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 nominative form of pronouns is used following a linking verb. Thus "It is I" and "This is he." Linking verbs are verbs about being rather than action, eg is/am. This can sometimes sound stilted, but it's English. It's good to have high standards even if one can not live up to them.
Somewhat related is You and I versus you and me. It's easy to sort that one out without making any reference to grammatical terms. Just mentally simplify the sentence to one person and it clarifies itself. Eg, "You and me should have lunch." "Me should have lunch"? Naw. So it's "You and I..."
The politicization of the humanities was well under way when I was an English major in the early 1990s, and my education suffered as a result. This wasn't because I was so oppressed as a conservative, but because in roughly half my classes, there was no easier route to an A than to argue that some long-dead author was a sexist pig, racist cretin or homophobic jerk. Being, like so many college students, not overfond of unnecessary labor, I’m afraid I all too frequently slithered along the easy path to the 4.0.
We went down there with some friends and family to see a young playwrights presentation recently. A real slice of New York. NY is to drama what LA is to movies. NY has Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, Off-Off-Off Broadway - a hundred indie theater companies. It's a world unto itself. In NY, people go to the theater. It's a theater town. This indie black box theater we went to on Suffolk St. was sold out with 150, and after the performances there was a party with dancing etc. but we old folks did not stay for all of that. Too late for us.
We walked about Suffolk, Riverton, etc. There were hordes of highly-attractive, polite young people all over. Perfectly safe, lively, but with plenty of the good old grittiness and funkiness which indicates that it has not been gentrified. (Unlike Chelsea and now even Hell's Kitchen which are being so improved that I call them "Disney NY". Too quaint.) Lower East Side is a place for youth. People talk to strangers on the streets, pleasantly. "Where ya going?" No cops needed, no cops around. Tons of pubs, cafes, music clubs, and little restaurants of all sorts. Like Greenwich Village c. 1960 - or like the old medieval city centers in Europe.
Ambitious and well-educated young people from all over the US flock to NYC to test their mettle, and to mate. I did that, too, but it's much better and more fun now. The challenge is affordable places to live. Always roommates, always cramped. But you do not stay indoors - you go out and just use your place as a dormitory. Work 14-hour days, work two jobs, go to clubs and pubs and hang out and meet pretty people with all sorts of interests and ambitions. Network. It works.
I envy those youth in NYC today, living in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side (being priced out of the West Village, Chelsea, and Hell's Kitchen now).
The Lower East Side of Manhattan has a colorful history, from the old farms and orchards on Orchard street, to the starting point of immigrants from the 1860s through the turn of the century, to the large Jewish dominated immigrant population, to crime and drugs when those immigrants moved uptown or to suburbia in the 50s and 60s, to its present "transitional" wonderfulness.
Hey, Jacob Riis: Those terrible tenements were welcome, neighborly housing for immigrants coming from nothing at all. There was lots of cultural support without government intervention. Riis was a self-made entrepreneurial Danish immigrant, but failed to understand that the tenements - with a chance for economic improvement and freedom - were a Godsend to the Germans, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Puerto Ricans, etc, where they started their lives in America. Riis had no faith in the immigrants' moxie.
Truth be told, my daughters, when starting out, lived in quarters similar to those in the Tenement Museum. Many people still do, without complaint - except they have toilets in their apartments.
You can get a good history of the Lower East Side on wiki.
Small streets and small venues make for a neighborly atmosphere. For such a colorful, lively, multi-ethnic, youth-dominated friendly neighborhood, it remains fairly inexpensive thus far - by NY standards. Here's a random one on Riverton.
Around 20 years ago a colleague bought a brownstone and a five-story walk-up building down there, back when it was not nice and you could see guys with needles in their arms in the gutters - and when they were giving buildings away. He moved there. At this point, his retirement (which I very much doubt that he will ever desire) would be assured in great comfort should he ever sell one of them now.
My only problem with that neighborhood is that I do not understand the trains. I do not know these trains. F Train? What? Have to use Uber to get around some of these places in NYC. Why Uber? Because cabs mainly hang around midtown, where there is most of the business.
