Entries from July 2005 ↓

This conversation between myself and the Sicilian occurred approximately 20 minutes ago on the way back from Brooklyn. Somehow we were talking about these Fear Factor / Survivor type shows where contestants eat maggots and cow testicles and drink curdled milk. We don’t actually watch these programs, mind you, but they are part of the wallpaper, and we took them in somehow.

Verbal Chameleon: How can they eat raw cow testicles and not get sick?

The Sicilian: Man, I don’t know.

VC: I once knew a guy that was living among a tribe in Africa. He was given a piece of an animal’s heart or liver or some other organ in this ceremony; it was ritually important for everyone to eat it. So he did. Now he has Hepatitis or something. Some kind of Hepatitis you can’t get rid of.

TS: Hepatitis? Wow. I wonder if Zombies get that.

VC: Zombies?

TS: Yeah , you know. Zombies.

VC: But–what are Zombies, exactly? Dead people?

TS: Yeah, you know, the walking dead.

VC: Okay.

TS: So, you know, they eat all those livers, kidneys, all kinds of things. I wonder if they get Hepatitis.

VC: But they’re dead! They’re already dead. So what the heck does it matter if they catch a virus??? Anyway, don’t they eat everything? Or are they simply partial to the inner organs?

TS: I don’t know. I also wonder if they ever get enough, or if they just eat and eat and eat.

Note to everyone: if you’re not interested in either Six Feet Under or Quakerism, do feel free to skip this post!

Note to 6 Feet Under Fans: No spoilers below, I promise. Incidental details only.

There are not a lot of television shows I give a rat’s ass about, but I do love this one. Despite the fact that I think the writers became way too melodramatic a long time ago. And what’s with Nate’s bizarre behavior? (Just an example, this week, Maggie said, “Life is scary,” and Nate responded a little too loudly and with a demented grin, “It’s fucking terrifying!”)

So this week on 6FU,
Nate visits a Quaker meeting. For some reason, he can’t stop calling it a “Quaker Church.” I doubt I have any Quaker readers, so I should say that the Quaker religion has a few major branches in the US, and yes, there are Quaker churches. I won’t bore you with the detailed taxonomy. However, I would say Nate attended a liberal unprogrammed Quaker Meeting. (”Unprogrammed” just means there’s no minister, no set service or program: everyone sits and waits, and if they are moved by the spirit to say something, they do; there are also “programmed” meetings where at least some of the meeting is planned, and there might be readings, agreed-upon-in-advance singing or other features typical of other denominations.)

The other thing that was odd was that the meeting was held in a room that looked like a cross between a typical Protestant church and (oddly enough) the Fisher’s funeral parlor. This was inauthentic to me, because everyone was sitting in pews all facing in the same direction, as if they were looking at an altar. I’ve been to around 15 different meetings and never seen such a situation. The idea is that you face one another at least to some degree (typically with at least two sets of rows facing one another, sometimes four sets of rows, all facing a “center,” or a circle of chairs, depending on what’s possible). In Nate’s case, he had a room full of people talking at one another’s backs.

And then when they opened their mouths, well–that was a bit off too. It was bizarre that a member of the meeting stood up and asked for a lift home during the actual Meeting itself. It might seem like you can just get up and say something anytime you like, but that’s not what’s supposed to be happening. And this woman was obviously a long-time attender. At the end of the meeting, one Friend started singing a song and everyone joined in, knowing all the words. This is possible, but improbable: I have heard people sing spontaneously during an “unprogrammed” meeting a few times, but I have never seen everyone join in.

Sadly, the meeting that was portrayed was did not seem in any way what Quakers call gathered (loosely defined, by “gathered” I mean that there’s some sort of unity present in the room; often this becomes visible–or audible rather–by the messages which are shared vocally). If I had seen this show, it might not make me want to visit my first Quaker meeting.

On the other hand, it was nice to see Quakers in the popular media. We don’t get much airtime, you know. Most people think they’ve never met a Quaker, even if they have. Two folks I worked with when I was 21, asked me if I used electricity: confusing us for Amish (who speak a dialect of German and live a pre-modern lifestyle) and Shakers (who are celibate and all-but-extinct) is typical.

So despite these little quirks, and despite the fact that Nate seems to be losing his marbles in general (which, one hopes, would not make folks think Quakers loopy by association), it was nice to see. My favorite famous practising Quaker? Dame Judi Dench, of course! She went to a Quaker boarding school with A.S. Byatt and still attends meetings regularly. She’s quoted as saying, “It’s the only time I’m still.” My friends would probably attest to the fact that it’s the only time I’m quiet.

After my requisite subway ride in, I went walking tonight in Manhattan at 6pm, the other end of rush hour, and noticed lots of suspicious activity:

A man sitting on the benches in a subway station, but not on a subway platform (therfore not waiting for a train). Any sensible person would wait outside; the heat index outside was around 110 degrees with breezes; inside the subway platform it was hotter, more humid, and stagnant air. I thought about calling the police but decided that he was more likely a madman than an explosive one. And madmen are a dime a dozen.

Me walking an unnecessary extra mile before going to my destination, in the name of some minimal kind of exercise, despite the heat. Very suspicious.

But some sightings that might seem odd were not-so-suspicious:

The crazy man all zipped into a leather pilot’s jacket (the thick kind) in said heat, nodding to himself, shaking his head, and spitting, on the grates outside Bryant Park Station. He’s there every day.

Piles and piles of giant suspicious black packages on every street corner: it’s garbage collection night in Midtown.

