lovely, dark and deep

For some two decades Gary Kasparov was widely recognized as the world’s greatest living chess player.  Then, in 2005, Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess to dedicate his attention to advocating for democracy in Russia.  Kasparov is chairman of the “2008: Free Choice” Committee. 

On April 14 of this year, Kasparov was arrested, along with scores of other pro-democracy/anti-Putin demonstrators, in Moscow’s Red Square.  Kasparov was released after being detained for several hours.

Of late, Putin’s Russia has been stepping back from earlier democratic advances, perhaps most obvious in tighter controls on the press.  At the same time there have been rumblings suggestive of a renewed animosity toward the West, which may well play out in Cold War II.

Putin, the former KGB head, is not a man to cross.  The case in point being the brash and ghastly polonium poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London late last year, with all fingers pointing to the Kremlin. 

In the match of spymaster vs. chessmaster, my money is on spymaster.  Kasparov is a genius.  He must understand the danger in which he places himself by so visibly and vocally opposing Putin, particularly while on Russian soil.  I just hope Kasparov realizes this is no game and his foe has no qualms with murder.  Or torture.

Although, with Russian police officers like this, Kasparov might want to get arrested a few more times.

Has there ever been and will there ever be as perfect and beautiful a singer of the great American songbook as Ella Fitzgerald?  No less an authority than Frank Sinatra called Ella the greatest singer he ever heard.  She was one love-filled singin’ creature.

A cursory glance around reveals that in 50 years we’ve gone from Ella Fitzgerald to Britney Spears.  That is not progress.  That is shameful.

I’ve slowly been acquiring the earliest CD pressings of Ella’s on the Verve label, mastered by the generally excellent Dennis Drake.  Most are out of print, though I find they sound better than the newer remasters. 

But if you want the best-sounding songbook-era Ella there is on CD, you must find a copy of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook on the DCC label, mastered by the uniformly brilliant Steve Hoffman.  It is out of print and scarce as hen’s teeth.  Expect to pay around $250 for the 2-CD set, if you can find someone willing to part with it. 

If you listen to vinyl, then get the songbook LPs cut by Kevin Gray on the Speakers Corner label.  All of them.

Now sit back and enjoy.

For some 4,000 years, the Lord has been demanding the foreskins of newborn Jewish males (that would be a mere 1,400 or so years for newborn Muslim males).  He must have a very large collection by now.  I imagine it’s on display in some celestial foreskin museum.  I suppose it was both magnanimous and selfish of him not to demand the testicles also, as it would have served as a form of self-imposed term limitation, ensuring the sterility of his followers. 

Had the Lord instead demanded the left earlobe of each newborn male, would the edict still be honored today, I wonder?  And so, tradition makes idiots of men.

Apparently, household pets have greater rights than people in this regard.  If you circumcised your dog, in this state at least, it could be considered cruelty to animals, defined as the intentional or knowing infliction of unnecessary physical injury to any animal (a misdemeanor) or the intentional or knowing cruel mistreatment of any animal (a felony). 

Sure, criminal assault laws apply to the infliction of physical injury on another person, but the infant is not considered a victim because of the parents’ consent.  Arguably, what the infant could have is a civil cause of action against the parents and the mohel for the tort of battery and the infant could have until shortly after reaching the age of 18 to file.  I’d love to see it.

Why this absurd and unthinking brutalization, this ritual (or medical) torture, of infant males’ bodies continues to be tolerated when female genital mutilation is widely condemned, I struggle to comprehend.  Granted, female genital mutilation as practiced is the more severe, but in the same way that amputation of an arm is more severe than amputation of just a hand.

If an adult male chooses to be circumcised, so be it.  But for parents of any belief system to force this barbaric and permanent corporal mutilation upon their unwitting sons, who have zero say in the matter, is disgusting.  Sorry, that it’s what your ancestors have been doing since they were cavemen is no excuse.

Let me put it this way, if the Lord didn’t want your son to have a foreskin, he wouldn’t have been born with one. 

Yes, I know research suggests circumcision can reduce the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.  Newsflash: there are readily available alternatives that don’t require the removal of a part of the body. 

I know of no other primate that practices circumcision and, aside from being brought to the brink of extinction by habitat destruction, they seem to be doing just fine, thank you.

If any of you know where I can find a certain mohel, I have a very special gift for him.  And it’s not a Vermont teddy bear.

That’s right.  Thanks to inflation and high commodity prices all those lowly nickels you have lying around in jars and dishes and who knows where else just got a promotion.  They’re each worth $0.0940411 (as of today), nearly a dime, based on the value of their metal content. 

Hold on there, you say, do you mean I could hoard nickels in my basement, build a smelter, and melt my way to riches?  Not so fast, amigo.  Your United States government has made it illegal to melt nickels (and pennies) or export them for melting. 

Its justification for the new law is the real kicker.  “We don’t want to see our pennies and nickels melted down so a few individuals can take advantage of the American taxpayer,” said U.S. Mint director Ed Moy. 

At least he speaks from experience.  If anyone should know about taking advantage of the American taxpayer, it’s the U.S. government.  Since 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has decreased by 96%. 

Heaven forbid a person tries to recoup a few lousy percent of the dollar destruction by melting some nickels.  We can’t have that.  No, sirree.

Melt a nickel and you face up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $10,000.  What do the people who destroyed the value of the dollar face?  Champagne and caviar?

Let’s see, melt a nickel, generally regarded as being worth $0.05, and spend 5 years in federal prison at a cost of roughly $150,000 to the American taxpayer.  Brilliant policy.

All of this begs the question why the U.S. Mint continues to make nickels made of nickel when it’s a money losing proposition.  One would hope the Mint had foresight and years ago entered into long-term contracts for the purchase of nickel at a low price.

Undoubtedly, the nickel nickel’s days are numbered.  Maybe they’ll replace the nickel with tin and call it the tinkle.  Poor Tom.

Most people, I think, would not go outside looking like this.  This man attends his trial like this. 

I have no idea specifically what Phil Spector is accused of doing.  (Although from the agonizing few minutes per workout my gym compels me to watch the venomous Nancy Grace while I’m on the Lifecycle [human hamster wheel], I gather it has something to do with murder.  For all I know he went off on his poodle groo–, uh, stylist after what you see up there happened.)  This notwithstanding, if I were on the jury, and that man walked into court with that hair, I would have to vote not guilty.  As a matter of principle. 

This is a brilliant defense strategy.  Though not entirely without precedent.

This site was born today.  Its name is taken from the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost.  The poem was first published in Frost’s New Hampshire, in 1923.  The above photograph of Frost is by Alfred Eisenstaedt, from 1955.  The image in the sidebar is Icy Night, a photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz, from 1898.  It appeared in Volume IV of Stieglitz’s periodical, Camera Work, in 1903.