Time warp

I tend to be a little obsessive about the accurate reporting of place and time (as a corollary to my obsession about the accurate reporting of fact). For that reason, twice a year (at the beginning and end of DST), I photograph a display of my presumably-accurate computer clock, before and after I have reset my digital camera's date/time setting to the correct time, so that if ever I might wish to report the actual time that a photograph was taken, I can translate the camera-clock time (in the EXIF data) into real time.

For example, when I did this album of a Toronto Wildlife Centre goose rescue, I had to subtract 2 minutes and 34 seconds from the photos' time stamps because the camera clock had gained that much since I last calibrated it in March.

By coincidence, it was back in March when my iPhoto additions first no longer appeared in the 'photos' section of the application. The pictures were still accessible through the 'events' section and I put the matter down to an application bug resulting from the sheer number of photos (over 44000) it had to display on my aging infrastructure.

This morning, I noticed that the date stamp for a recent picture had the year as 2011. In the four-and-a-half months since I last calibrated the camera clock I had never noticed that the year was incorrect. The photos had in fact all been added to the 'photos' section of iPhoto, but they were back in 2011 where I never once occasioned to look. Fortunately it was easy to correct all of the bad dates in a batch date/time adjustment.

Jump for joy

I came across R.L. Burnside by way of Lightnin' Malcolm (who I caught on a WNED/PBS show last week). This Burnside video from 1978 says it all:

See my jumper, lawd, hangin' out on the line
See my jumper, lawd, hangin' out on the line
Know by that, something on my mind

Would'na been here baby, lawd, if it had'na been for you
Would'na been here baby, lawd, if it had'na been for you
Way down here, way you wanna do

Fix my supper baby, lawd, let me go to bed
Fix my supper baby, lawd, let me go to bed
This white lightnin' done gone to my head

The uninnuendoed meaning of jumper is a smock (on a clothes-line), as evidenced by just such an article of clothing being washed/starched/ironed in a couple of other blues numbers.

Going the distance

The Gar Creek mudslide on the morning of July 12 had me, at the time, trying to accurately place the disaster on Google Earth. Unlike bimmjim, one of the commenters to the Yahoo! retelling of that news, I knew that Johnsons Landing was (obviously) slightly north of where Google Earth spotted the location. David Petley (who writes a landslide blog) had the correct map placement, verifiable by this helpful graphic.

The Fairmont Hot Springs mudslide on July 15 had some in the media trying to relate this event to the Gar Creek one by proximity. The National Post headlined it as 45 km away. I had already measured the distance as ~78 km (as the crow flies) and decided to let the Post know of its error. Incredibly, this evening's CBC - The National suggested that the distance between the locations was only 30 km (at 4:50 into the broadcast), which had me remeasure the damn thing in case I had made some dumb mistake. A little later, I chanced upon Brad Giffen (a CTV news-channel anchor) using the 45 km figure. What is this contagion?

Update: At least one subsequent story got it right.

Lies, damn lies, and family history

It can be a little unsettling at times to see things from someone else's perspective.

Marlene Frost and I are once again doing a little bit of recreational genealogy. In our research, I came across the email address of a great-grandson (Paul) of the Irish couple whose descendants we are attempting to chart. So I thought I would share with him the state of our current tree in the hope of having him correct any errors that we might have made and, moreover, contribute some particulars of his own immediate family. I mentioned that we were trying to figure out where the parents of a local minor celebrity (Bob) fit into the tree.

Paul replied that Bob was his (first) cousin. I objected, pointing out that newspaper accounts had named Bob's father as someone other than Paul's suggested uncle and, additionally, those accounts provided information that allowed one to deduce, with a little digging, the name of Bob's mother, which was not the name of Paul's uncle's wife. Paul replied that my newspaper accounts were "somewhat in error" and repeated his mantra that Bob's father was his uncle.

If nothing else, Paul's insistence did convince me that Bob was in that branch of the family tree. I now believe (for a variety of reasons) that Bob is Paul's cousin, once removed — not his uncle's son but, rather, his uncle's grandson. That an individual so close to the scene of the action can get it so wrong speaks volumes about the fictions that must permeate some of our family histories.

Perspective

It can be a little unsettling at times to see familiar scenes from an altered perspective. Maps are no exception, as I rediscovered today in examining the melting ice in Hudson Bay. How long will it take you to find Hudson Bay in this image of NASA's White Marble?

Déjà vu all over again

The CBC's Kelly Crowe wrote an article using this Yogiism only last month. Today, Crowe storied Real water needs for The National (the print version is here). By contrast, Snopes' Eight Glasses debunk first appeared on 6 February 2001 and Heinz Valtin's 8 × 8 review on 8 August 2002. There's no news like old news.

How big is my baby?

Arms outstretched: "So big!"

I caught this particular scene from the 1932 William Wellman film on TCM this morning and went about googling — unsuccessfully — for some reference (I vaguely remember its German counterpart played by my mother with one of her charges) to this baby teaching game.

