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.
At the Maggie's HQ we are partial to giving experiences as presents. This means things like theater or concert tix with fancy dinners, surprise trips, a spa trip, or especially special outings which you might not prefer but which the other loves.
We all are done with trinkets and toys and gadgets, and just want more life in our lives. US Open tix for her this year. She loves that. A good surprise for her.
What sorts of things do you like to give your spouse for presents, but especially birthday presents?
Actually, at the Maggie's HQ we are fortunate to have several Personal Chefs. Among them, Thai take-out, Costco rotisserie chicken, Subway, etc. Nobody has time to cook at home more than once or twice a week these days. In olden times, at-home Moms and wives used to plan and cook dinner every night. Not so many at-home Moms these days.
My Mom used to. And she always had a cocktail ready for Dad when he got home. Usually a Gin and Tonic. After supper, we kids would do the clean up and Dad would go outside to gaze at the stars and ponder man and God and law with a beer and a smoke.
Times have changed, but not for the better. I do the cooking at least once a week, specializing in red meat and general outdoor grilling. I can also make a heck of an omelette, and lots of other things. Nevertheless, home-cookin is a form of love
By New England puritanical standards it feels sinful or weak to be as attached to possessions as I am. So be it, because I never claimed to be sinless. I never claimed to be entirely free of superficiality either. Appearances have an effect on me and on everybody.
Artifacts from my life and from my family and my ancestors give me pleasure and comfort. Much of it probably has minimal monetary value (for example, you have to pay people to take away brown furniture today, even mahogany furniture, because nobody wants it) but it has meaning to me with memories attached.
I have even been accused of being a “public intellectual,” which sounds too much like “public nuisance” or even “public enemy” for my taste.
My point is that people who specialize in the life of ideas tend to be extremely atypical of their societies. They — we — are freaks in a statistical sense. For generations, populists of various kinds have argued that intellectuals are unworldly individuals out of touch with the experiences and values of most of their fellow citizens. While anti-intellectual populists have often been wrong about the gold standard or the single tax or other issues, by and large they have been right about intellectuals...
I recently had occasion to peruse homes for sale in the pleasant and prosperous suburban town of Wilton, CT.
I saw some so nasty (but costly) that Sipp would be tempted to burn them down if he could afford a match. But, to be charitable, shelter is important in the north, and it's love and not design that makes a place a home.
'President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”… Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. “What your country can do for you” implies that the government is the patron, the citizen the ward. “What you can do for your country” assumes that the government is the master, the citizen the servant.'
Apparently there are no wolf subspecies in the Americas. Those thought to be subspecies are just Wolf-Coyote hybrids, of which the Red Wolf is one. Nevertheless, your tax dollars are going towards not only protecting them, but actually breeding them as if they were a precious endangered species when they are just mutts.
Government tends to be an idiot.
Generally speaking, I am in favor of wolves getting back to their old haunts in the Northeast where there are no sheep herds anyway. They will kill the coyotes and coydogs and bring the deer and moose populations into balance. Wolves do not kill people unless you leave a baby alone in the woods. People kill people, mostly, so stay away from them at all times.
A Haverhill, Mass., newspaperman teaches seniors how to tell their life story for the last time; ‘don’t think that your life is any more insignificant than anyone else’s’. As a local newspaper reporter for 50 years, Tom Vartabedian has written thousands of obituaries. In May, he wrote one about himself. After finishing a draft, he felt relief. “I had written probably the most important story of my life,” he said.
Mr. Vartabedian was following his own advice. The 75-year-old weekly columnist for the Haverhill Gazette recently taught a class on writing your own obituary at a senior center in town. “Don’t leave anything to chance,” he said, “the chance that somebody else makes a debacle of it.” Tom Vartabedian wrote hundreds of obituaries during his newspaper career. This year he was asked to teach a class to senior citizens on how to write their own....
Spectacular failures to replicate key scientific findings have been documented of late, particularly in biology, psychology and medicine.
A report on the issue, published in Nature this May, found that about 90% of some 1,576 researchers surveyed now believe there is a reproducibility crisis in science...
Science is fetishized only by people who do not know science.
It's a case of organized gentrification. Upscale pubs replace discount stores, and the place becomes safe at night. A more organic gentrification is going on right now in NYC in Hell's Kitchen. As in NYC's East Village, the pioneers are the young looking for affordable living quarters.
"Mrs. Fawlty, she go craaaazy!" Actor Sachs was significantly injured twice during the filming - once when Cleese hit him on the head with a real pan instead of the prop pan. Here is some Manuel:
With age, gravity tends to give us a larger foot size. Our feet expand under our weight.
