Random Bits of Annapolis

After visiting the Annapolis State House, we wandered around town a bit. We saw two interesting fountains.

One is just outside St. Anne's Parish, one of the earliest churches built in Annapolis. The memorial is dedicated to William Scott Southgate, who was rector at St. Anne's in the late 1800s.

Southgate Memorial

The other fountain is just inside the walls of the governor's house. No chance of tossing a coin in there without an invitation or superpowers!

A nice garden fountain

I'm always impressed with the architecture in Annapolis. So many of the houses were seemingly built in different eras, with different designs. 

I would love to explore inside of this house

Home right by the Naval Academy

We did a brief visit to the Naval Academy, checking out the visitor center. We'll probably come back and do a tour at some point.

Entrance by the visitor center

The Visitor Center has a lot of high tech displays showing what's going on, what has happened here in the past, and the many famous graduates.

What's happening where

Learning about the learning

Admiral William Halsey, graduate in 1904

The building also has a indoor athletic field.

That guy is practicing his golf swing

The visitor center has several displays, including a model of the USS Maryland, a Colorado-class battleship that served from 1920 to 1947. I love the amazing details shown in these models.

USS Maryland

Detail of the ship

For lunch, we visited the Iron Rooster, where I got the chili omelet, which is a lot better than it sounds. They put some chili on the side and add tortilla strips and sour cream. With a side of hash browns, it was delightful.

Yummy!

Book Review: Uncanny X-Men: House of M by C. Claremont et al.

Uncanny X-Men: House of M written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo, and inks by Mark Farmer and others

Rachel Summers and Betsy Braddock travel between realities and wind up in one where Magneto, the mutant master of magnetism, has become the ruler of that particular Earth (thus the title "House of M" since he is the ruler, British-monarch style). The only problem is a "rift in causality" that is wreaking havoc with other different realities, threatening to destroy them all. Brian Braddock (Betsy's twin brother) is the ruler of one of these alternate realities where they realize the problem and his people threaten to destroy his home reality. Brian goes to the House of M reality where he will work with Rachel and Betsy to seal the rift.

The story is very convoluted and borrows a lot of technical jargon from science (there's a sidereal something or other), trying to paper over the dubious mechanics of what's going on. A lot of other mutant characters are brought in, which is fun if you know the roster but even I was unsure of a couple of them. I found the story hard to follow, especially when characters started possessing each other or speaking through each other. It's a bit of a mess and not up to Claremont's usual standards.

Not recommended unless you are up on your X-Men lore.

Movie Review: Jung_E (2023)

Jung_E (2023) written and directed by Sang-ho Yeon

A couple hundred years in the future, the earth has established colonies in space. A handful of them have broken off and fought a war of independence. One particular warrior, Jung Yi (Kin Hyun-joo), was a famous warrior who almost ended the rebellion single-handedly. Her final mission was a failure, though she was rescued. She slipped into a coma because of her injuries. Now, her daughter (Kang Soo-youn) is building a combat AI based on her mother's brain pattern. The company she works for hopes to win the war by creating a heroic, unbeatable robot army. The only problem is the AI keeps failing that same final mission. They can't sell without success.

The story starts with an extended and exciting action sequence. Then the corporate drama starts, though the focus is mostly on the daughter, who feels guilty about her mom nearly dying. Her mom had signed up as a soldier to pay for an expensive cancer surgery for her daughter. The final mission was the day of the surgery, so mom never knew the results. The melodrama doesn't quite hit the mark and the action sequences, while enjoyable, feel like part of another movie. The film is a conglomerate of other science fiction like The Terminator, Ex Machina, and Blade Runner. It's not as satisfying as any of those films. Some of the acting is very over-the-top, which is distracting if excusable due to plot machinations. Overall, the movie makes an unsatisfying package.

Not recommended.

TV Review: Lockwood & Co Season One (2023)

Lockwood & Co Season One (2023) adapted for television by Joe Cornish from the novels by Jonathan Stroud

Lockwood and Company is a small business that incapacitates ghosts in a world where haunts are a regular nighttime occurrence. The situation is so bad, there's a nightly curfew. That's because a ghost's touch can kill or send one into a catatonic state. If that wasn't bad enough, adults can't see the ghosts, only children and teenagers. At a certain age, the young lose their ability to see or hear ghost. Which means all the ghost hunter (of which there are many companies) are young. When they detect a ghost, they can find whatever relic (usually some personal item of the deceased) is keeping the spirit attached to this world.  Destroying the relic or covering it in iron (like a sheet of chain mail) will keep the ghost detained.

Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman) runs his own company even though he is young (late teens, maybe twenty?). His partner is George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati), though George mostly does the research because he is brilliant at it. They hire Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), who has just left a company in northern England after a bad case that left her partners dead or catatonic. The real problem was the company's adult supervisor who did nothing to support the team. But the supervisor put the blame on Lucy, so she skipped town, hoping to find better fortunes in the city. Lockwood's company has no adult supervision and ekes out a living with smaller jobs. Lucy wants to lay low but Lockwood wants big jobs to establish his reputation. And pay off his debts.

The story has an interesting and well-imagined setting. The "rules" are clear and set up plenty of drama. The show has a couple of on-going story lines, all of which are intriguing. The action is fun. The actors do a solid job. Joe Cornish, the show runner, has had experience with younger actors in fantastic settings (he wrote and directed Attack the Block). He does another fine job here. I have not read the books on which the show is based but I am interested to try them.

Recommended.

Currently (February 2023) this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Book Review: The Four Dimensions of Philosophy by Mortimer J. Adler

The Four Dimensions of Philosophy: Metaphysical, Moral, Objective, and Categorical by Mortimer J. Adler

Philosophy gets little to no respect in the contemporary world. It's considered too abstract and not relevant, the sort of thing that gets discussed in a college dorm room or during the later half of a cocktail party. Mortimer Adler, the chief editor of Encyclopedia Brittanica's Great Books of the Western World series, gives a defense of philosophy through a clarification of its place in human knowing. 

Philosophy, with its root meaning (the love of wisdom--philo sophia), began in Greek and Roman antiquity as the primary way to know the world. The first great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, laid the foundation for almost all subsequent philosophical investigation. In their time, philosophy and science were practically synonymous, creating an awkward on-going relationship that has plagued philosophy for thousands of years. The competition between science and philosophy has reduced philosophy's public relevance since the seventeenth century, when science blossomed into its own distinct discipline. Adler distinguishes the two disciplines by their source material. Science uses specialized observations to increase knowledge of specific aspects of the physical world. Philosophy uses common experience and common sense to reflect on the world in general. 

Philosophy looks at both first-order question (about the world itself) and second-order questions (about how we know the world). The first-order questions are divided into the descriptive (thus metaphysical knowledge of the being of things) and the proscriptive (thus moral knowledge of how to behave). The second-order questions also have two dimensions, based on the two meanings of the word "idea." "Ideas" in the sense we get from Plato are the intelligible objects of the mind, thus objective knowledge. "Ideas" are also the various types or categories of knowledge, thus categorical knowledge (so there's a philosophy of history or of psychology or other intellectual disciplines).

This book is very thorough and disciplined. Adler does a good job making distinctions between various concepts. He has a good grasp of the history of thought and the roles that philosophy, theology, science, and mathematics have played at various times. The text might be difficult for people who haven't read much philosophy before, i.e. he's a bit technical.

The book ends with a summation of the strengths and weaknesses of philosophical thinking in various ages (the classical, the medieval, and the contemporary). His analysis of the problems of philosophy and his proscriptions for a better philosophical future are interesting and inspiring.

Recommended for a good understanding of philosophy in general and its tumultuous relationship with science in particular.

Book Review: Ghost/Hellboy Special by M. Mignola et al.

Ghost/Hellboy Special story and layouts by Mike Mignola, pencils by Scott Benefiel, and inks by Jasen Rodriguez

Hellboy goes to investigate a situation in Arcadia, a city that has had decades of rampant organized crime. The B.P.R.D.'s interest is in Ghost, a female spirit who wields two .45 handguns and deals out vengeance. The Bureau wants to recruit her or container her. Hellboy finds Ghost at the scene of a forty-five year old double murder that involved occult rites. Ghost is initially uninterested in Hellboy but she hears a voice that promises her freedom from the world of the living (something she desperately wants). She just needs to help the voice get Hellboy's Right Hand of Doom. Not good.

The story follows the classic two-heroes-fight-each-other-before-working-together routine. Mignola's visual style and writing give it some extra interest. The mythology behind the voice is a little random and non-sensical, making the story less compelling. I enjoyed this book but there is not a lot there.

Mildly recommended.

Maryland State House

The Maryland State House was constructed from 1772 to 1779. It briefly served as the nation's capitol in 1783 and 1784. General George Washington came here to resign as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. The Treaty of Paris, officially ending the American War for Independence, was ratified here on January 14, 1784. In May, Congress sent Thomas Jefferson to France as a diplomat. The building then became the State Capitol for Maryland and is the oldest legislative building still in use in the United States.

