Haiku Thursday: Cancelled Meeting Edition

Trump, Kim Jong–cancel
your meetings, just know Haiku
Thursday’s here to stay

Haiku Thursday: Perception v. Reality Edition

reality bites
different ways for different folks:
yanny or laurel?

 

 

Fox’s Game Ch. 11: A ‘Keep Out’ Sign is Not to Keep Us Out but to Remind Us that We Want In…and Other Obvious Facts

Vanderbilt University Research Facility

Kristoff Tulowitzki stood at the white board in his office, the symbols from his blue marker that covered the board would be comprehensible to only a handful of people in the world. He stood immobile, arms folded, mouth frowning. Not until the soft taps turned into sharp raps did he notice the knocking on his door, jumping slightly at the abrupt interruption.

“Come in,” he said.

Robert peeked his head in. “I hope I’m not disturbing you Kristoff.”

“Ah, Robert! I did not expect you. You are, in fact disturbing me, but it’s okay. I need to take a break. Our minds need periods of intense concentration followed by short rests. And social rests are the most healthy kind.”

“Good, good to hear. I was hoping you could settle something for me and Julian.”

Kristoff laughed. “I will try.”

“Well, it’s about Hoek’s record player riddle. What do you think? If a glass of water were on it, would it fall off or spill first?”

“Ah yes, I remember. It’s clearly an unsolvable equation.”

“That’s what I told Julian. I want to hear your rationale behind it, though.”

“It’s simple physical science. The centripetal force created by the circular movement is going to act differently on different glasses. A tall, thin glass will have a lower center of gravity and would thus get moved easier than a short wide one.” Robert tilted his head to the side. Tulowitzki continued, “and of course, the amount of water matters, too. A drop differs greatly from being filled to the rim. And how far away is the glass from the actual center of the circle, meaning the recorder?”

Robert smiled. “I agree with your answer. Although the rationale that led me there was remarkably different.”

“Oh, really?”“I took an historic approach. I focused on how the Romans viewed order and power, how they would’ve viewed the glass as something that needed to be controlled, but they would need to know the dimensions of that which they were controlling before they could exert any sort of power.”

“I love the way you see things, Robert. So…so…epistemologically.”

“Thank you, I think.”

“I meant it as a compliment. But tell me, you didn’t come all the way up here to ask me about a riddle. What do you really want?”

“I’m terrible at mind games.”

“Robert, I believe you are incapable of deception.”

“Well, my question is about Ben’s case. Julian and I have a question about secret societies. I figured you’d be able to put us on track.”

“I really don’t want to get into this, Robert.”

“I know, I just want to save dozens of hours of research by asking someone who might know. If you feel uneasy, I won’t pressure you.”

Kristoff knew he could trust Robert and that helping him in this matter would establish a stronger bond between them, which could be helpful in the future. “What’s the question? I’ll do my best.”

Robert unfolded a sheet of paper from his pocket. “Well, here’s a picture of one Harvel’s tattoos. It’s a Renaissance memory wheel. Seems like an odd thing to have. This particular wheel is interesting because it was the one used by Giordano Bruno, who wrote Book of Shadows. It’s a bit of a memory treatise, but it also has some information on the occult. He was also a known conspiracy theorist. He wanted to use his esoteric knowledge to control those in power. Let the Church and the State worry about controlling the masses. He’ll control the Church and the State. Have you heard anything about him?”

“That name is not completely unfamiliar. But I can’t place it. And I have never seen this image in relation to an organization.”

“That’s all I needed to know. Kristoff, I won’t take up anymore of your time. You’ve been very helpful.” Robert folded up the sheet and stuck out his hand.

“A bit of advice, Robert. Just because I don’t know about it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. That tattoo could very well mean something.”

“I know, it’s just that this is all I’ve got. There are some things about the situation that are odd, but I imagine that, if I studied similar instances, I would see the same abnormalities.”

“True. Anomalies are far more common than we think both in the natural world and in human behavior.”

“I’m meeting with Julian tonight. He spoke with Ben’s former student, the Channel 4 producer who came to him with the story. We’ll compare notes. Unless we receive a new flood of information, we’ll try to wrap up our research assignment in the next day or so.”

“That’s probably a good idea. You and I are puzzle solvers, and part of solving them is understanding which ones are worth our time.”

“Well said. I will let you return to yours. Thanks as always.”

“Thank you, Robert.”

Robert closed the door, and Kristoff returned to his statuesque pose in front of the white board.

**********

“Julian, I greatly appreciate the irony of discussing potential secrets in such a public place,” said Robert after ordering his Cherry Coke. They took their usual seats in a secluded corner.

“It’s ironic, but since no one knows we’re working on this, we don’t have to keep it secret,” said Julian.

“Strangely enough, acting secretive often brings secrets to light,” said Robert.

