We Aren't Going to Make This Easy

 

About one-third of those people waiting for their $600 stimulus payment have not received it, due to an error wherein it was sent to a temporary account set up by their last year's tax preparer (TurboTax, H&R Block, for example) and then bounced back to the IRS.  Actually, an error or two is understandable given the very short time they had to get the program out.  What is not understandable is the answer people got upon visiting the IRS website to find out what was going on (the foregoing information not being available):  "Payment Status #2 -- Not Available."  What that was, of course, was not defined.  (It means " when your $600 is returned to us by the old tax preparer, you must claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2020 tax return to be filed after the end of January 2021").  Even if you understood that's what "Payment Status #2" meant, which you would not, how would the average person preparing their own return know to claim that to finally receive their stimulus,  sometime in the Spring after they had gone bankrupt from unpaid bills ?

Bad design, in the software programming/web design world or of physical things is design that doesn't work for normal people, doesn't make sense and is not clear or intuitive.   Is that too much to ask, and why must things be so frustrating, so Byzantine, for no good reason? 

 Compare the current-day car dashboard, if it can be called that, with the one just above.  A study showed that most people only use six of the information screen's hundreds of functions hidden behind one menu after another.  Heaven has forbidden, it seems,  that words or understandable abbreviations be used instead of obscure and silly icons. 

The digital speed display is much more clear and easy to read quickly than an old-fashioned analog dial.  However, while looking at the information screen which is not directly in front of you for five seconds, at 65 miles per hour, means you have gone 475 feet with your eyes off the road.  "Danger, Will Robinson!"  

Now I will freely admit to being Old School, and we all prefer what we're familiar with, past days being so much better and all that.  But I'm not reactionary, afraid of change or unimpressed by the rapid positive advances we encounter each year, like solar power, electric vehicles, better medicine or even those potentially life-saving home security or auto backup cameras.  And quick home delivery of practically anything we might want or need?  Yes, please. 

But things do not have to be done so badly!

 

What Are Belgians Doing In The Amargosa Desert?

                                                     There's something eerie about ghost towns
 

We did country reports for a few years in school, and mine for 6th grade was about Belgium.  I figured because it is a small country, it could be covered fairly well without leaving too much un-reported on.  The cover sported a hand painted national flag in shiny enamel and the title carefully lettered in white (it was only seven letters; glad I didn't pick Turkmenistan!).  Inside were postage stamps, a Belgian coin or two, and a recipe for brioche along with as much entertaining data as would fit -- my first multimedia production, considering the limited resources available at the time.

So it was quite a thrill for a much older former 6th grader to visit this jewel of a country a few years ago; the absolute highlight being a few days in the small medieval city of Bruges where the people were as mannerly, helpful and obviously intelligent as one could hope for.   We would gladly just have stayed and not come back at all.  However, Charles Albert Szukalski, a sculptor, did leave this green and delightful nation to go to what seems the unlikeliest place possible: the ghost town of Rhyolite in the vast Nevada desert (the town was named after an igneous rock, but a 1904 gold discovery was its reason for being out there). And Charles Albert's reason to be there?

In 1984, he installed "The Last Supper," a group of white, ghostly figures made of plaster, fabric and fiberglass arranged as in the daVinci fresco.  Szukalski purchased almost eight acres of land to establish the Goldwell Open Air Museum and then  recruited three other Belgian sculptors to add their inspirations.  As he created two more works, the spooky bicyclist "Ghost Rider" and "Desert Flower" (made of car parts), they contributed:

"Lady Desert" - Hugo Heyrman

"Icara" - Andre Peeters

"Tribute to Shorty Harris" - Fred Beruoets. (Shorty was the prospector who made the gold discovery)

"Sit Here!" by Solie Siegmann was moved from a Las Vegas museum to join the quirky outdoor gallery.

   

In 2000, after the founder's passing, an artists' work space, gallery and visitors' center was established in a new red barn-like building. 

