Author: Don

Memo

Ten years ago Sitemeter was a useful tool for seeing who links to you. Nowadays it’s a liability. A month ago, and again yesterday, sites I regularly visit were hijacked with domain redirects most likely piggybacking on Sitemeter code. If you use Sitemeter, please find an alternative as soon as possible.

Memo to the hijackers: Kirika would like to see you.

Kirika

Update: The Bayou Renaissance Man recommends StatCounter.

Tickety tock

Expensive people

A footnote to Kevin Williamson’s recent piece on Wal-Mart and watches:

For reasons that no one can explain, my office is on the Hollywood Reporter‘s mailing list, which recently published an edition all about celebrity watches. Here are a few of the highlights.

$1.5 million

Six figures

$55 million

What does this mean: “A concentrated blend of horological innovations, the Classique Chronométrie 7727 with its balance fitted on magnetic pivot and operating at a frequency of 10Hz achieves an average rate of -1 to +3 seconds per day”? If that is to say that it might lose a second or gain up to three every day, then my cheapo Timex watch is a better timekeeper than one costing $40,000.

$40,000

Visual aid

Not Europe

Those following Madan no Ou to Vanadis might find a map of its world useful. I found a couple at a wiki devoted to the show. (I tweaked the contrast of the first to improve readability.)

Advice to cartographers: Legibility trumps stylishness. Pseudo-black letter might look pretty on the page, but it’s a pain to interpret. Please stick to plain fonts such as Helvetica or Times Roman.

Another map

Ruffling the feathers

It was my good fortune half a lifetime ago to spend time around Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, who passed away recently. Cardinal Seán O’Malley, in his homily at Lorenzo’s funeral, tells some stories that illustrate one side of Lorenzo’s memorable personality.

It was also around that time when Lorenzo first met Cardinal O’Boyle the Archbishop of Washington. Lorenzo and I spent a lot of time at St. Matthews Cathedral where I was working with Rosario Corredera and the Hispanic community. Lorenzo used to drive me very often. One day, as he was wont to do, Lorenzo parked in the Cardinal’s parking space… (Any ‘no parking’ sign was an invitation to Lorenzo.) At that moment Cardinal O’Boyle was approaching and confronted Lorenzo: “who are you,” he asked. Lorenzo replied: “I am the Cardinal”. Cardinal O’Boyle, who was something of a curmudgeon, answered back: “I am the Cardinal!” To which Lorenzo said: “yes, you are the day Cardinal; I am the night Cardinal.”

It is no wonder that after his first Mass, Lorenzo’s mother asked me to bless her new apartment. I said, “But, doña Conchita, your son was just ordained.” She said, “Yes, padre, but I think he is joking.”

There’s more at the Cardinal’s site. (Scroll down to “Tuesday.”)

So much for fall

Winter I

Many people declare that fall is their favorite season. I’ve never understood why. Sure, there are pleasant Indian summer days when you can read Keats and admire fall foliage, but it always ends in cold and desolation. This year winter came very early. The maples never reached full intensity, and other late fall trees were still mostly green when the January weather arrived. Where’s global warming when you need it?

Continue reading “So much for fall”

MacBatty

I just discovered that Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters was made into a movie. It’s not the Discworld novel I would have chosen — Granny Weatherwax is my least-favorite of Pratchett’s recurring characters, and I’d have preferred a good adaptation of The Light Fantastic ((The title was deliberately chosen to annoy Robbo.)) — but it’s still funnier than most alleged comedies. Chrstopher Lee is a resonant Death, though his voice doesn’t have “all the warmth and colour of an iceberg.” Although Wyrd Sisters is animated, Nanny Ogg’s abundant presence renders it not quite suitable for children. She sings a bit of her hedgehog song, too.

Groucho gets wyrd

There are some things in the movie that I don’t remember from the book.

Update: It turns out that a lot of Pratchett has been dramatized, and much of it is available and inexpensive — downright cheap, sometimes, if you buy used. I just ordered these:

The Colour of Magic (which also adapts The Light Fantastic ((“You know when we were flying and I was worried we might hit something in the storm and you said that the only thing we could possibly hit at this height was a cloud stuffed with rocks?”
“Well?”
“How did you know?”)) )

Soul Music

Hogfather

There’s also a Discworld calendar, but since I already have four other 2015 calendars ordered, I think I’ll pass.