Tuesday, January 20. 2009
The daily life of a solo doctor: Dr. Bob
Saturday, January 17. 2009
The invention of "deep England." From a review of a new Shakespeare bio by Jonathan Bates:
 Of the many influences on Shakespeare, his Warwickshire origins were most important. As the grandson of a yeoman farmer and the son of a failing Stratford-upon-Avon shopkeeper, he belonged to the country, not the city. He did not accumulate property in London, and may even have felt uncomfortable there. Unlike his theatrical contemporaries, he set scenes in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. He had a wide and detailed knowledge of country lore and the medicinal uses of plants, using names which baffled the London compositors who set his plays into print. Bate believes that Shakespeare invented “deep England”, a rustic idyll centred on the Midlands that delights in mingling morris men and royal spectacle.
Reposted from May 6, 2005:
Save the World on Your Own Time
That's the title of Stanley Fish's oft-quoted 2003 piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
It is not paranoid to state that the Left, since the 60's, has targeted non-profits of all kinds, including churches and universities, as easy take-over opportunities, and the "nice" but well-intentioned, naive, denizens of these worlds frequently rolled out a red carpet for them.
Where else would they go besides into politics and non-profits?
Some of the most innocent organizations in the US succumbed, especially the national headquarters. The dues go from Dubuque and Atlanta to DC and NYC, where they are used as their HQ staff see fit, ie often promoting, advocating, and lobbying for left-wing causes. (Check to see what some of your favorite charities are doing with the dollars that go to their HQ, but you need to dig deeper than just checking their happy websites. Follow the money!)
Same thing with the universities, which are similarly naive and well-intentioned non-profits. But I digress.
Fish's central statement:
"My concern, however, is not with academic time management but with academic morality, and my assertion is that it is immoral for academics or for academic institutions to proclaim moral views.
The reason was given long ago by a faculty committee report submitted to the president of the University of Chicago. The 1967 report declares that the university exists "only for the limited ... purposes of teaching and research," and it reasons that "since the university is a community only for those limited and distinctive purposes, it is a community which cannot take collective action on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness."
Read entire piece.
Thursday, January 15. 2009
It would be infra our dig to award a prize to the low-class and monotonous YouPorn.com, but, for Our Favorite Gun P*rn: Mr. Free Market (It would have been a tie with Kim Du Toit, but he wisely retired from blogging.)
Favorite Gun P*rn Site (where you can buy them): Gunbroker.com. It is even fun just to look.
Best Skank Soft Porn Female Art Photos Lovely Women: Theo
Most Frustrating Site Because When You Think You Discovered Some Cool Obscure Article You Find Out That He's Already Linked It: Insty
Our Most-Linked Pro Columnists of 2008: A three-way tie between Krauthammer, Kimball, and Steyn.
Columnist Who Most Often Articulates Clearly What We're Thinking But Cannot Articulate: Sowell
Met some darn nice all-American folks today, delivering an eBay furniture purchase to us. They drove up here from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He does intel-related stuff for the gummint. She does eBay. We almost never use eBay, but this worked out very well indeed.
Not only were they good folks, but the item was far better than described and the price entirely reasonable. I steered them to a delicious lunch up here before their trip home.
Thanks, friends!
 Since it's going to be as cold as heck everywhere this week and weekend, our group decided that we'd rather freeze skiing at Sugarloaf than freeze with the annoying NYC and Fairfield County crowds in the annoying and tedious Vermont lift lines.
There are excellent last-minute MLK weekend deals, thanks to the lousy economy.
Looks like the weather will be invigorating - around or below 0 (F) all weekend. But I've skiied at -10. The trick is to keep moving, and to try to resist the temptation to lick anything metal.
And to not overdress for the temp. If you do, you'll sweat too much coming down, and the sweat will freeze to you on the lifts. Best to stay cold. After all, it is winter - and the earth is cooling fast.
This is an 8-hour drive for me from NYC. Sugarloaf is up in the Rangely area where I have happily hunted and fished in the past. I'm leaving now, back Sunday night. Will leave some pre-posts for our Editor's kind consideration.
Readers know how much I like outdoor gear, and how I need to remind myself that when I wear a few layers, I need to get trousers a full size larger in the waist or I will be miserable in the woods and fields.
It was a balmy 13 degrees F this morning here, with snow. Beautiful.
Well, I need to remind myself of the same thing with boots. I tried out some new snow/winter boots early this morning to plow and sand and shovel the driveway and walks before going to work in Hartford, and I had not figured for liner socks and heavy socks. It just hurt.
Remind me, readers. I have trouble remembering this: Except for base layers, winter gear needs to be bigger than one's usual.
With the global cooling crisis, even those in the southern reaches will need to learn these details. Here's Dr. Merc's boat this morning in the Florida Keys (cannot find our friend's site right now, and I doubt he can find his snow shovel either):
"Making Room for Miss Manners is a Parenting Basic." NYT
Wednesday, January 14. 2009
I checked with Snopes and found that this story from 2005 was true. The piece at Snopes also includes the gracious and embarassed reply by the guy who had complained about the fly-by noise.
