An Encounter with Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, the English playwright, died on Wednesday at the age of 78.

In 2005, Pinter won the Nobel Prize for literature, and the individual making the Swedish Academy’s presentation noted of Pinter: “In your works, seductively accessible and frighteningly mysterious, the curtain rises on dense life-landscapes and harrowing confinement. In poetic images, you illuminate an existence where fantasy and the nightmare of reality clash.”

Printer’s genius was to break away from the customary genteel, sitting room English plays of the first half of the century and to create intense, claustrophobia dramatic environments in which words had the ability to sear the heart and the soul, stripping away any pretense, and, at times, one’s very humanity.

In America, Pinter is perhaps best known for “The Birthday Party,” “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming,” and “Betrayal.” The American playwright, David Mamet, owes much to Printer for his delicate balance between intense words and silence which Mamet used to his own advantage in his Pulitzer Prize winning play “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

I had the fortune to meet Harold Pinter in 1970 at a the The Bat & Ball pub on Old Dover Road in Canterbury, England, which was directly across the road from the Canterbury Cricket ground.

I had been living on Old Dover Road near the The Bat and Ball for a year, first studying at the University of Kent and then teaching.

Pinter was avid follower of cricket, and although somewhat of a private person, he loved British County cricket and frequently traveled to matches at many of the county cricket grounds.

On that day, he had been in the stands at Canterbury’s St Lawrence Ground watching one match in Kent’s long march to the 1970 Country Championship.

After the day’s play, my flat mate and University colleague, Martin and I entered the pub, ordered pints and sat in two comfortable arm chairs next to a thin man with a East London accent. Martin had played cricket in school, and he quickly struck up a conversation with the man who turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable about first class first class county Cricket and international Test Cricket.

When Pinter learned that Martin and I had recently earned our Master’s degrees in English Literature at the University of Kent, he probed us deeply on our interpretations of themes in works by Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka.

Pinter had not introduced himself to us, but the playwright’s appearance was well known to those interested in modern English literature, and in no time, we found ourselves referring to him as Mr. Pinter, and he was calling us Marty and Peter.

After we gave our analysis, Pinter held forth for more than 45 minutes on what he called the “themes of tension and anger” in Beckett’s and Kafka’s works.

It was immediately clear from the extended dissertation Pinter delivered that Martin and I had failed the playwright’s literary test, but now, almost four decades years later, I think back on that hour or so we spend with Pinter as the most intense intellectual experience I have ever had.

Peter B Hayward

Copyright © 2008 Peter B. Hayward All Rights Reserved

A Maine Armchair Philosopher

All of the author’s Press Herald Blog Entries

Vox Populi – On Iraqi Refugees in Maine

Sometimes the best blog entries are simply the words of others.

As I wrote in my November 20th blog entitled Not so hidden racism:

  ”According to the US census, Vermont and Maine are tied as the
  ”Whitest State” in the nation with about 96% in each state self
   identifying themselves as white.

  ”Perhaps as a result, some of us have developed a not so
  subtle form of racism that finds an outlet in the online comment
  columns of the Portland Press Herald, the Waterville Morning
  Sentinel, The Augusta Kennebec Journal, and the Bangor
  Daily News.

  ”When a person of color or an immigrant is in the news,
  the columns are often full of the most vile, bigoted comments.
  In some cases, readers report these comments are
  ”inappropriate,” in some cases the newspapers themselves
  monitor these columns, in other cases the comments remain
  for hours or even days and months in the archives…

  The great irony is that these newspapers would never allow
  these vile comments to appear in their paper editions as
  comments (Letters to the Editor), but allow the filth to appear
  under their Corporate logos [in the online versions].

On December 17th, the Portland [Maine] Press Herald and the Waterville [Maine] Morning Sentinel published articles concerning the relocation of Iraqi refugees to Maine.

The first article was “A haven from violence, war”, and was published in the Sentinel as “Iraqi refugees hope Maine is last stop”. The second article, “Iraqi refugees won’t be left out in the cold”, appeared only in the Press Herald.

