Books You Should Read?

I don't know how much you've worked with word clouds as they are called by the people at wordle, but they are an interesting way to show information. The idea is to give the words or phrases that appeear more frequently greater prominence in the cloud. The word cloud below is a survey of books mentioned in various Top 100 polls. As the author of the cloud says,   

I scraped the results of over 15 notable book polls, readers surveys and top 100's. Both popular and high-brow. They included all Pulitzer Prize winners, Desert Island Discs choices from recent years, Oprah's Bookclub list, and The Guardian's Top 100 Books of All Time. A  simple frequency analysis on the gathered titles gives us a neat 'consensus cloud' visualisation of the most mentioned books titles across the polls.    

Double click on the cloud to get a bigger image.        

How many have you read?    

Spring is Here!

The official start of spring every year is the EVOLUTION League Fantasy Baseball Draft, usually held during the weekend before or after spring break. This year's draft was hosted by Randi and had sufficient food to make us all want to nap for the next three days.



Mike had a full color spread sheet to draft from. As the reigning champion, he is under a lot of pressure and was probably the most organized. (Completely unbiased editor's note: Nate took the gold last year and Steve finished with a strong second. Hopefully this error is instead a prediction for this year).

Tammy is in her second year in the league, so she's still getting to know the players. This could be her year.

My brother in law Steve won for best dressed, with a Toledo MudHens jersey and T-shirt. As you can see it was laptop city at the draft. The days of 30 page packets distributed before the draft are gone, luckily (now that I have no easy place to get them xeroxed).









Ann was primed for her last draft as a working stiff. Unfortunately, she lost one of her pitchers to the DL the first week, so she will need to shuffle a little to recover.

 Nate's philosophy this year was to grab some long shots early on - including Justin Upton right away.

My dad was ready and rarely went more than 30 seconds before announcing his pick.  He generally picks Reds (he's an Ohio resident) and this year the Reds are pretty good, so it worked out well.  Joey Votto could carry him a long way.

 Randi grabbed Pujols on the first pick, so she should be in good shape. Thanks for hosting, Randi.

You can see her Yorkies are not as interested in the draft as she is.

 I adopted the "No pitchers in the first rounds" philosophy and ended up with a good hitting lineup. We'll have to see if my mediocre pitchers can come through for me.  After winning in 2005, I haven't come closer than 5th since, so I changed my team name to "I'm Aiming for Third". Seemed like truth in advertising. We had a great time and especially enjoyed the fact that Tammy and Mike flew in from Portland for the draft. That is going above and beyond the call of duty. Next year we're talking about holding the draft somewhere warmer, like Las Vegas or Arizona.  I think it's a great idea.

Doghouse Diaries

Somehow when I saw this comic from Doghouse Diaries, I couldn't help but picture Tammy and Mike (and Nate at the end).  Double click on the comic to make it bigger.     

Music Alternatives

So your IPod is dead, you are at work and you need some music to put in the background as you work. Well, one choice would be the website  8Tracks.com.  There are a gazillion mixes that have been posted to the website.  My first choice in listening was a jazz/folk mix called Nine Songs for Sleeping (I need all the help I can get - notice how many of these posts were published after 2 AM). A nice mix including Diana Krall, Trespassers William, and Jeff Buckley. Lots of categories to help you narrow down your search:  

rock   alternative rock   indie rock   pop   electronic  hip hop  indie  folk  soundtrack  alternative  chill  jazz  r&b  dance  rap  acoustic  blues  punk  soul  country  indie pop   dubstep  metal  reggae   classic rock   love  electro   happy   eclectic   world   ambient   house   singer/songwriter   experimental  folk rock  classical   easy listening   lo-fi   instrumental   funk   oldies    electronica   techno    punk rock

Found a nice mix I probably listened to a lot 15 years ago driving to the House of Blues or Fireside Bowl, including Aquabats, the Specials, and Madness, but no Milkman's Kid.   