 After watching "Breaking Bad" or the movie "Casino," we always say, "Nothing good happens in the desert!"  But sometimes, something good does.  

  

Headroom

 

                                        Our old friend Max

A few years ago, an organization called TreeVitalize planted trees along one side of 10th Street in the next town to the north, and it was quite an improvement for that light industrial/retail strip which before did not have much to brag about aesthetically.  But...they were planted on the side with the power lines.  They have since grown, as one would expect them to, right up through the telephone cables on their way up to the electrical ones at the top.  In a few more years, the trimming trucks and crews will be at work chopping them down to size (that is, mutilating them).  Trees need headroom, as do people and even businesses

Businesses usually have to grow and evolve to survive, sometimes becoming very different in the process -- Toyota began with making looms! Harley Davidson just introduced a line of electric bicycles, seeing a growing market where their traditional one is shrinking.  The railroads, faced with a major change in freight movement with the advent of the Interstate system, forgot they were in the transport, not just rail, business for a while but eventually learned to move cargo containers and even the trailers from semi trucks on their flat cars.   Others just can't adapt. The formerly premier auto brand Packard sold a few of their last model in 1956 then sadly left the stage.  They did have new product ideas, but not soon enough, and lacked the capital to implement them in any case.   No headroom, like the trees. 

Humans can start life with opportunities or make them for themselves. They can be limited to little growth by their economic or social situation, the latter often being a matter of religious or political restraints throughout their environment wherein everything is prepackaged; further exploration or thinking not being encouraged or even tolerated.  A few, regardless of where they came from, like daVinci, Alexander the Great, Michael Jordan or even entrepreneurs Musk and Branson, are phenomena, seemingly never running out of headroom.  Wildly successful artists like Picasso, the Beatles or Zane Grey (90 still-popular books to his credit) sought out new experiences, forms of expression and life experiences in order to keep growing and remain vital, brushing limitations aside.  All of them had a rough beginning in poverty and/or rejection, but saw the blue sky above them, and not a ceiling.

 

 

The Tontine

I found, a few years ago, a life insurance certificate showing a $1000 policy taken out on my mother by hers in the early 1930s.  The practice back then was for an agent to stop weekly and collect 25 cents or so.  I guess it was allowed to lapse, because the successor company had no record of it (the result I expected).  The certificate was fancy enough to keep, it seems.

We might think of personal security plans such as retirement funds, life insurance and annuities as rather modern, but various forms have been developed over hundreds of years.  Benevolent societies have provided security in the form of burial insurance and old-age homes before Social Security, and those of more substantial means have had access to trusts, inheritances and such devices as the Tontine.

What?  That word sounds like it refers to a local church officer, like a beadle or sexton.  It is, however, a strange stew of lottery, insurance and annuity, and has been around since before Lorenzo Tonti (now we get the name) proposed it to the royal government of France in 1653 as a fund raising idea (Louis XIV spent huge sums on continental wars and was always in search of cash)  It was officially offered to the public in the Netherlands in 1670 and in France in 1689, unfortunately for Lorenzo, after he had died.

The idea is that subscribers contribute an amount to build the fund and the government paid out regular interest as with the Treasury bonds we are familiar with.  Due to growth of investments, the annuity increases as participants pass away and are paid no more.  The macabre end of the scheme is that the last surviving subscriber takes everything remaining.  That this process might induce some to bump others off before them was actually the storyline of a 1996 Simpsons episode, in which Mr. Burns attempts to do exactly that to Grandpa Abe.

Tontines were quite popular for a century and a half, but as people learned how to game the system they fell out of favor.  The plan is still legal and in use today, and there is talk of broadly reviving it.  It was also widely used later on to fund building projects such as hotels and the Tontine Coffee House on New York City's Wall Street (1792) -- the first home of the NYSE, believe it or not.

