Remember that deer my BIL shot and showed me last week?
As I mentioned in the comments of that post, he decided to hang the skull in my back yard to dry out so he could make a so-called European Mount. (After drying out, one has to boil the flesh off.)
But I went back there today expecting to see the deer head skewered on a stick - like something straight out of Braveheart or The Gangs Of New York.
It wasn't. The head is rotting in plastic bag hanging on the fence that's no doubt filled with water and *not helping* the drying out process.
1. The first step is to clean all major flesh from the skull. Cut off all meat and hide. Do not worry about damaging anything. Make sure to get as much flesh off as possible. Be sure that there is no vertebra still attached to the skull. This step is generally a lot easier if the head is fresh and has not been dead for over two or three days.
2. Now detach the jaw and Scrape out the brains. If you wish to keep the jaw bone (bear, fox, etc...) then carefully detach it and cut out the tongue. There is a hole at the back of the skull about the size of a quarter; this is your best access to the brains. Use your butter knife of a stick to get up in there and work the brains out. You can even use a piece of wire. Just be sure to get the brains out of there, it will save you a lot of work in the long run. If the brains dry in the head they are really hard to get out and they smell terrible!
Aha!
My lazy BIL skipped the first step - the brain scoop-out!
One of my operatives just sent me this pic of a row home in *Fishtown*.
Where's that?
Well, Fishtown is a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. It's not the worst section of Philly, as that's a super competitive division(!), but it's kind of rundown and seedy. Put it this way - there's no market for *dental services* there!
I once dated a young broad from F-town....but she dumped ME unceremoniously!
Obviously this sign was born out of more than just bad customer service over a bounced check or something.
I'm right sure it's a *foreclosure* situation.
And meanwhile, somewhere in a Bank of America corporate office there's no doubt a sign or a memo:
We Hate Fishtown...It's Full Of Deadbeats Who Lied About Their Income!
So the other day I blogged on my son's upcoming 6th birthday party....or lack thereof.
It turns out we were invited to a friend's kid's one year old birthday celebration yesterday. Normally, I skip these entirely. For some time I've had a *beer requirement* that wasn't met at most parties.
But we're in New York now. Mrs. C-Nut said that I had to go to this one and promised that it would be okay. After all, her friend was doing the party at a waterfront restaurant.
Okay.
I scoffed that it was probably going to cost an outrageous *2 grand* or something.
My wife scoffed back, "I'll take the over of that! More like 5 grand..."
Guess what, she was right - and probably still a little on the low side!
It was like a wedding for crying out loud. Eighty or ninety people (mostly adults), a DJ, a professional photographer, a completely open bar, appetizers, and a buffet dinner. Big Bird made an appearance; there was a cotton candy machine; and some fancy Neapolitan cake that had to cost $300 or so.
And my wife was right about it being kind of fun too.
You couldn't beat the setting either.
After almost 5 hours(!), we did finally leave. Exhausted from dancing, various games, running around, and an overload of sugar....my daughter said she wanted to have her birthday party there.
Very, VERY funny!
Oh, and not for nuthin'....but the people who threw this party are by no means rich - in fact I think they rent a place for around $2,000 a month. Furthermore, they just did throw a similarly-sized bash FOR THE BABY'S BAPTISM!
The entire time there, in between sips of Budweiser beer, I was shaking my head in utter disbelief at this complete waste of money.
But my wife fired back, "This is New York, this is what people do here..."
So last week Boston Celtic Kevin Garnett briefly suffered *image trouble* for allegedly calling a hairless opponent a *cancer patient*.
Oooooooooohhhhhh. Uhhhhhhhh Ohhhhhh.
But KG was quick to challenge the accusation and publicly submit (Tweet?) his own version:
"My comment to Charlie Villanueva was in fact 'You are cancerous to your team and our league.' I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball."
Well now...
If that isn't one of the worst clarifying, denying, if-then apologies I've ever heard.
