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.
I am a fan of online dating, especially for those who are out of school. There is just no other way to interview so many available candidates efficiently, with the advantage of screening them in advance.
When people get divorced, I usually recommend that a person have a coffee with at least 25-30 candidates, at minimum, before deciding to get involved with anyone. That's because the recently-divorced are usually lonely, unhappy, sex-starved; often hurt or angry or worried about the future, and generally prone to poor judgement and poor choices. However, those things may apply to many single people.
Jaywalking is as much a part of New York as salty pretzels and the carriage horses of Central Park. While Bill de Blasio claimed to be inspired by Mayor La Guardia, the latter had an entirely different view of the relationship between the people and the city government.
“I prefer the happiness of our unorganized imperfection to the organized perfection of other countries,” La Guardia said after vetoing a jaywalking bill, and added, referencing the growing fascism in Germany that was then admired by many progressives, “Broadway is not Unter den Linden.”
He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back. He thought they was old friends. He felt on the stair where her papa found them bare they became familiar. When the papers were lost rich with pals' secrets, he thought he had the knack of ruin. Their paths crossed
and once they crossed in jail; they crossed in bed; and over an unsigned letter their eyes met, and in an Asian city directionless & lurchy at two & three, or trembling to a telephone's fresh threat, and when some wired his head
to reach a wrong opinion, 'Epileptic'. But he noted now that: they were not old friends. He did not know this one. This one was a stranger, come to make amends for all the imposters, and to make it stick. Henry nodded, un-.
Heading up to Killington this morning with some buddies. I am expecting plenty of powder and plenty of Long Trail.
I think I had best bring my heavy-duty winter undies. Maybe get some runs in this afternoon with my new skis, bought (brand new Volkls, in wrapper) on eBay (last year's model, for 1/3 the price).
Remarkably, more than a quarter of retirees will un-retire at some point, not due to financial necessity, but because they find work more rewarding and enjoyable than retirement.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio emphatically backed New Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial remarks that “extreme” conservatives – which he defined as being pro-life, second amendment advocates, or supporters of traditional marriage – “have no place in the state of New York.” “I stand by that 100 percent,” de Blasio told reporters at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Seven Questions for Bob Dylan - He has given countless interviews, cowritten a movie about himself and authored an autobiography, released 35 albums, and toured for half a century. So why do we know nothing about this man?
In his December ruling against the Wunderlich family, (German) judge Marcus Malkmus called homeschooling a “concrete endangerment to the well-being of the child,” comparing it to a “straitjacket” that he said binds children to “years of isolation.”
“The request of the parents to reinstate their right to determine the location of the children, the right to make educational decisions for the children, as well as the right to file legal applications for their children is being refused,” the judge stated.
The "right" to make educational decisions for your children?
From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> To: “Michael E. Mann” <mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> Subject: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL Date: Thu Jul 8 16:30:16 2004
I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !
Hostility towards mass immigration arises not just from fears of economic “progress”, but from instructive experiences of cultural incompatibility, social disadvantage, imported crime and terrorism and an uninvited threat to national identity. To brush aside such considerations as trivial, intolerant, nostalgic, racist, nasty and even Nazi exposes a faulty and counter-productive analysis, itself blinkered by global-growth criteria.
An economy is not a country. Although bankers may not appreciate this, voters understand it all too well.
Poverty is the normal human condition. Comfort and affluence and cheap carbohydrates are the exception. We take it all for granted, don't we? Even our "poor" are wealthy and comfortable as heck by world standards.
IN my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.
Antidepressants fail to help around 70% of depressed patients on the first try.
Antidepressants are now the treatment of choice for anyone with acute or chronic symptoms of "major depression," ie anxiety, disturbed sleep, hopelessness and helplessness, self-hatred, appetite loss, irrational guilty feelings, loss of sex drive, inability to concentrate, sometimes suicidal feelings, and inability to find pleasure or interest in things. In my experience, the vast majority of patients with a fair number of those symptoms feel better with antidepressants, but, in my view, medicine should never be given without psychotherapy of some sort.
