Nothing But Words

My grandfather Steven Toppa – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a machine

My grandfather Steven Toppa – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a machine

In my post a couple weeks ago about our trip to Newport, I included this old photo of my grandfather that my father had found recently. A couple days ago I got an email from a marketing person at Narragansett Beer asking if he could use the photo on their web site, and if there was a story that went with it (they probably regularly search the web for mentions of Narragansett Beer). I sent him a message with several brief stories about my grandfather, which he posted in its entirety on their website. A lot of New Englanders of his generation had a strong attachment to Narragansett Beer, and none more so than he. Normally I wouldn’t feel comfortable having family stories used for promoting a product, but in this particular case, I don’t think my grandfather would want it any other way.

I’m posting my message here too:

My grandfather was Steven Toppa, a 2nd generation Italian-American and a master mechanic. He once cobbled together a complete, working car from random parts in a junk yard, just to show he could do it. Narragansett was the only beer he drank. In the 40s and 50s, he was known in Newport, RI for his pranks. On at least one occasion he rode a horse up the steps into the Fireside on Memorial Blvd (later the Tavern, now a real estate office), through its large doors, right up to the bar, and ordered a Narragansett. He later became the manager of the Fireside. He had a glass eye (to replace the one he lost when he accidentally over-inflated a truck tire) and whenever a Navy sailor new in town asked him to keep an eye on his drink, he’d return to find a glass eye in it.

He had a monkey and a goat as pets for a while. He’d sometimes get down on his hands and knees and butt heads with the goat, and win. He did the same to his new son-in-law on the day he married my aunt: the first order of business for my grandfather after the wedding was for the two of them to sit face to face and have a headbutting contest (he won that one too).

When he was 71 years old, my father visited him one evening – he was in a rocking chair, rocking slowly and looking a bit out of sorts, and there was a single, unopened Narragansett beer on the table. My father asked what was wrong, and he said that he decided his personal challenge for the day was to drink a whole case of Narragansett. By the time my father arrived, there was only one left, but he just couldn’t drink it.

He had an open coffin at his funeral 20 years ago. When my uncle came up to pay his respects, he put a Narragansett in his hand. Wherever my grandfather is now, that Narragansett is with him.

My father (on the left) when he was younger, with his brother Paul and his father Steven My father (on the left) when he was younger, with his brother Paul and his father Steven

My grandfather, Steven Toppa, bottom right My grandfather, Steven Toppa, bottom right25-Jul-2009 12:40SONY DSC-H1, 3.5, 6.0mm, 0.01666666 sec, ISO 64

• @speno Then teach him Katakana-the Japanese phonetic syllabary for foreign words. But he'll have to say "hotto doggu" instead of hot dog #
• The NY auto show had mostly boring concept cars http://bit.ly/3oyLsM The Tokyo auto show has some really cool ones http://bit.ly/PADls #
• Amazing lego pop-up model of Kinkakuji -the golden pavilion temple in Kyoto – http://bit.ly/sxqHt #
• Kai, while watching an old Cosmos episode with me on the origin and fate of the universe: "Carl Sagan, stop filling my head with questions!" #
• I admire NoMeansNo's home page because everything on it is completely untrue http://www.nomeanswhatever.com/ #
• La-Z-Boy DWI http://bit.ly/1Ff6tA "the chair was powered by a converted lawnmower… It has a stereo, cup holders and other custom options" #
• http://twitpic.com/mt2bw – Unlike other, more slovenly bounty hunters, Jango Fett always took pride in the cleanliness of his home #

New Town is “new” since the 14th century. King Charles IV made Prague his residence, and established New Town, between the Old Town on the south side and Vysehrad Castle to the north. It is by far the largest area in the tourist section of Prague (about 3 times the size of Old Town). It features a wide variety of architectural styles, including several very homely communist era buildings, amidst the beautiful older buildings.

For me it was the most interesting part of the city, as I spent a lot of time in college and grad school studying the history of the Soviet Union and communism, and several important events happened in Prague. New Town was the center of activity in both the Soviet military clampdown following the 1969 Prague Spring (with students Jan Palach and others burning themselves alive in protest), and the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when Czechoslovakia’s communist government was finally deposed. Look for the mismatched plaster patches in the picture of the National Museum – this was a subtle protest by Prague’s masons, who were ordered to repair the building after the Soviets shelled it in 1969.

