Re; Graduation

I jst wanted to take a few words to congratulate Kyla for such a great acheivment evryone is proud and we take evry opportunity to brag on you. Congrats to the proud parents also, I can only imagine how happy and proud you are. We all hope to see a little more of all of you now that G.W. is going to be on your radar screen. Best of luck to Garrett in San Jose

Believing Your Own Bullshit -- To the End

Old news at this point, but after reading all about Enron and experiencing their fake "energy crisis" here in California, it was just poetic justice to see the two top dogs screw themselves over by testifying.

Legal experts also said they were surprised Lay and Skilling said on the witness stand - indeed, based their entire defenses on the idea - that there was no overarching fraud at Enron.

Hubris got them to the top, dropped them to the bottom, and it just seems appropriate that it also took them to jail.

I Can't Believe He Ate the Whole Thing

There was a very funny article in the Chronicle this morning about a local guy, Joey Chestnut, who is on his way to being the world champion in speed eating. He goes to San Jose State, and he's prepping for the Mount Everest of speed eating contests: Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island.

In the past year Chestnut devoured world records for waffles (18.5 in 10 minutes), pork ribs (5.5 pounds in 12 minutes), grilled cheese sandwiches (32.5 in 10 minutes) and chicken wings -- 173 in 30 minutes, wiping out the previous record by 29 wings.

And on May 18, at a Nathan's qualifier in Las Vegas, Chestnut scarfed 50 dogs in 12 minutes, shattering the old record of 37.

"Joey Chestnut," marvels George Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, "is clearly going to change the face of American competitive eating. He may become the greatest eater in America, if not the world."

I'm getting indigestion just thinking about it.

Graduation Report

The trip started inauspiciously with a recorded phone call at 5AM Friday from United saying our flight had been cancelled. They switched us to a USAir flight through Philadelphia, and we arrived close to the originally scheduled time. We found Tori near baggage claim. Garrett was not pleased when she told him he looked like a Steve clone. We spent that night in the Super8 in Hartford. Garrett was upset in the morning to find that we had missed a father-son bonding experience because we didn't realize Erotic World was right next door until we were ready to hit the road for New Haven.

Graduation itself was a twisty maze of ceremonies and celebrations. We packed up and mailed eight or so boxes on Saturday, some to home and some to Paige. AJ arrived on Saturday and joined us for a nice dinner. He and Garrett stayed in 4th floor dorm rooms on Old Campus. The rooms were really nice, overlooking the quad of Old Campus on one side and the New Haven Green on the other. Rob arrived late that night and opted to share a room with Tori at the Marriott with us. Next morning, Dara and AJ got coffee at one place so they had something to tide them over while they waited in line at Starbucks.

Sunday morning was the Baccalaureate ceremony at the impressive Woolsey Hall. This was a bit of a bookend to the Freshman Convocation ceremony four years before in the same facility -- as Kyla reminded me, the first time I heard her class shout out at the top of their lungs: Oh Six!!! A little praying and speechifying, followed by a few pictures. Dara and her siblings channeled for their mother by mapping out the optimum way to get lunch while reserving the critical seating locations for the Class Day celebration on Old Campus. AJ brought flowers for Kyla, and she shared the roses with her roommates.

Funny hats were de rigeur at Class Day. Kyla wore her cowboy hat with a fully tacked Yale polo pony on top specially decorated by Dara. Class Day included a talk by Anderson Cooper (Class of 89) which was quite funny and enjoyed by all. Toward the end of his talk it started raining, and as the various presentations went on it worked itself up to a proper downpour. Rob and Tori sprinted for the Jumbotron simulcast in the nearby Battelle Chapel. Every event was broadcast on the giant screens on Old Campus (and apparently on the local cable channel). The rest of us hightailed it up the four flights of stairs to the dorm room and watched from there. At the end of the ceremony the grads waved their white hankerchiefs and sang a song ending in "for God, for country, and for Yale." Gad, it just doesn't get much more Ivy Leaguey than that, especially when you get to follow it up with tea at the Master's house.

Of course, the clouds parted when Class Day was over. We had set up dinner at Mory's, and it was really terrific. We had a private room in the library, surrounded by law books from the turn of the century. The meal was great, but the highlight was ordering a "purple cup." Cups at Mory's are the traditional thing to do there, and they come in different flavors or colors. (Kyla wanted the purple one because it would mean she had had every kind, except the non-alcoholic one!) We learned the rules, which include not being allowed to set the cup down (or you would have to drink it all, and believe me, this is not something you would want to do) and being required to turn it 180 degrees as you pass it between people. Garrett was scandalized that his parents "made him" drink also.