Where it gets complicated is that 1. there are many kinds of depression besides major depression; 2., the personality type, and personal strengths and weaknesses can effect the way depression occurs, and whether it occurs at all, and, 3. life circumstances have a real impact on the ability to improve depression with medicine (if your business is going bust, or your child dying with cancer, no antidepressant will make you merry).
I'll try to keep it brief. The generic term "depression" runs the gamut from the heavily-inherited form that occurs in Bipolar Disorder (which is probably a brain-wiring abnormality), to the grief-like depressive reactions to life-events, especially loss, which occur in vulnerable people. In between are sad-sack people with chronic mildy depressed mood, and many people with chronic mood problems due to personality disordersor neurotic problems. My point is that there is not one "depression". The word refers to a group of symptoms, not a diagnosis.
Because depression is not a unitary phenomenon, different forms require different treatment approaches, whether psychotherapeutic or chemical, but the research says preferably both for severe depression.
It is not widely understood that the new SSRI antidepressants are not "mood elevators." They have no effect whatsoever on people without depression, which is why they are never abused.
I will have to follow-up with a Part 2 later, because this is getting too long, according to our blog rules. "Short and sweet." But some subjects are complex and nuanced, as our esteemed French Senator likes to say.
I asked one of my two entrepreneurial NYC pupettes what she did for fun on Saturday, since her New Year's decision has been not be be All Work And No Play (All Work is her natural tendency and pleasure, as is mine, so she decided to make one day per week a day for play to maintain a balance). She emailed me this report:
Dad:
Went to dim sum brunch at Hakkasan (one Michelin star). And got peach mimosas and macarons (not macaroons). http://hakkasan.com
We walked through Times Square and got some free chocolates at the big Godiva store.
Went to the MOMA and saw a few special exhibits, which included strange modern art that we didn't entirely understand (for example pile of trash and a man who recorded himself making faces with his belly), a Chinese film with nine screens - you lie on the floor and watch them all - you see each shot from nine angles.
Then we went to Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue to get my Christmas bracelet repaired - we hung out at the customer service lounge on the top floor while we were waiting for a specialist to help us and were served delicious cappuccinos. We wandered around the store afterwards and pretended we could afford everything.
We decided to walk to Columbus Circle along the park. On the way we stopped in a few art galleries and saw more strange art that we couldn't afford. My boyfriend almost got run over by a Central Park carriage horse who was running a little too fast, out of control, and making everyone nervous.
We went to the giant Whole Foods in Columbus Circle and bought a craft beer at the pub in the store - they have hundreds of craft beers on tap. Yum. We bought some craft beers for his roommates.
We walked around the big shopping complex there and I scouted out my business competition. We just did Christmas so no need to do any shopping, just looking.
We walked down through Hell's Kitchen and discovered a little Vietnamese place and decided to try it out - it was amazingly delicious. We got clay pot salmon and beef pho (noodle soup) and Vietnamese beer.
We walked a few more blocks but it was so cold we decided to pop into one of our favorite Korean restaurants (Danji) - they have delicious small plates. We got two orders of Kimchi (pickled veggies), beef tartare and two stiff cocktails (one with whiskey and jujubes) and one that was basically straight bourbon. We were warmed up and feeling pretty silly. We quizzed each other on Middle East country capitals and planned our next adventure to Asia.We loved our Japan adventure in Sept.
Then we ran back to my friend's apartment on 44th - being silly and laughing for no reason. I couldn't stop laughing - think it was the whiskey or maybe just joie de vivre.
Then we hung out with a few friends at his apartment for a bit - and watched a terrifying zombie show. Then we had the last of the macarons we had saved from brunch - they were incredible. Caramel, cranberry, almond. Just one more treat to celebrate our anniversary bc it was midnight at that point.
Wind Permits Allowing Eagle Deaths 
Heading up to 
Antidepressants fail to help around 70% of depressed patients on the first try.