Tag: defensible places
-
Regrowth
From RealClear, an article with hopeful signs. The article misses the former strength of smaller cities. It mocks the NYC bigotry but basically agrees with NYC that the universe ends at the Hudson River. The term “flyover country” was not just a snobbish put-down but a reality as a handful of core cities – New…
-
More Ponca action
Last week I noted that the house across from Grandma’s apartment in Ponca is for sale. I reprinted my account of the Folly that used to be there, and the puzzle about where it was. Now Grandma’s apartment itself is for rent! The address given by Zillow is for the lower left apartment, but the…
-
The Ponca Folly House is for sale!
Many years ago I wrote up my personal experience with Follies, as part of my long-term theme of Science as Entertainment. Some of the best science labs were Follies in this sense, structures added to a house or yard purely to entertain or amuse guests or neighbors. One of my personal experiences was a house…
-
Frustration
Just venting frustration. In a cold uncivilized world ruled by demonic billionaires, it’s difficult to do the right thing. In other places and times it was easier because friendliness and kindness were often reciprocated. Nevertheless I’m going to keep it up. This year I vowed to follow the KSTP rule: Laugh at your ills, pay…
-
Okie like button
This 1950 Chevy truck infomercial includes a familiar word that I haven’t heard since leaving Oklahoma. Mr Wayne Slocum, head of an oilfield service company in OKC, is comparing the new Chevy to his “other brand” trucks. Wayne’s voice and dialect are a perfect specimen of the Eastern Okie sound, often heard in OKC but…
-
Good proposals, won’t happen.
The Edelman outfit has done its annual Trust Barometer. In nearly all countries, normal people hate their leaders of all types. Needless to say, rich fuckheads trust other rich fuckheads, but humans distrust all rich fuckheads. Edelman describes the facts correctly, and even proposes some pretty good solutions. Listen, respect, stop fucking people over, try…
-
Sounds promising
Canada and Mexico are finally showing some guts after many decades of willing servitude to the US empire. Trump’s crazy threats of Mutually Assured Destruction for all sides have finally awakened some noise, if not some action. The clip features the premier of Newfoundland who has the right idea. This is a chance for Canada…
-
What we lost
In previous item I focused on our loss of innovation and flexibility after we switched to all finance and all monopoly. China and Russia didn’t make the switch, so they continued working with LIMITED RESOURCES. Now they’ve beaten our stupid MAX-FINANCE and MAX-THEFT approach to AI, with a technique that can run on normal computers…
-
Constants and Variables, interstate edition
Constantly quoted by the usual quoters: Central planning always fails, THEREFORE we should trust freedom-loving Libertarian anti-centralizers like Larry Fink and Jeff Bezos and Elon. If you think Larry and Elon are the opposite of central, you’re too stupid to breathe. Variable truth: Central planning by government is VITALLY NECESSARY when it helps ordinary people.…
-
Mysterious Fairmont
While looking at old maps around Manhattan, I noticed another area that always seemed mysterious. It occasionally appeared in dreams. Next to the highly formal city there were a few highly informal rural areas with scattered houses and undefined streets. Just across the river to the southeast was an area called Fairmont on maps. It…
-
Eureka Lake
In 1966 I was exploring the Manhattan area. Southwest of town I found a huge brick building with a nice porch, fronting a peaceful little lake. The building looked like a hotel. On a nearby corner was a little country general store. Checking maps, I found that the building was the Oddfellows nursing home, and…
-
US equivalent of Holy Wells
Kingsnorth’s latest magical Holy Well reminded me instantly of a holy place I knew when I was young. = = = = = START 2016 REPRINT: Spokane’s idiot misgovernment has succumbed to blackmail by the EPA Terrorist Army, and is building a number of Miasmal Swamps. Three of them appeared last month in my neighborhood.…
-
Not the same We.
The cultural preservers continually focus on giant cathedrals that took hundreds of years to build. This Twitter item says “we built that”. No we didn’t. The we who built it lived in an entirely different cultural and economic system. There’s no way we could recover the system that made such monuments possible, and such monuments…
-
No Okies there
The distinctly NYC/SF “independent” opinion page called The Free Press ran a Thurberish column countering our standard sentimentality about dogs. Famous Author Sherman Alexie joined in the comments and made a joke which none of the NYC/SF people caught. Secrecy is the purpose of language.
-
Today is…
Today is ‘Festival of Life in the Cracks Day’! Saluting a hardy survivor that lives in the cracks, reprinted from Sept 2019. = = = = = This week’s big rain triggered a ferocious sprouting of a ‘ground cover’ plant in ALL of the street cracks. The streets are a dense web of cracks now,…
Polistra's Mill 