Nom de Plume

Yesterday, Steve and I were talking about how there are tons of dog grooming places–and how they’re always horrendously named.

Here are just a few:

Hair of the Dog
Dog Parlor
Yapper Dog Parlor
Laundered Beast
Poodle Palace

It’s not that the names are so bad–it’s that they’re always cutesy and eminently forgettable. Even when I had a dog and we took her to the dog grooming place, it was always referred to as, “Hey, let’s go to the dog place.”

So, any other bad names you can think of?

If anyone asks me, I will vehemently deny that all this rain is oppressive. Instead, I will insist that I rather like it.

Truth to tell, I’m not sure I don’t–but I’m antsy, antsy, antsy. Could be the weather, could also be because I still have my move hanging over my head. There’s something to be said for a clean break.

I go back to Boise this Saturday. Mike has a conference at the University of Washington starting Friday, so he’s going to drive back with me. Mikey and Zia hit the open road. Dana wants to have a goodbye party on Saturday, but I really don’t want to hang around that long. Maybe an early party on Wednesday? Dana? Any thoughts? Naturally, I need a party–if for no other reason than to be able to say, “Oh! But you shouldn’t have!”

Steve is about to kill himself because of the weather here.

I suspect it’s not going to get any better.

And, as though three days in a U-Haul weren’t enough, he decided that we needed to go on a road trip today. Snohomish was an interesting little town, chock full of antiques. I should backtrack here, and say that this trip was designed around our pretty much immediate need for a couch. A cheap, not-too-gross couch. (This is also why we went to Fremont yesterday.)

Naturally, we didn’t find one, although I did see a lamp I liked. Alas, with a $475 price tag, it was ever-so-slightly out of my price range.

We hit some furniture stores on the way back, where we were hustled by salespeople desperate for the end of the month sale. And then, we went to a consignment store around the corner, and found the perfect couch.

I mean, it was perfect. Deep orange, slim enough to fit through the door, and with an ultra-groovy coffeeshop feel.

And it was fifty bucks.

The only hitch in the plan was that a woman was paying for it.

But, as Scarlett said, Tomorrow is another day.

It would have been nice to have a digital camera, and that way I could have documented the road trip up here, and our subsequent ensconcing in the Green Lake/Greenwood area.

Failing that, let me just say that we are both absolutely nuts about this neighborhood. Restaurants, coffeeshops, an antique store that relies heavily on Romanian antiquariats (sp? Mom?) and a Starbucks with mismatched tables a la Flying M all make me feel right at home. The apartment itself was last remodeled in the 50s, and has the unfortunate color combinations to prove it, but is HUGE. Lots and lots of space. Steve and I wasted all day trying to find a place to buy a couch, and ended up walking around in Fremont. We bought nothing, but had a great time. Great Thai, too.

Steve wants to buy a houseboat.

(I think the reason he told me about his grandfather living in a purple bus was to make me feel grateful for his restraint.)

I should really log off and go home. I realized as soon as I sat down that I have Steve’s phone in my backpack.

Road trips are fun for the first 300 miles. We’re in Woodland, CA–and have something like 741 miles to go. The fog was so dense last night that we were going 35 miles an hour. It’s not that much better rigth now. Steve is bugging my to go–but, as you know, I get shaky if I don’t check my e-mail for more than 4 hours, so here we are in Starbucks.

It’s the afternoon before we take off. The U-Haul is almost completely packed, and I had to run up to a cafe to make a couple of last minute client changes on a project. Steve was left with the boxes, oh darn, but I suppose I should really get back now ….

I’m pretty bummed that Dean didn’t do all that well in the Iowa Caucus.

I’m sitting in the Starbucks in Santa Monica, having succumbed to purchasing a T-Mobile monthly wireless account. I should have known that it wouldn’t all be a free ride. Sigh. Also, sending mail from Outlook using my smtp mail server is somewhat problematic. In other words, it seems to work half the time, and not work the other half. Any technical gurus who may be reading this … have any solutions?

Got in yesterday afternoon along with two Very Large Suitcases. We have an enormous amount of packing to do before we’re ready to hit the road. Still not sure if we’re going to leave Wednesday or Thursday. But the month-to-month apartment in Green Lake is ours, so we’ll have a place to move into right away. That’s a load off the mind.

