummate grace I exhibited. <br />
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Irene had two more chances to visit with Amber, Lee and the twins. They came over for a day at the Animal Kingdom Park when Irene was on her annual Disney Store Alumni retreat in January. Then, in July, Irene flew down again for a visit.<br />
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<b>The McPhersons (Amber, Lee and the Twins):</b> Lee teaches chemistry at a local college and to writes “apps” for smart phones and other mobile devices. His apps have won a number of competitive prizes, especially his 3D modeling program for visualizing complex molecules. Amber will be graduating from medical school in May and is in the process of interviewing all over the eastern US for residency positions in her chosen specialty of emergency medicine. This photo was taken at Disney World when they came over to visit spend a day with Irene who was doing her yearly Disney week with her long-time Disney Store friends.<br />
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<b>Haslup – The Next Generation (Reid and Chris):</b> Chris and Reid are doing well. They bought a house four or five miles across town from us. Chris still enjoys his job as a graphic designer at Capstrat and Reid continues to work as a chemistry lab manager at the university. Most Sunday afternoons Chris and I go to the gym together to work out and then we join the ladies for supper. <br />
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In the photo below Chris and Reid have joined us for lunch at Fulton’s Crab House restaurant at Downtown Disney in Orlando. Irene had arranged a long weekend Disney trip for my 22nd Annual 39th Birthday observation. I hadn’t known Chris and Reid would be there. It was a lovely surprise. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Momentary geek out:</b> The photo above was taken with my new Rokinon f/3.5 8mm fisheye lens and de-fished using Image Trends Hemi Plugin installed in Photoshop Pro x3. Lens and software were birthday presents I gave to myself. I am very happy with them and am indebted to myself for the generous gift. I must think of something nice to give myself to pay back the debt. It’s only fair.</i></span><br />
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Remodeling: Irene and I finally got around to having our kitchen floor repaired this past summer. We had an icemaker leak a few years ago that had left the subfloor under the kitchen vinyl a bit soft. We had learned to step on the joists in the kitchen to avoid the saggy bits but had been unable to teach the refrigerator the trick. Last spring we noticed that the fridge had developed a noticeable list to port and decided to replace the floor before the fridge fell through altogether. But you can’t just do the floor. If you are going to do the floor you might as well do the cabinets at the same time, and if you are doing the cabinets …<br />
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Our floor repair wound up costing twice as much as our first house. We had all of the downstairs floors and ceilings redone and had a new kitchen put in. This meant that we had to move out of our downstairs altogether. We rented one of those portable storage pods to park in our driveway and filled it with as much of our downstairs furniture as would fit. What wouldn’t fit in the pod was moved upstairs and stacked in one of the bedrooms. <br />
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Since we were without a kitchen for about two months we turned our upstairs hall bathroom into a temporary field kitchen.<br />
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<b>My Birthday at Disney World:</b> My birthday weekend at Disney was an ongoing revelation. I kept running into more and more people I knew, first Chris and Reid, then other family members, and then friends. After the first few I knew that Irene had cooked up a surprise party for me but as I kept running into more and more people around the park, on the bus, in the hotel, my notion of the scale of the event kept growing. This slow-motion surprise continued until Sunday’s culminating dinner (for 30) in the Animal Kingdom Lodge where friends I hadn’t seen in years popped up. <br />
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It was a wonderful event and I was very touched that so many people turned up for my birthday party. People came from all over the southeastern US. Here is a photo of the lady who set it all up. She did a good job. I set up a surprise party for her once (a quarter of a century ago) and I may not have been quite as skillful as she was. Last time I checked she was still mad. <br />
