Are you familiar with the phrase "going to Abilene"? It's an aspect of the concept of groupthink. Specifically, it's a paradox where someone in a group suggests a course of action; everyone agrees to follow it though individually nobody actually wants to; the group takes the course of action anyway; and in the end everyone is disappointed, upset, uncomfortable, saddened, or even angered that the course of action was taken. The practical results include opportunity costs and wasted time, money, and other resources, not to mention legal risks.
Note that this is not a problem of a charismatic leader persuading people to dangerous, illegal, or unspeakable acts. It's a phenomenon that occurs when no one wants to rock the boat or go against the grain -- but everyone fails to check the group's assumptions and speak up for themselves honestly.
This is similar, though not exactly the same as, the kind of groupthink that was happening at Penn State, which the Freeh report discusses: a "cocoon" where decisions were made not based on right or wrong, but based on the "Penn State way." Penn State adds a wrinkle, though. There's no charismatic leader, just an overly powerful individual in the organization that the institution's leadership fears to piss off and defers to, in service of a larger-than-life personality and a decades-long tradition (and billions of dollars in revenue).
Other schools, from the tiniest colleges to Penn State's peers in the category of oversized land-grant universities, must have dynamics like this going on. Since "going to Abilene" isn't exactly apt, I humbly suggest a new phrase for dealing with university sports-program groupthink: Going to Happy Valley.
Showing posts with label hippie interest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hippie interest. Show all posts
04 May 2012
Forty-two years on
4 May 1970:
Honestly, I think the only reason we're not getting murders like this with Occupy events is that the actual National Guard is in Iraq and Afghanistan right now, instead of staying stateside to help evacuate cities during hurricanes and stuff.
As they arrived at the top of the hill, twenty-eight of the more than seventy Guardsmen turned suddenly and fired their rifles and pistols. Many guardsmen fired into the air or the ground. However, a small portion fired directly into the crowd. Altogether between 61 and 67 shots were fired in a 13 second period. [ ... ] Four Kent State students died as a result of the firing by the Guard.To understand who came looking for a riot, see who came dressed for a riot. When a protest situation gets out of control, you have to ask, every time, who did the escalating? Who brought in horses? Who is carrying pistols? Who is using billy clubs? Who is wearing military- and SWAT-style protective gear like helmets, body armor, body shields? Who arrived in a Blackwater armored vehicle? Who brought a panjandrum to a knife fight?
Honestly, I think the only reason we're not getting murders like this with Occupy events is that the actual National Guard is in Iraq and Afghanistan right now, instead of staying stateside to help evacuate cities during hurricanes and stuff.
11 October 2011
Philly's new tent city
Quite the tent city has sprung up in Dilworth Plaza. There's even a family-size tent for nursing mothers and their babies and toddlers. I feel a little regret that I'm not in a position to take part in Occupy Philly and that I can't yank my daughter from school and go on a camping trip to City Hall. But I need to keep hustling for work; and if I want to be available to help any participants who need legal representation, I should try to stay away from the protests. The occupation is on a different scale from taking my daughter to a march or demonstration for a few hours, too.
Though I did walk her through a few days ago, to let her see what the big deal was. And on Friday morning I checked in with one of my contacts from the anti-Iraq War protests in 2003.
Interesting to see how the protestors are taking care of themselves. They have a food tent, a "FAQ" table, and other areas where people can gather and share news and help. They are clearly there for the long haul, incoming rain this week and forthcoming winter weather be damned.
But what else are they going to do? It's not as if they're facing the end of their 2-week vacations and have to go back to work -- if they have work, they're cashiers, baristas, or crafting artists, or they're doing something else irregular and seriously underpaid despite having obtained the bachelor's degree that should have put them into a middle-class lifestyle, or at least kept them in a reasonable working-class lifestyle. They have nothing better to do and nothing to lose, because they were replaceable cogs at their jobs anyway.
Of course, the critics who want them to pack up and go get a job are perfectly free to hire them.
But actually, what I'm hearing when I walk by is a lot of supportive honking from the traffic passing them at 15th and Market Streets.
Though I did walk her through a few days ago, to let her see what the big deal was. And on Friday morning I checked in with one of my contacts from the anti-Iraq War protests in 2003.
