"Cats" - DMTC - Tuesday Night Rehearsal (Part 1)

Four Orphaned Rabbits Cared For By Corpsman

So cute! And more pix!

Provocative Forecast Path For Tropical Storm Barry

Hah! They are now calling Tropical Depression Two "Tropical Storm Barry", just as it makes landfall in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. The forecast is that it will redevelop on the Pacific side when it gets there, making it one of the very, very few recorded storms ever to successfully do that. Then, the forecast path is up the western coast of Mexico, potentially affecting U.S. weather too in ten days, or so. This will be interesting to watch!

MIA - Paper Planes ("Slumdog Millionaire" Movie Music Video)

Last night, they were showing "Slumdog Millionaire" on TV again. Loved the train sequence in that movie. Here is a selection of various scenes.

Dramatic Collision About To Happen In Eastern NM

Oooh, this looks like interesting trouble in Eastern NM. MCC outflow from storms in Texas is traveling west (blue line) and about to collide with a line of new cumulonimbus clouds heading east, just east of Santa Rosa.

Arrest Of Murder Suspect In Davis

Beyond sad, and it happened near Steve and Jan's house:

In the three page complaint field by Yolo DA Jeff W. Resig, 16-year-old Daniel William Marsh is being charged with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths of 87-year-old Oliver Northup and 76-year-old Claudia Maupin.

The DA’s office told FOX40 that Marsh will be tried as an adult. He was arrested Tuesday after several search warrants were sent out. FBI agents were seen at a home near where the couple’s bodies were found.

Four special circumstances were added to Marsh’s charges, along with an enhancement of using a deadly weapon: killing more than one victim, heinous and depraved murder, lying in wait and torture.

The brief notes that Marsh was 15 at the time of the murders back on April 14.

Marsh was honored by the Red Cross of Yolo County in 2009 when he was 12. The boy was said to have saved his father’s life after a heart attack. Marsh grabbed the wheel of the car his father was driving, and after the car came to a stop Marsh was able to restart the man’s heart.

Denver Airport Tornado

Vengeful tornado skips passenger terminals in order to ruin National Weather Service anemometer:

The tornado reportedly destroyed the National Weather Service's weather station, which reported a 97 MPH winds before it stopped relaying data, according to Weatherbug meteorologist Jacob Wycoff.

The tornado was so close to the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar -- the small Doppler radar used for Denver International Airport -- that a "donut hole" was visible in the precipitation-free center of the tornado as it crossed between runways 34R and 34L. The tornado passed exactly 5,000 feet east of the A Gates.

Miss South Carolina's Answer Achieved A Meta Level I Can't Reach

Today, the Internets are full of snark regarding the incoherence of Miss Utah, and the asininity of Miss Alabama in answering the Final Question in the Miss USA pageant, but in my opinion, neither hold a candle to Miss South Carolina. At least I understood the opinion, however clumsily handled, that Miss Utah was trying to drive home. I've listened to Miss South Carolina several times and I still can't quite figure out her point.

Miss SC says document release isn't treason, but then she goes little further. It's that indeterminacy that gnaws. Does she even regard it as a violation of trust? Hard to tell. Her technique was better that Miss Utah, however. Miss SC starts with an opening declarative sentence, which is good, and why Miss Utah gets the snark today, instead of her.

In contrast, the composed responses of Miss New York (1) and Miss South Carolina (2) in January's Miss America pageant. I'm amazed Miss South Carolina placed only second:



Everyone, including Miss South Carolina, try to dissect the answer too:

“I honestly didn’t even hear the question,” Pinckney, the fifth runner-up, said in a Monday evening interview as she waited to board a plane home from Las Vegas. “I heard ‘treason’ and tried to answer from there.

Watches Too Many Movies

Pay attention to the crazy guy:

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A flight from Hong Kong on which a man claimed everyone was poisoned has arrived safely in New Jersey and the man taken off the plane.

An FBI spokesman says the man stood up during the flight Monday to make the claim but that there is no indication that any passengers were poisoned. United Airlines says Flight 116 continued as scheduled after the man made the statement.

Surprise Flooding

As summer monsoon starts up, Mexico takes a hit:

Heavy weekend rains have caused severe flooding in the Mexican city of Piedras Negras on the border with Texas. Coahuila state officials say one person died and 10,000 houses are damaged, leaving 40,000 peoples homeless.

...Canales says the storm that began Friday afternoon and continued into Saturday dropped 60 percent of the rain usually seen in a full year in Piedras Negras.

The city sits across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. Officials in Texas say 17 inches of rain fell there, and some people evacuated as a precaution but were turning to their homes.

Is there more where that came from? And can it be shipped north? Right now, Mexico has a lot of moisture south of Chihuahua, with uncertain signs regarding whether it will move north.

Tres Lagunas Fire Close Call

A la verga, dude! That's pretty scary!

John writes from OK City about Northern New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness and the Tres Lagunas Fire:

We drove this road in 1976 (I think) but it wasn't nearly this exciting. Be sure to turn on the sound--It's almost like a Cheech and Chong dialogue...

Freaking Out About The Drought

When will the drought in New Mexico ever end?

Bruce is getting worried about it all:

William deBuys Author, A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the Southwest, The Age of Thirst in the American West


Consider it a taste of the future: the fire, smoke, drought, dust, and heat that have made life unpleasant, if not dangerous, from Louisiana to Los Angeles. New records tell the tale: biggest wildfire ever recorded in Arizona (538,049 acres), biggest fire ever in New Mexico (156,600 acres), all-time worst fire year in Texas history (3,697,000 acres).

The fires were a function of drought. As of summer’s end, 2011 was the driest year in 117 years of record keeping for New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, and the second driest for Oklahoma. Those fires also resulted from record heat. It was the hottest summer ever recorded for New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, as well as the hottest August ever for those states, plus Arizona and Colorado.

Virtually every city in the region experienced unprecedented temperatures, with Phoenix, as usual, leading the march toward unlivability. This past summer, the so-called Valley of the Sun set a new record of 33 days when the mercury reached a shoe-melting 110º F or higher. (The previous record of 32 days was set in 2007.)

And here’s the bad news in a nutshell: if you live in the Southwest or just about anywhere in the American West, you or your children and grandchildren could soon enough be facing the Age of Thirst, which may also prove to be the greatest water crisis in the history of civilization. No kidding.

