"This is a permanent book."

I started to read my copy of John L Stephens' Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan, and noticed I had only 1 of 2 volumes. My vol 1 was an old copy from Dover, old enough to still carry proudly on its back cover the note which reads:

 A DOVER EDITION DESIGNED FOR YEARS OF USE!

We have made every effort to make this the best book possible. Our paper is opaque, with minimal show-through; it will not discolor or become brittle with age. Pages are bound in signatures, in the method traditionally used for the best books, and will not drop out. Books open flat for easy reference. The binding will not crack or split. This is a permanent book.

As many people still know, those old Dovers are well-made, and well-made things are beautiful, and a thing of beauty is a joy forever. Still, I ordered a copy of vol 2 sold from a third party on Amazon. It arrived today, well ahead of schedule. My first thought, taking the pristine volume from the envelope, was, "Yes, that's a brand-new book alright." Because, as many of you know, third-party sellers on Amazon often fudge on details such as the condition of the items they're selling. But this volume is pristine. Obviously pristine at first glance.

Then I turned the book over and was gobsmacked to see the proud note you don't see on the back covers of Dover books since some time around 2000, about how this is a permanent book. 

At first I thought, Is it possible that Dover have done the right thing, and once more concentrate on a quality product? But no: this volume has no 978 at the beginning of its ISBN. "6.95 IN USA" has been stamped on it.

It's pristine enough to pass for brand new, and it's at least 20 years old. That's how well-made Dover books used to be. 

 

Perhaps this little anecdote will inspire someone, somewhere to defiantly give people a good deal and a quality product.

Collecting

I've always loved to look at paintings and sculpture. When I was a young man, 35 or 40 years ago, I first learned of the existence of some art collectors, and, angrily, I thought: those ********, they're just hoarding.

I was wrong. Over the years, I found out a lot more about those very same people. I found out how they promoted poor, unknown artists, gave their careers a boost. I learned how they brought publicity to artists who deserved more attention. I learned how in some cases they were bona fide art historians. I found out how they donated their collections to museums. I learned how there is this whole huge tradition of art collecting which is a good thing, and not hoarding at all. Over the course of centuries, art collecting has become a sort of career, which contributes a lot to the world.

 

That's art collecting. People collect all sorts of other things: comics, salt shakers, stamps, coins, Bibles, automobiles, dresses, etc, etc. Sometimes they know about the traditional art collecting and consciously are a part of that tradition of collecting. Other times they may not know anything about any of this stuff, but they have the same sorts of positive, productive, kind, morally good instincts which drive the best art collectors.

Nostalgia Revisited

A man shaves with a straight razor, dresses, tucks his fountain pen and mechanical pocket watch into his waistcoat, dusts off his spats, leaves his home and walks across the street paved with cobblestones to his internal-combustion car, which he drives with its manual transmission to his club, where he dines on steak and oysters, and then relaxes before the fireplace with a cigar and a snifter of brandy, exchanging witticisms in Latin with other club members while someone extemporizes upon the grand piano.

 

16 things which either are, or are perceived to be, in decline: straight razors, fountain pens, mechanical pocket watches, waistcoats, spats, cobblestones, internal combustion engines, manual transmissions, private clubs, steak, oysters, fireplaces, cigars, brandy, the Latin language and grand pianos. But each of those things are staunchly defended by groups small or large. Internal combustion still predominates, but it will be outnumbered by electric vehicles much sooner than some people realize, while not soon enough to suit some of us, who are concerned about climate catastrophe. 

The number of people who eat steak is shrinking, and it seems it will continue to shrink. Vegans consider the human consumption of beef to be a catastrophe in several major ways, while others think that life without the possibility of steak would be a disaster, and I must say that I sympathize with both sides in this fight. The vegans make very convincing arguments. On the other hand, we still have teeth designed to tear flesh, and the smell of a well-prepared steak still makes our mouths water. It still makes my mouth water, at least. Are the vegans really immune to this lure? 

I think that if the vegans want to win, they will have to produce great quantities of delicious vegan food. And it seems that many vegans agree, because the amount of truly delicious vegan food is growing at an amazing rate. This will be much more effective than the stereotypical unbearable self-righteous disapproving vegan.