Interesting to see how the protestors are taking care of themselves. They have a food tent, a "FAQ" table, and other areas where people can gather and share news and help. They are clearly there for the long haul, incoming rain this week and forthcoming winter weather be damned.
But what else are they going to do? It's not as if they're facing the end of their 2-week vacations and have to go back to work -- if they have work, they're cashiers, baristas, or crafting artists, or they're doing something else irregular and seriously underpaid despite having obtained the bachelor's degree that should have put them into a middle-class lifestyle, or at least kept them in a reasonable working-class lifestyle. They have nothing better to do and nothing to lose, because they were replaceable cogs at their jobs anyway.
Of course, the critics who want them to pack up and go get a job are perfectly free to hire them.
But actually, what I'm hearing when I walk by is a lot of supportive honking from the traffic passing them at 15th and Market Streets.
21 June 2011
Protesting, "meta" protesting, and Vancouver
So the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup and the fans who congregated after the match to congratulate their team on a good run and a fun season were overwhelmed by asshole rioters who trashed an area of town.
Reminds me of the assholes who ruined the World Trade Organization protests in 1999 in Seattle.
There, we had tens of thousands of ordinary people in the streets -- union members and kids on rollerskates, enviro-weenies dressed up like turtles, university students and professors, people who build Boeing planes and Microsoft software -- peacefully marching and basically partying to drums and music. Then the assholes came in and started smashing windows, spraypainting chain restaurant buildings, and lighting fires. The result? National news favorably covered the WTO and the establishment; the progressive message did not get publicized; the assholes got their 15 minutes on national TV; and part of Seattle's downtown was temporarily drawn into a bizarre, unconstitutional "no-protest" zone (PDF by ACLU-WA).
One of the Vancouver assholes, being a nice person since he is, after all, Canadian, apologized after the Stanley Cup riots. But a nurse at a local ER won't accept the apology, and for much the same reason that I wouldn't accept an apology from the Seattle WTO assholes:
To bring it closer to home: A few years ago, my pal Ted lost his car to rioters after the Phils won the World Series. To the rioters, it was a fun show of strength with a lot of great crunchy shattery noises. To Ted, it was immediately financially devastating because he needed the car to get to work, but he couldn't afford to fix or replace the car without being able to get to work. Luckily for Ted, it all came out right in the end. He's a sweet, honest, likeable guy and he got publicity and generous donations. But how many people in Vancouver have been just as "lucky"?
I don't mean to be so "get offa my lawn" and "back in my day" about this stuff. But it also brings to mind an incident when I was doing clinic defense a few weeks ago. An old white guy protestor was there with a crudely constructed hand-made cross. We patient escorts were outnumbered, because the protestors were in force for a religious holiday. A young white guy, dressed like a prototypical hipster in skinny pants, a scraggly beard, and 1980s-inspired sunglasses walked up to the cross-carrying protestor. He laughed at the old man, took a photo on his smartphone, and walked away. This is not helpful. Taking a mocking photo of a protestor and posting it to a social media site is not helpful. To you, it's a harmless old man with a stupid prop for a protest. But to the clinic patients, it's an intimidating physical barrier to getting inside to see the doctor; it's a person spouting religious, woman-hating invective at young women and girls who are going in to the clinic just to get their pills or undergo a pap smear. To the patient escorts, you're another body between the patients and the front door, and we're not exactly sure of your intentions because you haven't addressed us directly. And your taking a photo, laughing, and walking away does nothing to improve the situation, and likely only makes it worse by making the women not feel supported.
Protest or protest not. "Meta" protesting (like the hipster) or taking the opportunity of a gathering to do something violent or crazy anonymously (like Seattle in 1999, Philly in 2008, or Vancouver in 2011) makes life harder for everybody else, who are left to clean up the wreckage afterward.
Reminds me of the assholes who ruined the World Trade Organization protests in 1999 in Seattle.
There, we had tens of thousands of ordinary people in the streets -- union members and kids on rollerskates, enviro-weenies dressed up like turtles, university students and professors, people who build Boeing planes and Microsoft software -- peacefully marching and basically partying to drums and music. Then the assholes came in and started smashing windows, spraypainting chain restaurant buildings, and lighting fires. The result? National news favorably covered the WTO and the establishment; the progressive message did not get publicized; the assholes got their 15 minutes on national TV; and part of Seattle's downtown was temporarily drawn into a bizarre, unconstitutional "no-protest" zone (PDF by ACLU-WA).
