New York City, Sept. 2013

In Central Park Link to five photos of Central Park.

I'm just back from a month with Victor in Yucatán.

The stay was interrupted by a short trip to New York City for 1.5 days of work at the College Board's offices. (I love being sufficiently retired to write that!)

When the APCS Reading was in New Jersey, in the late 1980s and again one year in the mid-2000s, I always extended the trip to visit New York. This time, I didn't want to further cut short my time with Victor to stay longer in NYC, so I only had one morning and one afternoon and evening free, and I spent most of that time in Central Park. The weather was great, as you can see in the photos.

Autographs - Daniel Vieyra

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

Dan and I attended Rice together. Dan is an architecture professor at Kent State.

Since leaving Rice, we've only gotten together a few times. Once, when he visited me in the 1970s in Los Angeles, we spent a good deal of time visiting gas stations he wanted to photograph for his upcoming book, "Fill 'Er Up": An Architectural History of America's Gas Stations

When I visited him in Trenton in 1982, I probably said that I was sorry I forgot to bring the book and have him autograph it for me. Instead, he autographed this item.

The inscription says:

March 24, 1982
To Rodney
My close personal
& moderately demented
friend. FIRE DRILL!
Dan

Maybe someday I will manage to get his autograph on my copy of Fill 'Er Up.

(Index of autographs)

Oregon (August 2013)

At Crater Lake

Link: Photo album (22 photos) As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

I've flown over Oregon many times, especially all those Alaska trips, and every time I saw Crater Lake from the air, I said, "I want to visit!" I also wanted to see Portland, and I have long wanted to visit California north of Sonoma County. But, of course, I didn't want to drive. Driving is not a vacation for me!

So this tour looked good: nine days in Oregon and far northern California. It would also let me try out Elderhostel (now Road Scholar). I added two days before the tour to have extra time in Portland.

As I feared, I ate too much and exercised too little. But other than that, the trip went quite well, with good weather, too. We only had rain one lunchtime. There were 31 people in the tour group, including at least one gay couple. I'll probably try Road Scholar again sometime.

Pay-per-Read

I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published (see below)):

I hope one of Bezos's experiments with the Washington Post is with micro-payments and pay-per-read.

I am a news and non-fiction addict, a print media junkie. For many years now, that has included print on-screen.

I am a long-time subscriber to the Times and a few magazines. However, I am not interested in subscribing to the dozens of additional separate newspapers and magazines whose stories I occasionally read. But I would happily pay a few cents to read each such item.

Micro-payment schemes have been talked about for many years, but no one has put one together that covers a multitude of content providers. Here's hoping Bezos does it.

As has too often been the case, I sent this in too late. I read about Bezos's purchase of and his wish to experiment with the Post on the afternoon the story hit the Internet. I immediately thought about micro-payments. The story appeared in the next day's Times, of course, and the day after that, the Times printed letters about it. Only then did I realize I should have written one! Cursing my own needless delay, I then wrote and sent the letter, clearly too late for it to be seriously considered.

Subsequently, I have posted it in several places: here, on Google+ in a comment to David Brin's item, and in a comment on the story in KCRW's Left, Right & Center.

Taking campaign promises seriously

The Los Angeles Times printed this letter from me last week:

Opponents have many complaints about Morsi, but one is that while campaigning, he promised to share power, but once in office, he failed to do so.

Maybe Egypt has something to teach the world: If you make a campaign promise that is important, easy to keep and easy to verify, and then you fail to keep it, you will be forcibly removed from office.

Imagine that: taking campaign promises seriously, with an enforcer to hold politicians to their word.

San Antonio - June 2013

Dale Chihuly's "Fiesta Tower" at the San Antonio Central Library

Born and raised in San Antonio, I left after graduating high school, first for college in Houston, then for grad school in Los Angeles, where I still live today.

I've been visiting family and friends in San Antonio two or three times a year ever since I left, more than 40 years ago. But after my mother's death last year, I hadn't been there again in more than a year, the longest time I had been away from San Antonio in my entire life.

The unveiling of my mother's tombstone took me there this past week. Given the occasion, I of course saw many members of my family. I also saw several friends who live there. But none of my family now lives in San Antonio, so I'm not sure how often I'll be returning in the future.

A few more photos from this trip are here. (Each has a caption and a location map.)

Amend to fix (some of) the Senate's problems

The Los Angeles Times printed this letter from me today:

Let's go a step further: I suggest that we amend the Constitution's advise and consent clause.

The Senate's confirmation power should be changed to a veto power: Every presidential appointment (including judicial) becomes effective unless the Senate, by majority vote, vetoes it within, say, 100 days.

The Times either didn't notice or doesn't care that they printed practically the same letter from me thirteen years ago!

Maryland (May 2013)

Ben and Anita

I went to Havre de Grace, Maryland for my nephew Ben's wedding. Here are more wedding photos. Each photo has a caption and a location map.

Gunpowder Falls State Park

Of course, I spent my extra days exploring the area, particularly hiking in parks. A handful of photos were lost due to my failing camera batteries, but here are the rest. Again, each photo has a caption and a location map.

North Carolina, April 2013

Liz and Jed, plus Cherie, the mother of the bride

I went to the Research Triangle region of North Carolina for my niece Liz's wedding. Because I had never been there before, I spent several extra days. As usual for me, I explored college campuses, visited bookstores, and hiked in parks:

Duke Gardens

Here are more photos, of both the wedding and some of my walks, especially Duke Gardens at Duke University. Each photo has a caption and a location map.

I was a bit surprised to see rainbow flags in more than one or two locations at Duke, including in the frat area. I was also pleased to see several "No on 1" signs still around, nearly a year after voters approved that anti-gay-marriage amendment.

"Repelled, held by the Church" (March, 2013)

I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published).

Gale Holland ("Repelled, held by the Church", March 1, 2013) asks herself why she remains a Catholic. She implies, but avoids confronting the biggest answer: brainwashing since birth. Religion drilled into children amounts to one more type of child abuse.