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Last night, we had a Shabbabaque at Temple (“Shabbat” + “Barbeque”). There was a bunch of food leftover, and so I brought some home — the sliced tomatoes and roasted zucchini — and threw it into a crockpot. That’s a great thing to do with leftovers: make a stew (and I intend to suggest formalizing that next year*). Just like at the Shabbabaque, I’ve got loads of leftovers — onsies and twosies of news articles — that don’t make a coherent dish. Perhaps they’ll make a good stew. What do you think?

Jewish Summer Camp

• LGBTQ and Jewish Summer Camp. Two articles related to this subject. The first looks at how one camp is trying to rework the Hebrew language, so transgendered kids fit in. The second explores the ways that Jewish summer camp helps LGBTQ fit in, and the ways that they don’t.
• Ga-Ga. One more camp related article: If you’ve been to a Jewish summer camp, you’ve likely seeing that an octagonal court and an odd game of dodgeball called ga-ga. Ever wonder where it came from? Hint: It wasn’t Israel.

Food and Eating

• Turmeric. My wife has recently been turning to turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties.  Users of the herb should note that a number of formulations have been recalled due to possible lead contamination.
• Rotisserie Chicken. We’ve all heard that rotisserie chicken is cheaper than uncooked chicken, because markets are trying to get rid of the chickens before they spoil, and some profit is better than none. Someone actually investigated. In most cases (i.e., Costco), it is still cheaper to cook it yourself.

Local Returns and Departures

• Returning: Labels Table. According to this article, Labels Table has returned to Tarzana. The problem is: I don’t remember it being here in the first place (although my wife says that it was, and that it was pffffft).
• Ports O’Call. It appears that the demolition order has been issued for the old Ports O’Call in San Pedro. Replacing it: A hipsters revisioning called “San Pedro Public Market”.
• The Music Center. Supposedly being reinvented is the plaza at the Music Center.  Spend 30 million, and let’s see if you can make this hulk of concrete friendly. I’ll believe it when I see it. The structure is massive and above ground due to the parking, and that may just be an incurable.

The Body

• Smell. The sense of smell may be found all over — outside and inside — the body.  It turns out there may be a good reason. Think of smell and taste not as an odor detector, but a general purpose chemical sensor.
• Vocal Fry. We’re supposedly in an epidemic of vocal fry and uptalking.  But the real complaint may not be the vocal characteristic, but the fact that it is women doing the talking.

History

• Right Hand Over Your Heart. Did you ever wonder why we put our hands over our heart for the national anthem and the pledge? Or why we have the pledge in the first place? Wonder no more. Hint: The former is so that we don’t look like Nazis, and the latter is to unify a nation of immigrants.
• Grinning Ghosts. Here’s the true history of the Haunted Mansion, and why it couldn’t be built until Disney died.
• Pinball. I bet you thought the only Pinball Museum was in Las Vegas. Think again.

What’s Left

• TV Musicals. The Flash and Supergirl are doing a musical crossover episode.
• Passings of Note: Fyvush Finkel, a major force in Yiddish Theatre and a builder of Picket Fences. Jack Riley, the voice of Stu Pickles and Elliot Carlin on Bob Newhart.
• Theatre Briefs. Fun Home tour casting announced, including Kate Shindle, the Prez. of AEA. One wonders if she really wants to come to LA (#pro99). CSULB is doing two lesser known musicals: Stop the World, and Bubbly Black Girl. Dear World is coming to VPAC, and Parade to Thousand Oaks. Oh, and Allan Sherman is coming to Temple Ahavat Shalom — get your tickets now.

