The Freddies

Since 2003, the high schools in the Lehigh Valley have a peculiar custom.  Every year the high school plays are evaluated and awards are given for various achievements.  The Freddy Awards, named for the ghost that haunts the State Theater, are given out in an annual ceremony at the old vaudeville theater.  It is, apparently, unique in the nation.  At least sufficiently unique to attract a documentary film maker from LA, who filmed rehearsals at several of the schools and who also filmed the awards ceremony in 2008.  Much film editing followed and the documentary is soon to be released. 


Info on the documentary can be found here: mostvaluableplayersmovie.com/trailer.html
The trailer is here: www.mostvaluableplayersmovie.com/trailer/medium-res-trailer.html

Nice to see some recognition of the performing arts.  Alas, there was no such award when I trod the boards as Mayor Shinn in The Music Man back in the year mumblemumble.  In a peculiarity, the role of Mayor Shinn was also played by my uncle in a community player production.  In that, my brother Dennis played Winthrop.  For my high school play, my brother Kevin inherited the role.  It's all in the family. 

Nito, We Hardly Knew Ye!

The Fantasy Life of a Four-Year Old (cont.)
Some of you may remember that Adam had an imaginary girl friend named Nito.  I am grieved to report that Adam has told us that Nito has died. 

And has come back as a zombie. 

Clearly, he has been talking to his Uncle D. 

This Day in History

Making Amends

For those who recall this: m-francis.livejournal.com/139673.html

Sixty-five years ago today, a young man named Joe Flynn boarded ship preparing to depart Iwo Jima.  It departed the next day, his 20th birthday and the first day that the Old Man felt old.  During that approximately one month, more Americans died than in all the years of the Iraq War. 

He himself has now read that earlier post, having previously had difficulty opening the link.  However, he is disinclined to post his critique here.  He says I made several errors in my recollection of his recollections.  That would be recollections².  Thus: some corrections and additions. 

"Science Friction"

This is the title of an article in the current issue of First Things by Robert R. Chase on the treatment of religion in science fiction that mentions yr. obt. svt.  It is a thrill to be mentioned with the likes of Cordwainer Smith and R.A. Lafferty, with Gene Wolfe and Philip K. Dick, with Connie Willis and...  I blush. 
www.firstthings.com/article/2010/03/science-friction

Clearing Out My Tab at the Bar

There are a series of mini-posts on some tabs I had been saving on the primary site: Mike Flynn's Journal

The difference, I suppose, between running a tab at the bar and running tabs across the bar. 

1. Cosmic Rays, cloud cover, and global albedo: A connection with Earth's temperature? 
2. Aristotle's Revenge: Elusive Dark Matter hiding on Earth? Aristotle's fifth element: the aether. 
3. If Only He Had Been a Better Artist An early female nude by... Hitler?
4. Galileo, Scientist.  But he ignored his own data???
5. Tests of Significance. The Odds are You're Wrong.  No one understands significance level, even scientists. 
6. The Continued Infantilization of a Once Self-Reliant People, in which it is learned that power saws can cut off fingers
7. Word of the Day
8. The Opposite of Sloth, including Quote of the Day, Today's mini-essay, following Chastek on Sloth, rust, and the pursuit of happiness. 
9. Creating a Sensation  in which the estimable Chastek distinguishes between the sensation of hearing and the vibration of the ear.,

Hot Times in the Old Town Tonight

Such a Beastly Month as February

You will hear it said that February 2010 was the second-warmest February on record, which indeed it may be.  (Whether it is the second-warmest based on raw data or the second-warmest based on adjusted data, I do not know.)  We are, however, in an El Nino, and "the Kid" typically drives dramatic spikes in the temp record, and are subsequently [and properly] discounted in assessment of trends.  "Weather," as they say, "is not climate." 

But what is interesting about the warmth of this past February is that it applied only to Canada and Greenland. 

This is interesting for two reasons. 

Le Prix Julia Verlanger

Eifelheim in the News

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prix_Julia_Verlanger