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Here is a photo that Irene took in front of the Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom on my birthday weekend. As well as being a nice photo of everyone in it – no one has their eyes closed, no one has a rude itch – it is also my selected “after” picture for my diet. <br />
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<b>Halloween: </b>Irene and I won prizes for our Halloween costumes at our friends’, Calvin and Pat’s, party this year. Mine was won under false colors, I am afraid. I dressed up as the Monster from Young Frankenstein but everyone at the party thought I was a character from their favorite episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was the accidental hit of the party. <br />
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But, of course, we only won because the twins were so far away. How could we have competed with this?<br />
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<b>A few more things quickly: </b> Here’s a photo from our annual fall foliage photo safari to the NC mountains with friends Bill and Caran:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznJae1GcPkVZW_YOC-mFCGpFBdKEHLnYyHW9p6r9nyHvb6bp0DMsGvJCLAK6fwIOoh_iwAjXPRqqChHTtP1Mndo73WABKuOlcx1If47pdW0dH7AOJoDwQKrUrJIFs3PZEB0EinQ/s1600/xmas03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznJae1GcPkVZW_YOC-mFCGpFBdKEHLnYyHW9p6r9nyHvb6bp0DMsGvJCLAK6fwIOoh_iwAjXPRqqChHTtP1Mndo73WABKuOlcx1If47pdW0dH7AOJoDwQKrUrJIFs3PZEB0EinQ/s320/xmas03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> (another fisheye shot, by the way.)</i></div>
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In closing, here’s one more shot of Liam and Eva at one year old.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj4sliAomUmRoVCRJ0BbzyZsUQLXy2cKAZErpRNVUrmFQiwXut_TILySQ2OvUTskR5ilP9j8z3-p79OfG3IDTnm-aoFn8T3Jr71Vrnp1Wayc_9VR_AeW4zNy8b__e-76GeoBeuiA/s1600/xmas1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj4sliAomUmRoVCRJ0BbzyZsUQLXy2cKAZErpRNVUrmFQiwXut_TILySQ2OvUTskR5ilP9j8z3-p79OfG3IDTnm-aoFn8T3Jr71Vrnp1Wayc_9VR_AeW4zNy8b__e-76GeoBeuiA/s640/xmas1.jpg" width="540" /></a></div>
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BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-48159072911724689342012-11-01T12:59:00.002-04:002012-11-01T12:59:55.957-04:00Separated at Birth? A confession:I won a prize at a friend's Halloween party for my costume. Here it is:
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<center>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaU6HUcrEphcFzj3cyMeUPv22nAL-ioEWBt8hC6x-dvnpa2_U7b80JUH1oG88hkIFvFqj3D31Z6F_Ki9vSSaY37EouLjGpBBK4l03qvlDlTrRDtsUB9YoWZcYzuaawf-quj7g1nQ/s1600/monster2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaU6HUcrEphcFzj3cyMeUPv22nAL-ioEWBt8hC6x-dvnpa2_U7b80JUH1oG88hkIFvFqj3D31Z6F_Ki9vSSaY37EouLjGpBBK4l03qvlDlTrRDtsUB9YoWZcYzuaawf-quj7g1nQ/s400/monster2.JPG" width="300" /></a>
<br />
<i>My Prize Winning Costume</i>
</center>
There seemed to be some confusion about who I was supposed to represent. Here are the two candidates:
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<table align="center"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDVA9x-8IbH7Q0SRjGDU84li5nmf57XPp4cCMFFGkmyiQ6slA4hYYdUp1Jfvi02otsWAVzF3g54iQYKPPr2fnV_Ur9VPYd873kLo3LcYmHzeVG_vofcxIIqnxoVXlK4k6voJ6vg/s1600/gentleman.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDVA9x-8IbH7Q0SRjGDU84li5nmf57XPp4cCMFFGkmyiQ6slA4hYYdUp1Jfvi02otsWAVzF3g54iQYKPPr2fnV_Ur9VPYd873kLo3LcYmHzeVG_vofcxIIqnxoVXlK4k6voJ6vg/s400/gentleman.PNG" width="200" /></a>
</td><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iwN3GMHsfg6qYjL022rv6NGKgpujoCX32X4QgSyMob0flteLlvmQzjgiqtTGAfvCCB4Q4lH2MJJ-SEgIj6F4xfgnID4A719s6JNZgUpAALxgmGGhMi4iRxjoi4TTyIPP4p81UQ/s1600/monster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iwN3GMHsfg6qYjL022rv6NGKgpujoCX32X4QgSyMob0flteLlvmQzjgiqtTGAfvCCB4Q4lH2MJJ-SEgIj6F4xfgnID4A719s6JNZgUpAALxgmGGhMi4iRxjoi4TTyIPP4p81UQ/s400/monster.jpg" width="200" /></a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>The "A. Gentleman from "Hush"
</td><td>B. Young Farankestein's Monster
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
My wife and I think "B" but <i>everybody at the party</i> immediately recognized me as "A". I was a big hit. I won the big prize.
