tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17091329857220858512024-03-28T17:24:02.268-07:00Bill Sundstrom's BlogBill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.comBlogger1962125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-74387742477943884332024-03-26T16:45:00.000-07:002024-03-28T17:23:30.880-07:00Richard Serra, RIP<p><a href="https://billsundstrom.blogspot.com/2011/08/serra-at-stanford.html" target="_blank">His sculptures</a> seem like the work of natural forces while at the same time being intensely human. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/arts/richard-serra-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fk0.UQ5l.LcOba6NsrBeV&smid=url-share" target="_blank">NYT obit</a>.</p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-56872501908504284502024-03-25T10:03:00.000-07:002024-03-25T10:03:11.830-07:00Cats and birdsThis <a href="https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2024/03/25/to-see-or-not-to-see/" target="_blank">blog post by Maximilian Auffhammer</a> about how much people (de)value the view of a wind turbine from their house mentions another oft-heard critique of these big windmills, namely that they kill birds. Which they do: roughly 250,000 birds per year, according to an <a href="https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/threats-birds" target="_blank">estimate</a> from about ten years ago. More turbines today, so probably more dead birds. Sad! The same source puts the number of birds killed annually by cats in the United States at... hmm... 2.5 billion, or 10,000 times the number killed by windmills.<div><br /></div><div>How is that possible... 2.5 billion?! Let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There are an estimated 60 million pet cats, and perhaps 50 million feral cats in the United States. Many of the pet cats are outdoor cats, eagerly prowling the neighborhood picking off songbirds just for the fun of it. But let's stick to the feral cats. My lazy, inert indoor cats consume about 5 ounces of cat food per day each– pure meat and calories. A typical junco, the abundant, smallish sparrow that is the most common bird in my suburban neighborhood, weighs about 0.67 ounces, and some of that is feather and bone. But anyway, let's round up to a somewhat more substantial bird, 1 ounce of meat apiece. Assuming an active feral cat needs as much meat as my inert cats, that's 5 birds <b>per day</b>. For the U.S. feral cat population, that comes to 5 x 365 x 50 million = 91 billion songbirds per year. Of course, they will eat some mice and rats and garbage instead of birds, and some will be fed by well-intentioned human enemies of songbirds. But 2.5 billion seems utterly plausible. Out of a total bird population of... 10 billion? Busy, hungry, cruel, destructive kitties!</div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-23044751717358899142024-03-03T13:55:00.000-08:002024-03-03T13:55:02.659-08:00The N'Gustro Affair, by Jean-Patrick Manchette<p>I feel a little guilty confessing how much I loved this high-energy piece of toxic political cynicism, Manchette's first novel (1971). I found it un-put-downable, with its very clever narrative structure driving the action forward, and its manic, profane humor. Politically incorrect, no doubt, but Manchette is an equal-opportunity hater, and the intermittently brutal and fascistic (and ever-opportunistic) protagonist and narrator Henri Butron definitely gets what's coming to him. The novel is based loosely on a true story of post-colonial shenanigans, as explained in Gary Indiana's insightful introduction. Translated in all its gloriously hard-boiled and colorful prose stylings by Donald Nicholson-Smith. An entertainment on the level of, say, Scorcese's <i>Goodfellas</i>. Enjoy!</p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-581421632523463632024-03-02T12:59:00.000-08:002024-03-02T12:59:41.374-08:00Nice and damp at Hidden Villa<p>Along the Long Bunny Loop Trail... <i>Hericium coralloides</i> (coral tooth fungus) with some other stuff; <i>Schizophyllum commune</i>; and <i>Toxicodendron diversilobum</i> (look but don't touch!).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAwSPzg0vnAeiuZ_XJbRv9q_OmIy2kJmXdV4NyEV1-dN5ZEWrPhw9ArsiS42vUwQWEQJiIRaaOzt92sp5bmlLxdC02nPiE_E8uuToS8R4slAD24osrrwzBhNjLhT_7byUi-YLgF4s1KwsleFiOIpyI8Aa7sDZVnQlVrW07y3eAmuBvIDRmlL2PIMQROF8" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="2768" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAwSPzg0vnAeiuZ_XJbRv9q_OmIy2kJmXdV4NyEV1-dN5ZEWrPhw9ArsiS42vUwQWEQJiIRaaOzt92sp5bmlLxdC02nPiE_E8uuToS8R4slAD24osrrwzBhNjLhT_7byUi-YLgF4s1KwsleFiOIpyI8Aa7sDZVnQlVrW07y3eAmuBvIDRmlL2PIMQROF8=w400-h396" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH9cdBkgUA8OnobqdcFa9odiKcCp_F4aV2nZaxX2M0mI_yf6w_8ZYcDCwPtyb_kMstCJ0IeinIAzqP_0L5_Qf4lRqz6VktVgh63lx4vgCcgxNTKBteKAgUB32i939ZnOLj1tpgpTsP_AZEUZwM5JzN8WzQIUtOFZzk9xZKZqCf-OmVEvcd8IqHS0FOWCg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1604" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH9cdBkgUA8OnobqdcFa9odiKcCp_F4aV2nZaxX2M0mI_yf6w_8ZYcDCwPtyb_kMstCJ0IeinIAzqP_0L5_Qf4lRqz6VktVgh63lx4vgCcgxNTKBteKAgUB32i939ZnOLj1tpgpTsP_AZEUZwM5JzN8WzQIUtOFZzk9xZKZqCf-OmVEvcd8IqHS0FOWCg=w400-h270" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHhIQqge_IneQ0fnWf116qhMewfUjtFOqG8NxXUfwWFCMrpBvmPQfhxEwnaqp52rp2GMC6Y6ed5-_1Y30Fcn7pBdFU5QkXi-yn1bm0_X3AdM3Xh0l5Zd-W4tjGSnw9SWzvPDPjaE709zWXZNC0wn_8ZR7XP7p8FYdlQ3qms1vD5ethCy78TbcM3MvE-g4" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3282" data-original-width="2679" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHhIQqge_IneQ0fnWf116qhMewfUjtFOqG8NxXUfwWFCMrpBvmPQfhxEwnaqp52rp2GMC6Y6ed5-_1Y30Fcn7pBdFU5QkXi-yn1bm0_X3AdM3Xh0l5Zd-W4tjGSnw9SWzvPDPjaE709zWXZNC0wn_8ZR7XP7p8FYdlQ3qms1vD5ethCy78TbcM3MvE-g4=w327-h400" width="327" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-49457203536728402292024-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:002024-03-02T12:42:28.357-08:00Reading roundup<p>Some good ones... one not so good... </p><p><i>My Ántonia</i><br />Willa Cather</p><p>Fine story-telling, beautifully written. It is simultaneously two coming-of age stories – of the main characters, and of the frontier prairie society they inhabit and build. Cather's admiration for the immigrant farm girls who move into town and grow into strong and remarkably independent American women is evident, even if the most willful of them all, Ántonia herself, is the one who through unfortunate circumstances returns to the farm, devoting her life to bearing and raising an enormous brood of future farmers.</p><p><i>The Ruined Map</i><br />Kobo Abe</p><p>Abe's excellent 1967 novel is a <i>noir</i> in full-on existential mode. Our narrator is a private detective hired to find a woman's husband, who left one day and never returned. Hubby seems to have been messed up in something criminal, possibly involving his brother-in-law, but the clues, such as they are, lead in various directions with no real resolution. All angst and atmosphere, the book features moments of humor as well, such as when the detective describes in great detail his special method for examining a photograph through binoculars to discern the inner thoughts and feelings of its subject. The translation, which reads flawlessly, is by E. Dale Saunders. </p><p><i>The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport</i><br />Samit Basu</p><p>I quite enjoyed Basu's debut, <i><a href="https://billsundstrom.blogspot.com/2023/05/reading-roundup.html" target="_blank">The City Inside</a></i>, a plausible near-future romp in post-Modi India. His follow-up, a more distant-future riff on the Aladdin story, has its moments, but bogs down trying to describe a bizarre and ultimately unconvincing mash-up of AI bots, modified humans, and mysterious aliens. Of course, be careful what you wish for! </p><p><i>The Less Dead</i><br />Denise Mina</p><p>Another reliably well-written and entertaining thriller with a conscience from Mina, this time featuring a sympathetic portrayal of sex workers. </p><p><i>The Selected Poems of Po Chü-I</i><br />Translated by David Hinton</p><p>Po Chü-I (Bai Juyi) was a Tang poet born in 772, not long after the deaths of the great generation of Tang masters: Du Fu, Li Bai, and Wang Wei. I have enjoyed reading Po enormously, in this exquisite translation by David Hinton. Many of the poems are contemplative, reflecting Po's interest in Taoism and Zen Buddhism. But his social commentary could really bite...</p><p><b>Songs of Ch’in-chou<br />7. Light and Sleek</b></p><p>Riding proud in the streets, parading <br />horses that glisten, lighting the dust... </p><p>When I ask who such figures could be, <br />people say they're imperial favorites: </p><p><i>vermillion sashes— they're ministers; <br />and purple ribbons— maybe generals.</i> </p><p>On horses passing like drifting clouds <br />they swagger their way to an army feast, </p><p>to those nine wines filling cup and jar <br />and eight dainties of water and land. </p><p>After sweet Tung-t'ing Lake oranges <br />and mince-fish from a lake of heaven, </p><p>they've eaten to their hearts content, <br />and happily drunk, their spirits swell. </p><p>There's drought south of the Yangtze: <br />In Ch’ü-chou, people are eating people.</p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-30800330831992996652024-01-06T15:38:00.000-08:002024-01-06T15:38:11.017-08:00A poem for our times<div><i>For Kenneth and Miriam Patchen</i> </div><div>Al Young</div><div><br /></div><div>Here </div><div>I am cutting you </div><div>these fresh healthy flowers </div><div>from my sick bed </div><div>where I toss with nickel illuminations. </div><div>Time is a fever </div><div>that burns in the pores </div><div>consuming everything the mind creates. </div><div>I send you </div><div>this cool arrangement of dream blossoms </div><div>these tender stems & shiny leaves </div><div>while I shiver </div><div>& detect in your own eyes </div><div>of gentle remove </div><div>a similar disgust with what has come </div><div>to our fat cancerous land </div><div>of the sensual circus </div><div>& the disembodied broadcast wave, </div><div>swallowing in sorrow </div><div>to