Silicon Soapware #213

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                            SILICON SOAPWARE
       wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway
                        from Bubbles = Tom Digby
                           = bubbles@well.com

                      http://www.well.com/~bubbles/

                               Issue #213
                       New Moon of April 21, 2012


Contents copyright 2012 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of 
"fair use".  In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with 
proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this 
notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the 
zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a 
substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I 
get a cut of the profits.

Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback.  
Details of how to sign up are at the end.


                          *********************

We've just been through the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the 
Titanic.  Now we have a round-number anniversary of another well-known 
disaster coming up: The 75th anniversary of the May 6, 1937, Hindenburg 
fire.

Far fewer lives were lost in this latter event, but it may have had at 
least as great an emotional impact on the American people because of the 
progress in media technology, mainly radio, during the intervening 
quarter century.

Although there are conflicting claims as to who was first, there was 
very little commercial radio broadcasting before World War I.  Many more 
stations appeared in the 1920's.  By the late 1930's radios were fairly 
common.

Even though the arrival of the Hindenburg was not being broadcast live, 
when disaster struck the radio-listening public would have heard about 
it within minutes, as regular programs were interrupted by special news 
bulletins.  News of the Titanic, in contrast, would have had to wait for 
newspapers to be printed and distributed.

So the Hindenburg fire may have been the first major unexpected news 
event where people could give a meaningful answer to "Where were you 
when you heard about ... ?"

There's another anniversary coming up in about a year and a half: Fifty 
years since the JFK shooting (11/22/1963).

It's interesting to note some similarities between the Hindenburg and 
JFK, beyond just the fact that both were traumatic events that most 
members of the public would have heard about fairly quickly after they 
happened.

The first thing that struck me as I was reading up on the Hindenburg was 
the search for the cause or causes and contributing factors.  People 
have proposed a number of theories, such as leaking hydrogen, flammable 
paint, and so on, but none seems completely satisfactory.  There was 
even speculation that it might have been sabotage.  That all reminds me 
of the conspiracy theories around the JFK assassination.  It may well be 
that neither will ever be fully settled.

Another is that both led to changes in society.  The Hindenburg is said 
to have undermined the public's faith in lighter-than-air technology, 
while the JFK shooting led to a round of restrictions on certain types 
of firearms.

Of course these have not been the only major traumatic events where the 
public got the news almost instantly.  It's probably just coincidence, 
but there have been four such events roughly a quarter-century apart: 
The Titanic in 1912, The Hindenburg in 1937, JFK in 1963, and the 
Challenger disaster in 1986.  And of course there have been others that 
don't fit that timetable, such as Pearl Harbor (1941), John Lennon 
(1980) and 9-11 (2001).

So considering the different ways awareness of these events spread 
through the population, it appears that we as a society entered some 
sort of new media-based age between the time of the Titanic and the 
Hindenburg.


                          *********************

I'm reminded of the time I noticed the expiration date on a bag of junk 
snack cheese munchy thingamajigs right after I'd seen one too many 
horror movies.  I had this mental image of the bag sitting there as the 
hour of doom (possibly midnight at the end of the appointed day) 
approached.  At the stroke of twelve there would be thick gurgly sound 
effects as the contents of the bag started breaking down into a liquid 
with the approximate appearance and consistency of crude oil, perhaps as 
party guests looked on aghast.

That's how it might happen in a horror movie.  I doubt that would happen 
in real life, but you never know.


                          *********************

Interesting incident at a local fast-food place a few days ago.

A father and pre-teen son were sitting in a nearby booth.  There was a 
partition between us so that I could hear their conversation but we 
couldn't see each other.  Thus they didn't notice that I was sort of 
listening.

I wasn't paying attention to the start of the conversation, but the son 
had evidently complained about being told he had to get a haircut.  The 
father seemed to be trying to talk him out of feeling that way: "Get 
used to it.  Every three weeks or so for the rest of your life you're 
going to need to at least get your hair trimmed around your ears."  I 
heard more or less that same statement at least three or four times.

That got me to thinking of all kinds of rebuttals that could have been 
made: For example, why will the son need to keep his hair trimmed?  The 
father sort of answered that one by talking about how many (most?) 
employers prefer to have their male employees look like his idea of what 
a man should look like, and how companies may refuse to hire someone on 
that basis without ever saying why.  So the kid had better keep his hair 
neat if he wants the job.

But look at the unspoken assumptions: Fashions are going to continue to 
favor men with neatly trimmed hair.  The kid is going to end up in a 
type of job where conforming to standards of appearance is important 
(retail, for example, rather than Silicon Valley computer stuff).  And 
he's not going to go bald.  Those may be statistically likely, but 
they're by no means certain.

And then there was the phrasing.  "This is the way it is, so don't 
complain about it."

