A Procedure
I have a procedure on Monday.
The non-surgical orthopedist looked at my MRI and said there's quite a bit of inflammation in an area usually indicating some stage of frozen shoulder. She said it's highly unusual given my level of activity, but there you go.
What she recommended was a new procedure pioneered at the Cleveland Clinic called brisement (the link is to an NIH study published last year). Basically, after a nerve blocker, a small amount of steroid is injected into the shoulder, but it's done with a higher volume of salt water. This temporarily increases the pressure in the shoulder and creates space. After the injection, a physical therapist immediately manipulates the shoulder to permanently capture as much of the increased space as possible.
As it turns out, the orthopedist who pioneered the technique in Cleveland is now in NYC, and my orthopedist recommended him (he's a colleague).
Extremely low possibility of needing to do the injection more than once. Extremely low risk in general. General increase in range of motion of 15-20% almost immediately is to be expected.
It sounds too good to be true, but the study results are impressive and I'm very much looking forward to having it done.
Sneaking Under the Radar
From here:
The House had segregated gyms until 1985, when then-Rep. Barbara Boxer led a successful effort to integrate the far-superior men’s gym. There wasn’t a women’s restroom off the Senate floor until 1993, and it took another 18 years for House women to get a designated restroom off of the House floor, in 2011. A bipartisan but ultimately unsuccessful effort last year to allow new mothers in the House to vote by proxy showed how the Capitol is, in many ways, still not caught up to the realities of mothers in the workforce.
There will now be over 100 women in the Democratic Congressional Caucus. That's a gain of over 60% in the last decade.
Progress.
I was very happy to be able to call Mom 96.7 and give her this information today.
America
That's more like it.
Photos!
On a nervy day, here are two photos:
First, Eli 25.3 has been working on his running form, and here's a still from a video he took:
Very, very fast.
Second, DQ Story Advisor John Harwood send me this picture from Circuit of the Americas (where the F1 race was happening):
Election Day Tuesday
Please don't vote for a party that is actively attempting to reduce the ability of citizens to vote.
Even without going into detail on the wretched, remarkable cruelty of the last two years, that alone should be more than enough.
A basic principle of democracy is that all political parties should actively support that democracy.
Not assault it.
Friday Links!
Leading off, a tremendous article: Life on a hair trigger: A world of violence sustains itself through guns, poverty and other social ills, but also through the minds it creates.
Tragic: The music legends who refuse to leave the stage, but probably should.
A fine story: A Place Among the Fiddlers: In a southwest Virginia fairground, thousands of musicians gather every August to keep a centuries-old tradition from flickering out..
This is a fantastic read: The Lucrative World of Literary Scams: why writers are the perfect target.
Terrific: Traction! Tribologists study friction: what happens when things rub together. It’s indispensable, from the wheel to the paths of stars.
This is wild: The Positively True Adventures of the Kilgore Rangerette–Kidnapping Mom.
From Eric H-F, and it's absolutely amazing (a way to find Wikipedia articles about things close to your location): Local Wikipedia.
From Wally, for grognards: Battle of Stonne, France 1940. And another (Revolutionary War battle): The Battle of Stony Point. This is quite interesting (but takes a while, and ignore the upsell): Palate Axes: React to statements about food and drink. Get your scores on the five basic tastes, the cuisines that match you, and a three-course meal built around your palate. Clever and entirely accurate: Things Parents Have to Watch Out for This Halloween.
Maria, On Her Stoop
Maria sits on her stoop every day in a tattered sweater with her hair tightly pulled back. Most of her teeth are missing, which I only know because of her smile. She smiles every time I walk past, talking with an accent so heavy I can barely understand her.
"What's your name?" she shouted one day as I walked past.
"Bill," I said. "What's your name?"
She said many things and I understand none of them. "What's your name?" I repeated.
"Maria," she said. "How old do you think I am?"
"Forty-five," I said.
She laughed. "No, no, no, What do you really think?"
"Serious guess," I said. "Eighty. Maybe eighty-five."
"In two months I'll be a hundred," she said. It pleased her to say so.
She proudly pointed to a small Virgin Mary statue in her yard (which is about 15'x15' for everyone in Astoria). She wanted me to appreciate it, so I did. I told her to have a good day and walked on.
Two days later, I walked past. "Hi Marie," I said.
"What's your name?" she asked.
Not a single person walks past without stopping to chat. She knows everyone and remembers no one. It doesn't matter.
What?
I find
this astonishing:
NEW YORK, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange is preparing to start trading a new type of options contract that lets investors make all-or-nothing bets on whether a stock or exchange-traded fund will close above or below a set price.
...NYSE is also seeking approval for a second product tied to company earnings metrics, the latest push by exchanges to capitalize on booming demand for event-driven trading.
The binary return options contracts are expected to begin trading within days.
The stock exchange going after Kalshi. What a world we live in. What's next, NYSE? How long before you offer parlays?
The mind reels. Mine, anyway.
An MRI
I had the VIP MRI experience on Friday, much to my surprise.
Then I got the results, and I know why my shoulder hurts. Tendonitis everywhere, basically. Quite a bit of tendinosis. Bonus edema around the AC joint and other places. Partial rotator cuff tear (probably non-surgical, though).
I have a fantastic PT place, and they've helped me get back into a much better range of motion. I'm still going to need quite a bit more work, though, before I can swim again.
