Updated Feed Options

Thanks to Dan, I was motivated to find out about tracking comments on individual posts. This is something you might want to do, say, if you post a comment and want to be notified when other comments appear after yours.

What, is this is some new Web 2.0 concept? Yes, it's called "having a conversation."

Never mind that.

Anyway, there are a few details on a short faq page on my web site, if you want them. I'm assuming that if you are at all into this sort of thing, you don't need a lot of details, but if something isn't clear, please give me a shout.

If you'd rather keep it old school and just use bookmarks or whatever, that's fine. No need to change your way of surfing. This is just a little extra nicety for those who think it's fun to say, "See you later, aggregator."

Okay, probably no one thinks it's fun to say that.

Reading Recommendations: 2006-12-09

• King Kaufman's Sports Daily (for 2006-12-08) [S$]

  The King on the eternal fretting by baseball owners about the need for salary caps. Hilarious!
  
  

• Two parts hubris, one part paranoia [S$]

  Cintra Wilson does a hatchet job on someone who probably deserves it: Rudy Guliani. If you're a fan of Rudy's, you might think this one is a bit over the top. But as the philosopher told the president, the truth has a well-known liberal bias.
  
  

• What It Means to Think Again [T$]

  Stanley Fish, defending his previous post, which provoked a lot of criticism. Fish is a law prof who blogs behind the TimesSelect wall. He had earlier analyzed the defense's strategy of arguing that a Mormon polygamist's right to religious freedom was being impinged upon. Both posts are interesting brain-stretchers.
  
  

New Tool

As some of you already know, I have resolved the first quandary, and chosen an electrician. Now it's a matter of waiting for RG&E to issue a work order number, so that my electrician can legally mess around with the riser cable and relocate the meters. Hopefully, this won't take more than about a week. But we are talking about a bureaucracy embedded within a monopoly, so …

In other news, we had a few inches of snow fall yesterday morning, so I went to the nearby hardware store to buy a snow shovel. It is a minor irritation to me that you can't get a straight-handled snow shovel anymore, unless you want the real bottom of the line one, or unless you want one of those ones that only pushes and doesn't scoop. So I bought the second-cheapest bent-handle model. Perhaps I'll look for something better somewhere down the road.

Why would anyone worry about upgrading this tool?

You should have seen the looks that I was getting from the passers-by in my new 'hood while I was shoveling. I couldn't decide whether they were wondering why anyone would care to do such a thorough job shoveling the driveway of a boarded-up house, or if it was more like, "Dude, this is Rochester. We don't shovel until it's at least a foot deep. And then we don't shovel. We have snow blowers."

Pearl Harbored

MK told me a story last night that gave me a warm fuzzy.

Apparently, there is a group of people who gather in Hawaii every five years, to commemorate their having survived the attack on 7 Dec 1941. This year's reunion is likely to be the last, as time has done what the bombs couldn't do.

Anyway, one of the guys who attends always brings his wife. Who comes from Japan. Who he met at an earlier one of these reunions.

Maybe we all really can get along. At least after a while. Maybe time really does heal all wounds.

Don't know why. I've fallen in love. With sentence fragments.

House: Quandary 1

So, as you might know, the first thing that I want to do in my new house is to get the electricity turned on. This is going to mean a fairly extensive amount of work, and so I've just had my first experience with soliciting bids from contractors. Up till now, I've always been on the other side in these negotiations.

Today, I had the second of two electricians look at Phase I of the electrical work to be done. The first guy, Dave, had given me a bid right on the spot when I walked him through the place on Monday. Steep, but not out of the realm of reality. Today's candidate, Les, said he wanted to think about his bid and would call in the evening.

Les called a short while ago, and gave a bid that was considerably lower than Dave's. After talking to him, I decided to call Dave, to see if he wanted to refigure his bid. He did, after a small amount of hemming and hawing, and essentially matched Les's bid.

And now, to the quandary. I liked both of them, a lot, on first impression. They are night and day as far as personalities go, or more precisely, are taciturn and loquacious to respective extremes. They both assure me that they'll be able to get to work as soon as the bureaucratic details with RG&E (the local utility) are worked out. They were both recommended by the same source. Dave gets a point by being the first to come look at the job. Les gets a point by giving the better number first. Still pretty much a tie.

The card-carrying ditherer, which is too often me, might think to postpone resolve this dilemma by getting a third estimate. Maybe. But I want me some E-lectrici-T!

What to do?

House: "Before" Pix 1

After walking another electrician through the house today, so that he could get an idea of what he'd have to do to get the juice on, I decided to take a few "before" pix. The house is boarded up, of course, so I was shooting in the dark.

