ABULAFIA :: Zeitgeist






2 0 0 4 FEBRUARY 03 FEBRUARY 02 FEBRUARY 01 JANUARY 05 JANUARY 04 JANUARY 03 JANUARY 02 JANUARY 01 2 0 0 3 DECEMBER 04 DECEMBER 03 DECEMBER 02 DECEMBER 01 NOVEMBER 04 NOVEMBER 03 NOVEMBER 02 NOVEMBER 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			ABOVE Three Creeks Metro Park. Big Walnut Creek not long after it is joined by Alum Creek and Blacklick Creek. Southeast Columbus, Ohio. F E B R U A R Y 2 8 , 2 0 0 4 Metro Park-ing Due to my complete inability to faithfully copy directions and secondly follow even the incorrect directions, I ended up first at Slate Run Metro Park and Historical Farm. So, being there, I walked around and looked at the animals for a little white. Then I headed back out to try to find Three Creeks, the park I had intended to visit in the beginning. I knew vaguely where it was, and after one false turn I found a remote corner of it that had a parking lot and a stand with maps that showed the main entrance I was looking for. After one more false turn, (I couldn't even read maps today, apparently), I finally made it. The trail I wanted to take was closed due to high water, so I went with my second choice -- marked "Please no pets." Sorrry, Charlie. Even though he should be reaching that rebellious phase (is two years adolescence or has he passed that stage?), the sign was polite enough to ask nicely. The deep mud and ocassional fallen log would have made it challenging for him, anyway, so perhaps it is best that he not attempt it. There is a 1/2 mile "pet trail," however, that runs through a white pine woods. Maybe we'll have to try that sometime. This past fall the three creeks had experienced some major logjams and the evidence is still there. In some places the water is still eating away at its banks where debris forces it to run faster and deeper through a narrow channel. At one point on a main trail I was passed by a rollerblader with an iPod. I was sorry he was missing the silence until I realized that at that point on the trial I was actually hearing the I-270 traffic and it wasn't all that silent at all. Most of the time, however, the park was very still, quiet and reflective. Anti-coördination day Aside from being unable to tell where I was or pay attention to where I was going, I also couldn't hold on to anything. I dropped my cellphone beneath the car seat on the drive to Slate Run (at a point in time where I still thought I was headed to Three Creeks). Later I spilled a Coke all over me. Then I dropped the cellphone into the mud, (the antennae stuck into the ground, so nothing else got covered), and later again onto a paved sidewalk. I also managed to spill a Coke on my desk. I don't know what the problem was. We need a bonus day Lead days should be bonus days -- We could go from Saturday, February 28, to Bonus Day, to Sunday, March 1. Since it wouldn't be a day of the week, no one would have any previously scheduled engagements. It would be a welcome break from routine, and everyone could get a little time to catch up on something (sleep, perhaps), that has been getting away from them in this harried hurried world. ABOVE The sky is falling. Dangerous to stand under the arbor at this time of year. Every minute brings another seed pod from the wisteria crashing down. The pods themselves are sharp and fairly heavy as seed pods go. The crash, split, and spray of the disc-shaped seeds is loud, too. F E B R U A R Y 2 7 , 2 0 0 4 Plantings. Dividing, repotting, removing, replacing, ... houseplants ... Not really convinced that I made anything better, but it is different. The hibiscus likes its home in the bathroom upstairs -- it has nine flower buds right now. Very impressive. ABOVE Franklin Park Conservatory; Chihuly at night. F E B R U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 0 4 Choir rehearsal Home (and asleep) afterwards Photo contest judging ACBJ papers monthly contest -- Janet asked Dominic and me to assist her as she had been asked to judge this month's entries. Photo planning lunch at Aladdin's Grandview. Commercial Developers Breakfast Brian Ellis, Nationwide Realty Investors (Neither sleet, nor snow, nor ice cold office leasing markets can keep them from building out the Arena District), was the keynote speaker. Ellis announced they are putting an athletic club in the Jones Day building currently under construction. And they have a whole block conveniently left vacant should the county be interested in locating a baseball stadium there. (The city is quite interested in doing that, inconveniently it is the county that owns the baseball team and the current ballpark). Of other speakers, Sue Zazon, president of Keybank (Columbus) was announced as president of Bank One (Columbus) -- (fortunately not a problem with our script, he just read it how he thought it Ought to go). ABOVE Franklin Park Conservatory; Chihuly at night. F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 4 It's been a bad day Please don't take a picture Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Broadcast me a joyful noise unto the times, lord, Count your blessings. Bad Day \| R.E.M. Ash Wednesday Ashes thou art and to ashes thou shalt return F E B R U A R Y 2 4 , 2 0 0 4 It's been a bad day Please don't take a picture Restless night Still couldn't sleep -- I tried a different couch. Broadcast me a joyful noise unto the times, lord, Count your blessings. the papers wouldn't lie! I sigh. Not one more Its been a bad day. Please don't take a picture Its been a bad day. Please Bad Day \| R.E.M. President Bush's (hoped for) legacy This? "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." Proposed constitutional amendment that "meets [Bush's] principles," according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan. \| Washington Post Legal incidents? Such as: health care coverage, right of hospital visitation, pensions, ... "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." (Declaration of Independence). Since the declaration of independence was written, our understanding of "all men" has been enlarged to include those not owning property, women, blacks and former slaves. Despite doomsday scenarios, none of these expansions of liberty brought about the ruin or destruction of the republic. Now, the President of the United States advocates enshrining in the Constitution (written to "secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and posterity"), an exclusion. These certain men and women will be