I first became aware of a problem when someone, our hostess perhaps, took one look at me and said "I love your costume. That was my <i>favorite</i> Buffy episode!" I just stood speechless trying to figure out what she was talking about. That interaction was repeated with everybody I ran into at the party.
<p />
They all seemed delighted with my costume, and with the fact that not only did I <i>look</i> like one of "the gentlemen" from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Hush", but I had the same spooky mute stare. I was mute because I was trying to decide if I should play the wet blanket and straighten it all out, or just go with the flow. In the end, more or less by default, I decided not to correct the universal misidentification.
<p />
I had to hit Wikipedia when I got home to remember "Hush". I had seen it when it first ran and it <i>was</i> a good episode (nominated for an Emmy) but I had forgotten it.
<p />
Apparently the cadaverous gentleman from Buffy and I were separated at birth and it only takes a dab of grey-green makeup for everybody to see the resemblance. [<i>Note to self: consider backing off on the diet a bit. I may be thin enough.</i>]
<p />
This was all quite unfair to the Teleospouse whose costume was better than mine and who had done my make up (which was most of my costume).
<p />
So, I am posting my confession here, on my blog which nobody reads. That way I can be on record as having confessed that my brilliance was accidental without raining on anybodies fun.
<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/8132936134/" title="bride"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8052/8132936134_9c0f4f4b99.jpg" alt="bride by bigleehimself" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/8132936134/">bride</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/">bigleehimself</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>xx</p>
BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-69371090873542442632012-08-05T23:05:00.004-04:002012-08-06T00:23:42.769-04:00Cheap Critic: Brave<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62555070@N00/251367552/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/80/251367552_8e71357dc3_o.png" width="400" height="272" alt="cheapcritic" /></a></center><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBxq6dFtZpeRFcHzgMSnS3XtvbDSkDqbgmicnTZT6k4EfH_GJ-AQkJMzRD4HyvVtV1r0GRfivGLlOpiS4KsHhiU2GVD7QYyPGQDVRzb6DXMnrqPnxFmyu9F90ayqNy2TuJWpxaw/s1600/brave.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 380px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBxq6dFtZpeRFcHzgMSnS3XtvbDSkDqbgmicnTZT6k4EfH_GJ-AQkJMzRD4HyvVtV1r0GRfivGLlOpiS4KsHhiU2GVD7QYyPGQDVRzb6DXMnrqPnxFmyu9F90ayqNy2TuJWpxaw/s400/brave.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5773393034211783106" /></a><br /><br />Haven't been doing lots of reviews lately. There have been a lot of uniformly satisfactory movies that don't need more written about them. The Avengers was really good but that doesn't make for much to write about. <i>Hey, that Josh Whedon, he can really direct.</i> zzzzzzzzzzz. Similarly, Hunger Games was uniformly excellent. I didn't want to like the new Spiderman film; Just because you change the actor doesn't mean it is time to start over and the Spiderman franchise wasn't mired in the swamps of canon like Star Trek was. But, despite being cranky about the needless reboot, I liked the film. Nothing to write about there, either.<br /><br />But Pixar's latest film, Brave, is another matter. It is a very nice little film. No question about that. But it could have been -- should have been -- almost was -- a classic. But they made a mistake -- and just a bit of the wonderful leaked out -- just enough to leave the film a bit flat at the end.<br /><br />The problem is that you could tell that they were reaching for more than just an amusing story about a likable tomboy princess who takes a dim view of her parent's plans to find her a husband. They were reaching for the sort of high mythology that Disney achieved in, say, Pinocchio. You could tell they wanted mythos because they touched it at several points. But, in the end, they made a mistake in the story and let it get away.<br /><br />Without giving away too much of the plot I can say that our heroine -- Merida (voiced by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald) -- makes a thoughtless mistake which unleashes an evil magic. She puts herself and the people she loves in jeopardy and most of the film deals with her trying to put things right.