hear the old hatred </div><div>& uncover selfishness </div><div>rumbling back up from the bosoms of men </div><div>out into the good open air. </div><div>May these new flowers </div><div>from the forest of my heart </div><div>bring you a breath of the joy </div><div>men must believe they are going to recover </div><div>by moving again & again </div><div>against one another. </div><div><br /></div><div>From <i>The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed</i> (Sixteen Rivers Press 2010)</div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-81591887087093053142024-01-06T12:44:00.000-08:002024-01-06T12:44:18.050-08:00Reading roundup<p>Happy New Year! </p><p><i>Chain-Gang All-Stars</i><br />Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah</p><p>A thrilling read from start to finish, this near-future dystopia is <i>Hunger Games</i> for grown-ups, with plenty of racial justice politics thrown in. The plot, in which the masses of incarcerated are invited to participate in gladiatorial battles to the death for the slavering live and video mass audience, seems close enough to reality that it does not really shock. And presumably that is Adjei-Brenyah's point. The main characters are appealing and well-drawn, even if some of the parallel plots are underdeveloped. Occasional informational footnotes are well intended but seem gratuitous to me. </p><p>I can't say I thought the novel was good enough to make the <i>NYT</i> Top 10 list, which it did, but then again I have not read much of the competition, so perhaps I should withhold judgment. The ending is satisfying and abrupt, and leaves enough hanging that a sequel seems inevitable... perhaps after a movie adaptation, which would probably be a blockbuster and would render its viewers as complicitous in the spectacle and the atrocity as the book does its readers.</p><p><i>Every Day is Mother's Day</i><br />Hilary Mantel</p><p>This was Mantel's first novel– a nasty piece of dark comedy, in the mode of Muriel Spark. Indeed, one of the main characters is a mentally challenged young woman named Muriel, perhaps in homage. Mantel was already very good, but not yet at the top of her game compared with triumphs like <i>Fludd</i>, let alone the <i>Wolf Hall</i> trilogy. Read this one when you are in the mood for some misanthropy. </p><p><i>The New Animals</i><br />Pip Adam</p><p>Set in the fashion scene of Auckland, NZ, <i>The New Animals</i> meanders through a few hours in the lives of its not very interesting characters before taking a rather bizarre and unexpected turn in its last quarter. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I am pretty certain that I will not re-read it to figure it out. Your mileage may vary!</p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-66898239864935732972024-01-03T17:55:00.000-08:002024-01-03T17:55:55.032-08:00Would You Pay $1,800 for a Facial?<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/style/lifting-sculpting-facials.html?mwgrp=a-dbar&unlocked_article_code=1.LE0.-4wX.nzel-xL2R5tw&smid=url-share" target="_blank">What makes you think I haven't, huh</a>? </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPo03GXar1tPi7aNEcsQFz55axD9W4VtflIXhs-HHK8Y79aPddoT-9YXzqTgPTkWc5kCOpjMMIiTUdhy1d-K8r4uARYES1Pj0QdmaswuM9NjgZGleoru1WZQ_7M19G6GJMHmG6jFUURtIC6Zh8QZQkvLGlYm31fBs_dKYyrKjj8qBWibouakvvP-AzFPE" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1691" data-original-width="1676" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPo03GXar1tPi7aNEcsQFz55axD9W4VtflIXhs-HHK8Y79aPddoT-9YXzqTgPTkWc5kCOpjMMIiTUdhy1d-K8r4uARYES1Pj0QdmaswuM9NjgZGleoru1WZQ_7M19G6GJMHmG6jFUURtIC6Zh8QZQkvLGlYm31fBs_dKYyrKjj8qBWibouakvvP-AzFPE=w397-h400" width="397" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-62523264159404733032023-12-15T17:22:00.000-08:002023-12-15T17:22:36.310-08:00Once I finally quit the New York Times, where will I turn?<p>Obviously to <a href="https://cepr.net/nyt-tells-us-that-as-homeownership-rate-among-the-young-rises-it-is-becoming-an-impossible-dream/" target="_blank">Dean Baker</a>, who seems even more frustrated than I am at the nihilism of our "newspaper of record," which repeatedly feeds the (false) narratives that will help return fascist Trump to the White House. </p><blockquote><p>In keeping with its apparent commitment to ignore the data and insist homeownership is no longer possible, the New York Times ran yet another piece on how homeownership is becoming impossible for young people. The piece begins with the sad story of a young woman worried whether she and her spouse will ever be able to own a home....</p><p>It is unfortunate to hear about this nihilism. It would have been helpful to note that it does not correspond to the data. While homeownership rates have fallen back somewhat in the last few quarters, as a result of the sharp jump in mortgage rates, they are still above the pre-pandemic levels.