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October 13, 2001
 * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * *
Provincetown - The nude activist Selectman David Atkinson announced today that he is holding a fund raising dinner at the Surf Club on November 3 rd. Proceeds from the dinner will go to pay his attorney's fee for defending him in the lawsuit concerning the town owned property known as the Spaghetti Strip.
Atkinson brought an article to last years April Town Meeting asking the town to designate the Spaghetti Strip as a clothing optional beach. The article passed unanimously.
When the news reached several abutting dune shack lease holders they sued the town and Atkinson personally. A judge ruled against the town and Atkinson and left Atkinson with a $1800 legal bill. The $20 a plate dinner with entertainment is being called the Spaghetti Strip Dinner. The menu consists of spaghetti, strip steak, salad, rolls and dessert. The 100 tickets are available thru Atkinson or the Surf Club.
For more information contact:
David Atkinson
508 487-0759
People may send checks to:
David Atkinson
4 Priscilla Alden Road
Provincetown MA 02657
Make checks payable to: Attorney David Mills
Tickets for the dinner will be held for them at the door.
October 12, 2001
BigPumpkins.com: 1262 pounds this year.
This is a pumpkin!
I've started a page that will include all my thumbnail photos here. I'll eventually get 'em all in there.
October 11, 2001
My salivation over Jesús has caused excitement on the left coast. I will keep you informed of any progress in the story of the hairy cucumber dealer.
If anyone can point me to information on the web that describes a realistic, non-violent way by which Bin Laden's terrorist attacks on the U.S. could be blocked, I would really appreciate it. I am not looking for information that tells me how we got ourselves into this, nor information on the glories of non-violence, nor information on what Jesus would do (and I don't mean the cashier at Bread & Circus). I think Bin Laden would love to see himself in the role of the Roman soldier nailing America to a cross of peace, love and generosity.
A bridge at the Venetian in Las Vegas
Click for full size
From this article:
Relations between Pakistan and the Taliban leadership have been tense this year. Last year, in an effort to cement Pak-Afghan friendship, Pakistan dispatched a football team to play a friendly against Afghanistan. As the two teams faced each other in the stadium at Kabul with the referee about to blow the opening whistle, bearded security forces entered and announced that the Pakistani footballers were indecently attired. They were wearing normal football shorts, whereas the Afghans were dressed in surreal long shorts which came down well below the knees. Perhaps it was felt that the rippling thighs of the Pakistanis might cause upheavals in the all-male audience. Who knows? The Pakistani players were arrested, their heads were shaved and they were all flogged in public while the stadium audience was forced to chant verses from the Koran. This was Mullah Omar's friendly warning shot to the Pakistani military to assert the independence of his leadership and his loyalty to Bin Laden.
If you gotta be a liberal, don't be a limp one.
Web-head discussion about what you would do if you knew it were your last night on earth and you were in Boston and scheduled to meet up with your 73 virgin wives in less than 12 hours.
Really cool photos of new wing at art museum in Milwaukee. I think this is flash, too.
October 10, 2001
 Sometime in 2000 I had a tooth pulled. It had had a root canal way, way back in the 80s. Earlier this year I started the process (with the assistance of an oral surgeon) of getting a dental implant. A Bicon Dental Implant, to be specific. If you go to this page and refer to the 5-step process along the right margin, I have just reached step 4 and now wait for 6 weeks to begin step 5. For the first time in almost two years I have a tooth-like thing in that space. It's great! I can hardly imagine my delight when I get the crown made. To the right is a Bicon Dental Implant:
I think this is cynicism: get your war on. More here.
Steganography (Noun)
Pronunciation: [ste-gên-'ah-grê-fee]
Definition: Hiding writing in plain view, cryptography.
Usage: This word has been in use since 1569 as a synonym for "cryptography." Recently, however, it has been associated with digital watermarking, so it may diverge from "cryptography" in the future. It comes replete with a panoply of derivatives: "steganogram," "steganographer," and an adjective, "steganographical."
