Famous Potatoes

I'm sure he wouldn't care for my opinions very much, and vice versa, but I find it impossible not to like this guy or the simple cheerful vision of America he represents. R I P J Simplot.

Trudeau

I was struck by the resemblance between Obamamania and Trudeaumania so I went looking to see if anyone else had noticed.

Someone had. So, I just want to get it on record that this really isn't the way I, for one, remember it going.

What can you say to people who gather their evidence in an alternative universe of their own imagining?

Tobis and his Gauchos

"Tobis and his Gauchos - led by singer and guitar player Torvald "Tobis" Tollgren (1910-86) - could be described as the first Swedish latino pop group. During the 1940s and early 1950s, Tobis and his Gauchos was very popular with their (in the eyes and ears of the Swedes) exotic and colourful music. They lad lots of tangos, rhumbas and (as in this case) sambas and even a couple of hillbilly numbers on their repertoir and made over fifty 78 rpm records 1940-53. Tobis formed his group in 1938 and disbanded the group in 1956. Torvald Tollgren later worked as a manufacturer of ballet shoes." mp3 here
 

Update: I was remiss in not crediting my source: http://the78rpmblog.blogspot.com/

Song for Yom Tov

Well I came across a child of God, he was walking along the road
and I asked him tell where are you going, this he told me:
Well, I'm going down to Yasgur's farm, going to join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,
and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Well, then can I walk beside you? I have come to lose the smog.
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year, yes, and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am but life is for learning.

We are stardust, we are golden, we are caught in the devil's bargain,
and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

-JM

Your Flag Decal

won't get you into heaven anymore

Talkin' 'bout My Generation

I wonder what it would be like to be from a generation that wanted to please its parents. I suppose that's the norm, but to a childless boomer everything mentally healthy young people do seems bloodless and shallow, on whatever side. It all seems to be a quest for parental approval, not for creativity or self-actualization.

This may have something to do with why waiting around for youth movements isn't going to amount to much. It's not all roses, but maybe we really are a special generation. Nobody will ever have parents as out of touch as ours were. We were on opposite sides of the Future Shock.

We really had no guidance. This led to many very bad things and many very good things.

Maybe the future is still up to us.

Folk etymology

Now that's one for the books. Spotted online:

Legally Google can not be in kohutz with Yahoo.

heh

So Hip It Hurts

Huh.

I bought a Scion xD because it seemed practical and comfortable. I wasn't trying to be brash or act other than my age. I just wanted a car.

Apparently this makes me so hip it hurts. Or so unhip I can be hip by accident. Which is the same thing I guess. Somebody in Chicago was amazed by the thing, wnted to talk about it and figure me out like I was riding Ken Kesey's bus.

The fact is just that apparently I am missing some neurons. It looks exactly the same as any other hatchback to me. I prefer to buy cars from Toyota because their stuff works. I got a silver one because the red color was even uglier.

I like the steering wheel controls of the audio system, but the dash controls of the radio are among the worst user interface designs I have ever seen, and I used to run Windows 3.1 . The roof is too low and the vertical extent of visibility a bit cramped. Everything important works, and it works great for small Ikea runs. City mileage isn't great compared to the Prius but it's really pretty good on the highway.

Update: Luigi refers to its "bug eyes". The headlights are indeed a bit distinctive. I rarely approach the car from the front though and I really hadn't noticed.

Honor Among Thieves

From today's Statesman:

University of Texas at San Antonio students wanted to draft an honor code that discouraged cheating and plagiarizing.

Unfortunately, it appears they copied another school's code without proper attribution.

The student in charge of drafting the code said it was an oversight, but cheating experts say it illustrates a sloppiness among Internet-era students who don't cite sources properly and think of their computers as cut-and-paste machines.

Akshay Thusu said he took over the project a month ago and inherited a draft from other students.

He said he discovered that a group of students attended a conference put on by Clemson's Center for Academic Integrity five years ago. Materials from the conference, which are used by many universities, were probably the main source of UT-San Antonio's code, Thusu said.

That's why parts of the draft match word-for-word the online version of Brigham Young University's code.

Brigham Young credited the Center for Academic Integrity, but UT-San Antonio didn't. That will change, said Thusu, who plans to submit a draft with proper citation to the Faculty Senate

.

Rule of Law

Indeed.

