Last weekend was Spring Dance Camp. It takes place at a YMCA Camp in Connecticut. As usual we had a great time with lots of great Contra Dancing and English Country Dancing, the variety show, and lots of hanging around.

There was a small baseball field - Fenway park looked a bit like this a few years before its more recent renovations - they even had a net on the top of the wall:



In a Yurt where we had a few dance sessions there was this amusing banner from last summer.



And there was a band session out on the dock.

Today we went to the Open House at Fenway Park - it is the 100th Anniversary. It was extremely crowded so we didn't see everything we wanted to see. We walked around the field and sat in the Visitor's dugout, looked in the garage in left field where they had samples of how they grow the grass, touched the wall - which has many imprints of baseballs, looked in the space behind the scoreboard, and went up to the Green Monster.

Click below for pictures


(The Canterbury RedSox are a New Zealand softball team.)

Last night we went to a Guerilla Contra dance in Davis Square (Somerville, MA). It was organized by Jeff Kaufman who has done a few of these.

It was lots of fun and a big success - lots of people seemed to be having a good time. Most of the time we had about 30 people dancing in two short lines. The band had various combinations of 4-6 fiddles, several penny whistles, 2 accordians, a guitar, string base, mandolin, and a stroh violin. We were on brick sidewalk with various unevenness so there was a bit of challenge.




There were lots of onlookers and a few of them joined in. I tried to these folks to join in by they were unmoved.



Below is a brief video that someone took.

At our English Country Dance series as is common at many such dances the caller writes the name of each dance that is called on a whiteboard. I photograph it and then enter the names in a database and post a PDF to our webpage.

 When Bob Golder comes to our dances he likes to do a bit of artwork with humor - here are some samples.This one was put on the whiteboard several years ago and we have carefully preserved it. Below is the board from the Dec 27 dance and a portion from the March 13 dance where he "corrected" a dance name.

Our dishwasher is us. We have a set of rules to determine when to wash them and who does them.

In simple terms:

- the person who doesn't fix breakfast (determined by who gets up second) washes whatever is in the sink at the end of breakfast.

- no-one washes lunch dishes.

- if we eat left-overs for dinner, no-one washes.

- if someone cooks, the other person washes dishes.

Tonight we had the situation where we mixed some left-overs in a frying pan and added something. Two questions: was that cooking? and since we both did something: who cooked? Another question had to do with the fact that when we cook, water is served in glass glasses with ice-cubes and when we eat leftovers the water is served in plastic glasses. Tough decision. I decreed that it was cooking and that Robert was the cook (he was the idea man for this) so I washed the dishes. That will give me less incentive to get up first tomorrow. And we had water in glass glasses, but I compromised and only put in 2 ice-cubes instead of the normal 3 since the cooking was done using left-overs. I did wash all the dishes.

Some readers know that we have some archaic rules such as I wash dishes when we use the first floor kitchen and Robert does them when we use the second floor kitchen. I made up this rule of course since we don't have a first floor kitchen. There are several slips of paper lying around with rules like this although I don't know where they are - hmm, I wonder why?

This was our leaving-the-island picture. In spite of my t-shirt there are no zebras on the island. (I note that in the 1985 picture, Robert's t-shirt has zebras.-

As usual we had a great time here. As I often say, there is nothing to do and not enough time to do it. Swimming, snorkeling, lounging around, staring at the scenery, eating, mixing your own drinks (honor tab system at the bar), socializing with other guests, seeing the wildlife, hiking, going to the little museum, reading, playing croquet are all things we did. There is also tennis, and boats to use if you want. We'll be back again next year.

Here are two views of the hill with several of the houses where guests stay. The watercolor is by Louis Bigelow, who with his wife, Beth, was the creator and first owner of the resort starting in 1935. The island was first settled by two Quaker families in the 18th century and the ruins of several buildings including a sugar mill remain. The island is now owned by Henry and Gloria Jarecki, who are very committed to preservation and conservation activities on the island elsewhere.



Several houses have been built for the family but are rentable. No-one was there for several days so we took a quick look at the latest one (Jost House). These columns help hold up the roof of one of the porches. There is a tortoise pen next to this house. All the houses are named after islands: Anegada, Barbados, Camano, Dominica, Eleuthera, Fallen Jerusalem, Grenada, (Harbor House -not an island), and Jost House. We stayed in Fallen Jerusalem, but have stayed in all the a-g's except Eleuthera.

