This morning I arrived at work to find an email requesting me to complete an on-line survey about my commuting pattern. It’s all part of the Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) law, which requires participating employers to survey their staff regularly.
I was happy to fill in the survey, but I did encounter some problems. For example, it wanted to know my one-way commute in (integer) miles. I rounded to zero; I hope that’s not going to cause problems. And then it wanted me to select three factors that might persuade me to abandon my personal car in favour of more efficient commuting styles. I searched in vain for the check-box labelled “None of the above – the only way to make my commute more efficient or environmentally friendly would be for me to camp in my office.”
West Ham 3, Tottenham Hotspur 4
Sometimes the best sporting events don’t involve the top clubs fighting it out for a championship. In today’s match, West Ham were desperate for any points that they could salvage to stave off their (increasingly likely) relegation from the Premiership at the end of the season. [I have long thought that something like this would be a definite improvement for the smug cartels that make up U.S. sports. But I digress….] Spurs are in wonderful form right now: even though Keane was out, Berbatov is playing beautfully, Defoe shows hints of being a future Ronaldo, and Robinson is one of the very best keepers anywhere.
The match was an absolute classic. West Ham started out with a ferocious energy that startled Spurs and left the visitors 2-0 down at half time. But early in the second half, a pointless foul gave Spurs a penalty, and 12 minutes later they scored a second goal. West Ham looked broken, but they kept at it, denied Spurs time and time again, and fought back. So it was 2-2 with five minutes to play – plus a hefty chunk of extra time, due to an epidemic of heavy tackles. (The Hammers had six players booked.)
In the 85th minute, West Ham scored to go 3-2 up, but 4 minutes Berbatov equalized. Full time. The minutes of extra time ticked by, and it seemed that either club was capable of scoring, but couldn’t quite do it. Finally, just when I was thinking that the referee’s watch must have broken, West Ham threw everything into a final attack, Spurs won the ball and counter-attacked, the West Ham keeper blocked Defoe’s shot but couldn’t hold on to the ball, and Stalteri tapped it into the net. Whew! It was just like something out of a comic book.
And kudos to the producers of the Fox Soccer Channel, who realized what a gem this game was, and cancelled a couple of “classic football” shows in order to rebroadcast today’s match again.
Jonny Hahn
Many years ago, when Chris was an undergraduate at U.C. Santa Cruz, I would often take some time off from a business trip to Silicon Valley and scoot over Highway 17 to visit him in Santa Cruz. On one of these occasions, we were walking down Pacific Avenue when we encountered a street musician, playing an extraordinarily small piano and singing songs that just hooked you in and made you smile. His name was Jonny Hahn. He was selling a CD of his music, called “3657“, and I bought a copy before we moved on. I thought nothing more of it, but over the years I found myself listening to the songs and wondering what had happened to him. But I didn’t wonder too hard: it felt like one of those ephemeral moments that you look back on and then let go.
And then today I was shopping for kitchenware in Sur La Table on Pine Street, right next to the Public Market, and as I came out of the shop I heard a familiar piano style. It was Jonny Hahn. I went and listened to him, and after he’d finished a piece we talked a bit. He’s a Seattle resident, and plays most of the year by the Public Market. He remembered that visit to Santa Cruz; he said that he’d always enjoyed going there because of the good vibe he got off the ocean, but recently the city authorities had made life impossible for street musicians, so he’d stopped going.
I bought four of his CDs: two of what he described as “very political” songs – “Thinking without a permit” and “Don’t feed the corporations” – and two of solo piano pieces – “Lost in the Inzone” and “Collage”. Lovely stuff. You can hear his music for yourself at CDBaby, and also at the iTunes Music Store.
But even though the CDs are really good, I know I’ll be heading back to the Public Market, because I prefer listening to Jonny in his natural setting. What a delightful rediscovery. Maybe ephemeral isn’t always what it seems.
UPDATE: From Richard McDougall‘s gallery: Jonny “in his natural setting”….
Thank you, Slashdot
Despite the lousy s/n ratio, this is why I still read Slashdot. Yes, I might have picked it up from the WP dashboard, but that might be several days from now. I’m now patched up to 2.1.2, and a quick check of the HTTP logs suggests that I’m OK.
