This Thursday is the most peculiar of American holidays: Thanksgiving. Inescapable, palate-deprived, and perhaps the only American holiday (except for the possibly socialist Labor Day) that doesn't celebrate either war or Jesus... celebrating Thanksgiving is a requirement if you live in the USA.
Rule #1:
You must have dinner with other people at their house -- not in a restaurant! -- and if you're being truly proper, they should be members of your family.
Rule #2:
You must eat turkey and bread stuffing and gravy, and then some other kind of starch, and maybe a vegetable, and then pie for dessert. No other food is acceptable.
Rule #3
There has to be too much food, the air has to be too stifling, and you have to feel heavy and full and basically disgusted afterwards from over-indulging.
Rule #4 (NEW!):
Go shopping the next day. Apparently the day after Thanksgiving, which is also a holiday, is the biggest shopping day of the year, and many stores offer slightly-lower-than-usual prices for those who are OCD enough to wait in the parking lot at 5 a.m. to get inside.
But let's get back to the Thursday event. It struck me a few years ago, when I was sitting in my car in a traffic jam on Thanksgiving, that everyone in all the other cars was also on their way to a Thanksgiving dinner somewhere and that they would be eating the exactly same distasteful food as I was consigned to eat: turkey and starch. How creepy is that?
Don't get me wrong. I love having dinner with my friends, and I do like to reflect on the things I should be thankful for (a practice that has largely disappeared from Thanksgiving), but menu options would be great. How about some cracked crab and champagne? Or rack of lamb? Why not creme brulée for dessert? And listen to some new electronica tracks while we're making dinner?
Really, we should be thankful that we're not like the pilgrims who allegedly launched this tradition. We could dress up like them and do some role play, like tossing a female guest into the nearest river and accusing her of being a witch. That might make the time before dinner a bit more interesting.
But seriously. I will be going to the home of some friends on Thursday to eat the required items ....the only twist to this is that the other participants aren't Americans....and they're probably far more into this tradition than I am!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
The seven-year ouch!
Today I was reading an article about OPEC, and I saw a mind-blowing dollar figure for the price of oil in the year 2000....just seven years ago. It said that the price of oil per barrel in the year 2000 was just $10 per barrel. Today it's $100 per barrel.
Holy cow! Really? I knew it was creeping up and up, but I hadn't looked backwards to compare and contrast. It went up 1,000 percent since the year 2000?
Just think about it...seven years ago this month, Al Gore ran against George W. Bush for president of the United States. We all know how that turned out, and I'm sure this slightly elevated oil-price thing is just a wacky coincidence.
So I decided to search the net and look up a few other financial factoids from the year 2000. Looking backwards at November, 2000, exactly seven years ago this month, I found:
Value of the British Pound Sterling versus the US Dollar:
November, 2000: $1.42
November, 2007: $2.05
Value of the Euro against the US Dollar:
November, 2000: 83 cents (note: the Euro was only a valuation at this point)
November, 2007: $1.47
Value of the Canadian dollar against the US Dollar:
November, 2000: 46 cents
November, 2007: $1.02
Median price of a home in San Francisco:
November, 2000: $417,000
November, 2007: $827,000
National debt (in USD billions):
November, 2000: 5,674.2
November, 2007: 9,007.7
Holy cow! Really? I knew it was creeping up and up, but I hadn't looked backwards to compare and contrast. It went up 1,000 percent since the year 2000?
Just think about it...seven years ago this month, Al Gore ran against George W. Bush for president of the United States. We all know how that turned out, and I'm sure this slightly elevated oil-price thing is just a wacky coincidence.