I picked up a number of new songs and artists from the Marshmallow Fight Blog Top 25 Songs List, like Sondre Lerche from Tammy,  but I am always on the lookout for something new.  I enjoyed playing around with this website. Hope you do, too.    

Also on the Marshmallow Fight Blog, my Dad's list of Top Ten Movies will be appearing as soon as I can get them posted. Where's your list? Send them here.  

On Funerals

My dad's sister (Aunt Nell) passed away last week, so I was in Ohio for the past few days to attend the funeral. It was a nice ceremony. I haven't seen my cousins in quite a while, so it was nice to catch up a little. As Dad and I drove from the funeral home to the cemetery, we formed the typical funeral procession with flags on our cars, and I mentioned to my Dad that I don't remember seeing anything like this around Wauconda in the last few years. I don't know if I just have happened to miss them or if it is not an Illinois custom.  As we drove along on a fairly large highway, cars we passed pulled over to the side of the road in recognition of the funeral procession. I don't know if the next generation of drivers would know that is the proper protocol. We did not have a police car leading us as is sometimes the case when the procession stays in town. Just the hearse in the front. But people knew to pull over. Funeral processions don't tend to obey traffic lights or stop signs. Everyone just keeps moving so that you stay together. The main rule, I think, is don't cut into the procession. I assume the pulling over is out of respect for the deceased. Not too far from Aunt Nell and Uncle Clint's spot is my Mom's gravestone, so Dad and I spent a little time there before heading back to the church for a luncheon. The women of the church put together a nice lunch for everyone. It gives everybody a chance to talk together. A good chance to remember Aunt Nell , who was 91 years old, a former librarian and bookmobile driver, and who helped move our meager possessions to Illinois when Ann and I first moved here in 1973 for our first teaching jobs, fresh out of college.  Rest in Peace, Aunt Nell.

What is the Most Dangerous Game?

Definitely, Grizzly Boom Tennis.

 From the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.     

Seems in keeping with the trivial pursuit question I got wrong.   

The question was "What is the fastest mammal?"  I answered, "A cow dropped from a helicopter." For some reason, that was counted as wrong. I just don't get it.  

Japan Earthquake Animation

 From Google Earth Maps, a very intense animation of the earthquakes (decidedly plural) near Japan over the period of March 9th to March 14th. Each second of the video is about one hour of real time. Each dot is a separate earthquake showing the magnitude. The big one is at about 1:15 on the video. It's much easier to view if you put it in full screen mode using the button in the lower right corner just to the right of the YOUTUBE symbol. If you click the button again when the video is all over (it's a little under 3 minutes), you will go back to the normal screen.

The lull right before the big one hits is spooky. It's like the earth is resting up for a few hours before starting up again. How could you build anything that would survive the earthquake sequence that you just watched in the video? It may be because I'm a math guy and used to viewing the world in charts and graphs, but to me this video is scarier and sadder than any live video I have seen yet. The music doesn't help either. It just lends a relentless quality to the video that is very depressing. The earth just seems really angry. I get the same feeling I got during the last few minutes of War Games when the computer tried out all the scenarios.

According to the AP:

 Last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet's axis. The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times. The west side of the island did not move much at all, so the country of Japan got wider.

The 8.9 magnitude quake was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet. The quake also shifted the earth's axis by 6.5 inches, shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds, and sank Japan downward by about two feet. As Japan's eastern coastline sunk, the tsunami's waves rolled in. Why did the quake shorten the day? The earth's mass shifted towards the center, spurring the planet to spin a bit faster. 

This is not just another earthquake. Japan is about as well prepared for earthquakes as you can be. Twenty percent of the most powerful earthquakes occur around Japan. They are in a constant state of preparation. Nothing prepares you, however, from the destruction of the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 

In case you wanted to help out, Google has a crisis response center here with links to many organizations like UNICEF, and Red Cross. 