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It’s Sunday again, and … what’s this? No stew on Saturday? We must remedy this, with this hastily thrown together pot of material collected during what was, again, a very busy week and an even busier weekend:

• It’s Too Big. Here’s a call from a congressional candidate in Los Angeles to break up LA Unified. What’s interesting here is how he wants to do it: His bill would make school districts with more than 100,000 students ineligible for federal aid.  This would affect almost every major city school district, and result in lots of wasted money as many of the supporting school services — payroll, human resources, legal, and such… as well as school boards — get duplicated. The larger question, perhaps, is how much of LA Unified’s problem is LA Unified. After all, there are schools within the district that are excellent (many of them charters, such as Granada Hills or Pacific Palisades). There are lower performing schools, but these tend to be in lower performing neighborhoods. Often, the district’s hands are tied by state and federal requirements, as well as their own procedures. Breaking up the district doesn’t solve those problems. Decentralization (where appropriate) and local empowerment (when appropriate) does.
• It’s Everywhere. One little snippet in the latest from Donald Sterling was not emphasized in the news — where he repeated Jewish stereotypes. You might have thought or hoped antisemitism would be dead … but you would be wrong. A new ADL survey shows that pnly 54 percent of people polled globally are aware of the Holocaust — and an alarming 32 percent of them believe the mass genocide of Jews was a myth or has been greatly exaggerated.  The survey found that 26 percent — more than one in four — of the 53,100 adults surveyed are “deeply infected” with anti-Semitic attitudes. Nine percent of Americans surveyed harbor at least six of the 11 anti-Semitic views. About 31 percent of respondents believe Jews “are more loyal to Israel” than the U.S.
• It’s Scary. Antisemitism is really scary. The Disney comedy Frozen, edited into a horror movie trailer, is less so. Still, it is a great example of how the Frozen mania is continuing unabated. I think the last Disney film that got this deep into the social context was The Lion King.
• It’s Dying. When they came out, CDs were touted as the perfect music medium. Crystal clear digital reproduction (as opposed to those scratchy vinyl records or tapes that wore out and broke), and they would last forever. Guess what? That was all a lie — CDs are degrading at an alarming rate. I have a large CD collection (and a large LP collection, and a large digital only collection … my iPod just crossed the 34,000 song mark). Of these, only the LPs have a long life — they degrade by scratches and stuff. All the tapes I made of records are long gone, and I rarely pull out the physical CDs anymore. Will they be there as backups, or will only the professionally made ones be readable. This, friends, is why people stick with analog data in the form of vinyl and paper.
• It’s Dead. The death of the Fountainbleu in Las Vegas is closer: the construction crane has been removed. It is now less likely that this 80% finished mega-hotel will ever be completed. More than likely, it will be an expensive scrap recovery project, with loads of material destined for landfills. What a waste. How much dead landfill space in Las Vegas is taken up by the remains of hotels?
• It’s, uhh, I forget. There might be some good news for those of you taking antidepressants. It turns out that certain antidepressants — particularly Celexa — is good a combatting memory loss. This may help combat Altzheimers Disease.
• It’s Back. Lastly, those in the Bay Area can rest assured in the safety of the Bay Bridge. Sure, the bridge might fall down in an earthquake due to newly discovered flaws. But the protective troll is back, protecting drivers from his barely visible perch.

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Today’s news chum brings together a collection of stories related by… well, they all struck me as having some connection with a theme park or similar attraction:

• Disney Raises Prices. This one has the strongest connection: Disneyland is raising its prices. Why did they do it? This article offers a possible explanation. To my eyes, it is in the “not worth it” department — especially for a one-day visit. It gets better if you can afford an annual pass and plan to go very regularly. Although I love Disneyland (and its history), I don’t go all that often — perhaps once every 5 to 10 years. My wife and daughter did the pass route for a number of years, but that stopped with Berkeley (which is a theme park of its own).
• The Red Car Conspiracy – Not. If you go to DCA, you see a romanticized version of the Red Cars… and thanks to Roger Rabbit, you know about the conspiracy that got rid of them. Of course, none of that this true. The real reasons behind the disappearance of the Red Cards is much less sinister and much more complicated. This article discusses what really happened, and this paper provides more information.
• Where Do The Trains Go? Thinking about the Red Cars makes me think about one of my favorite museums, Orange Empire Railway Museum, and that makes me think about their model train displays. It appears that, in another city, a model train display is looking for a new home. In St. Louis, the old Famous-Barr (now Macy*s) building downtown is being closed… and the model train display that used to be housed there is looking for a new home.
• A Crushing Experience. For the artists among you: Here’s an entire amusement park compacted into a 4 meter cube.
• Oswald Found. No, I’m not talking Texas, but Oswald the Rabbit — a Disney character that predates Mickey. It looks like one of Disney’s lost Oswald shorts has been rediscovered.