I liked this rock with seaweed clinging to it.

           

Here is a slowed down not-too-good clip of a Pelican landing. Note how it turns around 180 degrees as it hits the water.

There are a bunch of brown Boobies and many brown Pelicans. The Boobies often fly around in flocks, seemingly in a disorganized fashion and then suddenly many of them dive - they go fairly deep.

The water has lots of fry (sometimes so many that seeing fish while snorkeling is difficult) and they are good bird and fish bait.

Pelicans often look somewhat awkward when diving and they seem to turn around 180 degrees just before or just as they land. My various attempts to photograph this didn't work. Their dives are extremely shallow - their bodies never go under water. It is fun to watch them swallow when they come up - their pouches are very flexible. They often soar just about one to two feet above the water. They can take off pretty effortlessly although they sometimes bounce a couple of times when doing it. When flying a bit higher there is some nice greenish-blue reflection on their sometimes white undersides. Occasionally while snorkeling you almost get dive bombed. Needless to say I spent lots of time watching the Pelican show.

On the salt pond are 6 Caribbean roseate Flamingos. We were told that now three of them have clipped wings and were zoo rescues; the others flew there. On Anagada, a nearby island, there is a larger colony and they breed there. In earlier days there were 7 of them, recently it has been 6; I don't know if they are the same each year. (In full disclosure this picture is from 2009). They roam about in the very shallow water and stir up the mud so they leave a wake to mark their path. In the Museum ( a small shack) there was a description of an experiment of how they put some plastic flamingos there because flamingos only breed if there are a lot of them and they did observe them courting but apparently with no success.

We also saw a Scarlet Ibis. It was always over at the edge of the pond - sometimes unseen in the undergrowth. We were told that it had been imported to nearby Necker Island (owned by Richard Branson) and had flown over; he wants it back but I suspect a naval invasion is not likely.

There is a large orchard/garden at one end of the flat. If you show up when one of the gardeners is there you get a guided tour (although their chinese-english accents are a bit hard to understand). Bananas, coconuts, limes, breadfruit, papayas, other edibles, and many flowering plants are seen growing there. Each time we go it gets to be more extensive. Years ago the owner found a chinese gardener expert (Dr. Liao) who has been the resident gardener for many years although illness has brought him back to China - his trained apprentices have taken over. Reportedly Dr Liao has said that the climate where he comes from in China is very similar to the BVI.

Here are the birds and the bananas:

In the early days of Guana Island (40's and 50's) the transportation up the hill where the buildings are was via donkey. Now there are a couple of donkeys kept fenced in. They seem friendly and wandered over to see us when we got near - probably looking for food. When we first went there they wandered around loose and occasionally showed up at the beach and nibbled peoples books that they left lying around. Our transportation up and down the hill is feet, but they do offer rides to anyone who wants them.

The owners are very committed to conservation and have re-introduced various plants and animals and cultivate them. In October they have Scientist's Month and enlist them in various projects - one of which is replanting elkhorn coral on the damaged reef. In 1986 they introduced a few almost-extinct Caribbean Rock Iguanas. They wander around loose and you occasionally see them close up. A few years one of the workers used to have a scheduled feeding of one of them at a set time in the morning. They eat fruit and flowers. They believe there are about 1,000 of them on the island now.

There is a cage with 4 tortoises near the owners house; I think they are hoping that they breed - there is one male and three females.

Many years ago there was a small herd of sheep. Now there are a few feral sheep on the island and we saw one close to the road when we were walking up. These sheep look a lot like goats.

Click here for some pictures of Iguanas, donkeys, a tortoise, a pseudo-dog, and a termite nest.

We were at Guana Island in the BVI for a week, returning on Wednesday night. This was our 19th trip over thirty years to this lovely place. It is a private island resort with at most 30 guests on an 800 acre island with some nice beaches and hiking opportunities. The food and ambiance are excellent. We often see guests that we've seen before, although this time we didn't. We had lots of nice chats and meals with some of the guests (meals are family style). And the staff is all very nice.

