I tried Honest T brand Mint White tea this morning, and it takes like...paste! It's been decades since I tasted that strange minty goodness, and boy is it better when it has that good pasty texture. On a whim, I googled "i eat paste" (weirdly, one of the google suggestions for a noun to fill out "i eat" was "people"), and found that www.pasteeaters.com exists! but it's stupid, as are the "i eat paste" t-shirts available for personal consumption. there's also a letseatpaste blog, but it's really not about eating paste. I'm not sure what the message is here, but I guess eating paste isn't really funny and unless you like paste you should stay away from that tea.
. . .
Sep 28, 2006
i am interviewed
and back in New York City. And I seem to like the sentence divided between the title and the post itself. I don't find out about the job for 2-3 weeks. The interview went ok. It would be the most fantabulous 1-2 year job ever, I think. It will remain undescribed in this semi-public forum until I get the call.
In other news, my brother Shum's wife, Diana, is pregnant (have I mentioned this already?), and due in March! And my sister Jeanne has invited me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding to Kim in February! And I get to wear wine and/or chocolate! I think she means those to be colors, but I don't care, I'm going wear a gooey sticky tobleroney merloty mess. Mmm. Maybe with sprinkles. And my brother Michael and sister-in-law Seemee are doing a 100-(one HUNdred)-mile (!) bike ride, next weekend, I think. And my sister Mary-Ei has gone back to work, getting two kids out of bed and to school, and driving herself to work, all before 7:30am (I'm sure Jadd, my bro-in-law, has some role in all of that too). Really, they're all so impressive. Good work, people!
. . .
In other news, my brother Shum's wife, Diana, is pregnant (have I mentioned this already?), and due in March! And my sister Jeanne has invited me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding to Kim in February! And I get to wear wine and/or chocolate! I think she means those to be colors, but I don't care, I'm going wear a gooey sticky tobleroney merloty mess. Mmm. Maybe with sprinkles. And my brother Michael and sister-in-law Seemee are doing a 100-(one HUNdred)-mile (!) bike ride, next weekend, I think. And my sister Mary-Ei has gone back to work, getting two kids out of bed and to school, and driving herself to work, all before 7:30am (I'm sure Jadd, my bro-in-law, has some role in all of that too). Really, they're all so impressive. Good work, people!
. . .
Sep 21, 2006
well, I tried freshdirect
and it's fine, I especially like the cook & eat stir-fry. but they should have some warnings/advice for the stupid (e.g. me), three that I can think of thus far:
1. Don't forget you ordered it and go to grocery store anyway. I now have four (4) containers of roasted red pepper hummus in my fridge.
2. Don't order a lot of fruits and vegetables right before you're about to leave your apartment for four (4) days.
3. Crap I forgot number three (3). Oh yeah. Baby bananas offered for sale are not likely to be green, like you (e.g. me) like them.
. . .
1. Don't forget you ordered it and go to grocery store anyway. I now have four (4) containers of roasted red pepper hummus in my fridge.
2. Don't order a lot of fruits and vegetables right before you're about to leave your apartment for four (4) days.
3. Crap I forgot number three (3). Oh yeah. Baby bananas offered for sale are not likely to be green, like you (e.g. me) like them.
. . .
Sep 20, 2006
al gore and daniel lewis
One of the perks of going to a school like NYU is that folks like Al Gore drop in to deliver major policy speeches. I snagged a ticket to sit in the auditorium to hear him speak on Monday, a
nd it was really a great speech. He knows his stuff. It was particularly interesting to hear him speak in contrast to the dudes (3 of them--couldn't find a woman to save their lives) that introduced him. Two of them were policy wonks and a third was John Sexton, president of the university and formerly dean of the law school. The wonks clearly knew their stuff too, and were both pretty good speakers, laid back and interesting. John Sexton was your typical university president, pompous and what-have-you, political too but nothing on the level of Al Gore. Al Gore is a big man. He's muscly, which he always was back in the day, but he's tall too, which one doesn't get such a great feel for on tv, and he's put on quite a bit of weight and let his hair go gray. So, essentially, when he speaks, everyone listens. Here are some things I learned:
He's willing to admit his mistakes: he thought freezing nukes in the 80s was a bad idea, too simple and naive; now he realizes that it's a policy people could get behind. This of course led to the "freeze CO2 emissions" part of the speech.
