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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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Tuesday, January 25. 2011A full life (and no, he's not dead)There are an infinite number of ways to live life fully and energetically. I was thinking about that topic since I read the bio of a fellow I admire and have heard speak in the past, Sander Gilman. I am a fan. Dr. Gilman spoke at a medical meeting I attended in NYC in December. He is a polymath. Here's his bio:
I work hard, make myself as useful as I can, and read quite a bit, but I am a slouch. I stand in awe of such productive people, who are blessed with abundant talents and use them to the full. Feminism WarsHow did we miss this? Hymowitz: Sarah Palin and the Battle for Feminism. A quote:
Monday, January 24. 2011The New Vic Theater (with Cymbeline)
The New Victory Theater, on 42nd St. in the heart of the theater district. We saw the new Cymbeline there on Sunday afternoon. The Fiasco Theater Company. Six recent Brown MFA grads played all the roles, and the entire stage set was as seen: three wooden boxes. They spoke the Bard's lines in pure American accent and tone, and every word was comprehensible. Each actor played a musical instrument too. Delightful comedy - and the audience got all the jokes. This play is a farce, a sit-com about love, evil, treachery and vengeance, with a happy ending. Entirely lacking in Shakespearian grandiloquence. We got there a bit early, and I chatted with the lighting board gal about the theater. It's the oldest operating theater in NYC, built in 1900 by Oscar Hammerstein's grandfather for vaudeville. Holds around 500. It's a jewel-box theater. Its history reflects the history of 42nd St in the 20th Century. Vaudeville, then Burlesque (Gypsy Rose Lee stripped there) under the Minskys, then legit theater (Belasco himself had the electric lights put in), then a porn movie house in the 70s, then shuttered for 20 years, then reopened in the 90s as what it is now: a venue for family-friendly productions. Thank you, Rudy Giuliani, for civilizing 42nd St. The Fiasco's Cymbeline is only there for two weeks and is, I think, thanks to a pile of good reviews, sold out. They let me take pics before they began, as people were arriving. The actors hung around on stage talking to people and stretching: A couple more pics of this jewel of a theater below. Continue reading "The New Vic Theater (with Cymbeline)"
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Roast Grouse (with extra wine)I forget where this fine recipe came from (maybe Mr. Free Market. No, it was The Englishman), but I'd think it would work fine for any game bird except duck, and certainly for chicken:
42nd St.If you have been away from Maggie's this weekend, catch up on our posts. Good fun, as always. Readers who have not strolled down West 42nd St. in the past ten years would be amazed by it. Clean, no sense of menace, no porn, no creeps, tons of regular people on the streets day and night. I didn't even see any cops - there always used to be patrol cars everywhere there. Multi-million dollar luxury apartments going up between 10th Ave. and the West Side Highway. Funky, funky Broadway is now a place you can take your kids. I took a few pics before and after the matinee yesterday: A fun walk to the parking garage, despite the 15 degree temps and strong wind. NYC is all about walking. New Yorkers walk more miles just in their daily lives than any country folk do. That's why the gals are all so svelte compared to country gals. Streets filled with people. Wonderful. I really do need to plan a 15-mile NYC Official Maggie's Farm walking tour of Manhattan this spring or summer, with an architectural/cultural guide. I meant to do it last year, but life got busy. The Battery to Central Park, with a snakey route hitting some old joints and pubs. Maybe I will plan it. If I build it, will you come? (I refer to our bigcityphobes.) A couple more pics below - Continue reading "42nd St."
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Sunday, January 23. 2011Got yer 2011 travel plans made yet?Having things to look forward to, whether a good snow storm, or a trip someplace new, a new lamp, a new Teaching Company series, a possible new friend, or reservations for a good dinner out, is part of the charm of life. Mrs. BD has just laid on me our trip adventures for 2011 which she has kindly planned and paid for. (It seems like the villa in Provence or Tuscany for the whole family, plus the Gwynnies and the Sipps and some other fun pals, will have to wait 'til 2012 - God willing - because the gal wants to get me back to Turkey, and to the Holy Land, first. Maybe she is wondering how long I will last...) For one thing, I know she is planning supper at this joint: Screw the Death Tax. The grim reaper is forever snapping at our heels while we run like hell to keep one step ahead of him. Die broke. They keep reminding me that it's a big, inviting world out there, full of interesting, confusing, and exciting things. Ruts are bad because they shorten life. Comfort zones are mainly valuable as places to return to. I have learned this, in life. Timidity fails, constricts life, creates regrets that just accumulate and grow mold. It's just kinda odd, though, that Mrs. BD had none of my hunting trips to my old familiar places on her list: Maine, New Brunswick, Manitoba. What's up with that? She has lots of theater and opera tix done too, but never even bothered to check out Bob's tour this year. Guess that's my responsibility. What adventures are y'all planning this year? Pic on top is the club where some of us Maggie's Farmers like to go to hunt critters with wings in Manitoba in early October.