It appears that Mr Bush got one right and the supreme court overruled him. This is pretty close to a showstopper for me. Man.

Avoid Circuit City

I must have been Texan in a previous life. I can't believe how, on leaving Circuit City after a repulsively foul consumer experience, I mutterred in perfect Texan "That's alright (assaw rat). I'll take it out of their hide (attather had.)" Weird.

So herewith, delivery on my vow. I offer you a strong piece of advice to avoid Circuit City, which essentially will not accept returns of merchandise that does not function as advertised. I won't bore you with the details of my story. If you are foolishly tempted to enter the place, and you aren't within 300 miles of a Fry's, please just go to Best Buy or some small time place instead.

If you won't take my word for it check this story out. Corroboration here, there and everywhere. Treating staff with this sort of contempt apparently leads to staff that treats customers with comparable contempt. Don't let them take it out on you.

Blame Canada

I guess it's not funny anymore.

A Stray Thought for PyCon

So it turns out I actually end up believing that rules and regulations are a good thing, but really, it's just a stray thought, don't read too much into it:

So your brother's bound and gagged
And they chained him to a chair,
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing.
In a land that's known as freedom,
How can such a thing be fair?
Won't you please come to Chicago
For the help that we can bring.

We can change the World.
Rearrange the World.
It's dying
to get better.

Politicians sit yourselves down,
There's nothing for you here.
Won't you please come to Chicago
For a ride.
Don't ask Jack to help you
Cause he'll turn the other ear.
Won't you please come to Chicago
Or else join the other side.

We can change / yes we can change the World.
Rearrange / rearrange the World.
It's dying / do you believe in justice?
It's dying / and if you believe in freedom.
It's dying / Let a man live his own life.
It's dying / Rules and regulations who needs them?
Open up the door.

Somehow people must be free,
I hope the day comes soon.
Won't you please come to Chicago,
To show your face.
From the bottom of the ocean
To the mountains of the Moon.
Won't you please come to Chicago
No one else can take your place.

We can change / yes we can change the World.
Rearrange / rearrange the World.
It's dying / If you believe in justice.
It's dying / and if you believe in freedom.
It's dying / Let a man live his own life.
It's dying / Rules and regulations, who needs them?
Open up the door.

OLPC grumble

Won't have one before PyCon for sure.

Dear Michael,

Please accept my apologies for the delay in receiving your XO laptop. Give
One Get One was such a phenomenal success that we over-taxed our order
processing, and payment systems. Demand exceeded supply.

Additional XO laptops are being built now, and will be delivered in April.

Sincerly,
Kutia
One Laptop Per Child
Donor Services


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Tobis [mailto:mtobis@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 12:05 PM
To: Support

I have been in the following status for more than two weeks.

"Your donation is ready to be shipped and is in our shipping queue.
Please check back with us every few days for updates If you have
received this same response after several days (2 weeks or more)
please contact Donor Services to verify your shipping information."

I am pretty frustrated. Hoped to have mine in hand months ago.

Please ship to ...

Update: It finally arrived at the older shipping address, about two weeks before it would have been impossible for me to retrieve it from there. It was on my desk on my return from PyCon. All's well that ends well, I guess. Now the problem is figuring out what to do with it.

Acclimatized?

I've only been here a year now (this is the 1-year anniversary this week, now that I think of it) and I usually have on hand the following ingredients, probably still difficult to find in Canada. You could do most of it quite well in Chicago, though I never went this far there.

Beverages:

• corn-syrup-free Coke imported from Mexico
• iced tea
• Shiner Bock beer
• proper top-shelf margarita fixin's, i.e., good tequila, triple sec,
• fresh limes (ten for a dollar in season)

Condiments:

• proper barbeque sauce
• red salsa
• pico de gallo (marinated vegetables with tomato, for tacos)
• green salsa
• escabeche (hot pickled onions and carrots)
• ground ancho chile (dark red, smoky, mild)
• ground guajillo chiles (red, spicy)
• ground chipotle chiles (red, smoky and tangy)
• ground jalapeno (green, hot)
• if there's company I will spring for some queso, which resembles Velveeta until you taste it (served hot in a crock pot)
  
• mole' sauce
• mexican sour cream

Vegetables:

