four billion dollars in gold

 So, this news item in the Guardian this weekend caught my eye:

[BEGIN QUOTE]

US banking giant JPMorgan plans to deliver $4bn of gold bullion to New York this month, before an anticipated escalation of Donald Trump’s trade-rebalancing tariff moves planned for Saturday.

The US bank, the world’s biggest bullion dealer, said it would deliver the hefty raw material, weighed as 30m troy ounces of gold . . .  against contracts that will expire in February.

The delivery comes as the price of gold has surged to $2,813 per ounce, and the delivery notices are the second largest ever in bourse data going back to 1994, according to Bloomberg.

The outlet has also reported that tariff-war fears have made it profitable to fly silver into the US – a commodity that typically is transported by ship because it is considered too cheap and bulky to justify the costs.

[END QUOTE]

--And here I thought Smaug had a fabulous fortune.

I wonder how much a dragon considered enough to keep him respectable. 

Not to mention how much gold and silver Bilbo packed away in that pony's saddlebags.  

And what Gandalf did with his half of the treasure he and Bilbo lugged all the way back to Bag-End.

--John R.

--current reading: Tanith Lee, THE BIRTHGRAVE

Dice

 So, I've been going to occupational therapy recently in hopes that it will help with the tremors in my hands, which sometimes make difficult things like writing, typing, zippers, buttons, et al. As a way towards setitng up one of  the exercises, the therapist asked if I have any dice.

Do I have dice? 

I have dozens of dice.  

(It used to be hundreds before I down-sized a few years back).

Polyhedral (d4, d8, d10, d20) and traditional (d6).

Opaque and crystaline.  Inked and un-inked (which I preferred). Pristine and worn-down.

A lot of these dice are beautiful but impractical, like the Roman pottery dice or set of somewhat skewed wooden dice. Or there's the beautiful but sinister set I picked up at last year's GaryCon, which have a die-within-the-die, with this interior die being a monstrous eye that floats freely to stare at the person rolling the die.

For years I carried a d8 (red) and d10 (green) around with me everywhere I went, just in case an impromptu game of D&D broke out nearby. And all gamers I used to play with had huge jars of dice somewhere around their gaming table.

In recent years things have changed. Most of the people I game with use electronic dice programs rather than actual physical dice. And it's clear they get just as much fun from and feel just as much suspense with the new virtual dice as with their predecessors. 

But there's still something iconic about rolling those weird dice.

--John R.

current reading: THE DRAGON HOARD by Tanith Lee (1971)

THE WIFE SAYS

Isn't that a paperback book you're reading?

Happy Tolkien Day

So, today is Tolkien's birthday (January 3rd, 1892).

You will often see it stated that he was born in South Africa, but this is not quite right. He was actually born in Bloemfontein ("Flower Foutain"), the capital of the Orange Free State, one of the Boer Republics. It makes for a good shibboleth when picking up a new book on JRRT whether the author says something like 'Tolkien was born in South Africa' instead of 'born in south Africa'. The latter is the more accurate; the former shows he or she has a more casual knowledge of the details of Tolkien's life.

As years go by, and Tolkien becomes more and more mainstream, and the number of books about Tolkien by authors are not themselves Tolkien experts increase, we'll be seeing a lot more stuff like that.  

--John R

P.S.: Here's an old button I've proudly worn at quite a few conventions over the years.

Speaking of Silly Season (Wooster and Jeeves)

So, here's a good note to end the year on: meeting up with our friends Jeff and Kate to see a new play based on the Wooster and Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse.  Wodehouse had an extraordinary career, writing about the same characters for sixty years --something of a record in itself. He aso survived imprisonment by the Germans during World War II (during which he was accused of being a collaborator), being championed by figures like George Orwell (never one to hold punches), and knighted by the Queen. 

More important to his readers, he was also one of the finest writers of his time. 

Highly recommended, if you find yourself in the mood for some silliness in these dark times.

--John R.

current reading: THE COTTINGLEY FAIRY PHOTOGRAPHS: NEW APPROACHES TO FAIRIES, FAKES AND FOLKLORE. ed. Simon Young.  Fairies and Fairylore series volume 14. 

It's that time of the year again

Christmas comes but once a year

And when it comes, it brings good cheer

So, it's time for one of my longstanding Christmas traditions: listening to the Beatles' Christmas album. This collection of seven Beatles singles was recorded and sent out to members of their fan club each year from 1963 through 1970. The Beatles were famous for their wit and repartee: these quips and skits and ad-libed bits of songs (many never made available elsewhere) give a good sense of what it was must have been like to be in the room.

After the group broke up, John recorded a final song on his own that ends it all on a pognant note: his "Give Peace a Chance"  beginning with 

 "And so this is Christmas . . ."  

In this time of great stress and strife, it helps once in a while to indulge in a little sillyness.

Unfortunately, my original tape, which dates back to 1980/81, has long since worn out. Now the replacement cd I made of it is barely audible as well.  Luckily there is YouTube. For a sample ofwhat one year's installment (in this case, 1965, the third) might sound like,  give this a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZWBtMF2DTE

For a more involved compilation which draws together the Xmas material with other Beatles material given the fan club / Beatles treatment, see 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUvCPkp0H0U

--John R.

--current reading: Sarbon.

The Duwamish Longhouse

So, for a long time now I've been wanting to visit the Duwamish longhouse the (reconstructed) dining hall  /  cultural center and museum and gift shop along the lower banks of Seattle's major river. Last week we finally made it. if you're at all interested in such things, I recommend making a visit.

The original longhouse does not survive, but building this new one seems to have been part of a resurgence of the Duwamish people, the Native American people who lived along the banks of the local rivers system --especially the Green River, the area around the mouth of which is still known as the Duwamish, as well as the Black River (only a small marshy bit of which survives) and Cedar River (completely remade around the turn of the twentieth century into a salmon run).

The Duwamish people were dispersed in the 1850s. Denied a reservation, and official recognition, they were forced to the margins. By the time of the Native American rights movement got going, there were too few of them left to meet the federal guidlines for establishing a reservation, opening a casino, and the like. That is, there are people in the area who can prove their direct descent from Duwamish living in the area continuously since the time of Chief Seattle himself. But there are none of full Duwamish descent.

However things work out in the long term, it's good that the Duwamish people are no longer being persecuted and have a symbolic icon like the Longhouse to help them recover and preserve relics and their culture. 

--John R

-- P.S.: These photos of Duwamish, on bookmarks at the checkout counter in the gift shop, give a good idea of what their life was like a century and more ago.  I think each bears the slogan

WE ARE STILL HERE, which I take it to be their motto.

Quote of the Day

"If we believe absurdities

we shall commit atrocities'

--Voltaire

Came across this the day before yesterday.

If I'd known Voltaire was this good, I'd have read more of him.