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Bob, Rebecca, and David (Chan, not Kelman) went on a Ravenchase across Virginia. Our first day time was, um, not so good. Our second day we did quite well, however, so we award ourselves the "Most Improved" trophy.
I'm late to this, but Matt Yglesias called out George Will for throwing out ".01 percent" as a ridiculously high proportion of Americans to bike to work.
The actual fraction of Americans who bike to work is .4 percent. Which is a lot bigger.
You know, if someone just makes up words and/or applies random words to a situation without considering their meaning, that person is either illiterate or lying or both. And not even the socially acceptable lying or illiteracy. If you wrote a column for a newspaper and misdescribed a situation because you didn't know what the words you used meant, or because you picked words at random that you thought sounded vaguely like what you were reporting, you wouldn't keep a job writing columns for very long. Because literacy is a prerequisite for the job.
Shouldn't innumeracy preclude you from spouting numbers? George Will should perhaps leave the percentages to the staff of the local middle school newsletter, who are more qualified to handle them.
I've been reading Pat Kane's The Play Ethic: a Manifesto for a Different Way of Living and he spends a chapter describing the work ethic, its role in the "new economy" (global corporations, erosion of pensions, rarity of lifelong careers in one company, etc.), and how people have tried to recast it or modify it for the post-industrial world. And he spends the book describing an alternative "play ethic", as the title suggests.
My question(s) for you is this: what is your work ethic? What is your play ethic? What is your learning ethic? How are these related, if at all? Would you say you have a "strong work ethic"? How about the others?
Don't plumb the depths here -- just answer what occurs to you. You can answer one, some, or all of the above. You can answer a question I haven't come up with. I just want to hear what you think about these terms and what they mean to you.
What have you been doing over your summer vacation, Bob?
Ripping up the basement.
Here's some pictures of the destruction, with some opportunities for forensic electricianship, if you're interested. Any comments about the state of the basement and our plans for future furnishing are welcome.
Those plans currently include: ripping out the furring strips that have been driven into the brick wall, as well as the strips on the ceiling; painting the brick walls with drylok, and putting a stud wall up to replace the strips; putting drywall up on the walls and ceiling, after putting canister lights or other recessed lighting up between the joists.
Our end goal is to have a nice-looking furnished basement room with >6'6" height just about everywhere (floor-to-joist height is 6'8"), and with soffits as small and high as possible (I can walk under the radiator pipes, but not under the soffit around them with ceiling tile and trim as it was.)
Thoughts? Suggestions? Dire warnings of homeowner doom?
We went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens yesterday. It was our first visit and we were impressed. I took a lot of pictures. I will spare you most of them. Here are some of my favorites. The pitcher plants were really amazing. They are native to North Carolina, but I had never seen a display this large and healthy.
One would have thought that Judd Gregg would have a clearer grasp of the significance of 0.479%, which is the proportion of Obama's proposed budget cut to the size of the budget.
I'd think he might think that'd be a significant proportion, since the state he represents (NH) is comprised of... 0.43% of the US population.
Apparently, he thinks his constituency are a "few pieces of sand" compared to the "Gobi desert".
Perhaps you feel like I've singled out Judd Gregg unfairly. In which case, I've got two responses.
First: hey, I'm lazy. I'm not monitoring all the politicians for their ridiculous innumeracies. But if you let me know about it, I _will_ post what analysis I can muster -- it's obvious I can't help it. (And yes, feel free to replace "analysis" with "smackdown".)
Second: maybe I do hold Mr. Gregg to a higher standard. I met him, I shook his hand, he said he'd do his best to serve New Hampshire, and he went to my high school. When he's intellectually lazy, it reflects on me. Step up or sit down, sir.
Summer vacation! I'm forced to stay home while they move our offices to a different building. Not only has the weather been great, but I got to go to two farmers' markets today.
It's remarkably annoying to try to count out 200 grains of anything. So I played it safe -- I counted out 50 grains, what I'd spilled was over twice that, so I threw two more sprinkles on top. So that's definitely over 200 grains, probably around 300.
In other words, one of those grains is in proportion to that pile at the same ratio as Obama's budget cut is to the budget. That pile, in proportion to the Gobi Desert, is how inaccurate Judd Gregg's statement was.
Mr. Gregg's my first casualty -- take notice, politicos. You bring up the sand, you're in MY HOUSE.
