Monthly Archives: June 2004

From Brownout to Blackout

Our power problems in Brooklyn culminated Friday afternoon and evening with five separate transformer explosions and fires along Vanderbilt Avenue, the first around 4.30 in the afternoon and the last about 11.30 at night. Voltage went from just under 100 … Continue reading

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Brooklyn Brownouts

The low-voltage problem continues in most of western Prospect Heights. Street lights are dim, grocery store freezers are way too warm (soupy ice cream, just the right thing for a hot and muggy night) and the elevators in most of … Continue reading

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An antidote to Presidential fawning

He may be a strung-out gun nut, but Hunter Thompson’s obituary of Richard M. Nixon is worth reading to counter the effects of the Reagan coverage. It’s a little like eating some hearty green vegetables after eating McDonald’s all week. … Continue reading

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Power Problems in Brooklyn

For the second time in a week, we’ve had much lower than normal voltage in my building. Con Ed denies anything is wrong, but they said the same thing last Wednesday, and the whole neighborhood had problems and there were … Continue reading

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NY Times redefines “offshore”

In a scare story in today’s New York Times, we’re told that even high-end software jobs are vulnerable to “migrating abroad”: In the debate over high-technology work migrating abroad, there has been widespread agreement on at least one thing: the … Continue reading

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Tortuous coverage

Today’s lead headline in The New York Times: Bush Doesn’t Expect NATO to Provide Troops for Iraq. Today’s lead headline in The Financial Times: Bush sidesteps questions over prisoners’ torture. Tell me again how the Times has an anti-Bush agenda? … Continue reading

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No philosophers in the U.S.?

J.K. Rowling has a rather charming web site that she actually seems to be writing herself (one sign that marketing doesn’t control the site is a rare flash of rational web design: a very usable text version of the site). … Continue reading

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Ray Charles, September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004

I saw Ray Charles only once, from the back row of Brooklyn College’s Gershwin Auditorium. Far from the expected rote review of hits in a (let’s face it) second-level venue, he kicked ass, kicked the piano, and nearly fell off … Continue reading

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A few dissenting words at last…

It’s about time a few people in the media broke away from the chorus of unthinking praise being heaped on Ronald Reagan. (Anyone with any remaining illusions about the “liberal media” must have missed the NPR segment on Saturday that … Continue reading

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