Ron's Log

Monday Morning At Work

Here's something to entertain you, just plug in the headphones first. It's at YouTube, but no need to even have the video on screen, because it's a recording from a radio show. I think it's made the rounds before, but you may not have heard it yet.

Catholic Online Promotes Folsom Street Fair

Finally, some Catholics have gotten with the program and are promoting the Folsom Street Fair here, perhaps as a way of thanking Miller Brewing for supporting the fair. Of course, some of these photos may be NSFW.

The official website for the Folsom Street Fair, where you may notice that their photos are not all so racy as those provided for your delectation by Catholic Online.

Here's the Flickr group for the Fair where there are currently 1,292 photos visible to non-group-members.

Other fresh Folsom photos showing up on Flickr here.

New Sort Of Desert Sun Error

The Desert Sun made the unusual decision to publish a photo in black and white, while its caption tries to direct the reader's attention to a red turbine.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

I visited Hollywood Forever Cemetery again today. Found some graves I hadn't before, and checked up on a few of my favorites.

Phil Prentice and Ernie Tate, for example, haven't taken up residence in the cemetery yet.

I found Edward G. Robinson, Jr.

And Peter Lorre.

Mel Blanc.

Also Jack Laird (his filmography).

I went by Eugene Kaplansky's striking memorial again.

And next to it I saw a new memorial going in that looks like it was designed by the same artist.

I was surprised to discover the animal menagerie that lives in the cemetery. There are at least two pens of peacocks, and a pen of colorful rabbits. This isn't the first time I've seen the various geese and swans that roam the place, but this time I saw that they had provided a shelter for a goose to sit on "his" nest. I assume they know the gender correctly. They also have put a couple of shelters out for feral cats. They put out water and food for them too. I saw one cat, and it was looking pretty sorry.

Here's Darren McGavin.

This is Charles Chaplin's son.

I got a couple photos of Valentino's grave that were better than what I had before.

Over along the east fence of the cemetery they inefficiently put a row graves about 4 feet from the fence, most of them dating from the first quarter of the 20th century. In the last few years the current management has taken advantage of this half-size space by putting in a row of child's graves. No where have I seen such a concentration of family shrines to deceased children.

This is Jesse Lasky, one of the founders of Paramount Pictures.

Here's a Civil War veteran. There are several in the cemtery. An interesting detail on this one is that no date of death has been entered for his wife, although she was born in 1876. Did she just disappear, or marry another man, or what?

But it was with this grave that I really hit pay dirt.

A Google search turned up this NY Times article about the life and death of John Sutherland Sinclair, 17th Earl of Caithness. You can go download that if you want, or just read it here:

MONUMENT REVEALS AN EARL'S IDENTITY

Head of Scotch House of Caithness Known Only in California as "J.S-Sinclair."

CAREFULLY HID HIS TITLE

Came to America Many Years Ago and Made Money on a North Dakota Ranch.

Special to The New York Times.

LOS ANGELES, July 19.—The erection yesterday over a new grave In Hollywood Cemetery of a monument Inscribed "John Sutherland Sinclair, Earl of Caithness," was the first authentic notice to Los Angeles people that the wealthy John Sutherland Sinclair, who died here recently, was the seventeenth Earl of Caithness, the successor to the title of one of the oldest lines of Scotch nobility. Gossip and speculation here had identified Mr. Sinclair as the Earl, but, it is said, that to only two men in the city, of whom Corrldan H. Putnam, the head of a mining engineering company, was one, had the Earl confessed his identity. Mr. Putnam admitted this tonight, and said that he had been pledged to secrecy by the Earl.

Known as Mr. Sinclair, Lord Caithness came here three years ago and made his residence at the Hotel Balboa. He gave freely to philanthropic objects, maintaining for the purpose an office with Mr, Putnam. He lived quietly, and his funeral was so simple that it attracted, almost no attention.

Mr. Putnam said the answer to (he question of why the Earl concealed his title might be found in the motto of the house of Caithness, "Commit thy work to God."

"A modest man, he held all the titles as dross and preferred to live as one of the plain people of earth,' said Mr. Putoam, " His life was devoted to good works."

Mr. Sinclair, as heir-presumptive to the Earldom, came to this country thirty-nine years ago and located in Canada, where he was connected for years with the Bank of Montreal. An uncle, Lord Pentland of Lyth, now Governor of Madras, had come to Canada just before aa secretary to the Governor General of Canada.

About the time he came into the title he was farming an enormous acreage in North Dakota, near Devil's Lake. A town known as Berriedale now stands on this acreage. One of the titles of the Earl of Caithness is Lord Berriedale.

A large man, straight, with a long, strong face, white hair and beard, the Earl was a familiar figure about Westlake Park. At his hotel he passed for an affable man possessing means, but reticent about himself.

The Earl's end was hastened by injuries received in the Pacific Electric wreck at Vineyard Junction, when he was returning to the city from the beach. One leg was injured and he suffered from nervous shock, as he was seated directly behind a woman who was killed. Finally paralysis set in and he had to be taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital, where he died.

