PICTURES OF PLASTIC FRUIT

As promised, pictures of the succah taken shortly before the start of the holiday. I only wish I could photograph it as it was filled with food and people over the last two days.

PLASTIC FRUIT

So I finished putting up a succah (temporary dwelling) last night for the upcoming festival of Succot (Tabernacles) which begins tonight. Correction: I finished putting up THE succah. THE succah that has been in my family for twenty-five years. THE succah that kindles fond memories of my family and extended family's (grandparents and first cousins) sharing meals and life together every fall season: Memories of making bird's egg decorations with my Bubby (OB"M) for the succah. Memories of my father (OB"M) whacking his head on a hanging bamboo chime every time he entered. Memories of all the kids oohing and ahh-ing when Aunt Perri brought out her annual Boston Cream Pie for dessert the second night (my father -her brother's- namesake ushpizin night.) Memories of cowering in fear of the inevitable lone bee that strayed inside and the associated memory of my Uncle Wes (OB"M) insisting that if we'd just be patient bees always rise to the top. (Sidebar: We always had a hard time telling fact from fiction with Uncle Wes.) Of course, there was the singing. My G-d, the singing. My sisters and cousins were so melodious we'd have requests shouted at us from succahs down the block. Mostly, I have memories of our close-knit extended family sharing each other's company and feeling secure that we would spend every Succot together the same way. Unfortunately but inevitably, those days came to an end. This year, though, I'm putting together the succah for the first time in my own home and for my own family. I'll be hosting my in-laws and -for different meals throughout the holiday- a great many family and friends. Life has a way of coming full circle and I look forward to the beginning of the holiday tonight with greater anticipation than I've felt in years.

When we bought THE succah, it was state-of-the art. Now, twenty-five years later, it's a pain by contemporary standards to erect, thus no one in my family really wants it. Whatever, it's mine now and I'm not giving it back. After putting the finishing touches on the succah, tightening all the rigging, nursing my rope-burned, bamboo splinter-scarred hands, dusting off and hanging the last of the old decorations, all I could think of was: "Wow, we had a lot of plastic fruit."

GOOGLE TOOTH, STUPID

The best reason yet (IMHO) to get a job at Google. Google Tooth!

FASTEST MEME COMING AND GOING: "Don't get stuck on stupid!," General Russel Honore's classic line when admonishing reporters in the aftermath of Katrina/Rita was poised to become the next Mother of all internet catchphrases. Then it didn't. What happened?

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (NOT REALLY)

A sweet little vignette from a cardiac surgeon on the operating table with an elderly Orthodox Jewish patient. (NYTimes, free registration req'd, may be restricted after a time)

ALSO: What all the fuss about bird flu is about.

LEWIS ON NOLA

A hilariously funny, poignant piece on Pre and Post-Katrina New Orleans (NYTimes, free registration req'd, will evetually timeout.) From the writer of Liar's Poker (a Wall Street classic.)

IRAQ (AGAIN)

The Iraqi constitutional referendum is coming up and I have an opinion I'd like to share:

I think that the federal system the referendum espouses is fair and probably makes the most sense given the demography of the land. I can understand Sunni worries -despite constitutional guarantees of revenue sharing- that their central "statelet" gets shortchanged in a federal arrangement since the oil is in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. On the one hand, the disenfranchised Sunnis are reaping the fruits of their unfortunate decision to boycott the previous general election and their subsequent underrepresentation in the current government. On the other hand, they do seem to have gotten on board the election bandwagon now and the Sunnis (clearly) can act as spoilers in every arena if their concerns aren't addressed.

My synopsis is as follows:

If the referendum fails, the Sunnis will at least feel that they have been empowered by the new Iraqi democratic model and their resistance to the whole national agenda should suffer a blow. In such a scenario, the constitutional committee goes back to the drawing board and the result probably resembles the initial attempt, with some more unified precepts to tie the Sunni provinces closer to the rest of the country. (The Kurdish region has been pretty much autonomous for the better part of a decade.) The defacto eventual look of the country (barring a return to a more totalitarian regime) will resemble the federal model anyways.

IN OTHER, VERY COOL NEWS: The DARPA Grand Challenge, a goverment sponsored race to develop a vehicle that can autonomously navigate a 131 mile course has been won. Pending an official announcement, the team from Stanford University crossed the finish line in around eight hours. The eventual goal of this program is to have robotic vehicles deliver supplies for American troops in risky environments without exposing personnel to the hazards (roadside bombs, ambush) of the job.

