A rather heavily photoshopped version of a Joshua Tree in Joshua Tree National Park. Took this back on New Year's Eve (well before midnight, obviously).

I am, myself, just returned from yet another trip to Palm Springs. I mean, whacha gonna do when your apartment is unavailable for use while they refinish floors and paint walls and fix the plumbing and stuff? It's summer, so why not head to the desert?

It seems they are having a heat wave out there, and even the locals are complaining about the heat...well, not so much the heat as the humidity! I noticed it my first night there. My sweat actually stayed on my skin! Objectively, the humidity was only around 30%, but when you add that to temperatures around 115°(F) you get some discomfort.

Now I'm staying at my friend Tom's in Watertown, and I haven't got my complete computer system set up yet (my monitor is sitting on a plastic box and the keyboard is on the bed where I'm sitting crosslegged -- but it's okay, because I have a chiropractic appointment coming up on Wednesday -- hey, didja know that in Spanish is "quiropractico?" -- when I saw that in P.S. I was all set to grab a photo of the most screamingly out chiropractor I had ever seen, until I realized it was just Spanish).

But first, observations on traveling:
A new twist for me at security screening. At Logan (as at most big airports) you stand in the big godawful line just to get up to the minor flunky who checks your boarding pass and ID and then directs you to a scanner/xray station. My guy, when I got there, sent me along with the 2 people in front of me into a VERY short line on the right hand end of things. He had to unsnap the velvet rope to let us in. I thought this was maybe the quick line normally reserved for airline personnel, and since it wasn't being used, he was sending a few of us commong people through. I was SO naive! Our line was screened from the others by a wall of gray plastic. As we waited, and waited. and waited just to get permission to go through the scanner we few realized we had landed in a line where everyone got a 100% thorough examination regardless of cause.

A young woman who was in our group of waiters began to whine about them making her miss her flight, generally fuming, rolling her eyes, sighing, putting her hand on her hip and cocking her head to the side. All of this made me aware of why some people WANT weapons handy. When finally the TSA people turned on the conveyor into the xray machine again and motioned her to walk through the scanner, she just stood there and did nothing until the TSA people looked up to see why nothing was happening. She was waiting for specific instructions to put her bag onto the conveyor! When she got that, she plopped her bag and sashayed through the scanner, asking the agent if they were going to make her miss her flight.

After scanning all of our group, they began the wanding, the bag search and the shoe sniff on all of us. I have yet to be ordered to drop my pants right there in public, but I look forward to the day! But anyway, when they went through the bags of the young huffy lady, they found some little, very pointy scissors which they took from her. Innocent enough, you think. But they also found a disposable scalpel! I haven't yet come up with a reason to have a scalpel on a flight...I mean a legal reason. If any of you have a guess, let me know.

She was allowed to go, chastened. I assume she made her flight.

Boarding my flight at Logan they pointed out that they no longer needed to see the ID again, just the boarding pass. Don't know if that's supposed to be an American Airlines rule, or just some airports. Reboarding at DFW they asked for IDs again. But coming home, boarding the non-stop at LAX they announced that they wanted to see boarding passes and IDs, but as you got closer to the gate the agent there said AA no longer requires ID, just boarding pass.

In another big breakthrough AA changed cell phone policy while I was in Palm Springs. On the return flight we were allowed to turn on our cellphones as soon as the plane was on the ground. Didn't have to wait for the opening of the hatchway. We March Into A Glorious Future! And on that subject, couldn't help but overhear a business man in the P.S. airport discussing many business details of a developing venture at 29 Palms. He called several people, and all conversations were conducted at cell-yell volume. Everyone in the waiting area could hear everything. He's putting in "130" for one aspect of the job ("70" not being nearly enough), and agreeing to 3.5% per year growth in wage rates, in case anyone cares.

When our little puddle jumper from P.S. landed at LAX and we got bused over to the main terminals we had to show our boarding pass to get into the terminal! We just came in from the tarmac, which is a secure area. When I showed the man the stub of my P.S. to LAX boarding pass he was not happy. He wanted the pass for the next leg of my flight. I wonder what happens to those who simply want to fly into L.A. Are they forced to wander forever on the tarmac of LAX? Never to return? No, never to return.

While waiting for the flight to leave LAX I entertained myself by trying to resolve my ambiguous knowledge on the acceptability of the use of digital cameras during takeoff. Well, the AA magazine makes it quite clear that "ALL" electronic eqipment is to be turned off. Okay. But what about all our digital watches? In addition to the electronic rule, though, is a separate rule saying ALL cameras and video equipment must be stowed during takeoff! So this means film cameras too! I've never seen this enforced. WHile we were taxiing a flight attendant leaned over to me, glancing at my camera, and said "I know you're going to be taking pictures from the air, but I just want to let you know that you can't take pictures in the cabin." That surprised me, and I asked "You mean pictures of the interior?" pointing around at the other passengers. She said I'd gotten it right. Amazing! We have all seen snapshots of happy passengers inside an airplane's cabin. When did this rule come about? Any ideas?

Nonetheless, I took photos during takeoff as always. Somehow we found Boston despite my recklessness.

There was an article in yesterday's Globe about the poor condition of the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Since I didn't do the P-town ride this year, I can't testify to how bad parts are, but a lot of the riders did make some complaint. The article's going to disappear from the Globe before tomorrow, so here it is:

From http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/198/metro/Rough_ridersP.shtml

Rough riders
Bicycle trails on Cape Cod are pocked by cracks, potholes

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 7/17/2003

PROVINCETOWN -- Beach-going bicyclists who make it through the sandy, bumpy Province Lands bike trail must navigate the last small leg on foot. A chunk of pavement collapsed more than three years ago, and the gaping hole has never been repaired.

In Eastham, a volunteer spray-painted problem areas around potholes and broken asphalt last fall on a portion of the 23-mile long Cape Cod Rail Trail, in anticipation of state maintenance workers. But they haven't come yet.

Two of Cape Cod's most beloved bike trails, used by more than 400,000 people each year, are among the oldest in the country and are showing their age.

The two trails, which are not linked, were considered a visionary idea when they were built more than 30 years ago: a bikeway that would take riders into towering white dunes and a beech forest in Provincetown and past lakes and marshes from Dennis to Eastham along a defunct 19th century railroad bed.

But age and decades of neglect have pockmarked the paved bike paths with sand, overgrowth, potholes, and snaking tree roots that break up pavement, making the ride both bumpy and dangerous.

Some rollerbladers say they can't use portions of the rail trail because it's too rough. There have been accidents on both trails, including a serious one last month on the Province Lands Trail, although it is difficult to say whether they were caused by broken pavement or careless riding.

National Park Service officials said it did not appear that the trail was at fault in the Province Lands Trail accident, and the rider could not be located for comment.

Orleans was so concerned about the lack of maintenance that in the last three years, town officials took it upon themselves to repave portions of the bike path they considered dangerous. "Sections of the [rail] trail require repaving, but ongoing maintenance will prevent big problems later on," said John Fallender, chairman of the Orleans Bikeways Committee. "We don't want to let it go."

Millions of dollars of work is needed to widen both trails and make them safer, say both National Park Service officials, who overseas the Province Lands Trail in the Cape Cod National Seashore, and state officials responsible for the Cape Cod Rail Trail. The 5 1/4-mile Province Lands Trail has never been upgraded since it was built in the 1960s. With its steep hills and twisting paths, the trail is unlike most paved bike paths, offering an experience that some riders say is unparalleled in the country. Because of its design, the Park Service has posted signs warning riders not to go too fast, to wear helmets, and to pay attention.

State officials have worked to upgrade the much straighter rail trail, adding two bridges over Route 6 in Orleans and Harwich and widening and repaving a 1 1/2-mile section in Brewster. The trail was originally the rail bed of a Boston-to-Provincetown passenger train line built in the late 1800s.

The state bought the property for a little more than $500,000 in the mid-1970s and began construction of the Dennis-to-Eastham portion of the trail in 1979, adding an extension to Wellfleet a decade ago.

While the entire length of the trail needs to be reconstructed, officials are phasing in the work. This year's state capital budget proposal includes approximately $500,000 to upgrade about two miles of the trail in Eastham and Brewster and widen it to a more standard 10 feet. But it is unclear whether the state's budget woes will force a postponement.

"We really need to have it wider," said Danny O'Brien, bikeways and rail trail planner for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. "There is rollerblading, and there are at least eight bike rental shops right on the trail now."

Local officials and bicyclists agree that the trail needs widening, but they also say that basic maintenance has to be part of the plan. Dave Maynard, the bikeways chairman in Eastham who spray-painted the potholes, said, "They should maintain what they already have."

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 7/17/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

More On Fireworks
A friend wrote this AM to refer me to these two articles from the NY Institute of Photography:

• How to Photograph Fireworks - load o' shit, I think. It includes info on how to do it with a disposable camera! You can't, I say, you can't! Aperture info is buried and useless.
• Shooting Fireworks with a Digital Camera - much better than above piece of shite.

That second article reminded me that I should have advised you to turn off autofocus! Either set your focus to infinity or use landscape mode (which does the same thing). Also, UV and Skylight filters are okay, of course. Just avoid any filters that cause a marked reduction of light, unless you're going for some special effect.

This nearly useless article about how to photograph your own fireworks at home includes a ton of info about firework safety(!) and nothing about aperture or shutter speed. But it does remind me to suggest that you try sparkler art. Using the same aperture advice I gave yesterday, have your sparkler boy or girl stand in front of the camera and write or draw pictures. Have them try to draw an accurate outline of Iraq!

Ron's Log will be going on brief hiatus while our vast internet headquarters get their floors refinished, their walls painted, and maybe even have something done about those pesky kitchen cabinets. Expect us back mid-July!

