I had no idea.

Huh. I worked with a guy who was on one of the jury trials related to the case. Obviously it's a big deal here, as it was San Francisco based and the mass suicide happened the same week as the Moscone/Milk assasinations. Dark times for San Francisco.

But the freaky part is how fully entrenched Jones was into the SF power structure, and how idealistic the group was in its inception.

And see? I had no idea about that, either. When I read FTotC, I thought to myself, "Why would he go to San Francisco?"

For Joe, the freakiest part of the show was one of the survivors saying, "We tried. Yeah it ended tragically, but dammit, we tried."

There's an amazing play called The People's Temple. It's kind of similar in style to The Laramie Project, written after and about extensive research.

I knew about it at the time, but I was a kid, and didn't know nearly the level of detail. It just breaks the heart. At the time, I was living with my mom. My dad didn't know where we were, but did know that my mom sometimes got involved with groups that seemed radical to him, a Swede from Minnesota. He once admitted that the Jonestown thing scared him pretty close to shitless, thinking that we might be with a group like that. In fact, I think we were staying with a group of Methodists in England at the time, but he didn't know that.

I just can't imagine. Reading about it now and the manipulations that they used to get the adults to drink the Kool-aid just makes me physically sick. Your poor dad fretting that you guys were in Guyana.

Some pictures to maybe help me be able to sleep:

Like father, like daughter. [link]

For the Minion roster: [link]

I knew about Jonestown when it happened - and I knew how massive it was. I didn't actually connect it to anything - it was an event. a bard, horrid event, but not connected to anything. Moving out here , then reading the Tales of the City books made it much more real. I think I was fairly young when it happened- but honestly , most of what happened in the world before I got out of college wasn't very real.

Tights !

We just watched two episodes of House. This is more DH's show than mine. I think that while I like it, I really hate when it feels like they are trying to manipulate me. Some how when they try to take the patient from puzzle to human , they often fail. But since I don't take it too seriously , it is fun.

Somewhat strange question, sparked by a recent conversation with my mother: is it polite/appropriate to ask someone you just met (and might consider dating) what they do for a living?

I would say it's usually appropriate, but since my world tends to intersect with the intelligence community, I've learned not to ask.

Of course, since the Foreign Service has something like a 70% divorce rate, I also don't ask after people's spouses.

And to complete the FS theme of this post, the officer in charge of my husband's entering class, so probably the first FSO we knew well, was the first person into Jonestown in the aftermath. He said the smell will stay with him always. (He was also one of the Iranian hostages; clearly the target of a Chinese curse).

ION, or maybe still FS news, ARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! I just found out they are going to film Voyage of the Dawn Treader here, and my husband would be the embassy liaison for the American studio. If we were still here this summer. Argh. Missed the Olympics, missed the Narnia movie, argh.

I saw People's Temple in Berkeley with JavaCat and Consuela. It was amazing.

Dawn Treader might have been my favorite Narnia book. It's the mouse that gets me every time...

I loved Dawn Treader, too, except I rolled my eyes a little at the end. (Yes, I know, the end was kind of the point.)

Last day of Passover! I made some matzo brei for breakfast. It's much softer and eggier with Aviv brand matzo than it is with Streits.

My DH is very excited about having a meal tonight that includes bread. He usually chooses pizza for the meal, but that was in Berkeley when he had a favorite place.