I reply:

Hi Bruce:

Preaching to the converted here. I definitely think water is a big, big problem.

That said, I think the interim solutions are actually pretty darn simple, and lack of will and a lack of infrastructure is the only reason we don’t proceed. In other parts of the world subject to these problems, they collect rain water.

Australia is a First World kind of country, but it is expected that every residence collects their own rain water. There are exceptions – recently-built residences in urban areas lack them – but every ding dang place in the interior has them. They have to. Interior Queensland, for example doesn’t have much in the way of ground water resources. So they can’t do what people in NM do, and dig a well. The droughts in Australia are so extreme that any ground water they have would be exhausted. NM is more fortunate. But we will get there eventually. And then we will do what they have always done. They have the infrastructure. We have it for livestock, but not people.

Some laws might have to change. In Colorado, it’s technically illegal to collect rainwater. Interferes with watershed drainage, they say.

In Mexico, they have water pressure problems, so they have nifty water pressure units on apartment buildings that could well double as water heaters. If water was a problem it probably wouldn’t be hard to add rainwater tanks too. They have the infrastructure. Do we have a market? Maybe someday!

Regarding NM’s current extreme drought, it’s definitely the worst in my lifetime, but it’s probably no worse than the drought just before I was born, in the early 50’s, and not as bad as the 30’s. The difference now is that ABQ has many, many more people.

What’s worrisome, of course, is that the archaeologists see records of droughts in the 1200’s and 1300’s that were definitely worse than the 1930’s one – much worse. So, the climate hasn’t shown its full range of potential in modern civilization’s run. Mother Nature can surprise. Climatologists are still wonderstruck at the current drought in SW Australia that stuck around despite La Nina and they reckon is the worst in 1,000 years, or longer. NM’s current 5-year drought doesn’t even compare to that. But someday, one might.

Marc

Hip Hop Workshop

This afternoon was Krystle's Hip Hop Workshop. To my surprise, the number of folks in the workshop were rather small - maybe 10 - which just means we are an elite crowd, I guess. We did glides and waves and Nina and I coached each other. It was fun!

(This last week, Pepper has been coming in and quietly observing classes. That's a big step in his recovery!)

Dropped by Sacramento Pride after the workshop, but they had almost completely wrapped up by 5:30 p.m., so I didn't see anyone.

Mowed the lawn.

Today, my digestion is totally jacked after eating last night a hot dog, popcorn, a cookie, a large diet soda, and a personal pizza. I felt dreadful the entire day!

So, I came into work to do some actual, real-live work. May as well boost my hours! Update the blog, etc. Haven't eaten almost anything all day. Afraid to try, actually. But I've been porking out the last month - I'm up to 183 pounds now, an all-time record - so I can afford a day to kind of ease back on the calories.

I just wish I could sleep....

A Night At Raley Field

Raley Field

Stacy got lucky at Celebrate Davis, and won a bunch of Sacramento River Cats tickets. So, off we went!

Watching the person watching the FOX 40 sports casters.

Raley's Park

Raley's Park

Steve and Jan Isaacson

National Anthem

Batter up!

Heads of State make a dash for it (Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Gray Davis).

Trying to get action shots.

Fireworks. (Raley used to drive my dog Sparky crazy back in the day). Sacramento River Cats lost to Tacoma Rainiers, 6-4.

Fireworks

Cats! How apropos!

Stopped By To See If They Had Built A Descanso In Memory Of Toussaint Harrison

The McDonald's at Howe and Arden, where Joseph Paul Leonard bludgeoned Toussaint Harrison to death last week.

No monuments, no flowers, no memories, zilch.

Vanished almost immediately from the papers too. And who is Joseph Paul Leonard anyway? No clue.

It's hard to believe one could simply be so casually murdered on the street and leave no impression.

Did Not Realize Sacramento Area Had Roadrunners

Also did not realize they aren't very common on the Colorado Plateau, which is precisely where Warner Brothers places them in their cartoons.

E.'s Tahoe Vacation

M.: Oh, you scared me!

E.: You scared me!

M.: I didn't realize you were back. How was Tahoe?

E.: It was terrible. We lost so much money! So much money! Both of us!

M.: Not so good, huh?

E.: And nobody is there! The hotels are so empty! MMMMAAAAAAARRRRRRRCCCCC! They will have to close those places down because no one is going there anymore! I see it happening soon. Everyone goes to Red Hawk and Thunder Valley and those places now!

M.: But the weather is so nice these days! You would think everyone would want to go to Tahoe!

E.: It doesn't matter. And I was so nervous! MMMMAAAAAAARRRRRRRCCCCC! The roads are so scary! And C. doesn't notice that the lanes merge! MMMMAAAAAAARRRRRRRCCCCC!

M.: Yes, the mountain roads twist and turn!

E.: Look, here are some pictures of the Chapel where we are going to get married next summer. It's a real spooky place!

M.: Looks nice!

E.: But don't worry. Even if I get married, nothing will change. I'll still be here. Even if C. gets jealous, nothing will ever change. I wouldn't do that to my Baby Brother!

Disturbance Passing Across Central NM At Height Of Afternoon Might Mean A Little Bit Of Rain

The possibility is there. Hope it comes to pass. Small storm over Corrales. Good, good. Will it rain at the official rain gauge at the Sunport? It never seems to rain there, no matter what happens. But any amount is welcome.

[UPDATE: Oooh, outflow from the Jemez is striking the ABQ area just as storm reaches rain gauge. They are showing 0.02" at the moment. Here's to more!]

[UPDATE 2: And that's it, for now! 0.02"! Storm outflow from the north looks like it triggered the thunderstorm cell near Mountainair. Pretty cool. But not enough time left in the day to get much more started.]

A Breaking Bad/NHL Playoffs Analogy

Funny!:

There are plenty of reasons for Blackhawks and Bruins fans to feel confident about the teams they root for entering tonight's game one of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.

...Experts are playing it safe and calling for a long series. How could this match-up be decided in less than six games? Both teams are solid from every angle of the puck, and both teams are playing near the peak of their abilities as they enter the Stanley Cup Final. With the firepower concealed in each lineup, this appears to be a case where an unstoppable force will be attempting to nudge an immovable object.

...I like to look at the NHL playoffs, and especially the Stanley Cup Finals, as a season of AMC's Breaking Bad. When you start a season of Bad, you know the situation. Although you expect to be surprised, you feel like you have a general idea of where things are going. In truth, you are stupid, and wrong.

