Blog Master G

I’ve only flown JetBlue once. It was an awesome experience, and I’m a big fan of bringing JetBlue to Albany.

Though I can’t imagine how upsetting it must have been to be a passenger on the JetBlue Airbus yesterday that was forced to circle to burn off its LAX-JFK fuel supply before landing with wheels aflame, my first thought was, “Damn! Now there’s a pilot.” Yesterday’s incident seriously boosted my confidence in JetBlue even more. Did you see the footage of that landing? That was the smoothest, straightest landing I’ve ever seen — all with a crooked wheel. JetBlue clearly hires the best.

I’m also thankful, of course, that all the people on board are OK. Hopefully the same will be true for Texas residents, who are now faced with the Category 5 hurricane Rita in the wake of Katrina.

Since I have photos on my blog from a couple years ago of Stella the Conehead, it’s only fair to add some equivalent photos of Happy’s current state of being. He injured his foot last week at the Farm while we were in San Francisco, and had to have some stitches. He’s been a really good sport about the cone and even wearing an IV bag over the bandages when we take him out and the ground’s wet. He goes back to the vet today to have it all removed. Congrats, Happy Dingo. You’ve almost made it!

While Happy was off messing up his foot, Stella was hanging out with kittens and the staff monkey at the Farm.

Bars in Saratoga Springs are open until 4am. Compton’s, the greasy diner on Broadway, opens around the same time. It’s long been our goal to make it to Compton’s after a night out on the town. Saturday night when Enoch, Erica, and Jessie came to town, we reached that goal. Jen, Jessie, Justin, and I were the last ones standing. It was nearly 5am by the time we made it home and hit the sack. I think the last time I was out that late, I was in college. It was awesome having our CA friends in town for a night, and thanks for making the trip north to see us, guys!

Happy birthday shoutouts to Sue and Sarah!

For the second year in a row, I managed to make it to San Francisco for a second time in the course of the year (my fourth visit since moving away; Jen’s third). We were fortunate enough to be there for both work and play, and, as usual, squeezed so much into what always amounts to too little time and not enough opportunity to see everyone we would like to see.

We did, however, spend a lot of quality time with the likes of James, Enoch, Ben, Jeanine, Martha, Tiff, Miguel, Shannon, and others. I feel so lucky to have such great friends on both coasts, and really appreciate that everyone sets aside so much time to hang out with us while we’re in San Francisco. Being in San Francisco is like we never left. Something about leaving your heart there. This time was a first, though, since we actually stayed in a hotel instead of crashing at Enoch’s pad on Treasure Island.

From Juan’s to the View (the Marriott’s 39th-story bar, 17 floors above where we stayed) to All You Knead to Ocean Beach to Zeitgeist to Pancho Villa to Thirsty Bear to the GC Restaurant to Mel’s Diner to House of Nanking to the 4th Street Bar & Grill, we covered the bases, both usual and new. It was non-stop fun and it was pointless to try to wipe the smiles off our faces.

I can’t wait to see everyone, including the fair city of San Francisco, once again.

View all SF Trip II 2005 photos

I was proud to see my letter to the editor published on page 3 of the Fall 2005 issue (volume 101 issue 4) of Vassar: The Alumnae/i Quarterly. Though the final, printed version of my letter doesn’t seem to be online, below is the version that I had emailed to the editor on June 17. (12.24.2005: I found the online version.)

When I wrote the letter, my concern was that I would miss recognizing someone who was instrumental to the success (print and online) of The Miscellany News of the 1990s. And, unfortunately, I did. My sincere apologies and delayed recognition to Jessica Zahn ’96, the Editor-in-Chief who ran the show when I first got involved with the Misc. my freshman year. Not only did she encourage my involvement with the paper, but she should also be properly credited with having the foresight to encourage Hill A_nderson ’98 and Michael Dillon ’98 to put the Misc. online in the first place.

Dear Editor,

As a former Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editor, Information Technology Editor, and Contributing Editor of The Miscellany News (1995-1999), I was happy to see coverage of the Misc. in the Summer 2005 issue of the Vassar Quarterly. However, what is frustrating for us former editors is to see not only misleading details, but also that the institutional knowledge that we worked so hard to preserve seems to have been lost some time after the Class of 1999 graduated.

The article speaks of “a day when the paper’s financial insolvency and lackluster student interest almost doomed it to obsolescence,” as well as the ability to “now peruse the Miscellany News’ online edition … (and) archived material.” These claims and the implication that this is the first time the Misc. has been online sadden me.

I gave the paper my all during my four years of involvement, which culminated with my role as Editor-in-Chief during my junior year in 1998. During that time, we garnered high advertising and subscription revenues (thanks to the innovative efforts of then-Managing Editor Jonty Yamisha ’99), produced a quality newspaper with in-depth reporting (with News Editors Jennifer A_nderson ’99 and Stephanie Litos ’99, and Senior Editor Jennifer Higginbotham ’99 at the helm), and earned not only the interest, but dare I say, the respect, of the student body. We were well trained by our predecessors, Amanda Spielman ’98, Joe Goldman ’98, and Hill A_nderson ’98, who took the newspaper and the journalistic responsibility that went with it very seriously, setting high standards for those of us who followed in their footsteps; we did our best to maintain that same level of quality.

As for the Web site and online archives, former editors Hill A_nderson ’98 and Michael Dillon ’98 should be properly credited with first putting the Misc. online in 1994. I assisted with and later managed diligently and without fail — along with Shreyank Purohit ’99 — that weekly project from 1995 through 1997. When we left Vassar in 1999, we had accumulated six years of consistent online archives. Some time around 2000 or 2001, apparently, the server went down and the online archives were lost.

