Paul Dombey's "hooping-cough" and Leila Denmark, creator of the pertussis vaccine

In Charles Dickens's "Dombey and Son", Paul Dombey is a sickly child who, among other things, is "down in every fit of the hooping-cough". (Here, "hooping" is an old and now rare variant of "whooping".) When Dickens's novel was published in 1848, the only disease for which a vaccine existed was smallpox; only in 1880 did Louis Pasteur develop the next vaccine, for cholera. The first vaccine for whooping-cough (or pertussis) was developed in the 1930s by Leila Denmark, a pediatrician in Atlanta, Georgia, who was born in 1898 and died in 2012 at 114 years old, having continued to treat her patients until her eyesight began to fail at 103. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 30 September 2021)

 

Dr. Laila Denmark in the 1990s

Reginald Dwayne Betts gets a MacArthur Fellowship

The MacArthur Foundation announced their Fellows for 2021 yesterday; I was pleased to see three poets on the list: Reginald Dwayne Betts, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Don Chee Moi. Although I've long wanted to get books by the other two, Betts is the only one whose books are in my library; I used his collection "Felon" in my Contemporary Poetry Seminar last fall. I've also read his previous collection, "Bastards of the Reagan Era", as well as "Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison", his memoir of the years he spent in jail after a carjacking when he was sixteen (and tried as an adult).  (Andrew Shields, #111words, 29 September 2021)

 

Photo from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Cla Nett (1956-2021)

Since I arrived here in 1995, I've been impressed by range, quality, and history of the Basel music scene. Guitarist Cla Nett, who died yesterday at 64, was central to that history as the leader and co-founder of the Lazy Poker Blues Band, especially in its 1980s heyday. But I first heard him several times with Blues Nettwork, with his brother, my neighbor Jachen, on harmonica. When I finally heard Cla play with Lazy Poker in June 2018, I got to sing the final encore, "Dancing in the Streets", which I knew the phrasing of from versions by The Grateful Dead – whom Cla also loved and regretted never having seen live. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 28 September 2021)

 

Cla Nett (left) with Second Cousins, Basel, 17 August 2018

Extra credit? But also cool! Sagittarius A*

Andrea was quizzing Sara on a test for tomorrow; one question was how to define a galaxy, which she did very well, adding that the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A*. She wondered if she'd get extra credit if she included that on the test. Right away, though, she went on to say that it didn't matter; after all, not only is that black hole fascinating, it also has a great name. This immediately struck me as what teachers hope for: their students should see the material as both a way to get credit on a test and as something fascinating in itself. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 27 September 2021)

Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

 

 

Watching the Bundestag election broadcasts

Every four years on a Sunday evening, Andrea and I watch the broadcasts about the German Bundestag elections. The first projections are always released at 6 pm, but we didn't start watching this evening until after the FC Basel match ended at 6:20 pm. There are two main channels to watch, ARD and ZDF, so whenever one of the channels starts interviewing a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany, Andrea switches to the other. But starting at 8:15, the two channels jointly broadcast the "Berliner Runde" with the leaders of all parties, so when she gets tired of that, she starts looking for other channels to follow the results on. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 26 September 2021)

Far-right parties in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States

In his article today on tomorrow's election for the German Bundestag, Daniel Binswanger observes that the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) may get around 10% of the vote but has no chance of being part of a coalition government because none of the other parties will even consider working with them. He adds that this situation is enough to make those who oppose far-right parties in Switzerland envious, as the far-right Swiss People's Party is a constant presence in the Swiss Federal Council. But as an American in Switzerland, I find the situation in the United States even worse, where a far-right wing has taken over one of the mainstream parties. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 25 September 2021)

 

Afghanistan in Rümmingen

Just down the street from the stable in Rümmingen, Germany, where my daughters have their riding lessons is a café run by Jami and Rona, two immigrants to Germany from Afghanistan. This evening, they had a dinner with delicious Afghani cuisine, which Andrea and I went to. Of the many dishes in the buffet, my favorite was a lamb in a sauce with whole green grapes. On the wall of the tent they set up outside the café hung a picture that Jami told me he had commissioned an artist to paint: it depicted one of the two Buddhas of Bamiyan there were blown up by the Taliban in March 2001. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 24 September 2021)