90% of the energy produced by internal combustion engines is wasted, and only 1% is used to transport the people (I guess the other 9% are for transporting the car itself). This was to suggest we need more efficient transport, and that the U.S. can make $ by producing more efficient, heat-capturing and -using technologies.
Of the 10 trillion tons of C02 emitted every year, 2.5trillion are from burning forests. Heating and cooling buildings is a bigger source of pollution than cars. Coal is the biggest problem of all. In Norway, there are big CO2 taxes, so oil producers (big sources of CO2 emissions, I guess) use a lot of carbon capture and sequestration techniques. From this point, Gore went on to say that for the last 14 years he has been advocating replacing payroll taxes with pollution taxes! And that this is, from the government's point of view, revenue-neutral (meaning they would raise the same amount of money with pollution taxes as they do with payroll taxes). This, he says, would penalize pollution, rather than employment (although some trickle-downers would probably argue that the more taxes the businesses would pay, the less they'd be able to hire and pay their workers).
In part this was a great speech because it didn't leave everyone in the audience looking to find the nearest crackpipe. He cited lots of different groups that are coming together to deal with climate change, including some surprising ones: religious groups, Walmart, the steelworkers union.
It was also fun to listen to someone talk who quite clearly could be launching a bid for President. It was cool and I was glad to be there.
I also learned a few things about Denmark on Monday, from my friend Daniel, who's spending a semester abroad. Here's what he had to say:
Interesting factoid#1:
Someone told my friend Chris there is a Danish expression people use if someone asks them what they do for a living and they are unemployed or do something they don’t really want to talk about.
It goes like this:
Q: So what do you do for a living?
A: I drill assholes in rocking horses.
I think it can be used whenever someone asks you what you’re doing and you don’t really want to tell them.
And, Factoid #2:
[M]y friend tells me that the Viking heaven, called Valhalla, was a place that only warriors could go to. Everyone else in Viking society went to hell (which might have been just kind of like normal life, not necessarily worse, I’m not sure), which was not hot but cold, I think because the Vikings couldn’t imagine any place that was hot as being bad. Anyway, the Viking Warriors who went to Valhalla lived in a world where they would fight and kill all day, and then at night they would come back to life and eat pork from a giant pig that regenerated when you cut the pork off, and drink ale from the teet of a goat (a goat that gave ale rather than milk).
You might not like it, but you’ve got to respect it. Those Vikings were a rough crowd.
It's me again. Arrr!
. . .
nd it was really a great speech. He knows his stuff. It was particularly interesting to hear him speak in contrast to the dudes (3 of them--couldn't find a woman to save their lives) that introduced him. Two of them were policy wonks and a third was John Sexton, president of the university and formerly dean of the law school. The wonks clearly knew their stuff too, and were both pretty good speakers, laid back and interesting. John Sexton was your typical university president, pompous and what-have-you, political too but nothing on the level of Al Gore. Al Gore is a big man. He's muscly, which he always was back in the day, but he's tall too, which one doesn't get such a great feel for on tv, and he's put on quite a bit of weight and let his hair go gray. So, essentially, when he speaks, everyone listens. Here are some things I learned:He's willing to admit his mistakes: he thought freezing nukes in the 80s was a bad idea, too simple and naive; now he realizes that it's a policy people could get behind. This of course led to the "freeze CO2 emissions" part of the speech.
90% of the energy produced by internal combustion engines is wasted, and only 1% is used to transport the people (I guess the other 9% are for transporting the car itself). This was to suggest we need more efficient transport, and that the U.S. can make $ by producing more efficient, heat-capturing and -using technologies.
Of the 10 trillion tons of C02 emitted every year, 2.5trillion are from burning forests. Heating and cooling buildings is a bigger source of pollution than cars. Coal is the biggest problem of all. In Norway, there are big CO2 taxes, so oil producers (big sources of CO2 emissions, I guess) use a lot of carbon capture and sequestration techniques. From this point, Gore went on to say that for the last 14 years he has been advocating replacing payroll taxes with pollution taxes! And that this is, from the government's point of view, revenue-neutral (meaning they would raise the same amount of money with pollution taxes as they do with payroll taxes). This, he says, would penalize pollution, rather than employment (although some trickle-downers would probably argue that the more taxes the businesses would pay, the less they'd be able to hire and pay their workers).