One of the Vancouver assholes, being a nice person since he is, after all, Canadian, apologized after the Stanley Cup riots. But a nurse at a local ER won't accept the apology, and for much the same reason that I wouldn't accept an apology from the Seattle WTO assholes:
To you [...], it's a chance to congregate in the ER waiting room, pounding on the triage window demanding to be seen for teargas exposure and cuts from looting and fighting, while posturing and bragging about how you kicked the crap out of somebody and smashed shit up. To me, it's taking my time away from the little old quiet lady having chest pain or taking time away from the person you "shit-kicked" for trying to stop the looting.At the WTO protests in Seattle, I met a little old lady who'd been nearly blinded by a rubber bullet because a bunch of assholes decided to start a riot. No question, the police overreacted -- but they wouldn't have had anything to overreact to if the assholes hadn't started smashing windows in the first place.
To bring it closer to home: A few years ago, my pal Ted lost his car to rioters after the Phils won the World Series. To the rioters, it was a fun show of strength with a lot of great crunchy shattery noises. To Ted, it was immediately financially devastating because he needed the car to get to work, but he couldn't afford to fix or replace the car without being able to get to work. Luckily for Ted, it all came out right in the end. He's a sweet, honest, likeable guy and he got publicity and generous donations. But how many people in Vancouver have been just as "lucky"?
I don't mean to be so "get offa my lawn" and "back in my day" about this stuff. But it also brings to mind an incident when I was doing clinic defense a few weeks ago. An old white guy protestor was there with a crudely constructed hand-made cross. We patient escorts were outnumbered, because the protestors were in force for a religious holiday. A young white guy, dressed like a prototypical hipster in skinny pants, a scraggly beard, and 1980s-inspired sunglasses walked up to the cross-carrying protestor. He laughed at the old man, took a photo on his smartphone, and walked away. This is not helpful. Taking a mocking photo of a protestor and posting it to a social media site is not helpful. To you, it's a harmless old man with a stupid prop for a protest. But to the clinic patients, it's an intimidating physical barrier to getting inside to see the doctor; it's a person spouting religious, woman-hating invective at young women and girls who are going in to the clinic just to get their pills or undergo a pap smear. To the patient escorts, you're another body between the patients and the front door, and we're not exactly sure of your intentions because you haven't addressed us directly. And your taking a photo, laughing, and walking away does nothing to improve the situation, and likely only makes it worse by making the women not feel supported.
Protest or protest not. "Meta" protesting (like the hipster) or taking the opportunity of a gathering to do something violent or crazy anonymously (like Seattle in 1999, Philly in 2008, or Vancouver in 2011) makes life harder for everybody else, who are left to clean up the wreckage afterward.
12 November 2010
Why I avoid buying stuff from China
Tilapia fish has been everywhere in restaurants and fish markets (or the fish section of your supermarket) recently. It's inexpensive; it's so bland that it takes on whatever flavors accompany it in a dish without adding a fishy flavor itself; and, while it doesn't provide the omega-3 fatty acids that cold-water ocean fish contain, it's a relatively low-fat and low-calorie food.
And just about all of it is produced in China, so I won't eat it. China doesn't care about the quality or safety of what it exports to the U.S., as long as it's getting good, hard dollars in exchange. Examples? Well, tainted Chinese-made drywall for one. If there have been 3000 formal complaints registered, I imagine there are tens of thousands of homes that are actually affected. The manufacturers clearly didn't care about poisoning American homes when they sold the drywall or donated it for Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.
But it's not just products for grownups. We've had recall after recall of lead-laced children's toys that were made in China. There's no concern here for what chemicals and poisons American children may ingest, or absorb through their skin. Hope you don't think it's just a disregard for foreign children, though. Remember the tainted baby formula scandal and tragedy? The manufacturers put melanine powder into the formula to stretch it -- much as I'll be putting pasta and beans into some soup tonight to make my leftovers last another day -- and then officials jailed the whistleblower. Three manufacturers were sentenced to death, this is true. But my point is that they let their profit motive do something that sickened tens of thousands of children, not just abstractly foreign children thousands of miles away but potentially the children living right next door, and you'd better believe that when the official records note that "at least six" kids died, it must actually have been hundreds.
