Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page
Categories
QuicksearchLinks
Blog Administration |
Friday, November 22. 2019Dunbar's Number for your social lifeTuesday, November 19. 2019Logos, luxury beliefs, luxury brands, status-seeking, and social signaling
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:16
| Comments (6)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, November 16. 2019FirewoodSunday, November 10. 2019Ford's 1932 groudbreaking V8 engineA wonderful story, beautiful car
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:29
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Dorothea LangeTrailer of a 2004 film about the photographer
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:41
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, November 8. 2019Do art and music come from God?It sure can feel like it. Mr. Vanderleun considers the topic with a little Leonard Cohen and this bit which barely fits his theme: In the beginning, I never thought that with all his warts and his tweets and all his rants and ravings that the broken human named Donald Trump could be God’s chosen instrument to try and mend this broken kingdom, but there he sits astride the world like some Strange Colossus. This feels like it comes from some supernatural place:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:46
| Comments (5)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, November 7. 2019Tenors get girlsLike rock stars, famous tenors get all the girls they want. Women go nuts over them. In the TV news business and in Hollywood they have a term for them: "star-f...ers." We used to term them "groupies." Even at his age, Placido is the best living tenor. A rock star.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:11
| Comments (12)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, November 3. 2019Shoes for IndustryMrs. Barrister advises that, the closer a person reaches maturity, the more important it is to dress well without appearing sloppy. I agree with that, and I notice it. Rightly or wrongly, appearance has impact. It matters more when you have a coat and tie job, or a suit and tie job. Have you ever noticed how well even elderly gents look in an up-to-date well-fitted suit? However, I am writing this post to discuss shoes for coat-and-tie men, or even no-tie. Surely it matters as much or more for women, but my knowledge there is minimal because when Mrs. B says "Jimmy Choos" I think she is saying "Mumble Shoes." Men's dress/work shoes can range from London's hand-made bespoke shoes to Nordstrom's off the rack. The more expensive, the longer they last. Good ones last a lifetime, and get seasoned with time, if not abused so guys rarely need new good shoes. A good rule is that pretty good shoes (over, say, $350-400) should rarely be worn 2 days in a row. I generally have a modest dress shoe shelf, a black and a corduvan dress loafer, and a black and brown pair of tie shoes. My old black Brooks tassel loafers finally had to go - my feet flattened too much for them and they proved unstretchable. These dress shoes double as running shoes: A former Adidas designer has reinvented the dress shoe to be as comfortable as sneakers. Company has a cool name: Wolf & Shepherd
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:49
| Comments (24)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, November 2. 2019"Rembrandt was not afraid of the dark."Many, like Van Gogh, felt he was a magician but in his lifetime his work became unpopular and less profitable, he made some bad investments, and died in poverty. It seems that what we value most about Rembrandt today are his portraits, but he did all sorts of work in all sorts of styles. The 17th C Dutch art show at the Met Museum now was interesting to me for a few reasons. One was that Rembrandt was an outlier in much of his work. Baroque, and humorous/bawdy, were popular, money-making styles of his time. Franz Hals, for example. Also, landscapes of rich guys' estates. Also interesting to me that this was going on during the time when the Pilgrims were in Holland, or planning to leave to New Amsterdam (but accidentally ended up in Cape Cod). Pilgrim clothing was conservative Dutch Reform dress. My photo of one of Rembrandt's many self portraits. He was 55 at this time. He often used himself and his family as models.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:02
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, October 31. 2019Cosmology update
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:33
| Comments (8)
| Trackbacks (0)
A brief political history of breadBread and circuses? Does man live on bread alone?
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:56
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, October 27. 2019Bloom talks about Shakespeare
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:17
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
A new John Le CarreNat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:50
| Comments (7)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, October 26. 2019William Blake, Poet-Engraver (1757-1827)
Via American Digest and Dinocrat, ‘To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit’: Blake’s Visionary Imagination Image is Blake's Ghost of a Flea
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:03
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, October 24. 2019"Will" vs "shall"
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:56
| Comments (7)
| Trackbacks (0)
A preliminary first draft of the We Work case studyBy Matt Levine at Bloomberg: How Do You Like We Now? Also FPOs and MSCI. A brilliant piece, especially about FPOs and IPOs.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:09
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, October 13. 2019BeechIn North America, Beech is the most dense and heavy wood second only to Ironwood (which is a slender tree). Up here, Beech, Oak, Hickory and Maple tend to be climax hardwood forest. Beech will wear out saw blades fast. Wildlife love the beechnuts. White Beech is native, but Copper Beech is not, and is vulnerable to the evil fungus. With the help of my hearty and cheerful Colombian friends, and a 22-ton splitter, we produced around 3 cords of beech firewood in a nice cool rain. Not splittable by hand - that wood is like iron and the knots are like steel. The unsplit logs have been seasoned since March, so they are quite dry. That dense hardwood will burn forever. Priceless, and smells good too. Sorry that monster tree had to go, but it had the fatal fungus and the falling branches could kill somebody. Around 3 cords I think - that's a double row. I plan to plant a Pin Oak next to where the Copper Beech was. Nice trees, lots of acorns. Reminds me of the old axiom "When's the best time to plant a tree?" Ans: "20 years ago." Realistically, best time to plant a tree is fall. It will get a good head start in spring before the weather warms. Ready to go as soon as my chimney sweep shows up to clean out the flues. We luckily have 3 fireplaces in our cottage. Homey, cozy, New Englandy is what we like here. Wish we had a wood stove in the kitchen, but I'm planning for a stone firepit out back so outdoors and s'mores can be year-round.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:33
| Comments (15)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, October 9. 2019
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:16
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Snow tires
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:39
| Comments (29)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, October 3. 2019A young physician's storySunday, September 29. 2019Stacking firewood
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. What do our readers do?
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:58
| Comments (18)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, September 21. 2019Sebastian ManiscalcoCute, with the Italian-American shtick
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:07
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, September 20. 2019Late Summer Scientific Survey: Do you have enough clothes?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 wear out another blazer or two, God willing 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.)
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:10
| Comments (14)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, September 19. 2019So You Want to Be a Writer?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. So You Want to Be a Writer? A review of Why They Can’t Write by John Warner
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
18:15
| Comments (11)
| Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, September 17. 2019Perhaps best obit ever
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:37
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
« previous page
(Page 25 of 250, totaling 6233 entries)
» next page
|