MABFAN's Musings

The Value of an Education

2008-05-06T20:15:36Z

I came across this story in the news yesterday: Country star Gretchen Wilson, at 34, finishes high school. The crux of the story is that Wilson, a wealthy award-winning singer-songwriter who had dropped out of school in ninth grade, has passed the GED exam and will be getting her high school diploma next week.

The money quote that she gave to the Tennessean in their story on Wilson, which the AP article cites, explains that Wilson got her GED to be a model for her 7-year-old daughter. Wilson says, "...I certainly don't want her to think you can be this successful without an education."

While I laud Wilson for both her attitude and her actions, and I agree that everyone should get an education, I find her comment a bit ironic. Because the simple fact is that Wilson became as successful as she did without an education. Later on in the Tennessean's article, she even says that she doesn't think she would be where she is today if she had stayed in school:

"I don't think I'd be where I'm at today if I had stayed in school," she says. "What I mean to say is I think I would have never followed the path that I followed. I may have been in the music business, but I don't think I would have been an artist. I don't think I'd have been pushy enough. I kind of had to get out there and start fighting and clawing my way through the world, and that started really early and I think that's a lot of what it took for me to finally get that record deal."

So I'm thinking that maybe the example she should present to her daughter is a different one – not that a person needs an education to be successful, but that a person ought to have an education to be complete.

Brookline Town Election Reminder and Endorsements

2008-05-05T13:11:36Z

This will probably mostly interest those of you who live in Brookline, Massachusetts, and those of you interested in local politics in general.

Tomorrow is the annual Brookline Town Election, and it's a vital one. We have an actual race for the two contested positions on the Board of Selectmen, and two Proposition 2½ override questions that, if they fail, would require some significant cuts from the budgets of the police and fire departments and the libraries and schools.

If you need to learn more about tomorrow's election, the ballot is currently available from the Town Clerk as a PDF file here. If you don't know who is running in your precinct for Town Meeting, it's a good place to look.

A list of polling places (again, provided by the Town Clerk) can be found here.

And for more nonpartisan information, the League of Women Voters Guide to the election can be found here. (That's a link to a page that includes the guide as a PDF.) Every year, the LWV sends a few questions to all the candidates and prints their responses in the Guide; it can be instructive to see who responds and who doesn't, and how they answer the questions.

As for my own recommendations, I've made the following endorsements.

First of all, in the Selectmen race, I've endorsed incumbents Gil Hoy and Nancy Daly. In my opinion, both have been very good as Selectmen. Gil, in particular, has been a fierce advocate for the town's libraries. As a member of the Board of Library Trustees, I have seen first-hand how Gil's advocacy has aided our library system. (My letter supporting Gil can be found, along with many other letters supporting Gil, here.)

Secondly, when it comes to the override vote, I have endorsed Question 1A, the $5.4 million override, which would fund everything except the World Language program in the elementary schools. Please note that although I have not endorsed Question 1B, I am not advocating against it either. I still think the World Language program is an excellent idea; I'm still not sure if the town can afford it. I'll probably make my final decision tomorrow morning in the voting booth. Yes for Brookline is advocating voting in favor of both override questions, and I should note that both the Boston Globe and the Brookline TAB have endorsed both questions as well.

If you're looking for any other guidance, I urge you to check out the Brookline PAX May 2008 Town Election Endorsements. In my own case, whenever I'm in doubt or uninformed about a candidate or an issue, I can usually rely on the PAX endorsements to guide my vote. (If you want to know what PAX stands for, read Brookline PAX Supports.)

Wherever you stand on the issues, if you live in Brookline, please vote tomorrow. Democracy is a fragile thing, and must be encouraged to thrive.

Michio Kaku Lecture: Physics of the Impossible

2008-05-01T14:05:01Z

(This seems to be my week for recommending books for science fiction writers.)

Last night, Nomi and I went to the Museum of Science to hear a talk by Dr. Michio Kaku.

Dr. Michio Kaku, Michael A. Burstein
Photo copyright ©2008 by Nomi S. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Kaku is a theoretical physicist who has written a few very popular books on physics and what he thinks the future will bring. His current book is Physics of the Impossible, in which he discusses a variety of technologies that most of us think of us as science fiction, but which Kaku speculates will happen for real, some of them very soon.

In the book, he lays out three different classes of impossibility, as follows:

Class I Impossibilities, such as teleportation, telepathy, and invisibility, are consistent with the laws of physics as we know them and might become real within the current century.

Class II Impossibilities, such as time travel and travel faster than the speed of light, lie at the edge of known physics.

Class III Impossibilities, such as perpetual motion machines and precognition, defy the laws of physics as we currently understand them.

His talk skimmed some of the topics in his book, including invisibility and teleportation. He also discussed robots and artificial intelligence, and my favorite topic, time travel. He showed a few clips from a BBC series he's hosting, Visions of the Future, which is supposed to be broadcast in the United States sometime in 2009, but I'd love to track down a copy earlier if I can.

