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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 16, 2019 15:27:32 GMT -5
What I'm waiting for, after the shock and grief play out, is the finger-pointing to start. I understand the difficulties of fighting a fire in such a massive, tall, and flammable structure, and in such a dense urban environment, but, sheesh. You'd think they'd have had a better plan to get more water on it faster, not to mention better prevention protocols, and better ways of detecting fire before it got out of control. I understand the first report of fire wasn't followed up on because a visual inspection turned up no smoke. The second one did, but that delay cost them a precious 15-20 minutes, which could have made all the difference.
I have a feeling somebody is going to be talking about dusting off the guillotine before this is over.
EDIT: This isn't meant to take anything away from the heroic actions of the French firefighters, without whom it surely would have been quantum leaps of worse. I'm talking about advance preparations for such an eventuality in terms of safe practices, fire detection, and other planning.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 16, 2019 15:14:06 GMT -5
The money solution would be to put little advertising slogans in the corner panes of the new stained glass windows: "This window brought to you by Exxon, the Energy of the Future", "Taste the Feeling! Coke!" and "The Trojan Man, Love's Protector". And, being it's France and all, they could put a nice statue of the Michelin Man in one of corners dedicated to the lesser Saints. And they should certainly do a licensing deal with "LEGO" to have a Notre Dame Lego kit for the hawkers that surround the joint to sell. This rebuild could be paid for in a year. Well, if they're not afraid of being struck by bolts of lightning, why not? In the 1920s the French automaker Andre Citroën paid to light up the Eiffel Tower with 125,000 lightbulbs spelling out his name. www.messynessychic.com/2012/02/22/the-eiffel-tower-was-once-a-giant-advertising-billboard/
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 17:04:59 GMT -5
A bunch of years ago, when I was in Japan writing about Shinto, somebody told me that at one time in history it was tradition to deliberately set aging shrines on fire, and replace them with new structures. The rationale was the shrines were made of wood, and wouldn't last forever anyway (even if they weren't claimed by accidental fire), and also it was a way of keeping alive the traditions and skills involved in shrine-building.
Seemed to make some sense, but I wasn't able to verify the truth of it in the time I had, and so this little factoid didn't go into print. I guess cathedral builders in Paris will get a workout now.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 16:49:40 GMT -5
That's one of the few places I've seen in person that really caused me to pause. It's notoriety and age combined to add to the effect of seeing it in person. Stonehenge is another place with a lot of intrinsic gravitas. Macchu Pichu had a similar effect on me. Eerie. (Might have had something to do with the place where they sacrificed humans to the sun god.)
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 14:06:14 GMT -5
Well, that should stoke some flames.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 14:00:11 GMT -5
I'm not sure I want to know what Jeff thinks this symbolizes.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 13:43:56 GMT -5
An actor friend plays The Barrymore Eagle, mascot for D.C.'s National Theater, which is located a couple of blocks from the White House. The character is an eagle dressed up as George Washington - a mix of references. Just seeing him stuffed into that outfit triggers my claustrophobia big-time.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 13:23:51 GMT -5
Happy birthday to a man for the ages.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 15, 2019 13:22:28 GMT -5
In Amana they also use made-up words that I believe are unique to the villages. For example, they make a (truly horrible) rhubarb wine that they call piestengel. Stengel is the German word for stem while pie refers to the custom of referring to rhubarb as pie plant. Sounds irresistible.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 14, 2019 20:21:00 GMT -5
I'd never heard of it until the discussion here a while ago. Another case of East Coast isolation, I guess. It's on my bucket list now though.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 14, 2019 19:24:34 GMT -5
Yes, I tried to target just his post about Amana, but the link goes to Steve's whole page. Wish I could find the article itself: it would be interesting to compare the colonies then with how they are now.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 14, 2019 16:16:00 GMT -5
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 14, 2019 11:01:13 GMT -5
Beautifully put. ]
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 12, 2019 22:29:34 GMT -5
Masters class
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 22:15:39 GMT -5
Haven't thought about Homer and Jethro for years. Their humor was a little broad for me, but beneath their comedic poses they were quite the musicians.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 20:28:25 GMT -5
How about those Kern melons?
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 19:25:23 GMT -5
Could he have picked up a trick or two from Richie Havens?
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 17:46:16 GMT -5
Giving up the identities of American agents risking their lives for us every day in hostile foreign countries, or the president's nuclear launch codes, vs. giving up our civil liberties? Fortunately, in the non-hypothetical world, I don't know how often such a stark choice would present itself.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 17:18:55 GMT -5
Not sure what I think of Assange personally. I’m not surprised that he was arrested given the power structures that have been after him for so long. I did, and do, think that WikiLeaks performs a huge public service in providing a way for whistleblowers to get their information made public. We need whistleblowers. Loyalty to an unscrupulous power should not be admired. I could argue that position with passion as well. But I don't know that any Tom, Dick or Harry should be entrusted with the power to decide, on my behalf, which secrets should be kept and which not. Also, it's hard to ignore the fact that (as far as I know) every single WikiLeaks disclosure has been adverse to the U.S., Western nations in general, and Democratic candidates for office. When Wikileaks starts leaking about Vladimir Putin, maybe I'll start having a more balanced opinion of them.
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Post by Chesapeake on Apr 11, 2019 14:10:11 GMT -5
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