The entire city fell into a serious state of disrepair under 50 years of communist rule. Private property ownership was abolished, and the government did not have the resources or the interest in maintaining Prague’s historic architecture. In at least a few desperate situations, massive wooden beams were wedged between buildings, high above the streets, to prevent them collapsing on each other. It amazed me how utterly pristine the city is now, and what an impressive job was done restoring Prague’s thousands of beautiful buildings.

The National Museum in Wenceslas Square05-Aug-2009 21:57SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100	The statue to King Wenceslas is the heart of the square05-Aug-2009 21:58SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	Memorial to Jan Palach, who self-immolated in the name of Czech indepedence in 196906-Aug-2009 18:37SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100
The hideous former communist Parliament building, now home to Radio Free Europe06-Aug-2009 18:35SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100	The art nouveau Grand Hotel Europa in Wenceslas Square06-Aug-2009 18:47SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.00625 sec, ISO 100	David Cerny’s “Wenceslas riding an upside down horse”29-Jun-2009 20:16SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 1000
McDonald’s on the left, casino on the right, Museum of Communism on the middle – Lenin is turning over in his grave07-Aug-2009 18:08SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	Decisions, decisions…03-Aug-2009 19:26SONY DSC-W55, 3.5, 9.4mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	Memorial to the hundreds of students injured by police in the 1989 Velvet Revolution06-Aug-2009 20:22SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 320
Kai and Eidan enjoying a milkshake in the Grand Cafe Slavia29-Jul-2009 22:43SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	The National Theater29-Jul-2009 21:20SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	Beautiful buildings along the Vltava river29-Jul-2009 20:50SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 7.2mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100
Gehry’s controversial Dancing House (nicknamed Fred and Ginger)29-Jul-2009 21:33SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.0015625 sec, ISO 100	The Powder Tower – once the gate in the town wall28-Jul-2009 21:01SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 8.2mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100	THe Municipal House, feature a concert hall and several restaurants28-Jul-2009 21:05SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100

I’ve been coding all my plugins in PHP 4 to make them as compatible as possible with the wide variety of hosting environments out there. But I’ve been eager to make use of PHP 5′s features, especially its greatly improved OO features. PHP 4 reached its end-of-life over a year ago (which means no more enhancements, and no more security fixes). My impression is that the great majority of hosting providers have upgraded to PHP 5 since then, and WordPress 3.0 is expected to require PHP 5 for some features, so future versions of my plugins will make use of PHP 5 only features.

If you’re writing a plugin in PHP 5, it’s important to write it in such a way that it fails gracefully if someone tries to run it in a PHP 4 environment. This is because:

1. There are still people using PHP 4.
2. While you can – and should – make a prominent note in your readme file and on your website that your plugin requires PHP 5, many people will inevitably overlook it (when reading online, people – including me – generally notice only what they’re looking for, not what you want them to notice).
3. PHP 5-specific code can cause hard failures when run in PHP 4, making users frustrated, and making you frustrated when they email you with their frustrations.

The best place to check for compatibility is during plugin activation. But WordPress performs plugin activation in a separate process, making it difficult to communicate anything back to the user. Brian Krausz solved this problem, and my solution for safely checking PHP compatibility builds on his work.

If you are only using functions introduced in PHP 5, then you can use Brian’s code and incorporate a function_exists() check for one of them in your activation function. But if you’re using language constructs introduced in PHP 5 – like protected properties or abstract classes – then they can’t be in the same script as the one containing your call to register_activation_hook(). This is because the script will fail to parse in PHP 4, and the user will get a syntax error message (it won’t be at all obvious to the untrained eye that it’s failing because it requires PHP 5).

My solution is a PHP 4-safe “boot” script for my plugins, which loads my class files written in PHP 5 only after it confirms that it’s safe to do so. Here is what I have in the update I’m working on for my Shashin plugin:

register_activation_hook(__FILE__, 'shashin_activate');

if ($_GET['action'] == 'error_scrape') {
    die("Sorry, Shashin requires PHP 5.0 or higher, and mySQL 4.1 or higher. Please deactivate Shashin.");
}

function shashin_activate() {
    global $wpdb;
    $mysql_version = $wpdb->get_var("select version()");

    if (version_compare(phpversion(), "5.0", "<") || version_compare($mysql_version, "4.1", "<")) {
        trigger_error('', E_USER_ERROR);
    }

    else {
        require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . "/Shashin.php");
        $shashin = new Shashin();
        $shashin->install();
    }
}

if (version_compare(phpversion(), "5.0", ">=")) {
    require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . "/Shashin.php");
    $shashin = new Shashin();
}

