ABULAFIA :: Zeitgeist






		2 0 0 4 JANUARY 03 JANUARY 02 JANUARY 01 2 0 0 3 DEC. 04 DEC. 03 DEC. 02 DEC. 01 NOV. 04 NOV. 03 NOV. 02 NOV. 01 OCTOBER 03 OCTOBER 02 OCTOBER 01 SEPTEMBER AUGUST 02 AUGUST 01 JULY 02 JULY 01 JUNE 02 JUNE 01 MAY 02 MAY 01 APRIL 02 APRIL 01 MARCH FEBRUARY JANUARY WEDDING L I N K S AAA Abulafia Boardwalk Bread CHN Christ Lutheran Church NCCHS Neighborhood Research Institute Old Oaks Olde Towne Polyphony INTP Business First Business First Daily Edition Call and Post Columbus Alive Columbus Dispatch Columbus Free Press Columbus Post Communicator News The Daily Reporter Inner Art The Lantern The Other Paper Suburban News Publications Short North Gazette NBC4 Columbus WSYX 6 10TV WBNS ONN BBC World Service CNN Christian Science Monitor The Guardian IndiaTimes Newsday New York Times StarTribune Washington Post Washington Times AfricaPundit William F. Buckley Jr. Command Post Crooked Timber Daniel W. Drezner John Ellis David Frum Hit & Run Instapundit Mickey Kaus Joshua Micah Marshall The Note OxBlog Virginia Postrel Wes Pruden Regions of Mind Jim Romenesko Andrew Sullivan Volokh Conspiracy Day by Day Doonesbury Ted Rall Peter Steiner Tom Toles Tom Tomorrow Rob Pegoraro Matt Drudge Cronaca Languagehat Language Log Open Brackets PaleoJudaica Arts Journal Communication Arts Mooch Bluejake Blue Ridge Blog Candid Colors Conscientious Dublog Ecotone Wiki Found Magazine Lightningfield London and the north Maps and territories Mysterium Smoky Mountain Journal Brody Neuenschwander Cheryl Holtz D.U.I. Studio Columbus Underground Forgotten Ohio Illicit Ohio Midnight Exposure Ohio Exploration Society Ohio Lost Acme Art Company Ballet Met CCAD Columbus Arts Columbus Arts Festival Columbus Metropolitan Library Columbus Museum of Art Columbus Symphony Dialogue Franklin Park Conservatory Glass Axis Music in the Air Opera Columbus Thurber House Wexner Center City of Bexley City of Columbus Columbus City Council Columbus Police Columbus Public Schools OTENA egroup OTENA-NIC egroup OTENA-tours egroup OTENA-trustees egroup Old Oaks egroup Ohio Parsons Blockwatch egroup				> JANUARY 05 s J A N U A R Y 2 4 , 2 0 0 4 Home travails The furnace does indeed still heat; now it won't cycle off. The only effective settings on the thermostat are "off" and "heat." The garage door was frozen shut. Luckily I discovered this before Sunday morning when I would be (undoubtedly) pressed for time attempting to make it to church before they lock the choir robe cabinets. Being uncharacteristically unhappy with the temperature in the house, I moved the new clock with indoor/outdoor thermometer around in my room. 74° at eye level. 65° at the bed. 60° on the floor. So I should wear a short sleeve shirt, long underwear, extra socks and thick slippers? 5° outside. The "feels like" reading from the weather services is well into the negatives. There aren't likely to be any better times to convince me to move south. Accident injures police officer, two others NBC4 Columbus \| But what I really want to know is who built I-60 and where does it go? A Columbus police officer and two other people were recovering Saturday night after an accident on Interstate 60, NewsChannel 4 reported. Police said the officer was assisting with an accident involving two other cars on I-60 East near Interstate 670. Amy to Akron Impending weather Possible 4" - 7" of snow, sleet, freezing rain, sometime tomorrow. Not something you want to risk driving back to Akron in, so we are foregoing our reservations at the Fish Market so Amy can get back tonight and sleep peacefully. Easton More attempts to choose silverware. Not quite there yet. Can you register with the Apple store? An iPod or AirPort would be great. Mike & Jen's With lunch -- it's been quite awhile since we've seen them. Drawings that Allison (left) and Anneleise (right) had made for me. f J A N U A R Y 2 3 , 2 0 0 4 Mama Mimi's Take and bake pizza. Was a slow "take" this time -- the roads were deep in snow (luckily not ice, just snow), the traffic was moving around 20 MPH, 35 on the highways, and Mama Mimi's is located in Grandview about as far away from a highway as possible. They are also not the most organized operation in existence -- the guy at the counter, attempting to write up orders, lost his pen three times while I was there (just to pick up an order which I saw on the tabletop the moment I came in). Someone tried to pay with cash and he said he didn't understand that, do you have a credit card? The woman in front of me wanted to pick up a ceasar salad, but the only salad-only order was for Jason, and she wouldn't admit to being Jason. After much hand-wringing, they decided to makea new salad. The pizza was very good. We had thought about going to register at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond at Easton, but vetoed it on weather-related grounds. King Avenue United Methodist in the snow. On the way to Mama Mimi's. Furnace repair Order a part, it