Headscarves

Upcoming landmark

One of the last gas stations in Manhattan

Proving intellect....

The US is planning to place tariffs on Chinese products because of past past Chinese intellectual theft. Asked about it a Chinese official replied. "Fake news" stealing Trump's intellectual.....

Me too, or Le Rouge et le Noir

never liked Catherine Deneuve and did not actually read " en direct" the statement she signed. Reports are that it criticized me (too). There is no doubt that  there are many women that were violated or mistreated, but what we have now is an elitist cultural hysteria (if I may use such word).. So I think Deneuve may have a point and I salute the  French  who signed.  Feminine is a word of French  Latin origin.
But I bow even deeper in front of Blanca Blanco who looked good in her  red dress and did not care for the political black.  Why would Ms White White (in translation from some Latin language ) wear black. I admire but would not dare to tell it in her face,

NO COLLUSION

It is time to get real. There was no collusion, that is there was no quid pro quo or anything like this. The Russians did not expect Trump to win. Nor did Trump. Putin helped Trump hoping  to get a weakened Hillary president. Everybody in the Trump clique was trying to position themselves for maximum deals and profits post (lost) election.  Why Russia? This is where money flows to few and the oligarchs  like to spend abroad...There was nothing else. There is nothing seriously immoral in trying to milk the corrupt, launder some dirty money...Just dirty reality.

Imagining man

Rodin and Michelangelo at the MET.  Naked heroes and only muscles, Where did they see this? What were they eating? 

             

Forecasting change

Forecasting the economy or the stock market is usually wrong. Not totally wrong but enough off the mark to be called wrong. And lots of money is poured into this research since there is a lot of money to be made. Now weather forecasting is not more precise. Improving, but still  not precise for longer than three or four days horizons...So why would climate change analyses and predictions be more accurate?  or believable...Because the economists make more money and expect huge immediate returns... while  the climate scientists....?

Abandon Statues

This used to be an eternal flame. Taking down statues? Neglect is working better!

NJ bank

 Sitting on a bench at  the farmers' market, my wife got high with the smell of spices and flowers being sold at the stand in front of us.
This is Weekhaven.

Now Who and Whom

Was invited to a party. Received an email; you should not talk politics and not mention Him. When you call him Him, you are already a subject in his realm. So I went to the Whitney. On the fifth floor found an  entire room  dedicated to Censorship Now! Whichever way the humor gets killed.

Covfefe

I heard the call! And I came​ back. Here I am, like the grenadier answering Napoleon's call when he returned from Elba. Here I am ready to March towards Waterloo.
We understood the alternative orthography and none of us leaked the true meaning.

Empty, but fascinating

from an art show

No readers. Thank you Google

Stages

For a long time I had planned to write a book on the lovers I could have had. I reached now  the age when I am planning a book on all the real estate deals that I should have gone into.
Reminds me of  -having  no heart at 25 and being a liberal at 40.
 Thomas Jefferson preserved this quip, writing in a 1799 journal that Adams had said: “A boy of 15 who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at 20.”

Gap

The gap between the political discourse of the traditional parties and the reality is so huge that it allowed straight talkers to advance in primaries;
Maybe Trump is not exactly a straight talker, but definitely he does not use the typical republican  lingo.

$20 demonstrations

Talking politics with my wife. She wants to send money to Hillary to prove that little people also support her. I want to send to Bernie to show that millionaires also support him.

El Viejo

Today. On Broadway a decently dressed old woman,  stopped me and asked for "A dollar or something". Strange, she talked only to me. Later, as I was resting next to my bike in Riverside park an old  woman stooped, looked at me and asked: " You still ride?" I wonder how does Bernie Sanders feel when they call him "El Viejo"? Not even sure what the various titles may be - papi, papito, abuelo, viejo?
Can a white haired man be dirty without being a dirty old man?

Life, sort of ...short

A young and pretty woman from my club died from cancer. Her sailing mates and age cohorts are shocked.
This winter lots of musicians died. David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Maurice White - do not remember what they sang, but my generation.  Me? I forgot things. The other day I realized I forgot the lines of Row, row,  row your boat...The only thing that came to mind was Life is but a dream....

Eske? approve this message

I do.

Curing Fear

This article reminds me of this guy who went to the psychologist.
- Every night I see a crocodile getting out of my bed and trying to eat me.
The psychologist prescribed some medication and after each visit increased the dose.  When the guy stopped coming the psychologist went to check his patient at home. Nobody answered the door. The psychologist asked a neighbor.
-Have you seen Joe lately ?
-What you don't know?  A crocodile ate him.

