Remembering Odetta

The folksinger Odetta has passed away. I only got to see her perform live one time. It was back in the first Bush administration. Odetta performed at an outdoor show on the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies campus in Lewes. She introduced the song "Rock-a-Bye Baby" as one that could be sung not only as a lullaby but also as an indictment. And she did so, dedicating the song to, and the indictment against, Bush Sr. It was a memorable show.

I Am a Huge Geek #25

I have added a smaller version of the Feully "signature" banner (above) to the left-hand column of the blog. Fuelly is a social-media site designed to allow users to track their fuel economy over time, share that information, and trade fuel-saving ideas.

I've added every fill-up of my Scion to a Fuelly profile since I started driving it in July. Over 18 fill-ups, I'm averaging 32.5 miles per gallon. My best performance has been almost 36 mpg, back in the summer. I go about 300 miles between fill-ups.

As noted above, I am a huge geek.

...That Couldn't be Beat

We went to Bethesda, Maryland, for a Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. We alternate where we eat turkey each year, but always manage to spend time with my clan and with Karen's.

My folks hosted all seven of their kids, their seven sons- and daughters-in-law, fifteen of their seventeen grand-kids, and my brother Matt's in-laws. That's thirty-three people, including my Mom and Dad.

Everyone brings something. We had two turkeys, white potatoes mashed and sweet potatoes too. There were two kinds of stuffing. There were veggies and gravies and many, many desserts.

We had a tub of sodas and a tub of beer. I took responsibility for bringing the beer; I started with a mixed case of Dogfish Head beers and added another mixed case of other non-mainstream beers.

We arrived early and had a chance to admire the old family dining room (seen here backwards) before it filled with people. There were several different tables set up, from the long dining table of my childhood, to the round gate-leg table in the sun-room.

Soon the family started to filter in. My nieces and nephews range in age from their mid-thirties down to first grade. We have golden-haired little princesses and cow-licked rambunctious boys. We have dancers and swimmers and ball-players. We have aspiring writers, musicians, actors, and activists.

Among my siblings and their spouses are lawyers, librarians, and managers; teachers, writers, artists, accountants and librarians. We are all readers and talkers. It is never quiet when the Mahaffies gather.

We ate. We talked. We laughed and we shared. Eventually, we started to disperse. As we did, teams of kids gathered and stowed the folding chairs. We paired-up to move tables back into place. A brother started a first-load in the dish-washer. By bed-time the old family home was put back together and tolerably clean.

As the only out-of-state guests, we spent the night at Mom and Dad's. After a pleasantly quiet breakfast, we drove to Karen's sister's house where we ate left-overs with her parents and some of that side of our family. We watched our great-nephew and his half-brother play video games and wrestle good-naturedly. We got to play scrabble with my Mother-in-Law; she is the Michael Jordan of scrabble.

As dusk fell, we were headed back east across the Bay Bridge. Back to our cats. It was a fine Thanksgiving holiday.

Time Travel: Remembering The Razz

An odd confluence of letters in my RSS reader led me to search this evening for a band I followed as a youngster back in Washington DC. This week's Monday Music entry on the NPR Monitor Mix blog included a video from the Nazz (Tod Rundgren's old group).

Seeing that "a-z-z" reminded me of The Razz, a DC band from back in the late 1970s. The Razz were a hard-rock band -- almost punk -- that played a snarling form of power pop. They put out a series of singles and an extended play (EP) single. I may still have several of these buried somewhere in my archive.

The group included Tommy Keene, who went on to a recording career starting in the 1980s. According to Wikipedia, his music is critically acclaimed but commercially ignored.

I insulted Mr. Keene one evening at a bar in Northern Virginia. I didn't mean to insult him. A group of us were there to see The Razz; we were fans. I was at the time a rhythm guitarist in a high-school garage band (The Ramblin' Beach Guys) and I was impressed by Keene's guitar playing. The group's other guitarist, Bill Craig, was playing a more obvious "lead guitar" role and I approached Keene during a break to tell him how cool it was to see a fellow rhythm guitarist (I was pretty young). He was not amused; he played parts just as complex as the other fellow, he was just less showy. That was my first lesson in the potential complexity in rock music.

That was one of two Razz shows that I remember specifically. I expect I probably also saw them play at the old Psychadeli at some point, but I'm not sure.

The other show that I remember clearly was a concert in November of 1978 at the University of Maryland Student Union. The Razz opened for Rockpile (Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe). Several of my bandmates and I got there very early and snagged a table at the very front of the hall. It was one of those great moments in youth when you are part of just the music you want to hear.

