MARCH
31, 2024
My
latest article is told from the point of view of a woman who is
I find Gatorade rather blah, so lately I've switched to posca. It's not the latest new beverage; far from it. Gwynn Guilford writes for Quartz that as far back as 518 BCE, it was included among the rations issued to the Roman Republic's troops along with grains and, very occasionally, meat and cheese. The generals drank wine, of course, but the lower ranks had to make do with posca. It's basically leftover wine that has turned sour and become vinegar. With 50 calories in a cup, that's still a cheap source of food value for the soldiers.
To
make it palatable, the vinegar was diluted with maybe eight parts of
water. That also made the possibly-polluted water better
because the vinegar killed some of the germs. I've learned to top off a bottle of Gatorade with a bit of red wine vinegar for a little additional zest. Tasty! And now I can better understand verses 28 through 30 in the 19th chapter of the Gospel of John.
~
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~
Centurion:
Look at that poor man hanging up there, slowly
dying. Stephaton: Why, I wonder? For what possible sin? Jesus: I'm thirsty!
Stephaton: Is there any water
around here? Centurion: Unfortunately, that would be against our orders.
Stephaton: Look, sir! A jar
of posca! You can pour
Centurion:
I can't hold a cup that high
Stephaton: Well, here's a stalk
of the hyssop plant.
Centurion:
What good will that do?
Stephaton: But sir, I have a sponge! Centurion: All right, I'll try. ...Done! Satisfied?
Stephaton: I hope that's enough
to relieve
MARCH
27, 2024 An issue in the National Basketball Association has been load management. Players, including star players, can sit out games to rest and recover. There are restrictions; for example, a player won't be eligible for post-season honors unless he's appeared in at least 65 of the 82 regular-season games. It's been suggested that less time off would be required if fewer games were scheduled. That's unlikely because it would reduce revenue. A more practical fix might be shortening the games themselves, perhaps reducing the 48 minutes by 20% or so. Of course, either change would mess up the comparison of historical statistics.
Apparently the British Basketball League, which seems to follow most of the NBA rules, has already trimmed its quarters from 12 minutes to 10. I watched part of a televised game from Manchester last Thursday. It was a weeknight, and the stands were not full. I noticed other minor shortcomings from the NBA standards we've come to expect. For example, at the start of that game, the shot clock was mistakenly set for 14 seconds instead of 24, and no one noticed. The ball was tossed up for the opening jump, but there was an immediate whistle. Something was wrong with the ball. Had it been under-inflated? A new game ball had to be brought in. (Way back when I was a manager in high-school basketball, I had to measure the air pressure in all the balls well before tipoff; can't the BBL manage that task?)
The telecast went to a commercial with the score tied 12-12. Coming back from the break, we were told that the score had been corrected to 14-12. It was about at that point that I turned my attention elsewhere.
MARCH
24, 2014 Slow starts, part 1: When I used to fly several times a week, I noticed that on takeoff, a jet airliner rolls down the runway forever. I know its gathering speed, but I don't feel my seat moving and the engines' roar is unchanging, drowning out any sounds from the wheels. The plane is accelerating so smoothly and gradually that it seems to me to be rolling at a constant speed for half a minute. Then it finally changes its mind and decides to lift its nose and switch to flying. Slow starts, part 2: Im told that my cars four-cylinder engine is capable of getting me from 0 to 60 mph in nine seconds (almost 1/3 g). I can spare an extra half-minute, however, so I prefer to drive gently. For you calculus students, I keep the second derivative of X comfortably small. A certain expressway in my area has on-ramps nearly a third of a mile long, including the merging lane at the end. If traffic is light and I wont be blocking any other drivers by doing so, I use this technique: After I turn onto the ramp, I engage my cruise control at 30 mph. Then I hold down the accelerate button. The cruise control gradually increases my velocity by about one mph per second (which is an acceleration of less than 1/20 g). Half a minute later, Ive reached 65 mph, and its time to merge into the traffic lanes. No accelerator mashing and engine racing just a smooth, gas-saving, almost imperceptible climb to freeway speed.
MARCH
21, 2024 I've complained (on April 24, 2009) about podcasts and other audio discussions that mention a person, then continue commenting about them but never repeat the name. They simply use a pronoun like he. If we join the conversation a little late, we're frustrated. Who is this he they're talking about? We have no idea. On the other hand, let me lodge a new complaint about scripted programs that repeat a character's name too often. I'm thinking of scenes in which Zoey is in danger and Danny would like to rescue her, but he can't. So he screams Zoey! Zoey! Zoey! How does that help? She knows her name. She's aware that Danny is nearby, and she knows that he's desperately concerned for her safety. We too are aware, and we don't need to be constantly reminded. If he's going to yell something to her, it should be practical information like There's a coyote stalking you! Drop the briefcase and grab the rope! Instead, he just keeps uselessly repeating Zoey! Zoey! Zoey! But I suppose that all the anguished shouting does add to the suspense.
MARCH
18, 2014 Pittsburghs WTAE-TV recently highlighted a five-bedroom home in the wealthy suburb of Fox Chapel. Featured on realtor.com, the residence was built by Tasso Katselas, the citys leading modern architect.
