Today is May Day, International Workers’ Day. Back in the bad old days, we’d be treated to massive, mandatory displays of Soviet military might, all those legions of Red Army soldiers goose-stepping through Red Square before Lenin’s Tomb, followed by tanks & mobile rocket launchers.
We’re talking macho central in a grim, socialist kind of way. But reliable, something you could count on long after Santa had disappointed you in that matter of the Wilson Hammer 6 that never showed up under the tree.
Celebrating the value of the work force has been going on for a while. It’s a strong enough statement that both Adolf Hitler & Pius XII took steps to co-opt it. In the 30s Hitler staged Nazi parades that out-glitzed the workers’. When his thugs weren’t beating them with clubs & truncheons.
& to counteract the godless communists, the Pope cooked up a saint’s day in 1955: Saint Joseph the Worker. (That would be Joseph the carpenter, husband of Mary the mother of Jesus.)
This is also the Celtic celebration of Beltane—the welcoming in of Summer. (It’s the calendar opposition to Samhain, the basis for Halloween.)
& there’s a bunch of stuff about maypoles, drinking & fertility bits, although I haven’t seen much of that lately.
Whatever—whether you’re into maypoles, missiles or mead, take the occasion to think kindly about workers of all sorts.
Unless they’re employees of hedge funds or investment banks.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Marketing manipulations
In case you’re at home, hunched over the latest World Health Organization report on the swine flu pandemic, I offer up something to lighten your day a bit.
Ref: item 1, it’s a bit ironic that Rudolph survived and Montgomery Ward died.
Item 2: can anyone be in doubt that that abomination was devised to sell canned food-like substances? They specify the brands of the cream of mushroom soup, fried onion rings and green beans.
(As an aside, I never had that casserole until my then-partner and I went to his family’s for Thanksgiving and his mother, a Russified Armenian from Tehran, served it up. I was appalled. On the other hand, my own mother wasn’t an advocate of the fresh food movement. I was an adult before I ever tasted a green bean that didn’t come out of a can.)
Item 3: I love the part about De Beers encouraging surprise proposals because a man will spend more money on an engagement ring if he’s not accompanied by his fiancée.
Item 4 doesn’t address that whole flower aspect of exploiting Saint Valentine’s Day. That’s got to represent even more industrial romance revenue than chocolates. Trust me: the price of a flower arrangement doubles or triples if you’re having it delivered on 14 February as opposed to any other day in the calendar.
Except for Mother’s Day.
Item 5: that 96% of couples registering doesn’t count all the people (mostly women) who register at stores ranging from Tiffany to Target if the get engaged or divorced, move to a new city or apartment, turn 40 (or 30, or 50) or just feel entitled.
Anyhow—you’ll now have something to chat about after you’re allowed to go back to work or attend cocktail parties.
Ref: item 1, it’s a bit ironic that Rudolph survived and Montgomery Ward died.
Item 2: can anyone be in doubt that that abomination was devised to sell canned food-like substances? They specify the brands of the cream of mushroom soup, fried onion rings and green beans.
(As an aside, I never had that casserole until my then-partner and I went to his family’s for Thanksgiving and his mother, a Russified Armenian from Tehran, served it up. I was appalled. On the other hand, my own mother wasn’t an advocate of the fresh food movement. I was an adult before I ever tasted a green bean that didn’t come out of a can.)
Item 3: I love the part about De Beers encouraging surprise proposals because a man will spend more money on an engagement ring if he’s not accompanied by his fiancée.
Item 4 doesn’t address that whole flower aspect of exploiting Saint Valentine’s Day. That’s got to represent even more industrial romance revenue than chocolates. Trust me: the price of a flower arrangement doubles or triples if you’re having it delivered on 14 February as opposed to any other day in the calendar.
Except for Mother’s Day.
Item 5: that 96% of couples registering doesn’t count all the people (mostly women) who register at stores ranging from Tiffany to Target if the get engaged or divorced, move to a new city or apartment, turn 40 (or 30, or 50) or just feel entitled.
