About Me
I spend way too much thinking about me.
This is the blank space where that paragraph should be. Storm Over Everest Not a Moment Too Soon
With my obsession with all things Everest continuing without pause, I am happy to report that Frontline will be airing Storm Over Everest this Tuesday night, May 13. Dang, talk about timing! The doc was made by David Breashears, who was the guy on the mountain back in 1996 on the IMAX team. His team ended up helping many of the stranded climbers, especially when the hideous South African team failed to offer up any help at all. Breashears has summited Everest 11 times by now but he says that tragic day in 1996 continues to haunt him. I’m not sure if Jon Krakauer or Sandy Hill will be interviewed. Hill was a bit of a joke in social circles after Krakauer’s book outed her to be a socialite only there to get Scott Fischer some publicity. She was seen being short-roped up the mountain at a crucial juncture.
At any rate, good old Beck Weathers will be interviewed. This is a guy who laid in the ice and was left for dead. Snowblind and frostbitten he somehow rose from near-death and walked back to camp. It was for Weathers that a brave pilot chose to fly up there and risk his own life. What a night that must have been to live through; it is no wonder that Breashears and others remain haunted by it. I myself am haunted by it anyway. I’m trying to prevent myself from re-reading Into Thin Air. Emma, my lovely child, re-reads books all the time. I think she’s read The Deathly Hollows at least three times. My younger sister also has been known to re-read her favorite Stephen King books. I don’t think I’ve ever re-read a book. I’ve certainly watched films repeatedly.
I probably will read the Krakauer book again in case I missed some crucial details the first time. And anyway, there isn’t a lot of information about that Everest tragedy. A few movies and a couple of books. The TV movie of Into Thin Air is pretty awful. Someone could make a magnificent one with enough money, although it is pretty sad. The sinking of Titanic was sad too and look how that turned out.
When Obama Wins…
Okay, I’m jumping on the bandwagon and reporting on the funny ways the phrase “When Obama Wins” has spread throughout the net. Kottke is the first place I read about it. He’d made a microsite of users comments of “When Obama Wins.” And there’s this. And then there’s Adaptive Path, who pointed me to the buttons.
It’s funny to me because so much hope is being pinned on Obama I cannot imagine the pressure. He’ll fix this, he’ll fix that – he’ll change the world! It seems a set-up for some kind of fall from grace, eh? He’s the best we got, though, so we might as well join the fight.
Stupidity on Parade
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, referred by Richard Dawkins, the Creationists:
…Have spent years working school boards, with only minimal success. Now critics of evolution are turning to a higher authority: state legislators.
In a bid to shape biology lessons, they are promoting what they call “academic freedom” bills that would encourage or require public-school teachers to cast doubt on a cornerstone of modern science.
A handful of states have considered such bills in recent years, but backers are now organizing a national movement, with high-profile help from actor Ben Stein. His new documentary, “Expelled,” argues that educators suffer reprisals if they dare question evolution; in an attempt to spur action, he has held private screenings for legislators, including a recent showing in the Missouri statehouse.
The academic-freedom bills now in circulation vary in detail. Some require teachers to critique evolution. Others let educators choose their approach — but guarantee they won’t be disciplined should they decide to build a case against Darwin.
This is not a matter of questioning authority; this is a time-waster. We have been there, done that. If they want to spend time debunking Darwin they ought not to put the kids in school back a century or two while they figure it out. It seems to me it’s the students who suffer from this needless and unfounded war.
Question Authority
As more details come to light about the Fritzl case, one of the weirdest and saddest stories I’ve ever read, it has reinforced the idea that nothing good comes from being blindly obedient. If you don’t question authority bad people get away with things. I’ve learned it in my own personal life, having been involved with a psychotic man who put up a good front but was so unhinged beneath the surface no one dared disrupt his state of mind for fear of a tantrum at best. Herr Fritzl, however, is a different animal altogether. He truly doesn’t deserve to live. I wish someone would lock him in a dark room for the remainder of his days.
What continues to trouble me is how no one questioned his weird behavior. No one dug deeper when he said his daughter ran away to join a cult. What cult? Where was it? Why not inform the police so they could go look for her? None of the siblings nor the mother nor the teachers at the school seemed to care about Elisabeth’s whereabouts. If one person in the long chain had perhaps they could have spared this poor woman’s wasted life at the hands of a living demon. Neighbors who heard childlike noises in the cellar, a wife whose husband had rape convictions on his record and was a known sex addict yet he never had sex with her, preferring instead to have it with his own daughter — children mysteriously showing up the doorstep, all of whom probably looked a little too much alike…question authority, even if it means risking everything to do so. And while you’re at it, trust only a very few. In some cases, you can’t even trust your own husband, as this case, and many others like it, illustrates.
Listen Now
This would be funnier if it wasn’t bookended by ads for Grand Marnier. Either way, Giant Asshole heading to the blogosphere!
Rimini Or Bust
In just a couple of weeks my kid and I will be heading off to Italy, Rimini to be exact. Rimini is on the northern coast of the Adriatic side of Italy, down from Venice a bit, and is famous for being Fellini’s home town. Ten years ago, as my expired passport reminds me, I went to Rimini for a long while to visit my love. I came back with a souvenir that would be my daughter in nine months time. Last year, she and I went to Rimini for the first time to meet up with him, the cutie. We had a great time. We visited Rome and Venice then. Other than having to fly on a plane, which I hate, I’m so looking forward to seeing Italy again. Its beautiful, to be sure, but more than that, it’s relaxing in ways one can never relax in America.
When last I visited, Rimini had not changed in the ten years that had passed since I last wandered her streets. The shops are the same, the restaurants are the same, the people are the same, the beach is the same. The only difference is that there are cell phones everywhere, an internet cafe or two, and supermarkets are more popular.
When we get back from our trip, school will be starting and summer will be over. I’ll be writing regular updates on this blog with photos and videos. Until then…