More comments I've left on other people's posts: ( migration, genealogy, pandemic restrictions, physical therapy, subways )
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I got email this afternoon inviting me to join/connect with someone on some kind of business social network. I almost deleted it unread, but my phone displayed the first line, saying it was from "Martin Rosen, of The Sock Man." That suggested that maybe he was still in business--I'd tried to go to his website a couple of times earlier in the pandemic, and it didn't respond, and it's a shop in Greenwich Village that does a significant amount of walk-in business.
I'm not interested in the business network thing, but I am going to be ordering some more socks.
I'm not interested in the business network thing, but I am going to be ordering some more socks.
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I'm back from three days in New York, visiting with my mother (who was herself visiting from London). ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattitude, adrian, and I spent a lot of enjoyable time with my mother and my aunt Lea, and a bit with my cousin Janet. We also walked too much -- my hips were not doing well by Tuesday evening -- and I am going to try to take things easy for a few days.
In some sense we didn't do much. There was a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we looked at an exhibit called "Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe." They have a fine collection of expensive attractive objects, many of them related to science and math: things like a set of fancy compasses for a nobleman who studied geometry. (That's through March 1, if you're going to be in New York and it sounds interesting.)
Other than that, we went down to Greenwich Village in order to buy chocolate at Varsano's, and spent a lot of time just talking, some in our hotel room, some in restaurants, and a lot at my aunt's house.
I am feeling very worn, at least partly because of unrelated pain in my left wrist; I will be getting that looked at tomorrow morning.
cattitude, adrian, and I spent a lot of enjoyable time with my mother and my aunt Lea, and a bit with my cousin Janet. We also walked too much -- my hips were not doing well by Tuesday evening -- and I am going to try to take things easy for a few days.In some sense we didn't do much. There was a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we looked at an exhibit called "Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe." They have a fine collection of expensive attractive objects, many of them related to science and math: things like a set of fancy compasses for a nobleman who studied geometry. (That's through March 1, if you're going to be in New York and it sounds interesting.)
Other than that, we went down to Greenwich Village in order to buy chocolate at Varsano's, and spent a lot of time just talking, some in our hotel room, some in restaurants, and a lot at my aunt's house.
I am feeling very worn, at least partly because of unrelated pain in my left wrist; I will be getting that looked at tomorrow morning.
I am just back from a trip to New York to see my mother; I got far too little sleep, and therefore came home a day earlier than I'd been thinking of, but am glad I got to see people.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cattitude, adrian_turtle and I took a train to New York Tuesday morning. My mother lives in London, and is currently in the US to see us, her sisters, and my brother. I'd hoped Mom would come up here for a few days, but she asked if we could come visit her instead, because she is finding travel more wearing than she used to. (My aunts live in New York; Cattitude, Adrian, and I are here in Arlington; and my brother and his girlfriend just moved to New Orleans.) My aunt Lea didn't want to put four people up for three days, so Mom got a hotel room reasonably close to my aunt's house.
We spent Tuesday afternoon and evening with my aunt and her husband: tea, conversation, and dinner (we had Chinese food delivered, because we wanted to make things as easy as possible for Lea and Dave). My cousin Janet came over near the end of our visit, after saying she didn't think she'd be able to make it because she had a class. (Conveniently, the one dish the rest of us hadn't especially liked was very much to her taste, so everyone was well fed.)
I was pretty worn out by the time we left Lea's (and was thinking that I should have insisted on leaving slightly sooner), but we talked a bit more before bed.
And then everyone else went to sleep, and I just lay there: every time I got close to drifting off, I was interrupted by a siren. (I think most of them were ambulances headed to Bellevue.) By the time that ebbed, the cold front was coming through, and the wind was far too loud for me to sleep. (This isn't usually a problem, but I'm not usually on the 29th floor.)
As far as I can tell, I didn't sleep at all Tuesday night. I got through Wednesday, mostly, on stimulants, protein, and sheer willpower. Since the hotel is near the Second Avenue Deli [which is no longer on Second Avenue], I had matzoh ball soup for lunch; everyone else had sandwiches to go with theirs. From there, we went to the American Museum of Natural History, because I hadn't been there in ages, and it was too cold a day for me to want to walk around the Bronx Zoo.
That was fun: we went to the special exhibit on Cuba (which I think I liked more than Mom, Andy, or Adrian—I spent quite a while looking at various kinds of anoles] and to the Hall of Rocks and Minerals (an old favorite of mine and Catittude's, to the point that when I needed to sit down, I pointed across the hall and told him "I'm going to go sit by the big amethyst" and he knew exactly what I meant. Before that, I helped someone who was using a walker and, when we asked if he needed help, said that he'd been told there were gems and couldn't find them. So I said "I'll show you," led him up the relevant ramp (the hall is broken into lots of different levels, connected by stairs and ramps, not all of them obvious) to the Star of India, a well-known and very fine large star sapphire.
Dinner that night was at a sushi place that had odd ideas of what "chirashi" and "don" meant: in both cases, instead of raw fish on a bowl of rice, they served a platter of fish and rice, and put spicy mayonnaise on the rice. I tasted it, realized the problem, and asked for some plain sushi rice instead, which they brought, but while the fish was reasonably good, I doubt I'd go back there even if I lived in the neighborhood. I think I got between five and six hours of sleep that night: I tried going to bed early, but found it difficult not to listen to the conversation in the next room. (Again, this was nobody's fault, and when I asked them to lower the volume, they did, and came to bed soon after.)
Adrian took a bus home Thursday morning (so she could be back in time to teach), and Cattitude and I had lunch with my mother and then caught an afternoon train. Home in time for dinner and to reassure the cats that we still love them.42itous very kindly came in to feed them and keep them company, but they seemed a bit agitated when we got home. However, Molly spent most of the night curled between my feet, and both cats were much calmer by morning. I was glad to be back in my own bed, and got about nine and a half hours' sleep, which has helped a lot.
