ABULAFIA






		2 0 0 3 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 L I N K S AAA Abulafia Boardwalk Bread CHN Christ Lutheran Church 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 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 Candid Colors Communication Arts Conscientious Ecotone Wiki Smoky Mountain Journal 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				> NOVEMBER 01 f O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 0 3 A good road Turned down the windows, turned up the radio, finally got moving To Akron Moving ... in ... slow ... motion ... Barely woke up Barely got up ... hours later Barely got moving r O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 3 Choir rehearsal Broke into sectionals to work on Morten Lauridsen's O Nata Lux Bexley afterwards for (a very good) dessert w O C T O B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 3 Time, time, time ... What's to become of me? Continued posting the alphabet f,g,j,s,v,w,z IMAGO \| Link t O C T O B E R 2 8 , 2 0 0 3 Time, time, time ... See what's become of you Where has the summer gone? I have so much to do, and so little time and I am so tired. Began posting the alphabet a,e,h,i,l,m,t IMAGO \| Link Posted a collage Of previous illustrations IMAGO \| Link m O C T O B E R 2 7 , 2 0 0 3 More business for designer Hugh Dubberly [Dubberly designed a "better" ballot for the California recall election by tossing out all the minor candidates. \| Slate ] Guardian \| Putin backs tycoon's arrest as shares slump Political analysts said Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested because of his presidential ambitions. Professor Sergei Peregudov, from the Moscow World Economic Institute, said: "The Kremlin saw the possibility of his becoming a serious opponent in the 2008 elections." Guardian \| Putin should tread warily The charges are serious: fraud and tax evasion. But the ferocity of the offensive is an indication that Mr Khodorkovsky had strayed too far into the political realm. Two other rich men, Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, who were impudent enough to use their undoubted financial clout to challenge Mr Putin's government, have both been forced to leave the country. Odds are no doubt available for Mr Khodorkovsky's departure date. Yet as the analysis notes, this will undoubtedly be a popular move in Russia, where the sudden (and certainly corrupt) wealth of these tycoons is widely resented. Unnecessary comments Once again, I make them anyway. Salon \| Dazed and confused about Iraq Protestor Laura Beauvais, a professor of business at the University of Rhode Island, was against appropriating $87 billion to Iraq. When asked what Americans owe the Iraqi people, she said, "We owe them help getting basic things like schools and healthcare." But how to provide that, without spending American money? "How you do that is beyond someone like me. It doesn't have to be through more troops, and giving money to corporations," she said. This from a business professor? Does she think more of Hussein's palaces and torture devices were going to improve health care and schooling in Iraq? I'd hate to think what theories she's teaching in class. Allan Johnson, a high school English teacher and debate coach from Fairfax, Va., held a sign saying "U.S. Troops Out of Iraq. Bring Them Home Now!" at Saturday's "End the Occupation" rally in Washington. In fact, though, Johnson isn't sure he wants to bring the troops home now, or to end the American occupation of Iraq. At least, not yet. "We've made a giant mess," said Johnson, a handsome man who wore his long snowy hair in a ponytail and had a sparkling stud in one ear. "I would hate for the Bush administration to halfway fix things and then leave, and then blame the Iraqis if things go wrong. Once you go to somebody's house and break all the windows, don't you owe them new windows?" Why, then, was he marching at an End the Occupation rally? "I don't agree with all the people here, believe you me," he said. But his own sign? He glanced at it, startled, and explained that someone had handed it to him. "I didn't even look at it," he said. "I was just waving it." This is a debate coach? Isn't this like scoring on your own goal? George Packer, editor of "The Fight is for Democracy," a collection of essays about America and its role in the world after Sept. 11, would like to see progressives put pressure on the administration to do more for the people of Iraq, rather than less. But Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says, "I see little evidence of any such liberal alternative that is serious and constructive for the people of Iraq, unfortunately." Liberals who care about the welfare of Iraqis, he says, must "start to distinguish between their dislike of Bush and their recognition that the mission must succeed. That would be a big start, and the crucial one." The cure For what ails the world Day by Day Posted a collage Of previous illustrations IMAGO \| Link Shooting images for BOL Got a tour of Jeff LeFever's house, and may be able to convince him it should be in HomeFront. n O C T O B E R 2 6 , 2 0 0 3 Is it censorship or is it merely editing? Boston Globe via Arts Journal As I said, I am somewhat sympathetic to the Washington Post in this case. The series was a personal attack on a public figure, Addressing the subject in his column, Post ombudsman Michael Getler quoted executive editor Leonard Downie Jr.'s view that the strip "violated our standards for taste, fairness and invasion of privacy," before adding his dissenting opinion. "Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder was "being mischievous and irreverent . . . about a high profile public figure," Getler declared. "And that seems okay to me." As best as I can interpret, the point of the series is that Condoleeza Rice, whose job as NSC makes her one of the most powerful people in the U.S. administration and