I have a video conference with the orthopedist next week and I'm hoping she'll recommend an injection to calm everything down in there. The inflammation is the first thing to tackle.
Books!
I've been fortunate enough to read two exceptional books over the last few weeks.
The first is
American Tabloid by James Ellroy, who is another author prominent in his time who faded away compared to his contemporaries (for baffling and unknown reasons). It's the longest book I've ever read (800+ pages) that never lost its focus or its ability to keep the reader clearly informed.
One of the reasons I don't generally like 500+ pages books is that I have no interest in chasing the mind of the author to access their work (hello, David Foster Wallace, etc.). This never happens in American Tabloid, and it's an entirely brilliant piece of writing. Also, the characters. JFK, RFK, Jimmy Hoffa, the Mob, Jack Ruby, Cuba, the CIA, the FBI...I probably left out ten others. It's an astonishing work with a fantastic ending.
The second book is much, much shorter--less than 200 pages--and much more recent. It's titled
The End of Everything, and it's shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year. It's science fiction, and somehow the style reminds me of Orwell's
1984 in its restraint. It will stay with you well after you finish.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, a fantastic read: The Danger of Getting Too Close to a Source.
This is a heart-warming story: ‘When they listen to this song, they know food is coming’: Burrolandia, a donkey obsession.
A thoughtful essay (my favorite line: "no one wants to eat candy all the time."): Thomas Bowdler lives: on the sanitization of horror.
One of the most honest interviews I've ever heard about playing goalie (and my new favorite player): Devin Cooley post-game interview.
A terrific read: The ‘Finger cutter’ and the ‘Brazilian Escobar’: the men accused of bringing cocaine cartels to Europe.
Again, to no one's surprise (from the stellar journalists at Pro Publica): How Trump’s FBI Purge Saved Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn From a Bribery Investigation.
From D.G.F., and it's part of gambling's slippery slope: ‘I’m Not Going to Have Blood on My Hands:’ Why Nicole Noren, a decorated ESPN producer, quit in protest.
From Meg M. and it's fabulous: Jolly Rancher fluorescence. Also fabulous: The Elizabeth Holmes Documentary, Through the Eyes of the Reporter Who Exposed Her.
From Wally, and it's another cross-universe cash grab: The ‘Star Wars’ and Marvel Universes Collide in ‘Hope Assembles’ Comic Series. A little late, and the seminal video was fabricated, but it's still fun: National Sasquatch Awareness Day. This is both amusing and fascinating: Who is Elias the lighthouse keeper? AI fiction tells the same old story.
Project Helix
It's the next Microsoft console, in case you hadn't heard. Available holiday 2028, allegedly.
Priced at $1,200-$1,800. Also allegedly.
Memory prices aren't going down anytime soon, so the price point seems plausible, really.
Here's the question, though: what are they doing?
They've already gutted the gaming division. The pullback is so substantial that releasing a new console makes zero sense, especially at that price. No one's going to buy it, and why would anyone make games for it?
Clearly, it's not just just a console.
It's the only answer that makes sense. When I say "not a console," I don't mean it also has streaming and whatnot like the current-gen Series X. I mean it has to be substantially more than that.
No one will pay $1,500 for a console, not even me.
What if it wasn't just a console, though? What if it had some kind of dual boot setup where it was also a PC? $1,500 for a console gaming machine AND a Windows PC is not an unreasonable price.
Okay, here comes some unwarranted speculation. If "Helix" refers to DNA, then it could be referring to a double helix, which makes sense if you're referring to a multi-function console with two distinct purposes. I know--stupid--but sometimes the people running large business projects are obsessed with the name (based on my own experience at Dell, many years ago).
The gaming division is hemorrhaging enough money that Microsoft would seemingly be on track to shut it down if it can't contribute to other parts of their business in substantial ways. A dual function PC/console could be that way.
The Constraint Theory
There's a well-known belief about art; most famously expressed by Orson Welles: "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations."
I've been a believer since the very first time I encountered it. And it makes sense, intuitively. Everyone believes it, really.
But what if it's wrong?
The number of people who can create art without limitations is extremely small. The number of people who have constraints? enormous. In film, for example, there are a few directors who have this opportunity, and because they have the highest profile, their work is guaranteed to always be shown and to be judged against their budget. It's a higher bar.
In contrast, low-budget filmmakers, of which there are legions, might make something terrible that either never gets distributed or barely makes a ripple in the pond if it does. The level of scrutiny is so much lower. People forget about them, skewing the numbers, but they never forget the big budget disaster.
Sometimes, though, they're wrong.
One of the most famous tales of no-constraint filmmaking is Michael Cimino's Heavens Gate. It was destroyed by critics in its two hours and twenty-nine minute release version. It was continually held up as the perfect example of no-constraint art and how it fails.
About ten years ago, I saw the Director's Cut, which is three hours and thirty-nine minutes long. In high resolution, on a large OLED television. I watched it in one sitting.
It's a masterpiece.
It's beautiful, it's poignant, and it hits you in the gut repeatedly. It's an incredible film.
In music, The Beatles had an unlimited budget for every album from Sgt. Pepper onwards. Sure, they're the Beatles, but the quality of their output didn't drop even when they were printing money.
There are a ton of counter-examples, of course, but my point is that some of the most powerful art IS created without essentially any constraints, and our belief that it can't, by definition, be any good is misleading at best and harmful to our understanding of art at worst.