So I decided to search the net and look up a few other financial factoids from the year 2000. Looking backwards at November, 2000, exactly seven years ago this month, I found:
Value of the British Pound Sterling versus the US Dollar:
November, 2000: $1.42
November, 2007: $2.05
Value of the Euro against the US Dollar:
November, 2000: 83 cents (note: the Euro was only a valuation at this point)
November, 2007: $1.47
Value of the Canadian dollar against the US Dollar:
November, 2000: 46 cents
November, 2007: $1.02
Median price of a home in San Francisco:
November, 2000: $417,000
November, 2007: $827,000
National debt (in USD billions):
November, 2000: 5,674.2
November, 2007: 9,007.7
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Green begets greenbacks
I spent Saturday afternoon at an indoor event: the Green Festival. I'd never been to one before. It was packed wall to wall with booths and upscale "sustainable" goods for sale, and a crush of shoppers carrying organic sacks filled with stuff. Because everything is about shopping, after all.
It was the usual suspects and then some: hemp clothing, books on various political and environmental topics, "safe" household cleaning products, toxin-free mattresses, green building materials, recyclers for all the old materials that people rip out of their homes when installing new "green" materials, alternative health practitioners, etc.
As you might expect, the solar panel groups were there. I basically think that PG&E should just install solar panels on everyone's roofs in California, but they're so expensive, and the financial burden (a 15-20 year payoff) is still on the homeowner, even though the energy companies benefit most from the power.
Every time our lifestyles change, new markets spring up. For example, San Francisco recently passed a ban on those awful, crinkly plastic bags that you got whereever you shopped, so there's a new market now for reusable shopping bags, and companies are starting to make them from recycled materials and personalizing them, which of course we all love to do.
I got very "glazed" from wandering amongst the crowd, and did my best to not get stomped on by eager planetsavers.
It was the usual suspects and then some: hemp clothing, books on various political and environmental topics, "safe" household cleaning products, toxin-free mattresses, green building materials, recyclers for all the old materials that people rip out of their homes when installing new "green" materials, alternative health practitioners, etc.
As you might expect, the solar panel groups were there. I basically think that PG&E should just install solar panels on everyone's roofs in California, but they're so expensive, and the financial burden (a 15-20 year payoff) is still on the homeowner, even though the energy companies benefit most from the power.
Every time our lifestyles change, new markets spring up. For example, San Francisco recently passed a ban on those awful, crinkly plastic bags that you got whereever you shopped, so there's a new market now for reusable shopping bags, and companies are starting to make them from recycled materials and personalizing them, which of course we all love to do.
I got very "glazed" from wandering amongst the crowd, and did my best to not get stomped on by eager planetsavers.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Goodbye, energy pig!
So, you were expecting something different from that headline? Thought you missed an impeachment or something? Nope. The big news is that I finally replaced my horrible, 18-year-old SUV of a refrigerator.
To make a long and boring story as short as possible, this refrigerator came with the condo when I moved in almost 9 years ago. It's been costing me $40-$50 per month in electricity, and it took me awhile to figure out it was the refrigerator.
I finally confirmed it when I found this website where you can find out your old refrigerator's energy rating, and it turns out mine used over 1,300 kwh! These days, most refrigerators are in the 400 to 500 kwh range.
The problem was, the previous owner built custom cabinetry around it, and then added a tile floor around it afterwards. It was bricked in, and there was no way to get it out than to demo part of the tile floor. And I couldn't find another refrigerator that fit the space without having to brick it in again. All American refrigerators are more or less the same spec...humongous. My choices were to either brick in a huge machine again, or destroy all my cabinetry and rebuild it.
Finally I started searching the web--isn't it great when you can search the planet from your own apartment? -- and found a Fisher and Paykel fridge that fit the space with room to spare in height, depth, and width. It was short enough for me to build a platform for it to sit on so that it was level with the tile floor....no more bricking it in! So I tracked down an appliance store that sold this model and then bought it. In 10 minutes.
The old one has been hauled away, leaving a pool of slime in its wake. The new one sits shining, clean, and quietly cooling in my kitchen. The shelves are clean and spacious....not like the crowded bacteria pit that I've lived with for 9 years. It even beeps at me if I leave the door open for too long. I can't believe I've finally solved this problem!
new fridge, with energy sticker
old fridge (side by side doors)
To make a long and boring story as short as possible, this refrigerator came with the condo when I moved in almost 9 years ago. It's been costing me $40-$50 per month in electricity, and it took me awhile to figure out it was the refrigerator.
