Personal Musings category archive

There’s a stretch of Shore Drive (US 60) not far from these parts which has seen 10 pedestrian fatalities in the past eight years.

Now the city is lowering the speed limit from 45 to 35 for the stretch in question.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously instructed staffers to reduce the speed limit on the busy road to 35 mph from 45 mph. The change will affect the four-mile stretch of Shore Drive between Pleasure House Road and North Great Neck Road.

I spent 45 minutes googling (well, actually I was startpaging because Startpage is more secure) for statistics on the causes of pedestrian accidents. I found one link to a study (PDF) regarding the relationship of speed and pedestrian injuries (the faster the vehicle, the more severe the pedestrian injuries; duh.), but mostly the search was overwhelmed by ambulance chasers personal injury attorney websites and safety brochures.

The eastern end of the stretch in question, the most dangerous portion of it, is lined with houses, condos, apartments, eateries, and little shopping centers; most of the accidents have happened late at night and involved persons crossing the road to get to another nightspot or to go home.

The road is four lanes, sometimes increasing to eight at intersections with left and right turn lanes; it’s one of three major roads connecting Norfolk and Virginia Beach and consequently heavily travelled. Even at a crosswalk in daylight, a pedestrian with a green light can take the duration of the green to get across the road. (I watched one just Monday as she was heading toward the beach.)

Crosswalks are few and far between, especially in the most hazardous area, which is also the area most cluttered with shops and eateries. Depending on the starting and end points, using a crosswalk could add as much as 15 or 20 minutes to crossing the road.

I hope that lowering the speed limit helps, though I fear it won’t.

I suspect that visibility, the distance between crosswalks, and the width of the highway has more to do with the accident rate than does the speed limit.

I wish I weren’t so pessimistic, but I would place more more hope in a crosswalk or two with on-demand stoplights.

Please say a prayer for my son, currently on his third tour in a war zone, that he remains and honorer of Memorial Day, not an honoree.

Why are right-wingers so obsessed with sex?

I got tired of his perpetual invocation of the phallus as a diplomatic strategy.

Funny how wingnut diplomacy always involves wanting to beat people up.

When they were teenagers, they were always the ones who squealed off from stop lights. It was a form of compensation.

Philadelphia seems to be the new graveyard of the Atlantic.

First it was the S. S. United States. Now it looks as if the U. S. S. Olympia may be allowed to sink.

Now the Olympia – the last surviving vessel from that 1898 conflict – could face an ignoble end as an artificial reef off Cape May if a new benefactor cannot be found.

The Independence Seaport Museum and the Navy have already checked with officials of New Jersey’s Artificial Reef Program on the possibility of sinking the ship, once a source of national pride.

The museum does not have a stellar history, having served as a playground and piggy bank for an earlier museum president.

I posted some pictures of the Olympia last fall.

I remember touring the Olympia with my younger daughter shortly after I moved to the Philly area in 1983. It is one-of-a-kind and a true historical treasure.

I have never seen an episode of Lost.

Why do I not feel deprived?

Were I to fill up at a BP station (which, admittedly, is unheard of from now on out unless the alternative is stalling on the side of the road), would I find their gas pumps to be more trustworthy than their executives?

With one exception (because he is a friend and exceptionally non-technical), I refuse to post comments at sites that require me to create an account in order to post comments.

I have too damn many accounts to manage already. I refuse to create any more simply so I can shoot my mouth off.

There are ways to deal with spam comments that do not include inconveniencing your readers or giving your site tracking data about me.

If you require me to create a user name and password to help you manage your spam, you show you don’t care about me and I shall return the favor.

Thunderstorms last night.

So I fired up my telephone and read a murder mystery.

I cannot imagine a more useless device than a leaf blower. I can see some marginal use for them in autumn, but rakes still seem to be for sale and don’t use gas, but the idea that no grass clipping should befoul a pavement seems absurd. The existence of the machine has created new, useless, pointless tasks.

I am not alone:

Leaf blowers are now used to blow dirt and debris from one place to another, from driveways to sidewalks, from sidewalks to streets until the wind blows them back again. What’s wrong with this picture?

What I had not realized is that, by kicking up dust, particulates, and those noxious chemicals that Chem-Lawn and its competitors have convinced so many to put on their yards, they also increase pollution. Follow the link for details.

I’ve been there, and I am no fan of “dry heat.”

Give me 100 Fahrenheits and 95% humidity with no danger of dying from dehydration over 120 Fahrenheits and signs that say “Hydrate or Die” any day of the week.

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon (twice) and I’ve rafted south of Glen Canyon (decidedly not white water).

The countryside, especially up north towards Flag, is lovely, but I won’t be going back, not even to change planes at Sky Harbor, where the cops have mountain bikes for patrolling the concourse.

It seems I’m not alone.

A golf course is an over-priced do-it-yourself merry-go-round for persons with too much time on their hands.

