Seating arrangements

Pet peeve: forward facing seats on buses are made so that two people can share them. Well, they can if the first person to sit there will let someone else sit with them. But a lot of the time I see that someone will grab the aisle seat and make sure no one else can sit by the window. When the bus gets full, this becomes a pretty heavy aggravation.

I thought it might just be an American problem, but I've heard people say that riders on the Paris Metro can be even worse.

The roar of the greasepaint

One book I have out is Bad Clowns, by Benjamin Radford. It's from a university press (U of New Mexico) but Radford isn't an academic. He's just a writer with an interest in, well, bad clowns. So it's a pretty accessible run-through of the archetype, from origins in commedia dell arte and Punch and Judy shows to more recent exemplars like the Joker and Krusty the Klown (who's not evil but is a cynical user.)

I know that when I first met a clown up close I freaked a little, and ran at least to what seemed like a safe distance. As with a lot of kids it was an immediate response of "no sir, people don't look like that." But did I spend my childhood in fear of clowns? No. Within a fairly short span of time I'd incorporated the idea of zany people with white makeup and big shoes into my understanding of the world. They were a mildly cool break from routine, if anything. But some people never made that transition. For them, "afraid of clowns" seems to be a core part of their identity, so they play it up.

A while ago I tried writing a short story. It was about a nice guy, curious and well-meaning, who was also a clown, always in circus getup. The thing is, he'd still meet people with a phobia about clowns, and he'd deliberately trigger them, on the principle that they'd have to get over their fears somehow. Anyway, there were a lot of balls to keep in the air and this story didn't quite come off. I might like to try again, though.

Different surfaces

I just saw Leave No Trace. It's directed by Debra Granik, who also did Winter's Bone. While the film got great reviews, it hasn't had the same kind of impact as its earlier counterpart in terms of box office, awards, etc. Understandable, because it feels a little more elusive, but still a shame.

It's about a man named Will and his teenage daughter, Tom. Will's a veteran. Given the contemporary time frame I guess Afghanistan. Will and Tom live in a public park in Portland, Oregon. When they absolutely have to they head into the city for supplies. They live low to the ground, evading notice, since it's illegal to live on public land. But you can only keep this up for so long, and eventually they're discovered and taken in.

What follows is a series of encounters with government employees who truly mean well, a stint where they live and Will works on a Christmas tree farm, and a further escape. What exactly Will wants, where he thinks he's going, isn't clear, perhaps even to him. Every hint of society presents itself to him as a cage, and he's driven by a need to escape. Tom loves him more than anything, but is this, the life of a homeless fugitive, really what she wants? The whole story revolves around her choice.

It's not often you see a movie that can present a strong drama while hardly raising its voice above a whisper. This one does. And the beautiful camera work brings out the beauty in simple places you're sure you've seen up close, but maybe never on screen.

4

With stresses accruing from daily life, and with so many dire events in the news, it's more important than ever to keep a sense of humor. Which is why I periodically test myself to make sure I can still tell the difference between blood, bile, black bile, and phlegm. For example:

Phlegm, definitely phlegm.

Eunt domus

I've read that John Cleese initially wanted to play the title role in Life of Brian but the other Pythons convinced him he'd be better in the ensemble roles, leaving the lead role to Graham Chapman again. This scene certainly seems to work better with his imposing presence as a centurion. Ultimately hilarious, too.

I am a little surprised to hear Chapman's voice go that high.

H2Oh yes indeed

One nice thing about a brutal heat wave—one, say, like we're experiencing now—is that it's easy to stay hydrated. Or rather it's easy to remember to stay hydrated. In cooler temps drinking water can easily be dismissed with a "why bother?" Now, though, it always feels like everything you've ever wanted. Especially with water turning from ice cold to coolish in just a few minutes outside of the fridge. So, it goes down fast.

The end of an era (again)

This happens now and then. For whatever reason, I get a fever blister. Specifically on my upper lip. Since I know none of the ointments will make it better without making it a lot worse first, I just plan to not irritate it. Which means I stop shaving the upper lip for a while. And actually don't shave my face at all - just neck - so that the mustache growing under embarrassing circumstances isn't too conspicuous.

But the beard is an irritant in itself. I always wind up shaving within a week, at the first opportunity. The beard doesn't stick around long enough to become a look. Hasn't since college.

Israeli gears

I recently finished Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar. The idea behind it is a doozy.

Lior Tirosh is a Palestinian pulp fiction writer. Which is to say he lives in Palestina, a Jewish homeland carved out of a section of Africa east of Uganda after an expedition and vision by Nahum Wilbusch, a figure who in real life sabotaged this same idea in favor of settlement in the Middle East. Unassuming, he still lies at the center of political intrigue. a policeman named Bloom keeps surveillance on him. Bloom has more on his plate than the standard issue murder, terrorism, and espionage. There's also a figure named Nur. She comes from further afield, a world that didn't have a Palestina.

