The best thing anyone can call me is "Uncle"
Current mood: blessed
Category: Life

I became an uncle for the first time 28 years ago today and it was one of the happiest moments of my life.  I still remember every detail about where I was when I got the news for the births of both my niece then and my nephew some 12 years later.

I love them both with all my heart and this post is for my niece Rhianna.

May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.

May you never have your father's hairline!

Love

Uncle Trebor

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40 years ago tonight, Robert F. Kennedy was shot
Current mood: contemplative
Category: News and Politics

He was pronounced dead on June 6th, 1968.

Requiescat In Pacem

His death affected many more lives than just his family and friends-if he'd lived, there's a good chance he'd have gotten the Democratic nomination in Chicago.  Had he been a solid candidate in Chicago, the group which spearheaded the protests in the streets of Chicago would likely have called them off, as Kennedy was an acceptable nominee to them.

There was an equally good chance Kennedy would have beaten Nixon in November of 1968, which means, at the very least, no Watergate.  In all probability, it also meant no escalation of the Vietnam war and a liklihood of a much earlier withdrawal of our troops there.

It's all speculation, of course-but Humphrey started way down in the polls, after the disaster which was the Chicago convention, didn't run a particularly good campaign and still managed to make it a relatively close race, partly because Nixon didn't run a particularly stellar campaign himself.  It's difficult to imagine a campaign by Kennedy  the likes of either rather dull campaigns by the two major candidates who did run that fall.

Ah well-such is life.

May this find you happy and healthy.

Robert Reynolds

Tucson  AZ

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Goodbye, dad
Current mood: sad
Category: Life

I got a call today-rather several calls-telling me that my dad died earlier today.

I love you, dad.

Robert

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Happy birthday, kiddo!
Current mood: happy
Category: Life

My brother, may today be as wonderful as you are!

Feliz cumpleanos, hermano mio!

Much love to you and yours.

May this saddest days of your future be no worse that the happiest days of your past!

Love,

Robert

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I’ve been thinking about movies and character actors a lot lately
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I don't know how often I'll do blogs like these-I suppose I'll do them as often as the spirit moves me, just like everything else I do.

I have a soft spot for relatively unknown character actors, people who rarely got the flashy roles or the notice, but who are generally right on the mark every time.  You may not recognize their names, but the faces may be familiar.

The first one I thought of for this was Juano Hernandez.  The best role Hernandez got, at least in my opinion, was in Intruder In the Dust.  If you ever get the chance to see that, by all means do so-it's an excellent film which gets less notice than it deserves.  It's also probably the only role Hernandez got which could even remotely be considered a 'lead' part and he's nothing short of magnificent.

Hernandez did a fair number of films, with probably the most famous ones being Sergeant Rutledge and They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!  But my two favorite performances by him were in the films Trial and The Pawnbroker.  How Arthur Kennedy got a Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in Trial, I'll never figure out, because Hernandez blows him off the screen near the end of the film.  Hernandez almost blows Glenn Ford off the screen in another scene.  Hernandez deserved nomination more than Kennedy did for Trial.

In The Pawnbroker, as wonderful as Rod Steiger's performance is, Juano Hernandez's performance as one of his customers is wrenching and the pain Hernandez distills in his handling of the role is mezmerizing.  His relatively little time on screen makes the performance all that more exceptional.  He almost steals each of his scenes from Steiger, all without the scenery-chewing one might expect to see in the type of part Hernandez had to work with in the film.

I doubt anyone who reads this will even know his name.  But if even one person who reads this is moved to try and see anything he's done because of the few words I write here, then it's been a useful use of my time.

May this find you happy and healthy.

Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

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Errant musings on politics, US style
Current mood: cantankerous
Category: News and Politics

This happened some time back, but things percolate in the dusty cavern I laughingly call a "mind" and I don't let them out until I'm ready.  I've suffered for weeks putting this together in my head-now it's your turn (that last is courtesy of  Monty Python-that was entirely too funny to be a product of my wit and, not being a politician, I try to credit my sources):

First Geraldine Ferraro said that Barack Obama would not be in the position he's in if he were a white male or a woman of color.  Then others who support HRC have echoed her, including a black male Congress-critter.  Fair enough-they are right, because he wouldn't be where he is if he weren't a black male.

I would point out, however, the following-that, one, no one would care what Geraldine Ferraro had to say on the matter (or anything else) had she not had the distinction of being the first WOMAN nominated by the Democratic party to run for Vice-President, so Ferraro's significance is due entirely to her chromosome structure.  Were she a white male, she would, in all probability, never have been tapped as VP material, as she was picked because she's female!