(I realized yesterday that I had cheerfully done one of my balance exercises—standing on a moving subway without holding onto anything—on no sleep the day before, on our way to the museum. Successfully, and on the way back I realized I was more tired and sat down. However, the fact that this worked doesn't mean it was a good idea, and I had known my judgment was not at its best for lack of sleep.)
ETA: Looking at the news this morning, I saw that Amtrak had a "minor derailment" [sic] at Penn Station this morning, which was still affecting train travel to and through the city a few hours later, which made me suddenly and perhaps irrationally more pleased that I came home yesterday.
cattitude, adrian_turtle and I took a train to New York Tuesday morning. My mother lives in London, and is currently in the US to see us, her sisters, and my brother. I'd hoped Mom would come up here for a few days, but she asked if we could come visit her instead, because she is finding travel more wearing than she used to. (My aunts live in New York; Cattitude, Adrian, and I are here in Arlington; and my brother and his girlfriend just moved to New Orleans.) My aunt Lea didn't want to put four people up for three days, so Mom got a hotel room reasonably close to my aunt's house.We spent Tuesday afternoon and evening with my aunt and her husband: tea, conversation, and dinner (we had Chinese food delivered, because we wanted to make things as easy as possible for Lea and Dave). My cousin Janet came over near the end of our visit, after saying she didn't think she'd be able to make it because she had a class. (Conveniently, the one dish the rest of us hadn't especially liked was very much to her taste, so everyone was well fed.)
I was pretty worn out by the time we left Lea's (and was thinking that I should have insisted on leaving slightly sooner), but we talked a bit more before bed.
And then everyone else went to sleep, and I just lay there: every time I got close to drifting off, I was interrupted by a siren. (I think most of them were ambulances headed to Bellevue.) By the time that ebbed, the cold front was coming through, and the wind was far too loud for me to sleep. (This isn't usually a problem, but I'm not usually on the 29th floor.)
As far as I can tell, I didn't sleep at all Tuesday night. I got through Wednesday, mostly, on stimulants, protein, and sheer willpower. Since the hotel is near the Second Avenue Deli [which is no longer on Second Avenue], I had matzoh ball soup for lunch; everyone else had sandwiches to go with theirs. From there, we went to the American Museum of Natural History, because I hadn't been there in ages, and it was too cold a day for me to want to walk around the Bronx Zoo.
That was fun: we went to the special exhibit on Cuba (which I think I liked more than Mom, Andy, or Adrian—I spent quite a while looking at various kinds of anoles] and to the Hall of Rocks and Minerals (an old favorite of mine and Catittude's, to the point that when I needed to sit down, I pointed across the hall and told him "I'm going to go sit by the big amethyst" and he knew exactly what I meant. Before that, I helped someone who was using a walker and, when we asked if he needed help, said that he'd been told there were gems and couldn't find them. So I said "I'll show you," led him up the relevant ramp (the hall is broken into lots of different levels, connected by stairs and ramps, not all of them obvious) to the Star of India, a well-known and very fine large star sapphire.
Dinner that night was at a sushi place that had odd ideas of what "chirashi" and "don" meant: in both cases, instead of raw fish on a bowl of rice, they served a platter of fish and rice, and put spicy mayonnaise on the rice. I tasted it, realized the problem, and asked for some plain sushi rice instead, which they brought, but while the fish was reasonably good, I doubt I'd go back there even if I lived in the neighborhood. I think I got between five and six hours of sleep that night: I tried going to bed early, but found it difficult not to listen to the conversation in the next room. (Again, this was nobody's fault, and when I asked them to lower the volume, they did, and came to bed soon after.)
Adrian took a bus home Thursday morning (so she could be back in time to teach), and Cattitude and I had lunch with my mother and then caught an afternoon train. Home in time for dinner and to reassure the cats that we still love them.
42itous very kindly came in to feed them and keep them company, but they seemed a bit agitated when we got home. However, Molly spent most of the night curled between my feet, and both cats were much calmer by morning. I was glad to be back in my own bed, and got about nine and a half hours' sleep, which has helped a lot.(I realized yesterday that I had cheerfully done one of my balance exercises—standing on a moving subway without holding onto anything—on no sleep the day before, on our way to the museum. Successfully, and on the way back I realized I was more tired and sat down. However, the fact that this worked doesn't mean it was a good idea, and I had known my judgment was not at its best for lack of sleep.)
ETA: Looking at the news this morning, I saw that Amtrak had a "minor derailment" [sic] at Penn Station this morning, which was still affecting train travel to and through the city a few hours later, which made me suddenly and perhaps irrationally more pleased that I came home yesterday.
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cattitude and I went to the Bellevue Farmers' Market this morning. One of the vendors sells salmon: fresh, Indian-style smoked, or lox, and they identify the kind of salmon they started with. We were chatting with them in the course of buying some sockeye lox, and cattitude observed that a lot of people around here don't know what lox is.Woman standing nearby: How can people not know what lox is?
Me: A lot of people think lox just means smoked salmon.
Her: Doesn't it?
I told her that lox is brine-cured, and what she's thinking of is smoked salmon, sometimes called Nova Scotia salmon or novy. Then, looking at her expression, assured her that "smoked salmon" would get her what she wanted. She then said that the Union Square market* is overwhelming, and I agreed that it can be, adding that I like it, but that when we lived in New York I mostly used the smaller Greenmarket in my neighborhood, though I have schlepped apples home on the subway.
*The market in Union Square is the oldest and largest of the New York City Greenmarkets**, which get New Yorkers fresh produce and other good things, and help people keep farming in the NYC area. Wednesday and Saturday are particularly good.