Anyway, if you haven't already had the flashlight tour, you might like to have a look at my Picasa site. These pix show a few examples of what I'll need to do.

In the way of minor touch-up, I mean.

Mossy

If you've read my pitch about subscribing to Salon.com, then you know that one of the fringe benefits they offer is an opportunity, from time to time, to cop a free subscription to some other (print) magazine.

I like a stack o' free reading material for the bathroom, coffee table, and nightstand as much as the next guy. However …

The latest issue of Rolling Stone arrived a few days ago, wrapped in plastic, bundled with an offer to renew the subscription at some massive discount. (The freebies from Salon typically last six or twelve months.) It's telling that I just got around to opening it today. I'm very sad to say, a magazine that I once gladly paid cover price for is now not even worth getting for free.

I know I'm fast approaching geezerhood, so I'm discounting the fact that I don't care about most of the bands mentioned. (Although I did have to laugh when three of the first issues I got had Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and The Who as cover boys.) If I did care about the bands, I'd be even more pissed at RS. The stories typically have all the depth of the rags cluttering the checkout line at the grocery store. Most of the photography is, charitably, Discount Paparazzi. The "interviews" take all of nine seconds to read.

Here's another gripe: Like Wired and every other magazine that started out with other aims, RS has become way too much of a gear mag. I get that pimping trinkets helps sell ad space to those manufacturers, but really. Page after page of cell phone reviews? Glossy spreads on the "ten hottest" iPod wannabes? Snooze. Why kill trees just to repeat the same fluff that can be found on a million different web sites?

Most crucially, the writing and reporting just ain't there anymore. I mean, RS used to have Hunter Thompson and Timothy Crouse on staff. And remember the old motto? "All the news that fits we print?" RS used to scare the Establishment. Now they're just trying to be part of it. Apart from Maureen Dowd's interview with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert a few issues back, I couldn't tell you one other piece that I've read during the whole subscription run that was worth anything.

The final straw came when I read a story about some of the top young players in the Web biz. (It might have been in the MD/JS/SC issue.) It was so surfacey as to be unbearable. When I read tripe like this, I am unsure whether to blame the media for causing or just enabling the ADD epidemic.

So today, shortly after I happily chucked the renewal offer in the trash where it belongs, I happened across a post on Blake Ross's blog. Ross is, for all intents and purposes, Mr. Firefox. He's an amazing guy in many ways, not least of which is his class in dealing with being the most publicized teenager since LeBron James. Read his "Historians Deem Rolling Stone Most Accurate Publication Ever."

And weep for the Rolling Stone that once was.

---

[Update 2006-12-05 22:43 EDT]: Speaking of Blake Ross, he's been working on a new project, and finally spilled a few details recently. The November issue of Spectrum has an article, unfortunately titled "The Firefox Kid," that's pretty good. A good mix of software geekiness and human profile.

Most Puzzling Use of "Despite"

This year's winner: The NY Times.

In a sad story profiling four recently murdered prostitutes in Atlantic City, the following howler appeared (emphasis added):

Friends said her troubles haunted her despite countless vials of crack cocaine.

No Charge Yet

As I mentioned earlier, the house that I bought does not feature a complete infrastructure. Lots of the water pipe is gone, for example. However, I did have hopes that the previous owner had not stooped to stealing wiring, and most of the electrical systems did look intact. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, before the Thanksgiving holidays started, I had called the local utility company, RG&E, to see if they would turn the juice back on. (I do plan to upgrade the house's wiring, breaker panels, outlets, etc., but I thought it might be nice to be able to plug in some tools and work lights before that.)

RG&E's representative declined to flip the switch, since the power has been off for so long, and told me that I'd have to have a safety inspection first. That happened a few days ago, and it turns out that I'm going to need to do a pretty big chunk of my planned electrical upgrades before I do anything else.

Aside from the obvious plumbing problems that the missing water lines present, their absence also means that the electrical system can't be grounded. Outside, the "riser cable," the main line from the pole to the house, has cracked insulation, so it will need to be replaced. Once you get involved in doing that, RG&E will require that the electrical meters be relocated outside. Oh, and by the way, those old fuse boxes won't fly, even temporarily. Might as well put the new circuit breaker panels in right away.

I had an electrician come by yesterday to look at the situation and give me an estimate. He was great -- a good explainer and willing to give me a bid on the spot. I'd have been inclined to hire him on the spot, but I had already arranged for another electrician to come by Wednesday.

Could be my first bidding war!

Reassessing Things

One of the good things about having hired a lawyer to assist me during the closing when I bought my house was that he gave me some tips about how to reduce my property taxes. The first thing he suggested was that I ask the city to reduce the assessed value of the house.