On the plane ride down here, I caught up on the New Yorkers and Atlantic Monthlies that have been piling up in the living room for weeks. Some really good articles/stories, and I saved a few of the stories, thinking S would enjoy me pretending to be a book on tape. His car stereo is fixed, so he didn’t greet this plan with the appropriate enthusiasm.

Last night on NPR, the City Club of SF had some IMF bigwig speak. It was obvious he leaned towards the Republican, but it made me want to understand economics better.

Other than that, it’s early in the morning, and I still have a ton to do because, naturally, I’ve left it to the last minute. Dana is driving me to the airport in a few hours. I’m really starting to freak out….

You know, I don’t really care WHO wins the next Presidential election–as long as it’s not Bush.
Other than that, I am leaning towards Dean.

Meanwhile, Bush is claiming that his tax cuts have, and will continue, to turn the economy around. Hmmm, let’s see. Anti-terrorism measures have replaced diplomacy, the national deficit is higher than Bush in his college days and the dollar’s value continues to plummet.

I am in love with wireless. I don’t know why I didn’t spend the 40 bucks to get a wireless card before now.

Of course, I realized yesterday when I went to Little Richard’s to test it out that my battery is complete toast. It shut off after 20 minutes. I shouldn’t be surprised. I never discharge it, and after all, my laptop is 4 years old. I live in dread of it dying on me.

I got a lot accomplished yesterday, but still have a ton to do. I haven’t even figured out what stuff I’m taking with me on this trip. Probably just all the clothes I can fit into two suitcases.

Which means I have a TON of laundry to do.

Steve has rented an apartment sight unseen. It’s a month to month because the building is being torn down in March. A friend of his went by to see it, and says it’s a little bigger than his place in Venice. Well, it couldn’t possibly be smaller.

Say bon voyage to the houseboat plan.

It’s supposed to get down to 12 degrees today.

For some reason, I woke up at 5:30 this morning. So, I hopped online, researched which wireless card to get, and will be heading out to CompUSA in a couple hours. I don’t like them, especially since they try to rip you off, but they’ve got a great deal on cards, so I have no problem selling out. (And I rant about others doing the same.)

When Mike’s son Ian was here, he said that he was picking up a wireless signal–so maybe I’ll just cancel CableOne today while I’m at it.

Other things I have to do: Order more checks. Start organizing and packing. Finish work project. Start revamping my web site (which I’ve been putting off). Finish the first chapter on Razia. Check availability of books I want at the LA library for Monday, when Steve has to work. Organize contacts for Seattle. Get home buying book from library for Steve. Return all other books (which means finding them, not always an easy process). Get itinerary from S, tell Dana when to take me to the airport on Sunday.

Hmm, maybe I should just go back to bed.

I wonder when Mike’s coming back. This is a huge house for one person to rattle around in — and I swear, it’s haunted. When I’m downstairs, it sounds like someone’s walking around upstairs. When I’m in bed with the door closed, it sounds like someone’s walking around on the landing/in Mike’s office. And it’s not the little pitter patter of squirrel feet. (Although there’s that too. I should put out the trap again. Add that to the list.)

Puzzle of the Day

If today’s low is 29 degrees with a high of 36, how can it currently be 26?

According to the Tabikat-i-Nasiri, Razia’s “mother was the chief wife of his majesty, and she resided in the chief royal palace in the Kushk-Firoze.”

I am going to assume this means her mother was the daughter presented in marriage to Iltutmish by Aybeck.

I am also going to posit that she died before Iltutmish did, based on the fact that Shah Turkan is later described as the head wife.

Shah Turkan was the scheming mother of Feroz Shah, one of Razia’s brothers who ascended the throne after Iltutmish died. Feroz was generous, but given to debauchery, and Shah Turkan assumed all power while he was off smoking dope. By all accounts, she was not a very nice person.

