Giving memories away
April 1st, 2009
Old men forget.
Yet all shall be forgot
But he’ll remember
with advantages
what feats he did this day.
(Henry V, Act IV, scene 3)
April 1st is my dad’s birthday (he turned 96 today). When we were kids, we had lots of fun with the April Fool’s aspect. My youngest brother, who had a more easygoing relationship with Dad than any of the older kids, used to pull elaborate pranks. He once slit the glue from the bottom of a paper lunch bag, knowing that in his ready-for-work morning routine, Dad would take that bag and casually toss in his deviled-ham-on-homemade bread sandwich.
Dad’s world has gotten much smaller in the past two years. His hearing has deteriorated, his vision is much poorer, and his memory–well, it fades here, and it’s missing over there, and in this other place it stops and dwells for a while.
He doesn’t have dementia, but I thought about him this weekend as I heard a radio program on Alzheimer’s, Memory, and Being. I learned of a writing workshop for people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Psychologist Alan Dienstag was urged by novelist Don DeLillo to encourage such people to write their stories while they could.
Writing, DeLillo said, is a form of memory. Through writing, people in the workshop changed how they saw what was left of their conscious lives. Instead of losing their memories, they were giving them away.
My dad’s always been a great teller of stories. They’ve tapered off, but one or two still emerge, pieces of his life that he gives freely.
Those of us who work in areas of training, learning, and communications have tools of vastly more power and reach than the kitchen tables of Nova Scotia and Detroit, Calgary and Boston, where Dad talked while downing vats of tea. But that power’s not infinite.
I’m glad that, even without realizing it, Dad’s given away so many of his memories, and I’m sorry not to have kept more of them than I have.
For Ada, with Grace
March 24th, 2009
Until this morning, I didn’t know about Ada Lovelace Day, which seems to have resulted from a pledge/challenge by Suw Charman-Anderson. The idea was to highlight women in technology.
Looking at my feedreader, my Twitter stream, and my Facebook page, I see quite a few women whose work hinges on some way in technology. But the first name that came to mind is someone not all that well known any more.
In her later years, she was known as “Mother COBOL.” Typing that reminds me that COBOL isn’t all that well known any more, either.
Grace Murray Hopper taught mathematics at Vassar in the 1930s while earning her PhD at Yale. She resigned her position late in 1943 to join the Navy Reserve WAVES. As a lieutenant with the Bureau of Ordinance, she was assigned to work on the Mark I computing machine, for which she eventually produced a 500-page manual of operations.
The Navy used the Mark I for gunnery and ballistics calculations. It was 55 feet long, 8 feet high, and contained over 750,000 parts. It was the predecessor to several other early computers such as UNIVAC.
Hopper invented the compiler–the program that translates computer programs into machine language. She claimed that she did so because she was lazy; the compiler did the grunt work and allowed her to focus more on mathematics. Her FLOW-MATIC compiler so greatly influenced COBOL that she’s known as the mother of COBOL.
In 1997, the Gartner Group estimated that 80% of the world’s business ran on COBOL.
After World War II, Hopper tried to transfer to the regular Navy, but was turned down because of her age (she was 38). She remained in the Navy Reserve until 1966, retiring as a commander. She was recalled to duty “for a six-month period” that lasted four years, and after retiring again was asked to return once more.
When she finally retired for good, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper at age 79 was the oldest officer in the Navy. The ceremony was held on board the Constitution, the oldest ship in the Navy.
Hopper died in 1992, at 85, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
- In 1969, Hopper won the Data Processing Management Association’s first “man of the year” award.
- The Association for Computing Machinery has an annual Grace Murray Hopper Award for young computing professionals.
- The USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, is only the second U.S. Navy warship named for a woman.
(I added the following very late in the day.)
Information about Hopper from the Naval Historical Center in Washington, DC, including this image. It’s a page from the log book for the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator used at Harvard University. The entry, for Sept. 9, 1945, explains that a moth was found at Relay #70, Panel F. “First actual case of bug being found.” Reportedly, the moth was taped into the log book, and the entry made, by Grace Hopper.
No “Danny Boy” and not much guile
March 12th, 2009
I was thinking the other day:
Chan eil mòran lochd ‘s an crìdh a bhios a gabhail òran.
There’s not much guile in a heart that’s always singing songs.
You caught me—that’s Gaidhlig (Scottish Gaelic), not Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic, often just “Irish”). No matter; the Scots are the Irish who found boats. (The Australians are the Irish who got caught.)
As part of my ongoing Guile-Reduction Project, I wanted to share a handful of songs connected somehow to Ireland. I’m posting early so you have a chance to get music like this over the weekend.
Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, singing at Bunratty Castle in 1981. Especially good if you’re still recovering from late-winter snow.
A favorite (as if the others aren’t) not just because I’m a fan of Cherish the Ladies, but also because the singer is Detroit-born Cathie Ryan.
Assembling the list, I didn’t expect to find this bunch of all-stars singing an Irish classic about a Scottish icon–Bonnie Prince Charlie. (Lyrics and translation here.)
‘Sé mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear,
‘Sé mo Chaesar, Ghile Mear,
Suan ná séan ní bhfuaireas féin
Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear.
