Taffeta Phrases [Jim]

1. Lily, of course, was being melodramatic—accurate, I must say, but melodramatic nonetheless.

2. The Good Samaritan who picked us up on the way to the library when no cab was venturing forth was a kindly 60+ year old man, educated as it turns out at the University of Michigan. Nice guy. No need to worry.

3. As to the question of whether Lily is now taller than Emma: Well, as Einstein might note, it depends on your frame of reference. If you use Emma’s frame of reference, then Lily is still shorter than Emma; I know this because Emma attests to this fact. However, if you use anyone else’s frame of reference, then Lily is, indeed, the taller of the two. Just more evidence in favor of the special theory of relativity.

4. Conference Notes: Last week, the MBA students here organized a two day conference, with four panel discussions on assorted topics. The first and last panel discussions of the event were, alas, extraordinarily dull. The last panel was on marketing, and thus was marketing people talking about marketing, which when you get right down to it is nothing more than saying, “You should get people to buy your product.” The first panel of the conference was on interest rate regulations, which, of course, is an endlessly fascinating topic, and one which has been in the news since I have been here because of comments by the Finance Minster. But, sadly, a) each one of the four panelists demonstrated a lack of understanding of the rudiments of money and banking that truly made me wince (suffice it to say that none of them would earn particularly high marks in my money and banking seminar) and b) none of the panelists ever actually got around to saying anything about the Finance Minister’s comments. One of the student organizers later told me that the four panelists had met right before the panel started and since they all worked in industry (bankers, insurance agents, lobbyists, i.e., not academics), they decided it would be prudent to avoid saying anything specific. Such is the state of Free Speech in India, I guess.

The panel I attended in between these two was the oddest affair. I wandered into the auditorium at 2:30, when the panel was supposed to start. Just as I was taking my seat, one of the organizers came over to me and said that one of their panelists was not able to make it and she wondered if I would be willing to sit on the panel. “Oh, sure,” I replied, “What’s the topic?” They told me—The relative merits of proprietary versus open-source software and the Future of Business in India. So, I said lots of nice things about Microsoft, they guy on my left said lots of nice things about open-source software alternatives to Microsoft, and, lo, there was actually a bit of a debate on the panel. As it turns out, the audience was pleasantly surprised; it seems that panel discussions in India rarely involve speakers with differing opinions.

[Just in case anyone is counting—I couldn’t make it to the third session since I was teaching at that hour. However it was notable for starting 2 hours late because the panelists had a hard time arriving due to heavy rain. Said rain is familiar to Long-time Readers of this Space for having a profound effect on Lily’s Life on the following day. Such is the working of Fate.]

Saturday night, the MBA students invited me to the big, annual “cocktail dinner” for students and alums. It was at the hotel on Ho Chi Minh Saranai (a street which once upon a time had a different name but was renamed by the Communist Government in town. In an odd coincidence, the street now named Ho Chi Minh Saranai just happens to be the street on which the American Consulate is located. What are the odds? This digression is a means of noting that Ho Chi Minh Saranai is the most heavily guarded street in town, and how a hotel can stay in business on it is beyond me.). An interesting evening; the attendees were MBA students and Alums, so everyone there is in their mid-20s or later. An open bar, serving cheap alcohol primarily mixed with assorted Pepsi products (yes, it was as bad as it sounds). After a few hours, it reminded me of my dormitory days; it seems that many of these 20-something men are not much different than frat boys at a keg party. (And yes, all the drunken, and truth be told, sick and vomiting, individuals were men.) By 10:00, the sober folks were beating a hasty retreat—10:00 is very early by Indian standards, by the way. I have no idea how late the party ran. There was also a band made up of the MBA students playing primarily Western rock. I was told that “Summer of ‘69” is one of the most popular songs in India these days. I despair. Bryan Adams?? What can one say?

5. Kolkata Police Update: Last week was Traffic Awareness week. On a street which I walk down to get to and from the metro station, they had a big booth set up with a guy using a loudspeaker shouting at the passing cars. I have no idea what he was shouting, since it wasn’t in English. They were also handing out flyers to pedestrians like me with lots of helpful techniques on how to be a Better Pedestrian. Things like: Use the sidewalks, Only cross the street at cross walks, and so on. In looking over the list I was pleased to note that I routinely disobey every single safely tip provided by the Kolkata Police. It would be well nigh impossible to get around this town if you followed all their helpful tips (though, I should note, Janet tries to obey the rules whenever she is out walking—it takes forever to walk anywhere with Janet—she waits for the cars to stop before stepping out in front of them, for example). Anyway, it was good to see the Kolkata Police doing something to help with the traffic problem—actually enforcing traffic laws is obviously not something they are keen on doing. Indeed, the primary contribution of the Kolkata Police to Traffic in this town is to manually run the stop lights or to stand in the intersection directing traffic; they do such a marvelously horrid job, it is actually a wonder to behold. The best part is that the traffic lights are actually equipped with automatic timers set to ensure optimal traffic flow, but naturally the fine Police Department can’t let traffic be directed by automatic traffic lights optimally set by traffic engineers who have studied the problem—after all, what in the world would the Kolkata Police do, if they couldn’t direct traffic, or even more importantly, sit around on the corner drinking tea when they are supposed to be directing traffic?

6. Fantasy Baseball Update: The Championship Game is 2 weeks long, so we are only half-way through. I am leading right now, but not by enough to allow me to rest easy. My pitching has been less than stellar. My batters, though—Wow! I think I set a new record for HRs in a week.

7. Real Baseball update: World Series prediction: Mets over Yankees in 6.

8. Hey! The Raiders didn’t lose this week!!!

9. Book Reports (this is the portion where the discerning readers stop reading):

a) MacCambridge, America’s Game
A fantastic book. A history of the last 60 years of pro football, but instead of a focus on the games, it is a study of the business side of the league. A bit too hagiographic when it came to Pete Rozelle and the last chapter was a silly blow by blow of the a recent playoff series to show how exciting the game has become, but other than those things, a great book.

b) Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona
Love’s Labor’s Lost
This was the first time I have read the Two Gentlemen of Verona, so it was a rather bittersweet thing; I have not read all of Shakespeare yet, but I am getting close enough that with each new play I read, I note with sadness that there is one fewer play to discover. LLL is amazing; the volume I have is entitled Comedies, volume 1, and thus is the Comedies in chronological order. The leap in quality level from TGoV to LLL is incredible—Shakespeare hit his stride in the Comedic vein right there.

c) Fry, Making History
This is the first novel by Fry I have read (though I have seen him in the Jeeves and Wooster series). On the whole, it was a pleasant novel; overall a bit amusing and some interesting substance. But, the ending was painfully lame, and the story itself is internally inconsistent and a bit incoherent—since the book is about changing the past, it is probably hard to avoid such inconsistencies, but even still, this one needs a bit of work.

d) Bhagat, Fivepointsomeone (sic)
Janet convinced me to read this; Janet reads a lot of Indian fiction here in India. I am not a big fan of the Generic Indian Novel—it’s like Bollywood—you seen one move, you seen ‘em all. Anyway, this one was decent enough; it is about the life of some IIT students (and for the Americans in the audience, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) is the most prestigious university in the country (they have several campuses, by the way)). It was fun seeing the stereotypes of Indian professors—they aren’t much like American professors.