Maggie's Farm

I have a friend who is a bit of a watch collecter and amateur expert. He showed me the Vacheron Constantin watch he was wearing the other day.

It's the oldest surviving watch company in the world. Est. 1755. They make unostentatious fine watches, or "timepieces" as watch snobs term them. You have to wind them every morning which, if I understand it right, all very fine watches require.

I am a Timex guy - a watch I wear routinely needs to take plenty of abuse and needs to be disposable - but I have a couple of somewhat fancier watches which I rarely use. Consumption is not one of my hobbies (I don't own a lot, but I have enough of everything), but I can appreciate fine hand-made things.

My friend tells me that Obama wears a flashy and expensive IWC, assembled from innards made by other companies. "Typical Obama," said he.

Photo is a Vacheron Constantin Jubilee.

My urbanologist friend tells me that we can thank the gays of NYC for being frequent pioneers of gentrification. He says they have plenty of spare cash and like to spend it, they like interesting restaurants, and they like to make things look pleasant.

A generation ago, the gays moved into the West Village. Recently, moving into  Chelsea, which was once a neighborhood which many conflated with Hell's Kitchen. Today, it is known as a semi-gay neighborhood (nothing in your face, though), but with plenty of young families with kids (strollers and moms everywhere), and lots of young straight professionals too (including a BD pupette, which is why I have become so familiar with the area. She is in a new Chelsea high-rise, with doorman, a business center, a gym and a cool roof-top garden overlooking the Hudson for parties - all you have to do is sign up for the roof-top).

Chelsea is full of old brownstones, and peppered with new high-rises. It's a short walk to Chelsea Piers, the Intrepid Museum, and the 12-mile Westside Greenway (for biking, running, and hiking) which runs along the Hudson River from the Staten Island Ferry to the George Washington Bridge. Now there is the High Line "park" too, which will run all the way to the Meat Packing District.

(The Upper West Side, where I dwelled for a while, has come a long way too in the baby stroller department, but it never quite needed gentrification. It was always a mixed area with all of its grand pre-war buildings and brownstones. Its SROs are gone now, though, along with the street crime.)

One could spend a lifetime studying the changing neighborhoods of NYC. Curtis Sliwa knows it all.

Brownstones like these in Chelsea now go for 2-4 million:

Since we have our signs up, we do not forgive your trespasses. Plus we have the fully operational services of the He Marks The Sparrow's Fall Security System in place at the farm.

Great tool for the places wheere you cannot take a tractor. It's the 17 HP, and it will shred a 2" sapling with ease. Here's the DR site.

Can you name year and make of the truck?

Ten years ago we sat with a good pal, now deceased, and his wife on the porch of his golf club, sipping after-dinner single malts and smoking Cubans. And watching the Hummingbird Moths who were all over the solid planting of pink Cleome below the porch.

One of those magical moments. There are other reasons to plant annuals like Cleome, but those moths at dusk are the best reason. Here's a pic of one from Gardener's Index hovering over a Cleome:

Luke 12:49-56. Tough words from the Prince of Peace.

12:49 "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!

12:52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;

12:53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

12:54 He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens.

12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.

12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

2-3 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
1/2 cup wine vinegar
4 heaping tablespoons of fresh-grated Parmesan
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
4-5 anchovies
salt and pepper to taste

Throw it all into the blender and mix at low/med. speed.

We posted this long ago, but Tiger reminded me of it. No man-made machine is like this:

Entry drive, early morning, August.

At Pajamas, "Bob Dylan’s Great Travel Song, "When I Paint My Masterpiece" is a great summer vacation song—particularly if you’re heading to Europe, as right about now, a lot of Americans are." Touching base with their cultural roots and with history.

Since SONY has been removing Bob's things from YouTube - and I cannot find The Band's version - I can only offer good old Jerry with his pickin' version:

It takes all kinds. Man lives as TV dog. Good for him. A world without eccentrics would be a dull as Singapore.

How advertising genius Albert Lasker transformed America

San Francisco proposal would limit toys in kids' meals. Will these cranks ban the toy in Crackerjacks too? Which is worse: Bloomberg or San Francisco?

Photos of opera houses. h/t, Thompson

Understanding your husband's sexual needs

More evidence that 'Recovery Summer' is a cruel hoax

Model corruption - The truth about the GM 'rescue'

The Dem strategy for November is in place. It's dishonest, but it's everyday politics.