That is a relatively minor point, a footnote to the story (much like Ferraro is to history).  Were that all there was to remark on, I wouldn't be making this entry.  I have no real problem with Ferraro for what she said-she's right, after all.  Where I do have a problem with Ferraro (and where her "credibility" goes right out the door) is what she ignores, likely by choice.

HRC would never, in a million years, be where she is at this moment were she not both a woman and the former First Lady and still the wife of WJC, the 42nd President of the United States.

I'll go even further-without the name recognition which comes with having spent eight years as First Lady, HRC would have been a long-shot at best to become a Senator, if she'd even run in the first place.  Obama himself was an incredible long-shot to be elected Senator when he won.  The plain fact is, a lot of political careers lay in ashes because someone reached a little too far at an inopportune moment.  That's the way life is-as Mark Knopler wrote, "Sometimes you're the windsheild, sometimes, you're the bug."

Maybe someone else has pointed this out already and I missed it-it wouldn't be the first time.  But the process of becoming a nominee for President isn't exactly a science and a lot of fortuitous things happen in virtually any successful campaign.  Any politician with an ounce of sense and much experience knows that.

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone with the Clinton campaign actually thinks anything they say fully through before they say or do anything.  It wouldn't bother me if they don't, because I think HRC would be an unalloyed disaster as President.  I watched the whole eight year run of this particular play and I've no wish to sit through a revival.

I'm now convinced more than ever that it's HRC's intention to do everything she can to poison the well in the event that she fails to be the nominee, so that, should Obama lose to McCain, they can begin whispering in the necessary ears, "See-we told you he couldn't win!  You have to nominate ME in 2012!"

It will be an interesting campaign-both HRC and the Republicans want the same thing-HRC as the Democratic Presidential candidate.

We shall see.

May this find you happy and healthy.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

12:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Taxman Cometh-and Giveth!
Current mood: amused
Category: News and Politics

This year, the 15th of April has a slightly new dimension-the much vaunted "economic stimulus package".  Your "Golden Ticket" is an income tax return.  Once you file one, thr sleepy hamsters wake up in their wheels and the forms slowly wend their way through an arcane labrinth which would probably make M.C. Escher motion-sick with envy.

This year, there's an extra prize in the Cracker Jacks, folks-and not just for the people who normally would file a return.  The "fine" people up on Capitol Hill hath decreed and signified that even people who don't have taxable income (principally Social Security recipients) will receive a "stimulus" check, provided they provide a filled out 1040A (electronic filing will do nicely, sir and/or madam).

The question before the court today is, just how much of a "stimulus" will these stimulus checks be?

That kind of depends on a few factors, the main one being just what people do with the money once they get it in their hands (or bank accounts, as the case may be).  If they act like Congress-critters and spend it on that shiny key-chain that glows in the dark and whistles, it will have some small stimulative value.

If they use it "foolishly" to pay down already incurred debt, then it has little stimulative value-all it does is make their lives a bit more secure (silly people)!

If they act like squirrels and save it for possible future needs or emergencies, then it has zero current stimulative value.

What does it tell you when the (likely) wisest long-term personal choices for most individuals would largely defeat the purpose of a grand gesture on the part of government-not to mention that, even if everyone did as was "desirable" (at least so far as the good folks in DC are concerned) and bought even more goods and services, it would have about the same benefit as pouring a couple hundred gallons of fresh water into the ocean to try and reduce the salinity would?

A more cynical soul would say that the "stimulus package" was little more than politics as usual, with the players on stage trying to distract the groundlings in the audience from noticing the backdrop is on fire and that the walls of the theater are smoking.

A cynical soul would say that, but not me-I gave up cynicism for Lent and I can't be cynical until after Easter arrives.

Excuse me-I have to get back to work-moving deck chairs around is a full-time job these days.

H. L. Mencken was an optimist.

May this find you happy and healthy.

Robert Reynolds

Tucson  AZ

8:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Maybe I’m easily amused
Current mood: animated
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

But I just read both the "pro" and "con" Uwe Boll online petitions and had the best laugh I've had in days!  Particularly the "pro" petition (there are really some sick puppies out there in the world).

I know-not much of a blog post.  I was planning another post on another subject tonight and I may still do that.  Time will tell.

