sundries - long-ass, sleep-deprived and Mercury-retrograded for your pleasure

[rm]

We're back! The kitties are fine! The plants even look like they'll revive. But mostly, we're back.

To recap, we experienced the following mishaps:
- trouble getting car to airport.
- car to airport getting pulled over by cops.
- confusion about cash or credit at airport that had me running to cash machine.
- in chaos, tipped driver $10 past what as already generous
- discovered we were at the wrong terminal.
- METRA - late, weird and creepy more than once.
- Left directions to Oriental Institute in hotel room.
- Everything, more or less, about the trip to the Oriental Institute Museum other than the museum itself.
- I got glutened at PF Changs.
- Cab company decided to fuck us over royally the one afternoon we spent in Naperville's downtown and we had to call the hotel shuttle to beg them to come get us.
- Flight home canceled.
- New flight delayed.

It's a good thing Patty and I like each other. A lot. Man! Oh yeah, and we bought lots of cool stuff at Penzey Spices.

After weeks, 33 Chilean miners have been discovered to be alive, but it may take months to rescue them.

The Green Book was a travel guide that told African Americans where they could eat and stay while traveling when segregation was still a typical and open part of life in America (and elsewhere -- the guide included international destinations). It stopped publishing in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed. karnythia helpfully links us to a PDF of the 1949 edition.

Letting go lessons for parents as students go to college. My parents were horribly over-protective, and made me wear business clothes to my freshman orientation (nearly assuring that I would have another friend-free education experience), but then they went home and everything was fine. Apparently, this stuff is increasingly rocket science.

A great poet and his weird letters to the Montclair Police Department.

Everything you've heard about New York is true: Alligator in Queens!

From the department of Everything You Learned on Doctor Who is True: China gridlock goes on for 60 miles and traps drivers for over a week.

I do not have the time of day for this shit: In case you missed it the Pentagon is surveying military spouses about DADT, wanting to know if they will encourage their partners to leave the military or if they will be rude to gay military spouses or inclined to leave military housing should DADT ever get solved. Yes, whether the spouses of American servicemen and women can act like adults is the latest supposed deciding factor in whether gay men and lesbians will be allowed to serve openly and honorably in the US military.

I remain consistently startled by how upsetting and frightening I find the backlash regarding 51Park. I don't know if it's because I'm a member of minority populations and shit shit scares me, if it's because I had significant exposure to Islam as a pre-teen, or if it's because living and working in predominantly Muslim countries is normal to Patty and something we both may very well do more of. But seriously, the opposition to 51 Park is not okay. (link via reannon).

help_pakistan. Millions of people have been displaced; 25% of the country is underwater; and the $$ aren't flowing in because it's not a tourist destination for Westerners and because of the West's Islamaphobia.

Since 2002, Lisa Spodak has raised almost 150K to fight breast cancer by walking long distances and creating innovative charity auctions of celebrity autographs. It's Avon Walk season for her again. To support her efforts donate at http://donate.lisawalks.com.

ASK MORBO. Do it. Do it now.

I am still in a flurry of stuff I can't tell you, including publication news and my final Dragon*Con schedule and maybe an upcoming performance thing. I can tell you I got asked to neaten up a recent LJ post for HackGender, so that was nice.

Hey, some of you might be interested in the Butch Voices conferences coming up around the country, including in NYC.

Oh god, I have a proposal I need to finish like NOW. Well, this week. Argh.

While we were in Chicago, Patty told me this story that's at least part urban legend/conspiracy theory of some guys during the early space exploration days that found a way to listen in on radio transmissions between Soviet ground control and whatever people were sending into orbit and recorded it all. Some of the tapes were of Soviet efforts before, to our knowledge, there were manned missions, and they recorded things with heartbeats, and one where a woman says "I feel hot" before saying she's going to abort the mission and then the transmission cuts out.