In part this was a great speech because it didn't leave everyone in the audience looking to find the nearest crackpipe. He cited lots of different groups that are coming together to deal with climate change, including some surprising ones: religious groups, Walmart, the steelworkers union.
It was also fun to listen to someone talk who quite clearly could be launching a bid for President. It was cool and I was glad to be there.
I also learned a few things about Denmark on Monday, from my friend Daniel, who's spending a semester abroad. Here's what he had to say:
Interesting factoid#1:
Someone told my friend Chris there is a Danish expression people use if someone asks them what they do for a living and they are unemployed or do something they don’t really want to talk about.
It goes like this:
Q: So what do you do for a living?
A: I drill assholes in rocking horses.
I think it can be used whenever someone asks you what you’re doing and you don’t really want to tell them.
And, Factoid #2:
[M]y friend tells me that the Viking heaven, called Valhalla, was a place that only warriors could go to. Everyone else in Viking society went to hell (which might have been just kind of like normal life, not necessarily worse, I’m not sure), which was not hot but cold, I think because the Vikings couldn’t imagine any place that was hot as being bad. Anyway, the Viking Warriors who went to Valhalla lived in a world where they would fight and kill all day, and then at night they would come back to life and eat pork from a giant pig that regenerated when you cut the pork off, and drink ale from the teet of a goat (a goat that gave ale rather than milk).
You might not like it, but you’ve got to respect it. Those Vikings were a rough crowd.
It's me again. Arrr!
. . .
Sep 19, 2006
from today's NYT
The Q train announcement was, actually, decipherable. That’s not to say it was easy to comprehend.
“This train is being delayed. There is a dog on the tracks.”
That got the attention of the folks in the front car of the subway train. Cell phones popped open. Calls were made to work. Doubts were expressed as to whether this excuse would be accepted.
“There’s a dog on the tracks.”
“Hi, I’m at Parkside Avenue. I’m going to be a while. There’s a dog in front of the train.”
“I don’t know what kind of dog it is. But it’s been running in front of the train, and it does not look tired.”
It was nearly 8:30, the height of the morning commute, the train at a halt along the outdoor tracks in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. The dog, which one passenger said had been seen on the Newkirk Avenue platform before it took up the next stage of its adventure, had led the Q train in a weird sort of herding exercise for several stops, striding unfazed in front of the train as it inched along cautiously behind the dog. The dog — with a visible collar and estimated by one passenger straining to look out the front car at no more than 2 years old — hardly looked up on its trek. It stuck inside the two rails, stayed clear of the electrified third one, and appeared, for quite a while, well, headed to a breakfast meeting in Manhattan.
But now the dog, and the train, had stopped — a standoff of understandable, shared confusion.
“Lord,” said one passenger..
Track fires; sick passengers; terror scares. The routines of subway delays had conditioned the people in the front car to most anything. But this seemed different. Someone called 911 — which said call 311. Of course.
“Is a transit employee doing something,” the 311 operator asked the caller.
It was hard to tell. But seconds later, a transit worker emerged from the motorman’s cab. He smiled, but did not seem to have a plan.
“Is there anyone here who has a familiarity with dogs?” he asked.
The question provoked general astonishment. The man seemed to be asking if there was anyone willing to drop down onto the tracks and corral the dog.
“He could have rabies,” said one passenger.
“Honk the horn,” said another.
“Call the cops,” said another.
“Yeah,” offered a third, “they have a K9 unit.”
People smiled. Sort of.
Chastened, the transit worker stepped out of the train’s front, scooped up the dog without incident, and the Q train lurched back into action.
Someone had taken a picture with a cell phone. Good, it was agreed. Evidence. Otherwise, who would believe it.