“Sherlock Holmes said it best, ‘there’s nothing so well hidden as an obvious fact.’ It’s like if you act as if there’s nothing to hide, you can hide almost anything,” said Julian.

“People are interesting. Some things are naturally sensitive and need to be hidden. But how much information becomes valuable for no other reason than someone decided it needed to be hidden?” Robert said.

“It’s known in advertising as the Appeal to Snobbery. If you want your product to seem more appealing, simply show that it’s something that only a precious few are privy to. Then, no matter how accessible it is, if you have it, you’re part of a select group.”

“Who was it that said that the fence and the keep out sign is not to actually keep us out but to remind us that we wanted in?”

“I dunno, Robert. But I’ll have to steal that line.”

“So what’d you find after talking with Tiffany Saunders?”

“Well, the tattoo was a dead end. I found out that Harvel’s really good at disappearing. He leaves a boarder patrol job in Arizona shortly after 9/11 and just falls off the radar. He then pops up in Texas in ’04. Six months later he’s gone, and we don’t see him again until ’08. What do you think?”

“It could be part of a pattern. It’s impossible to understand without knowing more about his background. If he has a habit of disappearing for long periods, it could be nothing. But he was in the military where, by all accounts, he was a disciplined and dependable soldier. So that doesn’t really fit.”

Julian sighed. “Unless we get new information, doesn’t seem like we could do much. We’d have to question a large number of people who’ve already been questioned by authorities in hopes of finding something they missed. And I hardly doubt that’s what Ben had in mind when he asked us to do this.”

“Let me ask you: do you think Tiffany Saunders fell into the trap we were just talking about?”

“What trap?” said Julian.

“You know, the fact that things were secretive caused her to take an inordinate amount of interest in the case. As good as I’m sure she is, it’s not like she’s immune. Think about it, you ask a bunch of questions and get stonewalled. That makes you ask more, as if they’re hiding something. But maybe there’s nothing to hide, maybe they’re just making it more secretive because they can. There’s no upside in opening up to the press. Or maybe they’re trying to hide something else completely unrelated. There’re several possibilities. And given what we know so far, the problem is unsolvable.”

“Agreed. I think we should wrap this up. We put in our work. Let’s tell Ben that we simply don’t have enough information to move forward.”

Robert gulped his Coke. “This reminds me. What’d you get for the answer to Ben’s riddle about the glass of water and the turntable?”

“I forgot about that. You know, I think it was incomplete. Look at it this way: the turntable, the glass, the water, they’re all characters in a play. How can we predict how they will act once they’re set in motion if we don’t know anything about them? We’d need to know some backstory before we could move forward. You can’t have a story without conflict. The conflict, of course, is the movement, but you can’t have a story with only movement. You must have characters that we know something about. Does that analogy make sense?”

“Perfect sense. Kristoff had a completely different answer, same conclusion but different answer. I guess I should say he had a different reasoning process. And it’s in the spirit of our current dilemma. Like this case, that riddle has a dearth of facts to make any real sense of. Guess that’s why I like it.”

“We should stop by Ben’s office tomorrow and let him know what we came up with. I’ll call Tiffany and let her know.”

“Well Julian, it was good working with you. We really should collaborate on a project together. Kristoff and I were talking about doing something together, too.”

“I would like that. I admit I’ve been looking forward to these discussions more than I thought. I’m so used to just typing on a blank page that I forget co-authoring has its benefits as well.”

The two finished their drinks and left the coffee shop. Robert settled into his white, ’04 Camry. He took out his phone so he could charge it while he drove. He saw that he had a three missed calls and two voicemails from a number he didn’t recognize.

“I hope there’s not some sort of emergency.” He went to his voicemail feature and turned up the volume.

“Robert, it’s me Kristoff. Benjamin Hoek gave me your number. I found something about that tattoo. You were right, it does belong to a secret organization. We need to talk. I know you were meeting with Dr. Daniels tonight. Maybe I can come, too? Call me back.”

Robert’s heart thumped against his chest like knuckles on a punching bag. He listened to the next message, “Robert, I see I’ve gotten your voicemail again. Call me back when you get a chance.” He set down his phone, closed his eyes, drew in his breath, counted slowly to four, held it for seven seconds, and exhaled for eight. He did this two more times before picking up his phone.

He texted Julian: Kristoff left me two voicemails. We just got some backstory on one of our characters.

Haikuthursday: Washington Edition

Everyone,

Sorry for the delayed post. I put it on my FB page but neglected to put it on here.

unsure who’s right, but
“Lordy, I hope there are tapes”
would make a great tee

Haiku Thursday: National Poetry Day

Fun coincidence:
#nationalpoetryday
meets #haikuthursday

#haikuthursday #nationalpoetryday

Haiku Thursday

Everybody knows–
can’t have more than 2 glasses
of wine when writing

‪#‎haikuthursday‬ ‪#‎wine‬ ‪#‎writing‬ ‪#‎wineku‬