Lee, Terry, Stacy, Tracy, Gerry, Chris and of course, Pat. All names for boys. And girls.

Remember the Saturday Night Live skit with Julia Sweeney, where you were kept guessing "Pat's" gender? In real life, in a library where I worked, a member of the staff underwent gender reassignment. Confusing for his/her coworkers, no matter how open-minded we are. Gender so defines us that a shift takes us by surprise, upsets the assumptions we've made. Father, son, nephew, uncle, husband becomes mother, daughter, niece, aunt, wife? Makeup, clothing, hair, jewelry. What is masculine, what is feminine?

More importantly, what restroom does the transgendered choose? How do they feel in the women's restroom? In the men's facility?

Aside: 2 weeks ago, I was in the men's at Macy's in downtown HNL. The line was too, too, long, the pressure was unbearable, and an older woman volunteered to watch the door. A younger woman went in, the coast was clear, and she and I sighed with relief! A man waiting in the doorway looked stunned! Pee and run!!!

I saw this report about Thai schools providing a restroom choice for transgendered: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12812 Thai culture and society includes them in the workplace, beauty pageants and sports, a more accepting and inclusive attitude than ours.

I include this, as the related links are also very thought-provoking: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/thai-school-opens-transvestite-toilet-for-transgender-students_10062437.html

Our own society merely accepts transgenders superficially. We tolerate their show queen pageants, acknowledge them among our sex workers, but fail to address their needs on the most basic level.

A librarian???

I watched the Charlie Rose interview with documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and I'm still puzzled.

The film is about Hunter S. Thompson, and it's called Gonzo. I won't be seeing it. I think I already know too much about him. HST invented Gonzo journalism. His work involved making stuff up and writing about it. It was all about drawing attention to himself. Isn't that juvenile delinquent behavior that would normally get you suspended or kicked out of school? Are there current practitioners of this?

And I thought journalism was about being fair, balanced and accurate.

He was about guns, drugs and drama. HST was a doctor who wasn't a doctor and a journalist who wasn't a journalist.

Every clip I've seen of him was like watching a train wreck, and I've seen enough. Do Gibney, Wenner and Carter envy him? Is this a guy thing? What is Johnny Depp, the thinking woman's actor - thinking - by financing the drama of HST's funeral?

Is it like watching Dog Chapman?

Please tell me, what IS the appeal?

I am wrapping up a short job as librarian with University of Hawaii Manoa Government Documents & Maps. While our offices are in the Sinclair Library Mezzanine, our collection lives in the Sinclair basement, Hamilton Library lobby and spreads across Honolulu to three floors of a storage facility in Iwilei. It's been a fascinating ride being part of the effort to replace materials lost in the October 2004 UH Manoa flood.

I have done things here I would never have been able to do elsewhere. This includes unpacking 200+ boxes of donations and seeing that they were integrated into the collection and linked to our catalog records. I also linked hundreds of purchased titles; this called for learning some cataloging. Remaining staff will continue replacement efforts, as well as resume their normal work.

This operation cannot compare to that of Iraq, where the national library has a much larger task to rebuild - amidst trying to survive the daily dangers and uncertainties of life in Baghdad, and sectarian violence and "disappearances". The director general of the Iraq national library and archives, Saad Eskander, has a clear vision of what his country needs in order to recover and move toward the future. He is doing virtually the same thing we are doing: requesting donations to replace items lost from his collection, and further, those his current patrons need.

"He argues, though, that the historic role of the library as a repository for government and historical documents from many periods and the central location for research into the history of the Iraqi people is being thwarted by institutions in the US. He claims that documents seized by the US military from the Ba'athist ministry of the interior, which were subsequently used to blackmail Saddam's former secret police operatives to work for the occupation, ultimately have been transferred to the US. "These secret police archives belong in Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein's victims and their families can study them. Even if they won't return the original documents I know many of them have been digitised, so I am suggesting a compromise: that they give us the computer files so they can be seen in Iraq. Under international law, though, the documents should be ours, not the US government's." "

How successful was this ploy for recruitment? Can't we do the right thing and return the materials to the owners, the Iraqi people? Read the rest of article here.

I think these stories are related, but it may just be because my mind works that way.

First, did this "dramatization" - where CHIPs officers told students their classmates died in a car crash from DUI -achieve the desired results? Isn't high school already stressful and full of enough drama?

If you tell students lies to teach them lessons, what are you REALLY teaching them? That it's OK for teachers, administrators and the police to lie? What happens to trust?

Think of this another way: if all learning in public schools is evaluated and measured, what are the outcomes here? Exactly what have the the students learned from this "lesson"? How do you quantify, much less qualify it?