I'll see you again

     Thomas Powers was a man of great mystery. He was taciturn to the greatest degree and would say nothing about himself. Mrs. Wolcott said that he came to her home in the later part of February from Philadelphia. For a long time she knew him simply as "Mr. Powers". He would say nothing about himself. He was a man of very peculiar habits in that he seemed at times utterly oblivious of his surroundings. While he did not rudely repel any advances to conversation with him, he would quietly withdraw. He did not care to talk about any of his work and when the conversation drifted toward that channel he would leave the room. He was a man of good habits, always coming home early and Mrs. Wolcott says that not over two or three nights did he remain out of the house after 9 in the evening, coming home early and immediately going to bed. About three weeks ago he was sitting alone in the sitting room, through which Mrs. Wolcott passed. She made some remark to him and when he looked up she noticed that his eyes were red. She asked him if he was ill and he said:
     "No, Mrs. Wolcott. I'm not sick but I'm awfully homesick. I've never had a home since I was a child."
     He broke into crying and Mrs. Wolcott asked him to come and make himself more at home and not all by himself. He seemed to cheer up and commenced to visit. He said again that he had no home and said he was afraid he might lose his position here. He told Mrs. Wolcott that he liked the place very much and hoped he could remain. Mrs. Wolcott tried to cheer him up and he burst into another fit of weeping.
     Once he asked Mrs. Wolcott if she thought that any one would know him in Watertown. He would give no reason for his making such a strange statement. Since Sunday he had acted queerly. He seemed to lose his appetite and when Mrs. Wolcott asked him if he was sick he said he had not been well in two years, but that there was nothing serious. While the rest of the family might be talking and laughing loudly, he would drop off to sleep, oblivious of his surroundings and the noise.
     On Wednesday night he ate little for supper and left the house about 7. A postal card from his brother was on the table and it was carried to him. He did not look at it, but simply slipped it in his pocket. With one of the boarders he walked to a cigar store, bought a cigar and said, "I'll see you again."

Watertown Daily Times: 3 April 1909

That was on 31 March 1909. Thomas Powers jumped into the Black River from Watertown's Court Street bridge. Except for the evening's darkness and the swiftness of current, his northwest view — downstream — would have looked something like this:

It would be 1915 days (five and a quarter years) before Thomas would be seen again: on the shore of Lake Ontario, near where Stoney Creek empties into it, 32 km southwest of Watertown. The trip downriver and through the lake would have been at least 50 km.

Thomas' suicide might have gone unnoticed were it not for the concern of his brother, James, who offered on April 10 — after a week of fruitless searching — a $100 reward for the finding of the body. On that same day another person, Thomas Blacklock, jumped off the Court Street bridge — but this would not become known until June 7, a couple of days after a Joseph Kellar, who had faked a suicide off the bridge on May 2, was found alive and well. Blacklock's body, found in Dexter on May 21, had been claimed — and buried — as that of Kellar.

References:

     Watertown Daily Times: April 2 — Thomas Powers is still missing

     The Syracuse Herald: April 11 — James Powers offers $100 reward

     The Syracuse Post-Standard: April 12 — the reward spurs search for a body

     Watertown Daily Times: April 15 — a fake body is chased down the river

     The Syracuse Post-Standard: May 3 — did Joseph Kellar jump into the Black River?

     Watertown Daily Times: May 21 — a body is found in the river at Dexter

     The Syracuse Post-Standard: May 22 — the body is identified as Joseph Kellar

     Watertown Daily Times: June 2 — James Powers increases the reward

     The Syracuse Herald: June 5 — Joseph Kellar is alive; claims he did not fake suicide

     The Syracuse Post-Standard: June 5 — Kellar's handwriting matches suicide note

     Watertown Daily Times: June 7 — the body is identified as Thomas Blacklock

     Watertown Daily Times: July 7 — the Thomas Powers search resumes

     Watertown Daily Times: July 8 — diving apparatus has arrived

     Watertown Daily Times: July 9 — the bell diver nearly drowns

     The Syracuse Post-Standard: July 10 — coroner doubts Thomas Powers suicide

     Watertown Daily Times: July 10 — the diving continues

     Watertown Daily Times: July 12 — bell divers abandon the search

     Watertown Daily Times: 30 June 1914 — a body is found June 28 in Lake Ontario

     The Lowville Journal and Republican: 9 July 1914 — how the body was identified

With her babe in her arms

     Watertown, Aug. 10. — Mrs. John Powers this morning swore out a warrant for the arrest of her husband, who she claimed was drunk, disorderly and abusive. Powers was arrested and lodged in jail. He will be brought before Recorder Cobb Monday morning.
     Mrs. Powers was seen at her home at No. 41 Morrison street, and told her story to The Herald man. Their home up to three months ago was at Munningar, West Mead county, Ireland. John was a good worker but spent all his money for drink. She thought if she could get her husband away from the influences of their old town he would do better, so they sailed for America. After a few days in New York city they went to Kingston, Ont., and from there to this city, where they have been only two months. About a month ago she complained of him but nothing was done.
     Friday night John did not return at the usual hour and when he knocked for admittance at 4 o'clock this morning she started with fear to let him in, but before she reached the door he had got in through a window and began to threaten her and she fled to the neighbors.
     She walked the streets with her babe in arms till a warrant could be procured. She also stated that they had had nothing to eat for two days and that he had spent all his week's wages but $3 for drink, when he was arrested. She said she wanted to be freed from him, declaring that she could earn a living better without him. Mrs. Powers will apply to Mrs. N.C. Walker to have four of her five children admitted to the Orphans Home.

The Syracuse Sunday Herald: 11 August 1895

References:
     Watertown Daily Times: 10 August 1895 — another version
     Watertown Daily Times: 12 August 1895 — the follow-up
     Watertown Daily Times: 17 September 1895 — conclusion

Exercise:
     Determine a history of the Mullingar Powers' children and their descendants.

Snake catches toad

A little wildlife drama on our (the east) side of the Raymore weir on the Humber.