Month: September 2012

I is for Iceland

The area of Iceland is about the size of Virginia or slightly larger than Ireland.

 

There were two things that particularly fascinated me about Iceland, one as a child, the other as an adult. The childhood recollection is that the explorers named Greenland and Iceland as they did to throw others off about the beauty of Iceland. Apparently, this was not true. Still, despite its latitude, Iceland is relatively moderate in temperature because of the Gulf Stream.

The other is that the population is so relatively homogenous that scientists believe Iceland’s population, a mixture of descendants of Norwegians and Celts, should make it a good place to investigate the genetic factors involved in human disease, although the project was not without controversy.

Here’s what the US State Department has to say about the country:

Iceland was settled in the late 9th and early 10th centuries… In 930 A.D., the ruling chiefs established a republican constitution and an assembly called the Althingi (Alþingi), the oldest parliament in the world. Iceland remained independent until 1262 when it entered into a treaty establishing a union with the Norwegian monarchy. Iceland was then passed to Denmark in the late 14th century when Norway and Denmark were united under the Danish crown.

… In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland limited home rule, which was expanded in scope in 1904. The constitution, written in 1874, was revised in 1903. The Act of Union, a 1918 agreement with Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state united with Denmark under a common king. Iceland established its own flag, but Denmark continued to represent Icelandic foreign affairs and defense interests.

The area of Iceland is 103,000 sq. km. (39,600 sq. mi.); “about the size of Virginia or slightly larger than Ireland.” Population (January 1, 2011) was 318,452, less than half of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY, metropolitan area.

I also associate Iceland with:

In chess, Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972; see this video
The Reykjavik summit meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev on October 11-12, 1986 over nuclear weapons.
The fact that Reykjavik is the northernmost capital of a sovereign state.
The abundant amount of volcanic activity. The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull – easy for YOU to say – closed airports in Europe, hundreds of miles away.

Read Inside the Reykjavik Art Museum

ABC Wednesday – Round 11

It’s 9/9

EVERYTHING the Beatles put out, including music that stiffed in 1962 or 1963, charted in 1964.

Have I mentioned how much I like it when the month and the day are the same? 9/9, for instance, reads the same whether one is in the United States or the civilized world.

Here are some 99 songs:
99-Toto What the heck IS this song about? According to Wikipedia, it’s a tribute to George Lucas! I did not know that.

99 Luftballons – Nena
99 Red Ballons – Nena
Whether in German or in English, the song is about paranoia during the Cold War.

There’s an old gospel song called 99 & 1/2, sometimes written out Ninety-Nine And A Half, usual with the parenthetical (Won’t Do), about giving one’s all to God. You’ll find a LOT of versions of it on YouTube. I’m picking a version by Mavis Staples of the legendary Staples Singers, a tune that I own and love. This version has a civil rights orientation, thanks to additional lyrics by Ry Cooder & Mavis.

Also, there’s a soul classic of the same name by Wilson Pickett, with writing credits attributed to Wilson, Steve Cropper, and Eddie Floyd. It’s about wanting all of somebody’s love. The lyrics are different, but the two songs are pretty much the same.

Finally, this being the third anniversary of the Beatles’ digital releases, et al., I should put in something by that group. Revolution #9? Well, I guess not. The 18th song to chart on the US charts was one in which the Beatles were merely a backing band to a singer named Tony Sheridan. It only got to #88, but EVERYTHING the Beatles put out, including music that stiffed in 1962 or 1963, charted in 1964.
Here’s Why.

I COULD have been a Moonie

I was just being a theological flirt myself, giving them hope that they might reel me in, but having NO intention following through.


In the summer of 1977, I was living in Jackson Heights, Queens (part of New York City), and working 30 hours a week, 6 pm until midnight, in Manhattan (NYC) for this telemarketing company. I was making phone calls all over the country for TV Guide subscriptions and Encyclopedia Americana annuals.

I seemed to have a lot of time on my hands because I wandered through the city a lot. One time I was somewhere around 36th Street when I was approached by this young woman. Initially, I thought she was flirting with me, which was nice because she was really quite cute. In fact, she was talking about her faith, which she did not really identify, and asked whether I wanted to come up to their facility in the Bronx to have dinner. Hey, it’s a free meal, and I’m a bored, underemployed guy.

