Mabfan's Musings

One Disabled Train....

2009-12-03T14:00:15Z

So this morning, before I left for work, I received alerts for the Green Line saying that there were delays on the Green Line D. I usually take the Green Line C, so I ignored the alert. (I live close enough to a D stop that I can take it as well if I choose.)

Well, as I was standing in the wind and rain on a stretch of unprotected-from-the-elements concrete with a gathering crowd, I received an alert that there were now 10-15 minute delays on the Green Line C due to a disabled train at Cleveland Circle.

One disabled train led to a much more crowded commute and got me into work about twenty to twenty-five minutes late.

The irony is that before my C train ever arrived, I received an alert saying that the D line was back to normal. Maybe I should have walked over there instead.

Apex Publications Cyber Monday Sale

2009-11-30T16:09:12Z

For those of you looking to get a copy of I Remember the Future at a discount, the publisher, Apex Publications is having a 30% off sale today in honor of Cyber Monday:

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/news/2009/11/apex-cyber-monday-sale/

"Apex Cyber Monday sale–30% off all orders today only! Enter code CYBERMONDAY on checkout!"

The sale is on all their products, not just IRTF...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T14:00:34Z

All of us here at the Burstein household – especially Muffin and Squeaker – wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

Muffin and Squeaker say Happy Thanksgiving!
Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. Do not copy. All rights reserved.

SF Signal's Mind Meld: The Pros and Cons of eBooks

2009-11-25T17:26:07Z

Once again, I'm pleased to note that I was invited to participate in a Mind Meld discussion by the fine folks over at SF Signal. This time, the question they asked was, "Do you read eBooks? If not, why not? If so, what are the pros and cons of eBook reading? What device(s) do you use?"

Participants include (deep breath): Rachel Swirsky, Rose Fox, Jeremiah Tolbert, Dominic Green, Fabio Fernandes, Paul Levinson, Tim Lebbon, Jeff VanderMeer, Paul Melko, Ellen Datlow, and me.

What surprised me the most was the number of people who don't read eBooks, and why they don't.

Go check it out:

Mind Meld: The Pros and Cons of eBooks

Breakfast With Jeff VanderMeer

2009-11-20T16:17:38Z

About a week or so ago, I noticed that the Borders store next to my office building was advertising Jeff VanderMeer's appearance to promote his new novel Finch. Sadly, the event was scheduled for tonight, so there was no way I could attend and finally meet Jeff in person.

However, Jeff happened to be staying in the area, so we met for breakfast.

Michael A. Burstein, Jeff VanderMeer
Copyright ©2009 by K. L. Bryant

It turned out that we had a lot to talk about. We discussed science fiction and fantasy writing, of course, and teaching, and Clarion experiences, but we also talked about Florida. In my day job, I'm working on a project for Florida, and it turns out that Jeff had some relevant experience in the same field. So who knows, maybe we'll be working together on something totally different than fiction later on.

Jeff graciously signed my copy of his book Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer, which I highly recommend. The link will take you to a website devoted to the book that includes a lot of supplementary material. Check it out if you're trying to carve out a life as a writer in today's world.

When Life Imitates Pop Business Book Titles

2009-11-19T17:56:11Z

So after a brief bookstore browse, I returned to my office and went to the refrigerator to put my lunch together. Which was difficult at first, because although my bread was where I had left it, the rest of my food wasn't.

Someone had literally moved my cheese.

Brookline Town Meeting, Tuesday Night

2009-11-18T18:41:03Z

Last night, I attended the first session of Brookline's Special Town Meeting in my role as a Town Meeting Member from precinct 12. The Brookline TAB was live-blogging Town Meeting, and I decided to do so as well. I plan to do so again tonight, so if you're interested, you can follow on my Twitter feed (@mabfan) or watch my posts on Facebook, as they'll port over there automatically.

I was fascinated by the fact that I was not the only one live-blogging. Selectman Jesse Mermell also tends to report from Town Meeting on her own Twitter feed (@jessemermell), and apparently there were a few journalism students in attendance who also blogged it (I'm looking at you, @taliabethralph) . If anyone out there reading it wants to blog tonight, use the hashtag #btm. At least, that's what I'm trying to use. Apparently, it stands for other things as well. (I mistyped it a few times, making me wish that Twitter offered the option of editing one's tweets.)

