And this may be the queerest thing in all our queer world

"My side" bias

As we read or hear about the Supreme Court and discussion of marriage equality, it can be very frustrating to hear the same tired old, disproved arguments crop up again and again. What we may not realize is that the other side is also tired of hearing our side's arguments, which they find as unconvincing as we find theirs. So just a reminder to help maintain calm:

Confirmation bias, also called my side bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, or recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Marriage equality clearly falls into this category.

People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. You may notice that people on both sides of this issue will report enthusiasm for the clear leanings of a particular justice -- even when opposing sides are clearly convinced that they heard that justice speaking on behalf of their position. Depending on the news source you favor, you may hear completely different evaluations of what is going on.

Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

 Click on image to enlarge for reading.

A series of experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives. In certain situations, this tendency can bias people's conclusions. Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking (lots of that going on all over the place) and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong, rather than investigating in a neutral, scientific way.

Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts. And, I suspect, in just about everyone's personal experience of themselves and others.

And remember: I may be right and still fall into the trap of not listening carefully to opposing positions, which makes it harder to treat my opponents with respect and dignity or present my own position calmly and clearly. That helps no one. 

I have found it helpful, though by no means easy, to try to first make sure I understand the other side, asking clarifying questions and getting confirmation that I do understand, before trying to advance my ideas. This does not always work, maybe not even much of the time. But I find that I feel more relaxed when I approach things this way. 

Café du Canard Bizarre

One of our favorite little places in Barona is Café du Canard Bizarre, loosely translated Odd Duck Cafe. It is a great spot to get a decent brioche and good coffee on a Sunday morning, borrow a copy of The New York Times and sit outside reading lazily about life in the Big City and watch the scenery stroll by. Daniel is out of the country, and I took Tag Nelson (AKA Hank Pharr) to get coffee this morning and to try to soothe his rumpled feathers. Fortunately he liked the coffee, the brioche and the scenery. We have similar tastes, as it turns out.

Coincidentally the Museum of Hoaxes recently had an article about the origin of the word canard, in the sense of a false or absurd story. You can click on the link to find out more, which is that no one is quite sure but it probably does not have anything to do with reported duck cannibalism. (Now I'll bet you are interested enough to click the link, huh?)

This got me to wondering about the origin of the expression odd duck with its minor variations, strange duck, queer duck, funny duck. Or even lucky duck, although I wonder if the rhyme has something to do with the last one.

It turns out these expressions apparently have nothing to do with waterfowl. They simply reflect a centuries-old colloquial use of the word duck to mean a person. There is the British-ism, Ducks or Ducky, meaning a dear person, of course. Sometimes ducky means cute or fine, as in, "Everything is ducky."

At any rate, I was struck by the idea that Café du Canard Bizarre could also be translated as the Cafe of the Bizarre Tale. Or to take it even further ...

 

Don't forget to wash!

According to Weird Universe [April 25, 2015], this ad appeared in Life magazine in 1950.
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Damien's note: Those of my generation probably remember being assured that crouching under our school desks and keeping our heads down would protect us in case of nuclear attack.

Because sometimes ...

you just don't have the energy to do it yourself.

Oh, yeah!

I have run across this reference twice recently and thought that redundancy made it worth sharing:

J.B.S. Haldane, a British scientific polymath of the early 20th century, once said: “My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

He also said, "If one can conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles." 

I suppose it is coincidental that he died in 1964, shortly after the rise of the Beatles to stardom.

Theater people!

As I mentioned, things are a bit hectic right now as we prepare for the play. The latest boondoggle has to do with the playwright/director, Hank Pharr. Hank is a former Kappa whose full moniker is Henry Newton Pharr, IV. He is an actor, of sorts, who goes by the name of Tag Nelson. His career, after a few recurring roles on lesser Disney television shows in the early years of the millennium, has consisted of turns on cruise ships and dinner theaters. He wrote the play we are producing as part of an MFA at Harvard. 

The play is two weeks away and rehearsals have just begun. It is a small cast and looked like it was going to be a simple project.

If you believe that, you have not dealt with dramatis personae.

Hank is actually fairly easy-going but he buys into every theatrical superstition out there, and there are plenty out there. Most don't matter, but he is now embroiled in an argument with the maintenance people at the library where the play will be staged. He insists that a light be left burning at all times in the small auditorium we are using. The relevant superstition is that there should always be a light burning in an empty theater to ward off ghosts.

Like many such superstitions, this one probably arose for practical reasons: to make sure people didn't trip over props, furniture and such things or fall off the stage wandering around in the dark looking for a light switch. Hank seems to believe it arose because, you know, ghosts.

For some reason, the library maintenance people are reluctant to leave a light burning, claiming there is the danger of it starting a fire. Hank gets red in the face and storms about, while the maintenance supervisor stands by and repeats that he believes it will violate the fire code.

