inside more piles of shuffling then amid still more piles of shuffling I tried to nap again until outside turned totally gray and then sprinkled until I cooked dinner against reading, my “book and newspaper fast” somehow too enjoyable up to then don’t I live an exciting life?
Tag: Life
Hey, Zuckerbug, you there?
Looking at Facebook, too many ads. Getting harder to file through to the posts by people I know or sites I follow.
In the past, I had largely ignored FB, returning sporadically, but after moving up here, where it’s like a telephone party line, back when people had landline phones, I’m finding more reasons to check in.
But not everyone, by a long shot, is hanging on to hear the gossip.
Too many ads. And maybe too much chatter.
The return was also prompted in the past year by an opportunity to catch up on a host of classmates I’d lost contact with in my moves across the continent.
That part’s been helpful.
But I’m also encountering too many folks who haven’t posted anything in three or more years. Likely haven’t checked in since then, either.
Hello! Anyone home there?
Can’t tell. Too many ads.
What’s your take?
No, not bunny slippers
A repeated sensation of despair
Feel like I’m drowning in paper.
Even when it’s all digital.
Drafts and correspondence, especially.
It was a guy thing
childhood as
cowboys & Indians
Jolly presuming it’s Jeff
spent most of my spare time since one coworker helped me unload the last two-thirds seeking traction amid the confusion assumed new meaning with indications of clearing on the horizon {oh, how I wanted that forecast to turn truly true}) may beginning afresh bring only the best, don’t we deserve something like that?
America’s largest cities in 1850
The development of the West – meaning out to the Mississippi River, mostly – propels changes in the balance of population by 1850.
- New York (515,547) is without question the largest metropolis, boosted in part by commerce via the Erie Canal, transporting goods to and from the Great Lakes and Midwest.
- Baltimore (169,054) has leapt to second-place. The growing Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is a factor. The city takes advantage of being the closest Eastern Seaboard port to the Ohio Valley and its agricultural abundance.
- Boston (136,881). The textiles mills of New England have to be a factor in the city’s prosperity and position.
- Philadelphia (121,376). Its clout would be enhanced if its three suburbs in the Top 20 are tallied in, pushing it to second place.
- New Orleans (116,375). The nation’s center of gravity has shifted. Nearly as large is
- Cincinnati (115,435). Migrants from urban Germany make a difference.
- Brooklyn (96,838) is a thriving independent city just across the waters from booming Manhattan.
- St. Louis (77,860). Not just the gateway to the Far West, it’s also a center of urban German migrants.
- Spring Garden district, Pennsylvania (58,894). Adjacent to Philadelphia.
- Albany, New York (50,763) is active on the Erie Canal.
The next ten are also illuminating: 11, Northern Liberties district, Pennsylvania (47,223); 12, Kensington district, Pennsylvania (46,774); 13, Pittsburgh (46,601); 14, Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky (43,194); 15, Charleston, South Carolina (42,985); 16, Buffalo (42,261); 17, Providence, Rhode Island (41,513); 18, Washington, District of Columbia (40,001); 19, Newark, New Jersey (38,894); and Southwark district, Pennsylvania (38,799).
Altogether, six of the 20 largest cities are west of the Appalachians. Three of those are on the Ohio River. And, in contrast, New England has just two.
Making out like pirates, weather permitting
Considering that all but one member of my Hodgson family crossing the Atlantic in 1710 was decimated by French privateers, I find nothing romantic about pirates.
Even with legal sanction, as privateers were, they remained thieves and brutes of the seas. Well, though, there were apparently a number of unwritten understandings. Or else someone walks the plank. Or, in our case, died of maltreatment.
That said, one of Eastport’s two biggest events of the year comes the weekend after Labor Day, when everyone celebrates the city’s Pirate Festival. Yes, those black flags with the white skull and crossbones fly everywhere, even on seagoing fishing boats and the passenger ferry. And many folks dress the part to the hilt, even with what sometimes looks like a kilt. Some of the costumes are quite exquisite in their detailing, while others are pretty loose, like the guy in Hawaiian shirt and a pirate vest and hat.
For the record, the port was once abuzz with smuggling to and from neighboring Canada.
History aside, I can’t complain about the special events and its welcome crowd that extend the summer season, even if I had thought it would mean I’d have to keep my mouth closed.
What we have is essentially a seafaring blast, with people strolling the street in period garb and canes. Some of them cross over into steampunk, which also fits the later steamship period, I suppose, and I do love watching for the anachronisms, like the cell phones and plastic water bottles in hand.
There’s plenty of up-to-snuff music-making, street dances, magicians and Punch-and-Judy presentations, a barrel relay race, even cutlass instruction for children armed with foam noodles.
It’s like trick-or-treat nearly two months early, and the decorations can stay up till Halloween. I’ve been surprised at the light-hearted air of the celebration, one without the demonic undertow of Salem, Massachusetts, approaching November.
I do appreciate the appearance of parrots on some costumes, so much so I keep calling this our Parrot Festival.
As a footnote, last year’s attendance was curbed by the Canadian border closures due to Covid. Community here extends on both sides of the international boundary.
Just what is it about pirates that captures people’s imagination?
Confidentially Inga
if only to disagree with some passage the page opens more than we come expecting, now let us mud-wrestle and- see what we hate in the Lamb’s War (Ephesians) taken to your closet, taken to the street, this is not law but essential life drama where everyone’s unmasked in the story to embrace a more open stance than I’ve grown accustomed to greeting when some own up to privation lest they finally examine the Bible without the snobbery of Baltimore toward Indiana, :still there’s less resistance in burnished Boston amid some faithful, ahem, affectionately, then, let the red ink dry first
Just in case you’re creating bumper stickers
Pardon me for getting political, but an important national election is coming up. Not that all of them aren’t important, but democracy is being threatened.
So here’s my chance to vent. See if any of these stick.
- Liberty is Liberal in Practice.
- 99% from the 1% (they’ll still be getting ahead).
- If you can’t be civil, just shut up.
- Democracy’s for consenting adults.
- Wipe and then flush the toilet after you’re done. We’re tired of cleaning up your messes.
- Don’t Bully My Free Speech.
- Today’s Lincoln Republican votes a straight Democratic ticket.
- Real taxpayer waste? Let’s start with Pentagon contracts.
- Just drink the Kool-Aid.
- Stop calling me slurs unless you want me to return the favor.
Do I sound embittered? Really!
Jnana's Red Barn 