Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Goodbye, Columbus?

jackson20Goodbye, Columbus – was that a Philip Roth novel or a song by the Association (#80 in 1969)? Ah, my annual ambivalence about Columbus Day.

This is related: did you ever wonder why Hispanic Heritage Month runs from mid-September to mid-October?

The reason why September 15 was chosen as the official start of the month was it is the anniversary of independence of a number of Latin American countries…

The 30-day celebration acknowledges the huge impact the Latino community has had on shaping the United States into the country it is today. From Christopher Columbus’ first contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americas in 1492, to the Spanish colonies of the West to the fortress of St. Augustine, Florida — the oldest continuous European settlement in North America – founded in 1565, decades before Jamestown, Virginia.

Hispanics have been in this country longer than anyone beside Native Americans.

I’ve written before that while Columbus’ voyages started a chain of events that were often obviously terrible for American Indians, slapping ALL the blame on him individually seems unmeasured. Though, if the Seattle School Board wants to observe ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day’ on the Columbus holiday, that’s fine by me.

On the other hand, if you wanted to dump Andrew Jackson from the $20, I could definitely go for that. An ad for a book I have not read – An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz:

[She] adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.

He is arguably the most shameful American.

I do like this:
From Etsy’s Bold Statement – No More Redsk*ns powwows: “Another small victory for the Change the Mascot movement. Effective immediately Etsy will no longer allow any item to be sold via their website that includes the Washington NFL team’s logo or the term Redsk*ns.”

A down payment at least: U.S. To Pay Navajo Nation $554 Million in Largest Single Tribe Settlement in History.

This is an ad about indigenous Australians, but the sentiments are applicable much more widely.

Post by AIME.

Lee and TJ get married

Lee had expressed his desire to get married in the church of which he’s been a member for decades to the person he’s been with for nearly a quarter century.

golden-wedding-rings-3I was going to write about how that in 24 states, or 30, maybe 35 states plus the District of Columbia, same-sex couples can get married. No wait, there’s a stay by the Supreme Court justice in Idaho, or not anymore. I do think that the SCOTUS should just DECIDE this issue once and for all and that there are dangers in dawdling. But the heck with all that.

On Friday, October 10, 2014, for the first time in the 251-year history of my church, a same-gender couple was able to marry there. This was a function not just of the New York State law passed in June 2011, but the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voting to allow pastors to marry same-sex couples in states where it is legal just this past June.

Lee had spoken at the local presbytery (regional body) meeting this past January, expressing his desire to get married in the church of which he’s been a member for decades to the person he’s been with for nearly a quarter-century. Lee had spent time in the hospital this summer, but he’s better now, so it was an extra special celebration. Both pastors officiated, and the house was quite full, with family, friends, and many members of the congregation.

The Wife noted that it was difficult to find a greeting card appropriate for same-gender couples at the local drug store; I totally get that.

The odd thing for me is that the biggest piece of conversation at the reception, besides the happy couple, was the fact that I wore a TIE with my bright red shirt. There are people there who’ve known me for a decade who’d never seen me wear one. Don’t get used to it, people; it was a very special occasion.

MOVIE REVIEW: Dolphin Tale 2

How can Sawyer go when the dolphin Winter’s status at the hospital is still in doubt?

Dolphin_Tale_2One of the useful functions of the blog is that it helps me remind me of events. In this case, it was Columbus Day weekend three years ago when The Daughter, The wife and I saw the movie Dolphin Tale, the first theatrical film the three of us ever saw all together. I liked it; the Daughter was even more fond.

The Daughter really wanted to see the sequel, the cleverly-named Dolphin Tale 2. We trekked to Colonie Center near Albany on a Sunday afternoon to whatever chain theater is out there to discover an annoying fact: 3 p.m. is the demarcation line for matinee prices, and it was the 4 p.m. showing we wanted to see. So it goes.

The plot is that Winter, the dolphin with the artificial tail, who has become a big hit at the facility where she lives, has an aging playmate. What happens when the older creature dies? USDA regulations require that marine mammals have a companion. Another dolphin is rescued. Why can’t this be the solution?