What makes both Breaking Bad and the NHL playoffs so special is their respective drama which unfolds in ways that viewers can never see coming. Again; you may expect to be surprised, but what ends up surprising you the most is your complete inability to have any idea what lies ahead, until it happens and blows you away.

...To those who have not viewed an NHL playoff game, I offer the same advice I offer to people who have not seen Breaking Bad: watch it. If you understand it, you will fall in love, and become completely hooked.

Haven't Quite Decided About All This Secrecy Stuff

I haven't expressed much of an opinion yet about the secrecy debate. I think the current debate doesn't get into the complications of secrecy. There are all kinds of secrets. Some are good to keep. Some are bad to keep.

In general, however, I support Manning, Snowden, Assange, and the Anonymous others. Our secrecy state is simply too big. The only hard secrets should be those directly-related to the operation of nuclear weaponry. The rest of the secrets are fungible and should expire over time. They don't. And that's the problem.

We don't even understand our own history, given the density of secrets. The CIA, which should function as a sort of newspaper-reading graduate school for political authorities, is off doing God knows what. Heck, we are only now beginning to fully understand what Watergate was all about. We definitely will repeat history, over and over again, if we don't even know what it is. We don't understand it - we can't understand it - clouded as it is in events that supposedly *didn't happen*.

Call me Anonymous:

Benny Benassi feat. Channing - Come Fly Away (Adam K & Soha Remix)

I've posted this before, but as the summer monsoon approaches, it's for a bit of anticipatory celebration.

Looks Like Some Thunderstorm Activity In NM Today

Not enough, but gotta start somewhere.

Sylvia Tosun - World Keeps Turning (Alex M.O.R.P.H. & Chriss Ortega Remix vs Bellatrax)

Still Fighting The Malware

I hate you, MagNiPic!

Looks like I will have to abandon Google Chrome and embrace Mozilla Firefox.

I hate change.

Working On Fourth Draft Of My Recall Book

Hopefully last one.

Happy Squirrel

I had just laid out hard-boiled egg and peanuts this morning for the Scrub Jays, when I turned around and saw that a squirrel had already jumped on the food, and scampered into the hedge. I reached into the hedge to touch the chewing squirrel, and I think he would have let me, he was so happy. Then, I'd be touching a squirrel. I didn't know what would come next, so I decided not to touch him, but hissed at him instead.

Puzzled Why It Still Won't Rain In NM

Too much shear. Damn.

Maybe rain near Ruidoso and the Gila Wilderness. Not quite there yet.

Sebastien De La Cruz - Star Spangled Banner - 06/11/13

FEMA Makes The Correct Call

Damn arrogant Texans for making the request in the first place:

Even though numerous homes and schools were destroyed by the West Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people in April, FEMA has refused to send funds to help rebuilding efforts in the small town. The AP reported:

According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, FEMA said it reviewed the state’s appeal to help West but decided that the explosion “is not of the severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration.”

The blast killed 10 first responders and brought national attention to the agricultural community. President Barack Obama traveled to the area to attend a memorial service for the first responders and others who died trying to help.

The FEMA funds would have helped pay for public repairs such as roads, sewer lines, pipes and a school that were destroyed. It does not impact emergency funds FEMA has provided to individual residents. Last month, FEMA estimated the agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration had approved more than $5.6 million in aid and low-interest loans to West residents impacted by the blast.

Remember, this is NOT a natural disaster, but more akin to a crime, and there are responsible parties who NEED to be held responsible!

Supercell Storm

So cool!

Lots Of NM Content Now Being Placed On-Line

Maps are cool!:

Map of New Mexico, A.Z. Huggins, U.S. Surveyor General's Office, Santa Fe, N.M. Engraved and printed by C.W. Sherwood, propr. Union Lith. Co., Chicago, Ill., 1876

Surprisingly-Little Press So Far Regarding The Bicyclist Assailant

This whole case is very disturbing, in my opinion, and I'd like to see more about it, but so far it has a surprisingly low-profile in Sacramento:

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified the bicyclist killed in an altercation last week as Toussaint Harrison, 34.

Harrison was fatally injured Thursday morning when a driver hit him, then got out and kicked him, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Joseph Paul Leonard, 60, ... has been arrested on suspicion of murder. He was originally arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, until Harrison died Saturday.

Witnesses say Leonard and Harrison got into a fight in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. Harrison was attempting to flee when Leonard hit him with his pickup at Howe Avenue and Arden Way.

Highly-Annoyed At Advertising Malware Intrusion

MaagNiPic sent over an intrusive advertising banner on my Blog Admin page featuring miniskirt-clad derrieres and the advice to "Spank Me". Got a program to clean out the infestation.

The Chatter Of Baby Scrub Jays Talking To Themselves

Scrub Jay parent takes a brief break from the labor of opening a peanut.

Lately the Scrub Jays have been very busy in the hedge just outside my bedroom window. The parents stash the 3 babies there during the day, and travel back to deliver food. The three baby Scrub Jays, still downy, but all able to fly these days, huddle next to each other on a branch. I'm slowly figuring out their geography. My hedge is mostly the Morning Feeding Spot. Judging from the anti-feline cacophony yesterday afternoon, when a cat crossed the street, the late afternoon spot is three houses down the street.

My baby Scrub Jays are learning early the proper deference and respect for the human race. My back yard's gate is directly beneath their favorite resting perch. As I left the yard this morning I couldn't help but disturb them, as I was only 4 or 5 feet beneath them. So, as I passed under, all 3 shit in unison.

I think they are more annoyed than panicked. They've seen me before. I move slowly, predictably, and don't stare (birds get flummoxed by human raptor-like stare). Still, when I returned, a parent hopped across my field of view when I passed closest to babies, to distract in the event I meant harm. They react to humans much different than to cats: we're the lesser danger.

No Business Doing What I'm Doing With A Goat Skin, But I'm Doing It Anyway

After a year's delay, I finally decided to put the head on the Djembe. So, I spent much of Saturday wrestling with a Goat Skin. Djembe sounds like crap, though. There is more skill involved here than I realized.

The New Star Trek Movie

It was OK.