I've written often in this blog about my love for mechanical watches. But even I am wearing a G-Shock right now. They just work better. Yes, can get a mechanical watch which does 80% of what a $100 quartz watch does, almost as well as the quartz watch. You can get such a mechanical watch for as little as $50,000. 

Fountain pens are more of a mixed bag compared to ballpoints and gel. Fountain pens can, unquestionably, do much more than other pens. But the amount of work it takes to keep them working is -- well, it's much more than the amount of work it takes to wind a watch every day, if your mechanical watch is not an automatic wristwatch which winds itself as your wrist moves when you wear it.

If you're an American, you may or may not be amazed to learn how many cobblestones are still in use in Europe, and even on a few of New York city's streets, and for all I know, maybe in many other American cities too. What about cobblestones in Canada? Or Latin America? Hey, good questions! I don't know.

Anyway, maybe I've been a bit of a douchebag for the way that I've repeatedly attacked nostalgia, because I feel a protective urge for most of these old-timey things, and I can at least sympathize with most of the rest. And that doesn't make me, or anyone else who likes these things, reactionary.

But, Aha! you exclaim. The club! It excluded women, and most men, too!

But Aha! yourself, I shout back at you. Just because you were in the club in 1903 didn't mean you weren't progressive. You could go to the club and argue that club membership, and even the vote! should be given to all women and men. Just because you love a stick shift doesn't mean you're not going to get an EV -- or even a bus pass. Loving history does not mean that you hate every progressive evolution. Conversely, cheering on ever-better automatic transmissions and EV's, and doing away with writing on paper altogether, let alone fountain pens, and being vegan, and having been the first to abandoned straight razors and spats -- alas, none of that guarantees that you are not, politically, socially, a reactionary pig! You can't judge the citizen by her timepiece!

More Blackouts

On Saturday, February 25, I posted a few impressions from the middle of a blackout which affected hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan, maybe over a a million. Two days later, on Monday, February 27, the power came back on. 

And it stayed on for four whole days, until Friday, March 3. There had been a big snowstorm overnight, and when I opened my eyes in the morning, the red LED clock that sits close to my face as I sleep was out.

This time it was much warmer than the previous blackout. Once again it seemed our whole block was affected. As late morning came on, my major problem personally was caffeine withdrawal. There was no way to heat water in my place. I headed off to a steakhouse, the nearest place that would have coffee. Google maps says it was a 4/10 of a mile walk. It didn't feel that long. The biggest problem was finding dry sidewalk or street to walk on amid huge piles of melting snow. 

On the way to the steakhouse I could see kids sledding down two hills in the public park nearby. On the smaller of the two hills, smaller kids were not moving very fast. Bigger kids were really zooming down the bigger hill. Near the steakhouse, people said there they had had no interruption in power.

The steakhouse was sort of like a return to my childhood: rural Midwest, 50 years ago. The coffee was nothing fancy. It was what people used to call "Joe." But it was strong, the waitress was very nice and she kept it coming, and after I while I decided to have some eggs Benedict. They make a big serving of eggs Benedict. I walked home in a much better mood than I had been in walking out, with the caffeine energy competing with sleepiness from a huge meal in a very pleasant way.

It wasn't nearly as cold as the previous blackout, but that night it was plenty cold enough. The next day, most of the snow blocking my car in had melted. I dug out the rest and headed to the library, and to the coffee shop adjacent to the library, or, actually, IN the library, which makes a great almond-milk mocha latte. 

This library is where people come to warm up and charge up their phones and laptops during blackouts. And that's exactly what I was doing when I got an email telling me that Amazon had made a delivery back at my place. I looked around for a photo of the delivery on the Amazon website, and sure enough: the package was outside, right next to the door of the enclosed porch, instead of inside that door, as is my standing request, and as Amazon does most of the time. 

I've never had a package stolen when it was left outside like that. I've never heard of any such thefts anywhere near my home. But anyone who is obsessive-compulsive will understand that that doesn't matter. I had to return home immediately to get that package inside before someone stole it or an unexpected downpour got it wet, or some huge stray dog picked it up between his jaws and began to to carry it west toward Nebraska. 

