Maggie's Farm

More snow coming tonight and tomorrow, and guess who is sold out of ice melter, salt, and traction gravel once again. Mind you, this is snow country here, especially with our global cooling. Guy said last shipment sold out in two hours. Is this nation short of gravel and rock salt? Is government action needed? Is this a case of "peak salt"? "Peak gravel"?

Maybe it's time to go back to the Saudis for a new deal on sand.

Using my lawn fertilizer spreader for salt and gravel has pretty much destroyed it this winter. I thought I'd pick up a new one at Home Depot to go along with the salt and gravel that they were out of. Well, it seems to be the wrong season for heavy-duty broadcast spreaders. What I need is one of these, but they don't sell them at Home Depot:

Barnard, VT. (pop. 958). Here's the Barnard Inn site. If you have cash, it's a good time to buy a VT getaway.

The first place is a c. 1850 hill farm with 65 acres (photo on right), so it would work for horses or cattle with plenty of room for a shooting range too. It's a restored 2300 sq.' Cape farmhouse with barn and outbuildings. As a farmer at heart, I'd check out the barns first. They are asking 1.1 million. Details here.

Second is the c. 1791 Cape farmhouse (photo below), also completely restored with additions bringing it up to a generous 7600 sq.'. I think they did a good job expanding the living space without altering the  humble appearance of the old farmhouse. Those metal roofs aren't charming, or in keeping with the style, but they are practical as heck in snow country - and they last forever. It's on a paltry 12 acres with ponds and stream. Too little land for cattle, but I'd guess there's some good turkey hunting there. They are asking only 3.9 million. Details here. (Prop. taxes a hefty $35,000)

Since I already have a fine New England farm, if I had a few million burning a hole in my pocket I think I'd consider picking up a pied a terre in NYC just about now, or later in the Spring when prices will drop even further. Trouble is, with boats it's not the price - it's the maintenance, and with houses it's the property taxes (plus the maintenance).

Gwynnie and I have been trying to get a clean copy of this email for several days. This is from a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles who was on Flight 1549. Note the 4 life lessons learned, at end.

"Gerry McNamara (New York/Charlotte) was on US Airways Flight 1549 last week. We caught up with him to discuss the harrowing incident and - in a departure from our usual format -present his stirring account as told to us:

Thursday was a difficult day for all of us at the firm and I left the Park Avenue office early afternoon to catch a cab bound for LaGuardia Airport. I was scheduled for a 5pm departure, but able to secure a seat on the earlier flight scheduled to leave at 3PM.

As many of us who fly frequently often do, I recall wondering if I'd just placed myself on a flight I shouldn't be on!

Just prior to boarding I finished up a conference call with my associate, Jenn Sparks (New York), and our placement, the CIO of United Airlines. When I told him that I was about to board a USAirways flight, we all had a little fun with it.

I remember walking on the plane and seeing a fellow with grey hair in the cockpit and thinking "that's a good thing... I like to see grey hair in the cockpit!"

I was seated in 8F, on the starboard side window and next to a young businessman. The New York to Charlotte flight is one I've taken what seems like hundreds of times over the years. We take off north over the Bronx and as we climb, turn west over the Hudson River to New Jersey and tack south.

I love to fly, always have, and this flight plan gives a great view of several NY landmarks including Yankee Stadium and the George Washington Bridge.

I had started to point out items of interest to the gentleman next to me when we heard a terrible crash - a sound no one ever wants to hear while flying - and then the engines wound down to a screeching halt. 10 seconds later, there was a strong smell of jet fuel. I knew we would be landing and thought the pilot would take us down, no doubt to Newark Airport.

As we began to turn south I noticed the pilot lining up on the river still - I thought - en route for Newark. Next thing we heard was "Brace for impact!" - a phrase I had heard many years before as an active duty Marine Officer but never before on a commercial air flight.

People are not buying luxuries these days, so such things are becoming quite inexpensive. I used to like beautiful antique rugs, but now I prefer attractive rugs that I don't mind walking on with boots, or the dog scratching at. I know we have some readers who might be offended, but these non-fancy runners I found on eBay (mostly roughtly 3'8''-4'x10') looked good to me. And cheap enough to tramp on with shoes, or for the dog to roll on.