<br /><br />That is a promising enough plot framework and Pixar obviously had the talent on hand to make it work. But they didn't, quite, get it right. The problem is, that the screenwriter fell in love with his character and, unlike Pygmalion, where the love of the creator brings his creation to life, Pixar's love for Merida turned her to stone -- lovely but incapable of change or growth. <br /><br />There is a scene near the end where Merida says to her mother, the queen: "Mother, you have changed!" and the response is "We both have." The problem is, Merida doesn't seem to have changed very much. She is sorry to have caused so much trouble but otherwise the film leaves here pretty much where it found her. This is fine for a nice little film... but not nearly good enough for a film that pretends to high mythology. Mythic adventure changes people, thoughtless mistakes lead to real suffering and evil magic always leaves a mark. The logic of myth requires a character like Merida to change in some important way -- to exhibit a slight sadness for a prideful, thoughtless misdeed that can be remedied, but not undone. <br /><br />When Pixar decided to put Merida back in the end of the film, exactly where she had been at the beginning, their pretentions of high mythos collapsed.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-24017748136563376522012-08-02T10:35:00.000-04:002012-08-02T10:36:42.752-04:00The Two Faces of Mitt RomneyI am seeing a lot of Mitt Romney ads on TV these days. There seem to be two kinds. One is fairly typical, consisting of centrist bromides that are carefully selected to appeal to moderates without hacking off his conservative base. Those ads are OK but dull. <br /><br />The other ads are more exciting. They show Romney doing necessary, grown-up things, simply because they need doing, even if they are politically difficult -- even if they don't poll well. Those are the ads that make me like Mitt. They are the ones that end with the tag "I am Barack Obama and I approve of this ad." <br /><br />...<br /><br />Say, "Obama"... the name sounds familiar... wasn't he running for something, too?BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-34291075689406956252012-07-09T17:22:00.003-04:002014-12-31T11:53:24.334-05:00Forty-five Years Before the Higgs Boson<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsaint/2671472614/" title="Red Ball by Rennett Stowe, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3246/2671472614_db4b95d4d3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Red Ball"></a><br><i style='font-size:smaller'>1967: The Disch/Sladek Nullitron Emerges from the Target Chamber.</i><br /><br />By now, because of the wall-to-wall news coverage, most people know everything they will ever be able to understand about the Higgs Boson and, in many cases, quite a bit more. But how many of you remember the discovery of the Nullitron, exactly forty-five years ago in 1967?<br /><br />There are a number of intriguing parallels and some equally interesting differences between the Higgs Boson and the Disch/Sladek Nullitron. I'll let you read the original report on the Nullitron (linked below) for most of them, but I can't resist a few:<br /><blockquote><br /><i>i </i>) The Higgs Boson gives mass to matter but it was discovered too late to give any to the Nullitron so it has none.<br /><br />B) Producing Higgs Bosons requires the CERN particle accelerator -- a gizmo so big that it straddles several of Europe's admittedly smallish countries -- while in 1967, for the experimental production of the Nullitron ... a "cyclotron one mile in diameter filled with alternate solid blocks of lead and quicksilver" was deemed "useful but not essential". <br /><br />3) The Boson is a big deal but the Nullitron is physically bigger than the Boson.<br /><br />IV. The Higgs Boson has no charge, no spin and no color charge while the Nullitron also has no charge, and presumably no spin since it is said to have no properties at all except for being red and rather shiny.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />For more information about the Nullitron, see the original report -- <a href="http://f2.org/humour/nullitron.html">The Discovery of the Nullitron</a> -- from Galaxy Magazine, February 1967.<br /><br /><i>Photo Credit: Random borrowed photo of a red ball, entitled "Red Ball" by Rennett Stowe, on Flickr</i>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-22884185800868665202012-06-14T11:00:00.001-04:002012-06-14T11:00:05.657-04:00Young Man's Car<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyIKDqHt2hcphkfGxv7J91rHxCvIrSFH_OlTD7N6VrUbEUkGN-OKBGNDncivGlAIveigADn6n9FG9OpXiTlkBtkj32b2WJng87209s6ZEuv2Npu6ifYspctL-1YlN0dudxnoXkw/s1600/canstockphoto2897162.