Kaku is clearly a fan of science fiction; his lecture slides were sprinkled with pictures from Star Trek, 2001, Terminator, and other media SF, and the cover of his latest book clearly shows a TARDIS as the time machine plunging through the wormhole. At one point, in an attempt to explain the paradoxes inherent in time travel, Kaku described a scenario that I quickly realized was the plot of Robert A. Heinlein's short story "All You Zombies–" (F&SF, March 1959). I wish he had identified it as such, though, as that might have inspired people in the audience to track it down.

When discussing the rise of the Internet and the shrinking of the computer chip, Kaku showed an artist's representation of a pair of contact lenses with chips that would give you immediate access to the Internet directly in your field of vision. The lenses would also help you identify people's faces, and I started to think about a former student of mine who has prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces. With contact lenses such as these, no one would ever have to know.

One thing Kaku mentioned does have me a little worried. Over the past few decades, astronomers have observed many gamma ray bursts (GRBs), short-lived bursts of high-energy photons, the most energetic events occurring today. GRBs are often caused by two energetic stars orbiting each other, occasionally emitting a burst of these photons across the sky. (For more information on gamma ray bursts, check out NASA's website on Gamma-Ray Bursts.)

Why did Kaku bring these up? Well, apparently, one of the potential gamma-ray bursters out there, WR 104, is only 8000 light-years away and, um, pointed right toward us. Should it send a burst of gamma rays in our direction, it could conceivably fry the planet we live on. Since I'm the type of guy who already worries about collisions from near-Earth asteroids and the eventual heat death of the universe, now I have something else to worry about. Thanks a lot, Dr. Kaku. :-)

Like "The Coming Convergence" by Stanley Schmidt, which I recommended earlier this week, "Physics of the Impossible" is a great read for both science fiction writers and people interested in what the future will bring.

Book: "The Coming Convergence" by Stanley Schmidt

2008-04-29T15:15:12Z

This past week, I got hold of a copy of Stan Schmidt's new book, "The Coming Convergence," and I'm delighted to recommend it to others.

Just to remind those of you who might not remember, Stan is the editor of Analog magazine and therefore the editor who has published most of my stories. He's also writing an introduction to my book, "I Remember the Future." As editor of Analog, Stan has had a chance to see a lot of other writers imagine the future, but he's also a writer who has done his own share of imagining where current trends might lead. And he's done this before, in both his fiction and nonfiction.

In this case, the convergence he refers to in the title of the book is the convergence of technologies. Stan points out that a lot of technologies that originally seemed unrelated ended up working together to create something new. A few examples include the Internet and 3-D medical imaging. Stan looks at the way technologies converged in the past to speculate on how they will converge in the future; throughout the book, he explores subjects like biotechnology and nanotechnology, and he posits a variety of "metaconvergences" that will lead to dramatic changes.

If you're a science fiction writer like me, I suspect you'll come up with a lot of neat ideas for stories from reading the book. And even if you're not a writer, I think you'll find the book thought-provoking. We're going to be living in the future Stan describes, and reading his book is a good way to prepare yourself for it.

The $200 Million Lottery Plan

2008-04-25T15:45:01Z

On another discussion forum, I brought up the question of what one might do with lottery winnings. We quickly determined that a $1 million lottery isn't really all that much; if you take it as twenty annual payments, after taxes it works out to roughly $35,000 per year. Not exactly "quittin' money," as a colleague of mine would put it.

I proposed $200 million as the amount I would want to win to live as comfortably as I would want while still being able to make the large charitable donations I would enjoy making. And as an exercise for a story once, I worked out a "lottery plan," that is, what steps I would have to take if suddenly winning one of the huge $200 million lotteries.

It made sense to think of myself as the winner, since it's more fun that way. :-)

And, actually, that's one of things lotteries sell, the chance to dream.

So, anyway. The first part of the plan includes switching the answering machine from the listed number to the unlisted number, calling the local police department to hire a 24-hour detail and an escort to lottery headquarters, and then enlisting an accountant, lawyer, and financial advisor for immediate assistance.

But the best part of the plan includes the list of charities that I wish I could donate more money to, and how much I would give to each one. (After buying a large house, mortgage-free, with enough room for a library and comic book collection, of course. And yarn for Nomi.)

I can immediately think of a few theater companies and museums I'd love to fund, as well as a few synagogues and schools I'd like to help out. After that, though, my imagination fails me.

So I pose the question to anyone who wants to play. To where would you donate money if you won the $200 million lottery?

Catching Up From the First Days of Passover

2008-04-22T21:08:40Z

This past weekend was one of the most relaxing ones I have had in a long time. gnomi and I went to her parents' house for shabbat, followed by the first two days of Passover. We ate, we slept, we read, we enjoyed the two seders, we slept some more, we spent time with friends and family, we slept some more...

You get the idea.

And now, of course, back to the real world. If anything happened over the weekend, assume I missed it...

