Vitamins P and D

Yesterday my youngest daughter had her 15th birthday. After being showered with gifts already, we asked her what she’d dinner. She asked us to go downtown to the Chinese Barbeque place and get her a Barbequed Duck and some Barbequed Pork. (Her oldest brother said she needed vitamins P and D.)

After lunch across the street at the Vietnamese place, we wandered over to the barbeque place. We ordered, and waited for our stuff. I saw a cup of toothpicks suiting on the counter, and having just finished lunch, I figured I could use one of them. I leaned over to take one and the proprietor stopped me and said they were for trial pieces, and would I like to try the half-fat pork. I had already said we wanted lean pork, not half-fat for our dinner but he seemed so intent on our having this delicacy, I could say nothing but yes, and I wanted a toothpick anyway.

In Chinese, he ordered his cook to cut us two pieces of the pork. He chopped several pieces out with his large chopping knife, reminding me somewhat of John Belushi doing Samurai Butcher. He proudly handed us the toothpicks with this precious morsel stuck on top.

I expected hot and juicy, what I got was room temperature and fat! It was a piece of cold, cooked pork fat! I smiled as best as I could and chewed as little as I could and worked my way out of the building. My wife, also receiving this morsel, was much better than me. She almost looked pleased. We took our many parcels and went back to the car.

I know every ethnic group has their own specialty, and not everyone appreciates everything. They had a chicken foot special which we avoided.

But still, cold pork fat!

Yuk!!

My father speaks of Tom Mix.

My father spent many years living in Dubois, Pennsylvania. I have no idea when, as he always told me about these things and I didn’t necessarily listen, as kids will do. So, there are gaps in my understanding. I was a late in life baby, as my father was 43 when I was born. He lived until July, 1970 so I certainly knew him as an adult (me, not him) but I guess I never asked all the right questions because I was used to having him around to answer.

However, he did tell me one fascinating thing that I never researched until today; he was invited to Tom Mix’s wedding. He said he didn’t know Tom Mix but he knew his parents. So, as you can see, he had lots of opportunities to be invited, but most of them would have made no sense.

Tom was married in 1902, 1905, 1907, 1918 and 1932. Given that my father Harry was born in 1899, it is difficult to imagine that he was invited to the first three weddings, he would have been a baby or a small child. The wedding, in 1918 is a distinct possibility, as he would have been 19. I have no idea how he would have known the Mix family, but I will give my late father the benefit of the doubt, he had no reason to make this one up.

Even when he told me as a child, it was way too late for me to have ever even seen a Tom Mix movie. The 1932 wedding was more likely, but it was less likely that the Mix parents would have been alive to invite my father.

Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezekiah) Mix; January 6, 1880 to October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy actors who followed.

Tom Mix was born in Mix Run, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles north of State Colleg, Pennsylvania. He spent his childhood growing up in nearby Dubois, Pennsylvania learning to ride horses and working on the local farm owned by John Dubois, a lumber businessman. He had dreams of being in the circus and was rumored to have been caught by his parents practicing knife throwing tricks against a wall using his sister as an assistant.

In April, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, he enlisted in the Army under the name Thomas E. (Edwin) Mix. His unit never went overseas, and Mix later failed to return for duty after an extended furlough when he married Grace I. Allin on July 18, 1902.

Mix was listed as AWOL on November 4, 1902 but was never court martialed or apparently even discharged. His marriage to Allin was annulled after one year. In 1905
Mix married Kitty Jewel Perinne, but this marriage also ended within a year.

In 1907 he married Olive Stokes.

He co-starred in several films with Victoria Forde and they fell in love. He divorced Olive Stokes in 1917.

Mix and Forde married in 1918 and they had a daughter, Thomasina Mix (Tommie), in 1922. They divorced in 1931.

Tom was married to Mabel Ward from 1932 until his death in 1940. In 1932, Tom Mix married aerial performer Mabel Ward, at Lutes' Gretna Green Wedding Chapel in Yuma. The two met while Mix was touring with the Sells-Floto Circus

I’m sorry my father didn’t attend one of these ”Hollywood” weddings, but the story stays with me, and now, I hope, with you.

I guess it would have been a bigger story if he had attended.

and it shook when she laughed like a bowl full of jelly

I was the new Art College President in Massachusetts, and had been in my position just for 2 ½ months. My birthday was coming up, and I vowed not to say anything because I didn’t want the staff to feel obligated to do anything, and it wasn’t a special birthday, so who cared.

My old friend Jerry Grove called the school a few days prior to my birthday and asked to speak to my secretary. He told her that it was going to be my birthday, and that I was particularly fond of belly dancers, about as far from the truth as one could get.