Suggested Usage: The use of this term in referring to digital watermarking means no one has had time to use it metaphorically: "Any half-clever steganographer can find the watermark in this graphic file." Already we can send steganograms via e-mail to the extent they are merely encrypted messages, but what of concealed codes in missives of all sorts: "Manfred loves to steganographically conceal messages in his letters to Flo."
Etymology: From Greek steganos "covered" + graphein "to write." "Steganos" comes from stegein "to cover (water-tight)." Domos hala stegon "a house that keeps out the sea" was a metaphor for a good ship. The same root occurs without "s" in Latin tegere "to cover" whence tegula that evolved into "tile." In the Germanic languages this form emerges in German decken "cover," Dach "roof," and "deck" from Middle Dutch dec "roof, covering." In Russian we find stegnut' "to button, zip, etc." and, finally, from Hindi we get "thug" from Hindi "thag," probably from Sanskrit sthaga "a cheat," itself from sthagati "he conceals."
from www.yourdictionary.com
Current read: Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally.
Next DVD: Clockwork Orange by Kubrick. Talking to a friend recently I was surprised to discover he had never seen this, so I added it to the Netflix list and bumped it to the #1 position. It arrived yesterday, and we've scheduled our viewing date for Sunday night. Anyone who'd like to come by for Beethoven and a bit of the ultra-violent is welcome!
Clockwork Orange was the first X-rated movie I ever saw. It was released when I was 17, but in Kansas City a local ordinance restricted X-rated flicks to age 18. I tried getting in at the Embassy theater on the Country Club Plaza a couple of times, but was efficiently and politely turned away. Then on the night of my 18th birthday I went in to see it (it has been playing for months). They checked my ID and asked if I'd registered for the draft yet. "Tomorrow," I told them. "Tonight it's Clockwork Orange!"
One of the best, short summaries of the bicycle as the pinnacle of engineering.
October 9, 2001
Discussion in wired.com about possible use of small nukes to wipe out Bin Laden's rumored nuclear stockpile.
Your handy-dandy guide to the turbans of the world. Not to be used for racial profiling!
Pictures of the courtyard at the Bacchanal in Palm Springs: 1 2 3
October 8, 2001
Regarding Bin Laden's little speech yesterday, the NY Times said "it appeared to have been carefully prepared so as to have the maximum effect." What nonsense! The scuzzball can't (even with his millions) find a translator who can speak English! Watching that video I was mostly impressed by what a complete waste it was, as no more than 5% of the sentences were understandable. Here Reuters has provided a decent text translation. But lo! it's still nonsense.
Or here's a slightly different (and more complete) translation at BBC.
I photographed this saguaro cactus at The Living Desert in Palm Desert. Click the photo or click here to see the full size photo.
Here's another photo from The Living Desert.
Click for full size
Click here for another cactus photo. But this one is from a back yard in Las Vegas.
peccant \PEH-kint\ (adjective)
1 : guilty of a moral offense : sinning
2 : violating a principle or rule : faulty
Example sentence: The minister delivered a stern sermon warning peccant parishioners of the punishments that awaited them in the afterlife.
"Peccant" comes from the Latin verb "peccare," which means "to sin," "to commit a fault," or "to stumble," and is related to the better-known English word "peccadillo" ("a slight offense"). Etymologists have suggested that "peccare" might be related to the Latin "ped-, pes," meaning "foot." A related Latin adjective, "peccus," may have been used to mean "having an injured foot" or "stumbling." Whether or not a connection truly exists between "peccant" and "peccus," "peccant" itself involves stumbling of a figurative kind -- making errors, for example, or falling into immoral, corrupt, or sinful behavior.
from www.Merriam-Webster.com
Lothar Machtan asserts Hitler was gay!
October 7, 2001
If your honey has recently been sent to Uzbekistan…
Feedback on use of this font size is welcome!
Paper on the effects on Google.com of the 9/11/2001 attacks.