A few notes:

• version_compare() can be used to compare version numbers generally, not just PHP versions. Shashin requires mySQL 4.1, so I’m checking for that too.
• There is an ongoing cost to this approach: every time your plugin is run, it does a version_compare and a require_once. I haven’t benchmarked it, but I’d be surprised if it caused any noticeable performance difference.
• Savvy programmers generally recommend checking for the existence of the functions you want to use rather than checking language version numbers. I agree when it comes to client-side languages like JavaScript, where it can be difficult to anticipate all the environments your script might encounter. I think it’s less of an issue with server-side languages, and in my case I’m not using a particular PHP 5 function. I’m using PHP 5 language constructs such as abstract classes.

• Now that I can send pictures directly to twitpic from my cellphone, I want a better cellphone camera #
• http://twitpic.com/l63xy – The problem with kids and toy guns is, after they tell you to put your hands up… #
• http://twitpic.com/l64b7 – …they always shoot you (this is Eidan shooting his cousin Robbie today) #
• http://twitpic.com/l65cq – Kai body surfing on Thames Street's wave statue #
• http://twitpic.com/lbq34 – My father found this old picture of my grandfather – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a m … #
• http://twitpic.com/ldffc – It's against the law to visit Newport and not take a picture of the harbor #
• http://twitpic.com/lewcr – Today we visited my brother John's farm in Cranston #
• http://twitpic.com/lfaqw – Beware the awesome power of zoobs #
• http://twitpic.com/lg30j – Eidan and my Dad on the old stone slide at Murphy field #
• http://twitpic.com/lhc18 – Lobster tanks at the Aquidneck Lobster Company #
• http://twitpic.com/li9pm – what does this mean? In nj lkea #
• http://twitpic.com/lin6e – Ikea cafe in NJ – the garden state #
• Good 5 country comparison of health care systems: http://bit.ly/2VHjQC Don't miss the charts at top. This one is key: http://bit.ly/2umcnw #
• Eidan: "When I big, I don't want to go to school" – "Oh, what do you want to do instead?" – "Eat chicken!" #
• Japanese phrase of the day: "ah-fu-ru meh-ru" – alpha male. It's amazing how much English has been imported into Japanese. #

The Gull Rocks lighthouse, sometime before the dwelling was destroyed in 1961 – photograph copyright Jim Nash

The Gull Rocks Lighthouse, sometime before the dwelling was destroyed in 1961 – photograph copyright Jim Nash

Driving across the Newport bridge yesterday, on our way back to Philly, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before – a “for sale” sign on Gull Rocks. The photos above were taken by my father’s friend Jim Nash sometime before 1961, before the lighthouse and dwelling were demolished. This is what it looks like now:

What Gull Rocks looks like now – photo from fizber.com

Gulls Rocks today – all that remains of the original structures is the tiny oil house – photo from fizber.com

It has an interesting history:

Established in 1887 to mark the north entrance to Newport Harbor, Gull Rocks Light was a unique structure among New England lighthouses… the lighthouse was a wood A-frame dwelling with two lanterns that traveled on rails through windows at the east and west peaks of the structure. One light was fixed white, the other fixed red. A fog bell and striking apparatus were installed in 1888… Rainwater was collected from the roof into a cistern for the [lighthouse keeper's] family’s use. It was soon discovered that the large roof area meant that large amounts of sea salt was washed into the cistern, so the keepers learned, on rainy days, to divert the runoff until the salt was washed off the roof… Despite the small amount of land around the Gull Rocks Lighthouse, the keepers usually kept chickens at the station. The birds would sometimes roost on the rocks, and high tides would wash their eggs to the shores of Newport to be found by puzzled residents… keepers remained at the station until 1960 when the light was automated. The dwelling was destroyed in 1961. In November 1969, the light on the skeleton tower was discontinued, soon after the completion of the Newport Bridge had rendered the light useless.

Gull Rocks sometime before the acetylene light tower was built in 1928 – photo from lighthouse.cc

It fascinates me that this tiny pile of rocks is for sale. Apparently it’s been for sale for a long time, and the price has been reduced (possibly more than once). I can’t imagine anything being built on it now. Since it’s on the outer edge of the harbor and it’s near the bridge, I’m sure it has a spectacular view, but it would probably cost a million dollars or more to build anything significant out there. Given how small it is and how close to sea level it is, it would probably be uninsurable, which means you couldn’t get a mortgage or construction loan for it. And there’s a risk of significant damage by major hurricanes, which find their way to Newport every 20 or 30 years (the reason why it would be uninsurable).

