PanAm's First Moon Flights Club

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As you can see, I was a charter member of PanAm's First Moon Flights Club.

Even before this, when I was a kid, I hoped to spend New Year's Day 2000 on the moon.

Autographs - Don Knuth

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Famed computer scientist Don Knuth offers a modest cash reward to the first person who reports any specific error in his books. Many never cash their checks, preferring to display them!

In 1988, I found not one, but two errors in his then new book, Concrete Mathematics. I'm a pretty good proofreader / copy editor. Alas, I was not the first to find either error. I missed by 13 days in the first case.

At the time, Knuth did not use email. I wrote a letter to him about each error, and he replied beneath each letter. So I have his hand-writing twice, but only once did he write his name. Knuth is an author, and the autograph is about his book, but it's one more time I have an author's autograph not in the book.

In the image, Knuth's notes to me are a bit difficult to make out. They read: "previously reported on Oct 5 — please keep trying" and "yup — this is now the second-most-often reported error. I'm glad people are reading it... but sorry for being so erroneous... don".

(Full disclosure: In 2001, I reported what I thought was a misspelled name in a later Knuth book, but he was right and I was wrong. And that time, the correspondence was by email. No autograph.)

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Paul Hawken

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I was an avid reader of the Whole Earth Catalog and its spin-offs. Paul Hawken wrote occasional pieces in one of them, CoEvolution Quarterly. It was there that I read his invitation to submit title suggestions for his upcoming book.

I made the winning suggestion, but I wasn't the only one, so he split the cash prize.

This is one more instance of an author autograph not in the book.

(Index of autographs)

Political ads (March 2013)

I sent this letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published):

As a resident of the City of Los Angeles, I've been inundated by campaign mailers for weeks now. I throw them all away without a glance, but I do pause to thank all the electioneers for helping ease the U.S. Postal Service's budget deficit.

Handling crimes on campus

Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about college administrators becoming sexual misconduct detectives. I sent the following letter (not published):

It's clear to me that colleges shouldn't be doing criminal investigations.

Accusers should be given all necessary support and counseling, and they should be told to go to the police to file a criminal complaint.

On GMO foods

1. I don't have a fundamental issue with it.

2. I think GMO labeling will happen. Those who care are already using "No GMO" labels. Big Food is wasting lots of time and money fighting it, only to incite more opposition.

3. Given how pervasive the technology is, the GMO label will be so common that it will quickly become ignored.

On Internet privacy

February 11, 2014 was designated The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance. I wrote a short Facebook post as my contribution:

1. Assume that all data that can be collected will be collected.

2. "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." - Scott McNealy, 1999 (See wikiquote.)

Keep your religion to yourself

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on prayer before government meetings, I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published):

Keep your religion to yourself.

Why is that so hard?

Let me elaborate here:

• If you're not with co-religionists, keep your religion to yourself.
• Pray anytime and anywhere you like, but silently.
• If you shove your religion in my face, I may not react sweetly.
• Don't expect me to respect your religion. I probably respect it less than I do the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
• I don't want your imaginary god's blessing when I sneeze. Try “Good health to you” or, shorter, “Gesundheit” or “Salud”.

(I wrote much the same a couple of years ago.)
(See also Why I am an angry atheist.)

Telemarketing

As I wrote back in 2001, I still respond to telemarketers with, "Please put me on your do-not-call list," and I hang up.

But I think I'm going to occasionally try something new. When they pause, I'll say:

I don't do business with lawbreakers.
You're breaking the law by calling me.
Please put me on your do-not-call list.

And then I'll hang up.

Perhaps they will try to say, as they sometimes do, "But we spoke last year, and you asked me to call you back later."

That will give me the perfect opportunity to say, "I also don't do business with liars," and I'll hang up.

Why Victor still isn't visiting the U.S.

It's past time for me to update "Why Victor can't visit the U.S."

Last June, the day after the Supreme Court overturned the "Defense of Marriage Act", I heard for the first time about K-1 fiancé visas. It was immediately clear to me that Victor would be able to use this to enter the U.S.

But I had questions. I wasn't sure how to show that Victor would not become a financial burden to U.S. taxpayers. If Victor once entered the U.S. illegally more than 20 years ago (hypothetically speaking!), would that be a problem? What would Victor's citizenship status be, in both Mexico and the U.S. after we married? If he returned to live in Mexico after we're married, could he then easily visit me repeatedly at length for years afterwards? Do I need a prenuptial agreement? And more along these lines.

I eventually did speak with a gay immigration attorney and got some answers. The biggest problem is that the U.S. State Department has a stunted idea of married living arrangements. They make no provision for a married couple who do not want to live permanently together in the U.S.

Victor is not quite ready to retire, and is not ready to move here permanently. We envision some years, maybe many years, of exchanging weeks- and months-long visits in one another's countries.

But if Victor used a K-1 visa to come to Los Angeles and we got married, in the eyes of the State Department, he is immediately an applicant for permanent residency, and could not leave the U.S. for more than six months at a time. We could probably work with that, but it's not ideal.

So we have decided not to pursue the K-1 visa at this time.

Instead, many years after we gave up on it in the past, we might try a simple tourist visa again. Maybe next year, or maybe when Victor retires. And, if that fails again, maybe then we will pursue the K-1 visa.

So there are more possibilities, but there's not yet a perfect solution.


[2015 update]