We 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.
Villages in Yankeeland - and surely everywhere in America - know how to have a parade on Memorial Day. All you need are some Boy Scouts and Brownies, some firemen and an antique fire truck, the Volunteer Fire Department Marching Band, and anybody else who feels like joining in.
Including people with their dogs, adorned with flags.
(And yes, in Yankeeland, we are big on Volunteer Fire Departments, and volunteer everything including volunteer Town Meetings as a form of local government.)
What a great country. How fortunate, optimistic, well-intentioned, and patriotic we are!
My IT guy was here this morning. He helped me out with some nagging problems with my machines, but since he also does sound systems for houses I asked him for a solution to my music needs, mainly upstairs.
I have posted about this in the past. He told me that it's simple: A Sonos amp system can do it all. It can feed to my existing speakers (wires), can stream WQXR (Wifi), can handle my CDs (which are important to me), and has portable wifi speakers to move around if I want. He says the rich folk love the sound quality.
I think my ideal is unobtainable. No - my ideal is live music.
I recently took a poll about whether the American Dream is a myth or fact, and whether it's more achievable or less so today.
I know my views aren't the same as most, but I think my take on the American Dream makes it more attainable than ever. The American Dream is whatever you want it to be, and ultimately it's whether or not you're happy with yourself and your life. It's not money, it's not home ownership, it's not success or fame. It may be, if those are things you believe will make you happy. However, if you're happy and you like yourself and your life, then you've achieved the American Dream. In many nations, just surviving is a problem, and in many advanced nations, living your life with limited intereference from elites, politicians, cranks and other non-essentials is impossible. In the US, it's not impossible to go through life while limiting external interference, and focus on your own happiness. (Allow me to clarify - there is always external interference, but how you deal with it and react to it is what enables you to limit its impact on your life.)
So why do a fairly large number of people believe the Dream is no longer achievable, or that it is/was a myth? Why are there so many people who currently feel the Dream is unachievable, or less achievable than when their parents were younger?
As with accumulated sets of china, why not use your real silverware for everyday too? It is pleasantly heavy, lovely, and civilized. Should nice things be only for special holidays?
The youth do not care about china and silverware - or brown furniture either, nor should they. It's not practical. However, life is not all about practical. And we all have scullery maids to polish the silver, don't we?
There is a difference between Old and Antique. Nobody wants late 19th C/early 20th C brown furniture, regardless of how pleasant. It's fuddy-duddy, one of my daughters says.
Luckily, our Columbian painter's family loves our dining room table and chairs which were quite valuable decades ago but are unwanted orphans today. It is formal with all sorts of nice inlay like the tables in the White House. You can either donate them to Good Will, or pay junkers to take them away. Glad somebody will love it all because the kids will not.
We are replacing them with our 1960's amazing Danish slate table and some country-style chairs. I am no decorator, but Mrs. and her decorator pal can figure it out.
I will never get rid of my real antiques - Queen Anne bureaus and table and 1830's American stuff. They can do that when I die.
In the same vein, Mrs. BD has her cleaning helper going through all of the closets. Tons of nice stuff that she will never wear again. Dated, or whatever. Well, our energetic Polish helper wants all of it for her family and relatives, so that's great.
Come to think of it, I have too many firearms too.
Remember when experts were claiming "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day"? Perhaps that concept was paid for by Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
Of course, it is not true. Some people are hungry in the morning but as we have documented many times hunger does not necessarily indicate a need for food. Overweight people are always ready for a meal or a snack. Same for growing kids who need lots of food.
I like coffee for breakfast. While I do not lift weights, I can not argue with the need for 30 gms of protein after heavy weights. However, anything more than coffee in the morning just slows me down. If my work entailed manual labor, I am sure I would see it differently.
I will admit that, on vacation. I like European breakfasts. In Italy they might give you a hard-boiled egg, a little toast or mini-muffin, and an espresso or two. Nice. Or in England, a plate of bacon, black sausage, maybe some eggs and toast and jam.
The survey question is this: Do you routinely eat a breakfast and, if so, what sort of stuff?
In his science fiction novel Nemesis, Isaac Asimov describes a female character as possessing the "unloveable virtues": Serious, Practical, Responsible, Dutiful.
When I googled the concept, I found this: "Stan Asimov used to say that his brother Isaac had "all the unlovable virtues". Then, while describing a character in Nemesis, Isaac wrote "she possesses what someone once described to me as all the unlovable virtues"."
Life is easier now. Right before washing machines there were washtubs and washboards. In the US, I think this was women's work, good for toning the arms and burning calories.
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I recently took a poll about whether the American Dream is a myth or fact, and whether it's more achievable or less so today. 