**Greenmarket is a trademark, created because "farmers market" was being used to just mean any greengrocer, and they wanted to identify that these stands were actually run by the farmers—and, later, fishers and bakers. There's really good salmon here in the Seattle area, but I miss the variety of fish, and the fresh blue crabs. (And I still have to work to not say "greenmarket" for the market here in Bellevue, or the one in Harvard Square, which are the same kind of market but not through the same organization.)
While adrian_turtle and I were in New York seeing my mother, the three of us had dinner with my aunt Lea (and her extremely laconic husband Dave).
Adrian and I both wanted to see my aunt; she likes Adrian, and vice versa. So we walked down there (it was about half a mile from our hotel* to her house), talked, and ate a home-cooked meal, and then talked some more. We spent about three hours before I apologetically said that while I was sorry to end the evening, I was getting tired and needed to get back to the hotel.
Somewhere in the conversation, my mother and aunt were discussing logistics for Sunday, specifically that she needed to get to Port Authority for a bus and the Gay Pride parade was likely to disrupt bus service. (Solution: subway, which goes under traffic, including parades.) Lea mentioned that she and Dave would be watching the parade, and have been doing so since it was much smaller and there were few spectators. I thanked them: the parade is a big extravaganza now, with floats and bands and corporate sponsorship, that's not how it was when I was marching in the 1980s, and it mattered to have people cheering us on. (It still matters, but it's different when the sidewalks are full of spectators.)
We also talked about our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier that day. We went there, instead of to the American Museum of Natural History, because Adrian wanted to see the van Gogh special exhibit Mom mentioned and we looked at other 19th-century paintings, and sculpture, and random other things we passed. Since Mom and I have been to that museum fairly often, and Adrian hadn't, we asked what she was most interested in: even someone healthier and more energetic than any of us couldn't do the Met in a day. And we showed off pictures of my new cats, including the nice one of Adrian cuddling her.
adrian_turtle and I were in New York seeing my mother, the three of us had dinner with my aunt Lea (and her extremely laconic husband Dave). Adrian and I both wanted to see my aunt; she likes Adrian, and vice versa. So we walked down there (it was about half a mile from our hotel* to her house), talked, and ate a home-cooked meal, and then talked some more. We spent about three hours before I apologetically said that while I was sorry to end the evening, I was getting tired and needed to get back to the hotel.
Somewhere in the conversation, my mother and aunt were discussing logistics for Sunday, specifically that she needed to get to Port Authority for a bus and the Gay Pride parade was likely to disrupt bus service. (Solution: subway, which goes under traffic, including parades.) Lea mentioned that she and Dave would be watching the parade, and have been doing so since it was much smaller and there were few spectators. I thanked them: the parade is a big extravaganza now, with floats and bands and corporate sponsorship, that's not how it was when I was marching in the 1980s, and it mattered to have people cheering us on. (It still matters, but it's different when the sidewalks are full of spectators.)
We also talked about our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier that day. We went there, instead of to the American Museum of Natural History, because Adrian wanted to see the van Gogh special exhibit Mom mentioned and we looked at other 19th-century paintings, and sculpture, and random other things we passed. Since Mom and I have been to that museum fairly often, and Adrian hadn't, we asked what she was most interested in: even someone healthier and more energetic than any of us couldn't do the Met in a day. And we showed off pictures of my new cats, including the nice one of Adrian cuddling her.
We just lost in Maine, and that hurts.
But Governor Patterson says he's putting a same-sex marriage bill on the agenda for tomorrow's special session of the New York state legislature.
If you live in New York, contact your state senator. If you know they're on our side, thank them and remind them that this is urgent. If not, explain to them why they should vote for equal marriage.
(Last week, state senator Ruben Diaz was quoted as saying that if this passed, he would take this as a slap in the face. Because civil rights are less important than his ego, or something. I don't know if any of you live in his district, but if so, you might remind him that if he blocks it, that's a slap in your face and you'll remember it come 2010. A long shot, but he needs to remember that this is not about him.)
I am making no predictions here: the governor can make them show up, but after that, it's up to the state senate. (It's up to the state senate because it has passed the assembly and Gov. Patterson has promised he will sign a marriage bill if he gets one.)
But Governor Patterson says he's putting a same-sex marriage bill on the agenda for tomorrow's special session of the New York state legislature.
If you live in New York, contact your state senator. If you know they're on our side, thank them and remind them that this is urgent. If not, explain to them why they should vote for equal marriage.
(Last week, state senator Ruben Diaz was quoted as saying that if this passed, he would take this as a slap in the face. Because civil rights are less important than his ego, or something. I don't know if any of you live in his district, but if so, you might remind him that if he blocks it, that's a slap in your face and you'll remember it come 2010. A long shot, but he needs to remember that this is not about him.)
I am making no predictions here: the governor can make them show up, but after that, it's up to the state senate. (It's up to the state senate because it has passed the assembly and Gov. Patterson has promised he will sign a marriage bill if he gets one.)
We just lost in Maine, and that hurts.
But Governor Patterson says he's putting a same-sex marriage bill on the agenda for tomorrow's special session of the New York state legislature.
If you live in New York, contact your state senator. If you know they're on our side, thank them and remind them that this is urgent. If not, explain to them why they should vote for equal marriage.
(Last week, state senator Ruben Diaz was quoted as saying that if this passed, he would take this as a slap in the face. Because civil rights are less important than his ego, or something. I don't know if any of you live in his district, but if so, you might remind him that if he blocks it, that's a slap in your face and you'll remember it come 2010. A long shot, but he needs to remember that this is not about him.)
I am making no predictions here: the governor can make them show up, but after that, it's up to the state senate. (It's up to the state senate because it has passed the assembly and Gov. Patterson has promised he will sign a marriage bill if he gets one.)
But Governor Patterson says he's putting a same-sex marriage bill on the agenda for tomorrow's special session of the New York state legislature.
