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On the Radio Road Again

Today was traveling day as I shifted my location from San Francisco to Weed. For those who have not been keeping up, Weed is just slightly northwest of Mt. Shasta in north central California about 50 miles south of the Oregon border. I have been coming up here to visit my friends since 1989. From San Francisco to Weed is almost exactly 300 miles and also today about 30 degrees Fahrenheit from cool, moist 55 to bright, sunny and too damn hot. I know, I know; how the hell did I live in Vegas.

I forgot to restock my books on tape catalog, so I decided to try the trip with just radio. NPR got me through the first hour but then the mid central station drifted away. I usually travel with favorite music CDs and recently have done some longer trips with easy to follow semi-mindless books on tape; the auto equivalent of beach books. So it has been a very long time since I have experienced AM talk radio. Those people are raving maniacs and thems is just the hosts.

I got Sean Hannity first. Now I consider most political commentators right or left to be pond scum but this guy not only is right of right but he likes to have liberal dustheads on to pummel like its the first night of American Idol. I really was hoping to find Glen Beck because he must be so far round the bend on his show that he could be channeling Torquemada.

Second stop along the raving loon airways as Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Now I have heard the good doctor before (by the way, she still is not an actual Dr. but then Kermit wasn't really a frog; but you know -- show biz). On this day, amongst the wilds and hinterlands of talk radio, Dr. Laura was a ray of rationality. No, she has not changed but the competition has gotten so low that she appears to be nearly normal. Appearances can, of course, be deceiving particularly with my limited sampling. She did get on some subversive point about a judgmental attitude being good when in the service of the sacred.

Then I ran into a phenomenon, I did not in my limited view comprehend -- Christian talk radio. Not a preachin' show but social commentary with a twist of bible. Apparently, in answering his health reform critics, President Barack has said that some of them were: "Bearing false witness." The Christian host was offended by the use of "religious language" in the service of a social or political agenda. This, of course, coming from someone who has a Christian talk show that advocates for, well not to put too fine of a point on it but a political and social agenda. That double standard nearly sent me back down the dial to Dr. Laura, when I stumbled onto this next missive of right thinking on another faith based show.

Seems Bob Bookee's wife is spending too much time on the internet. Bob thinks good Christians should "get of the facebook and get off the twitter." 

Upon questioning about his wife's social networking tastes; Bob said she was at it one or two hours a day! When asked what she was talking about.... Bob replied and I quote:

"All those people are talking about this and that to each other."

The host probed for more juice and asked Bob, if there was profanity or perhaps sexual overtones to the conversation. Bob was flabbergasted by this suggestion and said:

"No these people are just talking about their lives and trying to use the internet to be friends with strangers."

Imagine that -- being friends with strangers. Which of the seven deadlies does that fall under?

"She should be talking with her husband about those things," Bob went on.

"So you want your wife to share her day with you in conversation?" the host asked.

Bob appeared appalled by that suggestion: "No, I want to watch my tv shows at night. I just don't think she should be wasting her time on the computer."

Just when I thought the host was with me in our analysis of this high functioning marriage; he suggested: "Have the two of you considered a bible study class for couples?"

Bob was speechless, not a good situation on a radio talk show. I was laughing so hard my eyes started to tear up, not a good situation for freeway travel. So I went back to FM, you know there is some real high quality static you can get in the lower bandwidths.
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What's in a Word?

Since I began referring to my current status as undomiciled, I have received suggestions that there were perhaps other ways to describe my status. Two of my commentators have used the term - peripatetic. One said: "you appear to be peripatetic once again".

Strictly speaking, peripatetic means walking from place to place. It has come to imply the act of traveling about in some kind of itinerant manner. In that respect the word does seem fitting to my current endeavours. But it was further pointed out that the word also refers to followers of Aristotle, who it is believed were given his teachings whilst they walked with him about the Lyceum in Athens. And while I am not in a particularly Aristotlean frame of mind, I am pondering a few philosophical avenues that appear to be influencing my life these days.

Another reader wondered if this wander might be some sort of "automobilized walkabout". Interesting thought that. I think the major difference is that a true aboriginal walkabout is meant to be taken on foot in order for the individual to be close to the land. I am seeking most of my wisdom from people and the highway travel allows me to seek them out over some far scattered distances. But the element of seeking or searching is certainly foregrounded in my current journeys.

The final vocabulary selection for today is mine - panoptic. By definition, panoptic refers to everything that is visible in one view. Often it usage leans towards a totality of view, that which one might have from on high, like in an aerial view. I am seeking some perspective on my current place in a transitory world. So I am looking at my recent past and asking myself how the last few years will inform and influence my near future. What I am discovering thus far is that I may indeed be going back to the future. Here come the nineties all over again.

Another geographical shift appears imminent. 
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Sensing a Theme?