Successfully Photographing Fireworks With Either Film Or Digital Cameras

Relocated this essential info today while cleaning out my drawer of old phography equipment. How timely! I had cut a page out of some photo magazine probably 20 years ago, but the info originally comes from Kodak. It's based solely on the brightness of fireworks, so it doesn't matter if you're using digital or film. I guess if fireworks get brighter in the future, then we'll have to make an adjustment, but until then here are the essential numbers:

ASA	Aperture
25	f 4.5
50	f 5.6 1/3
64	f 5.6 2/3
100	f 8 1/3
160	f 11
200	f 11 1/3
400	f 16 1/3
1000	f 22 ½

Of course, with digital cameras (and film cameras where the aperture is set digitally) you may not be able to get those fractions of f-stops, but you can get close.

You want long shutter speeds. Experiment. Longer shots can include multiple explosions. A tripod is mandatory. And, obviously, your camera must allow you to set your aperture and shutter speeds manually. A cable release is necessary for a film camera, and a remote control helps a digital, although the vibration caused by the pressing of the shutter release may be mostly gone by the time the shutter opens on a digital camera. And, oh yeah, be sure to take your polarizing filter off.

The advice above only gives you a good exposure. Getting a good photo takes a little more. It helps to get in some ground clutter to show the scale of the fireworks. If there are steady lights within the picture they may become distractingly bright with a long exposure. If there are low clouds, then some light will reflect back from them. If you're in an urban area, the clouds will reflect the reddish glow of the city. The longer the exposure the greater the brightness of that glow.

I would recommend against using negative film, unless you do your own printing, or you plan to scan the negative yourself. Most print processors will likely give you an overexposed print, so you won't see the great image recorded on your negative. Slide or digital is the way to go.

If one of you black & white nuts want to do fireworks monochromatically, then I have two things to say: (1) you are wacked! and (2) I want to see your photos!

How Many Terrorist Incidents In The U.S. in 2002?

Just learned of this article in the May 8 International Herald Tribune by William Pfaff via Libertarian Party News. Here's the core of the relevant part:

In its annual report to Congress on terrorism, the State Department said that the 199 recorded terrorist incidents last year represented a 44 percent drop from the previous year, and was the lowest total since 1969.

There were no terrorist attacks at all in the United States, five in Africa and nine in Western Europe. Nearly all the rest were in Asia (99), Latin America (50) and the Middle East (29). (Forty-one of the total 50 incidents reported as terrorism in all of Latin America last year were bombings of a U.S.-owned oil pipeline in Colombia.)

I added a panorama of the interior of the Koussevitsky Music Shed to my album of panorama photos. The performance had ended, but Guys' All-Star Shoe Band were still playing.

The Fastap keyboard may make text messaging practical finally. Each letter in the alphabet gets its own key.

Wow! Random Movement Printing Technology. You move a little handheld print device over any printable surface, in any direction, at any speed, in any order, and it prints! Just released as "PrintBrush." More info here.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.

So if I say the President is a blockhead, I could still get in trouble...but if I could find somebody else to say it, and then quote that here, I'm okay. If only there were such a person to speak such slander.

Bush (what a "blockhead") is nickel and diming U.S. troops in combat. Hey, I thought there was a war on?!

Garrison Keillor during an encore after yesterday's performance of A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood. It was my first time seeing a live performance of Prairie Home. The mystery of how all those little notes of greeting get from the audience to Garrison so he can read them on the air after the midpoint break has been solved. It's totally simple. People run up to the edge of the stage and hand them directly to him. It seemed that he read almost all that he got. I had assumed they were first passed through some editor who tossed out the uninteresting ones. So when you go to your live performance, plan ahead, compose, write it down before you go, and then as soon as the break begins rush up to the stage and wait for Garrison's return.

I started a new folder ("album") on my Fototime site exclusively for panorama photos (or, to be more accurate, stitched photos). Some of these are really big, so I won't provide direct links. The advantage of having them at Fototime is you can first view them in smaller sizes and then enlarge any you like. Uploads to that folder today include:

• Shelburne Falls. Shot yesterday. Includes underdressed young men and glacial potholes.
• Two panoramas of Brooklyn shot from Manhattan.
• A pan of the pedestrian overpass over Route 9 in Brookline Village, as well as another pan of the intersection of Washington Street and Route 9 taken from that overpass.
• Boylston Street storefronts near Fairfield Street in the late '80s. This is from black & white negatives.
• Huntington Avenue near the YMCA.
• Homes along The Jamaicaway between Jamaica Pond and the Arboretum.
• The Muddy River near Longwood.
• The view of Palm Springs airport from the Sonny Bono Concourse with Mt. San Jacinto in the background.
• Two panoramas of the trainyards alongside 93 near Bunker Hill Community College.

An article presenting a fairly objective view of the teenage nudist non-issue.

And on a related subject, the Boston Globe (yes! the Globe!) has published this list of 5 beaches where you can get naked in New England!

Garrison Keillor during an encore after yesterday's performance of A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood. It was my first time seeing a live performance of Prairie Home. The mystery of how all those little notes of greeting get from the audience to Garrison so he can read them on the air after the midpoint break has been solved. It's totally simple. People run up to the edge of the stage and hand them directly to him. It seemed that he read almost all that he got. I had assumed they were first passed through some editor who tossed out the uninteresting ones. So when you go to your live performance, plan ahead, compose, right it down before you go, and then as soon as the break begins rush up to the stage and wait for Garrison's return.

I started a new folder ("album") on my Fototime site exclusively for panorama photos (or, to be more accurate, stitched photos). Some of these are really big, so I won't provide direct links. The advantage of having them at Fototime, is you can first view them in smaller sizes and then enlarge any you like. Uploads to that folder today include:

• Shelburne Falls. Shot yesterday. Includes underdressed young men and glacial potholes.
• Two panoramas of Brooklyn shot from Manhattan.
• A pan of the pedestrian overpass over Route 9 in Brookline Village, as well as another pan of the intersection of Washington Street and Route 9 taken from that overpass.
• Boylston Street storefronts near Fairfield Street in the late '80s. This is from black & white negatives.
• Huntington Avenue near the YMCA.
• Homes along The Jamaicaway between Jamaica Pond and the Arboretum.
• The Muddy River near Longwood.
• The view of Palm Springs airport from the Sonny Bono Concourse with Mt. San Jacinto in the background.
• Two panoramas of the trainyards alongside 93 near Bunker Hill Community College.

An article presenting a fairly objective view of the teenage nudist non-issue.

And on a related subject, the Boston Globe (yes! the Globe!) has published this list of 5 beaches where you can get naked in New England!

A double bad day for Trent Lott is a double good day for me:

• Sodomy laws overturned.
• Strom Thurmond dead.

I don't need to link those, do I?

Now that we're gonna be doin' it everywhere, you'll need to be informed on the "Homo Handshake!"

And then, for a sweet dessert, our old pal Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf resurfaces. I saw his photo on CNN. Now he looks like just any man on the street.

The Bay Windows article about last weekend's Phelps demos. I hadn't realized they had originally intended to picket the Unitarian congregation. And I had no idea they left P-town to go picket at the site of The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island. Totally insane.

In Provincetown, the merchants offer various grades of boa.

Old South Meeting House in downtown Boston.

Buy It Now!

The Metropolitan Wind Symphony has put purchasing info up their website (finally) for Spanning The Century: New Works For Winds featuring my photo on the cover. It's low tech:

To order Spanning the Century: New Works for Winds, send a check payable to Metropolitan Wind Symphony, to

  Metropolitan Wind Symphony
  62 Mossdale Road
  Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 USA

for the total cost of the number of CDs you would like, as follows:

• Massachusetts residents: $17.75 per copy ($15 for the CD, $0.75 sales tax, $2 shipping and handling)
• all others: $17 per copy ($15 for the CD, $2 shipping and handling)

95 photos from the Boston-Provincetown Ride. Most are from checkpoint 5 in Truro, but some are in Boston and some in Provincetown. The light was good, and the riders weren't too ragged looking thanks to the cool temps. Other photos from P-town will come along eventually.

The Colossal Colon Tour will be in Boston's Copley Square October 15-18, 2003. More info here.

I hope it's not going to be the theme of the summer of 2003, but here's more "news" about nudist teenagers:

• The Washington Times (terrible right wing rag) tries to get in on the act by covering a naturist camp for teens in Virginia. The article includes Rep. Foley's statement "Obviously I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp."
• The Palm Beach Post writes about a new website created by Foley to oppose nudist teenagers. They conveniently neglect to mention the name or URL of the site!
• But the St Petersburg Times included the URL and actually linked it.
• Here is Foley's site. We point out that Foley is childless and that the teenagers in nudist camps were put there by their parents. Nonetheless, Foley says "This reprehensible exploitation of children subjects impressionable youths to denigrating and dangerous behavior and could expose them to pedophiles." And he calls it an "outrageous abuse of minor children."
• This page has a couple of letters to the editor, which I will quote to save you the trouble of scrolling down the page.

  Nudist camp critic is off base
  
  Re: Nude youth camps cause stir, June 19.
  
  Rep. Mark Foley is way off base regarding the summer camp for nudist children (at Lake Como earlier this month).
  
  "I don't know if anything illegal is going on," is not an acceptable premise for condemning something that has gone on for many years without incident. On Good Morning America, Mr. Foley stated he would be "far more comfortable with children attending Boy Scout/Girl Scout camps." That is not Foley's decision to make. That is a decision responsible parents can and should make based on personal choice and beliefs and without legislative interference.
  
  The fact that pedophilia is far more documentable outside of nudist environments, family/friends, etc., and is highly visible in the religious mainstream (e.g., the Catholic Church), does not bring about initiatives to ban religion. In fact nudist clubs that are members of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR), do an admirable job of throwing out people who cause any trouble. AANR is diligent in maintaining a "Do Not Admit" list of people who cause problems within their club structure. Nudists police their environments extremely closely because of the erroneous beliefs of people like like Rep. Foley.
  
  I am retired and live at Lake Como. I was around during many of the pool activities during the week-long camp. There were nearly as many chaperones as there were participants, and the kids were well behaved and had a great time. These children are largely the offspring of long-time nudists and have been brought up to respect themselves and others, and are far better educated in the physiology of the human body, thus they are also far less likely to become teen parents than those outside the nudist community because the mystique and mystery are removed.
  
