I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

The New Yorker ~ Perry Barlow

According to Dan Woog's 06880.com blog, that's about all things Westport, CT, the song I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus had its origins as this 1939 New Yorker cover by Westport artist Perry Barlow.

Years later in 1952, Sax Fifth Avenue used Barlow's illustration for its Christmas card and commissioned the song by Jimmy Boyd which went to #1 on the Billboard charts.

Home for the holidays

When Organizing for Action (Obama's renamed 2012 campaign PAC) puts this kind of propaganda on TV, you know the Affordable Care Act is failing in far more ways than just its unworkable web site or myriad delayed mandates. All the polls say young adults aren't buying it, literally.



POTUS and FLOTUS ran this same play in the Oval Office Wednesday with a photo-opp group of "moms" before packing for the First Family's first-class, 17-day Hawaiian vacation.

The unsaid message here is . . . Sign up to subsidize your parents' health insurance or else we'll fine you.

The administration's tin ear is also evident on Twitter.

Remember Hope and Change? Neither does the American public.

According to Gallup:

"72 percent of Americans say 'big government' is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000.

"Gallup has documented a steady increase in concern about big government since 2009, rising from 55% in March 2009, to 64% in 2011 and 72 percent today. This suggests that government policies specific to the period, such as the Affordable Care Act - perhaps coupled with recent revelations of government spying - may be factors."

O'Toole Epitaph

While I no longer romanticize the consequences of addiction, when I read something like this I admire the self deprecation and humor.

From an interview with actor Peter O'Toole, who died Saturday, on TCM Word of Mouth, December 2008:

"Many years ago I sent an old, beloved jacket to a cleaner, the Sycamore Cleaners. It was a leather jacket covered in Guinness and blood and marmalade, one of those jobs . . . and it came back with a little note pinned to it, and on the note it said, 'It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.' So that will do for me. That can go on my tombstone."

See Ya!

Robinson Cano & Curtis Granderson ~ Getty Images

Win some, lose some.

Free agents Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson have moved on to the Mariners and Mets. In turn, the Yankees picked up Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, and resigned Hiroki Kuroda.

Burned by the 10-year, $275 million contract with Alex Rodriguez, Yankees management's best offer to Cano was a 7-year, $175 million deal. Cano's agent, Jay Z, wanted more and got him a 10-year deal worth $240 million.

The key fact to contemplate: Cano is 31 and there are no 41 year olds playing second base. 

Zoned Out

We've ridden Metro North commuter trains most of our lives, in and out of Fairfield and Westchester Counties and Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Except for the occasional weather delay or cancellation, we've always gotten to our destination. Last Sunday's derailment of the 5:04 AM southbound Hudson Line train from Poughkeepsie was tragic and a reminder that accidents do happen, on land, air and sea.

The engineer's lawyer says he "zoned out" as the train entered a sharp turn at 82 miles per hour at the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, and failed to slow the train to the usual 30 miles per hour speed. A train union representative told a CNN reporter the engineer "was nodding off and caught himself too late."  This so-called "twilight" state suggests the engineer's hands were probably still on the controls, hence the "dead man" technologies in place to stop a train when an engineer becomes incapacitated didn't activate.

State and local politicians are falling over themselves pointing fingers, appointing task forces and ordering investigations. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (that runs Metro North) and the National Transportation Safety Board are making their cases for already partially implemented investments in Positive Train Control (PTC) technology, which combines GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor trains and stop them from colliding or derailing. Why hasn't PTC already been implemented? Cost. It's estimated it will cost $900 million, and that's on top of rising pension and health benefits which are already up 49 percent since 2009.

At some point the investigations and litigation will conclude, engineer fatigue and singular human error will likely be blamed, a career will be ended, and fines and court settlements will be paid. Then expensive new technology and regulations will be implemented, with the higher costs passed on to commuters through higher fares.

Such is progress.

Slow down

Speed is the greatest factor in modern life ~ Long Beach, CA, 1935

Last March we shared my late grandfather's reminiscences about growing up around the turn of the 20th century: Living, fast and slow.

This week has stirred similar thoughts, what with billboard pop ups on our TV's FIOS guide offering even faster broadband speeds, and the news that many national retailers and food chains like Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Macy's, Best Buy and Pizza Hut will be open today, ahead of tomorrow's Black Friday, requiring employees to leave their families on Thanksgiving Day to ring registers and reap profits.

Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal, gets it right in Stay Home, America, excerpts below:

"You know where we're going, because you've seen the news stories about the big retailers that have decided to open on Thanksgiving evening, to cram a few extra hours in before the so-called Black Friday sales. About a million Wal-Mart workers will have to be in by 5 p.m. for a 6 p.m. opening, so I guess they'll have to eat quickly with family, then bolt. Kmart will open on Thanksgiving too, along with Target, Sears, Best Buy and Macy's, among others.

