Category Archives: Over the Transom

Fall Break

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Back to posting around October 19. It’s fall break. With any luck, I might see a thing or two in the next few days worth posting about.

In a grocery store parking lot the other day, a man in rollerblades rollerbladed up to me and gave me some campaign literature from one of the candidates running for Congress in my district. I can say for sure I’d never seen anyone electioneering on rollerblades before.

The weekend was cold, but it’s warmed up since then. Yesterday, late in the day, I spied a cricket on the door to the garage, which the sun was striking directly at that moment. I’d never seen a cricket perched there before. I didn’t realize until I looked at the picture that I also caught his reflection in the door lock.

Cricket, early Oct 2014Worried about his mortality, if crickets worry about such things? October would be the time to do it. I have a feeling they don’t, but I can’t say absolutely for sure.

Come to think of it, why should the grasshopper plan and work and save up for the winter? He’s going to die anyway come winter. The ant’s just being a killjoy.

Telephone Incident 1992

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In my apartment in Osaka, I had a black rotary phone connected to the wall by a sturdy black cord. There was no way to disconnect it without damaging the cord. Even in the early 1990s, that setup was a throwback. I don’t remember my phone number any more, but maybe it was 609 3443 or 3449. The problem described below didn’t go on for long, fortunately.

October 11, 1992

Recently some business somewhere has been assigned a phone number very similar to mine. At least it doesn’t seem to be a place, like a pizza joint maybe, that gets calls every minute. Even so, someone’s got 609 3446, one misstroke on a push-button phone from connecting with me. I received about a half-dozen call for this business in the afternoon.

At first I answered the phone each time, telling the caller than he had a wrong number, after which he would invariably call back. One dim bulb called three times, even after I’d told him (in reasonably good Japanese) that he’d misdialed the last digit.

I was annoyed until I had the inspiration of holding the receiver close to my tape deck, which I’d turn up a little for the occasion. Then I started having fun with it. No one ever called back after hearing a little music. The jolt must have made them more careful of the next dialing.

Been There, Heard That

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From The Guardian yesterday, regarding the first U.S. Ebola patient: “Thomas Eric Duncan told a nurse at a Dallas emergency room that he had recently visited Liberia, which has been ravaged by the Ebola outbreak. But an executive at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital told a news conference that the information was not widely enough shared with the medical team treating Duncan, and he was diagnosed as suffering from a ‘low-grade common viral disease.’ ”

Just a hunch – mere speculation – but it seems entirely possible that the nurse didn’t know where the hell Liberia was. You’d think the name would be an instant red flag in that situation, but maybe not if you don’t know Liberia from Libya or Lesotho or East Jesus.

I went outside last night and noticed some intense cricketsong near the deck, which is a little unusual. I also happened to have my digital recorder in my pocket. What follows is 20 seconds of northern Illinois cricket, on October 1, 2014, at about 9 p.m. Cricket Oct 1 2014

That inspired me to record 20 seconds of the dog this morning reacting to people walking by in front of the house. She’s looking out one of the windows, and the scratching is her paws on the window sill. Dog Oct 2 2014

At about noon today, the wind was up, but it was fairly warm. I ate lunch on my deck, and listened to the wind, and recorded 20 seconds of it. Wind Oct 2 2014

Everywhere a Sign

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A question to ponder: How can Crème Caramel Chicago’s product be so good? Ingredients: milk, eggs, sugar, cream, caramel, vanilla. That’s it. Yet in the words of Shakespeare, it’s a wow.

It’s also a product of EU Foods, though it has nothing to do with that supranational entity, I think, since it was made in Bensenville, Illinois.

Another thing to ponder: a thematic men’s room sign.

Samurai bathroom attendantI saw it about a year ago in Dallas at the Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum. As I write this, the wires – quaint, that term – are burning up with news of the first U.S. Ebola case, and the honor goes to Dallas. Well, why not? Texas excels at so much else.

I doubt that we’ll get an epidemic, though. What we will get is excessive news coverage. Just another reason to avoid cable news, out in that vast wasteland. Vaster now than when I was born; a regular Sahara.

Newton MinowI didn’t know that Newton Minow had an honorary street sign in Chicago, but I saw it downtown last month. I’m happy to report that at 88, Mr. Minow is still alive and kicking.

RIP, Wayne Grothe

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Dark clouds most of the day promising rain, but not delivering, at least not as of about 6 p.m. Cool air did blow through, however, ending a short series of humid days. It felt like the tropics out there for a while.

All too often, I see spontaneous memorials beside the road. Their frequency is sometimes haunting, such as the white crosses every few miles along some highway stretches in the Dakotas. A few days ago, I stopped to take a closer look at a memorial that’s at an intersection I often pass through. In fact, I would have passed through the day of the fatal accident – July 28 – but the road was closed.

Wayne Grothe memorial Aug 2014Next to the road, another sign.

Start Seeing MotorcyclesAll I know about the accident is what I’ve read: “A motorcyclist killed in a crash with another vehicle in Schaumburg Monday afternoon has been identified by Schaumburg police,” said the Daily Herald the next day.

“Wayne Grothe, 23, of Hoffman Estates was riding a motorcycle when it collided with a four-door Taurus driven by a 77-year-old Schaumburg woman just before 1 p.m. near the intersection of Roselle Road and Hartford Drive… The female driver was taken to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove with minor injuries.