</p><p>This is true across the board, including for young people. </p></blockquote>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-12410283404276178152023-11-27T14:58:00.000-08:002023-11-27T15:01:04.295-08:00Progressivity<p>This <a href="https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/government-redistribution-and-development-global-perspective-taxes-transfers-and" target="_blank">article</a>, based on a longer research paper, is interesting throughout. Working with an enormous database of distributional national accounts, the authors quantify the redistributive impacts of tax and transfer systems across countries. I repeat their key findings here: </p><p></p><blockquote><p>We establish five main findings:</p><p>1. Tax-and-transfer systems always reduce inequality, but with large variations.</p><p>2.About 90% of these variations are driven by transfers, while only 10% come from taxes.</p><p>3. Redistribution rises with development, but this is entirely due to transfers; tax progressivity is uncorrelated with per capita income.</p><p>4. Redistribution has increased in most world regions, except in Africa and Eastern Europe, where it has stagnated.</p><p>5. About 80% of variations in post-tax inequality are driven by differences in pre-tax inequality (predistribution), while 20% are driven by the direct effect of taxes and transfers (redistribution).</p></blockquote><p>Some caveats are in order, some of which spring from somewhat arbitrary or at least contestable choices made in the classifications. First, they count "social insurance" payments such as social security as part of pre-tax incomes, and hence "predistribution." Second, conditional cash grants are counted as transfers; presumably this implies that "negative income tax" programs such as the earned income tax credit (EITC) are counted as part of the transfer system, not the tax system. And inevitably they have to make numerous simplifying assumptions about the incidence of taxes and transfers (who really pays?), etc.</p><p>Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the last: cross-country differences in the inequality of pre-tax income accounts for the lion's share of cross-country differences in post-tax inequality. Of course, predistribution includes lots of determinants, many of which are driven by government policies, such as educational systems. It would not seem to be a category error to think of educational equity as part of redistribution, rather than predistribution. </p><p></p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-2220633007421949582023-11-23T16:58:00.000-08:002023-11-23T17:16:39.810-08:00Reading roundup<p>Slow couple of months for reading. </p><p><i>Season of Migration to the North</i><br />Tayeb Salih</p><p>First published in 1966, this celebrated novel by the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih covers a range of topical themes, including most obviously colonialism, but also the (mis-)treatment of women in Sudanese and Western society. It is also rich and subtle in its descriptive language and its mysterious doppelgänger narrative. I can't compare it with the original Arabic, but judging from the results, Denys Johnson-Davies's translation is exquisite. Highly recommended.</p><p><i>The Eye of the Heron</i><br />Ursula K. LeGuin</p><p>Well, not really a heron, but that's what the human colonists have decided one of the creatures looks like on the planet they have colonized– some of them against their will. The story moves right along, and LeGuin covers many of her themes– gender, freedom, authoritarianism. The effectiveness and limits of non-violent collective action play a central role. The book also offers a pretty decent fictional illustration of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domar_serfdom_model" target="_blank">Domar serfdom model</a>. </p><p><i>Vagabonds</i><br />Hao Jingfang</p><p>Earth vs. Mars, ho hum. I stuck with this sci-fi snooze-fest far longer than I should have.</p><p><i>Art of the Chicken</i><br />Jacques Pépin </p><p>I consider myself a pretty good cook, and others seem to agree. I learned some of what I know from observing Mom, who is a very good cook, but I would say Jacques Pépin deserves the most credit for my competence and confidence in the kitchen. His cooking shows always struck the right balance between taste, technique, intuition, quality ingredients, and charm. Speaking of charm, that would be the right term for Jacques's colorful paintings of chickens, which fill many of the pages of this book. Part memoir, part cookbook, the recipes are casual and assume that you have watched Jacques enough to know what to do with them. </p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-68672058567157203982023-11-23T16:19:00.000-08:002023-11-23T16:19:30.929-08:00Fungi!<p>A good day yesterday for fungus in El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve... In order: shaggy manes, some kind of big agaricus, pumpernickel bagel on old-growth redwood, tafoni, grisette, blackening russula of some sort, ramaria (coral fungus), bolete, questionable stropharia, Amanita gemmata (?).