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, August 19. 2016How Yale Turned into today's YaleIt's not Grandpa's Yale anymore: The Birth of a New Institution - How two Yale presidents and their admissions directors tore up the “old blueprint” to create a modern Yale.
Posted by The Barrister
in Education, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:59
| Comments (2)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, August 18. 201617 Classic House Features That Should Have Never Have Gone Out of StyleChristo does anotherThe first post on this website years ago, an utterly unknown site at the time (and still not too well-known) was my pics of Christo's Gates in NYC's Central Park. Art? Don't ask me. Fun and interesting for sure. An attraction for sure too. A gay spectacle that you moved through. His latest is Christo’s 3km Floating Walkway Across Italy’s Lake Iseo Open To Public. We've been to that lake. Been to most of the northern Italian lakes. Pleasant enough with fine food, but no need to go back. Been there, done that. I could happily do Sicily again but I have already driven around most of that island.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
04:51
| Comments (2)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, August 17. 2016How is your posture?
Medically, good posture helps prevent back problems. Computer monitors, age, shame and shyness, muscle atrophy, and general slovenliness are the enemies of good posture: shoulders back, head up, no slouch, belly tucked in, etc. Look good, not proudful but self-respecting. 5 Most Common Posture Problems (and how to fix them) Prevent back pain with good posture 10 Ways to Have Great Posture as You Age - Here are 10 tips to keep you standing tall at any age. Posture Power: How To Correct Your Body's Alignment
Sun and Skin
In recent years, Americans have become so heliophobic that they become Vit D deprived, raising the risk for many diseases. My dermatologist told me that many American kids are now Vit D-deprived due to excessive sunblock use. Oral Vit D is an unreliable source. Your skin produces sufficient Vit D via exposure to the UV rays in natural sunlight for about an hour per week (assuming your body is not mostly covered up). Nobody wants skin cancer, but the scary one is the rare but dangerous Melanoma. It seems to be associated with sunburn. Do dark-skinned people get Melanoma? Yes. Can you get sunburned on cloudy days? I did an experiment on myself last week. After 4 hours of kayaking on a hazy day with thin clouds, I got semi- scorched. Can You Still Get A Sunburn When It’s Cloudy Out? New sunscreen offers vitamin D production with UV protection I think it makes sense to get some time in unprotected sun but if you are going to be outside all day nude or in a bathing suit, spray the stuff on after that and use a hat. It can't hurt.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Medical, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:18
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, August 16. 2016Why beauty matters with Sir Roger Scruton
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:59
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Living in virtual realities: A Maggie's Summertime Scientific Survey
Nothing against games themselves because chess and checkers are also war simulations, but there is a mental difference between chess and Sim City. Or is there? Movies and fiction are virtual realities too. So are gas fireplaces and the Pokemon Go fad. What prompted this survey is that a friend's parents recently moved to The Villages in Florida. This place is 100% phony, to the point of being creepy. The people are real, but in a fake place. It is as fake as Disney World, but people go to Disney for a day or two to try to enjoy the fakery, not to live in it. Many resorts are experiences in fake realities. Many of my pals enjoy fake hunts. They plant 30 pheasants in a hayfield then send the dogs after them. It's a fake hunt, a virtual hunt. Those "flying mattresses" have never even flown before in their lives. I am not saying that it is not fun, but it is a fake hunting experience. Related: How Do You Know You're Not in a Simulation? So my question today is this: What fake, escapist experiences do you enjoy in your life?
Il Gattopardo
Pic above: A di Lampedusa sitting room in the family palazzo in Palermo Il Gattopardo - The Leopard (1956) - was the only novel the Sicilian aristocrat Giuseppe di Lampedusa wrote. It is a world masterpiece, but he did not live to see it published. Read the book. See the Visconti movie too with all-star cast.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
12:35
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Monday, August 15. 2016Beauty and Desecration
Beauty and Desecration from Roger Scruton, Power of Beauty Conference
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:12
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Automation: A seriously incredible machine
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:13
| Comments (4)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, August 14. 2016When Parks Were Radical
More than 150 years ago, Frederick Law Olmstead changed how Americans think about public space.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
12:21
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, August 13. 2016Birthdays: A Maggie's Summer Scientific Survey about giftsAt the Maggie's HQ we are partial to giving experiences as presents. This means things like theater or concert tix with fancy dinners, surprise trips, a spa trip, or especially special outings which you might not prefer but which the other loves. We all are done with trinkets and toys and gadgets, and just want more life in our lives. US Open tix for her this year. She loves that. A good surprise for her. What sorts of things do you like to give your spouse for presents, but especially birthday presents?