The following quotes have been taken unedited from the articles’ comments sections:

standup of skowhegan, ME
Dec 18, 2008 12:30 AM
why not put them in washington,dc so they can keep an eye on them better. Let me know where they work cause i sure the f$%#$ won’t be doing business their just what we need more people for hand outs.
f(*^^ing washington.

dennis arsenault of rumford, ME
Dec 17, 2008 8:32 PM
i also say americans first
and what is our own kind?imo not anyone covering thier face and wearing long robes
my grandfather immagrated from france to canada then to mass. and finally to maine and he did it without $$$$$$$$$$$$ from the govt.move to maine if you wish rag heads
i will welcome you if i do not have to pay for you.i am having a hard time paying for myself
and if my spelling and puntuation is not correct
go f,, yoursself vet

Denny of Portland, ME
Dec 17, 2008 9:59 AM
First it was 200, now it’s 300. Soon it will be 1,000 and more. If these people cared about their own country and took the action necessary to change it, they wouldn’t have to come here to live off our welfare. Our country went through a devastating civil war to cement our values and principles that remain to this day; the Iraquis need to do the same… take charge of their own sorry country (yes, I’ve been there), fix it and stay there, rather than bailing out and living a good life at our expense.

Here’s a question: Why don’t they move to New Hampshire? The answer: Because New Hampshire does not give away the store to freeloaders. The message: As long as Maine continues to be excessively generous to those who won’t carry their own weight, we will continue to import them from less generous states. If the Iraquis (and Somalis, etc.) were truly sincere about becoming productive residents, they would stay where the U.S. Government settles them and make the most of the benefits that are provided in those locations. Their migration to the states with better benefits is nothing more than a money grab, and we’re paying for it.

CRD of Southern, ME
Dec 17, 2008 9:46 AM
Should we erect a huge statue of Baldacci in Portland harbor with an inscription that says send us your poor, unemployed, criminals, single moms, drug addicts, etc. ……………

SL of SP, ME
Dec 17, 2008 9:46 AM
How many of you bleeding hearts actually believe the stories? The first one…they would have shot the males first, not a girl… The nightmares comment guarantees a PTSD diagnosis for the wife and kids, this makes them disabled and gathers more hand-outs. Then the tale of being a sunni..sunni’s did the same thing to shiites.. Great movies he is watching and exposing his young kids to…this is how you do things in America..I have an idea, they are called adult ed english classes…id you take any in Atlanta?

These stories are coached to many of the refugees because they hold the buzz words that will give them status over others trying to get a free ride to America or Europe.

You applied to 30 jobs in Atlanta, how many have you applied for here, it’s been a few months? Soon enough we will see what happens when you bring a large sectarian group of people to a foriegn place…you should see how they treat females in the work place, I have seen this first hand…you’re fired!

Back to work so I can pay for the next 300…

tax payer77 of kingfield, ME
Dec 17, 2008 9:08 AM
I have spent considerable time in the mid east. Plain and simple…they truly hate us and they do not support most of what we value. They kill women and children to make a religious point. If things are going so well back in Iraq, why not send these folks home. If welfare bennies are not so good in other states then we can expect to see a continous flow of the welfare savy arriving in Maine until we stop this madness.

Anti Liberal of Taxland, ME
Dec 17, 2008 8:58 AM
“After four months in Georgia, the family had seen a sharp cut in local benefits, he said, so that they couldn’t afford rent.”

Well…let mainers pay your rent, food, clothing, education, medical bills, take care of your kids, and while we are at it…what the hell, let us give you a new car and a plasma tv!!!

If there is anything else your little heart desires, please let us know, baldi, the governor just slashed some spending so we need to waste,ahhh spend, it elsewhere.

Welcome to Maine!

