Firefox 3.5 : (

I just installed and removed Firefox 3.5 from my Mac — ten minutes or so with this new version had me in a sea of troubles. When starting up, no home page appeared. Not even the familiar "Congratulations! You have updated to . . ." appeared. Trying to customize the toolbar caused the browser to freeze up. The master password I use to manage passwords would no long work. I could not install a theme (GrApple Luscious) from a non-Mozilla site. And several crucial extensions were incompatible. (One of which I was just planning to write about.) Granted, non-working extensions aren't Mozilla's fault, but over weeks or months, the absence of those extensions would compromise 3.5's usefulness to me. It's extensions that keep me using Firefox and not Safari.

Going back to 3.0.11 on a Mac was easy: I found a Mozilla page with older versions of Firefox for download. I moved 3.5 from Applications to the Trash and installed 3.0.11. My bookmarks and extensions (all parts of my Profile) stayed safe and sound in a Library folder. I did though back up the bookmarks and inventory the extensions before uninstalling.

I'm just one user speaking, but my advice would be to wait a while before trying Firefox 3.5. Then again, you might be having a great time with 3.5 already. Wish I were there.

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Firefox 3.5.1 : )

Dave Brubeck, on the road

"I don't think the average person would want to do what I've been doing."

Despite serious medical problems, pianist Dave Brubeck, eighty-eight, is back on the road.

More from The Book of Tea

On art appreciation:

Our very individuality establishes in one sense a limit to our understanding; and our aesthetic personality seeks its own affinities in the creations of the past. It is true that with cultivation our sense of art appreciation broadens, and we become able to enjoy many hitherto unrecognized expressions of beauty. But, after all, we see only our own image in the universe — our particular idiosyncrasies dictate the mode of our perceptions. The tea masters collected only objects which fell strictly within the measure of their individual appreciation.

One is reminded in this connection of a story concerning Kobori-Enshiu. Enshiu was complimented by his disciples on the admirable taste he had displayed in the choice of his collection. Said they, "Each piece is such that no one could help admiring. It shows that you had better taste than had Rikiu, for his collection could only be appreciated by one beholder in a thousand." Sorrowfully Enshiu replied: "This only proves how commonplace I am. The great Rikiu dared to love only those objects which personally appealed to him, whereas I unconsciously cater to the taste of the majority. Verily, Rikiu was one in a thousand among tea masters."

Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea. 1906. (Boston: Shambala, 2001), 68–69.

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From The Book of Tea

Brain food!

When my daughter Rachel pointed out the new old-time Cracker Jack box, I had to buy a three-pack. I wouldn't have guessed that one box would contain a piece of popcorn resembling a human brain.

As Elaine says, "Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts, and a brain, that's what you get in Cracker Jack!"

According to Jack himself, July 5 is Cracker Jack Day.

The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Behold: The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies.

The most Proustian item for me is the ruling pen — my dad had one when I was a kid. Touring the MoFAS has inspired me to add an exhibit next week to my own modest Museum of Supplies.

(via Boing Boing and BrownStudies)

Karl Malden (1912-2009)

[Karl Malden (Father Barry) and Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy) in On the Waterfront, dir. Elia Kazan, 1954.]

Karl Malden, Actor Who Played the Uncommon Everyman, Dies at 97 (New York Times)

"Old-world skillz"

Mike Brown at BrownStudies likes Mark Patinkin's piece on outdated skills and has written a fine post collecting several more. Go read it: Old-world skillz.

Some skills that have come to my mind (from my student and stock-clerk days):

Calculating how many lines to leave for a footnote (yes, with a manual typewriter).

Operating a mechanical cash register.

Operating an "imprinter," the gadget once used to process credit-card charges (it involved a bar pulled across a carbon-paper form).

From The Book of Tea

Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.

*

Tea with us became more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life. The beverage grew to be an excuse for the worship of purity and refinement, a sacred function at which the host and guest joined to produce for that occasion the utmost beatitude of the mundane. The tea-room was an oasis in the dreary waste of existence where weary travellers could meet to drink from the common spring of art-appreciation. The ceremony was an improvised drama whose plot was woven about the tea, the flowers, and the paintings. Not a color to disturb the tone of the room, not a sound to mar the rhythm of things, not a gesture to obtrude on the harmony, not a word to break the unity of the surroundings, all movements to be performed simply and naturally — such were the aims of the tea-ceremony. And strangely enough it was often successful.

Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea. 1906. (Boston: Shambala, 2001), 3, 26–27.

"This impossible thing we know as life," "the utmost beatitude of the mundane": pretty Proustian to my ears. The Book of Tea, a book of aesthetics and philosophy, is available in many print and digital editions.

Obama's "evil eye"

It must be a slow day at the Drudge Report. The big headline: "BEWARE THE OBAMA 'EVIL EYE'":

As the summer begins, White House watchers have spotted a new look by President Obama: The Evil Eye!

Staffers have joked about the menacing glance, which comes when the president meets with world leaders who are not aligned with his progressive view.

White House photographers have captured the "evil eye" in recent weeks, during sessions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Colombia's Alvaro Uribev.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi got hit with the commander's malocchio last week in the Oval office.

And at least one White House reporter has been on the receiving end of the daggers during a press conference.

As they say, "Developing."

Vietnamese coffee at home

Our kitchen is now the East-Central Illinois Institute for Vietnamese Coffee Studies, equipped with two filters, a can of Cafe du Monde, and (for the non-vegan) a can of Longevity Brand condensed milk. We found these items at our favorite Asian market.

We're now three for three making Vietnamese coffee. The photograph shows the drip process, with coffee collecting above condensed milk. Elaine and I are planning to acquire several more filters ($3.89 each) with which to serve visitors to the Institute.

*

June 6, 2018: The little glass jars that hold Yoplait Oui yogurt make great cups for Vietnamese coffee. A perfect fit for the filter.

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How to make Vietnamese coffee