Surviving the Snowpocalypse

A few weeks ago, Jim discovered we could attend five Pittsburgh Symphony concerts for the price of four. Since we didn't get to any PSO concerts last year, we'd never seen the new conductor, Manfred Honeck, at work. The concert I particularly wanted to see was Anne-Sophie Mutter playing a Brahams violin concerto.

So, Jim bought tickets for Friday, February 5.

Yes, the snowstorm was predicted, but we didn't expect more than five inches or so by Friday night.

I had a suggestion - why don't we use some of our Marriott points and just stay in town.

Jim tought this was a bad idea. However, in case we got seriously stuck somewhere, I packed the essentials - pajamas, change of clothes, toilet articles, my camera and my laptop.

4:30: We left very early, expecting road problems. But while we had 1"-2" of snow by then, the roads had been pretty well treated and there wasn't much traffic.

5:30: We had a very nice dinner, my belated birthday dinner, at the Braddock's American Brassiere (site of the former Opus at the Rennaisance). One of the chefs from the Inn at Little Washington is a chef there. Highly recommend it.

8:00: The concert was great, Mutter was wonderful playing Brahms' Violin Concerto. She sounded fabulous (of course!) and was wearing a striking gold gown. I'm very glad we went.

9:15: Odd bit at the concert for the Mahler Symphony #1. For a symphony orchestra, all the musicians are onstage when the concert starts, and stay all the way through, even the guy who clangs the cymbals one time. One trumpet player wandered onstage about five minutes after the Mahler started, and two more showed
up a bit later. Is this the orchestral version of a job action? [[Nope, it turns out it's a traditional part of this piece.]]

10:15: When we went to get our car, the roads weren't too bad. There was, maybe 4"-5" of snow.

We figured driving home would be slow but doable. By 10:30, we were out of the garage and headed for the Fort Pitt Bridge and tunnel.

The Fort Pitt Bridge is a double-decker, four lane bridge that goes over the Monongehela River, just before it joins with the Allegheny to form the Ohio. Two of the lanes go into the tunnel under Mt. Washington, and the other two go down to West Carson St. The Fort Pitt Tunnel is usually the most convenient way to travel if you're going south or west of Pittsburgh.

Mt. Washington is a fairly steep ridge south of downtown Pittsburgh. You really don't want to drive over it in the snow. And there are some other pretty big ridges south of that.

As we approached the bridge, the traffic stopped. At that point, we couldn't turn around and had to stay on the bridge.

And so, we crept across the bridge. It looked like the tunnel might be closed, but there was no way to tell for sure.

11:00: We were still on the bridge, and listened to the news. As with the flash flooding back in June, the "news station KDKA" was useless in providing local weather and traffic information during a potentially dangerous situation. KDKA reported that the tunnel and the Parkway West "had restrictions."

After a few more minutes, we found that the tunnel was completely closed, and all the traffic was routed down to West Carson St. It had been closed for over a half hour at that point.

If we thought the traffic was slow on the bridge, at least it moved a little. At one point on West Carson St., we moved 1/10th of a mile in a half hour.

As we were sitting on West Carson, I was dreading the trip through the West End. In retrospect, at the West End, I should have taken the back way to the Parkway West past the tunnel. But, there were fewer miles to home if I went along Stueben St., so that's the way I drove. And, unlike Carson Street, there wasn't much traffic. But there are some very steep hills on twisty streets. Luckily, there was no one in front of me by the time I got through to Stueben St.

But what I didn't expect since it wasn't at all windy - fallen branches and downed wires. The snow was heavy enough that it tore down branches all over the place, especially along Stueben St. There were intermittent power failures. The branches were mostly over in the other lane.

I burned rubber going up and over the hill, but I made it to Route 60, which would get me west of the city. I figured it should be slow but clear sailing from there.

12:15: There was a police roadblock after the bridge on the western side of Crafton. A few semis had jacknifed on Route 60 near Interstate 79. That part of the road was closed. The only alternate route was up and down hills so twisty I don't drive them in good weather. We pulled into a
closed gas station near the roadblock to consider our options.

I promised Jim I would limit saying "I told you so" to once an hour.

12:45: After about a half an hour and no progress (also, no snowplows on this fairly
major road), we consdered taking another back way we knew slightly. Jim had his GPS, so we
couldn't get that lost. The police thought that way had been plowed and would be pretty clear.

We got back onto Route 60 going back towards Pittsburgh, and turned to Ingram. We followed the most plowed road.

Turned out, the most plowed road for about two miles was the road to the massive Giant Eagle distribution center. *sigh*

We turned around and headed back to Ingram Rd. We turned onto West Prospect, which, while hilly, showed some signs of being plowed.

Big mistake. As we went over the top of a hill, we realized the plowing abruptly stopped. And a car was off the road. Yikes.

Very carefully, I was able to get us turned around. but it took what seemed like a very long time to get the car moving back up the hill again. Burning rubber and then some. But, I got back up to the top of the hill, got back to Route 60 and went back to the relative safety of the gas station.

While there was a motel about a quarter mile past the roadblock, it had no electricity (and the police didn't recommend it when there was electricity). Hard to tell how much snow. Maybe eight
inches. Oh, and did I mention the freezing rain? But, we still had plenty of gas.

The police said even after they got the trucks cleared off of Route 60, Route 22, which took us most of the rest of the way home, was a major mess.

Last report I heard said maybe up to 14" of snow our way... We were only supposed to get about 10" at the most.

2:15-2:45: Started writing this. I'm glad I had my laptop with a good battery!

2:45-5:00: Dozed on and off.

5:00: The snowplow for the gas station arrived. I moved a bit so I wouldn't get plowed in. Got out and cleaned off about 2 more inches of snow.

5:30: More stuck cars on Route 60, no snowplows for 60 yet. Road still closed west of here after nearly 6 hours. Now, people in 4x4s are waiting it out in the gas station lot.

6:10: Plows FINALLY plowed 60! The police left the gas station!

6:20: We got about a mile and a half further west...and see a newly jack-knifed truck
about three trucks in front of us. We're stopped on the hill near the 79 interchange. I hope
we can get moving again before the wet road turns to ice.

7:00: Still on the hill. There's been all kinds of equipment around the jacknifed truck, but
nothing is moving. Scarily, there's now a long line of traffic going westbound in the eastbound
lane.

7:10: Looks like the jacknifed truck is FINALLY out of the way! The Robinson township cops did amazing work all night long. I think the same guy we saw from midnight until 6 staffing the roadblock was the same guy stopping traffic around the jackknifed truck.

7:40: The plowing crew did a very thorough job around the jackknifed trailer. We actually got from Route 60 to Route 22 in Robinson without trouble - it was slow but not scarey and there were no unexpected stops. The 79-60 interchange was a nightmere - completely impassible from 79.

8:00: 22 was snowcovered and passable. However, the exits hadn't been plowed. Since our usual exit was very long, we got off in Imperial, so I could hit the bathroom (for the first time in 11 hours!) and get a drink. The roads were snowcovered but passible the whole rest of the way. To our surprise, our street had been plowed. But, that meant the first thing we had to do was to clear away enough snow so we could park our car in the driveway.

9:00: Finally IN THE HOUSE. I'm finishing up this epic tale of snowpocalypse survival. Jim is going to bed. We don't have to leave the house until Monday. Except for lots more shoveling (and, I hope, some snowblowing) we won't have to. Looks like we got nearly 14" in McDonald, but it's hard to tell because of the snowdrifts.

NYT: "What a Difference a Year Makes" - Was 1957 Really a Lucky Year in Which to Be Born?

There was a piece in The New York Times that tried to make the point that 1957 was an exceptionally lucky year in which to be born, based on the experiences of one white male Republican who lives in upstate New York named Harry MacAvoy.

Speaking as a person who was also born in 1957, I don't completely disagree with him, but it's amazing how much he's missed. It's like this man has been sleepwalking for 52 years (or, say, 47 years, since most of us don't remember that much of the first five years of our lives).

On the one hand, he's certainly right that people who were in college between about 1973 and 1982 had it easy in so many ways. We had most of the advantages of the sexual revolution and almost none of its disadvantages. But MacAvoy managed to miss the whole spectre of AIDS that later hit many of our generation, and certainly impacted those who were in college after us.

MacAvoy said, “We completely missed the upheaval of the 60s, the Vietnam protests on campus, the draft...and (I consider myself) lucky to have been young in the 1960s, so as not to have been traumatized by the Kennedy and King assassinations." Did he live in a household without television or newspapers in the '60s and '70s? Many of us were very much impacted by the civil rights revolution, the feminist revolution, the frequent assasination of leaders. Many of us who had secure lives suburbs still felt some of that upheaval even if we were children at the time. Not everyone born in 1957 was so completely lacking in empathy.

It wasn't always an easy thing to buy a house in the '80s. After years of so-so jobs, my husband and I both got decent jobs, part of the great high tech boom in Massachusetts. We couldn't afford our first house until 1987. And as there was a housing recession in the early '90s, we lost money when we sold our first house when my husband took a new job in Pittsburgh. For that matter, we lost a little money when we sold our second house in 2006, and our current home is worth less than it was in 2006. Luckily, my husband's job is reasonably secure, and the Pittsburgh housing market hasn't collapsed the way it has in many other places in the country.