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyIKDqHt2hcphkfGxv7J91rHxCvIrSFH_OlTD7N6VrUbEUkGN-OKBGNDncivGlAIveigADn6n9FG9OpXiTlkBtkj32b2WJng87209s6ZEuv2Npu6ifYspctL-1YlN0dudxnoXkw/s400/canstockphoto2897162.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5751512706688173650" /></a><br /><center><br />Cheap but fun -- Italian -- <br />it was a young man's ride<br />and he could own the highway <br />with the right girl at his side.<br /><br />You had to buy them quickly, <br />a berry fresh with dew; <br />The sun would quickly fade the paint, <br />you had to get them new.<br /><br />And the wind would sing sad love songs<br />to him at the wheel <br />and for a while he'd ride in style <br />on youth's ephemeral steel.<br /></center>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-81139029282671241992012-06-03T16:05:00.002-04:002012-06-03T16:08:55.532-04:00Ground Cover<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-86IqyqKvu5jimUnLO3Y6il2gW9HwcJsnCMLJ-IVSnofBWhRd8pzW0cj7O9DT2uf9qfqHMLokouCL7L1PnFMKSxVmeZz1sKR0BNS8L0eTYXqTybvNiP902EwegKqijNCzw6oIPw/s1600/shade+tolerant+ground+cover.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-86IqyqKvu5jimUnLO3Y6il2gW9HwcJsnCMLJ-IVSnofBWhRd8pzW0cj7O9DT2uf9qfqHMLokouCL7L1PnFMKSxVmeZz1sKR0BNS8L0eTYXqTybvNiP902EwegKqijNCzw6oIPw/s400/shade+tolerant+ground+cover.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5749904685024571794" /></a><br />What I want is some sort of green, hardy, mowable ground-cover (grass would be nice) that is as shade tolerant as poison ivy.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-71816217784447824782012-05-07T20:00:00.002-04:002012-05-08T18:10:32.773-04:00Fusionism, Subsidiarity, Ammendment One and Me<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNM4Oq13T7CTCBQnX-0109xoQSFkTaQhjX-TEpycuUI9kw2uyHnnCO3hSP2DR8w8comVVJ9oyhn4_vmb212dhZ272Fxm_blGNIk-vLhDP5BXYueuf9uDZ4KS8vCVsIvIIfvVGApw/s1600/harrumph.PNG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 85px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNM4Oq13T7CTCBQnX-0109xoQSFkTaQhjX-TEpycuUI9kw2uyHnnCO3hSP2DR8w8comVVJ9oyhn4_vmb212dhZ272Fxm_blGNIk-vLhDP5BXYueuf9uDZ4KS8vCVsIvIIfvVGApw/s320/harrumph.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652649326905361330" /></a>The vast majority of my Social Networking friends are either Liberals, Libertarians, or Conservatives of a non-theoretical sort. I am none of the above. I am what the late <a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Meyer_%28political_philosopher%29">Frank Meyer</a> styled a Fusionist -- a conservative/libertarian chimera with the head of a libertarian, the heart of a conservative and no spleen to speak of. <br /><br />Frequently, when I wander into a Facebook thread on a political issue, I find that I disagree with the general direction the discussion is heading. Often I will make a comment containing a single word, "Harrumph", to remind my friend that not everyone reading the thread agrees. That way if they want to know they can ask. This posting concerns one such topic. Many best friends (and some family members) feel very strongly about the issue so I am posting my dissent on my opinion blog which nobody reads so I can be on record without frightening the horses. <br /><br /><b>Ammendment One</b> <br /><br />The North Carolina legislature has passed a bill to put a resolution on the ballot in an upcoming election which, if passed, would, in effect, copy the language of an existing state law -- designating the marriage of one man and one woman to be the only domestic union recognized by the State of North Carolina -- into the state constitution. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeastern US that does not have such language in its constitution and I plan to vote <i>for</i> the resolution. I am almost the only person I know who admits to an intention to do so.<br /><br />To explain why will require that I cover a bit of tedious background forces and principles. I will try to be as brief as possible but please feel free to stop reading and delete me from your friends list at any point if you feel you must.