So a day or two later, I did go up to the nondescript location. As it turned out, it was an outreach center for the Unification Church. I got into some interesting theological conversations with a group of people there. Though by then I wasn’t attending any church on a regular basis, I would engage in debate, using what I knew about Christianity and the Baha’i faith.

At some point, someone, not the young woman I first met, suggested that I take a trip upstate to one of their training facilities. I had heard about the church’s supposed devious recruitment tactics, and possible brainwashing, so I made some excuse not to go.

I did this dance at least another half dozen times, going up to the Bronx for a meal, talking religion, but being too busy, or not ready, or unclear about what that would entail. To the latter, I was assured that it would be SO helpful in my daily living. But no, I was just being a theological flirt myself, giving them hope that they might reel me in, but having NO intention of following through.

Hadn’t thought about that for a while, until I read that the Unification Church founder the Rev. Sun Myung Moon had died at the age of 92 this week. I was at such loose ends in those days, I’m a bit surprised that I DIDN’T make a trip north. My life might have very well taken a totally different trajectory.

 

Communications breakdown

The real problem is that, in the state budget cuts, a lot of institutional memory is being lost; NO ONE, at least that I could find, knows the answer to the question.

 

I was listening to the podcast the Kunstlercast a few weeks ago. James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary “have a ramble ‘n rant episode on the robotification of our communications landscape, that wasteland of overcomplexity and hyperdependence of modern technology.” I so related.

In my job, I use a lot of computer databases. But inevitably, I need to call various government and association contact by phone. Talking with someone, I often find information that an entity possesses, and it is NOT on the website. Ironically, a lot of government agencies initially set up their pages so they could offload staff.

Of course, GETTING to that person is a treacherous thing. I swear that half the people who perform those long-winded introductions never actually tried to then call their own office to see how frustrating it is to use. Worse, I’ll get to the “if you want X, dial 1” part, and, as often as not, I don’t want ANY of those choices; I generally pick something at random. Others give a bunch of names, often without titles; generally, I’ll pick the second one, for no reason except that the first is often the CEO and probably can’t answer my question anyway.

The real problem is that, in the state budget cuts, a lot of institutional memory is being lost; NO ONE, at least that I could find, knows the answer to the question.

Oh No! Gilligan Is Dead! I Read It On Facebook! True enough: Bob Denver died – SEVEN years ago this week. Whereas Art Modell, who “enraged fans when he moved the Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore,” where they became the Ravens, actually died THIS week.

Some Led Zeppelin.

The high school girlfriend is 60

Are you still in contact with your first great love?

Ah, my first great love, and all that entails. I really liked her dad, her mom not quite so much. She probably felt the same way.

We had our ups and downs over the years, most of which is not going to make it here. Maybe in some roman à clef that I will compose only in my head. I will say that she had thrown some of the greatest parties ever.

In any case, we’re good now. She’s happily married, I’m happily married. We went to her wedding; she was at least invited to ours. It’s all copacetic. My family even saw her family a few months ago.

Are you still in contact with your first great love?
***
Arthur wrote this interesting bit about privacy, and while I’m not sure I would take it to the level he does, the privacy of other people does tend to factor into whatever I write. And it’s not just privacy, precisely; it’s based on comfort level or my perception of other people’s comfort level. I have discovered that there are facts about my life with other people that are well known by a certain coterie of folks, but perhaps not by the general public. I tend to err towards saying less, which can seem somewhat cryptic, I suppose. There are plenty of things I would say on this blog that I won’t because someone else might possibly, remotely, be affected.

This reminds me of the thing I think is the funniest request I have been given. I wrote about a family member. Actually, I was quoting directly a family member. Well, a direct relative of that person asked me to redact what I wrote, because that relative was up for a Very Important Position. Oddly, the original source of the quote was/is still on the Internet somewhere, but mine popped up on the search engine. So, I did.

Conversely, I’ve taken a lot more open position about those who are deceased. So, if I know your deep dark secrets, and you pass away…

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