Mathematics You Can Use!

In honor of PI DAY, (3/14) we bring you some mathematics you can use.

Every year at Christmas, we struggle with how much to spend on each person and not set our credit cards on fire.  Luckily there is a mathematical way to figure this out that is fairly easy to do. You might want to use a calculator to help you crunch the numbers, but here we go.  The first thing you need to do is list every person you are going to buy a gift for. In my fictional example I have 11 people I am buying gifts for:

Wife

Mom

Dad

Sister

Sister's Significant Other

Aunt

Uncle

Grandfather

Friend 1

Friend 2

Friend 3

Friend 4

Next assign each person a number from 1 to 10 that corresponds to how important a gift is for them. You can use numbers more than once and you don't have to use each number from 1 to 10. 

So:

10 Wife

 8  Mom

 8  Dad

 7 Sister

 6 Sister's Significant Other

 3 Aunt

 3 Uncle

 7 Grandfather

 3  Friend 1

 2  Friend 2

 1  Friend 3

 2  Friend 4

Don't judge me, these people are fictitious. Now add up all the numbers you just assigned. In my example, that totals 60.  Next divide the total budget you want to spend for these gifts by the number you just got. Your calculator might come in handy here.  I have $800 to spend for gifts, so I divide this by 60 (my total from the list above). This number, $13.33, is my unit gift cost. Friend number 3, then would get a gift worth about $13. For everyone else, I multiply their number by $13.33 to get their gift amount. For your sister, that would be $13.33 times 7, which is about $93. Your wife would get a gift worth about  $133.30.  If I use these values, my total gift giving would be about $800.  Ta da!  My gift giving is set and I haven't broken the bank. Isn't math wonderful? 

Finally, in honor of Pi Day, one of my favorite math jokes,

What did zero say to eight?  Hey, nice belt.

Technology in Action

When my son Mike was at DePaul getting his degree in Geography, he took classes to be certified in GIS technology.  At first I thought he was talking about GPS, the maps people, which seemed to me to have something to do with Geography. I am still living in the sixties when studying geography in grade school meant coloring maps of Europe.  Nowadays, geography is a whole lot more and Mike would (patiently) explain what it was he was studying. 

Esri is a company that a geography major might work for. In their words,

"Geography connects our many cultures and societies and influences our way of life. Esri is built on the philosophy that a geographic approach to problem solving ensures better communication and collaboration.

Geographic information system (GIS) technology leverages this geographic insight to address social, economic, business, and environmental concerns at local, regional, national, and global scales."

They have offices all over the world, including a satellite office in Chicago. Their corporate headquarters are in Redlands, California.  At their website, they have an interactive map (shown below) that I think gives some idea of what geography is about today. 

If you click on the map, it will take you to a map of Japan that allows you to see the destruction that took place there. Each of the orange dots is an earthquake. When you click on an orange dot, it tells you where, when and the magnitude of the tremor, for example,

Earthquake: near the east coast of Honshu,  Japan

Type:

Web LinkPhotoVideoNotes

URL:

Description:

Keywords:

Category:

Affected PeopleAffected InfrastructureGeneral Information

Other (Explain):

Magnitude: 5.0

Date and time: 2011-3-12 20:8:25 UTC

If you connect to a blue dot with an exclamation point in it, you get some related information:

Description: Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant. On March 13, the IAEA reported that the first (i.e., lowest) state of emergency was declared. Later on March 13, the IAEA reported that radioactivity levels returned to normal levels.

Each dot is geographically accurate, so you get a feel where the worst things happened.

 But one of the most interesting things is that if you click on one of the red/white you tube logos, you get a video shot by someone at that location. It takes a few seconds for the video to pop up, so be patient.  With the prevalence of cell phones in Japan, many people shot videos of what was happening to them. These are some of the same videos that popped up on the news, but there are a lot more here.