<br /><br /><b>Marriage</b><br /><br />Marriage is an institution that is universal in all human societies. There are a few differences in details from culture to culture but they are generally minor things that only serve to emphasize the underlying similarities. Marriage answers the same societal needs everywhere and the most urgent of these is to form the basis of multi-generational families which can provide for the care and training of children. The institution of marriage is a scaffolding that society erects around the procreative potential of intimate male-female relations to provide an environment in which any resulting offspring can be reared in a socially-beneficial way. <br /><br />One hears the argument that the widespread use of contraception and the concurrent "sexual revolution" have changed everything, and there is some truth to that: The social norms around marriage have shifted a bit -- people in first-world countries delay marriage until later in life and there is less social stigma associated with sex outside of marriage. Couples tend to live together until such time as they are ready to have children and only then marry. This is a reasonable-seeming adjustment to the rules and would be unobjectionable if people were more conscientious with their contraception. The fact that illegitimacy rates have gone up instead of down since the introduction of the pill does raise the question of whether the simpler old-fashioned cultural norms worked better, but that is a topic for another day.<br /><br /><b>Fusionism</b><br /><br />As a Fusionist I seek to maximize individual freedom (as do Libertarians) but I also believe that, in the real world, freedom and civic virtue are entangled concepts (like mass and weight in a gravity field) and that attempts to promote the one will succeed only if due consideration is given to the other. <br /><br />I should quickly point out here that by civic virtue I am not talking about any particular list of Sunday School admonitions and that I am not leading up to an argument that homosexual behavior is morally wrong. Instead, by "civic virtue" I refer to a general sense among the members of a society that all of the following conditions apply: <br /><br />1) There are shared standards of behavior (whatever they might be) and one <i>ought</i> to observe them; <br /><br />2) It is sensible to expect that other people will try to follow the rules too; <br /><br />3) The self-imposed restraints one incurs in following the rules are offset by the mutual confidence in interaction that comes from shared values; <br /><br />4) When everyone makes a good-faith effort to follow the rules a tolerable degree of order can be expected.<br /><br />These culturally-dependent rule sets accrete over time by logical induction as people observe the results of behavior and try to codify rules to describe which actions work out well, and which badly. Generally, any rules so derived are claimed to be part of God's divine plan for the world -- an attribution which, if an omnipotent God exists, is fairer than you might at first assume. But even if He does not exist it doesn't follow that the rules are void: The life-experiences from which they were induced are real enough even if the good or bad outcomes had nothing to with God's blessings or displeasure. As I used to tell my son when he was a teenager and was fighting with his mom -- "The fact that you mother told you to do your homework is not a sensible reason not to do it." By the same token, advice one gets from one's Sunday-school teacher is quite possibly good advice, despite its claimed origin in doubtful theology. <br /><br />I mention all this because I am arguing for a traditional view of marriage and our cultural ideas on the subject are woven through with threads of religious doctrine that are difficult to tease out. I contend that there are sound secular derivations for those threads of reasoning and that one cannot dismiss the whole cloth by an expression of religious disbelief.<br /><br /><b>Subsidiarity and the Libertarian Ideal</b><br /><br />Per <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity">Wikipedia</a>, <i>Subsidiarity is an organizing principle stating that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, cybernetics, management, military (Mission Command) and, metaphorically, in the distribution of software module responsibilities in object-oriented programming. Subsidiarity is, ideally or in principle, one of the features of federalism, where it asserts the rights of the parts over the whole.</i><br /><br />There are a number of ways to lay out the details but for the US, where sovereignty originates with the individual, the usual idea is that the delegation of authority looks something like this if subsidiarity is to be achieved.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJPvllcAnVwBhP6eSy8jPwRHCrxfLaYUIiD22mmDWml7f-NdyovYS08Nb3_1o9RoM0B8JT06dCNWCP7GFGdLCszkhn0XDGZopps5hjCMB6GYBT8ozrfUhO99xsUQUnacBy1IDkQ/s1600/subsidiarity1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJPvllcAnVwBhP6eSy8jPwRHCrxfLaYUIiD22mmDWml7f-NdyovYS08Nb3_1o9RoM0B8JT06dCNWCP7GFGdLCszkhn0XDGZopps5hjCMB6GYBT8ozrfUhO99xsUQUnacBy1IDkQ/s400/subsidiarity1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739659850075591506" /></a><br />A moment's inspection shows that while not necessarily a libertarian idea it has libertarian tendencies. Here is the diagram adjusted to express an American libertarian idea.