October 6, 2001
Sand castle doubles competition
Toilet seat king
Finding Jesús
One strung-out day many, many months ago I was checking out at my nearby Bread & Circus. I selected Jesús as my cashier for the afternoon, mostly because he looked really hot! Long, thick hair, full beard. IOW, he was putting on the Jesus drag. He shocked me by his very unusual warm friendliness. As good as B&C is, a lot of their cashiers are airheads with almost no ability to identify customers or cucumbers. Jesús made full eye contact and asked in his rich, warm voice how my day had been. His tone gave every indication that he was seriously concerned with my reply. I thought perhaps he had the power to fix a bad day! We exchanged a few more pleasantries and I left with my head spinning. Was he flirting with me? Had he overdosed on E or Prozac? Since that day I have scanned the cashiers at every visit, but I'd not seen him since. I began to wonder if he had been a product of my imagination. Or was he perhaps Jesus himself, come to the checkout line to see how the Israelites are living these days? I don't usually seek out religious figures or gods in my daily life. The likely explanation, of course, is that he was just on loan that day from another store. But which other store?
It was a lovely day this afternoon. Temps around 60, bright sun, air smelling very autumnal. I picked up a sugar pumpkin at Bread & Circus this afternoon and (you know) there he was, Jesús at register #3. I didn't recognize him at first and had selected his line for the same reason months ago: he's hot! He's cut his hair shorter now (but still down to his collar) and his beard has become a pair of huge mutton chops. When I spotted his name tag I was all prepped and began to flirt with all the vigor he had seemed to flirt at me. He stumbled a bit when I mentioned that I hadn't seen him in a long time, and did he usually work Saturdays. He admitted he did, so I said I should shop on Saturdays more often. He recovered nicely and our conversation ran nicely along the dance of asking how my day is, what's interesting in my life right now, and he had seen some squirrels gathering lots more nuts than usual, so he thought it would be a tough winter. I mentioned the wooly bear caterpillar I'd seen that was entirely brown with no black markings at all, indicating a very mild winter. He wanted to know what a wooly bear caterpillar is (wow, I wonder if that's a midwestern term?). I wrote a check for my purchase and gave him my motorcycle license for ID. I hope he noticed the address. Maybe I should have added the phone number.
Here I am at the Hoover Dam Snacketeria!
Click for full size
October 4, 2001
Golden Gate Bridge reopens to those who do not transport large containers of explosive flammables, but the hours have changed: "the east sidewalk and the south parking lot will be open only during daylight hours -- from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The west sidewalk will be open only to bicyclists, and then only on weekends during those same hours." Sears Tower observation deck re-opening soon.
Urine. The gift of the cow.
DayPop
The Matwix - genuine Warner Bros. Looney Tunes.
Got a hardon for state troopers? If so, then you need this site.
October 3, 2001
Years ago I stopped using Expedia.com since it seemed their way of doing business had nothing to do with the way real people lived. Is it any surprise they are owned by Microsoft? But today I clicked on a URL in one of their junk e-mails that promised me discount vacations on the "West Coast." The page I got sent to was, indeed, headlined West Coast and it listed 5 destinations. The first two were Chicago and Dallas. Back in the box for Expedia! (Well, I suppose Chicago is on the west coast of Lake Michigan).
TripAdvisor.com certainly seems unreliable. If you drill down to Boston, Attractions, Indoor Sports the entire City of Boston has 3 (three!) attractions. They are:
- Mike's Gym, a gay gym
- Metropolitan Health Club, a gay gym
- Safari Club
Now, TripAdvisor.com is not a gay site. But worse is that the Safari Club was a gay bathhouse, a sex club, and it's been closed for more than 2 years! I'd recommend you bring along plenty of salt if you are going to follow TripAdvisor's suggestions.
Bean recipes
The Onion was just grand this past week, eh?
Jane Austen's lesbian affair.