If you live in New York, contact your state senator. If you know they're on our side, thank them and remind them that this is urgent. If not, explain to them why they should vote for equal marriage.
(Last week, state senator Ruben Diaz was quoted as saying that if this passed, he would take this as a slap in the face. Because civil rights are less important than his ego, or something. I don't know if any of you live in his district, but if so, you might remind him that if he blocks it, that's a slap in your face and you'll remember it come 2010. A long shot, but he needs to remember that this is not about him.)
I am making no predictions here: the governor can make them show up, but after that, it's up to the state senate. (It's up to the state senate because it has passed the assembly and Gov. Patterson has promised he will sign a marriage bill if he gets one.)
So, Tuesday is election day.
We have two ballot measures, which I didn't know about until I opened the voters' guide today. The first looks pretty innocuous: authorization to exchange 6 acres near route 46 for a different 10 acres, so National Grid can build a high-voltage transmission line. (The way the state constitution protects forest preserves, that requires voter assent.) I'm voting yes unless someone gives me a reason not to by Tuesday morning.
The second is a bad idea, and is enough to get me to go vote on Tuesday even if it weren't a matter of family custom if not honor. I will quote what the voter guide says: "The New York State Constitution currently prohibits the farming out, contracting, giving away or selling of prisoner labor to any person, firm, association, or corporation. The proposed amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass legislation to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to perform work for nonprofit corporations. Shall the proposed amendment to the New York State Constitution be approved?" This strikes me as bad policy on a number of levels, including the broad definition of "nonprofit" and that if it passes, I can see someone, a few years down the line, putting in a ballot measure to strike "nonprofit" from that.
There are also a few offices up for election. If you're outside New York state, you may have heard about either the race for mayor of New York City, or the special election for a House seat upstate. For mayor, I think I'm voting for Thompson, but that's mostly voting against Bloomberg; he's gotten a little too sure he's indispensable, and I gather he is now having Joe Lieberman (R-Egotism) making robocalls on his behalf. Thompson has a slim chance, but the other candidates' chances are snowball-in-hell level. On the other hand, I'm probably going to vote for the Socialist Worker candidate for Manhattan borough president, because I am still annoyed at the number of robocalls I got using the incumbent's name and voice during the primary elections. (I don't know who they were for, because I hung up before it got to that point.) The libertarian candidate is running on the platform of "abolish this office," but I'm still not prepared to vote for someone who has taken the Republican endorsement. The Socialist Workers candidate is running on a platform of withdrawing all troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "elsewhere"; abortion rights; affirmative action, and specifically the prosecution of Dr. George Tiller's assassin. I like his domestic policies, am less sure about his foreign policy, and little or none of it has anything to do with the job he's running for.
I will probably be voting for the Democrat for comptroller (though amused that the "Rent is too damn high" party has a candidate for that as well as for mayor). Public advocate, probably deBlasio, the Democrat (though I am open to persuasion). I like my city council member, Robert Jackson, so I'll be voting for him for reelection
The House seat is open because the incumbent Republican accepted the job of Secretary of the Army (which apparently was entirely unsurprising, once President Obama offered it). At first, places like fivethirtyeight.com were analyzing whether the district having gone for Obama in 2008 meant more than John McHugh having held the seat, and a republican edge in party affiliation [1]. Then the out-of-state wingnuts decided that the Republican candidate wasn't a "real" Republican because she's pro-choice and supports equal marriage (which is on the record because she's currently in the state assembly, which passed a bill on that a few months ago, before the state senate imploded). So, people like Sarah Palin are backing a Conservative Party candidate, the Democrat is still doing well, and it's as well for Assemblywoman Scozzafava that she won't lose her seat in the state legislature if she doesn't go to Washington in January. On some level, the question is how narrow a party they will have; the theocrat "base" in some parts of the country doesn't seem capable of comprehending the sort of small-government conservative who thinks that lower taxes go at least as naturally with reproductive rights as with a strong military. I suspect a small piece of what's going on is also that this is a way Palin saw to get headlines and increase the sales of her book. ETA 4:47 p.m.: Scozzafava has "suspended" her campaign, and the Republican national committee are throwing their support to the Conservative.
[1] Being registered in the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative, or Working Families [2] party means that if that party has primaries at any given election, you can vote in them. The Democrats have more of them than the other parties.
[2] Those are the parties that got enough votes in the last gubernatorial election to have automatic ballot spots; for anything else—Libertarians, Socialist Workers, Rent Is Too Damn High, Voices in His Head [3], Green—
[3] No, we don't actually have the Edgertonite National Party. We have a person named Adames, who appears to have decided to skip the "getting on the ballot" part of losing mayoral elections and skip straight to putting up badly-laid-out posters asserting that the election has been stolen from him. And, in the last year or two, that the mayor and MCI were conspiring against him.
We have two ballot measures, which I didn't know about until I opened the voters' guide today. The first looks pretty innocuous: authorization to exchange 6 acres near route 46 for a different 10 acres, so National Grid can build a high-voltage transmission line. (The way the state constitution protects forest preserves, that requires voter assent.) I'm voting yes unless someone gives me a reason not to by Tuesday morning.
The second is a bad idea, and is enough to get me to go vote on Tuesday even if it weren't a matter of family custom if not honor. I will quote what the voter guide says: "The New York State Constitution currently prohibits the farming out, contracting, giving away or selling of prisoner labor to any person, firm, association, or corporation. The proposed amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass legislation to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to perform work for nonprofit corporations. Shall the proposed amendment to the New York State Constitution be approved?" This strikes me as bad policy on a number of levels, including the broad definition of "nonprofit" and that if it passes, I can see someone, a few years down the line, putting in a ballot measure to strike "nonprofit" from that.
