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, November 10. 2009100 classic movie quotes
An unembeddable montage at Youtube
Posted by Opie
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11:58
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Monday, November 9. 2009Neutered boys, plus nice Brazilian bedsVia Volokh:
How nice of LA to neuter the boys. It just leaves more of the wholesome babes to the few remaining wholesome masculine boys who cannot resist cute gals. Speaking of which, here are a few Brazilian bed advts for the unneutered boys (a couple more below the fold). Continue reading "Neutered boys, plus nice Brazilian beds"
Posted by Bird Dog
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13:54
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Euroland vs. AmericaQuoted in a piece at NYM on homicide:
We Americans are so darned uncivilized. Heck, I shoot people anytime anyone bothers me. Like when somebody tries to sneak into the 15 items or less supermarket line with 16 items. We all shoot jerks like that, here in the back woods of Connecticut. Europe has a long tradition of feudalism, and they still emotionally cling to it like small children while speaking condescendingly about the messy freedom we have in the US. I'll take our messy freedom anytime over "respecting the authority of the state." The Euros still seem to think of themselves as serfs, at heart. "L'etat, c'est moi" says me, a proud American.
Posted by The Barrister
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13:37
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Sunday, November 8. 2009Start-Up NationEvery once in a while a book comes along that reveals a startling gap in our understanding of the world, our passions and desires, and ourselves. Start-Up Nation: The Story of The 236-page (plus copious footnotes) book is written in layman’s ease while delving in Harvard case-study depth, based on over 100 interviews of those who made it happen, into the question of how a tiny, imperiled nation with a relatively miniscule population came to be a leader in international hi-tech and a leading prosperous economy. As I literally devoured the book, heavily highlighting its insights, I kept wondering why I, a student of Continue reading "Start-Up Nation"
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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22:21
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Friday, November 6. 2009Kandinsky
Posted by Bird Dog
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05:02
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Thursday, November 5. 2009Thursday "youth" musicApparently our posting of that Taylor Swift YouTube was just too much. Our unofficial Maggie's "Youth Of Today" Czar suggested Peacebone from Animal Collective. Stick with it, says she:
Posted by Bird Dog
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12:36
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Wednesday, November 4. 2009Art and Beauty and "bourgeois ideology"From First Principles, The Treasonous Clerk: Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic. Part III by James Matthew Wilson - 10/28/09. This is Part III of a five-part essay on "Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic." You can read Part II here and Part IV here. Part III begins:
Read the whole good, thoughtful thing when you can find the time. It isn't a quick read. Links above. The Astounding World of the Future
If you've got a few years on you, then you probably remember those "documentaries" from the 50's and 60's showing "The Astounding World of the Future!" It was usually the year 2000, that being a nice, round number. And remember all the great predictions? We'd all be flying around in our jet cars, speaking into our Dick Tracy-style TV/radio/telephone wristwatches, and putting a small capsule in the middle of a pan, jamming it in the oven for 10 seconds, then pulling out a steaming roasted turkey complete with all the trimmings. Obviously, it was all gibberish, and that's what makes this video so amazing. As you'll see, the writers took a very realistic view of things and, not surprisingly, nailed a number of them. And they must have dumped a bunch of money into the production because the props and special effects are quite well done for the time and extremely believable. Recognize any of these?
So, without further ado, welcome to...
Posted by Dr. Mercury
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11:30
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Sunday, November 1. 2009New England Real Estate: Roxbury, CTRoxbury (pop. 2300) in southern Litchfield County is one of the most pleasant exurban towns (among many) in CT. It's far enough north to be beyond NYC commuting distance, but it's a good distance for a weekend home - and every wealthy American urban Lefty deserves his dacha. Roxbury has plenty of old farmhouses, barns, and well-maintained horsey estates with white-painted fences, but even it has been contaminated by some grandiose new construction over the past 20 years. Marilyn Monroe lived there during her hook-up with Arthur Miller. He may have suited her for a little while, but I doubt that Roxbury, or the Roxbury Congregational Church, were her cup of tea. Not that she ever knew what she needed... The 1850 farmhouse pictured above on 4.5 acres is asking 1.9 million. (I would be inclined to get rid of that big old Norway Spruce on the front corner. People always planted those gloomy trees too close to their houses.) More Roxbury listings here.