Anyhow—you’ll now have something to chat about after you’re allowed to go back to work or attend cocktail parties.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Don't tell PETA
The other day it so happened that I had half a small order of Wendy’s fries left over from lunch. I thought I’d take it home to feed to the birds—didn’t know if it constituted bird abuse, but I just didn’t want to waste food.
I broke them up and tossed them on a tree-slab table in the side yard. Within 30 minutes, two crows showed up.
Now, I expected them to probably scarf down the fries, but I’d envisioned them pecking them one by one (or two) and chucking them down their gullets right there.
Instead what happened was they’d scoop up about five or six fries at a time, fly off somewhere for about 40 seconds & then return to scoop up another four or five. The yellow fries sticking out either side of their black beaks just cracked me up.
The potatoes were gone inside of five minutes, and I was laughing for some time thereafter. Don't know if they were taking the food to a family or just going off to gorge in secret.
I tried to balance this out by cutting up an apple and setting it in the same place. The pieces stayed there for more than 24 hours, although they eventually did disappear. (By contrast, I’d put out a rice-based salad from PCC Markets that stayed there for several days. Not even the squirrels would touch it & they pretty much eat everything. I finally had to brush it all up & put it in the trash.)
I don’t know whether birds suffer from cholesterol ailments, but I’m planning on getting a whole (small) order of fries just for my feathered friends. I hope I don’t start an epidemic of corvid obesity.
I broke them up and tossed them on a tree-slab table in the side yard. Within 30 minutes, two crows showed up.
Now, I expected them to probably scarf down the fries, but I’d envisioned them pecking them one by one (or two) and chucking them down their gullets right there.
Instead what happened was they’d scoop up about five or six fries at a time, fly off somewhere for about 40 seconds & then return to scoop up another four or five. The yellow fries sticking out either side of their black beaks just cracked me up.
The potatoes were gone inside of five minutes, and I was laughing for some time thereafter. Don't know if they were taking the food to a family or just going off to gorge in secret.
I tried to balance this out by cutting up an apple and setting it in the same place. The pieces stayed there for more than 24 hours, although they eventually did disappear. (By contrast, I’d put out a rice-based salad from PCC Markets that stayed there for several days. Not even the squirrels would touch it & they pretty much eat everything. I finally had to brush it all up & put it in the trash.)
I don’t know whether birds suffer from cholesterol ailments, but I’m planning on getting a whole (small) order of fries just for my feathered friends. I hope I don’t start an epidemic of corvid obesity.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Pandemics & politics
This current quasi-pandemic of swine flu is a prime example of George Santayana’s dictum that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
A mere 90 years ago, the “Spanish influenza” pandemic of 1918-19 killed more than 40 million people world wide. That’s more than were killed in four years of total war across Europe.
In the US Woodrow Wilson was afraid of his administration appearing weak, so despite medical and public health professionals frantically trying to get governments to order people to stay inside, avoid assembling in public places, cancel concerts, close schools, etc.—Wilson actually encouraged the populace to “carry on as usual.”
The butcher’s bill for that policy was a death toll of more than 500,000 Americans.
The thing about the flu was that it struck the young and healthy—they dropped like flies while the elderly or youngsters carried on. It made no sense, and epidemiologists still haven’t quite got it figured out. In some respects it was like the Black Death of the 14th Century: you could wake up healthy in the morning and end the day dead.
Now while governments are taking action—in Mexico they’ve banned all public meetings, gracias a Dios—the fact of the matter is that we’re still wrong-footed. There have been outbreaks in several US states, and now Europe. We don’t have a vaccine developed for this particular strain, and supplies of treatment drugs are limited (and the pharmaceutical companies will therefore charge through the nose for them).
You can expect to find a brisk black market in bogus Tamiflu and Relenza shortly.
Apparently the news has sent the stock market into a spin. Quelle surprise.