Sep 17, 2006
swimming and cornnuts
Yesterday was a good day. I cleaned my apartment, did my laundry, and took my first swimming class since probably 1987. I cannot tell how many hundreds of meters I swam in that hour. But it felt good, and I felt like I was a better swimmer after just one class. There's only 3 other people in the class (Angela, Aneek, and Yuli), so Sammy, our instructor, gives us fairly personal attention, which is nice. The great thing about classes, as opposed to exercising on one's own, is that one can't really rationalize stopping until the end of the class. While it's fun to imagine just saying, No, I Don't Feel Like It Anymore, Swim The Next 200 Meters Yourself If You're So Keen On Someone Swimming Them, this is sort of a dumb thing to do if you've signed up for the class for any purpose whatsoever.
I am also now a firm believer in the beauty of swimming goggles. They Keep the Water Out! That's the whole point, right? I'd never worn them long enough to really figure out how well they work. For some reason, when you're not underwater, they're really foggy. But under the water, wow, the clarity! You can see those lines on the bottom that help keep you going straight! I swam the first 100 meters without them, crashing into both sides of the swimming lane, feeling ridiculous, and ended up with sore eyes. Sammy handed me a pair of goggles, and presto-chango, straight swimming and relaxed, pain-free eyeballs. Swimming caps, on the other hand, still need some work. Mine was continually coming off, pulling my hair, and my hair ended up all wet anyway. Apparently the point, from the point of view of the gym, is to keep hair out of the pool--I thought it was to keep my newly-washed hair from getting all chloriny. I should just get a haircut.
And, in sadder news, LWT and I joined the Nebraska Society of New York at the Irish Rogue, in midtown, to watch the Cornhuskers lose to the University of Southern California Trojans. For some reason ol' Coach Callahan decided to restrict our passing game to the fourth quarter, by which time it was too late for Husker Quarterback Zac Taylor's cannon to save us from J.D. Booty's 3 touchdowns (I think some other Trojan scored once too). But the wings and the burgers were good, there were over 200 lively Nebraskans in the house, I got some QT with LWT, and I chatted for a while with a former member of the UNL marching band (alto sax).
Go Big Red.
. . .
I am also now a firm believer in the beauty of swimming goggles. They Keep the Water Out! That's the whole point, right? I'd never worn them long enough to really figure out how well they work. For some reason, when you're not underwater, they're really foggy. But under the water, wow, the clarity! You can see those lines on the bottom that help keep you going straight! I swam the first 100 meters without them, crashing into both sides of the swimming lane, feeling ridiculous, and ended up with sore eyes. Sammy handed me a pair of goggles, and presto-chango, straight swimming and relaxed, pain-free eyeballs. Swimming caps, on the other hand, still need some work. Mine was continually coming off, pulling my hair, and my hair ended up all wet anyway. Apparently the point, from the point of view of the gym, is to keep hair out of the pool--I thought it was to keep my newly-washed hair from getting all chloriny. I should just get a haircut.
And, in sadder news, LWT and I joined the Nebraska Society of New York at the Irish Rogue, in midtown, to watch the Cornhuskers lose to the University of Southern California Trojans. For some reason ol' Coach Callahan decided to restrict our passing game to the fourth quarter, by which time it was too late for Husker Quarterback Zac Taylor's cannon to save us from J.D. Booty's 3 touchdowns (I think some other Trojan scored once too). But the wings and the burgers were good, there were over 200 lively Nebraskans in the house, I got some QT with LWT, and I chatted for a while with a former member of the UNL marching band (alto sax).
Go Big Red.
. . .
Sep 15, 2006
Bob, Bob, Bob. What does this mean? Girls want to know.
"I love those things [the red magnetic containers?], too! I wish they did better in the cold but otherwise they're awesome.
--bob in ak"
What do they do in the cold? Do things get less magnetic when they're cold? (I'm guessing not, but I enjoy speculating.) Does the red just not look as cheery with all that frost on it? Plus, how cold is your house, anyway? If my fine new red magnetic containers don't do well in Alaska, maybe I don't either!
. . .
p.s. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this week's New Yorker so you can read all about neuroeconomics. Just kidding. I mean, yeah, that's fine, but David Sedaris has a terrificly funny piece in it too.
--bob in ak"
What do they do in the cold? Do things get less magnetic when they're cold? (I'm guessing not, but I enjoy speculating.) Does the red just not look as cheery with all that frost on it? Plus, how cold is your house, anyway? If my fine new red magnetic containers don't do well in Alaska, maybe I don't either!