For those of you who didn't follow along last night, we got through Articles 1-6 and Article 10. We try to adjourn after whatever article we're in the middle of at 10:30 pm, and Sandy Gadbsy, the Moderator, wisely took a motion to let us skip the three articles about the Fisher Hill reservoir and instead deal with a shorter article before we adjourned.

The two most controversial issues we voted on last night were the Runkle School bond appropriation and the restoration of the Carlton Street Foorbridge. Runkle School is the K-8 public school in my neighborhood, so I have a strong interest in seeing the renovation move forward. The school right now is overcrowded, with classes meeting in the lobby and staff members using closets as offices. Everyone agrees that the renovation has to happen, and in the end the $29 million appropriation carried unanimously. The only problem is, there are a few abutters (including one of my fellow TMMs) who are concerned with the process as it has currently played out. The town will need a special permit to make Runkle large enough to accommodate the students they are expecting over the next decade, and it's going to affect the feel of the neighborhood. I'm hoping that those with concerns about the project will have their concerns addressed, but last night we needed to approve the money if we wanted to have the project move forward.

As for the footbridge... ah. There's a lot of history about that footbridge; the precinct 1 delegation to Town Meeting has turned over twice due to voters in that precinct either favoring or opposing restoration. Last night, we had the pleasure of hearing former governor Mike Dukakis address Town Meeting in support of the bridge. Dukakis's first elected office was as a Town Meeting Member, a position he won exactly 50 years ago this past March. Town Meeting gave him a standing ovation after he spoke. In the end, restoration passed by a vote of 192-25.

(As a side note, two proponents of the footbridge gave a list of objections to the bridge that they claimed were false, including the notion that the footbridge was placed there by aliens in 1894. I'm starting to get story ideas...)

Article 6 would have been controversial had the petitioners moved it, as it dealt with amending the town budget to remove the funding for the police security cameras. Although no motion was offered, Sandy allowed Frank Farlow to address us on the issue and Selectman Betsy DeWitt to give a response. Frankly, I'm not sure how much we really needed to hear about the issue given that there was no motion being offered. I'd much rather have waited to hear these arguments once a motion is actually on the table, which will probably be in the spring.

Neal Simpson of the Brookline TAB and I have a gentlemen's bet going as to whether or not Town Meeting will finish up tonight (my guess) or continue to Thursday (his guess). There's only 18 articles total on the warrant, and most of them seem relatively uncontroversial to me. Tonight we'll start with the Fisher Hill issues, which may take a while to explain but I doubt they'll take a while to debate. The child care zoning amendment will go through easily, I'm sure, and then we'll probably have a lot of discussion about the zoning for car-sharing organizations (e.g. Zipcar, which had a strong showing of supporters last night whom I expect to see there again tonight). My guess is that we'll get far enough into the warrant that people will want to stick around to see it through, even if it takes us to midnight.

We'll see. Check my Twitter feed tonight and follow along.

Arnold Hatters Gone

2009-11-17T16:32:41Z

I just found out because I was recommending them to a friend that Arnold Hatters closed a few months ago.

Arnold Hatters was my favorite haberdashery, with Worth & Worth a close second. I discovered Arnold Hatters a few years ago when Nomi located an Ivy cap for me (my cap style of choice). We ordered it from them over their website, and the next time I was in New York City, I visited the store and met the owners.

They were a family-owned business. Father Arnold Rubin and sons Mark and Peter Rubin were true gentlemen. Many was the time Nomi and I would go there when on vacation so we could find me a new hat. You know those caps I always wear? Arnold Hatters. Those Fedoras that Nomi and I sport in the fall and winter, which make us look "fedorable"? Arnold Hatters. Even now, I can reach into my coat pocket and pull out the ear warmers that Mark sold us on one of the coldest Wednesdays in NYC that I can recall, back in late 2006. Any time someone in the Boston area admired my hats, I would send them to ahat.com and tell them to let the Rubins know that I sent them.

The last time I shopped there was in mid-2007, the summer after Mom died. I told Peter what had happened, and he offered his condolences. And then I bought another cap.

I hope the family ends up doing okay. Peter, Mark, if you're out there, drop me a line.