This kind of behavior is something that American capitalists outgrew with the New Deal. And by "outgrew" of course I mean "were dragged, kicking and screaming and with a threat to pack the Supreme Court with supporters of the new administrative state."
As for Chinese politics? Coercive suppression of Falun Gong followers, bloody suppression of the protestors at Tiananmen Square, imprisonment of political prisoners, slavery conditions in factories, the absolute absence of a social safety net, whatever. I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm not a denier of, or a moral relativist about, or an apologist about human rights violations in China. What I mean is, all that aside, you can't trust products from China anyway, no matter what your opinion is about social issues in China. It's capitalism gone crazy. Pure, unregulated capitalism, the likes of which we haven't seen in the U.S. since 1937, only with solid-state technology and the Internet instead of vacuum tubes and telegraphs. And a world population approaching 7 billion.
So fuck low prices. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I'll go ahead and pay a few dollars more for housewares, clothes, tools, building materials, office supplies, and so on, if it means that I won't be poisoning myself with every use. I buy a lot of things I need at thrift stores and charity shops, which has a double advantage now: low prices, and a selection of stuff made in North America or western Europe, made back in the olden days when America used to have factories. Realistically, Chinese products are unavoidable -- the vast majority of electronics and their components, any reasonably priced clothing, etc. -- and having a product assembled or "finished" in one country often means it was mostly made in China anyway. So I try my best, much as I try all the local shops in my neighborhood or the KMart in Center City before I resign myself to making the trek to South Philly's Walmart, which I otherwise try to avoid unless I have a dire, dire need for something I can't find nearby.
For political, worker justice, and environmental reasons, and because so much of their merchandise is made in China.
And just about all of it is produced in China, so I won't eat it. China doesn't care about the quality or safety of what it exports to the U.S., as long as it's getting good, hard dollars in exchange. Examples? Well, tainted Chinese-made drywall for one. If there have been 3000 formal complaints registered, I imagine there are tens of thousands of homes that are actually affected. The manufacturers clearly didn't care about poisoning American homes when they sold the drywall or donated it for Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.
But it's not just products for grownups. We've had recall after recall of lead-laced children's toys that were made in China. There's no concern here for what chemicals and poisons American children may ingest, or absorb through their skin. Hope you don't think it's just a disregard for foreign children, though. Remember the tainted baby formula scandal and tragedy? The manufacturers put melanine powder into the formula to stretch it -- much as I'll be putting pasta and beans into some soup tonight to make my leftovers last another day -- and then officials jailed the whistleblower. Three manufacturers were sentenced to death, this is true. But my point is that they let their profit motive do something that sickened tens of thousands of children, not just abstractly foreign children thousands of miles away but potentially the children living right next door, and you'd better believe that when the official records note that "at least six" kids died, it must actually have been hundreds.
This kind of behavior is something that American capitalists outgrew with the New Deal. And by "outgrew" of course I mean "were dragged, kicking and screaming and with a threat to pack the Supreme Court with supporters of the new administrative state."
As for Chinese politics? Coercive suppression of Falun Gong followers, bloody suppression of the protestors at Tiananmen Square, imprisonment of political prisoners, slavery conditions in factories, the absolute absence of a social safety net, whatever. I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm not a denier of, or a moral relativist about, or an apologist about human rights violations in China. What I mean is, all that aside, you can't trust products from China anyway, no matter what your opinion is about social issues in China. It's capitalism gone crazy. Pure, unregulated capitalism, the likes of which we haven't seen in the U.S. since 1937, only with solid-state technology and the Internet instead of vacuum tubes and telegraphs. And a world population approaching 7 billion.
So fuck low prices. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I'll go ahead and pay a few dollars more for housewares, clothes, tools, building materials, office supplies, and so on, if it means that I won't be poisoning myself with every use. I buy a lot of things I need at thrift stores and charity shops, which has a double advantage now: low prices, and a selection of stuff made in North America or western Europe, made back in the olden days when America used to have factories. Realistically, Chinese products are unavoidable -- the vast majority of electronics and their components, any reasonably priced clothing, etc. -- and having a product assembled or "finished" in one country often means it was mostly made in China anyway. So I try my best, much as I try all the local shops in my neighborhood or the KMart in Center City before I resign myself to making the trek to South Philly's Walmart, which I otherwise try to avoid unless I have a dire, dire need for something I can't find nearby.