considered unequal because the president believes the actions of "a few judges and local authorities" have "created confusion on an issue that requires clarity." What a disappointment from someone who only Monday wanted to "extend the frontiers of liberty." Oh, right -- to the middle east. I guess he meant wide, not deep. Speaking of marriage I am not doing this waiting well. Getting to the point of marriage was not rushed, it was not hasty. But now I am there, and it isn't. I feel left in limbo, floating between this and that. Here and there. Here is my song for the asking Ask me and I will play So sweetly, I'll make you smile This is my tune for the taking Take it, don't turn away I've been waiting all my life Thinking it over, I've been sad Thinking it over, I'd be more than glad To change my ways for the asking Ask me and I will play All the love that I hold inside Song for the asking \| Simon and Garfunkel It's been a bad day Please don't take a picture Sure, all men are created equal. Here's the church, here's the steeple Please stay tuned--we cut to sequel Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Broadcast me a joyful noise unto the times, lord, Count your blessings. Embrace the lowest fear/Ignore the lower fears Ugh, this means war. Its been a bad day. The situation in Haiti gets worse \| CNN Over 500 killed in Morocco quake \| CNN Putin fires premier and cabinet \| CNN An interesting prelude to an already decided election. Iran 'made radioactive element' \| CNN And has its own upcoming already decided election. So much simpler when you can just disqualify the opposition for being, well, opposed to the government. Broadcast me a joyful noise unto the times, lord, Count your blessings. We're sick of being jerked around We all fall down. Its been a bad day... Missing. I was looking for a picture of Rascal sitting on the porch of the cottage in Hessel. Her favorite place -- with good reason. Why wouldn't it be? Habit forming The Cuban oregano I brought in from the cold last fall has given up -- at about the same point (February-ish) as the same plant expired last winter. I still have some cuttings that are rooting, so perhaps once again it will live on in part. How to apologize None of this "if anyone was offended" Education Secretary Roderick Paige called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization" in remarks to the nation's governors. "It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms," Paige said. "As one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks," said the secretary, who is black, "I should have chosen my words better." Paige calls NEA a 'terrorist group' \| Washington Post Apologize for what was wrong -- intemperance. Maintain what was meant, which was to criticize the organization's actions. A language by women, for women Scholars try to save a unique script \| Washington Post Only men learned to read and write Chinese, and bound feet and social strictures confined women to their husband's homes after marriage. So somehow -- scholars are unsure how, or exactly when -- the women of this fertile valley in the southwestern corner of Hunan province developed their own way to communicate. It was a delicate, graceful script handed down from grandmother to granddaughter, from elderly aunt to adolescent niece, from girlfriend to girlfriend -- and never, ever shared with the men and boys. So was born nushu, or women's script, a single-sex writing system that Chinese scholars believe is the only one of its kind. F E B R U A R Y 2 3 , 2 0 0 4 New beginnings ABOVE Puppy; Carey & Lisa's new chocolate lab. ABOVE Home; Peter & Allison's new place in Silver Spring, Maryland. In Memoriam Rascal, my parents' (well, originally sister's) cat. Road to ruin Fixing downtown's freeway mess could doom Cooper Stadium. How convenient. \| The Other Paper (story is posted only until Thursday) Columbus' AAA baseball team, the Clippers, is owned by the county. So is their ballpark, Cooper Stadium. It sits on the west side, well outside of downtown, well inside of any recent suburban development. The stadium was last renovated 30 years ago; Nationwide Arena, Schottenstein (Center at the Value City) Arena, Crew Stadium, a renovated Ohio Stadium, -- are all brand new or enhanced competition for the sports fans, and Clippers baseball is suffering. The city thinks they have the answer: build a new ballpark downtown. The county, however, has no intention of funding a new stadium, and it is hard (if not impossible) to make the numbers work on a private stadium. Not to mention the difficulty of finding that private someone who wants to build a stadium for a publicly-owned team. In trying to fix the downtown highway mess, one of the more popular proposals with the public involves running an interstate straight through home plate. Maybe this is the impetus necessary to get the county to act? Crackdown on speeders coming March 1 So drive carefully \| NBC4 Columbus Starting March 1, law enforcement will patrol the following roadways more frequently: • Interstate 71 between the Morrow County line and Polaris Parkway • Interstate 270 on the north outerbelt between Route 33 on the west side and Interstate 670 east • Route 315 between I-270 and Route 161 Interesting people Clarence Lumpkin South Linden building to be named for longtime activist \| Dispatch [Columbus Mayor Michael] Coleman considers the 79-year-old Lumpkin a mentor and refers to him as the "Mayor of Linden." The title fits, Coleman said, because one time when they walked into a Linden restaurant together, someone called out, "Mayor," and they both turned to look at the speaker. "Clarence is an icon in this city. He’s a living legend," Coleman said. "He has been in the trenches for a long time fighting successfully for the residents of Linden. "When he speaks, people listen, including me." ABOVE Columbus, Ohio; The first step is always the worst. F E B R U A R Y 2 2 , 2 0 0 4 It's been too long ... Obviously. Since the last crackdown on jaywalkers. In the Arena District, too many people cross streets outside the crosswalks, said Police Lt. Jeff Blackwell. WBNS 10TV \| Target enforcement aims at Linden, Arena District Targeted enforcement (thanks to a $90,000 federal grant) until the end of summer should take care of that problem. OK, so the grant covers more than just discouraging jaywalking. Nonetheless. To Columbus Short walk With the puppies. 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