Well, it Was a Film Festival

This week-end was the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival and we celebrated by going to the movies on two consecutive days! Of course, instead of the art-house classics that most Festival patrons were there to see, we saw (among the four of us) the mainstream films The Polar Express, After the Sunset, and The Incredibles.

On Saturday, Christina and I went to The Polar Express while Colleen saw After the Sunset with several of her friends. Polar Express is a visually stunning film, with a sweet "the true meaning of Christmas is in your heart" plot. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I will admit that I am a sentimentalist -- have been since the girls were born -- so I am a sucker for this gentle sort of film with a deep but not preachy or too treacly message.

And the visuals of this film are gorgeous, using innovative new techniques to capture the craft of great actors such as Tom Hanks and liberate the film from the constraints of film reality. The characters in the movie are clearly animations, but the performances are true. What most impressed me were the fore- and backgrounds, they were deep and rich and imaginative. They brought to the screen that wonderful visual version of a story that we all saw on our inner movie screens as young children, sparked by book illustrations but sparkling to a life of their own.

On Sunday, Karen, Christina, Colleen and I all went to see The Incredibles. This film is all that we have come to expect from a Pixar production. Visually interesting and challenging, funny, with a strong plot and plenty of adventure. Good stuff, and enjoyed by all in a crowded theatre.

I had felt bad about not going to see any of the hundred or so movies featured at the Film Festival. The truth is, though, that as much as I love The Cinema, what is more important at this point in my life is sharing that love with the girls and helping them build their film-going experiences up to a point where, when they are grown, they will be able to draw full enjoyment and value from all types and genres of film. For that purpose, the films we saw this week-end were the right sort of Festival.

A Look Back at Family History

I'll give some credit this evening to Microsoft and the beta version of their new MSN Search. Though it looks for all the world like an imitation of Google, it did turn up something of great interest to me when I tried the obligatory vanity search on "Mahaffie." The regular search returned the usual plethora of Mahaffie House and Stagecoach Shop hits, so I tried an Image Search on "Mahaffie."

The search returns gave top ranking to a JPEG copy of an old (and unfortunately undated, but likely from 1958) newspaper obituary of Ella Mahaffie, my great-great-aunt (I think). To be fair, this image also turned up in a Google image search, but lower down the page.

The obituary features this photo of the Mahaffie House in Olathe, Kansas, apparently taken before the house became a managed historic site.


I was already, of course, aware of the Mahaffie House and of its status as public property in Olathe. I had also heard mention in the family of "Aunt Ella". I'm not sure I'd seen this clipping, however -- at least not as an adult -- and it has been a pleasure to read through it.

Ella Mae Mahaffie was born in 1869, on the Mahaffie farm at Olathe, one of eight children of J.B. and Lucinda Mahaffie. She apparently grew to be a well-rounded woman and served as an educator all of her professional life. She taught in a "country" school in the last part of the 19th century (one-room schoolhouse?), she taught 3rd and 7th grades in the public schools and served from 1913 until her retirement in 1939 as principal of Park Elementary School, in Kansas City. She also served on the Kansas State Board of Education.

The obituary mentions no college degrees, but notes that Ella Mahaffie continued studying at various universities throughout her career and traveled extensively in the US and Canada and somewhat in Europe as well.

One of Ella's brothers left the farm and took his family, including Charles D. Mahaffie (my grandfather), to Oklahoma. Charles grew up in Oklahoma, studied there and in England and became a lawyer out west. He came to Washington DC for a government job in the early part of the 20th century and eventually gave the world a son, Charles Jr., my Dad. I'm damn glad he did too!

The clipping is part of an on-line collection, History of the Public Schools of Wyandotte County, Kansas - 160 Years Enriching the Minds of Children. There's plenty of good stuff in there, including a set of images of Park School that includes the Plot Plan of the school. Note the careful separate of the girl's and boy's out-houses.