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE68RWh3EKZ15-azuCSH-k_0-4Ht5DnH5XerZ31MH4YjrWXbv4eMNya2onsgEOC3TY2JVv0rd1FJr3KYhjjP3rNXi9kqh2aDwogHReYfVJtuLeb7PHqwoV1Ivw_xrgnXTjR51vgA/s1600/subsidiarity2.PNG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 287px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE68RWh3EKZ15-azuCSH-k_0-4Ht5DnH5XerZ31MH4YjrWXbv4eMNya2onsgEOC3TY2JVv0rd1FJr3KYhjjP3rNXi9kqh2aDwogHReYfVJtuLeb7PHqwoV1Ivw_xrgnXTjR51vgA/s400/subsidiarity2.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739661410954446002" /></a><br />That is '<i>an</i>' American libertarian idea, not '<i>the</i>' American libertarian idea because you have to leave room for those libertarians whose philosophy arises from misanthropy. They might draw the diagram thusly:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggM4lAASbwkaOtcJfCB5TTnIchM7wtiYl8bn9DF2a6Znde21HDr_EwH1obu0_fHjbE-IGsD7jl0h704xgwtBmdSg3dsLwLxib_1opEN6KjPE5JCpW7AFzu2XZFeksrItL2cvQbVA/s1600/subsidiarity3.PNG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 302px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggM4lAASbwkaOtcJfCB5TTnIchM7wtiYl8bn9DF2a6Znde21HDr_EwH1obu0_fHjbE-IGsD7jl0h704xgwtBmdSg3dsLwLxib_1opEN6KjPE5JCpW7AFzu2XZFeksrItL2cvQbVA/s400/subsidiarity3.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739662903444856322" /></a><br />But I am not talking about them ... or to them, I expect. Nor am I talking about Liberals/Progressives who believe that problems can be solved by giving power to a few really, really smart people at the top who will straighten the rest of us out.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6RT0ocqhj1l5B7V7lzvE8iDig_YO9ZdBheH_Dj2f8hcahArTQtypOPkAg21Fn4HD57BM2SOJaWgj_hQ08Qu0vXlzFYcR9nqVckJ4B06gml7svYvsc5o8g7rzcHxJHwebGPpsJg/s1600/subsidiarity4.PNG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6RT0ocqhj1l5B7V7lzvE8iDig_YO9ZdBheH_Dj2f8hcahArTQtypOPkAg21Fn4HD57BM2SOJaWgj_hQ08Qu0vXlzFYcR9nqVckJ4B06gml7svYvsc5o8g7rzcHxJHwebGPpsJg/s400/subsidiarity4.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739664086462991602" /></a><br />Only by the centralization of power can Liberals achieve the uniformity they crave. Local differences offend them. If different states have different laws then the a Liberal will assume that all but one are wrong somehow, and quite possibly all of them are wrong since the laws were codified at the local level, far away from the top where the really <i>smart</i> people must be. How much better, they imagine, to put the best brains on the problem, come up with the most sensible law, and drive it in everywhere from the top. <br /><br />I suspect you have guessed from the previous paragraph that I am more attuned to the (non-misanthropic) libertarian version than the Liberal one. That is true. But, I think the libertarian view has a problem, too. Here is their diagram with one of the boxes re-labeled:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRcq_rYSva66r9a-M8OwdSrgIpyVm95JmO4wLk9OfhhVW7tXNp9fcyrUXT55kYybONadUA-brqZKlEJQwgTbN9SxeolEcTqMVqRFDd9ObQkzxSR7aVL8GVNr8AAakwNBDi34IQw/s1600/subsidiarity5.PNG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRcq_rYSva66r9a-M8OwdSrgIpyVm95JmO4wLk9OfhhVW7tXNp9fcyrUXT55kYybONadUA-brqZKlEJQwgTbN9SxeolEcTqMVqRFDd9ObQkzxSR7aVL8GVNr8AAakwNBDi34IQw/s400/subsidiarity5.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739667445129298050" /></a><br />The problem I am trying to point out is that a simple libertarian model that envisions only atomized individuals vs the state doesn't work for all individuals. None of us are born able to make our own decisions, and some of us lose that capacity with advancing age. Without strong multi-generational families, and without a well-supported institution of marriage as the basis of such families, the concept of radical individualism becomes absurd.<br /><br />When I said "Too much is required" above I was not just thinking about things that the recipients would recognize as aid, but of other government programs that would inevitably follow. In the section on <i>Fusionism</i> above I said that civic virtue is a prerequisite for a minimal state. Or, putting it another way, people will only put up with so much and past a certain point they will demand that the government do something. Among the things that people won't put up with are feral youth and neglected old people. Single parents tend to find taming their kids a challenge. Boys, in particular, who grow up without a male role model find themselves disproportionately in trouble. It's not a problem of their instruction -- they learn. If there is no male role model, generally what is missing is not the <i>model</i>, it is the male <i>role</i> in the family. Part of the expense of dealing with poorly-socialized young males is building jails to put them in.