Reading an old article in Republik and coming across Plato and Claude Shannon

The Swiss online magazine Republik publishes two or three long articles every day. I try to read one a day, but I don't always manage it, so I save them for later reading, and a backlog of unread texts piles up. So today I read the oldest article I had saved, "Weshalb diese Medien-Paranoia?" ("Why this media paranoia?"), by Daniel Strassberg. And I was pleased by references to two of my favorite texts: Plato's "Phaedrus" and the wonderful passage about the invention of writing, and Claude Shannon's "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", which I don't really understand the mathematics of but which was central to my father's studies in information theory. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 12 September 2022)

 

Martina Navratilova was the only WTA player to simultaneously win her first Grand Slam and become number one for the first time

I found one case in WTA history where a player simultaneously won her first Grand Slam title and became number one for the first time: at Wimbledon in 1978, second-ranked Martina Navratilova did so, defeating top-ranked Chris Evert to  claim the number-one ranking. At Wimbledon in 2002, second-ranked Serena Williams defeated top-ranked Venus Williams to become number one for the first time – but that was already her third Grand Slam title. And in a third case, which the Australian Open tweeted about, second-ranked Caroline Wozniacki defeated top-ranked Simona Halep there in 2018 in a battle for number one and a first Grand Slam title – but both had been number one before. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 11 September 2022)

Two players in their first Grand Slam final playing to be number one for the first time: apparently a first-time scenario

In tomorrow's men's singles final at the US Open, nineteen-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain (currently ranked fourth) faces twenty-three-year-old Casper Ruud of Norway (currently ranked seventh). As has been frequently pointed out, the two are each playing for their first Grand Slam title, and the winner will be number one. But I haven't seen it mentioned that this is apparently a first-time scenario: I've found only one other case where a man became number one for the first time by winning a Grand Slam, and then it involved number two Mats Wilander (who had already won six Grand Slam titles) defeating number one Ivan Lendl at the US Open in 1988. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 10 September 2022)

Making a man queen – "Can a man be Chancellor?"

One of the most frequently shared tweets about the death of Queen Elizabeth II (at least that I have seen) is from Nat Guest: "Can't believe they are going to make a MAN queen. This woke nonsense has gone too far." This reminded me of a story often told in Germany as Angela Merkel's chancellorship kept getting longer: parents of children who had never known any other chancellor reported their children asking some form of this question: "Kann ein Mann Bundeskanzlerin werden?" ("Can a man be Chancellor?). While "queen" in Guest's tweet has a feminine denotation, "Bundeskanzlerin" in the children's striking question is marked as feminine by the grammatical ending "-in". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 9 September 2022)

Remembering a chart of the succession of English and British monarchs from my time in the UK in 1973-74

When I was nine and lived in Leamington Spa in England for nine months in 1973-74, I remember drawing a detailed chart, from King William I to Queen Elizabeth II, of the succession of the Kings and Queens of England and Great Britain from 1066 onwards. I was particularly intrigued by the moments when the succession was not smooth (with Lady Jane Grey after King Edward VI in 1553, say, or with the Civil War in the seventeenth century). That memory from almost fifty years ago helps me realize just how long Queen Elizabeth II's reign was, especially given that she had been Queen for over twenty years by that time. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 8 September 2022)

"It advertised them both": Free creative work in "Of Human Bondage"

Although W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" (1915) takes place from the late 1880s to the late 1900s, at least one moment could be from the twenty-first century. The main character Philip Carey's painter friend Lawson gets asked to paint portraits not for a money but for the exposure that it will give him: "[...]  he had arrived at that stage of the portrait-painter’s career when he was noticed a good deal by the critics and found a number of aristocratic ladies who were willing to allow him to paint them for nothing (it advertised them both, and gave the great ladies quite an air of patronesses of the arts) [...]." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 7 September 2022)

Louisa Gradgrind Bounderby in "Hard Times" as Dickens's first strong woman who does not end tragically