The day of my birthday, I was called into the staff room, which was unusually full of faculty and staff, all grinning. I asked what was going on and they laughed, and brought in a cake. They sang happy birthday but everyone still looked oddly at me. Suddenly, I heard strange music flowing through the air, everyone was smiling in anticipation. Then, the sound of finger cymbals began to develop, and lo and behold, here she came, a vision of loveliness dancing her way into my heart. Veiled and belly out, she had Happy Birthday Arthur written on her belly in marker. I froze…what to do?

I went along with everyone and danced with the dancer as she played with her scarf around my body. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful nor too over excited.

As it turned out she was one of our students who did this for a living. She was very good, and I recovered in a few minutes, and rushed back to my office relieved.

I asked them to refrain from doing that again, as it just wasn’t my favorite activity.

Those good old Hamilton days!

Our interim Development Director, Joan Nelson, is a great lady! She is a no nonsense, nose to the grindstone worker, who works in Development for a number of places. Our “regular” Development Director is still out on maternity leave but is almost back. She does appear from time to time and I am happy for both of them.

Joan is with us on a part-time basis with her major focus being grant writing although she has been taken far afield from that due to our “needs du jour”.

We have been working on a newly minted federal grant assuring accessibility. We have been trying, for some time, to get enough money to build an elevator onto our 1836 building. This is a $300,000 project and is proving much tougher than we thought to raise, especially because of the current financial crisis everywhere.

We have been collecting letters from friends and important people to add to our grant, and Joan figured we needed a letter from our mayor to help “sweeten the pot”.

While she was researching the subject, she put together some sample letters for people to use as guidelines for writing their own letters. She ran into an accessibility focus as developed by the Hamilton Mayor and City council, and asked if we should include this with the information that we pass on to the mayor, and I, of course, agreed.

We included the wording and sent it on, hoping we could have something back asap.

I received a call from the Mayor’s assistant on Friday, letting me know that we had to change the letter. Why, I asked? It seems that the City Council’s passing and the Mayor’s endorsement of the letter are still being questioned.

They did approve it, it seems, but in Hamilton, New Zealand!

Just standing there with nothing to say...

As young men in art school, we were always influenced by the popular art stars of the day. The most powerful movement for us was the Bay Area figurative school of the 50’s and 60’s. This included such artists as David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Olivera and Paul Wonner . These were the guys we scanned the art magazines to see. I’m not sure if we ever really saw anything but magazine photos before we graduated.

We also had Warhol, Johns, Rauschenberg etc. to give us heroes to admire, but we seemed to have a place in our hearts for the Bay Area guys.

For me, it was Richard Diebenkorn whom I most admired. I love his work and have seen it in person many times, not just the art books and magazines.

And there I was, at some art association dinner, and there was to be an award given to Richard Diebenkorn. “My heart be still!” I was excited. Finally I would get to see this childhood hero. I must have been in my 40’s, so I didn’t wear a t-shirt with a “love ya’ Richard” splashed over the front, but I was elated.

After the food and awards, I went to the men’s room and used the urinal. There, standing next to me, was my hero, Richard Diebenkorn. I was frozen, I wanted to say something meaningful, but here we were, side by side by the urinals. This is not a possible situation. Men’s room etiquette is quite specific; you do not talk to the stranger next to you!

I thought about my possible opening lines:

I’ve always admired you

I love your work

You meant a great deal to me

You mean a great deal to me

I enjoy looking at your……

I said nothing. Richard Diebenkorn zipped up his fly, washed his hands (thank God, I couldn’t have handled it if he hadn’t) and strolled out into the night. He has since passed away and I never will get to say anything to him.

But I still think about the possibilities:

You do meaningful work.

You always make me want to see more……….

I know it's kind of a rant, but...

I want to talk about resumes.

I don’t want to post mine; it’s a little late to look for a job (although I still look once in a while at the ads). I am interested in the whole phenomena.

I once had a student at the Maryland Institute show me her resume. She had listed; Salesperson, Exxon Oil Corporation. When I asked about the job she told me she’d worked in a gas station.

A few people who have seen my resume noted that I must have had a great plan to go by because it all fits together so well. Of course I had no plan, shit happens! It just sort of worked out this way and I followed an unwritten path. Hind sight is always 20/20.

My oldest daughter has taken a career course at high school; something I believe is mandatory, as she never would have taken it on purpose. They explored career fields as well as had to put together a portfolio. This is a super resume with all the documents and awards she had won and received. If I had to do this when I was in high school I would have little or nothing to include, or certainly a small portfolio of a few jobs and volunteer things I had done.