<br /><br />Doctrinaire libertarians will say that without the prospect of redistributive government aid for their children, or for their aged grannies, people will spontaneously gravitate to social structures that allow their needs to be provided for, and there is some truth to that. But, I contend that the most effective such institutions, and the institutions that people recognize as such and gravitate toward, are marriage as currently understood and the multi-generational families that strong marriages create. I am certainly in accordance with the libertarian goal of cutting entitlements, and particularly in avoiding the perverse incentives offered to fragmentary families where the more disconnected they are, the more money they get. <br /><br />People think that marriage is in decline everywhere but it is not. Among the more affluent, marriages remain common and strong. It is among the less-well-off, where those perverse incentives have disintegrated families like a Duck Dodgers Martian ray gun, that marriage is rare, and families are fragmentary and powerless.<br /><br />Here's my model of a libertarian delegation of authority model that interposes the idea of an multi-generational family to deal with the problem that children and the elderly offer to the more typical model. It will not, I'm afraid, appeal to the misanthropist libertarians whose ideology arises from daddy issues. But it makes sense to me.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWVesTH8CqjNo9WvqCAUXqz6sNVQX1tnuyMdrr3FVGE8luj1WXl35orEbNy-sWEYhPqG0HZnZrqNOF6aHTw6MlryKvoj1J2hFNSfzDyWO0pH3eOAR0sjLkqf4y1wlCoVzsGQQZ6g/s1600/subsidiarity6.PNG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWVesTH8CqjNo9WvqCAUXqz6sNVQX1tnuyMdrr3FVGE8luj1WXl35orEbNy-sWEYhPqG0HZnZrqNOF6aHTw6MlryKvoj1J2hFNSfzDyWO0pH3eOAR0sjLkqf4y1wlCoVzsGQQZ6g/s400/subsidiarity6.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5739668628618297730" /></a><br />I plan to vote for Amendment One tomorrow because I think that the purpose of marriage is to facilitate the creation of multi-generational families which serve as intermediaries between children and the elderly on the one hand and society at large on the other. Because gay and lesbian unions do not produce children who must be cared for and trained when young, or who can make decisions for their parents when the parents are in decline, such unions do not serve what I see as the primary purposes of marriage.<br /><br />I further contend that the "libertarian" case <i>for</i> gay marriage is bogus. While it is perhaps regrettable that our culture has allowed the government to co-opt the definition of what constitutes a "marriage" -- being all about marriage licenses, justices of the peace, documents filed in the courthouse etc. -- it is an accomplished thing. If the legal definition of marriage is changed then the popular notion will change as well and those few hold-outs will be targeted by anti-discrimination litigation. Marriage, as an institution, will be weakened in terms of its social role and since that social role is a necessary precursor to a stable minimal role for government we will all be less free.<br /><br />Update: I found <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/299394/north-carolina-biden-and-same-sex-marriage-ryan-t-anderson">this short piece</a> on the National Review Online Blog: The Corner. In it Ryan Anderson makes some similar points, only with an ease and clarity that I envy.BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108048.post-29230675393536973222012-02-05T17:41:00.001-05:002012-02-05T17:41:28.683-05:0020120205_3<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/6826019547/" title="20120205_3"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6826019547_6548c34b67.jpg" alt="20120205_3 by bigleehimself" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/6826019547/">20120205_3</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigleeh/">bigleehimself</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>February 5th. The stupid groundhog promised me six weeks of winter. Where is it? <br /><br />Ok, I know... Washington State, Alaska and Cenrtal Europe.</p>BigLeeHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05720359383836864551noreply@blogger.com0