Daily Office Wednesday
¶ Matins: A look at this week’s Book Review, at Portico.
¶ Tierce: Spitzer still governor; Albany paralyzed. Aw, shucks. “Albany Paralyzed” is about the happiest headline that I’ve read since I moved back to New York in 1980. Can we think of something stronger and more permanent than “paralyzed”? “Nuked,” maybe? No; “nuked” is politically incorrect. How about “razed and salted,” like Carthage?
¶ Sext: Well, that’s that. All hail Governor Paterson…
¶ Vespers: Oy, the (no) pressure! Look for the Leisure Economy.
Oremus…
§ Matins. Thirteen novels this week! (And two books of poetry.) If I had a prize to give away, I’d award it to the clever reader who could tell me which one of those novels I’m reading at the moment. It’s not that hard a question, really; I’d be unlikely to read about half of the titles covered.
§ Tierce. Of course I’m overreacting! Ever hear of “No taxation without representation?” We here in Gotham pay inordinate tax dollars to Albany to support a lot of upstate Yahoos who really belong in the Midwest. (Always excepting the lovely latte town of Ithaca!) What do we get in return? They want to develop our watershed! I say, tax everyone living outside the twelve southernmost counties of the state 110% of income, but provide generous rebates for all who would relocate elsewhere. Turn the whole darned area into one big Adirfingerlakes Park!
§ Sext. The other day, a reader asked me why I’ve been giving the presidential campaign so little attention. No politics anymore at The Daily Blague? I suggested turning to the search engine at Portico (it’s in the Vestibule — the first inside page) and piling up all the fine things that I’ve had to say about George W Bush over the years. At this point, I’m just waiting to see if it sinks in.
My political concerns, in any case, are usually swamped by more consitutional ones. With a small “c” — how is this country put together? Not very well, in my opinion. How is it run? Not nearly as well as a self-styled superpower ought to be. Is anybody paying attention? I’m worried that we might have to take the title of American Idol seriously.
I really cannot invest any partisan passion in the nominational campaigns of Ms Clinton and Mr Obama. I wish that they would work it out sooner than later, so that we could settle down to the important business of putting a Democrat in the White House. But Democrats, as individuals — and man, are they individuals! — tend to bog down on scruples and principles, as if we were electing the Queen of the May. Do Americans really come in only two flavors? Idealists and Thugs? The awful thing about thugs is that they do get things done, if only in the short term. Find me a successful Idealist in American politics who didn’t make use of Thugs, and I’ll call the Better Business Bureau.
§ Vespers. I think it’s interesting that Linda Nazareth, author of The Leisure Economy, expects Boomers to take up cooking in retirement. Cooking is basically a lot of work, and,when you’re sixty, you tend not to confuse a lot of work with fun pastimes. And even if everyone in the house is “healthy,” there will be issues and complications. Cooking healthy is not something that Boomers were brought up to think about. I think we’re much more likely to press for meal-pills so that we don’t have to bother sitting down and eating at all. More than once a day, anyway.
From what I’ve seen of retirement — which isn’t much — people don’t just grow new interests to take the place of lopped-off career concerns.
As for me, retirement hasn’t been a problem for over twenty years, and it’s unlikely to become one.