My taste in science fiction is shaped in large part by writers originally from the mid-20th century like Philip K. Dick and Michael Moorcock. Tidhar, who I previously only knew by reputation, fits into this company even if his name doesn't contain a slang term for "penis." That I know of. One thing about placing your Israel analogue in Africa is that it lets you put African wildlife in the background, and African natives closer to the front. Tidhar also uses the trick―initially confusing but you get used to it―of using different persons in narrating the viewpoints of each protagonist: third for Tirosh, first for Bloom, second for Nur. This is something I could see the Brian Aldiss of Report on Probability A doing.

Weird and ambitious all around.

Creature cousins

I'd heard a while before that these guys were the closest living relatives to elephants. It's fun to find out what they do have in common, since their similarity isn't really on the surface.

Rock hyraxes are especially adapted to an intense environment. As their name indicates, they spend much of their life on rocks. Hot rocks in mostly the African sun. This doesn't allow them a lot of hiding places, and they are very much a prey species, so they have to get wily.

Out there a minute

I had to go get a criminal background check today. That's where you hand over $5 to someone standing next to a printer and a few seconds later you get a printout saying whether you have a criminal background. And did I?

Anyway, I'd done this once before. That time I'd gone to the Attorney General's office on South Main St. in Providence. The website said that you'd have to go to another office in Cranston starting on July 23. Which, reading the fine print, turned out to be July 23 of last year, so it was off to Cranston for me.

Specifically it was to the Pastore Center, which is the size of a small town in itself, made up of government buildings which include the DMV, law enforcement centers, and actual prisons. Because I'd never gone to this particular outpost of the AG's office before I got off a little early and had to poke around a little, but it's not that hard to find.

I did spend some time wondering, though, why the move had been made at all. Like I said, it's a very basic process, not something that requires a lot of space. When glasses stores and sandwich shops move out of Providence it's because the rent got too high or they think they can do better business elsewhere. Neither of these factors account for a government office that still owns or leases its old space sending consumers elsewhere.

But while the Pastore Center can be more inconvenient for some, it's got a parking lot right there. Some of the customers I can see complaining that the Providence location doesn't have parking, and I guess that's who they listened to.

A new principle

Because things break down, it's good to have a manual override. You know, at least as an option.

A building I've spent time in recently has automatic faucets that run on sensors. You run your hand underneath and water comes out.

Except sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the sink can't read that there's a pair of hands in it that need to be washed. And the crazy thing is, if one sink goes on the fritz like this, you can tell that every sink in the building is doing the same thing.

That's why I think engineers should make sure all these clever automated devices have ways they can still be used in the event of power or other failure. Call it the Mitch Hedberg Escalator Principle.

The not-final problem

An unusual sequence of events.

In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Final Problem", a story in which his beloved consulting detective Sherlock Holmes confronted the criminal mastermind James Moriarty. It was this story that cemented Professor Moriarty, who has very few appearances in canon, as Holmes's archnemesis. It also, to all appearances, killed off Holmes.

The story "The Adventure of the Empty House" reintroduced Holmes, his reappearance narrated by a joyful and incredulous Dr. Watson. "Empty House" was published in 1903. Holmes's apparent death lasted a decade in real time. That's because it wasn't intended to be a fakeout. Doyle thought the Holmes stories were holding him back and fully intended "The Final Problem" to be just that.

I can understand Doyle not wanting to be pigeonholed, certainly. And it's also plausible that the Holmes canon would only be lesser in number if it weren't for the post-1903 stories. Still, it's hard not to see this as an artist not appreciating their own work.

Least likely

It's always interesting when Johnny Sack shows up on The Sopranos.

Tony is a lot of fun to spend time with, as a character. (If you actually knew him, maybe not.) But his appearance, behavior, and lifestyle are pretty consistent with what you'd expect a mob boss to be like. The interesting character turns are buried under that.

Johnny's if anything a bigger boss, since he's a power player in New York, still basically the center of the universe. But he's got none of that Italian-style extroversion. From what we can tell, he's monogamous, faithful to his wife. His only apparent vice is cigarettes, which for a man in that position is pretty lame.

Overall the impression he gives off is a harried office manager. Someone this off-model has to be based on a real gangster.

Works of fire

Yes, of course, there were fireworks tonight. (Actually since tomorrow is technically a weekday, maybe it's not obvious.) They took place downtown, so for the most part I looked down the hill to see what was going on. But some were from a different direction, looked to be from behind the house next to the one I live in. They weren't directly behind, but you know. Anyway, I momentarily wondered if they were part of the show or were someone running off fireworks in their yard. But I don't think they'd be both as big and as symmetrical if that were the case. So neighborhood fingers are safe.

Reader's advisory

The other day I cut my finger, somehow. It was rainy and windy and I wrestled a bit with my umbrella, so it probably had something to do with that, but I don't remember feeling the actual cut. Just looking down and noticing the blood at some point.

The rest of the day and the next day I wore a band-aid, because the bleeding hadn't stopped, or was ready to start again with just a little provocation. While I was changing the bandage I noticed a flap of pale skin. Ick. Keep that out of sight. But now the flap has settled down as the wound has healed.

Anyway, I found it interesting. Not so interesting that I'm looking for it to happen again, though.