Passover III: The Search for Chametz

2008-04-18T12:16:02Z

Last night, after I got home from class, Nomi and I performed the traditional search for chametz one does just before the Passover holiday. And, as you can see in Nomi's post At Chez Burstein, Everyone Helps Search for Chametz, we always get a little extra help from our friends....

Today's Media Appearances

2008-04-17T14:29:36Z

1. Letter in The Brookline TAB supporting the re-election of Gil Hoy to the Board of Selectmen

2. A comic strip by Seanan (LJ: cadhla)

Guess which one is more amusing. Go ahead, guess.

Virginia Tech: One Year Later

2008-04-16T12:45:25Z

People who have much more connection to last year's tragedy than I do will undoubtedly be talking about it all day. I urge you to go read their posts, articles, and stories. (You can start with the Washington Post story Deceptively Stong about Derek O'Dell, who was shot and survived to tell his story. Or the New York Times story A Living Memorial After Virginia Tech, about the parents of victim Austin Cloyd, who are building houses in her memory.)

But I do have one thing I'd like to share. Last year, after the shootings, gnomi was reminded of a scene from the TV show The West Wing in which the president speaks after a similar tragedy occurs in their world. I share those words (by Aaron Sorkin) again today:

... securing peace in a time of global conflict, sustaining hope in this winter of anxiety and fear. More than any time in recent history America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedoms and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive.

Forty four people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kenneson State University. Three swimmers from the men's team were killed and two others are in critical condition when after having heard the explosion from their practice facility they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight.

But every time we've measured our capacity to meet a challenge we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars.

(The West Wing: "20 Hours in America")

John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008)

2008-04-14T12:15:42Z

I discovered the sad news today that physicist John Archibald Wheeler had died on Sunday morning at the age of 96.

For those of you who have never heard of him, Wheeler will probably be most remembered by the general public as the one who invented the term "black hole" for a dead star so dense that not even light could escape its gravitational pull. Oppenheimer and Snyder had suggested this possibility out of Einstein's general relativity, and it was at a conference in 1967 that Wheeler came up with the term.

The concept of a star so massive that not even light could escape had been discussed long before the equations of general relativity suggested the possibility, but no one had come up with a good term for the idea. Probably the most well-know phrase before "black hole" was "frozen star," which doesn't quite create the same image in the mind as "black hole" does.

Black holes have become a longtime staple of science fiction; I even used one for my first cover story, "Escape Horizon" (Analog, March 2000).

As someone who studied general relativity as a graduate student, I used Wheeler's classic co-authored textbook on the subject: Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. It's one of the clearest explanations of general relativity for the physicist that I have ever seen. I also learned some of special relativity out of the classic Spacetime Physics book that Wheeler co-authored with Edwin Taylor; and although I did get to meet Taylor once (when I almost served as his Teaching Assistant), I never did get to meet Wheeler. I wish I had; I understand he was a great teacher. Wheeler was probably the most influential physicist of the 20th century who never won a Nobel Prize, and he deserved one a thousand times over.

If you want to learn more about him, here's a link to his New York Times obituary: John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term 'Black Hole' Is Dead at 96.

What's in a Name?

2008-04-10T17:52:24Z

Have you ever searched your own name on the Internet to see what would pop up?

I imagine it wouldn't surprise the people who know me that I have done this numerous times. When you write fiction, you tend to want to see what sort of public picture you're creating on the Internet.

But I've also run searches on my name to find other Michael Bursteins out there. I'm not sure why I've done this, although I always felt an odd sort of identification with the others who share my name. For example, I'm a fan of the Israeli actor and singer Mike Burstyn because we share a name. (Burstyn's original name was Michael Burstein; I believe he changed the spelling for his career, since it was easier to fit on a marquee.) I make a point of seeing Burstyn perform whenever I can.

Burstein is not a common name, and my father used to tell me that there was a time when the only Bursteins in the Manhattan phone book were our family. I tended to think that there weren't too many other Bursteins out there. But with the rise of the Internet, I've found many others.

Including other Michael Bursteins.

Why I am sharing this? Because today's New York Times has an interesting article on the topic of finding people with your own name: Names That Match Forge a Bond on the Internet by Stephanie Rosenbloom. I'm apparently not the only person who's done this. In fact, according to the article, a writer named Angela Shelton has just published a book about meeting 40 other women with her same name. The article also notes why we might feel an odd kinship with someone who shares our name – social psychologist Brett Pelham has done studies that show that our names, and the letters within them, are influential in our lives.

In my own experience, the most amusing incident involving a "Googleganger" happened when I got an email from the teenage daughter of another Michael Burstein. She had been searching for her father's name on the Internet, and was delighted to discover me. She emailed me and clearly wanted a reply, but I was concerned about the appropriateness of me, a total stranger, writing back.

So I tracked down her father's work number, and gave him a call.

"Hello, I'd like to speak with Michael Burstein please."

"Certainly. May I ask who's calling?"

"Michael Burstein."

It turned out that Burstein-the-other had given his daughter permission to contact me. And I found out that he had lived in the Bronx as a kid, but had later moved with his family to Brookline, where he attended the Maimonides School for a year.