For political, worker justice, and environmental reasons, and because so much of their merchandise is made in China.
11 June 2010
Music tonight: Super Devils! Tomorrow: Shady Grove Arden Music Fest
Tonight:
Rockabilly by the Super Devils at Tritone, 1508 South Street, 9:00, $6.
Tomorrow:
Hie thee down to Delaware (or "Smellaware" or simply "the Illadel") for the Shady Grove Arden Music Fest tomorrow, Saturday 12 June 2010, at the Arden Gild Hall. For a mere $20, you'll enjoy 8 hours of 5 local bands, including headliners The Joe Trainor Trio, New Sweden, The Knobs, Kombu Combo, and Caterpillar. Intermission grooves by DJ Zip.
Buy tickets in advance and save $2!
From Philadelphia, the Arden Gild Hall is easily reached via I-495 (don't take I-95 -- "you can't get there from here"), at 2126 The Highway, Arden DE 19810. Buzz me if you'd like to carpool.
Rockabilly by the Super Devils at Tritone, 1508 South Street, 9:00, $6.
Tomorrow:
Hie thee down to Delaware (or "Smellaware" or simply "the Illadel") for the Shady Grove Arden Music Fest tomorrow, Saturday 12 June 2010, at the Arden Gild Hall. For a mere $20, you'll enjoy 8 hours of 5 local bands, including headliners The Joe Trainor Trio, New Sweden, The Knobs, Kombu Combo, and Caterpillar. Intermission grooves by DJ Zip.
Buy tickets in advance and save $2!
From Philadelphia, the Arden Gild Hall is easily reached via I-495 (don't take I-95 -- "you can't get there from here"), at 2126 The Highway, Arden DE 19810. Buzz me if you'd like to carpool.
13 September 2009
Today: Philly for Change picnic at Clark Park
From e-mail:
Philly For Change P I C N I C
Sunday September 13
2:00 p.m. - ?
Clark Park, 43rd & Chester Ave.
RSVP: picnicforchange@gmail.com
Sponsor $50, or suggested donation $10, or student $5
Agenda:
1. Support PROGRESSIVE CHANGE in Philly, PA, & US.
2. Eat BBQ, carn or veg. Drink Beer (or soft drinks). Toast Teddy & Larry.
3. Listen.
Dill Pickles (feat. Brendan Skwire).
Shakey & the MoFos (feat. Sean Dorn).
4. Hang with Philly Progressive, um, Elite.
5. Seconds!
22 August 2009
Calley's apology: 41 years late
After years of radio silence on his war crime, Lieutenant William Calley has apologized for the My Lai massacre, where he ordered and participated in the mass rape, torture, and murder of some 450 Vietnamese non-combatants, including infants and children:
Pete Seeger comments in 1971 (0:27 to 2:40):
The village was populated with babies, non-combatant women, and old people (very large PDF includes photos), and Calley was observed personally killing dozens of them. He's been called a scapegoat and fall guy. Poor Lieutenant Calley and his lame, qualified apology.
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened.My first thought is "McNamara Syndrome" -- I wonder if he's just had a cancer diagnosis. My second thought is that he's not apologizing for the acquittal of the other participants, nor for the military's cover-up of the event. (The initial report, reducing the massacre to the sad result of the combat unit's psychological breakdown, disclosed only about 120 dead and appeared to excuse the action with a claim that the soldiers had found a few American weapons in enemy hands.) My third thought is to follow some bouncing links and dig up some testimony:
I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.
[Infantryman] Paul D. Meadlo, his [landmined] right foot and self-respect gone, came to the motel determined to relieve his conscience and describe the horrors of My Lai. He stated that Calley had left him and a few others with the responsibility of guarding a group of about eighty people who had been taken from their homes and herded together. He repeated Calley’s instructions. “You know what I want to do with them,” Calley said, and walked off. Ten minutes later he returned and asked, “Haven’t you got rid of them yet? I want them dead. Waste them!” After telling about this, Meadlo raised his eyes to the ceiling of the motel room and began to cry. His compassion for the victims had taken control of him months before, and his body shook with sobs as he continued. “We stood about ten to fifteen feet away from them and then he started shooting. Then he told me to start shooting them. I used more than a whole clip -- used four or five clips.”Calley ended up serving 3 years house arrest. He was the only person who served any time at all, or was even convicted, for My Lai and a few related massacres.