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York: Arnold Hatters

Lost City: Take Off Your Hats: Arnold Hatters Closes

Hat Life: Arnold Hatters Closes

Unpack Boxes for Food

2009-11-04T18:14:24Z

Nomi and I have almost gotten the kids' room done, but we still have some boxes we need to unpack and sort through to finish setting up the room.

Anyone willing to help us out this Sunday afternoon? We'll provide some sort of dinner afterwards...

Edited to Add: We're looking at 1 pm to about 5 pm or so, with dinner after. We want to bring food in (either pizza or Chinese food), but it would help if someone coming had a car...

Contacting Your Town Meeting Member: Four Suggestions

2009-11-03T20:00:36Z

Special Election Sign in Brookline

Today is Election Day across much of the country, but not in Brookline, Massachusetts, where our next election isn't until December 8 – the primary for the special election to fill the vacant senate seat. So while our friends in Boston and Newton choose a mayor today, those of us in Brookline get to relax and watch.

However, just because we don't have an election today doesn't mean that there's no politicking going on. Brookline's representative Town Meeting, of which I am a Member, meets the week before Thanksgiving, and this year the big issue seems to be the zoning of Zipcars in the town. Articles 12 and 13 on the warrant deal with changes to the zoning bylaws that would make the Zipcars currently in Brookline legal. If Town Meeting doesn't pass these bylaws, it could conceivably mean the end of Zipcars in Brookline.

Although it's extremely unlikely that Town Meeting will not pass these articles, there's been a lot of debate in town regarding exactly how Car Sharing Organizations, or CSOs, should be zoned. Not surprisingly, Zipcar has emailed their Brookline customers to ask them to contact their Town Meeting Members in support of the articles. In his letter, Dan Curtin, the General Manager of Zipcar, has explained rather well the best way to approach your elected representatives. His point is a simple one: find out what precinct you live in and contact the Town Meeting Members for your precinct. He's also encouraging people to attend the Selectmen's hearing tonight to show their support; again, quite appropriate.

However, in the wake of his email to supporters, I (and I presume other TMMs) are getting emails from people who are obviously new to this sort of things. In one email, a constituent referred to Town Meeting as Town Council. In another, I was asked to vote in favor at tonight's meeting, which is not the actual Town Meeting at which I can vote but the Selectmen's hearing. So in the interest of helping out the Brookline voters, I thought I'd offer a quick and easy guide on what to do when emailing your Town Meeting Members on an issue. (Disclaimer: I am speaking here for myself, not for all Town Meeting Members.)

1. Be polite.

This should go without saying, but you'd be surprised how often it doesn't.

2. Make sure you know what precinct you live in, and write to your own Town Meeting Members, not all of Town Meeting.

Many is the time a Brookline resident will send an email to every member of Town Meeting, and all 240 email addresses are on the list. While I appreciate the enthusiasm and passion that these residents have, the fact is that sending such an email can and does dilute the message you're trying to get across.

The reality is that I have to be responsive first and foremost to my own constituents. What might be the right way to vote for a Town Meeting Member representing Coolidge Corner may not be the right way to vote for a TMM representing Washington Square. I'm far more likely to appreciate your concerns if I know that you're writing to me because I'm one of your own representatives.

Corollary: If you do decide to write to all of Town Meeting, please use the blind carbon copy function, and make it clear from the outset what precinct you are actually residing in.

3. Do some minimal research on the issue.

At the very least, please let me know what article number you're writing to me about.

4. If you vote in local elections, tell us so; if you don't, start doing so.

Whether or not a citizen voted is a matter of public record, and I have to admit that here's an issue on which I get kind of, well, strict. On the one hand, as a Town Meeting Member from my precinct I feel an obligation to represent the interests of all my constituents. But on the other hand, if you want me to take a stand on an issue on your behalf, I'd kind of like to think that you might have voted for me and might do so again in the future.

if you don't bother to show up at elections, and I hear from some other constituent on the opposite side of the issues, whose opinion do you think I might pay more attention to?

One resident of precinct 9 used to email me about issues, but never bothered to vote in town elections. After a few years I called him on it, pointing out that if he really did care about what happened on a local level (which we all should), he should make an effort to vote. Even if there are only five candidates running for the five Town Meeting slots in a particular year, voters can show up at the polls and write in anyone they want. In fact, one year, two voters got into Town Meeting through a write-in campaign that they conducted that very day at the polls.

