A Jewish Esperantist in Washington

Profits and Esperanto

First, I’d like to note that as in 2014, October 31, 1913 was also a Friday. For this story (which has nothing to do with Halloween, if you want shocks, look here), that’s an important point, because the even happened at a synagogue. It should surprise no one that the group had its meeting on a Thursday night, and not during synagogue services. This is one of those rare stories of Jews and Esperanto.

It’s somewhat ironic, but even with the actions of the Esperanto community decrying the blood libel trial of Menahem Beilis, this seems to have been motivated more by a sense of progress than by specific solidarity with Jews. Although Hitler infamously predicted that the Jews would force everyone to speak Esperanto, there doesn’t seem to be that much in the way of Jewish presence historically in Esperanto. While today there are Esperanto organizations linked to various religious groups, there is no group specifically for Jewish Esperantists.

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The Museum Monstrosities

The horror! The horror!
And this isn't one of the freaky ones.

(It’s Halloween. What the hell.)

I haven’t found the ability to mix writing and traveling. Between spending my day doing tourism and writing in my journal at night, I find that there’s no other time for writing. Instead of blogging about my day’s experiences, the last time I travelled, I wrote up a series of blog posts (largely on Esperanto) several days in advance. But in a way, it was good to save writing about the Lausanne Museum of Zoology until now, October 31.

The museum is an a building that houses a number of collections, including a numismatic collection, a geology collection, and an archeology collection. The fine arts museum should have been there, but the collection is currently in storage, awaiting a new home. The museum is open and they have temporary shows, which makes me wonder why they don’t have their collection up, since the new building won’t open until 2017, but I assume they’re doing various behind-the-scenes sort of things, such as preparing new cases, and determining new arrangements.

You may find images below this point disturbing. You have been warned.

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The Lady in the Boat — Faerie Queene, Book 2, Canto 6

Phædria is said to
pilot a "Gondelay."
So here's an idle
gondolier.

I start this post with the now customary apology for infrequent writing. I’ve actually been doing a lot of writing, just not on The Faerie Queene. Likewise, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, though (once again) not The Faerie Queene. I’ve ben reading (a few pages every day) Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, which keeps making me think I should pull the Frank Kermode book of the same title out of storage. I’m certain Barnes knows of the earlier work, but whether Kermode’s criticism is somehow involved or just was too great a title to pass up, I don’t know.

Looking at my shelves of criticism, I see a few things that would make a good title for a novel, one way or another. Mimesis might have to be a science fiction novel, though I suppose a novel in which the protagonist is seized by doubts of inauthenticity (merely the simulacrum of a person) would work. If one were going to name a contemporary novel The Faerie Queene, would that lock the writer into high fantasy?

One thing I’ve noticed about The Sense of an Ending (the novel, not the work of criticism) is that Barnes does not spend a lot of time describing anything. He’s keeping any sort of visual information tamped down. Characters have come and gone without the slightest bit of description. Tall or short? Dark or fair? Thin or plump? Who knows? The same is true of the places the protagonist inhabits.

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Journalist Makes Bizarre Claims about Hacking

Yeah, it's the Google Private
Browsing icon again.

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t address the recent news (that just came to my attention) about Sheryl Attkisson, a former CBS News correspondent who claims that the government has hacked into her computers, phones, and television. While I’m quite willing to believe that the government has insufficient qualms about spying without a warrant, in Attkisson’s case, I think her claims are utter bullshit (and that’s a technical IT term).

Oh, and she’s written a book, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington. Thumbs up for the use of the serial comma in the title. No points for anything else that has been revealed from the book.

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Is Facebook Advertising Malware?

Beware of Facebook pages
offering free apps

A current “suggested” post on Facebook claims that a “New Unique Patented Technology” will “Restore Old Photos in a CLICK!” And they’re giving this powerful software away. Now, remember, if you’re getting something for free, you’re the product, not the customer. Just what exactly is Facebook selling you for?

I can’t comment on the current iteration (probably because I commented on an earlier one), so I’m hoping that this post reaches as many people as possible (and not just because I love blog hits). The product is malware. It starts off with some really inconsistent marketing. The Facebook page calls the application “MacPhotoPro,” but the link takes you to a web page where it’s called “OldPhotoPro,” although the URL is macphotopro.com. (In the interest of revealing all, the full URL was: http://macphotopro.com/clp/1?sc=fbmacph&sn=Mac%20Photo%20Pro&ap=278470014&img_id=68738).

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Ido and the Socialists

A must-read!

After yesterday’s post about the early Socialist and promoter of Esperanto, I don’t want to leave you with the idea that all Socialists were Esperantists.[1] Some left-wing people favored Ido instead. The Ido Schism cut across political lines. Some ardent Idists were politically conservative.[2]

Though the Ido Schism is now forgotten by everyone except Esperantists and Idists, when it happened, it was in the news. Newspapers actually ran articles about the conflicts between the two. In the early twentieth century, many simply assumed that Esperanto would keep growing as it had. Sure, there were naysayers, but even in 1910 when the Esperanto movement was wondering about their failure to make a stronger showing in the United States after five years, scientists and diplomats were seeing a universal auxiliary language as both necessary and inevitable.

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Socialist Esperantist Dies in Massachusetts

Charles Horatio Matchett,
Early Esperantist
(circa 1896)

The Wikipedia entry for Charles Horatio Matchett mentions nothing about Esperanto, noting that he was, however, on the first Presidential ticket for the Socialist Party (he ran for Vice President in 1892 and for President in 1896). The winning candidate in 1896 was William McKinley, who received 7,102,246 votes, while Matchett received 36,359 votes, totaling exactly zero electoral votes.[1]

There’s ample genealogical information on Matchett. He was born in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 15, 1843, the son of Charles and Clarissa Matchett. Charles was their second child; he had three sisters, Julia, Clara, and Louisa. He married Georgina Straw, a dressmaker in 1871. They do not appear to have had any children. On the 1910 Census, his status is listed as divorced. But on the 1930 Census, her status is listed as “widowed.” Charles Horatio Matchett died on October 23, 1919 in Allston, Massachusetts.

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