"The conversation has tended to revolve around the question of whether it's good for Americans to leave their gatherings to go buy things on Thanksgiving. In a societal sense, no—honor the day best you can and shop tomorrow. But that's not even the question. At least shoppers have a choice. They can decide whether or not they want to leave and go somewhere else. But the workers who are going to have to haul in to work the floor don't have a choice. They've been scheduled. They've got jobs they want to keep.

"It's not right. The idea that Thanksgiving doesn't demand special honor marks another erosion of tradition, of ceremony, of a national sense. And this country doesn't really need more erosion in those areas, does it?

"Black Friday—that creepy sales bacchanal in which the lost, the lonely, the stupid and the compulsive line up before midnight Friday to crash through the doors, trampling children and frightening clerks along the way—is bad enough, enough of a blight on the holiday.

"But Thanksgiving itself? It is the day the Pilgrims invented to thank God to live in such a place as this, the day Abe Lincoln formally put aside as a national time of gratitude for the sheer fact of our continuance. It's more important than anyone's bottom line. That's a hopelessly corny thing to say, isn't it? Too bad. It's true.

"Oh, I hope people don't go. I hope it's a big flop.

"Stay home, America."

The Pale Blue Dot

Last July, we posted a NASA photo of Saturn with Earth in the distance. Newer photos have been posted that show Mars and Venus as well.

Watch Carl Sagan's speech, The Pale Blue Dot, to keep perspective, and to be kind and live humbly.

Hockey fights

Sugar Jim Henry and Maurice Richard

With the increasing focus and litigation on concussions and head injuries in professionals sports, there's one that's "fighting" the trend, and that's ice hockey.

USA Today recently ran opposing editorials for and against fighting.

Brian Burke, a former NHL player and now head of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, shared his thoughts for why fighting works:

"Ninety-eight percent of NHL players voted to keep fighting in the game, yet somehow members of the news media take it upon themselves to try to convince the players that the scribes know what is best for them. They don't write about the times a heavyweight skates by his opponent's bench to say, "Settle down, or I'll settle you down," and it works. They don't notice a tough guy warning an opponent at a faceoff. They've never heard a star player march into their office, slam the door and demand the team get tougher because he's getting killed out there by opponents playing without fear. They've never seen a chippy game on the edge settle down after a good fight.

"It's not a perfect system. Not every fight is a good fight. Not every fighter is a perfect policeman. There are a small number of rats in the game who live outside the code. But our game is improved tremendously by players' ability to police the game. It makes it more exciting and honorable. It allows skill players to focus on the skilled aspects of the game because someone else can watch their back. And it fundamentally makes our game safer."

 P.S. The photo above is considered one of the most iconic photographs in hockey history. Here's the backstory.

Obamacare by Morning

Guess there are some celebrities outside the Hollywood orbit who aren't afraid of being politically incorrect. But, as Dr. Ben Carson knows, there's probably an IRS audit in their future.

healthcare.gov

The New Yorker ~ Barry Blitt

If you can bear it, read this TechCrunch article from the spring of 2010 about the clever minds at work on healthcare.gov. This is why the federal government has no business doing what private industry, or even the states, can do better. Idealism's a nice notion, but when you legislate control of an annual $1.7 trillion industry, realism is a requirement. That means real business leaders with management expertise and track records, not simply hip crowdsourcers. Playing business, er politics, with "other peoples' money" is a prescription for failure. Another round of golf anyone?

Excerpts here:

“We were working 24/7, working in very, very rapid cycles, with very, very short deadlines and milestones. We were working in a very, very nimble hyper consumer focused way…all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all nighters, and you know idealism.”

That may sound like the caffeine-fueled, sleep-deprived rant of a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Except it’s not— try Todd Park, the buttoned-up CTO of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Halloween Costumes

Healthcare Mandates, Glitches & Consequences

Robert Leighton ~ The New Yorker

Washington Redskins

There's been lots of bloviating about the political correctness of the name and mascot of the 81-year-old NFL team the Washington Redskins. Despite survey after survey that show the majority of Americans, including native Americans, are just fine with the name, there are those who just can't get over themselves and think their opinions matter the most. And guess where they're from?

Right, if there's anything offensive about the team's name, it's the word Washington.

Fleeting Illusion of Happiness

Gahan Wilson ~ The New Yorker

Gravity

We made a $51 contribution to this weekend's high-grossing movie blockbuster, Gravity. In a word, sublime.

The 3-D Imax screening certainly added to the experience. According to boxofficemojo.com, Gravity grossed nearly $56 million its first weekend, recouping about half its production costs of $105 million.

Shame is bipartisan

But, is the government really shut down?

Story Book Endings

There won't be any Yankees contending for Mr. October status this fall, but Andy Pettitte's final night on the mound had a story book ending.

