Eight years ago, the Onion published a supposed speech by then President-elect George Bush, called ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’. How prophetic!

Finally, the long national nightmare of the George W. Bush presidency is over.

Barack Obama took the oath of office today. His inaugural speech was somber, reasoned, cautionary, and inspirational—of a piece with the man.

He faces enormous difficulties. There are enormous opportunities too, if he can but seize them. The polls say that the American people do not expect overnight miracles. I hope we will all remember that a year from now.

Here's to Obama and his presidency.

Twenty years ago tomorrow, I attended Bush Senior's Inauguration. By accident.

I was on my first solo trip to the United States, having arrived in New York the previous week. There I had purchased a 30-day unlimited standby ticket with Delta. It cost me only $400, as I could produce my round-the-world ticket.

For no particularly good reason, I decided to start the 30 days with a trip to Washington DC. There were museums there and it was nearby.

I hadn't been paying close attention to the news, and it was only when I got to Washington that I realized that George H.W. Bush's inauguration was to be be held the next day. Even so, I had no difficulty finding a bed at the Youth Hostel. It was the biggest deal in town, so naturally I went.

In practice, this meant standing on a grassy knoll on (I think) Pennsylvania Avenue for several hours, waiting for Bush's motorcade to pass. It was bitterly cold and no one around me seemed to be enjoying themselves much. My only real memory of the day is watching the enormous flag across the street, fluttering in the wind. The flag hung vertically; I think it would have lain like a crumpled rag had it been flown horizontally. Eventually, Bush's car crawled past, eliciting some cheers from the chilled crowd. I left then, to go somewhere warmer.

I had little feel for Bush Senior at the time. Reagan had not been popular in Europe. We thought him a dangerous cowboy, likely to provoke a nuclear war with the Russians. I thought Bush was probably little better, but I wasn't particularly engaged in U.S. politics at the time.

In retrospect, of course, he seems marvelous compared to the other President Bush.

(Before I wrote this post, I assumed that the inauguration was always held on the third Tuesday of January. Actually, it's been held on January 20th since 1937.)

Title: Milk

Director: Gus van Sant

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Copyright: 2008

Milk was a middle-aged closet case who moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s, became politically active, and started running for office, unsuccessfully at first. “The Mayor of Castro Street” was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, the first openly gay man to hold public office in the United States. A year later, only days after the anti-gay Californian ballot initiative, Proposition 6, went down to defeat, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were murdered by ex-Supervisor Dan White.

Sean Penn is convincing as Harvey Milk, an ordinary man who became an impassioned gay activist and an inspirational leader, unapologetic about his sexuality. Both during his life and after, Milk's example leads other people to come out and stop hiding. Milk's relentless focus on politics costs him his personal life, driving away first one lover, then another.

Josh Brolin plays Dan White, not as a caricatured villain, but as a confused and angry man, who has a difficult working relationship with Milk.

Van Sant has created a believable and gripping biopic, showing the burgeoning gay rights movement in the brief, golden decade between the Stonewall riots and AIDS.

Milk is certain to earn some Oscar nominations.

Seattle's Metro Transit is changing a number of routes in South Seattle. They're proposing to close the #39.

Here's my letter to Metro:

To: metro-feedback-se@kingcounty.gov

Subject: Please keep the #39 open

I live two blocks from the busstop at 15th and S. Nevada, served by routes #39, #60, and #36. Metro is proposing to close the one really useful route, the #39 which takes me to work in Pioneer Square. The #60 gets me to 12th and S. Jackson, nearly a mile from work. The #36 only runs down 15th in the evenings; otherwise it runs through Jefferson Park, half a mile away.

The new #50 route will be a poor replacement, getting me only as far as the busway at Lander Street, about halfway to Pioneer Square. Transfers are inevitably tedious and it's all too easy to miss your connection, especially coming home in the evening.

The Beacon Hill Light Rail station is a mile away from me. It's unlikely that I will use it much, even though I work next to the Pioneer Square station.

Closing the #39 leaves me and my wife with poor transit options. But's it's not just me.

There are a lot of people on Beacon Hill who ride the #39, many of them low-income or immigrants. Every stop north of me on 15th and Columbian has plenty of riders. The VA Hospital is just to the south of me and the #39 stops at the front door. I see veterans on the #39 every morning; I don't know how the more disabled ones will manage.