The Times article also mentions how a student named Jon Lee would like to turn up first on a Google search, but how there are too many other Jon Lees he would have to beat. In my case, my websites are usually the first ones to turn up, probably because I've had a website for longer than any other Michael Burstein, and also because you're more likely to want to find me if you use my name. In the case of many of the other Michael Bursteins, they're lawyers, and I imagine you're more likely to want to find one of them if you were looking for a lawyer who specializes in their kind of work. I've also found a company CFO, a few executives, a scientist or two, and a dentist who share my name, which does get my science-fiction writer brain pondering if there's a story in all this.

Memories of Shea

2008-04-10T14:13:29Z

As baseball season starts up in earnest, I can't help but think about my own history as a fan of the sport.

When I was growing up, my younger brother Josh was the real instigator when it came to baseball. I suppose that left to my own devices, I could have just ignored baseball for the most part; I was more into comic books and Star Trek.

But Josh fell in love with baseball at an early age, and due to his urgings, my family began following our beloved team: the Yankees.

You read that right. In the beginning, despite living in Queens, the Burstein clan were Yankees fans as well as Mets fans.

There were legitimate reasons for this. We grew up in the 1970s, and in 1977 the Yankees had one of the major success stories of their career. That was the year of Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson, and the year of the World Series. I vividly remember the whole family shlepping to the Bronx to see a game or two; I remember how much we cheered for Thurmon Munson and how tragic it was when he died; and I remember how we idolized Reggie, and his eponymous candy bar.

However, by the time the 1980s rolled around, we had started to mostly follow the major league team in Flushing. I think it was the return of Tom Seaver to the Mets for the 1983 season that caught our imagination, although I do recall that Josh was also a big fan of Danny Heep. Josh started following the Mets regularly, and the rest of us followed suit.

Josh was eager to attend games at Shea Stadium, and so my parents took a step that still boggles my mind today. They bought season tickets to Mets games. Now, we didn't buy tickets for the whole family, nor did we buy tickets for every single home game in the season. Rather, we bought a package of tickets for all Saturday games, and we only bought two seats for those games. The theory was that Josh would get to go to each game, and someone else in the family would take him. Most of the time either Mom or Dad would take Josh to Shea, but occasionally Jon or I would do so.

And to my mind, Shea was the most beautiful stadium in the world. It was big, and blue, and always (believe it or not) very clean. The fans felt united in our love of the team, something I felt whenever the announcer spoke or when they played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch. Our seats were a bit far up, so the field looked somewhat far away, but the view from our seats (along the first base line) was unobstructed. When I sat with Josh at a game, I would take in the expansive, deep blue sky, breathe in fresh parkland air, and root, root, root for our home team. And if they didn't win, it was a shame.

Now, baseball fans are aware that we all have our own little superstitions and idiosincrasies. And it did not escape my notice that every time I attended a Mets game at Shea, the Mets would lose. Rationally, I knew that my presence in the stadium had no effect whatsoever, but in the back of my mind, I felt like a jinx.

So when 1986 rolled around, and the Mets ended up in the World Series, and my family acquired tickets to games one and seven, I was torn about whether or not I should accompany Josh to the games.

For about one second. World Series? I'm there, baby!

Josh was amused when I "offered" to take him to the World Series games, but the fact was that both Dad and Mom didn't care that much about attending in person, and neither did Jon. (Mom's only concern was that we would be safe among the crowds, and I promised her that I would look after Josh.) Josh and I attended game one on Saturday, October 18, and I recall how raucous and boisterous the other fans were. There was something magical in the air – at least, until the Mets lost to the Red Sox 1-0.

We watched the rest of the games on television with trepidation. On the one hand, we wanted the Mets to win the World Series, and as quickly as possible. On the other hand, we had tickets to game seven, and if the Mets won too soon, we wouldn't be able to attend game seven as it would not be played. So we watched, as the Mets lost game two, then won game three and four, then lost game five...

I won't reiterate the details of game six here, except to note how quickly we went from depression to elation. Game seven was delayed by rain and held on the evening of Monday, October 27, and Josh and I went. I remember how disappointed we felt when the Sox took an early lead in the second inning; how delighted we felt when the Mets scored three runs each in the sixth and seventh innings; how nervous we felt when the Sox scored two more runs in the eighth; how pleased we felt when the Mets scored two more in the bottom of that same inning; and how the stadium erupted in joyful cheers when the game ended with a Mets win. The Mets were champions again, for the first time within our lifetime, and we dearly hope to see them win a World Series again at some point soon. (Please.)

The last time I was in Shea was to see the Mets in one of the 1988 playoff games. I don't remember which game it was I saw, or even who I was with. All I remember is that they lost that game, and went on to lose the pennant.