There are also a few offices up for election. If you're outside New York state, you may have heard about either the race for mayor of New York City, or the special election for a House seat upstate. For mayor, I think I'm voting for Thompson, but that's mostly voting against Bloomberg; he's gotten a little too sure he's indispensable, and I gather he is now having Joe Lieberman (R-Egotism) making robocalls on his behalf. Thompson has a slim chance, but the other candidates' chances are snowball-in-hell level. On the other hand, I'm probably going to vote for the Socialist Worker candidate for Manhattan borough president, because I am still annoyed at the number of robocalls I got using the incumbent's name and voice during the primary elections. (I don't know who they were for, because I hung up before it got to that point.) The libertarian candidate is running on the platform of "abolish this office," but I'm still not prepared to vote for someone who has taken the Republican endorsement. The Socialist Workers candidate is running on a platform of withdrawing all troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "elsewhere"; abortion rights; affirmative action, and specifically the prosecution of Dr. George Tiller's assassin. I like his domestic policies, am less sure about his foreign policy, and little or none of it has anything to do with the job he's running for.
I will probably be voting for the Democrat for comptroller (though amused that the "Rent is too damn high" party has a candidate for that as well as for mayor). Public advocate, probably deBlasio, the Democrat (though I am open to persuasion). I like my city council member, Robert Jackson, so I'll be voting for him for reelection
The House seat is open because the incumbent Republican accepted the job of Secretary of the Army (which apparently was entirely unsurprising, once President Obama offered it). At first, places like fivethirtyeight.com were analyzing whether the district having gone for Obama in 2008 meant more than John McHugh having held the seat, and a republican edge in party affiliation [1]. Then the out-of-state wingnuts decided that the Republican candidate wasn't a "real" Republican because she's pro-choice and supports equal marriage (which is on the record because she's currently in the state assembly, which passed a bill on that a few months ago, before the state senate imploded). So, people like Sarah Palin are backing a Conservative Party candidate, the Democrat is still doing well, and it's as well for Assemblywoman Scozzafava that she won't lose her seat in the state legislature if she doesn't go to Washington in January. On some level, the question is how narrow a party they will have; the theocrat "base" in some parts of the country doesn't seem capable of comprehending the sort of small-government conservative who thinks that lower taxes go at least as naturally with reproductive rights as with a strong military. I suspect a small piece of what's going on is also that this is a way Palin saw to get headlines and increase the sales of her book. ETA 4:47 p.m.: Scozzafava has "suspended" her campaign, and the Republican national committee are throwing their support to the Conservative.
[1] Being registered in the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative, or Working Families [2] party means that if that party has primaries at any given election, you can vote in them. The Democrats have more of them than the other parties.
[2] Those are the parties that got enough votes in the last gubernatorial election to have automatic ballot spots; for anything else—Libertarians, Socialist Workers, Rent Is Too Damn High, Voices in His Head [3], Green—
[3] No, we don't actually have the Edgertonite National Party. We have a person named Adames, who appears to have decided to skip the "getting on the ballot" part of losing mayoral elections and skip straight to putting up badly-laid-out posters asserting that the election has been stolen from him. And, in the last year or two, that the mayor and MCI were conspiring against him.
So, Tuesday is election day.
We have two ballot measures, which I didn't know about until I opened the voters' guide today. The first looks pretty innocuous: authorization to exchange 6 acres near route 46 for a different 10 acres, so National Grid can build a high-voltage transmission line. (The way the state constitution protects forest preserves, that requires voter assent.) I'm voting yes unless someone gives me a reason not to by Tuesday morning.
The second is a bad idea, and is enough to get me to go vote on Tuesday even if it weren't a matter of family custom if not honor. I will quote what the voter guide says: "The New York State Constitution currently prohibits the farming out, contracting, giving away or selling of prisoner labor to any person, firm, association, or corporation. The proposed amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass legislation to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to perform work for nonprofit corporations. Shall the proposed amendment to the New York State Constitution be approved?" This strikes me as bad policy on a number of levels, including the broad definition of "nonprofit" and that if it passes, I can see someone, a few years down the line, putting in a ballot measure to strike "nonprofit" from that.
There are also a few offices up for election. If you're outside New York state, you may have heard about either the race for mayor of New York City, or the special election for a House seat upstate. For mayor, I think I'm voting for Thompson, but that's mostly voting against Bloomberg; he's gotten a little too sure he's indispensable, and I gather he is now having Joe Lieberman (R-Egotism) making robocalls on his behalf. Thompson has a slim chance, but the other candidates' chances are snowball-in-hell level. On the other hand, I'm probably going to vote for the Socialist Worker candidate for Manhattan borough president, because I am still annoyed at the number of robocalls I got using the incumbent's name and voice during the primary elections. (I don't know who they were for, because I hung up before it got to that point.) The libertarian candidate is running on the platform of "abolish this office," but I'm still not prepared to vote for someone who has taken the Republican endorsement. The Socialist Workers candidate is running on a platform of withdrawing all troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "elsewhere"; abortion rights; affirmative action, and specifically the prosecution of Dr. George Tiller's assassin. I like his domestic policies, am less sure about his foreign policy, and little or none of it has anything to do with the job he's running for.
I will probably be voting for the Democrat for comptroller (though amused that the "Rent is too damn high" party has a candidate for that as well as for mayor). Public advocate, probably deBlasio, the Democrat (though I am open to persuasion). I like my city council member, Robert Jackson, so I'll be voting for him for reelection
The House seat is open because the incumbent Republican accepted the job of Secretary of the Army (which apparently was entirely unsurprising, once President Obama offered it). At first, places like fivethirtyeight.com were analyzing whether the district having gone for Obama in 2008 meant more than John McHugh having held the seat, and a republican edge in party affiliation [1]. Then the out-of-state wingnuts decided that the Republican candidate wasn't a "real" Republican because she's pro-choice and supports equal marriage (which is on the record because she's currently in the state assembly, which passed a bill on that a few months ago, before the state senate imploded). So, people like Sarah Palin are backing a Conservative Party candidate, the Democrat is still doing well, and it's as well for Assemblywoman Scozzafava that she won't lose her seat in the state legislature if she doesn't go to Washington in January. On some level, the question is how narrow a party they will have; the theocrat "base" in some parts of the country doesn't seem capable of comprehending the sort of small-government conservative who thinks that lower taxes go at least as naturally with reproductive rights as with a strong military. I suspect a small piece of what's going on is also that this is a way Palin saw to get headlines and increase the sales of her book. ETA 4:47 p.m.: Scozzafava has "suspended" her campaign, and the Republican national committee are throwing their support to the Conservative.