Covid certificates at the University of Basel

On 1 November, the University of Basel will introduce a Covid-certificate requirement for in-person courses. This is a delayed response to the Swiss Federal Council's ruling that, starting on 13 September, people must have a certificate showing vaccination, recovery, or a recent negative test in order to attend indoor events (such as concerts, restaurants, movies, and lectures). However, registered students who don't have the certificate can ask to be offered alternatives to in-person classroom instruction. I'm all for giving such options to those who cannot be vaccinated (because of autoimmune disorders, say), but instructors should not have to make extra arrangements for those who refuse to get vaccinated or even tested. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 23 September 2021)

Behind "Parkinson's Law" is a formula

Over the course of the summer, as I planned my classes for this semester, I thought that I would finish earlier than usual, but here I am still preparing the syllabus for a class that first meets on Friday. "The work expands to fill the time allotted" – that's the phrase that keeps coming back to me. I wondered where the idea comes from: it's "Parkinson's Law", formulated in 1955 by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, who went on to publish a 1957 book about it. Parkinson was referring to the growth of bureaucracy over time – and he even formulated it as an equation involving how much staff growth can be expected every year. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 22 September 2021)

 

George Mraz (1944-2021)

One summer in the 1980s at the Stanford Coffee House, I served beer late every afternoon to the bassist George Mraz (1944-2021), who was teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. I knew and loved his playing, most of all on the John Abercrombie Quartet albums he did with Richie Beirach and Peter Donald. He was worried about his career that summer because he had tendinitis in his wrist and was supposed to not be playing at all. Around twenty years later, I heard him with Joe Lovano in Basel (with Hank Jones and Victor Lewis) and was glad to see that he no longer had to play with a wrist brace. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 21 September 2021)

 

John Abercrombie (top); Richie Beirach, George Mraz, Peter Donald

Back to teaching in person at the University of Basel

Although I was looking forward to it, I wasn't sure how I'd respond to teaching classes in person again when I arrived at the University today for the first day of the semester. I made sure to go in early enough to print handouts and go to my first classroom well in advance (one I'd never previously taught in). But then the computer in my office wouldn't start (it was installing an update), the classroom was locked, and my key didn't work. I called someone, who came to open it, but when class started, I didn't even think about how we were all in a room together rather than on Zoom. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 20 September 2021)

Hearing melody and meter in what my children say

My children have always been struck by how I take things they say and start to sing them or repeat them. Often they use phrases that have been used in songs, such as "a long time ago", which my mind immediately turns into "a long, long time ago" from "American Pie". Or they'll use phrases with a noticeable rhythm, as just happened while Luisa was driving a few minutes ago: "I thought I knew the person on the bike." I heard the iambic pentameter, repeated the sentence, and added a next line: "And so I didn't see the light turn green." Luckily, no one was behind us to honk at her. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 19 September 2021)

 

"The club is temporarily closed due to a legal order": The Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel

Since I bought my one-year pass to Basel's Bird's Eye Jazz Club in July, I've attended twelve concerts there: three each by the Hans Feigenwinter Trio and a Chico Freeman band, plus single shows led by Slawek Plizga, Joe Haider, Fabio Gouvêa, Arismar do Espirito Santo, and Guillermo Klein (with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra), as well as the band Katom. I'd made a reservation for saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane last night, but the club called me to say they wouldn't be open; as their website says: "The club is temporarily closed due to a legal order." After they didn't implement the covid certificate, their alternative approach was rejected by the local government. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 18 September 2021)

 

"Die Sonne geht in meinem Staat nicht unter": The extent of the sixteenth-century Spanish Empire and Friedrich Schiller's "Don Karlos"