I suspect the maintenance people will win this one, but Hank has begun to predict ghostly doom. And you have never heard ghostly doom predicted until you have heard it in the orotund tones of a dramatist whose will is thwarted.

Sigh.

Just a couple of more weeks until the play is over and then a month and I will be free of the Kappas.

Hope you are visiting ...

Things have gotten suddenly hectic here with preparations for our play and all that. I apologize for not being able to post much these days, but I promise this will be over when the semester ends. 

Meanwhile, I hope you visit some of the sites listed in the sidebar. There are lots of fun items showing up there all the time. 

Enjoy!

Angel eyes

Look into his angel eyes;
One look and you're hypnotized.
He'll take your heart
And you must pay the price.

Look into his angel eyes;
You'll think you're in paradise,
And one day you'll find out he wears a disguise.
Don't look too deep into those angel eyes;
Oh, no, no, no, no.

~ ABBA

Just by gazing at their owners, dogs can trigger a response in their masters' brains that helps them bond, a study says.

And owners can do a similar trick in return, researchers found.

This two-way street evidently began when dogs were domesticated long ago, because it helped the two species connect, the Japanese researchers say.

The brain response is an increase in levels of a hormone called oxytocin. Studies in people and animals indicate this substance promotes social bonding, such as between parent and infant or between two lovers.

Source: Chicago Tribune 

Damien's note: A decade or so back, I participated in a communications workshop with some colleagues. In one exercise, we were paired off and told to have a conversation. The idea was to talk about something harmless (the weather) while communicating something else by tone of voice and body language. The guy I was with was a casual friend, part of a group I hung out with at work. We talked about the weather, but he looked into my eyes and did not break eye contact for the entire time -- just a few minutes. I got tongue-tied, blushed and laughed and could not continue. By the time the exercise was over, I had a ferocious crush on him. 

This became a source of great amusement among our circle. For a few months after that, he would start staring at me across a table and it would inevitably make me blush.

I stood up for him when he and his husband married a few years later, and we are still in touch. The magic of his angel eyes wore off and I met Daniel and have other eyes to look into today. But the ABBA song always makes me think of him.

And a warning to those who find someone with angel eyes -- that may just be the oxytocin talking and he/she may actually just be a dog in disguise.

Politics and Photoshop, spins and spiders

The season has arrived for aspirants to the highest office in the land to toss their hats into the ring. 

I note at the same time stories about speculation that publicity photos of female performers have been Phtoshopped. This process -- which as far as I know is simply the digital version of tampering with the evidence which has long been the practice in the world of entertainment and news reporting -- is considered somewhat scandalous, or at least is reported in breathless tones of shock.

In the political sphere, we take this for granted and just call it spin. As painful as I find the endless pre-electoral process to be, all the faux debates and cockeyed caucuses and so on, at least many of the candidates who have been spun into a delectable fantasy fall under the prolonged scrutiny and disappear from the landscape. Well, hardly disappear. Many of them get gigs as news analysts (cough, cough) at cable news networks where they get to do the spinning, usually attempting to spin everyone else off the playing board.

At any rate, one suspects that the process we must endure for the next year and a half means some worthy men and women forgo it all for the sake of having a life.

I could probably come up with some strained parallel here between the pride of Arachne -- who thought her weaving better than that of Athena and was turned into a spider for her arrogance -- but I will let you work that out on your own. (Attend to the version in which Arachne weaves stories that show the gods at their worst. History's first spin doctor?)

Okay, so maybe I did come up with a strained parallel.

Where the boys are

The Kappas are all back from Spring Break and things are hopping as we try to get ready for the play they will sponsor next month. I am back to my teaching, too, so postings will be sporadic.

Stay well, stay happy, stay free!

When all else fails, be kind. 

The cats, Rover and Spot, send their indifference.

Hate-for-pay

In the sex industry, one speaks of gay-for-pay, that is, straight men who engage in sexual acts with other men either as escorts/rentboys/hustlers or for pornography. One may question whether all those who claim to be gay-for-pay are indeed as straight as they claim or if that is part of their self-marketing. Whatever.

I thought of that as news stories emerge about pizza places and bakeries that refuse to serve gay clients gaining huge amounts of money through fundraiser sites.

Doesn't this essentially mean that they are willing to hate for pay? We will take on the burden of your hatred and bigotry and you can just send us cash and hide out in your safe little living room behind your veil of civility and Christian faith.

Sounds a lot like pornography to me. And I would imagine lots of money pours into their pockets from the same people who spend time behind closed curtains looking at ... you know.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Many Mormons believe that they know the exact date Jesus was born - April 6. This date mostly comes from James E. Talmage's book, Jesus the Christ and from an interpretation from The Doctrine and Covenants 20:1. Other church leaders have referenced April 6 as being the date of Jesus' birth including Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, and, most recently, Elder David A. Bednar. 