As a politician trying to make my community a better place, if I'm going to remain in office, I need your votes. And nothing gets my attention more than an email that begins, "Dear Mr. Burstein, I am a resident of your precinct, and I vote in every local election."

One Year Ago and Nineteen Years Ago

2009-11-02T17:00:01Z

It's been a few weeks since I've managed to blog here; as I hope people can imagine, the kids still take up a lot of time in our lives. Nomi and I continue to enjoy being parents, and I find myself torn between wanting to post every update about the kids and not wanting to deluge the readers of this blog with all those details. I would post about other things going on in my life, but as I noted recently on Twitter and Facebook, there's not much else going on.

Well, that's not entirely true. We're working, of course, and I'm always trying to make progress on some writing project or other. We're continuing to clean the apartment; in particular, every day we make a little more progress in the kids' room so it will one day be entirely theirs. And we socialize a little bit, although that's mostly close to home. We did make it to a wedding last month, and we're going to another one this month, but any trips out of the house involve so many logistical details that they have to be considered carefully before implementing. (I sound like a military general.)

Amidst all the current chaos that is our lives, however, I didn't want to let two anniversaries pass today without mention.

A year ago today, on Sunday, November 2, 2008, was the official publication day of my collection I Remember the Future. It's hard for me to believe that the book has been out for a whole year. I blogged about publication day last year in my post The Publication Party, and I noted how wonderful it was to have so many people turn out for the celebration.

In honor of the first anniversary of the book's publication, the Open Book Society website is featuring an exclusive interview with me. I discuss a variety of topics, including my thoughts on the current state of the publishing industry and how having twins has affected my writing. Feel free to check it out.

(Also, although I'm probably preaching to the choir here, keep in mind that the book is still in print, and would make a great gift for Chanukah or Christmas. And check out all the other books Apex has for sale.)

Ahem.

So that's one year ago. Nineteen years ago... well, nineteen years ago my father died. And oddly enough, that's true this year on both the Gregorian and Hebrew calendar. Dad died on the evening of November 2, 1990, after sundown, which means that he died on the 15th of Cheshvan in the year 5751. As it so happens, the 15 of Cheshvan began last night and lasts all day today until sundown – and today is November 2.

I've discussed my father here before and how much he influenced me – in fact, I did so again just last year in the post Joel David Burstein for anyone who wants to be reminded about him. Yesterday evening, when I went to shul to recite the Mourner's Kaddish, I contemplated how far I've come from that night in college when Dad was taken from me.

For many years, I defined myself as an adult who had lost his father. Then, in 2007, I had to learn to redefine myself as an adult who had lost both his parents, and that was at an age when most people still have their parents around. But this past summer, I began to redefine myself again, as a father to twins. Last night, as I held my two daughters and thought about how they've both been named in a way that honors my parents, I thought about how joyously Dad would have held the two of them were he alive today.

I wish they could have met my parents, their grandparents, and I hope I'll be able to impress upon them the kind of people they were.

One year ago, and nineteen years ago.

Mom's Birthday

2009-10-15T18:15:22Z

My younger brother Josh called from Seattle, where he's away for meetings, to remind me that today was Mom's birthday. If she were still alive, she'd be 73 years old.

I am sad to say that I had forgotten. But I'm sure Mom would have forgiven me. :-)

For those interested, the kids slept very well on Monday and Tuesday night, probably because we did our best to help them get used to the idea of going to sleep. Yesterday we went out to a meeting of the New England chapter of the MWA to hear a police officer talk about her experiences in law enforcement. It was a fascinating talk, but that meant that the kids went from nanny to babysitter, so they were a little fussier last night after we got home.

More when I have a moment...

Joshua Burstein: "Jewish Review Extremely Relevant"

2009-10-09T17:20:07Z

My younger brother Joshua lives with his wife and three children in Eugene, Oregon. Earlier this year, he entered a writing contest sponsored by The Jewish Review, a local community newspaper that serves all of Oregon and southwestern Washington and is devoted to Jewish issues. The theme of the contest was “Why do community newspapers such as the Jewish Review remain important for their readers and for the communities they serve?”

Josh was one of the two winners of the essay contest.