Pitching in Houston with more than 50 members of his family in the stands and just miles from his boyhood home, Pettitte earned his 275th career victory, throwing 116 pitches in his first complete game since 2006.

According to The New York Times, the game was one for the record books:

"In his 438th start for the Yankees, which tied him with Whitey Ford for the most by a pitcher with the team, Pettitte matched Rivera’s magical moment from Thursday night with magic of his own. He threw his first complete game in seven years, a 116-pitch gem, to beat the Houston Astros, his former team, 2-1, and put a bow on his life as a baseball player.

"Now in the stretch, he gave his signature stare over his glove one last time and induced a ground ball to third base on his 116th pitch. Eduardo Nunez made the play, and Pettitte slapped his hands together, spun around with a huge smile and hugged catcher Chris Stewart.

“ 'It’s just another day that I’ll never forget,' Pettitte said.

"After he hugged each of his teammates, players on both teams came out of the dugouts and applauded as Pettitte waved to the crowd and then to them. He had evened his record to 11-11 and become the only pitcher with at least 15 seasons never to have a losing one, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He improved his career record to 256-153, including 219-127 with the Yankees, and he earned his 275th win, including playoff games."

During his final post-game interview, Pettitte said, "I love to play the game. I love to pitch. It's a shame you get old."

Thinking back on his career, all the games we attended at the old and new stadiums, his role as one of the "core four" with Jeter, Posada and Rivera, and the five World Series championships, I felt enormous gratitude and shed some tears.

Harvest Moon Sail

A harvest moon sail out of Westport for 6.67 nautical miles averaging 4.29 knots.

Murmuration

Photo by Kristen Fauteux

Kristen Fauteux

Kristen Fauteux

Swallowed Up by Majesty of Migration

From the Sheriff's Meadow Foundation, with commentary by Adam Moore.

By the numberless thousands they descend. The birds arrive as a great host, flying from the northeast, following a sinuous path on invisible, atmospheric currents. The flock appears as a river of birds, curving through the air, with birds pouring forth in a flow that seems unceasing.
The great flocks of migrating tree swallows have arrived upon the plains of Quansoo and elsewhere on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. By sunset at the end of a gray Labor Day, some hundreds of members of a flock of swallows had alighted on the branches of a black cherry tree and on the upper boughs of a neighboring eastern red cedar.
The swallows appeared restless. The birds would roost in the branches, all of them facing south, seemingly situated for the night. Yet after a moment or two, the birds would take flight en masse, wheel about in a choreographed spin, and then alight again. On the cherries, the swallows appeared to favor branches that terminated in dead, leafless twigs over those branches that bore leaves to the distal ends.
From a distance, the flocks of swallows appeared very much like swarms of bees. Tumbling, wheeling, circling, the swarms of swallows soared over the plains. Some pairs of swallows, separated from the flocks, dashed over the meadows, flying low, and skirting the tassels of switch grass as they snatched insects in flight. A few individual birds hovered in the air above, one perhaps 50 feet high, another 100 feet high, perhaps acting as sentinels for the rest of the flock.
Of the plants, the bayberry attracts the swallows. Along the margins of Black Point Pond, the bayberry shrubs now bear their waxy gray fruit in profusion. These bayberries can be gathered up, and when boiled in a large pot, the wax will separate from the fruit. The wax can then be skimmed off, allowed to cool, and used to make a bayberry candle. As someone who has attempted this, I can attest that one will have a very dark winter should one choose to rely on bayberry candles as a source of light. Fortunately for the swallows, they rely on bayberries not for illumination, but rather for sustenance. They find the bayberries a plentiful and valuable food source. The swallows stop at Quansoo or Katama or on the headlands of Cedar Tree Neck. On the bayberries they feast, before rising in a cyclonic swarm to cross the ocean on the next stretch of their migration.
These great hosts of swallows are, after all, migrating. What we witness here in September is a great wonder of nature, a scene of throngs of animals engaged in an annual migration. The flights of swallows do not equal the long lost flights of the passenger pigeon, so numerous that the flying birds darkened the sky and the roosting birds snapped limbs from trees, but the swallows do call such a migration to mind. The swarming swallows, the nonresident Canada geese flying in V-formation, the striped bass following cold waters back to Island beaches, the plovers scurrying from waves that lap the opening of the Tisbury Great Pond — all of these migrants pass the Island as summer turns to fall.
We recognize this change of the seasons. We, too, migrate, and change along with the changes in the light and the weather. The sassafras turns a speckled orange, and passengers by the thousands walk the gangways in Vineyard Haven and in Oak Bluffs and board the ferries, bound for the mainland. The sumac turns a bright red, and the school bus pulls up by the mailboxes. The seasons are changing and, sometimes, we take a moment to mark the changes in our own lives.
On the plains, the raindrops of a cloudy afternoon still cling to blades of grass. The little bluestem has turned a ruddy purple. Hazelnut bursts with fruit, its brown-tinged clusters of nuts splitting open. Goldenrod droops its yellow blossoms over the edges of the dirt road. The surf sounds in the distance, and above, and all around, a thousand tree swallows fly and dart and swarm and roost. The swallows are bound for a distant land, but for one September night, here they sleep.
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/09/09/swallowed-majesty-migration#sthash.v5FNKMBS.dpuf