Biddy of Arundel, ME
Dec 17, 2008 7:08 AM
Merry Christmas people! We’re in the good ‘ol US of A! If you’re born here you get to struggle to survive and get the third degree if misfortune strikes and you need help. If you’re a refugee you get red carpet treatment and help with everything.
I think it’s absolutely appalling that we have 50 million plus Americans without health insurance yet can offer health care to non Americans.
Look at the food this lady is preparing. How many Americans can afford fruit and vegetables? Some of our Seniors eat cat and dog food so they can afford their medicines and heat.
Of course we shouldn’t turn our anger toward the refugees. They are just taking advantage of what is offered them by OUR OWN KIND!! They are looking to make a better life like we are.
My anger is directed at those who bring these people here and provide them with everything. We should know WHO they are. My bet is they are the same people who refuse to help their own American citizens who need help. HOW can we do this considering the state and Federal budget cuts that are hurting so many?

MainenCrisis of Portland, ME
Dec 17, 2008 6:56 AM
This article makes me want to throw up!!

Ford1600 of Canaan, ME
Dec 17, 2008 5:44 AM
Where are these jobs coming from that this group is going to get these people.
Why hasn’t this group gotten jobs for the people here in Maine that are out of fuel and food for their kids???.
Is this group blind to deaths of their own neighbors kids deaths due to crime here in their own country,,,,.
Send all of them back to their own countries to tuff it out just as we do!!!.
THAT GOES FOR ALL IMMAGRANTS

Jack of nowhere, ME
Dec 17, 2008 6:49 AM
You guys are pathetic. Spoiled rotten brats, even. You’re whining about 200-300 people moving to your state because you might have to shell out a couple of extra bucks in taxes, and want to see these people sent back to be raped, shot, forced to see family members killed, have acid thrown on them…. You people disgust me. You don’t know what hardship is.

Peter B Hayward

Copyright © 2008 Peter B. Hayward All Rights Reserved

A Maine Armchair Philosopher

A $99 4GB IPhone at Walmart In January

As I reported in my November 21st blog entry, “Finally?, for some, the 3G IPhone,” Walmart will start selling the IPhone December 28.

Now, you ask, why December 28, and not right now, in time for Christmas?

My answer in that blog:

“Perhaps just in time for the after Christmas sales?

$150 anyone?

$125 anyone?…”

Well, I think we may well have our answer.

Just like the CIA watches for heightened “chatter” on the “network” in its efforts to thwart terrorism, I monitor blogs, lots of them, and since Tuesday, December 2nd, the chatter has become a shout.

Based on the chatter, my prediction:

Within the next 30 days, Apple will introduce a $99 4GB IPhone.

At the original IPhone launch, the 4GB and the 8GB IPhones came out together, but Apple stopped selling the 4GB version a little bit later and the price of the 8GB was dropped.

The word now is that Apple has the ability to juice up the original 4GB design and lauch it again for $99.

While you cannot drive a lot of applications or store a lot of songs or videos with just 4GB, you will still get to carry around one cool looking phone — and anyway, who asks IPhone users how many horses they have under the hood?

Just think of it, you just came from Walmart and you are sitting at Borders with your latte or at Panera with your smoky Chipotle Chicken flatbread sandwich, and your IPhone is in front of you for all to admire.

They certainly don’t need to know it is the $99 4GB version.

The chatter?

On October 27, Apple Insider quoted Analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham Research as saying that since Apple has 2 million IPhones in inventory, Apple could well introduce a $99 IPhone.

Friday, the same site quoted analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros saying “”While we are not sure of exact timing, we think a $99 Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable… As we mentioned in our initiation report, we believe one of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line like it has done with the iPod.”

The same day, Eric Zeman of Information Week noted that 300 million IPhone applications have been downloaded from the Apps Store and that suggests that a $99 IPhone could serve as a low end or entry phone, the 8GB as a midrange IPhone, and the 16GB IPhone could be positioned as a high end IPhone with a greater megapixel camera, flash, video and maybe even a memory boost to 32GB.

The definative site on all things Iphone is the Boy Genius Report which had long predicted that Walmart would sell the Iphone. The BGR was the site I quoted in the earlier blog when the news broke that Walmart had reached an agreement to sell Iphones on December 28.