I’ve been trying to think of what could be done with it. Not that I plan on buying it with those extra hundreds of thousands of dollars I have lying around. It’s just so peculiar I can’t help thinking about it. The only inexpensive structure I can think of putting on it is a giant billboard. Even if it’s currently zoned to allow that, actually putting one there would be so incredibly obnoxious, I’m sure it would be quickly re-zoned to compel its removal.

If it were up to me, I’d re-create the original structure, and make it available to temporary “keepers” looking for an unusual vacation. This has been done with the Rose Island lighthouse, just on the other side of the bridge:

It’s a certain type of vacationer who enjoys mowing the lawn in an irregular formation well after dark, then eagerly rises the following morning to raise the flag at precisely 8 a.m. This on a day off.

Dave Hazelwood is that vacationer… Mr. Hazelwood is in the second day of his one-week tour of duty as cokeeper of the Rose Island Lighthouse, with his wife Mary K. Like other “keepers” tending lighthouses along both coasts and the Great Lakes between, this couple, from Hermann, Mo., were drawn to the romance and rusticity of a lighthouse vacation…

These programs, in the lighthouses that the Coast Guard began decommissioning en masse in the late ’70s, consist of “keeper for a night” stays that can stretch as long as a month. Part service, part adventure, they’re low on lazy relaxation.

Unfortunately, the Gull Rocks Lighthouse is already gone – I don’t know how one would finance bringing it back.

Any other ideas for what to do with a small collection of barren rocks out in the Newport harbor?

Kai on the wave statue on Thames St Kai on the wave statue on Thames St12-Oct-2009 05:21SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.01666666 sec, ISO 100	Eidan with his zoob creations Eidan with his zoob creations13-Oct-2009 03:06SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100
Produce at my brother John’s farm Produce at my brother John’s farm14-Oct-2009 01:28SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100	My grandfather Steven Toppa – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a machine My grandfather Steven Toppa – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a machine

If you’ve been following my Tweets so far this week, you’ve already seen several of these pictures.

My uncle Gene (husband of my father’s sister Pat) passed away the week before we arrived, so we visited with Pat and her family. Other than that, it was another whirlwind tour seeing as much of my family as possible in a short time. And they put me to work: I fixed up my mom’s dryer, my sister’s DVD player, showed my step-mother how to burn CDs, and advised my step-father on home broadband options. In return we got several wonderful meals, and the boys got lots of love (and of course, some small presents). I especially enjoyed visiting my brother John’s organic farm (he’s leasing land in Cranston). If he’s still there in a few years, we’ll send Kai out to work on the farm for part of the summer. (I had my first summer job when I was 13, doing demolition work with my friend Aaron – it’s a good age to establish a work ethic).

I had fun using Twitpic to post pictures each day. Twitpic is handy when traveling – it’s more flexible than Picasa (which is what I mainly use), since Picasa only lets you synchronize your web albums on a single computer. I’m going to look into adding Twitpic and Flickr support to my Shashin plugin.

On the road to Newport	My sister Nicole and niece Taylor12-Oct-2009 03:26SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.0125 sec, ISO 100	The trouble with kids and guns is, after they tell you to put your hands up…12-Oct-2009 04:11SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.00625 sec, ISO 100
…they shoot you (Eidan and his cousin Robbie)12-Oct-2009 04:12SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100	Kai and Eidan with their uncle Paul12-Oct-2009 09:22SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	Beware the awesome power of zoobs13-Oct-2009 03:13SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 320
It’s against the law to visit Newport and not take a picture of the harbor13-Oct-2009 04:05SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.0015625 sec, ISO 100	Lobster tanks at the Aquidneck Lobster Co13-Oct-2009 04:08SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.01666666 sec, ISO 1000	And the lobsters13-Oct-2009 04:07SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.03333333 sec, ISO 1000
Eidan and my dad on the stone slide at Murphy Field13-Oct-2009 06:09SONY DSC-W55, 9.0, 9.4mm, 0.0125 sec, ISO 100	John’s arugala14-Oct-2009 01:30SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	A pretty good Tow Mater at a farm near my brother’s farm14-Oct-2009 02:55SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100
My father (on the left) when he was younger, with his brother Paul and his father Steven

