With Gratitude

Menaissance

I don't care what they say.  I'm not parting with my Kiehl's Facial Fuel, Amino Acid Shampoo, Creme de Corps, Ultimate Strength Hand Salve and Blue Eagle Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream. 

According to a newspaper in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh?), the metrosexual era is over, men are now retrosexual.

"Metrosexuals, take note: The party's over. The man's man is back. And he's had enough of unisex salons, simpering emo music and the emasculating kryptonite of the Oprahsphere.

"Or so say a spate of ads, books and websites that hail the emergence of the retrosexual, whose attitude and style hearken back to the strong, silent type of the '50s and early '60s.

"The retrosexual keeps things simple. He does not own more hair and skin care products than his wife or girlfriend. He does not "accessorize." Think Don Draper, the dapper, jut-jawed executive played by Jon Hamm in the AMC series "Mad Men." He may be a philanderer, but you won't find a pink shirt in his wardrobe. Like the dark hero characters of ex-spy Michael Westen in "Burn Notice" and U.S. Marshal Raylon Givens in "Justified," "Mad Men" presents alpha males who live unapologetically by their own code."

And it gets worse.  It seems the menaissance meme started with a reporter in Boston (Boston?) who said it first in 2006.  And he's a Red Sox fan no less.  Have you ever seen a well-dressed man at Fenway?  For Christ'ssakes, grown men wear Red Sox jerseys of players half their age, with hats on backwards, swilling draft beer in plastic cups.

"Bearded male models strutted the runways at this spring's New York Fashion Week. Ryan Seacrest sported a scruffier and more reserved look this season on "American Idol," and our obsession with those rugged fishermen on the Discovery Channel's "The Deadliest Catch" is driving the docudrama's success. The series "Lost" is fueled by its large cast of manly men: people like Locke and Sawyer, archetypal hunter-gatherers; Jack, the leader of the pack; Michael, who is single - mindedly preoccupied with his son's well-being; and Sayid, a former torture specialist in the Iraqi Republican Guard. The hot indie rock band Man Man, whose members sport mustaches and tattoos, is so manly it had to use word twice.

"Even gay culture has butched up. The guys in "Brokeback Mountain" were rugged types. That most macho of shows, HBO's "The Sopranos," included a story line about a gay mobster named Vito who hung out in a small New Hampshire town where all the gay men are portrayed as firefighters, jocks, and bikers."

 Read more about my 30-year Kiehl's addiction.

We're about to die down here

After 38 days, James Carville lays the "lackadaisical" response to the Gulf oil disaster at Obama's feet.



Meanwhile, Karl Rove calls the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster Obama's Katrina.

And, Christopher Dodd reflexively blames Bush.

Shine a Light

Eight years ago today my brother John passed away.  This is always a bittersweet day.  Sweet in remembrance of all the good memories, bitter in knowing a life was cut short.  By coincidence The Rolling Stones released their newly remastered Exile on Main Street this week.  Stones aficionados know the album, considered by many to be the Stones' best, was recorded in the basement of a villa in Nellcote France that Keith Richards rented the summer of 1971 to escape the tax burdens of the U.K.

And, as reported in the Times of London, Keith Richards' heroin addiction was part of the album's pedigree.

“But I was a very conservative junkie. I was far more discerning. Some guys that get on the stuff, they’ll take it, sight unseen, and you find out later it’s whacked with strychnine or something. Once you’ve been on the inside of it, it’s not that fascinating. I wouldn’t recommend it. If you want to find out what’s real, there’s other ways to do it. But that was my way."

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song your favorite tune,
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.

Public Sector Obscenity

The current administration's zeal for stimulus spending and adding trillions of dollars of debt isn't only about "getting our economy moving again."  The real reason the administration is swelling the ranks of federal and public employees at taxpayers' expense, most of whom are unionized, is to increase the numbers of Americans who, for financial self-interest, will always vote for Democratic Party candidates.

In an article in The New York Times, Padded Pensions Add to New York Fiscal Woes, it's reported that:

"According to pension data collected by The New York Times from the city and state, about 3,700 retired public workers in New York are now getting pensions of more than $100,000 a year, exempt from state and local taxes. The data belie official reports that the average state pension is a modest $18,000, or $38,000 for retired police officers and firefighters. (The average is low, in part, because it includes people who worked in government only part time, or just a few years, as well as surviving spouses getting partial benefits.)

"The New York State constitution bars public employers from slowing the rate at which workers build up their pensions over the course of their careers. That degree of protection contrasts sharply with the private sector, where companies can generally change the rate at which workers build their benefits at any time. Furthermore, as companies have reduced pensions substantially over the last two decades, states and cities have embellished theirs with sweeteners like inflation adjustments and lower retirement ages that appealed to unions and their members, who vote."

