Happy birthday!

It's Victor's birthday!

Now is the perfect time to go make fun of him for being an old geezer.

Back to the '80's

I know some of the eighties fashions are coming back...the trendy young people at the office are wearing Izod polo shirts. I heard a sportscaster this morning talking about how retro it will feel to see Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells on the field at RFK FedEx tonight (oops, almost got a little too retro there. RFK. Heh. Time for my Aricept.)

But this story really turned on the Wayback Machine for me:

Mount St. Helens may blow again!

No gingerbread, but a good day nonetheless

For Victor's birthday, yesterday we went to see Macbeth at the Shakespeare Theatre downtown. The one review I'd seen had been a bit lukewarm, but we both really like the play...and how bad can you screw up Shakespeare, anyway?

It wasn't bad. I really liked the overall production...the black and white set design, the use of light and shadow...but I wasn't altogether impressed with the interpretations of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. I wasn't sure if I was just being nitpicky until the end of the first act, when Victor's first remark was "I didn't think Lady Macbeth was such a crybaby."

So the Post's review pretty much nailed it with "From her initial, rapturous strategizing to her final haunted derangement, this Lady Macbeth is always near hysterics. The tears come too easily for her. It's difficult to credit her as the plotting, incendiary seducer, the gasoline on Macbeth's fire."

As for Macbeth himself...this summer we saw a production done by a local youth theater in which Macbeth was played by three actors, one portraying the man himself, and two sharing his monologues as his Id and Superego. It was a really effective method of developing the character. In this version, Macbeth seemed to be more of a rapid-cycling manic-depressive than someone wrestling with his urges and morals.

Less major parts, like the porter's equivicator scene, were really good.

Completely unrealted to the play...I got a kick out of signs posted all over the theater lobby that said

We are OUT of GINGERBREAD.
We do apologize for any inconvenience.

Can you imagine, a play without gingerbread? At least the apology seemed sincere.

We also had a very nice lunch at Andale. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, check out the Dia de los Muertos display in the window (on the D Street side, I think)...those marzipan skulls fascinate me and creep me out at the same time. And go in for some guacamole while you're at it.

Check, please

We eat out a lot (possibly too often, but that's another topic). Victor and I pretty much take turns paying. Fairly frequently, when I am the one who pays, the server returns the credit card and charge slip to Victor to sign, and this irks the heck out of me.

I know, it's a small thing. And I don't become apoplectic or refuse to tip, it's just a pet peeve. I mean...it is 2004, the idea that a woman might be paying is hardly a shock. When they bring the bill to the table, they generally put it between us, they don't give it to Victor, so why once it is paid do they assume it was him?

Victor completely can't understand why it bugs me...he hands the check back to me, no big deal. And I'm not a hugely oversensitive feminist who goes around looking for proof that I'm being marginalized. Do I care that the server assumes I have this nice man to pay for my meals? So what if the server doesn't realize that I am gainfully employeed and have the means to pay my own Visa bill? In reality, I'm sure it is about inattention and not lack of respect...but it still irks the heck out of me.

Parades and Panoramas

I don't buy records very often anymore...CDs, I mean. (That I still call them "records" tells you something right there.) It's not that I don't like music, it's just that in my record-buying days (ah, disposable income, the days of working but living at home, rent and board-free) I bought enough to last me. And I know there is new stuff coming out now woth listening to, it's just that I really don't even listen to what I have already.

Once in awhile, though, I do hear about something that intrigues me enough that I will go to a record...sorry, CD...store. Most recently is was this NPR piece on Dan Zanes and his recordings of songs from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag.

Of course, I couldn't actually find Parades and Panoramas in the record stores. I looked in vain for the folk section, even asked for a clerk's help, though I'm pretty sure he was thinking "Why aren't you shopping online, you niche freak?" So I did, and though I had to wait a few extra days, it was worth it. My CD arrived Tuesday...cool stuff!

Willy the Weeper is obviously related to Minnie the Moocher, Lo que digo is beautiful (and since I don't know Spanish, a complete mystery), and my favorite, The Monkey's Wedding, is just goofy. I've been humming it all week.

More about the blood testing

Hamilton's team, Phonak, issued a statement today that they will be forming a scientific review board:

Because neither UCI nor IOC have so far disclosed data and because legal procedures may last for a long time without a clear outcome, the team management has decided to establish a scientific board in order to achieve clarity as to the medical method and reliability of these new blood testing tools. This scientific board will consist of various scientists with outstanding reputation in this field. Those scientists will be teamed up from different sources and will look into the entire method and data and report as to whether the analysis conducted at the lab in Lausanne in connection with the B-testing is reliable. In order that the scientific board can commence its work the entire files have to be released from UCI and/or IOC. This is so far not the case although requested by Tyler Hamilton.

I'm interested in this, not just from a cycling fan perspective, but from the scientific one. I have but a rudimentary understanding of the test used (in fact, I have but a rudimentary understanding of blood)...but apparently the test identifies specific proteins. It sounds to be like each person's blood is unique, and the test will show the proteins from another person's blood, proving a transfusion took place. My thought was...what if an individual person might have multiple of these unique proteins? Are they sure this never happens naturally? If I remember correctly, when blood typing first began, only O, A, and B were obvious differences; AB was discovered later.

I'd be really curious to see if blood from other members of the Hamilton family would come up positive on the same test.

I can't imagine they'd be using the test if it hadn't proven pretty reliable...I am not a conspiracy theorist, after all...but every time I see something medical presented as a definite I think of the scientific certainties that have been questioned or overturned, like ulcers being caused by Helicobacter pylori instead of overproduction of gastric acid.

So like I said yesterday, I'm still waiting.

UPDATE: I found the paper describing the test: Proof of homologous blood transfusion through quantification of blood group antigens, from the journal Haematologica.

Also, from what I see on VeloNews (which explains the first paragrah of the Phonak statement I linked to earlier; which I found a bit confusing), the B-test from the Vuelta came back positive, but the IOC's B-test from the Olympics is negative. So...he keeps his gold? But it does raise a question about the tests, if two samples from the same time period, will have different results...

I'm glued to the internet today, looking for updates on this.

ANOTHER UPDATE: He keeps the gold. The IOC statement, however, is hardly a declaration of innocence.

Say it ain't so

Damn, damn, damn.

Olympic cycling champion Tyler Hamilton was suspended Wednesday by his pro team, which threatened to fire him if he can't prove he's innocent of blood doping.

Of course I want to be up in arms that Phonak ought to have a little more faith and actually stand up for him...the doping isn't proven unless the results of another sample also come back positive...but that cynicism creeps in.

I have actually reached a point where I'm not going to be shocked if any cyclist comes up guilty. Saddened, yes. Disappointed, yes. Pissed off...oh yes.

I'm waiting for the second set of test results. Hoping, but waiting.

Maybe I'll keep that neighborhood gym membership

The company for which I work is building a new headquarters building. I saw some floorplans, and the design has nice ammenities we don't have now, including a staff fitness center.

"You must be really happy about that, Nic," remarked a coworker.

I was, then I had two thoughts:

1. Coworkers seeing me in my workout clothes.
2. Seeing my coworkers in their workout clothes.