Unlike a man long employed at the public trough like Harry MacAvoy, our retirement certainly won't happen in our 50s.
But unlike many people in their 50s now, we still have the likelihood of a reasonably comfortable retirement when we're in our 60s. We have always invested in 401ks, and didn't panic last year when the markets collapsed. But I know people around my age who were wiped out by the market collapse, some of whom are unemployed on top of that. For them, being born in 1957 has hardly been lucky. They may remember good-paying jobs and employer-paid insurance as a memory. They may be hoping to stay reasonbly healthy until they're old enough for Medicare. Given the Republican-driven misinformation about government-run health care over the last 30 years, that's all they can hope for.

So, sure, it was great to be a kid when we had a space program that was regularly breaking new ground, and when the GE ride at the 1964-65 World's Fair (later copied at the Disney parks) promised us "A great big beautiful tomorrow." While many things have improved over time, we have to be realistic that as some parts of society has witnessed continued improvement, many groups in society are still being left behind.

My Modest Disclaimer

The FTC has decided people should be up front when they are being paid to chat things up on the Web. Frankly, I think that's a good idea.

Yes, like many people who write for the Web, I have sometimes been paid or gotten freebies. However, since I generally don't review items, it doesn't happen very often.

As an independent contractor, I'm currently being paid to help support the All Things Human and Institute of Green Science Web sites. Most of the work I do is behind-the-scenes - research, testing, coding, revising material. Sometimes, I do post about these sites in my Facebook page or blog.

Earlier this year, I got two free tickets to see Up, which I loved and reviewed informally online. If I hadn't liked it, I would have said so anyway, despite the free tickets.

So, for this year, that's what I've been paid to write about. The vast majority of the writing I've done about movies, conventions, politics, Pittsburgh, travel, et.c. have all been as a person who's interested in these things, and not as a person who's been paid to help promote them.

G-20 - Early Morning Joggers and Some Flicks from "Fortress Pittsburgh"

I'd volunteered a few months ago to help out at the G-20, during a time when I was mostly unemployed. I'd hoped to work in the press center during the week, but I didn't get one of those jobs. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get any job with the G-20, then I got an E-mail to work the 6am-10am shift on 9/25 at the information table at one of the west suburban hotels. At about the same time, I got a really neat part-time contract job, doing various Web work for Chip Walter. So doing a day's volunteering for the G-20 turned out to work well.

I got up very early this morning, and was at the hotel just before 6am. The lobby was still fairly dark, but there a few state troopers and suited men walking around. I quickly found the info table, replenished the freebies from Visit Pittsburgh (mostly maps and local visits guides). There was a binder of various information, including which groups were blocked in each hotel. While I assumed a distant hotel would have the journalists from Wyoming staying at it, this hotel had the delegation from South Africa.

As you might expect, it was pretty dead in the lobby for the first hour. Mostly just security and hotel personnel of various stripes. The first person I greeted turned out to be plain-clothes security and not a South African attache. The next person I tried to talk to spoke to me in Spanish. Luckily, I could say, "Yo hablo muy pecano Espanol" (probably sic - "I speak very little Spanish"), and he laughed and said he didn't speak much English either.

But that meant we probably didn't just have the South African delegation in the hotel. So I went through the binder again, and found we also had the Spanish delegation. I'd had about three years of Spanish in high school, but that was a very long time ago now.

After about an hour, the lobby got very busy very suddenly. About eight Spanish men in jogging clothes and another few in suites came through the lobby and went out the side door. I wasn't sure who was jogging, but I knew typical joggers don't have plainsclothes security.

Some of the South African delegation came into the lobby. I mostly directed people over to the hotel restaurant.

At about 8pm, a woman with a VisitPittsburgh button came over to the desk. Her name was Mina, and she was a Spanish teacher, who'd been providing translation work for the Mexican delegation on Wednesday. I was relieved she was going to be around the rest of the morning. She knew all about Spanish culture and politics. I described what I'd seen earlier, and she said, "Oh that's because President Zapatero is staying here."

A few minutes later, the joggers returned. Mina smiled and said, "Yes, that's the president."

Not long after Mina arrived, another info booth worker, Subash, joined us. Subash worked for the Allegheny Conference, the group that did most of the local coordination for the G-20. We chatted and Subash was sure we'd met before. We concluded that since we live a few miles apart, we've probably seen each other in the local groceries stores.

Very suddenly, the South African delegation was through the lobby so quickly they were practically outside before we saw them, followed by the state troopers. The Spanish delegation came through a few minutes later, and we had enough time to say "Buenos dias," to which the president of Spain said "Gracias." The first ladies of each country left separately a little later with much smaller entourages.

Once it got to be closer to 10, I said goodbye, ran an errand, then went to Ikea to wait for the bus to Pittsburgh. I was curious to see what downtown Pittsburgh was like today. It was a unique experience.

A storefront in downtown opened up a "grafitti zone." After walking all through downtown, I left the "Welcome to Fortress Pittsburgh" note.

A view of Mellon Park through the 8' tall crowd fence.

AlphaGraphics welcomes the world...even though it's closed and boarded up. There were very few businesses in downtown that boarded-up. Maybe only 50 windows were broken, mostly in Bloomfield, Oakland and Shadyside. I don't think there was any damage in downtown itself.

A view of the David Lawrence Convention Center from the Sixth Street Bridge. Many news outlets reported from the balcony.

Another irony alert - Travelers Aid also closed down during the G-20

It was pretty quiet in most of downtown between 11:30 and 1:30. Lots of cops and blocked streets. While I certainly understand why we needed the security, it was a pretty massive show of force (in fact, as I type at 11:05 on Friday night, there's a minor demonstration going on in the college area (Oakland) of Pittsburgh surrounded by about 200 cops).

About the only attaches I saw "outside the secure zone" were some of the Chinese delegates, who had some shopping bags with them as they walked back to their hotel.

I'll probably put up more photos tomorrow or Sunday.

Take a Deep Breath, Pittsburgh...

So the G-20 starts tomorrow and some of the folks in Pittsburgh are already getting hot and bothered. I mean both some of the anti-G20 protesters and some of the law enforcement agencies. If half of what the City Paper reported on yesterday, about the police harassing protesters who were just buying lunch(!), it bodes badly for the next few days.

Law enforcement certainly has the right to keep the delegates to the G-20 reasonably safe. Blocking off the area around the Convention Center makes sense, and, we know, we're going to have rolling roadblocks in from the airport area. Just stay off the Parkway West and avoid driving into town over the next couple of days.

Protesters have the right for peaceable assembly. So far, word is there's no real problem. Most protesters have quickly made their points and gotten out of the way.

I was in Oakland yesterday, and saw many more police than usual. Now, part of that might have had more to do with Bill Gates making an address up at CMU than "showing presence." But there were all kinds of peaceful protests going on in Oakland, mostly small, but still visible. For the most part, law enforcement just let people be.

I've been to about a dozen protests in Washington over the years and a few here in Pittsburgh. I was also at the Inauguration in January, and saw an amazing show of law enforcement. Well over 1,000,000 people came into Washington, and the vast majority were there to celebrate Obama's inauguration. The 300-500 counter-demonstrators were certainly there, they tried to be loud, and they had their little corner to protest in. Law enforcement pretty much left them alone, so long as they stayed in their designated area. Only a couple of people were arrested that day, of over 1,000,000 people who went to Washington. Damage to the city was minor, and mostly to the grass on the Mall.

It is usually a good thing for people in positions of power to get together to talk directly. Yes, I hope they do talk about the Darfur and poverty and climate change and environmental issues and establishing stronger laws over the banking and investment industries. Just let them talk.

Everyone - residents, protesters, law enforcement, just need to take a deep breath before doing anything over-the-top per the next few days. The eyes of the world are watching. We can try to be reasonable adults or reactionary children. If we are truly trying to reinvent Pittsburgh for a new generation, then showing a rational approach to the G-20 is the best thing to do.

There Is Also Something So Unamerican...

...about calling your president "a liar" from the floor the the Congress.

Democrats had MANY more reasons to do that during the Bush administration, and refrained from doing so.

As the latest viral Obama poster says, "Sush.../let the grown-ups talk!"

There Is Something So UnAmerican...

...about refusing to let your child hear the President speak.

We are being taken over by the Marching Morons. It's completely disgusting.

I think Reagan spoke on closed circuit TV at least once when Leslie was in grade school. While he was far from my favorite president, no one complained about that he spoke to the kids. He was the elected president, after all.

Dead People Server Turns Fifteen

Dead People Server was invented at some point in the late summer of 1994 by Richard Holmes. I'm not 100% sure of the date, as I didn't become the curator until March 1997. So this is, roughly, the 15th anniversary of Dead People Server. That makes DPS something of a senior citizen among Web sites, but what-the-hell; neither retired nor expired!

Laurie Mann, curator

Battling Polluting Waste Coal Plants In Western Pennsylvania

Politicians at the state and local level in Pennsylvania believe the residents should roll over and play dead when companies push for waste coal power plants. Some politicians take it for granted that we already have. However, waste coal power plants increase the amount of fly ash and other particulates in the air and the amount of mercury and arsenic the water. We, the people, must care about what happens to the environment, to the air we breathe and the water we drink. People living in Pennsylvania need to paraphrase John Paul Jones and need to constantly remind our elected and appointed officials...