Posted by Bird Dog
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10:44
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What’s wrong with California is also wrong with much of the USWhen I left Today, the Still, there’s striking differences among the states, and the results show. William Voegeli writes in today’s Los Angeles Times, "The Golden State isn't worth it." Voegli compares It’s not ideologues who are moving. For example, I recently ran into a couple I was friendly with in Voegeli continues: “Overall, the Census Bureau's latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858.” Between 2000 and 2007, “16 of the 17 states with the lowest tax levels had positive "net internal migration," in the Census Bureau's language, while 14 of the 17 states with the highest taxes had negative net internal migration.” Why?
How?
What to expect?
It’s not just Government workers and their unions are prime beneficiaries of our heavy taxes. Most of even the made-up stats recently released about jobs saved or created by the federal appropriation of the near $1-trillion “stimulus” show relatively few and most of those among government workers. The $1-trillion, likely to be much more, cost of the wholesale upheaval of 1/6th of the US economy in health care – which really only serves about the 25% of those who truly need it who don’t have insurance at the expense of the 85% of Americans who do have coverage -- will fall heavily upon the working and middle class. The $trillions of indirect and direct taxes of the “cap-and-trade” illusory environmental bill will also add $thousands each year to each American's costs of living, to the economic benefit of profiteering fat cats and their politicos who garner contributions. At root this may be an ideological battle, as Voegeli says. But, it is really a practical battle between those who aspire and work for a better life and those relatively few who would squander its underpinnings for their own greedy benefits. The real populist revolt is already shaking Saturday, October 31. 2009The Spin Zone
Amazing. Look and see: the curve ball is partially optical illusion. h/t, Dr. X.
Posted by Bird Dog
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10:25
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Posted by Bird Dog
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Friday, October 30. 2009"When life imitates Norman Rockwell"
Posted by Gwynnie
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09:12
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Wednesday, October 28. 2009Photos from the FarmThe road out to our village in the Berkshires. It is indeed over the river and through the woods. Woods, fields, and swamps:
View from the upper barn. Trout stream down there in the valley. Those are our woods up on the hills too - insofar as anybody can "own" woods. The hawks, owls, deer and and bears own them, really. Well, God owns them, but I can harvest firewood there. You can see the White Pine infestation in the upper meadow. We have been at 'em, but it's a lot of work to cut them down. It's a shame that you cannot really burn White Pine in the fireplace. Too much resin, burns too hot.
Continue reading "Photos from the Farm" Clean-shaving bladesWe owe it to King Camp Gillette for making it easy to be a well-groomed gentleman without cutting your head off, or having to visit the barber. He was a clever tinkerer and, apparently, an equally good marketer of his "safety razor." Since his invention, razors have seen many modifications to Gillette's basic idea - not to mention electric razors (do any guys use those anymore?). When the Gillette products got too expensive for my taste, and I couldn't keep track of each new type of razor and the costly blades that went with them, I opted for buying cheap disposable razors in bulk. The one pictured is $10.49 for 100. Depending on your testosterone level, one is good for a week - at least. Longer if you can put up with minor discomfort. Added benefit: No problem if a daughter borrows your razor. Who cares?
Posted by Bird Dog
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12:05
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AnotherHere's a good bio of Thurber from an opthalmologist who was interested in Thurber - and his vision problems. (Thurber's brother shot him in the eye with an arrow when they were playing William Tell games.) Dorothy Parker or some equivalent wit commented that Thurber's drawings looked like unbaked cookie dough. Hoping I can get some functional links to some more Thurber toons. Everybody's seen this one:
Posted by Bird Dog
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09:39
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Tuesday, October 27. 2009Thurber toonsHere's one of my favorites:
Posted by Bird Dog
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11:18
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Autumn in New EnglandI know that leaf photos are corny as heck. So what? My Red Japanese Maple is colorful. I would never have planted one of these flamboyant things, but somebody else planted it there about 30 years ago, and I am not going to cut it down.