Pete Seeger comments in 1971 (0:27 to 2:40):
Do I see Lieutenant Calley?At the meeting this week where Calley apologized for the massacre,
Do I see Captain Medina?
Do I see Gen'ral Koster and all his crew?
Do I see President Nixon?
Do I see both houses of Congress?
Do I see the voters, me and you?
Who held the rifle? Who gave the orders?
Who planned the campaign to lay waste the land?
Who manufactured the bullet? Who paid the taxes?
Tell me, is that blood upon my hands?
[h]e did not deny what had happened that day, but did repeatedly make the point -- which he has made before -- that he was following orders. Calley explained he had been ordered to take out My Lai, adding that he had intelligence that the village was fortified and would be "hot" when he went in.In other words, "I was just following orders and acting on faulty intelligence."
The village was populated with babies, non-combatant women, and old people (very large PDF includes photos), and Calley was observed personally killing dozens of them. He's been called a scapegoat and fall guy. Poor Lieutenant Calley and his lame, qualified apology.
09 August 2009
Potlucking liberally is SO ON -- Sunday 16 August
Not today, but Sunday 16 August at Glomarization's place, we're starting Sunday Potlucking Liberally. Here's how it will work: Whoever hosts (that'll be me first) provides 1 dish, plates, flatware, and clean-up. Everybody else brings a dish to serve about 4 people, plus a bottle or a sixpack if you can. Doors are at 6:00, but that's negotiable. We switch households weekly.
My household is mostly vegetarian, though we do eat fish, and I'm kinda "don't ask, don't tell" when it comes to soup broth any more. We don't have any significant allergies or intolerances.
If you would like to participate, and if I know you, drop me an e-mail so I can send you my address. I'll start a low-traffic mailing list and we can keep track of dietary restrictions and allergies as well as everybody's address.
My household is mostly vegetarian, though we do eat fish, and I'm kinda "don't ask, don't tell" when it comes to soup broth any more. We don't have any significant allergies or intolerances.
If you would like to participate, and if I know you, drop me an e-mail so I can send you my address. I'll start a low-traffic mailing list and we can keep track of dietary restrictions and allergies as well as everybody's address.
31 July 2009
Friday jukebox: Joni Mitchell
One of the Pennsylvania bar exam questions involved a piece of land called Paradise that a couple had bought and then later wanted to sell to the Big Yellow Taxi Co., who wanted to pave it and put up a parking lot. So this is for the young'uns who thought it was just a bunch of goofy, made-up fact pattern names:
26 July 2009
Seen in Cumberland County
I went on a hiking/driving tour of Cumberland County, New Jersey, a few weekends ago. Though the little communities aren't even 50 miles from Philadelphia, the area is staggeringly rural: a lot of dirt farms, a lot of which look as though they're keeping in business by converting to organic practices, and preserved open spaces. Makes me want to chuck the idea of being a Philadelphia lawyer, sell everything, buy a truck and a plot of land, and go raise alpacas. Except they'd get awful hot in this climate. And who knows how much of Cumberland County will be left when the sea levels rise in 100 years? (Not that I'll be around to care.)
Late in the afternoon we ended up at a family-style seafood restaurant off the Cohansey River. On blocks in the marina's parking lot was a gutted, rotting Futuro House. I'm thinking I'd never seen one actually in person. Though it was weird to see it just sitting there, among a bunch of boats for sale on a tributary of the Delaware River, I guess it's the nature of Futuro Houses that there's so few of them left any more that it's only ever in a really weird, unexpected context when they turn up.
At another marina we stopped at, the home port of one of the boats in for repair was indicated as Phoenix, Arizona. Global warming may wipe out Cumberland County, but I somehow I don't think it'll make a navigable waterway from Phoenix to the Sea of Cortez.
