Time to Vote

So, Washington state is big on democracy and loves to vote: caucuses, initiatives, non-binding measures, local issues, and actual elections (local and statewide and national). The current ballot falls firmly in the 'local issues' categories, and only has two items up for a vote: one seeking authorization for Capital Improvements to Kent schools and the other to renew funding for the fire department.

Surprisingly enough the accompanying Voters' Pamphlet didn't have 'argument for' vs 'argument against', followed by 'rebuttal of argument against', followed by 'rebuttal of argument for', as is usually the case. That's particularly unexpected given that the amounts involved are quite large ($252,000,000, or just over a quarter of a billion dollars) and the improvements significant: building two new elementary schools, adding twenty new classrooms, repairing roofs and the like. I guess the issuing of bonds doesn't fire off the antitax trigger so many initiatives and referendums come up against.

A case in point: the other Proposition, concerning our fire department.  A few years back Kent decided that rather than setting up a separate fire department for Covington (the recently incorporated area immediately to the east of Kent) it'd be better to create a regional fire department that covered several adjacent cities. That's worked pretty well; all the present measure does is re-up their funding for another six years.

Enter the antitax brigade, who make a whole array of charges* against the measure which all more or less come down to a call to defund the fire department in the name of lower taxes. One of the points they put forward in their Statement is a cry to "Remember Pine Tree Park!" This is interesting, because it works directly against the point they think they're making.

A few years ago, the Kent government said it didn't have enough money to keep the city parks going and would have to shut down some of them unless a levy passed. It got voted down, with the result that the city sold off one small park** and removed some amenities from others (e.g. a pier that'd become too dilapidated for safety which they cdn't afford to replace). So the real lesson to 'Remember Pine Tree Park' is that you don't get what you don't pay for: de-fund something the community values and it goes away.

So, two easy votes for a change.

--John R.

current reading: THE CAULDRON OF ANNWN by Th. Evelyn Ellis [1922]

*one includes the point that it's wasteful to have a fire truck respond to a health emergency call when some form of ambulance is more appropriate. True enough, but those who oppose the measure don't explain how defunding the department will address this problem in any way.

**the outcry was such that they've since cancelled the deal and it remains city property for now

Tolkien's KULLERVO on NPR

So, thanks to Janice for the link to a quite nice book review of Verlyn Flieger's edition of THE STORY OF KULLERVO.  This first appeared in TOLKIEN STUDIES a few years ago, but it's nice to have it in book form: easier access, and a handsome volume in and of itself, w. as an added bonus a nice piece of Tolkien's KALAVALA art on the front cover. Not only did the reviewer appreciate Tolkien's piece but she's also properly appreciative of Verlyn's editing. As usual there are some strange assertions in the comments at the end, alas (Shippey did not take over Tolkien's Oxford chair: that was Norman Davis), but those are easily ignorable.  All in all, nice piece. Congr. to Verlyn.

Here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/10/471619609/frodo-bilbo-kullervo-tolkiens-finnish-adventure

--John R.
current reading: THE CHILDREN OF DON by Lord Howard de Walden.

An Invasion in Slow-Motion

So,  once upon a time not that long ago, this wd have been referred to as 'creeping socialism'. As it is, this has got to be one of the weirdest invasions I've ever heard about: the Russian infiltration of Georgia, which is being overrun a hundred yards at a time. Want to know what it's like to go to sleep in one country and wake up in another, without having moved a foot? Go visit Georgia (while you can; it'll soon all be South Ossetia).

Here's the link.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/georgia-border-russia-vladimir-putin-213787



--John R.
current reading: AS I SEEM TO REMEMBER by Sir Leonard Woolley (post.publ. by Allen & Unwin 1962)

own Lovecraft letters

So, today I got a flyer from Heritage Auctions (the folks I got the Sime from, who now won't stop sending me message after message about other things they have that I don't want) that a set of ten Lovecraft letters, mostly unpublished, to one F. J. Pabody* (1932-1937) are being auctioned off, with an expected price of about $20,000. That's a lot, and just goes to show how mainstreamed Lovecraft has become (like Tolkien, and increasingly Lewis as well).