In his essay, Jewish Review Extremely Relevant, he talks about our father's devotion to justice and how that shaped him, as well as the need for Jewish community newspapers in places where there aren't many Jews. If you want to learn a little bit about my younger brother's background (and my own as well), go read the article. I think you'll be glad you did.

And Josh? Congratulations!

I'm a Character in an Iron Man Novel

2009-10-06T18:36:15Z

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Tuckerization is the term given to the act of naming a character in a work of fiction for a real person. It was named for writer Wilson Tucker, who did it often. I've Tuckerized people in some of my own stories; in fact, I offered two Tuckerizations in a raffle for when I Remember the Future was being pre-ordered, and both of the winners had their names (or names of their choosing) appear in the book.

Ten years ago, I answered some questions for Robert J. Sawyer as he was writing the novel Flashforward, which has now become a TV series on ABC. Rob mentioned me in the acknowledgments and gave me a minor Tuckerization on page 150, under the assumed name of Michael Burr, a name that James Patrick Kelly had used when he Tuckerized me in "Think Like a Dinosaur."

And yesterday, I picked up the novel Iron Man: Femme Fatales by Robert Greenberger, and found out on page 58 what I'd be doing with my life if I lived in the Marvel Universe; apparently, I'd be working for Stark Industries:

"Michael, it's good to see you," Stark said enthusiastically as he rose. Rounding the desk, he accepted the new mug in his left hand while shaking Burstein's hand with his right.

"Good to see you, too, sir," Burstein said in a soft voice. He was in his mid-thirties, slightly overweight, and prematurely balding, and he wore a colorful yarmukle pinned to his thinning hair. His clothes never seemed to fit right, nor did he ever wear a tie – an affectation Stark allowed. After all, comfortable people were productive people.

I was delighted to be surprised by this Tuckerization for a few reasons, beyond the enjoyable egoboo. For one thing, I could see myself in that position. For another, years ago there was a scientist in the Marvel universe named Noah Burstein, so maybe we're related. For a third thing, Bob has done a good job of interweaving diversity in his character cast throughout the novel, and the offhand mention of the yarmulke just adds one more tiny note in showing that humanity isn't monolithic.

(And for those of you who would point out that technically this isn't a Tuckerization, since the character does appear to be me, albeit an alternate version of me, well, you're right too.)

Bob, thank you. I can't wait to find out what happens to my alter ego. Hopefully, I won't get killed by Hydra.

Old Story, Good Review

2009-09-24T17:28:49Z

Back in January 2000, Analog magazine published a short-short of mine, "Whose Millennium?" The story has been available for a while as an ebook for anyone who wanted to read it after its original publication. The point of the story was that the new millennium did not begin in 2000, or even 2001, but won't arrive until 2239. Just check a Hebrew calendar.

Last week, the reviewer who writes the Red Adept's Kindle Book Review Blog, Lynn, got in touch with me. She had read "Whose Millennium?" on the Kindle and had decided to review it, and she asked me for some comments on the story.

I'm glad to say that she liked the story. If you'd like to see what I said and why she gave the story five stars out of five, check out her latest review post here: Short Stories.

What's Planetary Scientist Dr. Carolyn Porco Up To These Days?

2009-09-22T15:08:45Z

One of my favorite scientists is being featured again.

Planetary scientist Dr. Carolyn Porco is the leader of the Imaging Science Team on the Cassini mission and director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations. I first heard of her from her work on the Voyager missions and I had a chance to meet her in person a few years ago when she spoke at the Boston Museum of Science.

Today's New York Times features this article on her, An Odyssey From the Bronx to Saturn's Rings, in which it is revealed that she's now working on New Horizons and consulting for the next Star Trek film. Go read it.

I publicly offer my congratulations on her recent achievements, while at the same time note how glad I am that there continue to be such excellent role models for women (and men!) working in the field of planetary science.

My previous blog posts about Dr. Carolyn Porco (read the second one for the story of when we heard her speak):
Dr. Carolyn Porco at the Museum of Science (April 13, 2004)
Enceladus, Dr. Carolyn Porco, and the Power of the Internet (March 10, 2006)
The Necessity of Space Exploration (February 20, 2007)

Thoughts on Rosh Hashanah 5770, Somber and Sacrilegious

2009-09-18T13:20:29Z

It should be no surprise to people that I haven't had the time to post on my blog as often as I used to; as I assume everyone knows by now, Nomi and I are now parents of twin infant girls, and that takes up a lot of time and energy. (For more on that, see my earlier post on Traction.) That said, tonight the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins, inaugurating the year 5770 on the Hebrew calendar, and I have some thoughts to share. Not that I consider my own thoughts on the holiday to be of any real significance, but I imagine they might be of interest to some of you.