When you're down to the last bit, someone opts to finish it off. Since Kyla had never done that duty, she obliged us. Dara tried to keep it from dribbling on her shirt as Kyla drank it down, licked the rim thoroughly, and then spun the cup on her head. While that was happening, we were obligated to sing the Mory's song boisterously, the lyrics of which I will spare you here in the blog. Once the cup was thoroughly dried using Kyla's head, she had to turn it upside down on the table, have three people pile hands on the top, and bang it with her ring. Fortunately for all of us, no drops showed up underneath it, or she would have had to buy another round and we would have had to do the whole thing all over again. AJ left that night and emptied Kyla's room of a bookcase in the process. I hope he didn't have to explain the Mory's ritual to any state troopers. It was so great for him to be there, though -- thanks Ursula!

The next morning was the actual Commence-
ment, which again took place on Old Campus. This time the entire Yale University graduating class (undergrads, Law, Medicine, etc) all marched in a procession in their various colored gowns across the New Haven Green. They then stepped aside as the Yale President's party walked down their length, students tipping their hats, and then proceeded inside to the quad. Dara and I opted to watch the procession first-hand and then watched the ceremony on the jumbotron. The dean of each school formally asked the Yale President to confer the degrees. Sandra Day O'Connor and Edward Albee were among the recipients of honorary degrees. Afterward, the undergrads dashed off to their residential colleges to sit through a smaller ceremony where the Dean and Master of the college gave out awards and handed over the actual diploma. This was followed by the famous all-natural sustainable food in the Berkeley College dining hall.

By that point it was all over but the packing and cleaning. Ten more boxes and an 8AM trip to the UPS store the next morning did the trick. As a final dirty trick, we got to the airport only to find that United didn't have us anywhere in their system. After a bit of disgruntled panicking, we found that we were on USAir again on the way out. We felt relieved to find we were only a few gates away to the USAir flight back to SFO when we got to Philadelphia. Relieved until we tried to get on board the plane, only to be told our Philadelphia-to-SFO leg was on United in another terminal. Ah, the glamour of travel. Well, we made it after all, and we have Kyla back home with us here for the summer until she is off to GW.

MSN - News - Rockin' With Rice: Secretary of State's Top Tunes

MSN - News - Rockin' With Rice: Secretary of State's Top Tunes Interesting;;? We may find out later she W, and Dick were doing bong hits in the whitehouse basement when they came up with that whole Iraq thing.

Off to Graduation

Should be fun, not to mention good blogging material. We also get to see AJ. Full report on my return, although maybe I'll find a computer along the way.

Much To Celebrate

Missy threw a great party Sunday night to celebrate Dad's 79th birthday and Mother's Day and to top off several days of visiting Yalies. What a treat to see Kyla again and meet her college friends. Lauren was the only one we had met before.

We started with a brunch around the pool here at Jennifer Shores on Friday morning, followed by swimming and sunbathing. We all took photos but I don't think I can blog mine since I don't have Picasa on my new computer. I managed to grill Kyla about her plans for summer and beyond, and it all sounds pretty exciting.

The girls helped Missy prepare for the party and clean up after. Thirteen people were there, including Ken and Sharon and other assorted friends, but there was nothing unlucky about the combination of good food (and lots of it) and interesting people. Lauren and Alpena sang a lovely duo of Happy Birthday and added a spiritual to provide some really great entertainment. Kyla was catching up on everything with Ken and Sharon, and she gave me a wonderful picture of her in her Yale polo outfit for Mother's Day. It rocks, as Missy said.

Now that we have had that wonderful visit, we don't feel left out of the graduation festivities. Hope you all have a great time there, especially Kyla and the parents who made it all possible.

Book vs. Screen

There is an interesting article in the NY Times magazine about the ongoing effort to digitize the world's libraries. It's a bit blue-sky for my general taste, but still thought-provoking in terms of what major shifts may be on the way, the battle between Google, other online content providers, and copyright holders, and the changes in business models that is coming about. I am reminded of a talk that I saw Alan Kay give once on the topic of "The Origin of Creative Thought." When it came to printing, he said the real innovation was not the Gutenberg press, which produced books that were huge and displayed in secure locations with chains attached to them, but was Aldus, the guy who came up with the idea of publishing books that would fit in saddlebags and could easily move from place to place. Another ten years or so should make it all clearer.

