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.
The best cheese shop, by far, in the New World is the famed Murray's. The US has plenty of cheese shops, but Murray's is the big cheese. Since I enjoy discovering obscure stinky cheeses, a daughter and her boyfriend picked some out for me at Christmastime:
- Ossau-Trate Vieille - Ardrahan from Ireland (Whew! Mighty stinky, like old wet socks which have been left to ferment in a bog. Delicious and tangy.) - Chevre D'Argental - a recently-invented goat brie
That's cheese heaven for Bird Dog.
Murray's main shop is on Bleecker St., but they now have a handy outpost in Grand Central Station in that like totally cool Grand Central Market. Even better, they take online orders. Problem with that is that they have so many varieties to taste that it's difficult to select from a distance. However, you can talk to their cheesemongers on the phone.
Remember the...
Maggie's Rules of Cheese
- Cheese is health food - Stinky cheeses are the zippiest - Cheese has to be offered at room temperature - Never serve a cheese before a meal. Good cheeses are instead of dessert, maybe after a tiny scoop of sorbet. A savoury. A Cheese Board is the thing - a platter, not wood. - Cheese without a wine (or, in Stilton's case, a Port and in some cases, beer or ale) is never all it can be. Murray's recommends their beverage pairings and they know what they are talking about. (For example, their advice for a cheese board parmesan) - Cheese should always be offered with jams, preserves, pepper jelly, or fresh or dried fruits and nuts. Bread and crackers optional.
Writing this book, I came to see the new scholar subject as a performative of passionate singularity, hybrid materiality and networked relationality. This is one sense in which the humanities scholar that is becoming is possibly posthuman, and a posthumanist scholar. The locus of thinking, for the prosthetically extendable scholar joined along the currents of networked relationality, is an ensemble affair. It involves the scholar, the device, the algorithm, the code. It involves the design architecture of platform and tool, the experiential architecture of networks, and the economy of energy. It involves the cloud, the crowd and the “rooms,” bricks and mortar and virtual, in which scholarly thinking moves forward. Ultimately, thinking is a collaborative affair of multiple actors, human and nonhuman, virtual and material, elegantly orderly and unruly.
This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark And cold to an orchard so young in the bark Reminds me of all that can happen to harm An orchard away at the end of the farm All winter, cut off by a hill from the house. I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse, I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse. (If certain it wouldn't be idle to call I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall And warn them away with a stick for a gun.) I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun. (We made it secure against being, I hope, By setting it out on a northerly slope.) No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm; But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm. "How often already you've had to be told, Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold. Dread fifty above more than fifty below." I have to be gone for a season or so. My business awhile is with different trees, Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these, And such as is done to their wood with an axe-- Maples and birches and tamaracks.
I wish I could promise to lie in the night And think of an orchard's arboreal plight When slowly (and nobody comes with a light) Its heart sinks lower under the sod. But something has to be left to God.
Friday is calisthenics day which means general fitness and agility, with no heavy weight.
Kettleball swings Ladder footwork drills and ladder hands and toes drills Floor planks Heavy rope slams Kettleball Farmer Walks (aka Costco Walks) Heavy ball smashes Heavy ball wall slams Burpees Mountain-climbers Bench dips Step-ups Lunges Body-weight squats Jump rope Inclined pull-ups Jumping jacks Hammie curls with Big Ball Pull-ups or Jumping pull-ups
3 sets of an assortment of those over an hour works up a decent sweat and creates some good total body fatigue.
(As I have reported, my fitness program is currently one hour of heavy push, one hour of heavy pull, one hour of calisthenics, and 2 or 3 days with mostly cardio/endurance work.)
Exercise tip: ALWAYS stretch calves before jump rope. And get the technique right. Can learn it on Youtube. Tougher than you might think.
Another: Muscle hypertrophy and strength are not equivalent. Olympic lifters do not look like The Hulk. Sometimes hypertrophy is more cosmetic than functional, eg bicep hypertrophy. That's body-sculpting, not functional strength. We aim for overall strength of the wiry type, but are not entirely free of vanity either.
For our foreign readers, a question: Do you folks in Euroland and Asia do this sort of stuff to stay young and strong? Or is it just us crazy Americans who try to cling to youthfulness and vigor?
Now 71, Scruton has been the bête noire of British left intellectuals for more than 30 years, and gives them another beastly mauling in his new book Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left. It is a tour de force that, the introduction concedes, is ‘not a word-mincing book’, but rather ‘a provocation’. In just under 300 pages he Scruton-izes a collection of stars, past and present, of the radical Western intelligentsia – the likes of Eric Hobsbawm and EP Thompson in Britain, JK Galbraith and Ronald Dworkin in the US, Jurgen Habermas, Louis Althusser, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze in Europe. An expanded and updated version of his controversial Thinkers of the New Left (1985), the book ends with a new chapter entitled ‘The kraken wakes’ dealing with the ‘mad incantations’ of Alan Badiou and the left’s marginally newer academic celebrity, the Slovenian Zizek.