I can't stop thinking about this. Does anyone know more about it? I am haunted by this idea that people were sent up before the technology was ready, not because it just hadn't been tested well enough, but because those on the ground absolutely knew they would die and wanted to see how and how long it would take.

Comments

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

A lot of the 51 Park convo, from what I've seen (which is admittedly much less than you and more than most of my countrymen), is what passes for normal discourse about Islam here, too. And my city is about 20-30% islam, or so says the census, and I work with muslim coworkers and I have lots of muslim customers that I serve, but the public discourse remains unsettlingly them and us, and what we should legislate against and more of that stuff. It's profoundly scary just because it polarises; it's pitting "us" against "the terrorists" (or "the criminals", over here), but that's ridiculous as they are just a group of people, first. Whatever some few idiots might have done/do, just like a few (or more) of my "group" have done.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Looking at that NYT piece about the Green Book, I wonder if you've read Matt Ruff's short story, Safe Negro Travel Guide? It's pretty good.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link, Bill!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I got into a huge row with a family member over 51 Park, I'll probably write about it later.
The whole discourse is frightening frankly.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Here's where I heard about the missing Soviet astronaut thing.

[rm.livejournal.com]

AWESOME. I AM OBSESSED.

[pocketmouse]

I have to say that sounds pretty damn urban-legendy. If you want I can forward it to my mom and ask her what she's heard about this; she's a historian specializing in space history from WII through the 80s, especially the medical/life sciences research, so I wouldn't be surprised if she knows something about this if it is real. And if it is, I highly doubt that it was people/animals sent up because the ground forces knew that they would die and wanted to study that.

[pocketmouse]

Right, so she agrees that this is pretty much just urban legend and a bunch of Cold War talk. Best place to find refutation is on James Oberg's site (he's listed as a further reference in your linked article above). There's a search bar at the top for the site, if you search for 'lost cosmonauts' there's several hits, the top two being this and this, and it all boils down to no space historian worth their salt would believe the story. It's science fiction. There's reports of real-time conversations that weren't possible from that distance, from flights whose paths meant that the signal couldn't be reached from the reporters' location, and more. It's meant to make the Russians look bad.

[jgcr.livejournal.com]

I think something like those space exploration rumors is the hook for the web tv show pioneer one. i liked the first episode.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

But I ask you, where are the hordes of feral chihuahuas? Did they eat all the other alligators?

There's a whole weird conspiracy theory crowd round radio transmissions of the time. I've seen this referenced more than once recently. I'll try to figure out where it was I saw them.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'm doing dorm move-in for my oldest on Thursday.
The plan is this: get off work, shower, load the car, drive her over to the dorm, help her unload, hug her, wave at her room-mate and drive home.

Then again, she's only 20 miles away.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

In one of his travel pieces, Robert Heinlein claimed that during a 1960 trip with his wife, Virginia, in the USSR, some very excited cadets asked if they'd heard about the launch. Shortly afterward, the Heinleins' Intourist guide told them that the cadets had been mistaken -- there was no manned mission.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I knew I should have read through the comments before I posted!

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I remain consistently startled by how upsetting and frightening I find the backlash regarding 51Park.

Likewise. I think I can attribute some of it to my own secondary-and-high-school experience, in that, though I was at a fairly posh private school, its catchment area included a *lot* of various South Asian communities, and it was pretty much down the road from the main Muslim neighborhood. The only reason our RE class never visited the local place of worship was that the teachers never quite got the logistics of a class field trip figured out.

I did see the beginning of the NYT article on the Green Book below the fold on the front page: I shall have to give it more thought as it's possibly relevant to something I'm trying to write.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

For the Soviet Space program stuff, check out http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/default.htm.

It's considered 'common knowledge' in the space biz that the Soviets went through a lot of cosmonauts. The people who are in the best position to tell you how much of what you see on the website you linked to aren't talking, but I'd hazard that if you were to ask them at a water cooler they'd allow as some of that stuff really happened.