 John Johansen's "Bridge House" in New Canaan, CT, is for sale.
New Canaan is famous for its collection of modern residential architecture. The prosperous town changed from farmland to suburbia during the height of the modernist craze. John Johansen is the only living member of "The Harvard Five," of whom Philip Johnson is probably the best-known.
I like to look at these houses, but would not want to live in them. For life, I prefer rambling, drafty, random, cozy structures with plenty of fireplaces, and which were never really designed, but just kinda grew over time, like Topsy.
They are asking $5 million for this small but striking house. I am told it needs some "repairs." I like it, but I do not want it.
You can read about the Bridge House here.
Tuesday, January 13. 2009
Some people just can't get enough sailing. These folks were frostbiting last weekend in 23 degrees on a breezy Long Island Sound. Yes, there is a rescue boat in case you fall overboard or capsize - which sometimes happens.
Saturday, January 10. 2009
Finally back from South Pacific at the Beaumont. Slow, snowy, slippery, mind-rattling drive home through blinding snow on unplowed highways. What a wonderful performance, though, and well-worth the conditions. Ms. Kelli O'Hara is a doll. We saw her in her NYC debut in Light in the Piazza. I'd guess her future looks bright.
The Dyl would have loved this. And, I was thinking, so would the Sipp Clan. A real treat, thanks to Mrs. BD.
When you want the best of anything, or want to be the best in anything, you go to New York. Sinatra said it better. It ain't for everybody, nor should it be. Sure is mightly pleasant to visit, though.
We have many ex-NYC readers who like these sorts of photos, and I am happy to oblige despite my lousy camera skills.
NYC is at its most lovely in a snowstorm. It wasn't coming down heavily yet -
More of my NYC photos below the fold -
Continue reading "South Pacific in the snow"
I am a fan of the young Cuban sculptor Yoan Capote, and have begun collecting some of his work. Here's Lote (Retrato de la masa), 2008:
This will make your day. Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 2, mvt 2:
Friday, January 9. 2009
I sent an article from Psychiatric Times (which we linked a while ago), titled The Decline of Psychotherapy, to a Psychiatric colleague. He responded "Good timing for me. It will be dead just when I am ready to retire from my psychotherapy practice."
The article says:
The number of psychiatrists who provided psychotherapy to all of their patients declined from 19.1% in 1996-1997 to 10.8% in 2004-2005. From 1996 through 2005 psychotherapy was provided in 5597 of 14,108 office visits to psychiatrists lasting longer than 30 minutes, but the percentage of visits involving psychotherapy declined from 44.4% in 1996-1997 to 28.9% in 2005-2006.
People who have never used a good shrink psychotherapist have no idea how helpful we can be, sometimes even very quickly...but sometimes not quickly at all. I wish I could offer examples, but I'm touchy about the confidentiality.
From the WSJ:
Arthur Laurents needed a Maria for his upcoming Broadway revival of "West Side Story." The 91-year-old director, who wrote the libretto for the legendary 1957 musical, found her on YouTube.
Josefina Scaglione was an Argentine stage actress working in Buenos Aires. She spoke English with a rich Spanish accent, was unknown to American audiences and was exactly what Mr. Laurents had been searching for.
Read the whole thing. Here she is with Libertango:
Kindleberger's classic Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises. There is nothing new under the sun.
Thursday, January 8. 2009
Capitalism does not exist, says Bruce Walker at American Thinker. One quote:
What we call "Capitalism" actually encompasses something much grander and much broader. Wealth is not simply financial wealth and man is much greater than homo economus, a creature governed solely by economic factors. Except for neurotic personalities, like the fictional Midas or Scrooge, people work, invest and strive for success in the marketplace of all human interactions.
As Walker notes, in free-market, "capitalist" societies, non-neurotic people pursue many goals besides or other than accumulating money. Indeed, for the vast majority of folks, money is just a tool for pursuing other personal goals, of which the main one is rightly independence and security.
America is the world master of marketing and advertising. (We owe something to the great advertiser David Ogilvie for that.) From For the Greater Goods, in The American:
The latest Interbrand listing of the most valuable global brands reveals 8 American brands in the top 10 and 52 in the top 100, more than twice the expected numbers based on America’s cut of roughly a quarter of the world economy. Coca-Cola, Nike, and Starbucks command more loyalty among many consumers than any political party or trade union.
Read the whole thing to learn how it happened.
Fitz Hugh Lane, aka Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865) is considered to be sort-of a member of the so-called Hudson River School of painters (a label slapped on these folks by later art historians). Lane is known as a "luminist," for obvious reasons.
This is Becalmed Off Halfway Rock (Casco, ME), 1860:
This is Boston Harbor (1856):
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