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.
That building is not a style I'd go out of my way to build or anything, but it's based on one of the coolest things in the history of the US: The Columbian Exposition in Chicago (aka the Chicago World's Fair) on the 400th anniversary of Cristobal Colon showing up. (he was Portuguese, you know; a man holding a knife to my chin told me that and I believed him, con gusto).
Victoria didn't die until 1901, and Britain didn't get the memo until 1940 or so, but the Columbian Exposition was the exact spot on the calendar that the United States became the most important thing in the world. And the pavilions were like a big contest to see who had the biggest architectural stones. All the heavyweights were there. Sullivan (Wright's boss) McKim, Olmstead, every damn person that matters worked there. Walt Disney's father worked there, and that's where Walt got the idea for Disneyland. The world's first ferris wheel! My old, dead neighbor in Mattapoisett, Frank Millet painted murals there. Mark Twain was the best man at his wedding. Pabst Blue Ribbon was introduced there! Tesla! Scott Joplin!
All the swells sent their artsy-fartsy children to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paree, and they studied classical Roman and Greek stuff. The Columbian Exposition was an explosion of American Beaux-Arts/ Neoclassical architecture on the world. The idiot "Elvis's House" two-story columns on the big shack you took a picture of in Newport was born when they put up a replica of Mount Vernon at the exhibition and everyone got the idea from the back portico on George's house. Didn't matter it doesn't have anything much to do with classical Greek and Roman design. There was a lot of pastiche born out of the style.
That's what that house is. Neoclassical. It was really popular right up to the depression, when everyone got gloomy and started building things like Fenway Park.
Here's a pic of Machinery Hall at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The grand buildings were all temporary structures in a temporary Olmsted landscape, and became an inspiration for things like Disneyland:
,,,the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
Abraham Lincoln was not normally a very self-revealing sort, especially on the subject of religion. But now, in what remains the most socially revolutionary document written by any American president, Lincoln threw aside his self-imposed restraint and proceeded to justify his proclamation and the freedom it bestowed on 3.9 million black slaves in terms of a private covenant he had made with God.
Yesterday's American architecture quiz was was too hard. I honestly had no idea how to categorize it. It was a highly pleasing pastiche, and thus an unfair question. Our expert tells us this:
That one was a bit of a mishmash, I imagine. Been changed a lot over the years. If I was a betting man, I'd say it was Italianate. Squarish, with a clerestory most call a cupola. The second story porch is officially called a "gallery," and I don't think it's original. I think the bottom floor bracketed porch is the original, and they maybe built the other one on top of its roof and added a door. That sort of arrangement is popular in places like Louisiana but not the Northeast much. I imagine the eaves of the main house had modillions or brackets like you see on the bottom floor's porch and they were removed. It may be the whole thing was much older and the Italianate style was overlaid on it. That was popular in the mid 1800s. I think the Adam style fanlight front door and flanking windows are more recent additions, too.
I like to take architectural pics when I go places. As Sipp says, people who make things are demigods, changing the world. Swords, guns, tables, plows, iPhones, or homes. This elegant and not ostentatious manse in Newport was built, no doubt, by a genius evil Capitalist as a summer cottage for his family and friends while he worked in NYC, and is more straightforward than the last one. (All substantial summer homes in Newport - and the seaside in New England in general - are called "summer cottages," as opposed to town houses.)
What Comes After 'Europe'? The riots of Athens will become those of Milan, Madrid and Marseilles. Border checkpoints will return. Currencies will be resurrected, then devalued.
...there’s one last thing that nice people don’t know. It is that hucksters aren’t confined by the same boundaries they assume everyone else is contained by. They are capable not only of sucker-punching you, but of exceeding limits you never thought could be transgressed. Grifters are in some sense not part of the same civilization that Peretz, Brooks, and Noonan inhabit. Maybe they don’t believe this yet. But they will. They will.
Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700 Money the family spent: $38,200 New debt on the credit card: $16,500 Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 Budget cuts: $385
Jimmy Stewart tries telling the whole story of the shooting of Liberty Valance to a young reporter, and revealing that his whole career has been built on another man’s deed, and the newspaper’s editor declines to print it. “When the legend becomes fact,” the editor says, “print the legend.”
There is no expiation in confession for Stewart. His life has been built upon a lie, and he supplanted a better man in his wife’s affections, and he knows it.
MoDo misunderstands most things, but humility and self-scrutiny are rare commodities at the NYT. Movie tells a great story with one heck of a cast.