  For a Christian-based country the United States has far more rape, teen pregnancy and sexual harassment crimes than any society in the world. Nudism is prevalent and accepted in European countries and they have far fewer problems than the United States. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned in how they educate and interact with their children.
  
  It has been written the past few days that the typical nudist participant is educated, conservative and Republican. I, and many here, fit that description. As a Republican, I am in favor of state and individual rights - less government interfering in my personal decisions and those of others. Hopefully that "Republican trait" will prevail in the coming days.
  
  As for Rep. Foley, he has nudist resorts in his district. He should educate himself at one of them before making asinine assertions.
  
  -- Mark Ashworth, Lutz

  A case of political exploitation
  
  Re: Nude youth camps cause stir.
  
  The mini-flap over 25 nudist children at a summer camp is a good example of what is wrong with politics and politicians in 2003.
  
  Rep. Mark Foley has done fine work on behalf of exploited children, especially in regard to the AMBER network. He is a sincere, dedicated individual who has made, and continues to make, a difference in the lives of untold numbers of kids. However, he is a politician, and his political instincts may be coming into play on this topic.
  
  Nudism and sex are two different things, a reality that can be seen many places in the world besides the clothing-free clubs and beaches in the United States. There is little that is erotic about the naked human form that is not actually in the eye of the beholder. (Believe me; I have seen myself nude. It's not a pretty picture.)
  
  There are people who find naked children arousing - the story described one of them as a COG (creepy old guy) - but that has nothing to do with kids taking part in a nudist summer camp. These particular kids were/are not being exploited in any way. Judging from my own kid's reactions to regular camps (i.e. those with clothes) if the kids didn't want to be there, they wouldn't be there.
  
  Making this a local and national issue, and a cause of controversy, on the other hand, is much more clearly a case of exploitation, both to advance a political career, and to sell papers. Why the New York Times would find something like this worthy of coverage is a mystery.
  
  It is a shame that a man like Rep. Foley would allow himself to get caught up in something like this. Getting a reputation as the guy who wants to shut down nude summer camps will seriously handicap Rep. Foley's future efforts to protect children who really need protection, all for the sake of a few headlines and maybe an invitation to be interviewed on FOX News. It ain't worth it, Mark.
  
  -- Michael P. Higgins, Clearwater

Darryll at checkpoint 5 on last weekend's Outrider ride to P-town.

Phatnoise for Volkswagen. An MP3 player with 20 Gb cartridges. Includes a docking/synch system for your PC. The cartridge goes into a unit in your trunk. Voice controls via the dashboard unit. Not for carloads of screaming brats.

300 Gb hard drive from Maxtor, about $400. This is 50 Gb bigger than the most recently announce biggest HD. ZDNet describes the extra 50 Gb as the equivalent of "300,000 high-resolution photos." Of course! Because all hi-res photos are about the same size, regardless of format. It's the relentless creep of the iPod "5000 song" measure.

266 MHz Pentium(?) 128 Mb RAM, 15 Gb HD, 2 USB, 4 NTSC inputs(!), DVD-ROM drive. It fits in a standard car stereo DIN slot. It's the "Carputer!"

The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown...at night, in the fog.

It's a little late, but I just ran across the informative web site about Joshua Trees. The dearth of information at the Joshua Tree National Park was really surprising. According to their info the whole benefit of a Joshua Tree is that it dies, is consumed by insects and thereby recycled so that another Joshua Tree can grow.

Time magazine does a bit of a follow up on the NY Times story of nude family resorts and how nude teenagers feel about them.

Braking The Cycle, an AIDS ride from Chesapeake Bay to NYC, September 19-21, $3500 minimum donation (breaking the record briefly held by the Empire State AIDS Ride), and limited to only 100 riders who will get to stay in hotels! Benefiting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

California AIDS LifeCycle has got more pictures from Day 7 up on their website. Photos of the closing ceremony are on this separate page.

The Empire State AIDS Ride. 500 miles from Niagara Falls to NYC, August 18-23. Benefiting Doctors Without Borders, AIDS Rochester, African Services Committee and Health GAP. Each rider must raise $3200

Just back from a weekend in Provincetown where it was first cloudy and then cold and then soaking rain. New England Weather 2003. It just goes on and on.

Saturday morning I got down to the Cyclorama about 5 o'clock. We enjoyed the sunrise a little bit. The first volunteers got there about the same time as me. The first rider showed up at 5:10. By 5:30 everything was set up and the riders were getting their numbers. I went down to the corner of Tremont and West Dedham to make sure no one missed this new turn. No one did, but I saw some outrageous running of red lights. I'm not ethically opposed to running red lights. It's an important American tradition to ignore the law, especially when the law is useless...like stop lights at 5:30 on a Saturday morning in a mostly residential neighborhood. But if you're gonna run a red light, you oughtta do it right. Make a quick check for cross traffic, and then make a good turn ("stay in your lane") in case a car is coming that you didn't see. Instead I saw 30 or 40 (out of 200) lame bike riders cutting the left turn short and suddenly finding a car in front of them, or running right up their ass. The highlight was when about 15 people ran the red light forcing a Boston police officer to stop when he had the green light. I think the cop thought it was funny.

The morning of the Outriders ride always finds me very nervous. So I was amazed to see several riders who were calm enough to sit and chat while slowly changing a tube. One rider showed up leisurely at 6:30 (official launch time is 6 to 7 AM, but in reality it's 5:30 to 6:30), then proceeded to take it easy for another quarter hour or so before heading out. None of these late starters were late arrivers. In fact our first rider out (5:40 or so) was our last rider in at 8:35 PM. Not lost. No accidents. No mechanical failures. Just slow.

Me, I took my Scwhinn cruiser over to Commonwealth Pier (AKA "World Trade Center") and took the 8:00 AM ferry to P-town. Got in at 9:40, dropped my stuff off at The Ranch, and made a quick visit to the Fred Phelps demo.

Only got one photo and if you click on the thumbnail above you'll see it. The scene was silent. Phelps and his gang weren't making a sound, and the normal citizens gathered on the other side of Bradford (the police wouldn't let anyone across) just spoke quietly among themselves. Then the Phelps Gang began silently to stack up their signs and pack up their things. I had not seen any communication among them. It was rather Borgish. I thought I was prepared for what I'd see, but it wasn't until they began to pack up that I saw that they had spread American flags on the ground and had been walking back and forth on them as they displayed their signs.

The background behind the gang is Provincetown's bas relief of the signing of the Mayflower Compact, which you can see more clearly if you click on this thumbnail.


Having heard the words of Jesus (as interpreted by Phelps) I hopped back on the cruiser and battled a headwind out to checkpoint 5 in Truro. Got there while Christian Draz (from Truro) and Ken (from Philadelphia) were huddling inside a car, waiting for supplies to show up. Eventually the supplies came, we set up, and before long the riders started flowing through. I took a lot of photos and had a nice time. The riders were pretty relaxed. No one was going overboard for speed. The biggest surprise was Dave Dalena, who has returned to the ride after gawd knows how many years.

About 5:00 or so I had gotten tired of the cold, and over half the riders had come by, so I knew the action was now in Provincetown. Hopped on my bike and headed in. Discovered much to my amazement that good riders after 115 miles are just about the same as me, out of shape, on a one-speed beach cruiser. This allowed me to ride along with a couple of guys, one of whom had done a bunch of Boston-NYC AIDS Rides, Texas AIDS Ride (2 and 3, I think), and probably the Pan Mass Challenge too. To top it off he had a really hairy chest.

The Ranch, for those of you who need to know (most of you don't), is making quite the deal this season out of the fact that they have new owners and have put money into upgrading the place. Well...keep your expectations low. They have indeed added TVs and VCRs to each room, but the TVs aren't hooked to cable or any antenna. They are only for use with the VCR. Both the TV and VCR were of some brand I had never heard of, so I imagine they were unimaginably cheap. Otherwise, why not buy TV/VCR combos? They have tapes that you can borrow for free, of course, but that's not the same as brainlessly channel surfing late at night. Other than that, things are the same: the ubiquitous mildew odor, lights that don't work, and all the good stuff too. Very friendly guests, endlessly helpful staff. But "fixed up a bit" is a huge exaggeration

Saturday evening was rainy and misty, interspersed with cooling breezes. I found a cozy spot at the bar of Bubala's and there I finally saw it! IT! Yessir! I mean I saw a high definition TV that was correctly adjusted and showing images from a high definition source. The difference was obvious. Very, VERY nice! Then someone switched it over to a standard TV signal. Yikes! It was as painful as watching FoxNews.

Sunday the weather was rain, heavy rain, with moments of lighter rain. But I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of one of the other Ranch residents, which leads us to...

SSA gossip:
This guy is from Rockville, Maryland, where he works for a firm that Social Security occasionally retains for consultative purposes. You SSA-ers in the audience know too well the current state of training. For the rest of the world, allow me to summarize. In Baltimore they have a couple of cheezy sets, some low-priced TV cameras, and an affirmative action program to hire "instructors." Training is conducted via a satellite network. Your local people who have to do the work sit in their little offices all around the country, while some poorly trained amateurs in Baltimore (who may or may not be familiar with the subject) conduct the training. It's done live, so that every few minutes they can stop and wait for questions to come in. Now thousands of people may be watching. Each of them has a little electronic box in front of them and is signed in. They are not anonymous. Some brave soul in, say, Marshalltown, Iowa, presses a button on the box and waits. There is a time delay built in, so it is several seconds before the crew in Baltimore knows he is calling. Then suddenly the on-screen personality will brighten and say "We have a caller from Marshalltown, Iowa." Several more seconds go by...we all saw this pattern during the war in Iraq, but communications to Iraq were faster than they are from Marshalltown to Baltimore. Then our Marshalltown man stumbles through his question. The Baltimore crew gives some kind of answer. They can't see the audience, so they don't see the confused looks that cross our faces, and follow up questions are just not possible...not with thousands of others ahead of you in queue. And we've only got 5 minutes for questions, so on we go to the next subject. After an hour of this sort of game, it ends, and the workers go forth to muddle it out.