• green chiles, preferably Hatch, anaheim acceptable
• (also poblano and serrano green chiles on occasion)
• tomatillos (a.k.a. "Mexican green tomatoes", close relative of the tomato but has a paperlike husk)
• I always have onions, regular peppers, on hand. sometimes mushrooms, zucchini and celery

Tortillas:

• fresh corn tortillas, coarse grind, strong preference for El Milagro brand
• fresh flour tortillas, strong preference for lard-free house-made from Central Market
• if there's company I will spring for some tortilla chips for the queso

Nuts:

• pecans are essentially free in Texas, though they do require some work to shell them. Real Mexicans put ground nuts in everything. Not so much the Texans, who save them for sweets and chop them. Either way, roast em in a cast iron pan for a few minutes as soon as they are out of their shells. Watch carefully and stir constantly. Don't burn 'em.
  

Protein:

• I don't eat beef except when in a restaurant and essentially forced to as a social obligation, this happens in Texas. Also non-beef at rural restaurants is usually unpalatable compared to the barbecue or the burgers.
  
• I mostly get quality fish, shrimp (very cheap! $5/lb.), chicken, pork, or non-beef sausage at Central Market and grill it and refrigerate it, then throw it in a stew when dinner comes around
• I always have some low-fat refried pintos available from cans. Served with every meal including breakfast
• Mexican chorizo is nice for breakfast, I found a turkey based one at H.E.B.

===========

Prepping ingredients weekly:

• roast and freeze some chiles. When frozen, peel and seed them, chop
• and refrigerate.
• grill some meats
• boil some shrimp
• cut up some peppers and onions and sautee slowly in garlic and salt

Typical breakfast:

• Heat and crumble chorizo (NB, Spanish chorizo is not the same stuff), and scramble into an egg with some chopped roasted green chiles
• Heat up a flour tortilla in a cast iron pan. Wrap around the scramble.
• Serve with reheated refried beans.

Typical lunch:

• Microwave a grilled sausage.
  
• Heat up a flour tortilla in a cast iron pan.
  
• Wrap, add good barbecue sauce.
  
• Serve with salad

Typical dinner:

• chop grilled meat, some sauteed vegetables, and a sauce, add spices to taste and cook long enough to blend spices
• offer rice and refried beans
• Optionally sour cream, and pico could be available, depending on the filling. Grated cheese and shredded lettuce possible if you're leaning more Tex than Mex.
• for company, start with a tortilla soup

Recipes? We don't need no steenking recipes.

OK, here's a tortilla soup recipe:
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/002087tortilla_soup.php

Tex and Mex both tend to excessive sweetness with their desserts though I'll enjoy a tres leches or a chess pie on occasion. When we don't have company we settle for a square of chocolate. If the occasion calls for dessert and we don't have time to bake something I will pick up something at Dolce Vita on Duval Street. Not really thematically unified but yummm!

We are also close enough to Lousiana to make a difference. Between all the good food and the lousy walking and bicycling, it's really a treacherous place for the likes of me.

It's striking how differently I have treated my kitchen since coming down here, though. If I ever go back to Canada I will need a tortilla press of my own.

Urgent Information Regarding Mortgage Holder!

I must be in a low IQ zipcode.

Apparently buying a house in a middle-class neighborhood in America these days makes you a target for various scam artists intimating that they are your lender or your government. I have here the six offers from this week:

===

1) "It has been brought to our attention that you are not yet participating in the Mortgage Cancellation Program to which you are entitled". (OK, at least it looks optional. This is an assume-your-mortgage-in-case-of-death offer. If I ever plan to off myself I will certainly look them up.)

2) Attention: Time Sensitive Material. Complete and Return.

LENDER: Supreme Lending
Michael Tobis
address....

(This is an offer of life and disability insurance)

3) Important Notice to Michael Tobis. Please Complete and Return.

Travis County.

(life and disability. AT least they said "please". This one is especially creepy because it seems to claim to be from the county.)

4) IMPORTANT NOTICE from Mortgage Protection Services. Complete and Return.

Lender:
Supreme Lending
To Borrower:
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Tobis
[address]

(Cleverly dressed up to look like it's FROM the lender. Of course, they sold me off to Wells Fargo inside a week. Maybe the U of T thinks I'm marginal but the banks think I'm golden...)

5) Attention: Time Sensitive Material. Complete and Return.