Sometimes The Trouble With Being Out Of Step With Everyone Else Is That I'm Out Of Step With Everyone Else

I had trouble getting to sleep on Friday night, so I was slow getting up on Saturday. I know the "Oklahoma!" Fundraiser was scheduled hourly at the Davis Farmer's Market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., but I wasn't really ready till shortly after 11 a.m. I headed to Davis for the 12 noon show, but traffic at the Yolo Causeway caused me to miss that show. I went shopping at Target instead. I dropped in at the theater, which normally would be busy with set building, but the set for "Cats" is already done, so no one was at the theater. I was at the Farmer's Market for the 1 p.m. show, but apparently the Fundraiser was already finished. So, I did a bit of shopping as the farmers put away their goods - bought some cilantro, fingerling potatoes, onions, corn, and Indian food. But the trip was a bit pointless.

Animotion - Obsession

80's nostalgia.

Gotta Love The Internet!

Someone was nice enough to post a link to my blog, and the response was big! I guess people do read Reddit!

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell

Already obvious this will be the hot song of the summer.

Radar Imagery Of The El Reno Tornado

Interesting video! Cloud base is SO low! It looks like cloud base is only a few hundred feet above the ground. And the initial vortices too, all circling around a common center....



The radar imagery is striking....

Indeed, as I thought, I have a compilation of meteorological papers called "The Tornado: It's Structure, Dynamics, Prediction, and Hazards" (C. Church, D. Burgess, C. Doswell, and R. Davies-Jones, Geophysical Monograph 79, American Geophysical Union, 1990). I looked at it for ten minutes, enough to know that the tornado emerged from the south side of what's called the 'Flanking Line'. (Tornado meteorologists have their own specialized vocabulary that peasants like me have a little trouble penetrating.) I wonder if most tornadoes tend to come from there? (For a meteorologist, I'm a tornado neophyte, spoiled by an almost funnel-free life in the American Southwest.)

This should be fun....

Shut Down The Crazy Campus Preacher

THIS is the way to do it!

I remember trying to shut a campus preacher up once at the University of Arizona. I stepped forward and said: "In the 19th Century..." Someone immediately mocked "In the 19th Century...". Then I lost my train of thought.

To regain control, the preacher needs to immediately kiss someone of the same sex. Ain't gonna happen.

I Wonder Where A Proto-Disco-Type Dude Like Me Fits In?

Generation gap settling in Dance music means that, for some, it will always be 1995:

Broadly speaking, if you're an electronic-music fan older than 40, you probably dig Danny Tenaglia more than Skrillex. And chances are, if you're a Skrillex fan younger than 30, you're like, "Who the hell is Danny Tenaglia?"

Coachella 2013 exemplified this generation gap in the world of dance music. ... The Yuma was new this year, largely a response to the success of the Sahara and the fist-pumping, underdressed EDM culture that has blossomed in recent years. In fact, quite a few electronic scenesters, now in their 30s and 40s, aren't thrilled their beloved scene is now epitomized by overpaid superstar DJs and the bros who love them. Thus, many tastemakers feel the need to educate young audiences about the genre's history. The kids? They just want to ride the sonic roller coaster.

...At April's IMS Engage Summit in LA, Skrillex, once-dubbed the Boy King of EDM by LA Weekly, had a positive prognosis. "You have this new bombastic, loud, punk-rock energy, or whatever you want to call it, coming in with electronic music," he said, "and then you have the old-school techno, which comes from a different place and energy. . . . But what I see is that all of it is coming together."

Road Rash Alert

No thanks, I'll pass:

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - On Saturday, June 8th, Puerto Vallarta will join various cities and countries around the world in the 10th Annual World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR), an international movement that highlights the vulnerability of cyclists everywhere and decries society’s dependence on pollution-based transportation.

Pedalea Vallarta is organizing World Playero Bike Ride a name that alludes to an event that has taken place every year since 2003 in Vancouver, Canada. Everyone is invited to come out and ride together en masse on human-powered transport (bicycles, skateboards and inline skates), to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world."

The dress code motto is "bare as you dare," and creative expression is encouraged to generate a fun and immersive atmosphere during the ride. Body art, such as body painting, are common forms of creative expression, as well as costumes, decorated bikes, and portable sound reinforcement systems, such as boomboxes, musical instruments, or other types of noisemakers.

David Bowie - Fame

When this song came out in 1974 I couldn't get enough of it. I badgered everyone I knew to listen to it, which they humored me by doing, all the while rolling their eyes.

Thirty-nine years ago. Time to badger you too.

GOP's Latino Outreach Falls Right On Its Face

Shameful Republicans:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP-controlled House voted Thursday to reject President Barack Obama’s policy to end deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the country illegally who were brought to the United States as children.

The 224-201 vote broke along party lines and comes as Congress is working on overhauling the much-criticized U.S. immigration system. The measure came as the House completed action on the Department of Homeland Security spending bill.

Obama announced a program in June 2012 that puts off deportation for many people brought here as children. Applicants for the reprieve must have arrived before they turned 16, be younger than 31 now, be high school graduates or in school, or have served in the military. They can’t have a serious criminal record.

One of the most widely-backed elements of immigration reform, known as the DREAM Act, would award these immigrants legal status.

Obama’s program, done by executive action, doesn’t give such immigrants legal status but it at least protects them from deportation for two years.

Amendment sponsor Steve King, R-Iowa, is a strident opponent of relaxing U.S. immigration law. He said any changes to U.S. policy should be enacted by Congress, not orchestrated by the president.

Tropical Storm Andrea

Dwight E-Mails from Tampa:

Marc - I see that it now has a name, Tropical Storm Andrea. Any updates?

Discussion suggests that it is barely over tropical storm threshold. Strong wind shear suggests it’s in an unfavorable environment for strengthening. It’s supposed to move northward a little bit tonight, and then start accelerating northeast. Still, the heaviest rains should be south of you – between Tampa and Naples.

So, tomorrow will be wet and uncomfortable, but for a tropical storm it shouldn’t be too bad.

To be fair to the NVG model, it forecasts that the region of highest rain will swing northward just offshore, past Tampa, and cross the coast north of your location. I suspect that won’t happen, though, because it isn’t doing so now. Maybe it’s a failure of my imagination, but I still think the region of highest rain will cross the coast between Tampa and Naples. It will be an interesting test to see what happens tonight.

No matter where the region of highest rain goes, you’ll get sideswiped by some of it. Best of luck with sporadic street flooding, etc.

I Dream Of Dawn

Entering A Kind Of Proto-Monsoonal Period In NM

Not quite there yet. Still, pretty dry. But there is some activity in the state, with a mild disturbance moving across the state today, and southerly flow in the eastern portion of the state.

