FRENCH POE-TRY
Here's to Edgar Allan Poe,
Loved by every Jane & Joe.
Even the French, ever faster,
Rate him as a poetic master.
But being a supercilious nation,
They claim he reads far better in translation.
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Education is indeed the great leveler. But true education is not handed out on a silver plate; it requires effort, curiosity, and generosity of spirit. A goodly number of our immigrants know this, and they teach their kids to cherish their schooling.
What Brett Kavanaugh got was training.
What far too many Americans get is nothing because they distrust anything beyond basic functioning.
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@B. - re Brett Kavanaugh and also
“We’re not going secede an inch of this community to white supremacists and bigots.”
Today's my 4th wedding anniversary.
Somehow it feels more like it's been 29 years or so! But my tax records are clear that it's only 4 years, and my tax files are ridiculously accurate.
Cherishing each year, in case there are any Mike Pence Supreme Court appointments in our future! :)
The Flintstones - long version Anniversary song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knp9-GY6fHE
The Flintstones - 20-second short version of Anniversary song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSkBsnfkFA
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Why, happy anniversary, Freddie!
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Happiest anniversary Freddie and Spouse!!!<3 And may all the joy you bring to so many others return to you ten fold!
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The main reason NJ (and NY/NYC) transit is so lousy is lack of funds. Sure, mismanagement and cronyism contribute, but the main problem remains lack of money. And that is primarily due to Republicans blocking transportation funding. Whether it was Chris Christie cancelling a new Hudson River tunnel and losing available federal funding in advance of a GOP primary campaign; NY senate Republicans in Albany starving NYC's subway system; or Republicans in Congress cutting taxes for the top bracket and shifting money from the "liberal" Northeast and urban areas everywhere.
So next time you're delayed on mass transit, don't just complain, VOTE! (Nov. 6th, Tuesday)
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@Stephen beck, Sometimes it can make a fun experience a bigger travel hassle than it used to be, affecting whether a non-essential trip will be done again. This summer, I’d seen “Half Time” at Paper MIll, a very funny musical about getting to 70 or so only being limiting if you let it be, said hi to a neighbor who I hadn’t known was in it, and something once in a lifetime: Donna McKechnie walked out the stage door and saw how many people applauded her and gathered around her (she was phenomenal that matinee) and made sure everyone who wanted to reminisce or get an autograph got a chance while the friend she was dining with between shows was happy to wait. It was gracious and amazing, an impromptu group meet-and-greet with a theater legend right after she’d dazzled onstage.).
But then at Millburn Station, after waiting, a very very casual announcement that the train (only scheduled hourly as it was) had a delay, so they've “combined” two trains, which meant they just totally cancelled a train because they knew you couldn’t find any other option than waiting an hour for the next one. (no bus; a cab well over $100, which a group of 4 chose to do.)
I’d seen it with a subway where another came in 10 minutes. Never deciding at whim to jam-pack the next train an hour later. They didn’t lose business that same day, but for the long run, it sends a clear signal: NJ Transit is a monopoly and doesn’t care, so beware for making plans, and often - just don't bother going.
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A tangent, but someone from work wondered why Georgia Engel didn’t visit with fans between shows that Sunday. The actor I knew there said it was the 5th show of the 5-show weekend and she was doing some between-show movement exercises for her dance-heavy role (including precise hip-hop stuff). And we all understood having seen how much stage time she had. The stage door staff kept writing down our names and shuttling our Playbills back to her for autographs. (Andre de Shields also was doing the exercises but stepped outside quickly when he was told a small group of "The Wiz" fans had specifically come from someplace in PA that sounded very far away to see him. Was it true? No idea, but they convinced the door staff, who apparently had heard everything imaginable when fans had tried to get backstage to see Harry Connick Jr. during "The Sting.")
But next time for theatergoing with NJ Transit, two choices: Pay for a rental, or go only when time is no object! (When it's work, there's never any choice, of course.)
"Birds are migrating through the city. A naturalist from NYC Audubon will help you spot and identify them at the Battery in Lower Manhattan. 8 a.m. "
I know this column goes live at 6 a.m., but it would make more sense to run an announcement like this the day before so interested people can plan. Two hours is not much notice.
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If you can't get rid of Metropolitan Diary, which I wish you would, it would be helpful if you would put it at the very end of the column, below the "And Finally..." section. That way people who want to read it can go to it and the rest of us don't have to scroll over it.
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Hi Lifelong Reader - but if "And Finally" doesn't come at the end of the column, doesn't it become similar to "47th Street Photo" keeping that name when it moved to 45th Street (and IIRC they got indicted for fraud not that long after that, on some other matter, not the deceptive address, but it still didn't end well. :)
Seriously, though, there was an article the other day by the Diary editor that may give non-Diary-followers a sense of what the Diary's meant in the NY region section.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/insider/submit-metropolitan-diary.html
There's so much I miss from the old City Room blog, but the idea of change seems clearly to keep the NY coverage thriving, when the proverbial whole world demands info "right now" or they'll click elsewhere. The Diary is one of those rare newspaper items where by its nature "right now" isn't key to its appeal. They'd sent a Diary-related survey out at random that came to my boss' computer in the office (where I read the Times between tax returns but very rarely commented from, except of course when there was a "commenting emergency" like a Madonna or Beyonce song cue that couldn't wait) a while ago that I wish I'd kept now - but it seems IIRC the kinds of adjustments they were surveying us about are being tried.
“Want to tell New Jersey Transit what improvements you’d like to see? Kevin Corbett, its executive director, will be speaking to customers at Hoboken Terminal on Thursday..”
Hoping it stays calm and doesn’t get too heated tomorrow, though! No idea how it's actually gotten worse the past few years even with all the listening (and I'm someone who only needs to rely on NJ Transit maybe 9 or 10 times a year, but really dread it and feel it.)
Tune of “Heaven Knows”
Jersey, please (Jersey, please)
Transit’s my priority (Transit’s a priority)
Come on here and share with me (Share with me)
What you’d like to see.
Yesterday (Yesterday)
We heard what the findings say. (We saw what the findings say)
So we’ll have a Q & A, (Q & A)
Tell it to me please -
Kevin knows
We’re not the way we should be
And Kevin knows
Without delay we could be
Doing more, once I hear your plea.
Kevin knows
You need to blow off steam now
Kevin knows
You want to yell and scream now
I’ll be here, with security. (They’re protecting me, yeah)
[Nothing on TV late 1970s ever had been hotter than this Donna Summer-Brooklyn Dreams version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMvWWPX25c
At school the next Monday, at Kosher Country in Brooklyn College, and maybe all across the country: "No, Bruce Sudano is the one she was dancing to in the dance break, not the guy she was singing with."]
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Why are some of the trains so short on some days and longer on others? They can be just a few cars long leading to over crowding. Why are they double decker only on some days? Why don't they know about engineer shortage until minutes before the scheduled train? I'm sure they scheduled their vacation in advance.
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