Posted by Bird Dog
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"Urbanism"
Urbanism is about studying cities and towns. The topic has always been of interest to me, whether from the archeological view or from the present view. Our blog colleague with his shiny new site The Old Urbanist (a word-play on The New Urbanism) blogrolls several sites which I have found quite absorbing and informative: Of course, our old stand-by City Journal is also really an urbanism website. Image is of Babylon. Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.
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Winter image dump #3Still cleaning up my files. Steal 'em at will, but be aware these were probably stolen too: More fun and possibly useful images below the fold - including yours, Buddy - Continue reading "Winter image dump #3"
Posted by Bird Dog
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Wednesday, January 19. 2011Should she confess?
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Tuesday, January 18. 2011Mother's milk
Organic milk is full of female hormones. ‘Breastmilk evangelists’ stifle debate on feeding babies, scientist says Image is Mary Cassatt's Mother Nursing, c. 1907
Posted by The Barrister
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Friend bought a new toyA pal just bought this rugged machine for his hunting and getaway place in upstate New York. He's been fixing up the old leaky farmhouse for a couple of years. Nice to see a Maggie's Farm logo on it - naw, too bad - it's just a wide-assed Massey-Ferguson:
Monday, January 17. 2011Germany, and the Great Transgender-Moslem-Love and Peace-Communist-Green-Palestinian Community Alliance.Via Insty, Germany Abolishes Itself' – the publishing sensation that challenges Europe's diversity consensus:
And
Lots of people out there wanting to destroy Western Civ. I am not sure what they'd like to see replace it, however. Perhaps the Great Transgender-Moslem-Communist-Green-Palestinian-Love and Peace Community Alliance. I bet they throw some real fun parties, but I have never been invited. I am quite pleased with our Western roots, and with what it does and has done, and for what it makes possible - including the insane thinking which is a necessary side-effect of freedom - and which provides so much entertaining fodder for me at Maggie's. More NYC pics from last weekSpent 3 days in NY last week. Took a few lousy snaps which are of no interest to people who go there all the time. Continue reading "More NYC pics from last week"
Posted by Bird Dog
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06:00
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Sunday, January 16. 2011Black povertySteinberg debates the late great Moynihan in Poor Reason - Culture still doesn’t explain poverty. Steinberg claims that the behavior of the black poor is a consequence of poverty, not a cause. But what about the white poor? This is from Wiki (US poverty rates, as I understand it, are calculated prior to government or charitable monies, goods, or benefits):
After reading Steinberg's essay, I am more convinced that Moynihan was right. There is substantial white poverty in the US too. Regardless of racial differences - Asian, black, Hispanic, white - (and excluding penniless new immigrants who rightly expect a challenging beginning) - I'd be willing to bet that poverty in the US can be understood mostly in terms of bad luck, character (including tendencies, interests, abilities, and personal inclinations), parental role models, or, most often, life choices. (Behavior is a choice, as a human being.) These things are not all "culture", but they are part of it. I believe that many people choose poverty, in the broad sense of "choose". And, as a reader notes, if X% of the population is below the poverty line by definition, it's impossible to get rid of it no matter how much money people take in. Furthermore, in my opinion, if you have heat and a roof over your head, a TV if you want one, a functioning vehicle if you need one - or a bus pass or a subway token, beer money, and funds for clothes and Big Macs, you aren't really poor. We have all lived hand-to-mouth at some points in our lives. I decided that it wasn't for me, so I made a plan for my life. And then another one when the first plan didn't work. Eventually, I made a plan that worked and I could afford a family and a wife who likes horses. Still, I need to work every day and plenty of weekends too, to support Casa Barrister. Final word: I suspect that all of these opinion pieces about black poverty have the agenda to support the notion of "institutional racism." With a black guy in the White House, it's getting difficult to maintain that invention, just like it's getting difficult to maintain the notion of "institutional sexism" with Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton as presidential contenders (on some days, it seems that women are the real stars of the Conservative movement). Saturday, January 15. 2011Another random image dump: Fun pics and valuable and interesting charts and graphsI am continuing to clean up my image closet. Feel free to use 'em or steal them. It's another good stash. Can't recall where they all came from, but any of them that were used here were properly attributed. Don't let them go to waste. Recycling makes Gaia smile. More random and informative images, toons, and charts below the fold - Continue reading "Another random image dump: Fun pics and valuable and interesting charts and graphs"
Posted by Bird Dog
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Movie review: 'Jonah Hex', 'Sherlock'
Unforgiven — Wow, a Clint Eastwood western. That means it's got to be good, right? Yeah, except there was one gun fight in the whole dang thing, and probably the most unrealistic gun fight in cinematic history, at that. Yawn. Appaloosa — Just can't go wrong with Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen, right? Yeah, except the writers spent 90% of the movie dealing with the intricate, puzzling, lurid, soap-opera relationship between Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen! As an additional plus, Hollywood was so afraid that someone in the audience might be shocked by actual gun play on the screen that they toned down the gun sounds to just below that of cap gun level.