. . .
p.s. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this week's New Yorker so you can read all about neuroeconomics. Just kidding. I mean, yeah, that's fine, but David Sedaris has a terrificly funny piece in it too.
Sep 14, 2006
hey, take a quick minute and vote for Bill Whitney, Volvo For Life Award
He runs a good prairie-protecting organization, is a good uncle, and deserves your vote, $50K for his NGO, and a Volvo for life (and it won't take you any time at all).
Go to: http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com, click on "Vote for Your Hero Now," then on the state of Nebraska, then on the word Nebraska, then click on the box next to Bill Whitney's name and click submit vote. I just did it three times, actually.
Here's the background info:
"Prairie Plains Executive Director Bill Whitney is one of the top five semifinalists in Nebraska for the 5th Anniversary Volvo for life Awards, Volvo's national search for everyday heroes that gives out nearly $1 million in awards and funding each year. John Heaston of the Nature Conservancy nominated Bill for this program because of the extraordinary work Prairie Plains is doing to create opportunities for education, land stewardship and community development -- and this year Volvo has selected Bill as one of the top five nominations from Nebraska -- out of more than 16,000 nominations they have received over the past five years.
"This year, YOU have a chance to vote in the awards -- and your vote could help Bill become eligible to receive up to $50,000 in funding for Prairie Plains -- a chance to attend the 5th Anniversary Awards Gala in New York City -- and maybe even a Volvo for life!
Please go to http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com to vote. You won't be asked to provide any personal information; all it takes to vote is to check a box and click a button. I hope you'll take the time to visit the site -- and please pass the link along to anyone in your address book that you think would be interested. It's a great way to support the Institute and to share a little info about what we do with folks that may not know about Bill's work.
Thanks so much for your support!
Amy Jones
Prairie Plains Resource Institute
402-694-5535
www.prairieplains.org
Mission: Maintaining and restoring Nebraska ecosystems - creating opportunities for education, research, stewardship, and community development."
. . .
Sep 13, 2006
the good news
my digicam is allegedly fixed and on its fedexed way back to me. thanks be for warranties. come on home, baby girl.
. . .
. . .
The Internet: It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes.
My buddy Lewis sent me this link to an explanation of what the internet is, and how people use and should be using it, by Senator Ted Stevens. It is unspeakably funny.
. . .
. . .
Sep 12, 2006
bonnyfeathers/condolence shortfall
Best new piece of spam in a while:
I mean take your own part anddont be afraid of anybody. Outside the last of the ships bells had just ceased to ring asdrowsiness fell upon him.
The one spot in the place exempt from all authority was thepurlieus of the kitchen. There was aripple of laughter from the door.
The merchant took a deep breath of relief.
Hewaved confirmatively toward a Bacchus just above him.
It fellin a dense black mass about her knees
It was the big room where Anthony had first met Mr. The walls which hadonce been the scene of dithyrambic landscapes had also been paintedover. In one corner there was a painted bed with acanopy over it.
She, Eliza McNab, was one of several who had followed the fortunesof the Bonnyfeathers into exile. She placed the candles on the table andsat down.
Both of them sat at breakfastthinking of this. Suddenly the shiphesitated, the sails fluttered, and then filled out on the othertack. Acloud of mist seemed to cut off his view on a clear day. It was the big room where Anthony had first met Mr. From the cellar belowthe odour of tea and spices permeated his room.
Then she took the candelabrum and tiptoed into her ownroom. This was more a matter of business acumen than anythingelse.
Nevertheless, she felt herselfbalked in some way or other. This is just another orphan to whom we aregiving a start.
Faith had been glad to see her leave the house. But he has alreadytaught you other things, I suppose? Instantly, all those who were still lingering arose. Then as if to himself, FatherXavier said faith was the evidence of things unseen. But not so high as that, he cautioned, shoving theboys nose down with his thumb. She, Eliza McNab, was one of several who had followed the fortunesof the Bonnyfeathers into exile. The walls which hadonce been the scene of dithyrambic landscapes had also been paintedover.
I might have known it would come back to haunt me. I thought I saw her here, last night, he said.
. . .
|
I mean take your own part anddont be afraid of anybody. Outside the last of the ships bells had just ceased to ring asdrowsiness fell upon him.