I urge you to keep the #39 running. If you don't, please route the #36 along Columbian Way all the time, so that there's a direct bus between downtown and Beacon Hill.

We'll be attending the open house:

Paul Krugman:

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.

…

There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?

Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

…

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

…

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

The Democrats, with rare exceptions like Conyers and Kucinich, have shown no appetite for holding the Bush Administration accountable. Between starting the Iraq War, torture, billions given in no-bid contracts, Katrina, the U.S. Attorneys' firings, wiretapping U.S. citizens, and much, much more, there's a lot that needs investigating. And surely there's more that hasn't come to light yet.

Letting bygones be bygones just condones the crimes. It will certainly be politically inconvenient to have some accountability, but it's the right thing to do.

I'm not going to hold my breath, however.

I've always been a fast reader, faster than most people. I've read and reviewed 176 books in just over two years, or about two books a week. That doesn't count newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other online reading.

When I was 10, I had an operation on both my feet and I spent all summer with my legs in plaster. My mother had to go to the library every day because they'd only let her take out three books at a time for me. On the flight back from Ireland two weeks ago, I read two 500-page books. My personal best, though, was the long, long night that I read seven short novels.

I've known people who read faster than me, but not many. One friend at college seemed to read about twice as fast as me.

I just tried a couple of online reading speed tests, which rated me at 650-700 words per minute. One of the tests also indicated that online reading is slower than reading a book.

A reviewer for the LA Times read 462 books last year. I might be able to do that if I had nothing else to do. She talks about ripping through an 80,000 word book in 90 minutes. A number of the commenters claimed to be ultra-fast readers too.

I've never taken a speed reading course. I naturally developed a high reading speed. My comprehension and short-term retention is good. My long-term retention is not great, but this is equally true for movies that I've watched.

I think my high reading speed is why I have no patience for podcasts. I can read five times faster than anyone can talk intelligibly. Unless there's a lot of additional information in the soundtrack, such as music or an unusually talented delivery, I'd much rather read.

There are screen readers that will speak at triple speed for blind users: ‘To the untrained ear, the output is incomprehensible, but it allows [T.V.] Raman to “read” at roughly the same speed as a sighted person.’

Read on!

I seldom get bad colds, but I caught one on the plane back from Ireland, and it's left me drained of energy for the last ten days. Jet lag and Frank's death surely contributed too. Feh!

Maybe I'll be up to cycling into work tomorrow. Between the snow, being in Ireland for two weeks, and this cold, it's been almost a month since I last rode in.

Title: The Sun Over Breda

Author: Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: G.P. Putnam

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 0399153837

Pages: 273

Keywords: historical fiction

Reading period: 9–12 January, 2009

Sequel to The Purity of Blood.

Captain Alatriste has rejoined the Spanish army in Flanders, besieging Breda in 1625. Íñigo, his follower and later biographer, is still too young to bear arms, and serves as a forager for Alatriste's squad.

There's no glory in this war—Pérez-Reverte is a former war correspondent. The Spanish empire is on the decline. Spain has been fighting in the Spanish Netherlands for sixty years to suppress the Protestant heretics. The Spanish troops are mutinous and close to starving; they haven't been paid in a long time. All they have is their honor and that, they guard zealously.

A grim tale of privation and battle, well told.

Title: An Unpardonable Crime

Author: Andrew Taylor

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Hyperion

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 1401329632

Pages: 485

Keywords: historical, mystery

Reading period: 8–9 January, 2009

Thomas Shield is a schoolmaster in Regency England who becomes entangled in the affairs of the Frant and Carswell families, as tutor to the Frant boy and his friend Edgar Allan. Old Mr. Carswell is a domestic tyrant and the former business partner of Mr. Frant. Frant swindles his own bank and is found murdered; the beautiful Mrs. Frant becomes indebted to Carswell.

Shield slowly, almost unwittingly untangles what really happened while he is drawn to both Mrs. Frant and Carswell's illegitimate daughter. Edgar Allan, who will one day be known as Edgar Allan Poe, plays a small but crucial role.

Andrew Taylor does a fine job of building a period mystery, in the very different social mores that obtained in the time of Jane Austen.

I've appointed myself as Frank's electronic executor. He had an active online life, spending over 20 years in Usenet newsgroups and selling hundreds of pieces of vintage costume jewelry on eBay.

