Diary (May 7, 2020)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Thursday May 7, 2020.

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Diary

The original Mason-Dixon line.

Song of the Day for Howard Kranz

Third in a series of songs for Howard and me to cover.

Sailing to Philadelphia

"Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler with James Taylor.

I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forest of the Iroquois

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

• Sailing to Philadelphia @ YouTube (studio version)
• Sailing to Philadelphia @ YouTube (Knopfler live in concert)

From the album "Sailing to Philadelphia" (2000)

Background

The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in Colonial America. It is still a demarcation line between four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia until 1863). Later it became known informally as the border between the free (Northern) states and the slave (Southern) states. The Virginia portion was the northern border of the Confederacy. It came into use during the debate around the Missouri Compromise of 1820, when the boundary between slave and free states was an issue. It is still used today in the figurative sense of a line that separates the North and South politically and socially (see Dixie).

Four-Eyed Raven

Lost at Game of Thrones again today. His Four-Eyed Raven beat my Three-Eye.

Memo to self: no more Corvids for a while, find another familiar.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Matt Graver (Josh Brolin): "It's a nice day for a drive, huh?"

Steve Forsing (Jeffrey Donovan): "Ah, beautiful day. Blue skies, large caliber weapons. I love getting out of the office."

—Sicario @ IMDB

Made me cry

The scene with the deaf man made me cry.

Jeffrey Donovan

Observation: actor Jeffrey Donovan has played both John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in major motion pictures.

• John F. Kennedy in LBJ (2106)
• Robert F. Kennedy in J. Edgar

Ely corvids

Two kinds of corvids here in Ely: the smaller variety, crows proper, like I remember from the Twin Cities, and the larger variety, which I take to be ravens.

I often see them in twos or threes. Two will be:

• Two crows behaving in a manner that suggests friendship or a least mutual tolerance
• A raven chasing away a crow

In threes, it's often two crows hassling a raven in flight.

I say "hassle" but maybe they are playing. I don't see pecking behavior, I can only guess at the threat level. The big ones drive away the small ones, no doubt about that.

Funny moment a few minutes ago. Corvids picking through the trash bin next door, so I got my camera to document the event. A man walking down the alley abruptly called out and jumped a bit, the birds popped up from the garbage can and caught him by surprise as he passed by. I called out a cheery good morning and we had a laugh.

Barrister Bane

Barrister Bane: No one cared who I was 'til I put on the wig.

Messengers

We are messengers. We are messages. we message.

Garlicula

Garlicula - pioneering vampsploitation film.

Premise

A brilliant vampire pathologist researching a cure for garlic accidentally infects himself with pure garlic extract.

David W. called

Unexpected phone call from David W., friendship in the time of COVID. I am glad he stayed in touch, and said so. We must have talked for the better part of an hour.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Karl Jones (nonfiction)