In looking around the web this evening, I also found that some of The Razz folks, including singer Michael Reidy, have recently been performing as The Howling Mad. Thirty years ago, I recall being told that Michael Reidy was a graphic designer and had done the artwork for The Razz' posters and record sleeves. In retrospect, I think it is the case that his graphic work, along with his group's music, influenced my tastes as a young man and is with me today.

Nutcracker Time!

It's just about that time of year again; time for traditional holiday shows. Among them is the Nutcracker, which has become a large part of our family life for a few years.

Our Nutcracker odyssey goes back at least to 2003. The girls are part of the Sussex Ballet and have also done the Nutcracker at the Southern Delaware School of the Arts. In 2004, they took to the streets of Lewes in Nutcracker costumes for the City's Christmas Parade. In 2006, we made it A Family Affair when Karen and I took on roles as extra adults in the party scene that starts the show. Last year, I took the part of Drosselmeyer, the kindly old coot who brings an enchanted nutcracker to the party.

This year, Christina is featured as Clara, the young girl at the center of the story. And Colleen is the lead dancer in the dance of the flutes for several performances and is the solo dancer in the Arabian dance.

Karen, as always, plays the part of the lovely, tall brunette in the green dress.

The shows are set for Friday and Saturday, December 5 and 6, in the evening, and an afternoon matinée on Sunday, December 7. We're using the theater at Cape Henlopen High school, just outside of Lewes. Tickets are $16 general admission; $12 for seniors and students. You should call (302) 645-7855 for your tickets.

GIS Day

I spent Wednesday morning at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base. Wednesday was GIS Day, a day intended to celebrate the role of GIS data and tools in many aspects of modern life.

I was one of many volunteers from the Delaware GIS community hosting fifth graders from three Delaware schools for a GIS Day field trip at the museum. We squired them through a series of learning stations including activities teaching about maps and map data, weather emergencies and emergency preparedness, and using GPS to help locate accident victims.

As a centerpiece, we had the Earth Balloon from the Delaware Children's Museum. This is a 19-foot inflatable globe into which kids can enter with an instructor to see all manner of geography from the inside.

Wednesday evening, the event was open to the public. I had to miss that; I had a Lewes Planning Commission meeting that night. It wasn't the only GIS day event; the City of Dover GIS folks hosted an for city staff to demonstrate the ,many uses of the technology in the capitol city.

I spent my Wednesday morning with 14 fifth graders from McVey Elementary School, in Newark, a very nice bunch of kids. Fifth grade is an interesting age. We had little tiny kids and boys who had shot up above their classmates and whose voices have dropped an octave. There were young ladies of great self-possession with bright, inquiring minds. They worked well together. They listened. They were a pleasure to work with.

I was also very pleased with the work done by the folks who created the event, led by Megan Nehrbas, of Sussex County government, with help from Miriam Pomilio, of the Delaware Geological Survey. They have created a new educational resource that I hope will continue in the years to come.

Let There Be Good Beer

Cap_DogfishHead
Originally uploaded by Troy

Dogfish Head's Sam Calagionne is featured in a long-form story in the November 24 issue of The New Yorker. In A Better Brew, author Burkhard Bilger examines the rapidly growing "craft brew" movement by tracing the steady rise of the Dogfish Head brewery to one of the top beer makers in the country.

Sam and Mariah Calagionne are Lewes folks. I see them at Lewes Planning Commission meetings sometimes and at other gatherings. Sam is one of our local celebrities; as The New Yorker notes, he has a knack for making a splash.

This is partly a matter of clever marketing and partly of a genuine creative temperament.

Early on, he rowed his first export of beer to New Jersey across the Delaware Bay himself. I remember hearing about that at the time. It made an impression.

Dogfish Head makes very good beer. Some of it is fairly odd; Sam will make beer out of almost anything, if he thinks it will be interesting. He is in a battle against sameness in beer.

“I’m not afraid to pay compliments where compliments are due. Anheuser-Busch’s quality—if quality is consistency—is second to none. But I’m frustrated that that one beer has been hammered down people’s throats. I mean, banana cream pie may be your favorite fucking food. But if you ate banana cream pie every day you would hate it, too.”

I hang out with other beer lovers. My family is a beer family; we drink it for taste and for pleasure. When I head to my parents' place for Thanksgiving next week, I'll bring about a case of various Dogfish head beers.

Many of my friends in the National States Geographic Information Council are also beer connoisseurs. This spring, when we held our regular mid-year gathering in Annapolis, I realized that I was perfectly positioned to bring great beer across the Chesapeake.

