A Potpourri for Christmas

I don’t think I have ever posted a blog on Christmas day. Hope you all had a happy celebration, and Santa has been liberal with his gifts. Sure, the pandemic would have put a damper on the jollifications and if the scientists are to be believed, worse days are yet to come. It is astonishing that taking vaccines is something many people seem not to believe in. The family got their booster shot and hope that the new variant (which is spreading like wild fire) leaves us alone.

I am not going to deal with any particular theme. Rather it is, as the title suggests, a little bit of this and that.

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Dr. Vinod Menon, a physics professor at City College, New York “finally” looked through his pile of office mail and found a cardboard box the size of a toaster. It was addressed to “Chairman, Physics Department” —his title. When he opened the box, he found that was full of $50 and $100 bills bundled in paper bands. There was a total of $180,000. An accompanying letter said, “I assume you are a bit curious as to why I am doing this; the reason is straightforward.” He/she continued, “…long ago I took advantage of the excellent educational opportunity of attending both Stuyvesant High School and earning a bachelors and masters degrees in physics at City College, which helped lead to a long, productive, immensely rewarding career in science.” What a way for5 a student to say thank you! Menon gave it to the Board, who decided to offer it to needy student for financial assistance.

Some Santa, won’t you say?

Trivia. Menons are Nayars/Nairs.

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Last week scientists in Ganzhou in Southern China announced the discovery of a perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo estimated at 60 million years old (give or take a couple of million!) The chief, Dr Fion Waisum Ma said that, “It is believed to be a toothless theropod dinosaur and has been named Baby Yingliang. It is the best embryo found in history.” See below fossil, as well as an artist’s rendition of what it might have looked like in real life.

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Of course, you have heard of or seen sand sculptures. The attention to detail by the artists sometimes makes us gasp. But what my nephew Dr Anup sent is truly astonishing. (see picture below.) Do spend a few minutes and appreciate the details, the double lines across a few of the fingers, the expression on the baby’s face…….

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Ah, where ignorance is bliss…….

Two days ago, during a loooong press conference, Putin decried the “amassing of troops on the Ukrainian side of the border” and urged the West to give security guarantees against the expansion of “NATO eastward”. And here you thought that it was Russia that was deploying its army along the border, right? Tch, tch, tch.

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I wonder how many of you have heard of the “Hundredth Monkey Effect”. I had a very vague idea of it, something I had read about many years ago, perhaps in the 1980’s. It had escaped my mind but our good friend Bruce Kappel (shutterbug extraordinaire) has aroused my interest. Three days ago he sent me an article from The Times of India. As an intro. he has said, “The Hundredth Monkey Effect is a hypothetical phenomenon in which a new behavior is spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical member of one group exhibit the new behavior or acknowledge the new idea. The behavior was said to propagate even to groups that are physically separated and have no apparent means of communicating with each other. It is a fascinating theme which you might want to read about, especially those who believe in paranormal behavior.” With Bruce’s permission I am giving below the site, and should you have some extra time, I guarantee you it is a fascinating read.

100^th Monkey Effect Idea Supported 2021

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/jblblogs/the-hundredth-monkey-effect-34128/

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My niece Poonam Dave, Russian scholar and all-around nice person sent me the following on Tuesday: 21^st day of the 21^st year of the 21^st century!

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NUMBERS

$500 million. Bruce Springsteen has sold the master recordings and publishing rights for his life’s work to Sony for a reported $500 million.

A twenty-time Grammy winner, Springsteen’s music generated about 15 million in revenue last year.

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5779. This has to do with a new cottage industry that has sprung up after the pandemic was reported. To understand this one has to remember that a new cottage industry has sprung in the US. Passengers attacking airline staff once they are in and strapped to their seats. As of Wednesday, the 22^nd, 5779 cases of misbehavior by passengers in the planes have been reported.

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$10,000. On Wednesday, at the Stumble Inn Bar and Grill in Londonderry, New Hampshire, an anonymous diner ordered a couple of chili dogs, some pickle chips, a beer and a shot of tequila. He left a tip of $10,000.

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To put you in the right mood for the next day or two, please listen to an astonishing, crazy, duet performance of “When the Saints Go Marching In” by two all time greats: Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye. You will need four minutes. Click on the link below. DON’T MISS IT!!

A Christmassy Tale

(Erratum. In last week’s blog, I had mentioned the uncouth behavior of US Rep. Lauren Boebert at the elevator.  The victim was Ilham Omar and not Ocasio Cortez. Omar is a Muslim, which is why Boebert’s comments were so crass and insensitive.. The error is regretted.)