I retrieved the package. I changed into clean clothes. I was ready to return to the library for more warmth and wifi and recharging when I noticed that the sun was shining very brightly into the living room. Then it occurred to me that it was strange for the living room to be all lit up at that time of day -- and THEN it occurred to me that I had left the living-room light on, and that my electricity was back.

And the electricity meant that I could get my laptop online from home -- except that now my Internet was out. My brother called to see how I was, I told him: fine, except for the Internet. He suggested calling tech support. Sure enough, just like that, after two calls to tech support, BAM, my Internet was back.

Some people who, like me, favor big changes in the local energy structure, such as massive adoption of rooftop solar, are hopeful that blackouts will win people to our cause. While I certainly agree that massive adoption of rooftop solar would both help prevent these blackouts, and keep more people warm during blackouts (besides things like cutting way down on pollution and greenhouse gasses from electricity generated from Koch Industries coal), I don't see a lot of local people saying the same things. Solar energy remains far from widespread in Michigan. I think we've got a lot of hard work to do in changing public opinion.

Blackouts in the Area

On Wednesday an ice storm hit and the power went out. I wrote the following in a pocket-sized Zequenz notebook with an enormous ornate Jinhao Pendragon pen on Thursday, the 23rd. It's Saturday now. DTE, the utility, first estimated my power would be back on by Thursday, two days ago, the day I wrote the following. Later they revised their estimate to Tuesday next week. Currently they are making no estimate. My place was one of over a million homes and business without power for some time this week. Yesterday over 750,000 of them still had no power.

23 February 2023 My brother said he will pick me up today after work and let me stay with him until the power is back on. DTE emailed me and said my power is estimated to be back on today. 

I don't believe DTE. 

Does my brother? I've been hoping to see my brother F2F, been a while, hope it still happens.

It was colder than a welldigger's ass last night inside my home. The night seemed very, very long. I suppose that means I didn't sleep well.

Standing on my porch around 5PM even though it's a little warmer inside, because it's too dark inside to write, writing this in my Zequenz. Capping and uncapping this Jinhao Pendragon feels like a nice little ceremony. Perhaps not an entire Japanese tea ceremony, but still. 

5:01PM, my brother called to say he's on his way. My neighbor has agreed to look out for Amazon packages, and to put them inside the porch, in case Amazon leaves them outside despite my standing instructions. Amazon usually leaves them inside the porch. But it's nice to know my neighbor will look out. She easily wins Neighbor of the year, year after year.

Visible from inside my porch: Streets, sidewalks, cars, trucks, SUV's etc, a "telephone" pole which I believe carries only electricity, grass, grass re-seeding where DTE tore it up putting in new gas lines this summer, masonry, plastic trash bins, movement of tree limbs in the wind, wooden outside staircases with wooden railings outside duplex residences, roofs, both shingles and... metal? Definitely not shingles. Street signs, chimneys. Those plain narrow metal gas exhaust pipes in roofs of buildings which run wholly or partly on gas power, are those also called chimneys?

I haven't seen any birds today.

Truth and Prejudice, and Steven Runciman

I've read a lot of historians who have the best reputations, who've written over the course of the past 2,500 years, in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, English and some other languages, and the one who has impressed me the most, by far, is Steven Runciman, born 1903, died 2001. (The historians wrote in those languages. In the case of Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and some other languages, I've read them in translation.) At the beginning of Chapter I of his first book, The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus & His Reign, published in 1929, Runciman lays out a lot of what his career is going to be about. He begins:

"In the battles between truth and prejudice, waged on the field of history books, it must be confessed that the latter usually wins."

So right away, he admits that he's fighting an uphill battle which he doesn't expect to win.

 

Also right at the beginning of his first book, he lays out the field of battle where he's going to struggle to put the facts across and defeat prejudice. It's a field my brother and I have often discussed recently: the image, in the West, of the Eastern Roman Empire (usually referred to in the West as Byzantium), after the Western Empire fell. Runciman describes how crude, warlike Westerners, the Crusaders, came into contact with Byzantium and found

 

"[...]a society where everyone read and wrote, ate food with forks and preferred diplomacy to war."