"It is as if this was the Gobi Desert or the Sahara Desert, and you came along and took a few pieces of sand off the desert"
Rebecca was up bright and early Saturday, to get the best vegetables from our CSA at the Forest Hill Park farmer's market. It's good to be back in the veggies!
(Note: the above slide show has captions -- click the speech bubble that appears in the lower left corner when you hover over the slideshow after you click it to play.)
Slate has a fascinating little piece comparing the wonders of homemade versus store bought bagels, cream cheese, yogurt, jam, crackers, and granola. It provides both a price comparison and a taste comparison, as well as links to recipes. She gives the thumbs down to homemade crackers, which keep getting pushed to the bottom of my "to bake" list. But now I can't get the idea of homemade bagels out of my head.
Found via Re-Nest at a post which also links to an index of recipes for pantry staples from the kitchn (Apartment Therapy's food spin off).
An aftershock apparently can be larger than the original earthquake. Just now we had a 3.9 about half a mile closer than the one earlier this evening. Here's the USGS 411.
Just had a 3.8 earthquake in the neighboring town of Yorba Linda. Technically the epicenter was about 8 miles from our house. Here's the USGS 411. Shook the house. Freaked out the dogs. I got to practice my cowering under a desk, a.k.a. Drop, Cover, and Hold On. Highly effective.
That's the third since we moved to California less than a year ago (here are the posts on July's and January's).
This is a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates:
A kid may well blame himself for doing poor on a math test by saying he's stupid, but that doesn't mean he's taken responsibility, that he's acknowledged that he's capable of doing better the next time.
Last Saturday we hosted our first party in California, a little brunch to welcome friends' new baby. I cooked like a mad woman and was rewarded with many compliments. Following please find the menu with links to all the recipes I could find.
It's been a fairly typical week. Cookies for the Math Tea, coaxing my plants to grow so that I can have some life on the deck, and taking in a little fun via the Monument Avenue Easter Parade.
Black and white cookies were a big hit. Fortunately there were some leftover to make a delicious Friday night dinner. (In conjunction with some matzo ball soup.)
My wimpy plants are hanging in there, but not super happy. The peppers look the most robust, but even they aren't close to ready for the real world.
Sunkissed blooms on Monument Ave. It was a really pretty day and everyone's gardens were blooming.
One great dog tongue picture. It did not seem like it would be possible for him to fit his tongue back into his mouth.
Shortly after we moved here, two drainage devices on the corner of State College and Yorba Linda were painted to look like old fashioned orange crates. I have wanted to get a picture of the dogs in front of these crates ever since. Between that and my need for a picture of myself for another purpose, this week we finally did a little photo shoot.
As you can probably tell, Augie just got his summer hairdo. David insisted we go on our entire walk before the photo shoot, so my hairdo looks a little mushed from my hat.
Izzy and I are looking at the camera . . . a certain dog who shall go unnamed is busy licking his nose.
We tried a sunnier side of the box with ears down . . .
. . . and with ears up.
By this time Izzy felt that the photo shoot was unduly delaying his breakfast time.
Six weeks from their start date, my seedlings are still doing their thing (see, e.g., parsley above and basil below the jump). They're a little leggy because they're sun exposure isn't quite optimal. Right now the basil and parsley have developed their first true leaves. This means it's time to start the grow juice.
According to Container Gardening for Dummies by Bill Marken and the Editors of the National Gardening Association (1998) (which is out of print and only has about a page on starting from seeds), at two weeks seedlings are ready for a little fertilizer. CG4D recommends the weekly application of a water soluble fertilizer mixed at half the strength described on the package.
The Gardener's Guide to Starting and Growing Plants from Seeds disagrees. Once the first true leaves (the second set to emerge) develop, you can begin to feed your plants. Up until this time the seedlings have been being nourished from the seed itself. Fertilizing should be still done from the bottom at this point, using a very dilute 1/4 strength mix of soluble all purpose plant food once a week. When the plants have reached about 3 inches you can begin to water and feed the plants from above.
My tomato seedling still hasn't developed its first true leaves. I think the strain for sunshine might have been fatal.
The two tomato plants I bought at the Fullerton Arboretum are doing O.K. Hopefully they will succeed where my tomato seedling appears to be failing.
Previous container garden posts:
