too hot to blog?

During the past week much of the western US experienced record high temperatures. Among those places was Santa Cruz. The signs of the oncoming heat were already evident last Friday.

My office is 250 m above sea level, and I usually walk up from the downtown floodplain. The walk starts at the river, heads through the main street of Santa Cruz, and then starts climbing. The climb involves numerous separate rises, each of which is one of the many marine terraces that have formed by the combination of the climactic changes of sea level and the 1 mm/year rise of the land around Santa Cruz.

The first rise takes me from the location of the first Mission Santa Cruz (which got flooded out) to the existing remnant of the mission. That site is now largely occupied by the large Catholic church and its school, with the surroundings converted to suburban neighborhood. The next several rises continue through the upscale neighborhoods which surround the springs which were the water supply for the old mission site. Above the neighborhoods is the meadow at the base of campus and the several terraces that it covers. In these were the first signs of the oncoming heat. The meadows are now covered with wildflowers, clover, and grasses. They are also full of active ground squirrels busily eating in preparation for giving birth to their babies.

Above the meadow begins the forest; it is a mix of bay, oak, redwood, and fir. Last Friday it was clear this would be a bad year for the oaks, for from the trees were hanging silky threads of the first generation of oak worms. They come down when it gets warm, they can go through several generations during a hot summer, and they can completely strip the oaks of all their leaves. Over the weekend it got hotter. By Monday it was difficult to walk through the forest without getting caught in multiple tangles of oak worm silks.

On Tuesday the high pressure system was centered over us. When the conditions turn hot and stagnant the ground squirrels tend to hide, for that is when the golden eagles command the sky. I often see them perched on the trees in the gulches. Several times they have surprised me as I walk up. They seem to like to swoop over the meadow about 2 m above ground, right about my eye level. They also seem to like to surprise me by doing that just behind me. It's disturbing to hear the rush of wind over the feathers and turn around to see a raptor whose wingspan is greater than my own.

But this Tuesday the eagle was more polite. As I walked up the eagle swooshed past me just in front of me. Having passed me heading east the eagle banked, casting its shadow upon me as I winced looking sunward. As I turned to track it the eagle swooped back over the pathway behind where I was, and then glided back to its perch on the dead top of a tree in the gulch.

Obama Goes to Las Vegas

Sometimes I'm glad to be old. I won't have to face decades of working for the Chinese like you young folks will have to do.

Obama is betting the store on massive government spending. Keynesian theory has never been tested in the real world, so it's the biggest gamble in world history. The economy's recovery may or may not be helped by this spending - time will tell - but the borrowed money must be paid back eventually. And since Obama is piling on top of that spending another trillion or so for social programs - with the revenues to pay for it to come from unspecified future taxes - he's acting like the teenager in the mall with a credit card. But it won't be the teenager's parents who will have to pay the bill; it will be the teenager's children, born and unborn. Is this the change voters wanted?

Naomi's retirement party

Among dad's things I found numerous photos, including this one. I also found a china plate with a pattern matching the one in front of me. Here's what I can say about this.

Location: The Pantry Restaurant, 718 Garden Street, Park Ridge, Illinois
Date: maybe 1966?
Occasion: Naomi's retirement party

The location was originally the house of artist Walter Clute. The web indicates that it is no longer in operation as a restaurant.
I note that it is barely 3 blocks from the ancestral house.

I'm pretty sure my brother was at home with a babysitter. I don't know if any of the other cousins were present. I don't know if this restaurant was special in some way, or why it was chosen, or anything else about who was there.

I appeal to our patriarch's memory for other particulars of this occasion.

staking claim for my name

My name is the result of a woman whose firstborn son would be named Steven marrying a man whose surname is Allen. Alas for me, the month before that union took place a guy with that name became internationally famous for hosting NBC's Tonight show.

Today I am reminded that I can't even maintain the association with my initials. Ever since I was in junior high school the initials SLA have been in the news.

Symbionese Liberation Army member Sarah Jane Olson is released from prison

Sri Lanka Army soldiers shoot civilians

the smell of money

Today Gillian brought home a token from the Nik-o-lok corporation -- a restroom token, for a pay toilet. That corporation should be getting ready to celebrate its centennial, except that about a generation ago most localities outlawed pay toilets. I could ruminate about the reappearance of upscale pay toilets (there must be salesmen for them, for they keep cropping up in news reports of city council meetings), but I'll refrain.

Instead I look back, way back, still thinking of the economy, the state of the world, or something.

When Rome finally settled down after Nero, Vespasian was emperor. According to Suetonius he instituted a tax on urinals, but his son Titus complained. (Titus, who had sacked Jerusalem, burned Herod's temple, and would later become emperor.) With one of the tax coins in hand Titus admitted that it did not smell bad. In Latin classes this remains a teachable moment, for Vespasian concluded "Atqui, e lotio est" -- "yet it comes from urine."

From urine, from slavery, from just printing more, from whatever, the politicians seem more concerned with other issues than the origin of the cash flow.

what does he eat?

In today's news we see reaction to the stem cell policy change from Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama

My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth.

I love reductio ad absurdum, and it seems to me that this statement requires regressing to the hunter/gatherer stage of civilization. After all, even broadcasting seeds to attempt a bigger harvest is creating life, isn't it?

the economy

There's ongoing drama in followups to January's vampire post. If only to emphasize that I quote from a classic fairy tale:

"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."

Do you believe in dollars?