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.
It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.
My great-uncle used to like Haiti for winter vacations. It was a tourist place, like Cuba was.
Like so many places on earth, it's now a gangster place. Call it a "country" if you want to. Nothing new about that. Seems to me that not being a gangster place is the exception.
I've known a couple of Americans who tried to "help" Haitians. They gave up, just like the Clintons did. It has no modern legal structure, same as Somalia or Gaza etc. etc. Lord of the flies.
I happen to love corned beef and cabbage (plus potatoes) - as long as there is plenty of horseradish mustard and beer.
The real name of the meal is New England Boiled Dinner. I cook it all together in a giant pot. If the pickled beef needs a knife, it's underdone. I think it should almost crumble.
I make some for family, including my Irish father-in-law, yearly. No Guiness, though. It really does not go with food in my opinion. Heck, it's a meal in itself. In Irish pubs, they throw one or two raw eggs in it, stir it up, and call it breakfast.
(Our kids are 25% Irish, 25% Southern Italian, 40% English, and 10% Scandinavian probably via the Norman invasion. In other words, all- American. Genetic mongrelization worked well for our kids, cuz I am 90% English, around 10% Scandinavian and thus overly-inbred in New England since the 1600s.)
We had a not-charming drive through Paterson, NJ on Saturday while trying to map out plans for my father-in-law's funeral events.
I told my brother I would not drive through that city (pop 157,000) again without a firearm and/or a police escort. This once entirely safe and prosperous east coast city (like Bridgeport, Hartford, or Waterbury CT) has become a frightening and dangerous place. Filthy too. Garbage on streets, emply storefronts, stumbling addicts, and worse.
OK, I am a privileged white guy with a nice car with out of state plates. It is interesting how quickly these medium-sized cities met their downfalls. I'm not sure I can even blame politicians for it. Economics. Mrs. BD said it's like a 3rd world place and I said it was worse than Haiti. 4th world. Tons of Moslem immigrants, but they are not the problem although I noticed the storefront Moslem places collecting goods for the Palestinians. OK - I get tribalism. Normal. I did not dare take a photo, but I was driving anyway - to Totowa.
There are large parts of New Jersey that are comfortable, even lovely suburban and rural areas, but sheesh. Montclair is very pleasant, and only minutes from NYC by train.
Poet and physician William Carlos Williams wrote his masterpiece Paterson, of which Book 1 is the most worth checking out. It is termed "imagist" writing, but what writing is not?
Of course it did. However, I am a fan of the idea of adults letting their kids hear "classical" music from the earliest. I think it gets the brain used to processing complex music.
Nothing wrong having with folk music either. I think of Pop music, Jazz, Blues as subcategories of folk music.
Best thing? Give kids a chance to learn to sing or play some instruments. Odds are they, like me, have no talent but it's a good thing anyway.
2:2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.
2:3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
2:7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--
2:9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
2:10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Now, Ivy League colleges like Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have decided to stop publishing the Dean’s List – a recognition of those students who worked hard to achieve academic excellence – to reduce “stress and competition.”