GinohnNews

G: I am sorry but this news may be a little bit short on details. It's getting so old that I don't feel like getting all down, just getting it all done. So, Wednesday June 11th I made my way via metro to Arena Stage in Crystal City to see The Mystery of Irma Vep with Alison, Andy, Kristin, Robin, Mike, Janet, Petra, Alex, Renee, Chort, Paula, Jake, Ingrid, and a couple other people I didn't know. Alison arranged a group rate and got us all to go, because she'd really enjoyed this show in the past. Our seats weren't all together but I was right behind Petra (and moved next to her during intermission when that seat never filled). I was pretty excited after the description from the man who introduced the play, and the curtains opened to reveal a stunning set. And I enjoyed it, but not as much as those intial expectations had led me to think I would. It was funny, but almost - okay, not even almost - too campy, and the story was pretty lame. The lame story was just framework for silliness. And I am all for silliiness, so that was good, but I still expected a bit more.

Friday was the 13th. Ooooooooo! Nothing happened.

Saturday John went to work (he's been doing that a lot lately, getting ready for a big work trip).  I went to see the open house of my fellow artist in residence Elizabeth Morisette. Her family is moving to Colorado, and they've got a wonderfully fixed up home to sell!

That night we went to George's Organic Foods tasting party. I brought a pie I made from ground up nuts and seeds and dried fruit for a crust, and soy yogurt, bananas, and strawberries for filling. Many of the ingredients were organic. It was a big hit.

There were stations of food all over the house, and you went around with a list tasting things and marking down which one you thought were organic. Using my experience as a produce chick, I made educated guesses. I didn't try everything (not the chicken, wine, cheese, or cookies), but every thing I tested I got right! We stayed pretty late, having a good time.

The next day I went to check out a restaurant, looking for a nice place to have a birthday dinner. Izolda suggested Bamain, an Afghan restaurant in Falls Church. Izolda and Dave went with us. It was a very nice place, and the food was delicious. But still, I don't think it's going to be the place.

We went to Renee and Alex's because they were watching the Tony's - I played Qwirkle and poker with Alex, Rich, Dave, and John. I did not win any games.

Wednesday we went to see You Don't Mess with the Zohan. I liked it.

Renee called me and said she heard Weird Al was going to be at DC 101 Friday morning, so she called in to say she was a big fan, and talked about meeting him, and cheerleading last year, and got herself and I invited to be in the audience for the segment.

So Friday I got up very early and we drove to Rockville where the studio is. After driving past the building a couple of times, we got there just after the time the wanted us there (7am). We waited a while and then the group of about 9 audience members were led into the studio (with Elliot). He started asking us some questions. He asked if we'd brought questions for Al, but only a couple of people did (I didn't know we were supposed to). He was talking to all of us, and I began to wonder if we were on the air or not. I thought we were when we first walked in, but after a while, the way the conversation was going, it just didn't seem like it.  I couldn't find an "on air" light, so after a while I decided we weren't. But we were the whole time. I think I remember what I said, but we will have to see if the audio tape that Andy was making that jammed up can be salvaged and listened to.  Anyway, they lined us up against the wall and brought Al in. It was really weird at first. It was during a commercial, and everyone just sat and stood silently for several minutes. Then they started playing a musical montage (what would that be called?) of Al's songs. It went on and on. They must have strung together snippets from about 30 songs. Then Elliot started interviewing Al. That guy is persistent. He kept asking Al questions about other celebrities and stuff, and althought Al would resist mightily, Elliot would not give up until he named names.

I only got a couple of sentences exchanged with Al before he was whisked away, but I'll be seeing him in two weeks. Renee and I are most likely going to be the cheerleaders again at the Warner Theater (July 12th) and perhaps at Pier 6 Baltimore (the July 11th).

We were on our way home by 8:30am. I walked the dog and took a long nap.

That night we went to dinner at Mandalay, and saw The Love Guru. Which may or may not be a funny movie. I think it might have been funny if the previews hadn't SPOILED EVERY FUNNY MOMENT.

Saturday there was a Franklin's ride with Luisa, John Wade, Rich, TVTom. Janet met us there. We ate and drank and were merry. That night we went to see Get Smart. I liked it! We saw three movies that week (before John left). The one's I liked, he didn't so much, and the one I didn't so much, he did.

Sunday I went down to the Farmer's market, where I got a little fruit, some bread, pear butter, and lots of plants. I finally did my decorative plant installing for the summer. Later I went on the annual GHI house and garden tour. It was mostly gardens this year, and a bit hot out, but quite enjoyable. After I got home I put plants in, and then John Norden came over to walk his dog (Duke) with ours. Then we went to dinner at Mandalay - his favorite restaurant.

J: People are excellent at finding and describing patterns in things, but we don't do so well when we try to explain those patterns, and fare even worse when we try to find meaning in them.

Thousands of years ago our ancestors noticed an important difference between living and dead people. Living people breathed, while dead people didn't.

Breathing is weird. Your chest expands, and invisible stuff goes in, and then goes out again. It was reasoned that the invisible stuff, along with water and food, gave us the ability to move around. If you take away water and food, a person will last much longer than if you take away his breath, so it was thought that breathing was most important to human life. Without this invisible stuff filling your body, you can't last long.

The Romans had a name for the invisible stuff— spiritus, which became the root word in "respiration", "aspire", "expire", and a whole lot of other English words. Spiritus literally means "breath".

The Chinese people had a name for it too. They called it qi, a word that, even now, literally means "breath".

Little else was known about breath back then. As with many other natural phenomena—lightning, earthquakes, fire, etc.—lots of cultures anthropomorphized breath or gave it magical properties. It became a mysterious energy, a life force, a spirit, a soul.

Over time people discovered more about the mechanism of breathing, the chemical components of air, and many physiological details of the human body, so breath became less mysterious. But the magical breath memes lived on. Qi and Spiritus had spawned extra connotations from their original definitions, and the abstract, mysterious meanings became more abstract,  more mysterious, and more meaningless as they broke away from speculations on actual human breathing and created their own reasons to exist— reasons devoid of actual observational evidence.

This habit of taking descriptions of natural phenomena and extrapolating supernatural qualities continues today. As very clever, observant people discover patterns in the world, very clever, creative people twist the discoveries to fit magical world views.

A modern example of this clever twisting can be found around the field of quantum physics. The mathematical weirdness of wave/particle duality, action at a distance, and probability functions have been turned into "free energy", "remote viewing", and "positive thinking".

But really, before all this extra strangeness, before all the magical twisting, our ancestors were simply discussing the nature of a certain kind of invisible stuff, and quantum physicists today are only discussing the nature of tiny,  invisible stuff.