You in SSA will be happy to know that SSA has hired this consulting firm to see just how good SSA's training is. This is good, because after the employees tell SSA management repeatedly that the training is worthless, and then after retaining 2 or 3 consulting firms, SSA will probably make some real change. We don't know how many other consulting firms have already been brought in on this, but the conclusion from my fellow Rancher's firm was that SSA's training was shit. That's a paraphrase. He wasn't actually too surprised at the quality of SSA training. It was the approval process that got him. His report has been floating around in the purgatory of SSA management approval for months now.

I have spent the week trying to watch Eraserhead. What dreck!

Old North Church.

Amish.blogmosis.com is all on top of checking out a possible copyright violation Orrin Hatch's official website. This is especially important, because Mr. Hatch has announced he is in favor of destroying the PC of anyone who violates copyright law.

Another clever use for an iPod.

Louisiana legistlature outlaws public sex performed for the purpose of drawing public attention. So they have to prove intent, and your traditional "public" sex on mountain tops or deep in the woods remains permitted. Now, if you're gonna do it in the middle of Bourbon Street, maybe you'll want to have a good lawyer lined up first.

Mark Foley, the world's most well known homosexual who still refuses to say he's gay, has let us know he's disgusted, disgusted, I say! that there are camps where teenagers learn to be naked with other teenagers without using drugs and creating a bunch of teenage pregnancies. That Foley! He's all for good solid American values like denial and repression. Hey, he's a rep from Florida. What can I say?

When I was in S.F. last year I noticed their Healthy Penis 2002 education campaign about syphilis. I liked their graphics, got a photo, collected a few more samples from the web, and then sat on them until now. You can go check out the pictures here. It may not be safe for work, depending on how bassackwards your employer is. But this is my opportunity to mention the sharp rise in syphilis rates in many cities, not just San Francisco. Sudden large increases in rates of infection have been reported in Boston, Palm Springs, Provincetown and certainly New York and New Jersey. I imagine there's an increase in all urban areas, but not all are making the press.

More words of guidance from the professional photographer, after my brother consulted with the gods of Nikon themselves without success:

Hi Xxxx, it's Xxxx Xxxx, uhh, 4:00 eastern standard time, which is, I think you're two hours earlier than me, so it's 2:00, so I guess you're still in the kitchen. Anyway, umm, what I would like you to do, uhh, is to send back UPS, guaranteed, to me, the camera, and I will return your $326, no problem. I don't want to dick around with this. If you think the LCD panel is fucked up, if this is fucked up, whatever. Just send me the camera back and there's no problem at all. I have a very good relationship with Xxx at Nikon. So, whatever you think is wrong, is probably not wrong. So, for $326 darling, it's not worth my time to keep making these long distance telephone calls to you. You have my address, X Xxxxxx Xxxxx Road, Xxxxxxxx, New York, XXXXX. The, uhh, equipment is to be sent back to me, X Xxxxxx Xxxxx Xxxx, Xxxx Xxxx, X Xxxxxx, X-X-X-X-X-X Xxxxx Road, Xxxxxxxx, X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X, New York, XXXXX. And, uhh, I would prefer you not dealing with the e-mail anymore. If you have a question, you call my telephone. And you deal with me directly. My telephone is 631-XXX-XXXX. So, I would expect you to maybe get it packed up today, which is Wednesday, go to your little UPS office and have it sent. It also must be sent insured, if there's a problem. If you sent it ground UPS, it's normally $100, there's $100 always insured. And, so, you will insure it for an additional $200, in case they mess up on it, which UPS never does, because I have an account with UPS. Ummmm, and you pay for it. So, umm, that's the bottom line. There's no negotiations. I don't want to keep going on and on with this. It's 300...(answering machine cut her off - machne full!).

And it goes on:

I forgot to mention that I actually spoke with Xxxx on the phone this afternoon. I called her back to check if FedEx ground would be OK, rather than UPS, even though they never make a mistake because she has an account there.

She told me she only had a moment because she was on her way out the door. I said that was OK, since I just had a quick question for her. But before I could even ask her about FedEx, she proceeded to dress me down all over again. It took about 10 minutes total. She added that when she gets the camera back from me she's going to send it to Xxx at Nikon (which I took as some kind of admission finally that there actually is something wrong with the camera) and then put it back on ebay when she gets it back, but this time with a starting price of $600. I didn't bother to tell her that she'll never get close to that on ebay.

She also suggested that if I continue to be interested in used equipment, I should check out a photo store in New York called B&H, rather than shopping on ebay. She rattled off all of B&H's phone numbers about three times each as if I were writing them down. Thankfully, she also pointed out to me that I should be prepared to deal with a bunch of Hasidic Jews, since that's who runs B&H. I was finally able to get a word in and informed her that I, a midwesterner, had actually already done business with B&H. This seemed to bring her some joy, and she quickly pointed out that SHE would never do business there, but someone like me really should.

I finally got an OK on the FedEx ground shipping and politely said goodbye.

Photos from Day 6 of AIDS LifeCycle are up. And here, courtesy of Alexandra, is her [slightly edited] story of highlights from the ride.

The weather was fairly temperate-only Day Three was hot, and that was a bearable 90 degrees-out on the road. It only got to about 45 degrees overnight on one or two occasions. However, we were harassed by constant wind. Day Three, the riders had a 100 mile ride and the headwinds were hideous. Even the zoo animals who arrived at 1 to 2 pm were groaning and shaking their heads. A friend of mine is an endurance specialist and a veteran of several Davis Doubles (a 200 mile ride) and AIDS Rides. But even he arrived in camp looking like a POW.

The non-zoo animal riders suffered abominably in the wind. An amazing number of them rode the following day.

Despite our constant reminders to drink plenty of water and Gatorade, plenty of people still got dehydrated. We had a couple of accidents, fortunately none of them tragic. One man broke his collarbone on Mile 14, Day One. [If I memory serves, that means he didn't even make it to Skyline Drive! -Ron] He stayed with us the rest of the ride, cheering riders in each afternoon. One hot day, he stripped down to display skimpy, form fitting trunks on his buffed shapely body. His clavicle sling looked like a fashion accessory. Yet he was utterly sweet, with an utterly lovely smile, and no attitude at all.

This year we discovered X was so eager to be the first in camp that he was shaving off miles by taking side roads not on the designated route. Karma caught up with him big time in Lompoc. He took a cattle trail and hit a cow. (The cow was OK and ambled off.) X arrived in camp with a scraped face but intact ego. He got no sympathy from anyone, and his mishap became a running joke. As Christine our team captain put it, 'In a community like this it says everything when you get injured and no one has a kind word to say for you.'

It became the joke of the camp. The cow incident happened in Lompoc. We had grilled tri-tip steak for dinner that night, and joked that it was the cow!

Not all zoo animals are like this. One of them used his energy to pull TEN people up Quadbuster Hill last year. That's the way to win love and respect on an event like this.

This year we dispensed butt balm. I had that job for a number of days and it turned out to be a terrific assignment. First, the crotch lube station is an excellent listening post. If people are in pain, you can easily overhear them, and I sent a number of people to Medical and to Bike Tech for bike set up adjustments.

And the butt balm table is a nice way to-ahem-meet people. There's nothing like a situation where you're surrounded by a bunch of friendly folks with their hands down their shorts. It calls for a delicate mixture of humor, tact and kindness. Ribaldry is fine, as long as you are not coarse or prurient. And you see amazing things. One man wore JOCKEY SHORTS underneath his bike shorts. I took a picture of this, for proof. He swore he'd done this for years and that it works for him. For most of us, that would be a recipe for saddle sores from Hell.

We had 25 gallons of Chamois Butter donated by the manufacturer. By Day 4 we ran out. Completely. Finito. All gone. And the ALC organizers were initially reluctant to get any more, on the grounds that we wanted to keep our costs down and riders should know to bring their own supply. A bunch of former riders (including moi) begged hard that they change their minds. Butt lube prevents medical injuries, and isn't a frivolous expenditure.

So our organizers relented and went looking for a replacement. In Lompoc they found it in the local feed and produce store-udder cream. It was fascinating to see how skittish the riders were when confronted by a new product, with a new color, no less. It was like trying to convince young children to switch from Frosted Flakes to oat meal.

That's what happens on a shared ordeal like this: you tend to regress in some degree to childhood. The riders are tired, sleep deprived, confronting the elements day after day, and often in some degree of pain. Adult ego structures loosen up and there can be some regression to childhood-and a corresponding craving for stability and predictability. But camp layout changes each night-including location of the portapotties.

So a change in chamois lube can become a crisis.

Some veteran riders claimed a higher incidence of saddle sores on this years ride. One man told me that he had done other AIDs rides, using the same bike, same saddle, same set-up, never had saddle sores and got them the first time this year. He said he'd met other veterans in the same predicament. One of the Bike Tech people speculated that several things may have happened:

• We had cool weather all week, which made it impossible for bike shorts to completely dry after being washed. Clammy shorts may predispose to saddle sores.
• Road conditions in many places were rough-more jarring.
• Wearing worn out shorts can put you at increased risk.

We had 1,200 riders vs 700 riders last year, so our workload was greater. At Bike Parking the day began at 5:45 am and ended 7 pm, and in some cases as late as 8 pm.

That's pretty much how the week went. Things that are worth their weight in gold are:

• Factor 30 sunscreen
• Factor 30 chapstick
• Smartwool socks-they keep your feet warm in cold wet conditions, remarkably cool in hot weather and prevent foot fatigue when on your feet all day. If you are a rider, bring one or two pair for use in camp. You can use a pair of SW socks for several days in a row and they will not stink.
• Cleat covers or flip flops
• Tiger Balm
• Knee warmers-too many people started the day with bare knees. A recipe for disaster. By Day 5, you'd see a mob of people at Medical tent at 6 am waiting for knee wraps.