If I had any current contacts at NPO Energia I'd ask, but I suspect they wouldn't really know any more than I do.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Oh god, my parents dropped me off, gave me a few big, tight hugs, and drove home. End of story.

Sheesh.

Oh, and I was completely disinterested in any of the Welcome Freshmen orientation nonsense. I knew from pretty much the get-go that I couldn't stand anyone on my hall, and that something had gone wrong and that I was supposed to be in interest housing across campus*.

Bah.

*This is actually true. A few months later, the dunderhead in charge of membership said he'd found my application fallen behind a desk, and that I would have been an obvious shoo-in for the floor. I'm still angry at that because my freshman year sucked a lot, mostly to do with my crappy living situation.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I was in special interest housing and terrible terrible things happened, of which you know.

Alas.

But that sucks.

[setissma.livejournal.com]

As an RA, I can tell you that the parents-dropping-kids-off thing is getting increasingly complicated. Every year, our college has at least a few sets of parents who just will not leave and have to be sort of strongarmed by our dean's office, and there's always a lot of intense involvement on move in day; I had a mom last year who refused to let her daughter live in the room she'd been assigned to, and a few other parents who stuck around for most of orientation, which was a pain in the ass. I think it makes the transition a lot harder for most kids, and it's a pain in the ass for residential staff. I've got frosh moving in on Wednesday and I'm really not looking forward to dealing with parents.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

My parents pretty much dropped me off, help me set up a local bank account and then left. Then again, they did travel all the way from Hawaii to Indiana to do this. What I find funny is that my college is mentioned in the article. I NEVER hear about my college in media.

[concertigrossi.livejournal.com]

(Which college, if I may ask? So was mine...)

[4hour-ramona.livejournal.com]

oh i thought that was gonna be the other morbo.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Nope, but there's reasons he has that name. <3

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

the Pentagon is surveying military spouses about DADT, wanting to know if they will encourage their partners to leave the military or if they will be rude to gay military spouses or inclined to leave military housing should DADT ever get solved
*headdesk*

As a former partner of an American serviceman (enlisted), if the other members of my FRG group responded to that survey, the results would range from "I'm not homophobic, but do they have to be so public about it?" to "BURN IN HELL YOU SINNING SINNERS".

And the missing cosmonaut thing is creepy. And fascinating.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

First off, I'm so very glad I went to college in the late 1980s/early 1990s and had a dad that was pretty much, "Bye, kid! Have fun!" and punted me out of the nest. I got more crap from my grandmother (with whom I lived for a few years after my mom died and dad was working shift work) about not keeping in touch that I did from my dad and stepmom.

Anyways, as a parent of an 11 year old, I can totally understand how today's parents find it hard to just drop their kid off at college and leave. First there's the 18+ years of conditioning that dropping your kid off, anywhere, and just leaving them makes you a Bad Parent. You have to make certain that they make it in the building safely and that you're there for them if anything should go wrong, because if you aren't you're neglectful and deserve CPS come and take your kids away.

Then there's the idea that most of these kids heading off to college were Truly Wanted kids. Not a delightful "oops", 1960s love child, like me! ;-p With birth control easily available for the socio-economic classes that regularly send their kids to sleep away college, most of the kids going these days were planned. And a significant subset are even kids that parents went to great lengths to conceive/adopt. Letting go someone that wanted is hard.

I hope that when we make this trip in 7 years (eep! I hope we'll be able to afford sleep away school!), we'll be able to unload stuff at the dorm, make a trip to the Megamart for those things we forgot, and then say "bye" and leave. And only call once that weekend. ;-p

[jeliza]

I was a Very Wanted (they'd tried for years before I happened) and my folks still pretty much just drove me down and helped me carry my trunk -- which they had not helped me pack. Lunch at the student union, a hug, and "we'll see you at Thanksgiving -- take the train!"