“Roselle Road between Weathersfield Way and Wise Road was closed for several hours while police investigated.

“No charges have been filed in the crash and the investigation continues.”

Team of Rivals

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Rain early in the morning, again in the afternoon, and more promised for Friday morning. You could call it a rainy spell. Just when the grass and other flora were looking a little thirsty from the intermittent August heat.

The other day I picked up Team of Rivals at a resale shop. Hardcover version, in decent condition. Cost: $1.75 plus tax. Considering my known interest in presidential history, it’s about time I got around to reading some Doris Kearns Goodwin. I haven’t gotten far yet, but so far so good. I’m looking forward to a detailed account of the Republican Convention of 1860. Remarkable how history turns on such seemingly small events.

And I’m going to wonder, where did I see Goodwin speak? I know I did, at some real estate convention or other in the early or mid-2000s, back when I used to go to such things more regularly. Can’t remember exactly when or where, though. Speakers I saw at one time or other included her, but also the elder George Bush (post-presidency), James Cavill, Newt Gingrich, James Lovell, and Colin Powell.

Not a Multi-Legged Creature

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Returning from my garage this afternoon, I discovered this clinging to one my sleeves. It startled me for a split second. “Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.”

burr, August 2014It’s a burr from a large volunteer plant that grows next to our deck. The picture I took distorts the thing itself, as pictures often do. The burr measures only about an inch and a half in each direction.

It’s from the same plant that’s been growing there for years – here’s an image from June 2007 (and the plant’s slightly visible in the day before yesterday’s pic, behind the US flag). By late August, its stems and leaves are browning, leaving behind a lot of burrs. They’re gentle burrs, just grabbing onto your clothing, but not sharp enough to stab you. The Velcro of the plant world.

Water, Water, Water

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It might be the summer of pouring a bucket of ice water over your head – which will probably be remembered in the way flagpole sitting and goldfish swallowing are – but I’m not participating. The first I heard about it (ice water pouring, not flagpole sitting) was yesterday as I was driving Lilly and her friends somewhere. They were talking about it. But I would have heard about it today anyway, since I noticed something about it online at a place I usually visit.

I spotted peewee football players practicing in the park visible from my deck today, instead of baseball players. Some baseball will still be practiced and played in the weeks ahead. But peewee footballers mean the end of summer is nigh. So does the beginning of school. Lilly starts Thursday; Ann next Tuesday.

Even so, it’s still summer. This is the kind of thing you see during that season.

water truck

Not long ago, the village replaced some turf they’d dug up at the edge of my front lawn. Every now and then, a water truck shows up to water it.

Calendars for ’15

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One, two – which famed movie star’s going to die next to make it three? Not that that really happens, so vague is the idea. But if one does in a day or two, people are bound to point that out. Alas for Lauren Bacall, she might suffer from the Groucho Marx effect – dying too close to someone even better known at the time of her death, and thus being overshadowed in death. That happened to Mother Teresa as well.

Speaking of the tireless forward motion of Time, calendars for next year have already started arriving. Lilly’s high school calendar, which doubles as a thick wad of rules and policy, is too utilitarian to be that interesting. Better is the Teamwork Velocity Date Log Planner, an 8 x 10-inch booklet with each month from December 2014 to January 2016. Why a paper calendar in the era of electronic gizmos in your hand? I’d argue that it’s easier to find something on a calendar in this form. And it never crashes or has virus issues.

Anyway, the selection of holidays isn’t too odd: U.S. holidays, plus a number of Canadian and Mexican ones; a scattering of Jewish and Islamic dates. I do see that a few Orthodox dates are mentioned. The next Orthodox Christmas, for instance, is January 7, 2015 on the Gregorian calendar. Kwanzaa lives on among calendar makers, and so does “Patriot Day” on September 11, which I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else but a calendar.

Here’s one on the calendar that I’ve missed: National Tartan Day, which is April 6. TartandayScotland.com tells us that “in 2004, the House of Representatives decreed that April 6, the date of the signing of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, should be established as National Tartan Day, to recognise ‘The outstanding contribution and achievements made by Scottish Americans to the United States.’ ”

Each month at the top of the page is some CEO or entrepreneur wisdom. Quotes from the likes of Jack Welch, Donald Trump, and Marissa Mayer. Mostly living or not-too-long-dead captains of enterprise and invention, but John D. Rockefeller’s on the list, too. All well and good, but I’d rather see more quotes from plutocrats like Rockefeller, and more colorful quotes, too. His ought to be “God gave me my money,” and naturally, “The public be damned” springs to mind (William Henry Vanderbilt).

Do a Type of Revolution

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Google News sometimes turns up odd things. On Sunday evening, an item turned up in the Business section with this headline: “Marijuana helps Washington to earn more revenue,” published by an unknown entity called Upstart Magazine. The tipoff should be that no editor would keep “to” in that head. No editor whose native language was English, that is.

Sure enough, I defy you to tell me that the first paragraph of the story was written by a native English speaker. Not, mind you, a native speaker who can’t write. Somehow the difference is clear.

Marijuana was not legal to sell in Washington. But after making it legal to sell this in the state does a type of revolution. During the first month almost $3.8 million of Marijuana is sold out. Which makes the state tax revenue of $1 million.

Well, maybe the readership isn’t supposed to be native speakers, either.