  

Runciman states flatly, here at the beginning of his first book, that up until shortly before his own time, prejudice had trounced truth even in the best history written in the West when it came to Byzantium. And then he spent a very long and brilliant career backing up this flat statement. Rather than admit that Byzantine society was more advanced in many ways than their own, Western historians made "byzantine" an adjective meaning decadent, flabby, lazy, cowardly, cunning, etc, etc. Runciman's mentor JB Bury (1861-1927), a pioneer in bucking this pervasive trend, went so far as to refuse to even use the term "Byzantium" to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire after the Western Empire had fallen. 

 

Bury, Runciman and some like-minded Western historians have made some headway in changing the attitudes of historians, and somewhat less, so far, in the consciousness of the general public. It's still quite common to encounter very well-educated Westerners who talk of the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476, who refer to the Catholic Church before the Reformation, and Catholicism plus Protestantism since then, as "the whole of Christendom," completely ignoring Greek Orthodoxy, not to mention the Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian and Nestorian churches who never acknowledged Catholic or orthodox supremacy.

It seems to me, now, simple enough to recognize that, for example, the Romans who were represented at Jerusalem by Pontius Pilate and a garrison of soldiers in the time of Christ did not go anywhere in AD 476, and to grasp why Christians who already had their own written languages were not inclined to accept either a Latin or a Greek spiritual overlordship. 

But did I see any of this before people like Runciman and Bury pointed it out to me? No, of course I didn't, any more than I saw how obviously Gothic cathedral towers, all built after the Crusades began, mimic Muslim minarets, before that was pointed out to me.

You have to see a truth first. Then it can become obvious. Not the other way around. Which usually means that someone else has to point it out to you. 

Anabaptists, Mennonites, Amish, Pietists, Brethren *and Calvinists

In the part of northern Indiana I come from, there are quite a few Amish, and also quite a few members of the Church of the Brethren, the church in which I was raised, and also several other denominations which have "Brethren" in their names: Conservative Grace Brethren, Fellowship of Grace Brethren, Dunkard Brethren and others.

The Church of the Brethren and the Amish both are Anabaptist denominations. Anabaptists are pacifists. They do not believe in infant baptism. The children of their congregations grow to a certain age, and then they may be baptized and join the church, or not, supposedly of their own free will and with no coercion. I'm sure that the actual measure of coercion varies greatly from congregation to congregation, and from one family to another within that congregation. I have to say that, in my own particular case, as I no longer hold certain religious beliefs with which I was raised, most of my extended family, and other Brethren whom I happen to meet, have continued to accept me as I am, with a really remarkable lack of either judgment or shunning.

Anabaptists split away very early from the main Lutheran church. The first Anabaptist martyr, Felix Manz, was drowned by Lutherans in Zurich in 1527. That's just six years after Luther himself, then a Catholic monk, was declared a heretic. Lutherans wasted no damn time at all in persecuting their own heretics.

Mennonites are also Anabaptists.

The Amish are named after the Anabaptist leader Jakob Amman, born 1644, died early 18th century. The Mennonite church goes all the way back to one of the very first anabaptist leaders, Menno Simons, born 1496, died 1561.

However, the Church of the Brethren are not directed descended from that very first group of Anabaptists. Rather, it came from the Schwarzenau Brethren, who left Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist* churches and joined the Anabaptist movement during the 17th and 18th centuries. Alexander Mack was an early leader of the Schwarzenau Brethren.         *Calvinists do not call themselves Calvinists. They call themselves members of the Reformed Church. They are extremely annoying nit-pickers who love to correct people about things that don't mean shit, such as that they (supposedly) are not Calvinists.

The Schwarzenau Brethren are part of a larger Protestant movement emphasizing pacifism and a personal understanding of God, known as Pietism. 

Right from the first, denominations split off from the Schwarzenau Brethren. There are some churches called "Brethren" which did not come from the Schwarzenau Brethren, and a lot which did. There were numerous splits during the 1880's and afterward. It gets really complicated. The Church of the Brethren, the church of my family, one of the Brethren denominations who chose the "progressive" path rather than the rejection of modernity, adopted that name in 1905, changing from German Baptist Brethren. Which denomination is the true inheritor of the Schwarzenau Brethren, and which have left their path, is, I am fairly certain, a matter of some dispute, and often highly influenced by which denomination one happens to belong to or feel most sympathetic to.