• Every Mon at work we watch a short TED talk. It was my turn, so I picked Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" talk: http://bit.ly/sm8QC #
• Eidan's been sick all week (first a fever, now a nasty cough). Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow for our trip to Newport. #
• As a volunteer, I manage the Hope Funds for Cancer Research web site. We've announced the 2009 honorees, with videos: http://bit.ly/4G1pcG #
• Eidan finally had a good night sleep, with no coughing, and he's doing well this morning. We're going to hit the road. Newport here we come! #
• http://twitpic.com/kzl3f – On the road #

Poster for the movie "Wings of Defeat"

Poster for the movie "Wings of Defeat"

Maria has been working hard organizing this year’s conference for the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies, which is being hosted at Villanova. This includes a special screening of Wings of Defeat, hosted by the director Risa Morimoto, as well as a panel of World War II veterans, who will discuss the film and their experiences fighting in the Pacific.

Wings of Defeat brings viewers behind the scenes of World War II’s Pacific theater to reveal the truth about the Kamikaze—the “suicide bombers” of their day. Interviews with surviving kamikaze, rare battle footage and Japanese propaganda reveal a side of WWII never before shown on film. American vets from the greatest generation tell harrowing tales of how they survived attacks. Wings of Defeat shatters the myth of the fanatical kamikaze to reveal a generation of men forced to pay for an empire’s pride with their lives.

The screening is Sunday, November 1 at 3:30 PM, at Villanova’s Connelly Center Cinema (campus map and directions). Admission is free with any valid student ID (not just Villanova) – all others $5.

Here is the trailer (alternate link):

When we were in Japan 2 years ago, we met Master sushi chef Shigeo Mori. He had trained as a kamikaze pilot. He was scheduled to fly near the very end of the war, but a B-29 blew up his plane on the runaway before he got in it. Since the Japanese had such a shortage of planes and supplies at this point, there were no planes left for him to fly. He said he was incredibly relieved, as he definitely did not want to go.

The Tyn Church in Old Town Square The Tyn Church in Old Town Square28-Jul-2009 21:58SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100	The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square02-Aug-2009 00:22SONY DSC-W55, 3.5, 9.4mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100
The Jan Hus Memorial in Old Town Square The Jan Hus Memorial in Old Town Square07-Aug-2009 15:26SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 7.2mm, 0.00625 sec, ISO 100	The Charles Bridge The Charles Bridge04-Aug-2009 18:56SONY DSC-W55, 11.0, 14.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100

The Old Town area is where the city of Prague was first settled around the 9th century (whereas the New Town area is “new” since the 14th century). With its multitude of beautiful historical buildings, it’s ground zero for tourism in Prague. Its history and architecture make it one of the most interesting parts of town, but it’s also teeming with overpriced tourist traps, which get annoying really quickly (hint: if a restaurant has a big sign reading “typical Czech food,” its not a good place to eat Czech food).

Since it’s such a popular destination, it’s also been written about a great deal. The best short write-up I’ve found is at the Prague Experience site.

Charles Bridge connects Old Town with Malá Strana (Lesser Town), and is open to foot traffic only. With its amazing views of the city in every direction, it is also a top tourist destination. It was built in the 14th century, is adorned with 30 Baroque statues, and has impressive towers at each end. Like Old Town, many have written about it already – see the Prague Experience site for a good description, but come back here for pictures .

The Jan Hus Memorial, with the Tyn Church behind it28-Jul-2009 21:57SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	Old Town Square and the Church of St. Nicholas03-Aug-2009 19:38SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0040 sec, ISO 100	Old Town Square and the Pastel Houses28-Jul-2009 21:58SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100
Near Old Town Square28-Jul-2009 20:55SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100	The Powder Tower, in Old Town28-Jul-2009 21:01SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 8.2mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100	The Havelska street market28-Jul-2009 22:04SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100
Kai at the Il Commendatore statue in Old Town15-Jul-2009 02:26SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100	The St. Gallus Church in Old Town – built in the 13th century28-Jul-2009 20:06SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100	The Charles Bridge02-Aug-2009 00:08SONY DSC-W55, 5.0, 16.3mm, 0.0020 sec, ISO 100
Kai at the statue of St John Nepomuk on the Charles Bridge28-Jun-2009 23:06SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100	One of the many statues on Charles Bridge28-Jun-2009 23:00SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0080 sec, ISO 100