thus in the world, is too uptight and should loosen up. Relax, get away from the job every once in awhile; return and have a fresh perspective. That sort of thing. Pointed out in a, well, "mischievous and irreverent" manner. That the chosen manner violates the Post's standards for "taste, fairness and invasion of privacy" seems a quite reasonable call. Amusing and inventive, it is also in poor taste, unfair, and unnecessarily drags a public figure's personal life into the public spotlight. Not since Henry Kissinger has anything been made of the NSC's dating practices, and that was always more about "celebrity" reporting than politics or policy, which is what Rice seems to stick to. Of course, with the Post, where I usually read Boondocks, not running the strip, the first thing I did was go find it elsewhere to see what the problem was. And maybe this is a good thing -- anyone interested enough can see the material and decide for themselves its value. The Post is not associated with it, and has upheld it values. And positions and opinions from more than just a few newspaper editors can be brought forth on what is appropriate editing and what is inappropriate censoring. I would strongly favor running all of the other strips mentioned in the article as recently controversial. Twice Business First has run editorial cartoons that I would have rejected. One that made a personal attack on a former mayor of Columbus, (it was unfair, it was not amusing, it was not interesting nor inventive -- it was he equivalent of a column that said no more than "I don't like the guy" without getting any deeper into the issue). The second mocked the economics of building a downtown hockey arena -- I would have rejected it on the grounds that it was based on a complete misunderstanding of the economics involved. I believe that cities often spend too much on sports facilities and that there was quite a lot to mock in this particular case, but for a business journal to publish without comment or rebuttal an opinion that ought to have readers questioning our basic economics knowledge is asking too much. The end of Concorde Jimmy Breslin Having seen all the other obituaries, I wondered where Breslin's was. How could the columnist who challenged the then-president of France to a duel over the unholy noise of the first Concorde 25 years ago Not comment on its retirement? Well, here it is, even if uncharacteristically late. It is wrenching to have this plane, which belongs in the sky causing the hours of the day to come together, to be standing on the deck of the Intrepid, a tourist attraction, with its great beak poking out over the 12th Avenue traffic, the trucks and buses and common cars. Twenty-five years ago, he did not say Concorde belonged in the sky. Though his opinion of the French (low) seems unchanged. Exclusively Cheltenham For headlines in the NYT's news sections. The Cheltenham varieties to be used are based on the original forms of the typeface designed in the early 20th century. Pre-eminent typographer Matthew Carter created the new family of Cheltenham typefaces under the direction of Tom Bodkin, the design director and assistant managing editor of The New York Times. The new fonts will replace the mix of faces that has been featured on page one beginning as early as the late 1800's and which has remained unchanged since 1976. The previous fonts included Cheltenham Bold Italic, Latin Condensed, News Gothic, Century Bold and two versions of Bookman. New York Times Company via LanguageHat Posted a collage Of previously taken photographs The cemetary in Prospect AESQUE \| Link Cool photographs (And photo-illustrations, in this case) By other people After Life \| Streatham Cemetary \| The Four Seasons by Jonathan Clark via LanguageHat Art Nouveau Klaus-Jürgen Sembach \| Taschen Beautiful, as would be expected from Taschen. But would it be too much to ask to run spell-check? [ Apparently so. Perhaps that edition costs more]. Bridesmaids dresses (The color is my interpretation of a "medium blue" and may bear little relation to reality) Reformation festival "Put on the full armor of God" John Ness Beck Sung at both the 8:30 and 11 services Preaching at the first, Tim Iseringhausen Offertory by the Soli Deo bell choir Preaching at the second, Tom Hudson: "Time and change will surely show ..." We're not the same since 9/11. Threatened and color-coded, we seek firmer ground, often by looking back. Out of the ancient past, the Psamist speaks across the ages: "the Lord is with us ... even though the earth should change." Offertory by the youth bell choir, a rousing When Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came a-tumblin' down The gospel at both services was read in German, somewhat more audibly at the first. Luther translated the Bible into German, held services in German, and composed hymns in German because that was the local language -- everyone could understand and ponder, not only the priests who alone learned latin. Today, at Christ Church, the services are in English, because that is the local language. We read the Gospel in the foreign German because it was Martin Luther's tongue, and to remember that prior to the Reformation, only a very few in a congregation could have read the Bible or understood the words of a worship service. Time, time, time, ... See what's become of me I've fallen back to the dark ages It will be many months now before I see the sun again Simon and Garfunkel \| Hazy Shade of Winter s O C T O B E R 2 5 , 2 0 0 3 News you can't use Frank Rich, New York Times "This is objective journalism as this administration likes it, all right — news you can't use. Until recently, the administration had often gotten what it wanted, especially on television, and not just on afternoon talk shows. From 9/11 through the fall of Saddam, the obsequiousness became so thick that even Terry Moran, the ABC News White House correspondent, said his colleagues looked "like zombies" during the notorious pre-shock-and-awe Bush news conference of March 6, 2003. That was the one that Mr. Bush himself called "scripted." The script included eight different instances in which he implied that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, all of them left unchallenged by the dozens of reporters at hand." Nazareth What is believed to be a Roman bathhouse unearthed in Nazareth is leading some to claim that Nazareth must have been a more important place than previously thought. Freund is sure that plenty remains to be found under and around Shama's shop. "We are talking about relics lying untouched, buried under the ground, for 2,000 years at the place where Jesus lived, and from the time when he was living here. It doesn't get much more exciting than that." Guardian M. and Stephanie to Columbus Touring Took the drive I had to postpone on Tuesday due to the imminence of deadlines at work. Heading north through the city I became frustrated by red lights and delays and sprinted for an entrance ramp to 315. Finally bypassing the driver who had to quickly accelerate just to merge into traffic at around 40 miles per hour, I rolled down the windows to the cool air and turned up the radio. WOSU played the opera "The Barber of Seville" by Paisiello, noting over and over that it was not the far more popular Rossini opera of the same name. They played much of the more familiar parts of the Rossini before and after the full opera, however. The Paisiello opera came first. And he was not at all pleased that Rossini, much younger, and I presume less well-established, came out with a new opera on the same material. According to WOSU, he paid a crowd to boo the Rossini opera off the stage. His eclipse of the new opera was shortlived, however, and it is the Figaro (Figaro, Figaro, Figaro Figaro Figaro ...) of Rossini that everyone (even Bugs Bunny does Rossini) knows today. Photographs In ten sections of up to six photographs each Barn Windows Fields Corn Hay Bridge Road Grader Roadside Houses Streamsides Rain threatened all day. I hit a sudden downburst on Rt. 315 just north of I-270. The sun shone through the cloud cover here, now and again, bathing the world in a purifying glow. At the farm, the steady thrum of combines was punctuated by deep rolls of thunder accompanied by sudden bursts of chill breeze. The air was warm, however, and the breeze only hit when the rain came close. Plants returned to Bexley Hanging baskets from the front porch, a Christmas cactus, and a grapefruit plant D. picked them up to surprise M. when she returns from Akron f O C T O B E R 2 4 , 2 0 0 3 Continued inserting back images Such as the Lazarus shot, below Columbus at dusk AESQUE \| Link Recent page designs IMAGO \| Link I have all the lights on in the room. I have a lit candle next to the laptop. Usually, I like a dark room where shadows play and little is revealed at first glance -- tonight I'm in a Let there be light, or even I need light, sort of mood. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion A documentary of the Chinese repression of Tibet The picture, directed by veteran cinematographer, Tom Peosay, tries to capture the complexity of modern-day Tibet. Buddhist prayer wheels alternate with the garish nightlife China has brought to the capital, Lhasa. Grim soldiers march past traditional Tibetan celebrations. The Chinese claim that they "liberated" Tibet. Mudd says that's "baloney." Even so, she worked hard to include the Chinese rationale for dominating Tibet - that it freed peasants from a feudal regime. The film challenges that point of view; one secretly filmed scene witnesses soldiers beating Tibetan monks. "We struggled endlessly as filmmakers [about] how to bear witness and relay the extent of the horror without completely alienating the viewer," Mudd says. Christian Science Monitor For a different point of view: "We are encouraged by China's cooperation in the war against terror. We are working with China to ensure the Korean peninsula is free of nuclear weapons. We see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own people." President George W. Bush \| White House transcript Via Talking Points Memo So we see no evil? is that what we're saying? On the topic of movies Gietner Simmons has an interesting post on point of view. Moviemaking has various conventions involving point of view. One is that, unless it is explicitly a dream sequence or something similar, what is depicted on the screen is something that actually happened in the story. What is seen (or better yet, shown ) is considered "the truth." Alfred Hitchcock once violated that rule. His 1950 movie Stage Fright includes a flashback by one of the main characters. The audience was led to believe the flashback was true, but later in the film the sequence was revealed to be a lie. Film critic James Monaco notes that audiences "reacted angrily. They weren't able to accept the possibility that the image would lie, although they would have been quite willing to believe that the character had lied. The image on the screen is simply invested with an immutable aura of validity." More The anti-war Scarborough Fair/Canticle I don't think I've heard it with the Canticle part. P. Simon/A. Garfunkel, 1966 Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Remember me to one who lives there She once was a true love of mine Tell her to make me a cambric shirt (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green) Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground) Without no seams nor needlework (Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain) Then she'll be a true love of mine (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call) Tell her to find me an acre of land (On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves) Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Washes the ground with so many tears) Between the salt water and the