Dolphin Tale 2 is…nice. I’m not sure I would have known who all the human characters were, and their relationships had I not seen the first film. Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble), the young man who first found Winter in the last film, is still working at Clearwater Marine Hospital. The facility is headed by Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.), and assisted by a number of attractive young adults, plus his now teenaged daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff). Loraine Nelson (Ashley Judd) is trying to get her son Sawyer to decide on an incredible educational opportunity, but how can he go when Winter’s status at the hospital is still in doubt? Dr. Clay has to make tough decisions, with his dad Reed (Kris Kristofferson) lending support. Can Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman) save the day again?

Any real drama in the movie takes place in the last third of the film. However, I did enjoy the ethical dilemma Dr. Haskett found himself in during the middle of the narrative. Also present in a cameo is Bethany Hamilton, a noted surfer, who came to national attention after her left arm was bitten off by a tiger shark back in 2003.

If you have an 8 to 14-year-old who wants to see it, I recommend renting the first movie and watching it, for it is the stronger film. THEN watch this one.

I am the eggman

Coo coo ca choo is believed to be used in songs and in 60s and 70s slang as a phrase left to be freely interpreted by anyone based on the surrounding context it is used in.

Sometimes, librarians get distracted by non-work-related stuff.

One of our librarians wanted to help a colleague who operates a trivia night competition periodically. He was working on a variation on a question he heard in a Trivial Pursuit edition, something along the lines of “Which two 1960s classic songs, released within a year of each other, both use the phrase ‘koo kook a choo'”.

Librarian that he is, he wanted to know how to “spell” the “koo koo”. While researching, he came across this:

So, he asked me, someone who has a passing interest and knowledge of Beatles stuff: “Is the line, then, as used by John, ‘goo goo g’joob’?” That, in fact IS the way I learned it. And most sources agree.

The Urban Dictionary is more catholic about this:

Coo coo ca choo

The phrase was first used in songs by artists such as The Beatles and shortly after by Simon & Garfunkel. This phrase has absolutely no definitive meaning given by dictionaries or artists such as John Lennon who first used it. The phrase has two other widely known spellings: goo goo g’joob and kukukachu. It is believed to be used in songs and in 60s and 70s slang as a phrase left to be freely interpreted by anyone based on the surrounding context it is used in. The freedom to bestow any meaning upon the phrase makes the word a statement about freedom of expression, which is a meaning in itself.

If I were doing the trivia night, I’d toss this question.

Here’s I Am The Walrus by the Beatles. Plus the parody Piggy in the Middle by the Rutles, which uses “Doo-a-poo-poo.”
And for good measure, here is Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel.

John Lennon would be 74 today, and it’s Sean Lennon’s 39th birthday.
***
John and Yoko in love and on love

Dream: can’t get there from here

About five minutes later, I realize we forgot the tickets, so we attempt to go back. But we can’t.

One of the things I’ve noticed about the dreams I remember recently is that I wake up in the middle of the night, go back to sleep, and a short time later, wake up again. I would have sworn I hadn’t slept at all, except that the dreams are so vivid.

This one from several weeks ago, I didn’t write down until three weeks later, and I still remember:

I am walking, with my daughter, from a house on a hill down to performance down into town. It should take about 15 minutes to get there, and we’re leaving an hour beforehand, so we should have plenty of time.

About five minutes later, I realize we forgot the tickets, so we attempt to go back. But we can’t. The streets are clogged with fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, and the streets are flooded, though it has not been raining. And I can’t keep going to the theater, perhaps buying new tickets, for the same reason. Every street is suddenly inaccessible, even the one we just came down to.

So we walk through alleyways, climbing in and out of non-residential buildings – ending up in the back of stores, sometimes having to jump from one incomplete stairway to another, and terribly worried that someone is going to shoot us. Then we end up having to climb up the sides of the building, through windows we have to open and climb through.

At some point, we come through the back of a store that was a bakery. It has an old-fashioned tile floor and has barrels of flour and other things to make food, but nothing prepared. And we finally see a large window and a door to the outside, and we look out and I have no idea where the heck I am.

[I wake up.]

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