If you zoom in on the map, you get more detail of what is going on. 

From Esri:

"The goal of this web site is to disseminate information widely, inform the general public of the worst hit areas, and facilitate recovery planning. Map layers are being added over time as more data becomes available."

Pretty amazing. Thanks, geographers.

Go, Bulls! (Again)

I have had a lot of references to the Bulls in the last few days, but it really has been a magical season so far.  With their win tonight and Boston's loss to the sixers, the Bulls are half a game out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference. In the preseason predictions, most people had the Bulls finishing fourth in the East, well behind Boston, Miami, and Orlando. And I'm sure if you had told people how many games Boozer and Noah would miss, the prediction would have been lower. The success this year is especially amazing because of those injuries. Night after night, however, three things have been pretty consistent: Derrick Rose has come to play, the defensive schemes of Tom Thibodeau have been right on the money, and the bench has done a great job.  

In the list of best point guards, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, and Chauncey Biliups were named by the NBA general managers at the start of the season. Biliups was listed on 3.6% of the ballots. So less than 3.6% of the GMs picked Rose as the best point guard in the NBA. Not real surprising, but I think he would probably score higher if the poll were taken now.  As Stacy King says (a lot), "He really is special."

The defense is probably what makes the season so much fun to follow, because defense is a TEAM game.  The players buy into the idea of defense, which is not universally true in the NBA. And the players seem to understand how to play "help" defense. When a switch occurs, most of the time, players are back on their own man before anything bad has happened. That requires effort and basketball intelligence. And the poster child for that is Luol Deng. He is often the second highest scorer on the team, but he works really hard on defense. I especially enjoy seeing Kyle Korver, who is not known for his defensive abilities, running around out there, working hard to defend. That is what Tibs has done as a coach. Players understand that they have to defend if they want to stay on the court (with the possible exception of Boozer, who just doesn't seem to understand how to defend other than by hacking). 

Finally, the bench has been a lot of fun to watch. Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, and Omer Asik are some of my favorite players. They take the minutes they are given and play hard. And lately, they have been doing a larger part of the scoring. Against the Bobcats the other night, the bench scored 51 of the teams 101 points. That's exceptional. And it means more time on the bench for Deng and Rose, who need some rest as we head towards the playoffs. The last few games they have gotten fewer minutes than their average. Now if we could just get the crowd to stop screaming for Scalabrine in the last two minutes of the game.

Tomorrow night, during an extended halftime of the Bulls  - Jazz game at the United Center, the Bulls 20th anniversary of their first championship will be celebrated. Several of the key players will be on hand for the celebration, including Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and Horace Grant.If the Bulls win, it will be the perfect night: dinner at Wishbone, best halftime show (although the quick change artists are a pretty cool halftime show, too), an evening with Nate and Dana (we'll be thinking of you, Tammy and Mike), and the Bulls tied for first in the East at the end of the game.  I am really looking forward to watching from section 324.   Look for us on TV. 

Odds and Ends

1.  The shuttle Discovery landed safely today, the end of a very successful mission.  In case you forgot about the space shuttle, here is another picture of it on the launch pad, courtesy of the website

Cuter in Bunny Ears

" This closes a chapter in NASA technology, allowing the scientists to move on to their next challenge: producing bunny ears that won't burn up in the atmosphere." A seriously disturbed website. 

2.  Da Bulls won again today 101 - 84 against the Charlotte Hornets Bobcats with chief Bobcat MJ watching courtside. High scorer for the game (tied with D Rose) was Kyle Korver, most recently of the New Orleans Utah Jazz, on 7 of 10 shooting. Joakim had 13 rebounds and 12 points, but the exit of Carlos Boozer with a knee injury in the fourth quarter after suffering a flagrant foul is a big concern. The Bulls have won 11 of their last 13 games. With Boston's loss to the San Diego Los Angeles Clippers, the Bulls pull within one and a half games of the top seed in the East. By the way, for you history buffs, the first coach of the Bulls could have been Ray Meyer, the long-time De Paul head coach. He was offered the job and turned it down. Johnny "Red" Kerr ended up as the first Bulls coach in 1966.

