Christmastide

I realize that this is posted long after the draft was finished.

At Christmastide, the bonds of kin grow closer than the rest of the year, and this family is no exception. My brother and his girlfriend, who live down the hill joined us for Christmas Day dinner, but the rest of family was habitually late - so much so that we ceased delaying dinner and consumed our repast. The bearded uncle, the artiste aunt, and adopted kid arrived immediately after we had finished. On this night, I finally acquired a cell phone. The next day I had to return to work, albeit at Tahoe with a view of the Tahoe City golf course, but in the evening we had a Boxing Day dinner and opened the remaining presents.

Archeology, Anorexia, and Apes

I went to Carey Perloff's Luminescence Dating at the Magic Theatre at Fort Mason. I greatly enjoyed the play, but I doubt that any who had not suffered through the Classical college curriculum could appreciate the subtler references within the work.


Thumbs up to Italy, which has joined the war against stick models, along with Spain and Brazil.


There is a plague among the gorillas of Zaire, not unlike the Ebola virus which has effected the humans of that region. There are two possible disease vectors: other gorillas and fruit bats. I am inclined to believe that the latter is the true vector. Ebola acts through contaminated bodily fluids. Gorillas do not gather in large groups, which limits the effectiveness of the disease vector. Fruit bats, however, could fly between tree before perishing, and their corpses would remain in the copse from which the unfortunate primates dined.