rrgirl wrote a ways back:
http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek08/1024/1024b_otb.cfm
it’s raining for sure. I learned a long time ago to live on cash and plan for the lean times but for nearly three decades, I have never not worked unless I chose to take a break to free-lance. I’m unemployed now, along with several dozen, maybe more than a hundred local (northern Ohio) colleagues. based on anecdotes and friendly gossip, it looks like the unemployment rate for my profession exceeded double digits months ago and everyone is expecting another round of lay-offs within the next quarter. my old firm shed more than 25% of staff within this fiscal year, so far. a principal I interviewed with this month told me he’s never seen anything like the stream of resume’s answering his ad. well qualified, experienced people who would normally have ignored his tiny little practice in an out of the way suburb have offered him a rare opportunity to be picky. his work load has shifted to publicly funded projects and the work scopes are skimpy band-aids on gaping wounds.
credit matters in my business because clients use it to build. I’m of the personal opinion that we have way too many big-box stores and shopping centers. it has been much more satisfying to invest my career effort in institutional and infrastructure improvements but even those clients need financing. there is almost no limit to excellent projects that are sitting on the shelf today because the funding is gone. the need is vast for “greener” construction that we know how to do if someone would pay for it – owners want to do it but can they get a loan? it has been sexier to spread sprawl than to send kids to school in clean, bright buildings where they could learn to compete in the global, electronic work place. now the big boxes are going to go dark. trust me, get the Christmas exchanges done early because a lot of lights are going out in January.
can we please get back to making the world a better place?
I apologize for not replying to this sooner. (Not that you comment here to get replies.) I was very affected by this comment. Bad news is everywhere and it hits closer to home when it strikes those you know. (Not that I know you, but you are a faithful KOIE Regular.) I hope the holidays were a respite for your woes and that the New Year brings good things your way.
I’ve had a bipolar holiday season. On the one hand I love the holidays, which for me stretch from Thanksgiving until the New Year. On the other hand times are hard and it’s been difficult to enjoy the season while feeling that disaster is waiting at the door. This is nothing like what my parents’ generation endured during the Depression and World War II, but for my generation it’s been tough. I finished my Christmas stuff quite early, mostly because I don’t have a lot of money to spend and I baked a ton of cookies and got them mailed off. Since then I’ve had time to reflect on the season and, to sound too grand, the state of the union and the state of me.
I could list a whole bunch of negatives, but that would be too obvious. And too depressing an exercise. What I’ve been trying to do here is remember that there are positives. And that this can’t last forever.
It can’t, right?
So goodbye to 2008. It’s been a rough year but at least we saw it through. Here’s hoping that 2009 will bring something new, something better.
rrgirl wrote in Ieew:
kudos for having avoided that term so long. ignorance has it’s graces. I saw the video clip of Avery and wondered if I’d heard him correctly, but then realized that was the context of the news item.
not that I want to dwell on the subject much longer, but I seem to recall reading the term long ago in a glossary list of sorts, maybe from the old “JOY OF SEX” my college roommate brought back after Christmas break…we’re talking the dark days of the Carter administration here…
anyway, the definition delicately suggested the appeal of the “shared woman” was perhaps an expression of repressed homoerotic attraction. and the definitions in the link seem to confirm as much, though less delicately.
huh – what did he say, again?
I must have missed it in my copy of “Joy.” Perhaps it will be more prominently mention in the new version:
With its forthright prose, little-before-discussed-in-the-suburbs erotic advice and amusing pictures of an ardent naked person known popularly as the Hairy Man, “The Joy of Sex” was a revolution in its time. Published in 1972, when sex was still supposed to take place in the dark and under the sheets, the book thrust itself into public consciousness with all the subtlety of a gigolo at a convention of bishops. It was also stunningly popular, a well-thumbed fixture of bedside tables across America that spent 343 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
The book has undergone various tweaks and expansions over the years, and six years ago the Hairy Man and his somewhat less hairy female partner were relegated to wherever old hippies go to retire. But now comes a completely revised version of the book, written, for the first time, for women as much as for men. It tackles an array of modern topics unheard of in the 1970s, like Internet pornography, AIDS and Viagra, and features photographs (and drawings, when things get too graphic) of a suitably buff 21st-century couple.
— Revising ‘Sex’ for the 21st Century
Interesting re the “repressed homoerotic attraction.” Maybe Sean Avery has a man crush on Dion Phaneuf?