To begin with, the arrival of 5770 means that we're entering a new decade. I actually remember ten years ago how one friend of mine, noting the arrival of 5760, made a connection to the culture of the 1960s and suggested that the new decade would be similar. I'll leave that question for the historians to answer while I acknowledge that the Hebrew calendar gives me a few months to get used to the arrival of a new decade on the Gregorian calendar.

Speaking of which, this year, amusingly enough, the first day of Rosh Hashanah coincides with September 19 on the Gregorian calendar. As everyone knows, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which led many of us who noticed this happy coincidence to wonder if this year Rosh Hashanah should also be International Daven Like a Pirate Day. Part of me was expecting to see more jokes and references on this topic as Rosh Hashanah approached, but instead, it seems to have fallen by the wayside (other than the two posts I just linked to, one of which suggests among other things adding the phrase "And who by walking the plank" to Unetaneh Tohkef). My guess is that most people continue to find the holiday too awesome to joke about.

And awesome it is. As others have said much better than I can, Rosh Hashanah is (or can be) an awe-inspiring holiday, in which we contemplate the birthday of the world and God's sovereignty. It also kicks off the ten days of repentance or Days of Awe, during which many of us undergo major introspection about our lives as we try to figure out how to become better people for the new year. For me, personally, the length and depth of the religious services on these days can sometimes work against my finding the spiritual connection I hope for; but this year, things are different. For the first time in a long time, I actually feel as if God has personally blessed me with the great gift possible, and for that I am thankful.

I would say more, but I'm about to collapse from lack of sleep. :-)

For those of you who are observing this holiday, shanah tovah, and have a happy and healthy new year.

For those of you who are not observing this holiday, have a good weekend and be advised that starting this evening, I will be away from the Internet until Sunday night at the earliest.

For those of you who want to know what it's all about, check out Judaism 101: Rosh Hashanah for a good basic introduction to the holiday.

Good Burpings

2009-09-11T14:12:49Z

As a parent of newborn twins – well, now almost eight-week-old twins – I've occasionally gotten a little bit punchy. That happens when you don't get much sleep.

One of the things we've been saying to our kids when they finally burp is "Good burpings!" I'm not quite sure where it came from, but there are times when one of the kids needs to burp, and when she finally does, she lets out a belch that would have made her grandfather proud.

Anyway, I started to come up with this idea of a whole society where the standard greeting for both "hello" and "good-bye" would be "Good burpings!" So two friends running into each other, or even two strangers meeting for the first time, would wish each other good burpings. In a way, it does make sense, as you're wishing for the other to be able to eat and drink to their heart's content.

But then I came up with the idea that that they would offer each other a bottle and pop the bottles into each other's mouth. At that point, I realized that this would be a much different society, one in which there was an implicit trust among all.

So do I extrapolate this whole society (either the first or the second) and write a science fiction story about it?

And, more importantly, should I start wishing good burpings to all my friends?

9/11: Eight Years Ago

2009-09-11T12:46:02Z

Exactly eight years ago today, terrorrists attacked the United States of America. They flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and into the Pentagon near Washington, DC. They most likely would also have flown a plane into the Capitol building but were stopped by the passengers of United 93. Almost 3,000 people died that day.

Because I'm obsessed with exactness, I've made sure for a while now to know the exact times of certain events that took place on 9/11. The bare sequence of events at the World Trade Center was as follows:

8:46:26 AM: North Tower Hit
9:02:54 AM: South Tower Hit
9:59:04 AM: South Tower Collapsed
10:28:31 AM: North Tower Collapsed

I'm a New York City native, born and raised in Queens, and I grew up in a city in which the Towers always stood. On 9/11, I was a teacher at a private school in Newton, Massachusetts. The following comes from my journal, a hand-written one that I was keeping at the time.