We had a dry run for this in October, after he'd been in hospital for a month. The need to deal with his eBay customers had grown pressing. Lyndol is not technically savvy and was unable to handle it. I had to work out how to get into his eBay, PayPal, and email accounts. Fortunately, I was able to phone Frank in the hospital and ask him. Unfortunately, he had forgotten many of the passwords and I had to use various password reset features.

I dug into the enormous pile of costume jewelry and worked out what needed to be sent to who, packaged it up for Lyn to send, and sent email to his customers, explaining Frank's hospitalization.

When he came home to hospice care, he sent out email to his online friends telling them. Thoughtfully, he set up an email folder called “friends to notify”, which I used on Tuesday. Less thoughtfully, he continued buying and selling jewelry on eBay until he could no longer sit at the computer. I spent several hours yesterday closing up the business. I had to refund a couple of buyers because I couldn't find their purchases.

Mindful of the password problem for my own heirs, I recorded a CD with my KeePass database several weeks ago. I put it inside a sealed envelope with the master password written out, and I put the envelope into the firesafe. I don't actually know most of my passwords, as they're “strong”, random passwords generated by KeePass. Most of them are unimportant, from websites that I registered with long ago.

The password database, in itself, is not enough. I need to draw up some instructions on what's important and a list of policies and bank accounts, and put that somewhere safe too. Then update it periodically.

You should too. Some poor bastard will think more kindly of you someday.

Title: Making Money

Author: Terry Pratchett

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Harper

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 0061161659

Pages: 404

Keywords: humor, fantasy

Reading period: 4–8 January, 2009

Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's in 2007. Fortunately, it's not evident in this Discworld book.

Moist von Lipwig, con man extraordinaire, finds himself in charge of the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and the Royal Mint. The people don't trust the banks much. In an effort to get money flowing, he introduces paper money to Ankh-Morpork. Lipwig, like his creator, is an acute observer of people, and pulls it off against the odds.

Pratchett does his usual trick of holding a fun-house mirror up to some aspect of human society. This time, it's money and economics.

On Wednesday, I accompanied Lyn to the People's Memorial Funeral Cooperative on Capitol Hill to make the arrangement for Frank's cremation.

Years ago, I read Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death Revisited and it left me with an even lower opinion of the funeral industry than I already had.

I had never made any funeral arrangements before. It turned out to be both painless and inexpensive. The funeral director sat down with us and gathered information for the death certificate that the doctor was unable to provide, such as parents' names and other personal details. Initially, we put down “Software Documenter” as Frank's occupation—his final job had been a ten-year stint at Microsoft as a documentation assistant—but when we were proofreading the printout, I suggested “poet”. And so it was. Frank published one book of poetry, How to Eat a Slug, and I know he'd rather be remembered as a poet than a Microsoft peon.

The cost was $800, as Frank was a member of the non-profit People's Memorial co-op. It would have been a couple of hundred more otherwise. I asked how much it would have cost at a commercial mortuary, and she told us that a basic package at a well-known funeral home a few blocks away started out at $3200. Ouch!

We were unable to view Frank's body as it was already at the crematorium in Kent, and that would have cost $150 extra to set up.

I also arranged a brief death notice in this week's Seattle Gay News.

(Aside: the URL for People's Memorial is http://www.funerals.coop. I wasn't even aware that there was a .coop TLD, but I learned that it was created with other new TLDs, such as .biz, .info, and .name, in 2002.)

My nephew's name is Harold Mark Bowles, to be known as Harry. I assume the Mark is after my brother. No idea about the Harold/Harry.

I said before that my mother was very excited at becoming a grandmother. Here's the proof: take a look at the huge smile on her face.

On Christmas Day, she was trying to decide what her new title was to be. She was really pleased at becoming a granny, but not at all eager to be known as “Granny”. She tried out “Nan Et” (Et for Ethna), which we promptly turned into “Nanette”. “Gran Et” was even worse: with a strong Dublin accent it becomes “Granite”. She has decided that she will be known as “Nana”.

My grandmother Reilly was known to us all as “Gam”. It's my fault. I was the oldest grandchild and I couldn't say “Gran”, so I called her “Gam”—and it stuck. Almost. Some of our cousins heretically called her “Gan”. I was definitively wrong, dammit!

I wrote three weeks ago, that Frank's time was limited. He died yesterday at 3am of liver failure. He had been unconscious since Saturday, and he had been moved to a hospital bed in his living room on Thursday.

