George’s slightly off-center view of the world
People who interest me
Harry Kendall Thaw shot and killed Stanford White while the famed architect watched a play on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden. The year was 1906. The building was one designed by White, who was responsible for the Washington Square Arch, the Metropolitan Club and numerous other landmark buildings. The Astors and Vanderbilts lived in mansions designed by White. He also had a reputation as a seducer of young women.
With the exception of two school years (Spokane) and one summer (Burns) spent in the Far West (“Settlement largely controlled by corporations or government via deployment of railroads, dams, irrigation mines; exploited as an internal colony, to the lasting resentment of its people.”), I have lived my entire life – Eugene, Portland, Eugene again, Seattle, Arch Cape, back to Portland, Santa Rosa, and again Portland – on the Left Coast. (“New Englanders [by ship] and farmers and fur traders from Appalachian Midwest [by wagon]. Yankee utopianism meets individual self-expression and exploration.”)
Despite the New York mayor’s assurance that workers on the World Trade Center 9/11 cleanup were in no danger, they have been contracting cancer and dying at startlingly high rates. The collapse of the towers released a thousand tons of asbestos into the air. U.S. manufacturers of asbestos products had already mostly gone out of business, bankrupted by claims of wrongful deaths. During their slide into insolvency, the companies set up trust funds for future mesothelioma claims. The fund currently totals $30 billion and legions of attorneys are eager to take up asbestosis suits. (Our company’s office was in the same building with a consulting economist. Most of his business derived from testifying as expert witness in asbestos lawsuits, calculating the economic loss of a victim’s early demise. He did well enough to own the building where we leased space.)
Continue reading “Just When We Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse”
… of daughters who are intelligent, independent, strong-willed – occasionally willful – successful and self-assured, you will appreciate this from Jenny Schweitzer via the New Yorker:
Boys- who needs ’em? Read the story here.
Mickey Mouse, née Steamboat Willie, is ninety years old this year and Disney is planning a two-hour prime-time special to celebrate. The animated icon hit the big screen in 1928. Today Mickey is the face of the Disney Company, the cartoon rodent worth an estimated $6 billion annually to the corporation’s bottom line. (Disney CEO Robert A. Iger pocketed $36,283,680 last year.) Our Constitution states, “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” It is the duty of Congress to determine said limited time. U.S. law at the time of Walt Disney’s death in 1966 provided copyright protection for 56 years. The Disney Company has shown that enough money for lawyers, lobbyists and campaign contributions can make those limits meaningless.
Continue reading “Saving Mickey Mouse from the Public Domain”
The Red Dog Saloon is a genuine Old West, Gold Rush drinking establishment that 
opened up a century-or-so ago, in Juneau Alaska, to serve miners, explorers, travelers and assorted ne’er-do-wells. That’s its story, anyway. The Red Dog’s clientele today are passengers from cruise ships that regularly stop in Juneau. The Saloon sells them beer, sandwiches and Red Dog memorabilia. Proudly displayed on the back bar is Wyatt Earp’s revolver, left behind by the famous gunfighter, saloonkeeper, pimp and lawman.
Continue reading “The Red Dog Saloon and Wyatt Earp and Gun Control”