Instead of asserting that Villanueva was a victim of cancer....Kevin Garnett, in asking for understanding(?), calls the guy CANCEROUS himself.
Now would it be a worse insult to call someone a victim - or a CAUSE OF CANCER???
This jogs two South Philadelphia anecdotes in my memory...
I once heard *Out-Of-Whack* Jack say to *Enquirer* Frank's foursome:
"I hope youse[sic] all get cancer!!!"
After one of those guys in the group ahead allegedly picked up and pocketed *Out-Of-Whack*'s ball on the 6th hole (the one by the apartments!).
And here's the other blast from the past that comes to mind from KG's reverse apology:
Here is my favorite personal Big Mouth story. I played in a golf tournament in Philly about ten years ago. One of the guys I played with took more than a little license with the rules. When I found out the guy turned in a score of 75, I let others know what actually happened on the course.
Now the word gets out and the body-building drug dealer comes looking for me. He runs in the clubhouse and pulls me aside to "talk to me".
Jerk: Did you tell SOMEONE that I cheated?
C-Nut: No Bruno, I TOLD EVERYONE YOU CHEATED.
I'll never forget how far his jaw dropped when I laid that one on him. It's a wonder I am still alive.
Lately I've been watching a great new(?) color TV show on the Science Channel - Mantracker.
The premise of each episode is that two random people are dropped into the wilderness (or desert or mountains) and have 36 hours to elude Mantracker and make it to their goal destination.
But this guy is amazing, a ninja-cowboy or something. And I'm sure he gets his fair share of broads - at least in his demographic!
He tracks these giddy nimrods by LOOKING FOR TRACKS, watching spooked animals, wielding deception and logic, and sundry other ways.
Essentially, there's just no way this guy can't find you!
So I go to look at certified pre-owned minivans last week...
I tell the guy that my wife will have to come and look on the weekend, maybe.
That was Tuesday; since then, he's emailed me three times, someone else (secretary?) in his office also emailed, and he personally called me three freakin' times.
Meanwhile, Mrs. C-Nut has been so busy (home at 10:30pm on Wednesday and 8:30pm on Thursday) that I have barely even had time to talk about a *new car* with her.
Yet this huckster keeps badgering me, wanting to know when I might bring my wife down.
He just called now and I cut him off, and told him off. "DO NOT TO CALL OR EMAIL ME AGAIN UNTIL AFTER I CONTACT YOU!"
Most of these guys are clueless - that ain't how to sell - not to me anyway!
I'm tempted to contact his manager, call this clown out, and ask to deal with another sales rep - except that....that might not be so fair.
It's probably the sales manager who's been yelling at the guy to *follow-up* and SELL, SELL, SELL in the first place.
I did get around to discussing this with my wife a bit but we are at an impasse.
We're just not sure if we want to spend 17-18k on a used minivan (Town & Country with 30-40k miles on it, 1-3 years old).
We already have a 2006 Tahoe...
So maybe we just need an $8,000 *little* car for my wife to take to the train station and for me to use for weekend golf trips and whatnot? $5 per gallon gas will be here within 2 years - I predict.
Do any of y'all have opinions on buying a one year old car with 30,000 miles on it? These cars, this young, are all from rental car fleets. Having only EVER had clunkers (until the Tahoe semi-gift from MIL this year), we don't know cars or the first thing about buying them at all.
My question is really - does putting all that mileage on a car over a short period mean reduce the quality of it?
The sales guy said that those cars have mostly lower-impact *highway* miles on them PLUS they are meticulously maintained by the companies - at least in terms of regular oil changes and whatnot.
AND he said that they generally get them from rental companies for cheaper prices so that means they are cheaper on his lot.
After some deliberation, I've concluded that essentially everything is pretty much priced in. And all a buyer has to calculate is how much they are willing to pay, and for what.
But it's just brutal having to deal with these small time *skimmers*.