“But, Bas Bleu,” you ask, “where’s the connection to Santayana?”
Ah, mes chers enfants—it’s that Obama had included $900M in pandemic preparedness funds in the economic stimulus bill only a couple of months ago. And the Republicans in Congress (a group notorious for denying and therefore reliving history) whacked that out with liberal (if I may use that term) amounts of outrage and umbrage.
In the context of $13.4B going to GM, which is about to enter bankruptcy, and $700B going to banks that lent themselves into bankruptcy, $900M hardly seems extravagant to, you know, save lives.
That’s not quite $2 per death from the 1918-19 pandemic here in the States.
Now, of course, even if this money had been approved back in February, there wouldn’t have been enough accomplished in two months to make a real difference.
But just keep that in mind when you start fighting the symptoms, can’t get an appointment with your doctor and it turns out the “antidote” you bought from a friend of a friend is saline solution. There could have been plans and budget in place for dealing with similar eventualities; but there aren't.
People still marvel that anyone could get upset over “just the flu”. They equate it to a sore throat and the sniffles. Check the comments to any announcement of cancellation of a sports event—you’ll find plenty of “what the hell—you cancelled that for the flu?” statements.
Forty million deaths just 90 years ago; and hundreds of thousands of them every year since. It's real, it's deadly, and (thanks to the GOP) we don't have a plan.
A mere 90 years ago, the “Spanish influenza” pandemic of 1918-19 killed more than 40 million people world wide. That’s more than were killed in four years of total war across Europe.
In the US Woodrow Wilson was afraid of his administration appearing weak, so despite medical and public health professionals frantically trying to get governments to order people to stay inside, avoid assembling in public places, cancel concerts, close schools, etc.—Wilson actually encouraged the populace to “carry on as usual.”
The butcher’s bill for that policy was a death toll of more than 500,000 Americans.
The thing about the flu was that it struck the young and healthy—they dropped like flies while the elderly or youngsters carried on. It made no sense, and epidemiologists still haven’t quite got it figured out. In some respects it was like the Black Death of the 14th Century: you could wake up healthy in the morning and end the day dead.
Now while governments are taking action—in Mexico they’ve banned all public meetings, gracias a Dios—the fact of the matter is that we’re still wrong-footed. There have been outbreaks in several US states, and now Europe. We don’t have a vaccine developed for this particular strain, and supplies of treatment drugs are limited (and the pharmaceutical companies will therefore charge through the nose for them).
You can expect to find a brisk black market in bogus Tamiflu and Relenza shortly.
Apparently the news has sent the stock market into a spin. Quelle surprise.
“But, Bas Bleu,” you ask, “where’s the connection to Santayana?”
Ah, mes chers enfants—it’s that Obama had included $900M in pandemic preparedness funds in the economic stimulus bill only a couple of months ago. And the Republicans in Congress (a group notorious for denying and therefore reliving history) whacked that out with liberal (if I may use that term) amounts of outrage and umbrage.
In the context of $13.4B going to GM, which is about to enter bankruptcy, and $700B going to banks that lent themselves into bankruptcy, $900M hardly seems extravagant to, you know, save lives.
That’s not quite $2 per death from the 1918-19 pandemic here in the States.
Now, of course, even if this money had been approved back in February, there wouldn’t have been enough accomplished in two months to make a real difference.
But just keep that in mind when you start fighting the symptoms, can’t get an appointment with your doctor and it turns out the “antidote” you bought from a friend of a friend is saline solution. There could have been plans and budget in place for dealing with similar eventualities; but there aren't.
People still marvel that anyone could get upset over “just the flu”. They equate it to a sore throat and the sniffles. Check the comments to any announcement of cancellation of a sports event—you’ll find plenty of “what the hell—you cancelled that for the flu?” statements.