They always take a picture of you when you leave - holding a hibiscus flower that you discard when the boat to the airport leaves. This is the picture from our 1985 stay. I couldn't find the 1983 book which was our first trip.



When the boat from the airport approaches the island you can see a rock formation through the gap that looks like an Iguana head - thus the name of the island. This painting is hanging in the living room and is by Louis Bigelow - the original owner of the island who created the resort.



Some views of the island - from our porch or nearby (click below)

"One of the girls called another girl a derogatory term that starts with an H if you are spelling it in the slang manner and with 'wh' if you're spelling it in proper English." said the Mayor of Lynn in commenting about a fight between 2 girls that got they and the 27 watchers suspended and given an assignment to write a paper about the Kitty Genovese murder where onlookers did nothing to teach them a lesson. One student said the lesson she learned is not to watch what they consider stupid fights.

Oct 5, 1913

My dear Miss Leon

What sayest thou to spending this beautiful Sunday afternoon in the company of yours truly? If agreeable to you let me know, through the bearer at what hour it will be most convenient for you, for me to call.

Trusting this meets with your approval. I am

Most cordially,

Ben

Last night we went to see the Boston Lyric Opera's production of The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies.

It is a pretty fascinating work and it was really well done. The singers: tenor, baritone, bass/baritone were all very good and had a small orchestra. Our seats were only ab out 8 feet away from the gong which is rung near the end. The instrumentation includes an out-of-tune upright piano, a banjo, and several flexatones. I particularly liked the banjo / fiddle / percussion piece. How many operas have banjos in them.?The set and lighting were very fitting. The venue is the JFK library - chosen probably because of the view of the sea.

It's nice that the BLO is doing a mix of classical operas - the next one is Barber of Seville, and some modern adventurous ones as well.

This one runs until Sunday, the 12th.

Part of another production

This weekend about 30 of us went to Senexet House (a "retreat" center in northwest CT) to socialize, eat, dance, sing, look at archival photos and videos, and help some new musicians and callers develop themselves. I think everyone had a pretty great time. We did some dancing to recorded music including one Lady Gaga Techno Contra, and to music from the band of experienced and not-as experienced musicians. There were 4 experienced callers, and 4 new ones.

The band instruments included two button accordions, recorder, banjo, dulcimer, piano, percussion, uke, and fiddle. There was lots of variety and they were pretty good. I like bands with a variety of instrumentation and sound color. They had several practice sessions as did the new callers and then we danced to them to give them a chance to try out everything. This afternoon we went to the nearby Senexet Grange for a dance; a couple of other people came down from Boston to join use. I did some of the sound engineering which was more challenging than at a regular dance because of the variety in voice of the callers.

We ate lots of food cooked by several of us and for Saturday Dinner was a Potluck. We all pitched in for various scheduled chores related to the food production. There was much more food than we could eat and I certainly ate too much.

All in all it was a great weekend and we'll probably do it again next year or so.

Today we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see Degas and the Nude (which closes Feb 5). There was a vast exhibit with some very good explanations. I learned a lot about how monotypes are made and how he used that medium very successfully. There were lot of women (prostitutes and others) in various stages of undress and many drying off after a bath. I thought that maybe I should take a bath when I get home. I really liked his sculptures the best.

There were a few works by other artists as well. I particularly like a sculpture of a woman crying by Paul Albert Bartholomé that was near the end of the exhibit.

On Saturday night we went to a splendid concert at Jordan Hall. It was Lise de la Salle, a young (age 23) very talented French pianist. I thought it extraordinarily good (as did Matthew Guerrieri in today's Boston Globe review).

The first half of the program was:
Ravel: Miroirs
Debussy: Preludes

Both very imaginative suites. My thoughts were: lots of notes and variety of colors, and really well played.
As rsc said - now after the impressionism section, we'll go on to the classics.

The second half was:
Beethoven: Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Opus 81a, “Les Adieux”
Beethoven: Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, no. 2, “Moonlight Sonata”

Perhaps she should have done one French piece and one Beethoven in each half.