My house in Delaware finally settled, three weeks later than originally scheduled.

Many thanks to my real estate agents, who truly earned their commission in moving things towards settlement with another agency which seems to have been settlement-paperwork-challenged.

If you are looking for agents with integrity in upper Delaware, email me. I can recommend some.

Now I can can stop looking over my shoulder.

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Robert Hammer in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Although hardly new, a specious argument seems recently resurgent among certain bloggers, radio talk show hosts and political groups. It holds that efforts to eliminate obstacles impeding progress toward broader social, economic and political equality in our white-dominated society are evidence of “reverse racism.” Likewise, celebrations of non-European cultural heritage are deemed “racist” for the mere fact that they highlight ethnic differences and, therefore, to some minds at least, encourage separatism.

This argument apparently rings true in many ears. After all, isn’t equality a simple matter of applying the same standards in all directions? If a skinhead shouting “white power!” is a racist, doesn’t equal application render a black person championing “black pride!” racist also? Similarly, if an exclusive all-white social institution is considered racist, why not an all-black college or Hispanic community organization?

Read the whole thing.

The newest issue of Psychology Today has an article making the point that pretending to be “colorblind” by not noticing that some persons are pink, some persons are coffee with cream, some persons are black coffee, some persons are weak tea, is pointless and stupid and, in the long run, destructive and delusional.

(Unfortunately the article is not yet available at their website; it won’t be up until the next issue is out. Buy it at your local news stand. It’s worth the price).

Charging “reverse racism” is a ploy to divert attention from the effects of racism. Those who sling those terms get to pat themselves on the back for not being racist while being racist.

Catch 22. It’s the best catch there is.

I was in the Campus Center at my college with a some friends. As I recall, we were playing bridge.

One of my friends came in and said, “They are killing us.”

The water main break in Boston is big news.

Indeed, calling it a “water main” seems an understatement; it was the primary aqueduct brining water to much of the Boston metropolitan area. The back-up water supply is not treated sufficiently to be drinkable, so residents must boil water for cooking and drinking.

They do not have to take their buckets and dip water out of Boston Harbor–which might well dissolve the average bucket–or lug it from a well to the house the way my Granddaddy did for many years.

Adrian Walker, whose own tap water was affected, suggests that the media reaction may have been overstated (emphasis added):

Now, I understand that this is a major inconvenience. Having to boil water is a pain. Mindless tasks like brushing teeth now take a little thought. Grocery stores were said to be running out of water. (Trust me, Poland Spring and its competitors will make sure the stores aren’t out for any length of time. This is their Super Bowl.) We’re in for a trying week.

But has panic become the new normal? A ferocious survival instinct was on display this weekend, even though this isn’t really a threat to survival. The psychology was familiar to anyone who watched the city shut down a few months ago for a blizzard that never came. It’s as though the capacity for distinguishing between a problem and a crisis has gone away.

He has a point. Panicking does not solve problems; it destroys thought and prevents solutions.

Demagoguing politicians and commentators prefer the language of panic–bombs! invasion! evil-doers! massive hordes! communist socialist fascism! brown people!–to create fear, leading to panic, leading to followers, leading to power.

Panic launches columns and speeches and rants that we’re not taking this, that, or the other seriously enough.

(We see this across the spectrum of American thought, but I believe, based on my own experience following news, that this tendency leans right.*)

Enough theses, thoses, and the others paralyzes action through panic overload.

I used to have a boss for whom the A Number One Priority was always the last executive to call him on the telly fone. He taught me this:

When everything is a priority, you have no priorities.

Fortunately, the folks working to patch the hole decided their job was not to panic, but to solve a problem.

The hole is patched and water may start flowing again in as little as two more days.

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*Daily Kos–it is linked on the sidebar–to pick a well-know left-leaning forum, has its share of “end-of-the-world” diaries that appear via its right sidebar. Note that they are posted by members–anyone can register and post there until and unless they get banned for violating the rules of the site–not by the Front Pagers.

Nevertheless, the left has nothing to compare in numbers, vehemence, or audience to Rush Limbaugh or Cal Thomas or Charles Krauthammer and the like for sheer mouth-foaming the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-ism.

The landmark (Hollywood sign–ed.) has been at the centre of a $12.5m (£8.1m) campaign to stop it being torn down to make room for property development in the surrounding area. Playboy owner Hefner stepped in with a $900,000 donation that means the 138-acre site around the sign will now be protected.

. . . but I suspect that no one can stop the stupid.

When I lived in Northern Virginia and traveled home to Pine View Farm, I would occasionally detour to take the Whitehaven Ferry on a nice summer day. A ferry has been operating at that spot for three centuries.

It was only a two minute boat ride; the side trip added a total of about 15 minutes to the 3 1/2 or four hour drive; and the jaunt through the Maryland countryside was quite relaxing after fighting the insane beach traffic on US 50.

Now it’s threatened.