This was followed by threats of punishment.  "If you keep carrying on 
like a little kid, I'm going to set your bedtime earlier because little 
kids need more sleep."

I could sense an undercurrent of dad telling the kid not to even feel 
discontented about the situation.

So the kid's going to need to keep his hair neat so he can get a 
well-paying mainstream job to pay for the self-help books and therapy 
sessions and weekend retreats he's going to need when he eventually 
wants to get back in touch with his feelings.


                          *********************

At one point during that discussion another person who had been sitting 
nearby came up to them and put in her two cents' worth: She had worked 
in Human Resources and her experience agreed with what the dad was 
saying.

After she had left the dad lectured a bit on how children should listen 
respectfully when an adult had something to say to them.  "Put your food 
down and look at them while they're talking ...".  And so on.

Right after that another person came up from behind me.  After asking me 
for spare change he approached the father and son.  Before he even 
opened his mouth the dad was yelling at him: "Scram!  Go away!  Go away 
now!"

I was reminded of that saying about a foolish consistency being the 
hobgoblin of small minds.  And no, he didn't explain that to the kid.  
He didn't explain anything as far as I can recall.  I suppose I could 
have reminded them of the saying, but I felt it best not to get 
involved.

They left while I was still reading my paper.


                          *********************

Sort of related to that little family drama was a radio commercial for a 
junk-removal service: Call their number and your junk will be hauled 
away by "clean-cut young men."

Part of me was reminded of the dad's advice to the kid about regular 
haircuts.  But other parts of me were wondering if the people who deal 
with sex or age discrimination in the workplace might be listening.


                          *********************

I'm also reminded of an idea I came up with years and years ago and 
never did much with: The Ace Sexist Pencil Sharpener Emptying Service.

I had one TV commercial plotted out mentally.  I don't know if I ever 
published a description.  I know I never made the video.

It starts in a late 1950's or early 1960's office with a wall-mounted 
hand-cranked pencil sharpener.  When a secretary goes to sharpen a 
pencil, she finds the sharpener full of shavings.  So she looks up 
"Pencil Sharpener Full" in the Office Procedures Manual.

The manual says that all the secretarial staff (assumed to be female) 
should run around waving their arms and screaming in panic.

So all the secretarial people start running around waving their arms and 
screaming in panic.  After a few seconds of this a heroic masculine 
voice booms "We'll save you!"

The camera pans over to the doorway to reveal a manly male hero in the 
uniform of the Ace Sexist Pencil Sharpener Emptying Service.  He and his 
heroic crew march into the room, singing the company anthem:

 We are the men of the Ace Sexist Pencil Sharpener Emptying Service.
 We advertise on television all the time.
 And if you see it on TV
 It's got to be good.

They empty the sharpener, clean up any spillage, and depart, leaving the 
secretaries to live happily ever after, or at least until the pencil 
sharpener fills up again.

Part of the gag would have been references in other fiction.  For 
example, whenever anyone in any fiction universe anywhere changed 
channels on a TV, at least one channel would be showing that commercial, 
in keeping with the claim that they advertise on television all the 
time.

Like I said, it was one of those ideas I didn't do much with.  YouTube 
wasn't available then, and now that it is we're enough farther away from 
the rigid gender roles of the 1950's that the whole thing doesn't seem 
as relevant as it did then.  And besides, making a video is a lot of 
work.

Also, I haven't seen one of that kind of wall-mounted hand-cranked 
sharpener in years.  Are they still around?


                          *********************


                       Incident Along Fantasy Way 
                              Neighbor Cat


I don't know the technical term for it
But my next-door neighbor keeps turning
Into a cat.

It started when she was born --
The building had a rule:
"No dogs, no children."  Cats were OK.
Her parents didn't want to move right then
So they went to somebody a friend of theirs knew
Who was a wizard on the side.
So, whenever the landlord heard a baby crying
And came knocking on the door to tell them
"Either the kid goes or you go!"
All he ever found
Was a little kitten.

There were, of course,
Problems.
A kitten in diapers would never do
So she always went naked.
And the only toys she could have
Were things like rubber mice and balls of yarn,
And even in human form
She was sensitive to catnip.
But in general it worked.  

By the time she started school
They had moved to a house in the suburbs.
They were going to get the spell lifted Real Soon Now
But they never did
And when she learned to control it herself
She decided to keep it.  

So now on moonlit summer nights
When the city is quiet
And rooftops and alleyways beckon
Like mountains and canyons in some exotic land
And several of her friends
Whose parents knew people who knew that same wizard 
Come howling beneath her window
She is off,
Into the night,
Shadow among shadows,
Rejoicing.

                                        Thomas G. Digby
                                        written 2220 hr  8/10/74
                                        entered 2015 hr  3/29/92



                          *********************


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