Note to Bulldog: Our next urban hike has to go through there, and then up through the East Village (technically still Lower East Side. Blame the realtors.)
20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
20:25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Madama Butterfly live from the Met got me through a day of heavy lifting and clean-up - after my redundant morning work-out. Shlepping my in-law's stuff as they move to an independent living home, and making space for stuff we or our kids can use. Good new beds and never-used mattresses, etc.
This is one reason I donate to WQXR - to keep the good stuff coming. It's the tunes. I have an FM antenna high on the top of the roof, but they do online too. Computer speakers are terrible.
We visited his house in the olde walled town of Lucca, and the church where he learned music. Pilgrimage to a pop star.
Off topic - my best peach tree bloomed today, and we have snow and windstorms tonight. Damn that pesky Climate Change. Meanwhile, ye olde HQ is filled with the pungent smell of garlic, onion, oil, oregano, and capers. Bottle the smell of that sauce for sole. Or soul.
Of course not. They never do. Every issue has to be called a crisis these days, to the point that the word has no impact.
It is a fact that housing costs in desirable urban areas are high, and you do not get much for your money. So while market forces are at work, market forces are also contending with all sorts of government interventions which distort housing markets and have unintended consequences: zoning, subsidized housing which is often termed "affordable housing," rent control, multi-year hurdles for new construction which only people like Trump can overcome, etc.
One thing I know for certain is that, if you want "affordable housing" in a fancy neighborhood of Manhattan, you had better have a friend in the Mayor's office. You get government friends with money.
I have posted in the past about the food of Sicily. Basically, it is entirely different from that of southern Italy. For one thing, they use more couscous and rice than pasta. For another, the menu is heavy on seafood and grilled meat. Lots of eggplant.
Muslim invaders ruled Sicily for long enough to shape their culture. Ruled it wisely and softly, too. Can't say the same for the subsequent Viking rulers who fortunately had little impact on Sicilian cuisine.
Arancini is their street food (a fried thing made of rice with tasties in the middle). The local blood oranges are a typical dessert.
There is little authentico Sicilian food in the US. Pizza is not Sicilian, and neither is tomato sauce. I know of one decent Sicilian restaurant in NYC: eolo
"Only William Goetzmann--an archaeologist, art historian, and esteemed finance scholar--could have produced this masterful exploration of money and investing through the ages. Money Changes Everything is at once deep, broad, sweeping, and gorgeously illustrated. It is a book that readers will savor and refer to again and again."
He is focusing on carb metabolism and other health-related issues. Those issues aside, I think general conditioning, or training as he terms it, calls for both strength and cardio-endurance efforts. Of course intensity is key, which is why walking has no fitness benefit for those under age 80. If he has arguments against burpees, heavy rope games, stepping routines, and jump rope, I'd listen to them because those calisthenics are strenuous, difficult, and basically unpleasant.
My simple theory is that if physical efforts are stressful and difficult to the point of pain and failure, they will make you better (as long as you are not truly injuring yourself). It has to be hard as heck.
Funeral today of a friend of 30 years, the mother of dear friends. She raised 6 kids in the tough, thrifty, Yankee way with a rigid moral code, perfect gracious manners, and perfect stickler for grammar ("It is I"). A woman of faith, calm, decorum, and selflessness - and who stayed fit and kept skiing into her mid-80s.
We sang this one at the closing, one which always brings tears for me.
Marquette is allegedly a Catholic institution. The last time I checked, the Church still rejects the fruitless arrangement of gay marriage. Yet, here they are allowing Social Justice Warriors to fire a professor for upholding the Catholic position on marriage. What sort of church allows enemies of its existence take over its institutions like this? Why would anyone want to be a part of such a spineless, gutless hypocritical enterprise?
Don't Find Your Self
Madama Butterfly live from the Met got me through a day of heavy lifting and clean-up - after my redundant morning work-out. Shlepping my in-law's stuff as they move to an independent living home, and making space for stuff we or our kids can use. Good new beds and never-used mattresses, etc.
It's opening day for trout in New England. Be there or be square.
