Month: December 2019

Pedestrian thoughts

I had the opportunity recently to walk in two rather different environments. (Three if you count walking near home, but the amount of traffic is significantly lighter here.) I rarely drive in downtown Chicago; I prefer to take the train in, and if the weather is nice, walk to wherever I’m going.

If you’ve ever walked in downtown Chicago, you know there’s strength in unity… the larger the group of pedestrians is, the more likely that turning cars will have to wait, instead of them pushing through the intersection and making people on foot wait.  Yes, in theory, pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk.  It’s a lovely theory and doesn’t usually hold up to drivers’ impatience.

Imagine my surprise then, walking in Carlsbad, California and having drivers defer to me, a lone pedestrian in a crosswalk.  This happened multiple times, so I don’t think it was just a fluke.  The weirder part about it was that the turning cars stopped even if I wasn’t to their side of the crosswalk yet, waiting until I was clear before taking the turn.

I was, as ever, delighted not to get run over while out walking, and would love it if the drivers here picked up similar habits.  The ease of walking in Carlsbad certainly explains how I managed to walk 18 miles in my week there.  Of course, the warmer weather helped too.

Thoughts on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

I finished watching season 3 of The Expanse with a couple weeks to spare before the release of season 4. As I pondered what to watch next, Amazon Prime suggested The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I recalled a couple friends mentioning it on Facebook, so thought it would be a good placeholder while waiting for the next season of The Expanse.

Oops.

What do I mean by “oops”?  Season 4 of The Expanse released a week ago – and I’m loving the online release of entire seasons, instead of having to wait a week  between episodes – and I haven’t seen a single episode.  I’m almost done with season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; when I finished, I’ll have to decide between its recently released season 3 or season 4 of The Expanse.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is set in New York City in the late 1950s and centers, appropriately, on Midge Maisel, whose life takes a sudden turn at the end of the pilot episode.  She suddenly goes from a supportive housewife whose husband is trying stand-up comedy on the side to being the stand-up comic.  Not surprisingly, given the era, she encounters discrimination as a comedienne, but verbally holds her own against heckling audiences and other unsupportive comedians.  

Each episode is a mix of seriously funny content and the drama of Midge’s home life, not the least of which is her day job at the make-up counter.  This is a truly funny show that keeps viewers coming back for more. 

Thoughts on The Expanse

I don’t watch many current shows, so I suppose it’s no surprise that I was late in discovering The Expanse. By the time I heard of it, there were already three seasons, and the fourth season was coming soon on Amazon Prime.  And partway through the third season before finding out it was based on a series of books, which have now been added to my ever expanding need to read list.

If you’re a science fiction fan and haven’t seen The Expanse yet, by all means, find the time.  There is an edge of reality to the show that most science fiction shows don’t bother with.  This is combined with the fascinating exploration of the biases and attitudes that will develop as humanity expands to other parts of our solar system.  The Earthers and the Martians are constantly on the edge of war, while the Belters are disadvantaged, underpaid, and providing raw resources to both of them.

The Earth is over-populated and can’t provide jobs to keep everybody busy, but does a passing job at keeping them fed, if not necessarily happy or in good health.  The Martians are still working on terraforming with hopes of turning Mars into a fertile planet like Earth.  And the Belters routinely suffer from problems caused by contaminated air and water and other problems caused when living in entirely contained environments.

What really caught my attention is the assortment of accents.  This isn’t one of your older science fiction shows where everybody speaks English with an American accent, with the occasional British accent to show that somebody is posh.  The Belters have their own language that they spout off in at times, and even among the Belters, there are a variety of accents, so you may have to listen carefully to catch what they’re saying… assuming you know the words, since of course, some new concepts are introduced.

By all means, find time to watch this delightful show.

Thoughts on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I realize I’m biased, but my father was a fascinating man. As a librarian, he fully supported open access to information. When I found this letter from Dee Brown, I wondered at first who he was… the name sounded familiar, but it wasn’t clicking. I looked him up and realized I had never read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I then wondered how Dad knew him. It was easy to discover that they worked together as librarians at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

205 W. Pennsylvania Urbana, Illinois 61801 August 25, 1974 Dear Frank, You have no idea how deeply appreciative I am that you would risk your reputation with fellow librarians by inviting me to the state meeting, but after surviving the AIM trial at St. Paul and a gathering in Omaha that I promised a year ago to attend and didn't want to attend, I decided just before your letter came that 1975 shall be a sabbatical year in which I truly "retire." In other words a clean calendar in which I have to do nothing. I truly would like to come to Oregon and fill out the 48 states, but it would ruin my calendar. So regretfully I must decline your friendly offer. Perhaps some day I shall come to Oregon, however, and if so we shall certainly appear on your doorstep. We enjoyed your visit and the chance to meet Sarah, and please give her our best regards. Sincerely, Dee Brown.

Not surprisingly, this bumped Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee up near the top of my reading list. Well, my free time reading, as opposed to book review reading. It is not light reading. (To be fair, all my book review reading is fiction.) Dee Brown compiled the history of how the United States’s government systematically betrayed, slaughtered, and stole from the Native Americans time and time again.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” We are past the stage where our government opens fire on unarmed native villages. In the era this book was written, the United States’ government had a more subtle approach to genocide – they were engaged in a sterilization program targeting minorities, including American Indians. In the modern era, according to this article on CNN, Native Americans are “killed in police encounters at a higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group.”

And here we go again… our government recently decided that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the remnants of the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims, doesn’t fit the legal definition of “Indian” and is not entitled to their reservation, or more specifically, to a casino they want to build there.

It’s almost like they don’t know the area’s history. Or worse, they do, and don’t care.