Lender: Supreme Lending
Record Date: 01/22/2008 (huh?)
Loan Amount: [amount]

6) Notice of Interest Overpayment

(This one is the best. Apparently if you pay off your loan early you will pay less interest! Who knew? Anyway these people will kindly collect payments biweekly and pay your mortgage down monthly for a modest fee.)

====

I wonder how many people fill out everything marked "Complete and Return" and end up with twenty life insurance policies...

Ethical Society, Unitarianism, Trinitarianism

Irene and I have applied to join the Ethical Society, which is sort of an engineers' religion.

"Deed before creed" is the motto; what we believe is less important to us than our actions and their consequences in the world.

...each of those religions, these value systems, have two principles they share in common: tzedakah and tikkun olam, and the two principles started with monotheism and the Jews. Tzedakah means generally that we must treat each other as brother and sister. We should show one another respect and dignity because we are like things; we are human beings in a world that has nothing else like us, and we ought to treat each other with love, charity, use your own words. And the second principle is, "Well, what do you do with this relationship?" Well, we don't know exactly how we got here and why we are here, etc. etc.; that's for minds larger than our own. But we do know that we are like kinds, and we should work together to make this as good an experience as possible: tikkun olam -"let us repair the universe." Now, Islam believes that, and Buddhism that has no god believes it. Every Ethical Humanist I ever met believes it. Those two principles: We're supposed to love one another and we're supposed to work together to make the experience better. That's all the religion you need, really, to make a success of this planet...

-Mario Cuomo

That said, today's meeting was all about comparing the ethical society to other comparable groups. It's sort of droll to consider myself an apostate Unitarian. Garrison Keillor has many jokes about Unitarians but I only remember this one. Forgive me if you;ve heard it before.

"Did you hear about the Jehovah's Witness who converted to Unitarianism? He went around the neighborhood ringing doorbells for no particular reason." I myself have written a Unitarian hymn. It's called "To Whom It May Concern". What I like about the ethicists is that they don't feel compelled to pretend to be protestants during their meetings. The superficial resemblance to a protestant service does nothing at all for me.

The discussion of the history of Unitarianism showed that it arose as an alternative to Trinitarianism. We also discussed atheism and agnosticism and the fine distinctions between them. Most of us feel that agreeing on what you disbelieve is almost as bad as agreeing on what you pretend to believe as an organizing model for a community.

When it comes to Trinitarianism, though, agnostic doesn't begin to capture my philosophical response. I simply don't get it. I have never had the slightes clue who the Holy Ghost was supposed to be. Everyone I've asked has failed to come up with a coherent answer. I am certainly Unitarian as opposed to atheistic or agnostic, myself. I can't begin to express an opinion on the Trinity though. It simply baffles me who the third guy is. I am not so much atheistic or agnostic when it comes to the trinity as baffled. Call me an acomprehensive.

I've been hearing this stuff all my life and I just don't get it. Somehow polytheism is heresy unless the number of gods is three? Three shall be the number of gods, not two nor four? Five is right out? I'm still waiting for something to wrap my head around. I sort of understand the savior thing though it doesn't ring true for me but I just don't get it about the ghost.

Anyway I am down with the unity of the universe, and perfectly comfortable with calling it God and taking an attitude of deep gratitude to that God for what seems to me the astonishing miracle of life.

The only reason I'm a Unitarian apostate is because the services are silly.

Good night and God bless.

Grownups in Government

A valentine widget seen on GOP.com .

Would it be too much to ask for some grownups to run the country?

From WIRED:

Unlike traditional Valentine's messages, the GOP-grams are perhaps better sent to people you dislike. The Valentine site launched Monday without a privacy policy. After an inquiry by Wired.com on Wednesday, the RNC added a link to the GOP.com privacy policy, which allows it to share any information it collects with "like-minded" organizations "committed to the principles or candidates of the Republican party." How romantic.

Yiddish Radio Project

Better late than never. Here.

Hmm, it doesn't actually rock. It does sort of swing in a schmaltzdikke sort of a way.

Related resources here. So click, why don't you? Go. Click, click.

Numeracy

In a comment on "In It", Hank R points to a very interesting observation by Greg Palast.

It starts with the observation that the number of millionaires in the US is comparable to the number of poor children, and then compares the benefits offerred to each class by the Bush administration.

Read it.

This is why we need numeracy. Fear of big numbers prevents people from thinking clearly.