Tag Archives: Chicago

Leadership

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Mosaic Fragment with Leopard, Byzantine, northern Syria, 450/500

Mosaic Fragment with Leopard, Byzantine, northern Syria, 450/500

The powerful figure of a striding leopard fills this fragment of a floor stone in mortar mosaic. It is said to come from what is now modern Homs, Syria. Images of hunting or striding figures on the prowl were popular in this region as decoration for civic buildings, as well as for wealthy homes. Interest in hunting scenes in mid-fifth-century Syria was sparked by art influences from the nearby Persian Empire.

Before Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, he didn’t first form a focus group, take a poll or hold an offsite to discuss his decision. He just did it. He overthrew the Roman Republic and installed himself as dictator. Later he paid the ultimate price for his actions, “Et tu, Brute?”, but his kind went on to rule Rome for hundreds of years afterwards. Now, I would not advocate or even condone such a threat to American democracy, but still like most Americans I daily subject myself to someone else’s dictatorial whims, when I go to work. In the workplace the boss dictates and unless you are self-employed, you obey, such is the lot of a modern wage slave. In his think piece, Slaves or wage slaves – Incentives, rewards, bonuses and bonding experiences – Roman slave owners were the first management theorists, Jerry Toner wrote for Aeon comparing and contrasting the ancient Roman master / slave relationship with today’s manager / worker.

Awimbawe

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The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

David posted on Facebook the question, “Have you ever been so bored that you’ve found yourself scouring the internet for the best remixes of The Lion Sleeps Tonight?” I guess that he is just marking time this week in school, before his field trip to a conference in Baltimore this weekend. His Facebook post was enough though to launch me on this post. Originally recorded in 1939, in Zulu, and under various titles, this song was repeatedly covered, including by the Weavers, until in 1961 the Tokens struck gold with The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Disney eventually made it platinum when it included it as part of their movie The Lion King. I’ve always loved the song too.

Staying with the African lion theme, I’ve chosen a rather stylized photo of the man-eaters of Tsavo. These two maneless male lions terrorized a British railway building project in 1896. British Army construction engineer J.H. Patterson eventually hunted down the two lions, but not before they had killed over a hundred people. This story was told in the movie, The Ghosts in the Darkness, starring Val Kilmer as Patterson, with Michael Douglas as the professional hunter Charles Remington, who was sent for to aid Patterson. Patterson used the lions skins as rugs, before eventually selling them to the Chicago Field museum. The lions were reconstructed and remain on display there now.

Crinkly Butt

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Haitian Vodou Vévé

Haitian Vodou Vévé

Before a Vodou ceremony, Haitians draw a Vévé, or a sacred symbol, corresponding to the spirit that they are going to invoke. Last year, the Field Museum had an exhibit on the Vodou religion. It was very informative, but I’m afraid that my opinions of voodoo had long since been cast and calcified by watching too many B-movies about zombies.

Betsy Connell: [Noticing Alma having difficulty trying to lead a stubborn horse] Alma, try it this way… Turn your back on him. You see, that’s the way it is with a horse: you can’t lead him and look at him at the same time.
Alma – Maid: [Chuckles] Sounds sorta’ man-like, don’t it?

The preceding bit of dialog is from the 1943 horror movie classic, I Walked with a Zombie. But before you think me too harsh for wanting to put a voodoo hex on my scintillating wife, Anne, let me tell you about what happened this morning. She was playing solitaire on the computer, when I sat down next to her to put my shoes on. I had already filled my pockets with the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life, wallet, keys, phone, etc. and a Cliff Bar in my back pocket. Every time I moved, the bar’s wrapper would make a crinkling sound. Anne noticed this straight away and asked, “Why is your butt crinkling?” I explained about the bar, but every time I moved, the sound would recur. At first it only elicited giggles, but that soon devolved into outright taunts, “Crinkly butt! Crinkly butt! Markie has a crinkly butt.” In her defense, she has been associating with too many other immature people lately, read first graders and I think that some of their immaturity has rubbed off on her.

Shoes tied, I put on my coat and went outside to de-ice the cars. I should note that Anne had spent so much time taunting me, while playing solitaire that she was still in her PJs. Our overnight snowstorm had as is all too usual, degenerated into an ice storm. I had been a Good Samaritan the previous night and lent my ice scraper to a colleague. He had borrowed his wife’s mini-van so that he could pick-up their children from daycare. For some reason she had left her scraper behind in the garage. My car door opened easily and I initiated the thawing process with some egregious idling. I then turned my attention to Anne’s car, first because I’m a nice guy, even if I do say so myself, but also since I had lent out my scraper, she had the only one left.