Posted by Bird Dog
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05:13
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Monday, October 26. 2009James ThurberThe other night I became distracted by reading the series on radio soap operas which James Thurber wrote for The New Yorker in 1948. "Soapland" is in Thurber's The Beast in Me and Other Animals. I envy Thurber's clarity, simplicity, and directness of writing, whether he is doing humor or regular reporting. Liked him better than EB White, with whom Thurber collaborated in writing the spoof on self-help books, Is Sex Necessary?, in 1929. If you have never read Thurber, you are missing a real delight. Start with The Thurber Carnival. I could not find any of his toons on line, but I didn't spend much time searching. Here's a good summary of the history of the radio soaps. Thurber's piece on the topic is a masterpiece of straightforward New Yorker-style reportage; the kind that can make any random topic fascinating because it is so well-written.
Posted by Bird Dog
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15:51
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Mistakes
Mistakes help us learn. Of course they do. Who ever doubted that?
Posted by Bird Dog
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15:31
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Driving around Southern New EnglandCheck out the stuff we posted over the weekend. Some fun stuff, I think. Did a bit of driving around this weekend. Took some lousy photos. We did drive past a doctor's office in Norfolk, CT: Dr. Ralph Emerson. We all agreed we'd be glad to go to him. (In some areas the leaves were wonderful, and in some spots not so good, but we were not looking for leaves.) This is Canaan, CT: The Housatonic Valley, Route 7 in Western MA: More random road photos below the fold: Continue reading "Driving around Southern New England"
Posted by Bird Dog
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07:07
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Sunday, October 25. 2009The GMATThe pup who works in NYC is studying for her GMAT. It sounds like a rightly demanding and discriminating exam. She says the grammar correction sections are extremely subtle aspects of complex sentences, and that the two-part interactive math problems only give you two minutes each if you want to finish them. If you get one right, the computer gives you a more challenging one. It ramps up fast, she says, to try to find your limits. That's a great idea, like an automated oral exam where they can push each line of questioning until you are totally stumped and crushed with humility. The two-part math questions involve something like Which of the following additional pieces of information do you need to solve this problem? A,B, Both, Neither. Brain swirls. These sorts of logical challenges quickly separate the men from the boys. There are two essays also. Sounds like good fun to me, but I like exams. No. I love exams, whether offered by schools, institutions or, most importantly, by real life every darn day. The pup does too: she is busy re-memorizing her exponent and square root tables to save time on the exam. She has great fun doing it, and says "It will never hurt you in life to have 9 to the 5th on the tip of your tongue." She began with 1-12 to the third and is working her way up. No calculators allowed for this exam. Good on them for that.