ANTICIPATION

If you know me at all, you'd know that I posses a keen interest in all things avionic. I've loved airplanes since I was a kid (what boy hasn't?) but followed it up with a voracious reading appetite for all things airplane and airplane related. As a boy of ten or so, I'd read accounts of World War II air battles and memorize the planes, pilots and events. I'd dutifully check out the latest Aviation Week & Space Technology periodical at the local library and study the contemporary aerospace industry. Mind you, AW&ST is not light reading for a ten year old, it's more of a trade rag for a very sophisticated industry. I LOVED IT. To this day I still check out the AW&ST website a few times a week, although they've recently put their juiciest content behind a paid subscription service so the knowledge I glean from them is waning. [Sidebar, shame on you AW&ST and double-shame on you NYTimes online, for same offense]

So what am I anticipating? I just got two 1/72 scale P-40 Warhawk kits in the mail. I plan on building them together with my 9 year old nephew. He's a precocious little kid and seems more inclined to enjoy such intellectual pursuits as building and learning about the historical significance of this grand old warbird than bouncing a rubber ball. It's a fitting substitute for what was supposed to be my birthday present for him: A trip to Teterboro airport to see the visiting B-17G "Yankee Lady." The visit, unfortunately, was cancelled due to airport construction. In my perfect world, we'll patiently talk about the plane, the Flying Tigers and other World War II related topics as we lovingly craft accurate miniatures for him to hang from the ceiling of his bedroom. In reality, at least my sister will be happy to get my nephew out of the house and doing something creative for a few hours a week.

ALT.MISC

Last night wifey & I sat through pretty much all of the Emmys. I was amazed. Amazed that I sat through the whole thing and amazed that the show marked perhaps the most entertained I've ever been watching an awards show. Ellen DeGeneres was a witty host, and the Emmy Idol shtick was hilarious. I voted for William Shatner and some Mezzo Soprano I've never heard of's rendition of the theme from Star Trek, purely on kitch value, but Donald Trump and Megan Mullaly's Green Acres won. To be fair, I cheated. Having a DVR allows me to be able to fast forward through commercials, take breaks and skip the dull awards. Conan O'Brien's attempt to belt out the theme from Charles in Charge during his presentation was funny, as was his writing team's micro-sketch (an innovation from last year that was well-received.)

In geek news, I've finally licked the devilish BIOS problems that prevented me from successfully upgrading my Mom's circa-20th century PC's hard drive. I snapped in a supposedly new 40 gig unit to upgrade the existing 10 gig drive but needed to upgrade the computer's BIOS to recognize drives larger than 30 gigs. (A common problem in systems of that vintage.) Anyhoo, refreshing the BIOS was way more difficult and time consuming than it should be, owing in no small part to the generic, white-box construction of the unit. Major manufacturers package this kind of support much better on their web sites. I had to do lots of serious hunting for files and reading of esoteric message boards on the peculiarities of this BIOS manufacturer. An interesting side note is that the "new " hard drive I purchased actually had loads of someone else's data on it. Egads.

REALLY SHORT MOVIE REVIEWS

1. The Jacket: Good
2. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Bad
3. Miss Congeniality 2, Armed and Fabulous: Ugly

HHR

I was all set to dismiss the new Chevy HHR as a Johnny-come-lately to the retro-cruiser market. Pictures of the vehicle made it look like a poorly styled knockoff of a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Then I saw one in person. Let me tell you, it looks way better in the metal than it does on paper. This is one sweet little car. Nice job, Chevy.

CLARIFICATION

My post on Katrina didn't intend to indemnify the Federal handling of the disaster. I merely (thought I) was pointing out that the recriminations began to fly within 24 hours of the hurricane hitting land and the way the complaints were handled smells of incompetency and buck passing. I have no doubt that upon a thorough investigation errors will be found in the handling of the hurricane and its aftermath throughout the chain of command, but that initial haste to blame the feds smacks more of political opportunism to me than anything else. In a nutshell, with regard to the local and state officials of New Orleans and Louisiana respectively, people in (extremely fragile) glass houses should not be throwing stones.

USS MINNOW, CREWLESS

Gilligan and Skipper are bunking on top of each other again in the great hammock in the sky.