You know, when I lived on South Street in Philadelphia I had three inverts living next door to me AND two living right below me!
The ones next door were scared to death of me, so I heard.
And the ones below hated me. I once heard them refer to me as a "f*%$ing breeder"!
They hated me because they bedded down in a loft that was inches from the ceiling - my first level floor.
And I would come back from boozing - but only 5-6 nights a week - and start chipping and putting on the carpeted floor right above their their *cuddle pile*. I had some metal golf cup that let out a nice DING every time a ball hit it - and THAT really pissed them off.
Thankfully, I myself never heard any celebratory din from my neighbors.
Notwithstanding the ill-advised *suicide* example, the 'old coot' Bill O'Reilly owns Stossel here:
Well he won the theatrical argument anyway.
I'm a big fan of John Stossel. The guy does a terrific job articulating libertarian arguments and backing them up with empiricism.
Though he does have his blindspots...
For one thing, I believe he doesn't quite get the foolishness, or should I say, the *impracticality* of legalizing pot that describes much of today's libertarian movement.
I'd be all for it, so long as the welfare state was eliminated, and so long as one could legally put a bullet in a junkie who breaks into their house (kidding here, partially). Just as I'd be FOR *open borders* in an ideal no-free-lunch country.
Look, if there's an unfair caricature out there of libertarians it's one that portrays them as complete *anarchists* - as people who want ZERO government anywhere.
So all establishment politicians, and establishment Big Media, have to do is scoff, "Hey look at that guy, he's advocating for legalizing heroine and crack cocaine...ha ha ha."
Now it was a different issue, but Warren Redlich, a libertarian running for governor of NY, was completely mocked by Carl Paladino in a debate this year. He (Carl) pretty much chose for his *rebuttal* on one segment to be a smirking silence that played well to the room for 30 seconds or whatever.
With a government as large and as invasive as the one we have, there's no need to *shoot for the moon* in terms of political strategery (that's a word, right?). Just start with say reducing government by 25%.
Whatever libertarians do, they ought not to paint the caricature themselves!
Another area that Stossel is weak on is *education*.
Without going into detail here, the sense I get is that he's a gullible advocate of *vouchers*. What's wrong with that? Well, a libertarian staunch enough to legalize drugs ought to even more clearly see the devastation wrought by government *education*. He should see that the only goal of vouchers is to offer (theoretical) competition within the sphere of government schools. EXCEPT, those schools have no Constitutional or logical mandate in the first place! It's a typical half-a$$ed, let's-clear-the-low-hurdle Republican solution.
And today I was displeased to hear John Stossel mocking vaccine critics:
My segment on vaccines last night (it will repeat tonight at 10pm ET and over the weekend) did not go over well with Claire Dwoskin, of the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that criticizes vaccines. She emailed one of my producers:
I just saw the show and am so sorry to hear that other than what Chris had to say, not a word of truth was spoken by Stossel or Offitt. What a travesty – I hope someday he will recognize the error of his ways and realize the fear and damage that he is contributing to by allowing falsehoods to rule the air. At least his daughter is alive, smiling, educated and enjoying life. That cannot be said for the hundreds of thousands of vaccine injured children in the US. What his daughter went through is NOTHING compared to what the families of autistic children go through every day of their lives. No disease can match this record of human devastation. Vaccines are a holocaust of poison on our children’s brains and immune systems. Shame on you all.
A "holocaust of poison"? No good studies show that vaccines cause autism and the National Academy of Sciences has reviewed the evidence and ruled out causal links. Autism is a challenging condition that affects about 300,000 Americans. The holocaust was the systematic massacre of millions based on their ethnicity.
Now I don't have anyone (save Larry Bird) up on a pedestal so Stossel being wrong on this one issue isn't what upsets me. After all, we're all at different points on the learning curve - I was ignorant of many things in the not-so-distant past as well.
Stossel probably just hasn't, for whatever reason, done any real research and thinking on vaccines. What upset me is how weak Stossel's counter-arguments were.