By the numberless thousands they descend. The birds arrive as a great host, flying from the northeast, following a sinuous path on invisible, atmospheric currents. The flock appears as a river of birds, curving through the air, with birds pouring forth in a flow that seems unceasing.
The great flocks of migrating tree swallows have arrived upon the plains of Quansoo and elsewhere on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. By sunset at the end of a gray Labor Day, some hundreds of members of a flock of swallows had alighted on the branches of a black cherry tree and on the upper boughs of a neighboring eastern red cedar.
The swallows appeared restless. The birds would roost in the branches, all of them facing south, seemingly situated for the night. Yet after a moment or two, the birds would take flight en masse, wheel about in a choreographed spin, and then alight again. On the cherries, the swallows appeared to favor branches that terminated in dead, leafless twigs over those branches that bore leaves to the distal ends.
From a distance, the flocks of swallows appeared very much like swarms of bees. Tumbling, wheeling, circling, the swarms of swallows soared over the plains. Some pairs of swallows, separated from the flocks, dashed over the meadows, flying low, and skirting the tassels of switch grass as they snatched insects in flight. A few individual birds hovered in the air above, one perhaps 50 feet high, another 100 feet high, perhaps acting as sentinels for the rest of the flock.
Of the plants, the bayberry attracts the swallows. Along the margins of Black Point Pond, the bayberry shrubs now bear their waxy gray fruit in profusion. These bayberries can be gathered up, and when boiled in a large pot, the wax will separate from the fruit. The wax can then be skimmed off, allowed to cool, and used to make a bayberry candle. As someone who has attempted this, I can attest that one will have a very dark winter should one choose to rely on bayberry candles as a source of light. Fortunately for the swallows, they rely on bayberries not for illumination, but rather for sustenance. They find the bayberries a plentiful and valuable food source. The swallows stop at Quansoo or Katama or on the headlands of Cedar Tree Neck. On the bayberries they feast, before rising in a cyclonic swarm to cross the ocean on the next stretch of their migration.
These great hosts of swallows are, after all, migrating. What we witness here in September is a great wonder of nature, a scene of throngs of animals engaged in an annual migration. The flights of swallows do not equal the long lost flights of the passenger pigeon, so numerous that the flying birds darkened the sky and the roosting birds snapped limbs from trees, but the swallows do call such a migration to mind. The swarming swallows, the nonresident Canada geese flying in V-formation, the striped bass following cold waters back to Island beaches, the plovers scurrying from waves that lap the opening of the Tisbury Great Pond — all of these migrants pass the Island as summer turns to fall.
We recognize this change of the seasons. We, too, migrate, and change along with the changes in the light and the weather. The sassafras turns a speckled orange, and passengers by the thousands walk the gangways in Vineyard Haven and in Oak Bluffs and board the ferries, bound for the mainland. The sumac turns a bright red, and the school bus pulls up by the mailboxes. The seasons are changing and, sometimes, we take a moment to mark the changes in our own lives.
On the plains, the raindrops of a cloudy afternoon still cling to blades of grass. The little bluestem has turned a ruddy purple. Hazelnut bursts with fruit, its brown-tinged clusters of nuts splitting open. Goldenrod droops its yellow blossoms over the edges of the dirt road. The surf sounds in the distance, and above, and all around, a thousand tree swallows fly and dart and swarm and roost. The swallows are bound for a distant land, but for one September night, here they sleep.
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/09/09/swallowed-majesty-migration#sthash.v5FNKMBS.dpuf