We Have Not Begun to Fight:

Battling Polluting Waste Coal Plants In Western Pennsylvania

Many years of mining in Pennsylvania created large areas of waste coal, called gob piles. This is the Beech Hollow gob pile, just outside of McDonald, as seen from the western side (photo taken winter 2008):



Here's what the Beech Hollow gob pile looks like from space, courtesy of Google Earth (photo taken late summer 2005):



The large glob of gray to the west of 980 (Robinson Highway) is the largest gob pile east of the Mississippi. It's in our backyard. Granted, it's an ugly mess, but in its current state, it isn't adding to the particulate problem in Southwestern Pennsylvania. However, if you live in places like North Fayette Towship, Oakdale, Carnegie, and Mount Lebanon, you live downwind of a proposed coal waste power plant for Beech Hollow, that will make electricity from the waste coal in this gob pile while spewing fly ash into the air.

For many years, Pittsburgh has been at or near the top of cities with the most particulate-polluted air. Yet our local politicians are giving permission for a waste coal power plant to be built just west of the area? This type of plant will only make a bad air quality situation worse, as anyone with asthma or other lung problems in our region already knows.

If you live in the Pittsburgh area, especially in the western and southern suburbs, you should be mad as hell and let your local officials know that you aren't going to take it.

To learn more about this proposed waste coal power plant, attend a public meeting in Mount Lebanon on Thursday, August 27, 7:30pm at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library.

NetRoots Nation Saturday

I left NetRoots Nation Thursday (even missing Bill Clinton's speech, which I would have loved to have heard) completely exhausted. After working my three hour airport shift, I went home and collapsed and missed Friday's events (including my cousin Alice's good friend Howard Dean).

So I returned to NetRoots today, and worked three hours at Registration, went to the Keynote Lunch, spent the afternoon videotaping a couple of panels, and am now at the evening Keynote.

The lunchtime keynote was OK, but not quite as forward-looking as I'd hoped. Most of the discussion was "it's better in Europe" and "we need more unionization." While these things are certainly true, they aren't making any new suggestions about how to handle the situation. Where are Paul Krugman and Charlie Stross, who spoke very interestingly on this very topic at Worldcon, when we need them?

After lunch, I was the videographer for a fascinating panel on DOJ extremes during the Bush years (that the Obama folks haven't fixed yet...*sigh*) and a very interesting panel on getting parents more involved in political organizing. I kept having to ask for help, but, luckily, my room was next door to the video office, so it was pretty easy to run next door and ask another stupid question.

At the evening keynote, State Senator Jim Ferlo gave a good speech, reminding us that peacefui assembly during the upcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburgh is Constitutionally protected - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin. The city is way overreacting, saying that protests A MILE AWAY from the Convention Center during the G20 are forbidden. Much as I do believe that the G209 should continue unimpeded by disruptions, peaceful assembly is not disruptive. I'm very much opposed to muzzling peaceful protest.

Thursday, August 13 - Live from NetRoots Nation in the 'Burgh!

After spending some time helping run my Dad's 80th birthday, vacationing in Canada, then helping run the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, I'm back in Pittsburgh. My next "I'm underemployed and I'm bored!" project is working as a local volunteer for NetRoots Nation, which is here in Pittsburgh through Saturday. I've already linked up with "Drinking Liberally" and told them where they should go to drink.

I worked with another woman delivering today's tent cards to various panel rooms this morning, then helped out with Registration for a few hours. I'm now on a break, testing out the Acer WebBook in the exshibit hall.

While I have been fairly inactive on this blog for the last few weeks, due to doing work for Worldcon, I'm a proud liberal blogger and was delighted to hear that NetRoots was coming to Pittsburgh. I hope to make some contacts (beyond the "Drinking Liberally" folks!)

Visitors to dpsinfo.com, June 2009

My Web domain, dpsinfo.com, has been around for years. While the site that gets the most traffic is Dead People Server, I have about a dozen other sites.

The traffic pattern this month was interesting:



It's kind of ironic now that, just over a week ago on alt.obituaries, a number of us were complaining about how quiet "the world of celebrity death" had been. As I said at the time, "Good for celebrities, bad for people tracking deaths."

June 25 was a very busy day in celebrity death, with the long expected death of Farrah Fawcett, and the sudden (but not completely unexpected) death of Michael Jackson, which was a rumor for about two hours before it was confirmed at about 6:15pm that day. dpsinfo.com got nearly 3X as many visitors on that day as it had on its quietest day (on June 13).

That wasn't dpsinfo.com's busiest day ever though.

The busiest day ever was the day in September 2006 when Steve Irwin (aka the Crocodile Hunter) was killed by a stingray. Nearly twice as many people visited that day as visited on June 25.

Remembering Local Boy Billy Mays

At first, I thought the announcement of his death was another hoax. I first saw it on Wikipedia's death page, where hoax deaths can still creep through. It sounded like the recent fake death announcements of Jeff Goldblum (fell off a cliff!) or the one of pitchman John Basedow (Killed in the tsunami!).

Alas, I'm wrong on this one.

Billy was kind of annoying, but kind of enjoyable. I couldn't hate Billy Mays. Pitchmen normally make my skin crawl. His whole undertone always seemed to be "I'm having a good time with this, and I'm making a pile of money." And, heck, that's American. You can't hate making a pile of money. Well, OK, most of us can't.

Billy Mays was from the same very small, very poor town that my husband called his hometown (and boxer Paul Spadafora, former "hair colorist to the stars" Bradley Johns, politician John Kasich, and footballer Chuck Fusina) - McKees Rocks, PA. Billy was two years older than one brother-in-law, and lived near my other brother-in-law (well, where "near" was "the same part of Florida").

Billy Mays was like Farrah Fawcett in that he made the best with what he had, which probably added up to millions of dollars before he died.

In many ways, his death is the most shocking celebrity death of a week filled with celebrity deaths. Ed was old. Farrah was sick. There was something sadly inevitable about Michael Jackson's sudden death at a middle age. But, Billy Mays? So full of life? So into promoting whatever he was selling? This one seems wrong. Is he selling some new product, that a fake death might help promote?

Probably not.

So, after about six weeks of making almost no updates to my Dead People Server site, I've gone and made another one for this week. Kind of sadly. I may not miss him that much, but there's something especially sad about this death.

Brainstorming for the G-20 in Pittsburgh

The local organization leading the organization for the G-20 in Pittsburgh this September is a group called the Allegheny Conference. They decided to have a series of brainstorming sessions and invite the public to them, to generate ideas for further discussion.

On paper, this is a great idea. And, to a degree, it was. There were some incredibly good ideas proposed, including:

• Student ambassadors to observe and report on the proceedings (this from a high school student)


• Welcome banners and audio greetings in all of the languages spoken by members of the G-20


• A whole month of activities around the countries of the G-20, focusing on each of the countries and stressing educational programs


• Various ways to present the arts and music of Pittsburgh


• Stressing Pittsburgh's leadership as a green city


• Name badges for Pittsburghers with the flags representing the country of whatever foreign language the person speaks


• An event featuring foods prepared by foreign-born chefs who cook at Pittsburgh-area restaurants

But, an awful lot of the ideas started off with, "Hi, I'm X my company is Y, we make Z and here's how we can offer Z to the people coming to Pittsburgh for the G-20."

As a result, there was very little actual brainstorming. Almost no one's ideas seemed to spark other people's ideas, and that was somewhat disappointing. During the first brainstorming session at Point Park last week, 57 ideas were generated. At ours, I'm sure it was less than that because it was more about selling than idea generation.

I came up with some ideas, and presented them this way: "Hi, I'm Laurie Mann, I'm a blogger and I have nothing to sell. I just have a couple of ideas." My suggestions were to make sure that the G-20 uses the lovely rooftop terrace at the Convention Center. I'd been going to events there for years before I stumbled over the terrace at one event, which was being used informally that day. It has a great view of the city, the Allegheny River and the bridges. It's basically an unappreciated gem of the city. My other suggestion was to use some of the empty storefronts along Penn and Liberty as art galleries for students, robot makers and filmmakers.

There will be one last public brainstorming at the University of Pittsburgh, Alumni Hall in the Connolly Ballroom from 5:30-7:00 tonight (Tuesday, June 23).

Why You Should Vote Out Bigots Like State Senator John Eichelberger (R-Blair)

One of the people currently reviving the "no gay marriage" fight is John Eichelberger, R (naturally) of Blair county. Recently, he said something particularly heinous in a hearing:



They’re not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do. We’re just not rewarding them with any special designation.



I've written the following to Eichelberger to take him to task for his bigotry:




I understand you said the following in reference to homosexuals in a hearing the other day:


They’re not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do. We’re just not rewarding them with any special designation.


Thank-you for living out that famous cliche about Pennsylvania: "It's Philadelphia in the East, Pittsburgh in the West and Alabama in the middle."

If anyone ever said "We're allowing them to exist" in reference to, say, white men or fundamentalist Christians, would you have agreed with THAT ATTITUDE too?