sea strand (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun) Then she'll be a true love of mine Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather (War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions) Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Generals order their soldiers to kill) And to gather it all in a bunch of heather (And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten) Then she'll be a true love of mine Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Remember me to one who lives there She once was a true love of mine If only I knew someone to go visit there Dubai "To wrap it up, this country at worst seems, at times and places, like an over-commercialized, over-consumptive, not-too-pretty child of globalization, and endless work in progress making an impressive but only facade for an underlying case of underdevelopment. At best, for most it is a land of choices, opportunities, optimism and future blueprints for coexistance and intercultural tolerance, the child does not seem to be spoiled, and, well, it is exciting work in progress." Via Oxblog M. and Stephanie to Akron A beautiful day I got up late, but feeling better than I have in a long time. There was no frost on this side of I-70, anyway -- all the plants made it through the night. Wonderful blue skies. Crisp but pleasant temperature. Raked the paths in the garden, cleaned the birdbath, and enjoyed the sun after getting home. r O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 3 Posted photographs Back garden, mid-October AESQUE Pumpkin carving party AESQUE \| Link Sand Run Leaf Trail AESQUE \| Link The other war The ludicrous "War on drugs" continues. It is hard to imagine a foreign policy better suited to alienate the entirety of the southern hemisphere, and yet it seems to enter the public discourse only when politicians feel they need to garner some more votes from the tough on crime crowd and so vow to continue -- nay intensify -- redouble even -- these truly harmful policies. New York Times. On a visit to the White House last year, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada told President Bush that he would push ahead with a plan to eradicate coca but that he needed more money to ease the impact on farmers. Otherwise, the Bolivian president's advisers recalled him as saying, "I may be back here in a year, this time seeking political asylum." Mr. Bush was amused, Bolivian officials recounted, told his visitor that all heads of state had tough problems and wished him good luck. Now Mr. Sánchez de Lozada, Washington's most stalwart ally in South America, is living in exile in the United States after being toppled last week by a popular uprising, a potentially crippling blow to Washington's anti-drug policy in the Andean region. United States officials interviewed here minimized the importance of the drug issue in Mr. Sánchez de Lozada's downfall, blaming a "pent-up frustration" over issues ranging from natural gas exports to corruption. But to many Bolivians and analysts, the coca problem is intimately tied to the broader issues of impoverishment and disenfranchisement that have stoked explosive resentments here and fueled a month of often violent protests. Freeze warning South of I-70 Talk about on the edge ... Speaking of ice ... Cleveland Barons The AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks (To answer another lingering question from the Simon & Garfunkel concert) Ideas Park benches, designed by various artists Newsday Some appear functional, some appear not so functional I am intrigued by number 9 in particular. Possibly functional, and yet quite beautiful. Update: Amy favors the shadows of number 21. Choir rehearsal Bexley afterwards M. rescued a beautiful fern. The kitchen has been painted and looks very good. The red on the tile blends the countertops and wood of the cabinets, and the yellow on the wall opposite gives the room life and vitality. The clean black of the stove fits very well. The black jars perched on its top, a new clock to match the stove, and the framed pictures next to the hall door tie the room together. Celebrated with a pumpkin pie. Stephen's party Rebecca's due any day now. The day I was supposed to stay home Driving to work, I headed up Parsons to get on I-670 at Broad St. The intersection at Broad and Parsons was thoroughly congested due to a semi-truck seemingly parked across three lanes of Broad St. not far away, and the hopeless inability of drivers not to enter an intersection when there is obviously no place for them to go aside from sitting and blocking the way of all other traffic. Having finally squeezed through, the ramp was moving just fine, however at the bottom, there appeared next to me a semi which wanted back on I-71 and nearly ran me off the road. Taking to the shoulder, as the semi simply changed lanes with no regard for me, I ended up on I-71 also, even though I really didn't want to be there. Dodging another semi and a cement mixer I made it over to the 11th Avenue exit, the first possible escape from 70 now that the 5th Avenue exit is restricted, and prepared to turn around and jump back on 70 south. There was a car broken down in the left hand turn lane and everyone was backed for a couple of lights working around it. Back on 70 south, I entered just as a funeral procession was making its way past and had to stay out of their way. Finally making it to 670 and the Neil Avenue exit, there was a lane closed for construction on the Goodale Street connector and again cars were backed up through the Neil Avenue intersection because everyone simply crammed as far forward as possible even when they were obviously not going to be able to clear the path of cross-traffic. Have I mentioned I don't like commuting? I should have just stayed home. "Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right I'm just weary to my bones" Paul Simon, American Tune, 1973 > OCTOBER 02