You Make the Call

The BYU TV web site provides this description of its Book of Mormon program series: "Faculty members from BYU Religious Education discuss the writings and teachings of The Book of Mormon prophets in this 63-part series. Each of the half-hour episodes covers several chapters from The Book of Mormon." Today I was looking at the online TV schedule on the Internet, and it included this entry for BYU TV: "Discussions on the Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 1 (Talk / Tabloid) TV-G CC." My reading of the TV schedule triggered a memory. Scholastic Books had some arrangement with my elementary school. A couple of times a year we students would receive a description of books we could purchase. A favorite of the students was "The Guinness Book of World Records." (For some reason I was enamored with "The Arrow Book of States," which included a page or two of information about each of the 50 states.) Another book that would float around the school, though I can't recall whether we could purchase it through Scholastic Books, was "Ripley's Believe It or Not." The book trumpeted bizarre feats such as someone having 100-inch finger nails, wearing a beard comprised of live bees, and so forth. One night I was watching The Tonight Show, and Johnny Carson pointed out that the title of the book does give readers a choice - - believe it, or not. My recollection of Carson's insight sent my mind in another direction. A few years ago I was on a business trip to Boston. One evening I shared a taxi ride with a co-worker, a very aggressive negotiator whose glibness had been enhanced by a few drinks at dinner. Our taxi pulled up behind a car with New Hampshire license plates, and reading aloud from the plate she said: "`Live Free or Die'? Then die! You shouldn't have asked!!"

Signetics

Today I checked out a Gold's Gym in Orem, Utah. The gym is housed in a former Fred Meyer store, and touts itself as the largest Gold's Gym in the United States. By way of comparison, I believe that Reggie Jackson's gym in Seaside, California has about 8 or 9 treadmills. This gym may have 40 or more - - the facility is huge. It sits on some property of some significance to many who attended BYU and who have lived in the Provo - Orem area. I became aware of the property when I learned of Signetics. "Signetics, once a major player in semiconductor manufacturing, made a variety of devices which included integrated circuits, bipolar and MOS, the Dolby circuit, logic, memory and analog circuits and Motorola clone CPUs, some of which were included in the first Atari video games. Signetics was started in 1960 or 1961 by the engineer Dave Allison. Its main business was semiconductor manufacturing. Most of the manufacturing was in Sunnyvale California, though there were factories in Orem, Utah and New Mexico also . . . The company eventually became a part of Philips, during which time it reached its manufacturing height at around 1980. From then on the Signetics brand slowly disintegrated in the face of competition from AMD and Intel. The company is now extinct except for its name." (Signetics, Wikipedia) When I was working on my Computer Science degree at BYU many BYU students were getting excellent jobs at the Orem plant, including internships. The students would have certainly included electrical engineering students and computer science students, and perhaps others as well. Signetics gave a great boost to students who were just starting their careers and families. The Orem Signetics plant was eventually closed, and the facility sat unused for years. A few years ago there was renewed interest in the property. Orem was faced with a choice between two interested parties - - if I recall correctly, each party needed some zoning accommodation from Orem city to execute their plans for the property. One party was a chip manufacturer that would update the plant and start up manufacturing again; the other party was Fred Meyer, which had plans to raze the old building and replace it with a large grocery - department store. I was a little surprised when Orem chose to facilitate the Fred Meyer plan. A few years later, the Fred Meyer building was shut down as its Kroger parent company came to own both the Fred Meyer and Smith's grocery stores, meaning that Kroger found itself with too many stores in the Provo - Orem area. And now, Orem has the largest Gold's Gym in the United States, if not the world. I wonder whether the role Signetics played in the economic development of Provo - Orem helped create the market for such a gym.

A Gem

I happened upon this quote from Jon Stewart, the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central: "Saddam Hussein stood up at his trial and shouted, `I am not afraid of execution!' Until his lawyers explained, `You are not going to execute anybody. It's you that is going to be executed.' At which point [Saddam] said in Arabic, and this is a rough translation, `Ah, my bad.'" (Time, Dec. 19, 2005, p. 32)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I enjoyed watching this movie today. I paid for my own ticket.

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?

