POTD: Of Forts and Canyons

From 2016 02 07 Ranthambore

Today's photo-of-the-day is of Fort Ranthambore in the heart of India's Ranthambore National Park. The fort is the reason the national park exists. The park was formed from the former hunting grounds of the Maharajah of Jaipur, who lived in the fort.

Yet my headline says, "Forts and Canyons." The canyon is Texas's own Palo Duro Canyon. Opposite side of the world. Palo Duro Canyon has its own story to tell, one featured in a previous POTD. Seeing Fort Ranthambore evoked a strong memory of seeing Palo Duro Canyon. Go ahead, click the link and check it out. Maybe you see it, too. It's a small world...inside my head.

Chi-Raq (2015)

IMDB

Chi-Raq (2015): Lysistrata set in Chicago's South Side by Spike Lee. Daring concept. Worthy effort. Hard to revive a 2,500 yr old drama. C+

POTD: Butting Heads

Butting heads. No, I'm not talking about the recent school board election (in the end, that turned out to be not much of a fight at all). And I'm certainly not talking about the presidential election (that headline would be "Butthead," not "Butting Heads").

No, today's photo-of-the-day is from Ranthambore National Park in India's Rajasthan province, where these two Sambar deer practiced their fighting skills for us tourists (or, more likely, for the nearby herd of female Sambar deer).

From 2016 02 07 Ranthambore

Review: Between the World and Me

Amazon

From Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it. I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself."

A letter from a father to a son, explaining what it means to be black in America. It's not written for me, a white man lost in the Dream, but I need it, too. Maybe the most.

After the jump, my review.

Spring in the Steger Garden (2016)

From Flowers

Bonus photo after the jump.

Look Who's Back (2015)

IMDB

Look Who's Back (2015): Hitler in time warp wakes up in 2014, sets out to make Germany great again. No shit. Life imitates art. B-

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Documentaries

Oscar night is long gone. Oscar picked "Amy" for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. I've finally gotten around to viewing all five nominees and am ready to weigh in on the question of which documentary should have won. Can I get a drum roll?

POTD: The Star of Ranthambore

From 2016 02 07 Ranthanbore

There's nothing like a close encounter with a tiger in the wild at dawn to get the heart pumping for the day. Today's photo-of-the-day is from India's Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve. The tiger in the photo is Sitara (aka T-28), the "Star" of Ranthambore (for the star-shaped mark above his left eye). This is the dominant tiger of the national park.

Tourists tour the park in open jeeps. People ask if it's safe. The answer is, yes, unless the tiger decides it isn't. The previous dominant male tiger was relocated last year to captivity in another park because of charges that he killed at least three humans. There were no incidents the day we visited. Sitara was the only tiger we saw. We have no way of knowing how many tigers saw us.

Bonus photo after the jump.

RISD Bond Election Analysis

Source: Dallas County Votes. Dark Green: YES. Bright Green: No.

Richardson ISD voters approved a $437 million bond proposition in the May 7 election by an overwhelming margin, 67% to 33%. Turnout was 9,507 voters. Diving into the details, there are a few interesting, if maybe not surprising, details.

Demography is Destiny

Source: New York Times.

The New York Times did a deep data dive into "Money, Race and Success: How Your School District Compares." That's the Richardson ISD in the upper middle of the plot of every school district in America. The RISD is a little richer than average as measured by parents' economic status. And it stands in the upper reaches of academic performance of school districts with similar economic status, 0.6 grades ahead of the overall average. What's it all mean?