The Doctrine and Covenants is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God, editions of the book continue to be printed mainly by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The passage in question is as follows:

1 The rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April.

Tartan

Tartan Day is a celebration of Scottish heritage on April 6, the date on which the Declaration of Arbroath, a sort of declaration of independence and national sovereignty, was signed in 1320. An ad hoc event was held in New York City in 1982, but the current format originated in Canada in the mid-1980s. It spread to other communities of the Scottish diaspora in the 1990s. In Australasia the similar International Tartan Day is held on July 1, the anniversary of the repeal of the 1747 Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan. [Damien's note: One wonders what Catholic school girls wore in the days prior to 1747.]

Tartan Days typically have parades of pipe bands, Highland dancing and other Scottish-themed events.
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Damien's other note: No haggis, thank you!

Happy Easter

Daniel is in England, the Kappas are probably still sleeping off their hangovers and I am waking up after attending John Smoake's lovely Easter vigil last night. His deacon did a fine job with the Exultet, by the way, which is one mark of a good service IMHO.

This morning I am meeting up with Daniel's sister Lainey at the Café du Canard Bizarre for Easter Brunch. I suppose for Lainey it is a mid-Passover brunch, but whatever. 

For a moment I was wondering what Patriarch George Basilarion and his Honorians are up to, but then I remembered they keep Easter next week. Poor George! He has never quite recovered from becoming Patriarch, and his aunt, the Dowager Patriarcha, is enveloped in permanent umbrage. Jackson, his husband, is still very amused.

Anyway, I intend to relax and get ready for the return of the barbarians to the Kappa House and to campus. So although there are lots of queer Easter traditions around the world, I think I will let them rest.

Happy days!

Spooky nights in the Kappa House

The Kappa Dabba Dus are away this week for Spring Break. Rather than go back to my own place, I agreed to sleep in the house director's suite so that someone would be on site at night. I spend several hours each day in Daniel's and my apartment to keep the cats company, make myself dinner and then come back here around dark. It hasn't been a problem and I am getting quite a bit of work done. 

It did remind me, however, of an old joke about frat rats:

All the fraternity brothers left the house for a long weekend except for Grady, who decided to stay behind and get some studying done. One night Grady heard a noise under his bed. Fearing it might be a burglar, he leaned over and whispered, "Anybody there?" "No," said the burglar. "That's funny," the boy said to himself. "I could have sworn I heard a noise!"

After a couple of weeks living with in the Kappa House, this is soooo believable!

A Friday 13 story for Thursday

April 2 is the feast of St. Francis Paola, founder of the Order of Minims. I once met a Sister of St. Joseph whose name was Sr. Paola, which she insisted on pronouncing Pay-oh-la. It made me think of the illegal practice in the music industry of paying radio stations to play songs in order to drive up sales.

But that is not why I bring it up today. Instead it is because of this juxtaposition of Friday and the dread number, 13:

Devotion of the Thirteen Fridays

Pope Clement XII, in the brief "Coelestium Munerum Dispensatio" of December 2, 1738, promulgated an indulgence to all the faithful who, upon 13 Fridays continuously preceding the Feast of St. Francis of Paola (April 2), or at any other time of the year, shall, in honor of this Saint, visit a church of the Minims and pray there for the Church. In this brief, mention is made of a devotion which originated with St. Francis himself, who, on each of 13 Fridays, used to recite 13 Pater noster’s (Our Father's) and as many Ave Maria’s (Hail Mary's), and this devotion he promulgated by word of mouth and by letter to his own devout followers, as an efficacious means of obtaining from God the graces they desired, provided they were for the greater good of their souls.

One notes that the Minims, never a large group, almost died out and today exist mostly in Italy, making it difficult for most Catholics to make the required visit to a Minim church. There are fewer than 200 Minims today, but there are small communities in  other places. All Saints Catholic Church in Los Angeles, for example, is staffed by Minims.

Nixon for President: April Fool 1992

April 1, 1992: National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation revealed that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little. 

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Damien's note: As I mentioned, things are moving along surprisingly well at the fraternity, and although I am busy despite it being Spring Break for the guys, I could not resist the temptation to share one of the April Fool jokes from Museum of Hoaxes Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes. Check out the whole list.

PS -- And this is not an April Fools joke, today true bibliophiles and bibliophages have an International Edible Book Festival. This is an annual event usually held on or around April 1, which is also known as Edible Book Day. The global event has been celebrated since 2000 in various parts of the world, where "edible books" are created, displayed, and small events are held. The creations are photographed and then consumed.