Delatacit Returns

"Oh yeah... hiya... I'm back... so say goodbye to all the poser knock-offs. ::muah::"

This could get interesting. I wonder who the "poser knock-offs" would be? DelaVoice?

And...MUAH? Or short for "Muah ha ha..." [an evil laugh]?

And finally, I strongly caution against clicking on the link in DT's Paris Hilton post: pornography.

Frank Rich On 'Moral Values'

New York Times columnist Frank Rich takes on the notion of the "moral values" vote in a column (On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide) set for publication on November 14 (NYT, registration required).

He makes many good points, which I don't plan to get into here. One thought stood out for me:

Excess and vulgarity, as always, enjoy a vast, bipartisan constituency, and in a democracy no political party will ever stamp them out.

But maybe we can get together on a bipartisan basis to at least ease them?

Maybe They Weren't Kidding?

After the re-election of George W. Bush last week, there were rumblings from various quarters along the lines of "The hell with it, let's just move to Canada." It looks like some folks at least looked into the idea.

According to a November 8 story on Independent Online, "The average of 20,000 people in the US logging onto the website www.cic.gc.ca [Canada's main immigration website] rocketed to 115,016 on Wednesday and settled down to 65,803 the next day."

Meanwhile, the Sorry Everybody web site continues to grow as folks post photos to the apology gallery. Some of these include requests for asylum. What I find most interesting are the responses back from around the world.

Election Update: Bennett Concedes

Down by 3 votes, Sussex County Council Candidate Jud Bennett has conceded defeat to Lynn Rogers. Apparently, a week-end worth of reflection led Jud to decide to end his challenge.

I enjoyed this part of the story, a reminder of the civilizing fact of local elections:

Rogers, a Milton Democrat, and Bennett ran into each other Sunday over breakfast at a Rehoboth Beach restaurant. Bennett said he told Rogers that he was going to concede and wished him well.

I have to wonder which local eatery's Sunday Brunch drew both Lynn Rogers and Judd Bennett this week-end. This is why I am glad to have moved to a small city.

In a related note, an editorial about this election in today's Cape Gazette calls for the incumbents, some of whom had closer-than-expected reelections, to address some of the concerns that fueled their challengers and their voters:

Sussex is in the position of being a highly attractive place to live. With great natural and financial resources available to create departments and hire excellent personnel, we can maintain and enhance our quality of life while protecting property values.

Is Someone Trying to Revive...

...delatacit?

UPDATE (11/9/04): Not yet.....

Speak, Computer, Speak!

Speegle is a fun new site over in England. It provides a synthesized voice to read the title and description of sites returned in a Google-like search. Of course, this means we have to provide readable metadata so that, when searches hit our sites, Speegle has something to speak.

Gay Marriage?

It seems so simple and normal. What's all the fuss? Why not support solid relationships?

So Close...

I love this photo. It is from the November 5 edition of the Cape Gazette. It shows Jud Bennett (left) and two supporters as the final results came in on election night. At that point, the count had him losing his bid to become a member of Sussex County Council by 12 votes.

Jud Bennett ran for Council from the district we live in, so we've been tracking this race. He's also a former Lewes City Councilman and someone I've dealt with some as a Planning Commissioner. He ran hard, stepping down from City Council and focusing all of his energy on the race. He made growth and planning for growth the main issues of his campaign. He's a Republican, but stayed away from the national and state-level issues of this campaign season, concentrating instead on what seems a major issue in this fast-growing area.

As of this morning, after two recounts, he is three votes behind and facing a decision whether to carry on in the legal realm or concede defeat. Even if he does concede, he can be proud. In Delaware, incumbents almost always win. To come this close against an entrenched and popular councilman is an accomplishment.

There were two other council races in Sussex County. In both of those, the incumbents won handily, but by margins that were closer than one would have expected. In all three races, the challengers spent a great deal of time talking about the need to better plan for growth. I think there is a message here that the Council needs to hear. And, while the voters chose not to turn them out of office, it was very close.