By the numberless thousands they descend. The birds arrive as a great host, flying from the northeast, following a sinuous path on invisible, atmospheric currents. The flock appears as a river of birds, curving through the air, with birds pouring forth in a flow that seems unceasing.
The great flocks of migrating tree swallows have arrived upon the plains of Quansoo and elsewhere on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. By sunset at the end of a gray Labor Day, some hundreds of members of a flock of swallows had alighted on the branches of a black cherry tree and on the upper boughs of a neighboring eastern red cedar.
The swallows appeared restless. The birds would roost in the branches, all of them facing south, seemingly situated for the night. Yet after a moment or two, the birds would take flight en masse, wheel about in a choreographed spin, and then alight again. On the cherries, the swallows appeared to favor branches that terminated in dead, leafless twigs over those branches that bore leaves to the distal ends.
From a distance, the flocks of swallows appeared very much like swarms of bees. Tumbling, wheeling, circling, the swarms of swallows soared over the plains. Some pairs of swallows, separated from the flocks, dashed over the meadows, flying low, and skirting the tassels of switch grass as they snatched insects in flight. A few individual birds hovered in the air above, one perhaps 50 feet high, another 100 feet high, perhaps acting as sentinels for the rest of the flock.
Of the plants, the bayberry attracts the swallows. Along the margins of Black Point Pond, the bayberry shrubs now bear their waxy gray fruit in profusion. These bayberries can be gathered up, and when boiled in a large pot, the wax will separate from the fruit. The wax can then be skimmed off, allowed to cool, and used to make a bayberry candle. As someone who has attempted this, I can attest that one will have a very dark winter should one choose to rely on bayberry candles as a source of light. Fortunately for the swallows, they rely on bayberries not for illumination, but rather for sustenance. They find the bayberries a plentiful and valuable food source. The swallows stop at Quansoo or Katama or on the headlands of Cedar Tree Neck. On the bayberries they feast, before rising in a cyclonic swarm to cross the ocean on the next stretch of their migration.
These great hosts of swallows are, after all, migrating. What we witness here in September is a great wonder of nature, a scene of throngs of animals engaged in an annual migration. The flights of swallows do not equal the long lost flights of the passenger pigeon, so numerous that the flying birds darkened the sky and the roosting birds snapped limbs from trees, but the swallows do call such a migration to mind. The swarming swallows, the nonresident Canada geese flying in V-formation, the striped bass following cold waters back to Island beaches, the plovers scurrying from waves that lap the opening of the Tisbury Great Pond — all of these migrants pass the Island as summer turns to fall.
We recognize this change of the seasons. We, too, migrate, and change along with the changes in the light and the weather. The sassafras turns a speckled orange, and passengers by the thousands walk the gangways in Vineyard Haven and in Oak Bluffs and board the ferries, bound for the mainland. The sumac turns a bright red, and the school bus pulls up by the mailboxes. The seasons are changing and, sometimes, we take a moment to mark the changes in our own lives.
On the plains, the raindrops of a cloudy afternoon still cling to blades of grass. The little bluestem has turned a ruddy purple. Hazelnut bursts with fruit, its brown-tinged clusters of nuts splitting open. Goldenrod droops its yellow blossoms over the edges of the dirt road. The surf sounds in the distance, and above, and all around, a thousand tree swallows fly and dart and swarm and roost. The swallows are bound for a distant land, but for one September night, here they sleep.
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/09/09/swallowed-majesty-migration#sthash.v5FNKMBS.dpuf

By the numberless thousands they descend. The birds arrive as a great host, flying from the northeast, following a sinuous path on invisible, atmospheric currents. The flock appears as a river of birds, curving through the air, with birds pouring forth in a flow that seems unceasing.
The great flocks of migrating tree swallows have arrived upon the plains of Quansoo and elsewhere on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. By sunset at the end of a gray Labor Day, some hundreds of members of a flock of swallows had alighted on the branches of a black cherry tree and on the upper boughs of a neighboring eastern red cedar.
The swallows appeared restless. The birds would roost in the branches, all of them facing south, seemingly situated for the night. Yet after a moment or two, the birds would take flight en masse, wheel about in a choreographed spin, and then alight again. On the cherries, the swallows appeared to favor branches that terminated in dead, leafless twigs over those branches that bore leaves to the distal ends.
From a distance, the flocks of swallows appeared very much like swarms of bees. Tumbling, wheeling, circling, the swarms of swallows soared over the plains. Some pairs of swallows, separated from the flocks, dashed over the meadows, flying low, and skirting the tassels of switch grass as they snatched insects in flight. A few individual birds hovered in the air above, one perhaps 50 feet high, another 100 feet high, perhaps acting as sentinels for the rest of the flock.
Of the plants, the bayberry attracts the swallows. Along the margins of Black Point Pond, the bayberry shrubs now bear their waxy gray fruit in profusion. These bayberries can be gathered up, and when boiled in a large pot, the wax will separate from the fruit. The wax can then be skimmed off, allowed to cool, and used to make a bayberry candle. As someone who has attempted this, I can attest that one will have a very dark winter should one choose to rely on bayberry candles as a source of light. Fortunately for the swallows, they rely on bayberries not for illumination, but rather for sustenance. They find the bayberries a plentiful and valuable food source. The swallows stop at Quansoo or Katama or on the headlands of Cedar Tree Neck. On the bayberries they feast, before rising in a cyclonic swarm to cross the ocean on the next stretch of their migration.
These great hosts of swallows are, after all, migrating. What we witness here in September is a great wonder of nature, a scene of throngs of animals engaged in an annual migration. The flights of swallows do not equal the long lost flights of the passenger pigeon, so numerous that the flying birds darkened the sky and the roosting birds snapped limbs from trees, but the swallows do call such a migration to mind. The swarming swallows, the nonresident Canada geese flying in V-formation, the striped bass following cold waters back to Island beaches, the plovers scurrying from waves that lap the opening of the Tisbury Great Pond — all of these migrants pass the Island as summer turns to fall.
We recognize this change of the seasons. We, too, migrate, and change along with the changes in the light and the weather. The sassafras turns a speckled orange, and passengers by the thousands walk the gangways in Vineyard Haven and in Oak Bluffs and board the ferries, bound for the mainland. The sumac turns a bright red, and the school bus pulls up by the mailboxes. The seasons are changing and, sometimes, we take a moment to mark the changes in our own lives.
On the plains, the raindrops of a cloudy afternoon still cling to blades of grass. The little bluestem has turned a ruddy purple. Hazelnut bursts with fruit, its brown-tinged clusters of nuts splitting open. Goldenrod droops its yellow blossoms over the edges of the dirt road. The surf sounds in the distance, and above, and all around, a thousand tree swallows fly and dart and swarm and roost. The swallows are bound for a distant land, but for one September night, here they sleep.
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/09/09/swallowed-majesty-migration#sthash.v5FNKMBS.dpuf

