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…yeah I know you did not ask!
Definition of a politician: An individual who spends inordinately large sums of money to get elected to a job for which they are not qualified. Should they achieve this dubious goal the likelihood is that they will live up to the expectations of incompetence and/or corruption.
I have a 2006 Mazda MX-5 (Miata) that I drive mainly on weekends when the weather is nice. I bought the car from a
fellow my age who was marrying a younger woman with two small kids. He needed a more family friendly vehicle. He had had the car 9 months, and he was grieving about selling it. I gave him $19,000 for a car that listed for $27,000 before his hormones kicked in. It is the top trim line for this car, the Grand Touring edition. Hang on, hang on…. I have a reason for relating all of this and it is not bragging.
To give you an idea of the performance of this vehicle I quote from Car and Driver’s road test:
“First, this new model is the fastest ever Miata-we know, we know, Mazda wants to forget about that name. It scoots to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, continues through the quarter in 15 seconds flat at 91 mph, and doesn’t stop accelerating until it hits 131 mph. With the exception of the 91-mph trap speed, which was equaled by the turbocharged last-generation Mazdaspeed model, each of those figures sets a record for showroom MX-5s. And this performance is hugely faster than that of the original 1990 model, which needed 16.8 seconds to cover the quarter-mile and topped out at 116 mph.”
It is not a muscle car, but a whole lot of fun to drive. It will hit 80 or 85 mph in 3rd gear (it has a 6 speed) before the car’s computer calls me stupid by shutting down the fuel flow before I blow a gasket. Continue reading “Get a grip Dude!”
One of the courses I play regularly has a 417 yard dog-leg left par 4, as played from the white tees. It is a very open hole so the wind affects the ball quite a bit. About 200 yards from the green are two bunkers left of the fairway and one bunker right of the fairway. If the wind is into me or still I just try to thread the needle between the two sets of bunkers. If the wind is behind I attempt to carry the left set of bunkers as it leaves a short shot to the green. Most of the time though when I do this my ball ends up in the rough, but I have a clear shot to the green.
Friday I caught the hole downwind, and I caught my tee shot well. I might have tugged it just a bit. Nevertheless I was in the fairway. My handheld GPS unit told me I had about 130 yards to the front of the green. There was a red flag on the pole indicating a front pin position. I drew my trusty 8-iron from its scabbard. I went through my pre-shot routine taking dead aim at the pin as there was room left and right. I hit one of the straightest shots I had ever hit in my life. Continue reading “That noise you hear…”
There is a new B&B in Memphis, Veronica & Steve’s Bodacious B&B. Now you are probably thinking B&B, Bed and 
Breakfast, and in most cases you would be correct. However, in this case the B&B signifies Beer and Bed. It is a new twist on an old favorite.
The proprietors, Veronica and Steve, run an establish full of down home cheer. Veronica is a native Memphian. Steve is a transplanted Canuck who brings his Canadian reserve and sensibilities to the establishment. Veronica handles the domestic portion while Steve is brew master and master gardener. Veronica has a ready smile, and is a fine conversationalist on a range of topics. While we arrived somewhat late, this did not seem to faze her, and we were gracefully greeted. She directed us to amply sized rooms with comfortable beds. As in an old world B&B and some European hotels you share a bathroom. This was not a problem, as long as we waited 15 minutes or so after our traveling partner had used the facilities.
Steve has the yard and gardens looking absolutely magnificent. The stand of banana trees in the front yard is worthy of a Costa Rican plantation. His vegetable gardens in back supply a variety of delectable treats. While there, I tried two of his in-house craft beers. Continue reading “New Memphian B&B”
…yeah I know you did not ask!
I feel sorry (among other things) for those men in societies that treat women as second class citizens, as property, as less than human. How wonderful it is to have a co-equal partner to share the world’s joys and sorrows with. I can only hope that if they had even an inkling of an idea of what a gift it is they would change their behavior. However, social and religious pressures can be an amazing force for the status quo.
To the young father jogging pushing a jogging stroller with his small child therein:
You looked at me sheepishly when I glanced your way as rode toward you on my bicycle. No need to do that, puff your chest out. How much more comfortable you must be in your skin than I was at the same age. You probably could not have gotten me to do that for love nor money as I erroneously thought it was not a manly activity. It was my lost.
I am glad this generation of fathers does not have that hang up. What could be a more manly activity that participating in the care of your children.
Jog on, young father, jog on.
When I think about describing this book the phrase, “utterly delicious”, comes to mind. Initially I had a hard time getting into the book. Wainaina has a unique way with language. While the story is linear, the prose is borderline stream of consciousness. Once I gathered in the rhythm of the language, the harmony emerged. Certain passages were pure umami tantalizing the brain much like a morel does the tongue.
The Kenya described therein is an olio of languages.
“There are many understood ways to address someone: sometime you shift quickly into English; often you speak in a mock Kiswahili, in an ironical tone, simply to indicate that you are not dogmatic about language, that you are quite happy to shift around and find the bandwidth of the person to whom you are speaking.”
The book is like this too. It weaves in little snippets of African languages that give you a feel of time and place. Many words seem to be a mash-up of English and a tribal language.
This is a memoir. It is a coming-of-age story. Continue reading “One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina”
…yeah I know you did not ask!
You know you are getting old when the young ladies start holding the door for you!!!
The CF continues. Apparently the Obama administration is in bed with InfoSys. To quote from the article from Computerworld in this link Court case offers a peek at how H-1B-fueled discrimination works :
“The passage of the Affordable Care Act brought with it a burst of IT spending and hiring. The District of Columbia, for instance, hired offshore outsourcing firm Infosys for $49.5 million to build its Healthcare Exchange.
The India-based Infosys brought in H-1B visa holders to work on the government project. And of the approximately 100 Infosys employees working on the healthcare project, only three were American, according to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court.”
Just to be clear the discrimination they are referring is against citizens of the United States in the IT field.
To quote from another article Lawsuit: Tech Company Hired to Build D.C. Obamacare Website Discriminated Against Americans Continue reading “Lawsuit Claims Obama Discriminated Against American Workers.”