Maryland State House

Currently, the Maryland General Assembly meets from January to April to conduct the business of the state. We visited in January but the houses were not in session while we were there. We started our self-guided tour in the basement where they have an old-fashioned shoe-shine station.

The shoe-shiner wasn't there either

The main building has two parts, the 18th century state house and the annex that was added in the 20th century. The older part of the building has smaller meeting rooms and displays about Maryland's history.

We first visited the State House Caucus Room. It was used as a meeting room apart. On display is the silver service from the USS Maryland, a cruiser that served from 1903 to 1929. The silver has pieces named after the various counties in Maryland. 

State House Caucus Room

USS Maryland silver

The Howard County serving plate (our home county!)

A bit more of the room

Next to the Caucus Room is the Old House of Delegates Chamber. The room has been restored to its appearance in the late 1800s. The room features two bronze statues of Maryland natives Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. They were born as slaves on the Eastern Shore and devoted themselves to freeing other slaves.

Old House of Delegates Chamber

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman

There is also a painting of The Burning of the Peggy Stewart. Local patriots objected to the Peggy Stewart's owner paying the British tea tax and they forced him to burn his ship at the Annapolis docks in 1774.

The Burning of the Peggy Stewart

Across the hall is the Old Senate Chamber. It has been restored to its 1780s appearance when the United States Congress was in session. This room is where George Washington resigned from the army. His original speech is on display in the hallway. The event was especially significant because it showed that the army was subservient to the governing body.

The Old Senate Chamber

Posing with Washington

His copy of the speech

The room has a balcony for observers. A bronze statue of Molly Ridout is up there. Women were not allowed on the Senate floor back in the 1700s. Molly Ridout's account of Washington's resignation gives us a lot of the details.

Molly Ridout keeps an eye on things

The Senate Committee Room (next to the Old Senate Chamber) has a wall of portraits from the 1700s of men involved in the state and country governments.

Many early Americans

A side display has some of the historical furnishings of the Senate Chamber.

A desk from the 1790s

Charles Wilson Peale (head of the Peale family of painters) made Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown, a portrait of the three men from 1784. It has hung in the Maryland State House since the 1700s.

Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown

The Stairwell Room recreates the stairs that led up to the Senate balcony and the rotunda dome.

Balcony stairs

Stairs to the rotunda

The rotunda

The original dome was small, so much so that many commented on how it looked disproportionate and unimpressive. It also leaked, so Joseph Clark was hired to fix the roof and make a new dome. The dome is noteworthy because it is made all of wood (some of the decorations outside and the lightening rod (designed according to specifications from Ben Franklin) are metal). The exterior was finished in 1788. Plasterer Thomas Dance fell to his death while working on the dome in 1793. Clark left the project and his foreman, John Shaw, finished it in 1797.

Model of the rotunda/dome

Exterior view of the dome

The main hall has several portraits of the Lords Baltimore, the family that was given a charter by the King of England to found the Maryland colony. Their rule ended in 1776 with the revolution.

Charles Calvert, Third Lord of Baltimore

A plaque commemorates Matthew Alexander Henson, a member of Admiral Perry's expedition to the North Pole in 1909. The plaque was dedicated in 1961 and is the first state-funded memorial for an African-American.

Matthew Henson, explorer

One of the display cases has a statue of Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore. He was a lawyer who served in the United States Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.

Thurgood Marshall

This bust of Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by Franklin himself in Paris. He had many copies made and gave them out as gifts!

Benjamin Franklin

The Grand Staircase is part of the 1906 addition to the state house and leads up to the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as well as the observation galleries for the current Senate and House of Delegates Chambers.

Grand Staircase (too grand for visitors, apparently)

The House of Delegates Chamber is the meeting place for elected officials from across the state. The Tiffany skylight (from the original construction) was restored in the 1990s. 

House of Delegate Chamber

The fancy skylight

As high tech as the desks get

Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley served in the United States Navy and was a hero of the Spanish-American War in the late 1800s. He was born in Frederick, Maryland, and went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. His statue stands just outside the chamber.

Winfield Scott Schley memorial

Across the hall from the House of Delegates is the Senate Chamber. The skylight is also from Tiffany and Company.

The Senate Chamber

Tiffany skylight and observation balcony

Senators listed

The sign above said the next meeting of the Senate would be 8 p.m. on the day we visited. I guess we should have come later. I am not so sure the kids want to visit again but maybe when they are older.