In Charles Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (1848), Edith Skewton Granger marries wealthy businessman Paul Dombey for her mother's comfort and can only escape her loveless marriage by running away with Dombey's manager, Mr. Carker. In "Bleak House" (1852), Lady Dedlock maintains her social position by keeping her pregnancy from before her marriage secret, and when the secret threatens to be revealed, she runs away and ends up freezing to death. In "Hard Times" (1854), though, Louisa Gradgrind marries Josiah Bounderby at her father's suggestion but later leaves him and even leads her father to regret how he raised her. Finally, Dickens writes a strong-willed woman whose life does not end tragically. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 6 September 2022)

The etymology of "kangaroo court" – nothing to do with Australia

A reference by a supporter of former President Donald Trump to the United States House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol as a "kangaroo court" made me wonder about the etymology of that expression for an ad hoc and thus illegitimate tribunal. I assumed, of course, that it would have something to do with Australia, but the term first appeared in the mid-nineteenth century in the United States. According to a Wikipedia article on the term, the earliest reference is in a newspaper article in 1841; the expression appears in a quotation, and the article concludes, "What is a kangaroo court, neighbor?" (Andrew Shields, #111words, 5 September 2022)

An article about my family and computers in the Palo Alto Weekly on 12 August 1981

My mother gave me an article from the Palo Alto Weekly of 12 August 1981 that interviewed two families (one of them ours) about their use of personal computers. Among other things, the article mentions that I worked at On Line Micro Center, and the journalist, Joseph Hooper, also spoke with my boss Bill Fitzgerald. The shop was at the Palo Alto Square shopping center across the street from Palo Alto High School; I got the job there after spending an afternoon going from store to store asking if anyone had a job for me. I wrote about my job there in one of my daily texts back in June 2021. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 4 September 2022)

Watching Serena Williams in 2022 and remembering her first Grand Slam title at the US Open in 1999

I was up late last night, so I decided to watch Serena Williams's match against Ajla Tomljanovic (which started at one a.m. in Switzerland). It turned out to be Serena's last match as a professional. During the match, I remembered watching Serena defeat Martina Hingis in the 1999 US Open final, two years after Venus Williams had lost to Hingis in the US Open final. I've always had a vivid memory of the eighteen-year-old Serena stumbling around the court and beaming her always riveting smile after her triumph against the eighteen-year-old Hingis (who had won five Grand Slam singles titles by that time, but won no more in her further career). (Andrew Shields, #111words, 3 September 2022)

Kettles, and Boris Johnson

Years ago, we had a series of electric kettles that always stopped working pretty soon. So about seven or eight years ago, I spent a bit more on a kettle that worked until a few days ago. So on Wednesday, I bought a new kettle that cost even more, hoping that it will survive even longer than the previous one. Little did I know that I could have followed the wisdom of Boris Johnson and purchased a kettle for £20 that would save me £10 on my electric bill per year. The only problems are that the cheap ones break quickly and that I live in Switzerland, not the United Kingdom. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 2 September 2022)

Climate change, covid, and political will

In a Republik article on their campaign to get an Advisory Opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Solomon Yeo of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change argues that, despite decades of political resistance to effective measures to combat climate change, the covid pandemic has shown that where there is political will, anything is possible. But while the initial responses of many governments worldwide may somewhat justify Yeo's hope for movement on an effective political response to climate change, the current situation with the pandemic, in which many governments seem to have given in to the coronavirus for short-term economic reasons, is much less encouraging. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 1 September 2022)

 

On homophobia in football

In a televison segment on homophobia in football, former Swiss player Kay Voser spoke with Andi Geu of the FARE Network. They argued that Marius Müller (the FC Lucerne player who recently made homophobic statements) should not be treated as an exception, as football is rife with homophobia. The language Müller used ("schwül", a German term for "gay") is common in locker rooms and on the pitch, where it is hardly ever called out. Further, football fans, like society as a whole, often characterize players using homophobic (as well as racist and sexist) language. Finally, they argued that it would be best if a group of homosexual players came out together. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 31 August 2022)