Western Scrub-Jay With Two Peanuts - Buridan's Ass Paradox, In Practice

Buridan's Ass Paradox:

It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass that is equally hungry and thirsty is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since the paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, it will die of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision to choose one over the other.  The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. A common variant of the paradox substitutes two identical piles of hay for the hay and water; the ass, unable to choose between the two, dies of hunger.

I don't know if the paradox quite applies here. The bird seems to choose the tougher nut first - likelier to be the better one.

In any event regarding my Scrub Jays, last night, the two missing Scrub Jays appeared to have joined the third. Their parents were using the more-or-less enclosed space of my yard for flying lessons. Then they abruptly vanished. At least one returned this morning. I don't know where they go. They are doing what they can to keep a low profile and escape attention. A wise move, in general, for what may be a rather large family.

West Nile virus seems to have decimated the local population of Scrub Jays over the last few years. It's time to repopulate the area with Scrub Jays.

Immigration Reform Isn't Going To Happen

Not now, anyway:

Speaking with radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday, Rubio said the Senate should “strengthen the border security parts of this bill so that they’re stronger, so that they don’t give overwhelming discretion to the Department of Homeland Security.” He said he was working with other senators on amendments to do just that.

Then Hewitt asked: “If those amendments don’t pass, will you yourself support the bill that emerged from Judiciary, Senator Rubio?”

Rubio answered, “Well, I think if those amendments don’t pass, then I think we’ve got a bill that isn’t going to become law, and I think we’re wasting our time. So the answer is no.”

"Those amendments" are poison pills that would require 100 percent operational control of the border before any new green cards are issued, a standard that's pretty obviously impossible to meet. The only reason to insist on them is to give Rubio a plausible exit strategy from his own bill.

...We'll see. Rubio's support, as always, is critical to immigration reform. If he bolts, it's dead. But if he insists on his poison pill amendments, it's dead too. I'd say the odds on passage just dropped dramatically.

Jetta Didn't Make It On The "America's Got Talent" Premiere Show Last Night

Maybe next week.

Parents Who Embarrass Their Kids Even Before The Teen Years

Oh, Dad!:

A man who gave his children Nazi-inspired names has dressed up in full fascist regalia as he appeared in a US court seeking to secure visitation rights to his youngest son.

Heath Campbell - father of Adolf Hitler Campbell, 7, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 6, Honzlynn Jeannie Campbell, 5, and 18-month-old Heinrich Hons Campbell - donned a German Nazi uniform for the hearing in Flemington, New Jersey.

The 40-year-old, who also sports a large swastika tattoo on his neck, was appearing before the court in a bid to win the right to see Heinrich Hons, who was taken into care by social services soon after his birth in November 2011.

Heinrich's elder siblings had already been taken into care in 2009.

"I'm going to tell the judge I love my children. I wanna be a father, let me be it," Mr Campbell told NBC10 before the hearing.

The family hit the headlines in 2008 when a supermarket refused to write Adolf Hitler on a cake ordered for their eldest son.

...Asked whether dressing up as a Nazi was likely to help his case, Mr Campbell was confident it would not be held against him: "If they're good judges and they're good people, they'll look within, not what's on the outside."

Pot Calls Kettle Black

"Debilitating stupidity":

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey on Tuesday excoriated New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) decision to hold a special election to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), accusing him of "debilitating stupidity" in not appointing a Republican outright.

"This is what rankles conservatives," Armey told CNN's Jake Tapper. "There's not a Democratic governor that wouldn't have seized the opportunity to appoint a Democrat senator, no matter what the status. In some states they may try to sell it and get rich off it as they did in Illinois. All Christie has to do is appoint a Republican. That's the correct move for him to make."

Yet, Christie has complicated and sophisticated reasons for what he is doing. Does any of that count? (I know you are, so what am I?)

El Reno Tornado Widest On Record

A record, apparently:

Based on veloctiy data from The University of Oklahoma’s RaXpol data (Rapid-scan X-band Polarimetric Radar) the El Reno tornado that hit central Oklahoma Friday (May 31, 2013) has been upgraded to an EF5 tornado, with a maximum width of 2.6 miles. This makes it the widest tornado on record in the United States.

And it looks like it was headed almost straight towards my friend John's house, before giving up. Luck held!

Best Oklahoma! Picture

Talking about Oklahoma, and before I forget again, I wanted to post Mark Deamer's photo of Ashley Holm (Ado Annie) and Scott Scholes (Will Parker): the best photo of the entire run of Oklahoma!

Upcoming Oklahoma! Fundraiser

I'd like to share our Oklahoma! Fundraiser, scheduled for the Davis Farmer's Market this coming weekend. We had just closed our theatrical run of "Oklahoma!" at DMTC on May 12th. Then the tornadoes started hitting. We wanted to help out where we could. For those who live out-of-town, and can't attend but would like to help, please send donation checks (with Davis' Oklahoma in the memo) to this address:

American Red Cross
Capital Region Chapter
1565 Exposition Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95815

Reid May Be Right

I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that Reid may be right. Do Democrats have off-year staying power? Well, do they? The drop off in 2010 voter turnout compared to 2008 suggests not. And the Dems are supposed to gamble their seats on turnout so fickle? Better to play defense. So, no big moves. It's a long game we are in - awaiting demographic changes that take years and years to manifest themselves. We need yet more Latino voters first.

There are plenty of dangers with this approach, of course, the big one being that the Republicans will use the nuclear option if they ever get the upper hand. Reid got past that once, however, and is confident he can do it again. If Democrats turn out in 2014 like 2012, no worries, but they'll HAVE to do so to stop this silly game. Reid is no fool. That is why he's in power and we aren't:

Senate Democrats, not just Reid, caved in January for a variety of reasons. Some wanted to avoid an acrimonious rule change on the eve of votes on immigration reform, gun control and a possible deficit deal, hoping to win significant Republican support for such legislation. Those senators believe in unicorns.

Others were said to fear giving up the minority party’s power to obstruct the majority party’s legislative agenda, because they fear Democrats will soon be in that minority. “Many Democrats are wary of such a change,” the Boston Globe reported on Tuesday, “because they could one day find themselves in the minority wishing they had unfettered filibuster power.”