"The second [staff] meeting ended early, and I went back to the Science lab to check my e-mail. I idly noted a message...which said that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center.

"I didn't really think much of it and I went back to the Information Center. Shortly after the meeting...began, [a colleague] walked in and asked if we had heard the news. He told us that two planes had hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and he set up the small TV to receive CNN. They showed pictures of two commercial jets crashing into the twin towers...

"I ran to the phone...to call [my younger brother] at work. At 9:35 AM I called and got him. He had just gotten in, and he said that he seen the smoke from the 7 train. I told him to stay in touch, but due to circuits being busy, I wasn't able to reach New York City again for a while.

"The rest of the day passed in a blur of rumors and news. I kept checking webpages; when I couldn't reach cnn.com, I checked the New York Post webpage and the Newsday webpage. I called Nomi...

"At 10:15 AM, the...students returned from their physical education class...and...we told them the news...

"When the meeting with the students ended, I collapsed in tears..."

There's more, of course, but to summarize, I spent the day trying to get news of family and friends, making sure they were all safe. The drive home was surreal, knowing that fighter planes and battleships were protecting New York City. Nomi was already home, as her office had sent everyone home early. The rest of my family was safe, but my older brother, an emergency medicine physician, had been called up to report to New York City. Nomi and I took a walk at 5:30 PM, which included browsing at Brookline Booksmith and getting ice cream at JP Licks. Everything on TV was the news; we watched C-SPAN, which was running a feed from the CBC, so we could get the Canadian perspective.

The next few days, the events were fresh in everyone's mind. On Wednesday, I flinched at hearing an airplane in the sky, then remembered that all commercial flights had been grounded, so it had to be one of our military aircraft, protecting us. I bought my regular comic books that day; Adventures of Superman #596 had an eerie panel of the twin towers of Metropolis being repaired. A friend came over that evening after attending a local religious service.

On Thursday, Nomi and I were sick of the news, and Animal Planet had gone back to regular programming. We watched a documentary about moose to help us get our minds off things.

And life went on. Today, I'm no longer teaching, but editing textbooks in Boston; my younger brother no longer lives in New York City, but in Eugene, Oregon with his wife and three children; and my older brother is still an emergency medicine physician in the Boston area, specializing in disaster management.

And as all my friends know, there have been other changes in my life. In 2007 I lost my mom, and just two months ago Nomi and I welcomed two precious and adorable girls into our lives. I've discovered that being a parent changes your perspective on a lot of things, and 9/11 is no exception. When the attacks happened, I was worried for my mom and my brothers; if something were to happen today, my first priority would be to make sure that my children were safe.

I probably don't need to tell anyone this, but today's probably a very good day to remind your loved ones, familes, and friends how much they mean to you.

Idle Political Thoughts

2009-08-28T15:34:29Z

According to the Secretary of State's website, I would only need 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot for Senate from Massachusetts.

The question is, as a local politician who has never held a state office, would I have a chance at all at convincing the voters of the commonwealth that I would be their best choice for senator? Running for an office such as senator requires an organization and funding, and at the moment I have neither one of those. I can collect 50 Brookline signatures myself next year to run for re-election as a Library Trustee. Collecting 10,000 Massachusetts signatures would require many, many volunteers (or paid workers) throughout the commonwealth.

Also, I'd need to make my platform explicit; a website would probably be a good start.

Who Recommended That Book?

2009-08-27T13:31:45Z

Someone in my life recommended to me the book I Sleep at Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets by Bruce Stockler, and for the life of me I can't remember who recommended it. If you recommended it, would you let me know? I'm enjoying it a lot.

Stop the Presses!

2009-08-26T19:52:09Z

Nomi and I get both the New York Times and the Boston Globe delivered every day except Sunday, and given the lateness of the news reports about Senator Kennedy last night, I wasn't expecting either paper to have the story of his passing.

Indeed, the New York Times had nothing about Kennedy. But the Globe managed to put the news on their front page, with a large banner headline. Via Universal Hub I found the article Globe Stops the Press for Kennedy Death at the Editor and Publisher magazine website. Apparently the first two editions of the paper had already been printed when editor Martin Baron was woken with the news, and he gave that famous clichéd order to stop the presses so they could include the obituary, which presumably was already set to go.

Nice work, Mr. Baron, and kudos to the night crew.