For encores - 4 of them
she said things like
now some Bach,
now some Chopin
where she played the lovely Nocturne in C-sharp minor from a posthumous opus

That would have made a nice ending
But the audience wouldn't have it
for the Prokoviev she didn't announce
now some Schumann
and she played Von fremden Ländern und Menschen from Kinderscenen
(one of the two pieces that I can actually play myself)
A nice ending to the concert.

I bought an iTunes recording of the Chopin (not hers). And I had fun in the iTunes store grazing in the first minute and a half of a bunch of recordings of several Nocturnes and Ballades. It is a great way to compare styles of many pianists. But can be quite a challenge - e.g there are a few hundred recordings of Schumann's Träumerei - also in my so-called repertoire.

In the Dec 19 NewYorker there was an article by Alec Wilkinson about Ashrita Furman, the person who has the record for the most Guinness records. Furman, who is fifty-seven and the part owner of a health-food store in Queens, is the world’s leading practitioner of a pursuit that is known as Guinnessport—the undertaking of challenges designed to get a person into an edition of Guinness World Records.

He currently (or at the time of the article) holds 131 and has had 367. Making these records involved learning 70 discrete skills that he has learned - an example is slicing apples with a samurai sword.

Some examples:

- His first record: 27,000 jumping jacks in 6:45 was his first record.

- A mile on a hop ball on the Great Wall of China in 15 ins and 3 secs.

- Jumped underwater on a pogo stick in the Amazon for 3:40

He failed to climb Cerro Machu Picchu on stilts - at 10,009 feet would have been the highest mountain climbed that way but he was turned away by security.

Today I went to the statehouse along with a lot of other people to witness the signing of the Transgender Rights bill. This bill gives protection to transgender people in housing, employment, credit, and insurance. It also expands the definition of Hate Crimes to include crimes against transgender people.

Getting this done has been a long trip. Thanks to Rep Carl Sciortino for initiating it a few too many years ago (first filed in 2007) and Gunner Scott, Executive Director of the Mass Transgender Political Coalition, for all his work. I went to three lobby days for this legislation. At those days after a bit of training I went to talk to several of the Cambridge and Gloucester legislators and their aids most of whom were on board and also encouraged them to talk to other legislators. I also had various opportunities during the past several years to talk to other legislators.

Gunner Scott


Governor Deval Patrick                         Carl Sciortino                         Bryon Rushing


There were short speeches by many people: Governor Deval Patrick, House Speaker DeLeo, Rep Sonia Diaz Chang, Byron Rushing, Senate Majority Whip Ben Downing, Atty General Martha Coakley, State Auditor Suzanne Bump, Carl Sciortino, Gunner Scott, and some others. They all played important roles in getting this legislation to the floor and passed. Most of them made a special point to thanked all the people in the audience and those who weren't there for all their lobbying, story telling, and other things that helped make this a reality. The Attorney General emphasized that she would enforce it. Earlier in 2011 the governor signed an executive order to protect a good portion of state employees and gave credit to some other department heads whose domains weren't covered to do the same; this bill is much broader.

Several speakers emphasized how important it was to talk to people about this topic because there is so much misunderstanding. Transgender people telling their stories is a big help. A lot of education is needed.

One of my auxiliary arguments is that this protection is economically advantageous to the state since when people get fired from their jobs or kicked out of housing it ends up costing the state for providing various forms of financial assistance and housing assistance.

It is sad that it took so long, Massachusetts, the first state to allow same-sex marriage is the 16th to have this kind of protection, but the protection in this law is quite broad. The bill did not include public accommodations protection - it was removed to avoid some of the haters' influence on on-the-fence legislators. So there is more to do, but this was a big step and will help many people.

I am on a committee that is working on establishing a policy for gender neutral bathrooms (often called unisex) in the city. We met again yesterday. This started in late 2010 as a Cambridge GLBT Commission effort which resulted in an early 2011 City Council order to the City Manager. The committee has me, a city attorney, the head of Public Works, the Disabilities expert, and the Zoning specialist. We had another meeting yesterday.

We want to better serve the needs of three sets of people: transgender individuals, parents of opposite gender young children, and caregivers with opposite gender clients.

