The machine ate two VHS Tapes that I had borrowed from the library and I was already in Dutch for ruining a book that I had barrowed by leaving it in the snow all day. It had fallen out of the passenger’s side door when I had opened and slammed that door shut to knock off the powdery snow that and accumulated on it obscuring my view. It had fallen into the space between the seat and the door when I had tossed the three books I was returning that day into the vehicle. I got to the library and could not find it. It must have fallen out when I opened and slammed that door. When I got back it was lying there in the snow. Its dark cover had caused some melting and it was soaked with the pages splayed all over the place, never to return to the flat stage of a proper book. I had gotten the library to write off two other books that had disappeared after I had put them into the book drop – it would be pushing my luck to claim that it was their fault. I shall go in today and show them what the dog had done to my homework. And damn it that one cost be thirty bucks for a lousy paperback that I could have bought on Amazon for less than ten.
At some point accumulated money becomes a lien against future production rather than a claim check to simultaneous existing goods. The willingness of future producers to honor these past claims on their current production will at some point become an issue – Herman E Daly – For the Common Good., 1989 p38
The problem of history is to make of ‘the people’ what had been done by ‘a person’
The quantity of copper that will ever be available to us is not finite, because there is no method (even in principle) of making an appropriate count of it – Jullian Simon – The Ultimate Resource, 1981 p47. Lesson – anything that you cannot accurately count is infinitely available – hence I don’t know exactly how many years I have left so I should figure that I shall live forever.
Some 50 US cities are now planning new street car lines to be powered by hydrogen fuel-cell technology, although there not a single one now in operation.
One in four Americans – and a “majority” of self-identified Republicans – believes this [Obama’s election] was made possible due to a secret, carefully-executed, coordinated national effort of a community group that can’t recognize a fake pimp? I’m very willing to concede that much of the Republican Party necessarily questions the legitimacy of any election in which the GOP candidate loses. But this poll has to be wrong, doesn’t it! – Steven Bener – Washington Monthly (Nov 19, 2009)
Concept: Psychology of Previous Investment: It is difficult to consider the possibility that something in which a high investment has been made won’t work
A satisfactory cosmology must explain the interweaving of efficient and final causation – Alfred North Whithehead – The Function of Reason, 1929 p28
Radiohead let fans name their price for downloads of a 2007 album and the band earned more money than from downloads of all its previous albums combined. Customers allowed the option of naming their own price paid on average opted to pay 86% of the regular prices and said that their choice was made with a sense of fairness and a desire not to appear cheep.
It was the kind of morning / the dark never left. / The truly wild were curled up, asleep, / or in some high nest looking down. / There was no way they’d let us love them / just right – Stephen Dunn – What Goes On, 2009 p24
Factoid: The median net worth of white, Latino and black households in the US was in 2002 respectively: $87,000, $8,000 and $6,000. The recession has probably exacerbated this situation given that the target of the subprime mortgage market was low-wage earning minorities (the same group who were targeted for loans by for-profit education – just how many Associate Degrees in Criminal Justice do we need anyway?) . Transfers from one generation to the next are still the primary source of wealth for most Americans with positive worth.
The [health insurance] companies offer no real value and so must create a regulation system that virtually mandates their existence and will soon actually do so – Luke Mitchell – Harper’s (Dec 2009) p8
A day in the country. I drove Michael’s car to Sonoma with Scott and Asksa. We ate at Della Santina’s off the square on Napa St. My first visit to Sonoma had been in 1990. This restaurant had served Mexican cuisine at that time or at least the establishment that was there in this building at that time did. We walked around the square and visited all the courtyards – there’s a place that specializes in bovine gifts (not for Bossy but of Bossy). Asksa had a vision of exploring the entire town by walking from courtyard to courtyard via back alleys and lanes.
Old men getting older
Like old dogs
Losing the control of their
Bladders
Dragging themselves around
Inconsistent
Half dazed and grizzled
Out of control their women
Taking to their beds
Rather than standing in the kitchen
Over hot ranges
Baking bread
Hold on to their apron
Strings
Addiction to soap operas
Is a way to occupy time
If not space
While you stay in place
The real battle in Washington is seldom between conservatives and liberals or the right and the left or ‘Red America’ and ‘Blue America. It is nearly always a more local contest, over which politicians will enjoy the privilege of representing the interests of the rich – Luke Mitchell – Harper’s (Dec 2009)
Scot located a drugstore where he could buy film for his video camera. Aska wanted to go to a grocery store to buy a bottle of water. It took a while to convince her that the drugstore would also have water. She came back with a bottle of ‘fresh squeeze grapefruit drink’. She did not understand that the name was ‘fresh squeeze’ rather than that it contained fresh squeezed juice. She has a lot to learn about marketing – a lot to learn about America. She was hot and wanted to make a hat from a newspaper. Scott would have nothing to do with this making of paper hats. I egged her on. She made one that looked like a naval officers folding hat, like Admiral Nelson would have worn - our little Horatio Hornblower. She wanted to get something to stick her paper hat together (glue, tape, staples). She went into the old Mission (museum and giftshop) while Scott and I visited the 1840 Blue Wing adobe inn across the street. Aska got her hat fixed and we went to the Buena Vista winery for a tasting. Scott and Aska were appalled at the cost of a tasting , but were delighted when they got to keep their glasses. I made the pourer earn his money by telling them about how to taste wine. Most Sonoma wineries seem to be charging now. They didn’t the last time that I had been here. We left Buena Vista at 4PM and were unable to visit any more wineries before closing time. I drove up to Santa Rosa and returned on 101. We missed the turn off for the scenic view of San Francisco from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge so I promised that I would find Aska another good view of San Francisco and took them to the top of the Twin Peaks. We parked just as the sun went down and the lights had started to come on in the City spread out below us.
The first indication that something new but not yet fully understood has taken root in our society is the sprouting of fresh vocabulary – Ned Niedziecki – The Peep Diaries, 2009 p2
When we got back home Aska made a leek potato soup form a Polish instant soup mix but complained that it didn’t taste anything like it was supposed to. We watched Oliver Bean and sipped Polish soup. I went to the Royal Ground and Scott called his parents
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