______________

Next, coming to my neighborhood mall: It's right in my front yard, so to speak. I'm sure I'll be legging it out the door of Nordie's some day after admiring their huge selection of sunglasses (I do need a new pair) and have this hit me in the eye.

On the face (hahaha) of it, you could learn a lot. Or, is this just too much information? There are questions and controversy surrounding it:  The bodies are of persons who "died unidentified or unclaimed by family members", according to the AP article. They have been skinned and polymer plasticized.

Tickets run in the $20 to $30 range. What about the millions of dollars this company is making? Do you want to see this exhibit? Would it make a difference to you if there was a chance that it's your auntie or uncle? Does their end justify the purported "educational value"?

Some believe that the body is the vessel for the soul, and it should go to the grave intact. Others feel that organ donation can benefit the living after the donor's passing. How do you feel?

June 21, 2008: Edit for grammar and more information.

I just realized I haven't posted anything for a month. That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking.

Here's some of what I've been thinking about. Although I'd read about Ferran Adria, his restaurant in Spain, and molecular gastronomy, I didn't realize until I'd seen this on PBS, that there are other chefs who are doing this in their kitchens. 

It ironic to me that two such disparate proponents of food received James Beard awards this year. You can read about both of them here. Grant Achatz of Alinea, temple of the sort of cuisine discussed above, was named chef of the year. I've already talked about my feelings on this.

The humanitarian award went to Frances Moore Lappe, author of "Diet for a Small Planet". I do eat meat, just not a lot of it, or often. Try this: eat a steak and all the accompaniments and note how you feel that night and the following day. Then avoid meat another day and compare. You will (at least I do) feel a lot better without. My copy of her book is at least 30, maybe 35 years old. It's at the back of the cookbook cupboard. (I know, I need to weed. ) I have been cooking so many years, I don't really need a recipe, except for baking. I do remember the idea, spirit and intent of the book, which was innovative at the time.

When you choose to eat sustainable food, you leave a smaller carbon footprint. This could mean anything from choosing to be a locavore (eating only locally grown or produced food) to not eating meat because it requires huge amounts of land, feed, and other resources. If we would put more thought into what we eat, and where it comes from, we might help others who can't afford food. The title of one of our United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) monographs says it all: Food for All.

______

Here are some movies I won't be seeing: both Rambo and Rambow, Sex and the City. One I saw and didn't need to: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Why? A waste of time and money. JMHO. The book in SATC isn't even a real one. Read about it here.

An older couple lived there. We would see them in the yard or the garage as we walked by the house at different times of the day or night. They had those water bottles on the lawn. What's up with those, anyway?

Sometimes the couple would drive up, close the gate and enter the house through the garage. Very soon, the lights would go out. Early to bed!

The first change was the building of a lava rock wall on two sides of the property. We observed the progress with interest, and it was completed pretty quickly. Were they keeping us out, or themselves in?

What was interesting was that now you could easily (and we watched as someone did) climb onto the wall and up the tree on the corner. We weren't watching long enough to see the (homeless, maybe) person climb down, so that's a mystery which will remain unsolved.

One day, a daughter and grandchild (we think) went in the front door.

As time passed, there was a fresh coat of paint on the house, then the trim was touched up. The addition of fake foliage to support posts was both whimsical and puzzling. There was the further addition of new (real) shrubbery planted near the fake stuff.

The man of the house was seen walking from the apartment building next door, and entering the house. He soon came out and returned to the apartment. Interesting.

A For Sale sign appeared one day, and stayed for several months.

Even more interesting: a few months later, a young couple with a noisy child moved in. The older couple was nowhere to be seen. Instead of a sedate sedan, an SUV was parked in the driveway. In the following weeks, kidstuff started appearing in the yard.

What is kidstuff? Playhouse, seesaw, slide, tricycle.

For a young couple, the lights went off just as early as for the older one! The wife was often seen disappearing around to the side yard with a cigarette. The loudly-talking husband was in the yard a lot picking up. Kidstuff. We grew accustomed to seeing them as we walked by.

But, about a month ago, the kidstuff was gone. All. of. it. The van. The cigarette-sneaking wife. The loud husband. All. gone.

While the house has its own story, what is the story of the family that lived there for such a short time?

Were one or both of them Aloha Airlines employees? Did one of them become ill? Did the family break up?

You can write about what you see, and draw conclusions from it, but you can't see the subtext, the back story.

And, what did they see as we - together or alone - walked by the house?

Probably, just the middle-aged, middle class, but niele neighborhood folks who looked at them a little too closely.

http://www.slate.com/id/2186626/

However, I missed the application deadline.

Note: the wonderful Michael Kinsley was the founding editor of Slate.