A Disturbance in the Force

You might remember those odd out-of-town visitors one of our readers caught checking out the Claremont Trolley last month:



We never did figure out what they were up to. The costumed figures slipped into town as if dropped from the sky and didn't stick around very long. Maybe they heard the trolley's service days were numbered. They popped up again in South America, again with an interest in public transit:

Reuters image/Victor RuizCaballero

April Quintet

A reader wrote in to ask if anyone else had noticed a bumper crop of hummingbirds this year. The reader sent along some photos and a link to some useful information from the Pomona Valley Audubon about the birds with tips for planting a hummingbird garden:

Hummingbirds are attracted to bright red or orange, tubular flowers. While the tubular shape compliments [sic] their bills, they also feed on other types of flowers, as well as other plants that may contain the insects that satisfy their fat and protein needs. They also have very fast metabolisms, and accordingly, need to feed continually during daylight hours. At night, they store food in their crops. While in the winter, or during cold weather, they can lower their metabolisms, and enter a temporary state of dormancy.

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Art Imitating Art

A recent NPR story about an updated Jane Austen classic surely had the ladies of the Jane Austen Book Club up in arms. Is nothing sacred?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith, has Austen's Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy facing off against legions of the undead. George A. Romero, welcome to Hertfordshire:

As Mr. Darcy walked off, Elizabeth felt her blood turn cold. She had never in her life been so insulted. The warrior code demanded she avenge her honour. Elizabeth reached down to her ankle, taking care not to draw attention. There, her hand met the dagger concealed beneath her dress. She meant to follow this proud Mr. Darcy outside and open his throat.

But no sooner had she grabbed the handle of her weapon than a chorus of screams filled the assembly hall, immediately joined by the shattering of window panes. Unmentionables poured in, their movements clumsy yet swift; their burial clothing in a range of untidiness. Some wore gowns so tattered as to render them scandalous; other wore suits so filthy that one would assume they were assembled from little more than dirt and dried blood. Their flesh was in varying degrees of putrefaction; the freshly stricken were slightly green and pliant, whereas the longer dead were grey and brittle – their eyes and tongues long since turned to dust, and their lips pulled back into everlasting skeletal smiles.

Personally, we'd like to see Mrs. Bennet match up against the living dead. We think Elizabeth's excitable mother would take your average zombie in three rounds, her palpitations notwithstanding. We've seen first-hand what mischief a whole community of fully mobilized Mrs. Bennets can achieve.

Now, taking on a human-hunting alien, that's quite another matter. In February, the Guardian carried the news that there's a movie project called "Pride and Predator" in the works:

It might prove something of a boon to those who reach for the remote control when yet another costume drama comes on television: Elton John's Rocket Pictures is developing a new spin on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, this time featuring a nefarious seven-foot extraterrestrial with hideous mandibles and a penchant for human blood. Yes, it's Pride and Predator.

Will Clark, best known for his award-winning gothic comedy short The Amazing Trousers, will direct the film, which is being produced by Rocket partners Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish.

There's definitely something aloft in the ether. A sign of Apocalypse, perhaps?

Things That Are Good for You for $200, Alex

We didn't get out to last weekend's Irish Fair & Music Festival at the Fairplex in Pomona. Digital existence does have its drawbacks. Consequently, our forays into the analog world are mostly hypothetical. It's awful hard to get around when all you have are zeros and ones for limbs. And don't get us started on opposable thumbs.

Anyway, Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona didn't get out to the event either. But her hairstylist did, and reported back, via Meg:

Appalling fact no. 1: $16 entry plus $9 parking makes for a hefty pricetag.

Appalling fact no. 2: NO IRISH BEER! They only served Budweiser products. Well, apparently they sold Michelob too -- for the appearance of the fancy. But ferchrissakes, Anheuser-Busch owns Bass -- how hard would it be to sell a little Irish beer? And don't say it's the Fairplex contract, because you can get non-Budelob beers when the LA County Fair is on.

That's always the disappointing part about venturing out into the world. There's a certain chance, however small, of the Araby effect occurring. The bazaar is never quite so splendid as the imagination makes it out to be, and it's often overpriced to boot. But if you go next year, do bring us back something from the fair.

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Speaking of product placement....

We received an email regarding 66-year-old Claremonter Jim Hickey, who likes to skydive and who plugs vegetable juice beverages in his spare time. Wow, he coulda had a....

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And then we heard this bit of non-commercial news from Claremont Graduate University, where the School of Information Systems and Technology (SISAT) has developed a pilot program to create health information kiosks that work like ATMs. According to CGU's information:

These interactive stations will allow people without healthcare to get a health card and have access to their records, order prescriptions, and set up appointments. The program is as easy to use as an ATM, and is a novel way to address how to help those without healthcare coverage. If the program goes well, it may be a turning point in healthcare for 50 million Americans.

SISAT and CGU are understandably excited about their system because of all the talk about converting healthcare records and information into digital forms, as well as the money the Obama administration wants to devote to that endeavor. CGU's received an $80,000 grant to fund a nine-month pilot program aimed at low-income clinic patients in the Los Angeles area.

The concept makes sense. Take the confusing mess of personal health care information and consolidate it all in a form that most people are familiar with: the ATM machine. The idea is to give people who don't have Internet access the ability to find information they need in an easy-to-use form.

Here's a short video with an explanation of how this all works:
















CGU's website has more information on the new system.

Unmasked!

Remember that PianoPiano photo from last month showing Claremont Councilmembers Corey Calaycay and Sam Pedroza enjoying a night out on the town with City Manager Jeff Parker and other city staffers? We were looking at the photo the other day when it occurred to us that we had seen Parker in another context.

That squarish face and mouth, narrow eyes, and angular cheekbones... where had we seen those features before? Then it hit us: Dr. Doom!

That's right, the Fantastic Four's arch-nemesis just may be posing as a mild-mannered, well-compensated Claremont city employee. All that's missing is the green, hooded cloak, the armor, and the weapons and superpowers. We do know that among Dr. Doom's powers is the ability to psionically transfer his consciousness into other nearby beings, according to Doom's Wikipedia entry. Just how did Parker convince three councilmembers to approve a gift of $15,000 at the same time they are asking the community and staff to make sacrifices? Mystery solved!

Victor von Doom just may have taken refuge in our beloved tree-lined Village. The perfect place to plot his perfidious plans for planetary peril!

Reading the Skies

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We knew an old fisherman once upon a time who plied the local seas back when there was still a living to be had out of these waters. The fellow used to say you could tell a storm was coming when the clouds looked like the side of mackerel - all striated and wavy with steel blue woven between the silver-whites of the clouds.

And sure enough, that's exactly what we saw last night in advance of the storm that's supposed to hit today - those mackerel-sided clouds the old guy talked about long before Doppler radar was even a gleam in Fritz Coleman's eye.

The old fisherman knew: Signs abound, it's merely a matter of being attuned to them.

Stay dry and safe out there, and have a Happy Holiday.

Dept. of Corrections: Lamas, Llamas, Lllamamos - UPDATED

Our post on Saturday carried a Thanksgiving troll feast photo uploaded to Flickr by floodllama.

We inadvertently misspelled the last half FL's username with one L, which brought to mind the Baltimore poet Ogden Nash:

The Lama

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*

-- Ogden Nash

* UPDATED 12/2/08: A reader wrote in with a comment on lllamas -

Continuing the poem of the Lama, A small boy spoke up and said, "I heard on the news today that there was a big fire downtown, and it was a three-L lama."