Posted by Bird Dog
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17:48
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Benne Wafers and Pat ConroyI am in the middle of Conroy's new book, South of Broad, which is set in Charleston. Being a Yankee, I had no idea what Benne Wafers were. Here's the recipe. It's nice to know that there are still places in America where ladies routinely have teatime with homemade tea cookies. It is civilized and civilizing, like so many old Southern habits. Regarding other low-country foods, She-Crab Soup is fine and dandy, but this summer I discovered how much I enjoy Shrimp 'n Grits (and I don't even love shrimp. I like it with the smaller shrimp). Redefining Deviance: Jim and Sarah D. aspire to acceptance in a world that has left them behindThis is a re-post of an NJ piece from a couple of years ago - There are people living "deviant" lifestyles in the Northeast, and, sadly, they are frequently invisible and marginalized. After much searching to locate the most deviant family your reporter could find in western Massachusetts, we decided to interview Jim and Sarah D. We summarize our interview with this extremely deviant, euphemistically-termed "traditional family," here: Social deviant Jim D. 42, leads what we might best term a paleo life, largely out of touch with modern reality and seemingly oblivious to the exciting opportunities of modern lifestyle choices. Married for 21 years, with three kids, Jim drives 25 minutes to work each morning in his 8 year-old Subaru sedan. A college grad, Jim, on his fourth job, is CFO of a medium-sized manufacturing corporation based in Pittsfield, MA, making around $120,000 per year, not including generous benefits. "I worked my way up the ladder to reach my level of incompetence," he laughs. "The job is a daily challenge, so I try to meet it each day determined to have some fun with it, and to rise to the challenges with a can-do spirit, corny as that sounds. I go to work every morning wondering what sort of pitch will be thrown to me, and hoping at least to hit a single. When I get stuck and confused, I call Sarah to talk it over." Really? "She's my partner, in every way. We joke that by combining the two of us, we add up to one barely competent human." Jim claims his wife is "great to me and for me" and says "I love my kids to death." They go to their Presbyterian Church together every Sunday, and they tithe. "Budgeting our tithing is a blessing to us," says Sarah. Jim and Sarah have a date night every Thursday night, and family Sunday dinner with his in-laws. They have lived modestly, and have accumulated over $500,000 in their 401-K savings. Jim says "Business hasn't been loyal to its employees for 20 years, so you have to take care of yourself. That's fine with me. My Dad did it by always living below his means, which were minimal for a long time, and I do the same. Unlike my Dad, though, I doubt anyone will let me continue working as long as I want to." What did his Dad do? "He quit high school to join the Army. Hated school. They stuck him in the Corps of Engineers. Then worked up to a construction supervisor as a civilian, which he still does. He will never quit work, although he could retire now if he wanted to. He owns three houses; rents two and lives in one. The job gives him something to grouse about, and gets him out of the house and out into the world." When asked what were the most important things in his life, Jim answers "Knowing God and being a responsible adult male. Working hard, paying my bills, being a good parent and husband, a good citizen and a good friend." For hobbies, Jim and Sarah enjoy gardening, jogging in the Berkshire Hills, and cooking together. When their first child was born, they gave their TV away and have been without one since. "Brain rot," says Sarah. "It interferes with family time, and we didn't want the kids to be passive zombies." Sarah was a grammar school teacher until the kids came. "I would never have married a woman who wanted to work while we had young kids," Jim says. "That's an experiment with human nature I would not want to subject them to." As the kids enter high school, Sarah is planning to return to teaching high school English this time, having made herself "an amateur expert" in Medieval and Renaissance literature over the past 15 years. "I polished up my French, and learned Italian." What's her dream job? "Teaching Beowulf and Dante." "Unlike Sarah, I was the first kid in my family to ever go to college," Jim says. "My first day at UMass, my Mom insisted I wear a jacket and tie. That is how traditional - or out to lunch - my parents were then. Mom baked a huge layer cake when I got my admission letter. They were both children of immigrants, my Dad's parents from Romania and my Mom's from Ireland." He says "UMass set me up for a fine career, but I had no big dreams. I just wanted to be able to support my family, and to find a way to have a fairly good time doing it. Math was easy for me, so I majored in it, but I made sure I got myself educated as widely as I had time for, while staying on the Rugby team and without too many drunken nights. I took some accounting classes to be practical about the future, but I met Sarah in a Chaucer class. She was cute as hell, and I said to her after class 'I don't think I belong in this class.' She said 'Let's discuss it.' The rest is history." Politics? As Sarah says "We go to every Town Meeting, and we speak up when an issue is important to us. We don't obsess too much about national politics. We are local." When pressed on the issue, they confessed "Well, we do listen to Rush when we have the chance, but we are usually too busy." Saturday, October 24. 2009You Belong to MeAs a counterpoint to yesterday's Country-Pop You Belong With Me, here's Dylan's wonderful version of You Belong To Me, with some repetitive video of Bob with Sarah, his first wife, in what appears to be their bedroom in NYC - it doesn't look like their Woodstock, NY house.
Posted by Bird Dog
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16:51
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