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It is almost Christmas day. I will start the blog with something that was written in 1926.

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty.  He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college.

He never visited a big city. He never travelled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when his friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.  When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that one solitary life. (Dr James Allan, 1926)

 More about the poem later.

I have been going back in my life to find out when exactly I understood Christmas and what it means. I belong to an orthodox Hindu family, my father being the son of a Namboodiri—a sect of orthodox Brahmins. When I was in the elementary school, I had heard the terms “Christianity”, “Christians” etc. When I finished elementary school, I was sent to a Jesuit school (instead of the Government school, which was closer and cheaper) because my father thought that I should learn the basic tenets of Christianity. My father thought also that I needed some discipline!! I would spend four years there.

One thing I noticed as soon as I walked into the classroom was a picture on the wall of very good-looking man with long hair and a sad face. I also noticed that his was visible, a bright red.

When I went home, I asked my parents about the picture. We were used to having pictures of religious icons like Krishna, Shiva (the destroyer) etc. I don’t remember what explanation my father gave.

It was not until I went to the high school four years later that I got of sense of what Christianity was about because every morning for an hour we had what was called catechism. Had no clue what the word meant. During the half hour we learnt and Abel and Cain and such neat guys. We also learnt the story of Christ.

I want to consider that our family was very liberal in our attitudes and as such we had many Christians visit us. One-man, Isaac, became part of the family. He was invited to all our regular celebrations which ended in a feast! I also had a great friend, a Muslim, who cut off all relations after Independence and after the resultant partition.

I admit that I did not delve into the details of Christianity until I had decided to do a musical at the college where I worked. It was called Jesus Christ Superstar, and I thought I needed to refresh my knowledge of Christianity. The musical is described as a rock opera. The story of Christ is told in songs. I read the Bible very carefully in preparation for the show. This was in 1979.

It was only when I was well into rehearsals that I realized that there is a sect of Christians who objected to the production. The chief one was The Peace River Bible Institute.  The pastor of the institute, a man called McClean, had a Sunday radio program where he spread the gospel. He was violently opposed to the production and would every Sunday preach against the play. The Sunday before the show his invective crossed the limits of decency and common-sense. He was especially aggravated that a Hindu would put on a sacrilegious play about “Our Lord”.

I was quite surprised especially because the Catholic Church had had assisted me immensely. (They got palm fronds from Galilee for the Hosanna scene, among other things.) Anyway, the play was an unqualified success, and performed before sell out crowds!! I would reprise the play in 2006 and I used the same poem to introduce the play.

Every religion has its share of fanatics, and Hinduism is no exception. Probably because I tried to find the essence all practicing religions, I was not tied to any one religion. Eventually I would become an atheist although I do firmly believe in a higher power. I have also become a fatalist: Que Sera, Sera!!!

I used the poem at the beginning of the blog to introduce the play. Incidentally, it had come to my attention in the early sixties when I was an employee of the British Government in Uganda. One of the students acquired this poem from somewhere and on an appropriate occasion recited it during the morning assembly. I had the poem in my files, and I used it to introduce the JC each night. I had prominent citizens do this for me.

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It is soon time to wish you all a merry and happy Christmas. If you have started celebrating when you read this, please go easy on the eggnog!!!!

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NUMBERS

$70 million. Michael Steinhardt, the billionaire hedge fund pioneer and one of New York’s most antiquities collectors, has surrendered 180 stolen objects valued at $ 70 million and been barred for life from acquiring any other relics, according to the Manhattan district attorney. The prosecutor’s office struck an arrangement with Mr Steinhardt after a four-year multinational investigation that determined that the seized pieces had been looted and smuggled from 11 countries, trafficked by 12 illicit net works and appeared on the international art market without lawful paperwork.

Stealing artifacts, I understand. But cacti? Yes. Officials have recovered $1.2 million worth of rare, stolen cacti and returned to Chile where they belong. One of the rare specimens is pictured below.

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If you have 3 minutes, please watch the video below. It is called “The World’s Longest Trickshot”. It is truly astonishing.

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Unusual Names.

These are names of real people whom I have seen in the media.

Denver Riggleman

Drew Dilkens

Kevin Cheveldayoff

Eriel Deranger

Winsome Sears

Page Pate

Anything Goes

No, this is not about the 1934 Cole Porter musical or its subsequent adaptation to the screen in 1966. Rather, this is about what is admissible in politics and what is not. Over the past five years or so the politics in the land of wine and roses has not only established ‘exceptionalism’ in a perverse way with its policies and the behavior of those in charge of administering the policies, but also thrown to the four winds common decency and commonsense. Examples abound. I probably had already made reference to a couple in my previous blogs. Apologies.