Powerball Shame

What more proof that this nation is loosing its touch? Nobody won this 900 mils Powerball.  So nobody could pick the actual nimbers, but it turns out that over 90% of the numbers were machine generated. Are the machines rigged or are our progammers (in India or China) incapable?
And now, to compensate for the inability to win, the prize was increased.

NYT pictures of the year

Some extraordinary pictures. Dead and dying and trying to escape death. When featured, the american president and former president are shot from behind only.

Umbrellas, seasonal?

My father had developed a theory of things becoming suicidal. Like if this cup decides to commit suicide it will try repeatedly to fall till it breaks. Umbrellas hide, get lost, break in the wind. I don't think umbrellas are suicidal. Just cheap.

Historical...

It turns out that during Napoleon III the French anthem was Partons pour la Syrie, In fact it was referring to the campaign in Egypt.  They kind of messed it, the French. And now they are left with going out to drink to show defiance.

Sang Impur

Yesterday, at the beginning of the show the choir sang La Marseillaise.  After all the Messiahs that I did not know and could not sing, here there was a song to my own deity- French democracy or revolution or whatever. Was the only one around who new the words. I sang along. Of course - my singing was false. Born with the wrong pitch. Sang Impur.

Shark talk

So what is one major problem of American adult males? Besides dating. Matching socks after laundry. One might wear unmatched socks or might have a foreign born (compliant ) wife. Else you can spend money eternally buying socks or having all socks of same type. I found a cheaper solution - have your dog match the socks. Every normal guy has a dog. The problem is that dogs are color blind. So I am working on some kind of color restoration glasses....

Unloved Manhattan

Manhattan Bridge that is. While Brooklyn Bridge is full of people, so crowded one can barely advance, this other bridge is empty. No place to jump....

Stealing on the way out

Jon Stewart left saying bullshit is everywhere. This has been my line all along. See this blog as proof. Did he steal this line or this theory "was in the air"? Bullshit.

Brother can

-Sir, can you spare a dime?
-Thanks for the opportunity, but I pass.
I gave this impromptu answer. But seriously the principle pushed by the Republican machine is  - don't tax the ultra high earners. They are job creators!
But seems to me the job creators are pocketing the money and skipping the job creation. Or at best they creae the jobs in Bangladesh where they come cheap.

Being Kramer

The other day was thinking to write a post on a Seinfeld theme - Sometimes I should stop being George and should be Kramer. Liberating. The following day  this article ran in the paper. OK, may be I should avoid being Kramer.

I am THE FAN

In this period when everybody IS..declares to be  some victim or another - I recognized myself in the portrait struck by James Dolan.   ...your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess.. 
Almost. Getting there. To speed up the process I should become a Knicks fan.

Ich bin ein Munchener

Ich bin ein Munchener said the EU as they are meeting in Munich. Right now. In Munich.  To study how to pacify a crazy guy. You, my Czech bots who visit regularly this blog, take notice. Right now the subject is Ukraine, but you are not far away. Old men who were in Europe in 1939 might still remember the  feeling of relief when Chamberlain came back with a signed document.

using painkillers

I discoverer painkillers. I had taken pills that reduce inflammations or temperature,. But to kill minor pains. Not really. Thought beneath me. But then what a relief! And I remembered Seneca, who was teaching stoicism while was living a wealthy man's  life. What was the point of him teaching stoicism? Just to pretend to belong to a philosophy en vogue during his life? Teaching without practicing? Like  today's politicians? At that time I thought philosophers were living by their words. Right?    When he was told to commit suicide he was totally unprepared - had to try different methods....A stoic unprepared for death.

google the brains

The internet as we know it will disappear.  This statement  is intended to mean that the internet will be ubiquitous.  All over. One would not notice it or pay any importance. And all our activities will be monitored. Measured. Limited and controlled. Intelligence. What will it mean or what does it mean?
To google will mean get in each and everyone's mind and move the info.

Altogether

Was looking for a book -Alone Together - at Barnes & Noble's. Turned out there are more than ten books with same title. Probably the authors were so isolated that they did not know of the existence of the other books.
They were provably published before the internet allowed searches...Probably this explains the development of  the social media. Now we are all connected together and lonely.