Supposedly someone thinks we're going to attack Bin Laden's caves and tunnels. Uh-huh. We did that in Vietnam in a program that we all know was thoroughly successful. Actually, I suspect this story may be disinformation leaked by our own defense or intelligence agencies. It would be important right now to spew out tons of false indicators. We did that before the Normandy invasion and it worked quite well. Hitler's need for sleep helped too. Anybody got any word on how much sleep Bin Laden needs? Is he vegetarian? Does he have just one testicle?
Corel, owner of WordPerfect, makes a profit in the quarter ending August 2001.
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins.
October 1, 2001
Huh, somehow we passed the one year anniversary for Ron's Log and I didn't even notice. It was way back on September 7. Hasn't seemed that long.
The Massachusetts State House undergoing renovations. This photo was taken just a day or two after 9/11/2001.
Click for full size
On the Las Vegas strip
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September 30, 2001
A couple of shots from the streets of Manhattan in July 2001
A McDonald's
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Street ad for 2(x)ist
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Click for full size
September 29, 2001
Pan from Longfellow Bridge, across Beacon Hill and into Back Bay.
Click for full size
The steam heat started yesterday.
The Gandhi statute near the Indian embassy in DC.
Click for full size
September 28, 2001
4 War Dead
Friends Kevin and Arthur invited me to the dedication recital of the new organ at Old Cambridge Baptist Church, where Arthur is Music Director (and Kevin is cookie advisor). Paul Halley was the organist for the recital. He made the furniture dance several times (with the help of the instrument. Here's the technical info provided:
FAUCHER ORGAN COMPANY OP. 26.
The new organ is a custom-designed instrument, incorporating some of the valuable equities of the old instrument (pipework, facade casework, and console). It is a mixed pipe and digital organ which includes eight ranks of new and rebuilt pipework, providing complete principal and flute choruses. This core of pipe sound is completed by high quality digital organ voices from the Walker Technical Co.; these provide the strings, reeds and pedal stops. There are also MIDI channels available on each keyboard. The console's interior has been completely refitted with solid state controls, and the exterior has been stripped and refinished. Behind the scenes, Faucher's well-crafted electric-action chests, reflective pipe-case, and effective swell shades enhance the organ's mechanics and sound. Finally, the room's acoustics have benefited from the church's decision to lower the central reredos which had formerly risen in front of the organ (and blocked tonal egress), and also by our collaboration with The Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre which has meant a reduction in area covered by carpeting and pew cushions.
Here's a pic.
New American ambassador to Romania is gay. And this time the nomination sailed through the Senate.
Paul Varnell expresses his Randian/Objectivist point of view on the 9/11 attacks, the west versus Islam, and religion versus rationality. Only, I don't know if he knows he talks like a Randian/Objectivist. He calls secularism, rationalism, humanism, individualism, personal rights and capitalism "modernity."
The damage suffered by the subway tunnel between Chambers Street and South Ferry. Part of the repair process will involve filling a 220 foot stretch with solid concrete, which will later be removed.
1957 Thunderbird seen on Charles Street a few weeks ago.
Click for full size
September 27, 2001
I hope we're still free to point out Bush's multiple uses of the non-word "misunderestimated" yesterday, or his use of "stewardess" rather than the preferred "flight attendant" today.
Welder in the Big Dig at Causeway Street in July 2001.
Click for full size
It's banned book week.
Mail your unwanted AOL CDs to: No More AOL CDs!; 1935 El Dorado Ave; Berkeley CA 94707
The goal is to gather 1 million CDs. Here's what 453 of them look like.
September 26, 2001
Movie Review Query Engine
Fun Flash
The Venetian in Las Vegas.
Click for full size
- And click here for a night shot of a canopy (at the bus entrance?) to Circus Circus
September 25, 2001
In the recent emergency there's been a lot of looney-tune stuff tossed around. A lot of people seem to think "War! Time to throw rational thought out the window!" Obviously, during war is when you have to be sensible and thoughtful and pay attention. Save the silly stuff for peacetime. So here are Ron's Cliff Notes to guide you:
- Airline subsidies - No! They will argue, of course, that none of this is their fault. True enough. A good argument to use when they sue Bin Laden, but obviously the market is shifting and the most efficient way to make sure that resources go where they are wanted and needed is to let the market sort it out. Airlines will fail, people are losing jobs. So why should we put billions into an industry that we as individuals are not buying into? (And when are the airlines going to drop their fares?)