Here's the link:

http://historical.ha.com/itm/books/hp-lovecraft-ten-autograph-letters-totaling-forty-six-pages-signed-by-hp-lovecraft-to-frederic-jay-pabody-providence-/a/6155-45111.s

--John R.

*looking at the name, I'd guess it was the inspiration for Dr. Pabodie, creator of the famous drill of the same name, in HPL's AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS

A Tea Party I Missed

So, had I known about this beforehand I wd have been tempted to arrange my recent trip to Arkansas to cover one more evening.  As it was, I missed something interesting by a day: the evening of the day I left Magnolia to fly back here, my alma mater, Southern Arkansas University (which I still think of by its old name, Southern State College), was hosting a speech by Tom Cotton, the junior senator from Arkansas (and I think the youngest person currently serving in the Senate).  I disagree with Cotton on just about everything, but was sorry to pass up the chance to see him in person and hear him present his ideas himself, rather than catch bits and pieces of them filtered through news reports and headlines. After all, I went to see Orville Faubus give a speech on the town square in front of the courthouse back when he was trying to stage a comeback long after his time had passed. And howevermuch I disagree with Cotton it'd be interesting to hear how he frames his ideas: what the world looks like from such a radically different position -- after all, he's an anti-tax radical who opposed disaster relief because it hadn't previously budgeted and is most notorious for trying to sabotage the president and State Department's negotiations to de-escalate our long-running standoff with a foreign power.

On the other hand, checking things out more closely I've learned that this wasn't a free event but fundraising for the Arkansas Republican Party, presumably to be used to try to re-elect or shore up support for the sorry lot they currently have in office (Boozman, Hutchison, and esp. Cotton). And I'd have had a hard time giving money to any cause with Ronald Reagan's name attached to it.

Still, wd have been interesting.

--John R.
current reading: THE FLOATING BODY by Kel Richards (2015/2016), the third in the C. S. Lewis-as-detective mysteries, and the best so far, though that's a low bar to limbo under.

Nostalgic for Evil

So, I have to admit there are some things I just don't get. Case in point: I was in the airport early yesterday morning, getting tea from Dilettante to fill my thermos for the trip ahead. While waiting for them to fill my order, I looked at the the various items they had on the counter, including small take-away bags of various brews of coffee. One was the Habsburg blend, another the Romanov blend.

My puzzlement is why anyone would want to name anything after those two royal (imperial) houses. For their part, the Habsburgs were perhaps the most hapless of the various royal houses of Europe in the last few centuries (just ask Emperor Maximillian): not sure why that would conjure up cozy memories for anyone. As for the Romanovs, anyone who's forgotten just how horrible the czars were just needs to look up the word 'pogrom'. If you're going to go that route, why not call it Stalin's Cup of Joe?

--John R.
--in Little Rock, soaking up the ambiance at the last Barnes & Noble/Starbucks for many, many miles.


P.S.: I see from checking online that they also offer a Bohemian blend, which sounds much more benign.

Birmingham's Folly (Perriot's Tower)

So, thanks to Brad Eden for the forwarded link, and Nancy Martsch for the recent article in BEYOND BREE (Feb. issue, p. 5), both about Perrott's Folly. An interesting building in its own right, this is a brick tower in the Edgbaston part of Birmingham, near where Tolkien grew up. In recent years this has been claimed to be the inspiration for one of JRRT's 'Two Towers' from the book of the same name. The only problem is that there's no evidence whatsoever that this is the case. It's testimony to Tolkien's popularity that folks try to attach things to his name, whether it's a golden ring (the so-called 'Ring of Silvianus') or an old tower.

I must confess that when I heard the local authorities were holding meetings to decide what to be done with the tower, I had fantasies of Tolk. folk. running a Kickstarter to rent the tower for a set period (a week, a month, whatever), and hang from it a great big banner that read

This Neat Old Tower

Has Nothing Whatsoever

 To Do With J. R. R. Tolkien

--Ah well. A scholar can dream, can't he?

Here's the link: the link-within-the-link shows some interesting detail about the tower's interior -- though my acrophobia's bad enough that I know I cdn't ever climb the interior stair and these pictures are the closest I'll ever come to see it.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/wanted-good-ideas-future-use-10742931#rlabs=6%20rt$sitewide%20p$4

--John R.