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. |
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Thursday, August 2. 2018Rodney
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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17:58
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An American story
Every kid who has read it, or hashad it read to them, finds inspiration in it.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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14:39
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Tuesday, July 31. 2018‘Toxic masculine’ values arm you for the unforgiving trials of life in a society in which nothing is given and everything must be fought forEver heard a feminist woman say that she is looking for a low-energy guy who can't hold a job, make his own goddam sandwich, or defend the family with force, if needed? It quotes Paglia:
Also,
The usefulness of dumpsters and roofers, and getting rid of unneeded brown furniture
It's our summer for roofing, painting, and repairs. Maintenance on the HQ. Mostly outside, some inside too. Maintenance sucks, because it entails no improvement and is just a holding war against entropy. We are fortunate to have a remarkable team of workers thanks to our genius project manager. Perfectionists. Replaced with all new flashing because the old was second rate, especially for the crickets. New copper gutters, but we do not have many gutters. Let the rain fall off the roof. No problem. All bad wood replaced with Azek "wood". Good thing about their max-size dumpster? Old brown furniture, broken lawn stuff, old clothing and crap that is just no longer needed or wanted. In it goes. Empty closets to bare essentials. And do you know what old brown mahogany furniture is worth? Zero. You have to pay people to get rid of it. I am tempted to toss our 1800s lovely dining room table and chairs in there because nobody in the world wants this old brown stuff - and never will. Wish you had a giant dumpster in your driveway? A great chance to unload all the crap that your kids will have to toss in a dumpster when you croak. Do them a favor.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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16:22
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Monday, July 30. 2018A wide-ranging interview with Peter ThielPeter Thiel is one of Silicon Valley’s bigger-than-life characters. Now he is leaving the epicenter of the tech industry. A conversation on human herd behavior, successful investment, Donald Trump’s genius, homosexuality and death.
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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18:35
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Think "You have a book in you"?
Writers enjoy writing, but there are far more constructive ways to spend time. What famous author said "If you don't write for money, you are crazy"? Or something like that.
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:25
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Sunday, July 29. 2018Knowing Mr. Rogers
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:39
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Fun New England idea for September: The Big E
Info and tix here.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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11:14
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Wednesday, July 25. 2018Science
Why would they think politics has anything to do with it? The authors seem overly worried about science skepticism. I think skepticism about the latest "science says" reports is the only rational approach. Indeed, besides curiosity and intelligence, skepticism is a hallmark of a serious scientist. Science is not a list of eternal truths. It's a tool, a respected method for testing hypotheses for the purpose of theory-building. It's not a faith. Due to countless factors, the results of this testing tool are frequently in error.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:25
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Tuesday, July 24. 2018Disney for Adults?
From what I hear, it's popular with midwesterners and vets. The Villages Retirement Community: 'Disney World for Adults' - The largest retirement community in the nation allows the elderly to stay young at heart. This guy, who lives there, offers a clear-eyed view of the place, along with a thoughtful discussion of retirement options in general.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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13:45
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Monday, July 23. 2018Monet by Manet
Place was jammed with foreign tourists. I don't blame them. We had to walk through the deplorable and creepy "Heavenly Bodies" show (Fashion and Catholicism) to get to the Public Parks, Private Gardens- Paris to Provence - show before it closes. A good historical view of the invention of public outdoor spaces with dynamite pictures. Coolest thing in the exhibit? A video of Monet painting in Giverny in old age, rapid painting, the cigarette in his mouth threatening to ignite his bushy Santa Claus beard. I took just one snap: Manet's picture of Monet puttering in his garden, with his family. 1873. The label said that, later in that day, Monet did a picture of Manet painting a garden picture.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:15
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Sunday, July 22. 2018Peterson on everythingEnjoyable interview. She lets Peterson talk. She's sort-of a naive person, though, and semi-ignorant despite working for The NYT. One mistake she made: Milo Y is a racist? Really? He is married to a black guy. Well, maybe he dislikes Muslims, but they are not a race.
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:30
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How to spend your moneyYou have your house in Kensington, a flat in Manhattan, get-aways in the Cotswolds, Scotland and Ibiza. Your kids all have trust funds, your first wife is set up very nicely, you have your collection of clubs and art. You have hot- and cold-running help and a cute, sexy personal assistant. You have your favorite charities for world peace and world health. You have a million friends. You do not have a yacht because you get seasick. Still, your spare cash is burning a hole in your pocket. In a post-austerity UK you need advice from The Financial Times on How To Spend It. No deep psycho-social comment needed from me. All I can say is that this is not the Yankee Way, not the Yankee Code. I am a live-and-let-live, to-each-his-own guy, but a $35,000 Audemars Piguet gives me a momentary spiritual depression. nb: I want everybody to be as rich in money, or in life, or in love, or in self-respect, or in fun and diversion, or in relation to God, as they desire. I really don't care too much what others do. Life is brief, so true to myself is second highest on my list. True to my realest instinctual self would be ugly indeed.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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13:12
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Saturday, July 21. 2018Tolerance
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:21
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Thursday, July 19. 2018New England Real Estate: Dublin, NHThis nice summer cottage is for sale, with 20 acres. Dublin (year-round population 800 really nice people, summer pop 1400, also nice outdoorsy people), no drugs, no crime, no poachers - has plenty of lower-maintenance and less expensive places for sale. I learned, over the years, that with houses (as with boats) you buy not what you can afford, but what you can afford to maintain.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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19:44
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Wednesday, July 18. 2018Dublin, NHMrs. BD spent a couple of days in Dublin. Quaint tiny picturesque village in southern NH within view of Mt. Monadnock. As her pic shows, it's the home of Yankee Magazine (and of The Olde Farmer's Almanac).
