We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
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Used Uber twice today in NYC. One time, driver took 3 minutes to show up. Second time, one minute. It's like having your own black car. Cars spotless, new, a/c blasting. Drivers polite. Cheap too.
And speaking of cultural interests and highbrow, lowbrow, and all that, I should mention how packed the Metropolitan Museum of Art was today. You even had to stand in a line to leave.
Rambling here, but, speaking of the Met, last time we went was to see the Sargent show. Went to look at something else today. However, our NYC friend has a link up about Carmencita who Sargent did a stunning portrait of. A Spanish dancer captivates 1890s New York.
Watch her dance. Good grief. I can't dance a lick, but I can dance better than she could.
I photo-reported on our 5 days of hiking in the Dolomites, really the southern Alps, 2 years ago. Here's a good piece on the topic: In Italy, Hiking and Haute Cuisine in the Dolomites - "In summer, when room rates are lower and tables accessible, hiking trails through forests and flower-filled meadows beckon, and enticing meals are never far away."
In winter, the region is a big, fashionable skiing area. In summer, just hikers and bikers. The food is more Austrian than Italian, and the languages are mixed - German, Italian, and Ladin.
Pop culture tends low-brow because that is where most peoples' tastes run, whether in food, music, pictures, reading, architecture, style, etc. The big money is in lowbrow mass market. That's fine.
It's not really an economic class thing although it might correlate in some ways. I consider myself solidly middle-brow, but have tried to educate my appreciation and enjoyment of the finer things all of my life. I may be partly limited by my IQ and by my imagination. I suppose we all have tastes that sometimes run the gamut. I love the Beatles and I love Bach.
Hillary Clinton had herself photographed lunching at Chipotle to indicate that she can relate to lowbrow tastes. That was just once. Where does she usually lunch without the press? Not Chipotle or McDonalds, I am sure. She looks well-fed.
In his 1948 essay, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot argued that the highest levels of culture are only attainable by relatively small groups of people, and that in order for a civilization to sustain high culture a class system of some kind is necessary. Because culture is transmitted primarily through the family and religion—not schools—and because it relies to a large extent on these particular loyalties for its perpetuation, when these institutions fail, “we must expect our culture to deteriorate.”
I am not alarmed. High culture is alive and well. Silent snobbery is good, but spoken snobbery is snotty and you have to be careful because some people with proletarian tastes are darn smart and just unilluminated. Well, sometimes snobbery is appropriate. During the Renaissance, 99% of Western people were illiterate peasants who never heard of Michelangelo. Admittedly, they had some exposure to fine things if they went to a cathedral, but they never did - or maybe one pilgrimage in their life. I try to remember that Verdi was the rock star of his time, far from "high culture". How many Greeks studied Plato?
There are cultural elites just as their are elites in every other arena of life. We ordinary people rely on our elites for many good things.
Two highbrows talking on TV. Right-wing neanderthal dude on the left played Bach on the harpsichord to relax at his seaside home in Stamford, CT. and had a pianny on his sailboat. If you are too young to know, Bill Buckley and Gore Vidal:
It's a big joke. But - The Countless Crimes of Hillary Clinton: Special Prosecutor Needed Now. Hillary finally hands over her server—after it's been professionally wiped clean.
Hillary! and Bill are schemers, sociopaths, bad people with a 40-year record. I know that politics often attracts low-skill sociopaths, but Dems can do better. True that this is all far worse than Watergate which had nothing to do with anything important. That was pure scalp-hunting as was going after Bill for his female-abuse.
The Countless Crimes of Hillary Clinton: Special Prosecutor Needed Now
Hillary finally hands over her server—after it's been professionally wiped clean
Read more at http://observer.com/2015/08/the-countless-crimes-of-hillary-clinton-special-prosecutor-needed-now/#ixzz3itlnH8ER
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Read more at: http://tr.im/BDeFv
That's not very good but, then again, we are Centrist, not Conservative. Do us a favor and let your friends know about us. They might enjoy our eclectic site.
When you visit Vienna, pick out, in advance according to Bird Dog's Museum Rules, what you want to see in a museum in one hour - and then leave and go to a cafe for a vino or a Vienna caffe, and walk around.
Last time we went, we just saw the Peter Breugel rooms in the Kunsthistorishes Museum. Worth the trip to Vienna and the climbs up the marble stairs. The wealthy Viennese loved those Dutch painters. Me, Mrs. BD, and lad. Another day, a daughter and I did the Belvedere while others did other things. We two had a fine day together, as she had figured out the train system in minutes and is loads of fun to explore with. Adventurous. We even visited Freud's apartments. Nice.