A recent NBC News poll found that 45% of Americans believed that health care reform would involve pulling the plug on grandma in some form. Leaving aside for a moment my often expressed distrust of how such poll questions are phrased, I bow to Stephen Colbert, who in response to this revelation said:
"Remember kids, in order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."
This goes along with my quote dump from a few days ago:
"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."
and from my 100 Things About Me:
99. I have one prejudice; I abhor voluntary stupidity.
So on the Health Care Reform issue, I offer three thoughts: 
Consider that thought should usually precede talk.
and
No, really. Medicare is a government program.
and
Your elected representative is lying about health care.
Thus ends today's well reasoned and heavily disguised rant. Fox and CNN may resume their regularly scheduled propaganda.
Addendum: The suggestion has been made that I am confusing stupidity and ignorance. Worth pondering.

            
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All Those Years Ago

The "9" summers are always full of memories. This year it is 40 years since the moon landing, Woodstock and the Manson murders. I was thinking since blogs are so personal, perhaps a trip back in time would be a good disclosure exercise for bloggers. Sorta like a chronological 'things about me'. 

The question is: Who, What, When, Where and Why was I (x) years ago?

1969 - forty years ago, I was finishing my final class at Kalamazoo College in the summer; we met once a week in a bar.

1979 - thirty years ago, I was teaching real estate in Los Angeles, just a few months from opening a business that would change my life.

1999 - just a decade ago, finishing my Ph.D. dissertation and planning a move back to Michigan.

1949 - yep sixty years ago, my family moved from Detroit to a rural village 50 miles west. My mother always said that she thought they had moved to the end of the earth.

1964 - the beginning of my senior year in high school, when just about everything seemed possible.

1984 - the Summer Olympics in L.A. an interesting time, the freeways were as empty as they have ever been, everyone thought it would be gridlock, so no one but the Olympics fans came to town that summer.

2000 - my first summer back in the midwest after 25 years in California; idyllic.

1961 - worked in the family pharmacy for the first time; best career training I ever had.

1971 - lived for a year in Boston; I regret that it wasn't much longer.

1975 - moved from Michigan to California.

1991 - moved from L.A. to S.F.

2010 - well that is an excellent question.


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In Defense of the Over-Active Cerebrum

Over the years members of my extended family have encountered issues when dating outside of our IQ demographic. People can feel excluded when they are not part of the in-crowds jargon. In the case where academics get together there seems to be some heightened sense of exclusion based on use of "big" words. So on Sunday when several of the usual heavily-degreed group got together, I attempted to pay attention to the prevalence multi-syllabic jargon.

First, let me say that at least in the case of my group of big brains, the use of academic terminology is neither for show nor status. We speak with precision because we wish to convey nuances and small differences in tone and content. Unfortunately, not everyone feels as we do and in the past this has caused real issues when a non-academic partner was thrown into the gaggle of the cerebral herd.

This past Sunday, there was indeed a new adjunct person being introduced. However, he was not an intellectual lightweight in any sense of the word. True he was not formally academically indoctrinated, but he was a really sharp guy. So there was no issue of his being excluded or marginalized. But it was his first time in the pool with this new lover's group of smarties.

He clearly endeared himself to all of us, with this Monday morning email summary to his partner:

"Your friends are very likeable despite their ridiculously overgrown brains."

Now he has to cope with being blog fodder for me.
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Quote Dump

Yes, I subscribe to Quotes of the Day, several variations in fact. And I save one every couple of weeks, knowing that it will make a great blog opening some day. But as the file grows larger and I use nary of single one of those brilliant bon mots, well why not a "Quote Dump"

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
            -- Steven Wright

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
            -- Edward R. Murrow

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
            -- Buckminster Fuller Bertrand Russell

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
            -- Paul Fix

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.
            -- Paul HarveyPaul Harvey

No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.
            -- Lily Tomlin

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
            -- Umberto Eco

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
            -- Steven WeinbergSteven Weinberg

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San Francisco

I lived in San Francisco in the 1990's, got my Ph.D. here while living in Haight-Ashbury. Now when I visit and I do like to visit, I stay with one of my best friends just south of Golden Gate Park in what is locally known as the Inner Sunset.

From here I can walk to a great bagel place, a wonderful Thai restaurant, two good Indian-Pakistani eateries, including Tasty Curry where we ate tonight. The park is just three blocks away and the DeYoung and the Science Museums just a few blocks beyond that just past the Arboretum. 

Like everyone who doesn't have it, I love mass transit. But perhaps the most I love San Francisco weather. Today it was a blistering 74 and sunny, while yesterday was my absolute favorite--foggy and 68. We were in Rainbow Market a few nights back and picked up the ingredients for tonight's project. Recipe below:

2 c sesame seeds
9 c rolled oats
3 c spelt
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 c wheat germ
12 oz shredded coconut
1 1/2 c sunflower seeds
3/4 c vegetable oil
1 3/4 c honey
3 tsp vanilla
bunch of slivered almonds
lots of dried cranberries
be sure to wear a flower if you have hair
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