Dave Barry's Year-in-Review

Dave Barry's annual snarkfest is getting easier and easier to write. Some might say it writes itself.

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: Is there anything good we can say about 2018?

Have a boofing new year.

Pay Phones

Remember coin-operated pay phones? Before cell phones, they were how we called people when away from home. When away at boarding school and college, it's what I used to call home, collect. My first decade in NYC made good and frequent use of them. Calls were 10 cents. When I became a commuter after moving to the suburbs, I was on the line at the bank of pay phones every evening at Grand Central Terminal to let the family know when I'd be home.

At their peak in the 1980s, more than 2 million pay phones were connected across the country by AT&T and Bell System companies, many in phone booths. Only 100,000 are still in use today.

I passed one today while on a walk. Emergency calls are free, local calls are 50 cents, and you can call anywhere in the world for four minutes for $1.

Who knew?

50 Years Ago ~ Earthrise

It was 50 years ago that the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon and astronaut Bill Anders snapped the picture Earthrise.

Earthrise ~ Bill Anders

Great Grey Owl

While doing yard work last week, I heard a rustle in the trees.

Naughty Or Nice

Gary Varvel

Mike Lukovich

Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Remarks

Two years ago I posted about Patti Smith's standing in for Bob Dylan at the 2016 Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. She sang A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall to great effect.

I can't remember why Dylan didn't go to Stockholm himself to accept the award, but he did record his thoughts several months later in LA about the many literary connections in his life and music.

They are remarkable.

Black Friday

Orbiting the Earth

I recently read NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's memoir, Endurance, the account of his 340 days aboard the International Space Station, or ISS.

Kelly's book explains the origins of his ambition to become an astronaut, reading Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, and the many trials he overcame to be one. Endurance describes the physical and emotional stresses, loneliness, tedium, and painstaking routines and risks astronauts face during months in space. Kelly also describes the unparalleled awe and wonder of being in space, especially the experience of viewing Earth from above while orbiting the planet every 90 minutes at an altitude of 250 miles and at 17,500 miles per hour.

"It's hard to describe the experience of looking down at the planet. I feel as though I know the earth in an intimate way that most people don't – the coastline, terrain, mountains, and rivers. One of my favorite views of Earth is of the Bahamas – a large archipelago with a stunning contrast of light to dark colors. The vibrant deep blue of the ocean mixes with a much brighter turquoise, swirled with something almost like gold, where the Sun bounces off the sandy shallows and reefs. Whenever new crewmates come up to the station for the first time, I make it a point to take them to the Cupola (a module made entirely of windows looking down on Earth) to see the Bahamas." 

This NASA video captures the full 90-minute experience.

Japanese Maple Fall Colors

This Japanese Maple at the John Jay Homestead in Katonah was an extraordinary early November find on a walk yesterday afternoon.

Ben & Jerry's Pecan Resist

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Creators Syndicate ~ Steve Kelley

Trick or treat . . . or politics!

The New Yorker ~ Mark Ulricksen

Boo!

Learn more about this week's cover here, as well as past New Yorker magazine Halloween covers like these from 1941 and 1945.

The New Yorker ~ Rea Irvin

The New Yorker ~ Edna Eicke

Hidden Tribes

More in Common is a new research organization missioned "to better understand the forces that drive political polarization and tribalism in the United States today, and to galvanize efforts to address them."

Their first project is the Hidden Tribes of America survey report that defines the tribes, and tries to explain their core beliefs and opinions on today's issues.

More in Common ~ Hidden Tribes

Though the labels and issues are in flux, getting elected and remaining in office to govern successfully depends on building coalitions across these groups, especially toward the middle. Our elected officials and the news media should play constructive roles in finding common ground to reduce polarization, not inflame it.

The Wall Street Journal just published a video series Voices From a Divided America that gives voice to Americans and issues on all sides, without editorial bias or reader comments. It's worth a listen.