And now, I'll probably never return to Shea again. For this season is the last one that will be played at Shea, as in 2009 the Mets will take up residence in Citi Field, just next door. And of all the news sites to praise Shea Stadium and William A. Shea, oddly enough, it's the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana with the best tribute. Check out the article "Mets shouldn't forget Shea when new stadium opens" by Bob Estelle, and learn about how Bill Shea worked to replace the Dodgers and Giants. If it weren't for Bill Shea, I wouldn't have the fond memories of the Mets – and of Shea Stadium – that I have today.

Thanks, Bill.

Mezuzot....in....Space!

2008-04-09T14:59:44Z

My younger brother alerted me to the fascinating news that mezuzot will be going into outer space next month.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a mezuzah is a small case placed upon the doorpost of a Jewish home. The mezuzah itself is mostly decorative, but inside the mezuzah is placed a scroll with a passages from Deuteronomy (chapter 6 verses 4-9 and chapter 11 verses 13-21). The mezuzah is not a good-luck charm, or anything like that; it is simply an indication that the family living in the home is Jewish and chooses to follow the commandment to place the mezuzah on the doorpost.

It turns out that astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who is Jewish, has decided to take two mezuzot into space next month when he travels on the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. The mezuzot were designed by artist Laura Cowan; one looks like the Apollo spacecraft, and the other is shaped like the space shuttle.

Wisely, it appears that Chamitoff is not going to attempt to place the mezuzot on the outside of the space station hatch. But just having them present is nice symbolism.

Some references:
The Kosher Space Shuttle (Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews)
Up, up and oy vey – how I sent my mezuzot into space (Jewish Chronicle)
Tel Aviv mezuzot to blast off into the heavens (Jerusalem Post)

A Weekend in New York City

2008-04-07T16:05:14Z

[The following is a personal anecdote about our past weekend trip to New York City. Just so you know what you're getting into before you start reading. The short version includes seeing friends, spending shabbat in Queens, and celebrating the recent wedding of my brother Danny and his wife Barbara. But the long version includes some pictures, so click on the link and enjoy.]

Friday:
On Friday morning, gnomi and I took the day off from work and heading down to New York City by Amtrak train. The main reason for this trip was to attend the party that my half-brother Danny and his wife Barbara were throwing in New York City to celebrate their recent wedding in Michigan. Since they had various friends and relatives who couldn't make it to Michigan, they decided a New York City party would be a good idea. As one of those who couldn't make it to the wedding, I'm very glad they had the second party.

Nomi and I decided to make a full weekend of the trip, so we took an early train that would get us into Manhattan in time for lunch. We met my high school friend David at My Most Favorite Food on 45th Street, and we enjoyed catching up with him over the fettuccine francais.

The next stop on our schedule was an unplanned one. While at the restaurant, I discovered that my pants zipper had broken, and my only other pants were in luggage that we had checked at Penn Station. So, at David's suggestion, we went to one of my most favorite clothing stores, the Brooks Brothers at 44th and Madison. I have a lot of fond memories of that store. It's where Mom first took me to get a blue blazer for college interviews, and it's where my uncle Robert bought me my tweed jacket as a gift. The clothing can be expensive, but, hey, we were in New York City for the first time in a while, and I needed pants. I ended up buying a pair of country club pleat-front refined twill dress trousers in navy blue, and if I may say so, I make them look good.

Ahem.

So after we said farewell to David, Nomi and I headed over to the Avenue of the Americas in order to meet popfiend for the first time.

That's right. We finally met popfiend.

mabfan and popfiend

And in real life, he's exactly what he's like online: bubbly, friendly, warm, a real mensch. We thanked him for getting in touch when he realized we would be in his neighborhood Friday afternoon, because it gave us a chance to meet the man himself, the myth, the legend.

We also took a few minutes to visit dianora2, since she works in the same office building.

mabfan and dia

(Those of you who know dianora2 will get it. For those of you who don't, trust me that she looks exactly like her picture.)

Nomi and I have an interesting story about how we first met dianora2, which involves two separate mailing lists, pop culture, and a Worldcon. But I'll tell it later.

So with an hour remaining before we had to head to Queens, we stopped at our haberdasher, Arnold Hatters, at 535 8th Avenue. Those of you who have seen me in one of my many colorful Kangol caps, or Nomi and me together in our Fedoras, should know that we get all our hats at Arnold Hatters. It's gotten to the point where the Rubin family, who owns the place, knows us very well even though we only stop in once a year or so. This time around, Peter Rubin spent half an hour with us while I tried on a bowler and a homburg, but neither of them looked right on me. In the end, I bought a few more caps and Nomi got a black beret.

Finally, Nomi and I took a cab to Queens and arrived at the home of sdelmonte and batyatoon, where we were spending shabbat. We got ourselves settled in and enjoyed a delicious shabbat dinner and plenty of fannish conversation before going to bed.

Saturday:
Although sdelmonte is a member of Congregation Etz Chaim, on many shabbat mornings he goes to the hashkama (early) minyan at Ahavas Yisroel, right across the street. This shabbat I joined him at the early minyan. I got the chamishi aliyah, and sdelmonte gave a very nice d'var Torah, concluding with the theme that one ought to remember to have compassion for the others around you who are undergoing the same stresses that you are as we get ready for the Pesach holiday.