Lastly, to continue yesterday’s post about the joke’s just writing themselves… Yesterday, I cited an article with the headline “Why Did The Chicken Lose Its Penis?” because the responses that came from the headline just seemed to write themselves. If you went to the link, the comments gave a lot of them (such as “Because its pecker is on the other end”). Here are three more headlines that caught my eye:

• “Police find evidence linked to homicide in La Brea Tar Pits“. My favorite comment says it all: “The wooly mammoth is expecting to be indicted on several counts within the week. The sabertooth tiger, who cooperated with investigators, will be placed in a witness protection program.”
• “From Russia, Without Love: Vladimir Putin Divorces Wife Lyudmila“. No good responses in the comments, but I can just see Putin walking into a bar in Moscow, sliding up to a comely young female comrade, and bringing out a line about being the President of Russia.
• “N.H. posthumously frees 14 Revolutionary War slaves“. Note that these folks were freed more then 230 years after they submitted their petition. The paperwork was lost on a clerks desk.

I expect to see most of these showing up on “Wait Wait” in the coming weeks.

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Continuing to catch up after vacation, I’ll take this morning to clear out the links of some miscellaneous articles. Still to come this weekend will be a sample ballot analysis, and (quite likely) a review of Fame at Nobel MS.

• Disposable Pens. If you are like me, you accumulate pens from conferences and all those places that give them away as advertising promotions. Ever wonder what to do with them? A student at CSUN has an interesting use for them: he has created a non-profit organization called The Power of Pens that distributes writing utensils of any kind to developing countries where these are not easy to come by. The purpose of the organization is to provide utensils that will help educate children and adults who don’t have an exposure to pens or pencils. The organization relies on donors, varying from companies to people, who can spare a pen. Any type of writing utensil in any condition is accepted. They also look for volunteers to distribute the pens. This sounds like a great idea that needs more publicity. According to the article, those interested in donating or obtaining further information on the organization can send an email to thepowerofpens@gmail.com; they also appear to have a Facebook page.
• Disney U. Here’s an interesting waste of time: An artist has imagined animated Disney characters as university students. I have a number of quibbles with this, most notably that they all wrong to me. All the female characters have this “come hither” look (and the look is especially wrong for Belle), whereas the guys all look like surfers or slackers. What do you think? Do these look like college students to you, and do they look like the Disney characters would look if they went to college?
• Under The Covers. A really interesting article from Slate looks at the practice of the original artists rerecording classic hits and passing them off as the original. Why is this done? Simple — royalties. In the original days, the artists earned nothing on royalties. Rerecording allows them to regain control of the royalties from the rerecording… which can be significant. This often happens on “Greatest Hits” albums, which I often thought were just cheap reassemblies of songs. Not always, it seems.
• Seeing the Universe. The Herschel telescope is shutting down, and the Atlantic has posted five of their favorite images from Herschel. A lovely way to close out this post.

Music: Tintypes (1980 Original Broadway Cast): “Rich And Poor – Then I’d Be Satisfied With Life”

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I’ve been staring at my saved links, wondering if I could construct a coherent theme out of any triple, when the titular theme hit me (and no, I’m not talking about Courtney Cox):