On December 4 the BGR ran a piece suggesting that Walmart could be introducing the anticipated $99 4 GB IPhone. BGR did not, however, give complete credence to the tip noting that BGR’s tipster was not completely proven as solid and added “Don’t hate us if this doesn’t happen.”

Not surprisingly, according to the Beta News Walmart refused to either confirm or deny the rumor, but with analysts all in agreement that the evolution toward differentiated IPhones is inevitable and that a $99 IPhone will come at some point, the only question is whether it will come on December 28 at Walmart, or whether it will be announced at MacWorld January 6-9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

My $1099 bet: there will be a $99 4GB IPhone introduced in the next month, but it will not launch at Walmart on December 28.

Walmart has positioned itself, trained its staff, and will be ready to pump out the $99 4GB IPhones the moment the iconic Steve Jobs announces it with his typical aplomb. (Assuming, of course, he doesn’t shrink away to nothing before then.)

I could imagine Jobs on stage in his turtleneck, the screen is illuminated, the number $99 appears, and at that very moment, Walmart employees begin pushing out crates of $99 IPhones to the floor.

Peter B Hayward

Copyright © 2008 Peter B. Hayward All Rights Reserved

A Maine Armchair Philosopher

Almanac Long Range Forecasts?

The Dublin, New Hampshire based publishers of the Old Farmer’s Almanac have placed on their website a full year forecast for New England and eastern New York from November 2008 to October 2009:

“Winter will be colder than normal, on average, primarily due to persistent cold temperatures throughout December. Other cold periods will occur in early and mid- to late January, early and mid-February, and early March. Precipitation will be near or slightly above normal, with below-normal snowfall in the north and above-normal snowfall in the south. The biggest snowstorm will occur in early March, with other snowy periods in late November, mid- and late December, early and late January, and mid-February.
April and May will be warmer than normal, with especially warm temperatures in late April. Rainfall will be slightly below normal.
Summer will be cooler and drier than normal, despite hot weather in mid- to late June and mid-July.
September and October will be cooler and drier than normal.”
© The Old Farmer’s Almanac

In contrast, the Farmer’s Almanac, located since 1955 in Lewiston, Maine, provides only a December and January forecast on its website for an area that runs from Maine to New York to Virginia.

December 2008

1st-3rd Clearing and cold. 4th-7th Quick changes: fair, then wet, then clearing. 8th-11th Pleasant weather. 12th-15th Heavy snow for much of Northeast, then fair, cold. Some snow also for Mid-Atlantic States. 16th-19th Becoming wet, especially New England. 20th-23rd Dry and tranquil. 24th-27thCoastal storm brings rain for Virginia, but farther north precipitation mixes and changes to snow, heavy (4 to 8 inches) for New England. 28th-31st Fair and cold.
© The Farmer’s Almanac

The predictions of the two are prepared as much as two years in advance and each uses different, secret calculations that take into consideration such factors as the position of the earth and the other planets in space, solar conditions (sun spots, etc.), past weather patterns, tidal action, and the condition of the atmosphere.

Many people swear by the long range forecasts of the almanacs while others point to inaccuracies in past forecasts as evidence that long range forecasts are worthless. Some base this opinion on the fact that even the government’s NOAA five day forecasts are often inaccurate.

For more than 50 years, my paternal grandfather, a skeptic in many matters, would purchase a copy of both almanacs, copy the forecasts of each to paper, and then write the actual weather beside the prediction. He gained much amusement from this, and told me that, for Portland, the forecasts where no better what he termed “using a finger in the wind in December for July weather.”

By contrast, I talked last week to a man in central Maine who has done the same comparison since the 1980s and swears by the accuracy of the long range predictions.

For me, I take my weather day by day, and hour by hour.

If it looks like rain, I prepare accordingly; if it is hot, I wear fewer clothes; if we are on our boat, I keep NOAA marine weather on the VHF at all times since what NOAA said this morning may not be what is happening now.

What about you?