The beautiful ending of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage"

In James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (1953), John Grimes spends his birthday money and goes to a movie, "Of Human Bondage" (1934), with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard, based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel. Inspired by Baldwin's love for the film, I finished the novel last night. It ends quite beautifully at the National Gallery in London: “He smiled and took her hand and pressed it. They got up and walked out of the gallery. They stood for a moment at the balustrade and looked at Trafalgar Square. Cabs and omnibuses hurried to and fro, and crowds passed, hastening in every direction, and the sun was shining.” (Andrew Shields, #111words, 30 August 2022)

Buying and selling a Datsun 240Z in the early seventies

In about 1972 in Palo Alto, my father bought a Datsun 240Z as a second car (after our family station wagon). I'm sure he had fun driving it, but I actually don't have any memories of riding it. He sold it when we moved to England for a year (1973-1974). The buyers picked it up in the evening and paid my father a couple thousand dollars in cash. My parents were nervous (and made me nervous) that someone (even the buyers themselves) might break into the house to steal the cash, but they found a hiding place for it, and in the morning, my father took the money to the bank. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 29 August 2022)

"Ancestors of three continents" in N. K. Jemisin's "Red Dirt Witch"

In N. K. Jemisin's story "Red Dirt Witch" (in her 2018 short-story collection "How Long 'Til Black Future Month"), the main character faces a crisis while her children sleep: "[...] Emmaline burned sage, and she prayed to every ancestor of three continents who might listen [...]." Emmaline's ancesttry includes people from Europe, Africa, and North America, so she appeals to each of her cultural traditions for support in her sitution. But she does not turn to each of them as a separate tradition that she sees as somehow being incompatible with the others; rather, she turns to all three of them together as the unified and consistent foundation of her identity. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 28 August 2022)

Two FC Basel matches in three days, with the men's team and then with the women's team

On Thursday evening, I watched the FC Basel men's team play the second leg of their UEFA European Conference League playoff against CSKA Sofia from Bulgaria; the attendance at St. Jakob Park was 18,649. In an exciting match, Basel won 2-0 to make up for their 0-1 loss in Sofia and qualify for the Conference League group phase. This evening, I went to the St. Jakob Track and Field Stadium to see FC Basel women's team play their home opener for this season against the BSC Young Boys. I haven't found an official attendance figure. It was also an exciting match, a 1-1 draw despite Basel's domination of the second half. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 27 August 2022)

Wat Tyler in Charles Dickens's "Bleak House"

A figure runs through Charles Dickens's "Bleak House" (1853) as Sir Leicester Dedlock's nightmare, "some person in the lower classes" who might "rise up somewhere – like Wat Tyler." Tyler was the leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England; he led a few thousand rebels to London and confronted King Richard II with his demands. When Tyler was killed, the revolt fell apart and many of the participants were executed. Sir Leicester associates Tyler not with  peasants, though, but with "people in the iron districts", such as the successful ironmaster son of his housekeeper Mrs. Rouncewell. The danger in Dickens's time came not from the peasantry but from the industrial workers. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 26 August 2022)

The draw procedures at Grand Slam tennis tournaments make defeating four top-ten players unlikely

At Roland Garros this year, Rafael Nadal achieved the rare event of defeating four top-ten players on his way to the title. Even at the time, it struck me that the rules of the draws make it rare for players to have the opportunity to play four top-ten players in one Grand Slam tournament. Take the US Open's tweet today about defending champion Daniil Medvedev's draw: if the better-seeded players all win, his last four rounds would be against the 16, 6, 4, and 2 seeds. Mostly, only contenders whose round of 16 match could be against the 9 or 10 seeds even have a chance of playing four top-ten players. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 25 August 2022)