It turned out to be a straightforward process -- a required visit to City Hall but no need to fight it. I filled out some forms and was given the name and phone number of one of the city's official real estate appraisers. I called him and made an appointment for him to come buy to have a look.

Yesterday, he pulled into the driveway of the new place. He got out of his car, a nattily dressed man. He had a bit of a nervous look about him, as though he couldn't quite believe that he'd come to the right place.

We shook hands. "So, Brendan, what's the story here?"

I explained that I'd bought this place after it had been foreclosed upon, that I was planning to fix it up, and that, meantime, I wanted to have its assessed value reduced. He nodded. I asked him if he wanted to have a look inside. He nodded.

"Got a flashlight?" I asked.

"No. Why? I need one? Is it safe to go in there?"

I assured him that electricity was not yet one of the house's happinesses (details in a coming post), but that he would not, in fact, fall through any floors. From giving earlier tours to friends and prospective contractors, I have gotten in the habit of carrying two flashlights, and so I handed him one.

I led him in the only non-boarded-up door, which leads directly to the second floor. He came up behind me. I would say "unwillingly," were I the sort to bandy about adverbs. Which I am.

He stopped at the top of the stairs, took about five more steps, quickly shone the flashlight at a couple of walls and turned to go.

"Wait," I said, "Don't you want to see the first floor? Or the basement?" I was planning to emphasize how the services would all need serious work, too.

"No, no. I've seen enough. How about I change the value of the house to $20,000? That work for you?"

He quickly rattled off the details, about how the new value would not affect the balance of this year's property taxes, but would affect 2007's taxes. "Any questions?" He looked like he absolutely could not wait to run back down the stairs.

"Nope. Guess not. Thanks for coming."

Once safely back outside, he gave me a few more details about how the city would be reassessing everyone's property next year, for the 2008 tax year. By then, of course, I should have the place restored to its original opulence. But considering that New York has a state program called the STAR exemption, which can knock $30K off the assessed value of your primary residence if you're the owner, next year ought to be a good one for not paying so much in taxes.

He didn't give me any kind of paperwork to document the reassessed value, so we'll have to see how this all plays out. I'm going to write him a follow-up email, FWIW.

Okay, so it wasn't from Ed McMahon …

… but I did get something kind of fun in today's snail mail: a free razor.

This is the new Gillette Fusion, it sez here. I am wondering why anyone would name a product after an energy source that remains an unfulfilled dream after decades of promising. Or maybe, why would they name it after bad '70s music?

The more important consideration: why does any razor need five blades?

I did get a Mach 3 in the mail a few years ago, and I have to say, I liked it enough to make it my daily razor. I don't care so much about the three blades. To my mind, the real breakthrough in its design was the open back. All multi-blade razors (remember when two seemed astounding?) get gunked up before they get dull, but the Mach 3 seems to be quite rinsable. It takes me weeks and weeks to feel like I need to change cartridges.

I know your heart is pounding with excitment already from this post, but hang in there. I'll let you know how the Fusion shaving experience turns out, in a day or two.

Reading Recommendations: 2006-12-04

I haven't had as much time for surfing lately, for obvious reasons, but I did come across a few good ones this past weekend.

• Has He Started Talking to the Walls? [T$]

  Frank Rich's column from Sunday's NY Times. Absolutely devastating, I thought, and spot-on. This, of course, is nothing new from my boy Frankie.
  
  

• The N-Word: Unmentionable lessons of the midterm aftermath

  No, this isn't about some washed-up comedian's flameout. This is Diane McWhorter on the other N-word.
  
  

• Questions and Answers for New Pilot Naturalization Exam

  La Migra has decided to update the test for those seeking to become American citizens, thinking that the current version features too much rote memorization. According to the rules: "To pass, applicants will have to correctly answer six of 10 selected questions." There are 144 questions, and I think that there might have been five that I couldn't get. I shudder to think how badly the average American might do on this test. Of course, now that the questions and answers are posted, we're back to rote memorization.
  
  Nonetheless, it's a fun test to take. Use the scroll bar -- the answers appear right below the the corresponding questions.
  
  

Thanksgiving 2006 Pix

Small bits of evidence may be viewed in one of my Picasa albums.

Da Bankah

(click pic to zoom) So, I just saw the house that my kid bought, with my money …

Mine. All Mine.