In Friedrich Schiller's "Don Karlos", King Philip II of Spain (the title character's father) describes his kingdom with a phrase now primarily associated with Britain: "Die Sonne geht in meinem Staat nicht unter" ("The sun does not set in my state"). Schiller's play was first performed in 1787; its action takes place in 1568 (at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War of Dutch independence from Spain). Before it was used with reference to the British Empire, then, the phrase about "the sun never setting" was applied to the sixteenth-century Spanish Empire, beginning with the reign of Philip II's father Charles I (of Spain, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire).  (Andrew Shields, #111words, 17 September 2021)

The "pureblood" marketing opportunity

A trend on TikTok is also a marketing opportunity, so now you can buy T-shirts with the new slogan that "I will no longer be referred to as unvaccinated. I am now going by the name 'pureblood.'" It's all too easy to comment on how revealing this is: the "purebloods" in the Harry Potter series were the bad guys, the "wizard supremacists", as it were, who hated all wizards with one or two "muggle" parents. And of course the "one drop" rule in American history made everyone with any "colored" ancestry into a "colored" person. But perhaps the whole "pureblood" thing is just trolling to trigger all the vaccinated libtard snowflakes. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 16 September 2021)

What Facebook is good for

Facebook is stereotypically only good for cat videos and conspiracy theories. But the way people use it makes it even better at birthdays and, especially, deaths. Again and again, people (including me) post their thanks for the overwhelming flood of birthday greetings they get every year. And as I experienced when my father died five years ago today, it is a great comfort to receive comments, post reactions, and messages from Facebook Friends: counting my responses, my post about him had 398 comments and 154 reactions. Since then, whenever I see a post about a death, I've tried to make a point of responding, even just with a formula: "My condolences." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 15 September 2021)

The "Mondenkind" that "they left behind": Michael Collins in music by Michael Wollny and Pink Pedrazzi

One of the two long pieces Michael Wollny played at his solo-piano concert in Basel last week was "Mondenkind", which he had written with Michael Collins in mind: the astronaut who stayed in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Wollny was particularly struck by how Collins lost "visual and radio contact with the earth for 46:38 minutes of each orbit." Then, on Saturday, in an "insignificant but touching" coincidence, I heard Pink Pedrazzi play a song he wrote while thinking about how Collins got so close to the moon but didn't land, "Almost the Moon", with its haunting refrain: "I'm the man they left behind." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 14 September 2021)

 

Pink Pedrazzi, Théâtre de la Fabrik, Hégenheim, 11 September 2021

 

"Inclined to reserve all judgments": Nick Carraway as novelist in "The Great Gatsby"

At the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (1925), the narrator Nick Carraway reports advice his father gave him: "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, [...] just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had." Carraway claims that this has had an effect on his character: "I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me [...]" In "reserving judgment", Carraway takes up the position of a novelist, whose suspension of judgment makes the exploration of both "curious" and conventional "natures" possible – and both those with "advantages" and those, like Jay Gatsby, without them. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 13 September 2021)

 

Original cover by Francis Cugat

Calling Time to find out what time it was

James Gleick's "The Toll of the Clock", a review of David Rooney's "About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks" in the 23 September 2021 issue of the "New York Review of Books", reminded me of something that I hadn't thought of in ages: when I was child, I could "call time" by dialing a telephone number whose only purpose was to say what time it was. As I took this for granted as just something that one could do, I never considered that, as Gleick recounts, it had a history: "In the early days of telephones, operators discovered that people were phoning them up just to ask the time." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 12 September 2021)

 

The juxtaposition of two Bundestag election-campaign posters on a streetlight pole in Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany

Germany is in the final weeks of the campaign for the election of the Bundestag on 26 September, and streetlight poles are full of posters for parties and candidates. Today, I saw a poster for the far-right Alternative for Germany [AfD] claiming that "a border is there to be protected" above a poster for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany calling "for the right to flight [Flucht]" (that is, the right to become a refugee [Flüchtling]). Mostly, it's the juxtaposition of the two that I want to note, but as is so often the case, the AfD's claim is patently absurd: the border between Bavaria and Saxony is not protected, after all. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 11 September 2021)

Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany

Jacobson v. Massachusetts and John Marshall Harlan

I read a post today about the 1905 US Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which ruled that Massachusetts could fine Henning Jacobson for refusing to be vaccinated for smallpox: "[...] the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States [...] does not import an absolute right in each person to be [...] wholly freed from restraint." Yet the post identified the author of the opinion as John Marshall, who was Chief Justice from 1801-1835. But that turned out to be close: it was written by Justice John Marshall Harlan – who was also the lone dissenting voice in the infamous "separate but equal" decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1895.  (Andrew Shields, #111words, 10 September 2021)

 

John Marshall Harlan

Responding to political violence with "criminalization and strictly civilian law enforcement"

In "How Can We Neutralize the Militias?", in the 19 August 2021 issue of "The New York Review of Books", Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson argue that "[i]t is imperative that the US government resist the impulse to respond militarily to the threat of right-wing violence and that it sustain a law enforcement approach." They conclude that "[t]he overarching lesson for America is to stick to criminalization and strictly civilian law enforcement, both to preserve civil liberties and to avoid provoking even more extreme reactions." Would that the US government had responded to 9/11 with law enforcement and criminal trials rather than militarization, torture, and the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 9 September 2021)

Arismar do Espirito Santo, Glauco Solter, and Mauro Martins at the Bird's Eye in Basel

Last Wednesday, I went to a wonderful concert at the Bird's Eye with a band led by guitarist Fabio Gouvêa. When I saw that drummer Mauro Martins was playing at the Bird's Eye again this evening, I changed my plans and went to hear him again, in Arismar do Espirito Santo's trio with Glauco Solter on electric bass. Arismar turns out to be one of the greatest musicians I've ever seen live: on seven-string nylon guitar, piano, and vocals, he plays with unbounded freedom, passion, and expression, with Solter and Martins tracking his every twist and turn with equally infectious enthusiasm, and with the audience singing along to close both sets. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 8 September 2021)

 

Arismar do Espirito Santo

 

Spotlights at Michael Wollny's concert in the Basel Volkshaus

During Michael Wollny’s solo-piano performance this evening at the Volkshaus in Basel, I could not see the piano keys from my seat, so mostly I closed my eyes and let his long, multifaceted pieces carry me away. At one point, though, I looked up and saw what looked like a spark under a spotlight; I realized it was an insect, but then it disappeared, leaving dust motes drifting in its place. Then I saw a blurred line of bluish light on the ceiling: a blue stage spotlight was reflecting from the piano keys, and I could see the shadows of Wollny’s hands moving back and forth across that strip of light.  (Andrew Shields, #111words, 7 September 2021)

Men's and women's clothing in tennis – and the ball for second serves

In professional tennis, the men wear shirts and shorts, while the women dresses, or shirts and skirts. While serving, the men put a ball in the pocket of their shorts in case they fault on the first serve, and the women tuck a ball under their skirts or dresses (except for Serena Williams, who doesn't take a second ball until after her first serve, as Pete Sampras also did). In the 1990s, Spanish player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario had a ball holder attached to her skirt instead. But for women who don't like to tuck the ball under their skirt or dress, the solution is actually obvious: have pockets sewn into them. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 6 September 2021)

 

Traces of the pandemic at the Switzerland-Italy match in Basel this evening

The coronavirus pandemic was not very present at this evening's World Cup qualifying match between Switzerland and Italy at the St. Jakob stadium in Basel. To enter the stadium, spectators did have to have a coronavirus certificate certifying their vaccination, recovery, or recent negative test, and the staff checking the certificates, bags, and tickets were wearing masks, as were all the servers at the concession stands. But once I'd gotten to my seat, I only noticed one effect of the pandemic: the teams could still use the five substitutions that were introduced when matches began to be played again in late spring 2020. It's a rule that I hope becomes permanent. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 5 September 2021)

Antenna, Max, and Best at the Bibliothek der Gestaltung, Oslo Night, Basel

Three musicians set up their instruments in front of a wall of books in a library, one of which says WALL, while another features David Bowie, ready to listen to what they have to offer. There’s a drummer with a tiny set (hi-hat, snare, bass drum, cymbal, and sometimes a tambourine), an electric guitarist who only uses his microphone for backing vocals on one song, and a singer who plays jew’s harp through an effects board, as well as some harmonica. Antenna, Max, and Best play what they want to play, a kind of raucous outsider folk blues, and you can be like Bowie and listen as much as you like. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 4 September 2021)