I'm a little less impressed with the Times, but not for the reason you might think. I find it perfectly understandable that they wouldn't have the news in the hard copy today, and I think it's fine that they're running it on the front page of their website. However, they're also running a link to the article from their "Today's Paper" webpage. Given the fluid nature of the web, I rely on that page to be something of a "snapshot" of the actual hard copy for the day. I think of it as an unchanging daily archive of the articles that the Times ran in that day's paper. So I'm disappointed that they would place a link to the article about Kennedy on that page under the heading THE FRONT PAGE, as if it actually appeared in today's paper. I've written to the Public Editor to express my disappointment.

Senator Ted Kennedy, 77

2009-08-26T06:51:50Z

The kids had us up feeding them at 2:30 this morning and by chance I turned on my iPhone, only to discover that Ted Kennedy, one of my senators, had died early this morning.

I never met Kennedy although I saw him from afar once at a rally. But Nomi told me a story once about how responsive Kennedy was to his constituents. If I recall the story correctly, Nomi's mother was working with a group fighting to get the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, and Kennedy spent an hour with them in his office, listening to their concerns.

It is hard to believe he is gone. Someone will succeed him, but no one can replace him.

The Magicians

2009-08-17T15:15:02Z

On Thursday night, Nomi and I had our first night out since the children arrived. We went to the Boston Public Library to hear author Lev Grossman read from and discuss his new novel The Magicians.

Author Lev Grossman Holds Up a Book Not His Own
Lev Grossman, author of Warp, Codex, and The Magicians, holds up a copy of I Remember the Future by his college classmate Michael A. Burstein. Photograph copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

As I mentioned here shortly after Readercon, Lev is actually an old friend. He and I spent our freshman year of college in the same dorm. We talked about lots of different things that year, but after freshman year we drifted apart. As it so happens, in 1997 I spotted his first novel, Warp, in a bookstore and I picked it up and enjoyed it a lot, even though it wasn't the usual sort of book for me to read. His second novel, Codex, was a lot closer to my kind of fiction.

The Magicians, as it turns out, is a novel written to appeal very strongly to the fantasy reader, especially one who holds tightly onto the nostalgia for the fantasy novels they read as a kid. I'm writing a review of The Magicians (complete with disclaimer) for SF Scope, so I don't want to go into too much detail here, but I do want to give the gist. Expect to see some of the following incorporated into my review.

The premise of the book is that a college-bound student named Quentin discovers that magic exists, and he is recruited to matriculate in a college called Brakebills devoted to magic. Much of the book is set at Brakebills, and the comparisons to Harry Potter are likely to be inevitable. Indeed, Lev knows this; although he originally got the idea for the novel before the Harry Potter series took off, he understands that his characters live in a world in which the Harry Potter series exists, and so it is necessary for the characters to acknowledge it.

That said, this novel is nothing like Harry Potter, although I expect that Lev will quickly become sick of the number of times the book is referred to as "Harry Potter for adults." If anything, the book is more a reaction of Lev's love for the Chronicles of Narnia, as Quentin is constantly reminded of a five-book series called Fillory and Further, about a family of English children who find themselves visiting a magical other world over and over. Amusingly enough, Lev (or someone in the publisher's marketing department) has put together two fan sites for the imaginary Fillory series; one, Welcome to Fillory!, is for fans of the series; the other is the official author site for Christopher Plover, the purported writer of the series.

Again, I should point out that the Fillory books, as far as I know, exist solely in the Borges Library. But Quentin has read them, and when he discovers that magic is real, he can't help but wonder if Fillory is real as well. Needless to say, that becomes much more important as the book goes on...

I'll link to my review when it finally goes up, but I didn't want to delay recommending the book to everyone out there. I wouldn't be surprised to see The Magicians nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award next year.

Traction

2009-08-14T22:53:13Z

One of the biggest problems I've been having in the past three or so weeks is getting the traction to get things accomplished. As I mentioned in the last post, taking care of the two girls has become our first priority. That means that the moment I get started with a project, such as a story, an outline, or even a blog post, I find I have to drop it because one of the girls needs to be fed. Then we have to change her diaper, and then we have to feed the other one. It can take well over an hour to address their needs, at which point it all starts over again in two more hours.

I wouldn't have it any other way, though.