I thought Pennsylvanians got rid of that level of state-sanctioned bigotry when we voted out Rick Santorum.

I know people like you will never change your minds about bigotry. I can only hope to help educate your constituency that bigotry in a modern society is unacceptable.

Laurie Mann
McDonald, PA

Hey KDKA Radio - Why Can't You Cover Local News Competently Anymore??

We usually go over to Bocktown Beer and Grill for dinner and the Wednesday beer tasting. After that, the plan was to go out to Friendship to attend a planning meeting for Confluence.

When we got to Bocktown, it was threatening but not raining. By the time we got our beer, we could hear the loud thunder overhead. As we sat in the back, we couldn't see the storm, but it had gotten very dark outside in a hurry.

By about 6:15, we were done eating and went to the front of the bar to try some Abita beer. It was raining so hard that that we couldn't see the parking lot from the front windows. The rain was coming in sideways, and the wind whipped up for a while. Lots of lightning and thunder. The rain and lightning were so heavy that we didn't dare go to our car.

Unfortunately, some of the Bocktown staff were out on the partially covered patio. By the time they got in, they were completely drenched.

We watched the rain for a while. Then, it lightened up slightly and the torrents calmed to mere rain. Even though the storm was going east, and we were going to be following it, we figured it was probably safe to drive to Friendship. According to KDKA radio, there were severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings for our area. While the severe thunderstorms were obvious, the tornadoes weren't as the wind wasn't too bad and we hadn't seen any hail. But, following the standard news/weather check, KDKA went back to its regular talk shows. So KDKA did not view the situation as particularly dangerous. We changed the channel and listened to classical WQED instead of listening what passes for talk.

As we approached the city, we were back in the heavy rain again. Usually, we take Bigelow Blvd. to go to Friendship, but there's a tendency for rockslides in the heavy rain. I chose to go through Oakland. After all, most of the students were gone - how bad could the traffic be?

Oakland had a horrible traffic jam. It took us nearly a half hour to go about a mile. And we couldn't figure out why. We kept switching between "news radio" KDKA and WQED, the classical music station. KDKA had no specifics - their 7:30 "news" show lasted about 30 second before it went back to standard talk radio bloviation.

As we got through the Forbes/Bigelow intersection, we suddenly saw why the traffic was so horrible in Oakland - street flooding in front of Carnegie Hall. I thought I could get through it. Jim insisted that I could not. So, I pulled a U-turn (highly illegal) and got back to the road between the parking lot and the library (going the wrong way briefly; luckily, the PAT bus let me go by). Many cars were stopping, and the sounds of police sirens were louder than the thunder.

There was street flooding on that street too. However, it didn't look as bad, and past that bit of flooding was higher ground. I slowly drove through the flooding and turned left past the library to make the relative safety of Schenley Park. We drove up the hill and parked by Baker Hall at Carnegie Mellon so we could hit a bathroom and consider our options. Running the 50 yards from our car to the hall made us both completely wet.

Several people were standing by the door of Baker Hall, trying to figure out the best thing to do. We visited the bathrooms and waited for the rain/lightning to calm down. After about another ten minutes, it did. The woman who was left said she'd parked her car in Schenley Park and wasn't looking forward to walking to her car. We offered her a ride. There were branches down but it was not as bad as after the tornado in 1998. There was also minor street flooding in Schenley Park - maybe 1-2 inches rather than the 6 inches we saw in Oakland. We dropped the professor off at her car, and decided it was safer to skip the meeting and go home. We drove through Squirrel Hill to get to the parkway.

While KDKA continued favoring talk show crap over actually reporting the news, we felt lucky to find that Squirrel Hill didn't have the flooding of Oakland. The only street flooding we saw was near the parkway entrance. The rest of our trip was uneventful, and we finally got home a little before 9.

KDKA ought to be ashamed of itself for the way its "local breaking news" was so completely useless during this storm. I remember back in 1998, the same station focused on the local wind and rain damage following the Mt. Washington tornado. This time, "news" station KDKA provided almost no local news. So much for helping the public. If stations like KDKA were still reporting local news rather than blathering on, it would have been much more helpful. Luckily, it sounds like no one was seriously injured last night, but there were apparently dozens of cars stuck in flooded areas all over eastern Allegheny county.

The Pew News Survey of Current Events

This is a really fast survey on your current news knowledge.

I scored 12 out of 12, which put me in the 94th percentile.

When you're underemployed, you tend to read the news...a lot!

Tracking Your Medicines

A few years ago, I realized I was already taking a variety of supplements and some prescription drugs. I started tracking what I was taking, so I would always have a quick record for my doctor. Also, I'd always know what drugs did work and what didn't work for me.

I found it easiest to track this information in an Access database. However, I thought I'd share the list with others, and many people don't have Access. So I also created an .rtf table, that can be read in Word and other word processors. You can download the files from the links below and adapt the database or word processing table any way you want.

The drug history, if you maintained this information in Access, would have this general format:

Drug History (pdf)

Tracking Your Medicines in Access

This is a pretty simple Access database. It's written in Access 2003, but uses only tables, queries and reports, so it could probably be read in older versions of Access. The database does not have a forms-based data-entry screen, enter the drug information directly in the data table.

mydruglist.sample.mdb (Access file)

When you open up the database, click on the tables option to display the data tables:

o druglistblank
o druglistsample

druglistblank is an empty database table. You can open it and just start entering drug data. druglistsample is a database table with sample data. The tables are the same; one has sample data and one does not.

Here are the fields in these tables:

ID - an auto-numbered identifier field. You can ignore it.
Date Added - a date field that defaults to the current date
Drug Name - the name of the drug
Type - prescription drug, over the counter drug, supplement
Dose - recommended dosage
How Often You Take It - the possible values are Daily, Occasionally, Post-op, Stopped Taking It. Record how frequently you take the drug.
Date Started Taking It - when you first took the drug
Prescribing Doctor - who prescribed it for you.
Notes - What you're taking the drug for, if you had any side effects, why you stopped taking it (if appropriate)

I think it's best to sort this information so that the drugs you are currently taking always sort to the top of the report. So I've written a query to sort the information in this way. Display the queries:

o drugblank
o drugsample

drugblank is the query that sorts your information from the druglistblank table. drugsample is the query that sorts the sample data in the druglistsample table. The default sort field is the "How Often You Take It" field. When you run the query, the drugs you take every day will sort to the top of the query table, followed by the drugs you take occasionally, followed by the drugs you've taken after surgery or hospitalization, followed by the drugs you've taken in the past but do not take anymore.

Finally, display the reports:

o drugblankreport
o drugsamplereport

drugblankreport creates a report based on your information in the druglistblank table.
drugsamplereport creates a report based on the sample information in the druglistsample table.

Open the drugblankreport to see your information. At the top of the page, you'll see YOUR NAME, BIRTHDATE. Delete those strings and enter your name and your birthdate.

Tracking Your Medicines in a Word Table

Download mydruglist.blank.rtf. After you've downloaded it, you can enter information directly into the table. You should save the modified table under a new name, so you'll always have a blank table available online. Be sure to add your name and your birthdate to the top of the file.

There's a government site with a recommended text file for collecting medical information. AARP also has information on collecting drug and medical information.

On Not Closing Guantanamo - The Fear-Mongering of Republicans Never Ceases to Amaze Me

We have all kinds of dangerous Americans in prison.

And yet...

Republicans have brainwashed people (including, sadly, a bunch of Democrats) into believing that about 200 terrorism suspects can't be housed in American prisons.

These terrorism suspects don't have super-powers. They've not going to jump over the fences, mind-control all the guards or create an atomic bomb out of their tea. So why not house them in American military jails? Didn't we manage Germans and Japanese in American military jails without having them invade America? Maybe Americans were just smarter and braver during World War II.

I suspect the majority of the people remaining in Guantanamo probably do have ties to terrorism. We've released nearly 500 "terrorists" from Guantanamo over the last seven years because there was inadequate evidence (even by Bush administration "standards") to hold them.

What should happen is that the remaining terrorism suspects should be moved to at least two American military prisons and they should be tried. If they're innocent, they should be returned to their countries. If they're guilty, they should serve out their term in an American military prison. Obama has forcefully stated that America won't continue the heinous practices of the Bush administration, including terrorism. But holding terrorism suspects indefinitely in a third-party country has seemed, frankly, as un-American as engaging in torture.

Some Signs of Life in the Pittsburgh Housing Market

The Pittsburgh housing market had a massive crash in the late '70s and early '80s when manufacturing jobs went abroad. I remember coming in from Ohio to visit Jim's family and seeing literally half the houses in some neighborhoods with For Sale signs. As a result of that massive crash, the Pittsburgh housing market has been on the cheap side ever since. So, while parts of the rest of the national housing market have been crashing, Pittsburgh's housing market hasn't lost too much value, though it has been on the quiet side.

We live in the country not too far from Pittsburgh International Airport, in a development of new houses. The oldest house in our development is about six years old, and most of them are in the three-four year range. I generally like it, except for the need to drive everywhere to get anything (*sigh*). But, it's quiet and we finally have the space to shelve all of our books.

