Free Mason!

Since the Raymond Burr-led Perry Mason went off the air in 1966, at the end of the black-and-white TV era, there have been two attempts to revive the character with other actors. Neither really lasted. I haven't seen either, so take this all with a grain of salt. But I can sort of see why they haven't been successful. 

First there was The New Perry Mason in the early 70s. It starred Monte Markham, who's still with us at 90. Again, I haven't seen it, so I can't definitively speak to quality. But it was probably a little too soon. The old show had been filmed and preserved on video, and was now slipping into syndicated reruns. Viewers could be forgiven for doubting they needed a new one.

The HBO version is of course much more recent, about five years old now. Matthew Rhys is certainly a good actor, although by this point he was a little long in the tooth to play a Mason who hadn't even started practicing law yet. That last part seems to have been part of the problem. Moves like changing Paul Drake's race and making both Della and Burger gay/lesbian might have gone over, or at least one change like that could have. But anyone with a previous affection for the character wants to see Mason in the courtroom defending the innocent, not rooting around generalized corruption in interbellum America.

The character does have an enduring appeal, based on decency and an admirable commitment to justice. I wouldn't necessarily say that Burr is irreplaceable. But he would be very difficult to replace. History seems to show that.

Up on the roof

I saw this clip today. Not for the first time, but something struck me about it.

As far as the music goes, the song and performance proves that the Beatles were still the Beatles even as the whole thing was imploding. But look at them. John, George, and Ringo are all dressed for winter. As well they might be, as it's late January in London. Billy Preston's coat looks pretty well insulated as well.

But Paul? He's out there bundled up in nothing more than a suit jacket. No sweater, no scarf. Either he's trying to psych the other three out―which I wouldn't put past him―or he's got special bassist powers.

maps + math

In the history of Western cartography, a distinction was made between maps and charts. Charts referred to the depictions used by mariners that contained varied types of information based on their experience and specific to their purposes. Maps, however, were largely academic, concerned with the world as a whole. Early cartographers, such as Ptolemy of Alexandria, Greece (ca. 120 CE) defined what they did as geography―"a representation in pictures of the whole known world together with the phenomena that are contained therein." He distinguished that from chorography, which he deemed regional and selective, "even dealing with the smallest conceivable localities, such as harbors, farms, villages, river courses, and the like." Our broader definition of maps is in keeping with more modern writers who view world-wide maps and local maps simply as different streams, which have an underlying conceptual unity and which eventually merged. Differences in terminology, however, have persisted. Hence, maps specifically for mariners are still called charts, and so the unique objects created by Marshall Islanders are commonly referred to as stick charts.

That's an excerpt from Mathematics Elsewhere: An Exploration of Ideas Across Cultures by Marcia Ascher. Ascher is―or rather was, since she died in 2013―a Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Ithaca College. She's an accomplished mathematician. I'm really not, although I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide in my head. So when she goes into detail on some things, it can sail over my head. 

No matter. It's a great book. While mathematics is her academic subject, she also provides some interesting anthropological studies here. And what she realizes is that mathematics reaches in various forms across the globe, but it never exists in isolation. There are algorithms used in divination rituals. There are calendars. The Jewish, Gregorian, and Muslim calendars are respectively luni-solar, solar, and lunar. There are other calendars that are none of these things, and their purpose isn't to measure time in the natural world. And of course, maps. The purposes cause math to take different forms in different cultures.

Picture it

Does the Thematic Apperception Test work? That is, does it provide accurate diagnostic information about the patient's psychological state? I have no idea. I'm not in that business (i.e. headshrinking) nor am I in therapy. What the psychiatric/psychological field considers good therapy is beyond me.

But I do like the idea of the person under analysis engaged in a kind of storytelling process, being creative in the process of figuring the insides of their own heads. And many of the images are hauntingly beautiful, or at least hauntingly weird. 

Brother against brother

Romulus killed his brother Remus over who would get to name their city. The natives called it Rome from there on.

In an early episode of The Sopranos, Tony and his crew are working over a Hasidic guy at the behest of his former father-in-law. He speaks of his people outlasting the Roman Empire and says, "And the Romans, where are they now?" Tony responds, "You're lookin' at 'em, asshole."

On the surface, the Remus and Romulus story seems to prove Tony's point. It should be recognized, however, that this myth has always had numerous interpretations. Not a few felt all along that, even though they got Rome out of it, this was a tragic tale.

Bible study

Mike Huckabee, America's current Ambassador to Israel, has been on his current track for a long time. A brief piece from 2016 has him justifying support of Israel's settlement policies with a quote of Genesis 12:3, reading, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee." This is a promise made by God to Abraham, before even the ancient Kingdom of Israel has been founded. It's at least worth asking if it applies to all Abrahamic faiths.

More to the point, it seems like a lot of Christians approach the Bible less as an invitation to moral and spiritual growth and more as a potboiler novel with absolute good guys and purely evil bad guys. That's fine if you're writing a Netflix miniseries based on it. Not so much if you're basing your and, in fact, the nation's politics on it.

Spot of tea

 

I've heard it said that coffee is supercharged and tea is time-released. A kind of sprint vs. marathon effect. Truth to tell, I'm no expert. I tend to get my caffeine from coffee. When I drink tea, it's most often herbal.

Still, I love the way this song captures those qualities of tea. The first verse is gentle and a bit sleepy, but picks up speed. With the "Hallelujah, Rosa Lea" chorus, well, the caffeine hits full force.