Go out and play

Barbara Smaller ~ The New Yorker

I wish.

Beachcoming Bovines

Once in a while, and usually to everyone's delight, our neighbor's sheep and cows jump the fence for some déjeuner sur l'herbe on our front lawn.

After lunch, this pair, Bob and Ed, hit the beach.

Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium

Son Will, right, raced this morning in The Runyon 5K at Yankee stadium which raised money for cancer research. Will ran in memory of his grandfather who passed away last night from cancer.

JLR RIP

October 31, 1930 - August 17, 2013

BMW Drivers - The Ultimate Jerks?

As a male driver of a blue BMW 5 series, I question this "research." I wonder who sponsored it, Audi? ;-)



Postscript on August 17:

Excerpt below from today's Barrons. I guess Audi isn't to blame. And the inclusion of Toyota Pious owners reflects my personal experience.

"A study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences that swept through the media last week found that, last year, drivers of fancy autos were the worst in their road manners, being less likely to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk or more likely to cut in front of other drivers at a four-way stop at an intersection. "BMW drivers were the worst," Paul K. Piff, a researcher at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California at Berkeley, who conducted the study of 152 drivers in California, told the New York Times. But drivers of the ever-so-socially conscious Toyota Prius hybrids also were more likely to commit "infractions," he added.

"This tendency doesn't seem unique to BMW drivers in California or the U.S., for that matter. The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports that the vehicles with the highest incidences of road rage were BMWs, followed closely by Land Rovers and Audis, according to a study of 2,837 motorists by an outfit called VoucherCodesPro. The worst culprits were men 35 to 50 years old who drove blue Bimmers on Fridays around 5:45 p.m. "

A-Rod Agonistes

Suspended for 211 games. And yet, as said on Twitter last night, "A-Rod's playing third, batting fourth and taking the fifth."

50 Shades of Weiner

Carlos Danger. Really?

Good to know that he says his behavior "is behind us now and in the rear view mirror." If only the Weiners could see beyond their ambition and understand that we've been run over and over and over. Go away, please.

John Cuneo ~ The New Yorker

Earth . . . from 900 million miles away

Earth as recorded by the Cassini spacecraft while Saturn blocks the Sun from a distance of  900 million miles. Earth is the bright blue dot in the lower right. Nothing like a photograph from space to put things in perspective.

Go away, this beach is private

Peter Simon

It's summer and it's hot. And that means people want to cool off in the ocean. It also means some people will ignore any and all signs that say "private, no trespassing" to do it, jamming up single-lane roads and limited resident parking. Worse, they'll get in your face if you ask to see their beach parking pass. Here on Martha's Vineyard it has become a clash some insensitively call "beach apartheid."

The rub is this:

"According to 2005 Martha’s Vineyard Commission figures, 124,565 linear feet, or 37.5 percent, of the Island’s shoreline is open to all. The remaining 62.5 percent is either restricted town beach – 4,090 linear feet, or 1.2 percent – or land held privately in one way or another. The greater portion of this is held by individual big landowners. The rest is held by beach associations, shares in which trade for astonishing sums."

And these landowners, most seasonal summer residents, pay 80 percent of the island's taxes, supporting the schools, roads and public services all year. And for that, they want a little privacy in July and August.

Bruce McCall ~ The New Yorker

David Sipress ~ The New Yorker

The All Star

The well-deserved tributes to Mariano Rivera keep coming. Pure talent and class.