RIP, Bob Denver

KATRINA

Oy, everyone is talking about Katrina, how to help, the tragedy and the dimension of the aquatic holocaust. Beyond that, the big question going around is Whom to blame? Clearly, local authorities, who had first crack at the problem at who should be closest to the ground for disaster planning and recovery, need to have their feet held to the fire for the complete malfunction of civil order and services. I see more grandstanding by Mayor Nagin in an effort to pass the buck than I see leadership. Clearly, he's no Rudy. Also as clear, is that New York City's largesse and civic professionalism had me -as well as the rest of the U.S.- spoiled. Let's face it, New York is rich and important with a budget and civil sector that surpass many not-so-tiny countries'. Any attempts to cast the wider net of blame at this time should be treated as speculation and deleterious to the overall business of disaster relief. Frankly, reports that the Bush administration is to blame for this mess are irresponsible and premature at best. It's actually gotten to the point that German pols have seized upon the notion that Bush's policies on the environment are a direct cause of this tragedy. This canard doesn't even smack of junk science -it's flat out lunacy, and should give rational Americans (and human beings) a reminder how quick some people are to demonize us for no apparent reason. This Tech Central Station article (admittedly from a conservative viewpoint) is the most balanced piece on the Lake Pontchartrain levee malfunction I've read to date.

UPDATE: Free Will agrees with me.

Ben Stein (THE Ben Stein) weighs in as well.

ALL YOUR POOL ARE BELONG TO US*

An amazing story about how a computerized pool monitoring system saved the life of a little girl. A complete photolog of the event is atatched to the story.
*see wikipedia article for explanation

I FINALLY FOUND IT

The totally awesome Malibu Rum "The Bus" ("you're late") ad. Also, the "melons" ad.

TANOREXIA

Addiction to tanning. Nice. Suge Knight got shot? No way.

BUMP

I hit my head on a shelf over the changing table when diapering my daughter yesterday. Now, when I touch someone, an electric jolt courses through me, I launch into a poor imitation of Christopher Walken and can tell whether the person I touched had a bowel movement that day.

TRAGEDY

Today in the Hebrew calendar is the ninth of the month of Av, (Tish'a B'Av) in which we commemorate the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples, over two thousand years ago. This day is earmarked as an intense day of mourning and reflection on the tragic events as well as the failings of our nation that caused us to merit these calamities. It is also a day of fasting. Interestingly, Tish'a B'Av is one of two fast days on the Jewish calendar that begin at dusk the evening before -as opposed to sunrise of- the day itself. As Tish'a B'Av falls out during the height of the summer months, this means that it is usually the longest fast of the year. As I am a notoriously bad faster, I dread this day for this corporeal reason about as much as for its spiritual significance.

While my personal feelings towards the Gaza withdrawals are that they are a necessary political step, I moan the tragedy of uprooting families and communities that forged their existence out of blood, sweat and tears. It's prophetic that this action's first concrete steps are taken on this day of national mourning for the Jewish people.

UNRELATED TRAGEDY: I read today of a 737 crash near Athens (Greece, not Georgia) it sounds like a catastrophic decompression that caused the pilots to lose consciousness. How could they not have gotten their oxygen on in time to stave off a blackout? Interestingly, the news reports that Greek F-16s scrambled when the plane entered Greek airspace without making radio contact and shadowed the plane as it drifted into a hill. I'm actually impressed that the Greek Air Force reacted so quickly and effectively (as it were) to an airspace violation. How many times do we hear about airspace violations that go glaringly unchallenged even in the mighty good ole US of A?

IT'S NOT RELATIVE

When a Jewish terrorist strikes, the abhorrent act is immediately condemned by all facets of Jewish and Israeli life. The perpetrator is a terrorist and branded as such by Israeli, Jewish and world media. Mind you, despite dire predictions, this sort of thing only happens once in a blue moon (the last incident was around ten years ago) and the last two cases involved clearly unhinged individuals. So don't argue that we're all the same and we resort to the same (terror) tactics as our enemies. That lament just doesn't ring true.

PERFECT

Today's launch of Discovery and America's return to manned spaceflight was picture perfect. The new tank-mounted real time camera provided a spectacular view of the tank separation event from space. Spectacular though it may be, here's to hoping that NASA will get serious about a safer shuttle replacement this time and retire the aging beast as scheduled in 2010.

Word of the day: Nominal. NASA bureaucrats are congenitally incapable of exuberance. In this vein, a perfect launch is termed "nominal." Usage: "Wow, we just launched a 4.5 million pound Roman candle into space with a terminal velocity of twenty-five times the speed of sound. I feel nominal!" In a nutshell, this word sums up why manned spaceflight can, should and will be in the hands of private enterprise.

ADDENDA: The F-22 Raptor is America's primo warplane of the future. We paid a gazillion bucks for these things. Here's a pic of the first operational spec plane. At least it looks cool. Hat tip: Blackfive.  (The F-35 is the cheaper companion plane to the Raptor. It's not yet fully baked.)