My nephews desmontrated mastery of some important concepts during the holidays. On one special day, from time to time my youngest nephew would exclaim "I am the birthday boy here! I am the birthday boy here!" He knew he was entitled to some privileges, and zealously and successfully secured those privileges throughout the day. He willed us to McDonald's and to Chucky Cheese, and he finished his day in triumph when he blew out all the candles on his birthday cake. One evening our housing arrangments had me sharing a bedroom with nephews of ages 5, 7, and 9. After their father turned the lights out, and admonished his sons to be quiet and get to sleep, the boys risked some chatter nonetheless. The 7-year-old gave an earnest and impassioned warning to his brothers, along the following lines: "This has happened to me three times. Once in the home of one of my grandmothers, once in the home of my other grandmother, and once here. If you dream that you are going to go to the bathroom, don't do it!"

Scenic Road

The next time you're in Carmel, California, enjoy a walk or run along Scenic Road, which is bordered by beach homes on one side and, surprisingly, the beach on the other side.

California Dreaming

Today I drove through Castroville, California, the self-proclaimed "Artichoke Center of the World." I went through Castroville on the way to Salinas for a quick visit to a John Steinbeck museum. We saw huge fields of fertile soil along the way. For my brother, the fields evoked memories of passages Steinbeck had written about dirt. For me, the fields evoked memories of dirt. Maybe someone can send in a representative passage from Steinbeck. Later in the day I took a nephew on the "The 17 Mile Drive" through Pebble Beach. The vistas are spectacular, and it boggles the mind to think of the valuation of homes along that drive. In the evening I attended a dinner party where I learned the mascot for the University of California Santa Cruz is the Banana Slug. I was able to confirm this by visiting the web site www.goslugs.com, the official web site of UC Santa Cruz athletics. The school's varsity program include men's and women's teams for basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, and water polo. Go Slugs!

Christmas Day

I had a wonderful Christmas at the home of my sister and her husband. Also there were my parents and my brothers. My niece and nephews really made the day with their energy and excitement. I gave each of my brothers electric trimmers for nose hair / ear hair / "unibrow hair" / side burns / moustaches. My nephews took delight as my older brother gave a live demonstration of using this contraption to cut unwanted nose hair. My sister received a video called "Millions," which we all enjoyed watching during the afternoon. Later, we all ate a delicious Christmas dinner in the evening. As this Christmas took place on Sunday, we started off the day with a 10 am Church service. There was a choir, stringed instruments, and congregational singing. We were seated on the front row of the chapel, and to my right a man was booming out the congregational numbers with more than a bit of gusto but not necessarily a lot of pitch or control. I made the mistake of taking a quick look to my left, where I saw my sister's husband grinning a bit over the singing from the the right side of the chapel, and then saw the chorister herself possibly straining to confine her facial expressions to a pleasant smile. This brought me to the brink of disaster, I almost lost it, but was able to hold on. Shortly thereafter a man gave a talk, and mentioned how wonderful it was to have visitors in the chapel, and especially to hear a member of the congregration able to sing with his father - - the father would happen to be that man who was singing with such gusto to my right. That was a close one . . .

Two Weeks

On Christmas Eve several of us were watching "A Christmas Story" in my sister's home. My father was thoroughly enjoying the movie, with his youngest grandson snoozing on his lap. We came to the part of the movie where on a dare, on a "triple dog dare" that is, a boy puts his tongue on a frozen flag pole and is horrified when his tongue instantly sticks firmly to the pole. In the movie, the fire department frees the boy, and he walks into class late with gauze bandages protruding from his mouth. This Christmas Eve we learned that in real life my father's tongue was sore for two weeks after, on a dare, he put his tongue on a frozen flag pole in a schoolyard in Cache Valley, Utah.

Winkle, Winkle Little Star

That's what my youngest nephew was singing to the jelly fish he saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. I had not thought of jelly fish that way, but I think my nephew was right on. Take a look at some of the pictures of jellies at www.mbayaq.org and see what you think. According to the website: "The aquarium features the largest permanent collection of jellyfish species in the United States, and the largest-scale jellies exhibits anywhere in the world."

Gilroy Outlet Stores

We went to a block of outlet stores in Gilroy, California. This grouping was predominantly fashion and clothing stores. One of my nephews and I looked over the available stores, and the most tolerable one we were able to find was a paper store. They had some greeting cards. I am horrible at remembering birthdays, so I picked up a belated birthday card for my older brother, whose birthday is in March. I handed him the card later in the morning. The cover shows a boy who has lost his front teeth, and reads "Sorry I Mithed Your Birthday." You open the card, and read: "Thit."