                                             

                              Original home of the NY Stock Exchange

Some people are grasshoppers, living day to day, and some are ants, always planning ahead.  It's generally better for you the more the ant type you are, but as they say, people plan and the gods just laugh.

Cast Away on the Demon Isle

 

Marguerite de la Roque was a 27-year-old wealthy landowner in the Kingdom of France who in 1542 boarded a flotilla of three ships filled with 200 people, including a few other women and children, setting sail for the New World in an attempt to once again found a colonial settlement.  Previous attempts had failed miserably, and once an entire ship disappeared into the North Atlantic, with all hands, on its way.  We will not ever know why she left her comfortable life to do that, except that the expedition was headed by her uncle (some say cousin), Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, a distinguished nobleman and soldier personally selected by King Francis I to be "Lieutenant-General" of New France.  Jacques Cartier, much more able and the more obvious choice for leader, was subordinated to be ship captain and pilot.

Marguerite never made it.

 On the seven week voyage westward, she became involved with a young gentleman on board and scandalized the others, but especially embarrassed her uncle, which was a big mistake. After landing on the southern shore of Newfoundland, the Sieur Roberval decided to maroon the pregnant Marguerite, her lover and her maid Bastienne on the legendary Isle of Demons as fit punishment.  It was well-known to be infested with malignant, evil spirits and ships avoided going near it after hearing the demons' howls whirling around.  The castaways were provided with muskets and some supplies, and were last seen standing on the forlorn shore as the ships left to sail down the St. Lawrence River to the site of today's Quebec City.  Punishment was harsh in those times, especially when dealt out by someone whose entire character was stern, haughty and unyielding.  During the one-year life of the new settlement, Roberval hanged a petty thief, put miscreants in irons and whipped both men and women.  One survivor of the expedition, on his return to France, said six men were shot in one day.

While the Isle appeared on maps from 1508 to 1556, it was one of many imaginary lands portrayed not as actual discoveries but as a result of mistakes, fancy and invention or outright lies.  They did make the maps more interesting; truth in reporting was pretty secondary.  Many were set between Ireland and the coasts of North America.  One of the most fantastic was Hy-Brasil, west of Ireland, depicted repeatedly  for five centuries. The enduring legend was that a sorcerer lived there, immortal, accompanied by giant black rabbits.  You can fool some of the people...

Quirpon Island

It is thought that the actual location of the marooning was Quirpon Island, to the far north end of Newfoundland.  It is quite a way from the south shore where the ships made landfall, but there are no records to explain anything to us today.

 On the rocky island, Marguerite and her small party, in no way experienced settlers or prepared to survive winters, built a hut and shot and skinned bears for food and furs.  Scurvy, due to lack of fresh food, killed many in previous attempts at colonization in Canada, and Death had many other threats besides.  Her newborn child, her lover and her maid all died in turn, leaving Marguerite on her own.  At the end of two years, a fishing boat saw smoke rising, and conquering their deep fear of the demons, the crew rescued her after two unimaginably hard years.

Roberval met his end in Paris, beaten to death in the streets during an altercation.  Marguerite did better upon returning to her old life in France, telling her story to many wide-eyed listeners.

    

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"Feelin' Ain't Bein' "

 

You probably remember or have seen the iconic 1971 Coca-Cola television commercial about "teaching the world to sing" while sharing a Coke.  It was almost a mini-movie with a large international cast and a very cool location on an Italian hillside.  Despite being an advertisement, a brief experience generally as welcome as a pebble in your shoe, it could be called well-loved because it elicited such warm emotions, right up there with kittens, puppies and Clydesdale horses.  And once your emotions are at the forefront, your reason takes a break.  Think about that TV spot for a few moments, and all that good feeling was really about selling you a drink made of carbon dioxide, sugar, brown dye, caffeine and flavorings.  Emotional manipulation will lead or drive you to do things which are not in your best interest at all.

