Mouldy Scones: You Never Know Where You'll Find Inspiration: Just Ask Alexander Fleming, Discoverer of Penicillin!

'In the latter part of the 19th century it was the custom in the farming community in Ayrshire, Scotland, for the farmer's wife to put a freshly baked scone on a shelf, where it was left to grow mouldy. 

Anyone on the farm who sustained a cut would then rub this mouldy scone in the wound. 

It was into this very farming community in 1881 that Alexander Fleming, who went on to discover penicillin, was born.

The young Fleming no doubt encountered scone therapy, and even though the practice was eventually deemed unhygienic and fell into disuse, he would, of course, vindicate this home remedy. 

— Dr. David Adamson, St. Thomas, Ont.

--quoted in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 165, no. 12, December 11, 2001, p. 1591-2.

Q: Can you turn Social Security payments off and on? And is there any benefit to doing so? A: Yes! Here's the details.

I turned 62 this month, and applied right away for Social Security -- I figure, let's spend their money first, and hang onto my money as much as possible.

Anyway, a job opportunity has come along that looks very appealing -- right up my alley, a startup, exciting, etc. If it actually comes through (it's a startup, so funding is always a question), I will be making enough money that my Social Security income will be cancelled out, probably completely (they reduce your payments by a buck for every $2 you earn over the maximum of, I think, $14,000 a year).

So I talked to the Social Security advisor with my questions:

Q: I may have job starting; if I earn enough, can I turn SS off and then back on?

A: Yes. Just call 800 number for SSN (that I got in my application literature) and tell them you are starting a job that will earn $XX. They'll reduce or discontinue payments -- until you call back when the job is over.

Q: Is there an economic incentive for me to do so?

A: Yes; for each month you don't receive payment, or only get partial payment, you get one month's (or partial month's) credit towards your full retirement date.

For example: I am 62; if I stop it for a year, then restart at 63, I get paid the amount I'd get paid if I were starting at 63. This benefit applies up until my full retirement age (which depends on your birth year; for me it is, I think, 65).

This means if I shut off Social Security for, say, a year, then start it up next year, I'll get a few bucks extra in each month's check, just as if I had first started getting payments later.

This will be true even if, for example, you start getting payments at 62, then two years later turn it off for a while -- your incentive will be slightly higher monthly payments when you turn it back on.

Good thinking, SSA!

Surprisingly entertaining performance "Solo/Tongues" at Cal State Hayward!

I went to the Solo/Tongues performance last night (Nov 14), opening night, somewhat holding my breath in expectation of something so arty that it would bore me.

I was wrong: It was terrific!

The Solo portion consists of five monologues, each interesting, fun, funny, and expertly performed. A "hostess" welcomes you to Celebrity Slaveships. A Chinese student who loves computer games confesses that he's gay--and tall! A Chicano answers "Ask a Mexican!" And an Indian immigrant takes refuge imagining herself a Bollywood movie princess.

The Tongues part started off ominously, with two barefoot musicians playing accordians and walking up and down the aisles repeatedly, followed by babble from speakers placed around the theater. This went on too long and I was sure I was stuck in a Noh play.

Then the performance proper started, with a group of women singing--one in particular had a voice that simply stood out wonderfully.

Then the two or three dozen performers started careening around the stage, dancing, moving, singing, declaiming, scampering from one part of the stage to another -- and the chaos they created became mesmerizing, fascinating, eye-catching, vividly interesting.

I understood none of the cognitive elements of the play itself -- I have no idea what was supposed to be going on; that's where the artsy part came in -- but the whole busy, wild, dramatic, astonishing performance held me spellbound and delighted for the next hour.

It was - terrific! Entertaining! Go see it if you haven't already. Take your friends, including the ones who (like me) don't really much like "art" in my theatrical experiences -- however reluctant we are when we show up, we'll leave entirely entertained! Really! This is not just a performance for the art-in-crowd - it's something everyone will enjoy, even though it's hard to explain what goes on, or what it means.

Great, great fun! (In fact, I think I might come back next weekend and see it again.)