should be OK for the weekend. He'll be back Monday. Amy to Columbus r J A N U A R Y 2 2 , 2 0 0 4 The great thermostat wars (home edition) Between it and me. I lost. I had to make a quick run to Lowe's to pick up a second cheap thermostat to replace the first cheap thermostat that broke while attempting to ascertain whether or not someone would need to be called to come look at the furnace. Two cheap thermostats later, someone had to be called to look at the furnace. A beautiful home In Woodland Park, an old neighborhood of Columbus Many thanks to Jeff and Pedro for allowing us into their home to roam, explore and photograph. Interesting people Anne Grimes \| Noted preservationist of folk songs dies at 91 \| Dispatch "We would go all over Ohio, from people living in mansions to people living without electricity," recording folk songs, recalled her daughter Sally Grimes of Amherst, Mass. Anne Grimes hauled a 50-pound reel-to-reel tape recorder around Ohio preserving the music. "These great songs that were passed down, she always felt that it wasn’t something that should be removed from the life of people," her daughter said. ... Her collection of 45 Appalachian dulcimers, which are string instrument commonly used in folk singing, is housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Have they nothing better to do? Senate passes ban on gay marriage \| Dispatch Taft expected to sign bill, which also denies benefits to live-in partners of state workers A divided Senate pushed through a bill yesterday to ban same-sex marriage and deny spousal benefits to the live-in partners of state workers. ... "This bill is about the lack of acceptance of some by others," said Sen. C.J. Prentiss, a Cleveland Democrat. "It embodies a mean spirit . . . that says, ‘My way or no way.’ " "It’s a bad day for the state Senate," said Bexley Republican David Goodman, who broke ranks with his party. In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, Goodman said he had to vote no because he wouldn’t be able to explain it someday to his little boy, Benjamin. "By voting no today, I’m going to be setting the right example for my son. It’s important we be tolerant and accepting of those that are different from us," he said. The article included no quotes from anyone supporting the bill. Oversight or editorializing? - The Columbus Medical Association estimates that 126,000 Franklin County residents (that's almost 12%) lack health insurance. Our legislature just voted to increase that number. - Last year Ohio had the most anemic growth rate of any state in the union save one. Moving companies annually report moving more people out of the state than into it. - The Columbus school district has proposed cutting up to 1,300 employees this year, including 800 teachers. 800! When the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that school funding statewide was unconstitutional due to the gross disparities that a reliance on property taxes engenders, the legislature merely waited it out, over nearly ten years, until a new court was elected and essentially overturned the previous ruling by refusing to hear anything further. - Our legislature would rather pick on a not terribly popular minority, making it more difficult for them to simply lead a decent life, than face up to the challenging problems that confront Ohio today. Bullies. I think that's what the term is. Miro-esque? A (commissioned) painting David just picked up. w J A N U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 0 4 The day of no art. It's hard to design a newspaper with no (or just lousy) art. And when they keep taking away your secondary art, it's even harder. The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt Powells I'm up to page 75 and still not quite into it. Not sure why. I think I just haven't connected with any character yet -- there are so many threads that it's still at a very introductory stage of the narrative. The Saudi challenge The Kingdom of Silence \| Lawrence Wright \| Nerw Yorker One day in Jeddah, I went across town to see Jamal Khashoggi, who was then the deputy editor of the Arab News, the main English-language competitor of the Saudi Gazette. We met in his office. He is a tall man with a trim beard and a pale, moon-shaped face. He had covered the Afghan jihad sympathetically, and had been a friend of bin Laden’s; but he had rejected the Islamist movement when it turned toward terror. After September 11th, he was practically the only Saudi journalist who addressed the cultural failures within Saudi society which contributed to that tragedy. “Despite the enormity of what happened, we are still in denial,” he wrote a year after the event. “We still cling to unlikely conspiracy theories and eye the truth with suspicion. The most pressing issue now is to ensure that our children can never be influenced by extremist ideas—like those fifteen Saudis who were misled into hijacking four planes on that fine September