Grace after disgrace

What does it say about our society when the leading candidates for New York City Mayor and Comptroller are two men who both resigned from public office for behavior they initially lied about and then only admitted under the weight of the facts?

What does it say about Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer that despite their known character defects they're running for public office again? Are they unemployable in the private sector? Doesn't New York deserve far better from elected officials paid by taxpayers?

Peggy Noonan hit the nail on the head in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial titled How to Find Grace after Disgrace.

"So what are we saying? You know. We're saying the answer to the politician's question, 'What is the optimum moment at which to come back from a big sex scandal, and how do I do it?' is this: 'You are asking the wrong question.'

"The right questions would go something like: 'What can I do to stop being greedy for power, attention and adulation? How can I come to understand that the question is not the public's capacity to forgive, but my own capacity to exercise sound judgment and regard for others? How can I stop being a manipulator of public emotions and become the kind of person who generates headlines that parents are relieved—grateful—to explain to their children?"

"And of course the answer is: You can do what John Profumo did. You can go away. You can do something good. You can help women instead of degrading them, help your culture and your city instead of degrading them."

"You can become a man."

$118 million for Homer's Pond plus

Last August, Gerald DeBlois, the owner of Homer's Pond on West Tisbury's south shore, listed a 266-acre parcel for $92 million.

It's still on the market. But now DeBlois has sweetened the listing with another 50 acres and his home at the new record price of $118 million. Caroline Kennedy, your move.

The addition of the DeBlois home and surrounding property to the previous sale package expands the beachfront area to be sold. It also has the effect of reducing the price of what went on the market last year from $92 to $74 million. The price on the DeBlois house and surrounding acreage is $44 million. The properties may be sold separately or together, the owner and his agents said.
This marks the second time in the past three months that a significant Island property has been placed on the market with an asking price of many millions. In early May the Kennedy family listed two large, undeveloped oceanfront lots for sale at Red Gate Farm in Aquinnah; they are priced at $25 million for a 53-acre lot and $20 million for a 39-acre lot. The lots are still on the market.

Remote beachfront populated only by shorebirds. — Mark Lovewell

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

The addition of the DeBlois home and surrounding property to the previous sale package expands the beachfront area to be sold. It also has the effect of reducing the price of what went on the market last year from $92 to $74 million. The price on the DeBlois house and surrounding acreage is $44 million. The properties may be sold separately or together, the owner and his agents said.
This marks the second time in the past three months that a significant Island property has been placed on the market with an asking price of many millions. In early May the Kennedy family listed two large, undeveloped oceanfront lots for sale at Red Gate Farm in Aquinnah; they are priced at $25 million for a 53-acre lot and $20 million for a 39-acre lot. The lots are still on the market.

Remote beachfront populated only by shorebirds. — Mark Lovewell

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Mr. DeBlois told the Gazette this week that he made a strategy decision to put everything up for sale because he thought it might be more attractive to a buyer or possibly a group of buyers.
“We obviously have had the property on the market since last July and decided sometime this winter that we needed to refocus,” he said. “And we became convinced that to attract people to the property we needed to do this. I’m 72 years old and I don’t want to do this twice.”
- See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/07/11/west-tisbury-property-goes-market-record-118-million#sthash.jx9EK0wa.dpuf

Bert and Ernie Outed

Jack Hunter ~ The New Yorker

From Human Events:

"No, not even Muppets are spared in our culture war. Below is the cover of the new issue of The New Yorker.

" 'It’s amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,' said Jack Hunter, the artist behind the cover.  'This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.'

 "Then again, in response to an 2011 online petition calling for Bert and Ernie to tie the knot, the Sesame Workshop’s Facebook page offered this statement:

" 'Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics…they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."

"Platonic Muppets. Something to ponder."

Vineyard Haven Regatta

And the competition was fierce.

Got Privacy?

Richard McGuire ~ The New Yorker

P.C. Vey ~ The New Yorker

Paul Noth ~ The New Yorker

Can you hear, track, audit, tax, prosecute and drone me now?

And the backpedaling begins . . . 

• "You can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience," Mr. Obama said. "You know, we're going to have to make some choices as a society."
• "The administration has now lost all credibility." The New York Times editorial board
• "What the ....?" Google CEO's blog post

Seven Mile Beach

Seven Mile Beach ~ Grand Cayman

Castles made of sand

The Vineyard Gazette has been reporting for several months about the Schifter house along the eroding shores of Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick.

Now The Wall Street Journal has picked up the story with a front-page story in its Mansion section.

"There's a dramatic scene currently under way on Martha's Vineyard. To keep their 8,300-square-foot house from plunging off an eroding bluff, the owners are moving it back 275 feet. The estimated cost: at least $1 million.