And before you leave home:

• Make sure your bike fit is perfect-Bike Tech had to do lots of bike set up adjustments
• Do tons of 90-100 mile rides, preferably a few back to back.
• Assume a temperature range of 30 to 100 degrees and bring rain gear
• Know how to fix flats in your sleep. I met people who had 3 flats in one day. One man had 5 in one day.
• If you are a slow rider, carry energy food just in case they run out at a pit stop.
• When in doubt, bring your preferred brand of crotch lube
• Carry bottles of chamois butter and suntan lotion, but transfer portions to smaller bottles that you can carry in your jersey pocket or bike bag. That way, out on the road, you have a day's supply and the larger bottles can remain in your gear bag

The only types of energy drink provided are Gatorade (in weird flavors and colors like purple and blue) and Clif Bars. Many people get gut cramps or diarrhea from Gatorade. If you find you need other energy drinks such as Cytomax (formulated for endurance riders) you need to bring your own supply.

I had to use every ounce of my will power not to eat all the tempting goodies that staff members brought. At orientation they brought us Krispy Kreme donuts. One day in camp, someone gave our team captain a gift of Baskin Robbins ice cream sandwiches. And at San Buenaventura, staff members brought us bags of ice cream goodies and even offered us In and Out burgers and fries--for free. My body was haywire from allergies and exhaustion and I had to say no--I was scared that I'd give myself indigestion and really fuck myself up. But God, was I tempted!

[Wow! The only "treats" we ever got from staff when I crewed on Pallotta rides were attitude and sassback! -Ron]

The Bike Tech crew were excellent. I know the man who was the team captain for BT and he said it was one of the best crews he's had in the 6 years he has supervised Bike Tech. With the exception of one mechanic who works at a bike shop, the rest were professional mechanics from Trek. They all did excellent work, with no goofing off. In addition, they had a great sound system in their car and played excellent music every morning.

It is no small thing to be a bike mechanic on this event. You work on every kind of bicycle, from esoteric Italian racing machines, to Santana tandems, a variety of recumbents, mountain bikes, plus the many varieties of cleats and shoes. The mechanics often have to go on shopping expeditions to purchase parts and material. On the ride, they will charge for the cost of material. Labor is free.

There is an amendment to Murphy's Law: Any radio station will sound best when in the bike shop. If you tune into that same station at home or at work, the selections are mediocre and you get too many commercials.

The Abercrombie & Fitch in Harvard Square.

I got the following hilarious exchange from one of my brothers this morning. He has just bought a camera via eBay from someone who appears to be an inexperienced seller. First we have my brother's explanation to me:

Bruce:

I purchased a Nikon N90s (a film camera) on ebay last week and finally received it today. First thing I did, since I am kind of anal, was to sit down with the manual and read the first couple of sections closely and then skim through the rest. Having refreshed my memory of the N90s (I've used them in the past), I took the camera out, loaded it with some film and put on a lens. Right off, I noticed a problem.

Below are two e-mails that I sent this afternoon to the guy I bought the camera from. Following that is the text from two phone messages (yes, I sat here hitting play, stop, rewind, play, stop, rewind, as I typed it into the computer) that were waiting for me when I got home tonight. I thought you might enjoy them. Reading the text of the phone messages doesn't do them justice. You really need to hear the voice inflections, but this is better than nothin'.

XX

Xxxxxx:

Just wanted to let you know that I received the N90s today. Thanks for the prompt delivery.

Before I panic and jump to an incorrect conclusion, perhaps you could help me with a couple of things on the camera that see to be eluding me. I've used an N90s before, so I'm fairly familiar with it, but I'm not thoroughly knowledgable on it.

The first thing I am noticing is that even though I can load film and it advances properly, the frame counter in the LCD screen stays on E. Is this normal or am I just not doing something correctly?

Second, the function buttons on the top left of the camera (Mode, ISO, Drive, etc.) that work in conjunction with the command dial, all seem to be completely unresponsive. Are they perhaps under the trance of some sort of locking device of which I'm not aware?

So sorry to bother you with these questions. I hate to take your time. I'm just anxious to use the camera! I'll continue to read the manual. Perhaps I will come up with the answers on my own soon.

Thanks.

Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx

Xxxxxx:

Since my last e-mail I have had the time to inspect the camera more closely and have had it checked at a local official Nikon dealer, Crick's Camera Shop.

It appears that the LCD panel on the top right of the camera is receiving power, but it is not communicating with the camera. I noticed that if I looked in the viewfinder while holding down the Mode button and rotating the Command Dial, the mode was actually changing. It just doesn't show up on the outer LCD panel. There is a readout on the panel, but it just stays constant on one setting - and an incorrect one at that.

Crick's concurs with my findings and mentioned that they had not seen a problem like this before. They said the camera would have to be sent into Nikon for repairs.

For the record, this is the way the camera has behaved from the moment I took it out of the box. I have not dropped it or mishandled it in any way. The camera was packed so very well I can't imagine that this would have any effect on it, but the outside cardboard box in which the camera was shipped was just a bit crumpled on one corner. But the impact that crumpled the corner clearly was absorbed by all the packing material, as the inner camera box was in perfect shape.

Since you described the camera as being in excellent condition, I'm not willing the accept it as it is and would like to discuss options/compromises that will make us both happy. You can either e-mail me, or give me a call here at home. My phone number is 816-XXX-XXXX. I will be gone this evening (Tuesday) until about 9:00 CDT, but will be home after that. Or, I will be in all day Wednesday. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

So sorry this didn't work out better. I was very much looking forward to using the camera!

Xxxx Xxxxxxx

Phone message: Tuesday 7:16 PM

Xxxx, this is Xxxx Xxxx. Umm, my telephone number is 631-xxx-xxxx. Uhh, my husband sold you my Nikon FE2. Umm, what I suggest is... First of all, I have been a professional photographer for 20 years. I have uhh, many, many, uhh, high dollar events that I shoot. I'm from New York and I shoot for Ad Week. I shoot special events in Manhattan continuously. I'm in the Hamptons. I have a very big public relations business. I use two N90's and I have an F3. And I have never had any major problems with the Nikons that I sold you. So therefore, what I'm going to request is that you call Nikon directly. And, Xxx Xxxxxxxx, who is the, who has been working for Nikon for the last 30 years. He is the person in charge of all repair and, uhh, throughout the United States. I'm going to give you his telephone number and he can give you Instructions 101 on how to use the Nikon, since obviously you did not read the manual. His number is 631-xxx-xxxx. Again, 631-xxx-xxxx. My NPS number, which is quite important, that you give to him, you tell him that... I already left a message for, for Xxx that you will be calling. My NPS number is X as in xxx, X, umm, X as in xxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxx, and my name is Xxxx Xxxx. So he can give you all the instructions you need. If you still have problems with the friggin' camera, send it back. And, have it in the box, I want the warranty and, umm, then I will give you a full refund, no problem. Because I just used the camera a few weeks ago on a big shooting and I had zero problems and I have extremely high end customers. I don't know where you're from but I'm from like, Manhattan. So, I don't make mistakes. I've been doing this for 20 years. So, umm, my equipment is in perfect state as Xxx will attest. So therefore, I want you to call him directly and, umm, after you call him directly and he gives you, umm, how to use a Nikon 101 as far as like how to load it, how to load the film correctly, etc., etc., maybe you can call me back, or fax, or e-mail, and, umm, we're not going to work anything out. The price... (answering machine cut off message)

Phone message: Tuesday, 7:19 PM

Xxxx, umm, Xxxx Xxxx again, your machine cut me off. It's, uhh, ten after eight eastern standard time. I don't know where you're from. Iowa. Illinois. You know, wherever. Central. Uhh, you're like a midwesterner. Uhh, I assume. Anyway, umm, as far as your fax, uhh, and, uhh, you know you would be very happy to discuss options, compromises that will make both of us happy. There's no compromises and there's no options. Either you accept it or you return it. Do you understand that? You're getting a very, very good deal. I paid $999 for the camera. The camera is like two or three years old. It's USA guaranteed. I bought it from Berger Brothers, in New York. So, I don't buy shit equipment. I don't buy gray market and the camera has been serviced by Nikon, here in New York. So, umm, as you got my, my earlier message, I want you to call Xxx Xxxxxxx tomorrow. His name is Xxx Xxxxxxxx, X-X-X-X-X-X-X. 631-xxx-xxxx. And like I said, he can go over like Basic Camera 101 with you as far as how to load the camera with film and how to make the camera work. And also, I suggest that you read the handbook. It came with the camera. And, I don't know the little camera store that you took to, uhh, in your little, uhh, in your little village in, uhh, in Iowa or wherever. But they don't understand cameras, obviously. You did not take it to a Nikon dealership because there's none there. Umm, there's only three dealerships. There's only three people. There's only three, uhh, places in the United States that deal with Nikon. And, umm, one is in California, one is in, uhh, Washington, and one is in New York. And I don't think that you're from either one of those places. Not with your zip, not with your area code 816. So, umm, like I said, uhh, fax or e-mail back tomorrow, or you're free to call me and my name is Xxxx Xxxx. Goodbye.

BTW, not that he needs my defense, but my brother really is an experienced photographer...not that he's keeping a photoblog or nuthin'.

On the town beach in Provincetown. Presumably, this was abandoned here after the Provincetown Theater fire a few years ago.

Article in the NY Times about nude camps for teenagers.

Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer is an incredibly enduring, and sometimes irritating little TV program. Many years ago it was the last program before WGBH-TV signed off...back in the days when TV stations signed off. Now, it comes on about 1:00 AM, right at the end of BBC World News, which I try to tape nightly. I usually catch Jack at the end of the tape. Trouble is, he makes only one program a week, so after Monday he becomes the unwelcome household guest. But he has my sympathy — well, he's had it since he finally gave up that Members Only jacket. Once he's gone through a year's worth of his programs, what's he to do? He's dependent on the slow progression of the planets and an occasional comet to break up the repetitiveness.