Yup, this is my new house (with no small amount of assistance from the Bank O' KK), all boarded up and ready to go:

(click pic to zoom)

"Fixer-upper" is putting it politely. The house was repo'ed, and apart from several decades of aggressive neglect, the previous owner seems to have ended his residence by punching out most of the walls and removing all of the water pipes and the water meter. I now understand that certain junkyards will pay a few bucks for a used water meter, no questions asked. Copper prices and so forth.

The electricity has been shut off for so long that the local utility company informed me that I'll need to get an inspection before they'll turn the juice back on. This turned out to mean that I had to visit City Hall, fill out some forms, and pay $70. I now am the proud owner of a permit to apply for a safety inspection and a secret phone number for a city inspector with whom I am to arrange for said inspection. Said inspector apparently doesn't believe in checking his voice mail.

While waiting today for the ain't-happened-yet callback from the inspector, I installed some new locks and a mailbox. The latter was good, because the letter carrier (dunno if I needed to be so PC there -- he was a male man) came by shortly after to deliver the bill for the balance of my homeowner's insurance.

Should be nothing but fun from here on out! Who wants to buy some claw foot tubs? And good deals are to be had on large piles of lath and plaster!

<sidebar>

I have just opened the insurance bill, and it seems that my new insurance company perfumes their mail. Not just maybe. We're talking stench. I mean, I know smell is the new thing in advertising, but how weird is that?

</sidebar>

Three guesses as to the new emphasis of this blog for the next few months. Now that the Democrats are sort of back in power, there's really no need for political snark, right?

(Long pause for rueful laughter.)

In all seriousness, the domicile pictured above will be my main obsession focus for a while now. If it starts getting annoying to read (post) nothing but outtakes from "This Old House," I might relocate the rehab updates. Lemme know what you'd like: keep it here or put it elsewhere.

Here's another bit of Rochacha homeowner happiness: I visited the city's web site, found a phone number for trash pickup info, and called it. I figured that I'd get to leave another voice mail (it was about 6 pm), but no! This office is open 24/7!

After overcoming the parallel universe feeling that comes when a human answers a phone that I expected to be machine-driven, I now, with breathless anticipation, await the delivery of recycling bins and trash barrels. Apparently, these latter are called "toters" around here. They have wheels, so I'm not clear about when, exactly, I am expected to pick them up and carry them.

So much to learn.

Factoid of the Day: 27 Nov 2006

From a story in today's NY Times:

Seattle, which averages about 38 inches of rain annually, is far from the country's wettest big city. Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami and New York are just some of the others that get more rain.

I didn't know that.

Thought for the Day: 24 Nov 2006

From a blog entry titled "Growing Up:"

The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. ...

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

--General Smedley D. Butler, as quoted [T$] by U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Anthony McCloskey

Line of the Day: 2006-11-18

Yesterday, on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!, host Peter Sagal said this about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: "They are the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker of Scientology."

Cross words

From today's puzzle in the NY Times: 1-Across, six letters, clue: "Most distant"

Which got me to thinking: If it's "nearest," why isn't it "farest?"

I guess I'm missing something for the trees.

(Actual answer in the Comments.)

Cultural Learnings of Vietnam for Make Benefit Image of Glorious President

Bubble? What bubble?

From a story comparing the last president's visit to Vietnam with that of the current one, we find yet another example of the Occupant-in-Chief's efforts to stay in touch:

On Saturday, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had not come into direct contact with ordinary Vietnamese, but said that they connected anyway.

"If you'd been part of the president's motorcade as we've shuttled back and forth," he said, reporters would have seen that "the president has been doing a lot of waving and getting a lot of waving and smiles."

He continued: "I think he's gotten a real sense of the warmth of the Vietnamese people …"

How do guys like Hadley sleep at night, anyway?

A Good Read: John Waters

John Waters has a piece in today's NY Times, titled The Kindness of a Stranger.

Here's how it starts:

Tennessee Williams saved my life. As a 12-year-old boy in suburban Baltimore, I would look up his name in the card catalog at the library and it would read "see Librarian." I wanted these "see Librarian" books -- and I wanted them now -- but in the late 1950s (and sadly even today), there was no way a warped adolescent like myself could get his hands on one. But I soon figured out that the "see Librarian" books were on a special shelf behind the counter. So when the kindly librarian was helping the "normal" kids with their book reports, I sneaked behind the checkout desk and stole the first book I ever wanted to possess on my own.

Another sign that the Republicans have been in charge for too long

Did you know that at certain gyms, grunting while lifting weights is considered grounds for ejection and loss of membership?

This story is enough to make me enroll in the gym, just to make some noise of my own.

You might have missed these

Among the stunts pulled by the White House during their desperation efforts in the weeks before the election:

Oh, and then there's this. The [Agriculture Department's] hunger/food insecurity report usually appears in October. This year's version -- the fifth straight to show an increase in the number of hungry Americans -- was held for release until after last week's election.

