Areas of Unrest

16 January 2000 - Ahi, Groink, Karmapa

QOTD: "Another day, another dolor." - Ogden Nash

Reading: Mark Jenkins, To Timbuktu

Listening to: The Tannahill Weavers, Passage

I spent the whole week in Colorado on business - four days in Boulder investigating our contractor's processes and one day at a meeting in Colorado Springs. As for the non-work aspects of the trip, I ate one outstanding meal at Redfish in Boulder (seared ahi with creole mustard sauce, accompanied by the tastiest potato dish I've ever had, which seemed to be mostly mashed potatoes but had scallions mixed in and was topped with crispy shredded sweet potatoes). I also managed to get together with Marcia and Jim in the Springs for dinner and a lengthy conversation. Thursday was the disappointing evening as I had dinner with my boss and two other colleagues, who were too impatient to wait 10 minutes for a table, leading us to go to The Little Russian Cafe. The others appeared to enjoy it but I was reminded why it had been a good 10 years since I was there last. Simply put, it's not a cuisine I care for and I am reminded that my ancestors came to the U.S. so they wouldn't have to eat this stuff.

The other annoying non-work aspect was the traffic on I-25 Tuesday night. It's not like there was even bad weather to blame for all the accidents. People were simply being inattentive. In fact, I actually saw one accident (right in the lane next to mine), which was the typical idiot tailgater smashing into the guy in front of him. I know that there is some way to avoid that stretch of I-25 (through the Denver Tech Center area) and this gave me some incentive to learn what it is.

The only thing I really did during the weekend (aside from housework, which I still have way too much of to tackle) was take a class at Wildfiber. This one was "Finishing Techniques for Knitters." I learned a couple of useful things - how to knit together shoulder seams and a nice finishing stitch for fancy edges. But I completely failed to learn the instructor's technique for tucking in yarn edges because I don't knit the same way most people do. I thought that what I did was the Continental technique, but apparently it's not. I'm not about to change since I knit faster and more evenly than pretty much anybody I know, except for my mother who taught me. Oh, well, at least I learned a couple of things. (For what it's worth, I also crochet differently than most people do, which has to do with how I hold the yarn. I'm also blindingly fast at crocheting, which makes me wonder how the inefficient techniques got popularized.)

It's also been a while since I've written anything about news stories. There was one particularly notable death recently - namely, that of Don Martin. I was a regular reader of Mad Magazine for many years as my father used to buy it, allegedly for Elliot and me, but somehow we always got it with the fold-in on the back already folded. I prefered the movie and television parodies and Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side of..." cartoons. But Don Martin was definitely a presence, responsible for many strange and interesting sound effects like "groink." The loss of anyone who has helped make the world just a tad more insane is always tragic.

And then there's two interesting stories regarding children. The escape of the Karmapa lama (the 14 year old Tibetan boy who heads the yellow-hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism) into India is a real blow to the Chinese. Some Chinese authorities were grumbling that the boy was kidnapped by his followers and forced to make the trek over the Himalayas. But if they were all so concerned, wouldn't any kidnapping have happened back when he was a young child and the sect leaders decided he was the incarnation of the lama? That is presumably when he was taken from his parents.

The more publicized story regarding a child is, of course, the matter of Elian Gonzalez. One of the best editorials I saw on the subject just repeated his name, alternating with the phrase, "family values." What I am wondering about is whether any of the people fighting to keep him in the U.S. would think differently had it been his father who'd drowned and his mother back in Cuba demanding his return. I also wonder how many people realize that there's a personal aspect to Castro's position (as well as the common sense one that custody of a child should rest with his surviving parent unless that parent is unfit). Castro's wife sued for divorce and took their son Fidelito to the U.S. while he was imprisoned under Batista. He tried to gain custody and prevent this - which was obviously futile given the 1950's notions of gender roles, as well as his status as a political prisoner. But it seems to me that this would influence him now.

Finally, a bit of personal news. The January/February 2000 issue of Storytelling Magazine is out - with my article on "The Serious Matter of Being Funny." I opened it with apprehension, but I think I sounded fairly intelligent. My photo accompanying the article looks fine and they even added a cute illustration that picked up on one of my suggestions in the article. Overall, I was quite pleased. And, of course, it is always a cheap thrill to see my name in print.