Peter B Hayward

Copyright © 2008 Peter B. Hayward All Rights Reserved

Media Usage and Adolescent Health, a Metastudy

Media Usage and Adolescent Health, a Metastudy

“Media are increasingly pervasive in the lives of children
and adolescents # the average kid today spends nearly
45 hours per week with media, compared with 17 hours
with parents and 30 hours in school. However, until
now there has been very little comprehensive analysis of
the different research tracking the impact of media on
children’s health.”

Thus begins the executive summary of a metatstudy on the relationship between use of media and adolescent health. The research results were published December 2nd by the advocacy group Common Sense Media.

The study was undertaken by the National Institutes of Health, the Yale University School of Medicine, and the California Pacific Medical Center, and analyzed the “best [research] studies” undertaken since 1980 on this topic. One hundred seventy three “best studies” were identified.

Of specific interest was the impact of increased media usage on:

- obesity
- tobacco use
- drug use
- alcohol use
- low academic achievement
- sexual behavior
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Although the researchers attempted to assess studies related to the usage of all media (the internet, magazines, movies, music, television, and video games), the researchers found that “most of the quality studies” investigated only the impact on adolescenthealth of movies, television and music.

Of the “best studies,” 127 evaluated the relationship between the hours adolescents spent on media usage and health outcome. Seventy five percent of these 127 studies demonstrated an increase number of hours were associated with a “negative health outcome” and 20% showed no statistically significant relationship. Seven studies (6%) showed a positive relationship between media usage and some measure health outcome.

In the findings below, statistically significant means the results were unlikely to have occurred by chance.

Obesity: increased media usage was associated with increased incidence of obesity and increased weight gain over time. (Of 73 studies, 63 (86%) showed this association as statically significant.) A single longitudinal study begun with 5,493 three year old children found that children watching more than 8 hours of television “were significantly more likely to be obese at age seven.”

Tobacco usage: increased media usage was associated with increased smoking, which was defined as “”children trying smoking, or beginning to smoke at an earlier age.” (Of 24 studies, 21 (88%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Drug Usage: increased media usage was associated with increased drug usage, defined as “past or current use of specific recreational drugs including cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines, and ecstasy.” (Of 8 studies, 6 (75%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Alcohol Usage: increased media usage was associated with increased alcohol usage. (Of 10 studies, 8 (80%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Low academic achievement: increased media usage was shown to have a negative impact on academic achievement “measured through standardized test scores or school grades.” (Of 31 studies, 20 (65%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Sexual behavior: increased media usage was associated with “a more rapid progression of initiation of sexual behavior.’ (Of the 14 studies, 13 (93%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): increased media usage was associated with “increased attention problems.” (Of the 13 studies, 9 studies (69%) showed this association as statically significant.)

Too often, a single research study can fall victim to the “umbrella/rain” correlation fallacy. Technically known as “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” or Post hoc thinking, it can be reduced to “X happened, Y happened, therefore X caused Y to happen.”

The fallacy lies in the assumed directionality. On days that it rains, we see many people with umbrellas. Did the increased number of people with umbrellas cause the rain to fall, or did the impending rain cause people to carry umbrellas? Does increased media usage lead to obesity, or are obese people more likely to watch more television?

By rigorous analysis of a large number of “best studies,” a metastudy can avoid the correlation or Post Hoc fallacy.

Of the advantages of a metastudy, one is that it pulls together all printed research on a subject, in contrast to the single studies which often make the news.

In gathering the research studies for a quality metastudy, typically a panel independent of the reviewers ranks each of the collected studies as to quality of research methodology and quantity of subjects in each study. A quality metastudy can control for study variation and can utilize statistical methods such as regression techniques which may not be appropriate in small N studies.

Metastudies are not without their disadvantages.

Unless well defined and unless the input is independently evaluated and controlled, a metastudy can have the disadvantage of investigator bias or weak study bias.

A further disadvantage of metastudies of published research is that unpublished results are ignored, thus skewing the results (Studies which result in a null (no) relationship between two variables are seldom published. Thus if there are 1,000 studies of media and health outcomes which find no relationship, these are “lost” as the researchers collect the studies which show a relationship.)

Peter B Hayward

Copyright © 2008 Peter B. Hayward All Rights Reserved