Good Advice From the World of Improvisation

I just finished reading Tina Fey's book Bossy Pants. My eldest daughter gave me this book, and Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, for Christmas. They are both great fun.

Tina Fey worked her way into television through Chicago's Second City improvisation theater and in her book she offers a set of Rules of Improvisation that she says can be applied to everyday life. I've extracted the main heads here; the full thing is well worth reading as is the whole book itself.

• The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES.
• In real life, you aren't always going to agree, but this rule reminds us to try to keep an open mind.
• The second rule is to not only say yes, but to say YES, AND...
• Don't be afraid to contribute. Make sure you are adding something to the discussion.
• The third rule is to MAKE STATEMENTS.
• Whatever the problem, don't just ask questions and point out the difficulties; suggest solutions.
• Finally, THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities.
• Many of the world's greatest discoveries have been made by accident.

Let's face, we're all mostly improvising our way through life anyway; why not look to the practice and rules of that art form to learn how to do what we're doing because we really don't know what we're doing?

Polly vs The Faucet

I suppose something more thoughtful and dignified would be more appropriate for a blog post on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the video below makes me happy. It has a cute, fat cat. It has sunshine. It has humor. It has almost everything. Including a kitchen sink.

Odd: Family History For Sale, By a Stranger

I was doing some idle family-name searching this weekend and came across a person on Etsy selling illustrations by my grandmother from a book published in 1929.

This gorgeous double-sided plate features the work of the artist Isabel Cooper from specimens at the American Museum of Natural History. One side features seashells from tropical waters and the other American specimens.

Isabel Cooper was an artist and illustrator who provided paintings for a variety of publications, created murals for public buildings, and traveled to remote outposts with scientists where she fulfilled the role later filled by color photography.

As near as I can tell, these are plates cut from a book my grandmother did illustrations for in the years before her marriage to Charles Mahaffie. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this sort of thing appearing for sale. My grandmother was paid for her work back in the 1920s, so that's not an issue. But I hate to think of great old books being cut apart and mined like this. Also, I always thought of Etsy as a site for artists and artisans to sell things they created themselves.

Remember When We Could Golf?

Fore! And Fore more!, a photo by National Library of Ireland on The Commons on Flickr.

Actually, it was only last weekend that it was warm enough to head out for a round of golf. And the weekend before that as well, though the weather continues to roller-coaster its way up and down, dropping form balmy to freezing and then rising back again.

This nifty old photo, from the National Library of Ireland, brought me back to wanting to head out and play again, even though this weekend is too cold and windy.

This is from flickr's "The Commons" project, by way, which is worth any amount of time you can spend wandering through the national memories of any of several countries.

Tree Shadow

Tree Shadow, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

There was a wonderful glow to the pre-sunset sky in Dover this afternoon as I walked from my office, past Legislative Hall, to meet my vanpool. It was projecting this tree's shadow onto the state capitol.

"the delight of a well-found, well-handled man-of-war"

I shall soon finish Blue at the Mizzen, the 20th novel in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, which I have been reading again, straight through. Here's a sample of the kind of writing that keeps bringing me back. I've done this a few times before.

In this passage, ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin is describing life aboard the Surprise, captained by his "particular friend" Jack Aubrey, in a letter to his intended:

I wish I could convey the delight of a well-found, well-handled man-of-war, sailing with all reasonable sail abroad, a steady, urgent wind coming in over her larboard quarter, her prow (or I think I should say cut-water) throwing a fine sheet of spray to leeward with each even, measured pitch: there is a generally-diffused happiness aboard; and since this is a make-and-mend day, the front part of the vessel is littered with hands busy, some with shears, many more with needles, cutting out their length of duck and sewing the pieces together, making their hot-weather clothes with wonderful dexterity. And each time the log is heaved they pause, ears cocked for the midshipman's report to the officer of the watch. "Nine knots and two fathoms, sir, if you please," croaks little Mr. Wells, whose voice is breaking at last; and a discrete wave of mirth and satisfaction ripples over the forecastle, while ten knots is greeted with such thumping on the deck, such enthusiasm, that the officer of the watch desires the mate of the watch to attend to "that God-damned bellowing and trampling, like a herd of drunken heifers mad for the bull."

Interestingly, I was just looking back at a post from October of 2006, when I last finished reading the series straight through. Here's what I wrote then:

In the end, it took almost exactly 5 months to read all 20 novels. It was great fun. In another 5 years or so, I think I'll do it again. 

I started this trip through the series in late August of 2011, almost exactly five years later. And I swear I did not realize it until just now.

For Comparison's Sake

Winter beach, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

This is what Lewes looked like one year ago today. We'd had snow enough to lightly cover the roads and there was a dark-sky snow squall in the afternoon when I went to take the Christmas tree to be recycled into mulch at the state park.