We returned to the apartment to relax, and then we had lunch at the home of batyatoon's parents, who are most definitely our kind of people.

Back at the apartment, we napped, and then other friends came over to visit, including chaos_wrangler and G., and dragonbear82. I've decided that I need to win a $200 million lottery so I can buy a row of houses for all my friends in that neighborhood, so we can get together every week for gaming and conversation; that's how much fun we had that afternoon.

Shabbat eventually ended, and the other guests left. Nomi and I had brought the DVD of the movie "Enchanted" with us, and sdelmonte and batyatoon had not seen it yet, so we watched it with them. Then they enjoyed the hospitality of our Macintosh laptops while we went off to sleep.

Sunday:
Sunday morning we packed while our hosts began their Pesach cleaning, and then Nomi and I took a cab from Boulevard Taxi to the Danny and Barbara party. The part was held at the Skyview Kosher Deli in northern Riverdale. We finally got to meet Barbara, who is a lovely woman and obviously a perfect companion for Danny. We also met many of the people from Danny's life, and I saw a lot of family, including my brothers David and Jonathan, cousins Hillel and David, aunts Miriam and Debby, and too many others to mention.

(Oh, yeah, I also met a jovial Brooklyn ADA whose brother was the year ahead of me in high school and college. He was very funny when I asked him if he had ever heard of a show called Law & Order.)

I may say more about the party later; when it ended, an old friend of Danny's gave us a lift to the New Rochelle train station, where Nomi and I waited a few hours for our train to arrive. Fortunately, we were equipped with the season premiere of Doctor Who, the season finale of Torchwood, and the DVD set of Kidnapped. So we had plenty to keep us occupied until we finally arrived home at 11:30 pm last night.

This morning, we're both at work, and we're both exhausted. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get to sleep early tonight.

I'd like to end this post with a philosophical note. This is the first time we've been back to New York City since my brothers and I sold Mom's house, and it felt odd. Nomi and I want to continue taking vacations to New York City to see friends, but we're going to have to start relying on some of those friends to host us on those vacations. I feel blessed by knowing that whenever I've mentioned this concern, we've been flooded with offers. Thank you all.

[For gnomi's take on the weekend, click here.]

Announcement: "I Remember the Future" Ready for Pre-Order

2008-04-07T14:20:48Z

Friends,

I'm pleased to announce that Apex Books is now ready to take pre-orders for "I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein," which will be published in September. The book can be pre-ordered on the Apex Books website catalog at its own URL (http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=30). You can pre-order either the hardcover or trade paperback edition, and although the paperback is slightly cheaper, I can give you two good reasons to order the hardcover.

First, all pre-ordered hardcover copies of the book will be autographed. If you want one of the original autographed copies of the book, that will be the only way to get one.

But second, we decided to sweeten the pot a little for those of you willing to step up to the plate early and order a hardcover copy of the book. And so we are announcing the "I Remember the Future" Tuckerization contest.

Everyone who pre-orders a hardcover copy of the book by June 15 will be entered into a raffle. Two lucky winners will have their names used as names of characters in the two new stories, "Empty Spaces" and "I Remember the Future."

For those of you who have never heard of Tuckerization, it means the naming of characters in stories for real people. The tradition is credited to Wilson Tucker, who named many of the characters in his books for his friends. More information on the practice can be found at the Wikipedia page on Tuckerization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckerization).

So...think about it. If you pre-order the hardcover book by June 15, not only are you guaranteed to receive an autographed copy of the first bound collection of my fiction, including two brand-new stories and afterwords for each story, but you'll also have a chance to have a character in a story named after you. (You can still pre-order the autographed hardcover after June 15, but the contest deadline is June 15.)

Pre-order "I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein

Back We Are

2008-04-07T12:40:13Z

As gnomi has said, We're Baa-aack!. But we're exhausted. We'll have trip reports and photos as soon as we can; in the meantime, watch this space for an announcement later today.

Cracking the Code

2008-04-03T16:55:10Z

One of my co-workers pointed me to the article Cracking the Code in the current issue of Reform Judaism magazine. It's a long article, but worth reading if you're fascinated by either genetics or Jewish history.

I've known for a while about one of the things the article mentions, which is the apparent genetic evidence about the kohanic line. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, in Judaism there is a group called the kohanim, who by tradition are accepted to have all been descended from the priestly class of ancient Israel. (The name "Cohen" tends to indicate someone who is considered part of this group.) Traditionally, kohanic status was determined by the male line, so even though my mother was a daughter of a kohein, I myself am not a kohein.

If you know anything about human genetics, you can see where this is going. The Y chromosome is the only one guaranteed to be passed from father to son, so anyone who claimed to be a kohein ought to have inherited a Y chromosome that went back for generations. (I'm simplifying here.) It turned out that almost 100% of Jewish kohanic males tested in an experiment in 1995 shared a genetic marker for a common ancestor, implying that the tradition was valid.