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9oWCMjTVx7SOmUSkSPPZLqf0HG5YR8bJqpzZkX6jg7V0QSdiJdzwnx8JLvBzYHnLL4jRbnnKEMNuwJmbETgnkYS5KWHfJ_L2rnkyW2PsXr_Mga4WFZG6ZbXQHfZQ_Lu6Onb6I0sMUOWajazUHdD1ETWxlkEqI9v9khPdsONf6zOG9Q22918WyD5ESG4Q" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2249" data-original-width="1711" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9oWCMjTVx7SOmUSkSPPZLqf0HG5YR8bJqpzZkX6jg7V0QSdiJdzwnx8JLvBzYHnLL4jRbnnKEMNuwJmbETgnkYS5KWHfJ_L2rnkyW2PsXr_Mga4WFZG6ZbXQHfZQ_Lu6Onb6I0sMUOWajazUHdD1ETWxlkEqI9v9khPdsONf6zOG9Q22918WyD5ESG4Q=w305-h400" width="305" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2371" data-original-width="1412" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRa8MiGd215zuS2qqW0XLcbMVDG10fR-hRTiw0x5ZQox7gUV2a0DJ57Ev23XC8Vv7nuFetFhiKphBjws6fHEDNkCPaZf7-LIu9wtZlipKeRkxaPgMI9Lq6lW4WNPFdQWqA1WNT2j5ZNBTUCf4-pg_HWIXQx5Eiy3GjYwwGqr9S7Zt8KxROp0DY2mt2g0c=w238-h400" width="238" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguXZfB50h-UUhOBCXuPJIYKP6MJIG2AcpYcKOt2LO68FaACChJJeTRGMN_p5Q0L8nmbxCCjwqmI25ytBmBnkHeqMAtMLsR1sVx5mHdfSclDW37D0I-Bl9Y69_YXVNsa_nwS0hxUcD8b3D2mdHG0bQYcO3Xh8OqyRN6XXJ9_datVXuOTsegLgvC9TldvF0" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2211" data-original-width="2213" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguXZfB50h-UUhOBCXuPJIYKP6MJIG2AcpYcKOt2LO68FaACChJJeTRGMN_p5Q0L8nmbxCCjwqmI25ytBmBnkHeqMAtMLsR1sVx5mHdfSclDW37D0I-Bl9Y69_YXVNsa_nwS0hxUcD8b3D2mdHG0bQYcO3Xh8OqyRN6XXJ9_datVXuOTsegLgvC9TldvF0=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-5878955171489440232023-11-09T20:17:00.000-08:002023-11-09T20:17:09.169-08:00Felicity<p>Roughly concurrently with the run of the <a href="https://billsundstrom.blogspot.com/2018/09/buffy-again.html" target="_blank">greatest TV show of all time</a>, another show featured an "innocent" but determined young woman making her way in the world. We watched the pilot of <i>Felicity</i> last night, and I doubt I'll watch many more episodes. Dated, earnest, and not really my demographic. But judging from the pilot, the show was really pretty good. And Keri Russell was already amazing. You see the steeliness and intelligence that made her so good in <i>The Americans</i>. There is a lot going on behind that angular, elegant, pretty face– vulnerability, sure, but also arrogance, and suppressed anger. </p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-44615215451112058052023-11-06T20:58:00.007-08:002023-11-06T21:19:20.387-08:00Saliences<p>Nothing like a visit to rugged Pescadero Beach to be reminded of the contrast between the permanent and the ephemeral... concerns of Ammons in this great poem: "where not a single single thing endures, the overall reassures." </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMERb8sEkMlIep4Tzdm9ML_0gLMsYXENBcPvlhK5JUn-MFaxCNnMjjFYgGjCKEiljKwRvNP-IXJw-Oyld-5c4zAq9ommlStm8CmQ5pTX2Nw3p2nUEZ6T2wQLy611m1RM0vdKnoE7HSc02G79PrOD5WKyQMURjVK7i_9dg-svLUOlSiEncbhAcCDLNmNX0" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMERb8sEkMlIep4Tzdm9ML_0gLMsYXENBcPvlhK5JUn-MFaxCNnMjjFYgGjCKEiljKwRvNP-IXJw-Oyld-5c4zAq9ommlStm8CmQ5pTX2Nw3p2nUEZ6T2wQLy611m1RM0vdKnoE7HSc02G79PrOD5WKyQMURjVK7i_9dg-svLUOlSiEncbhAcCDLNmNX0=w320-h240" width="320" /></a></div><b>Saliences</b><p></p><p>A.R. Ammons</p><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Consistencies rise</div><div>and ride</div><div>the mind down</div><div>hard routes</div><div> walled</div><div>with no outlet and so</div><div>to open a variable geography,</div><div> proliferate</div><div>possibility, here</div><div>is this dune fest</div><div> releasing</div><div>mind feeding out,</div><div>gathering clusters,</div><div>fields of order in disorder,</div><div>where choice</div><div>can make beginnings,</div><div> turns,</div><div> reversals,</div><div>where straight line</div><div>and air-hard thought</div><div>can meet</div><div>unarranged disorder,</div><div> dissolve</div><div>before the one event that</div><div>creates present time</div><div>in the multi-variable</div><div> scope :</div><div>a variable of wind</div><div>among the dunes,</div><div>making variables</div><div>of position and direction and sound</div><div>of every reed leaf</div><div>and bloom,</div><div>running streams of sand,</div><div>winding, rising, at a depression</div><div>falling out into deltas,</div><div>weathering shells with blast,</div><div>striking hiss into clumps of grass,</div><div>against bayberry leaves,</div><div> lifting</div><div>the spider from footing to footing</div><div>hard across the dry even crust</div><div>toward the surf :</div><div>wind, a variable, soft wind, hard</div><div>steady wind, wind</div><div>shaped and kept in the</div><div>bent of trees,</div><div>the prevailing dipping seaward</div><div>of reeds,</div><div>the kept and erased sandcrab trails :</div><div>wind, the variable to the gull's flight,</div><div>how and where he drops the clam</div><div>and the way he heads in, running to loft :</div><div>wind, from the sea, high surf</div><div>and cool weather;</div><div>from the land, a lessened breakage</div><div>and the land's heat :</div><div>wind alone as a variable,</div><div>as a factor in millions of events,</div><div>leaves no two moments</div><div>on the dunes the same :</div><div> keep</div><div>free to these events,</div><div>bend to these</div><div>changing weathers :</div><div>multiple as sand, events of sense</div><div>alter old dunes</div><div>of mind,</div><div>release new channels of flow,</div><div>free materials</div><div>to new forms :</div><div>ind alone as a variable</div><div>rakes this neck of dunes</div><div>out of calculation's reach :</div><div>come out of the hard</div><div>routes and ruts,</div><div>pour over the walls</div><div>of previous assessments : turn to</div><div>the open,</div><div>the unexpected, to new saliences of feature.