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 |
Tuesday, March 3. 2009War RugSome Afghani weavers are producing "War Rugs." You can find them sometimes on the eBay rug sites.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
08:05
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
Monday, March 2. 2009March snowstormI never cover my log piles. I like my wood damp, and out in the weather. Dry firewood burns like paper, which is not good. I do maintain a small supply under eaves and porches for starter loads, though. We had a nice, very enjoyable snow today, and my log piles in the foreground are entirely buried.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
20:24
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
"Poets' Puffery"Samuel Johnson said of poet Thomas Gray, insultingly, "As a poet, his sole virtue is his creativity." The world is packed with poets these days, including some of a very odd breed of "professional poets" - a crazy idea in itself. Not many people read much poetry though, and even less often outloud as it is meant to be read. Jeffrey Gray in a Chronicle piece, Poets' Puffery, notes:
Writing poetry, it seems to me, is an avocation and a hobby craft. I guess songwriting could be a profession, but one for a tiny few. I used to write poems, but now I specialize in doggerel for special occasions. In his article, Jeffrey Gray discusses evaluation-inflation of poetry, and makes a case for "satisfactory" poetry. Why should everything have to be "great"?
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:45
| Comments (4)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, March 1. 2009New England Real Estate: Greenwich, CTThe long-time prosperous but (historically) tasteful, silver-spoon WASPy NYC suburb of Greenwich, CT (the growing-up home of George Bush Sr.) became the hedge fund capital of the world over the past decade, as well as a highly-desirable address for newly-weathy Wall Street Masters of the Universe. Many houses, too, are owned by international folks who visit only occasionally, or as second homes for New Yorkers. In 2006, the median home price was $1.7 million. I recently read that Greenwich suddenly has over 80 homes for sale for over 7 million. That's a lot for a small town. But yes, prices have toppled, sales are nearly dead, and the inventory is surging in the fancier NYC suburbs. Let's see what real estate is doing there now: Here's one for $460,000. A simple, classic, nice c. 1900 workingman's house:
Here's a less modest listing, for $2,175,000. It says 4 bedrooms, but I'd bet that they are small: This place is cute, for only $519,000. A happy couple could be happy here - but a contented couple could be happy anywhere: Here's a 4-acre building lot (in 4-acre zoning) for 1 million. I like it just as it is: Moving a bit upscale, this pleasant 3 BR place is now only $3,125,000. A tiny Cape with some small additions:
This 5 BR was the carriage house for the servants on an old estate from the pre-income tax days. 2 acres. $4,000,000. I like it:
That one was lovely, but you can also buy this hideous architectural monstrosity for $4 million. I guess you could set it on fire, live in a tent, and farm the land, but I doubt that tomato prices could pay your mortgage. But who cares? The Obama plan could get you off the hook:
Moving up to $6.5 million, your basic, solid New England 6 BR colonial: Jumping up to $9.5 million, you often tend to leave good taste behind and begin to find new, self-aggrandizing places like the one below. Things meant to be "mansions," I guess, in wannabe Brit aristocracy-style. Some folks need a mansion-thingy for self esteem or social-climbing purposes. It's a free country: to each his own. You could cover this whole thing with ivy and it would look better:
Just for fun, let's see what $18 million will get you. This one is comfortable, homey, unpretentious - glitz-free - and pleasant:
Tommy Hilfiger's house is for sale for $22 million. The 20,000-square-foot home has seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a massive great room, basketball court, spa with a waterfall, theater, gym and a 2,000-bottle wine cellar. Let's spend our very last penny on this one. $95 million, plenty of bedrooms but a mere 40 acres. The sellers were major Lefty donors. Impress your friends! Set up a nice rifle range! Get some kegs, dig a pit next to the pool and roast a pig or two and throw everybody's girlfriend into the pool. Or is it just a shallow self-reflecting pool?
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
12:01
| Comments (14)
| Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, February 28. 2009King ProteaThat's a King Protea sitting in a water pitcher. Odd, gigantic flowers. You can read about Protea here.