 The title above refers to one of the two things I remember that were on the walls of the tiny front office of WFMV-FM (classical music station in Richmond, VA, long gone).  One was a big grinning frog face ("Frog Music of Virginia" was our inside joke), the other was that hard to parse three-word aphorism.  I think our manager, Mr. Bill Massie, put it there, but I never did get the chance to ask him where it came from or really meant. I decided over the years that it meant don't be led by your emotions; use your head instead.

Scam and con artists have taken full advantage of the public this year of the viral pandemic and angry mobs at rallies and in the streets.  With all sorts of emotion engulfing us and making it hard to think clearly, we are easy targets for everyone from propagandists to ad people to that one percent of the population who are psychopaths.  And they're all very experienced at exploiting our fears and vulnerabilities.  From a recent magazine article:  Strong emotions can hijack our logical reasoning.  Fraudsters say the key to cheating people is to get them into a heightened emotional state so they can easily be manipulated.

So, what to do?  

There are ways to carefully and thoughtfully find a healthy balance to resist this onslaught.  Work on consciously repressing and controlling your negative emotions.  Back off and refresh yourself (I find nature, animals and music -- not all types, for sure -- do work).  And you, in distancing, can find some humor in others' crude attacks.  Keep your armor on. Make the effort to learn, adapt and change in order to put today's conditions into perspective and master your own reactions.  If you have a big purpose in life to propel you forward, great; if you can't quite think of one, just plant, improve or fix something. Thousands of waving flags, whether in North Korea, Nazi Germany, Red Square or on pickup trucks recently can't have any power over you if you are master of your domain (not exactly what they meant on Seinfeld, but I think that describes you in your armor).

"Listen to Your Heart"  was a popular song you probably heard on the car radio. But also know where your lane is and don't be fooled into driving into the ditch.

 

 

Go Time

 

I remember a quote from the Cold War era in which an American military official stated that while the Soviets played chess in war, the U.S. played poker.  Chess is a tactical game, where the action is visible and domination is key.  I guess that individual was thinking that flexibility gives an edge that is more difficult to counter.  Sun Tzu had a lot of insight into strategy above and beyond tactics which he developed after much experience on the ground. This sage general hasn't been proven wrong over the centuries, either.

Chinese gentlemen scholars had to master four arts:  painting, calligraphy, the guqin (a 7-string zither) and wei ch'i ("the surrounding game"), which we know as Go, after the Japanese word for it. It has a 3000 year history and a long and deep cultural influence  Someone else, I wish I remembered who, said that the revolutionary leaders of China and Vietnam understood strategy and tactics through the lens of this game.  I wonder if they had studied it at our service academies and senior colleges, whether it would have better prepared the military for Asian land wars (which General Eisenhower said we should avoid).  

Unlike chess, Go begins with an empty board with a grid of lines, the boards ranging from full-size 19"x19" to a compact 9"x9".  Black or white stones are placed in turn by either player anywhere on this grid (there are 361 intersections on the large board).  The point is to claim and expand territory, attacking weaker groups while surrounding and neutralizing your opponent's forces.  (Once placed, unlike in war, a stone cannot be moved again until it is captured). Does this maneuvering  remind you of Grant's Vicksburg campaign, the Chinese Civil War in 1948/49, Vo Nguyen Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu or Hannibal at Cannae?  Cover the battle area with dense vegetation and mountain mist, as in Vietnam, and you have a lethal combination of Go and poker.  

There are several interesting states the play can go to in some areas of the board such as seki, or mutual life, in which neither player wants to move any of his group due to danger of capture.  Both groups remain alive but in stasis.  The Japanese term atari (sound familiar?) means a successful attack, or literally "to hit the target," when the fatal blow to a threatened group is stuck.  And there are old traditions to be observed, like picking up the stones between the fore- and second fingers, delicately and deadly like a spider moving in.

So, future strategists, don't pass Go.

 

Blocking one side at the DMZ, and attacking from one other side:  one of the principles of Go.