Reggie Jackson

I found a Gold's Gym in Seaside, about 5 miles from where I was staying in Carmel. I had called the gym the week before and learned the prices were pretty reasonable, so I had found my workout spot. Once in the gym, I learned that the Seaside gym is owned by Reggie Jackson. There is a modest collection of framed newspaper stories and photos of Reggie on one of the walls. There is an old black and white poster of Arnold Schwarzennegger with some grandmothers at a beach, and the seated grandmothers are probing Arnold's biceps as he leans over and flexes for them. There is a 1952 black and white poster of Marilyn Monroe working out in a locker room in Hollywood, bench pressing with a couple of dumbbells. It's a nice gym.

They've Gone to the Dogs

Carmel is reportedly one of the most dog-friendly towns in America. Many restaurants and shops allow people to take their dogs inside, and many of those that don't supply dog treats or little hitching posts for the dogs by their door. Tiffany's has a dog bowl set outside the door, and store I saw has a little box of dog bones set outside the door with a note: "A TREAT FOR YOUR 4-LEGGED FRIEND."

Christmas Memories

At my work we had a luncheon that included opportunities for people to share Christmas experiences. A former FBI agent fondly recalled how a man faked his own kidnapping a few days before Christmas, with the result that the agent had to spend Christmas day itself attempting to solve the kidhapping caper. The story had a happy ending as the agent was able to assist in bringing charges against the bogus victim and send him off to prison. Someone received a motor scooter as a girl, was confused as to which handgrip was for the brake, and as a result flew headfirst through a window of her neighbor's car. She spent a good part of her Christmas day in the emergency room along with kids who had recieved skateboards and similar items for Christmas. Another of our merry crew recalled awaking in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to the sound of a smoke alarm. He peered downstairs and saw an orange glow, then took a closer look and saw flames. He yelled out "Fire! Fire!" until his parents responded. His mother had left candles burning on the coffee table and, as they were sitting directly on the table, when the candles burned down to table level they set the table on fire. His father threw a wet towel on the table to extinguish the fire, and this splattered wax all over the face of his mother. His mother suffered no severe burns, but a good part of the morning was spent peeling off the wax and administering burn ointment. Several people told of their childhood efforts to discover secret presents through unwrapping and re-wrapping presents under the tree, and so forth. One individual had a shrewd mother who learned of the boy's snooping, then placed a very disappointing gift under the tree for her sleuthing son. He was pretty down until she unveiled his true gift on Christmas day. One individual told how he was quite disappointed one Christmas morning when he was a child, so he proceeded to speak directly to his parents about the cheapness of their ways. We heard a tale of woe of an LDS missionary celebrating his first Christmas in Taiwan, facing another 18 months there as a missionary at a time when he was painfully homesick. He decided the best way to cope was to prepare a traditional Christmas dinner. The best he could to for the turkey was to go to the market where they slaughtered a chicken for him, and then he filled it with stuffing and put it in the oven so that it could slowly bake for 4 hours as he and his companion tracted in the streets. The missionaries had a housekeeper, and she happened to pop into their apartment as this Christmas feast was cooking in the oven. Taking pity on the missionaries when she saw the chicken in the over, she decided to lend a helping hand - - she took the chicken out of the oven and finished its preparations, chopping the bird into numerous small pieces and placing it on a platter, a classic Chinese way to serve a chicken dinner. The same individual told of his father, a former Golden Gloves boxing champion, having given his boys boxing gloves one Christmas. He gave them a few pointers on boxing, after which the individual's brother popped him in the face and broke his nose. The nose is not quite straight even to this day.

Family Shortcomings

I attended a very nice Christmas dinner at the home of a friend. She is a leader of a tutoring program I was able to participate in a bit this past year, so her parents hosted a dinner for their dauthter and some who had helped with the program. My friend and her parents proudly told story after story of eccentric family members. I found myself racking my brain for bizarre figures from my family history, but I came up empty, and found myself feeling inadequate.