Sipp says that my very old kitchen table is Chestnut, and emailed me this unstained Chestnut sample to prove it. It's the same grain:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
10:29
| Comments (7)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, February 27. 2009Kandinsky (1866-1944)Kandinsky has always been one of my favorite Expressionists. This is Kirche in Murnau (1909):
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
11:15
| Comments (5)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, February 26. 2009Pet PoliticsWhen people move into the White House, they get a dog. Sometimes a cat too. Some of them actually had dogs before the White House, which is a different matter. It's about Pet Politics. (As you may recall, the Clinton's Lab was promptly run over by a car after leaving the WH, and Hillary dumped her famous cat on the secretary. I suspect the Bush's still have their dogs.) The breed the Obamas decided to exploit is the Portuguese Water Dog. It's probably a breed ancestor of the Poodle. They need more daily exercise than any White House pet is likely to get. I don't know how anybody can live without dogs around the place.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
11:37
| Comments (10)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, February 25. 2009
Posted by Gwynnie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:20
| Comments (9)
| Trackbacks (0)
Monday, February 23. 2009A few linksNo time for thinking today. A few cocktail-hour links: Hopey-changey means Realpolitik. No more of that Republican freedom malarkey. Not a coward: talking back to Eric Holder. Am Thinker Palin: an unbalanced MSM tried to destroy me. Indeed. Unbalanced is the right word. She did seem to drive people crazy. A billion American dollars to "rebuild Gaza." Is that "stimulus" too? What Gaza needs are some liquor stores, strip joints, and casinos. Yet another new name for it: Climate Disruption. I guess that means whenever it's not nice and sunny out...or when it's too sunny too. Might be a good time for the Mafia to go public.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:40
| Comments (6)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, February 22. 2009Boswell as Diarist-Blogger. London Journal 1762-3I will post a series of random quotes from Boswell's London Journal for a while, on Sundays. As was commented on the publication of these journals:
A friend told him "Mr. Boswell, you are the vainest man I have ever met, and yet it is impossible for me not to love you." Mr. Boswell - Jamie - is an easy person to like. His honesty about himself shines through. He is 22 at this time, journaling about his second move from Edinburgh to London in search of a cushy commission in the Footguards (which he was never able to obtain despite his extensive networking efforts). Much of these journals documents his daily life, which is mainly social - and centered on meals. Breakfast with these friends, dinner with other friends, see a play with others, then maybe a late supper with others, perhaps after a bit of whoring, which he describes in some detail including an assessment of his performance. He is quite open about preferring "genteel" ladies for his "amorous adventures" because he lives on a tight budget and prefers not to pay. He is a devout Anglican. He takes long walks every day, usually discussing politics or literature with friends. The great David Garrick befriends him, and, towards the end of these journals, Boswell meets Samuel Johnson. Johnson, of course, finds the young fellow to be a delightful companion. Boswell is always puzzled about why people like him so much and seek out his company, viewing himself as shallow and dull. He worries about his social presentation, especially his tendency to lose his reserve and dignity (which he constantly does). He also has recurrent incapacitating bouts of depression. This bit is from December 11, 1762:
Image: Boswell in his 40s. Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1785
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:53
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
New England Real Estate: The Massachusetts BerkshiresMassachusetts' Berkshire County (and northwestern CT Berkshires) has been a popular summering area for 150 years. The nightime is cool, even in August. It is filled with second homes and country places for those from NYC and Boston. The area is artsy and full of pretty-good, small-scale skiing. There isn't much work up there outside of once-industrial Pittsfield - and there never has been. As we have commented, 2009 is a good time to have cash to buy things, because these second home prices are falling. Take a look: This 3-BR 1942 Cape on 0.3 acres overlooks the town of Great Barrington. $620,000: This 1793 eyebrow colonial in New Marlborough has 1/2 acre, 3 bedrooms. $185,000;
This 1770 center hall colonial is on 1/2 acre near downtown Sheffield. 6 BR. $725,000.