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:50
| Comments (13)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, August 12. 2016Left to Right?I was taught that you serve a plate on the left, remove from the right. The correct moves are only a bit more nuanced. At that same site, information that very few of us can use: What is the difference between Private Chefs and Personal Chefs? Actually, at the Maggie's HQ we are fortunate to have several Personal Chefs. Among them, Thai take-out, Costco rotisserie chicken, Subway, etc. Nobody has time to cook at home more than once or twice a week these days. In olden times, at-home Moms and wives used to plan and cook dinner every night. Not so many at-home Moms these days. My Mom used to. And she always had a cocktail ready for Dad when he got home. Usually a Gin and Tonic. After supper, we kids would do the clean up and Dad would go outside to gaze at the stars and ponder man and God and law with a beer and a smoke. Times have changed, but not for the better. I do the cooking at least once a week, specializing in red meat and general outdoor grilling. I can also make a heck of an omelette, and lots of other things. Nevertheless, home-cookin is a form of love
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:33
| Comments (6)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, August 11. 2016Loving one's possessions
Artifacts from my life and from my family and my ancestors give me pleasure and comfort. Much of it probably has minimal monetary value (for example, you have to pay people to take away brown furniture today, even mahogany furniture, because nobody wants it) but it has meaning to me with memories attached. Our stuff is just junk to other people. For the love of stuff. I am my things and my things are me. I don’t want to give them up: they are narrative prompts for the story of my life.
Monday, August 8. 2016Why professors, pundits, and policy wonks misunderstand the worldIntellectuals are Freaks. Lind begins:
Posted by The Barrister
in Politics, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:20
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, August 7. 20166 surprising downsides of being extremely intelligentSaturday, August 6. 2016Human Duties"Membership entails obligations, many of which are unchosen." That there are empty seats in the hall at Princeton is astonishing to me. I would go to listen to Sir Roger anytime.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:21
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Everybody wants to be an authorDon't they? I admire even mediocre authors because I know how tough it is to write a book, much less to get one published. There is no one way to write a novel: How to Write a Novel
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:24
| Comments (2)
| Trackbacks (0)
Bad design
I saw some so nasty (but costly) that Sipp would be tempted to burn them down if he could afford a match. But, to be charitable, shelter is important in the north, and it's love and not design that makes a place a home. More below the fold - Continue reading "Bad design"
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
05:11
| Comments (15)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, August 3. 2016QQQ'President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”… Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. “What your country can do for you” implies that the government is the patron, the citizen the ward. “What you can do for your country” assumes that the government is the master, the citizen the servant.' Milton Friedman. More pithy Friedman quotes here.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:01
| Comments (2)
| Trackbacks (0)
A curseA harsh curse: “May you be in the right in a legal dispute.”
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:10
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, August 2. 2016Wolves and politics
Apparently there are no wolf subspecies in the Americas. Those thought to be subspecies are just Wolf-Coyote hybrids, of which the Red Wolf is one. Nevertheless, your tax dollars are going towards not only protecting them, but actually breeding them as if they were a precious endangered species when they are just mutts. Government tends to be an idiot. Generally speaking, I am in favor of wolves getting back to their old haunts in the Northeast where there are no sheep herds anyway. They will kill the coyotes and coydogs and bring the deer and moose populations into balance. Wolves do not kill people unless you leave a baby alone in the woods. People kill people, mostly, so stay away from them at all times.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:12
| Comments (13)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, July 31. 2016Writing your own obituaryIs this about vanity? From the WSJ, Obituary Writing in the Selfie Age:
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
11:29
| Comments (12)
| Trackbacks (0)
How To Live Better While Spending Less: Secrets of America's Upper ClassFriday, July 29. 2016Starring Milton Friedman and a young, foolish, and arrogant David BrooksExcellent, as always with Friedman. Educational. h/t Driscoll at Insty.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Politics, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:30
| Comments (5)
| Trackbacks (0)
« previous page
(Page 53 of 250, totaling 6233 entries)
» next page
|