As for the “suitably buff 21st-century couple,” with obesity increasing in America maybe the new edition of “Joy” should include images of chubby folks.
David Gregory, two words:
Go decaf.
Man, he was like on meth or something for the first segment. He seemed to calm down as the show went on. I wish I could have texted him during the broadcast: “Take a deep breath. Relax.”
A good effort for his first show. As when Tom Brokaw took over for Tim Russert, it was odd to see how pointed and combative Gregory could be. I am used to them simply reporting the news, not doggedly pursuing an answer to their question and not letting an interviewee off the hook.
Credit versus wages: In the MTP discussion on the economy the various talking heads kept saying that we need more credit. I.e., people and businesses need money to spend in order to get the economy moving. I never took economics and admit I don’t have a sophisticated view of the economy, but as far as the average citizen goes: Why do we want a system that encourages borrowing in order to spend? Certainly for big purchases like a house or car most people need to take out a loan. But it seems to me that part of the problem right now is that people have borrowed to buy things like plasma screen televisions, vacations, etc. and cannot make payments on their credit cards. And now people are borrowing to pay for the basics, like food and medicine. If you’ve got the money for luxury items, then by all means spend away. But if you have to put a big, non-essential purchase on your credit card and then pay the exorbitant finance charges — sheesh, it just doesn’t make sense to me. That being said, higher wages would allow people to make basic purchases (and even some luxury ones) without having to resort to borrowing. I don’t know how higher wages would effect the total economy. Whenever there is talk of raising the minimum wage you hear about how businesses will have to lay off workers in order to cover the increase. Whatever. The loose credit system seems to have not been so good for us. Earn more, borrow less. Could we try this for a while?
I’m lucky that my parents passed down their frugal habits to me. They grew up during the Depression so have always been tight with their money. Basically, if they couldn’t pay cash for something they wouldn’t buy it. I think the only thing they ever bought on credit was the house. They just saved money. They sent the kids to college. They paid off the house. I never felt deprived. Except that whenever the kids got money for birthday or Christmas presents we always had to put it into the bank for our college funds. Every single penny.
I think it also helps that my parents never fell for Madison Avenue pitches. No, we didn’t need a big, new tv. We didn’t need a new car every other year. Mom didn’t fall for buying every “new-and-improved” item that hit the market. We didn’t need the latest fanciest-schmanciest thing. We didn’t need to keep up with the Joneses.
It’s good to have simple tastes and to approach life with a “save for a rainy day” attitude. Because, man, it is like pouring now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon.
I read this in the Times:
The N.H.L. suspended Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery indefinitely on Tuesday, pending a hearing with Commissioner Gary Bettman, for “inappropriate public comments, not pertaining to the game.” The league cited a bylaw on conduct “detrimental to the league or game of hockey” in announcing its decision.
A time had not yet been set for Avery’s meeting with Bettman.
Avery, 28, used a derogatory term to refer to his former girlfriends, saying that it had “become like a common thing in the N.H.L. for guys to fall in love with” them.
— Avery Punished for Vulgar Remark
OK, so I’m figuring that he used the good old B-word and called his ex-girlfriends “bitches.” Like yeah: big deal. But being the curious type I googled “sean avery” to see if I could find the entire quote and this is what I found:
The NHL did not elaborate on the remarks but Avery, in Calgary for a game Tuesday night, sought out the television cameras and made comments that seemed to refer to the private life of Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf.
“I’m really happy to be back in Calgary. I love Canada,” the Stars forward said. “I just want to comment on how it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.
“I don’t know what that’s about, but enjoy the game tonight.”
Avery’s ex-girlfriend, actress Elisha Cuthbert, is dating Phaneuf …
— NHL suspends Stars’ Sean Avery indefinitely
At first I thought it was an interesting term, but being a Woman of a Certain Age (and not real up on the modern lingo used these days) I looked it up on Urban Dictionary:
When one man has unprotected sexual intercourse with a woman who’s vagina still contains semen from a previous partner.
Sloppy seconds
(There are more colorful definitions for the term on Urban Dictionary, but this is the one that sounds least offensive for a G-rated blog.)
OK, so now I know why the Times didn’t print the entire quote.
Geez, talk about disgusting. And — not to go all Biology Major on this, but — who in their right mind would have unprotected sex right after someone else had unprotected sex.
Ick. Yuck. Ieew.
Where are the En Fuego products?
DP needs to have his own line. Stoves, grills, candles, frying pans, hot sauce, etc.
Give the gift of Dan this holiday season ….