• Tracking the Guest. There are a few articles here, all related to the “One Mouse, One World”. First, Disney is introducing a new system to track its guests. In the name of “convenience”, they may soon be selling a bracelet that contains an RFID chip. This chip would serve as a credit card in the park, as your admission ticket, as your door key for your Disney hotel… and would also allow the park to track where you visit in the park, when you visit, the order you visit, how many times you go to the restroom, and which ones you use. Well, I’m not sure they would do the last two, but they might. Remember, this is the park that requires a fingerprint for entrance in Florida, and is now taking your picture if you use a multiday pass in Anaheim. But their motives are only for good, right?
• Reaching Your Goal. Here’s another use for science: Figuring out a guaranteed way to get on The Price is Right. Yup, this guy used science and spreadsheets to figure out how to maximize his chances of getting selected to go on the show. Interesting read. You might get more prizes easier by going on Jeff Probst.
• Obesity is Rampant. Everywhere you look, things are gaining weight that shouldn’t. Today’s guilty party: The standard reference Kilogram. Looks like it needs to shed a few micrograms. But it needn’t worry. Being moderately overweight might not be that bad.

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“One Mouse, One World”. Sounds like a slogan for world domination by a particular corporation, doesn’t it. Sometimes it feels that way when you are in certain parts of Orlando Florida. It is also the slogan of one of that organization’s theme parks, Epcot, which we visited today.

First of all, why Epcot? The answer is simple. Most of the rest of the other Orlando parks can be found somewhere in the Anaheim parks. So it didn’t make sense to spend boku-bucks to go to them. Epcot, on the other hand, is mostly unique (except for Soaring, Captain Eo, and Nemo’s Adventures).

Epcot is a odd mix of multiple parks. The first park, when you go into it, is the “park of the future“. This is the park of the big Epcot globe, the voyage into space, and the hydroponic gardens. This is also the park that (mostly) felt dated — it felt like the Tomorrowland of the 1970s, down to the architecture and layout. It had that rounded-curve sense of the old People-Mover structure. We did ride a few rides in this area — in particular, Spaceship Earth, Mission:Space (Green) and Living with the Land. Spaceship Earth seemed a bit dated — all the audio-animatronics looked like characters from Pirates, although I did appreciate the 9-track tapes. Living with the Land, on the other hand, was neat — especially the portion where they went through the actual Epcot gardens and science areas. Mission:Space was good, but short and predictable (almost like “Star Tours”)… and you can tell where the “Orange” version would have added stuff. We didn’t get to see everything here we wanted to see — there evidently is an Energy movie with Ellen DeGeneris, but it was 45 minutes long, and we wanted to see other stuff. The line for Test Track was just too long, and the FastPast was too late. I also note that quite a few attractions allowed you to email stuff to yourself, such as the picture from this post.

The second part of Epcot is the World Showcase. This was mostly shopping, as opposed to rides (although we did see one Circlevision movie with Martin Short). The lands are Canada, UK, France, Morocco, Japan, America, Italy, Germany, “Africa” (Outpost), China, Norway,and Mexico. Each land has lots and lots of themed shopping (although at points I felt the shopping was a little culturally insensitive and stereotypical). Some of it is great (I particularly liked Canada, UK, Paris, Japan, and Germany), some of it wasn’t. Each land also has lots and lots of local food, much of it relatively expensive. Few rides, but fun to walk through and shop. There was also good music — in particular, a really good rock Celtic-Canadian band (including bagpipes) called Off-Kilter.

The third part of Epcot is a graft — Disney attempted to “graft” characters and marketing into the park. Thus you see Nemo in the Sea section, the Three Cabillaros in the Mexican lands, and various Disney face characters in the appropriate lands (i.e., Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco, Belle in France, Snow White and Rapunzel in Germany (but no Heimlich), Mulan in China, etc.). You also see Duffy the Disney Bear everywhere, and Pin Trading and Vinylmation everywhere, and Disney marketing everywhere. You can find everything Disney in Epcot … except any books describing the original purpose of Epcot and its history and development. Evidently, remembering the history is something solely reserved for Anaheim; Orlando is for entertainment, resorts, and separating the tourists from their money. But I didn’t say that in my outloud voice, did I?

Overall, what did we think of the park? It was fun, although not the constant attraction type of fun of Disneyland and DCA. I don’t think it was worth the standard Orlando gate, given that it was mostly shopping. But it is hard to say what any Disney park is worth. I am glad I saw it.

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