[1] Being registered in the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative, or Working Families [2] party means that if that party has primaries at any given election, you can vote in them. The Democrats have more of them than the other parties.
[2] Those are the parties that got enough votes in the last gubernatorial election to have automatic ballot spots; for anything else—Libertarians, Socialist Workers, Rent Is Too Damn High, Voices in His Head [3], Green—
[3] No, we don't actually have the Edgertonite National Party. We have a person named Adames, who appears to have decided to skip the "getting on the ballot" part of losing mayoral elections and skip straight to putting up badly-laid-out posters asserting that the election has been stolen from him. And, in the last year or two, that the mayor and MCI were conspiring against him.
We have two ballot measures, which I didn't know about until I opened the voters' guide today. The first looks pretty innocuous: authorization to exchange 6 acres near route 46 for a different 10 acres, so National Grid can build a high-voltage transmission line. (The way the state constitution protects forest preserves, that requires voter assent.) I'm voting yes unless someone gives me a reason not to by Tuesday morning.
The second is a bad idea, and is enough to get me to go vote on Tuesday even if it weren't a matter of family custom if not honor. I will quote what the voter guide says: "The New York State Constitution currently prohibits the farming out, contracting, giving away or selling of prisoner labor to any person, firm, association, or corporation. The proposed amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass legislation to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to perform work for nonprofit corporations. Shall the proposed amendment to the New York State Constitution be approved?" This strikes me as bad policy on a number of levels, including the broad definition of "nonprofit" and that if it passes, I can see someone, a few years down the line, putting in a ballot measure to strike "nonprofit" from that.
There are also a few offices up for election. If you're outside New York state, you may have heard about either the race for mayor of New York City, or the special election for a House seat upstate. For mayor, I think I'm voting for Thompson, but that's mostly voting against Bloomberg; he's gotten a little too sure he's indispensable, and I gather he is now having Joe Lieberman (R-Egotism) making robocalls on his behalf. Thompson has a slim chance, but the other candidates' chances are snowball-in-hell level. On the other hand, I'm probably going to vote for the Socialist Worker candidate for Manhattan borough president, because I am still annoyed at the number of robocalls I got using the incumbent's name and voice during the primary elections. (I don't know who they were for, because I hung up before it got to that point.) The libertarian candidate is running on the platform of "abolish this office," but I'm still not prepared to vote for someone who has taken the Republican endorsement. The Socialist Workers candidate is running on a platform of withdrawing all troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "elsewhere"; abortion rights; affirmative action, and specifically the prosecution of Dr. George Tiller's assassin. I like his domestic policies, am less sure about his foreign policy, and little or none of it has anything to do with the job he's running for.
I will probably be voting for the Democrat for comptroller (though amused that the "Rent is too damn high" party has a candidate for that as well as for mayor). Public advocate, probably deBlasio, the Democrat (though I am open to persuasion). I like my city council member, Robert Jackson, so I'll be voting for him for reelection
The House seat is open because the incumbent Republican accepted the job of Secretary of the Army (which apparently was entirely unsurprising, once President Obama offered it). At first, places like fivethirtyeight.com were analyzing whether the district having gone for Obama in 2008 meant more than John McHugh having held the seat, and a republican edge in party affiliation [1]. Then the out-of-state wingnuts decided that the Republican candidate wasn't a "real" Republican because she's pro-choice and supports equal marriage (which is on the record because she's currently in the state assembly, which passed a bill on that a few months ago, before the state senate imploded). So, people like Sarah Palin are backing a Conservative Party candidate, the Democrat is still doing well, and it's as well for Assemblywoman Scozzafava that she won't lose her seat in the state legislature if she doesn't go to Washington in January. On some level, the question is how narrow a party they will have; the theocrat "base" in some parts of the country doesn't seem capable of comprehending the sort of small-government conservative who thinks that lower taxes go at least as naturally with reproductive rights as with a strong military. I suspect a small piece of what's going on is also that this is a way Palin saw to get headlines and increase the sales of her book. ETA 4:47 p.m.: Scozzafava has "suspended" her campaign, and the Republican national committee are throwing their support to the Conservative.
[1] Being registered in the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative, or Working Families [2] party means that if that party has primaries at any given election, you can vote in them. The Democrats have more of them than the other parties.
[2] Those are the parties that got enough votes in the last gubernatorial election to have automatic ballot spots; for anything else—Libertarians, Socialist Workers, Rent Is Too Damn High, Voices in His Head [3], Green—
[3] No, we don't actually have the Edgertonite National Party. We have a person named Adames, who appears to have decided to skip the "getting on the ballot" part of losing mayoral elections and skip straight to putting up badly-laid-out posters asserting that the election has been stolen from him. And, in the last year or two, that the mayor and MCI were conspiring against him.
Read addenda before buying
The MTA is raising fares as of March 2. If you usually use a 30-day unlimited Metrocard, it's worth buying your next card today or tomorrow, even if you won't need it until mid-March: they get your money a few days early, but five or six dollars less* of it. Similarly, I spent $20 on a new pay-per-ride card yesterday, and it will get me 12 rides; the same money next week would buy me 11.5. (They've also set this up to practically guarantee money left on expiring cards a year from now, with extra hassle for riders and staff.) The same logic applies to seven-day cards as to 30-day, though I suspect fewer of the people who use those have the extra cash handy. But if you use those because there are some weeks you ride a lot, and some very little, grab a couple.