The one spot in the place exempt from all authority was thepurlieus of the kitchen. There was aripple of laughter from the door.
The merchant took a deep breath of relief.
Hewaved confirmatively toward a Bacchus just above him.
It fellin a dense black mass about her knees
It was the big room where Anthony had first met Mr. The walls which hadonce been the scene of dithyrambic landscapes had also been paintedover. In one corner there was a painted bed with acanopy over it.
She, Eliza McNab, was one of several who had followed the fortunesof the Bonnyfeathers into exile. She placed the candles on the table andsat down.
Both of them sat at breakfastthinking of this. Suddenly the shiphesitated, the sails fluttered, and then filled out on the othertack. Acloud of mist seemed to cut off his view on a clear day. It was the big room where Anthony had first met Mr. From the cellar belowthe odour of tea and spices permeated his room.
Then she took the candelabrum and tiptoed into her ownroom. This was more a matter of business acumen than anythingelse.
Nevertheless, she felt herselfbalked in some way or other. This is just another orphan to whom we aregiving a start.
Faith had been glad to see her leave the house. But he has alreadytaught you other things, I suppose? Instantly, all those who were still lingering arose. Then as if to himself, FatherXavier said faith was the evidence of things unseen. But not so high as that, he cautioned, shoving theboys nose down with his thumb. She, Eliza McNab, was one of several who had followed the fortunesof the Bonnyfeathers into exile. The walls which hadonce been the scene of dithyrambic landscapes had also been paintedover.
I might have known it would come back to haunt me. I thought I saw her here, last night, he said.
. . .
salad
baby lettuces & herbstomato
carrots
dried cranberries
chopped walnuts
crumbled goat cheese
half a lime's lime juice
olive oil
salt n pepa
mmhmm.
. . .
p.s. those are two pictures that I found when I googled "salad."
today is the perfect crisp fall day
the kind that calls for apple and pumpkin pies, basking in the afterglow of spicy thai food with RCS, walking and walking, and sitting and sitting in the p-a-r-k park listening to my burkinabe friend truckling endlessly away on his big round guitar, and of course wee-oh, wee-oh, wee-oh, wee-oh-woh-wohing. If I had a roof and some big Stone beers and my Ghana buddies I'd watch a sunset with them and drink the beers. I miss them and that.
also: are these not the most genius inventions? red, round, see-thru, shakeable, containing containers! for stamps! for rubber bands! for monopoly houses! for hot pepper! for beads! for salt! for eraser pencil tops! for two rolls of film! for keys! for buttons! for tape measures! for everything good (and small)!
. . .
also: are these not the most genius inventions? red, round, see-thru, shakeable, containing containers! for stamps! for rubber bands! for monopoly houses! for hot pepper! for beads! for salt! for eraser pencil tops! for two rolls of film! for keys! for buttons! for tape measures! for everything good (and small)!
. . .
Sep 10, 2006
Cousin Link
has a website! Who knew? She told me today that she's hired someone to design a website all for her, but in the meantime this one will do.
This is Arches #7. Terrific, no?
. . .
This is Arches #7. Terrific, no?
. . .
Sep 9, 2006
today I learned about:
dadaism & Sticky Dunkel. Guess which is my favorite.
Right. But dadaism is cool too. For instance: L.H.O.O.Q., the name of this painting, when you read it in french, sounds like elle a chaud au cul, which is DIRTY! woo! I would have especially enjoyed this in junior high. There should be more art history in junior high.
. . .
Sep 8, 2006
in the word of joey from blossom: wo!
isn't this picture of me from SKP's wedding fabulous? I like how the background's all faded. And the hype is true: yes, I'm wearing a chair bow. And doesn't it match my glasses perfectly? Plus check out those beautifully long arms! Man! Monkeys are hot!
. . .
. . .
Sep 7, 2006
an argument for why market distributions of wealth aren't necessarily just and therefore why progressive tax rates aren't necessarily unjust
from my income tax textbook:
"First, even when the market is functioning perfectly, returns to both capital and labor inputs depend upon the demand for the product or service being produced. People who supply capital or labor to endeavors where demand proves strong will do very well; people who work or risk their capital in endeavors where demand proves weak will do badly. These rewards depend on factors outside an individual's control. For example, the enormous demand for Britney Spears to sing has made her a very wealthy woman. If public tastes were to improve and demand for her services were to decrease, her income would decline dramatically without regard to any change in her ability or effort."
