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.
One of the books I am reading now: Leon Uris' Trinity (1976). It's a novelized visit to a sorrowful piece Irish history, and so well-done that it's difficult to imagine that Uris was not Irish.
That potato fungus, and its consequences, killed or drove away over 1 million Irish. The book puts you there. Mrs. BD is half-Irish, and tells me "Stop" when I read sections to her. Mostly the Catholic peasants had the worst time. They were sharecroppers, peasants. The Scots Presbyterians and the Brit Anglican overlords did somewhat better, at the expense of the sharecroppers. It is heartbreaking.
Lucky thousands made it to Canada and the US. Luckily for the US and Canada. The Brits were no heroes of the history, but they were stuck with the tragedy too. It was complicated, like all such things.
Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabeus. It was actually put together as a homage to the Duke of Cumberland after the Battle of Culloden. About the piece here.
Not anymore, not nowadays. Not in a time when lots of "higher ed" is about work skills.
For example, 6 million Americans attend community colleges. That's a lot. They are not there to study Shakespeare and Plato. They stop by to pick up credits that help them apply for work: medical coding, computer coding, hospitality jobs, turf managment, nursing aide ed, etc etc.
As I understand it in my feeble way (not a theologian, so corrections welcome), there were ancient middle eastern atonement rituals designed to re-align oneself to gods or God. Whatever the rules were.
Like the Greeks, the Jews were prone to animal sacrifice. Human sacrifices were not unusual (see Abraham) but when animals were precious possessions, these were real sacrifices too beyond the symbolic.
Christians didn't keep Yom Kippur because Christ's death was taken as the ultimate sacrifice to cleanse all sins for confessors and believers. A final human sacrifice. However, Mother Church kept weekly confession and Lent anyway. Fortunately, because of human need. I do not get the doctrine of that.
I have a personal confessor, but a Jewish pal and his family do group confession over dinner on Yom Kippur. Even his kids and parents speak out about their dark sides and their shameful actions, and their aspirations to be more worthy of G-d. Wow.
Not in a million years can I imagine my Protestant family doing such a thing.
If only for convenience, it's always a good idea to put some boards or a tarp to cover your winter's firewood.
Some claim it's important to put some tarp under the pile of firewood because unless you live where the soil is rock-frozen from Sept. to May, dampness rises up. That seems to make some sense, but the trouble is that the tarp underneath will hold water.
My best solution from experimenting with multiple cords each year is to elevate the piles with anything - logs, pallets, rocks, etc so there is airflow, and only to cover the top of the piles, not the sides. That blocks airflow.
In my view, a home without a fire is just a house in wintertime. Just clean the flue every cord or two.
This was a nice breakfast amuse bouche: A single scrambled egg with chopped chives, topped with a dollop of creme fraiche, topped with a scoop of Beluga caviar.
There are, in fact, important and interesting insights to be derived from The Social Construction of Reality. On the other hand, there is ordinary reality which always wins in the end.
I suspect many of our readers would agree that the Obama EPA's extension of federal authority from navigable waters to every rural mudpuddle was overreach.
For three personal examples, that extension made if practically impossible to legally ditch our driveway because two seasonal trickles (albeit, already with small culverts) intersected it. Second, it made it practically impossible for us to replace a 200 year-old bridge over our stream, after Irene washed it out. Third, it made it illegal to dredge out a small old cow pond which, over time, had filled with sediment and become a "seasonal wetland" filled with grass.
As a conservationist, it saddened me to see the gradual loss of that pond along with the loss of our Painted Turtles, the shore and swamp birds, the frogs and salamanders, etc. But to dredge it legally (and I do not do illegal), we needed an environmental lawyer, an engineer consultant, etc. to begin a multi-year process to apply to the Army Corps of Engineers, the state EPA, and the federal EPA. Give me a break. It was a darn (50X60' roughly) farm pond, only 5'-6' deep in the middle at first.
Do you have enough clothes? Enough footwear? Enough for the rest of your life?
I understand that women need to keep up with fashion to some extent to avoid appearing non-serious (appearance counts!) so I am talking more about casual wear, outerwear, hiking gear, hunting gear, more than about professional wardrobes.
One of our end-of-summer rituals is to go through all of the closets and all of the clothes shelves. It's mostly getting rid of excess stuff.
It's difficult to anticipate one's life span, but it's easy for me to see what I will never run out of regardless of how active I remain:
I will never wear out my hunting gear. I will never wear out my casual sport jackets I will never wear out my 2 wool suits (weddings and funerals, not needed in court anymore) I will never wear out my Tux I will never wear out my misc. hiking and hunting boots I will never live to wear out my fall/spring outwear I will never wear out my more formal rain wear I will never wear out my sporting rain gear I will never wear out my casual shirts (not including polo shirts and tennis shirts) I will not wear out my collection of gloves I will not live long enough to wear out my fleeces and sweaters
I will wear out another blazer or two, God willing I will wear out more work/dress shirts (I like the Brooks non-iron ones) I will wear out some jeans and casual trousers I will wear out the socks in my sock drawer. Underwear too.
One of my tricks is to keep near my age 35-40 weight. It is do-able.
Do our readers have enough clothing stuff for the rest of their lives? If so, what? I wearing out clothes a good measure of an active and fulfilling life?
(Addendum: seems like much of this does not apply to women, except for the outdoor clothing. Women have to stay up to date to look right.)
Can anyone be taught to be a writer? I sort of doubt it, but anybody can learn to structure a coherent essay, and if that's interesting to read then that's a good start. Many lines of work require that. For writing, talent helps, so does IQ, curiosity, observational power, and wit.
I have always (like so many, because music is harder) aspired to be a fine writer, but I lack the talent. I can do simple declarative, mostly grammatical sentences, but that's all.
A US Social Security card is specifically not to be used for identification. All it means is that you are enrolled in a forced government retirement program. They are easily and frequently faked. So I am confused.
Does anyone have one anymore? Of course, I have a number. But a card? That little piece of paper? That little piece of paper that you are not allowed to laminate? Are you kidding me? I always thought that thing was just to inform me about my gummint number. Why didn't they tattoo it on my forearm, or implant me with an ID chip?
Guess what? You need the card to get your REAL ID driver's license. And in 2020, everybody who is legit will need a REAL ID license. Only illegals will have trouble getting that.
To get your card, go to the Social Security website, fill out the form, and print it out. Then you have to go in person to a local SS office with other ID info and they will eventually mail you a replacement card.
Then, with your brand new SS card, you can go to your DMV, wait in line, and get your REAL ID license. Fun.
I do not mind much that the US wants to determine who is legit and who is not, but who can take off work time for this gummint BS? Time is money. Really, at this point the gummint knows everything about me anyway.
I already spent an hour getting my TSA Pre-check number. That cost me money - $85 plus loss of billable hours. Global Entry? That's even more of a hassle. I'd like to have it, but take a day off from work to get it? Not gonna happen. Alas, I just do not spend that much time in airports.
A US Social Security card is specifically not to be used for identification. All it means is that you are enrolled in a forced government retirement program. They are easily and frequently faked.