All he puts forth is a study from government funded *scientists* - the same scientists, no doubt, who unanimously think planet Earth has only 10 years left before burning up! - asserting that vaccines are fine.
Furthermore, I have no opinion on the link between autism and vaccines...
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical and deeply cynical about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines OUTSIDE of possibly causing autism.
So in grabbing this woman's argument, Stossel avoided the issue via strawman.
So recently I've been doing the martial arts disk of P90X.
Can I just say that I've tried tons of ab exercises - who hasn't except for *doctors*? - and never has my midriff felt as exercised as it has this week after doing the regimen of air kicks and punches from *Kenpo X* (4-5 days in a row).
Yeah, they felt more worked out than from any of the yoga routines I've done over the past 2.75 years.
I mentioned this *progress* to my wife and she remarked that now I ought to understand why some of these chicks take up kickboxing and whatnot.
So there's this supposedly cool Sony Wonder Lab in Manhattan...
My son loves science and technology and his birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks.
The decision has already been made to keep it small this year to give our budget a break. After all, he's going to be six and really doesn't care how big his party is. All he wants it to be *six*, have a cake, and get a handful of presents. The larger, more expensive parties down the road will be inevitable as we get more socially immersed on Long Island...
One idea my wife had was to take him and a friend or two down to this Sony Wonder Lab. That may or may not actually happen.
My son's reading ability really took off about 14 months ago. Here's a clip I posted last September when he was 4.8 years old:
Since then he's been a real joy to *homeschool*. Whenever there's dead time, and I do have him awake for nearly 14 hours a day(!), and I think he needs to do something *educational*, I simply tell him to grab one of his library books and *read 3 chapters* or whatever. And magically off he goes - fully sedated by a book instead of a color TV or a Nintendo DS. Some days I may send him off to a quiet corner 5 or 6 different times; he reads nonstop from his backseat stockpile of books when in the car; PLUS he's allowed to read every night before bed almost to his heart's content.
All parents can relate to the wondrous feeling of seeing their kids asleep in bed at night. NEVER are they more adorable then at this unconscious end-of-the-long-day moment!
Well, when I see my son immersed in a book I'm similarly overwhelmed with joy. And I take great pains to never interrupt his concentration a la a sleeping baby.
I've been trying to get him to list each book he reads in his *Book's* Google Word Doc but he's so voracious, many have been missed. Nonetheless, here's a glimpse of what he's read:
August 2010
Stink #1, #2, by Megan McDonald Outernet #1 by Steve Skidmore My Father's Dragon By Ruth Stiles Gannett Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett The Wind and the Willow - Illustrated Classic
September 2010 The Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett Stink #3, #4 by Megan McDonald Pass the Quill, I'll write a draft by Robert Quackenbush Meet Thomas Jefferson by Marvin Barrett Stuart's cape By Sara Pennypacker The Empty Squirrel by Carol Carrick Charlie and the Chocolate Factory By Ronald Dahl The Mad Mad Mad Mad Treasure Hunt by Megan McDonald The Junior Science Book of Trees By Robert S. Lemmon Who Was Claude Monet - By Ann Waldron Harry Potter 1, 2, 3 (dad read and audio) Claude Monet Sunshine and Waterlilies by Steven Packard Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defeo Illustrated Classic, mom read to me The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain, mom read to me Graphic Novels- goosebumps, a whole bunch! Choose Your Own Adventures, The Mystery of Chimney Rock The Adventures of Ook and Gluk By George Beard Toys Go out