3.  Yesterday's Sporcle had a very nice contest on "Fictional Cats by Picture" here.  Got 20 out of 25, but had no idea what the name of the Pokemon cat (-like thing) was.  If you are not wasting large amounts of time playing Sporcle, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? As one of the commenters stated, "Heavens to Murgatroyd! That was a fun quiz, even." (I can't believe that was one of the ones I missed.) But, no Thundercats. Although the boys will be happy to know that one of the Aristocats shows up.  That would be high on Nate's Top Ten Movie List, I think. I would know for sure if I had Nate's Movie List in front of me. Which brings us to .....

4.  What is the hold-up on the Top Ten Movie Lists, people? Some people have done a great job, including two of my colleagues from my former workplace, who gave up valuable time during 3rd hour playing Sporcle working with students to do their lists. Plus the left coast contingent is in and done.  So where's Nate and Dana and Ann and Randi and Steve and Dan and Swanee and Sean and Melody and Mary and Dave and Patrick and Brittany and Jonathan and Jamie and Bill and everybody else.  Chop! Chop! folks, time's awasting. When you get them finished, send them here.  Mike and I are ready to move on to the next list: top 5 places we would like to visit. Or maybe children's books. Or superheroes. Whatever, let's go! And don't try to con me with "I'm busy." Don't forget - I know you, so you're not gonna get me to believe that one. Except maybe Mary during Show season. But she's got spring break coming up and besides, making the list is a great relaxer after you have worked awhile. It's therapeutic. Just thinking about it makes me want to take a nap. Wait a second, just thinking about anything makes me want to take a nap. I'm just saying.

St. Marys Under Water

Our home town in Ohio was in flood stage last week. The pictures below came from some of Ann's relatives through her sister Randi.  Luckily Ann's parents' house and my dad's house were far enough away from the St. Marys River that they didn't have any serious problems.

This is the city office building. It sits right next to the Miami and Erie Canal. The trees in front are part of Memorial Park.  The area at the far right of the picture is what you see in the second picture.

If you were standing right in front of the city office building and looked to the right you would see this (when it wasn't flooded). The canal boat is there for historical purposes. When I was a kid, this building was the library. When I was in high school (1960's , pre-internet), I spent a lot of time at the library. Coincidentally, my future wife did too. I'm pretty sure we spent all that time doing our homework.

This is the football field at the old high school.  There was a new high school built outside of town two years ago. We would have been given extra sprints if it was this muddy, on the premise that since we couldn't run as fast as usual, we needed to do more of them.  The fact that your shoes weighed five pounds each didn't matter. And you'd better not bring any of that dirt into the locker room!

The St. Marys Trading Post is across from the old high school. We walked across the street from the school to eat lunch there many days when it was the Murphy's five and dime. Now it sells all sorts of antiques and crafty things. Upstairs, my kids used to go look for Star Wars figures to buy when they were visiting Grandpa and Grandma. Their Uncle Steve worked there for a while with a fellow model railroad enthusiast.

Just south of this intersection is where my Dad grew up in St. Marys in the twenties on the family farm.

Things seem to be in pretty good shape now, but for a while there Rte 66 headed south past the Goodyear factory was flooded and you couldn't get to New Bremen to go to the Dairy Queen. Not a good couple of days for my Dad (who is 89), who claims that he goes to the YMCA in New Bremen first to exercise and stops at the DQ for lunch on his way home.  Sure, Dad.

The NeatoShop

Products from the NeatoShop.  T-shirts and other items that are fun and interesting.

 Who doesn't love pirates these days?

Or dinosaurs?

 Ice cube trays with authentic looking icebergs and titanics.

 A mathematical formula showing that money is the root of all evil.