The following leapt out of my head, bounced off the keyboard and onto the screen (with apologies to Chuck Jones and Wile E. Coyote):

"Uwe Boll, supergenius-I like the way that rolls off the tongue! Uwe Boll, supergenius!"

I'll see you in the funny papers, kids!

May this find you happy and healthy.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

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Remembering something meaningful primarily to me
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Writing and Poetry

I don’t know why (possibly it has to do with Arthur C. Clarke’s death not long ago) but I’ve been thinking about something which happened almost 15 years ago, but which I remember clearly as though it were yesterday.  I decided to post it here just to get it down somewhere.  It may not seem like much, but it meant a great deal to me then and now:

I suppose we all have influences-personal influences on our lifes, people we know, people we don’t know whose work or life affects us to some degree.  I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember, but wasn’t as interested in seriously pursuing writing because I never read anything which made me blink and wish I’d put that particular string of letters and symbols together.  That is, not until my first encounter with the work of Harlan Ellison.  I first read Ellison when I was 12 (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream).  I looked for more of his stuff and just devoured what I could find.  Not long after that, I started writing (scribbling, really-I write too slowly to ever do much with it other than amuse myself.  I write at a pace which would make Gardner Dozois look like Isaac Asimov in terms of proflicity).

Well, in late 1993, I attended Confrancisco (the only Worldcon I have ever attended-and likely my last, as I move too slowly and stiffly now to see much unless I do so in a chair instead of crutches) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  One of the things I most enjoyed was a bookplate signing Harlan Ellison took part in in conjunction with a book Mark Ziesing was publishing, Mephisto In Onyx.  Turned out, they were holding the signing on a stage, which I could not get to because of the stairs.  As I neared the stage, someone working at the convention came up and offered to get my bookplate signed for me.  She went up for me and Mr. Ellison signed the bookplate to me, after which she returned my bookplate, I thanked her and left, a bit saddened that I’d lost the opportunity to meet him.

On the Sunday of the con, I was waiting outside the dealer’s room because I had some books one of the dealers was holding for me, so I could buy everything from her at once and have it all shipped, rather than try to take it back on the plane (she also graciously offered to ship back things I bought at other tables, a kindness I haven’t. forgotten and never will-thanks, Carrie). 

As I stood there, Harlan Ellison walked into the dealer’s room before it opened (it pays to have the "magic badge").  I figured he’d finish whatever business he had and leave promptly, so I didn’t think much about the possibility of running into him after the dealer’s room opened.  I headed to Carrie’s table and, as I came closer to the Ziesing table, which was between Carrie’s and the entrance, there was Ellison, talking with Mark.  I stopped a few feet away, not wanting to intrude on their business, but hoping I could meet Ellison after they were finished, when Ellison apparently saw me and asked me if I wanted to talk to Mark about something.  I said I didn’t want to disturb them and Mark (great and gracious himself) very politely introduced me to Harlan Ellison as one of "his favorite customers", even though I was clearly intruding on important business.  I took up a few minutes of his time and Ellison was the soul of courtesy.  I thanked Mark and HE for their time (and that’s another kindness I’ll never forget-thanks, Mark) and tried to walk away without looking like I was floating in mid-air!

I stopped just short of Carrie’s table to catch my breath and spotted something which was, to me, yet another sign that it was going to be my day-a very special book caught my eye (the third kindness that day I’ll never forget-Donna Rankin sold me a few books that week, but that last was special-my thanks to her as well, though none of these people will be likely to ever see this, I’ll know).

As I said, none of this will mean anything to anyone but me, but I remember it and that, I expect, is what matters.  Sometimes, the best things in life are little things that don’t mean much to very many people, yet matter a great deal to someone.

May this find you happy and healthy.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

8:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Forty years ago today
Current mood: melancholy
Category: News and Politics

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  It hardly seems possible, but forty years have gone by since then.  Though I was relatively young, I remember news coverage on both King and Robert F. Kennedy, who was also assassinated in 1968.

Years later, I came across an old copy of Analog in which the editor (John W. Campbell, Jr) made an interesting argument:

The political assassin paid MLK a compliment, of sorts, because no one would take the trouble to shoot someone if they didn’t think they were succeeding in getting their message across,  Failure to reach people doesn’t cause those who hate the message to try and stop it by killing the messenger, but succeeding sure does!

I’m not sure if Campbell was right or not-nuts like Arthur Bremer have shot at politicians before without their victims being terribly successful (I read somewhere that the first thing Bremer said was, "How much do you think I’ll get formy book?"), but King was a powerful speaker.  I also don’t know how much his death changed things on the larger scale (though it may well have made Jessie Jackson a more prominent figure in the civil rights movement).