The body was placed In a vault pending the arrival of a couain from Scotland, and then the burial took place.

The seventeenth Earl of Caithness, who made this country his home by adoption, traced his family back to the year 875. The Earldom of Caithness at one time embraced the entire northern part of Scotland from sea to sea and included the Orkney Islands, but when the seventeenth Earl came into his title he did not fall heir to a foot of Scottish territory. The successions in the family had become so complicated and testators had so subdivided the once immense estate that nothing was left for the seventeenth Earl.

The Earl came to America many years ago and settled on the Berriedale Ranch in North Daksota, where he was successful in business. In 1910 he inherited the Castle of Auchmacoy and considerable other landed property in Aberdeenshire from his maternal grandaunt. Miss Louise Buchan, and by inheritance came into an income of $25,000 a year.

The full title of the Earl was Earl of Caithness, Lord Berriedale of Scotland, and Baronet of Nova Scotia. His younger brother, the Hon. Norman MacLeod (Sinclair) Buchan of Auchmacoy House, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, is the heir.

I don't know if he's really related, but here's a John Sutherland born in North Dakota in 1910.

There are more photos too, and you can see them all here.

Students Out Of Line

Kids today! Federal appeals court judges have ruled that the Safford (Arizona) school district was within its rights when they strip-searched a 13-year old girl who they suspected had smuggled ibuprofen into school. I think we can all agree that our nation's founding fathers did not intend the 4th amendment to protect a bunch of hopped-up ibuprofen addicts in middle school.

But that's Arizona, where school districts are soft on kids. For real tough-love education you've got to go to Palmdale, California.

At Knight high school a 16-year old girl dropped a piece of cake. She picked it up, and twice returned to pick up crumbs. But her cleaning attempts weren't good enough for the security guards, so when she tried to leave they did the only thing they could do: break her arm while calling her a "nappy head." Naturally, she spent the night in jail. along with her mother, who had demanded that the security guard be arrested. Also cooling their heals heels in jail were the boy who recorded the whole incident on his cellphone and his sister, because, after all, she's his sister. I'm sure it took them another 24 hours to get the rest of the family into the gulag legal system.

News video here.

A protest was scheduled for this morning (early morning news video) but I haven't found any news on how that went.

UPDATE: Here's a more clearly written and complete report on the story in the L.A. Times.

This All Could Have Been Avoided For A Billion?!

One billion dollars and Saddam Hussein would have gone into exile. "The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President's Texas ranch." The White House has refused to comment, so far.

Some warn of what Saddam could have done with a billion, even in exile. Maybe. But nobody said there was any guarantee he wouldn't be assassinated while in exile.

The Spanish Prime Minister remarked to Bush, "The only thing that worries me is your optimism."

On a completely unrelated subject (I don't even know why I would include it here) Canada ("that country with a real dollar") will have yet another budget surplus this year. $13.8 billion (Canadian!). The surplus will be used to pay down the nation's debt. In case you're confused, Bill Clinton is NOT the Prime Minister of Canada.

Line Of Succession To The British Throne

Now, this is some useful information. Without looking, how much of the line of succession can you name? Did you know Norway's King Harald is #61 in line? The Romanians come in at #83. The Russians at spot #109, appropriately followed by the Prussians. Run through the Swedes, the Danes and a shitload of Germans, and eventually you would come to Sofia of Spain, but she's Catholic, so too bad for her. Fun-loving Queen Beatrix is way down at #803. The list finally bottoms out with this:
1287. Franziska Wassmann (b. 1989), daughter of Countess Friederike-Christiane of Castell-Castell

The whole list reads like a cast of characters from War & Peace, but with fewer Russians than you'd expect.

Drought Good!

Water at the beaches in California is remarkably free of bacteria thanks to the drought! "92% of the state's 494 beaches earned grades of A or B on Heal the Bay's annual summer report card."

I look forward to announcing many other benefits of global climate change as they come to light!

Mac Users Can Suck At Microsoft's Teat For $400

Or, $150 for the "Home and Student Edition." That'll be the price for the long overdue Mac Office 2008.

I've been using NeoOffice recently. Works nicely, but it did seem to choke on a recent Word document I got. I don't know what version of Word it was created in, but like almost all the Word documents I get, it could have been a simple text document. Before that I was using OpenOffice which totally sucks, probably because it runs on (via?) X11, which allows Unix apps to run in OS X. I also used to use GimpShop, a Photoshop clone that also runs on X11 and it sucked HUGEly.

But, if your employer is enslaved to the latest version of Office and you are enslaved to your employer, happy days will soon be here.

What Does Clinton Have Against Osso Buco?

Bill Clinton's attorney has demanded that the Osso Buco restaurant in Greenwich Village remove a photo of Chelsea Clinton posing with the owner of the place. Chelsea's an adult, and was an adult when the photo was taken. Does Bill Clinton have any rights here?