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 need to revise anything I said about Mohonk's Labyrinth scramble. I suspect very few people I know over 40 could handle the challenge. In fact, I had a great sense of accomplishment after getting through the Lemon Squeeze up towards the top of the mountain. Proud of myself.
With temps in the mid 60s, by the time we got to the top we had shed jackets, vests, and shirts, and still emerged drenched with sweat. I was right: those with daypacks were in trouble going under tight holes under boulders. My pal from youth had to extract my feet from crevices twice. We worked out a routine where he would toss his backpack to me, and I would throw it ahead of us. I smacked my head hard on ledges twice. Slipped and slid a couple of times, not on purpose. Sometimes you have to scramble up almost vertical boulders.
At the top of Lemon Squeeze, a pal's wife who is an accomplished climber gave me advice on how to get up and through it. I was facing right and she advised facing left. Shouting down the crevice in the cliff. There was a one-inch groove in the cliff to get your boot onto, and then you needed to push against the wall for traction and get your foot up 3' for your next purchase. Lean forward. Many places where you could fall. Always lean forward to avoid injury or death.
Well, the Fat Man's Misery section was manageable for us because we are skinny enough. Most challenging and crazy ascent I have ever encountered. Anything more risky would require ropes.
My special kudos go to Mrs. Bulldog. She has no experience with such things. Now, nothing will seem difficult for her. The Breakneck Hike has nothing on this.
So after that, our intrepid group of 9 decided it might be safer to skip another bouldering climb so we all just took a 2-hour hill hike before the fine Mohonk Sunday buffet brunch with beers at 2. I had prime rib with fresh horseradish, fries, blini with caviar, a plate of sausage and bacon, and strawberry ice cream. By complete serendipity, one of my pal's sons ( who joined us) met his girlriend and her family who were spending the weekend at Mohonk, so they joined us for bunch. Good big party. A fine vigorous outing, in my opinion.
So, my final advice is don't take this on because once you begin there is no turning back. If I did not work out, I could not have done it. It is tough for those over 45 without good upper body strength for pulling on rocks, good balance and agility, and a GoGoHiHo, Can Do attitude.
I eagerly await Bulldog's review. Next time, we should do the Arching Rocks boulder field, which is a serious bitch but easy by comparison.
The Labyrinth at Mohonk Preserve was a favorite annual family challenge when I was a kid. A bunch of us are going to tackle it again in a couple of weeks. I was probably 11 the last time I did it. It's not for everybody but most people seem to handle the scrambling ok anyway.
It is unique. I know Bulldog will love this.
Once committed, there is no backing out. Best to leave your daypack at the beginning and pick it up later. Nobody steals there.
These people enter the labyrinth at the 1:30 minute mark.
We just witnessed an historic US Open finish in more ways that one. Not only did Naomi Osaka win the Japan's first title in a major tournament, but Serena Williams managed to overshadow this feat with her tirades and accusations of a double standard. Is there a double standard in tennis? It depends on what you mean. If I am to understand Serena, she gets fined for bad language and behavior while men get away with it.
It is possible, but by no means probable, that men do behave poorly more and it is overlooked. But evidence seems to exist to the contrary. After all, it's rare to see a woman suspended for bad behavior (in fact, I have not found any examples of it) on the court. With men, it's a fairly common experience. Connors, McEnroe, Fognini are only a few who were assessed points, games, fines and/or suspended. These are a few of the higher-profile players who have suffered, but it's by no means rare or unusual.
I have seen, in person, quite a few tennis matches. I have rarely seen women assessed penalties. I can't remember all the times I've seen men assessed, mainly because it's happened frequently enough for me to have forgotten. In general, female players are better behaved than the men. If Serena's claim is that men behave badly more often and are not assessed penalties, that's going to be difficult to back up. However, what evidence exists indicates she's very wrong.
The real question is are women held to higher standards? I'd argue no, because I've watched many female tennis players berate judges without being assessed penalties. I've seen it happen at least as often as I've seen men berate judges without a penalty. I think commenting there is a double standard, though, lacks historical context.