- Amtrak subsidies - No, for all the same reasons. Why is it that both airlines and railroads argue for subsidies whether their market is bad or good?
- Reduced civil liberties - Of course not! Freedom, civil liberties, the Bill of Rights are not things to be picked up during sunshiny peacetime and then put away when inconvenient. They're the essence of being American and we have them BECAUSE THEY MAKE SENSE not just because they're nice to enjoy when we can! It's our freedoms that make this country work as well as it does. So why do we want to make it not work in war time?
- Racial profiling - Stupid! No, let me rephrase that: REALLY STUPID! Will we have posters like those from WWII that tried to distinguish between the appearance of Japanese and Chinese? What does an Arab look like? And what about non-Arab middle-easterners (Iranians, for example). What about non-middle-eastern, non-Arab Muslims? Indonesia is the biggest Muslim nation, and they don't look Arab. What about Indian Muslims? Russian Muslims? Can you tell the difference between a Palestinian corpse and a Jewish corpse on the nightly news? Can we distinguish between Turks and Lebanese? Are Christian Lebanese our friends? And once we have this great profiling system set up with Arabs/Muslims/Middle-easterners on one side and our friends on the other, what's to keep the terrorists from sending a non-Muslim white or black or east-Asian bomber right into our midst? Not a goddamn thing, because our law enforcement will be all tied up doing triple checks on 4th generation Arab-Americans.
- Armed pilots - Yes! Nothing looney-tune about it.
We have two enemies: terrorists and irrational thought. We can deal with irrational thought a lot quicker and easier and without an act of Congress, so let's do that now. Then move on to the terrorists.
Wizeguides.com interactive map of the MBTA system. It requires Flash, and looks nice, but it has NO information on buses or commuter trains. It also misspells "Chiswick" as "Chiswich" but who wants to be picky? Useful only to help a complete stranger to get around a little. The links they provide only identify paid advertisers, so the "Hospitals" link and the "Universities, Colleges" link show nothing! What good is a Boston map that shows no schools or hospitals? And the quadrant of the map on the Riverside line between Reservoir and Newton Center is just missing. It does show the Mattapan High Speed line, but it seems to indicate that it is just a seamless continuation of the Red Line.
Tips for photographing fireworks.
And tips for night photography.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, on the web.
September 24, 2001
We still got this one.
Click for full size
While I wasn't looking they finished the new public library in Allston.
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A friend wonders "Do you think it has a restroom?" The official web site is here.
Remember the $300 tax rebate? They're still sending 'em out, and I was just about last on the list.
Xtracycle
- In A Libertarian America…
- Thomas L. Knapp's web site.
Website designers located on West 39th in Kansas City, Missouri.
Map of DC trolley system in 1958.
September 23, 2001
Isaac Stern dies.
From the kitchen bulletin board.
Contumely (Noun)
Pronunciation: [kên-'t(y)u-mê-lee or kên-'t(y)um-lee]
Definition: Rudeness whose roots are in arrogance; an arrogant remark or action.
Usage: This is a noun that ends on a syllable [lee] that coincidentally happens to be an adverbial suffix in English. It is almost physically difficult to use as a noun but that is what it is! Questions of taste in aesthetic matters (music preferences, clothing favorites, and so on) often bring out contumely in people.
Suggested Usage: This word will require some struggle to restore but it is worth the effort. "Don't react with contumely to the answer after you asked me which fast food restaurant I like!" "She responded to my suggestion with such contumely that she was mistaken for the queen."
Etymology: Middle English contumelie via Old French from Latin contumelia "abuse, insult, affront," a variant of contumia. Probably related to tumere "swell up; become excited, violent" which is, in turn, akin to "tumid" and "tumor."
from www.yourdictionary.com
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