There's a lot you can say about beer. I admit that at one time I drank beer for the buzz. Now, it is for the taste and the companionship that can come with the sharing of that taste.

And beer is good food. It is made from grains and yeast. Like liquid bread. Here in southern Delaware we have a talented creator of this great food.

Wet Day at Moore's Lake

It was a wet day today. Not steadily rainy, like yesterday, but wet. At any moment today, the world looked like it had just been rained on, or was about to be rained on. Yet I never saw it actually rain.

It seemed like a good day to take my camera down to Moore's Lake, just south of Dover, to take some wet day photos. I had spent part of a lunch hour there back in 2005. That was a lovely sunny summer day and I took a set of sunshine-y pictures.

This time, I found myself photographing lots of leaves. Many were floating downstream; passing over reflected empty tree branches. Artsy.

Others were spread all around on the ground. And on the picnic tables. And the walkways. And the dam and spillway. and on the fish ladder that I photographed a few years ago.

One of the problems I face as an amateur photographer is a limited set of subjects. The world is vast and there are many cool things to photograph, but I have a day job, and kids, and other things to do. I take pictures on my lunch hour and on the week-ends and on business trips when I can find free time. And on vacations, but those are special.

And, I live in a small place. After almost four years posting digital pictures (my first were from spring break in 2005), I feel like I have photographed everything that I see in my normal round. Yet, on days like today, I get a chance to go back to a place I've already shot and try to find new photos in new conditions.

Sometimes the same old thing can be brand new all over again.

Mental Note: Don't Forget the Grain of Salt

It seemed like the only thing missing from this year's election was something to humble the media and the bloggers. That need has now been filled by a fake expert from a phony think tank.

The New York Times has the story -- A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence -- about a counterfeit McCain advisor from an invented institute who cast fictions into the political waters and reeled in bloggers and media alike.

Remember the story about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent and not a country? Almost believable... Seems in character.... Matches our shared experience of Mrs. Palin's qualifications... but not true.

The "source" for that story was a Martin Eisenstadt, of the Harding Institute, supposedly an advisor to the McCain campaign.

...Martin Eisenstadt doesn't exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.

Eisenstadt is really Eitan Gorlin, who created the character along with Dan Mirvish as part of a long-term hoax intended as a promotional stunt to develop a television show. According to the Times, they have fooled several newspapers, TV networks and many bloggers, even after some of those who had been fooled published warnings about the hoax.

The lesson we take from this is to not believe everything that we see, or hear, or read even when it is "on the news" or "in the paper." And, in the hyper-news-sensitive environment we find ourselves, in a time when anyone with a laptop, an ISP, and rudimentary spelling skills can become a part of the new media, caution is even more important.

On the other hand, Mrs. Palin's response to the fake story (prior our learning that it was a hoax), was almost as interesting. Here's what she told Greta Van Susteren, as quoted on ABC's Political radar blog:

I don't know, because I remember the discussion about Africa, my concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue, as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska's investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars, I wanted to make sure that that didn't happen anymore.

Wait... what?

I'm also tickled by the hoaxers' explanation of how they came up with the fake advisor character's name:

Mr. Gorlin said they chose the name because “all the neocons in the Bush administration had Jewish last names and Christian first names.”

And for the Institute? They named it after one of the least popular presidents in US history. That seemed believable.

Twelfth Golf Game of 2008

Andy and I took advantage of the Veteran's Day holiday to play 18 holes at Old Landing Golf Course outside of Rehoboth Beach. We got there early and were the second group out. We walked, carrying our bags. I don't know about Andy, but I needed the exercise.

Andy and I play old Landing one or two times each year. It's an older course with mature trees and several small hills in play. Taking care of the course seems to be a challenge. The fairways are often rough, but the greens have been nice this year.

I'm afraid I did not play well. I started poorly and never really caught up, though there were a few bright spots. I pulled out the driver from my set of clubs for today, for example. I had shelved it earlier this year in favor of an over-sized, square driver that I always thought looked like a metal ham sandwich. I thought I'd try the old driver, which has the same shape and shaft as my 5- and three 3-wood. It worked a bit better.

I'm also starting to have some success with my 3- and 4-hybrid "rescue" clubs. I'm now hitting them more like the irons. I sometimes top them embarrassingly, but when I connect I'm very pleased.

I ended the day with a 121. I had hoped to break 100 this year. I guess I'll do it in a sweater if I break it this year.