To a large degree, the harshness of today's penalties are a result of the bad behavior of players like Nastase, Connors and McEnroe. Tennis' image was taking a beating when these players began creating a new image of 'bad boy' tennis. They were penalized and fined in the hopes of cleaning up that image, but they were good enough and wealthy enough to overlook it and keep going. Female players, in the 70s and 80s, didn't earn the same level of prize money, though they probably could have waved fines off as easily as men, if they were assessed. Still, one player who was far more outspoken and outrageous than Serena, Martina Navratilova, points out that Serena is wrong about her penalty. Navratilova believes (again, without fact to back up the claim) there is a double standard, but just because it exists doesn't mean it justifies behaving the way Serena did. Meanwhile, Navratilova never faced as severe penalties as those faced by Mac and Connors. I saw her play many times, and she was generally good about maintaining her composure - the sign of a great athlete, in my opinion - and that has a lot to do with the reason there may seem to be a double standard. Great athletes usually are good at maintaining their composure.
The reality is, as a friend of mine said, "The facts don't matter in anything anymore. The only thing that matters is the reaction of social media and the emotions it can generate." This seems to be true. Emotional ties seem to trump reality. When McEnroe - who was penalized frequently - says "Serena's right" people will take him at his word. But his word isn't accounting for the fact that he created the situation Serena faces, and that he was penalized more harshly than she was.
What we're going to wind up seeing is a reaction to a generalized 'feeling' that somehow there is a double standard, even if the facts indicate otherwise. Social media works on feelings, not facts, which is one reason the firms running social media have issues trying to determine what is 'real' news and what is 'fake' news. Serena's double standard is fake news, as is any news which is generated by, or relies on, emotions for support in defiance of fact.
I'm not commenting that Nike's Kaepernick ad will hurt them financially. So far, it has hurt them (in their stock price) but people are people and will buy things for a variety of reasons. Using Kaepernick as a 'theme' is, however, polarizing on many levels. For some people, the ad may spur sales. For many others, the ad will lead them to spurn the brand. If we look back at the Chick-fil-A and In 'n Out 'boycotts', we're resolved to recognize boycotts which are designed to exact retribution will often result in exactly nothing to harm a firm.
The difference with Nike was their ad is not a perceived slight. It's deliberately offensive. Nike raised the stakes in the marketing wars, and I don't think what they did will benefit them. This wasn't just a misguided statement or an ill-conceived donation. This was taking the Social Justice Warrior mentality and turning it into and ad. It's big question - can social justice be branded? Can the "revolution" of Progressive Thought be promoted in an ad campaign. I'd say no, and the fruits of this campaign may have people talking about Nike...but Nike doesn't need people to be talking about them in this fashion.
Let's start from the beginning. Kaepernick and other players have the right to kneel during the anthem. We all do. Excoriating them for this is silly, uninformed, and ignores the right to free speech. So set that aside. Let's discuss the real problem, which is the outcome of that decision to kneel, because that's where Nike messed up. They took a relatively benign issue, and amped it up on steroids.
The NFL has a Game Day Operations Policy it chose to not implement, which stipulates players which do not stand for the anthem MAY be fined. Not enforcing this has hurt the NFL's image and proved it to be a business at the mercy of its employees' political views. Try breaking YOUR employers' policies and see what happens. Good luck with that. But, hey - it's the NFL, and these guys are "STARS". So yeah, I guess if you have no backbone, you can ignore your own policies and assume everything will turn out fine.
The fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock is creeping up on us, and the 49th anniversary passed with barely a mention. That's probably how it should be. Maybe not, though. Woodstock is viewed differently by many people. For some it was a political event. For me it was purely music and culture. Regardless of how it's viewed, the history is deep, it resonates with different generations, and it was full of lessons. It was a turning point.
I was only 7 at the time. I remember it as 'an event'. At the time, I remember some vague political commentary surrounding it, I was too young to really care. The only thing I was aware of was visiting my cousins in the nearby town where they lived, and thinking the dirty hippies were scary.