Railroad passengers, your monthly fares are calendar months, so this won't work. (The ten-ride ticket might be worth buying in advance, if you use those regularly.)
*There are posters in stations now, about the fare increase, which say to go to the MTA website for more information. The MTA website will tell me about the current fares; it tells me the rules for using an unlimited card; it says nothing whatsoever about the fare increase unless you do a search, which brings up press releases from December boasting about having raised it less than they threatened. The current monthly fare is $76; I think the new is $81, but it might be $83.
ETA:cattitude informs me that the MTA says that unlimited-ride cards bought at the old rate must be started by March 10; it's not clear whether that means "no later than midnight on March 10" or "no later than midnight on March 9." Charming of them to publicize this even more poorly than the fare increase, and only at the last minute. (My current card expires March 8, so I won't be losing anything by this.)
Or at least, they may not work if started after March 10; it appears to depend on how many such cards are out there.
The MTA is raising fares as of March 2. If you usually use a 30-day unlimited Metrocard, it's worth buying your next card today or tomorrow, even if you won't need it until mid-March: they get your money a few days early, but five or six dollars less* of it. Similarly, I spent $20 on a new pay-per-ride card yesterday, and it will get me 12 rides; the same money next week would buy me 11.5. (They've also set this up to practically guarantee money left on expiring cards a year from now, with extra hassle for riders and staff.) The same logic applies to seven-day cards as to 30-day, though I suspect fewer of the people who use those have the extra cash handy. But if you use those because there are some weeks you ride a lot, and some very little, grab a couple.
Railroad passengers, your monthly fares are calendar months, so this won't work. (The ten-ride ticket might be worth buying in advance, if you use those regularly.)
*There are posters in stations now, about the fare increase, which say to go to the MTA website for more information. The MTA website will tell me about the current fares; it tells me the rules for using an unlimited card; it says nothing whatsoever about the fare increase unless you do a search, which brings up press releases from December boasting about having raised it less than they threatened. The current monthly fare is $76; I think the new is $81, but it might be $83.
ETA:
cattitude informs me that the MTA says that unlimited-ride cards bought at the old rate must be started by March 10; it's not clear whether that means "no later than midnight on March 10" or "no later than midnight on March 9." Charming of them to publicize this even more poorly than the fare increase, and only at the last minute. (My current card expires March 8, so I won't be losing anything by this.)Or at least, they may not work if started after March 10; it appears to depend on how many such cards are out there.
Unlimited-ride MetroCards purchased before Sunday will work for their fully allotted time periods - one, seven or 30 days.But those cards will first have to be swiped, starting the clock ticking, within a finite grace period. The MTA says the grace period will extend at least through March 10.
Read addenda before buying
The MTA is raising fares as of March 2. If you usually use a 30-day unlimited Metrocard, it's worth buying your next card today or tomorrow, even if you won't need it until mid-March: they get your money a few days early, but five or six dollars less* of it. Similarly, I spent $20 on a new pay-per-ride card yesterday, and it will get me 12 rides; the same money next week would buy me 11.5. (They've also set this up to practically guarantee money left on expiring cards a year from now, with extra hassle for riders and staff.) The same logic applies to seven-day cards as to 30-day, though I suspect fewer of the people who use those have the extra cash handy. But if you use those because there are some weeks you ride a lot, and some very little, grab a couple.
Railroad passengers, your monthly fares are calendar months, so this won't work. (The ten-ride ticket might be worth buying in advance, if you use those regularly.)
*There are posters in stations now, about the fare increase, which say to go to the MTA website for more information. The MTA website will tell me about the current fares; it tells me the rules for using an unlimited card; it says nothing whatsoever about the fare increase unless you do a search, which brings up press releases from December boasting about having raised it less than they threatened. The current monthly fare is $76; I think the new is $81, but it might be $83.
ETA:cattitude informs me that the MTA says that unlimited-ride cards bought at the old rate must be started by March 10; it's not clear whether that means "no later than midnight on March 10" or "no later than midnight on March 9." Charming of them to publicize this even more poorly than the fare increase, and only at the last minute. (My current card expires March 8, so I won't be losing anything by this.)
Or at least, they may not work if started after March 10; it appears to depend on how many such cards are out there.
The MTA is raising fares as of March 2. If you usually use a 30-day unlimited Metrocard, it's worth buying your next card today or tomorrow, even if you won't need it until mid-March: they get your money a few days early, but five or six dollars less* of it. Similarly, I spent $20 on a new pay-per-ride card yesterday, and it will get me 12 rides; the same money next week would buy me 11.5. (They've also set this up to practically guarantee money left on expiring cards a year from now, with extra hassle for riders and staff.) The same logic applies to seven-day cards as to 30-day, though I suspect fewer of the people who use those have the extra cash handy. But if you use those because there are some weeks you ride a lot, and some very little, grab a couple.
Railroad passengers, your monthly fares are calendar months, so this won't work. (The ten-ride ticket might be worth buying in advance, if you use those regularly.)
*There are posters in stations now, about the fare increase, which say to go to the MTA website for more information. The MTA website will tell me about the current fares; it tells me the rules for using an unlimited card; it says nothing whatsoever about the fare increase unless you do a search, which brings up press releases from December boasting about having raised it less than they threatened. The current monthly fare is $76; I think the new is $81, but it might be $83.
ETA:
cattitude informs me that the MTA says that unlimited-ride cards bought at the old rate must be started by March 10; it's not clear whether that means "no later than midnight on March 10" or "no later than midnight on March 9." Charming of them to publicize this even more poorly than the fare increase, and only at the last minute. (My current card expires March 8, so I won't be losing anything by this.)Or at least, they may not work if started after March 10; it appears to depend on how many such cards are out there.