day, piloting them, and us, straight into the jaws of hell.” After tea had been served, Khashoggi and I began talking about the term “schizophrenic,” which many Saudis use to characterize the quality of their lives. Khashoggi said it referred to the split between what he called “virtual” Saudi Arabia and “real” Saudi Arabia. “The virtual Saudi Arabia actually exists in its rules and in the minds of the people,” he told me. “For instance, in virtual Saudi Arabia there is no satellite television. In principle, and by law, you are not allowed to own a satellite dish. But in reality we are the biggest consumers of satellite television in the Middle East. Not only that, Saudi businessmen are also the biggest investors in satellites. In principle, and by law, Saudi Arabia is not supposed to have interest-based banking, but in fact ninety per cent of our banking system is interest-based. And it goes on and on. The solution for Saudi problems is to bring the virtual world and the real world together.” t J A N U A R Y 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 Finally. A productive day. I actually felt like I accomplished something. Posted some old family photographs Minnesota High school Grandma & Grandpa Schultz's 50th Wedding Anniversary Easters, &c. Book of Lists This year showed streetscenes from some of Columbus' older neighborhoods, those right around downtown. These are the neighborhoods I know best. The cover shot is from the Brewery District. They were all shot by our extraordinary photographer, Janet Adams, who is at this moment making preparations to ensure that someone is at her house when her second pregnant alpaca gives birth. Image gallery Out of town This past Sunday I missed our choir's "Spirit of God, descend upon my heart," one of my favorite hymns. (Below). Of course, the best verse, (above), is left out of the version we sang. So missing it wasn't quite as hard as it could have been. m J A N U A R Y 1 9 , 2 0 0 4 A day to skip over Very cold; nothing of note to report around here. So ... elsewhere ... State of the Union scorecard How much does the president really know about the state of the union? Tom Paine Art links The art of Brody Neuenswander I wish this were elsewhere, and not in this country New York Times It took Anne LeClair a split second to realize there was opportunity in the murder trial of Scott Peterson, who is accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn son. No sooner had her county been identified as one of a handful of possible trial sites than Ms. LeClair, a tourism official, was collecting business cards and pulling together promotional materials. "I FedExed the package the next day to the presiding judge," said Ms. LeClair, president and chief executive of the San Mateo County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It said that we understand that we are one of the spots; if you select us, here is some stuff to pass along to the media." To some it may sound crass, but some San Francisco Bay Area officials are hoping to lure Mr. Peterson's trial to a courtroom in their communities, and evidently no disrespect is intended. Elsewhere about Iowa: Interesting Kerry wins Iowa caucases \| Washington Post After months in which Dean's insurgent candidacy, fueled by his early opposition to the Iraq war and his denunciations of President Bush and "Washington Democrats" alike, seemed to dominate the Democratic contest, the Iowa results amounted to a validation for two polished and more conventional candidates. With nearly all the precincts counted, Kerry won 38 percent of the delegates selected, with 32 percent for Edwards. Dean's 18 percent was less than half of Kerry's total, while the 11 percent scored by Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) put an end to a candidacy that never managed to take flight. Elsewhere may be right next door in Zanesville, Ohio Regions of Mind Part 7 in a look at regions of the U.S. To which U.S. region does Zanesville, a city in southeastern Ohio, belong? The regional influences that have shaped Zanesville have emanated from many different sources: Midwestern, Northern and Northeastern, Southern, Appalachian. Zanesville is in a region where Amish, Quaker and Mennonite subcultures have asserted themselves, for example, yet the largest employer in the city is Longaberger Corporation, where more than 5,000 produce handcrafted Appalachian baskets. A local historian adds another wrinkle by stating, "The Midwest begins at Zanesville's Y-Bridge" (shown here -[image from Regions of Mind]). Speaking of elsewhere, there's always yesterday ... A farm on the way home last night. n J A N U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 0 4 To Columbus The blinding sun I nearly had to pull over at one point as I-71 South headed straight into the setting sun. Balzac and the Little Seamstress Dai Sijie Powells The cover was slightly altered by Sally. Luckily, it's not a library book. > JANUARY 03