Birthday Cake!

Birthday cake, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

I turned 50 years old today. It's not something I ever really thought about doing; being 50. It's one of the landmark birthdays, I guess. But I find I measure progress in life more by the movement of my daughters through life. They are now young women, people with opinions, and bright futures. I'm very proud.

Down Memory Lane: At The Air Mobility Command Museum

Six years ago today I visited the Air Mobility Command Museum, at Dover Air Force Base. With my camera. There's a large number of vintage aircraft there to wander among.



I was there for a planning meeting for the 2006 Delaware GIS Conference. It was my first visit to the museum. In later years, we started having GIS Day events there and I got to spend more time photographing the museum and all the airplanes.

Cool Christmas Gift

My niece Isabel drew my name in the Christmas draw this year (I'm from a large family). And I'm very pleased with the gift she came up with.



She visited my various on-line sites and mined photos and logos to create this cool clock. She used my old tag line -- Remarkably self-absorbed. Since 1962. -- as a central theme. Ironically, I had recently accepted Google's suggestion that I link my G+ and Blogger accounts, which required using my G+ profile  which has no tag line, for both. But I added it back to the blog as a description in the header.

So all is well.

Wooden Boat Story

My wife gave me a small HD video camera for Christmas and I've started taking it out on my walks. On Monday, I stopped by the Lewes City Dock and found an elderly, converted trawler tied up to the dock.


This is the Juneve, a wooden boat built in 1949 in Scotland. She fished the North Sea and eventually was converted to a yacht. The present owners came to Lewes by accident, after a breakdown, and according to a story in this Tuesday's Cape Gazette, they like the city.

2011 Metrics: Reading

I read 54 books during 2011, down from my totals the last few years, but not drastically so. In fact, I think a prime reason for the lower number was the fact that I read all five of the novels that make up George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire collection. These thick novels took up nearly two months of reading time this year; they are long but ultimately satisfying reads.

I also dove back into the 20 novels of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series this year. I started at the end of August with Master and Commander. As we start 2012, I am about to finish The Hundred Days, the 19th in the series. I am reading this series straight through, without leaving O'Brian's 19th-Century. I've done this before and have read some of these novels three or four times. I still thoroughly enjoy them.

Of the rest of the books I read this year, only one was non-fiction - Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars.

though I am happy to say I own the entire Aubrey/Maturin series, most of the rest of what I read this past year were from the Lewes Public Library. I remain a strong supporter of my library.

I also read two books by relatives in 2011. My nephew, whose nom de plume/guerre is Magpie Killjoy, wrote an interactive novel called What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower.

Descend into the depths of the undercity and embroil yourself in the political struggles of colonialist gnomes and indigenous goblins. Fly in air balloons, drink mysterious and pleasant cocktails, smoke opium with the dregs of gnomish society. Or dream and speak of liberation for all the races. Fall in love and abscond into the caverns. It's up to you, because this is an adventure of your own choosing.

And my fifth cousin's wife, Donna Gruber Adair, wrote a slightly fictionalized  account of the westward movement of Benjamin Adair, my paternal grandfather's paternal grandmother's brother.  The book, An American Odyssey, includes my great-great-grandfather JB Mahaffie, a founding settler, with the Adairs, of Olathe, Kansas.

As you can see, I enjoy reading. I am a fan of fiction and treasure the fact that I can entire other worlds and different times through the pages of a novel.

2011 Metrics: Golf

I managed to get out and play golf 20 times in 2011, playing at least once each month from April through (absurdly enough) the very last day of December. I played mostly in Delaware but a few times in the "mar" portion of Delmarva (Maryland) and once in Washington DC.


View Golf in 2011 in a larger map

I'm happy to report that my game, while still not very good, is no longer quite so embarrassing. I broke 100 (my goal for the year) in June at East Potomac Park, at Haines Point in DC. This was part of a memorable weekend of golf with my friends Andy and Rich; our wives teamed up to give us tickets to the US Open in Potomac, Maryland. We played on Friday and then watched our betters play on Saturday and Sunday.

While I spread my game up and down the state, my "home course" has been Old Landing Golf club, outside of Rehoboth Beach. I played there eight times in 2011. Old landing is where I often go for a solo, contemplative practice round. It's not the greatest course in the world, but it is laid back, pleasant, inexpensive, and near by.

I hope to play at least as much golf in 2012. I spent time on golf courses with all of my golf friends in 2011, I hope to continue that trend and expand that circle.

2011 Metrics: Automotive

We drove our 2008 Toyota Scion a total of 17,450.4 miles in the last year, burning 542.58 gallons of gas for an average of 32.2 miles per gallon. That's more miles than we drove it in either 2009 or 2010. Our average miles per gallon has been about the same since we first started driving the Scion in 2008.

