Category: Uncategorized

The return rate for these containers is about 70 to 80%. Shockingly (to me), people I know actually THROW AWAY these containers. (Shocking, because these people drink a LOT of beer.) This is problematic for a couple reasons. One issue is that the behavior adds waste to the landfill. The other is that it fuels unfortunate behavior in those people I call the “bottle entrepreneurs,” those people who pick up the cans that other people throw away.

In general, I believe the bottle entrepreneurs perform an important public service. After a concert I attended at Washington Park in Albany, the BE were out in force picking up redeemable containers. I swear that the city officials actually waited for them to come through with their bags and (presumably stolen) shopping carts, before starting the clean up. And why not? It creates less work for the city people to do, and less waste to go to the ever-burgeoning landfill.

In the city, municipal trash is supposed to be separated by the homeowners and renters. Newspapers, recycled aluminum cans, and bottles (only the #1 and #2) are supposed to be placed in blue plastic containers issued by the city. Lawn waste (leaves, e.g.) goes in long paper bags. The rest goes in the regular garbage.

The problem occurs when the BE come down the street on trash night, looking for returnables. They look in the blue containers, which sometimes HAVE returnables. They even go through some trash that ins put in clear plastic bags when they can see potential nickels in waiting. One of my neighbors has a note on her blue container, not a handwritten note, but a an 8” X 5” message on a label maker that says:
This Container Does Not Have ANY Returnable Bottles or Cans. KEEP OUT!

Another neighbor saw a man walking onto her porch; she was across the street at the time, and yelled, “May I help you?” The BE said, “Oh, I ring the doorbell here all of the time.” The neighbor disputed this report, when ANOTHER BE shouted, “Oh, give him a dollar, he’s hungry!” The neighbor, not liking being lied to, declined the offer.

I have no solution to the problem unless people start returning bottles at a much greater rate, rendering the garbage picking behavior unprofitable. I mostly favor the expansion of the Bottle Law to include other containers. I figure that the BEs will merely have to make fewer stops before their carts are full. At the same time, it’s really annoying when your recycles are rifled through so that containers are all over the lawn and the city fails to collect what you put out.

I guess this is meant by “The joys of urban life.”

This year, one race where voting won’t make a lick of difference is in the Albany mayoral contest. I know the challengers HATE that kind of talk, but I believe it, as do most observers. This is a one-party town, Democratic, and the incumbent, Jerry “How-Many-Events-Can-I-Make-In-One-Day?” Jennings, will get his fourth four-year term.
Naturally, I will vote for someone else. In this case, that would be Alice Green, coincidentally the Green Party candidate, and unrelated to me. (But she lives less than two blocks from my house.) Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary came to her house for a fundraiser. When Ralph Nader endorsed her, he practically challenged Jennings’ manhood for failing to debate her; there was also someone in a chicken costume outside City Hall.
There is a Republican candidate, Joe Sullivan, but he is practically Harold Stassen.

The mayor used to be a school vice-principal, so he tries to run the school board as well, though it is not in his purview. We received a very well-crafted flier for three of the six candidates. As it turns out, those three are the ones supported by the mayor.

I don’t know one of the other three candidates; the second is a decent incumbent. But I am familiar with Judy Doesschate. In fact, I’ve known Judy for 30 years. We were in student government together at the State University College at New Paltz in 1974 and 1975. She was the editor of the student newsletter I worked on. Good luck, Judy!

In New York State, there are two Propositions. Prop 2 is easy for me. It’s a $2.9 billion bond issue for transportation. I’m in favor of the things that the bond issue would pay for, but not via that payment methodology.
Prop 1 is harder. It would “reform” the state budget process, which Allah knows we need, since 20 of the last 21 budgets have been late. It pushes back the budget due date from April 1 to May 1 (that’s OK), and if there is no budget, would provide for provisional amounts to go to school districts, instead of them having to borrow, which is great news. Yet it seems that it allows the state legislature, which will be stronger vis a vis the governor in this new paradigm, not to bother working to meet the new deadline for the budget at all. People whose opinions I value come down on both sides of the issue.

So, my three questions for you are of an electoral nature; my tresponses will be in the answer section as well:

How often do you vote? Every election? Just the general elections in November? Every two years? Every four years? Never?

Why do so few Americans vote? Is the registration process in your state too onerous? (Registration is very different from state to state.)

Will you ever run for elected office? For what office? And why? (And if not, why not?)

Songs may be Simon & Garfunkel or Art solo.

I was going to talk about how, during the last week in August, on the only vacation trip we took all summer, how the gas went from $2.579 to $2.699 to $2.999 to $3.209 in four days.

I was going to say how well Lydia got along with the daughters of a friend of Carol;’ who she hadn’t seen in about seven years; the daughters look like:

this, and

this, and

this.

But what has still struck me, over two months after the visit, is the bizarre juxtaposition of agrarian and suburban life in another leg of the trip. One of my brothers-in-law lives in Chester County, PA, which is right next to Lancaster County. Lots of new suburban developments for people commuting, necessarily by car (unless they telecommute), to Philadelphia, close to an hour away. Not at all condusive to mass transit, with all the attendant ecological considerations.

I was most fascinated by bikers in gear that Lance Armstrong would covet on the same roads that the young Amish kids on their black one-speeds rode on.

The very week we came back, there was an article in Metroland on the agriculture wars, which says, briefly, that the people who move into the country want it to sound like the suburbs (no tractors at 5 a.m.) and smell like the suburbs (no manure!), but that if they want to move out there, they need to recognize that it IS working farm territory.

Anderson Cooper, one of the breakout stars of Hurricane Katrina coverage,
“Breakout star” of a national disaster! Ain’t life grand!
will become the sole anchor of the 10 p.m.-midnight (ET) weekday block on CNN, effective Monday, and Aaron Brown will leave the news network he joined in 2001.
“Leave the network”…does that mean fired or allowed to resign?

Mr. Cooper, like Mr. Brown an alumnus of ABC News, joined CNN as a weekend anchor in December 2001 and became anchor of “Anderson Cooper 360” from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays in March 2003.
“Does ABC News have any vacancies?” Aaron wonders. “If Vargas does anchor World News Tonight, maybe I can do 20/20!”

Taking the place of “360” at 7 p.m. will be an hour of “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, who now will anchor “Situation” from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Goody! More Wolf to parody!

David Doss, the executive producer of “360” who recently was moved to “NewsNight” when CNN paired Mr. Brown and Mr. Cooper from 10 p.m. to midnight in a move designed to inject some of Mr. Cooper’s pizzazz into Mr. Brown’s more sober tone, will remain Mr. Cooper’s executive producer.
Pizazz! That’s what I live for in my news coverage.