</div><div><br /></div><div>*</div><div><br /></div><div>The reassurance is</div><div>that through change</div><div>continuities sinuously work,</div><div>cause and effect</div><div> without alarm,</div><div>gradual shadings out or in,</div><div>motions that full</div><div> with time</div><div>do not surprise, no</div><div>abrupt leap or burst : possibility,</div><div>with meaningful development</div><div>of circumstance :</div><div><br /></div><div>when I went back to the dunes today,</div><div> saliences,</div><div>congruent to memory,</div><div>spread firmingly across my sight :</div><div>the narrow white path</div><div>rose and dropped over</div><div>grassy rises toward the sea :</div><div>sheets of reeds,</div><div>tasseling now near fall,</div><div>filled the hollows</div><div>with shapes of ponds or lakes :</div><div>bayberry, darker, made wandering</div><div>chains of clumps, sometimes pouring</div><div>into heads, like stopped water :</div><div> much seemed</div><div>constant, to be looked</div><div>forward to, expected :</div><div>from the top of a dune rise,</div><div>look of ocean salience : in</div><div> the hollow,</div><div>where a runlet</div><div> makes in</div><div>at full tide and fills a bowl,</div><div>extravagance of pink periwinkle</div><div>along the grassy edge,</div><div>and a blue, bunchy weed, deep blue,</div><div>deep into the mind the dark blue</div><div> constant :</div><div>minnows left high in the tide-deserted pocket,</div><div> fiddler crabs</div><div>bringing up gray pellets of drying sand,</div><div>disappearing from air's faster events</div><div>at any close approach :</div><div>certain things and habits</div><div> recognizable as</div><div>having lasted through the night :</div><div>though what change in</div><div>a day’s doing!</div><div>desertions of swallows</div><div> that yesterday</div><div>ravaged air, bush, reed, attention</div><div>in gatherings wide as this neck of dunes :</div><div>now, not a sound</div><div>or shadow, no trace of memory, no remnant</div><div> Explanation :</div><div>summations of permanence!</div><div>where not a single single thing endures,</div><div>the overall reassures, </div><div>deaths and flights,</div><div>shifts and sudden assaults claiming</div><div>limited orders,</div><div>the separate particles : </div><div>earth brings to grief</div><div>much in an hour that sang, leaped, swirled, </div><div>yet keeps a round</div><div> quiet turning,</div><div>beyond loss or gain,</div><div>beyond concern for the separate reach.</div></div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-50647004502478265992023-11-05T09:22:00.003-08:002023-11-05T09:22:49.772-08:00What to blame for the sorry state of U.S. politics<p>The latest Times / Siena poll puts Trump in the lead in several swing states, and a quick perusal of the tables reveals where the blame lies: namely, the 19th Amendment. Sure, it gave women the vote, but it failed to take the next logical step, which was to take away the vote for men. Once again, the nation suffers the consequences.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUx69GcWl-xxezc9IEPpCnS5RLOnKAQesAtZKG1yp_BhNXmA8yUzi_b31xKchFGF0ArYGvQS2I7K8nSDBBOPjNoyxocg2Jgqo9HuJ4DXlU1Y6wfBDi6M6Jt_YwFSEgXTWiDaZ1avHUrApSgLKNYXDvRwUpNTAZCB4zxOORPiqZ8Wy3WrjLrDuZUI021Fg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1444" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUx69GcWl-xxezc9IEPpCnS5RLOnKAQesAtZKG1yp_BhNXmA8yUzi_b31xKchFGF0ArYGvQS2I7K8nSDBBOPjNoyxocg2Jgqo9HuJ4DXlU1Y6wfBDi6M6Jt_YwFSEgXTWiDaZ1avHUrApSgLKNYXDvRwUpNTAZCB4zxOORPiqZ8Wy3WrjLrDuZUI021Fg=w400-h155" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-46731978401705052242023-10-23T18:28:00.004-07:002023-10-23T18:32:31.401-07:00Economics GOATThis is a <a href="https://jabberwocking.com/who-is-the-greatest-economist-of-all-time/">silly business</a>, but as someone who has taught history of economic thought, I can't help but offer an opinion... or three. <div>1. Adam Smith</div><div>2. David Ricardo</div><div>Tied for 3rd (alphabetically):</div><div>Kenneth Arrow</div><div>Gary Becker</div><div><div>J.M. Keynes</div></div><div>Frank Ramsey</div><div><br /></div><div>Frank who? Look him up. As for Friedman and Hayek... oh please... Hayek wrote a <a href="https://assets.aeaweb.org/asset-server/journals/aer/top20/35.4.519-530.pdf">very nifty essay</a> that every economist should read; Friedman's inflation expectations stuff is important... the rest is ideology. If you must have a free-market economist on your list, Becker kicks both their asses. </div><div><br /></div><div>Malthus?! That proto-Trumpian pastor? Smith had already laid out the population theory and way better, and presumably somebody else preceded Smith.