Peter Falk's "Columbo" and Mr. Bucket in Charles Dickens's "Bleak House"

Although "Columbo" ran throughout my childhood in the 1970s and I watched more than a few episodes, I don't remember anything about them except the personality of Peter Falk's title character – and his trick where he would turn around while he was leaving to ask the suspect "just one more thing." I was surprised to discover the same image in Charles Dickens's "Bleak House" (1853) at the end of a conversation between Sir Leicester Dedlock and the detective Mr. Bucket: "Mr. Bucket makes his three bows and is withdrawing when a forgotten point occurs to him." The difference is that Sir Leicester Dedlock is not the suspect in Mr. Bucket's case. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 24 August 2022)

The Swiss Football League's token punishment for Marius Müller's homophobic speech

After a 1-4 loss on Saturday, 14 August 2022, FC Lucerne goalkeeper Marius Müller criticized his teammates with a homophobic slur: "Dieses schwule Weggedrehe geht mir tierisch auf den Sack" (loosely, "this gay turning-away gets on my nerves"). Today, the Swiss Football League reprimanded Müller and fined him 2000 CHF, with no match suspension at all. They justified this token punishment because Müller had expressed his frustration, had not insulted specific people, and had apologized. But this "heat-of-the-moment" argument is ridiculous: Müller actually made his statement not once but twice, in two different interviews. So he liked it enough after saying it once that he consciously thought it was worth repeating. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 23 August 2022)

On not discussing Alexander Grothendieck with my father

In the 16 May 2022 issue of "The New Yorker", Rivka Galchen writes of the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck (1928-2014), who made major contributions to multiple areas of mathematics in the mid-to-late twentieth century. But he also increasingly left the institutions of mathematics behind from 1970 on and spent the last two decades of his life in seclusion. Earlier in my life, I would have called up my mathematician father Paul Shields (1933-2016) and asked him about Grothendieck, and he would have explained what made him interesting, as he did so often over the years when I had questions about his work or the work of Kurt Gödel, Paul Cohen, and others. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 22 August 2022)

Football as figure and sport in Charles Dickens's "Dombey and Son" and "Bleak House"

In Charles Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (1848), Mr. Morfin, the assistant manager of the titular business, tells John and Harriet Carker that their brother James Carker kept "extending his influence, until the business and its owner were his football." This figurative sense of "football" as "a person who or thing which is treated carelessly or capriciously", which dates back to at least 1532 (OED), also appears in "Bleak House" (1853) when the soldier Mr. George says that the world uses him "like a football." But the game itself is mentioned in "Bleak House", too, when Mr. Skimpole tells Richard Carstone "how fond he used to be, in his school-time, of football." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 21 August 2022)

Eight or fourteen generations? A correction in the New Yorker

We are as closely (or distantly) related to our seventh cousins as we are to any random person anywhere in the world – or so I once read or heard. In "Ancestor Worship", an article on genealogy in the New Yorker from 9 May 2022, Maya Jasanoff at first seems to offer confirmation: "Owing to the random process of recombination, the chances are vanishingly small that any given person has inherited detectable autosomal DNA from a specific progenitor more than eight generations ago." Yet the online version of the article says "fourteen" instead of "eight", and a correction is included at the end that the article had "misstated the number of generations". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 20 August 2022)

Amina, her sister Zaria, and the other powerful women in Izu Ojukwu's "Amina"

In Izu Ojukwu's "Amina" (2021), Lucy Aweh plays the sixteenth-century warrior princess Amina of Zazzau, who learns swordfighting as a child with her sister Zaria (Habiba Ummi Mohammed). Surrounded by intrigue, she ultimately assumes the throne of Zassau (as the first woman to do so). The two sisters are not the only strong women in the film: a cave-dwelling priestess (Jennifer Ezekiel Ade) not only predicts Amina's destiny at her birth but also drives her onward at key moments, while Aladi Ameh (Asabe Madaki), whom Amina and Zaria save from slavery when they are children, eventually gives the film's most riveting speech, summarizing the trail of deaths Amina leaves behind her. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 19 August 2022)

