Diary

 As usual, I've been working on my small projects very gradually. The wood-chewing squirrel problem is mostly solved. My theory had been that the previous owner of the house had put salt on the front steps during the winter. It is easy to identify this, because most builders use cheap screws that rust when exposed to salt. So, where you see rusted screws there has been salt. I can't tell you how many rusted screws I've replaced with stainless steel screws since moving to Vermont (hint: stainless steel screws are more expensive). The top step is partially covered by a roof, so the residual salt didn't wash away, allowing it to gradually soak into the wood. To test this theory, I bought a large pink block of Tibetan salt and left it nearby to see if it would attract the squirrels. It did to some extent, but the squirrels continued to gnaw on the top step, especially after it rained. There was the possibility that other salts were already in the wood, but that could be ruled out by the fact that none of the other steps had been chewed on. After I installed a new top step, the chewing stopped entirely, though there was a little new chewing on the nearby porch floor in the salted area. Since the squirrels weren't that attracted to the salt block, I put it in the woods and checked on it occasionally. Something had been licking it, and within a few weeks it was mostly gone. To see what it was, I set up my game camera nearby, and the culprits were...squirrels! There were also deer and chipmunks in the images, but they weren't licking the salt.

Squirrels do other kinds of damage here. In 2024, I think they attacked an eastern phoebe nest over the back porch. They are also attracted to egg shells for calcium. When I moved into the house, there were several abandoned bird nests on it at various locations. I think that the birds don't return to them because they're unsafe. I now have put two new ledges over the front porch that are more out-of-the-way, and the squirrels don't notice them. The eastern phoebes had one clutch last year. This year, the first clutch left the nest on June 2. There is now a second clutch at the same location, and the eggs haven't hatched yet. The squirrels can also be annoying during mating season. They chase each other and run all over the outside of the house making loud noises. I think they're finished now.

I have also been working on keeping mice and chipmunks out of the engine compartment of my car. They chewed up a lot of foam insulation and stored acorns inside the hood. I've replaced the insulation and blocked off the holes that the mice were using to store acorns. I also placed a peppermint ball under the hood where the chipmunks like to sit and munch.

My other animal friends aren't as obnoxious. The woodpeckers and barred owls can be loud at times. This year I've seen three catbirds. I still have a few bats, but they haven't been using the new bat house. Because the bats like heat, and I had put it up in a shady location, I decided to move it to a sunnier spot. When I climbed up to take it down, there was a bat sleeping on top of it, which flew away. It is now located in a sunnier spot, also facing east. The large crack on that side of the house is still popular with bats. You can identify where bats have been by their black droppings. Their urine leaves a white streak if it runs down the side of the house.

The previous owner had a motion detector set up to protect one of her flower beds from deer. I've started using it but installed red lights, because white lights disrupt bats. There was recently a deer attack on the hostas farthest from the motion detector. 

Although I was a little concerned about the cool weather and cloudiness of the spring, my tomatoes have been doing exceptionally well. It looks as if I will have another high yield this year. The stargazing opportunities have been limited. There seem to be fewer nights during which the Milky Way is extremely clear than in the past. This may have to do with climate change.

I am still quite happy with this location with respect to climate change. Many people living near oceans may be in for rude awakenings. My son, who lives in Seattle, has become tired of it. There isn't much climate risk there, but there is a significant earthquake risk. He has been thinking of moving to Boston. Looking into it a little, I suggested Portland, Maine, which, though also on the Atlantic, poses less climate risk.

The Brontës, I think, is one of the best biographies I've read, and I will continue plugging away at it slowly. One of the unusual aspects of it is that it covers the entire family in Haworth in some detail, because several of them became famous. In order to do this properly, you have to look closely at the psychodynamics of several people rather than just one and analyze their relationships closely. In most biographies there is only one important person, and everyone else becomes peripheral.

Video of the Day

I'm a supporter of the robot pride movement.

The Brontës V

I'm still moving along very slowly in the book and am about halfway through it at this point. It took one-hundred pages to cover 1840-1843: this isn't an action thriller. In 1840, Branwell found a new job as a railway clerk and was promoted to assistant clerk in 1841. However, he was fired in 1842. Others have identified this period as the beginning of his decline and drinking too much. Barker reexamines the facts and attempts to defend him in a manner similar to her defense of his father. Branwell continued with his literary interests and published a poem in the Halifax Guardian in 1841. That year, Charlotte came up with a plan to move to Brussels for six months, financed by Aunt Branwell, who had never moved from Haworth.