Our goal is for all city buildings to have at least one such bathroom in each of the ~50 buildings - subject to budget and physical constraints, and to see what can be done for commercial places with regulations and advocacy. One of the difficulties is that the state plumbing code spells out very specific requirements for number of Mens rooms and Ladies rooms depending upon the building capacity. There are lots of conditions associated with the code depending upon new vs. renovation, etc. In the City Hall Annex that was recently renovated all the bathrooms are single stall and have a men/woman/wheelchair symbol on them; it is probably violating the code. We are not talking about multi-stall gender neutral bathrooms as that would meet much resistance although a number of colleges are doing this particularly in their dorms. In the long run the plumbing code needs some modification; that won't be easy because of some of the people who for example caused removal of the public accommodation portion of the Transgender Rights bill that was recently enacted in Massachusetts.

The building code means for example that a small restaurant that has two one stall bathrooms can't label them both unisex without getting a variance and has to make them both handicap accessible. I was in a place with such a configuration a couple of months ago and I breezed into the men's room while there was a short line of women waiting their turn in their facility. A changed policy would be helpful to this situation as well, though there are some people who object to this because they complain that the other gender is too messy.

Some places have mens room(s), ladies room(s), and a single stall handicap bathroom. If the handicap bathroom has just the wheelchair symbol non-disabled people may feel they can't use it. Properly labeling would fix that. For example I went on a brief tour of the newly renovated Cambridge High school last week and in the Arts building on the bottom floor there was a boys bathroom, a girls bathroom, and a separate facility with a piece of paper that said "HANDICAPPED" taped to the door (it is interesting to go to newly buildings and in spite of all the glamor they have botched the signage either by omission or other means..

We finally got around to watching the PBS documentary Frederick Law Olmstead special we had Tivoed in May. It was a well-worth spent hour.

Growing up on Manhattan across the street from Central Park (near Stuart Little's sailboat pond) I have enjoyed much of Central Park which is really an incredible place. In Boston there is the Emerald Necklace and the Arnold Arboretum. Last year we went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I had no idea he and Calvert Vaux and later followed by Olmstead's two sons designed so many parks and academic campuses in so many places in the US and Canada. What an incredible legacy they left for so many to enjoy. They were clearly great designers and understand the political and publicity side of getting things like this done.

Today, as is usual on the first Monday of January in an even year I went to the Inauguration event for the Cambridge City Council. It takes about an hour with examination of credentials, benedictions, oaths, introductions of family members and other entourage, and some Music Presentations.

There are nine Councillors. Each takes three oaths - to the state, to the constitution of the US, and to the city. They all end with so help me God. I did a little bit of research to see if that can be omitted from the oath and the I think the answer is if requested, but then it is called an affirmation.

Also I noticed that the US flag was on one side of the podium and on the other side there was a yellow flag of unidentified origin and there was no state flag. I wonder what the yellow flag was. (A quick Google search revealed that in Massachusetts the following is recommended: "The yellow flag means that a pesticide was applied to a piece of property". Clearly, that was not the case here).

There were an Invocation, a Meditation, and a Benediction; the first and the last were from Christian denominations and the Meditation from a sect I didn't recognize - he was listed as Reverend E K Khalsa and he was wearing a turban. I liked his the best and he asked everyone to hold their breath and think good thoughts (I am paraphrasing). There was no Rabbi this time - there usually is, but of course not all religions can be represented.

There was singer who sung three pieces at various points in the program. I'm sure some people liked her work but I didn't - too much vibrato and too much high register loud climax at the end of each piece - especially Amazing Grace - you know: "how sweet the sound"... This isn't opera - although sometimes city council happenings are a lot like an opera - although in spite of some being somewhat tragic no-one ever dies at the end and often most people live happily ever after.

At the end of the session the first attempt for the Council to elect a Mayor from its ranks yielded no-one. Most councillors voted for themselves. Next try is January 9th.

Afterwards there was a reception at the Royal Sonesta. I got to talk to lots of people and that was fun and also I ate too much food (the fourth day in a row). I believe that the last time I was at the Royal Sonesta was when I was sequestered for a week and half for the last portion as a juror on a homicide trial 20 years ago.

I didn't go to this evening's School Committee event but I did go to a brief tour of the newly renovated High School just before that. We were in the Arts building and saw the theatre, the band room, the piano room, some theatre support rooms, and a couple of class rooms including a chemistry lab/room. It all looked quite fabulous.