Item 1. Paul Gosar, a Republican lawmaker posted an animated video depicting him killing fellow law maker Ocasio-Cortex, who is a Democrat.

Item 2. When Ocasio-Cortez was entering an elevator, fellow lawmaker Lauren Boebert commented that they are safe because Ocasio-Cortez was not wearing a backpack, a not-so-subtle reference to suicide bombers wandering around with bombs in their backpacks.

Item 3. Reacting to the elevator incident fellow Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger called Boebert ‘trash’. He also said that minority leader Kevin McCarthy “tried to hug a skunk” a reference to the fact that Mac did not censure Boebert for what in most civilized countries would be considered a libelous statement.

Item 4. Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation also considered Boebert ‘trash’.

Item 5. We elect members to the school board with the mandate to take care of the system by ensuring the enactment of policies beneficial to students. But many school boards in the US are finding that their members are getting threatening letters for making masks mandatory. Jennifer Jenkins, a Board member in Brevard County, Florida, said that she received months of threats for supporting the Board’s transgender bathroom policy. Crowds started shouting on the street outside her home. Someone burned the letters “FU” on her lawn with weed killer and chopped down the bushes in front of her house. Another chairperson of a School Board resigned and left the county because the protesters—”decent people” like you and me—threatened the life of her 5-year-old daughter.

Item 6. I am sure you are aware of the school shooting recently in Michigan. In the wake of that a bizarre thing has happened. Some of us make personalized cards to be sent to friends, cards showing the picture of a happy family. But GOP lawmaker Thomas Massie posted a picture where all the members of the family are touting guns. The picture shows him, his wife and his children smiling maniacally.

The card also has a request to Santa asking for ammunition. Whatever it says about the photograph, Massie’s timing is impeccable—just days after the Oxford High School shooting by a teenager. Of course, the kid was given a gun as a Christmas gift. What is more, his mother took him to the shooting range for target practice. While the child deserves rehabilitation, the deranged parents should be thrown in the klink for life.

Meanwhile Boebert was so inspired by Massie’s act that she got a Christmas Card which shows she and her family totting guns. This was on Wednesday.

Trivia  Boebert is a high school dropout.

Item 7. The then President of the United States approved the January 6 crowd’s chant to hang Pence because the VP refused to nullify the election results. Talk of gratitude!!!  Pence was Trump’s lap dog for four years.

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Kennedy Center Honors

The Kennedy Center Honors is, as you know, an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime contribution to American culture.  It is one of Washington’s most prestigious and social events. The 44^th event was on Sunday. When Joe Biden and Jill Biden stepped into the Presidential box, the audience broke into loud and extended applause. In fact, he would get three standing ovations without saying a word!!  They brought along VP Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Among the honorees were Canadians Joni Mitchell and Lorne Michaels.

Not only did it mark the 50^th anniversary of the venerable national performing center, it was presented as it traditionally has been before Covid-19.

Since the annual event began, every President has attended—except Trump, who skipped it throughout his term. He thought it was infra dig for a president to attend such functions!

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Democracy Summit

As you know Joe Biden convened a virtual “summit” for Democracy” on Thursday and Friday. “In the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy, universal human rights all around the world, democracy needs champions”, Biden said. There were over 100 participants but China was conspicuous by its absence. Sensing that Biden would do something like this, even before the summit, China counteracted with an improbable claim: It is a democracy too!!!!

“There is no fixed model for democracy; it manifests itself in many forms,” the State Council, China’s top governing body, argued in a position paper it released over the weekend titled, “China: Democracy That Works.”

It is unlikely that any democratic country will be persuaded by China’s model. And the Uighurs will have something to say about this, I am sure!!

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The Best Actors of 2021

The New York Times has published the best actors of 2021. I am afraid I don’t know many of the 16 in the list Hidetoshi Nishijima or Bo Burnham, for instance. The three names I did identify are Denzel Washington, Joaquim Phoenix (The Joker) and Will Smith. Washington’s newest effort, “Macbeth” has received rave reviews. He is ably supported by Academy Award winner Frances McDormand. The movie is scheduled for an “official’ release on the 25^th of December. Can’t wait see it, although, being the purist I am, I will have to “suspend disbelief”, as poet and esthetic philosopher, Coleridge said.