This week he's taking a really different tack. He's encouraging viewers to observe what he calls "Day Star Day." What he's talking about is the summer solstice, and what he suggests is that you get up 15 minutes before morning twilight begins (man, that's like 3:30 or 3:45 AM here in Boston) and then just sit quietly and observe the effect of the sun's rising on everything around you. Sounds like a good idea. I will be up early that day to help out with the P-town ride, but I don't know if I'll have much chance to sit quietly and observe.

New Toshiba cameras with 10x optical zoom. Only $349 for the 2 megapixel version, $449 for 3.2 megapixels.

Speed dating in Boston! It's a fundraiser for PFLAG's Safe Schools.
Thursday, June 26, 6-8:30 PM - registration deadline is June 23.
Club Cafe's Moonshine Room (209 Columbus Ave)
$30, gotta be 21 or older and GLBT.
781-891-5966 or pflagsafeschools@aol.com for more info.

Hmm. It doesn't say, but I guess you register either by going to Club Cafe and buying a ticket, or you call that phone number and ask them how.

The importance of backups.
A friend of mine just lost a hard drive. Among my readers are the normal sloppy computer users who never made a backup in their lives, and who would not be terribly troubled by a total system failure. And there are others who consider themselves more knowledgeable, more technically astute; those who know that a hard drive failure could be catastrophic; those who think they are prepared for such a thing. Well, my friend who lost his hard drive is somebody from that latter group, the sort of guy who did things the right way...or almost.

The hard drive went with no warning at all. He had had it for a few years and it had performed flawlessly all along. Then Sunday night it just suddenly was gone. No glitches, no flakiness, just a lockup, and then unable to find that drive upon reboot.

Somehow he had let a few weeks go by without backing up that drive, so now he has turned it over to one of those data reclamation businesses. $100 just to look at it. If it needs a new motor to get it spinning again, that'll be $500...if they can find a motor for it. After that, they charge by the gigabyte for data recovery, so he would have to pick and choose what he needs. And then he gets only the data. The drive is trash, of course, motor or no.

Two things important in backups: ease of backing up, and ease of restoring. Lotta people overlook that second one. Years ago at work we had an automatic tape backup. Very easy to do backups. Somebody just had to make sure there was always a DAT tape with lots of empty space on it sitting in the tape drive. A backup was made every night. Then I lost a file and went to our computer administrator and discovered that recovery of that file from the tape was a nightmarishly slow process. After that I began to keep zip backups of important files on diskettes. I could restore a critical file in 10 minutes.

The way I do it now at home is I used Veritas software to make the big backup. As I install new software I keep copies of the installation files on CD. Big software (like new versions of IE) I order from the manufacturer on CD rather than doing the on-line install. Can you imagine having to reinstall Windows 98 and finding yourself with IE 4.0 and having to wait for a zillion megabyte download of the newest version of IE? Get it on CD.

But most important (for me) is a DOS batch file that runs just once a day on my system...at the first bootup each day. It uses PKZip (the command line version) to zip up all the files with the archive attribute. Some system files don't actually need to be backed up every day, so I've built up a list of files NOT to backup and I point PKZip to that file. Every day the resulting zip file is copied to a Zip disk, and when I've got enough of 'em to fill a CD, I burn 'em to it. Now, of course if I lost a file, I wouldn't want to have to go digging through hundreds of zip files on dozens of CDs to find it, so the last step in the batch program is to write a list of the files in the zip file. I keep that file on my hard drive (as well as backed up to CD). So, if I need file X, I have a utility that will search through these indexes to find the last time I zipped it up. Knowing what file it's in, it's not hard to find the correct CD and extract the file.

Of course, the alert reader will wonder about the security of having a bunch of loose CDs with backups of all my e-mail, business info, and perhaps an accidental bit of pornography. Not to worry, I actually use PGP to encrypt the zip files before I move them off the hard drive. So those index files are REALLY important, because there's no way you're going to be able to search through PGP files.

In the event of a complete system failure (where I'd need a new hard drive or even a completely new PC to get going again), I have an unencrypted installation copy of PGP. PKZip is easy to find and install. So I should be able to get myself back together without losing more than a day's worth of data.

If you want an easy backup, just figure out the few important things you want to save. Maybe your e-mail, certainly your address book, financial info, your photos. Then make it a habit to copy those files to a CD (or some other format) daily. If you know how to make a batch file, do it that way.

If you have a Mac, I assume they back themselves up automatically and in half the time it takes for a PC. Just don't try to tell me they don't fail.

Back on May 11 I experimented with using text messaging in place of 411 on an AT&T mobile phone. I wondered if the multiple messages back and forth that are necessary to scroll through a list would cost me. Answer is yes, of course. It cost me $3.70 to figure out how the system worked. A regular voice call to 411 costs $1.50. The text messaging will save you money only if you have enough info to narrow the resulting list down to only 1 or 2 entries. Each back and forth costs 50¢.

Under the stands at Harvard stadium.

Charles Busch's appearance at the SF International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival last week for the showing of Die Mommie Die!.


Here's a poster for the play (some years ago) that my friend Andy has up on his wall.

One notices the poster spells "Mommy" with a "y" while references to the movie use "ie" (not to mention more exclamation points). Ron's Log is trying to track down the origin of this difference for you.

And Ron's Log gets that answer for you from the most definitive source possible:

The play was called Die Mommy Die but the movie is called Die Mommie Die!. I think the latter is better because it evokes Mommie Dearest, not that my movie is all that like Mommie Dearest but well, you know.

B.D. Wong's journey to fatherhood, and other things.

I failed to link to the news story of the DOJ's "partial reversal" of its ban on the observance of gay pride last week. The DOJ is claiming it was just a misunderstanding, saying they meant only that the celebrants would have to pay for the events themselves.

An excerpt from the book Code Name Ginger, which is about the development of the Segway.

Free speech on the internet in Europe an iffy thing.

New Balance corporate HQ in Brighton.

Photos from Day 5 of AIDS LifeCycle are available. And there are a few from Day 7. It looks like they moved the closing ceremonies from Santa Monica to San Vicente. Day 6 is still a blank!

"Supreme Court Sodomy Demonstrations Planned"
That was the subject line of a message in my inbox this morning. A winner. Unfortunately, it's the less interesting sort of demonstration they're talking about and the object of the demonstration is not sodomy, but the sodomy decision. Again, sorry.

The point being, however, (if I grasp it correctly) that the S.C. is expected to announce its decision on sodomy either today (June 16) or a week from today. A schedule of demonstrations (political only...as I said, I am so sorry) in various American cities was included. These are to take place on the day the decision is announced. I'll select a few relevant cities

BOSTON: 6:30 PM - A protest or a celebration depending on what the court decides. Copley Square, Boston. Co-sponsored by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and QueerToday.com For information: Thoppe@NGLTF.org ph. Trevor Hoppe 617.492.6393 or QueerToday.com or Milo200@aol.com

PALM SPRINGS, California: 7 PM - Arenas Road. Sponsor: Stonewall Democrats of Palm Springs. For information: phone 760.320.5787 or e-mail info@desertstonewall.org

Ekavet has an extremely graphic Fotolog that includes photos from surgery. He's a professional medical photographer.

This year's Boston-Provincetown maps are up on the web.

Map of Metafilter members by zipcode. Montana and Wyoming are completely empty!

The new 8-color gay pride rainbow banner in Key West.

Yikers! Iggy Pop has aged worse than I thought.

A studio shot of my father from many, many years ago.

Glittah has some good photos from yesterday's gay pride parade. I'm partial to this one.


It seems Starbucks had a float in the parade.

In this photo we see a couple of average Brazilians out for a stroll.

Jr is another Brazilian Bostonian (well, maybe a Cantabrigian).

bostonroads.com is site for, uh well, Boston roads: history, unbuilt roads (you know, the Inner Belt), maps, traffic. It's got a couple of glitches: references to the South End as "South Boston" and getting the name of the Zakim bridge backwards: "Bunker Hill-Zakim."

The problem of marijuana plantings in national parks.

Here's what today's Globe had to say about Phelps:

P-TOWN PROTEST The Provincetown International Film Festival doesn't open until Wednesday night, but a Kansas minister known for his vitriolic rants against gays and lesbians notified Provincetown officials, church leaders, and the festival's organizers that he's scheduling a protest during the festival because of what he calls its depravity. Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka has posted his mission statement and details of the schedule protests on his website but could not be reached for comment. "He's been here before; the town basically just ignores him," said the film festival's executive director, PJ Layng. "That's what we're doing." The planning goes on for next week's events, which will include appearances by actors Campbell Scott and Hope Davis and the festival's guest of honor, filmmaker Todd Haynes ("Far From Heaven").

Amish Man Faces Meth Charges
CORYDON, Iowa -- An Amish man in southern Iowa is facing drug charges Friday.

Marvin Nisley, 28, of rural Wayne County, was arrested last month on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.

Wayne County Sheriff Keith Davis said authorities were surprised when they were asked by the Amish to investigate.

The Amish usually take care of their problems within the community. Davis said those efforts had failed.

Nisley is out of jail on bond. A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

A sensible, helpful guide to winning at Carny games.

Finally, a truly useful study: 44% of Americans iron clothes while buck naked. Men more than women, younger more than older, blacks & hispanics more than whites.

Added one more photo to yesterday's collection of Big Dig photos.

This one.

An old photo of me posing on the breakwater in Provincetown. In the distance you can see the Pilgrim Monument.

Gambian giant pouched rats are just as ugly as you'd expect.

Got my first comment at Fotolog from a Ron's Log reader. Thanks for that! I thought maybe I was going to have to include a brief tutorial here on feedback. All my photos at Fotolog have a space where you can make public comments...and you can always e-mail me here at RonsLog@rbgilbert.com

I'm sure I'm not the only person with a digital camera. It's about as easy as it can be to start your own Fotolog. Free too, if you can be happy with one photo a day. Upload a picture, add a few lines, voila, you're photoblogging.