Cocteau c'est moi

Is it cultural confusion or just my confused memory? I wrote a post Charlie c'est moi when everybody uses Je suis Chalie. My intent was to allude to the famous Cocteau "C'est moi" from La machine a ecrire. Or was it in Cocteau's La machine infernale?

Martyrdom irony

Analyzing my previous post on Charlie killings. First - it was about me, not about the horror or the dead? [It seems this entire blog tries to be a kind of selfie - everything is about me.] So in fact I used the opportunity of this  criminal act to criticize the victims. Carrying on without shame,  I continue to clarify -They might be representative of the extremes of the freedom of the press, but they were not funny. They, the Charlie editors, thought insulting is funny in or by itself. They lacked the tools of irony. It is ironic that they are the ones that became the martyrs of funny. They would have still laughed at the thought that their assassins died in a press shop.
There is more irony.  The people gathered in  Place de la Republique had signs in English -Not Afraid
Here goes the glory of the French culture ( in a year that saw a French Jewish writer got the Nobel prize, mainly on themes of Jewish memory).  Expressing courage in a different language.
Beautiful blog about satire in the era of the internet when your eye-blink might not be noticed by people of different cultures.

Charlie c'est moi

Not really. Only today. I am of the Canard Enchaine humor. But today it is not about humor.

Politics of climate change

There is no morality in politics. Action is taken for some profit, not general welfare. So I am happy to see that the powers that be found a compelling method to fight climate change. - Cold war.

Cultureality

Saw recently a movie where the hero says - you have no talent for happiness.  And today a quote from Seneca Viri infelicis procul amici - stay away from the unhappy man. 

Curating artistic free...

It was an extraordinary tapestry about religion and burning books. I thought this is about liberty of expression and art and detruction. As I was tryong to take a photo - I was admonished - No photos allowed.
Well...only a patron's sketch ...

Life explained

Profile of a successful player. Hmm...Highly satisfied and without anxieties. Now i know why I had no chance as a  basketball player.

Polish cashier

I've been buying at this deli for a long time. She knows me well. But she still calls me ...Next!

Democracy - statistically speaking

Most democratic revolutions turn into tyranny. This was known to the Framers and is proven by recent events.  The tyrants use the people's vote or armed forces to fill the vacuum created by the removal of the ancient regime. Similarly economic power is not getting redistributed but is seized by oligarchs.  Most of the time nations cannot find their Washington..

Vermont?

Drove through Vermont recently and wondered what its people do or make. Agriculture? Can three cows support a village? Do the Vermonters spend their time polishing the scenery for the enjoyment of travelers?
In fact one of their main occupations - giving travel directions in a polite manner - is about to disappear with all these apps and Google maps.

Indignation

The  Nigerian school girls abduction has been the top news on BBC since it happened. It took about two weeks or more for US media to report. And now indignation and protests.....Shameful.

The ambiguity of democracy

There does appear to be a confidence threshold for any successful democracy. Once the threshold is passed, it becomes very unlikely that the move to democracy will be reversed…. No democracy has reverted to autocratic government once per capita GDP has risen above $7,000.

But liberal versions of democracy are not similarly irreversible, and there are signs that a shift is underway in a number of European countries

Vladimir Putin’s Russia exemplifies one version: repression is combined with liberalization, and elections coexist with entrenched power elites…. Russia has not turned into a democracy. It has turned into a pseudo-democratic kleptocracy, in which people use money to get power and power to get money.

In general, the spread of democracy has often set off movements for secession, as groups that fear becoming permanent minorities struggle to establish their own states. In interwar Central and Eastern Europe, parts of postcolonial Africa, and post-Tito Yugoslavia, the emergence of democracy was accompanied by intense civil and ethnic conflict. It is hard to think of a convincing reason why China would be different. As in other parts of the world, any move to democracy will very likely come at significant human cost.

The above texts are from

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/20/dangers-of-democracy/?page=3

old game

Fiction uses metaphors, .....to draw meaning. The Second Game uses reality to create meaning.

adaptation

Whatever the reality, this review provides a good explanation of the evolution of climate change politics. We are now in the adaptation stage.  

Apple and orange in Boston

Had to find the train stop for the yellow line. Helpful Bostonian.....first one excused himself  l don't use this lime. Another asked me  - Train? You mean  subway. Was sent from right to left. Impossible to find.Figured out only after an agitated half hour- they call yellow, orange.....

will not capitulate

I was sailing with this group sailing around St. Barth and St Martin. Beautiful scenery. Hundreds of pictures taken.  I show up in many. Never smiling.