I finally confirmed it when I found this website where you can find out your old refrigerator's energy rating, and it turns out mine used over 1,300 kwh! These days, most refrigerators are in the 400 to 500 kwh range.
The problem was, the previous owner built custom cabinetry around it, and then added a tile floor around it afterwards. It was bricked in, and there was no way to get it out than to demo part of the tile floor. And I couldn't find another refrigerator that fit the space without having to brick it in again. All American refrigerators are more or less the same spec...humongous. My choices were to either brick in a huge machine again, or destroy all my cabinetry and rebuild it.
Finally I started searching the web--isn't it great when you can search the planet from your own apartment? -- and found a Fisher and Paykel fridge that fit the space with room to spare in height, depth, and width. It was short enough for me to build a platform for it to sit on so that it was level with the tile floor....no more bricking it in! So I tracked down an appliance store that sold this model and then bought it. In 10 minutes.
The old one has been hauled away, leaving a pool of slime in its wake. The new one sits shining, clean, and quietly cooling in my kitchen. The shelves are clean and spacious....not like the crowded bacteria pit that I've lived with for 9 years. It even beeps at me if I leave the door open for too long. I can't believe I've finally solved this problem!
new fridge, with energy sticker
old fridge (side by side doors)
Words for dinner...I hope
I am looking forward to -- hopefully! -- eating my words. I've posted two entries in my blog about the transit initiatives that were on the ballot in San Francisco: one to give more money to public transit, and one that would suck the money out of private transit and give it to private developers to create more parking for cars.
I thought it would win, that San Francisco might repeat the debacle of the long-departed, but very well-loved Key Route system in the Bay Area, which was bought by GM in the 1950s and destroyed.
But so far, so good. Early reports say that the transit system is winning and the parking measure is losing. However, I've also heard that -- for reasons I'm unclear about -- it will take a whole month for San Francisco to count the ballots. That's plenty of time for some ballot boxes to disappear into yesterday's oil spill in the Bay...but I hope not!
I thought it would win, that San Francisco might repeat the debacle of the long-departed, but very well-loved Key Route system in the Bay Area, which was bought by GM in the 1950s and destroyed.
But so far, so good. Early reports say that the transit system is winning and the parking measure is losing. However, I've also heard that -- for reasons I'm unclear about -- it will take a whole month for San Francisco to count the ballots. That's plenty of time for some ballot boxes to disappear into yesterday's oil spill in the Bay...but I hope not!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
The disinformation campaign continues
Tuesday is election day. You might recall that I blogged about a pair of confusing ballot initiatives: one which would increase funding for public transportation, the other which would suck money from public transportation and give it to developers to "create more parking spaces." Guess which ballot initiative has more money behind it, and, as a consequence, is mailing 4-color brochures of disinformation to my mailbox every day?
Cloaked under happy-sounding names like "The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods" and "The Mission Group for Neighborhood Rights" (the Mission is a traditionally working-class neighborhood which intentionally makes this name particularly misleading), the anti-public transit people are sending mailings every day with soul-clutching headlines like "San Francisco Neighborhoods Need REAL Muni reform" and "If They Get Their Way, The Only Means of Transit Will Be Your Two Feet." Of course, this coalition is comprised of republican businesspeople and developers who want the money for public transit to go into their private development projects.
Their argument, which strikes at the heart of every self-interested, short-sighted modern citizen, is that we'll get more parking spaces "at no cost to the taxpayer" if we vote against proposition A and FOR proposition H. The reality is first, that if we used public transit more, we'd have less need for the parking spaces, and second, that we're losing neighborhood street parking all the time because private citizens are refinancing their homes and building garages under them....thus eliminating street parking in front of -- and adjacent to -- their buildings.
The spaces between each garage are seldom large enough to park more than a Smart car in them, if that. In fact, my neighborhood is constantly under construction, and even now, another homeowner is digging a hole in front of his otherwise-rickety building to create a garage for himself (see photo).