(My wife and kids are so adventurous, I just tie my sneakers and follow them. I love their company, but I think I am naturally more of a lazy cafe person. I rely on them all to enrich my life.)
Now they have a show of their 16th C tapestries. Faden der Macht. I'd like to see it but Vienna again is not on our 2-year Master Plan. We need to plan one or two more total-family parental trips before we grow old. Cape Cod, Tuscany, Provence.
Will never forget the first time I heard this tune. As it happened, we were reading City of God in college at the time. Sheesh. Whole record is wonderful, spare, unadorned, and mystical sort-of. That Bob only did a year of college, but he has never quit reading the Western canon.
I believe (or hope) it greatly overstates the matter. There are still plenty of serious, curious and highly-capable higher ed students out there, but they are diluted by the masses of people looking for a diploma only plus a few years of extended adolescence. Credentialists, partiers, and cheaters.
Furthermore, I believe that the academic fascism which seems so much in vogue right now has zero to do with genuine hypersensitivity. It is pure, calculated, activist bullying. Scalp-hunting. Why college admins tolerate it for one second is beyond me. They are supposed to be the strong adults in the room. In fact, by my era's standards, the students were supposed to be adults too.
Mrs. BD and I have birthdays only days apart. Leos. I gave her a pair of Le Chameau that she wanted for fall and winter, and she gave me a set of Harry's shaving equipment. German blades. I can never find the right shaving stuff, so, good. I'll try not to look homeless altho I don't really care too much. Hope I do not slice my jugular or cut my head off.
Then I took her out for dinner to her favorite place. Heck, I like Northern Italian, Mezzican, Indian, Thai, Jap, Chinese, BBQ, etc. etc, but for Occasions it has to be fine French. And it has to be damn good, because for spiritual and dietary reasons we are abstaining from vino at present - but fine Frog food sucks without vino and, furthermore, I do not enjoy recreational eating anymore anyway. It's not about the food on the table; it's about the people on the chairs.
We had:
- Their amuse bouche du jour was a little slice of mallard-scallion spring roll with a gibier reduction in droplets - She had a yellowfin tuna tartare salad with mango chutney; I had the crispy sweetbreads (creamy as cream inside) on a fresh pea sauce - She had their softshell crabs (tasted them, maybe best I ever tasted and I am an expert in SSCs); I had the crispy Mallard breast. Dynamite. - For dessert, they made us a mascarpone tart to share, with a fresh cherry compote and homemade ice cream on top. And wrote Happy Birthday in chocolate around it.
Memorable supper. Happy wife, happy life. Funny detail: Turned out that we each had made reservations there for the same night at the same time as a treat for each other.
The overwhelming cause of poverty in America today is family breakdown, not inadequate government spending on welfare programs or low wages. Children in single-mother households are over four times as likely to be poor as children raised by married parents. And an adult can avoid poverty by taking just three simple steps: graduate from high school, work full-time, and wait until marriage to have children. Only 2 percent of adults who followed those rules are poor, according to the Brookings Institution’s Isabell Sawhill; 75 percent of adults who obey the rules have entered the middle class, defined as making at least $55,000 a year.
Note to readers and to website proprietors: We frequently fail to give appropriate h/ts to link sources. We try to make up for that by linking their pieces when it makes sense to.
Anyway, thanks to those who send us interesting links, and thanks to some of our frequent but sometimes unacknowledged resources:
From Steyn: "A Disgrace to the Profession"- The World's Scientists - in their own words - on Michael E Mann, his Hockey Stick and their Damage to Science
Hillary Clinton has a $350 billion plan that she says will make college more affordable. Which has to be better than my parents’ plan to make college affordable: “Be good at sports.”
How to Make Time Slow Down - 
Used Uber twice today in NYC. One time, driver took 3 minutes to show up. Second time, one minute. It's like having your own black car. Cars spotless, new, a/c blasting. Drivers polite. Cheap too.
Pop culture tends low-brow because that is where most peoples' tastes run, whether in food, music, pictures, reading, architecture, style, etc. The big money is in lowbrow mass market. That's fine.
When you visit Vienna, pick out, in advance according to Bird Dog's Museum Rules, what you want to see in a museum in one hour - and then leave and go to a cafe for a vino or a Vienna caffe, and walk around.
Mrs. BD and I have birthdays only days apart. Leos. I gave her a pair of 