From comments and emails regarding our timepiece post on Tuesday, I am left with these recommendations (it's scientific consensus):
- Watches much over $100 are jewelry, not timepieces - and not very masculine but some guys need them for work - Expensive watches can't take the rigors of real work or recreation. - I think an ordinary American guy needs a wrist watch, a knife in his pocket, and $100 in his wallet.
Practical watches, zero-pretension, (semi-disposable) that our readers like (but surprising many guys seem to hate watches so I guess that's ok too):
What about watches for women? Don't most women prefer a nice Cartier piece? For when they are not working in the fields, I mean. A pretty reward for the rigors and hazards of bambino production:
What we need is to have individual rights protected by government, not doled out to us like candy by politicians and self-appointed guardians of the social 'good'.
I have an issue with the comment “Nobody needs (whatever it is I don't think they should have)”. In this particular case, Whoopi Goldberg says nobody needs certain kinds of guns. Really? Well, I don't think Whoopi needs chocolate cake, but I'm not going to pass a law to prevent her from extending her girth to even larger proportions.
Whoopi says she has no problem with someone who wants to search for her gun (she says she's a gun owner, which I don't doubt) and has no problem registering her weapon. Good for her. I do have a problem with it. Why do I have to do it because she doesn't have a problem? I need to register because she's OK with it? Well, I want her to register with my gym and start attending with me, because I did it and it's good for me and it would be good for her.
What people need isn't someone to tell them what they may or may not "need." What they NEED is to be left alone to make their own (however good or bad) choices. There is no justification for a bunch of dim-witted people sitting around a table on TV telling individuals who are viewing what they need. Nor is there any justification for a bunch of dim-witted politicians doing the same down in Washington by passing laws about what they think the citizens need.
I didn't need the extra piece of roast beef last night, but I wanted that extra piece of roast beef.
I didn't need to drive 40 in a 25 MPH zone, but I did and nobody was harmed.
I didn't need to cross 34th Street against the light while there was traffic, but I made a choice and I was prepared to deal with the consequences.
Laws which are created by people based on the belief they are needed for others miss an essential point. The 25 MPH zone exists to protect children who live on the street. But at 1am, with well lit streets, I am fairly certain I'm not putting them at risk and I can see very well to react in a timely fashion. While I crossed against the light on 34th Street, and stepped into traffic, it was at a standstill due to a jam. What we 'need' is not always what works in a given situation, and it does not properly address the desire to pursue happiness (my roast beef, or my wish to get across 34th Street quickly).
Others telling us what we "need" or passing laws based on what they feel we "need" are really just telling us what they want or don't want us to have based on their own biases and desires. That's not what this nation was built on. It is what totalitarian regimes are built upon.
The hole in the wall inexpensive gym I use to seek the fountain of youth rarely has more than 6 customers in it at a time (aged 14 to 90), and they are all working with a trainer, or under a trainer's advice. Not a commercial gym, owned in fact by a physical therapist. You have to have a trainer in charge of your program to use it, and the trainer has to be ok with the physical therapist owner. No spandex, no guinea Ts, and no visible boobs or bouncing female behinds to distract or entertain. You are allowed to grunt as much as you need to and, for me, that is quite a bit.
2015 is the year when I learned to hate my telephone. The FCC's willful neglect of the do not call list has resulted in a large number of commercial calls on top of the charitable and political calls that swamp my line.
I watch caller ID closely and no longer answer calls with numbers I do not recognize, figuring that, if they are friends, they will leave a message on the answering machine and I can pick up, or return the call.
This no longer is sufficient. I have therefore purchased a CPR Call Blocker through Amazon, and it allows me to blacklist frequent political and other calls. It has been very satisfactory to hear yet another call from Newt Gingrich be shut down after the first ring! It shows the most recent call, and then you push the big red octagonal button that says "BLOCK NOW" and that is that!.
Even this device does not help with the anonymous calls with blocked caller ID, but it turns out the phone company can block anonymous calls and this also seems to have worked very well!
It's time for another Maggie's request of our readers.
We want readers. We welcome commenters too, regardless of points of view. We don't only do politics - we do a perspective on Life in America.
We are a good site for international readers too, to get some idea about what ordinary, every-day, middlebrow Americans are up to and thinking about. We are interested in almost everything.
Readership growth is our only reward here, but that grows mainly by word of mouth (which includes others linking to us).
If you wish to do us a favor, let your (blog) readers, friends, colleagues, relatives, neighbors, etc. know about our eclectic website. It might be an uplifting, interesting addition to their days. Cheaper than a newspaper and we have very few ads.
Regarding comments - we do not require your emails, and you can use a fake name. Just follow the Three Unwritten Rules for Commenters:
Pic of old dude deadlifting 300+ lbs. from article below. Mrs. BD felt proud to be deadlifting 100 lbs on Monday. Not bad for a semi-beginner fitness-seeking lady but despite strength she still can't find the strength to "Make me a sammich." "Make your own - and make one for me too. I'm busy." Sheesh. These modern women.