Via NYM:

A thought experiment: I am grieved by Saudi policies — for example, Saudi religious discrimination, oppression of women, and persecution of homosexuals. If I were to express these grievances by blowing up a Saudi kindergarten, do you think Imam Feisal would say (1) the Saudi Royal family must share responsibility for the carnage, and (2) whether or not I had committed an act of terrorism is a “very complex question”?

Your daily dose of good wholesome sarcasm: Why Can’t You Selfish Ingrates Feel the First Couple’s Pain?

Says it all: Buchanan's Putting Government First. Quote:

...we have a situation where private sector workers in Middle America are being taxed, their children being driven ever deeper into debt to China, so government employees who have greater job security than they do, and earn more in pay and benefits than they will ever earn, can stay in Fat City.

And folks wonder why so many Americans detest government.

Related: Why people aren't hiring-

Finally, somebody remembered to give me this book for my birthday.

Just need to finish reading my Baroque book first.

Does it seem to you that they keep making books with smaller and smaller print these days...?

Vanderleun is right: these 1940s color pics are fascinating slices of American life. I have seen some of them at Dr X, in the past. Part of the message for me is how soft and luxurious our lives have become over the past 60-70 years. Women had muscles then, but not from working out at the health club. 

Here's one of the pics:

Lucy’s Kin Carved Up a Meaty Meal, Scientists Say. h/t, Dr X. I think they were cannibals. They look like cannibals.

Energy crisis and peak wood

Obama: Slaves on the Government Plantation. All persons of skin tone must return to their barracks immediately.

Weather liars. Flat, outright lies, and fully-deliberate.

I heard last night that an estimated 1 in 8 babies born in America last year were born to illegals.

How Pres. Hoover damaged the economy: raised spending and raised taxes

Home Ownership: American Dream or American Headache?  It's natural for people to want to own stuff. Not always sensible, though.

Related: Feds rethink policies that encourage home ownership. I want to see federal policy to encourage boat ownership. Boatie Mac, or something. No money down.

Stimulus Pushers -The latest bailout for public unions and spendthrift states. The irresponsible and the unions get the dough.

Q&O: Is the US bankrupt? Well, we are just pwned by China.

Harry Reid is sane? Harry Reid ad: Sharron Angle 'dangerous,' 'crazy'. She seems just like an ordinary citizen to me.

Public favors Tea Party over top Dems

Juan Williams: White Votes Are Irrelevant

The threat of the 'fake fishermen': How BP may be paying out millions in oil spill compensation to fraudsters. Hey, I go fishing every chance I get.

Wow. A Dem won a Dem primary

Some thoughts about how liberals are made

American Conservatives have "new ideas"? No, they don't. They have 1776 ideas. Liberals have 1912 ideas.

Sports feminists want space on the sports pages. h/t, Insty. Are they talking about newspapers? They should quit bitching and just create some good women's sports websites, and make some money. Or not.

Fla. AG McCollum Pushes New Immigration Law Tougher Than Arizona's. We are looking at the unfolding of a rebellion.

...I'd buy this W. 12th St. townhouse as a pied a terre. I'd let all my millions of best friends use it, too, when they visited NYC. There would be a maid and a cook who lived on the top floor, and three reserved parking spots at the garage down the street.

All day long I'd biddy biddy bum...

With the lousy economy, and the closing of so many Wall St. firms, prices are coming down a bit, but such places remain pricey from my humble standpoint. They are asking $29 million for this typical and rather ordinary one (see photos at link). I guess lots of people want to have places in Manhattan these days.

People who are not familiar with 19th century NY townhouses do not know that they all have pleasant little gardens in the back. Lots of landcaping businesses in NY specialize in townhouse mini-gardens. Little fountains, mini-patios, quiet lighting, pots, plants that like the city, etc. I once knew somebody whose Mom kept her pet tortoise in her NY garden for many years. Animal probably outlived her. It fed on bugs, worms, weeds and grass in the garden, and vegetables left-over from Chinese take-out. Crunched up those skinny dried hot peppers without batting an eye. It lived in the kitchen in the winter.

I think it was a Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca) that she snuck home in her luggage from a trip to Corfu in the late 1950s. Gerald Durrell, brother of  Lawrence Durrell, loved those tortoises when he summered in the Greek islands. Those animals can live well over 60 years. They become precious living heirlooms, like parrots.