I was at a coffee shop near work yesterday morning when Emma called me to relay the news from Lyndol. We hurried over there and spent the rest of the day with him, helping out as various friends came over.

Lyn is doing as well as can be expected. He's sad, occasionally weepy, and sometimes a little manic. I think he's relieved that Frank's ordeal is over. After 32 years together, it's going to leave a huge void in his life.

I'm sad too, of course, but I'm coping well, if a little numb. Emma's more obviously upset. We're going back over there in a little while. I'm to close up Frank's eBay business and to accompany Lyndol to the mortuary. We expect to be back in the office tomorrow.

Frank had thoughtfully left a folder in his email called "friends to notify", a task that I took care of yesterday. I announced it too on his Facebook homepage. Over the next few days, I'll write up a longer appreciation of Frank and post it to his two favorite newsgroups, soc.motss and rec.arts.movies.past-films.

When I have time, I intend to put together some selections from his many postings. For now, a tiny sampler from Jess Anderson.

When I announced my nephew's birth on Monday, I didn't say where I had been when I learned the news. Lyn had invited another couple and Emma and me over on Sunday for a meal. We sat in the living room, talking, while Frank gurgled slightly on oxygen in the corner. It was somewhat surreal but Lyn desperately needed the company of friends.

My father's call came, I took it in the kitchen, then came back and told Emma that she now had a nephew. We toasted the baby. The circle of life: birth and death. As Eric said when I told him the next day, if it was in a movie, you wouldn't believe it.

I didn't really say goodbye to Frank then—I didn't expect the end to come quite so soon—and I regret it. The last time that I saw him conscious was the night of his anniversary when we brought dessert back to his house. He was still fully in command of his faculties then as his newsgroup posts on Christmas Day demonstrate.

As the social worker told us yesterday, Kubler-Ross's work was all about letting people die in character, and Frank very much died in character. I found it remarkable how little it seemed to bother him these last few months at home that his death was imminent. He seemed to get stronger after he came home from the hospital to home hospice care. He took as keen an interest in life as he ever did. I only saw him down once.

Frank Maloney, much loved and much missed.

David B just emailed me a handful of cameraphone photos of his wife and son. I like this one the best.

[Edit: This one is actually from my brother David, not my brother-in-law David. I'm telling you, one of them's got to go: it's just too confusing.]

At 12:44am Monday (Irish Time), Michelle gave birth to a 9lb 8oz boy. Mother and son are healthy but exhausted. I'm not sure quite how long the actual labor lasted; but I think she started late on Saturday.

My nephew is, as yet, unnamed. David and Michelle have yet to find a boy's name that both of them really like. Under Irish law, they have three months to do so, but Michelle hopes to pick a name within a few days at most.

Title: Absent Friends

Author: S.J. Rozan

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Dell

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0440241855

Pages: 541

Keywords: fiction, mystery

Reading period: 3 January, 2009

Rozan weaves together two stories here, past and present.

Seven children, four boys and three girls, grow up together on Staten Island in the 1960s and 70s. In early adulthood, one of the young men accidentally kills another, then is killed in prison. A third boy, Jimmy McCaffrey, becomes estranged from the others and moves to Manhattan where he rises in the Fire Department.

Jimmy dies in the Twin Towers on 9/11, doing what he did best: saving people. A month later, a washed-up newspaper reporter writes a story insinuating that there was something unsavory in Jimmy's past. Then the reporter leaps from a bridge, an apparent suicide. His lover doesn't believe it's a suicide and wants to dig deeper.

Rozan cuts back and forth between the two stories. Each story informs the other. Some characters want to find the truth; others would rather conceal it. What is that truth? And are the costs of revealing that truth too high, especially for a community reeling from the losses of 9/11?

Title: The Sunrise Lands

Author: S.M. Stirling

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Roc

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 0451462254

Pages: 512

Keywords: speculative fiction

Reading period: 3 January, 2009

This book takes place about ten years after A Meeting at Corvallis. The focus has switched to a younger set of characters, the first generation to grow up after the “Change”, the event that knocked the world back into the Dark Ages.

A traveler arrives in Oregon from the East, bearing a compelling prophecy that requires Rudi Mackenzie to travel to Nantucket, the apparent source of the Change. A group of nine (the number is traditional) head eastwards. But the fanatical Church Universal and Triumphant wants to stop them.

Plenty of action keeps the story moving as Stirling continues to explore the ramifications of his post-apocalyptic scenario.