I am reaching towards 200, but my grip is now becoming a limiting factor. I can lift it, but can't hold on to the bar for very many reps. Need more forearm strength to reach my modest goals. A weakling - I admit it. Deadlifts are the best, though, for middle-aged people, because it uses your whole fizzicle and mental self. Man, it is so damn hard. Back flat, chest up, ass back. F- gravity. Pick it up. Grunt loud. Drop it with a big crash. Good hard fun.
By hyphenating or ethnicizing one’s name, creating a non-Western superficial identity, or perhaps writing a diatribe against the West — the more venomous and incoherent the better — one increases one’s chances of tapping Western largesse. And in such a fat society, there are literally billions of dollars in excess that can fund therapeutic “ethnic studies” programs, assistant provosts of Diversity, ethnically separatist houses and centers, unprofitable Hollywood movies such as Truth, and “space to destroy” during times of riot.
... imagine it’s the old Soviet Union, and there’s a colorful dissident saying everything other citizens want to say but fear to. Now imagine the government sends its secret police to silence him, and they just get consumed. Bullets have no effect on him, and with every assault he simply becomes bigger. Imagine how frustrated and fearful the Kremlin commissars would become.
And imagine how the people would be in his corner.
Former State Dept. Rep. Says Stabbing Jews OK Under Islamic Law Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/michigan-woman-stabbing-jews-animals-okay-islamic-law-lina-allan-state-department-154182/#jIwQdiebiyXXtWh7.99
My leather watch band broke. Mrs. BD brought it into town and asked me about a $125 leather band. I told her my Timex had cost about $37. She advised me to toss the old watch and get another from Amazon.
Wrist watches: The young folks do not use them. I feel unclothed without one, even wear it to bed. Often, business people like expensive ones, to demonstrate that they know how to make money. That's fine - it's jewelry for men, like ghetto glitz, but it does not say much about how wisely they spend money. I had a semi-fancy watch once but it died and the parts were no longer available. Now I am a Timex guy.
The humble Timex is like Toyota - Timex can wear out many bands, and Toyotas can wear out many tires.
Interestingly, both of my doctors are Timex guys too. I do not like digital watches, because I like to see the bigger picture of time.
I was rummaging through my safe this weekend, looking for a car title, and found my grandpa's engraved gold watch. I think he used it in his youth, but switched to wrist at some point to keep up with the times. It's an Elgin. Mainly of sentimental value. Antique gold pocket watches do not have much value - under $1000 generally. My watch expert pal tells me they are gold-filled, not solid gold.
Do you use a watch? If so, a cheap one or a fancy one?
A friend of mine who has been in and out of work for the last few years contacted me today because I have a connection with the president of sales in an organization seeking someone with his skill set. My friend asked if I'd make an introduction. I told him there was a bit of a catch. My connection is old, I hadn't worked with him in 15 years, and I last spoke with him 3 years ago. I was hesitant to just call up and tell him about my friend who would be a great hire by his organization. As we discussed potential ways for me to make the contact, my friend explained the job had been open for some time. He noticed it a few months ago, then it was gone. It reappeared and was again removed from the listings. When he saw it recently he realized either they were having problems filling the job, weren't sure what kind of candidate they wanted, or were looking for a "purple squirrel" - something that doesn't exist. I laughed and suggested that it would be wise for him to speak with my old colleague and perhaps find out more about the organization, which offered me a respectable way to make the introduction as an informational interview.
The "purple squirrel" comment made me laugh because it's perfectly descriptive. I've been involved in many job searches for "purple squirrels." Watching the evolution of the job listing, from purple to brown or gray, as different candidates are interviewed can be alternately frustrating and comical. It's mostly annoying and aggravating, though.
On the other hand, as I pointed out to my friend, you can always have a purple squirrel if you have enough dye and the willingness to hold down the squirrel while you change its colors. It's not a good way to run an organization, but I've seen that happen, too. Happens every day in politics, which is probably why the process of electing a leader is about as enjoyable as the job search for that "purple squirrel." Not only are we trying to find one, but after we elect one, the leader usually becomes the one trying to inflict the dye job on the population.
60,000 pages of fed regs, and mounting. Nobody knows them, so everybody breaks them. Thus is everybody a crim so they can nail you whenever they feel like it
Authentic Academic Gibberish:
Good Bye and Keep Cold
More Young People 
You 
2015 is the year when I learned to hate my telephone. The FCC's willful neglect of the do not call list has resulted in a large number of commercial calls on top of the charitable and political calls that swamp my line.
It's time for another Maggie's request of our readers.
Pic of old dude deadlifting 300+ lbs. from article below. Mrs. BD felt proud to be deadlifting 100 lbs on Monday. Not bad for a semi-beginner fitness-seeking lady but despite strength she still can't find the strength to "Make me a sammich." "Make your own - and make one for me too. I'm busy." Sheesh. These modern women. 
My leather watch band broke. Mrs. BD brought it into town and asked me about a $125 leather band. I told her my Timex had cost about $37. She advised me to toss the old watch and get another from Amazon.