Our best mileage of the year, 36.9 miles per gallon, was in early September, when I logged a day's worth of highway driving from Lewes to Villanova to pick up daughter #1 and then to Upper Marlboro, MD, for our nephew's wedding. Our worst, 29.5 mpg, was the last week of the year, when I was driving only short hops from home to my vanpool meeting spot.

We spent $1,878.72 on gasoline for the Scion in 2011. Gas prices we found averaged $3.50 over the year, with a low of $3.03 per gallon at the start of the year and a high of $3.94 in early May.

These metrics are for the period December 31, 2010 through mid-day today. They are from my gas mileage log, a Google spreadsheet. I also track gas mileage using Matt Haughey's fuelly.com.

The Small Warship Named for my Small City

I have learned, quite by accident, that there was a US Navy warship named City of Lewes in service during World War I.

USS Lewes off Lorient, France, circa 1918. From NavSource Online

The City of Lewes started life as a menhaden trawler (likely on the Delaware Bay). She had been built in 1912 at the shipyard of W.G. Abbott, in Milford. She was 150 feet in length, with a beam of 24 feet and a nine foot draft. She displaced 245 tons and could make 12 knots.

In May of 1917, she was purchased by the US Navy and Commissioned as the USS City of Lewes. In July, she was recommissioned as simply USS Lewes. In August and September the Lewes sailed across the Atlantic for the port city of Brest, in France, as part of a squadron described in On the coast of France: the story of the United States naval forces in French waters (Joseph Husband, A.C. McClurg & co., 1919):

The next squadron of the patrol force, Captain TP Magruder USN in command, reached Brest on the afternoon of September 18, and consisted of the yacht USS Wakiva, the supply ship USS Bath, and the trawlers USS Anderton, USS Lewes, USS Courtney, USS McNeal, USS Cahill, USS James, USS Rehoboth, USS Douglas, USS Hinton, and USS Bauman. With these also arrived six 110-foot patrol vessels under the French flag. Due to the construction of the trawlers, which was soon proved to be entirely unsuited for the hard sea service required, they were withdrawn after a few weeks from escort duty and fitted for mine-sweeping. 

The USS Rehoboth was a sister ship of the Lewes, having also been built in Milford and bought into the service. And I've found references to a USS Henlopen, built by W.G. Abbott, as well.

According to the US Naval Historical Center, the Lewes spent most of her time as a mine-sweeper, keeping the coast of France free from floating German mines, an effort that continued int 1919 after the end of the war. She was decommissioned in September of 1919 and sold.

At the Lewes Christmas Parade

2011 Lewes Christmas Parade, a set on Flickr.

Last night we watched the annual Lewes Christmas Parade. It's one of the biggest and best parades in our little city. We'd missed it for some years due to scheduling conflicts with the Sussex Ballet's Nutcracker. This year's Nutcracker will come later in the month, so we were able to spend a pleasant, though cold, few hours watching classic cars, fire trucks, church groups, dogs, boats, businesses, politicians, beauty queens, and a marching band file by on Savannah Road.

Dancing at the Sea Witch Festival

5 who dance and 5 who want to dance, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

Christina and her corps-mates from the Sussex Dance Academy gave a dance exhibition this morning at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand. It was part of the Sea Witch festival. There were other dance schools, a choral group and a magician.

That's our lovely daughter there, second from the right. I liked the way the five dancers are matched by five little girls who dream of dancing in this shot.

It was a good morning for photography. I captured a container ship and what I think was a dredge platform for my Distant Ships collection. I took pictures of pumpkins,  costumes, benches and beaches. And more.

Then we all trooped off for lunch at Nicola's.

Coast Day, 2011 - A Photoset

I went to Coast Day, at the University of Delaware's Lewes campus this afternoon. Coast Day is an annual open house at what we used to call "the College of Marine Studies," or CMS. The University has changed the school's name a few times now, and I've lost track of what it's meant to be called; for most people who've lived in Lewes awhile, though, "CMS" still works.

Coast Day is an open house for the researchers that has grown into an environmental and marine culture fair. Many state and local agencies have displays, as do local government and non-governmental organizations. There are boats and food and music and general science-themed fun. I like it and I like to photograph it.

A Fine Brunch by the Wissahickon

valley run 1, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

We were at Villanova University this weekend visiting Daughter #1 for parents' weekend. We watched football, met her friends, bought things with big blue Vs on them at the bookstore, and laughed at the best in improv comedy. And we had a fine brunch today at the Valley Run Inn.

23 Years Ago...

mimosas soon, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

Karen and I were wed on this date (9/10) 23 years ago. We spent the first night of our marriage in Baltimore and then flew to Switzerland for a hot air balloon tour.

This bottle of champaign was waiting for us after our first landing after a long, bouncy, dragging landing in a Swiss field.