Lorna's progress
This 8 hour time difference to the UK is a bit frustrating sometimes. I just called my mother’s ward at the JR to see how she’s doing; it’s 11:45pm here in Seattle, 7:45am over in Oxford. Of course the nursing staff is in the middle of morning hand-over, so it’s hard to get their attention, and if I wait until they’re sorted out it’ll be getting on for 1am here! [Sigh] Anyway, I was able to exchange messages with Lorna via the nurse, and things seem to be going OK. She should be moved to rehab (what used to be called a “convalescent home”*) on Monday.
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* From the Latin for “growing strong”.
"The lively and sophisticated world of non-belief"
To listen to some people these days, you’d think that atheists are the new Taliban. First we have the preposterous Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark, ranting that:
“atheists like Richard Dawkins are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube”
And then sophisticated poseurs like Stuart Jeffries seek to portray the situation as a shouting-match between two equally dogmatic and intolerant factions: believers and unbelievers. Now Caspar Melville, editor of the New Humanist, provides a welcome rebuttal:
The evidence for [Jeffries] claim is depressingly shopworn. He quotes without challenge [from] Colin Slee… [and] criticises both Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens for their “aggressive” attitude to believers without addressing the substance of their many and complex arguments. […] Throughout, atheists and secularist are characterised as “dogmatic”, “evangelical”, “fundamentalist”, and as obsessed by God and the idea of belief, as Billy Graham. Jeffries is quite right to point out that these days secularists seem exasperated. But who can blame us when the case against unaccountable and undemocratic religious privilege is so misrepresented by articles like his?
Melville goes on to describe the diverse views of contributors to his journal and others, disproving the assertion of a uniformitarian quest to “airbrush” religion from public debate, to create a soulless, value free public sphere.
Ultimately I would think that believers of any stripe would be unwise to associate themselves with Jeffries’ wry cynicism. The logic of his position is that it doesn’t really matter what people believe, and we should accept all beliefs with a Mencken-like shrug. I don’t think so. For people like Dawkins and Hitchens and PZ (and me), belief matters – and irrational beliefs should be “named and shamed”.
Melville concludes:
Was this the same Mencken who wrote: “The evangelical churches are rapidly becoming public nuisances. Neglecting almost altogether their old concern about individual salvation, they have converted themselves into vast engines for harassing and oppressing persons who dissent from their naïve and often preposterous theology.” Hardly “respectful of others cherished beliefs”, was he? […] I suspect that if he were around now his arguments would be far closer to those of Christopher Hitchens than Stuart Jeffries would like to imagine.
Latex, handcuffs… and a donkey
Alec just drew my attention to this newspaper story, which I unhesitatingly nominate for the “Best Opening Sentence of 2007” award:
A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,†the local court heard last week.
I also liked the following example of Irish legal compassion: He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.
The whole thing is strangely reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s tour de force album from 1971: The Mothers: Fillmore East.
A fresh look
I just upgraded this site to WordPress 2.1.1, and while I was in the mood I decided to update the look and feel. Ever since the WordPress “widget” mechanism was introduced last year, theme designers have been cranking out some really beautiful styles, and I spent a happy hour browsing through the latest offerings. Eventually I picked MistyLook by Sadish Bala, and customized it with a header clipped from a photograph I took of a stormy Boston skyline as seen from Brookline. I wanted a simpler, cleaner look, and I think this works well. My one concession to fashion was to replace the traditional “category” list with Lee Kelleher’s “Category Cloud Widget”.
sounds from "lost in a black coffee"
I was just checking my blog dashboard, and saw a new a new incoming link from ventnoir’s lost in a black coffee. I clicked through, and a wonderful blast of music filled my headphones – Friends we used to know by Diorama. Check it out. Crank up the volume.
My mother's at the JR in Oxford with a broken hip
I learned today that my mother, Lorna Arnold had a fall while walking home from the shops, and broke her hip. She’s at the John Radcliffe in Oxford, where she had surgery yesterday evening. Obviously at the age of 91 this is a fairly serious matter.
I’m planning to phone the hospital around 11pm my time (7am in England) and I’ll update this entry with any news.
UPDATE: I just spoke to the nurse, who said that Lorna’s doing fine… blood pressure a little low, but otherwise excellent; she was awake most of the night, talking to the staff. I’m not going to try to talk to her now – the bedside phones in English hospitals are an expensive, hit-or-miss affair, and I doubt I could Skype-out – but I’ll check in with my brother soon.