Late in the afternoon we ended up at a family-style seafood restaurant off the Cohansey River. On blocks in the marina's parking lot was a gutted, rotting Futuro House. I'm thinking I'd never seen one actually in person. Though it was weird to see it just sitting there, among a bunch of boats for sale on a tributary of the Delaware River, I guess it's the nature of Futuro Houses that there's so few of them left any more that it's only ever in a really weird, unexpected context when they turn up.
At another marina we stopped at, the home port of one of the boats in for repair was indicated as Phoenix, Arizona. Global warming may wipe out Cumberland County, but I somehow I don't think it'll make a navigable waterway from Phoenix to the Sea of Cortez.
20 July 2009
Sunday Potlucking Liberally?
Hey, local Drinking Liberally folks (and other local friends),
As many of you know, I spent the 1990s as a hippie. I even lived in an almost-commune for a few years. Now, if I liked living in an almost-commune, I'd've stayed there, or I'd've settled in Powelton Village when I came back to the East Coast. But one thing I actually have truly missed from those years is getting together with like-minded people and friends on a regular basis for shared meals.
At the commune, it was called "common meals" and we shared them in a large, commonly owned, dedicated building. Cooking duties rotated through the households, and if you weren't slated to cook or clean up, you paid your cash dues, ate heartily, put your plate away, and went home. Three times per week.
I don't want to do anything like that. I'm thinking of just an ordinary potluck: everybody brings a dish to serve about 4 people; if you can bring a bottle or a sixpack as well, please do; and the host provides dishes, flatware, and cleanup (though guests are welcome to help out). Especially among the local Drinking Liberally crowd and their family, friends, and loved ones, would anyone be interested?
One problem, though, is that my home is small -- I've crammed myself, my daughter, and too much stuff into a 2-bedroom apartment. I can host a potluck only if people don't mind eating on the sofa or an Ikea lounge chair or a gnarly 1970 Herculon club chair salvaged from my parents' basement. So I hesitate to say, "Hey, guys! Let's have a potluck," when I have to add, "But we have to have it at somebody else's house!"
As for logistics, I guess we can rotate homes every week. On each Friday, I can post here to let everyone know -- without posting addresses -- where we'll be meeting the next Sunday, or we could take that part to private e-mail. As for what day of the week, I think Sunday evening would be good. That way, you can start something in your Crock-Pot that morning and it'll be done by the afternoon, or you can get something prepared from the supermarket when you do your grocery shopping that day anyway, or (at least in the summer) you can hit a farmer's market and put together something fresh and local.
Takers?
As many of you know, I spent the 1990s as a hippie. I even lived in an almost-commune for a few years. Now, if I liked living in an almost-commune, I'd've stayed there, or I'd've settled in Powelton Village when I came back to the East Coast. But one thing I actually have truly missed from those years is getting together with like-minded people and friends on a regular basis for shared meals.
At the commune, it was called "common meals" and we shared them in a large, commonly owned, dedicated building. Cooking duties rotated through the households, and if you weren't slated to cook or clean up, you paid your cash dues, ate heartily, put your plate away, and went home. Three times per week.
I don't want to do anything like that. I'm thinking of just an ordinary potluck: everybody brings a dish to serve about 4 people; if you can bring a bottle or a sixpack as well, please do; and the host provides dishes, flatware, and cleanup (though guests are welcome to help out). Especially among the local Drinking Liberally crowd and their family, friends, and loved ones, would anyone be interested?
One problem, though, is that my home is small -- I've crammed myself, my daughter, and too much stuff into a 2-bedroom apartment. I can host a potluck only if people don't mind eating on the sofa or an Ikea lounge chair or a gnarly 1970 Herculon club chair salvaged from my parents' basement. So I hesitate to say, "Hey, guys! Let's have a potluck," when I have to add, "But we have to have it at somebody else's house!"
As for logistics, I guess we can rotate homes every week. On each Friday, I can post here to let everyone know -- without posting addresses -- where we'll be meeting the next Sunday, or we could take that part to private e-mail. As for what day of the week, I think Sunday evening would be good. That way, you can start something in your Crock-Pot that morning and it'll be done by the afternoon, or you can get something prepared from the supermarket when you do your grocery shopping that day anyway, or (at least in the summer) you can hit a farmer's market and put together something fresh and local.
Takers?
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