Forty million deaths just 90 years ago; and hundreds of thousands of them every year since. It's real, it's deadly, and (thanks to the GOP) we don't have a plan.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Property hunt
After what a friend termed the “moving imbroglio”, I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking for houses in various parts of Seattle, from nigh on to Shoreline to Beacon Hill. I have to say, I'm pretty well knackered.
It’s interesting that, in the month I was “out” of the looking, packing all my possessions, there’s risen a whole crop of properties into the market. Friday and Saturday my agent and I viewed 25 townhomes. Yesterday we went back to look at five of them again and start narrowing down.
The focus was on new construction because, after my experience with the condo of the Mad Cow Realtor, I’m leaning toward being the first person in a house. And there’s definitely no shortage of them these days—rather a change from earlier in the year.
Here are my finalists: a 3 bedroom/3.5 bath stand-alone townhouse—don’t ask me about that; I can’t figure it out. This one is finished, very nice flooring/kitchen; pantry (whoo-hoo!), enough space (>1700sf) for my 2700 books, even a tiny garden. High-end finishes—slab granite in the kitchen, nice cabinets, oak flooring. I have to go back on my own to make sure I can get into the garage.
(One thing I’ve learned about metro Seattle: builders fling up townhome groups with literally not enough room to get into/out of the much-touted “attached garage!”. People just use them for storage and park their car outside. I'll be damned if I pay for a garage I can't use.)
The other contender isn’t actually finished. The listing agent assured mine that it’ll be done by 31 May, for sure. I’m not holding my breath. This one is 2000sf, bamboo flooring, slab granite kitchen, 3 bedroom/2.5 baths; no pantry. It’s not as light as the first, skylight notwithstanding, and I’m a little hinky about putting an offer in on a house that isn’t finished yet. I’ve heard too many horror stories about construction going on forever.
My goal is to be moved as soon as possible into my own place, where I can be as comfortable as possible in this town.
BTW—the condo that fell thru? MCR has it back on the market, with the same deceptive features touted. Her only change is that the loan has to be a 20% down financing only and the seller will give $3000 “credit” to the buyer.
Oh, and she’s lied about the listing date and the original listing price.
I’m so glad I’m out of that.
It’s interesting that, in the month I was “out” of the looking, packing all my possessions, there’s risen a whole crop of properties into the market. Friday and Saturday my agent and I viewed 25 townhomes. Yesterday we went back to look at five of them again and start narrowing down.
The focus was on new construction because, after my experience with the condo of the Mad Cow Realtor, I’m leaning toward being the first person in a house. And there’s definitely no shortage of them these days—rather a change from earlier in the year.
Here are my finalists: a 3 bedroom/3.5 bath stand-alone townhouse—don’t ask me about that; I can’t figure it out. This one is finished, very nice flooring/kitchen; pantry (whoo-hoo!), enough space (>1700sf) for my 2700 books, even a tiny garden. High-end finishes—slab granite in the kitchen, nice cabinets, oak flooring. I have to go back on my own to make sure I can get into the garage.
(One thing I’ve learned about metro Seattle: builders fling up townhome groups with literally not enough room to get into/out of the much-touted “attached garage!”. People just use them for storage and park their car outside. I'll be damned if I pay for a garage I can't use.)
The other contender isn’t actually finished. The listing agent assured mine that it’ll be done by 31 May, for sure. I’m not holding my breath. This one is 2000sf, bamboo flooring, slab granite kitchen, 3 bedroom/2.5 baths; no pantry. It’s not as light as the first, skylight notwithstanding, and I’m a little hinky about putting an offer in on a house that isn’t finished yet. I’ve heard too many horror stories about construction going on forever.
My goal is to be moved as soon as possible into my own place, where I can be as comfortable as possible in this town.
BTW—the condo that fell thru? MCR has it back on the market, with the same deceptive features touted. Her only change is that the loan has to be a 20% down financing only and the seller will give $3000 “credit” to the buyer.
Oh, and she’s lied about the listing date and the original listing price.
I’m so glad I’m out of that.