Once Iltutmish died, she executed all the harem ladies she didn’t like. She had Razia’s youngest brother blinded and then executed. Then, she ordered Razia’s execution. At this final straw, the people revolted and Shah Turkan was slapped in jail. As her name suggests, she was Turkish, and described both as a “slave” and as a “handmaid.” Six of one, a half dozen of the other: It is obvious that she was a bitter and ambitious woman, and the more I think of her, the larger a role she has to play in the unfolding of the story.

The royal palace mentioned above presents another set of difficulties.

There’s a Kushk-i-Firoz in Delhi; however, this was built by Firoz Shah Tughluk in 1354. Strike out.

The capital of the medieval rulers of Ghur was Firoz-Koh, and was situated halfway between Herat and Kabul. In addition, the historian who wrote the Tabikat i Nasiri was appointed head of Firozi College.

I may take artistic license with this, as I currently have the astrologer gazing into the muddy waters of the Yamuna.

Here’s what I know: Ghori and his forces invaded Delhi through the weak Northern gate of the Qila Rai Pithora (which was originally the Lal Kot, until Prithvi Rai III enlarged it and renamed it after himself.) Ghori left Aibek, a slave and head honcho in charge. Once Ghori died, Aibek assumed control, and he is considered to be the first ruler of the Slave dynasty. The Slave dynasty continued to use the QRP as their stronghold.

However, not content with ousting the Hindu Rajputs, they went on a little bit of a rampage, knocking down temples and using the materials to build a mosque and the Qut’b Minar. In other words, they personalized it. Other building remains can be seen, including the remnants of other palaces. So who’s the say that they didn’t call the new palace in Delhi the Kush-Firozi.

Well, there we go. I’ve convinced myself.

By the way, the term Mughal, although referring historically to the dynasty that started with Babur much later, was in popular use by the 12th century. It means “Hindi-speaking Muslims.” There’s a little piece of trivia for you!

It’s always interesting to see what news headlines are juxtaposed on Yahoo’s top stories. Currently, we’ve got:

Bush Plans to Send Americans to Moon, on to Mars
Payrolls Barely Rise, Worse Than Expected
Rafsanjani: Bush Accusations Spoiled Iran-U.S. Thaw

It’s always a disappointment when you see a headline proclaiming that a politician you hate has just done something you like. Fortunately, the disappointment usually fades into a much more satisfactory outrage once you’re into the meat of the article.

I am speaking, naturally, of Bush trying to reform immigration law. Sounds great. It’s long overdue. But c’mon, this from a person who wants to fingerprint everyone who isn’t white coming into the country?

Under this proposal, workers would be granted permission to stay for an initial period of three years if they can prove employment. During this time, they can go home, come back and be paid minimum wage and social security. After the three years is up, they go back. Companies can also hire workers if there aren’t any Americans to fill the position.

Woo flippin’ hoo.

Note the word worker. That’s what this is about: allowing companies to import cheap labor, which can then be more easily controlled with threat of deportation. Oh, yes, and it’s also an outright attempt to woo Hispanic voters.

Luckily, no one likes this idea. Conservatives say, “Keep the dang non-Americans out. Period.” Liberals say, “Either s*** or get off the pot.” And fiscal Republicans (you know, people who are really conservative, but, more than anything, want to be liked) say, “We-ell, I’d love to … but look at how much it’ll cost Social Security.”

I think it points to an even more disturbing trend: excessive outsourcing. We’ve been exporting blue collar jobs to countries where companies can pay cents on the dollar for labor for years. More recently, we’ve been exporting traditionally white collar jobs. I’m not going to argue for or against this, but the fact is that we’ve become a service-based economy.

With this proposal, we’re outsourcing “undesirable” jobs to a different country within our own borders. Does this sound messed up to anyone other than me? It’s not that I have a problem with the “global economy,” or that I think only Americans should get American jobs. I don’t. But I also don’t see how this proposal benefits anyone. American workers will have an even tougher time getting paid a living wage. Foreign workers will become an underclass who may pay into the tax system, but will get very little in return financially–and who will certainly get none of the benefits of citizenship.

After much searching, have found the e-texts of both the Elliot/Dawson translation of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri and Feroshti’s History of the Rise of Mahommedan Power in India.

This has MADE my day.