(I know our rug expert readers will find fault, but these are hand-knotted 100 KPSI not-new Iranian rugs.)

We have highlighted New York's CSC in the past, but, after seeing their Uncle Vanya, this remarkable place deserves another pat on the back. Classic Stage Company.

Their short runs work well to attract distinguished actors who long to sink their teeth into classic works. The Long Wharf Theater in New Haven used to do that too. I don't know about now.

Pretty good guess, unlike most of such things (h/t, Right Wing Prof):

Asa Yoelson, aka Al Jolson, one of the top American entertainers of the 20th Century. A reader reminded us that Dylan thinks of Jolson and Sinatra as his role models/inspirations for making a song come alive with good phrasing.

Here's some Jolson:

"A dark hour for the Netherlands." You may insult Christianity all you want, but don't hurt the tender, sensitive and delicate Islamic feelings. Allah supposedly hates that, and would like your head separated from the rest of your body to emphasize his holy, sacred point. 

h/t to Moonbattery for this excellent bit by Pat Condell re Geert Wilders' insane and frightening  persecution. Yes, we are all sick and tired of Islam and the multicultural Mafia - and also of the Dutch-style suicidal idiocy. What's in their water? If a religious belief cannot handle a little multicultural criticism, what good is it?

Our version of Godwin's Law: This is like the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. 

Deeply related: Never be rude to an Arab

Come and get us, you Dutch moonbats. You are a disgrace to your heritage and your history.

From The Teaching Company. Building Great Sentences: The Writer's Craft along with Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning.

I have listened to the Argumentation series and enjoyed it a great deal. In fact, listening to it persuaded me that structured and rule-bound disputation is an excellent way to get to the heart of things, if not to ultimate Truths.

It is no doubt obvious to readers that I have not yet listened to the Building Great Sentences series.

Thanks to LGF for this dose of extreme cuteness:

Prof. John Sutherland says those have been the three dominant story-telling tools in English, since Beowulf.

His Classics of British Lit. at The Teaching Company is a delight. (I hate the word "literature." I prefer to call it "story-telling.") Get the CDs and, as Mark Levin would say, Thank me.

another

Originality is not, therefore, a virtue in itself, moral or artistic; and a man who sets out to be original without both the technical ability to express something new, and (most important of all) the possession of something worthwhile new to express, is merely egotistical. That is why the art critics, who are inclined to praise works as being original, path-breaking, taboo-breaking and transgressive, without any reference to their transcendent worth, are wrong, and Roger Scruton is right.

Where does the fear in modern art of such qualities as beauty and tenderness towards the world come from? (I am talking here of art that achieves public notice and notoriety: there may be hundreds or thousands of excellent artists who fear neither beauty nor tenderness, but whose work goes unremarked.)

I think it has something to do also with our inflamed egotism, that requires that we should be entirely self-sufficient and autonomous, philosophically, morally, intellectually and economically.

Read the whole thing. Re the latter quote, there are indeed thousands of artists today who "fear neither beauty nor tenderness," and, however unremarked, people do buy their stuff. One example is our friend Elissa Gore, who will be having a gallery show in NYC this winter:

Nope, none of the above. Sippican built this for me, and the good guy delivered it in person with his heir as porter. I insisted that they stay for dinner, and put the heir to work keeping the fireplaces stoked.

This big box has a name: The Seven Stogey Mountain. Surely one-of-a-kind. Those "pages" of the "book" aren't painted on: they are grooves in the wood.

I think it will hold around 6 boxes of cigars, maybe more. If they come in tubes, I take them out of the tubes before putting them in.

It is not every day that you find a humidor made of 3/4 inch solid Spanish Cedar and solid Maple. The weight and thickness of this wood will hold humidity better than the ordinary, non-electric humidor. This should become an heirloom, if I can only talk my kids into the fine, peaceful, satisfying and serene habit of tobacco enjoyment. They worry about tobacco when driving cars and sky-diving and working on Wall Street are things that are truly dangerous. Hey, Obama has made smoking cool again.

After I took the photos, I began a rapid humidification of the Spanish Cedar with distilled water. I use a sponge for that, repeating daily for several days before putting any ceegars in it. Otherwise, the dry, thirsty wood will suck the moisture out of the smokes.