--Tim Grieve [S$]

A dark trifecta: More evidence of the breakdown of society (thanks to compassionate conservatism), another Bush Administration effort to suppress the evidence, and a new Orwellian term: People who don't have anything to eat are officially no longer "hungry." They now just experience "food insecurity."

Another item that seems to have escaped the MSM, currently obsessing over something really stupid, is the appointment by Bush of one Eric Keroack as the new chief of family-planning programs for the Department of Health and Human Services. Keroack's last job? Medical director for a group called A Woman's Concern, which believes that "the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness."

I'm sure women prefer to trust men to take full responsibility in matters of birth control, right? And in any case, no one finds unwanted pregnancies adverse to happiness, don't you agree?

Thanks again to Mr. Grieve [S$] for keeping us aware.

These are college kids?

My sister MK, the college prof, just finished a marathon session of grading papers. One of her chief complaints was the following.

It's different from, as I'm sure you know. But it really grated for MK to have to read different then, over and over again.

I've given up going to the mat about using than as a preposition in place of the preferred from, because languages do evolve. If enough people make the same mistake in conversation, it becomes accepted usage, and eventually, it creeps into written work. I don't like it, and reading it causes me to lose respect for the writer, but it feels like a battle that's about lost.

But if I were a college prof getting papers infested with different then, I'd mark them all with an F.

After a day or two, I might allow resubmission. But there would have to be as much grief demonstrated by the students as I had suffered while reading.

Murtha + Hoyer + Pelosi = Snooze

Anyone besides me not care a whit about the "battle" for House Majority Leader? Anyone besides me think it's really insignificant that Speaker Pelosi's choice wasn't the one selected?

I can't decide whether it's the Republican spin machine cranking up on about the only thing they have left to talk about, or the MSM being, as always, eager to talk about Democratic Party dissension, or just the familiar groupthink that chronically infects the Washington news bureaus.

I'm glad that a guy who evidently has so many ethics problems didn't get the job. That's better for the Party, the House, and the country in the long run. So Nancy Pelosi owed Jack Murtha a favor or two, and made a public show of support for him to as payback. It's hard for me to believe that she didn't know that she couldn't push this one through -- you don't get to where she is without being able to count noses.

I don't see this as loss of power for her. She won the speakership unanimously, and the real clout of that job lies in handing out committee assignments and deciding which proposed bills (and investigations, oh please, oh please) get pushed forward.

We've seen, over the past six years, what happens when the party in power moves in lockstep. It's a disaster, no doubt about it. Let's stop with the handwringing over a little Democratic squabbling, and get on with the job, shall we?

Free T$ Runs Out Today

Sorry I didn't notice this before, but the NY Times has been allowing everyone free access to TimesSelect this past week, and through today. This is the part of their web site that is usually available to subscribers only.

As I've said elsewhere, I think it's worth paying for TimesSelect, and for good content in general. Now you can see for yourself.

Two more years

I heard on the radio last night while driving home from work about Rummy getting the boot. Bush's taped comments, evidently from his afternoon press conference, were partially replayed. He had some mealy-mouthed explanation about having planned to do this for some weeks now, but didn't want to do it in the final days of the campaign.

Uh huh. Whatever.

The thing that really bugged me about it is that he admitted lying to reporters about the matter, and then tossed it off with that patented "heh-heh-heh." He clearly still thinks lying is okay.

The House investigations can't start soon enough for me.

Mildly Happy Days

Karl Rove, the president's top political strategist, alerted the president that the House was lost at around 11 p.m., the White House said.

"His reaction was, he was disappointed in the results in the House," Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. "But he’s eager to work with both parties on his priorities over the next two years. He's got an agenda of important issues he wants to work on, and he's going to work with both parties."

(source)

We'll see about that. He's had six years of not working with both parties, so far.

Never Mind the Election ...

. . . Britney and K-Fed are getting divorced!

The country seems already on a better track, doesn't it?

But you have voted today, haven't you? That's what I thought. Good.

We Should Kerry This Election. Easily.

Is the junior senator from Massachusetts working for the Republicans? I mean, again? After his stellar non-performance in 2004?

So you blew the joke, or whatever, Sen. Kerry. Stop mealymouthing with clarifications and parenthetical asides. Stop sort of denying but maybe just admitting. Stop flip-flopping, to coin a phrase.

Just say this: "I wasn't talking about the troops being dumb. I was talking about George W. Bush. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough."

Why is it so frickin' hard for the Democrats to get it together?