maren

Geez, man, you missed the GIG!!!

A few poems from Shake Keane's One a Week With Water, 1979: about the La Soufriere volcanic eruption in April 1979:

And this story from New York magazine, 11/12/01: The Jazz Scientist

Check out the link 7/4 posted above: http://www.furious.com/perfect/milfordgraves.html And here are a couple of links to one of MG's scientific proteges (chem professor at Purdue who got his BA at Bennington and lists Milford Graves and Bill Dixon as his undergrad mentors): http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bendor/groupmem/Dor/dor.htm http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bendor/research...esearchsyn.html

Sounds good -- and whoever gets Paul/Conn500 can get him a book if they want... and if you get a book, you might well guess who your Secret Santa was!

Sounds like fun -- but a lot of work for the organizer. Couldn't it be handled by another volunteer? Jim's got baby's first Christmas and all... Edit: nothing like being quoted to make you notice your spelling mistakes, eh?

Have a great birthday, Paul!

Happy birthday, a day late! Guess I was too busy celebrating yesterday to log in!!!

Timely -- I was trying to keep my own resolution to stay away during work -- stumbled -- and this was the first active topic that caught my eye!!! Busted!!!

Mark Ledford was full of music, and an amazing performer live. Some contexts he performed in may not have been precisely my cup of tea, but he was always a joy to hear and watch. I was shocked to hear this past Monday that he died of a heart attack at age 44. Didn't see anything else online until today at this PMG discussion page. Please get your annual check-ups, everyone!

RIP, Jimmy.

Pedro Pietri?

B3-er was right! That Scooby-Doo picture is adorable! (and so's the guitar-playing-pic, nice to see that again!)

Like I just said over at the Obama T-shirt page, That is one beautiful boy!

Awwwww!!!!!

All over NYC, it's big-ass voting booths with levers. All the Democratic candidates were also on the "Working Families Party" line here -- is that just a metropolitan phenomenon, Alexander? My polling place: in the community room of a housing project 4 blocks from my apartment. Where it was when I moved to the nabe in 1986. Then from about 1990 to 2000, it was in a housing project HALF a block away. Then shifted back to the 4-blocks-away place, while the half-block-away site remains a polling place. Literally, the single block that I live on is gerrymandered between the north and south sides of the street, and the western 3/4 and eastern 1/4 of the block, or something. Bizarre. Probably not too nefarious, though -- seems like it's actually trying to get an economic mix in each little community board district -- so it's not all housing projects in one and private apartments in another. But the first time I voted after getting switched back to "Bracetti" instead of "Wald-Riis", I went to the right place first -- was told it was wrong -- went to the wrong place -- and had to make a third voting trip back to the right place and insist that they could find me in their book. That was 4 years ago. Today, I got in and out of there in 5 minutes at 8:00 AM, BUT... others weren't so lucky. Crowded into this not-large community room were 8 big-ass voting booths with levers, 2 per "election district" (these tiny gerrymandered entities). The 2 for my district worked fine, but both of the 2 for another district were jammed, and there were at least 75 people lined up trying to find out how long it would take to get a working machine down there, trying to decide whether to fill out a paper ballot (that will NOT be electronically scanned, but put in a box with the hope that someone will read it, read it CORRECTLY, and COUNT it!) or call in late to work and wait, or come back in the evening and hope for better. When I left, the poll worker in charge of the mechanics hadn't been able to un-jam either machine, or get any word about replacements. I called "311" (the city number to call for any and all non-emergency issues) and was transferred to the Board of Elections, where I got a "press 1 for..." menu and got cut off when I pressed "0" to speak to a representative. Then called 1-800-VOTE-NYC directly and got "all circuits are busy." Then noticed a headline on the front page of my NY Times Metro Section: The print story listed some non-city voter info number so I called that and told them about the jammed machines... but maybe they got overwhelmed too? because they don't appear in the online version... And that's my New York City voting story!

This was my plan, too (technically, I have credit cards... but no CREDIT ). So my question is: to whom should the check be payable??? (Sorry if this is already posted somewhere, but... I can't find it.)

All very good points, js. Levelheaded. My mother was very free with slaps, pinches, shoves, shoulder-shaking, even throwing things (shoes). The worst part was that most of the time it wasn't discipline, it was an expression of annoyance. It wasn't in response to doing something wrong, it was more like a punishment for being there when she wished you weren't. Really bad. Plus there were a few out-of-control beatings WAY out of proportion to the misdeed (one when I was 3), or ALLEGED misdeed (one when I was 5 when -- well I HADN'T done anything wrong, and it was kind of a psychotic break on her part). If there is a basic acceptance of corporal punishment as appropriate, it creates a slippery slope, a smokescreen for abuse. Of course, I guess some parent could indulge the same general nastiness solely in the verbal/psychological realm -- forbidding corporal punishment won't by itself guarantee good parenting! And I also can envision (maybe you implied this by saying you don't "come down hard on those who admit to using physical violence to influence their child's behavior"?) a swat on the behind that is NOT violent, but just sends a clear message about who is in charge and what the kid did wrong. Like B3-er, his dad, and the mud in the car.

Same story here... Every year, too! Here in the East Village, kids hit up all the shops, and only go to the buildings where they know somebody. There are a few little kids in my building, so I always have something on hand, but rarely do they stop by. I continue to make the supreme sacrifice of consuming all the leftovers...

??? I sense a prime candidate for re-education!!! Or maybe it's a reference to being "attacked by bishops" ?

Now is the time for all good men to.... PARTY!!!!!!!! Happy birthday, Greg!

There are a lot of chess programs for kids in New York City, in and out of schools. You might want to look at nychesskids.com. I'm not sure how current this info is on P.S. 116, but if Bonnie Waitzkin is still reachable at the phone/email listed, she is a wonderful teacher, and incredibly sweet. She's great with kids of all ages, but I can't think of anybody better with really little kids, and I think it'd be a huge plus for a little girl to be taught by a woman. (I'll PM you if I get a definitive contact for her.) Edit for a P.S.: Bonnie was played by Joan Allen in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" -- about having a chess-prodigy child (her son Josh), and how to nurture that kind of gift but still have a normal well-adjusted kid -- she has been a devoted chess teacher and coach in public schools for about 25 years, very generous, sweet and level-headed.