October 2010 The Twits by Ronald Dahl A Picture for Marc by Eric Kimmel The Kuiper Belt By Fran Howard Jupiter - Larry Dane Brimmer Constellations By Dana Meachen Rau Stars By Paul P. Sipiera Flat Stanley - Stanley in Space By Jeff Brown Andrews Lost - In the Deep Andrews Lost - in Time Andrews Lost - on Earth Andrews Lost - with the Dinosaurs Andrews Lost - in the Ice Age Binky the space cat By Ashley Spires The Littles By John Peterson Toy Dance Party By Emily Jenkins Pontiac by Virgina F. Voight Matthew Meets the Wall By Patricia Reilly Giff Mother Teresa By Candice F. Ransom Tecumseh By Anne Scharff
November 2010 A to Z Mysteries - The Zombie Zone Sally Ride by Barbara Kramer
1. Dinosaurs Before Dark, Magic Tree House, Book 1 2. The Knight at Dawn, Magic Tree House, Book 2 3. Mummies in the Morning, Magic Tree House, Book 3 4. Pirates past Noon, Magic Tree House, Book 4 5. Night of the Ninjas, Magic Tree House, Book 5 6. Afternoon on the Amazon, Magic Tree House, Book 6 7. Sunset of the Sabertooth, Magic Tree House, Book 7 8. Midnight on the Moon, Magic Tree House, Book 8 9. Dolphins at Daybreak, Magic Tree House, Book 9 10. Ghost Town at Sundown, Magic Tree House, Book 10 11. Lions at Lunchtime, Magic Tree House, Book 11 12. Polar Bears Past Bedtime, Magic Tree House, Book 12 13. Vacation Under The Volcano, Magic Tree House, Book 13 14. Day of the Dragon King, Magic Tree House, Book 14 15. Viking Ships at Sunrise, Magic Tree House, Book 15 16. Hour of the Olympics, Magic Tree House, Book 16 17. Tonight on the Titanic, Magic Tree House, Book 17 18. Buffalo Before Breakfast, Magic Tree House, Book 18 19. Tigers at Twilight, Magic Tree House, Book 19 20. Dingoes at Dinnertime, Magic Tree House, Book 20 21. Civil War on Sunday, Magic Tree House, Book 21 22. Revolutionary War on Wednesday, Magic Tree House, Book 22 23. Twister on Tuesday, Magic Tree House, Book 23 24. Earthquake in the Early Morning, Magic Tree House, Book 24 25. Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Magic Tree House, Book 25 26. Good Morning, Gorillas, Magic Tree House, Book 26 27. Thanksgiving on Thursday, Magic Tree House, Book 27 28. High Tide in Hawaii, Magic Tree House, Book 28
Merlin Missions
29. Christmas in Camelot, Magic Tree House, Book 29 30. Haunted Castle On Hallow’s Eve, Magic Tree House, Book 30 31. Summer Of The Sea Serpent, Magic Tree House, Book 31 32. Winter Of The Ice Wizard, Magic Tree House, Book 32 33. Carnival at Candlelight, Magic Tree House, Book 33 34. Season of the Sandstorms, Magic Tree House, Book 34 35. Night of the New Magicians, Magic Tree House, Book 35 36. Blizzard of the Blue Moon, Magic Tree House, Book 36 37. Dragon of the Red Dawn, Magic Tree House, Book 37 38. Monday with a Mad Genius, Magic Tree House, Book 38 39. Dark Day in the Deep Sea, Magic Tree House, Book 39
40. Eve of the Emperor Penguin, Magic Tree House, Book 40 41. Moonlight on the Magic Flute, Magic Tree House, Book 41 42. A Good Night for Ghosts, Magic Tree House, Book 42 43. Leprechaun in Late Winter,, Magic Tree House, Book 43
A Child's Garden of Verses - Robert Louis Stevenson
A to Z Mysteries - The Orange Outlaw A to Z Mysteries - The Quicksand Question A to Z Mysteries - The Runaway Racehorse A to Z Mysteries - The Yellow Yacht A to Z Mysteries - The Haunted Hotel
The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
A to Z Mysteries - The Panda Puzzle A to Z Mysteries -The White Wolf A to Z Mysteries -Missing Mummy
Andrew's Lost - On The Dog
White Fang - Jack London
A to Z Mysteries - The Unwilling Umpire A to Z Mysteries - The Jaguar's Jewel A to Z Mysteries - The School Skeleton
Andrew's Lost - In The Bathroom Andrew's Lost - In The Kitchen
The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
Andrew's Lost - In The Garden
A to Z Mysteries - The Goose's Gold A to Z Mysteries - The Deadly Dungeon A to Z Mysteries - The Empty Envelope A to Z Mysteries - The Absent Author A to Z Mysteries - THE BALD BANDIT A to Z Mysteries - THE CANARY CAPER
Andrew's Lost - under water
Horrible harry goes to sea - Suzy Kline Horrible harry takes the cake - Suzy Kline
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds - by David A. Adler Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Mystery Writer - by David A. Adler Song Lee and the leech man - Suzy Kline Cam Jansen and the Scary Snake Mystery - by David A. Adler Otis Spofford - Beverly Clearly The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells The Animal Rescue Club - John Himmeman
Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery - by David A. Adler
Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery - by David A. Adler
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the U.F.O - by David A. Adler Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the New Girl - by David A. Adler Young Cam Jansen and the The Lion's Lunch Mystery - by David A. Adler Cam Jansen and the Lost Tooth - by David A. Adler
Andrews Lost - On The Whale - by J.C. Greenburg
Andrews Lost - On The Reef - by J.C. Greenburg
George The Drummer Boy - Nathaniel Benchley
Kidnapped at the Capitol - Ron Roy
The Paint Brush Kid - Clyde Robert Bulla
Cam Jansen and the Catnapping Mystery - by David A. Adler Gigantic Ants and Other Cases - by Sey
The Poppy Seeds - Clyde Robert Bulla The Secrets of Droon - The Hidden Staircase and Magic Carpet The Secrets of Droon - Journey to the Volcano palace The Secrets of Droon - The Mysterious island The Secrets of Droon - City in the Clouds The Secrets of Droon - The Great Ice battle The Secrets of Droon - The Sleeping Giant of Goll The Secrets of Droon - Into the Land of Lost The Secrets of Droon - The golden wasp The Secrets of Droon - The Tower of the elf king The Secrets of Droon - The Quest for the Queen The Secrets of Droon - The Hawk Bandits of trarkoom The Secrets of Droon - Under the Serpent sea The Secrets of Droon - The Mask of mailban The Secrets of Droon - The Voyage of Jaffa Wind The Secrets of Droon - The Moon Scroll
Wiley & Grandpa's creature features - Dracula vs. grandpa at the monster truck spectacular Wiley & Grandpa's creature features - Grandpa's zombie BBQ Wiley & Grandpa's creature features - Monster fish frenzy
Encyclopedia Brown - Boy detective Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers - Donald J. sobol
The Secrets of Droon - The knights of Silversnow The Secrets of Droon - Dream thief The Secrets of Droon - Search for the dragon ship
The Secrets of Droon - In the ice caves of Krog The Secrets of Droon - Flight of the genie The Secrets of Droon - Isle of Mists The Secrets of Droon - Fortress of the treasure Queen The Secrets of Droon - The race to Doobesh The Secrets of Droon - The riddle of Zorfendof The Secrets of Droon - The Moon Dragon The Secrets of Droon - The Chariot of Queen Zara
I could probably go into my library account and grab the titles of the missing ones but that's a task for a less busy time in my life.
Have you read as many books as my 5.96 year old has in the past year or so?
Massachusetts Morons had yet another chance to give themselves a tax cut.
But yesterday they overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have reduced the state sales tax from 6.25% to 3%.
Behold the propagandistic lies they, in the *most educated state*, fell for yet again:
The tax-cutter advocates up there must be completely frustrated. Two years ago they were able to get a *repeal the state income tax entirely* question on the ballot only to be resoundingly defeated.
So they took a more gradual approach this time - only proposing to roll back the sales tax a few percent - but that didn't resonate either with what has to be the stupidest group of literate and numerate people on the planet.
Any Mass business or frustrated taxpayer, seeing these last two election results, just HAS TO read the handwriting on the wall, stop fantasizing about it and just up and leave that doomed state once and for all!
Of course, so many *thinkers* have already left, and that goes a long way toward explaining these otherwise incredible election results...
Check it out - my BIL just showed me the head of a deer in his trunk.
He slew it this weekend in the Catskills with a bow and arrow from a tree stand.
Be grateful I told you the story instead of him...
Because my BIL's version was a full 25 bleepin' minutes. There's simply no speeding him up - questions and other interjectional ruses only prolong the agony.
Yeah, 25 minutes for *two arrows*!
Here's a little more detail specifically for the animal lovers...
The deer suffered miserably for at least 45 minutes before dying. He was hit in the belly with the first arrow, walked 30 yards and sat down. My BIL thought he missed him. Then after a good 30+ minutes he climbed down the tree, found the deer and fired an arrow through its neck. Even then it took some more time to croak.
Went to look at a certified pre-owned minivan today...
That's it above. Before I got there, I was wondering about the line - *Must finance with dealer*.
Did it mean that IF you finance the car you have to go through them?
Or, that EVERY BUYER was required to finance the car (through them)?
Because the C-Nut family is a debt-free entity....we pay cash.
Guess what, the latter was the case. The low price was contingent on financing. The salesman told us that we'd have to pay MORE ("a few more points"???) if we paid cash.
So they essentially force people into car loan debt. The prices are thus higher because buyers are conditioned to look at *monthly payments* rather than total cost. It's a vicious self-perpetuating cycle.
Yet this is the tragic state of our economy - where one can't buy a house without entering into a minimum of 30 years of debt slavery (again, because rampant borrowing has nuked prices into the stratosphere), where a corporation can't compete unless it leverages long-term debt, and where one can't go to college without signing on for a mountain of debt and having their parents forfeit their home equity.
My wife and I are the same age and so each of us have friends bunched around that 36 year old band.
EXCEPT, she has a ton of friends and acquaintances (our age) who've lost a parent; a couple have even lost BOTH their parents already.
In fact, my poor wife lost her own father to pancreatic cancer when she was 15.
Meanwhile, in my circle of 36 year old friends and acquaintances....until early this year when a friend lost his father, I didn't know a single peer who had suffered this type of premature tragedy.
What could possibly explain this actuarial diversion?
Well, it does seem like New Yorkers marry and procreate later - so Mrs. C-Nut's friends' parents are a bit older.
But I think beyond that, and my wife agrees with me, that New Yorkers are a whole lot less *healthy* overall; they work more, smoke more, drink more, and eat more than the rest of the country. There's also more crime and more auto-related deaths. (My wife has THREE high school classmates that were killed on bicycles, by cars. And at least a couple of the *parent* deaths were also on the roadways.)
As my wife succinctly put it, "...because that's what Long Island does, it KILLS people!"
Peter Gray has a post up this week on *cheaters* with a special emphasis on scientists.
Essentially, he asserts that the very structure of curricula-bound, grade-focused schools cultivates academic foul play - from grade school right through the working years.
Our system of compulsory (forced) schooling is almost perfectly designed to promote cheating. That is even truer today than in times past. Students are required to spend way more time than they wish doing work that they did not choose, that bores them, that seems purposeless to them. They are constantly told about the value of high grades. Grades are used as essentially the sole motivator. Everything is done for grades. Advancement through the system, and eventual freedom from it, depends upon grades.
Students become convinced that high grades and advancement to the next level are the be-all and end-all of their school work. By the time they are 11 or 12 years old, most are realistically cynical about the idea that school is fundamentally a place for learning. They realize that much of what they are required to do is senseless and that they will forget most of what they are tested on shortly after the test. They see little direct connection--because there usually is none--between their school assignments and the real world in which they live. They learn that their own questions and interests don't count. What counts are their abilities to provide the "correct" answers to questions that they did not ask and that do not interest them. And "correct" means the answers that the teachers or the test-producers are looking for, not answers that the students really understand to be correct.
In many cases the rules about what is and isn't cheating in school are arbitrary and have nothing to do with learning. If you create a summary sheet of the terms and facts relevant to a test and then consult that sheet while taking the test, you have cheated. However, if you create such a sheet and commit it to a form of short-term memory that lasts just long enough for the test and then vanishes, you have not cheated. If you create a term paper by copying out large chunks of other people's writing and pasting them together, that is cheating; but if you do essentially the same thing and then paraphrase sufficiently rather than use the copied paragraphs exactly, that is not cheating.
Students understand that the rules distinguishing cheating from not cheating in school are like the rules of a game. But in this case it's a game that they did not choose to play. They are forced to go to school, forced to do the assignments, forced to take the tests. They have little or no say in what they study, how they are tested, or the rules concerning what is or isn't cheating. Under these conditions, it's hard to respect the rules.
Not surprisingly, surveys show that cheating is very common in schools. In fact, if "normal" means what most people do, then school cheating is normal. On anonymous questionnaires, as many as 98% of students admit to some form of cheating and roughly 70% percent admit to repeated acts of the most blatant forms of cheating, such as copying whole tests from other students or plagiarizing whole papers.
The surveys also reveal an overall increase in amount of cheating in recent years and a shift in who does most of it. In times past, the most frequent cheaters were the "poor students," who cheated out of desperation just to pass. Today, however, the highest incidences of cheating are among the "best students," the ones destined for the top colleges and graduate schools...
One of the tragedies of our system of schooling is that it deflects students from discovering what they truly love and find worth doing for its own sake. Instead, it teaches them that life is a series of hoops that one must get through, by one means or another, and that success lies in others' judgments rather than in real, self-satisfying accomplishments.
I guess you are supposed to read the cheat sheet (video) when drinking the water???
Thanks to my SoPhilly Jabronis for bringing this to my attention.
One of the joys and side benefits of teaching your own children is that in doing so, a parent's own interests may kindle. I've heard countless examples of say homeschoolers who took up the piano again on account of their children's interest or whatnot.
Such is the story with my kids and chess.
In the course of wanting them to learn the game, I myself had to look at it anew. I started playing against my 96.95 year old grandfather; I read that great book; and I've been sneaking in games against the computer on my PC (Chess Titans). In fact last week I checked out of the library and started reading a book that my wife declared *probably the boringest book on Earth!* in - Standard Chess Openings - 705 pages that covers *3,000 opening strategies*.
Watch the video above if you haven't already. Even those of you who don't play chess might find it interesting.
And tomorrow I'm going to try to sucker my son, the 5.59 year old Prince, into taking my B2 pawn!
I'm in Central Park with my kids at the moment...and am keeping a closer eye on the stroller than I otherwise would.
Yesterday someone stopped my wife during trick or treating and informed her that he just sold the exact same stroller on eBay for an eye-popping $600.
Now it only cost $300 and that was 6 years ago - before normal wear-and-tear.
The informant said his was just as old and similarly beat up but still fetched $600.
So it suffices to say our stroller is on its way out - tomorrow!
With the winter approaching....the alarmist push for *flu vaccines* from interested parties (Big Government, Big Pharma, Big Medicine, Walgreens, CVS, etc) is already well underway. Although I expect even fewer Americans this year to submit this this nonsense (though perhaps not in our most Moronic state - Massachusetts).
Today I came across another comprehensive debunking of flu vaccine propaganda that's well worth reading (and it's not from Natural News!):
or The Gangs Of New York
.
with the brat's name emblazoned on it!
- 705 pages that covers *3,000 opening strategies*.