Several years ago, I moved closer to the empty nest phase of life, having dropped my second son off at Syracuse (followed in dad's footsteps) for his freshman year. I had fun regaling him with my past life experiences. It was a period of time when past lives were looming. Mrs. Bulldog and I had been married 22 years, and only 2 had been sans children. That's a big gap, and if you've had kids you know what I'm talking about.
A former co-worker, who had been unemployed at that time, landed a job that started in September. He asked if I wanted to take a trip up to Bethel and see the Woodstock museum. I asked my wife if she had any interest, she didn't, so I signed on with him and one other former co-worker to take in some cultural history. Another bit of a past life.
I had a Dunkin with our roofer boss at 7 this morning when I got back from my calisthenics class. 64 year old Irish-Italian guy from Springfield, MA who needs no exercise classes because his entire day is physical. Physical, with lots of subtle skills too. Bending copper to fix a roof cricket is not easy geometry.
I asked him how he knew how to do so many things after he told me he had put new brakes in his ageing F-150 over the weekend. I have a special admiration for practical skills because I am a bit of a klutz with most machinery other than Farmall tractors and chain saws.
An American story. High school then 4 years in the US Army. They put him in a mechanical company, repairing broken things. After that, 6 years in a Massachusetts sawmill spending a lot of time, again, fixing broken things and maintaining machinery.
Got in too many fights with the boss, so got a job in a junkyard, retrieving good parts from junked trucks and cars. After 4 years of that, was offered an auto mechanic job by somebody he knew who knew him to be a hard worker. Became a master mechanic. Always did tree work on the side, and still does. Then his brother-in-law offered him a partnership in his roofing business. He had already done his own roofs, so he jumped at a chance to be a business owner. When that guy quit the biz because it was "too hard," the business was his. He has good crews to supervise but he does all of the tricky stuff and the copper work.
He is a perfectionist. This morning on a second story roof ladder he decided to add some aluminum edging under his new copper flashing to completely protect the crown molding on our dormers. Waterproof, paintable glue to hold it in. "That crown will be good for 200 years."
His life advice: Learn how to do as many things as you can. That way, you can always be useful.
His results: Bought his first house at 25. Has 5 kids who he likes. Bought two houses on his street, both as wedding gifts for his married kids. They are very happy to be near family. Married once. Also has a shack on Cape Cod that he is renovating, and a house in Florida. Grows tomatoes and fruit trees. Claims he will never retire but admits the day might come when he'll have to just be a boss instead of doing 3-story ladder work. Not yet, for sure. Says God blessed him.
Yes, he has a Trump 2020 bumper sticker. He is deplorable.
I repost this about every four years. I think, a good reminder. Below is a repost of a column I wrote at another venue for Labor Day 2006 and posted again here in 2011 and 2014:
What remains of Labor Day? Some speeches about the hard work of our parents or grandparents, and some newspaper articles about current difficulties getting established or obtaining benefits for today’s workers.
Conservatives are distinguished by particular respect for the hallowed history from which current and future advantages spring, without which we would be rootless and at the whim of passing fancies or incitements.
Supposedly, the virtues and rewards of hard work are among these cherished principles.
The Left trumpets redistributive schemes from the affluent or hard working to the poor or lazy, most of which have relatively little benefit to the poor but create newly enriched bureaucrats and union leaders.
Conservatives’ answer is usually more along the lines of how to preserve and protect the fruits of the labor by those in the middle and upper rungs of the economic ladder.
Sebastian Mallaby steps on the Left and Right’s toes today in the Washington Post.
Mallaby points out the futility of most of the Left’s prescriptions, to the “point the left begins to seethe.” He then focuses on reducing tax incentives that mostly accrue to the middle and upper classes, to free up a quarter of them for $180-billion that could be used for increased earned income credits and reduced regressive payroll taxes.