Her car is almost twenty years old, so the weather-stripping on it is a bit worn. Last winter, during another ice storm, she was struggling to open her car door when some man passed by. He offered to help. This not so Good Samaritan broke the door handle off and in a parting remark added, “Well, I tried to help.” I got the key in the door lock and was able to turn it and was rewarded with the pleasant sound of the electric door locks clicking, but the doors were frozen solid. I went back inside to get a screwdriver in order to pry a door open. I worked for about five minutes, trying all of the doors, working them seemingly free, but none of them would open. I was about ready to try the trunk, crawl through it into the back seat when I decided to try the key again. The doors had been locked, Anne had left them unlocked the night before. I fired up Anne’s car and grabbed the scraper. I had just finished cleaning my car and was working on hers when Anne came out of the house.

Since we only had one scraper, I decided to leave the rest of the work to her. We kissed and then I made my fatal mistake. I asked her if she had brushed her teeth. She said that she had. I remarked that she had a lot of plaque on her teeth and asked her when her next dentist appointment was. It is in a month, but people, never criticize another person’s dental hygiene unless you are a floss Nazi and have already inserted sharp metal tools into their mouth when you do it. She responded to my criticism with, “Crinkly butt! Crinkly butt! Markie has a crinkly butt.” You see, my problem is that I love this black magic woman, who has got me so blind that I cannot see that she is trying to make a devil out of me, with apologies to Carlos Santana.

Mars, Like a Warm Wet Kiss

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MOOOOONWALK, part of Cows on Parade, by Craig Wartman

MOOOOONWALK, part of Cows on Parade, by Craig Wartman

Last night, Anne, Joanie and I attended Washington University’s January Science on Tap lecture by its own Professor Raymond E. Arvidson. The title of his talk was Early Mars: Warm, Wet, and Habitable. In his talk, Dr. Arvidson asserted that at one time there was free-flowing water on the surface of Mars and that the conditions for life existed there, like three to four billion years ago, but he was not willing to venture so far as to assert that there was free-flowing beer on the surface of Mars, even if he was giving his talk at the Schlafly Bottleworks, where there was plenty of beer flowing.

There were horrible audio-visual issues, one could either use the microphone of the projector, but not both simultaneously. Arvidson manage to rise above these technical difficulties and carry on. Then there was the issue of the new seating arrangement. The chairs up front were fine, but the long rows of tables, oriented perpendicular to the direction of the speaker meant that half of those people sitting at these tables had to somehow squirm around, in very tight quarters. The geriatric nature of the audiences at these Science on Tap lectures are not very conducive to squirming. I think that orienting the tables, in shorter rows, but parallel to the direction of the speaker, would be better. Also apparently, the fire marshal had taken issue with past overcrowding at these events. A ticketing system was instituted. I don’t think that anyone was turned away, but I cannot be sure. “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

It was a great talk, on a subject of keen personal interest. Dr. Arvidson and his team have been and continue to be involved with the myriad of Mars probes, past, present and future. His talk keyed-in on the two still active Mars rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. Opportunity and its twin Spirit were launched years ago. Both rovers have by now, far exceeded their original warranties. Spirit eventually got stuck in sand and was abandoned in place. Opportunity is still operational, even if it now suffers from both Alzheimer’s and arthritis. After each nightly shutdown, to conserve power, its memory has to be reloaded the next morning. Its mechanical arm has lost enough degrees of motion that it now has to traverse the planet’s surface in what looked like to me as a Hitler salute. The new kid on the block is Curiosity and she is a she. Compared to its predecessors, she is a behemoth. Arvidson was able to tell us what these two still active rovers would be doing that night, today and tomorrow, in great detail. It was a great talk! Plus, the Q&A session after his talk was good too. During this part, Arvidson was able to speculate on Mars projects yet to come.

Green-Eyed Toad

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Green-Eyed Toad

Green-Eyed Toad

I heard a new term of art today for the evolving New England Patriots scandal, Ballghazi. Still no word yet, whether or not Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be jumping on this investigative bandwagon too. In a press conference today, Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, weighed in on the controversy. The following paragraph is a mashup of Brady press conference quotes about balls. One thing you have to admit about this situation, no matter which side that you are on, this is some of the best Super Bowl hype ever.

“Our equipment guys do a great job of breaking the balls. To me they’re perfect. … I don’t want anyone rubbing ’em. … I wouldn’t want anyone touching those. … Whatever feels good that day … I’m not squeezing the balls. It’s not part of my process. … Breaking the balls. … Some guys like old balls. … I tell them how great they are.”

The photo with this post is of a toad not a Tom. This particular toad, well frog actually, but toad has more alliteration here than frog. Anyway, this organism has been genetically modified. The frog’s eyes are green because scientists inserted a jellyfish gene into the frogs’ DNA. Scientists engineered the gene so that it would only work in the eye. Hence, this post’s title, “Green-Eyed Toad”.

I’ve been having problems lately with another green-eyed toad. This one yells at me a lot and for no good reason, at least as far as I can see. He’ll also physically brush me aside in the hall, if I don’t jump out of his way. In short, he is a bully. None of this behavior is overt enough to warrant me calling him out on it, because I’d have to have a much better case than I have now to go down that route. I’ll just have to bide my time and keep a wary eye over my shoulder. Besides time is on my side. I expect that his past will soon catch up with him.