Contrail_artist has added some great aerial shots of California's Central Valley to his collection at Fotolog.

Photos from Day 3 of LifeCycle (including Quadbuster) are up, and it looks like they are working on Day 4 as I write. It looks like they just posted every photo they had for Day 3. Lot of repeats.

Yesterday was spent arrowing the Boston-Provincetown bike route. It took longer than ever, because our "10% chance" of rain was spread throughout the day pretty evenly. After every 9 minutes of humid, gray air we'd have 1 minute of rain. Dan was driving, and I was doing most of the arrow painting. A couple of times we were on the edge of quitting for the day when we saw the arrows simply float on top of the water, and gradually slide away to the side of the road. But each time Dan suggested we drive further out on the Cape to see if we could find a dry stretch. Each time we did this, it worked! So we managed to get the whole 130-mile route marked, but only by hopping back and forth, in and out of dry zones. Left here before 5:00 AM and got back about 7:30 PM, very tired.

As we came back into the city, Dan drove me through the not-so-very new Liberty Tunnel and over the Zakim Bridge. My first since they went live. Eh. The tunnel was a tunnel. In fact, when we entered I thought we were still in the old tunnel, and waited for a sharp improvement to new, shiny tunnel. Never happened. I think Bostonians were impressed merely by the fact that all the new tunnel lacks all the crud of the old tunnel, and they have "rationalized" the lanes. That is, the lanes now are like they are in most of the other 50 states: once a lane starts, it keeps going and doesn't terminate for a long ways, and when it terminates, plenty of advance notice is given to the driver. This is an alien concept in Massachusetts.

Here you are. Finally, down in the Big Dig itself. The Liberty Tunnel in all its 3 lanes of glory! What's that I hear? You ask about 3 lanes? Weren't we promised 4 lanes for our (excuse me, "your") $15 billion? Weren't there 3 lanes on the old Central Artery overhead? Well...yes, yes, yes, and yes. I suppose there was a footnote in all that PR somewhere that we just neglected to read. Sorry about that.

When the riders on the Boston-Provincetown ride (which is next Saturday, June 21) arrive in Provincetown, the finish line is at Bas Relief Park, which is right behind town hall, at the base of the hill on which the Pilgrim Monument stands. This is where the riders check in, get their t-shirt, pick up their baggage and hang out and socialize. We've used a few other spots around town, but most years we're at Bas Relief Park. We get a permit from the town months in advance to use it. Now, suddenly, Dan (head guy, who helped me arrow yesterday) gets a call from the town of Provincetown saying that the infamous Topeka uber-homophobe Fred Phelps is scheduled to be in Provincetown on the very same weekend. He may be there to express is disgust at the Provincetown film festival, which is also the same weekend. We don't think he's noticed US yet. Anyway, the town would like to contain ol' Phelps somewhere, and they think Bas Relief Park would be a great place to contain him, and would we please move our finish line to somewhere else in town. Dan had the decency and self-respect to quickly answer "Hell, no!" (I paraphrase). This hateful slimeball brings himself into town and WE are supposed to take our beautiful, physically fit, morally superior selves and slink off to some dank corner of Provincetown out of sight of Fred and his spiritually-blind fools? What could the town of Provincetown be thinking?!

Later, the town called Dan back and said we could stay where we are, that Phelps had agreed to move his demo to Sunday. How Christian of him. This makes moot my suggestion that they demonstrate at the TOP of the Pilgrim Monument. They will be easily contained, and you can see Boston from there. If any of them decided they wanted to join us, they could "drop in" so long as somebody shouted "Head's up!" first.

So next weekend we'll all be there: Ron's Log, Fred Phelps and John Waters. One wonders where the Phelps clan stays. Do they know about tea dance? Will they hang at the A House? Will they stroll Commercial and buy a t-shirt? Will they hear the call of the after-hours crowd at Spiritus? When they get to Herring Cove Beach will they turn left or right, and will they get skinny?

I've posted some recent Big Dig and Zakim Bridge photos at Fototime. The folder is here. Go there, and you can control how big the photos are. Or, click the links below and get the full size images:

	A June 2003 view northerly along the old Central Artery towards the Zakim Bridge. You can see the southbound traffic has been rerouted to the formerly northbound side. Northbound traffic runs in the "Liberty Tunnel" underneath.
	June 2003 panorama of the Central Artery. Compare this to a panorama from the same spot in April 2002.
	Same day, a southerly view of the Central Artery and Boston Hotel.
	Sponge Bob. You can see a Zakim Bridge tower in the background.
	Some supporting structure of the old Central Artery.
	A view of both bridges from the Charles River dam.
	Traveling north on the Zakim Bridge at dusk, June 2003.
	A tower of the Zakim Bridge alongside a crane working on the Green Line tunnel, June 2003.
	Zakim Bridge tower with the old Central Artery bridge in the foreground.
	Looking up at a Zakim Bridge tower from traffic, June 2003.
	In traffic approaching the Zakim Bridge, June 2003.

AIDS LifeCycle photos for Day 1 are up now. They had fog.

I'm sure that's Ginger.

Wow! Day 2 photos are up too! Somebody got yelled at!

I have a couple more snow photos for you. Yes, even though summer is approaching for most of us, my southern hemispheric readers are looking ahead to wooly sweaters and antarctic blasts (I do have my Brazilian following you know; not to neglect mentioning the New Zealanders and Australians and lone South African...how I long for a Tasmanian fan!). Anyway, to finally bring to a close the thread on this past winter's ice and snow penises, here we have photos of two other snowy variations on that theme: snow jerk and snow blow. These may not be safe for work...depending on where you work. But if you get caught anyway, remember these are just snow and ice, and they were public art at one time...until the first thaw or the first politically correct lesbian, whichever came first.

Yesterday was nearly a record-breaker for traffic at Ron's Log and damned if I can figure out why. Things have been languishing at near average loads for quite sometime and then yesterday a big ol' spike. At first I thought the world was coming to me for the raw truth about the coral calcium fraud (I got a coral calcium spam this morning!), but there was no heavy traffic on that page. It might be the Canon G5. That has crept up to 5th place in search terms, bumping anything erotic, gay or pornographic out of my top 10. If any of you readers want to tell me what brings you here today, I'm all eyes.

"The Good Life" in downtown Boston.

The FDA is finally going after Robert Barefoot and his outrageous coral calcium claims. Told ya so!

List of links for the Canon Powershot G5.

Of course, the California AIDS LifeCycle has been going on since Sunday. 1300 riders this year. Up considerably from last year. I see that on Day 1 they kept last year's monster hill, but the riders got to finish up in Santa Cruz. What a cushy ride! And Chicken Lady is back! (As usual, website updating is running behind schedule. It's Tuesday, and there are no Sunday pictures yet. I see my future volunteer opportunity.

View of downtown Boston (including the Zakim bridge) from the top of the Bunker Hill monument.

A Wired article about current events at Fotolog. It seems I surfed in right at the crest of their popularity wave. It was good. Completely free. There was a limit of 6 photos a day...a limit I was completely unaware of, since I settled on 3 or 4 as a reasonable amount for myself. Then they changed. It's still free, but you're limited to 1 photo a day, and each photo can accept only 10 comments. If you want more, you have to pay $5 per month. Since then things have quieted down quite a bit. I can accept that they have to pay for their rapidly increasing bandwidth somehow, but the deal they are offering isn't too tempting for me.

One, they haven't tried ANY advertising. I dislike ads as much as the next guy, but some tasteful textads would produce some income. Two, they didn't come out and straightforwardly announce the change in policy. Instead, the usual login fields simply disappeared. At about the same place on the home page was something vague about contributing through PayPal. Well, they have always accepted donations through PayPal, so I just skipped over that in a mad search for the login. Not to be found, I realized the PayPal message was a link and clicked it. Then I got a page where they rambled on rather unclearly about increasingly heavy traffic. The clue that their upload policies had changed was in a sidebar that was unclear and that I skipped over the first time because it was labeled "Gold Camera Features." I wasn't gonna pay for the gold camera, so why read the benefits. After reading the page, they let me see the login fields, and it was when I got to my upload page and saw the warning about how just one more upload would max out my limit of one upload per day that I realized something had changed. Then it was a mad search to try to get back to that rambling page (the link had disappeared from the front page) to re-read it. I don't like unclear instructions. It reminds me too much of 26 years in the gov't.

Third, whether you pay or not, your photos are resized when you upload them. I'd prefer they let ME edit to their size limit, and then they can just accept it or reject it. Also, the photo icons are all 100 x 75, regardless of the actual aspect ratio of the original photo. This has always been true, and I don't mind it for a free service. But at $5 a month I expect more benefits than I was getting before for free. Also, if you pay you get this really tacky gold camera icon displayed next to your name.

So, I haven't paid up, obviously.

A lot of people on Fotolog have been really pissed off. I think part of that may be due to the rough way they switched into the new policy. Part is also because you didn't get anything additional for your $5. A lot of Brazilians complained loudly, taking the opportunity to deface other user's comment sections. The result was a lot of loud "generalizations" about Brazilians. Some people who upped for the $5 took on a loud, nose-in-the-air, "I am SO much whiter than you" attitude. A couple of people who used to be in my Favorites engaged on both sides of this rude argument. I kicked 'em out. I was sorry to see how low they could go.

Boston cabs will begin installing TV monitors to display advertising to passengers. They will be equipped with a mute button...which means they expect to include sound! And it means the out-of-town passenger will be sitting there in the darkened cab trying to find that goddammed mute button. Next time I'm planning on a ride in a Boston taxi, I'll try to remember to bring along a couple of strips of duct tape for my own "Visi-Mute" option.

Gizmodo takes a brief glance at 1983 technology: early cell phone $4000 with a 30-minute battery, first Microsoft mouse $195 (but it had two buttons), etc.

Apple jumps on the G5 bandwagon. "G5" is the trendy new tech name for summer 2003.

Cambridge adopts a smoking ban effective October 1. This experiment in choice is going to be short-lived.