I also want to say that people complain about paying taxes, but we have so many wonderful services that don’t get taken advantage of. I knew that the public library did interlibrary loans (which I’ve used extensively), but didn’t know that they would get books for me from college libraries. Two of the books I need, listed below, aren’t in any libraries closer than Stanford and Berkeley, but I can get them for whatever nominal fee those libraries charge. The public library handles everything, including shipping.

A Razia by any other name makes researching on the Internet very difficult indeed

Razia, 13th century Queen of Delhi, is known by many, many names. I’m getting a crash course in Arabic in my research.

Different spellings of Razia:
Raziya
Raziyya
Razziyah
Razeeya
Raddiya
Radhiya
well, you get the picture.

In Arabic, Razia and Radhiya (and their various permutations) are interchangeable, meaning “content, satisfied.”
In Aramaic, Razia(h) is the feminine form of Raziel, “raz” meaning “secret” and the “ia” part meaning “God” (Yahweh?). So “the secret of God.”

Of course, the Aramaic preceded the Arabic, but exploring the connection between the names is interesting. Content and satisfied because of being the secret of God? Or is it that basking in God’s glory should make one content and satisfied? Or perhaps, even, that the secret of God is really being content or satisfied?

In any case, Razia wasn’t either. She axed her brother to take over the throne–which her father Iltutmish (Altumish) had dictated on his deathbed. She dressed in man’s garb (who can blame her?), had, by some accounts, a torrid love affair with an Abyssinian slave and battled with the best of ‘em. There are differing accounts of her death, but they all agree she was killed.

So maybe the name itself poses certain contradictions, because of the two apparently unrelated meanings.

Then there are the honorifics:
Sultan Raziyat al-Duniya w’al [wa-al] Din Bint al-Sultan or “The Blessed of the earthly world and of the faith”
Sultan Radiyya Bint Shamas al-din or “Daughter of the Sun”
Jalalut-u’d [al]-din Radiyah (Don’t know what Jalalut means … any helpers?)
Jalalatuddin Radiyya Begum

I think one of the problems of having businesspeople (wasn’t that PC?) in public office is that they start treating the government like a corporation–and not just any corporation, but one in which the fat cats at the top get fatter, and those at the bottom get leaner and scragglier.

Take fingerprinting visitors to the U.S., which started today. It reminds me of when you go to a company, need to sign in and out, are given a badge and are urged to give information like your vehicle plate number (which I usually leave blank, simply because I have no idea what it is).

Brazil has started fingerprinting U.S. visitors in retaliation, comparing this new American policy to those of the Nazis. That seems just a little over-the-top to me, but I can’t blame them for being pissed. I’d be pissed, and I’m willing to bet that Americans visiting Brazil are going to ranting and raving. Hmmm, a little bit of a double standard, methinks. Also, probably not terribly good for foreign policy, but hey, it’s the security of the corporation that matters, right?

Another example of the government-to-business model can be found in Bush’s budget for 2005, in which he plans to “control the rising cost of housing vouchers for the poor, require some veterans to pay more for health care, slow the growth in spending on biomedical research and merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs.” (Bush’s Budget for 2005, The New York Times, January 4, 2003) Sound like corporate downsizing, anyone?

At the same time, more money will be allocated to recruit nurses to teach kids abstinence-based sex ed, recruit volunteers in homeland security–and continues to spend ridiculous amounts of money on defense and security against terrorism.

This is not democracy.

This is the tightfisted reign of a CEO who watches “unnecessary” company expenditures like a hawk, incorporates his business in a right-to-work state to avoid paying or treating workers fairly, and foists his right-wing values on a country utterly cowed by his rhetoric of terrorism.

In short, keep your mouth shut, else be fired.

I hesitate to do this, but, hey, you can have wishlists on various store sites, and you’ve got to let people know it exists, right? So Mom, if you just “happen” across any of these books in your bookly peregrinations … well, you never know, you might. In any case, you have more of a chance of it in NC than I do in ID.

wishlist

Sultan Raziya: Her Life and Times, Jamila Brijbhushan
Razia: Queen of Delhi, Rafiq Zakarian
The Forgotten Queens of Islam, Fatima Morressi
Medieval History of India, N. Jayapalan
The Sultanate of Delhi, V.D. Mahajan
Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi, I. Quereshi