Remember - next Monday is PI day (March 14)

 The perfect doorstopper. Did you put Wizard of Oz on your Top Ten Movie list?

 

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

D Rose - too big, too strong, too fast, too good!

This video montage is just amazing, especially the blocks. I feel sorry for Scalabrine.  The pass to Deng at 2:50 on the video is incredible. I know the MVP stuff gets a little over the top sometimes, but the Bulls  swept  the Heat this year. How does LeBron get the MVP over D Rose? End of discussion. Just sent in my payment for playoff tickets. One game each round / all the way to the finals. Go Noah! Go Bulls!

Can't Help Myself

I know people aren't really interested in politics here, but thought this cartoon from GoComics by Stuart Carlson last week seemed to sum up much of the stupidity I heard on talk radio last week about the troubles in Wisconsin.

I can't believe I am hearing people arguing that public employee unions are the cause of our economic problems. This kind of general "I hate the teachers" stuff is really scary. Every year, Phi Delta Kappa does a survey on American attitudes towards public education. Every year the results of the survey are pretty similar. "Public education stinks. Oh, my kids' public school? It's great. We really love our kids' teachers.  But public education stinks and we hate public school teachers."  I understand what Gov Walker is doing. It is pretty clearly documented that this is a political move to disrupt union (read Democrat) political fundraising to make things easier for Republicans to win office. It makes a lot of sense that way. I just don't get the fact that just like in the cartoon above, middle class folks are screaming and yelling at each other over this issue. It's hard being middle class in this country, much harder than it was 30 years ago. We used to think of middle class as being able to own your own home, take a vacation now and then, have two reliable cars, and, with a little help, see your kids go to college.  I don't see many households making 36,000 to 57,000 (which according to the census bureau lands you statistically in the middle for US incomes) being able to do those things now. Rent, transportation,  and health premiums and expenses eat up a significantly larger share than they used to.

The joke goes:  A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party and a Big Corp CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a 100 cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 99 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says, “Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie. 

Now you might say, that joke is really anti-business, and anti-free market. But I don't think so. I think its just anti - fat cat, so to speak.  From 1990 to 2005, CEOs' pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation), while production workers gained only 4.3%. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage actually declined by 9.3%, when inflation is taken into account. In 1960, CEO's made 50 times what production workers in their businesses did. In 2000, they made 520 times as much.

I think we're getting upset at the wrong people and, for that reason, I don't see the economic situation for 80% of the people in the country changing appreciably any time soon. I'm just saying.

How to Decorate the Spare Bedroom

I think I still have most of the stuff in the basement from when the kids were younger. Now I know what to do all day while Ann is at work. Retirement is the best. Wooooooooo!

Geek A Week Comes to an End

One of the websites that I check every week for new material belongs to Len Peralta, an artist and illustrator.  A year ago he decided to do trading cards of the world's biggest geeks. It was a huge project contacting 52 people or groups that have had an impact on American culture in a geeky way.  Each card depicted the geek as a comic book character of some sort and most geeks have a podcast in which they answer a series of questions. So each person in the set had to agree to be on the trading card set, sit for a phone interview, and then agree to the way the card looked. Some of the names he got for the set are pretty amazing. For example:

Kevin Smith (writer-director)  John Hodgman (of The Daily Show and Mac commercials)

Adam Savage (of Mythbusters)                       Weird Al Yankovic (singing star)

Penn and Teller (magicians)                       Neil Gaimin (author)

 I have followed the set for 6 months, and as the set neared the end, everybody's question was "Who is going to finish the set?" I don't know how he did it, but he got the king of Geek, the head man at Marvel Comics, Stan Lee:

You can see all the cards with better pictures (and cardbacks) and the podcast for each geek here.   The Geek a Week page is here, including some info about Stan Lee to finish the set. Think Geek, which is a storefront for geek stuff has started selling the cards in packs of 8 here. It has been a lot of fun each week to see who would be next. Now I have to find something else to follow for awhile. 