Such cowardice of course is the best way to insure that Democrats will soon be in the minority. If they allow Republicans to obstruct the president’s agenda, Democrats should assume voters will see no reason to continue to elect Democrats to the White House or the Senate majority.

The Inferior Medium?

Breaking Bad and the 'inferior medium':

Liel Leibovitz, who admits to not being much of a TV watcher, argues that as good as the medium has gotten, it “does not now, nor will it ever, meet the same sublime depths explored by the great novels. It is, quite simply, essentially inferior”

M. comments:

“Something must always be happening”

If that is his primary critique of television as a medium then his favorite novel must be a stack of blank printer paper, and Office Max would be the greatest book store ever.

I comment:

You can do things on TV you can’t do in a novel, and vice-versa. Making direct comparisons between TV and novels strikes me as silly. It’s an apples-and-minerals kind of argument. Gotta love ‘em both!

Tonight Should Be Jetta's Big Night

Tonight is the premiere of the new season of "America's Got Talent", and it's likely that my friend Jetta will be showcased, yukking it up with Howard Stern. The show starts at 9 p.m. (In Sacramento, on NBC-affiliate KCRA Channel 3.)

Drop me a message on Facebook (or E-Mail at mvaldez@sierraresearch.com) if you want to send her good wishes, get an autograph, hire her for a function, or whatever. (Apart from AGT I appear to be the closest thing she has to a Manager and can put her in touch with you.)

How To Upset Scrub Jays

So, the folks at UCD were doing an experiment? They left a dead Scrub Jay at a bird feeder. Scrub Jays don't like finding dead Scrub Jays laying around.

Do animals and birds have funerals for the dead? According to data collected by researchers from the University of California Davis, the western scrub jay in California has been observed making distinct calls to other jays in the area, possibly to warn them of potential danger after discovering a dead jay. The birds then congregate around the dead body of their fellow jay. Researchers also noted that the birds appeared to stop foraging for food in the immediate area for a period of over 24 hours.

The researchers conducted experiments to see how the birds would react in comparison to different objects, such as colored pieces of wood, stuffed jays and a stuffed Great Horned Owl, to simulate the bird's natural predator.

The jays did not react to the colored wood, but had similar reactions when a predator was spotted or if a dead jay was found, both signifying a potential danger in the area.

Regarding my fledglings, one is firmly lodged, in hiding, in the hedge outside my bedroom window, but I don't know where the other two are. I scanned the yard beneath their nest, but see nothing. Were there cats? Are they in a secret bunker somewhere? Or are they in the hedge too? The parents are saying nothing. It is a mystery.

And The Ogallala Is Running Dry

Long predicted; coming to pass:

Two years of extreme drought, during which farmers relied almost completely on groundwater, have brought the seriousness of the problem home. In 2011 and 2012, the Kansas Geological Survey reports, the average water level in the state’s portion of the aquifer dropped 4.25 feet — nearly a third of the total decline since 1996.

And that is merely the average. “I know my staff went out and re-measured a couple of wells because they couldn’t believe it,” said Lane Letourneau, a manager at the State Agriculture Department’s water resources division. “There was a 30-foot decline.”

Kansas agriculture will survive the slow draining of the aquifer — even now, less than a fifth of the state’s farmland is irrigated in any given year — but the economic impact nevertheless will be outsized. In the last federal agriculture census of Kansas, in 2007, an average acre of irrigated land produced nearly twice as many bushels of corn, two-thirds more soybeans and three-fifths more wheat than did dry land.

Offbeat Las Vegas Museums

A nice summary, like the Neon Museum, among others:

You can get a mite wistful looking at signs from formerly swanky hotels and casinos, now merely memories. It may not be the Louvre, but the Neon Museum is a tribute to pop art of the era, heaping dollops of Americana. Its visitors center is the former La Concha Motel lobby, shaped like a shell, one of Vegas' best examples of programmatic architecture.

Dave Nachmanoff's Yolo FCU Contest Entry

He's trying to round up votes here. (He's in third-place right now.)

Cosmic Gate & JES - Flying Blind

Jes Brieden is SO good!

Darrell Issa - A Cold Case

Remember, as Darrell Issa attacks Barack Obama, that he is a suspected car thief and arsonist, and not in the best position to hurl accusations about anything:

Along with his brother, Issa was charged with stealing a car in the 1970s, but he was never convicted. In 1982, Issa, a businessman, was suspected of arson after a suspicious fire brought down one of his factories. No charges were filed.

A 2011 profile of Issa in The New Yorker detailed both incidents.

Nice Profile On Sherrika Darnell

Sherrika is a friend from Step One, and lately she's been doing lights for Runaway Stage Productions:

As the 24th St. Theatre on-call technician, Sherrika Darnell has lit up our lives, and the lives of our theater renters, for the past two and half years. Many adults and children have had the thrill of performing for the first time on a stage with the help of Sherrika’s designing and operating the lights and sound for their productions.

...Some of the theater groups she’s worked with include Garbeau’s Dinner Theater, El Dorado Musical Theater and Runaway Stage Productions.

Sherrika says, “Anything I do in the theater and the dance world gives me an opportunity to let my creativity flow, and hopefully bring a smile to someone else, which in turn makes me smile. Life is about inspiring health and happiness.”

Route 66 Museum In Victorville

Need to visit:

VICTORVILLE – They were in their early 20s, hip in that effortless European way. He wore cool shades and a three-day stubble; she bore piercings in all the right places – lip, eyebrow, helix of the ear lobe. They said they were from Pamplona, Spain, but rolled their eyes at mention of the running of the bulls.

Too touristy, the gesture meant.

Yet Borja Marcos and Oihane Almagro were standing in front of one of the West's monuments to touristic diversions – the curio- besotted California Route 66 museum – snapping photos of each other before a giant mural.

Tenth Anniversary Of "Flying Monkey Productions"

Thirty shows under their belts!:

Time flies when you’re having fun. Flying Monkey Productions, the brainchild of Sacramento natives Ryan Warren and Julie Soto, celebrates its 10th year of producing high-quality youth theater with a revival of its first production, “Seussical the Musical,” June 7-15 at California Stage.

Warren and Soto have produced 30 shows under their theatrical moniker Flying Monkey Productions, which engages hundreds of young artistic acolytes in all aspects of theater production.