My Invitation to the inauguration starts with:
"The Honour of Your Presence is Requested". I was surprised to see the "u".

More absurdity - this time on drug prices.
What other thing can you buy with such disparity of prices? I see a 34 - 1 ratio of high to low prices at the same store!

I take 20mg of Simvastatin (a cholesterol drug) every day.

I paid .20 a pill at my HMO
An Internet search reveals

.11 at Costco
.54 at Planetdrugsdirect.com
.61 APEX pharmacy (1.22 if you only get 30)
1.68 at ByLowDrugs (Australia and a few others)

For Zocor, the non-generic version:
$2.24 CanadaDrugs.com
$3.73 CanAmerica
$5.38 at Costco
.58 at NorthWest Pharmacy

Cambridge, MA
Gloucester, MA
Philadelphia, PA
Alitalia 615 BOS->FCO
Rome, Italy
Cairo / Heliopolis / Giza, Egypt
SS Karim, on Nile
Luxor, Egypt
San Francisco, CA
Aptos, CA
Burlingame, CA
N. Woodstock, CT
New York City, NY
Seattle, WA
Wilgus St Park - Weathersfield, VT
Becket, MA
White River Jct., VT

Or:
- bed
- couch
- on ground in tent
- aIrplane seat

In november I had my annual eye exam with my doctor at Harvard Vanguard, an HMO. I paid the $15 co-pay at the time.

Today I got a not-a-bill From Eye Med Vision Care.

This document showed a submitted charge of $186 with an allowed amount of $67.40 and evidence that $52.40 was paid by Tufts Health Plan Medicare my insurer. AThe bill indicated that Eye Med is administered by First American Administrators.

Four organizations are involved in this transaction - not counting me, my credit card company, and my bank.

This document said the submitted charge was $186, but only $67 was allowed - that is 36% of the submission.

$186 would yield $744 / hour assuming 15 minute appointments which is what I think they do. I wonder if anyone every pays $186.

I also wonder how many different prices get charged for the same service at this HMO. And how automated is this billing process and how many people had to do something in the process.

I just finished reading Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry. This is the story of the world's longest baseball game. It was a Minor League game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in Pawtucket, RI and it took ~8 1/2 hours to play the 33 innings. For non-baseball cognoscenti or others a normal baseball game is 9 innings and takes between 2 and 3 hours to play.

The game started at 8pm (delay because of lighting problem) and was suspended at a little after 4am on Easter Sunday of 1981at the end of the 32nd inning. There was a supposed to be a curfew that would have suspended it earlier but it was missing from the umpire's manual. There were fewer than 19 fans in the ballpark at 4am. It was resumed on June 23. That date was during a major league baseball strike and as a result the ballpark was full of fans and there was a lot of press there to see the game. In the bottom of the 33rd Dave Koza hit a single with the bases loaded to win the game.

It was a fun book to read depicting drama and nuances of the game and the people in it. Barry does a nice job describing many aspects of baseball such as the frustrations of being a minor league player and never making it to the Major Leagues. Dave Koza, the hero of the game, was one such person. Minor League players don't make much money and most never make the big time - often spending a few years and frequently ending up injured. They sometimes give up college scholarships to play baseball so it isn't really a good life choice for many people. More than 1,500 get drafted every year; there are just 600 players on Major League rosters and many of them stay for a number of years so there just aren't that many openings.

The recently deceased (2010) owner of the PawSox, Ben Mondor, is portrayed as being a really great person who built up the team and the ballpark from a complete derelict to a healthy enterprise. We've been to a couple of games there.

A bunch of years ago we were at Fenway Park for a Tigers RedSox game that ended after 6 hours in the 19th inning. Our almost an hour walk home since the T had stopped running was a lot better than it would have been had the RedSox lost.

We also were at Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS which went only 14 innings but took 5:49 - Yankee RedSox games are always very long. We got to take the T home since that game started at 5.

Dinner - roast duck w. rice and orange stuffing, yams & apples, snap peas, rolls, salad, Pinot Noir.
Served on my maternal grandmother's china.

( Dessert )

And the great rarity, the table was not full of junk as it usually is - for the second week in a row.