As an increasing number of people from the suburbs move here, there's been a tremendous increase in the number of super-sized cars on the streets, it's true. I've seen people move to an apartment building next door to a major Muni Metro station with a Cadillac Escalade parked in front....go figure! That's how I know the disinformation campaign will likely succeed.
People tend to be attracted by shiny objects. As proof, the people in my state elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, throwing out the guy they elected the year before, because a group of people in southern California suddenly started a ballot initiative to take him from Hollywood to the state government in a non-gubernatorial election year.
Here's the scoop, San Franciscans:
YES on A (money for public transit)
NO on H (sucking money from public transit and giving it to private developers)
Cloaked under happy-sounding names like "The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods" and "The Mission Group for Neighborhood Rights" (the Mission is a traditionally working-class neighborhood which intentionally makes this name particularly misleading), the anti-public transit people are sending mailings every day with soul-clutching headlines like "San Francisco Neighborhoods Need REAL Muni reform" and "If They Get Their Way, The Only Means of Transit Will Be Your Two Feet." Of course, this coalition is comprised of republican businesspeople and developers who want the money for public transit to go into their private development projects.
Their argument, which strikes at the heart of every self-interested, short-sighted modern citizen, is that we'll get more parking spaces "at no cost to the taxpayer" if we vote against proposition A and FOR proposition H. The reality is first, that if we used public transit more, we'd have less need for the parking spaces, and second, that we're losing neighborhood street parking all the time because private citizens are refinancing their homes and building garages under them....thus eliminating street parking in front of -- and adjacent to -- their buildings.
The spaces between each garage are seldom large enough to park more than a Smart car in them, if that. In fact, my neighborhood is constantly under construction, and even now, another homeowner is digging a hole in front of his otherwise-rickety building to create a garage for himself (see photo).
As an increasing number of people from the suburbs move here, there's been a tremendous increase in the number of super-sized cars on the streets, it's true. I've seen people move to an apartment building next door to a major Muni Metro station with a Cadillac Escalade parked in front....go figure! That's how I know the disinformation campaign will likely succeed.
People tend to be attracted by shiny objects. As proof, the people in my state elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, throwing out the guy they elected the year before, because a group of people in southern California suddenly started a ballot initiative to take him from Hollywood to the state government in a non-gubernatorial election year.
Here's the scoop, San Franciscans:
YES on A (money for public transit)
NO on H (sucking money from public transit and giving it to private developers)
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Off the air
Tonight I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a while: I cancelled my satellite TV subscription. That's almost $800 per year I was paying for television that I rarely watched. It felt good. But is it over yet?
The clerk at the other end of the phone line asked me why I was cancelling. Then she offered me a horrible-sounding "family pack" for $19.95 per month, which consisted of children's shows, religious programming, and FOX News! No wonder the USA is in the condition it's in right now. I declined.
Then she told me that they would ship me some boxes in which I had to ship back the DVR and other assorted equipment. She wanted me to retrieve a card from the satellite dish (a three-story climb on a rickety ladder....no thank you!) and she told me that somehow I still owe yet even more money for my final bill. And she asked me if I wanted to end it today. I said "Yes." But I can see the little red recording light on right now, recording The Daily Show...so is it really over?
It felt great, but it will be strange to have these two dead screens in my house. I might plug my iPod into them to watch podcasts of foreign news that I download from iTunes. Doesn't that sound great, actually?
The clerk at the other end of the phone line asked me why I was cancelling. Then she offered me a horrible-sounding "family pack" for $19.95 per month, which consisted of children's shows, religious programming, and FOX News! No wonder the USA is in the condition it's in right now. I declined.
Then she told me that they would ship me some boxes in which I had to ship back the DVR and other assorted equipment. She wanted me to retrieve a card from the satellite dish (a three-story climb on a rickety ladder....no thank you!) and she told me that somehow I still owe yet even more money for my final bill. And she asked me if I wanted to end it today. I said "Yes." But I can see the little red recording light on right now, recording The Daily Show...so is it really over?
It felt great, but it will be strange to have these two dead screens in my house. I might plug my iPod into them to watch podcasts of foreign news that I download from iTunes. Doesn't that sound great, actually?
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