Like the entry steps, the interior stairs are designed for beauty, not senior-citizen stability. Look at the flight of steps on the right below. The thought of climbing them is absolutely terrifying.
I hope theres a safer alternative route to the level at the top of this curved wall. If I lived here, I would declare each of these glass platforms to be not a step but a shelf. Id display potted plants on each one.
Four miles downriver from me, extremely close to Freeport Road (only eight feet from the curb), is an Irish restaurant called Killian's Hardwood Grill. Reviewers compliment the friendly service and generous portions.
Note
the light above each pleat and the zigzag rain-drip stains on the sidewalk.
My
first thought: drivers headed upriver, reading
MARCH
14, 2024 I must confess. For my latest article, I've copied a story that someone else has told (plus an image from an insurance ad). However, I've retold the story from the viewpoint of the robbery victim rescued by an unlikely stranger.
A
weird PG-rated 12-minute chase
film, featuring Oberlin College locations familiar to me, was
uploaded to YouTube on this date in 2006. Most of it takes
place at the Conservatory of Music. There's a carjacking and a
wheelchairjacking. Once ye have seen it, as the Arch proclaims,
ye are witnesses!
MARCH
7, 2024 Strikes in 2023 stopped production in Hollywood, so U.S. broadcast television had to fill its airtime with game shows and reality shows not my cup of tea.
Scripted
series are slowly returning. In the meantime, to make up for
the dearth of entertainment, I surfed through the cable TV channels
and discovered some Canadian programs. Those that I like are
somewhat fresher than this
66-year-old effort from the CBC, for which a map lights up the
locations of its transmitters. For example, there's Murdoch Mysteries, a police drama set in Toronto around 1900. It's now in its 17th season and is shown on the U.S. cable channel Ovation. Detective Murdoch always crosses himself when he first sees a dead body, but he and his colleagues eventually solve the murder.
They
encounter soon-to-be-famous 20th-century technologies like
fingermarks [-prints] and soon-to-be-famous 20-century personalities
like Frank Lloyd Wright, who designs Murdoch's house. Other Canadian programs take place in the downtown harbor areas of far-flung cities like St. John's, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Vancouver, in British Columbia. These include the police procedurals Hudson & Rex on UPtv and Wild Cards on The CW, each of which features a present-day detective with a quirky sidekick: an observant German shepherd what is it, pal? and an attractive young woman. (The dog has no lines other than barking and occasionally whining. But according to the credits he's played by a fine Canadian actor named Diesel vom Burgimwald, which translates to Diesel from the Castle in the Forest. He's an honorary firefighter with the St. John's Regional Fire Department.)
St. John's is also the setting for a CW comedy, Son of a Critch. The Critches don't live down by the harbor but rather in a modest house behind their radio station, VOCM, Newfoundland's News Authority. Emulating A Christmas Story, The Wonder Years, Everybody Hates Chris, The Goldbergs, and Young Sheldon, this story features occasional narration by the grown-up version of the lead character. His crusty grandfather is played by Malcolm McDowell. And the show seems more obviously Canadian. For an episode set in 1988 when Mark Critch was a schoolboy, his voice-over begins, The Provincial Drama Festival was the Stanley Cup for theatre nerds, and I wanted to be the Gretzky of the stage.
I spotted my first robin of the season yesterday in Pittsburgh. Thats normally a sign of spring. This year, however, were seeing more gulls. One wouldnt expect seagulls this far from the sea, but its been a very cold winter. The Great Lakes will soon break 1979s record, when they were 94.7% ice-covered. That deep freeze has forced some Lake Erie gulls to migrate south to find a little open water on our Three Rivers. A small flock is hanging out at a nearby mall, perching atop the light poles in the parking lot. Like our Laridae visitors, we year-round residents have had quite enough of winter. Last night the temperature dropped to three degrees above zero. Theres not a lot of snow on the ground, but almost every day it snows. Almost every day the plows and salt trucks have to clear the roads. Some towns have run out of salt. McKeesport declared a state of emergency yesterday because it could do nothing about its ice-covered streets. More than one commentator has said, I cant stand this any longer! Fortunately, the forecast is for a sunny 50 degrees by the end of the week. The robin can invite some of his relatives to join him.
MARCH
1, 2024
The word fine can denote exceptional quality, as in clothing. Or it can describe tiny particles. But I've noticed that there's also an informal meaning: acceptable. A movie reviewer sometimes expresses enthusiasm for a new film. But more often, the film is rather ordinary, and he says Well, it's... fine. I give it a B-minus.
There
are no standout characters there's barely even a protagonist
and the movie never really comes together before its
anticlimactic finale. It's fine,
and it's an improvement over the "Alien vs. Predator"
spinoffs, but we can do better than this.
Characters
often disagree about something and state their reasons. But
the scriptwriter can't let the argument go on forever, so one of the
characters quickly capitulates. Fine! We'll do it
your way. However.... Of course, the word can have even more meanings. One example: after the bridge in a piece of music, the Italian notation Da Capo al Fine sometimes appears. It instructs you to go back to the beginning or head of the piece and repeat the first part until you come to the word Fine, pronounced FEE-nay and meaning the end.
|
||||||||||||||
|