3:10 To Yuma — Hey, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, just can't go wrong with that duo, right? Okay, picture the following: The movie opens with twenty bad guys chasing a stage, greed in their eyes. The guy on the stage riding shotgun (hence the term) is firing back with a big shotgun, picking them off here and there. This goes on for endless minutes. Then the camera is a quarter mile ahead of the stage as Russell Crowe drives a herd of cattle across the road, blocking it. The stage comes wheeling to a stop. All in all, a very effective, efficient way to stop a stage — EXCEPT THAT TEN OF YOUR BUDDIES ARE LYING DEAD ON THE ROAD BACK THERE!! The rest of the movie was just some big 'war of wills' between Crowe and Bale — which was really the point of the movie in the first place; to display the writers' brilliant virtuosity — and the fact that it took place in western times was more or less irrelevant. The Assassination of Jesse James — Hey, Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, just can't go wrong with that combo, right? Actually, I have no idea. I was too busy heaving my guts into the toilet because of Affleck's acting performance — or lack thereof. Let me know how it turned out. Did Jesse live? Silverado, Open Range, Wyatt Earp — For the love of God, won't someone PLEASE tell Kevin Costner to stop playing cowboys? I'm sorry — I honestly love the guy and think he's brilliant as a sports hero (Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup, For Love of the Game) — but with those boyish cheekbones, weak chin and soft voice, he simply doesn't look or sound the part of the tough Westerner. By means of comparison, check out Kurt Russell's performance as Earp in the link below. That's what a Westerner looks and sounds like. Tombstone — I'd give this thing an 'A' if it hadn't spent endless, interminable minutes bogged down in his wife's endless, interminable opium problem. Wild Wild West — Both the critics and every decent movie lover in the world hated this thing, so naturally I loved it. The superb 'anti-chemistry' between Will Smith and Kevin Kline hasn't been seen since the unlikely pairing of Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro in Showtime. While not an outright 'Western' by genre (it would more properly fit in the category of 'Western Sci-Fi'), at least there were loud guns and galloping horses. The Quick and the Dead — I actually thought this was a pretty good flick, but it wasn't a Western, as such, in the sense that it all took place in the middle of a street and, as a dueling event, could have taken place in Al Capone's Chicago or even today. Gene Hackman is such a badass that I made him #2 on my cinematic Tough Guys page. So, all in all, I've been quite disappointed with Westerns in recent years. Then up rode Jonah Hex: "Cut muhself shavin'. What happened to yours?" That pretty much says it all. Without giving anything away, it's a straight-up Western with one additional element of... (gropes for proper word)... spirituality that really makes it something special. Josh Brolin stars, John Malkovich is the merciless bad guy, and Megan Fox turns in a spectacular role as dragon bait. Below the fold we'll take a peek at the new BBC presentation of the (ongoing) Sherlock Holmes story. Continue reading "Movie review: 'Jonah Hex', 'Sherlock'"
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10:30
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Friday, January 14. 2011Pics: Tracks, paths, and roads
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I am a stranger in my own landAn Englishwoman talks, anonymously, about her recent years in Birmingham. It's about "societal suicide," and it seems to be a disease of Western Civilization. A quote from her report:
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Spider
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Thursday, January 13. 2011Pics: Hanging out around midtownRe Grand Central Station: "It's bloody gorgeous." As I was walking around late this afternoon, making my rounds, a Brit couple, rightly perceiving me to be a friendly, approachable, and respectable bloke, asked where where they might find a cab. We were near Grand Central, so I suggested they try the main exit from the station. Usually some cabs there. "Seen the inside of the station?" I asked. Well, this nice, refined older couple followed me in through the side door and down the escalator to check it out. I hope they found a cab or, as Brits are wont to do, found a cozy nook for a drinky. I did recommend the Campbell Apartment for a good cocktail, which many people do not know about. As a country boy who lived in the city for around 6 years in younger days, I still get a rush of energy and inspiration just by visiting for a day or two. And that is despite the fact that, most places I go, you cannot smoke a ceegar indoors thanks to the sanctimonious jerk Nanny Bloomberg. More pics from today, below the fold - Continue reading "Pics: Hanging out around midtown"
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CoolHDV video for sports. Mount it on your helmet, your hat, or whatever. The GoPro. Watch the sample ski helmet-mounted vid on their site. Great stuff.
