Memorial Day

Quote of the Day

"Normality is a paved road.  It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it."
  -- Vincent van Gogh

What I Watched -- Flash of Genius

I was working on a mind-numbing task not too long ago, and picked out Flash of Genius on Netflix to entertain me while I did it.

There is a saying that "the truth is stranger than fiction."  Sometimes the truth is more astonishing than fiction.  Assuming (and that is an assumption) that most of the content of this movie is accurate, it is truly astonishing.

It's the story of Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear), the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper motor.  When his invention was stolen by the big auto dealers, he sued.  When his attorney wanted him to settle for $500,000, he refused, and fired his attorney.  When Ford offered him $30,000,000, he turned them down because they refused to admit that they had stolen his idea. 

(These are spoilers, but not very spoilery.)  In the movie, Dr. Kearns tried the case against Ford himself, having decided he could do it better than anyone else.  And he won.  Eventually, Ford agreed on a post-judgment settlement of $10,200,000 (nearly double the actual judgment) in order to terminate all post-trial litigation.

Dr. Kearns went on to litigate against Chrysler, winning $18,700,000 plus interest.  He did not prevail in further litigation against General Motors or any foreign car makers.

The film is an odd combination of inspirational and terribly sad.  It's evident how passionate Dr. Kearns was about his invention, and anything else he set his mind to untangling -- and his mind was certainly impressive.  But it's sad to see how the remainder of his life was affected by that brilliant mind.

Bottom line: a great story I can't believe I hadn't heard before.

Happy Mother's Day

What I Watched -- The Fundamentals of Caring and Cake

It just so happened that S and I watched, on two consecutive nights, two movies about people who had lost children.

First up was The Fundamentals of Caring.  Ben (Paul Rudd, whom I have adored ever since Clueless) drags himself out of unemployment (and away from his impending divorce) by getting a job as a caregiver.  Much to his surprise, his first assignment is not to an elderly person, but to Trevor (Craig Roberts), an ex-pat British teenager with muscular dystrophy.

Both Ben and Trevor have major emotional challenges to overcome.  Together, and with the help of some unexpected companions, they dive in together.

Cake had a bit of a different flavor, though some similar psychological issues.  Where Fundamentals was about the ability of others to help us get over our stumbling blocks, Cake was much more heavily focused on the trauma caused by getting stuck behind those stumbling blocks, and not being able to get past them.  Jennifer Aniston plays Claire, who becomes weirdly obsessed with the suicide of an acquaintance.  Delving into the other woman's troubled history forces her to face her own.

Bottom line: same, same...but different.  The former is definitely the pick if you want something uplifting; the latter if you want to wonder if there is any meaning in the world for a few hours.

The Stranger in the Woods -- Take 2

I enjoyed reading The Stranger in the Woods, if for no other reason than that it told a truly incredible story.  How does a person disappear into the Maine woods and live and largely apart from society for months, let alone for 27 years? 

It failed as a psychological profile, in part because Christopher Knight, the Stranger, didn't particularly want to be profiled.   There are a lot of theories thrown around, but none of them stick.  He's not schizophrenic; he's not autistic.  He was just a guy who had an idea about how he wanted to live, and he did it.

In the meantime, he also committed over a thousand burglaries and terrorized a community who never asked for trouble.  The part that was the most bothersome to me was his refusal to take handouts -- when people left bags of supplies on their doorknobs so he wouldn't break in -- he left the supplies and broke in anyway because he wanted to do it on his own.  Which he wasn't anyway, because he was stealing!

Nevertheless, it took an incredible amount of determination to repeatedly tough out cold Maine winters on the brink of starvation.

Perhaps most strangely of all, the family that he left behind when he was 20 years old never even reported him missing.  Weird.  Talk about a psychological profile.

Lovely Columbines

My front garden has been going delightfully crazy.

Goals 2018 -- May Edition

It's a new month, and hopefully the weather will stay beautiful!  It's also the kick-off for the outdoor activity season around StL, when all sorts of fun begins.

Last summer was kind of a sad summer in that I didn't get to spend nearly as much time outside as I would have liked, so it is my goal to remedy that this year, starting by doing certain things in the out-of-doors in the month of May:

1. Ride my bike at least once each weekend.
2. Go to the Tower Grove Farmer's Market at least once.
3. Go to the Lake Saint Louis Farmer's Market at least once.
4. Cook outside on the grill.
5. Go to the Whitaker Festival at Mobot once. There are only two in May, so that might be a better June or July project, but hey -- here's hoping!
6. Tend to my plants, which are finally enjoying some fresh air and sunshine.

As a bonus, I will get to see lots of family for a big birthday celebration, so looking forward to lots of fun that weekend too!

Goals 2018 -- April Recap

On the first of this month, it was snowing and I was stuck inside, so I cooked up a storm.  It looks like spring is finally here -- just in the last week or so.  Hooray!

As for my goal, I made partial progress.  As a reminder, I was going to:
  - Do my mending;
  - Tidy up my craft area;
  - Use the newly-cleaned space to make patterns for the curtains we will need in our camper;
  - Compile a materials list for said curtains.

I accomplished the first two, but not the latter two.  To be fair (and to justify my lack of progress), we haven't installed the big side window in the camper yet, so I can't get proper measurements.  It's still packed in its delivery box.

What the lack of installation does not excuse is my failure to make patterns or do any planning for the windows that are already installed -- the windshield and two front door windows.

I did, however, get most of my gardens planted this past weekend, cut the grass, clean the siding on part of the house (how adult of me), and get in a nice bike ride to the farmer's market.  So, hooray for all that!

What I'm Reading Now -- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson.  He is smart and funny and not stuck in the all-too-stuffy world of academicians who are more impressed with themselves than they are interested in sharing their hard-earned knowledge.

Imagine my delight when E sent S and me a little light reading: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.  I'm still very near the beginning, but so far it is real science shared in bite-sized pieces.  Just like it promised to be.

Unrelated fun fact: NdGT and I have the same waffle maker!