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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23:22
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"Dirty jobs"Some people term them "real jobs." This is kinda brilliant even if you think Mike is a twit. Peripitaeia is a good word. So is anagnorisis, but the most painful and tragic version of it is the reality of oneself. "In our society, we have declared war on work."
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:23
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Tuesday, July 17. 2018The tux as informal wearStory is that the tuxedo was indeed invented (and named after) the exclusive and still exclusive private neighborhood of Tuxedo Park, NY. It was especially taken up by the youth at the turn of the century, who hated the fuddy-duddy formal wear, and dinner wear, of the time copied from aristocratic Brits. In 1889, the tux was accepted as appropriate wear in the Dress Circle at the Met Opera. Officially, a tux is considered "semi-formal;" but the meanings of formal, semi-formal, etc have devolved rapidly in the informal direction for two generations. Nowadays, "black tie" evening weddings, for example, means tux, not tails. Nobody owns tails outside the royals and, for the past two generations in the US, events with tails are considered pretentious and in poor taste. Rented costumes. No royals in the USA. Most women will say that all men look best in a tux, and absurd in tails. As time goes on, my need for my nice Brooks tux (had it for at least 30 years and wore some holes in the pockets) decreases each year. Last year, I only needed it twice. Suits seem fine for weddings and fancy holiday parties these days. I never owned tails.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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17:19
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How big is the universe?How Large Is The Entire, Unobservable Universe? Beyond human imagination, but not beyond math. h/t Am Digest
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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17:05
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Monday, July 16. 2018Amoeba
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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18:47
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Friday, July 13. 2018Hudson Yard, Donald Trump, etc.
It has been remarkable for 75 acres of midtown Manhattan real estate to be opened up for development. Ground was broken in 2012. It's a high-rise, high-tech development. High finance, too. Goldman is big in it. The Hudson Yards development sits on top of the old Penn Central Railroad yards, now used by the Long Island RR as a staging site. When completed, it will be a heck of a new neighborhood. Not my style, but still... Ideas about developing the railroad's air rights have been around but not of them came to pass. Even Trump had an option for the space, but he screwed it up partly by being annoying: How Trump Bungled the Deal of a Lifetime. The developer let a huge chunk of Manhattan slip from his grasp. Interestingly, 35 Hudson Yards will be Equinox Tower, the first venture into the hotel business by the luxury gym chain. When you take a walk on the High Line, at the northern end you can watch the construction of what is, in effect, a new city in itself. It's a sight to behold, a boom town. It will even have its own schools, parks, everything. Will the 60,000 new apartments lower Manhattan rents? I'd guess no. And Brooklyn is a boom town too. However you may feel about NYC, a lot of people want to live there and I don't blame them because it's a high-energy place. Does progress exist?
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:04
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Thursday, July 12. 2018Disagreeing with Ann Coulter
Laws against homosexual practice or marriage are clearly a freedom issue. Abortion, of course, is an impossible issue. I would prefer that people talk about freedom rather than rights. Laws are mostly made to restrict freedom but a rare few are made to assert freedom. For me, when in doubt, freedom is the default position. Courts do not "invent" rights but, when necessary, they should reveal freedoms when laws attempt to obscure them. Our Bill of Rights was forced to make this explicit: Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:14
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Wednesday, July 11. 2018The Maggie's Scientific Summertime al fresco Sex SurveyWhat are (or have been) your favorite places to get frisky au pleine air? It's the best fun, is it not? - on a boat This is a Scientific Survey for purely research purposes so your responses matter. Please no facetiousness - this is Serious Science. Soccer BallsWorld Cup balls are designed anew for each World Cup. Adidas makes them. They vary especially in pattern, and number and size of the seams. Pro balls are inflated to rock-hard levels, unlike recreational balls. That's one reason people are concerned about brain injury from heading in pro soccer despite the fact that more concussions in soccer are from collisions on the field. What sorts of speeds are attained by balls in the highest levels of soccer? Obviously it depends on the purpose of the pass or kick, but most are in the 20-80 mph range. Free kicks and penalty kicks can reach 90-100 mph. The fastest recorded penalty kick was 131 mph. Those balls can bang up a goalie pretty bad.
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:16
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