Classroom art treated as fire hazard. Maybe more schools will buy kilns and teach pottery instead.

The Boston Globe valiantly tries to document the Maine Commemorative Quarter by words only! A picture is worth a thousand quarters (i.e. $250).

Andy K. visiting from Seattle.

San Francisco Bay Guardian article about the Pink Pistols.

The Shell station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

The new Dimage Xt: 5% smaller than the Xi, 8% lighter. Still has 3.2 megapixels and 3x zoom. 1.2 second startup time, which they say is the fastest of any camera with zoom. About $400 at B & H.

Some people are excited about Turbo10 which is yet another search engine that claims it will blow Google out of cyberspace. Yeah, right. First, it just doesn't work in Opera. Bad java. So there. Total failure. As far as I'm concerned I don't need to test it further, but I did for your sake. Loaded IE and fed it my usual search engine test phrase. Only Google and Teoma succeed on this term (which is a secret). Turbo10 joined the ranks of the hundreds of failed search engines by failing! I gave it an easier search: "shell station memorial drive cambridge." The results were not close, not even in the ball park. Took me back to the days of Alta Vista. Forget Turbo10.

Possibly the world's largest model of the Solar System to be dedicated in Maine this month. 40 miles from Pluto to the sun. Trouble is, the sun is located in Presque Isle which is located way beyond the edge of human life. Solar System's official website is here. "We hope to have Uranus up in the Spring." No comment from me. The model built by the Museum of Science in Boston puts Pluto about 10 miles from the sun. That's a guess since the website has shockingly few details on their model.

FM radio on an SD card. Only about $50. I'm not rushing out to buy it.

DOJ bars "a group of employees from holding their annual gay pride event at the department's headquarters, the first time such an event has been blocked by any federal agency." Their excuse is that the President has neglected to declare June to be gay pride month. I look forward eagerly to the next press release from the Log Cabin Republicans where they praise this as yet another great advance in the history of freedom and tolerance.

Here Governor Bush declares "Jesus Day" in Texas in 2000.

Bravo has a gay dating program coming up where some of the participants are heterosexual? I don't get it. But it was filmed in Palm Springs!

Coolidge Corner theater (theater's site here).

Boston Springtime Colonoscopy Review
I don't know if they're just trying to clear their schedules so they can be free during the coming vacation months, or if all those G.I. specialists looked ahead at the summer's expenses for boats, vacation homes, cruises, flights, weekend debauches in Vegas, etc. and decided they needed to fill their coffers now. Whatever the reason, this is the season for colonoscopies. In case you don't already know, when you go in for a colonoscopy, you are supposed to have someone to accompany you afterwards. This is because the sedative they use may leave the patient sleepy or a bit unfocused. It seems a lot of my friends have allowed themselves to move into their sixth decade, which is when we are called up to support the vacation fantasies of those G.I. specialists. Three of them had colonoscopies scheduled over the last 10 days. All three of them when selecting a partner to accompany them after the procedure thought to themselves something like "Why not Ron? He just sits on his increasingly fat ass all day, thinking up smartass bon mots about the relaxed pleasures of retirement while still young, vibrant, and possessed of a completely healthy colon." They overlook the time and effort I pour into Ron's Log. Still, I agreed to do it. They all three went to different clinics, so I have material for my first review of colonoscopy in Boston, as seen from the point of view of the guy who has to wait.

I regret to tell you that privacy will not be violated [this time].

The three clinics are:

• Tufts New England Medical Center - which we'll call NEMC
• Beth Israel Deaconess East Campus (formerly just "Beth Israel") - call it BID East
• Beth Israel Deaconess West Campus (formerly just "The Deaconess") - call it BID West

Prep: Both BID East and BID West waited until only a week before the procedure to mail (via regular U.S. Postal first class mail) to the patients instructions on the preparations for the procedure. Both of these patients had to call their clinics first to remind them to send it. The material mailed from BID West never arrived before the procedure, so they faxed it to the patient the day before. What a waste. Not only do they have to take up staff time dealing with inquiries and followups from patients, but they probably make the medical care suffer for a few of them. NEMC sent the info out in plenty of time, but that patient forgot to observe the "no aspirin for 5 days" rule. Maybe they sent it out too far in advance.

BID East instructed the patient to use the old fashioned enema procedure. Both NEMC and BID West went with the drinking of that saline solution which means less equipment, and should be simpler. But both of the patients using the saline failed to follow the instructions exactly. One neglected to drink fresh water along with the saline. It still did its job, but the next morning he was dehydrated. The other downed all four liters of it at a run (so to speak) along with fresh water. You're supposed to space out the drinks about 20 minutes apart.

I didn't get to see the intake forms at either BID location, but I want to say that the NEMC intake questionnaire took the usual medical form English to new depths of obscurity. Two college degrees inspecting these extraordinarily brief bursts of words upside down, back to front, right to left, could wring no meaningful sense from them. Finally, we realized it didn't matter. He was present and his insurance was willing to pay...the procedure would proceed regardless.

The waiting area: BID West is clearly at the bottom in this area. The whole building (the Farr Building, if you want specifics) needs paint and clean carpets and better ventilation. It was too warm, but it was especially bad in the G.I. waiting room, which is too obviously a patient room that was converted. It's small with only one door, a big south-facing window with no curtains or blinds, and what used to be a patient's bathroom adjoining (with a shower!). The bathroom is just right there. Any noise in there can be heard easily in the acoustically bright waiting room. There isn't even a ventilation fan to provide a bit of masking. This is the first institution I've been in where I felt more comfortable taking the elevator down 8 floors to use the public restroom in the lobby.

There was a TV in one corner that was on and tuned to channel 5 and whatever morning program they have on whatever network that is. Since I was the first person in there I went to switch to a more pleasant channel only to discover we were watching over-the-air TV! Yikes! How economical. At least we had excellent reception. For reading material there was The Metro and a copy of Cat Fancier that someone had left behind. There was no pleasant place to stroll to unless you went back down to the lobby. BID West (like BID West) is part of the gigantic Longwood medical area, so the neighborhood is not like any real neighborhood. Olmstead's Muddy River is only a block away, but if you want food you're pretty much restricted to the food court at Children's Hospital.

As the room gradually filled I noticed almost every one came with only one accompanist. At NEMC and BID East I saw more patients being accompanied by 2 or even 3 people. Every patient at BID West was white. Every one. No exceptions. No borderline cases.

The chairs at BID West were small, worn, too close together, and a variety of styles apparently gathered from other former uses. I was (it seems) the only person saintly enough to switch his cell phone to silent mode (I even made sure my keypresses were silenced). And now I must ask why those people who bury their phones in inaccessible parts of their baggage are always the ones to select the loudest and most obnoxious ringtones? The worst, really, was not the cellphone but the damned bitch who sat at the table in the middle of the room manually transferring all data from one PIM to another. Every keystroke on one PIM pinged, while it ponged on the other. This went on for at least an hour when I was finally reprieved by a silent buzz in my pocket as the nurse called me to come to the patient's side.

The waiting area at NEMC was completely adequate. The chairs were all one style, clean and comfortable enough. Flourescent lighting everywhere. There was no TV. There was a lot of good reading material. The restroom was a good 50 feet away and around a corner. Patient privacy was the weakest at NEMC as a lot of business was discussed at the receptionist desk so we could all hear it. The waiting room is buried deep inside NEMC, so there's no daylight, but there's a lot of strolling space at NEMC, since it's built like the Starship Enterprise. I've never actually discovered its outer limits. The bridge over Washington Street is a nice spot to stand and just watch people and traffic. Plus, NEMC sits astride the borders of Chinatown and the Theater District. You can get drunk and feast like a pig while waiting for your friend's ass to get blown out. Most of the patients at NEMC were Chinese...or at least East Asian immigrants - I can't nuance the difference between all the languages. The big surprise was the young (30s?) woman (probably Vietnamese) immigrant whose cellphone rang with Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries. We guessed maybe she had been a child extra in the filming of Apocalypse Now. Most conversations were NOT in English at NEMC. The overall impression was of clean, reliable, efficiency. At BID West it was something like "If we can keep this shit working for another quarter we may be able to stave off bankruptcy." At NEMC my waiting ended when the nurse popped out and called me.

The waiting area at BID East: ***** 5 Stars! If you have to wait, this is where you want to do it. The space was clearly modeled after those private lounges at airports (and a few Amtrak stations). It was very large, with plenty of place for ambling without even leaving the waiting acreage. Excellent indirect lighting with a mix of halogen, incandescent and fluorescent. It was quite good for reading. In fact, it beats any public library space I've ever seen. Excellent acoustics. Even though there were twice as many people here as at BID West or NEMC, it seemed as hushed as a crowd at a Protestant funeral. There were work kiosks with working telephones! Tables were off to one side. The chairs that made up the main part of the waiting area were oversized and very comfortable without seeming decadent. They were spaced well apart with an admirable repsect for privacy. Families could let their kids roll around on the floor in front of the chairs and nobody tripped or got stepped on. You could choose to sit in an area that looks out on the well-designed entry courtyard, or move in a little farther where it's not so bright. There is no TV. Reading material is nicely laid out on a polished wooden table next to the reception desk and includes several volumes of Reader's Digest Condensed Books! That took me right back to the 60s. The restroom is a hundred feet away around a couple of corners. You have a choice of private room or small shared restroom.

The staff at BID East have been trained to a level of service comparable with Nordstrom's! Clearly every employee regardless of job title saw it as his responsibility to help me in any way I might need it. While waiting at the reception desk to see if my friend had arrived yet, an attendant from the parking garage slipped behind the counter to try to help me! Later when I was trying to get a taxi and someone was using the taxi phone (yes, this was the only clinic with a dedicated taxi phone!) to try to call a room inside the hospital, one of the security guards came in from outside to help me. She walked me over to another phone I hadn't seen and called the taxi for me! The only service glitch at BID East was that the nursing staff failed to call me when my friend was ready. He said they had my