When we moved out here three years ago, there were about 100 houses built, in an area where, maybe, something like 220 houses could be built total. While there was a fair amount of building activity for the first year, the last two years have only seen one or two houses being built at a time.

I took a longer walk than usual today, and walked up into the newest street. Where about six weeks ago, there were, maybe, two houses being built, there are five new houses framed-in and two cellars. A surprising increase in activity.

The builder builds big but not "luxury" homes, so they are fairly affordable. And there's maybe only about 10 existing houses in the neighborhood that are on the market. But that upswing in new construction is interesting and is probably some good economic news.

Bach Choir of Pittsburgh Presents the American Premiere of David Chesky's The Agnostic

The Bach Choir of Pittsburgh has been performing a challenging selection of pieces over the last year. Each piece is tied to the overall theme "Journeys of Courage, Conviction and Conscience."

Last November, we performed Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, a vocal score to the famous silent movie classic The Passion of Joan of Arc. This event was part of the Three Rivers Film Festival.

In December, we sang Handel's Israel in Egypt.

In early April, we're performing the American Premiere of a very unusual piece, David Chesky's The Agnostic in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble. It's challenging both musically and thematically. If you'd like to hear a truly unique work, we're performing it at Carnegie Hall in Oakland on Wednesday, April 1 at 8pm. On Saturday, April 4, at 8pm, we'll be performing it at the Richard E. Rauh Theater, Shady Side Academy, Fox Chapel. See the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh Web site for more information. You can buy tickets for the concerts from ProArts (412-394-3353) or at the door.

PARSEC Field Trip to the Warhol for The Vader Project

At the March meeting, Gary came up with a good idea - visiting The Vader Project exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum. A bunch of us said we thought that sounded like fun, so we met up on Sunday March 22 and toured the museum.

The Vader Project (http://www.thevaderproject.com/) was the brainchild of the founders of DKE Toys, Dov Kelemer & Sarah Jo Marks. They worked with 100 artists from America, England and Japan to envision a full-scale Darth Vader mask in a variety of ways. Sadly, random museum visitors were not allowed to photograph the renderings of the Darth Vader masks, but some artists have put photos of them online (http://www.toycyte.com/darth-vader-meets-andy-warhol).

The one I thought was the most creative and the most subversive was "Carmen Mirandarth" (http://girlsdrawingirls.blogspot.com/2007/07/carmen-mirandarth-gdg-and-vader-project.html), created by Melody Severns, Anne Walker, and Debbie Bruce of GirlsDrawinGirls. While many of the Vader helmets had a heavy metal or military theme, Carmen Mirandarth was a big blast of color and plastic fruit.

While most of the Vader masks were plastic, at least one person created a plushie.

Another artist built a Tatooine action figure display around a sand-colored Vader mask (http://www.suckadelic.com/Art.html).

Sometimes, the simplest mask was the most interesting. One Vader mask and was painted "Candy Cobalt Blue," a rich shiny blue with some subtle gray designs faded in the background.

One big disappointment about the exhibit for me (beyond not being allowed to take photos) was that none of the artists who were invited to submit were science fiction artists. I believe most of the artists involved in this project were either toy designers or comic artists. A shame. I would love to have seen what someone like Bob Eggleton would have done to a Vader mask!

If you like Star Wars or have an interest in toy design, this exhibit is definitely worth the trip. If you are a member of the Carnegie Museums, you can visit the Warhol for free. Check the Warhol Web site (http://www.warhol.org/museum_info/planning_a_visit.asp) for admission information. The Vader Project is due to be at the Warhol until May 3.

Now, what about the rest of the Warhol, you may ask?

It's an odd mixture of good news and bad.

The seventh floor was a particular waste of time. There was a loud video running constantly, and there was a strikingly bad exhibit called The End. So, if you go, do yourself a favor and skip the seventh floor.

Much of the museum displayed a small portion of Warhol's massive collection of celebrity ephemera. Some of the photos of celebrities might have been a bit more revealing than the subject intended. While his photo of OJ Simpson was taken in 1977, it looked oddly like the profile view of a mug shot.

There are also a few interactive exhibits, including a room with large fans and big silver balloons you can bounce off the ceiling.

After our trip through the Warhol, we went over to Soho (at the Marriott Springhill Suites) and had a late lunch. I walked into downtown to take photos of a large metal work at the corner of 7th & Ft. Duquesne Boulevard - It was a huge Transformer-ish sculpture comprised of the bridges of Pittsburgh:



We enjoyed our field trip, and hope there will be more in the future.

2009 Oscars - What Should Win, What Will Win

My annual thoughts on the Oscars.

I'll probably be Facebooking/Twittering during the Oscars.

Gutting Money for Scientific Research from the Stimulus

Shawn Otto, one of the organizers of Science Debate 2008, just send around some depressing E-mail - there's a move to remove money for the National Science Foundation and other science/energy-related appropriations from the stimulus package.

These are areas that can use more money, so to hear that some additional funding is being deleted is frustrating.

I sent the following E-mail to my senators, as well as a somewhat edited version to Senator Nelson and Collins:


I was shocked that Ben Nelson and Susan Collins are calling for gutting funding completely for NSF and for the DOE office of science and reducing funding for other science and energy-related areas from the Senate American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. We've suffered through eight years of scientific illiterates running the federal government. We need to keep funding up for the National Science Foundation, which leads in getting more research money to colleges and universities. We need to do more research into renewable and clean energy. Must our research infrastructure be in as bad shape as our roads, bridges and public schools?

Economics Isn't Physics - What Politicians Don't Get About Recovering from a Severe Recession

While I am not an economist, it's clear that we're in a severe recession. We're in this recession for many reasons.

• Economic Cycles. No matter what we do, the economy will always have some down times. A wise government would have had adequate controls in place so that the economy wouldn't crash and burn very much. However, we haven't had a wise, forward-thinking government in years


• Unfettered Greed. We've been in a period of economic irrational exuberance that encouraged massive greed


• Lack of Oversight. Companies and individuals have engaged in massive fraud and just plain stupid behavior on a scale we haven't seen since the '20s since there was very little governmental oversight (the Republicans were also in control of the federal government for eight years before the Great Depression, another time of little governmental oversight over companies)

Unfortunately, we're dealing with "fundamentalist economists" - people who will always tell you that there is only one way to do something, regardless of empirical evidence. Conservative economists will insist the trickle-down effect of lowering taxes on the rich is the way to go. This may have worked in the early '80s and early '00s, but it clearly hasn't worked in a few years [2012 update - Actually, I'm wrong about this - there's evidence that "trickle down" did not work in the '80s either]. If anything, this may have sent the economy more into the tank. Liberal economists will insist that massive spending programs are the only way to bolster the economy. That might have worked some in the late '30s and the late '60s, but it doesn't work for very long and can lead to additional years of recession.

Different times call for different solutions.

Much as I abhor federal deficits, we need massive but targeted federal spending and that taxes must be raised on people making more than $100,000 a year. This is not the time for trickle-down - this is the time for building up. Our infrastructure is in horrible shape after years of governmental neglect. How many more bridge collapses are we going to have to have before people wake up and see how badly we need another big roads bill? Our government should also be employing more modern methods, such as green energy plans, online medical records and modernizing public education.

Economic isn't physics. Physics describes laws that are consistent. Economics is a much softer science than its practitioners would care to admit. If I drop a ball from the Empire State Building and one from a 737, it's going to always fall at the same rate of speed. Gravity is a constant. But economies do not fall or rise at a constant rate. Psychology plays heavily into economics. After years of irrational exuberance, we seem to in a state of near-irrational economic despair.

Americans deserve some of that despair. Both the investing market and the housing market went completely bonkers over the last few years, because there was almost no oversight. Common sense by governments, institutions and individuals went completely out the window.

My husband and I have been doing pretty well over the last few years. While I have been unable to remain reliably employed, my husband has a good job and we've always been careful about spending. We have savings and a diversified portfolio of investments.

We bought our first house in 1987 and our second in 1993. We put 5% down on the first house and 20% down on the second. We had good a good credit rating. Of course we sweated getting our first mortgage a little, but we knew we'd get it.

We sold our first house during a housing downturn in 1994 and lost money. We had a lasting lesson that housing prices don't just go up. And, this was in Massachusetts, a place where the housing market, after 1994, went from being expensive to being extremely expensive.

In 2006, we decided to buy a new house. As my husband manages his group from home and I was unemployed, we could have moved anywhere. After looking at housing prices in several areas, we decided to stay in Pittsburgh, where we have family and friends and could buy much more home for the money. For the same money that bought a largish, new house in rural Western Pennsylvania would have bought a 50 year old ranch in eastern Massachusetts or a one car garage in the Bay area of California. We wanted the space and the quiet, so we stayed here. We're very glad we did!

We put 20% down on our new home. Our mortgage broker tried to talk us out of putting that much down. We were stunned by this attitude, but put 20% down anyway, and later paid most of the money from the sale of our old house (which took nearly six months to sell) against the principal of the new. We also worked to keep the costs of our mortgage as low as possible. Selling stock to buy a house in early 2006 turned out to be a very good move, and staying in the Pittsburgh area was a real win. While the housing prices peaked around then, our house has lost much less value than our stocks have. Since the Pittsburgh housing market had a huge bust back in 1980-1981, it's lost very little value during this housing bust.