Unlimited-ride MetroCards purchased before Sunday will work for their fully allotted time periods - one, seven or 30 days.But those cards will first have to be swiped, starting the clock ticking, within a finite grace period. The MTA says the grace period will extend at least through March 10.
I didn't get out of Boston as early as I'd hoped today: having thought originally of the 3 or 3:30 bus, then tried to aim for 4:00 after adrian_turtle pointed out the value of lunch, I missed the 4:30 bus because it filled about 4 people ahead of me in line, and thus left Boston about 5:00. I expected to get to Port Authority around ten, and thus home 11, and was grateful that cattitude offered to hold dinner that late.
Then we got a "20 minute" rest stop somewhere near Hartford that turned into 30. Not good. But the traffic was good, and we wound up crossing upper Manhattan on 145th Street. At St. Nicholas I was thinking "that's my subway station" (it's not, except that any A station is my station). At 125th and Amsterdam, a few of my fellow passengers persuaded the driver to let them out on the corner. I asked if I could get out as well, distentangled my pack from the overhead bin, and hopped off to an urging to hurry. A moment to orient myself, and it's two long blocks back east to St. Nicholas. I was home at 9:30, which is around the time I'd have hoped to be at Port Authority if I'd gotten the 4:30 bus.
I got down to the uptown platform at 125th, saw a man taking his jacket off, and followed his example, and we chatted about how warm it was down there.
It's amazing how much time you save, on the way home to Inwood, if you can get out at Harlem rather than go down to 42nd Street.
I wouldn't have tried this sort of maneuver just anywhere--but this is New York, this is a main street on a warm fall evening, and I'd spent quite long enough sitting on a bus with no reading light.
adrian_turtle pointed out the value of lunch, I missed the 4:30 bus because it filled about 4 people ahead of me in line, and thus left Boston about 5:00. I expected to get to Port Authority around ten, and thus home 11, and was grateful that cattitude offered to hold dinner that late.Then we got a "20 minute" rest stop somewhere near Hartford that turned into 30. Not good. But the traffic was good, and we wound up crossing upper Manhattan on 145th Street. At St. Nicholas I was thinking "that's my subway station" (it's not, except that any A station is my station). At 125th and Amsterdam, a few of my fellow passengers persuaded the driver to let them out on the corner. I asked if I could get out as well, distentangled my pack from the overhead bin, and hopped off to an urging to hurry. A moment to orient myself, and it's two long blocks back east to St. Nicholas. I was home at 9:30, which is around the time I'd have hoped to be at Port Authority if I'd gotten the 4:30 bus.
I got down to the uptown platform at 125th, saw a man taking his jacket off, and followed his example, and we chatted about how warm it was down there.
It's amazing how much time you save, on the way home to Inwood, if you can get out at Harlem rather than go down to 42nd Street.
I wouldn't have tried this sort of maneuver just anywhere--but this is New York, this is a main street on a warm fall evening, and I'd spent quite long enough sitting on a bus with no reading light.
I didn't get out of Boston as early as I'd hoped today: having thought originally of the 3 or 3:30 bus, then tried to aim for 4:00 after adrian_turtle pointed out the value of lunch, I missed the 4:30 bus because it filled about 4 people ahead of me in line, and thus left Boston about 5:00. I expected to get to Port Authority around ten, and thus home 11, and was grateful that cattitude offered to hold dinner that late.
Then we got a "20 minute" rest stop somewhere near Hartford that turned into 30. Not good. But the traffic was good, and we wound up crossing upper Manhattan on 145th Street. At St. Nicholas I was thinking "that's my subway station" (it's not, except that any A station is my station). At 125th and Amsterdam, a few of my fellow passengers persuaded the driver to let them out on the corner. I asked if I could get out as well, distentangled my pack from the overhead bin, and hopped off to an urging to hurry. A moment to orient myself, and it's two long blocks back east to St. Nicholas. I was home at 9:30, which is around the time I'd have hoped to be at Port Authority if I'd gotten the 4:30 bus.
I got down to the uptown platform at 125th, saw a man taking his jacket off, and followed his example, and we chatted about how warm it was down there.
It's amazing how much time you save, on the way home to Inwood, if you can get out at Harlem rather than go down to 42nd Street.
I wouldn't have tried this sort of maneuver just anywhere--but this is New York, this is a main street on a warm fall evening, and I'd spent quite long enough sitting on a bus with no reading light.
adrian_turtle pointed out the value of lunch, I missed the 4:30 bus because it filled about 4 people ahead of me in line, and thus left Boston about 5:00. I expected to get to Port Authority around ten, and thus home 11, and was grateful that cattitude offered to hold dinner that late.Then we got a "20 minute" rest stop somewhere near Hartford that turned into 30. Not good. But the traffic was good, and we wound up crossing upper Manhattan on 145th Street. At St. Nicholas I was thinking "that's my subway station" (it's not, except that any A station is my station). At 125th and Amsterdam, a few of my fellow passengers persuaded the driver to let them out on the corner. I asked if I could get out as well, distentangled my pack from the overhead bin, and hopped off to an urging to hurry. A moment to orient myself, and it's two long blocks back east to St. Nicholas. I was home at 9:30, which is around the time I'd have hoped to be at Port Authority if I'd gotten the 4:30 bus.
I got down to the uptown platform at 125th, saw a man taking his jacket off, and followed his example, and we chatted about how warm it was down there.
It's amazing how much time you save, on the way home to Inwood, if you can get out at Harlem rather than go down to 42nd Street.
I wouldn't have tried this sort of maneuver just anywhere--but this is New York, this is a main street on a warm fall evening, and I'd spent quite long enough sitting on a bus with no reading light.
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