As I think about it, I did sell sticky apples in back of school #87, on a card table, for some guy in a truck. I was paid for it.

I did help play bingo with some elderly people in a nursing home, as well I did some entertaining for the elderly (singing), which may or may not have been entertaining as I think about it.

I worked at a furniture manufacturing company on Reisterstown Road (Baltimore) in the office putting together catalogs and getting lunches.

I can’t remember doing much else of a work nature.

My daughter said one day, as we were driving, that she realized that most of the jobs she had, and her friends had, had nothing to do with resumes, but who their parents knew. It was about whom you knew not what you knew. (I can’t write the Valley Girl accent) Ye-ah! Big woop! Surprise! Life isn’t exactly fair! Discovery time! Light Bulb goes off over the head!

My youngest son started his career by working for my oldest son’s father-in-law. My first teaching job came from the woman who lived across the street from me who was a supervisor in a public school system.

Both of my daughters worked for me at one time or another. My oldest daughter and now the younger one work for someone who works for me.

What it takes kids a long time to realize (and sometimes they never get it) is that their parents pay for them to go to school to be with the “right” other kids. This holds true for public school, where you pay a premium for a house to be in the “right” neighborhood. It is certainly true for private schools, and all College and Universities. Because in the big, bad outside world it’s often, or mostly, who you know that counts.

I am not discounting talent or smarts, all of which make a huge difference as well. But, it all matters. Talent and smarts seeem to matter later, when the rest of the stuff it took to get you there wears off. But you need to get there first.

Where there are fraternities and sororities, it makes a difference. Hell, everything matters.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he's probably a relative.

In two recent experiences, the movie “Contact” with Jody Foster, and a book I was “reading” (listening to on my MP3 player, in this case a British mystery called “Dust”), there were references to Ockham’s Razor. Knowing this was not a Gillette, I had to dig farther. I knew within the context in which these were found that it referred to the idea that the simplest solution to a problem is probably the correct one. I decided to investigate, and here’s what I found:

Ockham's Razor is the principle proposed by William of Ockham in the fourteenth century: ``Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate'', which translates as ``entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily''.

In many cases this is interpreted as ``keep it simple'', but in reality the Razor has a more subtle and interesting meaning. Suppose that you have two competing theories which describe the same system, if these theories have different predictions than it is a relatively simple matter to find which one is better: one does experiments with the required sensitivity and determines which one give the most accurate predictions. For example, in Copernicus' theory of the solar system the planets move in circles around the sun, in Kepler's theory they move in ellipses. By measuring carefully the path of the planets it was determined that they move on ellipses, and Copernicus' theory was then replaced by Kepler's.

But there are are theories which have the very same predictions and it is here that the Razor is useful. Consider for example the following two theories aimed at describing the motion of the planets around the sun

The planets move around the sun in ellipses because there is a force between any of them and the sun which decreases as the square of the distance.

The planets move around the sun in ellipses because there is a force between any of them and the sun which decreases as the square of the distance. This force is generated by the will of some powerful aliens.

Since the force between the planets and the sun determines the motion of the former and both theories posit the same type of force, the predicted motion of the planets will be identical for both theories. the second theory, however, has additional baggage (the will of the aliens) which is unnecessary for the description of the system.

If one accepts the second theory solely on the basis that it predicts correctly the motion of the planets one has also accepted the existence of aliens whose will affect the behavior of things, despite the fact that the presence or absence of such beings is irrelevant to planetary motion (the only relevant item is the type of force). In this instance Ockham's Razor would unequivocally reject the second theory. By rejecting this type of additional irrelevant hypotheses guards against the use of solid scientific results (such as the prediction of planetary motion) to justify unrelated statements (such as the existence of the aliens) which may have dramatic consequences. In this case the consequence is that the way planets move, the reason we fall to the ground when we trip, etc. is due to some powerful alien intellect, that this intellect permeates our whole solar system, it is with us even now...and from here an infinite number of paranoid derivations.

For all we know the solar system is permeated by an alien intellect, but the motion of the planets, which can be explained by the simple idea that there is a force between them and the sun, provides no evidence of the aliens' presence nor proves their absence.

A more straightforward application of the Razor is when we are face with two theories which have the same predictions and the available data cannot distinguish between them. In this case the Razor directs us to study in depth the simplest of the theories. It does not guarantee that the simplest theory will be correct, it merely establishes priorities.

A related rule, which can be used to slice open conspiracy theories, is Hanlon's Razor: ``Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity''.

As I guessed, the simplest solution to a problem is probably the correct one.