Photo of T. graeca in its natural spartan habitat:

It's kind of fun, but lacking in real content:

From Megan's retirement post:

...there is no conceivable system that is going to allow the vast majority of the population to spend a full third of their adult life in retirement, at anything like the same standard of living they had when they were working. 

Toon above via Powerline. See new surge of layoffs.

Never a bad idea: a summer visit to the USS Constitution, still commissioned in the US Navy. Old Ironsides (that was southern Live Oak) never lost a fight.

Bill Gates: watch for the disappearance of the physical university. Right now, you can eddicate yourself pretty good with The Teaching Company. We love their courses, but no term papers (bad) and no exams (good).

Legal Ins, to the Left:

Obama has accomplished as much as he could for you. He has put in place laws which will enable him to accomplish through regulation that which he could not accomplish through legislation. Obama is playing the long game, and you are short-sighted.

The savvy Leftists always keep their eye on the long game.

Majority of voters consider Democratic agenda “extreme”

Dalrymple on conservation and aesthetics

More violent rage from the Left: N.H. Dem Airs Palin Death Wish on Facebook. Where's the tolerance and sensitivity to differences?

Prof B: Coerced "caring" is not compassion

McArdle: The End of Retirement as We Know It. People used to expect to work until they keeled over. What's wrong with that?

Wrote this post back in January, before we finalized our travel plans - not going to the Veneto this year...maybe next year. Or maybe Provence...or if the Dems entirely ruin the country, nowhere fun and just farm drudgery.

Considering a visit to Padua (just a few minutes outside Venice) to see the Arena Chapel with its Giotto interior while visiting the Veneto and Dolomites this summer (maybe). It's a famous chapel - more famous than the Matisse and Chagall Church in Westchester - but it looks very much like the Giotto stuff in the chapels in Santa Croce, which I have seen.

I read that, to visit the Capella, you need reservations, decontamination, etc. Plus a time limit and no photos, as is usual in Italian historic churches. 

I guess I should have known that the title of that email was going to be a Canadian pharmacy hawking Viagra, but for a second there my crazy brain thought it might be about how to want to bed geriatric women.

You know, a Zorba-type thing. What a great movie. The inspiration for Mr. Tambourine Man, I have heard.

A buddy had an Aussie field biologist friend who used to like to get drunk and recite this potty-mouth ditty around the campfire to much merriment: The Bastard from the Bush.

It's a new one to me, but probably all Aussies know it by heart.

Liberals believe you build a good society from the top down; conservatives believe you build a society from the bottom up.

 Michael Medved, via Reb 

Our friend Sippican is having a major sale of his brand-new antiques. Serious markdowns.

His stuff is all solid wood, nothing fake, and generally consistent with Maggie's Farm style - all-American homespun with no Baroque or Rococo.

We have a couple of his pieces and they are handsome. Heirlooms (and if you happen to wonder about the etymology of "heirloom," it's just like it sounds).

Here's Sipp's furniture website.

Excellent brief reminder of the history of limited government

A fresh look at the Shakers. Today, I think we'd term them a cult. As a furniture cult, they had good taste.

She quits job, emails office with her erase board messages. Fantastic. I have heard of a MILF but not of a HOPA. Now that I know the term, I have to say I have seen lots of HOPAs. (Note: this is a dubious story, but good even if fictional.)

THAT WAS NO TEACHER… Unhinged Leftist Who Confronted Palin Is a Singer in a Drag Queen Band. Seriously. . (Note: this is also probably a half-true story)

Enraged over McNuggets. Speaking of McDonalds, Moonbats Continue Jihad Against Happy Meals

The Increasingly Self-Pitying Obama White House

The elites don't get it: 'We Socialists' vs. 'We the People':

It is insufferable (and will not long be suffered) to be lectured to and imposed upon by a ruling class that loathes our nation's history, values and accomplishments; by those who are not, in fact, our genuine betters. They are neither better educated nor more profoundly morally versed.

In fact, they are our intellectual and moral inferiors -- not superiors.

Let's start building some freaking small nuke plants. As I have mentioned, we have a small home-made reactor in the farm basement. Runs great except when mice get into the rods. When it runs a bit hot, we just spray it with a hose.

Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys - Blue Moon of Kentucky. I tried to find Tom T. Hall's amazing Kentucky in the Morning on video, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere.