Thursday, June 9, 2011

New franchise opportunity

Our neighbors have apparently become obsessed with protecting themselves against malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile, equine encephalitis etc. as these signs are everywhere, particularly in Jon's hoity-toity Sherwood Forest neighborhood. This company's website gives no information on the insecticide used, but postings online suggest that it is bifenthrin. The blog isn't buying it - unless you wrap your entire house and yard in mosquito netting, each mosquito you kill in your yard just invites in another mosquito from my untreated yard. But what is interesting is the hidden story here - is spraying toxic chemicals around someone else's yard an example of the type of job Boehner and his friends think the unemployed should seek? The blog also noted that the Mosquito Authority is very careful to state on its website that it uses only EPA-approved compounds. Think of all the money citizens could save if we shut down the EPA and just drenched our yards in DDT.

At any rate, these signs are everywhere.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Design and creativity still matter (although NYC seems less and less like the rest of the US these days)



“Normally, the farther you get from the subway the less expensive the housing is,” said Mr. Hammond, who confessed that he rents an apartment in the West Village. “But the closer you are to the High Line, the farther you are from the subway, and still, the closer the apartments are to the High Line, the more expensive they get.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/nyregion/with-next-phase-ready-area-around-high-line-is-flourishing.html?src=recg

(Jon took the photos of a lazy Sunday afternoon at the High Line Park on the blog's recent trip to New York.)

The blog prefers Longfellow's account (and Copley's portrait)

Yes, the blog is definitely a traditionalist on this topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKa96P4u1J8&feature=related

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sarah-palins-account-paul-reveres-midnight-ride-shot/story?id=13773745

Friday, June 3, 2011

In Battery Park, south of the NYSE

Jon attempts to tackle a bull (market). The bull, by the way, has its own web site.

Bees in NYC!


An alert reader tipped the blog off to a recent bee incident in Little Italy. The blog is truly sorry to have missed it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Why NYC is so interesting to look at

It has preserved just the right amount of its past - not too little, not too much.