He is my hero, my dashing darling
He is my Caesar, dashing darling
I’ve had no rest from forebodings
since he went away, my darling…
Mary Dillon’s acapella version of the emigrant song.
The sheep run unsheared and the land’s run to rushes
The handyman’s gone, and the winder of creels
Away across the ocean go journeyman tailors
And fiddlers that flicked out the old mountain reels…
(You can hear a lengthier version sung by Heidi Talbot, and I encourage you to; the site has ads you can avoid by shutting your eyes.)
Some might choose to advance to the 45-second mark to skip the intro and get right to the Corrs’ version (in Irish) of about a lost love. Still, the video maker did include English and Spanish translations.
Oh, Bridget O’Malley, you’ve left my heart breaking
You sent the death pangs of sorrow to pierce my heart sore
A hundred mean are craving for your breathtaking beauty
For certain, you’re the fairest of maidens in Oriel…
Sinéad O’Connor and the Chieftains with perhaps the best-known song about the 1916 Rising in Dublin.
The bravest fell, and the requiem bell
Rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Easter-tide
In the springing of the year.
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh of Altan sings an old lament, The Mermaid. (Irish lyrics and English translation here.)
Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill singing a ballad filled with Dublin place names–and with numbers.
More Dublin place names in Patrick Kavanagh’s song. Performers include Donal Lunny on bouzouki (nearly as Irish as the bodhran), Liam O’Flynn on the uillean pipes, Sean Keane on fiddle, and vocals from Mark Knopfler.
Jimmy Mo Mhíle Stór (Jimmy, My Thousand Treasures)
Cara Dillon singing an English version of this song about (yet another) far-away sailor. You get her rendition of The Verdant Braes of Skreen at no extra charge.
You can compare Dillon’s Jimmy with this one, more traditional and in Irish, by Kathleen Macinnes. Or with this one which I really like (despite the anime video someone inflicted on the sound track). The band’s the Chieftains, and the singers are Cookie, Heather, and Raylene Rankin. Cape Breton girls, from Mabou, about twenty miles from my home town, so of course we’re related. Their dad was my fourth cousin.
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem perform the Dublin street ballad in which James Joyce saw “the entire cycle of life, death, and resurrection…” From their iconic Carnegie Hall concert.
Mary Black was the first singer on Mo Gile Mear, above. Here she sings Dick Gaughan’s song. You should listen.
Talking all the day
With true friends who try to make you stay
Telling jokes and news
Singing songs to pass the night away
Watching Galway salmon run
Like silver dancing, darting in the sun…
A sendoff from The Wailin’ Jennys.
Slán abhaile, slán go fóill (safe home, good luck).
Two-day wonder
February 28th, 2009
My wife and I got married on February 29th last year. (For those who are thinking the obvious: in common years, we plan to celebrate on the day after February 28 and the day before March 1.)
A little diversion:
Star turn, or, the fate of 2.0
February 16th, 2009
Note: persons attempting to find a motive in this posting will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a meme in it will be shot.
Pisces: Your detractors are misguided; there is not an upper limit to the number of slides you can have in a one-hour PowerPoint presentation.
Thanks to you, though, there soon will be.
Aries: Good news: the CEO said the LMS you recommended was “a hit.” Bad news: just before that, she said, “We’re really taking…”
Taurus: Friends are concerned about your failing memory: your blogroll links to your own blog.
Gemini: You’re jazzed about microblogging, but remember: the number of U.S. households with birds as pets is twice the number of people using Twitter. It’s true: parakeet, the original tweet.
Cancer: Networking pays off this month as you’re invited to address the National Association of Professional Keynote Givers.
PKG09 will be in Manhattan, though budget cuts have shifted the venue to the Grand Central Terminal concourse.
Leo: Don’t let the opinions of others deter you from creating a new image. Keep in mind, however, that a shaved head and a goatee are not mandatory for speakers at TED. Especially for women.
Virgo: You’re always open to learning new things. This week, you’ll learn that “smile sheet” does not mean that you made people smile.
Libra: People with your sign like to get things done. People with your boss’s sign prefer you do the things that have been assigned to you. Meanwhile, the Scorpio two cubicles down has just updated his Facebook page with “updating my Facebook page.”
Scorpio: No, the Libra two cubicles up the hall does not have more followers than you. She does, however, suspect that there’s no battery in your iPhone, and has noticed that the icons you painted on it never move.
Sagittarius: Like most Archers, you desire independence and new experiences. For the near future, however, you’ll struggle with incorporating YouTube clips into the three-day workshop on Safety Compliance for Senior Auditors. (Could Ning help?)
Capricorn: Coworkers appreciate your efforts to share and spread knowledge through social tools. Try to restrain your eagerness for guidelines, however. Several colleagues refer to you as the Wiki Witch of the West.
Aquarius: You’ve created many opportunities for using your skills through your extensive use of LinkedIn. Last week’s messages to five anonymous contacts have paid off. One of them will call you within the hour. He’s your boss’s boss.
Redlining photo by NathanFromDeVryEET.
Grand Central Terminal clock photo by Matt Garland.
“iFone” photo by Eric Byers.
Opening paragraph ever so slightly inspired by S. L. Clemens.