While I understand that mortgage brokers and banks were trying hard to get people to buy houses a few years back, their "you don't need to put money down" attitude was incredibly short-sighted. Many people don't understand the importance of paying principal on houses and other investments. While laws should encourage home ownership, they also need to encourage people to put money down, to actually own a percentage of the property.

We could have probably gotten a million dollar mortgage in California or New York, but we would have had barely invested 5% in a house in one of those markets. Living that far beyond our means was completely unacceptable to us. Unfortunately, it wasn't unacceptable to many Americans who did just that over the last 10 years or so.

And that goes for government spending too. The federal government has been mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future without making the rich pay more taxes. Over the last few years, the number of yachts and luxury mansions owned by Americans skyrocketed. Why do you think that happened? Because the super-rich were the biggest beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts. Wealthy Americans who can afford to pay more taxes should be paying more taxes. Much as I respect President Obama, his refusal to kill the Bush tax cuts for the rich and give the rich yet more tax breaks was a horrible way to start off his administration.

So what we need is a rational tax/stimulus package includes:

• having genuine governmental oversight (laws with teeth) over industries and over any stimulus money that goes to companies


• spending to improve our infrastructure (and education is infrastructure)


• training everyone, from children through adults, on responsible decision-making about money


• gradually reducing the number of troops abroad


• a small tax cuts for households making less than $60,000 a year


• a small tax increase for households making $100,000-$200,000 a year


• a larger tax increase on income over $200,000 a year (and maybe even an additional tax bracket for people who make over $200,000 a year)

We need to look at new, logical ways to manage the economy, without being rigidly bound to the theories of the past. And by "economy," I don't mean merely at the government/industry level - I mean the economy of individual families too. In the case of families, returning to the old theories of living within their means, saving for the future and avoiding using credit cards may help prevent another mega-recession in the forseeable future.

Many individuals are in the midst of personal financial failure. They've lost their houses and their jobs. In some cases, it really wasn't their fault. People who did their best to live within their means and made reasonable choices deserve society's compassion and support. They deserve the chance to refinance and not be foreclosed upon, if there's any hope they might be able to manage the payments.

But let's take a look at some outstanding cases where individuals need to take some responsibility for their incredibly illogical choices:

• Anyone who put all their financial eggs in one basket, from the folks at Enron to the folks who turned over all their money to people like Bernie Madoff. Diversification has been the primary rule of investing for generations. That's one thing that hasn't changed.


• People who support others no matter how ludicrously they behave. Sorry, the woman in California who went bankrupt helping her daughter have 14 children is as certifiable as her daughter is. (I have a bad feeling some cable channel will launch a reality show around these folks, but the proliferation of "reality" shows that do nothing but promote irresponsibility is a wholly separate rant.) People need to make rational choices. Parents need to tell their children "NO" sometimes.

We need a country that was once generally based in common-sense behavior and personal accountability from the individual, through businesses and up to the very highest reaches of the government. I hope that will happen again, but, unfortunately, we have a very long way to go.

Sing-a-long in the Hay-Adams Bar: My Trip to the 2009 Inauguration

Why I Went to Washington

In the 1960s, I grew up in a lily-white, mostly middle class small town in New England. About the only black people I ever saw where ones on TV, being hit by water from fire hoses and being attacked by dogs on the evening news. Those scenes made me dislike white southerners in power, and made me feel something was really unfair about the way some people in our country were being treated. I remember hearing Dr. Martin Luther King speak on TV. When he said, "I hope that one day my four little children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," I understood why he said what he did. I was six years old, and that made complete sense to me. It was possible to understand a little bit about racism without having experienced it personally. When I was nine, I went to summer camp. Robin slept in the bunk over me. I wrote to my parents, "A Negro girl named Robin is in my cabin. No one is making fun of her." At camp we learned that we could all live in the same cabin without any problem. At about the same time, riots broke out and cities burned. I didn't understand poverty and hopelessness could drive people to such lengths. I have to say, It didn't make any more sense to me than the white policemen setting fire hoses on teenagers, or some nut bombing a church. Most of America has made great strides in race relations since the '60s. It's not perfect. but it is getting better. To paraphrase Rev. Theodore Parker and Dr. Martin Luther King, "The arc of a civilized society is a long one, but it bends towards justice." The election of Barack Obama was one of the most civilized things our society has done. As an American and an Obama supporter, I wanted to be in Washington to help celebrate his Inauguration. I drove to DC from Pittsburgh on Sunday morning. It was snowy over half the way down, so it took nearly six hours to get there (usually, it takes about four and a half). I got to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Silver Spring. I dropped off my stuff, and my brother took me to the Metro. I went to town to watch the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I walked towards the Lincoln Memorial, but the line into the concert wasn't moving much. I walked up the hill to the Washington Monument. There was a crowd on the Lincoln Memorial side of the Washington Monument, but there was still plenty of space. Some of the Jumbotrons were set up on the Lincoln Memorial side of the Washington Monument, along with an odd police vehicle that looked like a viewing booth atop a huge scissor-lift. The Jefferson Memorial was pretty dead during the weekend. More About My Inaugural Trip

Milk: The Best Movie of 2008

It's possible I might see a better movie in the next two weeks, but I doubt it.

When history is known (like, say, with the upcoming WWII movie Valkyrie about a plot to assassinate Hitler), a movie can loose its dramatic tension since "we know what happens." A good director, screenwriter and cast can compensate by dynamic direction, an intelligent script and spot-on acting. Milk succeeds on all points. Director Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black have created a compelling movie. And Sean Penn gives the most joyful, winning performance I've ever seen from him.

Milk is the story of an unlikely political activist. Harvey Milk was a closeted gay guy in New York City until his very late 30s. The early scenes of Milk remind you what a bad old time the '50s and '60s were for gay men, with old footage of police raids on gay bars.

By the early '70s, Harvey had met Scott, a much younger man. They ran off to San Francisco together where they opened a camera store. They had a very affectionate relationship. If this movie had been about a heterosexual couple and not a homosexual couple, it would have been rated PG-13 instead of R. Still, I've heard reports of some audience members leaving during the early kissing scenes (there are some sex scenes, but they are extremely discreet). Why would you go to a movie about a gay man coming out of the closet if watching two men kissing was going to upset you? I didn't leave when the hate-mongers in the movie spewed homophobia; this is truly disgusting compared to two men (or two women) kissing.

As a business owner, Harvey understood the importance of being out and being organized. He became a frequently unsuccessful candidate for local office, while becoming more politically able and building a network of young men to support neighborhood causes. In these scenes, some of the actors are actually old friends of Harvey's from the '70s. In at least five different scenes, you see the writer Frank Robinson, a man who was Harvey's contemporary. While I wish they'd mentioned who Frank was, it was nice to see he was involved in the movie.

Harvey became an expert at working the crowd and working the press. While Scott had served as Harvey's campaign manager, he was disillusioned by politics and the pair split up. Harvey went on to win the 1977 election for city supervisor. Harvey became involved with a volatile Hispanic man named Jack, and became close friends with Cleve Jones.

Even though Harvey had a local victory, he got very involved fighting California's Proposition 6, a measure to fire gay teachers and their supporters. It was promoted by Anita Bryant (who only appears in this movie in old clips - a nice touch to reinforce how passe she should be) and John Briggs, a California state senator. After months of pushing, Harvey got to debate John several times. In the run-up to the statewide vote on Prop 6, Jack committed suicide which left Harvey fairly depressed. However, after pollsters and early results made it look like Prop 6 would pass, it wound up failing by a large margin.

While he was fighting against Prop 6, Harvey tried to cultivate positive relationships with the other city supervisors. The relationship between he and newly-elected conservative supervisor Dan White was fairly contentious. After months of not getting any legislation passed, Dan resigned from the city supervisors and tried to get his job back. When he didn't get it, he smuggled himself in the city office building, and assassinated both Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk.

The movie certainly captured the grief of San Francisco following these assassinations. But these impact of these murders went way beyond San Francisco. I was 21, married, and living in Pittsburgh when I heard about them. To this day, I can't watch that famous tape of Diane Feinstein informing the public of the murders without weeping. And I had the same reaction today, at the beginning and ending of Milk. But most of Milk is one of the most vivid recreations of the '70s I've ever seen, with a performance that should win Sean Penn his second Oscar (and, maybe an supporting actor Oscar nomination for James Franco's fine performance as Scott). Emile Hirsch was good as Cleve Jones, who later went on to be an AIDS activist and create the Names Project (the AIDS Quilt).

This movie must be seen by the people least likely to see it - the people who think things like Proposition 8 are a good idea. Consenting adults deserve to live their lives as they choose, without fear of retribution.

My Vision for American Change

The Obama change.gov site has invited Americans to submit their vision for changing the country. Here's what I sent them:


The Obama campaign tapped into the power of distributing information and encouraging volunteerism by its great Web outreach. The Obama administration could do much more of the same.

There are people all over this country who would love to work for the Obama administration. We aren't interested in big jobs or living in Washington. We interesting in helping to coordinate federal resources and local needs. The Web can be a powerful tool in decentralizing and accomplishing more on the local level.