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Make Your Christmas Special with Vegetables

Sixteen

I was browsing through the Subtext archives and I noticed that my flight of fancy on numbers had taken a hit! The last blog on numbers was several months ago. So here goes the latest. On number 16.

Sixteen comes after 15 and before 17. But then you knew that. Like many other numbers sixteen has some spiritual significance. Sixteen is very important to Hindus. Those who know the story of Markandeya would know that he was sainted at the age of sixteen by the Gods. In Christianity sixteen is symbolic of love and loving. Christians are to become perfected in God’s love not just by obeying the Commandments (which should be done anyway) but also by following the full spiritual intent of the Creator’s law and and judgments (Mathew 22:37-40). This duality of true love is represented by 8+8.

Some of the longest words in the King James Bible are sixteen letters long. They include “covenantbreakers” (Romans 1:31). evilfavouredness (Deuteronomy 17:1), lovingkindnesses (Psalm 25.6) and unprofitableness (Hebrews 7:18).

Nero’s favorite punishment for minor crimes like misplacing his lyre was sixteen lashes. (For those who committed serious crimes, death was the preferred punishment—like being buried alive or being thrown from a cliff.) Neat guy, this Nero. By that way he did not play the fiddle when Rome was burning.  For one thing the fiddle was not invented then and even if it was, Nero’s fingers were too fat.

The Dome of St. Peter in the Vatican has sixteen costal arches, and its main door of the Basilica has sixteen beautiful carvings.

One of the rituals that the Vatican conserves of centuries of tradition is the solemn opening of this door on the 24^th of December by the pope himself. I suspect, though, some of the pontiffs like John Paul might have sought outside help for this ritual because the doors are very, very heavy.

The number is significant in many countries, in many aspects of life. A ‘sweet sixteen’ is a coming-of-age celebration that traditionally marks a girl’s transition into womanhood. Although in many countries in Asia that they will have to wait another year before qualifying for the moniker ’sweet’.

In many countries sixteen is the minimum age for applying for a driver’s license. In Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Portugal sixteen is the legal drinking age. Although in Canada, thirsty kids have to wait for three more years. In many countries like Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua sixteen-year-olds have voting rights.

As every chess player knows there are sixteen pawns in a chess set. Also, there are sixteen ounces in an avoirdupois pound. Many credit card numbers have a 16-digit number.

Sixteen is the name of a community in Kentucky.

Sixteen Candles was a famous song by the Crests and it was in the eponymous movie released in 1958. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot charts.  That same year it went on the US R&B charts for 21 weeks. A great song.

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As you know electric vehicles are getting a lot of attention. And yet sales of EV’s are not too exciting. One of the main reasons is that it is not easy to recharge the batteries when on a long trip. The availability of charging stations is one of the issues. Scientists are working on an easier way of charging batteries and within a decade a solution might be available: roadways that electrically power cars as they travel. I am not kidding you. The technology is too complicated but in simple terms, the vision is to bring the charge to the vehicles rather than having the vehicle stop at charging stations. The technology is too complicated to describe her and I admit that I don’t fully understand the system. Cost estimates to electrify roads in both directions vary widely from $1.1 million to 2.5 million per kilometer. Is the cost worth it? Only time will tell. To begin with one will have fight the energy industries.

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How would you like to have a chair like this in your yard? Image provided by cousin Rajan Sreevaraham a.k.a. Balachandran Nair

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NUMBERS

$ 900 million. The amount Fenway Sports group paid to gain ownership of the NHL team Pittsburgh Penguins. Really!!

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NAMES

I have always wondered who exactly gives names to, say, stars, planets, hurricanes, covid variants etc. For instance, who exactly came up with ‘omicron’ and why?  Why not ‘nicrom’? Or Tainpen?

Research provided some information about hurricanes. There are two institutions that control the fate of hurricanes: National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center. I read a fascinating piece about the need to name hurricanes. It also had a list of retired names since 1954.

One thing stuck out like a sore thumb. They are white supremacists. Check out some of the names: Dora, Hilda Katrina, Rita, Harvey, Michael, Felix, Dorian…….See my drift?

Did you see Kwan, Chun, Abdul, Xue, Salman, Baharan…..? What is so wrong with ‘hurricane Sukumar’?

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Pantomime is the most difficult genre of theatre. One fondly remembers the master of mime Marcel Marceau. I clearly remember him blowing an invisible balloon, which becomes so large that it pulls a fighting Marceau into the wings. Of course, there are many mimes in the world. If you have ten minutes to spare (or even 3 or 4 to watch the first bit), go to the unbelievable pantomime by Les Freres Taquins. Click below.