</div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-56403283201172550912023-10-21T19:26:00.002-07:002023-10-23T18:34:39.887-07:00Listen up, oldsters!<div>Some <a href="https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/10/music-notes-169" target="_blank">wisdom from Iggy Pop and Erik Loomis</a>:</div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>I [Loomis] really appreciated this Iggy Pop discussion about listening to new music when you are old. I am not that old, but this pretty much sums it up:</div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">I keep reading that we decline in our 70s so I try to keep using my brain. Discovering new music opens my mind and the element of surprise keeps me connected. I feel like I’m mining for diamonds – and when you find the diamond, you know. When I heard Chaise Longue by Wet Leg I got really excited: it’s cheeky, with a wicked groove, but it’s the vocals – they’re almost metronomic. You could ask 100 people to sing it and it wouldn’t sound the same.</div></blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">…</p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">I’m sick of hearing old boys say you shouldn’t use synthetic tools. If you’re rich and have a garage and a car, you could start a rock band. But there’s people using synthesisers to play with guitars, horns, hypnotic breaths, and it’s fantastic. If I hear anyone say: “Things aren’t as good as they used to be,” I tell them to listen to the Moses Boyd remix of Pace by Nubya Garcia. It’s fantastically advanced contemporary music that tugs at the heartstrings. From Sons of Kemet to the Comet Is Coming, there’s so much good stuff about now. At my age, it helps to remain curious.</div></blockquote></div></blockquote><div><blockquote><div>Not only is that Wet Leg song really great, but the principle is strong. If you have given up on new music, you have given up on life. What is the point of continuing to live if you are not curious about new things? It’s just sad. So put aside the ELP and Rush and fucking Jimmy Buffett albums a bit commenters and listen to some stuff by people under 30. Or even under 40! Just try!!</div></blockquote><div></div></div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-86991183051387412682023-10-07T16:41:00.001-07:002023-10-07T16:41:12.811-07:00Stonecrest, FL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1YIzh3SaciVIkwkTVy4IYzcUNAXvtZx0CPA4jO-0YXL0UNUlXvvbWN6K0mjMf2Y5yPTAJcb_gFdMEOdyKFmm8QZsdz-GaR629StKhZ9KDcmbQmDjHdNPmOV2xU_lZLuAEZ5d6FBHwpKXvYTc4O1u69dahyPdNrsxbdwRvo9D0b3AB54SEX-iRPeQz6I/s2601/PXL_20231006_021517809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2601" data-original-width="1879" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1YIzh3SaciVIkwkTVy4IYzcUNAXvtZx0CPA4jO-0YXL0UNUlXvvbWN6K0mjMf2Y5yPTAJcb_gFdMEOdyKFmm8QZsdz-GaR629StKhZ9KDcmbQmDjHdNPmOV2xU_lZLuAEZ5d6FBHwpKXvYTc4O1u69dahyPdNrsxbdwRvo9D0b3AB54SEX-iRPeQz6I/w289-h400/PXL_20231006_021517809.jpg" width="289" /></a></div><br />Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-80697265655566850202023-10-02T20:38:00.002-07:002023-10-02T20:38:31.870-07:00Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 106Had never heard of this very fine Chicano blues-crooner until this weekend, when this tune was played on our humble but also very fine local community radio station, KKUP. The Righteous Brothers' rendition is righteous, for sure, but this may be even better, with its slow, powerful, brassy groove.<div><br /></div><div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XF8AhwyzPjI?si=WpGxkWTWo_srhM6S" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-75398243900727677732023-09-25T17:56:00.003-07:002023-09-25T17:56:29.035-07:00A Tenured Professor<p>That's the title of JK Galbraith's gently satiric novel, published in 1990. A Harvard economics professor strikes it rich by shorting irrational exuberance. The banksters are not pleased and do what must be done to put an end to this nonsense, and our hero must resign himself to life as a tenured professor and expert on the economics of consumer durables. With the exception of its gentleness and civility, the novel could have been written today. As a novelist, Galbraith was no David Lodge, but he wasn't terrible either.</p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-69317703424570810492023-09-24T12:13:00.006-07:002023-09-24T12:29:20.530-07:00Galls at Stulsaft Park, Redwood City, CA<p>I don't think I'd ever walked around Stulsaft Park, a decent-sized city park on both sides of the Arroyo Ojo de Agua creek in suburban Redwood City. It has several varieties of oaks growing together along the steep slopes. This time of year, oaks come with galls in various shapes, colors, and textures. Wonderful life!