The Nature Conservancy saves our Louisiana vacation

We were going to be driving through Louisiana and we made the kind of plans we usually make in such situations: we planned to stop at the state welcome center, pick up some maps and try to find a state park to hike in and have a picnic lunch at.

The Louisiana welcome center was closed. I found a state park using the GPS, but its north entrance too was closed when we finally got there. It was with a despondent air that we continued making our way through the state. Where were the bayous? And would we ever see them?

So, when we crossed a long stretch of swamp on the highway, we decided to take the next exit and ask a local how we could get to see the swamp up close. She mentioned swamp boat tours and then seeing my disappointed face (we didn't have that much time: we were just driving through), told me about this place called St. Martin Lake about 20 miles back the way we'd come.

We took the 1.5 hour detour to go see the swamp and it turned out to be the highlight of our Louisiana trip.

And wouldn't you know it? It turned out to be a Nature Conservancy project. One more reason to support them!

Asking our cellphone overlords

Normally, I don't use my blog to say "Amen", but this is one article I can make an exception for. Now that Congress has brought us telephone number portability (that enabled us to finally ditch our landline), what should Congress be asking cellphone carriers about?

1. Why has the price of a text message gone to 20 cents, from 10, in two years? There was no big technology shift. There was no spike in the cost of electrons.
2. In Europe, you’re billed only when you place a cellphone call — not when you answer one. And you’re billed only when you send a text message — not when you get one ... Somehow, though, we’ve let the cellphone industry get into the habit of billing both [sides of the transaction].
3. If your monthly fee includes payment for the phone itself, how come that monthly bill doesn’t suddenly drop in the month when you’ve finished paying off that handset?
4. Why ... am I still billed an astonishing $1.50 to $5 a minute to call [international] from my cellphone?
5. When I call to leave you a voicemail message, the first thing I hear, before I’m allowed to hear the beep, is 15 seconds of instructions ... Is 15 seconds here and there that big a deal? Well, Verizon has 70 million customers. If each customer leaves one message and checks voicemail once a day, Verizon rakes in — are you sitting down? — $850 million a year.

Deadlines without consequences

I picked up the kids at their art camp and gave them the bad news.

"I have some work to do, so we are going back to my office and when that's done, I'll take you swimming."

"What work do you have to do?"

"I have to finish writing a paper."

"What are you going to draw on the paper?"

"Not draw. It's like the book report that you wrote in class. I have to write about the research that I'm doing."

"Why can you not do it tomorrow morning?"

"Because the deadline is today."

"What's a deadline?"

"Like when Amma tells you that you have to finish eating by 7pm?  That's a deadline."

"Why is the deadline today?"

"Because they have to create a book of everybody's reports"

"What happens if you don't finish by the deadline?"

"I will finish writing the paper by the deadline."

"But what will happen if you don't finish the paper?"

"Umm ... I will finish."

Glory or bust and we go ... bust

I need 3 "silver" points to advance to the next masterpoint level in bridge.  In the OKC regional, I picked up 10 points so how hard can 3 points be? Harder than I thought.  You get silver points only by winning in sectionals but there are not that many sectionals in the local area.  Plus, the events are quite short, meaning that I can usually play only one event.

So, Swiss Teams on Sunday.  Our team consists of one B and three C players. We blitzed the first two rounds, racking up 30-0 in both.  That put us in the lead and we had to play the ultimate 2nd place team (each of the members of that team have 5,000 master points. You need 300 to become a Life Master. I have 50.)   We managed to lose to them "only" 22-8.  Having lost that match, we fall down enough to draw another uppity C team and beat them 20-10.  And that meant we had to play the ultimate winners (they too have 10K points apiece).  We lost again 26-4.

At this point, we're tied for 3rd place [having lost to no. 1 and 2].  Now, of course have to play the team that we're tied for 3rd with.  They're a team with two A and two B players. We may be able to beat them, but it's going to be tough. If we win, we may get 3 points each.  If we lose, we may only get 1.5 points each.  It's going to be glory or bust.

Just so you understand what happened, this is the strategy to win a Swiss teams match in bridge:

1. Do not sacrifice if there is a chance that you'll get doubled and go down 4.  My partner calls this the "Don't go for a number" rule.  A huge number that is.  There is no way to recover from a 7 point deficit.
2. Stretch to make a vulnerable game.  Bid games that are 30% likely.  If you don't bid a game and they do, you'll be looking at a 12 point deficit.
3. As declarer, make the contract; don't go for over tricks
4. As a defender, take a chance to set them even if it'll result in over tricks
   

So what do we do on that last match?  There are 8 boards.  On six boards, we execute strategies 3 and 4 perfectly.  We're picking up 2-3 points a board.  But the  other two boards. Those two boards!  In one, my partner and I sacrifice in 5H doubled, down 4.  In the other, our team mates miss a vulnerable 3 NT.  One of these we could have survived.  But not both. We lost 24-6 (the actual score is scaled to sum to 30) and ended up with just 1.4 silver points.

Another sectional coming up in a month.  And then that's it -- no more sectionals -- until next year.  1.6 points to go.

Escapist entertainment

How does the Iranian government try to get their people's mind off Rafsanjani's Friday sermon? By showing Indian (probably Hindi) movies on TV instead:

Iranian state TV is currently broadcasting via its five channels:

1) a discussion on havij bastani (an Iranian desert with carrots and ice cream)

2) a 1986 Japanese cartoon

3) an Indian movie

4) an even cheesier Iranian movie

5) a documentary on the Iran-Iraq war

I’ve had almost every Friday lunch I can bring to memory listening to the Friday sermon playing in the background. IRIB1 made sure to start the live program a full hour before the sermon began to showcase the environment and the “revolutionary spirit of our people.”

Apparently the spirit was a no-show this time as there is no sign of it on TV.

Meanwhile, how the Chinese government gets its citizens distracted from the economy? By whipping up H1N1 hysteria to go along with ever-present xenophobia:

Apparently, a passenger three rows in front and five seats across from me on the flight had tested positive for H1N1 ... The set-up promoted the narrative that H1N1 was being spread by "foreigners." Quarantined businessmen told me they'd had contracts canceled by their Chinese colleagues, and my Shanghai hotel informed me that my room rate would be triple what it had been if I wished to return.

D.K. Pattamal, RIP

One of my favorite singers, D. K. Pattamal, passed away this week.

This YouTube video has a number of photographs as well as a raga sung by her:


I had no idea that Carnatic music used to be a male-dominated field (about half of all vocalists now are women) or that she had such a hard time breaking in (this was the 1930s):

Today, the hurdles this musician had to cross seem astonishing. As a Brahmin woman, she could not undergo gurukula training — the norm in those times. Nor did she belong to a family of musicians inheriting the art as a birthright. Patta desperately notated songs in concerts, and took down key phrases of ragas rare or intricate. Her brothers — later her accompanists — helped her in this task.

Midsummer nights' fair

An ultra-patriotic bicyle belonging to one of the fair visitors

Jewelry on sale

One of the more experienced people in the wife's pottery studio had a number of salt-fired pots.

This fellow who was selling leather belts cut and punched holes in it to my size.