ndrosen

At two something AM this morning, the fire alarm went off in my apartment building. I put on shoes and a coat, and carried some reading material to the next building, meeting a few firemen on my way through the ground floor corridors. It was snowing out. I came back after a while, by which point the incident was over, and in due course went to bed.

I have been doing some serious napping this afternoon.

On Friday night, October 31, I celebrated Halloween candy consumption by eating a few dark chocolate chips after dinner. There used to be trick-or-treating in the apartment complex, but that was years ago.

Saturday evening, I saw several adults in costume; there seems to have been a big costume party in a neighboring building.

I’m glad that I checked my email this afternoon, as there was a message from apartment management that the water would be shut off at around 6:00 PM, and stay off until about four in the morning. I rinsed off my salad greens in advance, and also an apple to pack with lunch (I teleworked today, but will be going in to the office Wednesday). I have bottled water for washing, and borsch to reheat for dinner. The last time there was a situation like this, the water was back on before 4:00 AM, and I hope that history repeats itself.

There is an aphorism: “First rate men try to surround themselves with first rate men. Second rate men try to surround themselves with third rate men. Third rate men try to surround themselves with fifth rate men.”

If you have ever wondered what kind of people a fifth rate man tries to surround himself with, follow the news about the current administration.

I sent something to my sister by first class mail, and she was concerned because after well over a week, she had not received it. Then she let me know that it finally arrived on Friday the 20th.

I mailed a donation to the Center for the Study of Economics back in May, and recently exchanged emails with the Executive Director, asking why the check had not been deposited. He said that he had never received it, so I have now mailed a duplicate check.

These kinds of screwups with the Postal Service didn’t use to be common. Is it just chance that there have been two incidents of unsatisfactory service lately? Is the Postal Service getting worse due to sclerosis and laziness, without a political cause? Or are the problems which I have experienced the result of a deliberate effort by Trumpists to degrade operations, so as to prevent mail-in ballots from arriving, or at least from arriving in a timely fashion?

As the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.

Slate.com has weekday quizzes, on history, culture, science, and the news; readers can get a higher or lower score based on how many questions they answer correctly, and how quickly they choose their answers. I often take a quiz of one of the first three kinds; I have never been in top place, but my scores are generally above average, and sometimes place me in the top fifty, or even the top ten.

Thursday morning, there was a science quiz, in which I, Nicholas Rosen, B.A., M.S., Ph.D., an author or co-author of several scientific papers, scored lower than the average quiz taker, which ought to keep my ego in check.

Maybe I can do better on a culture quiz; it depends on whether the quiz emphasizes Greek mythology and other classics, or knowledge of movies and rock music.

Tuesday night, the water in my apartment building ceased to work, so I had to go to bed without a shower, and refrain from brushing my teeth or shaving Wednesday morning. I did have a few bottles of water, one of which I opened, so I didn’t perish from thirst, and was able to make tea in the morning. I had granola instead of hot oatmeal for breakfast.

Fortunately, the water was restored not long after I headed to the Patent Office, so the problem was only temporary. Nonetheless, this is a reminder of how we depend on technology and the work of others. Unlike my great-grandfather, I can’t just tell a child to fetch a pail of water from the well, or bring in some firewood for heat and light. If EMP or computer malware knocks out the country’s electricity or water systems, as well as the Internet, we will have big problems.

I would have posted earlier, but I had WiFi connection problems Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I’m just saying.

I posted more than two weeks ago that workmen would be coming to my apartment on Wednesday the 16th to fix water damage to the wall and ceiling of my apartment. They didn’t, but they finally showed up at around 9:00 AM on Wednesday, October 30th. I let them in, and worked with them to move some stuff, and then managed to catch the 9:20 shuttle bus, and go to work in the Patent Office complex in Carlyle, as planned. When I got back after a long day of work, I got to move some furniture and boxes back where they had been.

Anyway, the walls and ceiling have been repaired, so that’s good.

I get unsolicited email from Democrats, Trumpublicans, and Libertarians, from assorted scammers and blatherskites. Recently, I received an email that might count as a new low, had I never received unsolicited child porn: it was from “Pastor Paula White,” Trump’s spiritual advisor. She wanted me to chip in to build the wall.

Building a wall along the border would not keep aliens from entering the country legally, and then overstaying their visas, and it would likely soon decay (the small parts that were actually built did) unless regularly manned and kept in good repair. Then, one might expect some Christians to ask whether, if poor people try to enter our country to provide for themselves and their families by honest work, those words about “as you have done unto the least of these” might apply. If Paula the prosperity gospel gal has thought about that, the matter was not mentioned in her email.

Back on Friday, July 5, the Washington Post printed an article about the UK’s new Prime Minister, including the paragraph, “Starmer also worked pro bono for a pair of vegan anarchists who passed out leaflets accusing McDonalds of low wages, cruelty to animals and support of deforestation. The burger maker sued for libel, and the case and its many appeals lasted a decade, one of the longest legal fights in British history. It ended in a kind of draw.”

I remember the McLibel trial, as it was called. If I recall correctly, I chipped in a few dollars to assist the defendants, and I definitely remember writing an article about the case for the local vegetarian society in central Pennsylvania. A couple of middle class people who had homes to lose knuckled under and apologized to McDonalds, but the remaining leaflet distributors, who were poor to begin with, did not. The judge moved the goalposts, and required that the defendants prove the truth, not only of the allegations that were actually in the leaflets, but of other derogatory statements that were not. In consequence, McDonalds was able to “win” against people who were judgement proof, but earned a lot of bad publicity from the evidence introduced.

Kudos to Mr Keir Starmer (not yet knighted) for providing pro bono legal services to the targets of a bullying corporation.