The Wall Street Journal ~ Voices From a Divided America

The 2018 mid-term election results will be known next week. Is either side ready to listen and work together to compromise and govern? Or, will we just shift to 2020 election mode and further embed the blame, ad hominem attacks, and polarization? And does that suggest that the time might finally be right for a credible third-party candidate and platform who speaks across the divide to the "exhausted majority"?

Mega Millions Odds - 1 in 303 Million

Why are the odds so low?

The lottery organizers are smart. The "you have to be in it to win it" marketing clouds the infinitesimally small chance of picking the winning numbers.

According to megamillions.com, "Players must pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from1 to 25 – or select Easy Pick/Quick Pick. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in the drawing."

http://www.megamillions.com/how-to-play

Here's another way of looking at it.

The New Yorker ~ Roz Chast

USA! USA!

The New Yorker ~ David Sipress

I Brake for . . .

Lambert's Cove Road ~ West Tisbury

Going, going, gone ...

Banksy'd.

Auctioned for more than $1 million and all the buyer got was a balloon.

Brilliant.

Feels like Fall

Went swimming yesterday, but it was too cool today.  Temperatures fell to the low 60s, and 40s are forecast tonight.

Is Fall finally here?

Lambert's Cove Beach, West Tisbury

Makonikey Head, Martha's Vineyard

Peanuts ~ Charles Schultz

Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby

Begun in 1946, the 73rd annual fall Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby is at the halfway point. Weigh-ins at derby headquarters in Edgartown each morning and evening are always a treat.

And this year's derby poster by local painter Jeanne Staples captures the harbor's soft fall evening light.

Jeanne Staples

Want to go into politics?

Senator Jeff Flake cornered in elevator by protestors

Anarchy in the KFC

I don't like fat-shaming. Forgive me.

John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten

Johnny Rotten

Martha's Vineyard Wind Festival

Nearly 50 kites were in the air this weekend in Oak Bluffs at the annual Martha's Vineyard Wind Festival. Along with plenty of wind.

Nike: Sacrificing Everything

Around the Net Post

You don't see see shots like this often. Yet Federer has won "around the net post" shots 15 times before.

Trolling & Venting Spleen

The New Yorker ~ Benjamin Schwartz

The Literal Translations of Country Names

What fun and informative maps, courtesy of Credit Card Compare in Australia.

Examples: Mexico - In the Navel of the Moon, Spain - Land of Many Rabbits, Ethiopia - Land of Burnt Faces, Israel - He that Striveth with God, and Chile - Where the Land Ends.

Moonlight

Très belle.

The Donald

The New Yorker ~ Lee Lorenz

Purdue Pharma Wants to Help

Purdue Pharma

Purdue Pharma is running more full-page "corporate social responsibility" ads in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times this week. Now that 16 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against the company for its years of of unconscionable marketing, sales, and profiteering off OxyContin, Purdue Pharma wants to "limit their use."

"America's opiod crisis is the result of many factors. We believe that all stakeholders – healthcare leaders, drug manufacturers, policymakers, and public health officials – need to come together to drive meaningful solutions forward. While no single intervention alone will solve this crisis, partnerships, determination, and innovative approaches are steps in the right direction."

Meanwhile, another young man overdosed on Martha's Vineyard.

A new book out this week, Dopesick, by Beth Macy, tells the whole sordid story. More here.

The Addams Family Goes Fishing

Charles Addams

Cartoonist and Vineyarder Paul Karasik "discovered" a Charles Addams mural, painted in 1952 for the bar at the Dune Deck, a hotel in the Hamptons.

Unofficially titled An Addams Family Holiday, the 14' by 4' mural currently hangs in the foyer of the Pennsylvania State University library.

Perhaps Gomez hooked Jerry Sandusky?

One Regret

The New Yorker ~ Amy Hwang

Two Thumbs Up

I think Barry Blitt and The New Yorker magazine are finally warming to President Trump.

The New Yorker ~ Barry Blitt

Romanovs Executed 100 Years Ago

On July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas Romanov of Russia, his wife, three daughters, and son, were executed by Lenin's Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinaburg, Russia.

Summer Roses

Woods Hole Historical Museum