I do know, however, that King’s death was a shock forty years ago and I wanted to note its anniversary here, for whatever that’s worth.

Requiescat In Pacem, Dr. King.

Robert Reynolds

8:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Supreme Court, the Second Amendment and ’strict constructionalism’
Current mood: fascinated
Category: News and Politics

I look forward to the Supreme Court decision regarding the District of Columbia’s gun law, though probably for different reasons than most do (for the record, I consider the DC law too restrictive and think it will be at least partially overturned, though probably not tossed out completely).

What I look forward to doing is reading the reasoning in the opinion(s), particularly Justice Scalia’s, should he write anything.  Since I can already hear heads thudding on desks, fast asleep, I’ll move on and explain why.

There is a school of thought which holds that the Constitution means precisely what the framers intended it to mean more than 200 years ago-no more and no less.  This is ’strict constuctionalism’ and proponents argue that the Constitution is not ’a living document’ which adapts to changes in the world-they talk about the ’framer’s intent’ and say that the Constitution shouldn’t be ’interpreted’, but that only the concrete meaning of what the framers intended matters.

Justice Scalia is one who views the Constitution in this fashion.  His comments on a ’right to privacy’ (so far as I can tell, he doesn’t believe a right to privacy exists in the Constitution) and other issues certainly indicate he is a ’stict contructionalist’.  Why does this matter to me?

Because a ’strict constructionalist’ interested in ’the framer’s intent’ would read the Second Amendment "A well-regulated militia being necessary to keep the peace, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", look at the historical context and draw the conclusion that  the Second Amendment  applies  to members of  the National Guard, which is  the modern-day equivalent of "a well-regulated  militia".

Back when the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no real plans to maintain a large standing army.   All able-bodied men within a certain age range were more or less expected to be ready to defend their states or even, if need be, the nation in an emergency.

Most, if not all, men were armed and at least reasonably adept with the firearms of the time-they pretty much had to be, at least on the frontiers.  Thus the framers considered it a no-brainer that men needed to be able to possess and carry arms, for a variety of reasons.

A ’strict constructionalist’, in order to remain a ’strict constructionalist’, would therefore need to rule that the Second Amendment applies  primarily to the National Guard and/or standing  military and secondarily to hunters  shooting game  to provide for themselves and their family-anyone else or any weapon not reasonably used for those purposes can be resticted.

Do I agree with this viewpoint?  No-but I’m not a ’strict constructionalist’.  I think the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to own and carry  handguns, rifles and shotguns.  It doesn’t permit you to legally own an AK-47, a LAW or an Abrams tank.  Neither does it say that authorities cannot outlaw hollowpoint rounds or other types of ammunition.  Standard rounds are more than sufficient to satisfy basic requirements.

Still, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, Scalia has to say in the matter.  He’s wrong about a ’right to privacy’, by the way.  Without an inherent right to privacy, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments are essentially pointless.  Without a right to privacy, why would your home, effects or person require protection against search and seizure of anything?  Why would you need a right to protect yourself from self-incrimination if you have no right to privacy?

The opinion(s) will likely come down in June.  We shall see.

May this find you happy and healthy.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

10:06 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Oscar time!
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I'm going to make a couple of Oscar predictions, but only in the two important categories:

Animated Feature and Animated Short!

Animated Feature, in my opinion , will go to Persepolis, whereas a lot of people think it will go to Pixar for Ratatouille.  I think Surf's Up and Ratatouille may knock each other off and leave Persepolis the winner.  Besides, the flap over the selections from the Foreign Language Film committee (where Persepolis was the official French entry) may give it a boost.

Animated Short, unlike last year's race, is a horse race.  Any of the five nominees could win and only one (I Met the Walrus) would disappoint me if it won.  I think the race is between three shorts:

Moya Lyubov,  by Alexsandr Petrov (who previously won in the category for The Old Man and the Sea, is absolutely gorgeous, like all his work.

Madame Tutli Putli, by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, was produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which produced last year's winner (The Danish Poet), is a mood piece which I found to be very dark and well-executed.

Peter and the Wolf, by Suzi Templeton and Hugh Welchman, is a stop-motion masterpiece which should win the Oscar and is the piece I want to win the award. 