The castle that Radbot built

Around 1020 CE, Count Radbot had a castle built on a hill overlooking the Aare River in the southern part of the Duchy of Swabia; it is now in the Swiss canton of Aargau. Although the castle belonged to his family for almost four hundred years, it was the family's main residence only until the mid-thirteenth century, when their power base had shifted east to the Duchy of Austria. Radbot's descendants may have left their original castle behind, but they ruled Austria until almost nine hundred years after Radbot built that castle and named it "Habsburg", after either a hawk ("Habicht" in German) or a ford ("hab" in Middle High German). (Andrew Shields, #111words, 18 August 2022)

Dashboard design from my childhood to 1999 to now

The contrast between our 1999 VW Golf in Basel and my sister's family's two much newer cars is not just a matter of manual versus automatic transmission. When I came back to Basel, I noticed that the dashboard full of controls in our Golf looks pretty much just like the dashboards of the cars of my childhood. The odometer and the clock are both LED, but otherwise it's all mechanical dials. My sister's Camry from a decade later still has dials, but it has many more digital displays, and my brother-in-law's more recent BMW is full of digital screens. Our car is closer to my childhood than to those two cars. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 17 August 2022)

Shifting from manual to automatic transmission and back

In Basel, our old VW Golf has a manual transmission, but while in the US last month, I drove my sister's not-quite-so-old Toyota Camry and my brother-in-law's even newer BMW, which both have automatic transmissions. As usual, I didn't find it hard to drive automatic, except in a few moments in the Camry when quick decisions triggered my reflex to down-shift. (It took only a second to recover.) Back in Basel now, the month of driving automatic has left one trace: stopped at traffic lights, I often forget to down-shift, so I find myself starting in a high gear when the light changes. (Again, it only takes a second to recover.) (Andrew Shields, #111words, 16 August 2022)

Unfamiliar maps on flights across the Atlantic

When I flew to the United States last month for a four-week vacation (hence the silence of my daily prose), I was struck by an unfamiliar feature on the flight-path maps: the images often displayed our city of departure (Frankfurt on the way to the US; Boston on the way back) at the bottom center of the map, with the city of arrival at the top center. On the trip to the US, this put Central America at the top, with Cuba often appearing vertical rather than horizontal, as standard maps present it, while on the way back, the East coast of Greenland ran horizontally across the globe, rather than vertically. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 15 August 2022)

On grades in an academic-writing course in Basel

At the end of the past semester, I discussed the issue of grades with the students in my two sections of the University of Basel English Department's "Academic Writing in English II" course. As it's a pass-fail course, I wondered if they found the grades I gave their essays useful. Several of the students said that they did find them useful, but they added that they wondered if that was just because they were used to having grades. With the pass-fail course, I could stop using grades, but higher-level seminar papers in the department are still officially graded, so I'm pondering whether it's useful to continue grading in the course anyway. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 11 July 2022)

A red card in a football match – but the team was allowed to replace the player

About twenty minutes into the friendly between FC Basel and Neuchâtel Xamax this afternoon, a Xamax player received a red card for a serious foul. After the players calmed down (and a Basel player received a yellow card, too), the referee and the head coaches had a discussion for several minutes. As everyone got ready to start play again, I noticed there were still eleven Xamax players on the field. The player who received the red card had been sent off, but Xamax had been allowed to replace him. I concluded that Basel did not want to play their friendly against a ten-man team and had thus arranged this unusual solution. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 10 July 2022)

The poems and texts that are no longer on the Pont de l'Europe between Strasbourg and Kehl