The article in Reform Judaism magazine discusses more recent experiments that show that the vast majority of Jews all over the world seem to share a common ancestry going back 4,000 years to the middle east. Unfortunately, the article doesn't include references, so I can't verify all the claims within. And there is one place where the writers seem to equate Orthodox Judaism with Lubavitch Chasidism. I suppose from the Reform Jewish perspective, it might be hard to distinguish, but this is the first time I've ever run across the claim that Orthodox Judaism strictly prohibits abortion.

Anyway, it's still a fascinating article.

Busy Weekend Ahead, and a Personal Note

2008-04-03T16:12:43Z

Here in Bursteinville, gnomi and I are anticipating a busy weekend, starting tomorrow.

Folks may recall that last month, my half-brother Danny got married to Barbara Heller in Michigan. This Sunday is when they're having a second celebration, and so Nomi and I are heading down to New York City for the weekend. We decided to get to the city in time for lunch tomorrow so we could meet up with one of my high school friends, a gentleman we don't see as often as we'd like.

I know there's a lot going on in the area this weekend, and I know there's always a lot of people to see, so if we miss you this time, maybe we'll catch you next time. For this trip, we're taking advantage of the gracious hospitality of sdelmonte and batyatoon for shabbat, so we're pretty much spending the weekend with them in Queens. Shabbat afternoon, we'll also be getting together with chaos_wrangler and G.

Early Sunday afternoon, Nomi and I will take a cab to the Heller-Burstein celebration, which is at a deli in the northernmost parts of Riverdale. Here's where things get personal in a way I had not expected.

I had decided to call for a cab from Boulevard Taxi, a company that Mom used to use for her daily commute to work. All the folks at Boulevard, the drivers and dispatchers alike, got to know my mom as that nice lady judge in Forest Hills.

Since we needed to know how much the cab would cost, Nomi suggested I call Boulevard last night to find out the price of a ride from the middle of Queens to Riverdale in the Bronx. So when I called last night, and explained I was calling from Boston and why, I made sure to mention my mom. I told the dispatcher that my mom was the judge who they used to pick up in Forest Hills.

"You mean Judge Burstein?" the dispatcher asked.

I was flabbergasted. "Yes."

It turns out they still remember her very fondly, and the dispatcher was delighted to hear me tell him how much Mom had always praised their company's service. On Sunday, he said he's going to take personal charge of making sure I get the cab I need.

Happy Cheese Weasel Day!

2008-04-03T13:52:38Z

Celebrate cheese weasel day!

Learn the story of the cheese weasel at http://dglenn.livejournal.com/86811.html

Sing the song of the cheese weasel found at http://www.cheeseweasel.com/

But above all, have some cheese!

Brookline Library Override Hearing Thursday Night

2008-04-02T14:14:03Z

The Boston Globe reported this morning that four towns in Massachusetts had property tax override votes yesterday, but that three of them rejected the increases. (See 3 of 4 towns say no to override for details.)

As I mentioned back on March 14 in the post Override Vote in Brookline, my town is having an override vote next month, and now I'm getting a little worried about its prospects. It's true that things are tough for individual citizens as well as for towns, but I worry that voters are going to reject the override without having a clear understanding of what such a rejection would mean. As an elected Library Trustee, I'm particularly interested in making sure that our townspeople are fully aware of what steps the library is considering taking should the override fail.

So if you're a local citizen, please don't go into the override voted uninformed. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening the Public Library of Brookline is holding a meeting on Library Budget Cuts and the Override. The meeting starts at 7 pm and will take place at the Coolidge Corner Branch. We want to make sure the citizens of the town know what our options will be in the event the override fails. As I noted last month, the list of possibilities includes cutting back on evening hours, closing the Coolidge Corner branch on Sundays, scaling back on children's programs, and eliminating the book discussion groups. Many other options will be presented at the meeting.

So please consider attending. And let me apologize in advance for my own absence from that meeting; I'm attending a training session for my job and so can't be there myself. Don't take my lack of presence as a lack of support; I'd rather not spend the monthly Trustees meeting in May figuring out what goes on the chopping block.

Mild Paranoia in Downtown Boston

2008-04-01T16:48:44Z

On Tuesdays, gnomi and I try to meet for lunch in downtown Boston, at the Milk Street Café. Today, she had a lunch meeting and couldn't stay, but we did meet there briefly to pick up food and take it back to our respective offices. (Well, she did. I stayed and ate my lunch there, since it would be faster. Not that this is relevant to today's post.)

So, I'm walking back to the Park Street subway station, following the Freedom Trail and passing the Boston Common, in one of the more historic areas of the city. And I see, as one does in tourist season, tour guides in colonial costume explaining the history of various sites to groups of tourists. And as I approach the subway, I have a thought that is atypical for someone such as myself.

Today is April Fool's Day. What if all the Boston tour guides decided last night to agree on one piece of false history, and to share it, completely deadpan, with today's tourists?