For many years, the Federal government has been portrayed as being completely out of touch with the varied types of communities across this country. To some degree, this has been true, in Republican as well as Democratic administrations. As President-elect Obama well knows, being a community organizer should be a high calling in this society.

Democracy Is a Great Thing!

After two federal elections with some questionable results, Americans showed yesterday that the more people who vote, the harder it is for the people engaged in vote suppression and vote fraud to get away with it. Yes, there were some problems, but the overwhelming number of voters and the people who worked the polls to defend the principle of "one person one vote" more than compensated for those problems.

Good luck, president-elect Obama and vice president-elect Biden!!!!!!!

Congratulations, President-Elect Obama!

I'm very happy he's won.

I give Senator McCain credit - he gave a very fine concession speech.

Not Dead Yet - American Democracy

Keep it alive - if you are registered, vote tomorrow!

Don't stand for people engage in vote fraud, vote suppression or anything else that tries to screw with our democracy. The more people who vote, the harder it is to game the system.

If you see any problems, contact:

Election Protection -- 866-687-8683
Black Box Voting -- 206-335-7747

AND

Your County's Election Board; you might take the time to look up this number before you go vote.

(If you put "voter fraud" into Google today, the JohnMcCain.com Web site comes up as a paid ad, put if you put "report vote fraud" into Google, you get an Obama paid ad! *sigh*)

And may the best candidates win!

Report from Barack Obama's Pittsburgh Rally

I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Barack Obama rally in Pittsburgh on Monday. A local organizer connected me to Sally Matts, so we could commute together to Pittsburgh.

We took the 28X into town and got up to the Mellon Arena a little after 1. A long line had already formed:

Beginning:



Towards the end:



In the middle:



The line extended for several blocks (up past St. Benedict the Moor church for the folks familiar with the area).

We waited around while the staff got the volunteers organized. That took a while. They wanted most of us to encourage the attendees to sign up to help Get Out the Vote over the weekend...but ran out of clipboards before Sally and I got them.

I've worked all kinds of events, and one thing that was really clear from this one is that there was inadequate signage. I walked around a little, and suggested to Sally that we invent a job for ourselves. We decided to escort handicapped attendees up to the handicapped entrance, which was on the far side of the Mellon Arena from the main street entrance. We talked to a staffer who agreed that was a good idea.

So we stood about midway up the hill to the Arena, where the entrance road and the parking lot meet. When we saw someone who seemed to be having trouble, we brought them up to the handicapped entrance.

This was tricky (of course). The sidewalk was blocked off in places, so we'd direct people in wheelchairs to the adjacent road. There were surprisingly few cuts through the curb for wheelchairs. The one closest to the handicapped entrance had a car parked in front if it illegally. Luckily, there was still enough space around the car that people in mobies could get back up onto the sidewalk.

And then, someone who was either with the fire department or the TSA (not sure which) parked in front of the illegally parked car in such a way that we could no longer get handicapped attendees up the ramp and back onto the sidewalk. I went to him and said, "Um, excuse me, sir? Could you push ahead a little so we could get people back on the sidewalk?"

He growled at me a little, and went off in search of the person who was parking illegally. Luckily, he found the person pretty fast, the person drove away, and the cops stuck a sawhorse in front of the ramp so no one could park in the way.

Sally got cold and went inside. I begged her to save me a seat and she did.

I managed to stay outside until about 4:30, when I got too cold and had to go in. The speeches were due to start at 5, but I figured Obama would be running late. I found another volunteer and got him to help bring handicapped attendees up to the special entrance.

I hit the bathroom, bought some "dinner" (hot dog and popcorn) and found Sally. She'd saved great seats not too far from the podium and off the floor in the staff area. The Arena seats 17,000 for hockey games. While there was a floor over the ice, there floor wasn't completely filled up by people (the press area was spacious and not filled). Not every fixed seat in the arena was filled either. I'd estimate there were between 14,000 and 15,000 in the arena, a good crowd given it was a weekday, the weather was cold, and we'd only heard about this on Friday.

The TV camera area was towards our right:



The floor and the podium were towards our left, just to the left of all those supporters who were standing:



The rally was due to start at 5. The weird thing was that the rally started at about 4:45. Rallies almost never start early. Governor Ed Rendell, Senator Bob Casey and local Congressional Representative Mike Doyle gave short speeches. Then there was nearly a half hour of recorded music (and I don't think the writers/performers have asked Obama not to use it, unlike some other campaigns I could mention).

Just before 5:30, Steeler president Dan Rooney came out to introduce Barack Obama. When Obama came onstage, the cheers were deafening. Rooney handed him a Steelers' jersey:



Sally Matts foreground, Barack Obama background



I've heard Obama speak on TV a number of times. While he's often a little stiff, he speaks very intelligently, unlike your average politician. He sounds like he's thinking about what he's saying and not just repeating sound bites or blurting out something wildly inappropriate. It was definitely worthwhile to hear him speak in person. Yeah, there were bits and pieces of his standard stump speech and his Democratic National Convention speech, but he seems to adapt it slightly for his audience.





Obama's speech, which lasted about a half hour, hit all the right notes. People were still coming in, half-way through his speech. The audience was enthusiastic. There were only one or two hecklers. Everyone was welcome to this rally (no tickets, no vetting by local Democrats). The fact there were so few Republican intrusions was indicative of the fact that McCain/Palin don't have as much support in Pittsburgh as they'd like to pretend (when they were in Western Pennsylvania last week, McCain drew about 4,400 people and Palin about 2,000). The Democratic vote in and near the main cities usually exceeds the Republican vote in the rural parts of the state, and I hope this will be true this year.

It was a great rally!

My favorite sign:



After his speech, Obama went down on the floor to shake hands. Sally and I decided we'd just as soon find the bus and get home, which we did.

I took a test this morning which I saw in adelheid-p's Live Journal.

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 15/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you're very well informed. If you vote this election, you'll know exactly who (and what) you'll be voting for. You're likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

Should You Be Allowed to Vote?

There's only one more thing to say: VOTE!!!!!!

Meme: So What Were You Writing About the Federal Election in 2004?

Every once in a while, I get a sense of "deja vu all over again" about the presidential election. So, I went back and read my November, 2004 blog entries (if you want to read them, remember, jump to the bottom of the file and work your way up).

Hmm, I was overconfident (briefly), but not so much that I didn't work on the campaign or vote.

The post-election analysis was interesting. Fewer people voted than Democrats counted on and the youth voting rate was no higher in 2004 than it had been in 2000. I sincerely hope both of those things will turn out differently this time.

So, here's an informal meme for you - if you wrote about the 2004 election online, link to it from your blog or LiveJournal or however you write on the Internet. What were you thinking then? What do you think now? What do you think will be different this time?

A "Pro-Jobs" Tax Ad - with Grover Norquist???

I saw one of those political ads (sponsored by "Americans for Tax Reform") that spoke darkly about "changing the tax structure will lose jobs."

The man narrating the ad was Grover Norquist.

That name was a blast from the past, where Norquist should stay. Norquist was the guy behind all those tax cuts Bush pushed back in 2001. In short, Norquist is the architect of the unprecedented deficit our government currently has.

Norquist is also the person who famously said:


My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.


So if you want to live in a third world country, by all means, support the current tax structure, or candidates who would blindly leap into more tax cuts.

It's amazing that this group can be a 501(c)3. While this group wasn't specifically mentioning any particular party or candidate, it's clear they think we're still overtaxed and are encouraging voters to vote against the tax rate increases a responsible government needs to institute. If we had a strong national infrastructure and no deficit, I might agree that Americans are overtaxed. But we have a crumbling infrastructure, inferior schools, extraordinarily uneven medical care and a massive deficit.

I don't think people making over $100,000 a year are being overtaxed. There's every evidence that they're not, thanks to nearly eight years of irresponsible Republican "leadership."

Single Issue Folks Are At It Again...

With the economy tanking, the government bailing out Wall St and many other problems, some things never change. The anti-abortion fanatics are at it again, showing large, graphic posters on Route 60 in Robinson today and calling Obama a "baby killer."

Maybe those of us who against war should print up large graphic posters of the war dead, and talk about "killer" McCain?

While I believe strongly in the right of women to chose abortion or birth control, I'm not a single-issue voter so I do not use this a litmus test. I voted for Casey, despite the fact he does not agree with my views on abortion.

This country cannot afford another Republican administration. For people to claim that they are "pro-life," it's unbelievable that they can't be bothered to understand that the Republicans have been anything but.

McCain Graduated 894th...in a class of 899...from Annapolis!

That's such an amazing statistic, I'm surprised no one has raised it before.

W. is reported to have graduated in the bottom 20th percentile from Yale.

Barack Obama graduated from Columbia and got his law degree from Harvard magna cum laude.

Let's have a smart president for a change!

Carl Sagan Predicted the Current State of America - in 1995

I was always a big fan of Carl Sagan's. The science blog The Intersection has reminded us that Carl Sagan predicted the current anti-science attitude of so many in America. If anyone in power had bothered to pay attention, we might not quite be in this state now:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan The Demon-Haunted World

Another Problem with the Republican-Proposed Bailout - Who Pays???