In 1999, I translated a short poem by Durs Grünbein (whose title I can't remember and haven't found in my old files) that was part of a project honoring the 50th anniversary of the Council of Europe: forty European writers, including not only Grünbein but also Seamus Heaney and Czesław Miłosz, were asked to contribute a text for a permanent installation on the Pont de l'Europe between Strasbourg and Kehl. My translation was included in a book published to mark the occasion. Today, I went to the Pont de l'Europe to see the installation, but unfortunately, although the forty small display pillars are still there, the texts are no longer displayed. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 9 July 2022)

Grateful Dead songs from the band's and the audience's perspective: "Playing in the Band" and "The Music Never Stopped"

"Playing in the Band", a 1971 Grateful Dead song with lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, describes a concert scene from the perspective of one of the musicians on stage and ends in the early morning: "Daybreak, while I'm playing in the band." In 1975, for "The Music Never Stopped" on the band's "Blues for Allah" album, John Perry Barlow wrote lyrics for Weir's music that took the audience's perspective and also ended in the early morning: "Keep on dancing through to daylight. Greet the morning air with song. No one's noticed but the band's all packed and gone. Was it ever here at all?" (Andrew Shields, #111words, 8 July 2022)

A sluggish day after a coronavirus vaccination shot

After my booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine yesterday morning (my fourth in all), I was fine through the afternoon and evening, so I thought I might get through this one without any effects. But at night, I slept very poorly, with vivid, disjointed dreams that immediately vanished from memory whenever I woke up enough to know I was awake. The fatigue I have felt all day could be from lack of sleep or from the shot. And an experience I had forgotten from the earlier shots has come back: a stiffness in my upper arm that only becomes pain when I raise the arm above my shoulder for any reason. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 7 July 2022)

An outing on a beautiful morning in Basel

On this beautiful morning in Basel, I took a tram to a tram and walked to a building I've been to three times recently. The guard checked my backpack and let me in. I sat in a row of chairs and moved forward until it was my turn to show my identification. After paying, I sat in another row of chairs and moved forward until it was my turn. A young woman took me into a small room, asked me several questions, and then poked my upper arm with a needle. Then I had to wait fifteen minutes before doing the last paperwork and heading back out into the beautiful morning. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 6 July 2022)

A mass shooting on the Fourth of July

On Twitter, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime died in the 2018 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, commented on yesterday's shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois: "On Independence Day, a uniquely American holiday, the most uniquely American thing happened today, a mass shooting." I first heard about the shooting when a friend who lives there posted about it on Facebook; his teenage daughter was texting all her friends to see if they were okay. I've seen people mark themselves safe on Facebook for fires and hurricanes before, but this was the first time I saw that because of a mass shooting. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 5 July 2022)

Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" in 2022

Frederick Douglass's 1852 speech in Rochester, New York, which he gave on 5 July, is now usually known by a modified version of a line from it: "What to the [American] Slave is the Fourth of July?" Recent political developments in the United States, especially the revelations about the events of 6 January 2021 and the latest Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, made me wonder about revisions of Douglass's speech from the perspective of such groups as Black women, LBTQ+ people, or immigrants (with or without papers), and I found one variation: Melishia Brooks's 2018 essay "What to the Black Woman is the Fourth of July?" (Andrew Shields, #111words, 4 July 2022)

 

Toni Morrison's "Jazz", the 1917 East St. Louis riots, and the Silent Parade in New York City

In Toni Morrison's "Jazz" (1992), Alice Manfred holds her niece Dorcas's hand and watches the march commemorating the Black victims of the riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, from 1-3 July 1917: "Alice thought the lowdown music (and in Illinois it was worse than here) had something to do with the silent Black women and men marching down Fifth Avenue to advertise their anger over two hundred dead in East St. Louis, two of whom were her sister and brother-in-iaw, killed in the riots." This Silent Parade of eight to fifteen thousand people, organized by the Harlem chapter of the NAACP, took place in New York City on 28 July 1917. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 3 July 2022)