"First, even when the market is functioning perfectly, returns to both capital and labor inputs depend upon the demand for the product or service being produced. People who supply capital or labor to endeavors where demand proves strong will do very well; people who work or risk their capital in endeavors where demand proves weak will do badly. These rewards depend on factors outside an individual's control. For example, the enormous demand for Britney Spears to sing has made her a very wealthy woman. If public tastes were to improve and demand for her services were to decrease, her income would decline dramatically without regard to any change in her ability or effort."
Sep 6, 2006
while jessie's whizzing...
I met a man yesterday from Burkina Faso while on a walk with Big Bert Stillwell. His name is Adama Dembele and he plays a big string instrument he constructed himself out of a calabash. It was a cool mixture of pretty (lots of brass tacks) and wonkily-unfinished-looking. He was busking in Washington Square Park and his music reminded me of some I'd heard in Ghana, but he was singing in French.
Here are some pictures of calabashes:
Calabashes are used for bowls and toys as well as musical instruments. I really like them but I couldn't figure out a good way to get some home.
Adama and I had a nice chat about how he was originally from Bobo, but worked in Ouaga, and is trying to build a center of some sort back in Ouagadougou. Then I bought his cd and Bert and I moved on.
. . .
Here are some pictures of calabashes:
Calabashes are used for bowls and toys as well as musical instruments. I really like them but I couldn't figure out a good way to get some home.
Adama and I had a nice chat about how he was originally from Bobo, but worked in Ouaga, and is trying to build a center of some sort back in Ouagadougou. Then I bought his cd and Bert and I moved on.
. . .
Sep 5, 2006
no pie on de plane
Another terrific celebration of Aaron's (29th) birthday (!) in Albany Twip!, Maine. Deep-fried turkey, Nick's Ribs, lobster, Reese's Pieces, Oreos, Dominoes, candy corn, Pink Flamingo at Rest Anniversary Cake (Happy 10th A to Pam & Paul), Birthday Cake, Trivial Pursuit for Young People, Horseshoes, 'Smores, Donettes, bagels, wood choppin, garden argula salad, the New Balance store, and 11 pies worth of good weekend. By Monday afternoon, two pies (blueberry and mixed) remained uneaten (a testimony to the sheer bulk of other fabulous food to eat). Aaron, Liz, Megan T., Jed and I were flying back to New York, and we wanted the pies to fly back to New York too. Alas, like Leathermen, pies are too dangerous for air travel, so we were forced to consume both pies right there at security. Happily, friendly airline people gave us plastic forks, two of Liz's pie-eating friends also happened to be flying through Portland, and the Swedish Boyfriend Store Attendant was selling milk. The 7 of us, plus Swedish Boyfriend, managed to polish them both off with no undue alacrity. I felt it really put the cap in the weekend.
Props to the United Airways Portland employees for putting my wicked-evil leatherman into my checked suitcase after it had already disappeared behind the iron curtain. Props also to Paul, Aaron's step-father, builder of the birthday party home, grower of a great beard, and cleaner of fecal flooding; Pam, Aaron's mother and hostess extraordinaire; and Aaron, for everything else.
Here's a long, silly movie of Aaron deepfrying some turkey. You have to register with www.yousendit.com to download the video, I think. It's worth it.
And a bunch of other pictures from the weekend are uploading right now. Should be done in an hour or so? without labels, but those will come.
. . .
Props to the United Airways Portland employees for putting my wicked-evil leatherman into my checked suitcase after it had already disappeared behind the iron curtain. Props also to Paul, Aaron's step-father, builder of the birthday party home, grower of a great beard, and cleaner of fecal flooding; Pam, Aaron's mother and hostess extraordinaire; and Aaron, for everything else.
Here's a long, silly movie of Aaron deepfrying some turkey. You have to register with www.yousendit.com to download the video, I think. It's worth it.
And a bunch of other pictures from the weekend are uploading right now. Should be done in an hour or so? without labels, but those will come.
. . .
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