Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Magnolias so pink,
And the spring sky so blue….
Who could waste time on taxes today?
But … we do!

Niek has wonderful photos this morning of wildflowers that had “escaped” from the Holland flowerfields…

Meanwhile, Frank Paynter beautifully evokes the tranquil here-and-thereness of spring in Wisconsin…

Meanwhile, Kalilily is singing along with Perry Como, “It’s a good day from morning till night”…

Meanwhile, it’s sunny and cold in Cambridge, MA, with blue skies above the tree branches now hinting pale green. My front yard has tulip leaves but no flowers yet. Maybe when I get home next time, they will have opened. Yes, after two days at home, we are packing again.

No abayas this trip, but once again we need clothes for both hot and cold climates–an APS meeting in Tampa (where I also get to celebrate my little sister’s birthday!) followed by a Philadelphia tribute to Yoichiro Nambu.

But I’ll be reading all of your blogs for more signs of springtime…

“…it is not enough, before commencing to rebuild the house in which we live, that it be pulled down ..
it is likewise necessary that we be furnished with some other house in which we may live commodiously during the operations…”
René Descartes (1596– – 1650), Discourse on Method)

Descartes boldly set out to question all his beliefs– but didn’t question the need for some “code of Morals,” even though he expected that ultimately he would replace them with new guidelines of his own.

His first principle was to conform to the laws and customs of people around him,

“…adhering firmly to the Faith in which, by the grace of God, I had been educated from my childhood, and regulating my conduct in every other matter according to the most moderate opinions, and the farthest removed from extremes, which should happen to be adopted in practice with general consent of the most judicious of those among whom I might be living…”

This moderate and rational praise for conformity deeply impressed me when I was a teenager learning French. Re-reading it now, I see that I mis-remembered something fairly important. I (mis)remembered that Descartes urged conformity to avoid fruitless arguments with our neighbors, leaving us more time and energy for nobler goals.

I’m glad I cleared that up, though I don’t expect to be tested on Descartes again very soon…

Jon Carroll and/or radical Unitarians want to know:

Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus.

Thanks to the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator for my new name and to Brother Broadsword of Moderation for the link.

“The big thing is to combine punctuality, efficiency, good nature, obedience, intelligence, and concentration with an unawareness of what is going to happen next, thus keeping yourself available for excitement.”

Sir John Gielgud, whose birthday is April 14

Women in Riyadh wear long black abeyas and cover their heads. Some women–fewer than half–also cover their faces. Mia brought glamorous abeyas for both of us from Cairo. I’m sorry this photo doesn’t show the opulent gold-patterned sleeve and scarf-ends on mine, but generalize from her fuchsia band and you get the idea.

Many indoor spaces, including our hotel, were abaya-optional zones–full of dynamic, well-educated Saudi women, some of them wearing head-scarves and some of them not.

Outdoors, their black color makes them hot when the sun comes pouring down. I predict that the inventive Saudis will soon invent a new, improved tradition of wearing white abeyas in summer.

Now it’s Frank’s turn with our ethernet cable!

When I saw this sentimental Victorian painting, years ago, I was startled to recognize two modern little girls in the very front row–Margaret and Ruth, the daughters of friends of ours. It was even in character (then) that Ruth was dipping a few extra flowers out of her sister’s basket.

Now, 25 years later, and in Riyadh, grown-up Margaret and Ruth turn up again, still looking just the same, having acquired gravitas and major scholarly credentials while still looking just the same–at least to me.

No wonder Alma Tadema could paint them both for Queen Victoria…

This morning, we visited the Riyadh suq, an outdoor market with many different displays of sandalwood, buckets of antique jewelry, and enough inlaid daggers to set off ten kinds of alarms at airport security.

The King Faisal Foundation is taking wonderful care of all their winners–and I’m loving our rooms in the Al-Faisaliyah Hotel, whose luxuries range from fresh fruit and flowers (including floating pink rose petals) to ultramodern touchpads at each bedside that let you open or close three levels of curtains.

But even outside this VIP coccoon, I’ve found Saudi Arabia more welcoming than I expected. In Dammam airport, as Frank and I tried to find our way to our next airplane–picking up somebody else’s suitcase by mistake, and leaving one of our own suitcases behind–the many Saudis we spoke with went out of their way to help us. I’m told that hospitality to guests is one of the first social skills a Saudi child learns–I can well believe it. Even our suitcase gaffe was met with great tact.

Living in any country on this divided planet, it’s easy to pick up some caricature ideas of any other country you can mention. This eloquent statement by Saudi foreign minister HRH Prince Saud Al-Faisal addresses a lot of western caricatures of this part of the world.

Another perspective comes from British scholar Carole Hillenbrand, who just won a King Faisal International Prize for her book on the Crusades as seen by Islamic eyes. By the way, Carole would like to make it clear that she is not “fluent” in 11 languages other than English–11 is merely the number of languages she’s studied.

Such modesty is admirable, but…I clearly remember once trying to play a dictionary game in a group that included Carole. We had to give up because none of us could find, in the big dictionary, even one English word Carole didn’t know…

We got to the Al-Faisaliah Hotel about midnight last night — it’s a striking sight against the Riyadh skyline, somehow more welcoming than the Kingdom Tower.

We’re here because the King Faisal Foundation very kindly awarded Frank a King Faisal International Prize in Science.

Other prizewinners got here several days ago–we missed camel rides and a picnic in the desert–but Frank had a previous promise to Delft that could not be broken. The KFF was understanding about our delay, and gave us a royal welcome even at midnight.

After meeting a number of charming dignitaries, drinking watermelon juice, eating cotton candy with salted almonds (and not eating even more tempting things we were offered), and then unpacking, we finally got to bed around 2 a.m.

Then we got up at 7 for today’s very full schedule. So if I’m incoherent, that’s my excuse!

Schiphol, pronounced “S*%@*ip – hol”, is my favorite world airport, and would be my favorite world airport even if it weren’t next to Amsterdam, one of my very favorite world cities. And now Schiphol has a new feature in its favor–besides cleanliness, access to fast trains, and sensible shops including a supermarket. That new feature is happy memories of meeting the famous Niek of Shutterclog.

Niek has been charming blogreaders for quite a few years now, so I was honored that he left his home on the beach to come visit with us. And how did he ever find chocolate bars named “Divine”?

One couldn’t imagine a better companion for tiptoeing through the tulips…