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Tuesday, January 11. 2011Movies and Cultural Literacy: She asked for it...
Music to a Dad's ears, of course. Father knows best. Well, I will just focus on one piece of her request here and now (because it went well beyond entertainment - this is just the fun part). She is a theater rat and reads plays daily for fun. She knows most of Shakespeare pretty well, and loves Pinter too (!). But she says her knowledge of films prior to her era is very limited. "What films should I know?," she asks. (I call them movies because I am a knuckle-dragging clinger.) Ain't it great when the youths acknowledge their ignorance? I told her I had once, for fun, made a list of my 100 essential movies (and I am not much of a movie fan), but it went away when my ancient Mac died ten years ago. Naturally, my list had some John Wayne, Gone With The Wind, Bridge Over The River Kwai, Swept Away, Streetcar, Waterfront, Mr. Blandings, Wonderful Life, the hideously painful Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, some James Bond and some WC Fields, Citizen Kane, Days of Wine and Roses, some Jack Lemmon like 7 Year Itch, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Harvey, Billy Budd, the Alistair Sim Christmas Carol ( which she has seen countless times), and, as one item, all of Charlie Chaplin. I don't want to try to make my list again, and, for a person who is more of a reader than a movie person, I got well over 100 with my list of basic flicks. If you google "100 essential movies of all time," you can get all sorts of obscure lists by critics. She did take the time from her Christmas-break reading and ski trips to New Hampshire and constant NYC trips to watch Amarcord today, which definitely is on my list. Man, that movie is rich in memorable imagery, and as Italian as anchovies in olive oil. So help me out. What's on your essential movies-to-see-to-be-culturally-literate list? (please do not feel that you need to list 100!).
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Computer Speakers
A friend told me the Bose stuff is good, but I have no clue. Advice requested. Price, within reason, is no object.
Posted by The Barrister
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Monday, January 10. 2011Help Wanted: A Mall Adventure for Bird Dog(I hope this is my most inane post of 2011) I don't get to malls very often, I am happy to say. Basically never, but I did join the Mrs. to check out Teavana on Sunday afternoon. We had run out of good tea. They had one of the Help Wanted signs. The place was busy. Help Wanted signs all over the place. Well, it was a bit of an adventure for me. "Bird Dog Goes To The Mall." Your editor goes to lots of places, and loves to bang around NYC, but not malls or shops unless Home Depot counts. Nice clean mall with natural light and Palm trees all over. Packed with people, but I tried to avoid taking their photos. The main thing I noticed was the small-d democratic nature of the populace there. All types, all colors, every apparent level of evident prosperity or lack thereof, all languages, all ages, strolling, laughing, window-shopping, and joking around. A day off work. In the tea place, I heard German, Japanese, Chinese, French, and something I could not identify. An agora. People having fun, spending money, looking at stuff. Too bad they couldn't have built a similar phenomenon on the town's streets, but perhaps people like the feeling of enclosure and predictability. More Mall Adventure pics below -
Continue reading "Help Wanted: A Mall Adventure for Bird Dog"
Posted by Bird Dog
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19:17
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How cities improveHeather MacDonald: Restoring the Social Order - Twenty momentous years of conservative policy success in cities. She begins:
Manhattan, early morning, from the Whitestone Bridge
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