The problem with Mallaby’s arguments is that they are another, albeit better, form of redistribution, and government has repeatedly proven its penchant for wasting such billions on other than targeted needs. More necessary is the unbridling of energies and rewards for labor. That requires investment which creates demand for labor, and skills-oriented education that creates competitive wage earners to fill those new openings.
As Mallaby correctly argues, many of the poorest workers are in service trades not impacted by international competition. Such positions that were once beginning rungs on the ladder now face a gap of steps up due to lack of skills.
Instead of redistributing tax incentives, more needed is redistributing our already huge tax outlays on education from schemes that create administrative and union positions, and posh campuses, toward greater vocational and skills education.
That honors labor, by providing the tools for all to benefit from labor.
I admire and envy people like Nordlinger with the ear and talent just to be able to discern the sound of one conductor from another. Their experience of ambitious music must so be different from mine, much as I am a music-lover. To me, it is all wonderful.
I am with Janssen who loves Schubert. That's one guy who wrote music I feel I can get my head around. Also Mendelssohn I guess.
I am persuaded that no system of government — democratic, oligarchic, aristocratic, monarchical, tyrannical, oriental despotic or worse, liberal-progressive — can deliver anything resembling justice in this world, unless it is under the direction of angels.
He put a Baudelaire quote in there: “Everyone believes in God, but nobody loves Him. No one believes in the Devil, and yet his smell is everywhere.”
Our 3 weeks of roofers are 99% done. Nice job, very neat. All new shiny copper flashing. The carpenters have been at work for 3 weeks too, mostly doing exterior repairs of trim and siding. Some copper gutters too, but we don't need many gutters. All Azec replacement. When that's done I think Mrs. BD wants them to put a roof over the pergola. I am not sure I want that, but I will bargain to double the size of the bluestone patio. I want a place for a firepit. I hate being indoors.
What are unemployed Americans doing? The painters began work today, following the sides of the place where the carpenters have finished their work. 3 Brazilians. Lovely guys, very polite and accommodating. Perfectionists. One has been to Lisbon/Lisboa, but not to Porto.
Depending on weather, they predict 3 more weeks of work (prep takes the longest): scrape entire house, then power-wash, then re-scrape and sand, then prime, then paint. Doing the job the right way.
These guys have never heard of Fado. I suggested that they check it out. We liked this club in Lisbon. We had some Portuguese dessert there and I had a glass of wine:
The Quillette piece we linked this morning about paranoid thinking on the left fringes was good enough to mention author Doris Lessing's 1992 essay, Language and the Lunatic Fringe.
I recommend it. Things have gotten much worse since 1992.
I have noticed the growing use of the word "problematic" lately. I find the use of that word to be problematic. What it means is that you might be in trouble with the Thought and Culture cops.
While meandering around the alleys near downtown Wellfleet last week, we stumbled on this white elephant. Naturally, I was mainly attracted to its barn. The place is for sale. A 10-minute walk to the village.
It's safe to say the place could probably use some work. Roof looks great but I wonder about the age of the wiring, but from the photos it looks pretty up to date inside.
12 bedrooms, said to have been built in 1800 but I doubt that. The cool thing is that it was the home of Wellfleet's most famous son, Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker. Sea captain and entrepreneur, he's the guy who introduced the banana to the US and Europe and founded the company which became the United Fruit Company, now Chiquita Brands. Cool guy, cool life.
I'm not commenting that Nike's Kaepernick ad will hurt them financially. So far, it has hurt them (in their stock price) but people are people and will buy things for a variety of reasons. Using Kaepernick as a 'theme' is, however, polarizing on many levels. For some people, the ad may spur sales. For many others, the ad will lead them to spurn the brand. If we look back at the Chick-fil-A and In 'n Out 'boycotts', we're resolved to recognize boycotts which are designed to exact retribution will often result in exactly nothing to harm a firm.
I had a Dunkin with our roofer boss at 7 this morning when I got back from my calisthenics class. 64 year old Irish-Italian guy from Springfield, MA who needs no exercise classes because his entire day is physical. Physical, with lots of subtle skills too. Bending copper to fix a roof cricket is not easy geometry.