Thousands of people milling around very slowly (um, loitering?) — each wearing a backpack, or sporting a briefcase, large purse, Macy’s bags or cargo pants with enormous bulging pockets. That’s just business as usual around these parts.

I myself had an open topped small bag large enough to contain something troublesome. In fact, it contained a liter of water, a handkercheif, some smokes, and a cellphone. You know what you can do with cellphones. I smuggled the water into my library-of-choice. We all break some kind of rules, even us seemingly law-abiding folk.

Yes, SWBB–don’t you know? It’s a new acronym I made up. You can apparently be handcuffed simply for Sightseeing While British (only if you’re brown, I expect, though this detail was omitted from the article). Five tourists (from their names, I gather they are of South Asian descent) British citizens one and all were handcuffed Sunday at 11:30 am when a bystander approached police to complain of five men on a tourist bus “carrying backpacks.” (Later, it was not clear whether any had backpacks at all.) The police evacuated the bus but handcuffed just those five men for ten minutes. Apparently they were considered suspicious because they had purchased their tour tickets in advance. Bloomberg is grovelling his apologies to the British Counsulate. Too little, too late.

On iTunes as we speak: Mutabaruka’s “Whiteman Country.”

Okay. Security is important. But is there any evidence that this will increase subway security? Sure, it can’t hurt subway security. But look at the airport analogy: there’s supposedly no racial profiling (yes, if it’s true, and I’m not sure it is, then that’s definitely a good thing in my book). So what happens is that random people are searched. Is there any evidence that anyone has been caught with anything (besides that fifth butane lighter that is forbidden)? What we are going to get in the subway is the equivalent of 80-year old grannies being searched.

Here’s my suggestion, New York: those big black garbage receptacles in the subway? Serious security risk. Bags on the subway? People need to learn not to leave them. I lived in the UK during the IRA bombing campaigns and many a time encountered public transit shut-downs while police investigated abandoned parcels and suitcases. Seriously annoying? Yes. But it was necessary. But we all have to get a clue and realize that people can attack our subways without being suicide bombers. And we need to start paying attention to unattended stuff.

More police presence is a good thing. People looking around on subways and buses is a good thing. Bomb-sniffing dogs are a good thing. Other means of detection–whatever these may be–are a good thing. But I don’t think that random searches are going to make a big difference. Especially with those darned big black opaque garbage cans.

And I doubt that random searches will turn up anything. Any more than the guy who searches people at the library keeps folks from bringing in beverages or gum or Lord-knows-what they’re looking for.

Update: Magikthise has a great posting and an active comments thread on this very issue. Check it out!

I hope I don’t startle you, gentle reader. You aren’t used to much from me lately, and now it may seem as if I have glued myself to the chair in front of the computer. Not so. But I want to draw your attention to the Freeway Blogger. I like this idea a lot. I’d like to link to some of their awesome photos, but I don’t want to suck their bandwidth (I know, I know, I have 10 readers, but still.) So you’ll just have to visit them yourself. One of my favorites: “Nobody Died When Clinton Lied.” Another: “We’re all wearing the blue dress now.”

John G. Roberts may not be the worst possible nomineee Bush could put forward for the Supreme Court. But he’s living in their neighborhood. The Democrats called him a “Friend to Big Business, the Mining Industry and Ken Starr.” The Family Research Council like him. He’s argued for prayer at public school graduations, against the Endangered Species Act, and given lots of money to Bush’s campaigns (his law firm has given over $92K in the 2006 cycle alone). I’m with Bicyclemark on this. Can you buy a seat on the Supreme Court? What a country!

I am loving this site called Book Coolie. The author says, “We are a gang of people who like books and carry them like coolies;” count me among you.

A glance at the blog calls up descriptions of Joyce walking in Trieste, an interview with Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philip, a review of Selvon’s Lonely Londoners (one of the most important books in my world, as some of you know), a blurb on Bass Culture, and an interview snippet with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Check it out.

According to Nedstat I had 62 page views last week and one of the last ten visitors was logged in at Halliburton. Surely they have more profitable things to do than read extremely-low-volume blogs with messages about tweaking Wordpress Templates and being disappointed by the driving-music-of-choice of animated middle-aged white men.

It’s a strange, strange inkernet, folks. That’s all I’m saying.

1. 16 July 22:27 University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
2. 17 July 11:50 NTL Internet, Luton, United Kingdom
3. 17 July 14:27 University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
4. 17 July 17:02 Road Runner, United States
5. 17 July 18:08 Comcast Communications, United States
6. 18 July 06:04 Philippines (logisticsoftware.ph)
7. 18 July 10:17 Halliburton, United States
8. 18 July 11:40 The J. Hopkins Med. Inst., Baltimore, United States
9. 18 July 11:45 The J. Hopkins Med. Inst., Baltimore, United States
10. 18 July 13:23 Eozaen GmbH, Usingen, Germany

Bear with me– I just upgraded Wordpress, and am working on customizing a new theme.
In the meantime, I am using the the vanilla-boring “Kubrick” Wordpress default theme. I also lost all of my little tags and links, outside of the blogroll; that’s okay. They were getting kind of cluttered anyway.

But Kubrick also is set to default on summarized articles, and does not load pictures for old postings. Let’s see what we can do about that.

Update: Okay, customized photo now in title banner, albeit not mine–for now (see footer)–I am feeling a bit better. Kubric really is easy to modify, or at least using Kubrickr to add a photo from flickr to the title banner is easy. Now, I should really get back to reading and writing, eh?