I have a couple of pairs of expensive (well, expensive for me) and highly-durable Brooks Brothers loafers which I am loathe to part with but are no longer comfortable. 20 years can do that. Mrs. BD says I am silly not to replace them, but I tried some tricks of the trade first. It is not unusual to be like me, with feet of slightly different sizes but who will not spend the money for custom shoes in London.
Solid, well-made leather shoes can be stretched between a half-size to a whole size. Inexpensive shoes can not take the stress of stretching - either the leather itself, or the stitching, will break.
Things to try:
Shoe stretchers will adjust width or length. Cheap on Amazon. Over a day or two, you keep increasing the tension in the stretcher. Heating the shoes with a hair dryer or in a hot sun makes the leather a bit more stretchable.
Wetting the shoe well with water or, better, isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) before stretching is what expert cobblers do.
Simpler, soak some heavy socks with water or rubbing alcohol and wear the shoes. If sitting, it should be painless.
Results of my experiments with these? Be careful not to overdo it or you can end up with loose shoes.
I am standing on top of Bald Mountain in Sonoma Valley, staring profoundly off toward the far Pacific and the dying sun. I scrunch my eyebrows and squint a little, thinking this will add to my overall air of deep thoughtfulness. My facial muscles are responding not to the transporting magic of nature, however, but to another imperative: I need to look good for the camera. Cameras, actually. Off to my side, a young man named Jimmy, whose easygoing professionalism I’ve come to respect over the past 10 days of shooting, points a surprisingly heavy (I have tried to lift it) camera at my head to film me in profile. Up above, a drone swoops over to capture the full grandeur of the moment. Following instructions, I move closer to the edge of the mountain, striking a pose that is meant to say part world conqueror, part shaman. I am a New Age Cortés...
I keep seeing that phrase "marginalized people." It can be applied to hillbillies, felons, Moslems, black Americans, trannies, crippled or blind people, the mentally-ill, or whomever you want.
Turning the adjective "marginal" into a verb craftily turns a group of people into victims of an active, malevolent force to push people to the margins of life. Many people are marginal to society because they will not, do not wish to, or can not, adjust to or fit into ordinary bourgeois society. That may be deeply to be regretted that they can not or do not, but it is not being done to them by any malevolent forces. I am not a malevolent force, but I do not invite felons or trannies to our dinner parties. They would not fit in.
Felons and trannies rarely invite me either so perhaps they marginalize me.
If you want to see active efforts to "marginalize", just check out today's link about the MSM on the GOP. There you can see an example of institutional marginalization, powers engaged in active, conscious efforts to marginalize a vast group of Americans. This attempted marginalization and organized intolerance of differences will continue until November.
"Try" is one of those tricky words, isn't it? "Just try harder." "Try to study harder and you'll get it." Or my favorite: "Try to relax." What do those sorts of things mean?
My most meaningful encounters with "try" are with physical exertion, mainly exercise. When you hit the wall with an exercise the overwhelming inclination is to stop. However, when somebody says "Give me two more" or "Drive it through" you engage your inner "try." Then mind, nerves, and muscle fully engage together to do something you can't do.
I spent 4 hours in dental chairs yesterday, three with oral surgeon and one with the prosthodontist in the adjacent office.This was not a pleasant experience despite the fact that my oral surgeon and his young gal assistants are like stand-up comics and as anti-PC as can be imagined. Highly-entertaining repartee which would get anyone fired in three minutes in a corporate setting.
I just wish they would quit asking me questions with a mouth full of steel tools. Doc tells me they teach them to to ask questions when you can't answer, when they are in dental school. Says he'd like those sorts of one-sided chats with his wife.
They give me a valium first so I do not jump up and run out of there because dental torture is just not my thing. I tell the doc that what he is doing is against the Geneva Convention and that I intend to report him to the UN.
My teeth have sucked since I was young, despite not being a sweets addict. Also lost a couple playing hockey in high school. Now the fun is about some extractions, implants, bridges. This is needed to be able to eat steak and lobster, and so as not to look like I am from England or West Virginia. It's just a shame that Oxycodone does not make me feel good because I have lots of it.
My dental work is insanely expensive, requires a payment plan. If Obama really cared, he'd pay the bill for me. Sharks have it good. They keep growing new ones.
What are your worst and most expensive dental experiences?
With age, gravity tends to give us a larger foot size. Our feet expand under our weight.
I spent 4 hours in dental chairs yesterday, three with oral surgeon and one with the prosthodontist in the adjacent office.This was not a pleasant experience despite the fact that my oral surgeon and his young gal assistants are like stand-up comics and as anti-PC as can be imagined. Highly-entertaining repartee which would get anyone fired in three minutes in a corporate setting.