Here’s a glimpse of what the online edition looked like in 1998:

http://gabeanderson.com/miscbio/

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to preserve more online archives since I thought we had put sufficient infrastructure in place. Apparently I was wrong.

Despite all this, I’m glad to see a revitalized effort in returning the Misc. to its former glory, online and off.

Sincerely,

Gabe ’99
Saratoga Springs, NY

My friends and brothers: The Apostrophe Protection Society. It’s comforting to know that someone besides me is looking out for protection of the apostrophe as we know it.

The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.

Examples of misuse of the Apostrophe as seen by you!

Bringing more direct sunlight into our house, protecting our investment by allowing the sun to dry the roof and walls, and improving our curb appeal are just a few of the reasons why yesterday we had our four 80-year-old white spruce trees trimmed. I first wrote about this back in May when we got the estimate. Tuesday we had just been talking about this, and yesterday I saw two doors down the same guy who had given us the estimate. Seemed like as good a time as any to have the work done. And I’m really glad we did.

As with anything else, it will take some getting used to, but I really think it was the right thing to do. Having the branches of the four giant trees trimmed up about ten-plus feet really opens up our yard and our property (a fifth skinny and not-so-healthy tree was cut down altogether). Not only do we get more sunlight and got the drooping branches out of our yard and off the roof, but it just feels bigger and more open.

It was amazing watching the team of four tree professionals in action. The climber and branch cutter, with 20 years of experience, scaled the trees with a rope and chainsaw — no helmet or other support. I watched in awe as he literally swung from tree to tree with a running chainsaw dangling by his side. He stood gracefully on one branch while cutting off others, letting them fall to the team below, who used another chainsaw to make them smaller before shoving them into the wood chipper temporarily parked in our driveway. It was pretty awesome to behold and the whole operation was done in less than three hours. The smell of fresh sawdust was a nice feature.

(Photos, from top, are of the biggest tree before (May 11, 2005), during, and after yesterday’s tree trimming.)

The seasons are changing. It’s about 52 degrees this morning (Northeast insta-season change yields overnight temperature drop, which yields sneezing and sniffling for me). Even though we weren’t planning on doing much this weekend, every day was non-stop go go go.

Friday Nat and Heather invited us over for a yummy dinner. Then Heather kicked my ass at basement ping-pong. Saturday afternoon I helped Nat do some data backup/system restoration work before Jen and I hit the track for our seventh and final time of the season. In the eighth race, I hit the trifecta and exacta (I had done a straight trifeca and an exacta box to cover my bases, but should’ve just put all my money on the trifecta), and Jen hit the exacta, too. Though I stopped keeping track, I’d guess that we broke even for the season. Saturday night we joined friends for an unofficial breaking in of Seth and Niki’s new kick-ass lake house. We kayaked, bonfired, and partied the night away.

Sunday afternoon Justin and I went hard drive shopping, then Jen and I headed north for Sarah and Eric’s backyard, sports-themed barbeque (our Foulke the Yankees shirts were crowd pleasers). Seven or so hours of bonfires, geezer golf, and karaoke was a great way to wrap up the summer. Monday afternoon Jen’s mom and aunt and uncle came to Saratoga, so we showed them around town, had lunch in the state park, and enjoyed gelato on Broadway. Yesterday evening we did our part in boosting the economy (and taking advantage of tax-free clothing week) by buying a couple new pairs of shoes and sandals, another hard drive, and groceries. Last night we resisted the urge to hit another party at Justin’s place.

Summer 2005 was another banner summer.

It’s shocking and sad how we, the richest nation in the world, can’t figure out a way to help all the people who are stranded in New Orleans — on rooftops, in parking lots, at the convention center. What are they still doing there? Why can’t they get out?

It’s certainly poor people who are stuck without the means to leave town or seek food and shelter elsewhere. But why aren’t we doing more to help? Could it be that all our National Guard troops are in Iraq? That’s part of the reason.

Why New Orleans Is in Deep Water:

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant “major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.”

…

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana’s National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

Vacation is Over… an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

www.hurricanehousing.org

The tail end of hurricane Katrina hit upstate New York yesterday evening, as we got soaked with some pretty intense rain. But it was nothing like other thunderstorms we’ve seen this summer or anything like the terrible havoc that’s been wreaked on the Big Easy this week since the levees gave way.

The implications of this storm go way beyond submerged homes and thousands of people trapped in the Superdome or on buses to Texas or waiting on rooftops to be rescued. I’ve read and heard that anywhere from 10 to 30 percent or more of our oil reserves come from the Gulf Coast. As of yesterday, gas prices were higher than $3 per gallon, and they’re not going down anytime soon. With only 4.5% of the world’s population, we consume at least 30-40% of the world’s oil (about 20 million barrels per day). With Labor Day weekend right around the corner, I don’t see gas prices getting any better.

America’s Tsunami:

If we had a president who was a leader, he or she would start by asking us to do our part by staying home and not driving our gas guzzlers this weekend. They are going to need lots of fuel down in New Orleans because once they get those levees rebuilt they have to pump all that water out of there. It’s sure not going anywhere by itself – most of the city is six feet below sea level. A real leader would say, “We don’t need the French to bail us out. We can solve this problem with good old American ingenuity, hard work and sacrifice.”

The next thing an actual leader would do to save the economy from high gas prices is impose a gas tax. The Bush administration’s new fuel mileage standards exempted Hummers again, but a hefty gas tax might start to tame those beasts. Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect proposes such a tax coupled with progressive tax relief so that only the biggest guzzlers end up paying.

Donate to the Red Cross.