the Royals

The past two weeks every time I've channel surfed I keep landing on the Royals.
There it is, seemingly in continuous rotation on the E! channel. What  a great show! It's an accurate and realistic portrayal of the way most of us see not only the Royal Family of England as well as the private lives of rich celebrities worldwide. I especially like the Jack Daniels from the bottles sweetie, Ophelia. Thanks to this show, I have gained many useful insights into life at Buckingham Palace. Croquet anyone?

Millenials vs Baby boomers

We are constantly being told things about millenials.

They don't own cars and are too lazy to learn how to drive a car.
The don't want to have their own places but prefer to live at home and be waited on by their parents.
They want everything handed to them.
They spend all their time playing games on their cellphones and communicate by texting.
They come to work and want to set Their hours and rules.
They have USB mittens on so their fingers don't get cold when they are playing on their toys.
They can't eat like  normal people because they are gluten intolerant.

Sometimes it reminds me of what the greatest generation said about us baby boomers.

They won't go to a barbershop and have no respect for their country.
They'd rather smoke their marijuana than put in an honest day's living.
They were spoiled by their mothers and the television set and they want to set their own rules.
That music they listen too. Thump thump thump. Sounds like a tractor trailer with teeth missing on the gears.
They think they know it all.

It's great being a grumpy old baby boomer.

Editor's note: I don't want usb mittens for Christmas but I could use an Apple watch.

Daylight Savings Time

Another Daylight Savings Time is upon us. Idle hands being the devil's workshop, I have been reading the pro's and cons of the arrangement. Apparently, farmers don't like it because it throws cows off their normal routine and the cows get moody until they get settled into the new milking times. Morning people don't like it because it takes away the sunlight for their favorite part of the day, that time between 5 and 7 when all the people they don't like are asleep.

Actually for me it works out swell. Who cares if there is sunlight before 7:30? I'm either asleep or half asleep playing with my coffee maker. But it means it is light when I get home, it is even light after dinner. I can even walk through the park after work. Not that I really walk through the park after work but knowing that I can is a boost to my morale.

The thing I most remember about Daylight Savings Time is that it would inspire my mother to let her boys (or boy after seventh grade) get out the grill and cook outside. She would summon me from my homework (or Dan Ingram) and I would run downstairs to get the grill ready. I would light the charcoals and put the potatoes on.  Just when I would be ready to cook the meat, Mother and Dear Poppa were well into cocktails. I would shout out, "Time for the hamburgers" and she would tell me, "Don't rush me, the salad isn't ready".  

At this time I'd put on the transistor radio and listen to the "Record Shop" on WINS.  Through family barbecues I learned about the old expression, "hurry up and wait". Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I didn't need a flashlight to grill the meat. 

the New Yorker turns ninety

Living in Denver in the 80's, I was a little homesick for the East coast, so I decided to subscribe to the New Yorker. I guess I have been getting the New Yorker for over thirty years. It was always fun winding my way through it's pages of overlong articles, sometimes continuing from week to week. The old New Yorker had no photographs but always had the cartoons. Back then, the cost of a subscription was quite low, presumably since its reader demographics were so good.

Traditionally,  the typical New Yorker reader was a middle aged man, someone who wore a tweed jacket, perhaps an academic who lived on the upper west side of Manhattan in a cluttered rent controlled apartment. His couch was old and he had crumbs on his ancient breakfast table. He smoked a pipe. 

Back in the twenties the magazine serviced a more fashionable set, a reader who would frequent speakeasies with the occasional light lunch at the Algonquin. The literary celebrities of the day would write for the New Yorker and be seen at the hottest art openings and Broadway shows. 

Tina Brown updated the magazine. She brought in more news and, heaven forbid, introduced the magazine to the world of photography. Today the magazine is much more expensive. Who are the readers today? Perhaps they are wanna be academics who couldn't get jobs in a university or afford an apartment in New York. There they sit in the suburbs paying child support and working for a social service agency in Scranton. Still they have their New Yorker.

Editor's note: In my sixties blog, there is a new piece on the Von Steuben House.
whoo boy, the New Yorker just sent me a tote bag. I guess they liked the blog.

Ho hum February

In December everyone gets excited about the weather and the hope that there might be a traditional white Christmas.  Then January comes and the temperature gets below ten degrees and everyone panics.  Then it snows and everyone gets excited and talks endlessly about the six inches of snow we had to deal with.

Now it's February and the novelty has worn off. I've stopped watching the weather reports on TV. If it's cold it's cold. If it snows it snows. Ho hum. Let's talk about Bruce Jenner instead. When we look back on the year 2015 in our dotage, we will remember this as the year that the Kardashians got even more bizarre. Bruce Jenner will become the first woman to have won gold medals for men's track and field. Much more exciting than the weather.

Tax season

It's tax season again. I didn't do too bad this year. All that extra pension money and health care money I had to kick in this year seems to have rewarded me with a better tax bill. This year Amazon took out sales tax so I didn't have to pay that on my state form. Even Turbo Tax upgraded me to Premium (they no longer accept 1099 - B forms on Deluxe) and it doesn't look like they charged me for the honor. I should be getting a nice refund which I can use to fix my dripping shower.

Like driving, doing taxes is one of those things most of us learn from the old man. My first year to pay taxes he gave me the forms and we went through them line by line. He said always do them in pencil first. Then a few days later transfer them to pen. When you are finished always put it away for a week then come back to it. Like wine, tax forms apparently have to age a little. When the time comes, go over the forms again and send them in March.

My father, an accountant, used to get tax receipts from his brother. He didn't like doing his brother's forms. He always suspected he was cheating but my uncle was probably just disorganized.

They always say "do as I say not as I do". My father always had to drive down to the post office at 10 PM on the night of the fifteenth of April and have the guy postmark his letter so he wouldn't be late. The next day he could celebrate the end of tax season and his birthday.

As a librarian I also have many memories of tax time. The IRS is no longer giving public libraries instruction books. You would think they could find another way to save money.

Editor's note: A cute blog on the demise of Radio Shack is in my Sixties blog. If I took advertising this would be my first sponsor.

Parenthood and money

Just finished watching the last episode of Parenthood. I think one thing most of us like about Parenthood is the idealized picture it gives of the American dream. In Parenthood if you are in the hospital you will have twenty relatives sleeping in the waiting room. Are families really like that?

It also presents a world where average people can start schools, run for mayor, start construction companies, recording studios, photography studios, dance studios,  and on top of that hire their relatives. Is it really true?

Look at Hank. He runs a photography shop in Berkeley, where the rent is $30 a square foot. An average photographer makes less than $30,000 a year according to the Occupational Outlook Survey. He eschews digital. I know he gets outside jobs but I've never seen a customer in the store. Yet he can afford to hire Sarah and at the end of the show gives a job to Max.

I would imagine it would be very hard to run a successful recording studio in Northern California yet Crosby and Adam do it, and can hire their niece to boot. Camille could afford to go to art school in France for a month but Zeek never mentions the money. Kristina had enough money to run for mayor, hire her niece, and then start a school.

How can Crosby and Jasmine afford a house? How are Drew and Haddie able to board at college? How can Amber afford to have a baby?

Okay, okay, there is a little bit of "television magic" involved here. Since the start of television people have lived in nicer houses than their careers seemed to be able to support. However, Parenthood purports to show a typical American family. My theory is that all of the Bravermans have trust funds that are helping to support them. That is why everyone is so nice to Zeek.

Hank got money when he was injured photographing the war and has a nest egg from that. That is my theory and I'm going to stick to it.