"The stone and wood-shingled house, built in 2004, has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a massive basement with a bowling alley, according to public records. All of that—plus a 1,814-square-foot guesthouse and a garage—is going, much of it to the 4-acre property next door that the owners bought in January for $4.5 million for that purpose.

"The move involves digging underneath the basement, moving the structure through a trench and then refilling the hole with soil. Still, that pales in comparison to what the house cost to build: The current appraised value of the buildings and the land is $7.6 million, but contractors put the cost of rebuilding the main house alone at around $10 million.

" 'If I'd spent all that money on the house, I'd be moving it, too,' says Edward Vincent Jr., chairman of the Edgartown Conservation Commission." (Owner Richard Schifter, a partner at private-equity firm TPG Capital, declined to comment.)

As Jimi Hendrix sang, "And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually."

In Memoriam

Oak Grove Cemetery ~ Vineyard Haven
From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
— Abraham Lincoln

Fishing Expeditions

Same old, same old. Evasive, sophomoric and intellectually lazy talking points delivered by yet another junior administration puppet, who essentially reads a script saying don't look here at the facts, look over there at the Republicans who are "offensive" and trying to make a scandal out of nothing. Candy Crowley would be proud.

As CBS's Bob Schieffer said so pointedly, "Why are you here today?"



And here are excerpts from an illuminating editorial from The Wall Street Journal -The IRS Scandal Began at the Top.

"President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an 'independent' agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.

"But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.

"Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. 'He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?' asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.

"The president derided 'tea baggers.' Vice President Joe Biden compared them to 'terrorists.' In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. 'Nobody knows who's paying for these ads,' he warned. 'We don't know where this money is coming from,' he intoned.

"In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: 'All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation.'

"Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets. Especially as top congressional Democrats were putting in their own versions of phone calls, sending letters to the IRS that accused it of having 'failed to address' the 'problem' of groups that were 'improperly engaged' in campaigns. Because guess who controls that 'independent' agency's budget?

"The IRS is easy to demonize, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It got its heading from a president, and his party, who did in fact send it orders—openly, for the world to see. In his Tuesday press grilling, no question agitated White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more than the one that got to the heart of the matter: Given the president's 'animosity' toward Citizens United, might he have 'appreciated or wanted the IRS to be looking and scrutinizing those . . .' Mr. Carney cut off the reporter with 'That's a preposterous assertion."

"Preposterous because, according to Mr. Obama, he is 'outraged' and 'angry' that the IRS looked into the very groups and individuals that he spent years claiming were shady, undemocratic, even lawbreaking. After all, he expects the IRS to 'operate with absolute integrity.' Even when he does not."

Tax Man

Christopher Weyant ~ The New Yorker

Space Oddity

Out of this world.

Red Gate Farm - Lots for Sale

Peter Simon

Two lots on the Kennedy family's Red Gate Farm on Martha's Vineyard have been put on the market.

According to the Vineyard Gazette:

"Two undeveloped lots totaling 93 acres from the 377-acre Red Gate Farm were listed for sale this week. One lot is about 53.5 acres, fronting the Atlantic Ocean, with an asking price of $25 million. The second lot is 39.5 acres with more than 1,000 feet of frontage on Squibnocket Pond, deeded beach access off Moshup Trail and an asking price of $20 million.

Red Gate Farm is owned by Caroline B. Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg. Ms. Kennedy’s mother, the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, purchased the property in 1978 from the Hornblower family for $1.1 million."

That means the property was purchased 35 years ago at a rate of  $3,264 per acre. Today the 53.5-acre parcel is priced at $467,289 per acre, while the smaller 39.5-acre lot is being marketed at $506,329 per acre. Assuming the Kennedy's sell at their asking price, they'll realize a pre-tax profit of $44,900,000, while still retaining 284 acres, or 75 percent of the original parcel. Public records show the land and building tax assessment for the Kennedy's 106-acre 3 Red Gate Farm estate is $16,528,200.

Go figure.

September 30 postscript:

Online real estate listings this past weekend revealed 10 percent and 17.5 percent price reductions on the 50- and 40-acre Red Gate Farm lots.

Bomb Threat - Please Call 911

I'm sitting in the consultation room after this morning's colonoscopy on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

When my doctor came in to discuss the results and show me a few photographs from the procedure,  I saw this phone on the wall over his shoulder.

238 milligrams of Miralax and 10 milligrams of Ducolax will do that to you.

A Boy and His Atom

Scientists from IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled the world's smallest movie, made with one of the tiniest elements in the universe: atoms. Named "A Boy and His Atom," the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS -verified movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.

"A Boy and His Atom" depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a playful journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.

Think big data, storage and ever smaller devices. Coming soon to a store near you.

Health benefits

Robert Leighton ~ The New Yorker