LATEST BLOG POSTS

This week there wasn’t much sun, so I read and listened more than usual since they take little to no power. I finished: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, by Bill McKibben: I’ve met Bill and support his environmental work. Bill writes in this book that he doesn’t believe people will change their levels of consumption so concludes that only[…] Keep reading →

Longtime readers may know that when I lived for a year in Paris in 1990-91, I was an au pair. I lived with a family and took care of their young daughter. It was a wonderful opportunity for all. I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures below, but my neighborhood library is a popular place for young kids in strollers, taken there by adults. As far as[…] Keep reading →

I’ve meant to write this post for a while, but I feel like people will misunderstand and think I’m saying something I’m not. Sometimes I feel like everyone sees the main problems with America’s liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. Others I feel like I’m the only one. In fairness, each group does what the others do, but each specializes in the following: Does anyone else see that the biggest problems with[…] Keep reading →

I don’t usually remember dreams, but I half woke up before the alarm this morning. I was half in the dream and half awake. In the dream I was playing with a dog like in this picture. I’ve never owned a brown lab, but that’s the dog in my dream. I remember being about the size of the dog in the dream and the dog wasn’t particularly big, so I[…] Keep reading →

The title says it all. Anyone who spends more than an hour a day on Instagram or Facebook is lying to themselves and others if they claim they don’t have time to cook. It’s the addiction speaking. Claims you’re spending time with family are lies too. I’ll be happy if you correct me if I’m wrong, but history, anthropology, and personal experience tell me that f your children are older[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been increasingly realizing and pointing out that I am not an environmentalist. I surprised myself to discover it. I had long felt misunderstood when people asked, “If you like nature so much, why don’t you go to the woods live in nature?” It had long been obvious to me that we needed to change culture, not escape it, and New York is an influential cultural center. Then I checked[…] Keep reading →

You’ve probably heard the advice not to compare things to the Holocaust or slavery. I have. It says that however bad you think your thing is, it’s not as bad and you just end up looking ignorant. [EDIT November 16: Immediately after posting this post, I started updating and editing the graphs, explanations, and more. The changes were too big to just update this post. I’ll keep it here for[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: “Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound,” by Larissa MacFarquhar in the New Yorker: A few years ago I learned that most people, when they imagine something visual, actually visual something, as if they were seeing it. By contrast, when I imagine seeing something, I don’t see anything. I just imagine it. Apparently nobody knew of this distinction until recent decades and only[…] Keep reading →

My building has a little garden in front with a low wall people can sit on. Isn’t it nice to provide space for people to take a load off? I’m sure most of them don’t, but plenty leave their garbage in our little garden. Here are some pictures from a typical morning. The “Rite-a-way” box is rat poison I don’t like that the superintendent puts there, but with all the[…] Keep reading →