Nice Profile On Amanda Graham

Sacramento Archivist at the Sacramento Public Library:

Ever wonder who might have lived in your house, attended your school or walked the streets of your neighborhood many years ago? Who were they, and how did they live? Would you find their names in the early social registers? The answers to these questions and many other historical clues are at your fingertips. There is a library specialist who can help you unearth maps, plans and photos showing your community and maybe even your own home being built.

Meet Amanda Graham, the archivist of the Sacramento Room located in the Sacramento Public Library at 8th and I streets, which houses collections of local, regional and state historic material. She oversees seven specific collections that include books, maps, photographs, periodicals, manuscripts, city directories, and eye-catching ephemera—printed and illustrated materials like sports and theater tickets, advertisements and postcards.

Owens Lake Massacre Site

Finally located it, but running afoul of air pollution efforts:

On March 19, 1863, 20 soldiers and 10 white settlers attacked Paiutes who were reportedly killing livestock in the area. The battle began in a nearby oak grove and the Paiutes ran into the lake, hoping to swim to safety.

However, "a strong wind was blowing from the east and the Indians could make little progress in swimming against it; therefore they became easy targets for the men hunting them," historian Dorothy Clora Cragen wrote in her book, "The Boys in the Sky-Blue Pants."

After taking a shot at one of the Indians trying to swim beyond the range of gunfire, a white settler raised his fist and shouted, "Die, damn you, in the lake!" she wrote. "And the Indian did."

...DWP archaeologists discovered the site a year ago, but its existence had been kept private to prevent looting and vandalism. Now, a nasty dispute between the department and air pollution authorities is forcing it into the open.

...The effort largely succeeded, but air pollution officials said the DWP needed to do more. Over the objections of the utility, Great Basin called for mitigation measures on other portions of the lake bed — including the land where the DWP later made its discovery. Now, the utility is siding with Paiutes who want to make the area off-limits to dust mitigation projects.

Close Call On The Berries

James says he had one of those bags from Costco, and set it aside when preparing the Smoothies on Saturday, but still, it's a little too close for my peace of mind:

Health officials have linked an outbreak of acute hepatitis A that has sickened at least 30 people in five states to a frozen berry and pomegranate mix.

Cases have been reported in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California. In a release Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the first victims fell ill on April 29 and the most recent case was May 17. It is believed more will come.

The outbreak appears to be linked to a frozen berry blend sold by Costco called The Townsend Farms Organic Anti-oxidant Blend Frozen Berry Mix, a frozen berry and pomegranate seed mix. Costco is notifying all members who purchased the product since late February and has removed it from its shelves.

...Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus. Of the people who've been sickened in this outbreak 47% have been hospitalized, CDC said. Some people who contract it have no symptoms but many have fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal and joint pain.

...The strain of hepatitis A in this outbreak is rarely seen in the United States, said CDC's Lola Russell. It's known to circulate in North African and the Middle East. The same type of hepatitis A was identified in a 2013 outbreak in Europe linked to frozen berries and another one in 2012 in Canada linked to a frozen berry blend with pomegranate seeds from Egypt, she said.

Greta Gerwig Was On 'The View' Today

Promoting "Frances Ha"!

More Greta Gerwig links:

Review in Sacramento News and Review.

SacBee review.

SacBee Ticket cover story.

The Newspaper Business Is Collapsing

Really? REALLY????:

The Chicago Sun-Times has laid off its entire 28 person photography staff.

In its place, reporters are being given mandatory training in how to use their iPhone to take pictures.

...But as astonishingly good as the iPhone camera is, for a device crammed into a cube less than a quarter inch on the side, it is still a camera built around the constraints of its tiny size. My iPhone camera is no match for even a dedicated point and shoot camera, let alone a DSLR.

And here’s a bigger problem. It is a faint hope to expect journalists to take pictures that are as attention grabbing as those taken by professional photographers.

Where that Corporate Personhood Push Is Going

Keep your hands off:

Mining pharmacy records, the company assembled profiles of hundreds of thousands of American doctors and millions of individual patients, with names and other identifying details encrypted. IMS Health turned around and sold access to those files to pharmaceutical companies, making it easier for the firms to target (and reward) the physicians most likely to prescribe expensive, brand-name drugs.

Eventually, doctors and state officials caught on to what IMS Health was doing. Where the company saw a business opportunity, they saw a strategy that violated patient privacy and could increase health care costs.

...Had the issue remained subject to a normal democratic process, it would have continued to play out that way—through a gradual, state-by-state debate about whether so-called “prescription confidentiality” laws make for good policy. But IMS Health did not want that kind of fight. Instead, it filed separate suits against the three states that had first cracked down on its business, invoking the First Amendment. The selling of prescription records, the company asserted, is a form of free speech.

For most of U.S. history, such a claim would have been a dead letter in court. But when it comes to the First Amendment, we live in interesting times. In June 2011, the Supreme Court struck down the new data-protection laws, arguing that they discriminated against IMS Health. “The State,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority, “has burdened a form of protected expression. ... This the State cannot do.”

It was Kennedy, of course, who authored Citizens United, which established that independent political spending by corporations is shielded by the Bill of Rights as well. The IMS Health case, which drew much less attention, shows just how pervasive such free speech arguments have become. Once the patron saint of protesters and the disenfranchised, the First Amendment has become the darling of economic libertarians and corporate lawyers who have recognized its power to immunize private enterprise from legal restraint. It is tempting to call it the new nuclear option for undermining regulation, except that its deployment is shockingly routine.

Last summer, the tobacco industry used the First Amendment to have new, scarier health warnings on cigarette packaging thrown out on the grounds that the labels constituted a form of compelled speech. Ratings agencies like Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, whose erroneous and possibly fraudulent AAA ratings of worthless securities helped cause the banking crisis, have leaned heavily on a defense that deems their ratings mere opinions and therefore protected by the First Amendment. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing to gut the disclosure requirements in new securities regulations, citing the free speech rights of hedge funds and publicly traded companies. Attorneys working for Google have argued that, since search results are speech, its rights are impinged by the enforcement of tort and antitrust laws. Southwest and Spirit airlines have employed the First Amendment to resist efforts to force them to list the full price of tickets. The incomplete, misleading cost, they have argued, is a form of free speech, too.

Fred Schauer of the University of Virginia calls such claims “First Amendment opportunism.” Free speech is a cherished American ideal; companies are exploiting that esteem, as he puts it, “to try to accomplish goals that are not so clearly related to speech.” The co-opting of the First Amendment has happened slowly, but not at all by accident.