Hail To The King, Baby!

Just announced - Bruce Campbell will be appearing at Wizard Comic-Con in Chicago in early August.  I was pretty sure I wanted to go see Patrick Stewart at the convention, but how can I pass on the star of Army of Darkness - Boomstick edition.

"Trapped in Time. Surrounded by Evil. Low on Gas."

For $150, you get the Bruce Campbell VIP package that includes, among other things, a photo op with the man himself. Hard to pass up, unless I'm saving my money to go in on the jet pack from the last post. Maybe it would make a nice birthday present from me to me. Make sure you block out the weekend, August 11th through the 14th. It's a geek extravaganza. And I need a new superhero illustrated in the manner of Hello Kitty. My Green Lantern is pretty lonely. 

The JetPack is Here (sort-of)

If you happen to live on a large body of water, the often wished for jet pack has finally arrived.  But, instead of jet engines, the jet pack is propelled by water (hence the large body of water).  A hose from the jet pack trails behind you to a little boat that supplies the water you need to fly. The hose also limits your height above water to about 30 feet. Probably a good idea, since surviving a 30 foot fall into the water isn't too big a problem.

Take a look at the video:

The website has no information about how expensive the Jetlev is, but elsewhere I've seen it listed at $136,000. Maybe if we all go in together, we could have one for this summer. I'm ready.

A Twilight Zone Moment

Another one of those weird coincidences happened again this week. The picture at left, I learned this week, is of an art museum in London called the Tate Gallery.  It was founded in 1897 and houses the UK's national collection of British art. In the Tate Gallery (or Tate Britain as it is called today) hangs a rather curious painting called the Fairy Fellers Master - Stroke. It is shown below. It was commissioned by the Head Steward of Bethlem Hospital in 1855. The hospital I was already familiar with. It is the origin of the term bedlam. The Bethlem Hospital was in the forefront of cruel and unusual treatment of mental patients and the name has come to have a very bad connotation. The painter was Richard Dadd, who was incarcerated in the hospital for what would now be called schizophrenia. In 1842 while on a boat trip down the Nile River, he had a personality change and claimed that he had been taken over by the Egyptian god Osiris. He was committed to Bethlem Hospital in 1843 after killing his father (who he thought had been possessed by the devil) and remained in mental hospitals until he died in 1886. I ran across the first reference to the painting while reading a pair of fantasy novels by Mike Shevdon called Sixty - One Nails and  The Road to Bedlam. They are very reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere which is one of my favorite books.  A man dies in a subway of a heart attack, but is brought back to life by a woman who introduces him to the Fey're world. That world exists alongside our own, but normal people tend to block out things they see that they don't understand.

 

The painting is described in the novel as Dadd's attempt to portray this Fey're world on canvas. The painting took Dadd nine years to create, and according to Wikipedia, the detail is so microscopic and the paint so layered that the painting is nearly 3-D.

So, the day after I finish these two books, I begin re-reading The Wee Free Men in the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. If you have not read a book by Terry Pratchett, you have missed out on a wonderful series of books set in a mythical place called Discworld.    There is no series that is funnier or that captures the absurdities of modern life better.  The four volume Tiffany Aching series is about a young witch who is learning the ropes in a very backwater part of Discworld and meets up with all kinds of interesting people and situations.  And, although I have no recollection from reading this book the first time in 2005, the Ferry Fellers Master - Stroke painting shows up as an important part of the story. When I looked the painting up on Wikipedia, I also found that Freddie Mercury was a big fan of the painting and a song with that title shows up on Queen's second album. I can't believe that I didn't hear that song in the car this week just to complete the trifecta of weirdness. Followed by the theme song from X-Files to cap it off.  The Truth is Out There, probably written in invisible ink on the back of the Fairy Fellers Master - Stroke.