The village of Alford has a Congregational Church, an 1830 schoolhouse, and a town green. Not a single store, shop, or restaurant. This is a 4 BR 1810 farmhouse (with additions) on 4 acres. $700,000:
Here's an 1825 village colonial in Becket. 5 BR, one acre. $430,000:
In Lenox. Not an antique, but just a walk to Tanglewood and to the pleasant antique village. 4 BR, 0.5 acres, $1,000,000.
In Stockbridge, this 1795 renovated farmhouse. 8 BR, 4 acres. $1,000,000. I like it, but 150 acres would be better.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:21
| Comments (14)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, February 20. 2009Going to donate some free market cash to The People's Republic of VermontOff to ski this weekend at Mad River. I gotta go where there is lots of snow, I gotta go where it's cold! Warm weather makes my brain and body lazy. Leaving y'all with these: Gimme, gimme gimme. Michelle. It's not fascism now. Change! Sen. Coleman's quagmire. P'line. What a mess. Good entertainment, though. The admin plans a war against coal. Not smart. Rove: Is the ADmin winging it? Jules: Katrina who? In 2016, paying for Social Security becomes a big problem. Viking Cancel your trip to Guadeloupe George McGovern ages well. Tiger MA taxpayers fail to take opportunity to pay their fair share Mankiw: How will we know if the stimulus stimulates? Admin mortgage rescue rewards fraud and default. More at Marginal Rev. Also, Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party (video) Iowahawk: The Archbishop of Canterbury Tales (h/t, NYM)
Posted by The News Junkie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
03:42
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, February 18. 2009The Perfect Girlfriend
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
16:35
| Comments (13)
| Trackbacks (0)
Not New England Real Estate: Choteau, MT3800 acres, with 6 miles of the Teton River, 50 miles west of Great Falls. $12 million, but probably negotiable. Nice views? Can any reader name that mountain?
Downtown Choteau, 3 BR, $69,000:
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
12:39
| Comments (15)
| Trackbacks (0)
First crocusFirst bunch of crocuses came up yesterday, hereabouts. (Pedantic Editor's note: "Crocus" is the Greek word for "saffron." Saffron is from the Arabic word "zafaran" - yellow. While the pollen looks like saffron, it's the ground-up stigma of the Saffron Crocus which produces the herb Saffron.)
Posted by Gwynnie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
05:57
| Comments (8)
| Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, February 17. 2009US Navy Photos, 2008
Posted by Gwynnie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:16
| Comments (3)
| Trackback (1)
Beneteau SailboatsAs the angle of Mr. Sun begins to increase in the New England skies, we generally post a few boats that catch our eyes. Usually classic old boats, but this 2003 Beneteau 36 for sale seemed appealing. They term this Farr design a racer-cruiser, but she looks like a racer to me. In this sort of economy, nice boats become more affordable. Asking 124,000.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
05:22
| Comments (2)
| Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, February 15. 2009A Note on "Defiance"Via Bruce Kesler, from a reader(with his permission), on our post on the film Defiance. He needs to see the film: I read with great interest your review of the film, “Defiance,” which I have not seen yet. I am writing a book on my family's town, Dolhinov, and have been conducting both archival research and interviews, About 450 Jews in the town—the only ones left of 5000 residents and refuges--survived fighting or living with various partisan units, primarily with the one next door to the Bielski's, the 'People Avengers" commanded by Ivan Timchuk whose chief aide was Avraham Freedman of Dolhinov. These stories are just starting to be told, partially because of the availability of new documents and studies from the post-Soviet countries. In a unique event, about 300, including a number of my relatives, were evacuated by the Red Army on a 500-mile march through German lines, organized by Timchuk. This is an area of swamps and thick forests, perfect for partisan warfare. A key factor was whether units had Jews as members. The Bielskis were almost unique in being commanders since in most cases, the leaders were chosen by the Soviet command from experienced veterans told to stay behind German lines in 1941. Another feature of this area was that it experienced 18 months of Soviet occupation followed by 3 years (though Jews only lived through the first ten months in their homes or at all) of German occupation. Those who couldn't get out at the war’s end spent the next 12 years trying to get out of the USSR to come to Israel. Professor Barry Rubin Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloriacenter.org
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:20
| Comments (4)
| Trackbacks (0)
Friday, February 13. 2009Rug hangersLet's say you get your hands on a fascinating 100+ year-old Caucasian rug (like the 3x5 Kuba/Shirvan in the photo), and do not want to destroy it and its history by having it walked on, cat-scratched or dog-chewed or dog-peed. (They were made for bare feet, and all Caucasian rugs were rather small.) Well, you can hang it like a tapestry - like the work of art which it is, and focus on the details and patterns that you would cease to notice if you put it on the floor. Rug Rat likes these wall hangers.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
13:30
| Comments (8)
| Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, February 12. 2009Try to live on 500K in this town.
