Always at my back I hear

One suspects that Frank Gilbreth (the original Cheaper by the Dozen) became the father of Motion Study because he realized he did not have much time. (He died young of a heart attack, leaving behind a dozen fatherless children.)

The truth is, God has not given any of us much time, so we had better make the most of it, and take advantage of whatever efficiencies we can.

Hiatus

It's been a long time since I last visited my weblog, but between work, the baby, and the Thanksgiving holiday, there has been little time for writing. I even had to pass on my little help manual for the GNOME System Monitor to someone else to update, since I could not meet the Thanksgiving deadline.

In addition, it is sometimes discouraging to go back over what one wrote in previous posts and realize how trite or stale it reads. Perhaps it should be some consolation that as I read my book about Coleridge -- The Road to Xanadu -- it becomes clear that Coleridge wrote some pretty turgid verse on the way to his three great poems.

In Memoriam

HollandSentinel.com -Family, colleagues remember educator 04/21/03

"K. Don "Jake" Jacobusse spent much of his life teaching or leading schools around the country, but the impact of his expertise and passion for education can be felt locally as well, said some of his family and former colleagues this weekend."

It is with genuine sadness that I learned today of the death of my tenth grade English teacher, "Jake" Jacobusse. At 70, I am sure he still showed more zest for life than most people do in their twenties. For all the suggestion of scandal that trailed in Jake's wake, his presence in the classroom was electrifying. His mind was constantly inquiring, never accepting orthodoxy or authority, the source both of his inspiration and some of his difficulties over the years. It was appropriate that Jake introduced me to one of my favorite restaurants, the Church in Stratford, Ontorio, home of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Next time I am there, I shall be sure to tlife a glass in memory of a man who combined the scholar with the bon vivant.

In the Dark

Day 4, and PEPCO still has not restored power. Unlike Northern Virginia, at least Maryland has water.

Retrospective

I have just spent an enjoyable half hour reading some of Unbillable Hours' back issues. I liked his observations about film music: as far as I can tell, the movies are all that is keeping classical music alive. Not that there isn't an audience for museum pieces, but the traditional sources of support for classical composers -- other than films -- mostly seem to have dried up by the beginning of the twentieth century. Most new orchestral music seems to be written for the movies.

Books and Choices

I used to look at the body of literature as a vast plain spread out before me, where I was free to wander wherever I pleased. It feels now as though I am stocking a small room, and each new book leaves less room for the next.

I suppose that a growing sense of how time is in short supply is an inevitable consequence of growing older, and that one grows to appreciate more with each passing year the importance of making intelligent choices about how to spend it. In my case, however, this sense competes with a somewhat cavalier approach to life's organizational tasks.

Baby taste

The baby has begun to show marked tastes in music. First, she likes brass. Lots of it. This means that she also has a taste for jazz. In addition, she's a sucker for the folky Quebecois rythms of La Bottine Souriante.

Only the blog

Christopher Lydon :

'It's only the blog that makes his wife a little jealous. "You have to follow your passion on this," Ed Cone said. "You spend time on stuff you love, and good things happen." '

It is important to keep a sense of priorities about the things one loves, however.

Work

I have an oral argument tomorrow in U.S. District Court, so I am out of the blogging loop for another day or two.

The Minstrel

Canadian singer and teacher Peter Shaw, whom I am honored to call a good friend, was recently interviewed by Australian radio about his life as an Australian expatriate in Canada for the past 34 years. Peter has a one-man mission to educate Canadians (and some Americans) about Australia. He says that the question he is most often asked is whether Australians fear the poisonous snakes, but he is forced to answer that the only snakes he has seen are in zoos.

Fatigue

I know that I am tired when I do not want to watch more than the first half of the Graduate (showing tonight on A&E). I got as far as Dustin Hoffman lazing in the swimming pool after his first (hilariously embarrassing) tryst with the sultry Ann Bancroft. Much of the rest of the evening has been spent lulling the baby to sleep, and now it's almost time for me to sleep also. My wife is not so lucky; she's likely to be up half the night with the baby.

Last Gasp

After the fireworks, we came back inside and watched Boston's celebration on television. Boston had the Boston Pops, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Lee Ann Rimes, with a much more traditional Independence Day program than Washington, including a stirring rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. One thing that was quite remarkable was how much Rachel obviously enjoyed the Sousa marches and other band pieces. The fireworks, which were launched from barges in the Charles River, were decidedly more spectacular, and the musical accompaniment better choreographed.

Going Fourth

I have just passed a lovely 38th birthday, the first in the company of both my wife and my daughter, now eight weeks old. I received telephone calls from my in-laws, my sister, my parents, my best friend in Alabama, and my brother. Gayle and Rachel gave me a burr coffee grinder -- which grinds to eighteen different grades -- and a new coffee maker with a thermos rather than a hot plate, so that the coffee stays hot but does not burn. Gayle cooked a shrimp and sausage pasta salad for dinner, and we had marble cake and chocolate chip ice cream. The three of us watched the Chieftains, complete with step dancers, a musical salute to composer John Williams, and Dolly Parton on television, and then we stepped into the street in front of our house to see the Wheaton fireworks.