The Brussels plan emerged from Charlotte's idea of starting a school in Yorkshire. Her friend, Mary Taylor, was living in Brussels and attending a finishing school. Charlotte arranged for Emily and herself to study at Pensionnat Heger, run by Constantin Heger. They intended to learn French, German, music and drawing. Their father escorted them there in 1842. Heger was astounded by Emily's musical and writing talents, and she later became a piano teacher there.  After six months as students, they were offered a six-month extension, during which they would teach. However, Emily increasingly disliked the other students and seemed anxious to leave. Charlotte loved it there and developed a crush on Heger. It is unclear whether he reciprocated, but it seems that he didn't. In Haworth, the charismatic assistant curate, William Weightman, died that year of cholera at the age of 26, and there is speculation regarding which of the Brontë sisters may or may not have been attracted to him. Later, in October, 1842, Aunt Branwell died from a bowel obstruction. This caused Charlotte and Emily to return home immediately. Charlotte returned to Brussels in January 1843 to be an English teacher at Pensionnat Heger. Emily remained in Haworth and became the main housekeeper while also engaging in writing. She never returned to Brussels. During this period, Anne was a governess at Thorp Green Hall, near York, and apparently liked the job. In 1843, Branwell became a tutor at Thorp Green Hall.

I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself in commenting on this book, but that doesn't stop me from having ideas. One of the thoughts I have is that the Brontë children had a somewhat belated infatuation with Romanticism. While Ralph Waldo Emerson was fourteen years older than Branwell, he seemed to have the same kind of dated enthusiasm for the Romantic poets when he met Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1833. The Brontë children idolized Napoleon and Wellington, so, like Emerson, they were enmeshed in the "great man" theory, which, as I wrote, I think is pure idiocy. To some extent, I am sympathetic with Emerson, because he was living in the U.S. at a time when it was conspicuously unsophisticated compared to Europe. But in the case of the Brontës, Patrick had chosen to live in a sub-optimal part of England, and his artistic children, were, in my opinion, artistically handicapped by living far from the cultural center in London. My frame of reference, George Eliot, may not be a fair comparison, but I find it useful. She was three years younger than Charlotte Brontë and, like Charlotte, loved Sir Walter Scott when she was growing up. However, just by living in Warwickshire, George Eliot was able to expand her intellectual horizons significantly compared to the Brontës. While it is possible that one of the Brontës might have written a Middlemarch equivalent if they had lived longer, my impression is that they got hooked on Romanticism and never completely broke away from it. They disliked Jane Austen, but George Eliot's later work emerged in part from the addition of an intellectual dimension not present in Austen's novels. That intellectual dimension does not seem to be readily apparent in any of the Brontë novels. Similarly, the entire Brontë family seemed to be unified in its religious beliefs, whereas George Eliot had a major rift with her father over her divergent religious views. For this reason, I think that the Brontës may have been even better writers if they had expanded their intellectual horizons at an earlier age.

I am also beginning to compare Emily Brontë to Emily Dickinson but will save that for later.

Trump Emulates Goldfinger

Since I hardly read any fiction now but have still been watching films, I decided to write about films today. When I was growing up, I regularly watched films and often walked to the RKO or Loews theaters in nearby New Rochelle on Saturdays to see them. Since I haven't been able to find new ones that I like, I am continuing to watch old ones. When Dr. No was released in 1962, I went with my family to the Pelham Picture House to see it. I liked it at the time and still liked it when I watched it recently. I particularly like Sean Connery as James Bond compared to the others who have played that part. Ian Fleming was not a great writer, but he had an upper-class English background, and Bond, as played by Connery, is one of the classiest people I've ever seen in a film. In that film, Ursula Andress isn't bad either as Honey Rider. I also rewatched Goldfinger, which was released in 1964. I didn't enjoy that as much but still thought it was good. I realized that Donald Trump must also have seen that film, and I just read that it made an immense impression on him. Auric Goldfinger in the film is a fat, Germanic millionaire with Nazi connections who loves gold and being wealthy. He also likes to play golf and cheats in order to win. And he places little value on human lives. Sound familiar?