'Blocked' by Comcast as a spammer! --Some days I hate computers

The other day I got a robomessage (an automated email) from my ISP, Comcast.net, saying that my computer was being used for spam, and thus they were blocking me -- I would be unable to send email.

This accusation is impossible; I use ZoneAlarm Professional (and even pay for it), which blocks mass outbound emailings; and I've run three separate virus-checking programs, which have found nothing. Of course, the Comcast email had no instructions about how to argue the point, other than links to FAQs of smug instructions to use your firewall and run virus programs.

Not a big problem, I thought, I'll just use Gmail as my Reply ISP, which I did - for two weeks, and then that stopped working too.

I went to Comcast.net and drilled down until I found the "chat with a tech" link -- no way was I going to go by telephone and be driven crazy by the phone tree!

The tech said all I need to do was change my Outgoing Server (SMTP) port from the default 25 to 587. Lo & behold, that worked.

He said all Comcast had done when they decided I was a zombie computer was block my port 25.

Of course, it didn't work immediately. I was using Thunderbird, which he promptly told me Comcast doesn't "support." But after I sneered at him (in text), he suggested I delete my existing identities and re-enter them. That worked. (I hate the ease with which companies simply say "we don't support that," like it gets them off the hook. Only Outlook and Outlook Express, he said - ironic, since OE is notoriously insecure!)

I also changed the ports on Outlook, in case I get stuck using that benighted, slow-as-a-pig program.

So I'm back on track.

Sigh. Some days I hate computers.

Terry Pratchett Talks about his Dementia

Famed author Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld books my daughter Molly and I read with great joy, announced ten months ago that he has been diagnosed with dementia -- in his case, a form of Alzheimer's.

In this newspaper article he talks about what it's like knowing you have a disease that will rob you of your memory, your ability to work (his has written 45 books in 25 years), and your personality. Worth reading!

Buy Gold Coins to Ride Out Disaster? Advice to a Daughter

One of my kids asked me how to buy gold coins in case the economy collapses, and how *many* to buy for that purpose.

My response:

You get them from Coin Shops, which you can find in the yellow pages under, I think, Coin Dealers. You would buy American gold coins (American money), once ounce each coin, price is the market price for one ounce of gold plus a small markup (so if the price is $895 you might have to pay $925, for example). You are NOT buying "numismatic" or collectible coins – you are buying so-called Bullion coins.

How many would you need to ride out the collapse of the economy? There's no good answer to that – as many as you could afford. Even one or two might help. To survive a period of insane inflation, you'd need as much in gold as you'd need in present-day dollars to survive – in other words, if you needed $9,000 to survive for six months of collapse, you'd buy $9,000 in coins (10 coins) – the dollar would go nuts and inflate 10,000 percent, but your gold coins would still buy what $9,000 would buy today – but in this disastrous future, your $9,000 in gold coins would be worth $90,000 in dollar bills --and would still buy what $9,000 buys today.

I think the chances of this kind of disaster are vanishingly small. Even inflation, which might very well start going up soon with all this money flooding the system, won't go to Weimar Republic levels because the Fed knows how to keep the lid on runaway inflation – now they know, anyway.

So if you could manage to squeeze out enough to buy ONE ounce of gold now; then each year or so buy another one, maybe as a birthday present to yourself – you should be fine.

More immediately relevant would be to have a fistful of CASH (dollars) on hand in case of natural disaster – in Houston during the hurricane last month, power went out and people couldn't get cash out of their ATMs and the banks were closed and the credit-card machines in all the stores didn't work. So I have a thousand or so in ones, fives, tens, and twenties in a box here, for spending money for a week or two or three if and when the Big One comes. I think tucking away some twenties now and then is your best nearterm protection...... 

(Just don't hide the box in the places where burglars know people always hide their cash.)

dad

JK Rowling: The Fringe Benefits of Failure [aka: "I had an old typewriter"!]

This is excerpted from the wonderful speech JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, gave as her commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Assocatiion on June 5, 2008. The full text can be found here.

Rowling talks about how she had hit rock bottom--divorced, with a child, jobless, and in poverty--when she took up the work that would become the first Harry Potter book. This quote gives a good sense of her:

"What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure....

"So why do I talk abut the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energey into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life..."