I plan to emulate this example with my own offspring, if possible. But I might help them pack.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

While we were in Chicago, Patty told me this story that's at least part urban legend/conspiracy theory of some guys during the early space exploration days that found a way to listen in on radio transmissions between Soviet ground control and whatever people were sending into orbit and recorded it all. Some of the tapes were of Soviet efforts before, to our knowledge, there were manned missions, and they recorded things with heartbeats, and one where a woman says "I feel hot" before saying she's going to abort the mission and then the transmission cuts out.

Did anyone else think "Wow, AMAZING potential for a Torchwood story there." Come on, you just KNOW that Jack was involved in it somehow...

[deza.livejournal.com]

As a military spouse currently living on the largest Marine base on the east coast, I'm offended. The Pentagon brass has no right to pretend to give a damn about my opinion as a thinly disguised exercise in misrepresenting how I feel about anything.

Honestly, I wish there were openly gay families here. With luck, they'd be more liberal about other things. I hate that my kids get teased for our family supporting Obama, that certain aspects of our lives have to be kept under wraps and that I'm a gossip source for daring to be seen in public in my wheelchair (us gimps are supposed to have enough shame to stay hidden away from public view). I'd love to have people I could actually talk to, without feeling like I'm the last human wife left in Stepford.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

Re: the Cosmonaut tapes.

On a related note, Numbers Stations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station), especially UVB-76 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76) which has been active since 1982, despite the collapse of the USSR. I don't know what it is about it, but it weirds me out in a great, "This will be great in a story" sort of way...

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

Apparently, a new message was broadcast on UVB-76 yesterday (http://www.metafilter.com/95091/4625-kHz).

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

That lost cosmonaut stuff is really fascinating.

Upon an entire afternoon's review (cough), I don't think the Soviets sent up anyone knowing definitively that they would die. Dogs, yes. People, no. I do believe that they rushed things and engaged in creative denial about the risks --Komarov's flight (and fate) seems like a good example of this.

That "Ludmilla" recording, though. Wow. (But: how did she come to be called that?)

There are definitely stories in here.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Interesting sidenote--"Ludmilla" translates to "heroine of the people". (It was my grandma's name.)

[rufus.livejournal.com]

re: the college article, I distinctly remember informing my parents (somewhat tactlessly, in retrospect) that I could finish unpacking by myself and it was time for them to go. And they kind of blinked at me, dispensed one more round of hugs, and then left.

I also remember my roommate's mother, who had unpacked her daughter down to the last shirt, who was silently but yet very loudly disapproving of me and my disorganized disaster on the other side of the room. I turned Soul Asylum on and bounced thoughtfully on my bed in my ragged cutoffs, and later, when I could actually find my things and my roommate couldn't, I may have smirked indelicately to myself.

[laughingirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for always boosting the signal. :)

[featherofeeling.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Green Book links - both fascinating!

On the Park51 thing: I am extremely worried and upset about this backlash and the discourse surrounding it. I've gone from "Someone is wrong on the internet" to "someone is LYING on the internet...and in the news media!" and I cannot, cannot pull myself away from reading the lies and the twisted words, and wondering what their purposes are and what their effects will be. Maybe my response is also mostly due to personal factors and not only from my sense of justice. But I feel like your upset and frightened reactions are right on target for someone who's paying attention to this (not that you need me to legitimize them, anyway).

[featherofeeling.livejournal.com]

As if the debate about the Park51 center weren't enough to worry about, NPR reports this morning that the backlash against the center is causing I-told-you-so's and celebrations on the websites of violent "Muslim" extremists.

"Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation...[has] been tracking Awlaki for years and is concerned that the latest controversy over the Islamic center will end up making Awlaki look prescient.

"Over the past nine to 12 months, Anwar al-Awlaki has tried to promote this notion that the West, and particularly the United States, will turn on its Muslim citizens," Fishman said. "And some of the anti-Islamic tone that has been going around the country in connection with the mosque debate feeds into this notion that people like Anwar al-Awlaki can take advantage of.""

Awesome. Two different groups of extremist, intolerant people to worry about over this.