Here's the tune (1963). Gene Pitney. Never forget Gene Pitney - or John Wayne.
Morrissey: Has Obama quit already? Judging by his plans for job creation and deficit reduction, the president has given up on policy accomplishments in favor of playing politics
Very wealthy people such a Mr. Buffett tend to earn their money in one of three ways: as investors, as entrepreneurs, or as executives in large enterprises. In each case, salary is a relatively small part of total compensation: Rather than getting a regular paycheck, investors, entrepreneurs, and top executives most often are rewarded with an ownership stake in their firms. As they work to increase the value of the business, they enrich themselves as well. This is a desirable arrangement to the extent that it aligns the financial interests of a company’s management with those of its shareholders.
Mikhail Bulgakov's 20th century classic, The Master and Margarita, was not his only book. Among other works, he wrote the little-known A Country Doctor's Notebook before he left medicine to become a full-time writer.
The former is a masterpiece, with Pontius Pilate playing a major role. The latter is plain wonderful.
Tyson’s behavior sullied boxing’s always precarious reputation, making the sport synonymous with freakishness. He would be the last in a long line of heavyweights to bear a symbolic connection to American social trends. For just as the blustery John L. Sullivan represented a growing nation coming into its strength, and the magnetic Dempsey the birth of mass-media celebrity and commercial culture, and the stoic Louis the hard years of depression and war, and the mercurial Ali the age of rebellion and change, so Tyson embodied the postmodern hoodlum—the gangsta from an urban landscape pulverized by fatherlessness and anomie. Remarkably, a middle-aged Tyson is now trying to remake his life, a feat that, given the obstacles, would outstrip anything that his illustrious predecessors achieved, in the ring or out.
Ice: This is bad news for the people of Greenland who would love to be rid of all that ice that covers valuable resources that Greenlanders could exploit.
Similar: Europe’s Moral Decadence Fuels Spread of Islamic Fundamentalism- The left has done its job well: Norwegian reporters, for fear of being accused of Islamophobia, are now actually loath to remind readers that there is such a thing as Islamic terrorism.
The Chinese government’s ‘vacuum cleaner’ approach to espionage is worrying foreign governments, companies and overseas dissidents. They’re right to be concerned.
I'm sure you've seen the endless drip of announcements and adulations. They give away Free cash money for free to put super-duper, earth transforming solar panels on you roof:
City, federal incentives make installing a solar panel a zero dollar investment
Does any of that make any rational sense? Or am I stupid?
Since the recession, we have had a government doing everything it can to suppress, leash, and stifle the animal spirits of American enterprise. Why are the predictable results always "unexpected"? Where would we be, now, without China's loans?
We miss Reagan's common sense. The Dems are blinded to reality by ideological sentiment. Money doesn't grow on trees.
A "casino" (little house) is a place for social amusement and get-togethers, either public or private. The East coast used to have many clubs and assembly places called "casinos," often on the seashore. Gambling Casinos are a kind of casino.
Have you ever tried tennis on a grass court? I have. It's fast and the ball skids low. You skid, too. It's good fun.
Sipp, our American architectural expert, says that Newport, RI is basically the birthplace of Shingle Style. Here's his pic of the courtyard of the shingle-style Newport Casino, now the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
A few ideas, while Mrs. BD and I plan our trip to visit the Pupette in Prague this Spring (think we'll use Club ABC to save $ this time. Prague is a hot place these days for the youths.):
VRBO - Vacation Rentals by Owner. It's worldwide. I like to move around on my trips, but it's a cool idea to rent a place, rent a couple of cars, and bring the whole family and your best friends for a week or ten days. When my Dad was slightly younger, he used to do this for the whole family in Tuscany. Kids, their spouses, grandkids, etc. Two weeks, villa with pool and a cook and a ton of bedrooms, spare cars, walk to the village. Nice. What's the point of a little money if you can't enjoy it and share treats with your family? Uncle Sam will take half your money when you croak to buy votes.
Vacations To Go: Discount ship tix. You have to pick a nice ship, however - not one of the tacky mass-market ones which are beneath the dignity of Maggie's readers. The Silver Explorer is a nice one, with only 132 passengers. Here are some pics of her. I am in favor of the cheaper rooms on ships, because you are hardly never in your room anyway. On ships, I like to spend my time up on the deck. My friends at the Holland America line let me hang out on the bridge.
Belief in God 
Mikhail Bulgakov's 20th century classic, 
Paul Beston's 
Oktoberfest 
Regarding the jobless American economy, the esteemed 
Vacations To Go