The Black Nativity

A friend sent me a list of various Christmas events in the Boston area. The one that caught my eye was "The Black Nativity." I found some information at www.blacknativity.org, attended, and had a great experience. The spirit and energy of the work and the performers was moving. The event was held at the Tremont Temple, about a 2 blocks from the Park Street Station at the Boston Common. Another web site contained this description: Black Nativity Langston Hughes, one of America's most important poets of the 20th century, created Black Nativity as a telling of the Christmas story from a black point of view. Drawing on folk and popular songs, traditional seasonal music, and Biblical narratives, Hughes crafted an animated yet uniquely rich song-play celebrating the message of "Joy to the World" and "peace on earth to men of goodwill". His production of Black Nativity first appeared on Broadway in the mid-1960s. When the National Center of Afro-American Artists began its production in l970, it brought additional inventiveness to the song-play, reinterpreting it with a cast of both children and adults, using a live newborn baby for the Christ child, and choreographing the birth of the Babe into the show itself. In the spirit of Langston's original innovation, the NCAAA brought new dimensions to Black Nativity which have stamped the brilliance of its production, and over the last 35 years, made it a classic for the holiday season in New England. (http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/108041)

Mr. Krueger's Christmas

Plot summary of the above from Waltham Workout Buddy: Simple man. Lonely. Dreamer. Giving. Faith. God's grace.

Jingle Bells

I went to a little Christmas party in Malden, Massachusetts last night. Earlier in the day a couple of co-workers mentioned that the song "Jingle Bells" had been inspired by sleigh rides between Malden and Medford. Here is an excerpt from a web site that explains altenative histories of the origin of the song: One day in 1851, James Pierpont went to the home of Mrs. Otis Waterman, who let him play a piano belonging to William Webber, a Medford music teacher. Mrs. Waterman owned the Seccomb boardinghouse, which became better known later as the Simpson Tavern and was eventually torn down [hence the origin of the story that Pierpont wrote the song in a tavern]. After he played the piece for her, Mrs. Waterman replied was that it was a very merry little jingle, and he should have a lot of success with it. Pierpont then wrote the lyrics about the one-horse open sleighs – also known as "cutters" - that young men raced on the one mile route from Medford to Malden squares. It has been said that Pierpont was a rebellious musician with a bad reputation. To underscore the point, Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn has been quoted as saying: "James Pierpont was a bit of a rogue." The Mayor evidently had a gift for the understatement. (See www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/james_lord_pierpont.htm)

The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor

I found myself thinking of a story I had read about John Riggins some time ago, and found this description in wikipedia: In 1985, at a Washington Press Club dinner, an intoxicated Washington Redskins player John Riggins infamously told [Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor]: "Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight," then passed out on the floor. The next day, the women with whom she shared an early morning exercise class presented her with a T-shirt that read: "Loosen up at the Supreme Court." She apparently bore him no ill will — years later, when he made his acting debut at a local playhouse, she gave him a dozen roses on opening night.

What's News?

1. I was reflecting on how television newscasts will often report items such as "In country A, X occurred." Then the news will talk about how horrible X is, go on and on, and you can even see opinion polls showing how concerned people are that X occurred in country A. Often, X is something about which the average Joe had previously known nothing. Often, the newscasts telling people that X occurred in country A tell us nothing about the extent to which X occurs in other countries, or whether X may even occur in other countries to an even worse extent than in country A. Perhaps X has been occurring in country B for years, and something should be done about it. Why do newscasts do this? There could be a variety of reasons, I would only be speculating were I to try to explain why this occurs. But it is fully within my own ability to be a bit more perceptive when I watch the news. 2. I hope the vast readership of The Greg Jones Blog has noticed that I try to keep things pretty positive in what I write. I have often heard people lament over the media not covering positive things that occur. In the fitness center today someone turned on the TV, and CNN reported a new website at www.happynews.com. This site reports only positive news. One of the CNN commentators was a bit skeptical, saying while people say they want positive news, she does not believe it. Go check out the web site when you have some time.

The Eavesdropper - - A Report From the Harvard Coop

Saturday evening I bought a couple of books and sat down for a quick dinner at the Harvard Coop book store at Harvard Square. Locals call this place "The Coop" (pronunced like "chicken coop"). It is a place like The Tattered Cover in Denver, where people gather to browse and read - - and especially at The Coop look smart, read books but, but be sure to look smart while reading the books. There are four floors at The Coop, one floor below ground level, the main floor at ground level that has an open view of the second and third floors above it. The second and third floors are accessed by an open, half-spiral staircase at the end of the floors opposite the entrance. On the second and third floors the central area is empty, on the sides there are narrow passages with shelves built into the walls, and on the ends there are more book shelves - - from the second and third floors one can look down on the main floor. The Coop Cafe is located beyond the staircase on the second floor. After I bought my books, I went to the Coop Cafe, a couple occupying two small tables was preparing to leave, and I took one of their tables as the couple left. When I retuned after paying for my food and books, a new couple had occupied the small table to my immediate right. I took my seat, with my back to the wall. The woman was seated adjacent to me. The man was standing. These two seemed to be in their 30s. He wore glases, was a bit thick about the waste, had a little gray in his hair. The woman wore no glasses, had brunette hair that went past her shoulders, and for reading materials she had selected a large book titled "1491" and an edition of Oprah Winfrey's magazine. Neither one of them wore a wedding band. The man began speaking to her in a somewhat hushed tone, spaaking with a cadence and deliberation suggesting he was wrestling with some challenging subject that required painstaking thought, and the most precise choice and use of words. This is the gist of the conversation I overheard. Man: I've finally figured it out. Gwyneth Paltrow . . . She would not be someone's first choice, she would maybe be someone's second choice . . . It is her face . . . She looks . . . desperate . . . Woman: (after a pause) She has sad eyes . . . Man: It is that the more homely a woman is, the more attractive she is . . . But also, the more monstrous a woman is, the more attractive she is . . . Woman: (after a long pause) This conversation is really putting me off . . . Man: That's right . . . You're concerned with the entire objectification of women . . . (man walks off to get some drinks) Woman: (after a pause, under her breath, speaks to herself in exasperation) Crazy!

What?

Today's plot summary from the Waltham Workout Buddy: Mutant bats. Heroic people. Cave exploded. Civilization saved. Can anyone name that movie? I couldn't. It's "Bats," starring Lou Diamond Phillips.

Legos Christmas

A few years ago I was at my sister's for Christmas. My parents were in town, my brothers were there. Most of the adults were planning to go out to a movie on Christmas night. I was in the middle of helping one of my nephews, who must have been about 6 or 7 at the time, with some Legos toys he had been given from Christmas. He had 1 or 2 Legos sets for something like a race track or roller coaster, and there were somewhat involved instructions for building these things. I thought to myself "You can be a great uncle by staying home from the movie and helping your nephew with these Legos." Being the fantastic uncle that I am, I obviously stayed home. About 5 or 10 minutes after the adults had gone to the movie, my nephew grew anxious, and the following exchange ensued. Nephew: Uncle Greg, how long is it going to take for us to finish setting this up? Uncle Greg: About 45 or 60 minutes. Nephew: I don't have time for stuff like this!!! My nephew made a quick exit out of the room.

Potpurri for $500

I was in Reagan National Airport recently. There were many Americans there. I am not sure whether the man driving my cab was an American, or even a cab driver. His English was pretty limited, as was his knowledge of the area. We arrived at my destination by my feeding to directions to the driver, and I received those directions by cell phone from a colleague located at my destination and equipped with a cell phone and notebook computer that has a wireless Internet connection. In Boston I drove from the airport to Books and Basketball, taking Columbia Road. This took me by Walter R. White Square. This also took me places where I had to make sure my car was locked. On the way home traffic on I-95 northbound was excruciatingly slow as a result of an accident that shut down all but one lane of the freeway at one point. The slowness was made worse by "gaper's delay," a term I first heard from my boss the summer I worked in Chicago. A colleague sent a link with bizarre plane accidents. Here it is: http://www.airmunn.com/oops.htm. My office walls in Waltham are bare. Someone said I should hang an Escher poster on the wall. Here is a sample: www.mcescher.com/Gallery/recogn-bmp/LW435.jpg.

Weekend Update

I took the shuttle from Provo to the airport Friday morning. A guy on the shuttle was concerned that he would miss his flight. I believe the shuttle arrived at 10 minutes before his flight was to take off. I'm almost certain that he missed his flight. I'm almost certain because somehow my younger brother arrived at the Salt Lake airport 5 minutes before his flight was scheduled to leave, and still made the flight - - amazing. On Friday I finished the Afghan novel on the plane from Salt Lake City to Boston. It was a great book, I wished the story had kept going.

Oscar Wilde Quote

Recently I had a great opportunity to spend time with some friends I had not seen for years, and to get to know their wonderful children as well. Within a few days of the visit, the husband sent me this quote attributed to Oscar Wilde: Some cause happiness wherever they go, and others whenever they go.

Remote Plot Summary for Wednesday

Waltham Workout Buddy phoned in this plot summary for Wednesday: Teenage hacker. U.S. super war computer. Thermonuclear war games. No game. Tic tac toe saves the day. A whopper of a movie.