How would the tourists know they were being fooled?

("Yes, over here is the spot where an alien spaceship teleported Ben Franklin into orbit, and then relocated him to Philadelphia. You don't believe me? Ask any of the other tour guides...")

Note to self: never take a tour on April Fool's Day.

Good Things This Past Weekend

2008-03-31T14:03:02Z

Let's see....

Although I had a rather tiring week, I woke up early enough Saturday morning to get to shabbat services in time to be the tenth for the minyan. Given the fact that one of the nicest guys at the shul just lost his father and needs the minyan to say Mourner's Kaddish, I was very glad to be able to help him perform the mitzvah.

Then, shabbat afternoon, we had a chance to catch up on sleep. That was good.

Sunday morning, gnomi and I had brunch with two friends whom I met through the recent HRSFA reunion: Kevin & Rose Martin, and their kids. We're trying to get together with them once a month, and so far, it's working.

My good friend and fellow writer Jennifer Pelland (LJ: jenwrites) got a very nice write-up in the Sunday Boston Globe: Her niche: Writing in the outer limits of fiction. They also quoted me commenting on her writing:

Michael A. Burstein, a fellow writer, said Pelland's work has a rare brutal honesty.

"Even though Jen's stories spin out bizarre scenarios, I find I don't need to suspend my disbelief because her characters respond to their predicaments realistically," he said. "Jen is willing to go places in her fiction that most other writers, including myself, aren't brave enough to do."

(There's more if you want to click through to the article.)

And, finally, norda posted My daily appointment, in which she responds to what is apparently a Free Topic from something called LJ Idol. The topic was "My Favorite LJ User," and, um, she picked me.

I have to admit that my natural sense of modesty is warring with my natural sense of ego. Do I link people to her post? Do I quote from it?

Well, I already linked to it. Quoting it here would be superfluous, but let me just say, publicly, thank you norda, for making me feel like it all may be worth it.

Absent Friends

2008-03-27T19:25:13Z

I've been reminded by many mutual friends that David Honigsberg (LJ: dochyel) died a year ago today.

For those of you who want to remember what I said about David a year ago when I found out the terrible news, you can go back and read my post Eulogy: David Honigsberg, 48.

And to David, I'd just like to say that I still regret not having gotten back to you after you called to offer your comfort on the passing of my mom. I hope somehow that you did know how much I appreciated it.

Never Forget

2008-03-27T03:05:15Z

madwriter had lunch with a Holocaust survivor, Nathan Kranowski, who spoke to a class at the college where he works. You can read the whole story and see the photos at his post Never Forget.

I was especially moved by madwriter's last two paragraphs, on the necessity of remembering the atrocities of the past and making sure that humanity does not forget.

Go read.

Today's Mind Meld Discussion: Science Fiction and Religion

2008-03-26T15:38:58Z

Once again, the kind folks over at SF Signal asked me to participate in their Mind Meld discussion. This time, the question was, "Is Science Fiction Antithetical to Religion?"

I'm not going to restate here what I said there; if you'd like to read it, you can click on the following link: Mind Meld: Is Science Fiction Antithetical to Religion? They got a lot of fascinating people to respond to the question, including Mike Resnick, Lou Anders, Ben Bova, Gabriel Mckee, Jay Lake, James Wallace Harris, Carl Vincent, Adam Roberts, Larry Niven, Andrew Wheeler, D.G.D. Davidson, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., John C. Wright, and James Morrow.

I'm amused to note that Mike Resnick "outed" me in his own response to the question, listing me as one of the Orthodox Jews in science fiction (along with Avram Davidson). He also notes that Gene Wolfe is a devout Catholic and that Ray Lafferty was a devout Catholic. What he doesn't note, however, is that there's a big difference between being observant Jewish and being observant something else in science fiction circles.

Basically, the question is: why do people in the science fiction community know that I'm religiously observant? Certain parts of American society tend to play religious observance and feeling close to the vest. We consider it something personal, and tend not to discuss it in depth with others unless invited to.

But when you're trying to observe Judaism at an Orthodox level, especially at a science fiction convention, you're faced with a lot of issues that push your observance to the forefront. Most of that has to do with the restrictions you place on your activities during the Jewish sabbath, which means not participating in certain convention events. Some of it also has to do with keeping the laws of kashrut, requiring you to bring your own food to the convention and to avoid the hotel restaurants. So you find yourself missing out on some of the social networking that takes place at a convention.

And of course there's the kippah (or yarmulke) that I wear. For conventions, I have a special kippah that shows a rocket ship flying through the universe. It was a birthday present given to me years back by vettecat, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I would always wear it at conventions. It gets a lot of attention; many fans have approached me at cons to compliment me on it – come to think of it, that's how I became friends with Farah Mendelson – and at the Nebulas last year, I even overheard Norman Spinrad commenting on it.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the Mind Meld topic. Do I think science fiction is antithetical to religion? You can probably guess my answer at this point, but you might as well go over to Mind Meld and see for yourself.