I know that this isn't a favorite topic of my readers, but I have to say that, based on my readings, human behavior is generally quite predictable over a lifetime once you understand a person's childhood and upbringing. As I wrote earlier, many people my age or older are climate change deniers. That even includes otherwise intelligent people like Freeman Dyson. Since I have been forced to pay attention to Trump for ten years now, and also grew up in the New York City area, it is very easy for me to see where most of Trump's ideas came from. Because of his narcissism, he has always wanted to be a public celebrity. The underlying problem is that he has no real talent in anything. He would have loved to hang out with Rat Pack members like Frank Sinatra, but Sinatra hated him. Over time, he could only attract B-Team people like Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan. Many people, such as Jeffrey Epstein, and current members of his cabinet, such as Steve Witkoff, are primarily second-tier financial opportunists. I don't think that he could be close to the tech bros, and they are mainly interested in manipulating him for their personal benefit. But Trump's worldview is obsolete across the board. Because he has little knowledge of world history or science, he can't grasp that the 1960's are over: there will never be a resurgence in the oil industry, manufacturing jobs in the U.S. are ancient history, and corruption and stupidity lead to unstable world economies. I suspect that his "grand strategy" may have been to steal oil from Venezuela in order to create a new supply so that he could bomb Iran. That's how stupid he is. My favorite scene in Goldfinger occurs near the end when, as Bond and Goldfinger scuffle over a gun while being flown in a jet piloted by Pussy Galore, a window is shot out and Goldfinger is sucked out by the pressure drop.  

Another thing I've noticed from watching old films is how certain aspects of sexuality were altered because of the status quo. Apparently Ian Fleming's Pussy Galore character in Goldfinger was a lesbian. Fleming thought that lesbianism was the result childhood experiences and could be "cured." So, in the novel, Bond "cures" her with his manliness. In the film, Bond does succeed, as always, but the lesbianism is ignored. This cleaning up of scripts was even more conspicuous in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) if you compare it to the stage version (1955). From watching only the film, you would think that it was mainly about family succession, with Big Daddy approaching death, and Brick's depression about the death of his friend, Skipper. It helps to know that Tennessee Williams was gay, and that the main undercurrent was the sexuality of the men. Apparently Brick and Skipper had a sexual relationship and were either gay or bisexual. There are also suggestions that Big Daddy had been bisexual earlier in his life. Homosexuality was so suppressed when I was growing up that I rarely ever heard about it. A better understanding of Tennessee Williams is now making me think that some of my high school friends may have been gay or bisexual (I'm not).

The Brontës IV

I'm only up to 1840, when the Brontë children were in their twenties. There is too much information to sum everything up neatly. Charlotte didn't teach for long at the Roe Head School, but Emily and Anne attended briefly while she was there. In 1838, Emily became a teacher in Halifax. Charlotte became a governess in 1839. Anne attended Roe Head when Emily left, but herself left in 1837 following an illness and was briefly a governess. At times, the three sisters were all at Haworth, a situation to which they did not object. In Branwell's case, he wrote to Wordsworth but was ignored. He later wrote to Coleridge, who did respond and liked the samples of his writing that he had sent. They met. Charlotte also corresponded with Coleridge successfully. 

One of the most interesting aspects of the Brontë family was the way that the children collaborated on writing projects. Branwell and Charlotte wrote about the imaginary world of Angria and Emily and Anne wrote about the imaginary world of Gondal. Branwell liked to think of himself as a heroic, Byronic figure, and Charlotte initially went along with him. Gondal was a less violent and more fantastical world, which Emily and Anne preferred. Eventually Charlotte distanced herself from Branwell's style. The four of them preferred being at home to teaching or working as governesses. The household was like an MFA program for teenagers, with courses in heroic fiction and Gothic fiction. I have noticed that children with a particular talent can become extremely proficient if they are able to pursue it in an unfettered manner.  Over time, it seems that Charlotte and Anne moved closer to realist fiction with elements of social criticism. I've only read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, so my perspective is somewhat limited. While there does not seem to be any clear evidence, it seems likely that Charlotte read A Vindication of the Rights of Women, by Mary Wollstonecraft, and though her novel contains some of the whimsical elements of Angria, it can also be read as the comeuppance of a male chauvinist pig, Edward Rochester. Of the four surviving Brontë children, Charlotte had the most exposure to the outside world and was probably more attuned to the inequities of society. Some of this had to do with wealth. She was acutely aware that her friend, Ellen Nussey, came from a wealthier family and didn't have to work: she was happily traveling about while Charlotte was toiling away in unpleasant jobs. Then it would have been impossible for Charlotte not to notice that Branwell received preferential treatment from their father: she had to work in order to pay for his training as a painter.