...In the course of forging the world’s most powerful free speech rights in the ’60s, the Supreme Court had placed relatively few limits on the scope of its judicial review, compared with other parts of the Constitution. Perhaps, given the kind of cases coming before them, the justices failed to imagine that the mighty, as well as the marginalized, would come to make use of the First Amendment.

Painting The Elk Grove Cat Cage

Meow. But the potato-based EtOH interfered, so not much got done.

Could Not Be More Surprised To See Steve Walker On The Billboard

I was driving down Broadway, and I saw this billboard that looms above Tower Liquors, right across from the Tower Theater. Look at that! That's Steve Walker! Bigger than life!  I guess Steve is big enough now that he's going all-mogul on us!

Steve is the landlord who owns the apartments immediately adjacent to me, just west of where I live. I don't see him very often - maybe once or twice a year these days - but I've probably known him since 1995. He grew up in those apartments, and it was probably his first real estate purchase. He's been assiduously keeping up that property ever since (even after the laundry-vent fire they had a few years back). Hard work!

Since Steve grew up next door, he knew the people who lived in my house long, long before I lived there. He once asked a strange question. Turns out, when he was young, he was in what is now my living room, when a depressed house member accidentally fired a bullet through the floor. So, he asked: "Have you ever found a bullet in your basement?" The answer was no - at least, not yet. (I once found a bullet in the gutter, but that was something different.)

If I ever sell my property, he is my natural real estate agent: he has a vested interest in doing a good job.

I wonder just how big he's got?

Scrub Jay Sunday

This morning, I awoke to the unmistakable sound of a juvenile Scrub Jay outside my bedroom window. I looked out, and sure enough, there was the bird, looking in. To get into that hedge the bird had to fly over a fence and around the side of the house. Don't know where the other two are: they aren't hiding in the geranium anymore. Trying to keep an eye on the parents. Fun!

Here are photos of one of the parents:

Set Photos For "Cats"

DMTC's Theater Is Named The 'Jean Henderson Theater'

The Most Dangerous Time Of Year

Here is a picture of a geranium, as seen through my basement window, where three baby Scrub Jays have sought shelter on a warm Saturday afternoon. The nest is up above. At this stage, Scrub Jays aren't quite strong enough to fly, so they spend a few days on the ground, where they are highly, highly vulnerable. Living on the ground is a phase in the lives of all Scrub Jays, as well as many other kinds of birds. I hope I'm right that there are no cats or other predators nearby.

Jetta Shows Up Briefly In Howard Stern's Promo Of The New Season Of 'America's Got Talent' On The Katie Couric Show

Just briefly, at 18:33, in this low-quality video.

"Frances Ha" - Friday Night At The Tower

Friday night, I went to see Greta Gerwig's new movie, "Frances Ha" at the Tower Theater. I liked it for its portrayal of an awkward period in one's life: a sort-of rebellion about accepting a lower position than one might like in life. A very mild version of "denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance." The IMDB plot summary is here:

Frances lives in New York, but she doesn't really have an apartment. Frances is an apprentice for a dance company, but she's not really a dancer. Frances has a best friend named Sophie, but they aren't really speaking anymore. Frances throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Frances wants so much more than she has but lives her life with unaccountable joy and lightness.

The movie features Greta's home, Sacramento's River Park neighborhood, too. It was nice seeing the city as an outsider. Her parents are in the film as well. The movie features Connor Mickiewicz (and presumably his dentist father, Tim, too), but as an illustration of how balkanized Sacramento Theater is, I haven't seen Connor since 'Babes in Arms' at the Woodland Opera House in - oh, was it 2000? - and I still haven't made it over to New Helvetia Theatre, so I didn't recognize him.:

Critics seem to like it (LA Times):

Effortless and effervescent, "Frances Ha" is a small miracle of a movie, honest and funny with an aim that's true. It's both a timeless story of the joys and sorrows of youth and a dead-on portrait of how things are right now for one particular New York woman who, try as she might, can't quite get her life together.

...Though both Gerwig, a fixture on the New York independent scene who's moved on to bigger features, and Baumbach, Oscar-nominated for writing the marvelous "The Squid and the Whale," are known quantities on their own, they've increased their effectiveness by working together.

For the actress, a quicksilver presence with a fluid face who couldn't be more natural on screen, "Frances" is an opportunity to build a character of unexpected complexity. For the director, having a gifted collaborator able to be so completely present adds a lightness his films have not always had and has made possible an irresistible command of the moment.

If anyone lives completely in that moment, it is Frances, a 27-year-old apprentice dancer who is so many often contradictory things at once it's difficult to know where to begin — or end — in describing her.

Feckless and rootless, gawky and graceful, over-analytical and uncertain, always apologizing yet often oblivious, Frances is making a hash out of her own life because she doesn't know any better. If there is a wrong turn to be made, she will take it; if there is a way to sabotage herself, she will find it. A more or less disposable person for everyone she knows, she is aware that adult life is beyond her capacity at present. "I'm so embarrassed," she says. "I'm not a real person yet."

And yet there is something unmistakably endearing about Frances, something winning in her vulnerability and her pluck, the way she bounces back like a Joe Palooka toy from her many misadventures. She is unmistakably good-hearted, and it is impossible not to root for her as she throws herself into life and tries to determine if there can be a place there for her. Frances' woeful mantra in these struggles, which she brandishes whenever life's pressures become too great, is the defensive "I'm not messy, I'm busy."

Hard-Ass Security

Went to see 'Frances Ha' at the Tower Theater Friday night. As I walked across the theater parking lot, the security guy rolled into the parking lot and flashed his lights at me. "What now?", I thought. Turned out it was Chris Petersen, doing his nightly rounds! Broadway and X Streets are his corridor. He pointed at a newspaper box adjacent to the theater and talked about rousting a drunk woman who had been sitting on the box the other day. She fell over and knocked the box on top of herself, and cursed him repeatedly. She walked off, but there was nowhere she could go in the neighborhood, because that was Chris' turf too. He showed me his taser. Says he uses it once a week. Watch out, or he'll bust your ass too!

Can't Have Nice Things In The Desert

People are stealing the sliding rocks of Death Valley:

"We've had more instances of folks taking the rocks," Death Valley spokesman Terry Baldino said. "They don't seem to understand that outside of the Racetrack, these marvelous rocks have no value."

Lunar Mascons Explained

They occur because the Moon's interior used to be warmer than it is now.