 

 

The rumor that Christian Eriksen's heart attack came after he had received a coronavirus vaccination

I learned today that, immediately after Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during a match at the European Championship in June, a rumor started that he'd just received a coronavirus vaccination which had given him a heart attack. By the time it was debunked when Eriksen’s club, Inter Milan, said that he hadn't actually been vaccinated, it had already spread far enough that it still persists today, combined with the claims that the vaccines cause heart problems and even that Eriksen died. An incident occurs, a rumor starts and spreads, it is debunked, but it lives on and is even pushed further and further because it says something believers want to hear. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 3 September 2021)

Zinedine Zidane as Achilles in Roy McFarlane's "New Millennium Journal"

In the sequence "New Millennium Journal" in "The Healing Next Time" (Nine Arches 2018), Roy McFarlane twice figures Zinedine Zidane as Achilles, first in "2002: What we do when things fall apart" as "Achilles gloriously designed, unperturbed, untouchable" when Real Madrid played Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League Final, a player "carrying the duality of the colonised and the colonialist", and then in "2006: New wine in broken vessels" as "Achilles exposed" with France against Italy in the World Cup Final, "provoked by his nemesis" to the headbutt that earned him a red card and expressed an "anger" and "rage" familiar to McFarlane: "We Black knew the point of no return." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 2 September 2021)

 

Zidane scoring what McFarlane calls "the greatest goal ever" in the 2002 CL Final

Reading one book of poetry every day for the month of August: The Sealey Challenge

Although I didn't use the hashtag, in August I participated in #TheSealeyChallenge to read one poetry book every day. Occasionally, I read them in one go, but mostly, I read them bit by bit over the course of the day. So I had the poets' voices hovering in my mind even when I wasn't reading, especially with books that focused on particular themes. One theme that came up several times was quite moving to me: caring for aging parents suffering from dementia. That theme bracketed the month, as both the first and last books I read touched on it: Jeffrey Harrison's "Between Lakes" to start and Seni Seneviratne's "Unknown Soldier" yesterday. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 1 September 2021)

 

My list:

20210831 Seni Seneviratne, Unknown Soldier

20210830 Matthew Paul, The Evening Entertainment

20210829 Ali Cobby Eckermann, Love dreaming & other poems

20210828 Vidyan Ravinthiran, The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here

20210827 Nuzhat Bukhari, Brilliant Corners

20210826 Sherko Bekas, tr. Choman Hardi, Butterfly Valley

20210825 Dunya Mikhail, In Her Feminine Sign

20210824 Nina Mingya Powles, Magnolia, 木蘭

20210823 Mary Jean Chan, Flèche

20210822 Roy McFarlane, The Healing Next Time

20210821 Osip Mandelstam, tr. Alistair Noon, Concert at a Railway Station

20210820 Simon Armitage, The Unaccompanied

20210819 Glyn Maxwell, How the Hell Are You

20210818 Alice Notley, Certain Magical Acts

20210817 Nina Bogin, Thousandfold

20210816 Mike Puican, Central Air

20210815 Claire Crowther, Solar Cruise

20210814 Alice Miller, Nowhere Nearer

20210813 Kayo Chingonyi, A Blood Condition

20210812 Natasha Trethewey, Thrall

20210811 Roger Robinson, A Portable Paradise

20210810 Aracelis Grimay, The Black Maria

20210809 Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven

20210808 Gerður Kristný, tr. Rory McTurk, Reykjavík Requiem

20210807 Giovanni Pascoli, tr. Geoffrey Brock, Last Dream

20210806 Joyelle McSweeney, Toxicon and Anarche

20210805 Michael Longley, The Candlelight Master

20210804 Sumita Chakraborty, Arrow

20210803 Bill Manhire, Wow

20210802 Cathy Park Hong, Engine Empire

20210801 Jeffrey Harrison, Between Lakes