Branwell did become a portraitist in Bradford, but judging from the portraits I've seen, they weren't very good, and he soon gave up due to insufficient income.  Charlotte did eventually have a vacation with Ellen Nussey, during which they traveled to Bridlington, and she saw the North Sea for the first time. Branwell got a job as a tutor in the Lake District, a suitable location for a Romantic poet. However, he was dismissed in a few months, and it is thought that he had impregnated a girl and caused a scandal.

As in most of the biographies that I read, Barker is maintaining a psychologically and sociologically neutral description of the Brontë family. That may be appropriate in this case, because she is consciously attempting to remove the misunderstandings attributed to Mrs. Gaskell. So far, Patrick Brontë does seem like a conscientious and respectable father and citizen, though, consistent with his generation, he had traditional patriarchal ideas. However, when I compare him to my British ancestors, it seems possible that his judgment may not have been optimal. At the beginning of the nineteenth century in Britain, people were streaming away from farming and rural areas and moving to cities. My ancestors from Scotland, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire all moved to London. They didn't go to college and learned trades instead. Some were tailors, some were furriers and one was a builder. To me, Patrick Brontë's decision to pursue a low-paying job in a rural area seems out of step with the time, though perhaps it can be justified by his lack of knowledge, having grown up in Ireland. There is also the possibility that Brontë's decision-making process was faith-based, but so far in this book Barker has not explored that angle, and she is being steadfastly neutral on the behavior of the Brontës.

Diary

I've been enjoying The Brontës and will read it intermittently until I finish it. At the moment, biographies are my favorite reading, with a few scientific books added to the mix. In the real world, I've found that people don't generally have detailed discussions about other people. This is partly because that can be construed as gossiping, and I also think that in real time there is a noumenal quality to living people, because there may be many unknown elements while they are still alive. That is why I prefer biographies about people who have been dead for one hundred years or more. There are several advantages to this:

1. If anyone thinks about them after one hundred years, they are more likely to be significant.

2. The longer timespan allows more information to accrue.

3. There is a better chance that a future biographer will write a more competent description of a person than a current journalist.

4. Despite some of the advantages that we have living now rather than in the past, there were aspects of earlier lives that, to me, were qualitatively superior to modern life.

Regarding the modern world, practically anyone could provide a list of unpleasant situations that exist now and were not as evident earlier. I tend to break these down into two categories. One is biological. Especially now, many people are living in transient situations where they and their families have moved many times in recent years, which may cause them to live in heterogeneous towns and cities that are constantly undergoing cultural erosion. The existence of a place no longer implies that its residents have a unified culture. Then there are the effects of social media, which I think has mainly been a commercial operation that has been specifically designed to extract money from unsuspecting participants. In general, people are now thoughtlessly supporting organizations that mislead them about the usefulness of their products and may be causing them to go into cognitive decline without knowing it. The other main category for me pertains more to aesthetic conditions. Though there can always be exceptions, it is clear to me that the music, film, fiction and paintings produced now are of considerably lower quality than what was produced in the past. So, to me, while people may not have lived as long in the old days, they may still have had qualitatively better lives than many have now.

As far as my activities are concerned, I'm still living my simplified rural life. The eastern phoebe eggs above the front porch have hatched and the mother has been frantically feeding them insects. It looks as if there are three chicks. They are now very large and should leave the nest soon. There will probably be a second clutch later in the summer. After I planted my tomatoes, there were several cold days when the temperature fell to the low forties. Since tomatoes require at least 50º, I covered them with a tarp at night and put in an old 200W incandescent bulb that gets very hot. It kept the temperature above 50º. The plants are doing very well. I usually planted them later in the past. Since squirrels had been chewing on the top step to the front porch, I tried turning it over. Then they immediately started chewing that side. So, yesterday I bought a new step and installed it. One of the things I like about living here is the small-town atmosphere. The lumber yard also includes an Ace Hardware and a UPS pickup. Since I've been there several times, I know the owner. She is very friendly, in a way that city people aren't. When I arrived there, I was the only customer, and she was the only other person in the store. I went to the lumber yard first, and there were two men working. They had what I wanted and cut it in half. I now have an extra five-foot stair in case I need it later.

I'm getting really tired of the news and would rather not discuss it. On a positive note, Trump seems to be well into the bottom half of his death spiral. I would have preferred a nice, quick flush.