Author: AKMA

I keep forgetting the address of the Greek Font Society, which would be a less significant problem if they hadn’t changed their URI. I need to remember where to find them, though, because where else can you find a sumptuous array of professional-grade polytonic Greek Unicode OpenType typefaces for no charge?
 
I was taught on the standard Porson faces, but was mystified and charmed by Neohellenic when I first saw it (in Blass-Debrunner-Funk, I think). Here, though, you can pick up a digital interpretation of the type used for the Complutensian Polyglot, on which Neohellenic draws heavily. Just remember that the 16th-century mu without a descender looks sort of like an upsilon, and the nu with a descender looks like a mirror-image mu. The lower-case eta follows the shape of the modern upper-case — but you already figured that out.
 
Now, time to get some work done before I meet Rob Croop for lunch.

I was looking forward to the “Stacks” feature of Leopard; I miss the option of dragging windows to the edge of the screen to turn them into tabs, and I thought Stacks (ill-fatedly née “Piles”) might provide some of the interface sensibility the OS X Finder lacks. Alas, it seems as though Stacks only work when the Dock is at the bottom of the screen, and since I position my Dock on the right (I usually need vertical screen space more than horizontal), I’m out of luck.

This morning, as we were getting ready to go in to town, I quoted for Margaret the Valentine’s Day couplet that stands out in my memory: “If you’ll be my Valentine / I will be forever thine.” Margaret said, “OK, but I hope we don’t have to keep talking that way,” to which I responded, “Isn’t it just a lovely day?”
 
That, in turn reminded Margaret of one of the boys’ favorite Sesame Street sketches (It reminded me of The Princess Bride, but Margaret had the floor). “Remember when Nate used to say, “Fer the rhymin’ game, Bert!” At that point, we would have to play the part of Bert as Nate rapped through the scene. “I wonder,” I said, “if it’s on YouTube.”
 

 
Happy Valentine’s Day, Nate! And Si, and Pippa, and Jennifer; and always, forever, rhymingly, Margaret my dearest!

I think Blue Bumpy (our ’96 Subaru Legacy, named after White Bumpy, our Grand Caravan, which in turn was named after Bumpy the Car, our Toyota Tercel which was named after Bumpy the Car, a favorite book of our young’uns) — anyway, Blue Bumpy has been to John LaRue’s repair shop four times in the past ten days. LaRue’s performed comprehensive repairs on several vital systems while we rented a car two weeks ago, but three after days we got Blue Bumpy back, it started overheating like crazy. Took it back to LaRue’s, they refilled the radiator, fiddled with a few things, got it back, and three days later. . again. So I took it back yesterday, and they hazarded a guess that there might be a thermostat problem, bring it in this morning and they’ll replace the thermostat. I just got back, and they didn’t charge me — since they aren’t sure the thermostat was the problem. John has been putting in considerable time and attention to squaring away the cooling system problems, at no charge — and although I don’t imagine that readers will flock to Princeton to have him work on their autos, I wanted to salute him in public.

Benjamin hit a new level, and Micah and Laura are duly proud — gratz!

Someone offered a hockey card of Bobby Orr in the eBay category for Holy Cards.

My installation of Leopard seems stable at this point, and I’m missing only a few passwords and registrations, so far as I can tell. (Whoops! I forgot to add an email account for disseminary.org; oh well. . . .)
 
I’ve had a lot of helpful feedback on the phone topic. Shelley emailed me, then posted, some extensive directions on playing hardball with mobile phone companies. Trevor and Kevin have offered disused Verizon-credentialed phones, while Bruce sent me to an online phone store, and Tom suggested picking up a substitute Verizon-OK model at a Big Box retailer. I’ll probably take up one of these suggestions, but I’m more irked than ever that I can’t just select a server and a phone manufacturer based on the quality and price of their services — rather than participating in a bizarre, anti-competitive hazing ritual to get phone service.

Margaret sent me to the Verizon store yesterday because the microphone on my cell phone no longer works. I didn’t come away with an audible sell, because the very patient Verizon franchisee explained that I wasn’t eligible for a new phone till April 8 — at which time I could receive a “free” phone if I re-upped for another two-year contract. I could, of course, buy a new phone at retail price, which would run about $150. “OK,” I asked, “without disrespect to your helpful service, what if I wanted to switch carriers?” Well, if I switched before August 8, I’d owe Verizon $175.
 
Now, I’m sure there’s someone out there savvier than I about the ways of the telco oligopolies. What would you suggest that I do? You can either leave a comment, or email me, or you can text me at my cell p[hone number.

Jennifer points me to the manga interpretation of the Bible by Ajinbayo Akinsiku. I’ll look forward to seeing a copy, but it sounds promising; comics artists are finally getting the backing to perpetuate the tradition of the blockbooks, stained glass windows, Bibles Moraliseés, and so on. This goes on the reading list along with Scott McCloud’s books and Marked.

I had been delaying the upgrade to the latest Mac OS, and — it turns out — for good reason. This was the most painful OS upgrade I can remember. Luckily, I had cloned my main drive before I started the operation. Unluckily, the cosmic forces of contingency hammered the interactions of my drive, the installation DVD, and the back-up drive, such that I ended up installing the OS about three times (I lost track after a while). Once it was all installed, the system wouldn’t boot; evidently, it needed its PRAM cleared. Then the usually-silky-smooth Migration Assistant pooped out partway into the transfer of files from my back-up to my main drive. I’ve been doing the rest by hand.
 
On the other hand, tomorrow probably won’t be worse than today.

Rowan WIlliams has taken incessant hectoring for his approach to the current miseries of the Anglican Communion. Yesterday morning, I understood one reason I’d been sticking up for him through the storm of dissatisfaction.
 
Internal conflicts in church take shape in a context that is lost once the antagonistic parties formalize their exclusive distinction from one another. That is, once a church divides over the question of whether congregants are permitted to sing in harmony or only in unison, the two parties define themselves as “harmonic Anglicans” or “unison Anglicans” in a way that neither party was predefined before the schism. Once that “not-them” definition enters the self-consciousness of everyone concerned, it can be exceptionally difficult — impossible, as far as flesh permits — to bring together the groups who once separated, even if they no longer sense the urgency of arguing over congregational music. It will turn out that Harmonic Anglicans decide to tithe their gross income, and Unison Anglicans will make a voluntary pledge based on tax-adjusted income. Unison Anglicans will decide to ordain adolescents, but Harmonic Anglicans will reserve ordination to adults.
 
Especially when participants in the conflict believe that the well-being and integrity of common life depends on their interpretation of the gospel prevailing over their neighbor’s, they need to preserve as long as possible the conditions that conduce to sustaining that common life — even if that entails impatience and dissatisfaction — last we burden our heirs with the task of rejoining an even more intractably divided [ex-]communion. So far as I can tell, Williams is not rushing deliberations toward a “decisive” outcome, not because he’s wishy-washy or lacks principle, but because he cares with all his heart for the possibility of unity, and that possibility would suffer devastating harm by any formal schism.
 
Oh, and the Archbishop didn’t suggest that the UK inevitably adopt sharia law, as a careful, patient reading of his remarks should make clear.