Cartel Land (2015)

IMDB

Cartel Land (2015): Citizen armies on both sides of border fight drug cartels. Doesn't anyone wear a white hat? Ignores demand. Bleak. B-

OTBR: Blue House near Wheaton College

Latitude N 41° 52.116
Longitude: W 088° 06.144

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

The Look of Silence (2014)

IMDB

Look of Silence (2014): Picking at 50 yr old scab of an Indonesian massacre of a million people. Tragic. Inhuman. Inexplicable. Personal. B-

Two Countries Separated by a Common Language

No, not England and America, as Winston Churchill famously said. Or, rather, not only England and America. Also, America and Australia. They speak English in Australia. That doesn't mean Americans don't sometimes feel like it's a foreign language down under. Here's a headline in the Herald Sun, a Melbourne, Australia, newspaper.

Essendon unveils guernsey for Dreamtime at the G designed by Gavin Wanganeen who says Jobe Watson should keep his Brownlow

Source: Herald Sun.

To add to the comprehension difficulty for Americans, imagine this being read by a television news anchor with an Australian accent (or more properly "Strine").

Here's my attempt to translate it for an American audience:

"The Essendon Australian Rules Football club unveils a special jersey honoring the aboriginal understanding of the creation of the world to be worn at an upcoming game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and designed by retired team great and now indigenous artist Gavin Wanganeen who says team captain Jobe Watson should keep his Brownlow Medal despite accusations of use of illegal drugs surrounding the club."

But that's probably too long to fit in the space available.

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P.S. Long ago, I rooted for the Essendon Bombers (which indirectly is how I stumbled across this headline today), but I quickly learned not to "root" for them at all.

It Gets Worse

I'm talking CityLine of course. Every time I think it couldn't get worse, Richardson's city planners prove me wrong. Two months ago, it was "Residential Uses Not Allowed in Mixed-Use". That was the decision "to build 32 single-family, detached homes in back of a CVS." That a zoning change was even needed to build residential in a so-called mixed-use, transit-oriented urban community was just a small sign that something is very wrong with the planning of this whole area. Worse, the desire was to build a compound of single-family homes walled-off from a traditional suburban strip shopping center. The ad hoc Frankenstein's monster that CityLine is evolving into is something to behold.

POTD: Stepwell

From 2016 02 07 Ranthambore

Today's photo-of-the-day is of Chand Baori, a thousand year old stepwell in Rajasthan, India. "Stepwells are wells or ponds in which the water may be reached by descending a set of steps."

Bonus photo after the jump.

Review: Spare Parts

Amazon

From Spare Parts, by Joshua Davis:

She remembered West Phoenix as a place that she wouldn't drive through by herself. It was a poor area and the better schools were elsewhere. So she was surprised to see an underwater-robotics team coming out of that neighborhood. 'There aren't oceans in Phoenix,' she pointed out diplomatically. 'No, ma’am,' Lorenzo Santillan said. 'But we got pools.'"

"Spare Parts" is the 2016 selection for "Richardson Reads One Book." As such, it carries the burden of high expectations. Does it live up to recent prior selections?

• 2015: "We Are Called to Rise" C+
• 2014: "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" B-
• 2013: "The Book Thief" A-
• 2012: "One Amazing Thing" C+

After the jump, my review.

Repeat Tweets: The Budget Deficit Is Too Low

Repeat tweets from April, 2016:

• Apr 1 2016: "The budget deficit is too low." Not an April Fools story. vox.com
• Apr 2 2016: Texas is stingy with tax dollars for public schools and Medicaid. Not for private events like Final Four in Houston.
• Apr 4 2016: As Trump drops and Cruz rises on betting markets, odds of a Dem win in November have stayed the same. predictwise.com
• Apr 4 2016: 23 years from the Four Tops to NWA. How does that even happen?

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

You're Going to Hate it Here

90% of time I will stop recruiting a kid when the parents complain about the High School coaches. I don't want somebody else's headache.

Source: Gary Lowery.

Gary Lowery is an assistant football coach at Hampton University. His tweet teaches a lesson that's applicable to much more than football.

What Has Stefani Carter Been Up To?