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrfGjv2Ib3dji6l7KZ9GOCDYfALsUi6gJq6UZX2_rtQO9skjwm8FAcDy4e_R27XJMQmHBvjH97vMEZM8P52EPh3X_UfuTZeTN2zRh7JddzNIqj425TXf86TGVCldQpbwfGAKYNi7vZwMUymdam1RqjEbZl4_WDTNyCtBEIPSOi8CHVqeeaigJqt0dpGEQ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1132" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrfGjv2Ib3dji6l7KZ9GOCDYfALsUi6gJq6UZX2_rtQO9skjwm8FAcDy4e_R27XJMQmHBvjH97vMEZM8P52EPh3X_UfuTZeTN2zRh7JddzNIqj425TXf86TGVCldQpbwfGAKYNi7vZwMUymdam1RqjEbZl4_WDTNyCtBEIPSOi8CHVqeeaigJqt0dpGEQ=w400-h398" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqhWKHWJTk_xtltts3Ly3rNIsaJLZm5NxHZHmkiOHPWqlOclklQ5Xzo1zZ8K7xn9rEzrcaYbAcvRoaBWzBt_HReVzIy1ewakMWEWRrIEW52V3hFfoEIE6auH0fxl73i8bB2Ke6ej2SbFcUTOfQyZzLn_yJg_9RKUe9FJaiMH5CoemqyV5_s_il-y-aDFM" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="1320" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqhWKHWJTk_xtltts3Ly3rNIsaJLZm5NxHZHmkiOHPWqlOclklQ5Xzo1zZ8K7xn9rEzrcaYbAcvRoaBWzBt_HReVzIy1ewakMWEWRrIEW52V3hFfoEIE6auH0fxl73i8bB2Ke6ej2SbFcUTOfQyZzLn_yJg_9RKUe9FJaiMH5CoemqyV5_s_il-y-aDFM=w342-h400" width="342" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsw5zg67kcgZBUcUIlt8pgGTQikEXSZT3fAGPrAX3hwe-ZQHIgRy84CWLAVakF1ztFKGnPIMQKBGB4gz-gRdRt9x-BOM0rOenR_cS2wqnzcJGaScNH5DmI0a399taXxKc_yI-hxQtjOVJBLIKfOrH43Zg9ooXyJN3Y1_e7O2_DzuB_bLmZUIvp-umOBlE" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1254" data-original-width="1106" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsw5zg67kcgZBUcUIlt8pgGTQikEXSZT3fAGPrAX3hwe-ZQHIgRy84CWLAVakF1ztFKGnPIMQKBGB4gz-gRdRt9x-BOM0rOenR_cS2wqnzcJGaScNH5DmI0a399taXxKc_yI-hxQtjOVJBLIKfOrH43Zg9ooXyJN3Y1_e7O2_DzuB_bLmZUIvp-umOBlE=w353-h400" width="353" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzyCIkqdMi6frc1FbuKeF2daUVVEJTL90ocQ4o4H5xVY_DE3gEgXz8cSu2DPtMOSEvQeZ0vybjx5wnfQ9sGRx8cwHYkUtuavnFkkHFf4J181kR66By7xkmeks2GX1FR_n6hNu9bh_D3_mGS61fBu6lEH60y9aVfUXHNVu5PypIQpN2iMtENlIs4ry1rD4" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1405" data-original-width="1291" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzyCIkqdMi6frc1FbuKeF2daUVVEJTL90ocQ4o4H5xVY_DE3gEgXz8cSu2DPtMOSEvQeZ0vybjx5wnfQ9sGRx8cwHYkUtuavnFkkHFf4J181kR66By7xkmeks2GX1FR_n6hNu9bh_D3_mGS61fBu6lEH60y9aVfUXHNVu5PypIQpN2iMtENlIs4ry1rD4=w368-h400" width="368" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsD_II_zFuF40hjnNRw7szd6CGeaW36P8TetF1FE5qeywXvGC1wLcUzOwEj90aIJOIccVCkGZrHTuGRm8DQ1l9hcEah4al-FSxpNpdoNTIuShYMYLpsZVc_ZxgF0N0u2U5yOdzO1gIHm_UMIRTtvXbtk362WPs_9I27mJ-NPR6MK5E0imNE9BMFKyneD0/s895/PXL_20230923_223025556.PORTRAIT.ORIGINAL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="895" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsD_II_zFuF40hjnNRw7szd6CGeaW36P8TetF1FE5qeywXvGC1wLcUzOwEj90aIJOIccVCkGZrHTuGRm8DQ1l9hcEah4al-FSxpNpdoNTIuShYMYLpsZVc_ZxgF0N0u2U5yOdzO1gIHm_UMIRTtvXbtk362WPs_9I27mJ-NPR6MK5E0imNE9BMFKyneD0/w400-h291/PXL_20230923_223025556.PORTRAIT.ORIGINAL.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-70476231625879096182023-09-17T15:15:00.005-07:002023-09-17T15:15:45.772-07:00Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 105<p>Very funny, very smart, very musical... and she sure rocks. </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5myKp4ZD2KQ?si=hiCKtvQY7jB1ub-D" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-42613386543038246932023-09-14T18:06:00.001-07:002023-09-14T18:06:23.746-07:00Framing<div><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/column-why-auto-workers-strike-211222480.html">Michael Hiltzik</a>: </div><blockquote><div>The New Yorker's great press critic, A.J. Liebling, observed during a New York newspaper strike in 1963 that "the employer, in strike stories, always 'offers,' and the union 'demands.'"</div></blockquote><blockquote><div>The stories never say that the employer "'demands' that the union men agree to work for a two-bit raise; the union never 'offers' to accept more." The reason, Liebling conjectured, is that "'demand,' in English, is an arrogant word; 'offer,' a large, generous one." </div></blockquote>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-22390945242375617442023-09-14T17:10:00.003-07:002023-09-14T17:10:12.059-07:00America Betrays Its Children Again<p>Yup. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/opinion/child-poverty-america.html?unlocked_article_code=ST-9Uwp1qU7CO2giY6WFJyHtQFtDc-XdnTq2NWuelSnK9u8mE0dc35v5HzEiyPwmLayRjIZ3rDW4PZyhyMHwfoXs_Dc3y9zkd8FylLdz9VMEkGTLPLMJRtMrbFBAPIhSdXSnVcrqenNQYfDSXrlwjWqhfj8sPseTmq6g2YCvS641_SA_9LHTenGe03QGn0P9RjDzD7Fc2bXrOn6lwz-oW8_UGaTpMkaTNkCdWesD7iNPG0mj9jk9eE2O-ihdqZ0DGL-GPkLonjsyg1KX2hzytRJeCkIkilp3tPNmHm46nyib1_uvgL6I1XMwD0amK1_jqaVf2w9qDEcSw5sPSA&smid=url-share" target="_blank">Krugman</a>. </p>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1709132985722085851.post-37295943355127502702023-09-05T10:08:00.000-07:002023-09-05T10:08:03.738-07:00Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 104<div>Nobody better than David Murray. And hang in there for Hamid Drake's solo... so awesome!</div><div><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJF7jsRtoVo?si=iu0Jv5wXUrXTRVxf" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Bill Sundstromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09816227203561266732noreply@blogger.com0