American Idol

"Alright, so listen, man. I don't know what's quite going on...it was just alright for me. It didn't really take off, ever, and it started kind of rough. I don't know." - American Idol judge Randy Jackson.

Yep.

Shut Up Already

WASP Agonistes

The class privilege that benefited my father (Andover, Dartmouth and Fortune 500 employment) wasn't a helpful factor for my generation, and is now an encumbrance for my boys.  Despite graduating near the top of his class and with near perfect SATs, one of my sons couldn't "achieve" Ivy League admission, as they admitted "more qualified" applicants.  Yet his college delights in charging full tuition, for which we do qualify, and regularly dun us for all kinds of donations.  But all's not lost, one thing my sons might be in demand for these days are Ralph Lauren ads.

In "That Bright, Dying Star: the American WASP," The Wall Street Journal reports on the demise of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, disparagingly known as WASPs.

"In the long downward spiral of what used to be known as America's Protestant Establishment, there have been several momentous milestones: Harvard's opening up its admissions policies after World War II. Corporate America's rush in the 1980s to bring more diversity to the corner office. Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African-American president.

"History may reveal another milestone—Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. If she is confirmed, the nation's nine most powerful judges will all be Catholic or Jewish, leaving the court without a Protestant member for the first time."

"Of the 111 Supreme Court Justices who have served, 35 have been Episcopalians, making them the largest religious group on the court, according to court historians. The court's first non-Protestant was Catholic Justice Roger Taney, appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1836."

While opportunity should be available to all irrespective of race, religion or socioeconomic status, one could argue the irony that today's social and financial redistribution policies are now blind to real merit. 

As one reader put it, "Most WASPs represent a system of values that led to this country's great success -- hard work, fairness, patriotism and the crazy idea that if one works harder than another, one deserves to enjoy greater success. What is lost to the Supreme Court isn't the narrow perspective of the unjustly privileged and irrelevant few, it is the very set of ideals that founded this country."

Nazi Tourette's

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
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Giant Killer

 

First there was Ken Dryden.  Then Patrick Roy.  Today it's Jaroslav Halak, the latest of Montreal Canadiens goalies who more or less single handedly leads the team to post-season Stanley Cup glory.

With last night's 5-2 game seven victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, Halak vanquished Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the playoff's second round, an accomplishment nearly as improbable as the team's first-round elimination of Alexander Ovechkin's President's Cup-winning Washington Capitals.

Up next, either the Boston Bruins or Philadelphia Flyers.  I'm hoping for some "original six" hockey.

Get out of there!

Roofs and Flood Plains

It's not just Census takers who want to know who's in the buildings, it's FEMA who wants to know the slope of your roof, the number of trees in your neighborhood, and whether it's prone to flooding.

According to The New York Times, a twin-engine Shrike Commander airplane, equipped with LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, recently "scanned the urban canyons of the city at about 3,500 feet in nine six-hour, post-midnight flights from April 14 to April 30."

The purpose is to understand roof pitches for potential solar energy applications and flood plains should global warming raise rainfall and flood water.

"The early morning flyovers are expected to yield the most detailed three-dimensional picture of New York City to date, with an emphasis on structures, elevations, sun and shade, and nooks and crannies relevant to the city’s emergency response system and its environmental goals."

Death by PowerPoint

This chart, titled Afganistan Stability / COIN Dynamics (for counterinsurgency), was reviewed late last year by U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, who opined "When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war."

The chart, slide 22, was prepared by PA Consulting Services for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to support three goals:

1. Influence insurgent-minded individuals to adopt a neutral disposition
2. Influence neutral-minded individuals to adopt a supportive disposition
3. Retain supportive individuals

The double lines on the chart represent significant delays.

The "WORKING DRAFT - V3" disclaimer must have inspired confidence.

The chart reminds me of another elucidating government PowerPoint chart.

Who's that girl?

On a recent stroll down Main Street in Vineyard Haven, a young girl walking with her mother stopped to look at the photographs in the window of the Simon Gallery.

This photo caught her eye and she asked her mother, "Who's that girl?"  The mother didn't know.

This photo of Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, titled "I'm a Golden God," was taken by Peter Simon, Carly's brother, on an LA balcony overlooking Sunset Strip during the band's 1975 Physical Graffiti tour.

Yankees and Mets Fans

So I log on to The Wall Street Journal's web site this morning to see what havoc occurred in overseas markets while I slept and what catches my eye?  An article titled Yankees Fans Are From Mars... 

I've had my own theories over the years, but now Public Opinion Strategies has the answers: beer, guns and dogs.

British Election Results

Cape Wind Update

Bob Staake, one of the many clever cartoonists at The New Yorker magazine, came up with a cover for this week's issue that's a mash-up of Don Quixote and Cape Wind, titled "Tilt."