But it's been my experience in the last ten years or so that the short I want to win and/or think should win usually loses (Das Rad lost to the Chubb Chubbs, for example) and, though the Academy sometimes surprises me and picks the one I like (Father and Daughter), I'm afraid that wanting Peter to win may well be the kiss of death.

My gut tells me that Petrov will win a second Oscar tomorrow night, though that's been hard to pull off (Frederic Back may well have been the last person to do so, though the little man on rollerskates trolling the cavernous filecases which make up my memory now reminds me that Aardman won three and the Wallace and Gromit shorts probably had the same director).  That may work against Petrov..

NFBC, so far as I recall, hasn't won  two in a row before, though that doesn't mean anything. 

My pick for winner is (drumroll, please):

Moya Lyubov.

(Sound of crickets chirpping).

May this find you happy and healthy.



Robert Reynolds
Tucson AZ

1:47 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Herbie Hancock won the Grammy for Best Album!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Current mood: surprised
Category: Music

I'm a very happy camper!!!!

I was shocked that he was even nominated, figured it was a fluke and expected Amy Winehouse to win.  Winehouse has a great singing voice, but I'm glad Hancock won.

It doesn't make up for the fact that albums like Sketches of Spain and A Love Supreme were relegated to the jazz categories, but River: The Joni Letters is an excellent album and Winehouse did quite well herself.

I'm doing my Snoopy dance!

May this find you happy and healthy.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

9:57 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I will not vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Current mood: cantankerous
Category: News and Politics

If the Democrats can't turn out their base to vote for a dypeptic antelope wearing an eyepatch after almost eight years of GWB, they deserve to lose in November (though, to be honest, both the two major parties deserve to lose in November).

The Democrats should therefore nominate someone who can draw votes from independents-which HRC probably cannot do.

I wouldn't vote for HRC with a gun pointed at my head.  I lived through eight years of the "Hil and Bill" and hve zero interest in watching the re-runs.  John McCain is far down on my list of ideal choices, but I can stomach him.

If the Democratic party nominates HRC and the Republicans nominate McCain, I hold my nose and vote McCain-and the Dems will probably lose-and will deserve to lose.

Oh well-at least McCain can pronounce "nuclear" correctly.

May this find you happy and healthy.

Robert Reynolds
Tucson  AZ

9:28 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

To all those who think invading Iraq was/is still a good idea
Current mood: annoyed
Category: News and Politics

I doubt I'll make any friends with this, but I've decided to say it here anyway:

If you agree with the idea that invading Iraq in 2003 was a good idea which benefitted the US and that we must stay there until we win (whatever that means), then I have the following observations:

If you support the war, then help pay for the damn thing!!!!  Under the process the Congress uses to draw up the budget, anything which is in a supplementary spending bill, as opposed to the regular appropriations bills Congress (supposedly) passes each year, is extra discretionary spending, over and above the regular budget. 

Every dime appropriated for the Iraq war has been allocated through the supplementary bill allocation process.  It has therefore ALL been borrowed (most of it borrowed from foreign sources-the Japanese, the Chinese and the Saudis hold significant percentages of our debt).

If you think this war to be necessary and vital, then help pay for the bloody thing, instead of passing off the debt as an entailment to the future.  There are at least two options:

Write a check to the gummint and aim it at paying off the national debt.  They have a special account for this type of thing.

If writing a check to the Feds to pay off the debt makes your gorge rise, then at least start buying US Savings Bonds.  That way, you at least make the interest and it doesn't go overseas, the money is borrowed typically at a lower rate than the Chinese, Japanese, etc. get and you get a warm fuzzy from having both saved money for your future and helped put body armor on one of our troops.

Now, I'm really going to make someone pissed.  If you don't relish bluntness, don't read further:


If you support the war, are of service-eligible age, are medically fit to enlist and you aren't currently in a branch of the service, haven't served already or aren't doing something like being a police officer, firefighter or paramedic, if you don't, at a minimum, sign up for the National Guard, then you're just a cheerleader on the sidelines, cheering while other people bleed, lose limbs and/or die. 

In my book, that makes you a coward.

To anyone who has already served, thank you for your service.  To anyone currently serving, you have my utmost gratitude and respect.  My remarks above are not aimed at you.  They are aimed at the 25 year old who thinks this war is a great idea-as long as they don't actually have to be put in the line of fire, the ones who fatuously say that they can "serve" their country in this "life or death struggle" more effectively by not enlisting.  If this war is a good idea, then you owe it to your country to fight in the damn thing if you're able enough to do so.

May this find you happy and healthy.

1:01 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment