History is littered with examples of the law of unintended consequences. Here are a few: During the Raj, the British government in India attempted to cull the cobra population by putting a bounty on snakes. Enterprising people started breeding cobras and delivering the bodies of domestically-raised cobras to the collection centers. The result was that …
I fear that I have depleted the canon of western writers. So far, I have referenced Kafka, Gogol, Orwell, Gandhi, Lewis Carroll, and Kafka (admittedly, I find Joseph Heller uninspiring, and references to Proust are just short-hand for long-windedness). But this time, the New York State Department of Health has gone one better, and I …
Non-Consensual Colonoscopy – Mobile Home Park Edition Read More »
Don’t worry – despite the title, this post will not start, “Longtemps je me suis couché de bonne heure”. It will be short. I am angry that my managers will not get vaccinated. As of today, everyone from age 16 up in New York State can sign up for a COVID vaccine. Before then, everyone …
My first comment about Esther Sullivan’s monograph Manufactured Insecurity (University of California Press, 2018) was that there is nothing wrong with it. There’s nothing right with it, either. In fact, there is pretty much nothing with it at all. But that was before I got past the fourth chapter. The edition that I bought is …
Unlike most park owners, I am not a small-government guy. I think that public institutions can be a force for good and a useful counterweight to the uglier aspects of the market. If I had lived in the thirties (that’s the nineteen thirties), I would have supported the New Deal. If I had been able …
I will take a break from the usual crap and write a little bit about P.L. 117-7, the 2021 stimulus bill. The official name of the statute is The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, but it is referred to hereinafter as the “Act”. In its final version, it is 242 pages of turgid PDF …
One night last week, a former writing instructor forwarded me a link to this article in the New Yorker. Upon receiving her email, I immediately shot off a reply to the effect of, how’s-the-writing-going-yeah-PE-funds-have-been-bidding-up-this-asset-class-for-years and then slid into an alcohol- and Netflix induced stupor. But then, overnight, the emails kept coming. Some people forwarded the …
I have written about Mrs. Wilson before. She is the woman who winds up my dopamine motor, chains herself to trees and appears, like Schrodinger’s Cat, simultaneously in northern New York and Alabama. She refuses to speak with Mike, the manager in her park. Early yesterday, my phone farted and a text from Mrs. Wilson …
Late in the day yesterday, my mobile phone rang showing a number with a 330 Ohio area code. I thought, “That ringtone sounds like a fart. I need to change it.” A mechanical voice said, “This is Daniel Padilla from Amazon. There has been a fraudulent charge on your account. Your account is compromised. Press …
I will insert a banner ad for One Eyed Bastard Frog once I get around to learning how to steal the code for that. In the meantime, you can enjoy music from the band that Janet Maslin, of the Gray Lady Times says is “like ending world hunger, only more satisfying”, and about whom Brigitte …