"Notice how the taxation ring on the right is dark and quiet, even though the government needs the better part of an extra terabuck? I guess the theory is that reckless borrowing got us into this mess and reckless borrowing can get us out."

Blogger Mike Benveniste

Yeah, that's yet another problem with the Bush bailout, if not the biggest problem with it.

Palin Supporters and Ongoing Theme of Constant Outrage Over NOTHING

I saw this headline at CNN today:

"Palin incest spoof on SNL draws fire"

but it was attached to a video and I didn't want to watch it. I finally found a printed article, to see if Palin supporters were really that stupid.

Yes, it turns out that some of them are. Perpetually outraged, because actually thinking about the ramifications of a satire is a bit beyond many of them.

I watched Saturday Night Live over the weekend, and saw the skit in question. It skewered journalists, not the Palins. The skit made the Palins look like victims of the media, and it made journalists look unbelievably stupid and vapid. The right wing should have been applauding it.

But no...

On the other hand, journalists have generally been bright enough to understand it was a satire, and haven't been so offended.

"Privatizing Gains, Socializing Losses..." Describing the US Financial Mess in Four Words

New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson was on NPR's "Fresh Air" today, and she succinctly summed up the problem with the bail-out Bush and buddies are pushing.

It's critical that the US not rush into fixing this problem. Our government needs to take a deep breath and ensure that as little federal money goes into this as possible and that safeguards are implemented rather than ignored.

Tell Your Senator to Vote CAUTIOUSLY on Any Massive Financial Bailout

E-mail or call your senator today to ask for caution and oversight. Senator Dodd's plan is more in the right direction than the "no strings" plan the Republicans are pushing.

One person in government cannot control that kind of money. As we've seen over the last seven years by the Republicans, absolutely power corrupts absolutely. And money is power.

What Obama Needs to do...

Offer more plans for dealing with the financial mess the Republicans got us into. There were way too many cozy deals being made for financial institutions during the Bush/Cheney administration. Frankly, many of us believe that the bailouts will cover golden parachutes for upper management and nothing for the middle class people with investments.

Hit the Republicans and Palin for ignoring supeonas. A person who claims to be a reformer cannot ignore supeonas. Politicians keep behaving like they're above the law - Obama should hit this attitude often.

I still have a great deal of respect for Obama, but he needs to be a bit more forceful. It almost seemed like he peaked with his wonderful acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and has been surprisingly quiet since then. America can't afford for him to be quiet.

Issues Do Matter - The Science 2008 Debate

In the middle of the first set of Palin bruhahas, Obama's office released information some of us were waiting for:

Barack Obama's answers to the top 14 science questions facing America

Granted, the media and many Americans have demonstrated they aren't as interested in the issues as they ought to be. I keep waiting for James Carville to pipe up "It's the economy, stupid," or someone (anyone) to notice our massive, massive deficit.

The Science 2008 Debate has been an attempt to get the candidates focused on issues that should be important to more Americans. Thanks to the Obama campaign for taking the time to look at these important issues.

Movie Review: Bottle Shock

Bottle Shock has the look and feel of a nicely-photographed, well-cast indy movie...for about half of the movie. The other half of the movie, unfortunately, thinks it is a Hollywood movie about '70s stoner-style kids, with a hacknied plot about an uptight father trying to straighten out his college-age son, and a potentially more interesting plot about a talented winemaker trying to break out on his own that gets lost in the shuffle.

Alan Rickman's part of the movie is much better than Bill Pullman/ChrisPine's part of the movie. Rickman plays a stodgy Brit living in Paris running a wine shop. He and American ex-patriot Dennis Farina sit and discuss wine. Rickman, not being French, is given no respect by the French wine critics. He and Farina come up with an idea (this being the summer of '76) to organize a blind taste test of American and French wines in honor of the American bicentennial.

In California wine country, Bill Pullman is running a failing vineyard. You know it's failing because he's had to go to the bank again for another loan on the place which already has multiple loans outstanding. His son, played by Chris Pine seems to help some with the business when he isn't busy having sex, surfing or smoking dope. He's friends with one of the vineyard employees, Freddy Rodriguez (who is terrific in a part that isn't fully developed). Rodriguez plays a whiz at identifying wine types and vintages in blind tastings. He is secretly working with his father to create their own wine.

They're joined by Rachel Taylor who, sadly, has little more to do in this movie than be eye candy. Eliza Dushku, practically the only other woman in the movie, plays a ballsy bar owner.

When Rickman goes to California in search of interesting wines to test, Pullman's wines are among the ones he tries and likes. While Rickman's character is a wine snob, and is convinced of the superiority of French wines, he clearly thinks the American wines have improved beyond that 70s favorite, Gallo Hearty Burgundy.

The middle of the movie gets very muddy; still has plenty of nice photography and shots of people enjoying wine on beautiful California hillsides. But the stoner son suddenly goes off and gets money from a relative and you don't know who she is until later in the movie. The stoner son and the eye candy jump from bed to bed without giving it a second thought (sure there was some of that in the '70s but...). The movie regains its focus and its humor when the stoner son helps the British wine snob get fellow travelers to hand carry two cases of wine so the wine won't be subject the rigors and cold of the plane's cargo hold.

Finally, the wine arrives safely in France, and the famous blind wine tasting, The Battle of Paris, begins. It's no surprise now, but two American wines take top honors which stuns the French. One of those wines is from the failing vineyard, so the father's business is saved.
The implication is, however, that the wine snob's business may have gone from slow to completely dead after the competition, for helping to show that French wines aren't necessarily the best.

I really wanted to like this movie, but I was somewhat disappointed. I like clever movies that don't rely on Hollywood tropes. Part of the point of a good indy movie is that it doesn't need every silly Hollywood convention. When the movie stayed true to the story of wine lovers and their various competitions, it was a much better movie. Rickman was very good, so it's worth going to see it if you're a fan of his.

While the production values were generally pretty good, and the costumes were always spot-on, sometimes the lighting, sound and editing were off. The movie also had an annoying number of things from the '80s showing up in the '70s, like "modern" wine labels, recycle deposit
information on wine bottles and UPC codes. But, the biggest problem with this movie is that it was trying to combine the charm of an indy movie with the plot devices of a Hollywood movie. Kind of like trying to blend cabernet and riesling grapes and wondering why that blend
doesn't work.

A Near-Crime Story That's Very Funny

That sort of thing doesn't happen often enough.

I've had a very busy summer, dealing with some part-time jobs, some very busy volunteer work and something like a vacation. Things are calming way down. Now that Denvention is winding down, I don't plan to take a major role in convention work for a while. I'm not gafiating (I have two fairly simple jobs for Anticipation next year); I'm taking more of a sabbatical.

The "Would You Have Been A Nazi?" Meme

I liked the answer I got!

Many Americans comprehend the difference between disliking our government and caring about our country. In fact, since we care about America (and the Constitution), we strongly disagree with the current government.

Confluence, Pittsburgh's Science Fiction Convention, July 25-27, Joe Haldeman, Kathryn Cramer, Lord Landless

Confluence is a small, friendly science fiction convention with a terrific con suite, lots of discussion and music!

Our GoH is Joe Haldeman (yes, he will bring his guitar), the P. Schulyer Miller Critic Guest is Kathryn Cramer and the special music guest is Lord Landless. Other program participants and/or filk performers include: S. C. Butler, Ken Chiacchia, Lawrence C. Connolly, Juanita Coulson, Eric Leif Davin, Lawrence Dean, Susan Dexter, Andy Eigel, Marty Coady Fabish, Stephen C. Fisher, Pete Grubbs, Gay Haldeman, David Hartwell, William H. Keith, Jr, Fruma Klass, Geoffrey Landis, Timothy E. Liebe, Paul Melko, Judi Miller, James Morrow, Kathy Morrow, Charles Oberndorf, Naomi Pardue, Tamora Pierce, Silva, Bud Sparhawk, William Tenn, Diane Turnshek, Mary Turzillo, Dave Wells and Darren Ziege. Yes, Poexry is Friday night, and, on Saturday, our local players will be performing an original satire by Jim Morrow on Saturday night.

Our hotel is the Doubletree Pittsburgh Airport. It's close enough to the airport to be a free shuttle ride away, but not so close that airport noise will keep you up all weekend. Parking is free, and you can walk to a number of local restaurants. Our hotel block closes July 3.

Conflunce also features a large (and sold out) Dealers Room, Art Show and Video Program (the theme this year is "Comics and Graphic Novels to Movies"). We also run Autographings, Readings and Literary Beers, to give you the chance to see your favorite writer in a smaller setting.

Prereg closes July 3. One day memberships will be available at the door.

Possible dpsinfo.com Service Outtage

I'm in the process of moving to a slightly different domain hosting program at Pair. As a result, my mail and Website may flake out over the next day. I expect everything to be back to normal as the nameserver updates are propagated around.

If you need to reach my domains, try http://pl524.pairlitesite.com/

Jim's mail service could also be disrupted as dpsinfo.com serves norstrilia.org's mail.

Hey, I'm Smarter than Scott McClellan!

"Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence."

Hey, I knew that and I didn't even work in Washington or for the Bush administration!

I guess Independents and Democrats understand the obvious more than Republicans do?