The NYT notes that, by living standards, a $50,000 income in Houston provides the same material comforts as $130,000 in the NY metropolitan area. Here's why it's difficult to lead a prosperous life on $500,000 in Manhattan.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
07:20
| Comments (8)
| Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, February 11. 2009Are we capable of Defiance? The movie.By Bruce Kesler - A friend whose relatives valiantly served in US forces in World War II, and lost relatives in combat and concentration camps, credits me with similar heroism for volunteering to serve in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. She said to me recently that she thought of me when she saw the movie Defiance, which I had not yet seen, that I would have been one of those partisans fighting back against the Nazis and locals exterminating the Jews in the Byelorussia where my family came from and the film takes place. I replied that she gives me too much credit. There is a big difference between my experience and theirs. I was trained by and part of an elite armed service of the most powerful nation on earth. They found themselves running into the forest alone or in a small group, most untrained and devoid of experience in the harsh decisions of survival or war, and fought back against the overwhelmingly powerful occupying Nazis and their local collaborators. I told my friend that I have asked myself often over the years whether I would or could have had the sense and guts to do what they did, still with no firm answer. I’ve now seen Defiance, and still am little closer to that personal answer, but a few other questions are answered. None of us really know what we’ll do under stress or threat until we do, despite whatever our self-image or the guesses we may make. However, experience tells us that being prepared in attitude and training is essential to rising to any challenge, and qualified, decisive, courageous leadership acting with integrity is essential to cohering in an effective organization. Otherwise, we are subject to the whims and follies of others, sometimes fortunately well but often not. When our very lives are at stake, or even our or our children’s financial security, standing around awaiting someone else’s choice of our fate is less likely to be practical. Relatively few American Jews of my generation chose to serve in our armed forces, and most have adopted near-pacifist attitudes. Many are even conflicted about our brethren in Israel taking the measures necessary in the jaws of survival threats. Hopefully, as if hope were enough, American Jews will not have to make those decisions for themselves, as did those in Defiance. But, to believe in or counsel being ill-prepared or weak-kneed or effete for those Jews who do have to make those life-saving decisions is dangerously suicidal. To engage in wishful thinking or to evade training or service here in the US is just as dangerous in being unschooled and unprepared for those training to or attacking us as Americans or Jews. For a discussion of the existential decisions and consequences in the film Defiance, I recommend this review. Then don’t miss seeing the movie.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
17:18
| Comments (6)
| Trackback (1)
Mate selection, then and nowAt AVI. He begins:
Read the whole thing. It would appear that people have become more romantic in their hopes and dreams.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:00
| Comments (15)
| Trackbacks (0)
A Maggie's Farm Classic Log CabinI keep one of these little log cabins around the place, with pine incense. It's a cheery winter olfactory treat, but not just for winter. The air goes in the door, and the smoke goes up the chimney. Few things for $12. can give so much enduring pleasure. Does pine incense count as second-hand smoke? Naw.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
11:41
| Comments (3)
| Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, February 10. 2009The psychology (or psycho-geometry?) of architecture
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
15:10
| Comments (4)
| Trackbacks (0)
Fact-checkingWithout registering, you can read some of John McPhee's piece on fact-checking at The New Yorker, here.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
at
14:35
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
« previous page
(Page 173 of 250, totaling 6238 entries)
» next page
|