The art of plumbing

Life in a quaint little circa 1860 home has its ups and downs. Since plumbing wasn't part of the original plan the circa 1960 retrofit must have been one of those things no real plumber wanted to tackle so they farmed it out to an ametuer. Regardless of my theories on why I seem to have entered into a plumbing nightmare and I can't wake up. As soon as I fix one leak or clog another seems to pop up. This has consumed several of my weekends for the past few months. I have replaced fixtures, changed piping {water and sewer}, rerouted lines, and next weekend I am going to attempt to change my pressure tank and switch, which (according to a real plumber) should be a breeze considering I succesfully executed a diverter retrofit. The only regret I really have about all this is my butcrack seems to be migrating to the area just above my belt.

Oh My Dog

I like dogs, as the dog hair level in the house and tongue marks on the windows would attest, but are we really going to see a trend toward having your emotional support animal with you at all times? At a NY restaurant, it has happened when two women came to eat lunch:

"They both said that their animals were emotional service dogs," said Gil Ohana, the manager, explaining why he let them in. "One of them actually carried a doctor's letter."

It seems to be legitimized through a 2003 DOT document that addressed how airlines were supposed to deal with the animals of the disabled on airplanes. I wonder if this was what they had in mind, though:

Tami McLallen, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, said that although dogs are the most common service animals taken onto planes, the airline has had to accommodate monkeys, miniature horses, cats and even an emotional support duck. "Its owner dressed it up in clothes," she recalled.

Probably not.

Harris Happenings

There sure seems to be alot going on in our family right now, Kyla Graduates Yale, Garrett goes off to college, A.J. and family move to the east coast, Dad turns 79 [or old as dirt as he likes to put it], The celebration of Mothers Day. Its all good news, for that we are all thankfull. Other than a few cards and stuff I have only been able to personaly welcome A. J. Ursala and Thomas back to the mainland. We stopped in on them last weekend, properly welcomed them ,ate all their food and left. In between all that we had a great visit and enjoyed Thomas and some of his world, he is quite smart for 2, I'm predicting he may need Kyla's help as a Yale alum when its time for college, he may need to work on his toilet skills some in the meantime. Its a great time to be a Harris.

End of Iris Hunting Season

As iris hunting season draws to a close, I managed to trade all my garden boy brownie points in for the Iris Lady posing in front of a pyramid of the prey. She is holding her weapon of choice, and she only shot me in the face with dirt a few times. Counting the little black buckets, that's at least thirty six pacific coast irises planted -- not counting the ones whose bucket I threw out before this brilliant picture idea surfaced, and not counting the bearded irises, a few varieagated ones, and a douglas iris or two. Okay, and then there are the petunias and some other annuals. Anyway, the place looks great and it will look even better next year after all this hard work.

Online Pride

I noticed yesterday that someone chose the Silver Moon iris picture as their favorite on Flickr. For some reason, a random person across the world liking the picture and "favoriting it" gave me a brief moment of pleasure.

On a related note, I enjoyed an article in this morning's Chronicle about the MySpace.com site for one of our two Democratic candidates for governor. Phil Angelides strikes me as the quintissential dry candidate (like the aptly named Gray Davis). His oppponent is Steve Westly, the quintessential Silicon Valley rich guy (including shady stock trading, of course) who made his money at eBay. However, Angelides has a 17-year-old daughter who is clued-in enough to set up a MySpace site for him:

"OMG it's Phil Angelides," she wrote. "I love that guy! He's pretty fly for a white guy if you ask me," she added, playing off lyrics of the Offspring tune.

"Pretty fly for a white guy?" Angelides said in the time-honored tone of fathers who are bewildered by their teenage daughters.

Campaign handlers have to learn how to cope in the brave new world, too. Her personal MySpace site is now private after the reporter clicked on the link to it.

There was nothing horrible or embarrassing there (although her friend Nicholas could clean up his language a little bit). Arianna says "I despise George Bush" and "I double dog dare you to find someone with smaller hands than me." There also are some photos, including a cute, informal one of Arianna and her dad at the father-daughter high school dance.

Yeah, well, Angelides could use some humanizing in my book, so this only helps him. And how bad could he be if his 17-year-old despises W?

College Update

Maybe we can goad Kyla into filling us in on the details, but she visited GW this last week, met her advisor and fellow grad students, and spent time with Paige and Iva. Paige and Kyla will be sharing an apartment in Arlington this coming year. Kyla is psyched! Garrett is accepted at San Jose State, got his official packet, and is signed up for orientation and housing, and rarin' to go.

The nest is starting to feel a little emptier.

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