You remember Stefani Carter. The former Texas state representative for parts of Richardson. Swept into office in the 2010 tea party wave. The self-proclaimed "first black female GOP state representative" (which highlights how delinquent the Texas GOP was). The ambitious politician who campaigned nationwide for Mitt Romney in 2012. (How'd that work out?) Who attempted to climb to statewide office (Texas Railroad Commission) only to discover that the moneyed interests had other candidates in mind. Who scrambled back to her legislative race but lost her seat anyway when voters abandoned her for Linda Koop. All that was covered by The Wheel back in the day.

So, that Stefani Carter. What has she been up to? Spoiler alert: her activities in the private sector are raising eyebrows just as her activities in public office did.

New Setting, Same Old Story

See if you can guess the place described. Hint: it's not far away at all.

Over the past decade, City Hall and other local government agencies have bent over backward and poured tens of millions of taxpayer subsidies to turn the corner...into a dense, vibrant urban center. Instead, the investment has produced a bland apartment complex, a car-centric suburban strip center...and plans for another bland apartment complex and a few dozen townhomes.

Source: Dallas Observer.

Further description is after the jump.

The Barkley Marathons (2014)

IMDB

Barkley Marathons (2014): 100 mi footrace in Tenn mtns. A cult race runners love. Quirky founder has kept it noncommercial for 40 yrs. B-

POTD: Walk Like a Cow

From 2016 02 07 Ranthambore

Today's photo-of-the-day is a typical street scene in Rajasthan, India, and probably almost anywhere else in India except for the largest cities. Tourists are taught that to cross the streets on foot, one should "walk like a cow." That is, walk in a slow, deliberate fashion, never showing hesitation or fear. Don't stop and never ever back up. Drivers really don't want to hit cows. Despite appearances, they don't want to hit pedestrians, either. If you walk like a cow, you can usually cross busy streets without incident.

Early Voting on RISD Bond 2016

Early voting in the Richardson ISD election begins today.

Back in February, when the RISD board of trustees voted to place the bond before the voters, I recommended a vote YES. Since then, I've attended four community meetings (one in each high school attendance zone), listened to numerous questions asked at those meetings (and answers), heard more than a few passionate speeches by citizens urging a no vote (and some urging yes votes), and read more Facebook posts than I can recommend to anyone (mostly negative).

The objections to the bond haven't changed. Well, one is new (see below). They didn't persuade me to oppose this bond then. They still don't persuade me now.

POTD: The Eyes Have It

From 2016 02 05 Agra

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Agra Fort in India. There's an art lesson here, which I could explain if I knew something about art. Consider the two people in this photo. The man has much to notice — hair, ear, beard, nose. The woman has, what? Her eyes. So, which person did you focus on? How long did it take for your own eyes to be drawn to her eyes? How long did they linger there? It's said the eyes are the most important part of any portrait. They are the hardest thing for an artist to draw. The art lesson is somewhere in those eyes.

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P.S. The most famous cover in the long history of "National Geographic" achieved its fame because of its subject's eyes.

Review: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

Amazon

From Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, by Salman Rushdie

This is the story of a jinnia, a great princess of the jinn, known as the Lightning Princess on account of her mastery over the thunderbolt, who loved a mortal man long ago, in the twelfth century, as we would say, and of her many descendants, and of her return to the world, after a long absence, to fall in love again, at least for a moment, and then to go to war."

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights. Count 'em up. That's 1001 nights. Consider this Salman Rushdie's attempt at fan fiction for "1001 Arabian Nights." How does it hold up?

After the jump, my review.

POTD: Mumtaz

From 2016 02 05 Agra

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Agra Fort in India. A fort stood on this location for a thousand years, but the current fort dates to the Mughal Empire when Agra was the capital of India. Its most famous occupant was Shah Jahan, who built the nearby Taj Mahal as a tomb for his empress, Mumtaz. This photo of two beautiful Indian women was taken near the marble balcony where it is said that Shah Jahan died, gazing at the Taj Mahal where Mumtaz was buried.

Bonus photo after the jump.